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Copyright 1924, Harry Houdini
From my early career as a mystical entertainer. I have
been interested in Spiritualism as belonging to the category of mysticism, and
as a side line to my own phase of mystery shows I have associated myself with
mediums, joining the rank and file and held seances as an independent medium
to fathom the truth of it all. At the time I appreciated the fact that I
surprised my clients, but while aware of the fact that I was deceiving
them I did not see or understand the seriousness of trifling with such
sacred sentimentality and the baneful result which inevitably followed. To
me it was a lark. I was a mystifier and as such my ambition was being
gratified and my love for a mild sensation satisfied. After delving deep
I realized the seriousness of it all. As I advanced to riper years of
experience I was brought to a realization of the seriousness of trifling
with the hallowed reverence which the average human being bestows on the
departed, and when I personally became afflicted with similar grief I was
chagrined that I should ever have been guilty of such frivolity and for the
first time realized that it bordered on crime.
It is this question as to the truth or falsity of intercommunication between
the dead and the living, more than anything else, that has claimed my
attention and to which I have devoted years of research and conscientious
study. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle says in one of his lectures:
"When one has a knock at the door, one does not pause, but goes further
to see what causes it and investigates, and sooner or later one discovers
that a message is being delivered,..."
So I have gone to investigate the knocks, but as a result of my efforts
I must confess that I am farther than ever from belief in the genuineness
of Spirit manifestations and after twenty-five years of ardent research
and endeavor I declare that nothing has been revealed to convince me that
intercommunication has been established between the Spirits of the departed
and those still in the flesh.
I have made compacts with fourteen different persons that whichever of us
died first would communicate with the other if it were possible, but I have
never received a word. The first of these compacts was made more than
twenty-five years ago and I am certain that if any one of the persons could
have reached me he would have done so. One compact was made with my private
secretary, the late John W. Sargent, a man of mature years. We were very
much attached to each other. The day before he underwent an operation he
said to me:
"Houdini, this may be the end. If it is, I am coming back to you no matter
what happens on the other side provided there is any way I can reach you.
And if I can come, you will know it is I because I am going to will it so
strong that you cannot be mistaken."
He died the next day. That was more than three years ago and there has been
no sign. I have waited and watched believing that if any man ever could have
sent back word he would have been that man. And I know that our minds were so
close to each other that I would have received the signal that my friend wanted
to call me. No one could accuse me of being unwilling to receive such a sign
because it would have been the greatest enlightenment I could possibly have
had in this world.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a sincere and confirmed believer in Spirit phenomena
whose acquaintance I esteem, advises me that I do not secure convincing results
because I am a skeptic and I therefore want to make it clear that I am not a
scoffer. I firmly believe in a Supreme Being and that there is a Hereafter.
Therefore since their departure from this earth it has been my practice, as a
final duty, to visit the sacred resting places of my dearly beloved parents,
and ask their protection and silent blessings through the Omnipotent Almighty.
The very first place I visit when I return from a trip is this same hallowed
spot. Both promised me faithfully innumerable times in this life that if they
could aid and protect me from their graves or from the Great Beyond, they would
do so. My mind has always been open and receptive and ready to believe. In
attending seances I have always made a pledge of honor with myself to banish
all profane thoughts from my mind to the utmost of my ability. I further pledge
myself to concentrate. I have persuaded my whole soul, brain and thought to a
point where the medium has my attention to such an extent that at the finish
I feel as much exhausted as the medium who shows to those present the effects
of great strain irrespective of its cause. Thus it must be seen that I am not
a skeptic. However, it has been my life work to invent and publicly present
problems, the secrets of which not even the members of the magical profession
have been able to discover, and the effects of which have proved as inexplicable
to the scientists as any marvel of the mediums, and I claim that in so far as
the revelation of trickery is concerned my years of investigation have been more
productive than the same period of similar work by any scientists; that my
record as a "mystifier of mystifiers" qualifies me to look below the surface
of any mystery problem presented to me and that with my eyes trained by thirty
years' experience in the realms of mystery and occultism it is not strange that
I view these so-called phenomena from a different angle than the ordinary layman
or even the expert investigator.
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