WEBVTT - Elementary, My Dear Houdini: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle vs. Harry Houdini 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:04.640 Ridiculous Crime is a production of My Heart Radio Elizabeth Dutton. Yes, 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:07.560 do you know it's ridiculous? Yeah, I know it's ridiculous. 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:11.000 Hit me with it. People who refer to their dogs 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:15.520 as fur babies, because like, if someone says to me 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:18.320 when I'm walking my dog, is that your fur baby, 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:24.600 I want to say, yeah, I'm his skin mommy. So 0:00:24.640 --> 0:00:28.840 that's ridiculous. Can I be the flesh daddy? Yes, you could. 0:00:29.000 --> 0:00:31.840 You could be the dog's flesh daddy. I'm just I'm 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:36.440 the flesh step daddy. I just think it's ridiculous. Just 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:39.879 say it's your pet. And then I also, as much 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:42.160 as I am a crazy dog lady and I love 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.680 my dog, I own that dog. He's not my like 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.600 not like internet own more legally I own. I'm I'm 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.920 dunk on him all day, I roast him. But also 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:59.520 in addition, I'm the owner, I'm the boss lady, I'm 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:03.520 the alpha, so you know I don't it's a dog dude. 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:10.640 It's not like my roommate anyway. That's that's ridiculous. Have 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:13.880 I got a story for you? How about a story 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.680 about the time when the author of Sherlock Holmes, Sir 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.200 Arthur Conan Doyle, my man got into a very very 0:01:20.240 --> 0:01:24.600 public feud with the magician Harry Judini. Yeah, Harry Judini, right, 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:27.560 I didn't expect that coming. So the two men had 0:01:27.600 --> 0:01:31.240 battled about whether like mediums and psychics and seances and 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:34.760 jiboards were like valid tools to contact people from the 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:39.320 great beyond. Now they're public feud eventually ended their friendship, 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:42.680 as public feuds often do. So you ready for the 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:47.240 story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle versus Harry who did born? Ready, 0:01:47.520 --> 0:02:10.959 let's do this. This is ridiculous crime of podcast about 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:16.520 absurd and outrageous capers, heights and cons. It's always murder 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:22.680 free and ridiculous. Okay, first things first, we kind of 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.160 need to set some ground rules or some foundational setting 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:30.400 for this. Well, there's a stage, you know. Well, you know, 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:33.799 it's just basically that things were different then, even though 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:35.360 they were the same. And I think you kind of 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:38.280 need to understand what we are dealing with because if 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:41.720 I say, you're like, oh, nine twenty, right, but like 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:44.200 there's like a whole deal about nineteen twenty, I don't 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.200 think a lot of people think about, which is they 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.680 had gone through World War one and the Spanish flu. 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:51.560 At the same time, death is just hanging in the air. 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:55.200 There's like this great darkness, there's this grief, and out 0:02:55.200 --> 0:03:02.160 of that comes this need for Yes, it's true. I'm 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:04.680 not going to argue because that is spot on people 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:08.600 needed just like people and say jazz, Yes, you need 0:03:08.680 --> 0:03:10.680 to do a jazz hands in the next time. All right, 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:16.160 I'm not critiquing your style. I'm just saying, but out 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:20.280 of this need for some spiritual relief and sustenance other 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:25.400 than jazz music comes this, uh basically spirit of the 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.320 times as ZiT Geist, if you will, that had psychic 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:34.400 life coaches and like these mediums and charlatans and street 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.560 theater people going and doing like um readings, if you will, 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:41.240 like just know you, sir, I have a message for 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.880 you from your dead wife. So it's like in person, 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:50.400 live action, Instagram kind of kind of crystals. Yeah, Like 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:53.000 right now we have like the crystal healers the Internet, 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:57.800 which covens energy, body working. Yeah, exactly, but that's all 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.240 pretty much the same stuff as then, but the need 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:04.200 for it was different than than it is now. Although 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.520 with the pandemic we're getting pretty darn close to pushing 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.200 the same similar kind of numbers. Right. Well, that New 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.760 age stuff then was called spiritualism. So this is a 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:17.279 story about spiritualism. Okay, Okay, I'm really excited for this. 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:19.760 Did you see this story about that l a guy 0:04:20.080 --> 0:04:22.440 who had to go and hire a psychic life coach. 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:25.159 I think it was like five grandy paid Dr or No, hey, 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:27.080 he only did you ever a thousand dollar to deposit, 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:29.679 but she was going to charge five grand to remove 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:31.960 a curse that his ex girlfriend had had paid a 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:34.800 witch to place on him. So he got a psychic 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.840 to fight a witch. Okay, Okay, So I just thought 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.440 that was like, you know, emblematic of our times, but 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:43.520 it just as easily could have been having the spiritualism 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.520 what I'm saying, Have you ever been to a psychic? No? 