“My brain is the key that sets my mind free.” ~ Harry Houdini
When I was a freshman in high school I developed a fascination for Harry Houdini. Not for the illusions he performed, but for his life story. The things he believed in, didn’t believe in. How he spent a good part of his life after his Mother died in trying to find out the answer we all wonder about… Is there Life after Death?
When he couldn’t find a definitive answer and discovering first hand the fraud that was commonly practiced among the “Spiritualists” he came in contact with, he made it his mission to prove them for the frauds he felt they all were.
Being a person who has seen and heard “Spirit” most of my life, I can understand the skepticism that is attached to it. I my self have been challenged by people of science and religion many times over my life. Mostly the practicing man in religion who shouts at me that Satan is involved with the practice and Creator God would never allow it. My answer has and always will be I believe in Creator God so I believe anything is possible, and since I believe in Creator God, what I am able to see and hear is a gift from the Creator so why would I question as I only do positives that help to heal others.
So thus my fascination with Harry Houdini and his quest for the answers to the very question, what lies beyond this earthly life?
Digging deeper than what most know about him, I have read everything from old news articles to letters and interviews that were done with him. He was born Ehrich Weisz on March 24, 1874, to Mayer Samuel a Jewish Rabbi and his wife and Cecelia Weisz in Budapest, Hungary. One of seven children, Erich moved with his family as a child to Appleton, Wisconsin, where he later claimed he was born.
During his childhood, Ehrich began to work and develop an act as a trapeze artist, then a little later working doing a sleight-of-hand magic act in a circus. By 1894 he became known as Harry Houdini, he also had married Beatrice “Bess” Rahner, who at the time was also a stage performer. He continued his craft and became as some would later hail the greatest magician that ever lived, yet he preferred to be called an Illusionist, or a performer of physical acts. He was one of the earliest recorded stuntmen in history, considered a strongman, and someone whose ability to focus was key in his performances as was his ability to manipulate the conditions of his performances so they would be as dangerous as possible.
When his beloved Mother Cecilia passed away, Harry was devastated as he was devoted to her. His attention drew to Spiritualism which at the time was a cultural movement that had begun to become more and more popular practicing what was at the time suggesting that the living can communicate with the dead through séances, divination and simple devices such as the Ouija board (which I will discuss in a future article).
Now this is where information was starting to get a bit tricky to follow and understand, for you see the understanding at this time was that Houdini hated Spiritualists and called them fake… he set out to disprove them all, or did he? Or could it have been another of his publicity stunts to keep the spotlight on himself or push it away from what some thought was too much for “normal” people to grasp at the time?
Brother Harry Houdini became a Mason in St. Cecile Lodge No. 568, New York, New York, in 1923. He received his Entered Apprentice Degrees on July 17 and his Fellow Craft Degree on July 31. He was raised a Master Mason on August 21, 1923. He became a life member on October 30, 1923. He was also a member of the Shrine Temple. It has been whispered and written in a few places left to be obscure for the most part that there was a code that was implemented with the Ouija by Arthur Conan Doyle (also a Freemason) whom was a true believer of the spiritual world.
The Freemasonry elite secretly conspired with their members implanted in the entertainment industry, to follow a letter-number code in titling the entirety of all media, which would subliminally subdue the American population, so that goals towards New World Order could be sought. Even if this code were not based on universal design and mathematics, its popular use in the media would still forcefully impart important meaning upon letters and numbers. It is an interesting theory…or is it a theory?
The Freemasons group was said to be formed due to the fact that they felt illuminated, better than others at the time unable to coexist among normal minds, which they saw as darkened by wars, power struggles and ugliness that most could not escape. Focused on Psychology, Philosophy, Science and Religion, they saw a grand significance and deeper meaning in numbers, such as a triangle representing a different idea than a square, a line meant something different from a point. So they began to write an alphabet, they knew that it must have order to it different form the rest. So their Order made an order of letters or a New World Order for themselves.
Soon after his death in 1926 on October 31st, Houdini Séances have actually become an American tradition. Each and every time, Houdini failed to make himself known, the candles are blown out, and the séance is proclaimed unsuccessful or that is what we have been led to believe. What all those skeptics of the time and people of influence that controlled things back in the day conveniently seemed to have left out was that one séance that was performed just two years after the magician’s death, proved so successful that Houdini’s wife Bess issued a signed statement of it’s legitimacy to the news papers.
