Sunlounger

The Arthur Conan Doyle sitting

"This is a particularly interesting case for not only were the extras on [sitting] H114 good likenesses of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who died just a week previously, on July 7th, 1930 but the tests conducted by Mr Tweedale were complete. The recognition is good and was immediately accepted by Lady Conan Doyle. This was the first psychic photograph obtained of Sir Arthur. In parenthesis I might remark that shortly afterwards I saw a written message on a photographic plate, obtained by Hope and purporting to be from Sir Arthur. The writing was undoubtedly Sir Arthur's and the signature a facsimile, but the wording was not in the pure English one would expect from Sir Arthur but rather in the chatty style of Hope. For instance the message began "Dear all of you" and ended "God Bless you all", methods of address and close which somehow don't strike me as being the style of the author of the 'White Company' but exactly the characteristics of Hope's writing. Practically all Hope's letters to me began "Dear all of you" or "Dear both of you" and closed "God Bless you". I do not suggest that there is anything suspicious about this written message. I believe it to be genuine. But it does seem to me that, as a trance medium colours the communication sent by that means and as the objective voice medium colours the voice that it possesses the characteristics of the medium at times, so does a photographic medium so colour the work, that a written message may be coloured by the medium's personality. If I may paraphrase, 'the writing was the writing of Doyle but the words were the words of Hope.'"

"Attached is Mr Tweedale's account of the séance which gives full details. [This refers to the below article that appeared in the press a few days later]. The apparent acquiescence of the communication in regard to the second result is interesting. I do not accept Mr Tweedale's recognition that the face of the young man is Sir Arthur as a young man. This seems unnecessarily obscure. Nor do I agree with his remarks in his last paragraph, in claiming the quality of the 'extra' being due to experience of 'spirit'. I would rather say this is due mainly to the health and ease of mind of the medium and secondly to the conditions and harmony set up by the sitter."