My Hero, Harry Houdini, Tells It Like It Is Yet Again!

 

Miracle Mongers and Their Methods: A Complete Expose’ of the Modus Operandi of Fire Eaters, Heat Resisters, Poison Eaters, Venomous Reptile Defiers, Sword Swallowers, Human Ostriches, Strong Men, Etc. – Harry Houdini (1920)

  

            My idol, Harry Houdini, does it again.  What an amazing person he was!  Not only did he create a new form of vaudeville entertainment with his escapes and feats, but, after he reached success, he also devoted much of his time to exposing the lies of the charlatans and crooks who preyed on the ignorant.  In a previously reviewed work, A Magician Among the Spirits, Houdini exposed the tricks used by mediums, and other spiritualist charlatans.  It is an amazing work, and it should be shared in all schools to help foster critical thinking in our children.   This book, Miracle Mongers and their Methods, explores the other side of the con-artist trade which deals not with religion or spiritualism, but with the performances and exhibitions provided at the “dime museums” and other such entertainments of the time.

            Houdini worked his trade during a time when scientists were still fooled by charlatans focused on keeping their tricks secret.  In his first chapter, dealing with Fire Eaters and Heat Resistance, Houdini provides old quotes from newspapers and magazines which purport to show how a scientist found no trickery in a certain performance, all because he did not know where to look for the trickery.  The sad fact, as Houdini shows, is that the method and means by which these performers managed to fool the audiences had been published and disseminated many times in the past, only to be forgotten by the public at large and used again by new hucksters, ready to fleece a new generation of ignorant people.  Every aspect, from the concoctions used on the skin and mouth to prevent injury, to the methods by which asbestos was woven to imitate wool clothing, is covered by Houdini and shown to be previously understood, even centuries before. 

Of the newer performances, featuring the drinking of boiling oil, or the eating of molten lead, Houdini provides the exact method and means by which the effects are achieved.  For example, one showman would dip a spoon into molten lead, then place the spoonful of liquid metal into his mouth, only to have it cool and solidify into a shape molding his teeth, which he would spit out for everyone to see, as if via miracle.  Houdini easily explains this.  He states that a spoon with a large hollow handle is prepared.  In the handle lies a quantity of quicksilver (Mercury), which, when tilted, would appear to fill the spoon ladle.  This spoon is placed carefully atop the molten lead and tilted, so when the performer pulls the spoon up and shows it to the audience it appears full of molten, liquid, lead.  He then pretends to put this liquid in his mouth, while actually tilting back the mercury into the spoon’s hollow handle.  He previously, through sleight-of-hand, placed a lead mold of his teeth in his mouth, which is what he takes out to “prove” the truth of his lead-eating act.  Overall, quite a simple magic trick, but one that would fool anyone who did not know about stage trickery.

Houdini explains the tricks used by all of these fakers in detail.  He describes the course of training one must endure to be able to do sword-swallowing tricks.  The first problem is growing accustomed to ignoring the gag reflex, something that just takes patience and willpower.  As the esophagus and stomach extend around 30 inches in length, most sword-swallowers will use 20-24 inch blades. Some of the more extreme performers would heat a sword until it glowed red, and then proceed to “swallow” it.  Houdini states that this is a fairly simple deception, with the performer having “swallowed” a sword scabbard made of asbestos offstage, which would protect the performer from burns.  (Who is to say whether the asbestos itself caused cancer damage?)  While exposing their tricks, Houdini never fails to mention the various real and true physical dangers and trauma that these performers would experience.

There is a lot of greatness in this short book, and anyone seeking to understand how people are fooled, how even respected scientists are fooled, should read this book.  The critical thinking required to see past the charlatan’s ruse is a muscle that must be exercised.  Houdini, in his life-long search for Truth and in his efforts to help the people who are too-easily fooled by crooks, did the world a great service.  The days of the Dime Museum and the freak show galleries are all gone now, but the charlatans are still here. They are just disguised as faith healers, mediums, magicians, and medical quacks.  I highly recommend this book to anyone studying stage magic, con-artists, charlatans, and the credulity of the common man.

