Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland, into a very strict Roman Catholic family. He was educated in Jesuit schools in the United Kingdom (Stoney-hurst) and in Austria (Stella Matutina) until he was 17. Although he was apparently attracted by the mystical, sacramental , and eucharistic aspects of Catholicism, he began to doubt his faith during his years at the Jesuit schools.
When Doyle entered the University of Edinburgh at age 17, he was, by his own account, a nonbeliever. "I found that the foundations not only of Roman Catholicism but of the whole Christian faith, as presented to me in nineteenth century theology, were so weak that my mind could not build upon them." These conditions had, according to Doyle, "driven me to agnosticism ." It was during his university years that he came under the influence of materialists such as Joseph Bell, his self-proclaimed prototype for Sherlock Holmes, who taught his students the process of deductive reasoning through the observation of material phenomena. As a result of this training, Doyle became convinced that every mystery of life could be solved through observation and deductive reasoning. Yet despite this training, his previous rejection of Catholicism, and his self-professed agnosticism, he continued to investigate religions, because without a religious foundation he felt a void in his life. In 1881 Doyle received his medical degree and in 1882 set up a medical practice in Southsea (a suburb of Portsmouth), where he remained until 1890. Even while attending medical school, Doyle had actively
investigated "new religions" in an effort to fill the void created when he left the Roman Catholic Church. He attended his first séance in 1880, and many of his short stories published in the 1880s reflect his interest in Spiritualism and his growing acceptance of it. Before the turn of the century Doyle had become interested in Theosophy , the Rosicrucians , the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Mormonism.
In 1887 Doyle published A Study in Scarlet, which was the first of 60 Sherlock Holmes stories he eventually wrote. Holmes proved to be his most popular fictional character. That same year he wrote two letters to the weekly Spiritualist periodical Light, in which he recounted his
conversion to Spiritualism. In these letters Doyle wrote that he became convinced that Spiritualism was true after reading books on the subject by John W. Edmonds, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Alfred Drayson.
To put their writings to a test, he formed a circle of six that met at a Southsea residence on nine or ten occasions. This group received messages through table turning and automatic writing, but the
significance of these events was inconclusive until an experienced medium
with "considerable mediumistic power" was invited to sit with the circle. This medium, writing under control, told Doyle not to read a book by Leigh Hunt that he found convincing because neither the medium nor any of his group knew he was debating whether he should read the book.
Because of this experience, Doyle became convinced that Spiritualism taught the truth: "[T]he incident which, after many months of inquiry, showed me at last that it was absolutely certain that intelligence could exist apart from the body„. After weighing the evidence, I could no more doubt the existence of the phenomena than I could doubt the existence of lions in Africa, though I have been to that continent and have never chanced to see one„. Le t me conclude by exhorting any other searcher never to despair of receiving personal testimony but to persevere through any number of failures until at last conviction comes to him, as, it will." Several weeks later he wrote another letter to Light, which he wrote "[a]s a Spiritualist" and in which he opined that "Spiritualism in the abstract has no 'weak points' " but admitted that "respectable Spiritualists persist in supporting and employing men who have been proved, as far as anything mundane is capable of proof, to be swindlers of the lowest order." Although he was ready to accept that "they have real but intermittent psychical powers," he was also convinced that such charlatans were " noxious parasites" who were the "greatest bane " of Spiritualism. Doyle had received his "definite demonstration," which he believed was
necessary before he could embrace any new religion. Spiritualism provided the evidence that life continues after death and that a form of religion exists that is consistent with primitive Christianity and all its attendant miracles.
From 1887 to 1916 Doyle continued to participate in the Spiritualist movement. He wrote letters concerning religious issues, joined the Society for Psychical Research, and contributed thousands of pounds to the Spiritualist periodical Light. Although he did not proselytize the cause of Spiritualism, as he later would, Doyle did attend séances and studied psychic phenomena as part of his continuing search for truth. Many of his short stories published before 1916 also portray Spiritualist ideas and concepts in a favorable light.
Doyle also wrote three books during this period that his biographers have described as autobiographical: Beyond the City(1893), The Stark Munro Letters (1895), and A Duet With an Occasional Chorus (1899). In the most important of these works, The Stark Munro Letters, Doyle's hero, Stark Munro, reveals that he has only the "vaguest idea as to whence I have come from, whither I am going, or what I am here for. It is not for want of inquiry, or from indifference . I have mastered the principles of several
religions. They have all shocked me by the violence which I should have to do to my reason to accept the dogmas of any one of them„. I see so clearly that faith is not a virtue, but a vice. It is a goat which has been headed with the sheep." And yet Doyle, through Munro , also admits that his loss of faith was traumatic : "When first I came out of the faith in which I had been reared, I certainly did feel for a time as if my life-belt had burst. I won't exaggerate and say that I was miserable and plunged in utter spiritual darkness." Munro also reflects Doyle's optimism for the future of religions: "The forms of religion will be abandoned, but the essence will be maintained; so that one universal creed will embrace the whole civilized earth„."
Doyle's most productive period for writing fiction occurred after his conversion to Spiritualism. His best-known Sherlock Holmes stories were The Sign of Four (1890); The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892); The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894); and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902). Doyle also "killed off" Sherlock Holmes —to concentrate on more serious literary efforts and his studies of Spiritualism —by drowning him in Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. Ironically, Holmes was resurrected, or at least "born again," from the waters of Reichenbach in 1905 in The Return of Sherlock Holmes to help supplement Doyle's income. Later books on Holmes—The Valley of Fear(1915), His Last Bow (1917), and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)—helped enable Doyle to actively pursue his missionary efforts on behalf of Spiritualism.
Even though Doyle was a believer in Spiritualism beginning in the late 1880s, in 1916 he wrote an article in Light in which he enthusiastically proclaimed a new dedication to it. Subsequently he began to actively proselytize for the Spiritualist cause. World War I had finally convinced him to more fully embrace the movement: "I might have drifted on for my whole life as a psychical Researcher „ [b]ut the War came, and „ it brought earnestness into all our souls and made us look more closely at our own beliefs and reassess our values."
