The History of Spiritualism, Volume 1
Volume 1By Arthur Conan Doyle
Length10h 44m
About this audiobook
The History of Spiritualism, Vol. 1 is the first of Arthur Conan Doyle's two-volume comprehensive chronicle of the modern spiritualist movement. In this volume, Doyle traces the movement's 19th-century origins, beginning with the famous Fox Sisters of 1848, who sparked American spirit communication with their "rappings". He covers influential early figures and events in America and Europe: spirit mediums like D. D. Home and Eusapia Palladino, the spread of séance phenomena, and the philosophical foundations laid by pioneers such as Andrew Jackson Davis. Doyle writes with a scholar's detail and a believer's passion, recounting numerous séance accounts, spirit materializations, and even the challenges faced, like exposures of fraud and skeptical opposition. He frames spiritualism's rise against the backdrop of Victorian society, arguing that the movement answered a deep yearning for proof of immortality. The volume is rich with anecdotes (table-turning parlors, famous converts like scientist Sir William Crookes investigating mediums, etc.) and dozens of biographies of mediums and spiritists. Doyle's thesis is that despite setbacks, an undeniable thread of genuine phenomena ran through these decades. Volume 1 ends around the late 19th century, setting the stage for volume 2, and leaves readers with the sense of a grand spiritual revelation unfolding through history.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.9 (129)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, Amazon
GenreSpirituality and Religion, History
Length10 hrs 44 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateAug 1, 2025
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The History of Spiritualism, Vol. I
2ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, M.D., LL.D. Président d'Honneur de la Féderation Spirite Internationale President of the London Spiritualist Alliance President of the British College of Psychic Science
3PREFACE
4I. — THE STORY OF SWEDENBORG
5II. EDWARD IRVING: — THE SHAKERS
Show all chaptersShow less
6III. — THE PROPHET OF THE NEW REVELATION
7IV. — THE HYDESVILLE EPISODE
8V. — THE CAREER OF THE FOX SISTERS
9VI. — FIRST DEVELOPMENTS IN AMERICA
10VII. — THE DAWN IN ENGLAND
11VIII. — CONTINUED PROGRESS IN ENGLAND
12IX. — THE CAREER OF D.D. HOME
13X. — THE DAVENPORT BROTHERS
14XI. — THE RESEARCHES OF SIR WILLIAM CROOKES (1870-1874)
15XII. — THE EDDY BROTHERS AND THE HOLMESES
16XIII. — HENRY SLADE AND DR. MONCK
17XIV. — COLLECTIVE INVESTIGATIONS OF SPIRITUALISM
18APPENDIX
19NOTES TO CHAPTER IV
20EVIDENCE OF THE HAUNTING OF THE HYDESVILLE HOUSE BEFORE THE FOX FAMILY OCCUPIED IT
21STATEMENT OF MRS. HANNAH WEEKMAN
22STATEMENT OF MICHAEL WEEKMAN
23EXTRACT FROM HORACE, GREELEY'S ARTICLE IN THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE GIVING HIS OPINION OF THE FOX SISTERS AND THEIR MEDIUMSHIP*
24THE MYSTERIOUS RAPPINGS
25NOTE TO CHAPTER VI
26PEN-PICTURE OF LAKE HARRIS BY LAURENCE OLIPHANT
27NOTES TO CHAPTER VII
28ADDITIONAL TESTIMONY OF PROFESSOR AND MRS. DE MORGAN
29NOTE TO CHAPTER X
30WERE THE DAVENPORTS JUGGLERS OR SPIRITUALISTS?