(This book can be downloaded and read here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/435 )

Joseph McCabe Lets Us See the Crap Underneath the Spiritualist Religion

Is Spiritualism Based on Fraud? : The Evidence Given by Sir. A.C. Doyle and Others Drastically Explained – Joseph McCabe (1920)

           

            (EDIT - For those not aware, the Spiritualist religion was one that began in 1844 in middle america, when two young sisters fooled their family into thinking ghosts were making noises in their home.  Their older sister decided to make money off of this and spread the lies that the younger sisters could communicate with the dead and that the dead replied back.  Before that time, most people in the United States held the idea that "spirits" were more like after images of past lives, and not actually dead souls actively coming to hang out with us.  Within 20 years there were over a million adherents to this new fraud, and the "ghosts" developed more skills.  No longer were they content to "rap" or make knocking noises, but instead they moved items, played ghostly instruments, and eventually actually "appeared" as ectoplasmic ghosts. (the use of cheesecloth and phosphorus was widespread, not to mention that seances "had to" be held in near or total darkness. Believers excused all the trickery and fraudulent crap, usually by stating that true mediums had to cheat sometimes because the "skeptic" had scared off the actual spirits... PATHETIC.)

*****

              Joseph McCabe has been one of my intellectual heroes since I discovered his amazing book, The Story of ReligiousControversy.  His deeply rational and analytical mind stripped away everything the Roman Catholic Church indoctrinated him with as a Priest, and having left the church, he proceeded to prodigiously write books, pamphlets, and essays on the whole sordid history of the Roman Catholic Church, science, free-thought, and in this particular book, the ideas and claims made by the Spiritualist religion that began in the United States in the 1840’s when a trio of sisters flim-flammed everyone around them into believing that the noises they made when they cracked their toe-knuckles were actually “rapports” from the spirit world.  Between that time, and the date that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (he of Sherlock Holmes fame) and Joseph McCabe debated Spiritualism on stage, the “religion” had grown to include over a million adherents in the USA alone, each of them convinced that the dead’s “spirit” could be called upon to manifest itself, and communicate, when a “gifted” medium used his/her powers to call them forth.

            The occasion that led to this book was a very public debate between Joseph McCabe, speaking for the rationalists, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the doctor and author who gave the world Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and the idea of the innately rational mind being utilized to solve otherwise baffling crimes.  Holmes, and A.C. Doyle by extension, have always been important figures in my life, so when I found out as a young man that this seemingly strict rationalist was duped by terribly faked fairy pictures, and the séance fraternity’s long-running cons, excusing endless examples of fraud and outright criminality right until his death, I was a bit distraught.  It was not until I read up on the later lives of many scientists and people of reason that I began to see the pattern.  These rational people, as they get older and older, find comfort in the thoughtless void that is religious worship and especially, paranormal spiritualism.  Even Isaac Newton found himself frustrated by his late attempts to create truly scientific alchemy. 

            Joseph McCabe does a great job of dividing this book into various sections, each devoted to explicit examples and proof of the inherent fraud and ill-intent behind those who seek to dupe bereaved and emotionally troubled people.  He covers the initial phenomena, raps, noises, and voices, and then goes on to cover apparitions (most of them were pieces of cloth soaked in phosphorus and then waved about in a dark room), magic writing, clairvoyance, and all the other methods used by these con-artists to fool the sitter into thinking they had experienced true contact with the dead spirits. 