As a result of this "earnestness," he finally recognized that "this subject with which I had so long dallied was not merely a study of a force outside the rules of science, but that it was really something tremendous, a breaking down of the walls between two worlds, a direct undeniable message from beyond, a call of hope and of guidance to the human race at the time of its deepest affliction ." Doyle also realized, apparently for the first time, that "the physical phenomena „ are really of no account, and that their real value consists in the fact that they „ make religion a very real thing, no longer a matter of faith, but a matter of actual experience and fact." As such, he turned with great zeal from the objective study of Spiritualism to proselytism.
Shortly after his second "conversion" he wrote two books, The New Revelation and The Vital Message, in which he proclaimed his personal belief in the movement. In addition, he wrote numerous letters to the press on the subject of Spiritualism in which he summarized the beliefs and practices of Spiritualists and claimed that he could not "recall any miracle in the New Testament which has not been claimed, upon good authority, as having occurred in the experience of spiritualists"; that Spiritualism is nothing more than what one would find "if he goes back nineteen hundred years and studies the Christianity of Christ"; that the date Spiritualism was organized in upstate New York in 1848 "is in truth the greatest date in human history since the great revelation of two thousand years ago;" and that no faith is necessary to realize that Spiritualism is true.
During the last decade of his life Doyle began spending great sums of money and traveled many thousands of miles to proselytize for the Spiritualist cause in Australia and New Zealand (1920-21), the United States and Canada (1922-23), France (1925), South Africa, Rhodesia, Uganda, Tanganyika and Kenya (1928-29), Scandinavia and Holland (1929), and, of course, England (1916-30). He also recorded a famous Movie-tone interview in 1927 that has never before been published in its entirety.
In 1924 Doyle also translated a book, Jeanne D'Arc Medium (Paris:
Librairie des Sciences Psychiques, 1910), written by Leon Denis. Denis, like Doyle, was an adherent of Spiritualism. In his introduction to the translation Doyle extols Joan of Arc's virtues: "[M]y personal conviction
[is] that, next to the Christ, the highest spiritual being of whom we have an exact record upon the earth is the girl Joan„. Apart from the question of Christ's divinity, and comparing the two characters upon a purely human plane, there was much analogy between them. Each was sprung from the laboring class. Each proclaimed an inspired commission. Each was martyred while still young. Each was acclaimed by the common people and betrayed or disregarded by the great. Each excited the bitter hatred of the church of their time, the high priests of which in each case conspired for their death."
But Doyle does not stop there. He notes that Denis was a student of psychic matters and that his work is valuable since it gives us "some intelligible reason for the obvious miracle that a girl of nineteen, who could neither read nor write, and knew nothing of military affairs, was able in a few months to turn the tide of a hundred years' war and to save France from becoming a vassal of England."
In 1926, two years after publishing Jeanne D'Arc, Doyle published a two-volume work on the history of Spiritualism in which he attempted to
present Spiritualism in a historical and topical perspective. Perhaps the most ironic development in Doyle's quest for a new religion occurred when he began to see himself increasingly as "a prophet of the future of the whole world„." The Doyles were now put in personal contact with the guide to this uncertain future, an Arabian spirit called Pheneas, who
communicated through Jean Doyle's [Arthur's wife] automatic writing. Doyle's belief in the hereafter became increasingly premised on very specific communications from Pheneas through his wife, Jean. Receiving such messages caused him to state his absolute belief in the hereafter: "I have not only received „ prophecies [concerning the end of the world] in a very consistent and detailed form, but also so large a number of independent corroborations that it is difficult for me to doubt that there lies some solid truth at the back of these."
Although Doyle remained committed to Spiritualism, he apparently became discouraged when the prophecies and revelations concerning the end of the world that had been communicated through Pheneas were not fulfilled, and he speculated that he and his wife may have become "victims of some extraordinary prank played upon the human race from the other side." Doyle was still a dedicated Spiritualist at the time of his death in 1930. Until his death Doyle remained convinced that life continued after death, because of ongoing communications from deceased family members who assured him that they lived in the spirit world. These communications remained the "definite demonstration" that he had sought since his days at the University of Edinburgh. He believed that these apparitions and other evidence of Spiritualism provided a factual basis from which he could deduce , in the same manner that Sherlock Holmes would have deduced, that life continues after death. Given his acceptance of these apparitions, it is hardly surprising that Doyle was also convinced that his acceptance of Spiritualism was completely consistent with the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes and Holmes's observation that "there is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion„.It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner."
Doyle died in 1930 in Crowborough, Sussex, England.
Sources:
Carr, John Dickson. The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. London: John Murray, 1949.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. Letters to the Press. Edited by John M. Gibson and Richard L. Green. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1986.
Edwards, Owen Dudley. The Quest for Sherlock Holmes, A Biographical Study of Arthur Conan Doyle. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1983. Jones, Kelvin I. Conan Doyle and the Spirits: The Spiritualist Career of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1989. Lellenberg, Jon L. The Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.
McCearney, James. Arthur Conan Doyle. Paris: La Table Ronde, 1988. Nordon, Pierre. Conan Doyle. London: John Murray, 1966.
