This paper deals with the spiritualistic convictions of two authors, Victor Hugo and Arthur Conan Doyle, two fathers who became fascinated with other-wordly communications after having lost one of their children. Their faith in spiritualism is interpreted as a modern actualisation of Blaise Pascal’s famous spiritual bet: I shall do as if there were a life after death, and as if it were possible to communicate with the souls of the dead; if I am wrong, I have lost nothing; if I am right, I am reunited with my lost ones. After all, is not survival in the consciousness of our loved ones a form of existence?