Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living. Anyone may receive spirit messages, but formal communication sessions (séances) are held by "mediums", who can then provide information about the afterlife.

Spiritualism developed and reached its peak growth in membership from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in English-language countries. By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe, mostly drawn from the middle and upper classes, while the corresponding movement in continental Europe and Latin America is known as Spiritism.

The religion flourished for a half century without canonical texts or formal organization, attaining cohesion through periodicals, tours by trance lecturers, camp meetings, and the missionary activities of accomplished mediums. Many prominent Spiritualists were women, and like most Spiritualists, supported causes such as the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage. By the late 1880s the credibility of the informal movement had weakened due to accusations of fraud being perpetrated by mediums, and formal Spiritualist organizations began to appear. Spiritualism is currently practiced primarily through various denominational Spiritualist Churches in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom.

Adrian Malcolm Conan Doyle (19 November 1910, Crowborough, Sussex, England - 3 June 1970, Geneva, Switzerland) was the youngest son of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his second wife Jean, Lady Conan Doyle. He had two siblings, a sister, Jean, and a brother, Denis.

Adrian Conan Doyle has been depicted as a race-car driver, big-game hunter, explorer, and writer. Biographer Andrew Lycett calls him a "spendthrift playboy" who (with his brother Denis) "used the Conan Doyle estate as a milch-cow".

He married Denmark-born Anna Andersen, and was his father's literary executor after his mother died in 1940. He founded the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Foundation in Switzerland in 1965. On his death, his sister Jean Conan Doyle took over as their father's literary executor.

Adrian Doyle produced additional Sherlock Holmes stories, some with the assistance of John Dickson Carr. The basis of his production was to complete the tales referenced in his father's stories, but which his father had never written. These Sherlock Holmes tales were written in 1952 and 1953, but have been republished subsequently. In 1954 a hard cover collection of the stories was published as The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes. Other authors have also written Sherlock Holmes stories based on the same references within the original tales.

Kenneth Cox is an Ohio Democratic politician and a former member of the Ohio General Assembly. Cox was serving as mayor of Barberton, Ohio when he opted to run for an open seat in the Ohio House of Representatives in 1972. He ended up being reelected in 1974. In 1976, Senator David Headley announced his retirement, and Cox won election to his Ohio Senate seat.

In 1982, Cox considered a run for Ohio Treasurer, and eventually entered the race. However, he lost the primary nomination. While defeated in the treasurer's election, new Ohio Governor Dick Celeste announced soon after that he would appoint Cox as the Director for the Department of Public Safety.

Celeste again appointed Cox as Department of Commerce Director in 1985. Two years later, he left state government to work as a private consultant. He went on to return to his roots, running for Barberton City Council in 1993 and winning a seat, and has since advocated for his local communities.