A Magician Among the Spirits by Harry Houdini
This book was written by the great stage magician and escapologist Harry Houdini who had a life-long interest in spiritualism. He desperately wanted to know for certain that there was an afterlife and, in particular that he would be reunited with his beloved mother (see thr dedication below). To that end he investigated the purported phenomena produced by mediums and came to the conclusion they were all frauds. Of particular interest was his close relationship with Arthur Conan Doyle who was an unshakeable believer in spiritualism all his life. At one point Doyle even insisted that Houdini produced his phenomena by supernatural means even though Houndini himself insisted he did it all by trickery!
Dedication
In Worshipful Homage
I Dedicate This Book
To the Memory of My Sainted Mother
If God in His Infinite Wisdom
Ever Sent An Angel Upon Earth in Human Form
It Was My Mother
Chapters
● Introduction and Preface
● Chapter 1: The founders of modern Spiritualism
● Chapter 2: The Davenport brothers
● Chapter 3: Daniel Dunglas Home
● Chapter 4: Eusapia Palladino
● Chapter 5: Ann O'Delia Diss Debar
● Chapter 6: Dr Slade and his spirit slates
● Chapter 7: Slate writing and other methods
● Chapter 8: Spirit photography
● Chapter 9: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
● Chapter 10: Why Ectoplasm?
● Chapter 11: By-products of Spiritualism
● Chapter 12: Investigations—wise and otherwise
● Chapter 13: How mediums obtain information
● Chapter 14: What you must believe to be a Spiritualist
● Chapter 15: Magicians as detectors of fraud
● Chapter 16: Conclusion
● Appendix
● Images that appear in the book