Cottingley Fairies

[escargot]

There certainly has been research into whether mass trauma such as WW1 encouraged public interest in Spiritualism etc.
I was going to post a link to an example t'other day but work was calling.

 

[catseye]

The death rate from Spanish Flu was 5-10% of the ~500M who contracted it. Add the 15-22M deaths due to WW1, and the <1% death rate from Covid is virtually a rounding error.

maximus otter

We know that now. But when Ghost posted, we were in the middle of the dire straits that was Covid, when we didn't know how bad it was going to be and we were being fed bad news every day. So the fear and uncertainty, added to the additional deaths might have led to increased interest in psychic things.

 

[gordonrutter]

I read recently that Doyle was involved in the Boer war (as was Ghandi). He had rather a full life but I wonder whether his war experiences influenced his beliefs. As you say I guess it's not unbelievable that some of the tens of millions of the bereaved might have wanted to contact their dead relatives.

ACD attended his first seance in the early 1880's and was a member of the SPR long before he was in the Boer War.

 

[maximus otter]

…we were being fed bad news every day.

So true.

maximus otter