Pearson, Hesketh. Conan Doyle, His Life and Art. London: Methuen, 1943. Stavert, Geoffrey. A Study in Southsea. Portsmouth, England: Milestone Publications, 1987. 阿瑟柯南道尔出生于1859年5月22日，在爱丁堡，苏格兰，到了非常严格的罗马天主教家庭。 他曾在17耶稣会学校，在英国（斯托尼-赫斯特）和奥地利（斯特拉Matutina ），直到他。 虽然他很明显，吸引了神秘 圣 天主教圣体方面，而且，他开始怀疑他在耶稣会学校，在他多年的信念。
当多伊尔17岁进入爱丁堡大学的，他是被自己的帐户，nonbeliever 。 “我发现，神学的基础不仅是罗马天主教，而且是整个基督教信仰，在十九世纪所介绍我是如此虚弱，我的内心无法建立在他们身上。” 这些条件有，据多伊尔，“驱动我 不可知论 。“ 正是在他的大学里，他的过程中受到影响的唯物主义者如约瑟夫贝尔，他的原型自称为福尔摩斯，谁教他的学生 演绎推理 透过现象观察的材料。
由于这种训练的结果，多伊尔开始相信，每一个生命的奥秘，可以通过观察和演绎推理解决。 然而，尽管这种训练，他的天主教以前拒绝，他自认是不可知论，他继续调查的宗教，因为没有一个宗教的基础，他觉得在他生命中的空白。 道尔在1881年获得医学学位，并于1882年成立，直到1890年的医疗实践中的南海郊区（一种朴茨茅斯），仍然在那里。 即使是在出席医学院，多伊尔已积极调查罗马天主教教会“新兴宗教”在他离开为了填补这个空缺时创建的。 他参加了他的第一个 悼念会 ，于1880年和1880年出版的许多故事反映了他短暂的兴趣 唯心论 和他的成长它接受。 之前在世纪之交的兴趣多伊尔成为了 神智 ，在 玫瑰十字会 ，金色黎明秘订购的，和摩门教。
道尔在1887年出版的 一，研究红字 这是第一次写60福尔摩斯的故事，他最终。 霍姆斯被证明是他最受欢迎的虚构人物。 同年，他写了两封信给招魂每周定期 轻， 中，他详细描述了他转换为唯心论。 在这些信件中写道，他道尔开始相信
唯灵论是德雷森真正阿尔弗雷德读书，后关于这一议题的约翰W 埃德蒙顿，艾尔弗雷德拉塞尔华莱士。
把他们的著作到测试，他成立了一个六圈的场合会见了十一个南海居住或九。 这组收到的消息通过表转动 自动书写 ，但对这些事件的重要性是 不确定的 ，直到圈中经历的“相当大的mediumistic 力量”被邀请坐在一起。 此媒介，控制下写，告诉多伊尔不要读一书，由利亨特说，他发现有说服力的，因为无论是集团的任何介质，也不知道他是他的辩论，他是否应该阅读的书。
由于这方面的经验，就相信了唯心论道尔教授的真理：[T]的事件，他，经过多次调查，向我表明个月，最后的情报是绝对肯定的是，除了可能存在的... 从身体。“经过权衡证据，我没有更多的怀疑可能存在其他的现象存在，比我能在非洲狮子会怀疑，虽然我到过的大陆，从来没有看到一个偶然... 。告诫任何最后，让我 搜索 永不 绝望 接受个人的证词，而是 坚持 通过任何失败的次数，直到最后谈到他的信念，因为，它会的。“
几个星期后，他又写了一封信给 光， 他写道：“[1]山灵论”，并在他认为，但可敬的承认，“招魂坚持支持和聘用人”唯心论，在抽象的有“没有' 薄弱环节' 谁已被证实，至于什么 世俗的 ，是能够证明，要以最低的骗子。“ 虽然他愿意接受，“他们有真实的，但 间歇性 心理的权力“，他也相信，这种骗子是” 有害的 寄生虫“谁是”最大 的祸根 “的唯心论。 多伊尔已收到他的“明确的示范”，他认为是必要的，才可以接受任何新的宗教。 唯心论所提供的证据，生命继续死后，一个宗教的形式存在，是创造奇迹符合原始基督教及其所有的服务员。
从1887至1916年道尔继续参与招魂运动。 他写信给有关宗教问题，加入了 研究会的精神生存空间 ，并促成了数千英镑定期向巫师 轻。 尽管他没有 传教 事业的唯心论，正如他后来会，多伊尔没有参加降神会，研究心理现象的一部分他继续寻找真理。 他的许多故事前发表简短的1916年还描绘了良好的光灵论思想和观念。
多伊尔还写了三本书，在此期间，他的传记作者形容自传： 超越市 （1893年）， 斯塔克蒙罗快报 （1895年），并 不定期合唱团表演了合唱随着 （1899年）。 在这些作品中最重要的， 严酷的蒙罗信函， Doyle的英雄，斯塔克蒙罗，表明他只有“最模糊的想法，以我是从那里来，往那我去，或者是我在这里。这是不想要查询，或 冷漠 。我已掌握了一些宗教的原则。他们都感到震惊的暴力事件他们我，我应该做的理由之一，我接受任何教条的... 。我看到的是显然，信仰是不是一种美德，而是一种罪恶。这是山羊和绵羊，它有与被领导。“ 然而多伊尔通过， 蒙罗 ，也承认他的信心丧失是 外伤性 ：当第一次我走了出来。突发信仰，我已被饲养，我确实感到了时间，因为如果我的生命带“我不夸大，说我是 悲惨 和陷入 极度 的精神黑暗。“ 蒙罗也反映了Doyle 的宗教乐观的未来：“宗教的形式将被放弃，但实质将不受影响; 这样一个普遍的 信条 将拥有整个文明地球... 。“
Doyle 的最有成效的时期，小说创作发生后，他的转换唯心论。 他最著名的福尔摩斯故事 的四个签署 （1890年）; 的歇洛克福尔摩斯历险记 （1892年）; 的回忆录歇洛克福尔摩斯 （1894）和 巴斯克维尔的猎犬 （1902）。 多伊尔也“杀死了”福尔摩斯-努力集中在更严重的文学和他的研究的唯心论，他在瑞士溺水莱辛巴赫瀑布研究。 具有讽刺意味的，福尔摩斯复活，或者至少是“重生”，从1905年赖欣巴哈的水域 返回歇洛克福尔摩斯的 帮助补充道尔的收入。 霍姆斯更高版本的书籍 瓦利的恐惧 （1915年）， 他最后一次弓 （1917），和 的案例书歇洛克福尔摩斯 （1927），有助于使多伊尔代表，积极推行他的传教努力唯心论。
即使是在唯心论道尔在1880年代末期开始，1916年他写了一个信徒条 光 中，他热情地宣布了一项新的奉献给它。 随后，他开始积极为传教事业的招魂。 第一次世界大战终于说服他更充分地拥抱运动：“我可能已经漂来的战争对我的整个生命看成是心理的研究员... 选项[B] UT斯达康，而且... 它给我们所有的灵魂进入语重心长，使我们看更密切地关注我们自己的信念和 重新评估 我们的价值观。“