After Harry Houdini’s death hundreds of mediums claimed that they’d received messages from the famous Harry Houdini. However Harry had prepared for this prior to his death instructing his wife, Bess that should he be able to communicate to her from beyond the grave, he would speak to her in the code he had shown her and that only she would understand. This way she would know for certain that it was truly Harry speaking from the other side and not a false claim or trickery.
For a year after his death, his wife Bess would lock herself in a dark room every Sunday to stare at a portrait of her late husband wait to receive a sign from him. Nothing happened in that time so she decided to offer a $10,000 reward to any medium that could bring her the coded message he had left for her.
That Halloween on the anniversary of Harry Houdini’s death, a séance would be conducted in an attempt to bring forth his spirit. Although none of the many mediums even came close to the message, one man Pastor Arthur Ford of the First Spiritualist Church in New York City caught Bess Houdini attention. He had claimed that on February 8, 1928, he had gone into trance while with of a small group of friends, when a spirit came through giving him the name of Cecilia. Ford claimed that it was Houdini’s mother, and that she said she had told her son Harry to “forgive”.
When Bess learned about Ford’s alleged contact with Cecilia, she wasted no time getting in touch with him by sending a note to Ford, ‘Strange that the word “forgive” is the word Harry awaited in vain for all of his life. It was indeed the message for which he always secretly hoped, and if had been given to him while he was still alive, it would I know have changed the entire course of his life—but it came too late. Aside from this there are one or two trivial inaccuracies—Houdini’s mother called him Ehrich—there was nothing in the message which could be contradicted. I might also say that this is the first message which I have received which has an appearance of truth.”
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who considered himself a true believer of the afterlife (and close friend of Harry and Bess Houdini), said he believed that the message “was an outstanding case” believing there was life after death, but still there were more skeptics and non believers that had issues with the claim. A year before, Bess had told the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper that any messages from a ghostly Houdini would not have contained the word “forgive”. Genuine contact or hoax, it was clear that Ford’s message couldn’t be counted as hard evidence, and in any case, Harry’s true secret message that only his wife knew had still not been received.
The next year Pastor Ford a few of his congregation met Bess at her home on Payson Avenue in New York. He’d come to tell her what she’d been waiting to hear: Houdini had come through. The good Pastor claimed that on the previous evening, January 5, 1929, he’d been given code words that would eventually prove to Bess and the world that Harry Houdini did indeed prove there was life after death.
What was shared with them in form of communication was the message as follows, “Rosabelle, answer, tell, pray-answer, look, tell, answer-answer, tell.”
Bess Houdini was reportedly stunned at what she had been told, for it was beyond a shadow of a doubt the coded message that her husband said he’d share with her if he was able. Immediately Bess Houdini arranged for another séance to be conducted, and despite being warned by her close friends that it still might be a hoax, Bess gave an interview to the New York Times, saying, “They are the exact words left for me by Harry, and I am absolutely convinced that my husband talked to me and that there is life beyond the grave.”
This code was a closely-guarded secret. No one, save for Houdini and his wife, knew the code, so when it appeared from the lips of a medium, Bess was left with no other option than to believe. In their code, the message read, “Rosabelle, believe.” At noon on January 8, 1929 Bess met with Pastor Arthur Ford and they proceeded with the planned séance, eager to speak with her late Husband.
Pastor Ford went into a trance, and before long, was speaking through a voice he claimed to be Houdini’s. “Rosabelle, sweet Rosabelle, believe!” he channeled. “Thank you, sweetheart, now take off your wedding ring and tell them what ‘Rosabelle’ means.”
Bess took off her ring and began to sing the lyrics to a song she had performed in one of her first shows with her late husband: “Rosabelle, sweet Rosabelle, I love you more than I can tell. Over me you cast a spell. I love you, my sweet Rosabelle.” The lyrics were inscribed inside her wedding ring, a fact that Houdini’s alleged spirit shared with the crowd. (which also no one was said to have know)
“Spare no time or money to undo my attitude of doubt while on earth,” the spirit continued. “Now that I have found my way back, I can come often, sweetheart. Give yourself to placing the truth before all those who have lost the faith and want to take hold again. Believe me, life is continuous. Tell the world there is no death. I will be close to you. I expect to use this instrument many times in the future. Tell the world, sweetheart, that Harry Houdini lives and will prove it a thousand times.”
Bess was so convinced that she had been contacted by her late husband that she issued a signed document to the press. This statement was written on her own stationary and read; “Regardless of any statements made to the contrary, I wish to declare that the message in its entirety and in the agreed-upon sequence, given to me by Arthur Ford is the correct message pre-arranged between Mr. Houdini and myself.”
