Case For and Against Psychical Belief

The Case For and Against Psychical Belief Book Cover

On November 29 to December 11, 1926, there was a symposium, The Case For and Against Psychical Belief, at Clark University in Worchester, Massachusetts.

Mr. Harry Houdini was to have been a speaker in this symposium, but his untimely death prevented.

The ideas for a seminar had come to Dr. Carl Murchison (1887 – 1961) during a luncheon in the grill room of the Bancroft Hotel in Worchester, Massachusetts. The Clark University psychology professor was dining with Professor McDougall and Harry Houdini and began talking about spirit mediums, psychic phenomena, and other matters relating to psychical research. Professor McDougall and Mr. Houdini were on friendly terms, but disagreed “concerning certain matters that had become of wide social interest because of newspaper emphasis.”  Murchison suggested they and other noted authorities should argue the entire matter in a public symposium.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was unable to attend the symposium, but he submitted a paper, “Psychic Questions As I See It.” He believed the key to validating physical mediumship lay in ectoplasm.

20141125cDr. Crandon presented his wife’s Margery astonishing phenomena.le-roiMina-Leroi-Crandon-Houdini-demonstrating-the-Seance-Box-Sir-Arthur-Conan-Doyle5-520x313

In consultation with Mrs. Houdini, it was agreed that the best existing statement of Mr. Houdini’s convictions in this field are represented in the chapters on Slate Writing and other methods, Spirit Photography, Sir Author Conan Doyle and Houdini’s Conclusion from A Magician Among the Spirits.  This book was only two years old at the time, and Mrs. Houdini agreed that it still represented Mr. Houdini’s final convictions on the subject.

Source:

  • The Case For and Against Psychical Belief, Carl Murchison, editor
  • The Medium Who Baffled Houdini by Elaine M. Kuzmeskus

5 thoughts on “Case For and Against Psychical Belief

  1. Wasn’t HH planning on taking his Three in One Show to the West Coast from Detroit? Amazing that he was going to take time off to attend this psychic symposium. The man was firing on all cylinders.

  2. Great stuff. I love knowing what might have been.

    The 1926-27 tour was to be “Coast to Coast”, but who knows when it would have come West. Maybe not until the new year. But he had already played Worchester, so, yeah, he would have taken time off for this. “Here there and everywhere” as Silverman said.

  3. I believe that is what we call over-committed. According to the Houdini Souvenir Programs (1925-26 and 1926-27): “It is not generally known that Houdini had devoted six months of his life every year to study and investigation of psychic phenomena. In his tour from coast to coast wherever any prominent medium resides he very politely asks for tests of their genuine mediumship.”

  4. The man supposedly only slept 5 hours a day. You see the pattern throughout his life: HH working on new effects for his programs, starting new business ventures, and researching literary projects every few months.

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