Pheneas Speaks

The book is a collection of transcripts from a series of seances held by Doyle and his wife where they claimed to have made contact with the spirit of a deceased individual named Pheneas. Doyle best known as the creator of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories was a believer in spiritualism and the idea that it was possible to communicate with the dead. In Pheneas Speaks he presents the transcripts of his seances as evidence of the reality of spiritualism and the existence of an afterlife. The book is divided into two parts with the first part consisting of the transcripts from the seances and the second part consisting of Doyles commentary and analysis of the material. Doyle presents Pheneas as a wise and knowledgeable spirit who provides insights into various topics including the nature of the afterlife reincarnation and the evolution of humanity. The book was controversial at the time of its publication and remains so today with many skeptics dismissing the seances as fraudulent or the result of the participants subconscious minds. However the book remains an important historical document in the study of spiritualism and its influence on popular culture. Pheneas Speaks offers a fascinating insight into the beliefs and practices of spiritualism in the early 20th century as well as the personal beliefs of one of the eras most famous authors.