Spiritualism is a faith based on the belief that spirits of the deceased can communication with the living, particularly through using a medium. Though Homer Watson had likely been introduced to concept earlier in his lifetime, it was the death of his wife Roxa in 1918 that pushed him to view the Bible through a new spiritualist lens. A vision he had of his wife’s ghost and the books written by British author and psychic researcher Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are two sources of inspiration towards his belief in spirits.

He began telling his friend that, as he sat in his studio in an hour of pensive musing on the barrenness of his life a short while before, the vision of his wife had appeared in a curious amber glow, life-like and seemingly tangible. So natural had she looked, that he had risen to meet her.  But she had faded away, and he had slumped into his chair.  Again the vision returned, but, this time, he made no move and the apparition slowly smiled and her lips parted.  Then she said: “Do not despair.  All is well, Homer.” Beside himself, he cried out, “Roxa, come back!” But, this time, the vision faded not to return.[1]

Dear Sir Arthur

I cannot begin to tell you with what pleasure and profit I heard you last night. If you are not too busy I would like a few words with you. I have been much alone with this great truth having firsthad the [last] of materialism knocked from under me by reading your book The New Revelation just after I lost my wife.[2]

The materialism Homer references in his letter to Conan Doyle is the belief that everything in the world is the result of physical processes, whereas spiritualism argues for the existence of the immaterial spirit or “soul” that remains present in the world after a person’s body has died. Conan Doyle’s book The New Revelation poses that “if spirit can live without matter,” i.e., a body, “then the foundation of materialism is gone.”[3] However, despite his participation in spiritualist practice, Homer noted in a letter to his brother-in-law that he didn’t “believe in it as a religion”[4], but rather saw it as adhering to “nature’s law”[5].

Homer’s primary involvement with spiritualism was through séances. They were held at his Doon home as well as other places around Ontario, such as Paradise Lake. Specifically, they were held at David Forsyth’s Paradise Lake cottage. Besides being a well-known educator, soccer player, and a member of the Grand River Canoeing Club, Forsyth was also at one time the President of the Ontario Society for Psychic Research.[6]

At one such Paradise Lake séance, Homer describes receiving messages through maple trees which told him by raps on the head (knocking sounds) a message from the then deceased “old man Perine”:

It was at a seance in Paradise Lake that Maple trees came and rapped me on the head and by raps told me when asked is there anyone from my diggings here from Doon raps, yes, who, Old Man Perine what is he doing there, picking up string – a peculiarity he had of picking up bits and making it into a ball saving it, although a manufacturer of it in quantity.[7]