"Recent Psychic Evidence": The Visit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Utah in 1923

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 52, 1984, No. 3

"Recent Psychic Evidence": The Visit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Utah in 1923

BY MICHAEL W. HOMER

WHEN SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE BROUGHT his spiritualist crusade to Utah in 1923 he was apprehensive about the reception he would receive because his spiritualist ideas — which included a belief that spiritualism was the simplification and purification of decadent Christianity, that the spirit continues to live after death, and that a person has the ability to communicate with deceased relatives through mediums — were seemingly not compatible with Mormon beliefs. Worse yet, Doyle had criticized Mormonism's venerated leadership, history, and institutions in his first Sherlock Holmes detective story published thirty-five years earlier and reiterated his criticism of early territorial Utah in a book written several years before his visit. Yet, at a luncheon given for him shortly before his departure, Doyle was pleased to observe that he had been allowed to deliver his message to an audience of five thousand from the pulpit of the Mormon Tabernacle itself, expressed his "profound appreciation of the reception accorded him and his message," and confessed that before coming he "did not expect so much breadth of view."

How did it happen that Doyle, the author of a sensational anti-Mormon melodrama and a proselyte of a cause that had been denounced by the Mormon hierarchy, could visit Utah with such positive results. Ironically, it may have been precisely because of the spiritualist message he brought and the fact that Doyle was the world renowned creator of Sherlock Holmes that Utah gave him such a receptive audience.

Doyle's introduction to the beliefs and practices of spiritualism occurred more than forty years before his visit to Salt Lake while he was attending medical school at the University of Edinburgh. After beginning his practice of medicine in 1882 and later while embarking on his new career as an author, he became well acquainted with mediums and other adherents and after "years of patient investigation" gradually became a "convinced spiritualist" and a zealous advocate of the movement. During World War I, after both his brother and eldest son were killed, he began to utilize his literary talents to advance the cause. In 1917 he authored The New Revelation and in 1919 The Vital Message. Following the war he took his message on tour — to Australia and New Zealand in 1920 and to the United States in 1922 and again in 1923.

By the time Doyle came to Utah during his second American tour he was an experienced proselyter. But it was not the first time the residents of Utah had been introduced to the message of spiritualism. The Mormon leadership and its captive press in Utah were aware of and criticized the claims of spiritualism as early as 1851. The subject was mentioned in discourses delivered from the pulpit of the Salt Lake Tabernacle during the 1850s by Parley P. Pratt and Jedediah M. Grant. During the same decade, spiritualism was denounced by the Deseret News and the Millennial Star. Despite these denunciations, and perhaps in part because of them, some dissatisfied Mormons were attracted to spiritualism beginning in the late 1860s, including William S. Godbe, E. L. T. Harrison, and a former LDS apostle, Amasa Lyman.

This Godbeite movement, guided by the principles and teachings of spiritualism, continued "for more than a decade as an important community force." Not only did the Utah Spiritualists produce seances and preachments, "they spawned a rival church organization, the first successful anti-LDS newspaper, a seminal historical survey of Mormonism, and an unprecedented public forum that featured a stream of internationally renowned radical itinerants." These itinerants, who were not allowed to speak to Mormon congregations, spoke from the pulpit of a newly constructed Liberal Institute and were, according to some observers, more popular than speakers at the Tabernacle.

Part of spiritualism's appeal for these disaffected Mormons were the similarities between the two "isms," both of which had originated in the Burned-over District of western New York. Spiritualism's beliefs in "the existence and life of the spirit apart from and independent of the material organism, and in the reality and value of intelligent intercourse between spirits embodied and spirits discarnate" were similar to Mormonism's beliefs in the existence of life after death and the concept of personal revelation. In fact some Utah Spiritualists claimed to have talked with early church leaders in seances, including Joseph Smith, who was recognized by them as an unsophisticated medium who had misinterpreted his "revelations."

Although Utah spiritualism did not prove to be a serious threat to the stability of monolithic Utah Mormonism, its similarities and experiences proved a dilemma to Mormons seeking to criticize spiritualism and were explained away by a variety of arguments: that the spiritual manifestations claimed by Spiritualists were fraudulent and even if some of the claimed communications were legitimate, the spirits responsible for such messages were inferior spirits. By the turn of the century the Mormon response to spiritualism became more standard as a result of James E. Talmage's treatment of the subject in Articles of Faith, his text written for Latter-day Saint University instruction. In that work he asserted that "the restoration of the priesthood to earth in this age of the world, was followed by a phenomenal growth of the vagaries of spiritualism, whereby many have been led to put their trust in Satan's counterfeit of God's eternal power." Spiritualism, in the Mormon view, had become a tool of the devil.