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.200 I think like I can remember, um at like some 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:54.720 elementary school spirit week fair, not spirit like, but like 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.720 I'm excited about school. Um I seem to remember there 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.480 was like a psychic and I'm sure it was highly 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:07.760 offensive like Roma culture, you know, yeah exactly, with all 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:12.680 stall yeah and coin earrings and stuff. But um, I 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:14.800 remember they had like a tent and you could use 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:16.760 your tickets to go and have your fortune red and 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:22.400 they put one of those red like thin plastic fish 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:24.840 that would curl up and it would tell you, like 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.200 what that meant? You know what I'm talking about. It's 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.920 like heat responsive. It's like the paper and you put 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:31.960 your heat on it. Yeah, and you know they use 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:33.839 that like throwing bones essentially. Yeah, And so if you 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:36.840 run a little hot, curls right up if you're you know, 0:05:36.920 --> 0:05:39.359 clammy handed. I don't know anyway, I don't know what 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:44.880 my fortune was. I'm sure it came true. I like 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.039 Chuck Closterman, the writer, he went to a psychic, actually 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:49.800 bent to a bunch of psychics and asked them all 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:52.359 if he could become a professional bowler. And he's like, 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:54.839 never bowld you had know anything about bowling. They're like, oh, yes, 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.200 I see it for you. You will. So that's kind 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.440 of like my take on a lot of this stuff 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:02.400 is you're pretty much gonna be told what you want 0:06:02.440 --> 0:06:05.480 for money. But that's said. I do want to say 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:09.040 straight up, I do not have an opinion of what 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.279 people believe. I want everyone to believe whatever they want. 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.359 The only thing that I find ridiculous in all of 0:06:13.400 --> 0:06:16.960 this is the Charlatan is trying to deceive people. It's 0:06:17.000 --> 0:06:18.720 not the believers. I don't have a problem with whatever 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:21.240 you believe, it's the deceiver's exactly. So I just wanted 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.600 to say that plane is possible. Okay, let's start off 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.000 our story with an English writer, but not the one 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:30.279 we're discussing. Not to Arthur Conan Doll instead, Charles Dickens. Well, 0:06:30.480 --> 0:06:33.520 wasn't sir Arthur Conan Doll Scottish? Oh you're gonna be 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:35.960 like that, Yes he was. I should have said British, 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.120 not English, and then he could have fallen under that umbrella. 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:44.320 So yes, yeah, continue, So Charles Dickens, you like Dickens. 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:51.280 Sure he got, he got paid by the Comma. It's 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.560 such a former English teacher comment. I love it. Well. Anyway, 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.240 he's this big time spiritualist and he believed in what 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.520 was called mesmeric curses. Now, mesmeric curses were something that 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:04.359 he thought would be some a way to heal his 0:07:04.440 --> 0:07:08.560 sister in laws intestinal evil. Yeah, intestinal we've all had 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:13.240 intestinally right exactly now. He planned also to fight her 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:18.360 intestinal evil, he would use the power of animal magnetism, right, no, right, 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.720 But he wasn't like that kind of animal magnetism. And 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:22.680 it also wasn't like, oh I'm gonna rub a magnetic 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.640 rabbit on you. It was it was hanimal magnetism back 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:29.360 then meant hypnotism. Oh so it's sort of like your animals, 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.760 that your primal primal magnetism. Yeah, exactly, it's like the 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.280 attraction of all living things. I guess I don't know. 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.560 I'm not a spiritualist. But he also, you know, it 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.160 was like into clairvoyance, and he believed that this was 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:43.480 an extension of Clare of Voiance. So basically there's this 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:45.880 psychic ether and this was an example of him being 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.560 able to tune into it. Right now, He's not alone. 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:50.600 In the nineteenth century, you have a bunch of like 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.320 luminaries who were big time spiritualist. W. B. Yates was one, 0:07:54.520 --> 0:07:58.239 Queen Victoria's one, the painter of the Scream at Vard Munch. 0:07:58.360 --> 0:08:01.880 He was a big one. Um see. Oh, of course 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.840 Mary Todd Lincoln, the Queen, the first Lady. She very 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.200 famously would have seances in the White House to try 0:08:08.200 --> 0:08:17.680 to contact little Willie, their dear departed Willie. I'm gonna 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.320 wet the earth for a little Willie. Now, the civil 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.680 War was this major driver of all things spiritualism in 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.160 macab right, So that was the first push, and then 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.520 in World War One you get a follow up. Basically 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.080 it's the same response. In the Civil War you have 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:38.880 like thousand people lost in the battlefields. Then uh, you know, 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:43.040 in response to this within like by eight seventy eight, 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.080 you have eleven million people who are calling themselves spiritualists 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:49.400 in the United States, United States, just the United States. 