Editing Harry Houdini (section)

==Debunking spiritualists==
[[File:Houdini and Lincoln.jpg|right|thumb|Houdini demonstrates how a photographer could produce fraudulent "spirit photographs" that purported to document the apparition and social interaction of the dead.<ref name="LOC-Lincoln">{{cite web| title=Notes to ''Houdini and the ghost of Abraham Lincoln''| url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/varstg:@FIELD(NUMBER(3a27314))| publisher=[[Library of Congress]]| access-date=November 9, 2015}}</ref>]]
In the 1920s, Houdini turned his energies toward debunking [[parapsychology|psychics]] and [[mediumship|mediums]] in order to show how they were taking advantage of the bereaved,<ref name="randi" />{{rp|166}} a pursuit that was in line with the debunkings by [[stage magician]]s since the late nineteenth century.<ref name="Conjure">{{cite encyclopedia |first1=Ricky |last1=Jay |date=March 3, 2011 |url=https://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/14/117891/conjuring |title=Conjuring |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date=November 9, 2015}}</ref>

Houdini's training in magic allowed him to expose frauds who had successfully fooled many scientists and academics. He was a member of a ''[[Scientific American]]'' committee that offered a cash prize to any medium who could successfully demonstrate [[supernatural]] abilities. None were able to do so, and the prize was never collected. The first to be tested was medium [[George Valiantine]] of [[Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania]]. As his fame as a "medium-buster" grew, Houdini took to attending [[séance]]s in disguise, accompanied by a reporter and a police officer. Possibly the most famous medium he debunked was [[Mina Crandon]], also known as "Margery".<ref>{{cite web| series=[[American Experience]]| title="Margery" the Medium Exposed |publisher=[[PBS]]| year=2011| access-date=November 9, 2015| url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/houdini/sfeature/margery1.html}}</ref>

[[Joaquín Argamasilla]], known as the "Spaniard with X-ray Eyes", claimed to be able to [[Dermo-optical perception|read]] handwriting or numbers on [[dice]] through closed metal boxes. In 1924, he was exposed by Houdini as a fraud. Argamasilla peeked through his simple blindfold and lifted up the edge of the box so he could look inside it without others noticing.<ref>Nickell, Joe (2007). ''Adventures in Paranormal Investigation''. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 213–215. {{ISBN|978-0813124674}}</ref> Houdini also investigated the Italian medium [[Nino Pecoraro]], who he considered to be fraudulent.<ref>Polidoro, Massimo. (2001). ''Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle''. Prometheus Books. pp. 127–128. {{ISBN|1573928968}}</ref>

Houdini's exposure of phony mediums inspired other magicians to follow suit, including [[James Randi|The Amazing Randi]], [[Dorothy Dietrich]], [[Penn & Teller]], and [[Dick Brookz]].<ref name="Williams">{{cite news |title=Annual Houdini Séance to be held on Halloween |first=Michael |last=Williams |access-date=November 9, 2015 |url=http://tnsjournal.com/culture/annual-houdini-seance-held-halloween/ |work=Tennessee Star Journal |date=October 29, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151022100650/http://tnsjournal.com/culture/annual-houdini-seance-held-halloween/ |archive-date=October 22, 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Houdini chronicled his debunking exploits in his book, ''A Magician Among the Spirits'', co-authored with [[C. M. Eddy, Jr.]], who was not credited. These activities compromised Houdini's friendship with Sir [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]. Doyle, a firm believer in [[Spiritualism (religious movement)|spiritualism]] during his later years, refused to give credence to any of Houdini's exposés. Doyle came to believe that Houdini was a powerful spiritualist medium and had performed many of his stunts by means of paranormal abilities and was using those abilities to block the powers of the mediums that he was supposedly debunking.<ref>see Conan Doyle's ''The Edge of The Unknown'', published in 1931.</ref> This disagreement led to the two men becoming public antagonists and Doyle came to view Houdini as a dangerous enemy.<ref name="secret"/>

