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  1. Home
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  3. A Magician among the Spirits
  • Cited by 4
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
September 2011
Print publication year:
2011
First published in:
1924
Online ISBN:
9780511910586
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511910586
Subjects:
History of Ideas, Social and Cultural Anthropology, History, Anthropology, General, History of Ideas and Intellectual History
Series:
Cambridge Library Collection - Spiritualism and Esoteric Knowledge
Information

Book description

Harry Houdini (1874–1926), whose real name was Erik Weisz, was one of the most famous magicians and escapologists of all time. He was highly sceptical of the many claims made concerning psychic and paranormal phenomena, which were very popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He attended hundreds of séances for the purposes of his study, and never experienced one he believed genuine. In this book, published in 1924, he described the mediums and psychics whom he revealed as fraudulent, exposing the tricks which had convinced many notable scientists and academics. These included spirit writing, table rapping, spirit manifestations, and levitation. Among those he revealed as frauds was the famous medium Mina Crandon, and his exposures led to a public split with his former friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a firm believer. The book is a fascinating account of superstition and gullibility.

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