Arthur Conan Doyle

1859-1930

          FAMOUS BRITISH writer and creator of 'Sherlock Holmes'. President of the College of Psychic Studies, Federation Spirite Internationale and the London Spiritualist Alliance.

By twenty years old and in his third year of medical studies, Doyle was offered the post of ship's surgeon on the Hope, a whaling boat, about to leave for the Arctic Circle. In 1881 he obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degree. Doyle's first gainful employment after his graduation was as a medical officer on the steamer Mayuba.

In March 1886, he started writing the novel which catapulted him to fame. At first it was named A Tangled Skein and the two main characters were called Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker. 

His first introduction to supernormal phenomena took place while he was yet a physician at Southsea. In the years between 1885-88 he was invited to take part in table-turning experiments at the house of a patient, General Drayson, a teacher in the Greenwich Naval College, a keen mathematician and a man of scholarly education. He later joined the SPR and carried out a series of experiments with a Mrs. Ball and satisfied himself that telepathy was a fact. As regards survival, in 1902 when he first met Sir Oliver Lodge he had not arrived at a definite conclusion. But Myers' Human Personality made a deep impression on his mind. His wife, a levelheaded woman, came to share Doyle's interest in psychical research and survival, and actually developed the ability of "trance-writing."

Source (with modifications): An Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science by Nandor Fodor (1934).

Articles by Arthur Conan Doyle on this website:

The Career of Daniel D. Home

The Career of Eusapia Palladino

Henry Slade and Dr. Monck

Great Mediums from 1870 to 1900: Charles H. Foster - Madame d'Esperance - William Eglinton - Stainton Moses

Some Great Modern Mediums

Books by Arthur Conan Doyle on this website:

The Vital Message