Bess was thrilled that her husband had finally come to prove there was life beyond death, However the same could not be said for the critics of Spiritualism and/or the Freemasons at the time. They were livid.
Two days after Bess Houdini and Pastor Ford had performed the successful séance and claimed that Harry Houdini had reached out and communicated from beyond the grave, their staunch critics began to wield their influence over the press. The New York Evening Graphic, (a local rumor tabloid or as we call them these days the local rag) ran with the headline, “HOUDINI MESSAGE A BIG HOAX! ‘Séance’ Prearranged by ‘Medium’ and Widow.” It went on to allege that Mrs. Houdini had come up with the elaborate scheme and had given the secret code to Pastor Arthur Ford before the séance, claiming it was all arranged to promote a lecture tour that the two were planning to do in the upcoming months. Then a reporter from the Evening Graphic by the name of Rea Jaure said she had gotten a heads up from Pastor Ford himself the night before and said that Ford admitted he had paid Houdini’s wife for the secret cipher.
Joseph Dunninger, one of Houdini’s colleagues from the Freemasons, is said to have visited Bess following the séance to stress that he believed the entire thing was fake and a ploy for money on Ford’s part. Despite Bess’ insistence that she believed the message, Dunninger pointed out that the “secret code” wasn’t so secret anymore. The year prior Harold Kellick had published the Freemasons cipher in Houdini, His Life Story, a biography authorized and written with documents provided by Bess. Dunninger then reminded the press of this fact and the public.
Bess refuted the claims of fraud, but it was too late, the damage was done. The public was outraged, and as far as they were concerned, Pastor Arthur Ford and his Spiritualist church was nothing more than a con. Bess Houdini was portrayed as a woman who was hungry for the spotlight, and Houdini was dead …end of story.
In the upcoming years and until her death, Bess Houdini recanted what she had said at the time and stated that she never had believed that she’d ever made contact with Harry from the other side. However in the eyes of the world, the matter of Houdini’s afterlife was decided.
Reading and rereading the accounts I still feel to this day she was bullied and manipulated. Did Harry Houdini truly come through in that séance? I am not sure I wasn’t there. There are some compelling things one has to take in account… such as the letter that Bess Houdini wrote in response to the New York Evening Graphic days after Rea Jaure accused her of rigging the séance. It read as follows;
“This letter is not for publicity, I do not need publicity. I want to let Houdini’s old friends know that I did not betray his trust. I am writing this personally because I wish to tell you emphatically that I was no party to any fraud.
Now regarding the séance, for two years I have been praying to receive the message from my husband; for two years every day I have received messages from all parts of the world. Had I wanted a publicity stunt I could no doubt have chosen any of these sensational messages. When I repudiated these messages no one said a word, excepting the writers who said I did not have the nerve to admit the truth.
When the real message, the message that Houdini and I agreed upon, came to me and I accepted it as the truth, I was greeted with jeers. Why? Those who denounce the whole thing as a fraud claim that I had given Mr. Arthur Ford the message. If Mr. Ford said this I brand him a liar. Mr. Ford has stoutly denied saying this ugly thing, and knowing the reporter as well as I do I prefer to believe Mr. Ford.
Others say the message has been common property and known to them for some time. Why do they tell me this now, when they know my heart was hungry for the true words from my husband? The many stories told about me I have no way to tell the world the truth of or the untruth, for I have no paper at my beck and call; everyone has a different opinion of how the message was obtained. With all these different tales I would not even argue. However, when anyone accuses me of giving the words that my husband and I labored so long to convince ourselves of the truth of communication, then I will fight and fight until the breath leaves my body.
If anyone claims I gave the code, I can only repeat they lie. Why should I want to cheat myself? I do not need publicity. I have no intention of going on the stage or, as some paper said, on a lecture tour. My husband made it possible for me to live in the greatest comfort. I do not need to earn money. I have gotten the message I have been waiting for from my husband, how, if not by spiritual aid, I do not know.
And now, after I told the world that I have received the true message, everyone seems to have known of the code, yet never told me. They left it to Mr. Ford to tell me, and I am accused of giving the words. It is all so confusing. In conclusion, may I say that God and Houdini and I know that I did not betray my trust. For the rest of the world I really ought not to care a hang, but somehow I do, therefore this letter. Forgive its length.”