The lengths that these crooks did and do go to in order to fleece the suckers is VAST. Even back in 1910, there already existed companies whose secret catalogues would allow a crook to order “magic” typewriters that would type by themselves, musical instruments that would play themselves, and items of clothing and hair pieces that could be used to conceal whatever the supposed spiritualist wanted to.  The same companies that made tricks for working magicians supplied and continue to supply these fortune tellers and mystics with the tools of their corrupt trade.  As described in another book I reviewed which discusses the lies of the fortune teller business, each of these “mediums” would hoard information and newspaper clippings, sharing these with each other from city to city and state to state, allowing these mediums to seemingly grab knowledge about their sitters out of thin air.  It is all a very calculated confidence game, and they have been working out the kinks for 180 years now.  With today’s internet and connected networks, these bastards have it even easier.  (To read a more modern account of the tricks and lies these criminals use, check out The Psychic Mafia )

Whereas, back in 1900, a medium would cold-read you for a few minutes, and ask you to come back in a week, “when the spirit guides are more ready to talk,” (allowing the medium and their cronies a chance to do research on the sitter’s life, family, business, etc.) these days they can do the exact same research on a potential sucker in 15 minutes online.  Of course, the sitter is always astounded that the medium could know such information!  The scary thing is that debunkers have constantly proven these “psychics” and “mediums” to be wholesale frauds.  Many of them have gone to jail after being proven fraudulent, only to return to their same fame afterwards, suckering bereaved people and stealing their money.  Believers do not want to hear the truth.  They just want to hear what makes their thoughts seem like the truth.  Self-delusion is ugly.

I highly recommend this book, as it not only provides amazing information, but it also lists various other cool resource books on this topic.  I bet most of those are out of print, but I just love finding new books to track down.  I wonder if Mr. Joseph McCabe would be surprised to know I am reading his books 100 years later?

(This book can be read for free here: Project Gutenberg )

Paranoia is for the strong!

Everything is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults & Cover-Ups – Robert Anton Wilson, Miriam Joan Hill (1988)

My man Robert Anton Wilson never disappoints!  His books have blown my mind countless times and altered how I perceive my reality tunnel, all to my benefit.  Robert Anton Wilson (RAW), due to his exposure to so much of the fringe, has compiled a vast storehouse of information on conspiracies, perceived conspiracies, and the people involved in them.  With this book, he has created an encyclopedic collection of most of the important names, places, and events dealt with by “conspiratologists.” 

The listings are alphabetical and nearly every one provides links to further online reading about the subject.  Everything is covered, from the far-right (“The Federal Reserve is run by communists!”), to the far-left (“The Federal Reserve is run by fascists!”), and from ridiculously implausible ideas (“Jesus was an alien from Orion and the Opus Dei organization keeps this a secret”) to actual real-life conspiracies that came to light (The P2 conspiracy where the Vatican, the CIA, and the MAFIA were all hand in hand creating many dozens of fake banks worldwide and laundering cocaine money, or the Iran/Contra conspiracy where the CIA was buying cocaine with guns and selling the cocaine in the USA to buy more guns, in an effort to undermine the elected government of Nicaragua).  The overall effect either leaves you doubting everything you hear or open to anything you may hear.  Either way it is a good change from the norm!

"They" were out to get Hunter S. Thompson too....

There are many people these days that dismiss anything called a “conspiracy” with a shrug, as if the very term “conspiracy” means fanciful or make-believe.  This is part of the ruse!!!  Conspiracies are very real and take place every day all around us.  If they were not real why does every government in the world have laws against conspiracy, and top secret intelligence offices to combat conspiracy?  Only the truly deluded and stupid dismiss outright the idea that conspiracies exist.  The world is full of unscrupulous people, all with specific agendas, and all with the desire to avoid the eye of the government or the police.  It happens every single day, especially IN the government, as organizations like the CIA do not have to report what they do to anyone, and purposefully maintain shields and ruses to deflect attention away from their actual activities.  Those that get too close to uncovering the truth are “exposed” as quacks believing in conspiracy theories, and the idiots who like to live their lives thinking as little as possible automatically dismiss them.  Like RAW quotes in this book, “Just because you’re paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you.”