由于这一结果的“认真”，他终于认识到“这个问题与我有这么长的调情不仅是一门科学的研究力量的规则之外，但它真的是巨大的，一本打破两个世界之间的墙，直接 不可否认 ，从最深的消息以后，通话的希望和指导，其时间赛跑的人在 痛苦 。“ 多伊尔也意识到，这显然是第一次，“物理现象... 是真的没有户口，他们的真正价值在于一个事实，即他们... 使宗教是非常真实的东西，不再是一个信仰问题的，但一其实实际的体验。“ 因此，他拒绝以极大的 热情 ，从研究到改变宗教信仰的客观唯心论。
不久后，他的第二个“转换”，他写了两本书， 在新的启示 和 重要的消息， 他在宣布他的运动个人信仰。 此外，他还写了许多信件，作为新闻界的主体唯心论，在总结他的信仰和做法招魂，并声称，他不能“权威，记得任何奇迹在新约已，声称在没有得到很好的发生在有招魂的经验“，即唯心论，无非是什么人会发现，”如果他再回到一九零零年和研究基督基督教“，这是纽约的日期灵举办的1848年在纽约州北部”是真理的人类历史上迄今为止最大的前一千多年以来的伟大启示二，“没有信心，而且要认识到，唯心论是正确的。
在他生命的最后十年多伊尔开始花的钱和数千英里前往大资金来传教在澳大利亚和新西兰（1920一1921年），美国和加拿大的招魂的原因（1922年至1923年），法国（ 1925年），南非，罗得西亚，乌干达，坦噶尼喀和肯尼亚（1928-29年），斯堪的纳维亚和荷兰（1929年），以及，当然，英国（16年至30年）。 他还记录了1927年著名的电影音采访时表示，以前从未在它的全部出版。 1924年，道尔还翻译了一本书， 娜达尔克中等 （巴黎：Librairie 德科学Psychiques ，1910年），丹尼斯写的莱昂。 丹尼斯，像杜可风，是唯心论的信徒。 在介绍翻译多伊尔颂扬圣女贞德的美德：“[米] Ÿ个人信念[是]，旁边的基督，最高精神地球被人我们在国际上对一个确切的记录是女孩琼... 。除了神性问题的基督的，比较纯粹的人面的两个字符后，一，中间有许多比喻。每个被类异军突起，从劳动。每宣布一个灵感的佣金。各是烈属，同时还年轻。每个誉
为由人民，共同背叛或忽视由伟大的。每个兴奋的时间深恶痛绝的教会，其中高级神职人员在每一种情况下为他们的死亡阴谋。“
但多伊尔并不止于此。 他指出，丹尼斯是一个问题学生的心理和他的工作是有价值的，因为它给了我们“奇迹理解一些明显的理由认为一，十九岁的女孩谁无法读，写，知道什么军事事务，才得以在几个月之内把战争百年潮' 和保存法国成为 附庸 英格兰。“
1926年，两年后出版 娜达尔克， 道尔发表了一份历史和局部两个角度上卷的工作的历史唯心论，在其中一本他试图灵英寸 也许Doyle 的宗教最具有讽刺意味的发展出现了新的追求时，他开始越来越多地看到自己的“一... 先知世界未来的整体。” 现在的道尔斯是把个人联系与指导，这种不确定的未来，一个叫Pheneas 阿拉伯精神，谁]通过沟通让Doyle 的[亚瑟的妻子自动写作。
Doyle 的信念在 以后 越来越前提的妻子，让他非常具体的信息通报Pheneas 通过。 接收这些信息使他说明他绝对相信在来世：“我不仅收到... 预言[关于世界末日的]在一个非常一致的，详细的表格，而且还那么大的corroborations 数量的独立，这是我很难怀疑，其实存在着一些固体回这些真相的。“
虽然道尔仍然致力于唯心论，他显然成了 泄气 时的预言和启示关于Pheneas 年底通过世界传达了没有兑现，他推测说，他和他的妻子可能已成为“非凡的受害者一些 恶作剧 发挥根据对方人类从。“
道尔在1930年仍然是死亡的巫师在一个专门的时间。 直到他去世道尔仍然认为，死后的世界继续生活，因为精神，持续的沟通，从死者家属在他，谁保证他们生活。 这些通信仍然是“明确的示范”，他曾要求英国爱丁堡大学，因为他的天。 他认为，这些幽灵和其他证据提供了唯心论的事实的基础，他可以 推断 得出，在相同的方式将有福尔摩斯，生活继续后死亡。 鉴于他的幻影接受这些，这是不足为奇的，多伊尔还相信，他的灵接受完全观察符合福尔摩斯的演绎推理的福尔摩斯和“有没有在其中 扣除 是如此... 必要的，因为在宗教。它可以建立由推理，作为一个精确的科学。“
道尔死于1930年克劳伯勒，苏塞克斯，英格兰。
来源：
卡尔，约翰迪克森。 生命的多伊尔先生柯南。 伦敦：约翰穆雷，1949年。 道尔，柯南。 来信出版社。 绿色编辑约翰M 吉布森和理查德L 。 爱荷华城：1986年爱荷华大学出版社。
爱德华兹，欧文达德利。 追求的歇洛克福尔摩斯，阿柯南道尔传记研究亚瑟。 爱丁堡：主流出版社，1983。
琼斯，开尔文一 柯南道尔和精神：巫师职业柯南道尔爵士的亚瑟。 威灵伯鲁，英国：水瓶出版社，1989。
Lellenberg ，琼属 追求的多伊尔先生柯南。 代尔：南伊利诺伊大学出版社，1987。 McCearney ，詹姆斯。 阿瑟柯南道尔。 巴黎：拉表伦德，1988。
Nordon ，皮埃尔。 柯南道尔。 伦敦：约翰穆雷，1966年。
皮尔逊赫斯基斯。 柯南道尔，他的生活和艺术。 伦敦：梅休因，1943年。 Stavert ，杰弗里。 一个南海研究。 朴次茅斯，英格兰：里程碑出版，1987。
Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland, into a very strict Roman Catholic family. He was educated in Jesuit schools in the United Kingdom (Stoney-hurst) and in Austria (Stella Matutina) until he was 17. Although he was apparently attracted by the mystical, sacramental , and eucharistic aspects of Catholicism, he began to doubt his faith during his years at the Jesuit schools.