This view was still prevalent several years before Doyle's visit and expounded upon by Joseph West in an article published in the November 1920 Improvement Era. West argued that the spiritualism espoused by Doyle in his two recently published works, The New Revelation and The Vital Message, was very different "from true inspiration or revelation from God!" While noting the similarities of belief between Mormons and Spiritualists concerning conditions that exist in the spirit world, West reiterated Talmage's view that spiritualism was a counterfeit form of Mormonism: ". . . it is hard to get away from the conviction that Mr. Doyle found much of the truthful portion of his statements and descriptions of the spirit world in the doctrines of the 'Mormon' Church." West also asserted that even though "the Lord permits loved ones who have gone before to bring comforting messages to the living ... in all such cases, the communication is directly with the person for whom [it] is intended, and not through a third, irresponsible person."

If Doyle was aware of the Mormon position regarding spiritualism in general and his own works in particular, it is little wonder that he was apprehensive about coming to Utah. Yet, the fine distinctions noted by Mormon apologists were not as appreciated by the rank and file as the authors may have hoped. In fact, some Mormons were curious — others even attracted — by ideas and experiences similar to those claimed by Spiritualists. Not only is Mormonism premised on a belief in supernatural experiences, but, in addition, Mormon folklore is replete with stories of supernatural events experienced by the lay membership, including stories about the Three Nephites, visions of deceased family members, and persons returning from the dead. Furthermore, by the 1920s Salt Lake City had a sizeable non-Mormon population. Some of these were undoubtedly caught up in the resurgence of spiritualism — because of the consolation and hope it gave them — following the devastation and death of the First World War. In fact, Doyle believed that the war had been fought to produce precisely this result. This curiosity about and interest in the supernatural and life beyond death by Mormons and non-Mormons alike must have been a strong drawing card for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who came to recount his research into spiritual phenomena.

Shortly after noon on May 11, 1923, Doyle arrived at the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad station where he was greeted by Dr. D. Moore Lindsay, a Salt Laker who had been a classmate of Doyle at the University of Edinburgh some forty years previously. Doyle was rather portly (about 235 pounds) but tall (6 feet 4 inches), had broad shoulders and chest, and sported a full head of gray hair and a bushy mustache. He also had a booming voice with a heavy Scot's burr.

Although Doyle had been knighted some twenty years earlier for his service to the Crown and defense of British policy, he was, at the time of his visit to Utah, shunned by the British nobility and denied a peerage because of his tours on behalf of spiritualism. In addition, he was often the object of ridicule in the British press. It is, therefore, not surprising that Doyle traveled outside his country so much during the early 1920s.

Although it was Doyle's first trip to the western United States, he had long been interested in the area (the plots of two of his Sherlock Holmes stories were centered in the West — one in Utah and the other in Nevada). He described the visit as "a new experience and wonderful" and noted that the Salt Lake "valley is very lovely and so well cultivated and neatly done. It is quite inspiring."

The evening of his arrival, Doyle addressed an audience of five thousand on the subject of "Recent Psychic Evidence" in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, site of so many denunciations of spiritualism and the Godbeites in the nineteenth century.

After prefacing his remarks by thanking the Mormon church for its "open mindedness" in allowing him to speak in the Tabernacle, he began his discourse, which was essentially the same one he had delivered in other U.S. cities, consisting of "tangible proofs" of communication with the dead, including his own psychic experiences and those of others recorded on "spirit photographs." His own experiences included messages he had received from his departed brother, mother, and son through mediums he claimed had no means of knowing the facts revealed.

