CONCLUSION: The Solution of the Eternal Problem Still Eludes Me
Before the War a back parlour, a red lamp, a circle of credulous sitters and a vivid imagination were all that was thought necessary in order to ‘investigate’ a medium. Of course, psychic science made no progress. The methods of these researchers were derided by official science and orthodoxy refused to listen to them. But with the War came a change. A wave of interest in the possibility of an after-life swept the country like a tornado. This interest was purely emotional, based as it was on the fact that tens of thousands of the flower of our manhood were being shot down. Relatives mourned them, but with their grief was the hope—almost the belief—that their sons, though dead, would survive in another world. The ranks of the spiritualists over- flowed with those who hoped... But the great wave of emotion that swept the country carried on its crest a few sane people who, while admitting the possibility of an after-life, demanded that the alleged phenomena said to be produced in the stance-room should be scientifically investigated by qualified and unbiased persons.
(Harry Price, Confessions of a Ghost Hunter)
As for so many things, the Great War transformed the world of psychical research forever. As psychical researcher Harry Price (1881-1948) suggests, the outpouring of grief led many to flock to spiritualism, but the suffering endured lead even more away from it. The fall in popularity of spiritualism actually started before the First World War. By the 1890s, it was clear the SPR was unable to provide any physical evidence for the existence of spiritual phenomenon. If anything, they discouraged people's beliefs by debunking the tricks of popular mediums.
The rich and intellectual elite flocked to esoteric secret societies that combined Western and Eastern religion, like the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (of which famous occultist Aleister Crowley was a member, though he was eventually kicked out for being too strange).
After the War, perhaps activities like séance performances and gadgets like Ouija boards were seen by many as trivial and meaningless after what they experienced. Perhaps to the youth of the day, table tapping was something their grandparents had been doing in the 1850s. For whatever combination of reasons, spiritualism and psychical research moved from the mainstream to the fringe.
Those who did remain invested in the movement were no longer casual supporters, but stanch activists like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or professional investigators like Harry Price. This change is reflected in spiritualist media, where covers went from gilded and eye-catching to serious and informative. The devices too, either transformed into children’s toys and gag gifts, or faded into obscurity.