Did Harry Houdini believe in reincarnation?

[PainKiller]

I feel the same way - that's what I meant by noting that Houdini's skepticism was not so much of the modern, intellectual/rationalist kind, being more in the nature of a '20s moral crusade against con-artists who used magic tricks to exploit the superstitions of vulnerable people. On that basis, it's not unlikely that he was interested in reincarnation and gave it some degree of credence; similarly, he quite frequently professed belief in God, though in practice he doesn't seem to have been particularly religious.

I recently did a newspaper archive survey to try to confirm whether HH ever specifically debunked the Ouija phenomenon by referring to the ideomotor effect. Didn't find anything; he said that Ouija shouldn't be taken seriously and that it could drive people crazy, but never (as far as I can tell) actually troubled to explain how it worked. That may be because he wasn't intellectually concerned with debunking irrationality per se (the "DIY seance" craze), so much as with exposing professional psychic frauds who were conning folks out of their cash.

As far as I have been able to gather Houdini was never a "debunker". He was not like someone like Joseph Jastrow (author of Wish and Wisdom: Episodes in the Vagaries of Belief, 1932) who spent time criticizing all kinds of paranormal or pseudoscience claims. Houdini exposed the fraudulent spiritualist mediums or psychics not paranormal claims per se. He actually said he had no problem with the doctrines or principles of spiritualism just the frauds who took advantage of people.

Houdini may have believed in reincarnation but that is all it was a personal belief, nothing more. He was honest enough not to claim this belief was supported by evidence.

There seems to be a lot of dishonest paranormal proponents on internet blogs and forums today claiming that so and so paranormal beliefs/claims have scientific evidence, they don't. This is the issue I have dispute with. People are free to believe in what they want, it is just the constant attempt to promote such beliefs or claims as factual that has plagued society. Science is a method of investigation, not a belief system. I consider Houdini methods of investigating mediums or psychics to be entirely scientific. The modern day parapsychology community would actually learn a lot by looking into Houdini and other magicians and the way they investigated this subject.

 

[Mackenberg]

I think we're on the same page.

A while ago I was lucky enough to be able to attend a major auction of Houdiniana at Potter and Potter Auctions in Chicago, where one of the items of interest was an unpublished and only recently discovered manuscript titled "The Cancer of Superstition". It was a collaboration between Houdini, H.P. Lovecraft and writer C.M. Eddy, all about the cultural origins and fallacies of superstitious beliefs.

 

[PainKiller]

I think we're on the same page.

A while ago I was lucky enough to be able to attend a major auction of Houdiniana at Potter and Potter Auctions in Chicago, where one of the items of interest was an unpublished and only recently discovered manuscript titled "The Cancer of Superstition". It was a collaboration between Houdini, H.P. Lovecraft and writer C.M. Eddy, all about the cultural origins and fallacies of superstitious beliefs.

What was Houdini's relationship with Eddy?

Houdini's classic book A Magician Among the Spirits, was allegedly co-authored with C. M. Eddy but he was not credited in the book. Yet I can't find any sources that back this up. The book is great at exposing the tricks of fraudulent mediums but no book is flawless, there are some notable mistakes in Houdini's book. I am wondering if they were down to Eddy or not.

 

[Mackenberg]

What was Houdini's relationship with Eddy?

Houdini's classic book A Magician Among the Spirits, was allegedly co-authored with C. M. Eddy but he was not credited in the book. Yet I can't find any sources that back this up. The book is great at exposing the tricks of fraudulent mediums but no book is flawless, there are some notable mistakes in Houdini's book. I am wondering if they were down to Eddy or not.

I have a first edition copy of "A Magician Among the Spirits" on my bookshelf.

AFAIK Eddy was originally a collaborator of H.P Lovecraft's and I believe he met Houdini through that connection, Lovecraft having written the fictionalised Houdini adventure story "Entombed with the Pharoahs" circa 1924.

 

[PainKiller]

Basically there are various websites claiming that Eddy had co-written or contributed to A Magician Among the Spirits, but I am having a hard time finding references to back this up.

Walter Franklin Prince has some interesting suggestions about Houdini's book, he says:

I should say that A Magician Among the Spirits was really, in the first instance, composed by Houdini, for I recognize some of his characteristic expressions, though it was probably smoothed over somewhat by another hand. The Unmasking of Robert Houdin, I have no doubt, was written entirely by another person.

His reason for suggesting the book on Robert Houdin was not written by Houdini, is apparently this:

The style of the Unmasking is far superior to that of the other book. Another curious proof of disparate authorship is found by comparing the length of sentences in the two works. The Introduction to A Magician Among the Spirits is made up of sixty-one sentences, of an average length of 37 words. The first sixty-one sentences of the Introduction to the Unmasking average 23 words in length. The former shows 15 sentences of fifty or more words, the latter but 2. The longest sentence in the former is of 142 words, of the other 58.

But it was certainly Houdini himself who sought everywhere for rare and curious materials to add to his collection. Not long before his death I saw quantities of boxes of such materials yet unpacked in the basement of his house. I witnessed his enthusiastic zeal in searching out and purchasing old books, pamphlets and papers related to his favorite subjects, at his last visit to Boston. And I have no doubt that the writing of the Unmasking was on the foundation of Houdini’s own discoveries in relation to Robert Houdin and of his study of the relics of other magicians.

The suggestion Houdini did not write the book, is a very strange thing to say, I can't find any Houdini scholars who have said this. Prince's book is online here:

https://archive.org/stream/1930Prin...e___the_enchanted_boundary#page/n153/mode/2up

 

[Mackenberg]

John Cox or one of the contributors to his "Wild About Harry" website may well know what (if any) involvement Eddy had with "A Magician Among the Spirits".

 

[fuelair]

May have, but he has no beliefs since his actual death!!!!!!!

 

[jhunter1163]

Houdini may have believed in reincarnation but that is all it was a personal belief, nothing more. He was honest enough not to claim this belief was supported by evidence.

He was the son of a rabbi and no doubt believed in God; he was less sure of reincarnation.