(To read this book, click here: http://endthelie.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Everything-Is-Under-Control-Conspiracies-Cults-and-Cover-ups-0062734172.pdf )

The more I learn about these con-artist quacks the more I hate them!

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science – Martin Gardner (1957)

            Martin Gardner is a name I recognized referenced in many of the books I read about pseudo-science, quackery, and delusions.  This book, Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science, was the first work of the past 100 years that sought to include all the major nonsensical, seemingly scientific claims that many people at the time believed in.  Sadly, there are still many slightly-educated fools that believe these things up to today.

            The book is divided into chapters, each dealing with a specific subset of quackery.  One of the first topics explored are the claims that the Earth is not a spheroid, but flat.  Another of these pseudo-scientific fads which still has followers, and which had many more in the past, is the claim that the Earth is hollow, and that mysterious creatures and entities reside there.  Mr. Gardner does a great job describing the claims put forth and explaining just what the many logical and intellectual fallacies the proponents of this nonsense fall into, fooling themselves into certitude.

            There are chapters on the “flying saucer” nonsense, and chapters on the many medical quackeries that fleeced so much money from so many sick and suffering people between 1880-1950.  One of the ways in which these beliefs and ideas are kept alive is by removing some of the older verbiage and replacing it with seemingly well-researched scientific-esque language.  This is what allowed the full on lie that is chiropractic “medicine” to be practiced in the USA to this day.  Originally, the quack that invented the chiropractic claimed that all the body’s diseases and ailments were caused by “sublimations” of the spinal vertebrae, and that by manipulating them and applying heat or massage treatments, all manner of disease could be cured.  Of course, the wacko that created this flim-flam denied the existence of germs, and never accepted the germ-theory of disease.  These days the chiropractors in the USA hide their quackery under the words of physical therapy, and rehabilitation.  It is all bullshit, and chiropractic “care” is as effective as a sit in a hot tub.  Temporary “relief,” followed by renewed pain and symptoms.  The crooks in chiropractic care have survived to this day, milking the American health insurance cartels for millions of dollars in worthless care.

"Wait outside by the slender tree.  Your treatment will soon begin."

            Other parts of the book discuss the lies of homeopathy, acupuncture, phrenology, and more.  It may seem sad that people fall for this stuff, but the real sadness lies in the hearts and minds of the assholes who sell the sick, infirm, and suffering quackery as medicine.  Those bastards are just as bad as the asshole that created Scientology once his science fiction books did not sell (because they sucked).  It seems if you couch any crazy idea in seemingly scientific wording, unsuspecting people will eat it up.  That is why it is important for everyone everywhere to have at least a working knowledge of science and the scientific method, and of logic and reasoning.  A desperate person will turn to anyone offering answers.  The assholes that prey on these desperate people deserve to suffer every possible pain imaginable.  This book, or this one by James Randi (http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-masterful-reference-for-those-of-us.html ), or this one by Harry Houdini (http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2014/09/houdini-was-trying-to-school-us-about.html ) , should be required reading in all public schools.  It would create a better educated citizenry, but then again, our political leaders may not want that!

(This book is available in .pdf format here: http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Martin-Gardner-Fads-and-Fallacies-in-the-Name-of-Science.pdf )

A Masterful Reference for Those of Us Who Are Sick of the BULLSHIT

 An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural – James Randi (1997)

            Ahhhhh, yet another dense reference book to flood my mind with data.  I love it!  In this book James Randi details centuries worth of frauds involving the occult and the supernatural.  Everything from the Loch Ness Monster hoaxes to lying mediums faking ectoplasm to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s credulity when shown obviously faked images of fairies is explained and described.  It is amazing stuff.  I am glad that someone collected all these things in one volume, and now it is available for free online with extra illustrations!

            Here is an example from the encyclopedia dealing with the currently popular “ancient astronauts” theories.