31THE END OF VOLUME I
Sherlock Holmes: Späte RacheArthur Conan Doyle5h 23m$12 · $0.00
Sherlock Holmes: Das Zeichen der VierArthur Conan Doyle5h 25m4.1 (390.2K)$12 · $0.00
Sherlock Holmes: Fünf ApfelsinenkerneArthur Conan Doyle7h 32m3.8 (229)$12 · $0.00
Neues von Sherlock Holmes - Die Hörbücher - Folge 31: Sherlock Holmes und der Artillerist im RuhestandArthur Conan Doyle, Klaus-Peter Walter1h 31m$12 · $0.00
Lo mejor de Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan Doyle39h 31m$1.99 · $0.00
Christmas After Dark - 36 Holiday Ghost Stories & Supernatural ThrillersArthur Conan Doyle, M. R. James, Saki, Sabine Baring-Gould, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Fergus Hume, John Kendrick Bangs, Jerome K. Jerome, Leonard Kip, Catherine Crowe, Lucie E. Jackson, William Douglas O'Connor, Frank R. Stockton, James Bowker, Grant Allen, Louisa M. Alcott, Florence Marryat, Katherine Rickford, J. M. Barrie, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, George MacDonald, Bithia Mary Croker, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Catherine L. Pirkis, E. F. Benson, Algernon Blackwood44h 38m$1.99 · $0.00
100 Meisterkrimis - Klassiker die man kennen mussArthur Conan Doyle, Friedrich Glauser, Alexandre Dumas, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, E. T. A. Hoffmann, G. K. Chesterton, Theodor Fontane, Emile Gaboriau, Edgar Wallace, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Mark Twain, Karl May, Jules Verne, Daniel Defoe, Joseph Conrad, Wilkie Collins, Washington Irving, Arthur Morrison, Ernest William Hornung, Fjodor Dostojewski, Robert Louis Stevenson, Hugo Bettauer, Ricarda Huch, Sven Elvestad, Matthias McDonnell Bodkin, Louis Weinert-Wilton, Paul Rosenhayn, Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem, Matthias Blank, Frank Heller, J. S. Fletcher, Otto Schwerin, Philipp Galen, Walter Scott1012h 6m4.3 (11)$3 · $0.00
SHERLOCK HOLMES vs. PROFESSOR MORIARTY - Complete Series (Illustrated)Arthur Conan Doyle8h 14m$2.99 · $0.00
BRITISH MYSTERIES - Arthur Conan Doyle EditionArthur Conan Doyle136h 47m$1.99 · $0.00
The Complete Sherlock Holmes BooksArthur Conan Doyle93h 50m$1.99 · $0.00
Mysteries for Christmas: 48 Puzzling Murder Mysteries & Supernatural ThrillersArthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Wallace, G. K. Chesterton, Saki, R. Austin Freeman, Fred M. White, Arthur Cheney Train, Wilkie Collins, Emmuska Orczy, Louisa M. Alcott, M.R. James, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sabine Baring-Gould, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Fergus Hume, John Kendrick Bangs, Jerome K. Jerome, Leonard Kip, Catherine Crowe, Lucie E. Jackson, William Douglas O'Connor, Frank R. Stockton, James Bowker, Grant Allen, Florence Marryat, Katherine Rickford, J. M. Barrie, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, George MacDonald, Bithia Mary Croker, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Catherine L. Pirkis, E. F. Benson55h 2m$2.99 · $0.00
Die besten englischen DetektiveArthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Edgar Wallace, Josephine Tey, G. K. Chesterton, Paul Rosenhayn, Joseph Smith Fletcher, David Christie Murray, Anna Katharine Green, R. Austin Freeman, Edmund Edel, Matthias McDonnell Bodkin, Walther Kabel250h 6m$1.50 · $0.00
Estudio en EscarlataArthur Conan Doyle5h 17m$1.99 · $0.00
20 Top-Britische KrimisArthur Conan Doyle, G.K. Chesterton, Josephine Tey, Edgar Wallace, Wilkie Collins, Joseph Smith Fletcher, R. Austin Freeman, Ernest William Hornung, Edmund Edel, David Christie Murray, Matthias McDonnell Bodkin, Joseph Conrad144h 7m4.3 (12)$1 · $0.00