When Doyle entered the University of Edinburgh at age 17, he was, by his own account, a nonbeliever. "I found that the foundations not only of Roman Catholicism but of the whole Christian faith, as presented to me in nineteenth century theology, were so weak that my mind could not build upon them." These conditions had, according to Doyle, "driven me to agnosticism ." It was during his university years that he came under the influence of materialists such as Joseph Bell, his self-proclaimed prototype for Sherlock Holmes, who taught his students the process of deductive reasoning through the observation of material phenomena. As a result of this training, Doyle became convinced that every mystery of life could be solved through observation and deductive reasoning. Yet despite this training, his previous rejection of Catholicism, and his self-professed agnosticism, he continued to investigate religions, because without a religious foundation he felt a void in his life. In 1881 Doyle received his medical degree and in 1882 set up a medical practice in Southsea (a suburb of Portsmouth), where he remained until 1890. Even while attending medical school, Doyle had actively
investigated "new religions" in an effort to fill the void created when he left the Roman Catholic Church. He attended his first séance in 1880, and many of his short stories published in the 1880s reflect his interest in Spiritualism and his growing acceptance of it. Before the turn of the century Doyle had become interested in Theosophy , the Rosicrucians , the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Mormonism.
In 1887 Doyle published A Study in Scarlet, which was the first of 60 Sherlock Holmes stories he eventually wrote. Holmes proved to be his most popular fictional character. That same year he wrote two letters to the weekly Spiritualist periodical Light, in which he recounted his
conversion to Spiritualism. In these letters Doyle wrote that he became convinced that Spiritualism was true after reading books on the subject by John W. Edmonds, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Alfred Drayson.
To put their writings to a test, he formed a circle of six that met at a Southsea residence on nine or ten occasions. This group received messages through table turning and automatic writing, but the
significance of these events was inconclusive until an experienced medium
with "considerable mediumistic power" was invited to sit with the circle. This medium, writing under control, told Doyle not to read a book by Leigh Hunt that he found convincing because neither the medium nor any of his group knew he was debating whether he should read the book.
Because of this experience, Doyle became convinced that Spiritualism taught the truth: "[T]he incident which, after many months of inquiry, showed me at last that it was absolutely certain that intelligence could exist apart from the body„. After weighing the evidence, I could no more doubt the existence of the phenomena than I could doubt the existence of lions in Africa, though I have been to that continent and have never chanced to see one„. Le t me conclude by exhorting any other searcher never to despair of receiving personal testimony but to persevere through any number of failures until at last conviction comes to him, as, it will." Several weeks later he wrote another letter to Light, which he wrote "[a]s a Spiritualist" and in which he opined that "Spiritualism in the abstract has no 'weak points' " but admitted that "respectable Spiritualists persist in supporting and employing men who have been proved, as far as anything mundane is capable of proof, to be swindlers of the lowest order." Although he was ready to accept that "they have real but intermittent psychical powers," he was also convinced that such charlatans were " noxious parasites" who were the "greatest bane " of Spiritualism. Doyle had received his "definite demonstration," which he believed was
necessary before he could embrace any new religion. Spiritualism provided the evidence that life continues after death and that a form of religion exists that is consistent with primitive Christianity and all its attendant miracles.
From 1887 to 1916 Doyle continued to participate in the Spiritualist movement. He wrote letters concerning religious issues, joined the Society for Psychical Research, and contributed thousands of pounds to the Spiritualist periodical Light. Although he did not proselytize the cause of Spiritualism, as he later would, Doyle did attend séances and studied psychic phenomena as part of his continuing search for truth. Many of his short stories published before 1916 also portray Spiritualist ideas and concepts in a favorable light.
Doyle also wrote three books during this period that his biographers have described as autobiographical: Beyond the City(1893), The Stark Munro Letters (1895), and A Duet With an Occasional Chorus (1899). In the most important of these works, The Stark Munro Letters, Doyle's hero, Stark Munro, reveals that he has only the "vaguest idea as to whence I have come from, whither I am going, or what I am here for. It is not for want of inquiry, or from indifference . I have mastered the principles of several
religions. They have all shocked me by the violence which I should have to do to my reason to accept the dogmas of any one of them„. I see so clearly that faith is not a virtue, but a vice. It is a goat which has been headed with the sheep." And yet Doyle, through Munro , also admits that his loss of faith was traumatic : "When first I came out of the faith in which I had been reared, I certainly did feel for a time as if my life-belt had burst. I won't exaggerate and say that I was miserable and plunged in utter spiritual darkness." Munro also reflects Doyle's optimism for the future of religions: "The forms of religion will be abandoned, but the essence will be maintained; so that one universal creed will embrace the whole civilized earth„."
Doyle's most productive period for writing fiction occurred after his conversion to Spiritualism. His best-known Sherlock Holmes stories were The Sign of Four (1890); The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892); The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894); and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902). Doyle also "killed off" Sherlock Holmes —to concentrate on more serious literary efforts and his studies of Spiritualism —by drowning him in Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. Ironically, Holmes was resurrected, or at least "born again," from the waters of Reichenbach in 1905 in The Return of Sherlock Holmes to help supplement Doyle's income. Later books on Holmes—The Valley of Fear(1915), His Last Bow (1917), and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)—helped enable Doyle to actively pursue his missionary efforts on behalf of Spiritualism.