            “Ancient Astronauts – There is a theory that thousands of years ago, civilizations from other star systems visited Earth and gave early man information to assist in his development.  The idea seems to be that folks used to be pretty slow-witted and had to have help to develop such clever stuff as the wheel, bricks, and cudgels.

            Evidence has been offered by many writers, particularly by best-seller Von Daniken and none of it is convincing when the actual facts are determined and examined even casually.  The theory is presently promoted by tabloid newspapers, sensationalist journals, UFO periodicals, and other fringe-science entities, but holds little interest for serious researchers.”

Aliens traveled so far to try and teach us such boring stuff

 

            I applaud the efforts of James Randi and hope that more people stop focusing on nonsense and instead use their energy towards endeavors which will actually benefit humanity and the planet Earth in general.

(This book can be read here: http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/encyclopedia.html )

I should not have wasted my time...

The Future of the Body: Exploration Into the Further Evolution of Human Nature – Michael Murphy, Mich Murphy (1993)

 

            The writer of this book, Michael Murphy, is the founder of the Esalen Institute, a retreat/think-tank/hippie palace in California that was the nexus of the New Age movement which has contributed to the general stupidity of humanity since its creation by sponsoring every single fringe endeavor, from psychic research to holistic medicine to ever manner of bullshit imaginable.

            I did not know this when I started reading this book.  It really doesn’t matter, but it helps explain the construction of it.  The author ranges through all sorts of topics, and what makes it tolerable is that he never really endorses the weirdness he describes, only using it as a jumping-off point to discuss the capabilities of the human body and mind, and how they may be evolving in the future.  While not being specifically supportive, the writer assumes a lot of what he describes is true, or at least true enough to merit inclusion in the supposed abilities of the human mind.  

Like a clown getting yanked about with a hook in his mouth

            I was not too impressed by this book but it did touch on many fringe topics and ideas.  It seems like an effort to combine unrelated ideas into a coherent whole, which is fine, although seemingly unfeasible.  All in all it was a mildly entertaining read.

Houdini was trying to school us about the liars 100 years ago

A Magician Among the Spirits – Harry Houdini (1924)

            Houdini is The Man!  I have already written about Harry Houdini and my idolization of the man here.  This book, which I found in the stacks of the Library I work for, is one I have wanted to read ever since I learned of its existence decades ago.  In this book Harry Houdini details his decades of exploration in the world of Spiritualism and psychic mediums.

            Houdini’s foray into Spiritualism began from a deep love of his mother, the single most important person in his life, an immigrant who never learned English and sacrificed so Harry’s brothers and sisters could have a better life in America.  When she dies it really breaks him up.  She lived to see him gain worldwide fame.  At that time, Spiritualism was in vogue in the USA, and mediums/psychics of all types were offering séances in which one could supposedly communicate with the recently dead.  Houdini began to seek these people out in an attempt to talk to his beloved mother, only to find that every single one was a full-on con, using all manner of tricks and lies to fool desperate people into giving away their money for a chance to chat with dear ol’ Uncle Larry in the afterlife.

 

These fools are on a road to nowhere.

            This, as you can imagine, made Harry Houdini irate.  He spent the remainder of his life visiting every medium he could, and educating the public about the deep bullshit they were being fed by these grifters.  This book describes his endeavors, and every manner of trick, sleight-of-hand, and psychological gambit utilized by so-called Spiritualists.  The sad part is that even 100 years after this, our society still accepts these hucksters with a winking eye.  The police bunko squads rarely raid these fuckers, and the truly charismatic ones are paid millions to do their song and dance on television.  Accepting the lies told by someone under the pretense of entertainment, or harmless fun, is a severe disservice to all of us.  Houdini would be rolling in his grave at the stupid sheep credulity of the ignorant masses, if he had not already escaped the shackles of a locked casket.  Ha!

(This book can be read in .pdf format here:  http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/A-Magician-Among-the-Spirits-1.pdf )