Summary
Title: Final Seance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle
Author: Massimo Polidoro
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1573928968
Pro:
• Unusual look at the lives of both Houdini and Doyle
• Good critique of the early years of spiritualism
• Engaging narrative and easy to read
Con:
• None
Description:
• Covers the early development of American spiritualism
• Biographical narrative of the lives of Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Describes how skepticism and gullibility conflict
Book Review
How did this friendship develop? It is a curious story of the interaction between skepticism and gullibility. The alternatives of skepticism and gullibility face everyone when dealing with any issue: just how closely will claims be questioned, and how high will the standards of belief be? Should comforting beliefs be accepted when they confirm prejudices, or should skepticism be followed even when it is uncomforable?
Doyle and Houdini represent polar opposites on the spectrum between gullibility and skepticism, with their primary disagreement centering on the issue of spiritualism. What is spiritualism, anyway?
What we know as “modern” spiritualism began in the United States in the mid 19th century. We can even identify the region in which it developed: Western New York state. Why here? This is an area known to social historians as having had strong religious fervor and spawning many religious sects over the years. Spiritualism was born in the fertile religious fervor of immigrant Swedenborgians, Mesmerists, and other religions.
It is true that traditional religions promised eternal life, but during the mid 19th century people were relying increasingly upon the fruits of science and technology. One of the consequences of this was that people were requiring “scientific” proof of traditional religious dogmas, however tenuous. Thus, many wished for tangible evidence of the claims of relgion, particularly of an afterlife.
Where there is a demand, someone will create a supply; and so people now known as mediums began communicating with the dead, charging for seances. These events occurred in dark rooms with participants seated around a table. Sometimes the table would move or participants (sitters) might feel a cold breeze on their faces. Objects like fresh flowers might materialize out of thin air, or musical instruments might play.
It was also common for the medium to speak, allegedly under control of a spirit, relaying meassages from the dead. Other methods of communication with inhabitants of the spirit world included writing on sealed slates, impressing images onto photographic plates, and painted images which gradually appeared upon previously blank canvas. Not all of this continues today, but the basic premises and acts do.
Arthur Conan Doyle is famous for his writings about Sherlock Holmes, an archetypical rationalists and skeptic, but Doyle himself seems to have possessed none of Holmes’ best skeptical qualities. Doyle considered himself a rationalist and above being fooled, but that is often the first step on the path to being duped. Perhaps that is why so little of this is covered in much that is written about him.
Indeed, Doyle was very easily duped, even by children or children’s tricks. Houdini once showed Doyle and his wife the common children’s trick of making it look like one has removed the top of their thumb — but Mrs. Doyle swooned at the sight and Conan later wrote to Houdini about his amazing demonstration of supernatural powers. I can only imagine how Houdini must have shook his head in sadness over the gullibility of his friend.
One point that is particularly interesting is that Doyle wouldn’t even accept it when fraudulent spiritualists confessed to their tricks, declaring about one such confession:
- “Nothing that she could say in that regard would in the least change my opinion, nor would it that of any one else who had become profoundly convinced that there is an occult influence connecting us with an invisible world.”
It is also worth keeping in mind that, although Doyle claimed to be a rationalist, his belief in spiritualism was very much a religious faith. Because of that, he simply rejected rational tests as being irrelevant, as evinced by this statement of his:
The objective side of it ceased to interest, for having made up one’s mind that it was true there was an end to the matter. The religious side of it was clearly of infinitely greater importance.
All of this is worth keeping in mind when considering the careers and popularity of modern-day spiritualists, like John Edward.
