Dear Holmesians,

It is one of the ironies of life that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who
practiced rationalism and whose greatest creation Sherlock Holmes is
a personification of reasoning actually believed in Spiritualism. His
belief was not confined to thought but he actually promoted a lot of
mediums, most of them who associated themselves with Sir Doyle to
gain respectability. It was this search for truth which led Sir Doyle
to Harry Houdini, the famous magician who was also interested in
Spiritualism. Houdini's interest in the subject sprung from a deep
obsession to communicate with his dead mother whom he loved deeply.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle offered the services of his wife, Jeanne
Doyle who was a medium of sorts at the disposal of Houdini to enable
him to communicate with his mother. The séance took place in Sir
Doyle's place. Contact was made with the alleged Spirit of Houdini's
mother, who took over the medium and started writing messages for her
son. Unfortunately, the medium started her messages with a cross and
wrote down the messages in English. The suspicions of the magician
were aroused by these two facts since his mother was a Jew and she
knew no language other than Polish. This incident put Houdini of
Spiritualism and turned him to be an implacable opponent of mediums
for the rest of his life. However, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed
this séance to be a great success and truly believed that Harry
Houdini`s mother had made contact.
As a consequence of this incident, bitterness had entered into the
friendship and they parted ways.

Despite his belief in Spiritualism, he created Sherlock Holmes to be
a coldly scientific man on all occasions.

Can members of the society elucidate their views on these
contradictory aspects of Sir Doyle's personality?