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Conference hydra::dejavu

Title:Psychic Phenomena
Notice:Please read note 1.0-1.* before writing
Moderator:JARETH::PAINTER
Created:Wed Jan 22 1986
Last Modified:Tue May 27 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2143
Total number of notes:41773

1341.0. "Houdini,No word yet?" by WALTA2::SYSTEM () Wed Aug 15 1990 19:58

    Harry Houdini long since past famos escape artist and contortionist was
    I hear very interested in channeling,seances and etc. During his quest
    for knowledge of the other side he and his wife had many experieces
    with thoughs who claimed to communicate with the spirit world exposing
    many of them as fakes and charlatans. Before his death he promised his
    wife that he would contact her using some predeterminded signal if he
    passed away before her which he did. Does anyone know any information
    on this or any of his experiences? 
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1341.1I heard this when I was real young!FREMNT::PFLUMRustyWallaceHarleys&NASCAR!Wed Aug 15 1990 20:249
    
    My grandmother told me the story about Houdini and his death, and that
    his wife was to leave a light burning in the window or something like
    that for him to find his way back to her. I'm not really sure, she told
    me the story years ago, I'd be interested in hearing the real story
    though!
    
    L_M_L (Linda)
    
1341.2see also note 233.0LESCOM::KALLISPumpkins -- Nature's greatest gift.Wed Aug 15 1990 20:3520
    Harry Houdini (real name Erich Weiss) had spent a portion of his
    adult lifetime looking for genuine mediums, but finding none whose
    activities he couldn't duplicate using variants of stage magic.
    Where he found phonies, he exposed them; in fact, he had stage shows
    in which he duplicated "mediumistic" feats, but so his audience
    could see how it was done.  However, although a master debunker,
    he had an open mind about the possibility that there were people
    who could genuinely speak with the spirits of the departed.
    
    He made a pact with his wife: should he die first, he'd utter a
    word or phrase known only to the two of them if he could be "called
    back," as proof that it was really him.
    
    He died of a ruptured appendix brought on by an unintended sucker-punch
    to his stomach.
    
    Every year, a seance was held to see whether contact could be made.
    Nothing conclusive ever came of it.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
1341.3A little more info....DELREY::MILLS_MAWed Aug 15 1990 21:0212
    I remember a few years ago there was a show hosted by William Shatner
    where a list of celebrities and other 'mediumistic' types held a seance
    to see if they could contact Houdini's spirit. William Shatner held a
    sealed envelope which supposedly held the word or phrase that Houdini
    had told his wife he would say. Needless to say nothing occurred.
    
    This was one of those 'Al Capone's Cellar' and 'The Contents of the
    Titanic's Safe' shows. I'm reluctant to say I watched it, but in the
    interest of sharing.......
    
                                                         
    Marilyn
1341.4There was a medium....FSDEV4::LWAINELindaWed Aug 22 1990 00:248
                                                         
    There was a medium that did bring forth the message...   His name was
    Ford.  Initially Mrs. Houdini acknowledged that Ford did bring forth
    the correct message from Harry, but in later years denied this due to
    family and social pressures....

    Linda

1341.5not just "social pressures"LESCOM::KALLISPumpkins -- Nature's greatest gift.Wed Aug 22 1990 11:5513
    Re .4 (Linda):
    
    > ... Ford.  Initially Mrs. Houdini acknowledged that Ford did bring forth
    >the correct message from Harry, but in later years denied this due to
    >family and social pressures....
     
    What I read of the case was that there was ample evidence that the
    message had been comopromised, so that there was a strong possibility
    that the medium knew what it was before the seance was held.  I
    believe it was so mentioned in the Milbourne Christopher biography
    of Houdini.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
1341.6Evidence of lack vs lack of evidence.CADSYS::COOPERTopher CooperWed Aug 22 1990 15:3422
RE: .5 (Steve K.)

>    What I read of the case was that there was ample evidence that the
>    message had been comopromised, so that there was a strong possibility
>    that the medium knew what it was before the seance was held.

    This is a bit of an overstatement as I remember the situation.  A
    possible way that the message could have been compromised was found.
    It was something to the effect that a relative of Ford's was a friend
    (or maybe it was that a friend of Ford's was a relative) of a nurse
    who might have been in the room when Houdini gave his wife the message.
    There was, if I remember, no evidence that she actually *was* in the
    room, nor that Houdini was in such extreme distress as to allow her to
    overhear the critical message if she were.  Keep in mind that everyone
    in the US is within 4 or 5 "hops" through relatives or acquaintances of
    everyone else in the US.

    The result is that one cannot take Ford's message as evidence of
    contact from Houdini, but the only real basis for *denying* that the
    contact occured is an a priori belief that it could not.

					Topher
1341.7HOUDINIPOBOX::REGISTRARTue Oct 30 1990 20:442
    ALL I REMENBER IS THAT HARRY'S MESSAGE TO HIS WIFE WAS "ROSABELLE
    BELIEVE"....AND SOMEONE (FORD I BELIEVE) DID DELIVER THAT MESSAGE.
1341.8A story I readTUNER::GIBSONFri Nov 15 1991 12:4818
    I read a story that said Houdini gave his wife a list of several
    words or phrases known only to them.  He wrote them on paper he
    gave to her and she keeps locked up.  Every year on Halloween she 
    held a seance with a medium and a small group of people (who knew him).  
    After 10 years of no real results..well, one time Houdini was 
    asked to move the hand of someone at the table.  One man's hand 
    moved a little, but afterward the man said he didn't know how his 
    hand moved yet he didn't think Houdini did it.   That was it.
    
    His wife is quoted as saying, "10 years is long enough to wait
    for any man".
    
    
    FWIW
    
    Alice