Doyle also showed two types of "spirit photographs" on a large screen erected on the stage of the Tabernacle. The first type purported to be photographs of materialized spiritual forms taken at seances. Spiritualists believed that during the visitation of some spirits a gelatinous material called ectoplasm "oozed from the medium's mouth, ears, eyes and skin" and formed around the spirit to give it a visible, three dimensional shape. The second type of "spirit photograph" exhibited by Doyle consisted of photos taken of persons or groups in daylight where no spiritual forms were visible but which, when developed, showed spirits that had mysteriously appeared on the negatives. One such photograph displayed by Doyle was of war dead in London and showed a cloud of spirit faces, thirty of which the speaker "affirmed . . . had been positively recognized by relatives and friends."

In addition to these "tangible proofs" of spiritualism, Doyle spent a portion of his two-hour lecture explaining the doctrines of spiritualism, some of which were similar to Mormon beliefs. In particular, he described the Spiritualist's concept of heaven as a "land of realized ideals" where spirits go after death and continue in "artistic, literary or other enjoyable pursuits," including "missionary duties which consisted in descending to a lower plane to instruct others." He assured his audience that this view was corroborated by messages received from the spirit world. Doyle also argued that "one finds really but little of pure evil in the world," that "as a rule humanity deserved compensation, not punishment," and that even though the "spirits that are evil will be retarded . . . they, too, will have opportunity to go on as they grow into love." As the Godbeites had fifty years before, Doyle believed that Joseph Smith was a medium who had misinterpreted his messages, but there is no evidence he communicated this belief to his Utah audience.

Such optimistic ideals were evidently well received by the audience. The Salt Lake Telegram reported that Doyle "held his audience fascinated, proving beyond question the intense interest in his subject." Furthermore, as Doyle finished "it seemed as though his audience was loath to leave . . . [after being] ... so enthralled by this striking message Sir Arthur delivered." However, the Telegram also noted that "when he grew argumentative ... his logic at times appeared to be far from invulnerable." The Tribune thought that Doyle by "self-evident sincerity and earnestness . . . sought by logic, patent facts and plain deduction" to deliver a message full "of cheer and uplift, calculated to inspire and help," and that such message was received by a strictly "attentive audience." Even the Mormon Deseret News, which did not devote as much space to Doyle's visit as the city's other two dailies, wrote that Doyle had delivered an "optimistic lecture" with "an unusual earnestness."

As noted previously, Doyle's spiritualist message was not his only drawing card. His status as a world-famous author of detective fiction was mentioned by all of the Salt Lake newspapers in articles announcing his speaking engagement. Nevertheless, he was not particularly proud of his Sherlock Holmes stories (even though he continued to write them until 1927) and upon his arrival in Salt Lake described them as "rather childish things" that were "of perhaps some worth" if "serving to rest and give recreation to busy people." Doyle would rather have been remembered as a serious novelist of such historical works as Micah Clark, The White Company, and Sir Nigel; but his earliest character, Sherlock Holmes, would be remembered long after any subsequent characters he created. Ironically, several early Sherlock Holmes stories, written in the style of historical novels, have since been criticized for factual inaccuracies.

The most notable of these works is A Study in Scarlet, which was published in 1887 and recounted the story of the Mormons in Utah from 1847 until the early 1860s. The historical details of the story were drawn mainly from accounts written by Fanny Stenhouse, Eliza Young, and other sensationalist authors whose works were available to Doyle in Great Britain. In addition, Doyle drew heavily from the plot of a story written several years earlier by Robert Louis Stevenson called "The Dynamiter." Doyle's view of Mormon history and culture was tainted by these sensationalist authors and other English sources of the period — especially their condemnations of polygamy, autocratic leadership, and the activities of avenging angels. Even though more objective accounts (which criticized the same church practices in a less lurid manner) were probably also consulted by Doyle, he chose to sensationalize his story of the Mormons. Several factors may explain his decision. First, Mormonism in the late 1880s was a popular subject of the yellow press in England and could attract readers and generate income — "shilling shockers" — for Doyle's more serious literary pursuits. Second, Doyle was genuinely opposed throughout his life to what Victorian society deemed "aberrations in morality" and, according to one author, "must have been very much against the Mormons in their search for moral freedom." Finally, Doyle was apparently convinced that the types of things he wrote about had actually occurred since there was a significant amount of sensationalist material steeped in criticism of Mormonism written by persons who claimed to have lived in or visited Utah.

