Review: Conan Doyle’s Wallet

Posted July 20, 2009 by shooting in Uncategorized / 0 Comments

Conan Doyle’s Wallet: The Secrets Within by Patrick McNamara
Review by: Lauren

Summary: The inspiration for this book came to the author after he purchased Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s wallet, untouched since the day he died in 1930, at a Christie’s auction in London. This true story is based upon the unique contents, which led the author to begin spiritually communicating with Doyle. Sir Arthur’s wish was to enlighten those who have lost their loved ones or feel they are lacking direction in their lives.

Through Patrick McNamara, Doyle explains that how we live our lives here on earth affects how we live in the afterlife. Sir Arthur was a great proponent of spiritualism and his consistent goal was to find ‘evidence’ of the afterlife, which could alleviate anxiety of people as they journeyed through life on earth to the afterlife. By communicating with the author, Conan Doyle provides his knowledge of the afterlife and the new world in which he lives. This is a fascinating and comforting insight for all readers that provides a spiritual philosophy for living.

Review: I didn’t know much about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but I was definitely interested so this book gave me an interesting look into some of his life’s pursuits…namely Spiritualism. For me, I do believe that there are people out there that can communicate with the dead. If you don’t, you could still read this book and make up your own mind…but I found it to be a highly interesting look into this world and what Conan Doyle was trying to prove.

I have to be honest, I didn’t finish this book…but that’s more my doing than the book. I found it to be a lot like a history book in parts, and I don’t mean that in a bad way, because there are various chapters that deal with the author and his life and communication with Doyle as well as parts that are simply a history lesson about Doyle and those who surrounded him. Another note is that because of the way the books is written, some of the same information is repeated throughout… so it’s definitely a good book to read bits at a time. I liked hearing about McNamara’s life as a medium and what Doyle has told him and it was very intriguing to hear all that Doyle believed, including those that tried to disprove him. One big example was Harry Houdini, the famous musician, who spent most of his life and money (just like Doyle) to this study. However, opposite of Doyle, he was trying to show that there was nothing after this life. He felt the mediums were only doing tricks as he himself did for a living. He couldn’t put his skepticism aside during life…but what about after?

Overall, I did like this book. It was very interesting and I liked the way it was spaced out but again, I didn’t read it all the way through because of it’s set up and the way it reads. Some people might enjoy it back -to- back while others, like myself, would rather flip through and read the parts that interest them most at a specific time.

Favorite Part: I really liked the part that talked about books in the afterlife. According to this, all the books that were ever written are available and reading them takes far less time. I don’t remember the exact words, so I won’t say much about it, but I had to say that as a book lover that would be great!!


-What are your thoughts? Did you know all this about Conan Doyle and/or Houdini? Do you believe in Mediums?

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