Before Houdini died, he and his wife agreed that if Houdini found it possible to communicate after death, he would communicate the message "Rosabelle believe", a secret code which they agreed to use. "Rosabelle" was their favorite song. Bess held yearly [[Seances|séances]] on [[Halloween]] for ten years after Houdini's death. She did claim to have contact through [[Arthur Ford (psychic)|Arthur Ford]] in 1929 when Ford conveyed the secret code, but Bess later said the incident had been faked. The code seems to have been such that it could be broken by Ford or his associates using existing clues.<ref name="secret"/> Evidence to this effect was discovered by Ford's biographer after he died in 1971.<ref>{{cite book| first1=Allen| last1=Spragget| first2= William V.| last2=Rauscher| title=Arthur Ford: The Man Who Talked with the Dead| year=1974| publisher=[[New American Library]]| page=246}}</ref> In 1936, after a last unsuccessful séance on the roof of the [[Knickerbocker Hotel (Los Angeles)|Knickerbocker Hotel]], she put out the candle that she had kept burning beside a photograph of Houdini since his death. In 1943, Bess said that "ten years is long enough to wait for any man."

The tradition of holding a séance for Houdini continues, held by magicians throughout the world. The Official Houdini Séance was organized in the 1940s<ref>{{cite news| title=Boldt CEO spends Halloween in search of Houdini| url=http://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/local/2014/10/30/boldt-ceo-spends-halloween-search-houdini/18203727/| first=Ed| last=Berthiaume| date=October 31, 2014| work=[[The Post-Crescent]]| location=Appleton, Wisconsin| access-date=November 9, 2015}}</ref> by [[Sidney Hollis Radner]], a Houdini aficionado from Holyoke, Massachusetts.<ref>Houdini Facts [https://web.archive.org/web/20100421073238/http://www.foxvalleyhistory.org/houdini/facts.asp].</ref> Yearly Houdini séances are also conducted in Chicago at the [[Excalibur (nightclub)|Excalibur]] nightclub by "[[necromancer]]" [[Neil Tobin]] on behalf of the Chicago Assembly of the [[Society of American Magicians]];<ref>{{cite web|url=http://wgntv.trb.com/news/local/morningnews/wgntv-news-102805larrysworld,0,2750659.story?coll=wgntv-morning-news-1|title=Houdini's Halloween|publisher=[[WGN-TV]] and Red Eye|date=October 28, 2005|access-date=February 4, 2016|archive-date=March 10, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310222125/http://wgntv.trb.com/news/local/morningnews/wgntv-news-102805larrysworld,0,2750659.story?coll=wgntv-morning-news-1 }}</ref> and at the Houdini Museum in Scranton by magician [[Dorothy Dietrich]], who previously held them at New York's [[Magic Towne House]] with such magical notables as Houdini biographers [[Walter B. Gibson]] and [[Milbourne Christopher]]. Gibson was asked by Bess Houdini to carry on the original séance tradition. After doing them for many years at New York's Magic Towne House, before he died, Walter passed on the tradition of conducting of the Original Séances to Dorothy Dietrich.<ref name="Williams"/>

In 1926, Harry Houdini hired [[H. P. Lovecraft]] and his friend [[C. M. Eddy, Jr.]], to write an entire book about debunking religious miracles, which was to be called ''[[The Cancer of Superstition]].'' Houdini had earlier asked Lovecraft to write an article about astrology, for which he paid $75 ({{Inflation|US|75|1926|fmt=eq}}). The article does not survive. Lovecraft's detailed synopsis for ''Cancer'' does survive, as do three chapters of the treatise written by Eddy. Houdini's death derailed the plans, as his widow did not wish to pursue the project.<ref>{{cite book| title=Collected Essays of H. P. Lovecraft: Science| editor-last=Joshi| editor-first=S.T.| volume=3| publisher=Hippocampus Press| location=New York| date= 2005| pages=11–12| isbn=978-0974878980}}</ref>