Archibald Campbell Holms (1861 - 1954) most well known as A. Campbell Holms was a Scottish shipbuilding expert and

spiritualist Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century The ''long nineteenth century'' i ...

Career

Holms was the author of the book ''Practical Shipbuilding'' (1904). He also authored ''The Facts of Psychic Science'' (1925). It was described in the '' Encyclopedia Britannica'' as an "uncritical summary". The book was heavily criticized by Leonard Woolf as an amusing and credulous study. According to Woolf, the book blindly accepted psychic claims at face value and lacked

critical thinking Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgement. The subject is complex; several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, and unbiased analysis ...

. It was reprinted in 1969 with a new foreword from

Leslie Shepard Leslie Shepard (21 June 1917 – 20 August 2004) was a British author, archivist, and curator who wrote books on a range of subjects including street literature, early film, and the paranormal. Career Shepard was instrumental in documenting th ...

. According to a review of the book it is a "collection of all the dubious matter on which the cult and business of Spiritualism is based. The author believes in it himself, but there is little in the book which is likely to convince others. The "facts" are the usual narratives of wonders said to have occurred but which cannot be scientifically demonstrated." Spiritualists have positively reviewed the book. According to the

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

"In Mr. Campbell Holms' book, ''The Facts of Psychic Science'', which is, and will be always, a most exact and valuable book of reference, there are a number of cases given where people have been transported through solid objects." One of these cases was the 3 June 1871 incident which involved the alleged transportation of the medium

Agnes Guppy-Volckman Agnes Elisabeth Guppy-Volckman (; 1838–1917) was a British spiritualist medium. Career She was born Agnes Elisabeth White in Horncastle, Lincolnshire Whittington-Egan, Molly. (2015). ''Mrs Guppy Takes A Flight: A Scandal of Victorian Spiritual ...

out of her own house in Highbury three miles away to a séance room table in

Lamb's Conduit Street Lamb's Conduit Street is a street in Holborn in the West End of London. The street takes its name from ''Lambs Conduit'', originally known as the ''Holborn Conduit'', a dam across a tributary of the River Fleet. Lamb's Conduit Lamb's Conduit w ...

. Although this incident was considered genuine by Holms, it was dismissed by skeptics as a hoax. Holms attributed alleged

poltergeist In ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; German for "rumbling ghost" or "noisy spirit") is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional descr ...

cases to the effects of mischievous spirits.Goss, Michael. (1979). ''Poltergeists: An Annotated Bibliography of Works in English, Circa 1880-1975''. Scarecrow Press. p. 92.

Publications

''Practical Shipbuilding''
(1904, 1917)
''The Facts of Psychic Science and Philosophy''
(1925, 1969) *''The Fundamental Facts of Spiritualism'' (1927)

Career

Publications

References

Further reading