Conan Doyle and the Mysterious World of Light by Matt Wingett

Conan Doyle and the Mysterious World of Light

Join Matt Wingett, author of Conan Doyle and the Mysterious World of Light and explore the early years of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creative life in Southsea, Portsmouth, where Doyle worked as a doctor, and how his later life was profoundly influenced by it.

Many people are surprised to hear that in the same year Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes, he also declared himself to be convinced of Spiritualism. Yet though Holmes’s world is most definitely a materialist one, Conan Doyle also wrote horror stories, experimented in telepathy, attended seances and took an interest in hypnosis, spirit communication and much more besides.

This talk looks at the years between his first experiments in the paranormal and his departure from the shores of the UK in 1920 to begin 10 years of Spiritualist missionary work after describing Spiritualism as a new revelation. Along the way, it looks at the scientists who were fellow believers, as well as the critics of his belief, both from the established Church and more hardnosed materialists.

The book also introduces the reader to Light magazine, a journal of the psychical and occult in which many of Conan Doyle’s beliefs first appeared.

A fascinating evening, which shows the other side to this brilliant and many-faceted author.

Matt Wingett talks about Arthur Conan Doyle’s life in Southsea, Portsmouth