Whatever his reasons were, the story of A Study in Scarlet is no more memorable than other sensationalist fiction of the period except for the fact that Sherlock Holmes is the book's hero. It is about the murders of Enoch Drebber and Joseph Stangerson, the polygamous sons of two members of the Council of the Sacred Four, the mythic leading council of the Mormon church. Jefferson Hope, a Gentile, falls in love with a Mormon girl named Lucy Ferrier, who has been promised — against the wishes of both Lucy and her father — to either Drebber or Stangerson by Brigham Young. Hope, who labors in mining camps in Nevada and California, returns to Utah to visit the girl just one night before her father must "voluntarily" release her to marry one of the two Mormon elders. Recognizing her desperate situation, Hope attempts to help Lucy and her father escape from Utah but fails because of the extraordinary talents of the avenging angels. Both Lucy and her father die in the escape attempt and Hope pledges vengeance upon their murderers, Drebber and Stangerson. Twenty years later he tracks them down in London and kills them; Holmes is called upon to solve the mystery.

This uncomplimentary characterization of Mormonism by Doyle appears to have been largely forgotten when he visited Salt Lake City, even though he had resurrected it himself in The Vital Message written in 1919. In that book Doyle suggested that the "murderous impulses" of the "early Mormons in Utah" had been "fortified" by reliance upon the "unholy source" of the Old Testament. This reference may have been enough to prompt Joseph West's review of Doyle's spiritualist ideas in the Improvement Era, although no specific mention was made in the article about Doyle's reference to "early Mormons."

No one seems to have focused on Doyle's account of early Mormonism when he came to Salt Lake except a non-Mormon doctor. In a letter written to Doyle at the Hotel Utah, G. Hodgson Higgins told the English author that his first impressions of Mormonism had been tainted by Doyle's work and that "the book gave one the impression that murder was a common practice among them." Higgins requested Doyle to "express his regret at having propagated falsehoods about the Mormon church and people." Doyle reassured Higgins that in his future memoirs he would write of the Mormons as he found them on his visit. However, he indicated that "all I said about the Danite Band and the murders is historical so I cannot withdraw that tho it is likely that in a work of fiction it is stated more luridly than in a work of history. It's best to let the matter rest." True to his word, Doyle, in his memoirs, wrote favorably of the Mormons and even mentioned the Higgins letter. He also indicated that A Study in Scarlet was "a rather sensational and over colored picture of the Danite Episodes which formed a passing stain in the early history of Utah." However, he noted that he had refused a public apology because "the facts were true enough, though there were many reasons which might extenuate them." It is somewhat ironic that although Doyle's initial contact with Mormons resulted in a favorable impression, he remained convinced that his description of nineteenth-century Mormonism, patterned after sensationalist and lurid accounts, was accurate and historical. Perhaps his desire to be regarded as an author of historical novels required him to hold this view.

Yet Doyle's attitude toward the Mormon pioneer was somewhat tempered during his visit. Unlike his practice in many cities on his tour where Doyle spent his spare time participating in seances, while in Salt Lake he chose to visit the Pioneer Museum. There he saw a group photograph of early pioneers that aroused his "intense interest." Shortly before his departure on May 12, Doyle spoke at an Alta Club luncheon — attended by some of Salt Lake City's most influential citizens, including John A. Widtsoe, Mayor Clarence Neslen, and Rabbi Adolph Steiner — and took the opportunity to pay "eloquent tribute to the qualities of the Utah pioneers." He compared them to the settlers of South Africa he had met during the Boer War: "rugged, hard-faced men, the brave and earnest women who look as if they had known much suffering and hardship." He thus left Utah, praising not only its present inhabitants for their "breadth of view" but also their forebears for their "pioneer pluck."

Despite Doyle's prior writings against Mormonism and Mormonism's hostile attitude toward spiritualism and Doyle's advocacy of it, an apparently cordial interaction had taken place. In the final analysis, Doyle's reputation as a novelist and Spiritualist was perhaps the most significant reason he was successful in establishing such rapport with his Utah audience. But Doyle was also able to make good on his reputation because he was a charismatic and gifted communicator. In addition, the LDS church was anxious, during the postwar period, to improve its public image and put its controversial practices of the past behind it. Significantly, the church chose not to publicly challenge Doyle's past statements regarding nineteenthcentury Mormonism and must have been pleased by Doyle's praise of the church as "he now found it" and his statement that "the world will be none the worse in consequence" of the spread of Mormonism.

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