SUMMERTIME MADNESS – Murder Mysteries to Keep You RelaxedArthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Robert Barr, E. W. Hornung, John Kendrick Bangs, Melville Davisson Post, Edgar Wallace, Victor L. Whitechurch, Anna Katharine Green, G. K. Chesterton, Ellis Parker Butler, Maurice Leblanc, R. Austin Freeman, A. E. W. Mason, Mary Roberts Rinehart346h 43m$1.99 · $0.00
BLOODY, BLOODY CHRISTMAS – The Greatest Christmas Thrillers & MysteriesArthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, R. Austin Freeman, Fred M. White, Arthur Cheney Train, Edgar Wallace, Wilkie Collins, Robert Barr, O. Henry, Emmuska Orczy, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, Sabine Baring-Gould, M. R. James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Fergus Hume, Leonard Kip, Lucie E. Jackson, Catherine Crowe, William Douglas O'Connor, John Kendrick Bangs, Louisa M. Alcott, Frank R. Stockton, Grant Allen, James Bowker, Jerome K. Jerome, Florence Marryat, Katherine Rickford, J. M. Barrie, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, George MacDonald, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, E. F. Benson, Algernon Blackwood55h 32m$1.99 · $0.00
Murder for Christmas EveArthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, R. Austin Freeman, Fred M. White, Arthur Cheney Train, Edgar Wallace, Wilkie Collins, Robert Barr, O. Henry, Emmuska Orczy, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Saki, Sabine Baring-Gould, M. R. James, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, Fergus Hume, Leonard Kip, Lucie E. Jackson, Catherine Crowe, William Douglas O'Connor, John Kendrick Bangs, Louisa M. Alcott, Frank R. Stockton, Grant Allen, James Bowker, Jerome K. Jerome, Florence Marryat, Katherine Rickford, J. M. Barrie, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, George MacDonald, Mary Elizabeth Braddon54h 49m3.5 (55)$1.99 · $0.00
Detektivkrimi Sammelband (Über 250 Titel in einem Band)Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, Anna Katharine Green, Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Wallace, Balduin Groller, Matthias McDonnell Bodkin, Hugo Bettauer, Sven Elvestad, Eufemia von Adlersfeld-Ballestrem, Walther Kabel, David Christie Murray, Robert Kraft, Joseph Smith Fletcher, Louis Weinert-Wilton, Paul Rosenhayn, Frank Heller841h 6m4.2 (10)$1 · $0.00
La Collection Intégrale de Sherlock HolmesArthur Conan Doyle82h 18m4.6 (4.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
50 WeihnachtskrimisArthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, Edgar Wallace, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Robert Louis Stevenson, Fred M. White, Arthur Cheney Train, Wilkie Collins, Thomas Hardy, Sabine Baring-Gould, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Fergus Hume, John Kendrick Bangs, Jerome K. Jerome, Leonard Kip, Catherine Crowe, Lucie E. Jackson, William Douglas O'Connor, Frank R. Stockton, James Bowker, Grant Allen, Florence Marryat, Katherine Rickford, J. M. Barrie, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, George MacDonald, Bithia Mary Croker, Catherine L. Pirkis, Saki, Louisa M. Alcott, M.R. James, E. F. Benson74h 43m3.8 (13)$2 · $0.00
A Little God Time for Women Morning & Evening DevotionalBroadStreet Publishing Group LLC15h 15m4.9 (1.2K)$10 · $0.00
Prayers from the Throne RoomBrian Simmons8h 55m4.9 (256)$10 · $0.00
31 Decrees of Blessing for Your LifePatricia King2h 38m4.8 (1.4K)$10 · $0.00
Loved BabySarah Philpott4h 51m4.8 (1.4K)$10 · $0.00
The QuranAllah23h 7m4.7 (136.1K)$1 · $0.00
