2005-08-17—Séance Science? |
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Is a Séance Science?
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Reviewed by Joel A. Moskowitz, M D, FAPA, FAAP
(retired)
Psychics will, of course, not need to read (don't they know all?) and likely not want to read) Final Séance, The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle. We other earthlings should. The validity of Spiritualism, which includes being able to communicate with the dead, was the focus of debate between celebrated Conan Doyle (originator of the great ratiocinator Sherlock Holmes) and Harry Houdini (master of escape/defier of death/debunker of fraudulent mediums). The curious blend of admiration and criticism reflected the psycho-mystery of the interaction of these celebrities. Both were passionate about their opinions but equally deprecating of the other's opposing views. Conan Doyle's fixation that in the séance a medium (today a 'channeler') could communicate with the dearly departed, possibly arose from a psychological need following the death of his brother in the 'Great War,' World War I. While his creation, Sherlock Holmes, possessed amazing capacity to reason, Conan Doyle resisted logic. If the ability to reach his brother was unconsciously motivating his endorsement, one might think that failing to accomplish this brotherly connection, he might have abandoned the effort as unproven. He didn't. Could Doyle's initial affection for Houdini have emanated from an emotional desire to know a man who seemingly was able to dematerialize which would and penetrate walls of brick? Would such an aptitude enable Houdini to traverse the veil between life and death? Houdini's ardent skepticism about mediums also seems to have been coincident with a loss, that of his much loved mother, Cecelia. The Orthodox Jewish viewpoint, in which Houdini was raised, does not stress an afterlife. In his preface to his book, Miracle Mongers and Their Methods, A
Complete Expose, Houdini wrote, "My professional life has been
a constant record of disillusion and many Doyle, in 1925, wrote in the Boston Herald that Houdini was guilty
of self-advertisement and defamatin in ignorantly authoring a pamphlet
"full of errors." Houdini responded:"My opinion |