Even though Doyle was a believer in Spiritualism beginning in the late 1880s, in 1916 he wrote an article in Light in which he enthusiastically proclaimed a new dedication to it. Subsequently he began to actively proselytize for the Spiritualist cause. World War I had finally convinced him to more fully embrace the movement: "I might have drifted on for my whole life as a psychical Researcher „ [b]ut the War came, and „ it brought earnestness into all our souls and made us look more closely at our own beliefs and reassess our values."
As a result of this "earnestness," he finally recognized that "this subject with which I had so long dallied was not merely a study of a force outside the rules of science, but that it was really something tremendous, a breaking down of the walls between two worlds, a direct undeniable message from beyond, a call of hope and of guidance to the human race at the time of its deepest affliction ." Doyle also realized, apparently for the first time, that "the physical phenomena „ are really of no account, and that their real value consists in the fact that they „ make religion a very real thing, no longer a matter of faith, but a matter of actual experience and fact." As such, he turned with great zeal from the objective study of Spiritualism to proselytism.
Shortly after his second "conversion" he wrote two books, The New Revelation and The Vital Message, in which he proclaimed his personal belief in the movement. In addition, he wrote numerous letters to the press on the subject of Spiritualism in which he summarized the beliefs and practices of Spiritualists and claimed that he could not "recall any miracle in the New Testament which has not been claimed, upon good authority, as having occurred in the experience of spiritualists"; that Spiritualism is nothing more than what one would find "if he goes back nineteen hundred years and studies the Christianity of Christ"; that the date Spiritualism was organized in upstate New York in 1848 "is in truth the greatest date in human history since the great revelation of two thousand years ago;" and that no faith is necessary to realize that Spiritualism is true.
During the last decade of his life Doyle began spending great sums of money and traveled many thousands of miles to proselytize for the Spiritualist cause in Australia and New Zealand (1920-21), the United States and Canada (1922-23), France (1925), South Africa, Rhodesia, Uganda, Tanganyika and Kenya (1928-29), Scandinavia and Holland (1929), and, of course, England (1916-30). He also recorded a famous Movie-tone interview in 1927 that has never before been published in its entirety.
In 1924 Doyle also translated a book, Jeanne D'Arc Medium (Paris:
Librairie des Sciences Psychiques, 1910), written by Leon Denis. Denis, like Doyle, was an adherent of Spiritualism. In his introduction to the translation Doyle extols Joan of Arc's virtues: "[M]y personal conviction
[is] that, next to the Christ, the highest spiritual being of whom we have an exact record upon the earth is the girl Joan„. Apart from the question of Christ's divinity, and comparing the two characters upon a purely human plane, there was much analogy between them. Each was sprung from the laboring class. Each proclaimed an inspired commission. Each was martyred while still young. Each was acclaimed by the common people and betrayed or disregarded by the great. Each excited the bitter hatred of the church of their time, the high priests of which in each case conspired for their death."
But Doyle does not stop there. He notes that Denis was a student of psychic matters and that his work is valuable since it gives us "some intelligible reason for the obvious miracle that a girl of nineteen, who could neither read nor write, and knew nothing of military affairs, was able in a few months to turn the tide of a hundred years' war and to save France from becoming a vassal of England."
In 1926, two years after publishing Jeanne D'Arc, Doyle published a two-volume work on the history of Spiritualism in which he attempted to
present Spiritualism in a historical and topical perspective. Perhaps the most ironic development in Doyle's quest for a new religion occurred when he began to see himself increasingly as "a prophet of the future of the whole world„." The Doyles were now put in personal contact with the guide to this uncertain future, an Arabian spirit called Pheneas, who
communicated through Jean Doyle's [Arthur's wife] automatic writing. Doyle's belief in the hereafter became increasingly premised on very specific communications from Pheneas through his wife, Jean. Receiving such messages caused him to state his absolute belief in the hereafter: "I have not only received „ prophecies [concerning the end of the world] in a very consistent and detailed form, but also so large a number of independent corroborations that it is difficult for me to doubt that there lies some solid truth at the back of these."
Although Doyle remained committed to Spiritualism, he apparently became discouraged when the prophecies and revelations concerning the end of the world that had been communicated through Pheneas were not fulfilled, and he speculated that he and his wife may have become "victims of some extraordinary prank played upon the human race from the other side." Doyle was still a dedicated Spiritualist at the time of his death in 1930. Until his death Doyle remained convinced that life continued after death, because of ongoing communications from deceased family members who assured him that they lived in the spirit world. These communications remained the "definite demonstration" that he had sought since his days at the University of Edinburgh. He believed that these apparitions and other evidence of Spiritualism provided a factual basis from which he could deduce , in the same manner that Sherlock Holmes would have deduced, that life continues after death. Given his acceptance of these apparitions, it is hardly surprising that Doyle was also convinced that his acceptance of Spiritualism was completely consistent with the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes and Holmes's observation that "there is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as in religion„.It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner."
Doyle died in 1930 in Crowborough, Sussex, England.
Sources:
Carr, John Dickson. The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. London: John Murray, 1949.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. Letters to the Press. Edited by John M. Gibson and Richard L. Green. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1986.
Edwards, Owen Dudley. The Quest for Sherlock Holmes, A Biographical Study of Arthur Conan Doyle. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1983. Jones, Kelvin I. Conan Doyle and the Spirits: The Spiritualist Career of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1989. Lellenberg, Jon L. The Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.
McCearney, James. Arthur Conan Doyle. Paris: La Table Ronde, 1988. Nordon, Pierre. Conan Doyle. London: John Murray, 1966.
