Doyle's Spiritual(ist) Side

The Times Online has posted an interesting article on the recent publication of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's seance notebooks. Best known as the creator of the super-skeptic Sherlock Holmes, the surprising depth to which Doyle himself believed in the supernatural has always been well-known. He was a firm believer in ghosts, psychics, and even fairies. But until the publication of these notebooks, the origins of Doyle's beliefs were unclear. Now we know that while working as a doctor in Portsmouth, Doyle attended his first seance. There, he saw a medium speaking in different voices and shaking a table to tap out coded messages from beyond the grave. This, apparently, convinced him that he had witnessed "a new revelation" of evidence for matters of faith. Not so much, Arthur.