Sincerely yours,
Beatrice Houdini
So was it all a scam? The fact that her so-called friends seemed to have already known the secret code, but strangely, chose not to reveal it until she herself came under fire regarding the séance, I find that extremely odd. That coupled with the fact they said that Pastor Arthur Ford purchased the code from Bess after being in contact with a reporter of the New York Evening Graphic. A statement which also proved to be false, as Pastor Ford proved he had never even met with Rea Jaure. A fact that Ford’s lawyer even presented three witnesses who could all vouch that he was in another part of town when the interview allegedly occurred. That is called a solid alibi I believe in this day and age.
Also it would have been detrimental to his career for him to tell a reporter for anyone let alone a gossip rag, that he was a fraud, Ford never even met with Rea Jaure. In fact, Ford’s lawyer presented three witnesses who could all vouch that he was in another part of town when the interview allegedly occurred.
If Pastor Ford did not buy the Freemasons cipher, and never met with the reporter Rea Jaure, the secret cipher still had been published in the Houdini biography written by Harold Kellock right, so it could have been used then to figure out the what the secret between Harry and Bess Houdini had been, right? Yeah no that would be a wrong conclusion because even though that was what Joseph Dunninger wanted the world believe, anyone who actually read the book would find that the section dealing with their code was more like a tiny footnote and did not provide enough of the code to have figured out the ten word answer to allow the correct reply to the Houdini’s previously-arranged response.
Mrs. Houdini also never paid out the $10,000 prize owed to Pastor Arthur Ford. When The New York Times inquired as to why, Bess claimed that the offer was withdrawn before the séance on the advice of some fellow Spiritualists who wanted the motivations behind their work to be free from any monetary gain. Or in other words they didn’t want it tainted; they wanted to prove there could be life after death. So if the Spiritualists were really out for monetary gain from people who only wanted a way to communicate to their family members in the after life, as so many of their critics were saying, surely they would not have said a word to Bess Houdini think about it $10,000 is a lot of money even today, but back then it was an even bigger amount.
The following year, Arthur Ford was kicked out of the United Spiritualist League of New York, assumingly being a direct result of Bess Houdini recanting her statements. In spite of the enthusiastic interviews she had given the press and the signed statement issued on her own stationary, she now claimed that she had never once believed she was speaking to her beloved Harry.
March 19, 1930, Bernard M.L. Ernst, the Houdini’s lawyer, issued the following press release;
“For three years she had sought to penetrate beyond the grave and communicate with her husband, but has now renounced faith in such a possibility. She has denied that any of the mediums presented the clue by which she was to recognize a legitimate message.”
There seems to me at least upon reading all of this that there were a lot of high power players here pressing Mrs. Houdini to fall in line with what, shall I say…expected of her? Not long after this the United Spiritualist League saw through the coercion as well and finding no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Arthur Ford, and reinstated him to the League.
Despite the appearance of her new stance, Bess Houdini continued to hold her yearly séance for four more years til the last one held at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, California. Before the event, she issued the following statement:
“Now that Houdini, Carter and Thurston have joined forces on the other side of the grave, I am going to make, here in Hollywood, the one supreme effort to contact these great magicians and maybe together one of them may ‘come through.” It was a large event that drew a very large crowd there was even a recording made of the event. It was so popular in fact that it became an official séance that would continue indefinitely and run by Bess Houdini’s trusted friends to perform every year even to this today.
So think for a moment, if Bess Houdini had indeed “renounced faith in the possibility of indeed hearing from Harry, or the possibility of life after death, and in such a public way”, why continue her attempts to contact him? One could easily believe that Bess had been coerced into saying it had all been a scam simply because she wanted to distance herself from the skeptics, the Freemasons and the Spiritualist Church controversy. Perhaps we could even say that there was financial gain to have been made by continuing to contact Harry Houdini. But myself I don’t believe that… I believe the love they had for one another was beyond the monetary.
Harry Houdini died October 31, 1926 and is buried at Machpelah Cemetery Queens, New York. Bess Houdini died on February 11, 1943. She is buried at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne New York. Sadly they are still parted physically here on earth in death as their dying request to be buried together was denied. She was Catholic and he was Jewish. One can only hope that in the afterlife they are joyously looking down on us all and laughing at the absurdity of it all.
~bear Medicinewalker
I am bear Medicinewalker and I am dedicated to Educating and sharing the lessons, teachings and culture I have been taught by my Elders and journey with the World. It is not enough merely to learn the ways of our Elders. We must honor those traditions by sharing and educating the World. Inspiring others …Inspiring our Youth. Through the Music… the Arts…the stories…”
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