English doctor and writer, famous for the Sherlock Holmes detective series. He was born in Edinburgh, England, on 22 May 1859 and died on 7 July 1930.

He was the son of a well-known poet and his mother was a woman of great sensitivity. He grew up amidst art, poetry, literature and a thirst for knowledge. He studied in England and Germany, graduating as a doctor at a very young age. Eventually he gave up his interest in medicine and devoted himself to literature and scientific research.

In 1882 the famous Society for Psychical Research was founded in London, which attempted to elevate mediumistic facts to the status of science. Conan Doyle became a member of this society, which included such famous scientists as Sir William Crookes, Charles Richet, Carl G. Jung, Gustave Geley and others.

In 1887 he wrote a letter to the editor of the magazine "Light", very prestigious at the time, explaining the reasons for his conversion to Spiritism. It was published on July 2nd of that year and reproduced several times. It is evident that his conviction was very strong and that he feared nothing, even though he knew that this attitude could be detrimental to his career as a writer.

For almost 30 years, he continued his studies and research. Finally, at the height of his literary career, at the age of 58, he made the final decision and wrote books strongly associated with Spiritism:

In the latter he relates experiences that he himself photographed, thus revealing images of disembodied spirits.

The work "History of Spiritism" is very important not only for being the only one of its kind, but also for the care taken in the account of all the facts, from the distant times, showing with scientific criteria, the development of the doctrine in the English-speaking countries. Culturally separated from France, where Kardec developed the Spiritism Codification.

For Conan Doyle, Spiritism began on 31 May 1848, with the experiences of the Fox sisters in Hydesville, USA, and the strange noises in their house, which gave rise to the first recorded communications with spirits in modern history.

It is curious to note that the Anglo-Saxon spiritists did not believe in reincarnation, the main point of the Kardetian doctrine. Conan Doyle did believe in it and spread it as much as he could.

He was Honorary President of the International Spiritist Federation (1925-1930), of the London Spiritist Alliance and of the British College of Spiritist Science.

We transcribe some of Conan Doyle's thoughts:

"One can comfortably pass through this life following a procession led by a venerable leader; but one does not die in a procession: one dies alone, and one must therefore accept alone the rank that one has merited by one's life's work".

"The spiritism movement - so long scorned and ridiculed - is the most important progress the human race has ever made in its history, to the extent that if I could conceive of one man alone as its promoter, he would outstrip Columbus as discoverer of new worlds, St. Paul as teacher of new religious truths, and Isaac Newton as observer of the laws of the Universe".

"I could name fifty professors in high teaching positions who have verified, after examination, the reality of psychic facts, and this list would include many of the greatest minds that the world of our time has produced: Flammarion and Lombroso, Charles Richet and Russel Wallace, Willie Reichel, Myers, Zöllner, James, Lodge and Crookes. The facts in question have therefore been guaranteed by the only science that has the right to express an opinion on them. In 30 years of experience I have not met a single scholar who, having studied the problem in depth, has not concluded to accept the spiritism solution".

"Intolerant, unsympathetic and self-satisfied people become tender, perfect themselves, attain beauty of character and charity of spirit when they have been sufficiently tempered by the pains of life".