A Magician Among the Spirits

Houdini’s expose of fraudulent mediums and the story of his undercover infiltration into their dangerous world.

Wanting to find out if there existed a spirit world after his mother died, Houdini set out to befriend every spiritualistic medium he could find. Most of them claimed that communication with the spirit world was not only possible but that they could reunite Houdini with his departed mother. One by one they disappointed Houdini but instead of acting disappointed he used these friendships and relationships to delve deeper into the spiritualistic movement. 

Infiltrating the highest echelons of the spiritualistic movement, Houdini discovered the secrets of these mediums; the tricks they used in seances and how they were deceiving people. The movement was so powerful that seances were said to be taking place in the White House on a regular basis. Understanding the real world power that these mediums were deceptively and fraudulently gaining Houdini decided to step up against them and expose the frauds. 

This is Harry Houdini’s book based on those experiences, A Magician Among the Spirits. In it Houdini discusses the founders of modern spiritualism and the unintentional inception of the movement by the Davenport brothers. The top spiritualists and mediums of the day are discussed in detail as well as their involvement with the movement such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Revealed are some methods that mediums use in their seances such as obtaining personal information, spirit slate writing and spirit photography. Houdini argues that what these people are doing should be investigated and discusses why magicians are the first line of defense to detect and expose these frauds. 

A seminal work by Harry Houdini, the greatest magician of all time. A must-read.