Pearson, Hesketh. Conan Doyle, His Life and Art. London: Methuen, 1943. Stavert, Geoffrey. A Study in Southsea. Portsmouth, England: Milestone Publications, 1987. 阿瑟柯南道尔出生于1859年5月22日，在爱丁堡，苏格兰，到了非常严格的罗马天主教家庭。 他曾在17耶稣会学校，在英国（斯托尼-赫斯特）和奥地利（斯特拉Matutina ），直到他。 虽然他很明显，吸引了神秘 圣 天主教圣体方面，而且，他开始怀疑他在耶稣会学校，在他多年的信念。
当多伊尔17岁进入爱丁堡大学的，他是被自己的帐户，nonbeliever 。 “我发现，神学的基础不仅是罗马天主教，而且是整个基督教信仰，在十九世纪所介绍我是如此虚弱，我的内心无法建立在他们身上。” 这些条件有，据多伊尔，“驱动我 不可知论 。“ 正是在他的大学里，他的过程中受到影响的唯物主义者如约瑟夫贝尔，他的原型自称为福尔摩斯，谁教他的学生 演绎推理 透过现象观察的材料。
由于这种训练的结果，多伊尔开始相信，每一个生命的奥秘，可以通过观察和演绎推理解决。 然而，尽管这种训练，他的天主教以前拒绝，他自认是不可知论，他继续调查的宗教，因为没有一个宗教的基础，他觉得在他生命中的空白。 道尔在1881年获得医学学位，并于1882年成立，直到1890年的医疗实践中的南海郊区（一种朴茨茅斯），仍然在那里。 即使是在出席医学院，多伊尔已积极调查罗马天主教教会“新兴宗教”在他离开为了填补这个空缺时创建的。 他参加了他的第一个 悼念会 ，于1880年和1880年出版的许多故事反映了他短暂的兴趣 唯心论 和他的成长它接受。 之前在世纪之交的兴趣多伊尔成为了 神智 ，在 玫瑰十字会 ，金色黎明秘订购的，和摩门教。
道尔在1887年出版的 一，研究红字 这是第一次写60福尔摩斯的故事，他最终。 霍姆斯被证明是他最受欢迎的虚构人物。 同年，他写了两封信给招魂每周定期 轻， 中，他详细描述了他转换为唯心论。 在这些信件中写道，他道尔开始相信
唯灵论是德雷森真正阿尔弗雷德读书，后关于这一议题的约翰W 埃德蒙顿，艾尔弗雷德拉塞尔华莱士。
把他们的著作到测试，他成立了一个六圈的场合会见了十一个南海居住或九。 这组收到的消息通过表转动 自动书写 ，但对这些事件的重要性是 不确定的 ，直到圈中经历的“相当大的mediumistic 力量”被邀请坐在一起。 此媒介，控制下写，告诉多伊尔不要读一书，由利亨特说，他发现有说服力的，因为无论是集团的任何介质，也不知道他是他的辩论，他是否应该阅读的书。
由于这方面的经验，就相信了唯心论道尔教授的真理：[T]的事件，他，经过多次调查，向我表明个月，最后的情报是绝对肯定的是，除了可能存在的... 从身体。“经过权衡证据，我没有更多的怀疑可能存在其他的现象存在，比我能在非洲狮子会怀疑，虽然我到过的大陆，从来没有看到一个偶然... 。告诫任何最后，让我 搜索 永不 绝望 接受个人的证词，而是 坚持 通过任何失败的次数，直到最后谈到他的信念，因为，它会的。“
几个星期后，他又写了一封信给 光， 他写道：“[1]山灵论”，并在他认为，但可敬的承认，“招魂坚持支持和聘用人”唯心论，在抽象的有“没有' 薄弱环节' 谁已被证实，至于什么 世俗的 ，是能够证明，要以最低的骗子。“ 虽然他愿意接受，“他们有真实的，但 间歇性 心理的权力“，他也相信，这种骗子是” 有害的 寄生虫“谁是”最大 的祸根 “的唯心论。 多伊尔已收到他的“明确的示范”，他认为是必要的，才可以接受任何新的宗教。 唯心论所提供的证据，生命继续死后，一个宗教的形式存在，是创造奇迹符合原始基督教及其所有的服务员。
从1887至1916年道尔继续参与招魂运动。 他写信给有关宗教问题，加入了 研究会的精神生存空间 ，并促成了数千英镑定期向巫师 轻。 尽管他没有 传教 事业的唯心论，正如他后来会，多伊尔没有参加降神会，研究心理现象的一部分他继续寻找真理。 他的许多故事前发表简短的1916年还描绘了良好的光灵论思想和观念。
多伊尔还写了三本书，在此期间，他的传记作者形容自传： 超越市 （1893年）， 斯塔克蒙罗快报 （1895年），并 不定期合唱团表演了合唱随着 （1899年）。 在这些作品中最重要的， 严酷的蒙罗信函， Doyle的英雄，斯塔克蒙罗，表明他只有“最模糊的想法，以我是从那里来，往那我去，或者是我在这里。这是不想要查询，或 冷漠 。我已掌握了一些宗教的原则。他们都感到震惊的暴力事件他们我，我应该做的理由之一，我接受任何教条的... 。我看到的是显然，信仰是不是一种美德，而是一种罪恶。这是山羊和绵羊，它有与被领导。“ 然而多伊尔通过， 蒙罗 ，也承认他的信心丧失是 外伤性 ：当第一次我走了出来。突发信仰，我已被饲养，我确实感到了时间，因为如果我的生命带“我不夸大，说我是 悲惨 和陷入 极度 的精神黑暗。“ 蒙罗也反映了Doyle 的宗教乐观的未来：“宗教的形式将被放弃，但实质将不受影响; 这样一个普遍的 信条 将拥有整个文明地球... 。“