The Secret of the RosaryLouis de Montfort6h 1m4.7 (16K)$2 · $0.00
The Holy Qur-an: Text, Translation and CommentaryAbdullah Yusuf Ali22h 16m4.7 (133K)$1 · $0.00
All of Grace (Annotated)Charles Spurgeon5h 1m4.7 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
Steps to ChristEllen G. White3h 12m4.7 (13.8K)$2 · $0.00
The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Annotated)Joseph Smith13h 57m4.7 (575)$2 · $0.00
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God & Other Sermons (Annotated)Jonathan Edwards7h 51m4.7 (1.5K)$2 · $0.00
Swayam Ki AwaazPrem Rawat8h 34m4.7 (1.1K)$26 · $0.00
Behind the BadgeAdam Davis10h 18m4.7 (2.7K)$10 · $0.00
The New Human Revolution, vol. 1Daisaku Ikeda7h 46m4.7 (669)$12 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
Praying GraceDavid A. Holland3h 2m4.7 (658)$10 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
The Christ KeyChad Bird, Chad Bird7h 33m4.7 (592)$17.40 · $0.00
Your Body Already KnowsNidhi Pandya Bhanshali9h 7m4.7 (360)$16 · $0.00
The Complete WorksFlorence Scovel Shinn7h 59m4.6 (6.6K)$2 · $0.00
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
Ghosts of HiroshimaCharles Pellegrino8h 59m4.5 (877)$23
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
RevolutionariesSanjeev Sanyal11h 23m4.6 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
We Crossed a Bridge and It TrembledWendy Pearlman6h4.6 (5.2K)$24 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m4.6 (9.8K)$40 · $0.00
The SurvivorJosef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin9h 22m4.6 (2.5K)$29 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789 (Annotated)Alexis de Tocqueville17h 25m4.6 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
All the Gallant MenDonald Stratton, Ken Gire5h 55m4.6 (11.8K)$24 · $0.00
You may also like
The Celtic TwilightW. B. Yeats3h 55m3.9 (3.7K)$2.30
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Volumes 1 and 2) (Annotated)Songling Pu23h 51m4.2 (2.7K)$2 · $0.00
True Irish Ghost Stories (Annotated)St John D. Seymour, Harry L Neligan5h 57m3.6 (1.7K)$2 · $0.00
Lilith: A RomanceGeorge MacDonald10h 7m4.0 (11.4K)$2.30 · $0.00
Letters From A Living Dead ManDavid Patterson Hatch5h 56m4.2 (783)$2.40
Coast to Coast GhostsLeslie Rule5h 7m4.0 (1.3K)$15
In Ghostly JapanLafcadio Hearn4h 40m3.8 (3.1K)$1 · $0.00
Telepathy (Annotated)William Walker Atkinson3h 19m4.3 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
What's What in AmericaEugene V. Brewster3h 53m$1 · $0.00
Hours with the Ghosts or, Nineteenth Century WitchcraftHenry Ridgely Evans4h 56m$2 · $0.00
The Astral Plane (Annotated)Charles Webster Leadbeater5h 7m4.3 (195)$2 · $0.00
The History of Spiritualism, Volume 2Arthur Conan Doyle8h 56m$7 · $0.00
The Book of Dreams and GhostsAndrew Lang8h 37m3.6 (315)$4.70 · $0.00
The Book of Dreams and GhostsAndrew Lang7h 22m3.3 (152)$2 · $0.00
Psychic Phenomena of Jamaica (Annotated)Joseph J. Williams8h 38m$2 · $0.00
La Psiche domina la materiaErnesto Bozzano4h 43m4.7 (11)$3.50 · $0.00
The Celtic Twilight (Annotated)W. B. Yeats5h 19m$2 · $0.00
20 Must Read Ghost NovelsHenry James, Horace Walpole, Gaston Leroux, Francis Marion Crawford, Emily Brontë, Ann Ward Radcliffe, Frederick Marryat, H. P. Lovecraft, Frederic Henry Balfour, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth, William De Morgan, John Meade Falkner, Wilkie Collins, Charles Willing Beale, Duchess, Paul Dickey, Charles Goddard, Eliza Parsons, Richard Marsh, William Hope Hodgson207h 8m4.0 (19)$1.99
Cock Lane and Common-SenseAndrew Lang10h 55m3.6 (138)$2.30 · $0.00
The Book of Dreams and GhostsAndrew Lang8h 52m3.6 (412)$2.30 · $0.00