Doyle 的最有成效的时期，小说创作发生后，他的转换唯心论。 他最著名的福尔摩斯故事 的四个签署 （1890年）; 的歇洛克福尔摩斯历险记 （1892年）; 的回忆录歇洛克福尔摩斯 （1894）和 巴斯克维尔的猎犬 （1902）。 多伊尔也“杀死了”福尔摩斯-努力集中在更严重的文学和他的研究的唯心论，他在瑞士溺水莱辛巴赫瀑布研究。 具有讽刺意味的，福尔摩斯复活，或者至少是“重生”，从1905年赖欣巴哈的水域 返回歇洛克福尔摩斯的 帮助补充道尔的收入。 霍姆斯更高版本的书籍 瓦利的恐惧 （1915年）， 他最后一次弓 （1917），和 的案例书歇洛克福尔摩斯 （1927），有助于使多伊尔代表，积极推行他的传教努力唯心论。
即使是在唯心论道尔在1880年代末期开始，1916年他写了一个信徒条 光 中，他热情地宣布了一项新的奉献给它。 随后，他开始积极为传教事业的招魂。 第一次世界大战终于说服他更充分地拥抱运动：“我可能已经漂来的战争对我的整个生命看成是心理的研究员... 选项[B] UT斯达康，而且... 它给我们所有的灵魂进入语重心长，使我们看更密切地关注我们自己的信念和 重新评估 我们的价值观。“
由于这一结果的“认真”，他终于认识到“这个问题与我有这么长的调情不仅是一门科学的研究力量的规则之外，但它真的是巨大的，一本打破两个世界之间的墙，直接 不可否认 ，从最深的消息以后，通话的希望和指导，其时间赛跑的人在 痛苦 。“ 多伊尔也意识到，这显然是第一次，“物理现象... 是真的没有户口，他们的真正价值在于一个事实，即他们... 使宗教是非常真实的东西，不再是一个信仰问题的，但一其实实际的体验。“ 因此，他拒绝以极大的 热情 ，从研究到改变宗教信仰的客观唯心论。
不久后，他的第二个“转换”，他写了两本书， 在新的启示 和 重要的消息， 他在宣布他的运动个人信仰。 此外，他还写了许多信件，作为新闻界的主体唯心论，在总结他的信仰和做法招魂，并声称，他不能“权威，记得任何奇迹在新约已，声称在没有得到很好的发生在有招魂的经验“，即唯心论，无非是什么人会发现，”如果他再回到一九零零年和研究基督基督教“，这是纽约的日期灵举办的1848年在纽约州北部”是真理的人类历史上迄今为止最大的前一千多年以来的伟大启示二，“没有信心，而且要认识到，唯心论是正确的。
在他生命的最后十年多伊尔开始花的钱和数千英里前往大资金来传教在澳大利亚和新西兰（1920一1921年），美国和加拿大的招魂的原因（1922年至1923年），法国（ 1925年），南非，罗得西亚，乌干达，坦噶尼喀和肯尼亚（1928-29年），斯堪的纳维亚和荷兰（1929年），以及，当然，英国（16年至30年）。 他还记录了1927年著名的电影音采访时表示，以前从未在它的全部出版。 1924年，道尔还翻译了一本书， 娜达尔克中等 （巴黎：Librairie 德科学Psychiques ，1910年），丹尼斯写的莱昂。 丹尼斯，像杜可风，是唯心论的信徒。 在介绍翻译多伊尔颂扬圣女贞德的美德：“[米] Ÿ个人信念[是]，旁边的基督，最高精神地球被人我们在国际上对一个确切的记录是女孩琼... 。除了神性问题的基督的，比较纯粹的人面的两个字符后，一，中间有许多比喻。每个被类异军突起，从劳动。每宣布一个灵感的佣金。各是烈属，同时还年轻。每个誉
为由人民，共同背叛或忽视由伟大的。每个兴奋的时间深恶痛绝的教会，其中高级神职人员在每一种情况下为他们的死亡阴谋。“
但多伊尔并不止于此。 他指出，丹尼斯是一个问题学生的心理和他的工作是有价值的，因为它给了我们“奇迹理解一些明显的理由认为一，十九岁的女孩谁无法读，写，知道什么军事事务，才得以在几个月之内把战争百年潮' 和保存法国成为 附庸 英格兰。“
1926年，两年后出版 娜达尔克， 道尔发表了一份历史和局部两个角度上卷的工作的历史唯心论，在其中一本他试图灵英寸 也许Doyle 的宗教最具有讽刺意味的发展出现了新的追求时，他开始越来越多地看到自己的“一... 先知世界未来的整体。” 现在的道尔斯是把个人联系与指导，这种不确定的未来，一个叫Pheneas 阿拉伯精神，谁]通过沟通让Doyle 的[亚瑟的妻子自动写作。
Doyle 的信念在 以后 越来越前提的妻子，让他非常具体的信息通报Pheneas 通过。 接收这些信息使他说明他绝对相信在来世：“我不仅收到... 预言[关于世界末日的]在一个非常一致的，详细的表格，而且还那么大的corroborations 数量的独立，这是我很难怀疑，其实存在着一些固体回这些真相的。“
虽然道尔仍然致力于唯心论，他显然成了 泄气 时的预言和启示关于Pheneas 年底通过世界传达了没有兑现，他推测说，他和他的妻子可能已成为“非凡的受害者一些 恶作剧 发挥根据对方人类从。“
道尔在1930年仍然是死亡的巫师在一个专门的时间。 直到他去世道尔仍然认为，死后的世界继续生活，因为精神，持续的沟通，从死者家属在他，谁保证他们生活。 这些通信仍然是“明确的示范”，他曾要求英国爱丁堡大学，因为他的天。 他认为，这些幽灵和其他证据提供了唯心论的事实的基础，他可以 推断 得出，在相同的方式将有福尔摩斯，生活继续后死亡。 鉴于他的幻影接受这些，这是不足为奇的，多伊尔还相信，他的灵接受完全观察符合福尔摩斯的演绎推理的福尔摩斯和“有没有在其中 扣除 是如此... 必要的，因为在宗教。它可以建立由推理，作为一个精确的科学。“
道尔死于1930年克劳伯勒，苏塞克斯，英格兰。
来源：
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