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:54.760 What was the population, like twelve million, I'm not good 0:08:54.760 --> 0:08:58.480 to the number. I actually don't know. The population was 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:05.679 one out of three people. But like this nascent, like 0:09:06.400 --> 0:09:10.880 burgeoning kind of spiritual movement ended up turning into an industry. 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.120 So within a generation or two by the turn of 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:17.199 the century, now there were well, for instance, in nineteen 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:20.599 o nine you get four hundred twenty seven licensed mentalists 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.680 in on the Eastern seaboard, licensed licensed. In ten years 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:28.000 time there were six thousand, three hundred and ninety licensed 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.640 from four hundred something just six thousand some ten years 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:35.160 from nineteen nine nineteen. What had happened in between industry, 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:38.000 World War One and the Spanish foot you can see 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:40.920 it's directly like the numbers carry it out. This isn't 0:09:40.960 --> 0:09:43.640 just like, oh yeah, people need spiritualism, though they're paying 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:47.360 for it. Right. So by the end of like World 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.040 War One, we're talking nineteen eighteen and November nineteen eighteen, 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:53.160 the war ends, there are twenty million soldiers and civilians 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.840 who are dead. Like it's just like bloody, bloody, bloody times. Right. 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.439 So in a response and also the Spanish flu um, 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:05.000 you have another let's see, I think americans die in that. 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.760 You have a hundred sixteen thousand Americans die in the 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:09.600 World War One. So you just as you can see 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.120 from these numbers, it's just it's really hard to find 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:16.080 somebody who's not touched by loss. Okay. So in that 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:19.960 environment you have like in New York City, a newspaper 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:23.800 described the streets being filled with mediums, mentalists. Um, there 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:26.200 was terms like street fake here, which is you know, 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:31.480 the Indian fake here, the jongaliers, bunko merchants, miracle workers, healers, 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:33.640 and sears. So it's just like the streets are ripe 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.120 with people with going, hey, what's that in your pocket? 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:39.480 Got a little money, I'll tell you something spiritual right now. 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:43.280 There's also though the d I y approach. Okay, do 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:45.840 you can always do something yourself, right, So then that 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:50.400 meant the Luigi board right now. Luigi board was invented 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:54.640 in like eighteen ninety, I believe, but in by nineteen seventeen, 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:57.720 it's become the thing everybody wants one. It gets like 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:00.520 they're having the adults are having parties. Isn't just like 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.640 little you know, isn't children gathering together. There's adults having 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.319 like seances using the Ouiji board right now. My man 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:10.719 Harry Houdini, he immediately recognized this is kind of a 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:14.080 slippery soap folks, and he called Wiji boards the first 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.160 step towards insanity. So the guy who like chained himself 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:23.320 up and hung upside down is telling other people what's insane. Hey, hey, well, 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:25.920 but you have to understand this is like a common view. 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.080 The was the medical director of for New Jersey State 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.440 Hospital for the Insane. He had the same opinion. He said, 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:34.840 if Weigi boards quote, it would be difficult to imagine 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.480 conditions more favorable for the development of psychosis than those 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.760 furnished by the Wigi board and other mediums. So it's 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.920 not just that like we have mass death and decimation 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:50.079 that could cause psychosis. No, it's a it's Luigi board exactly, 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:53.880 all right, dude, Hey man, he is the director of 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:55.839 the State Hospital for the Insane. He knows what he's 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.160 talking about. I'm sure. Now, did you ever play with 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.880 the Weigi board? Yeah? Yeah, did you like it? You 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:05.040 don't seem like it would be the type just saying 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.800 I'll just put it out there. Looks can be deceived. 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:12.520 Uh No, you know. The thing is is that like, yeah, 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:14.520 I can remember doing like doing the whole Weigi board 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:16.600 thing at like a party or something as a kid. 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.199 And then there's always like you can feel people pushing 0:12:19.360 --> 0:12:23.400 the little what's what is that called on the Uigi board? Oh, 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:26.360 I don't know, like those called the selector. It has 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:30.920 another name. Oh I don't know what it is, Planchett. Okay, 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.320 the planchett. Yeah. So you can feel people pushing on it, 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:38.000 on the planchet, with their on the plan chet, with 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.320 their agendas, when they asked questions like this, who has 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:45.160 a crush on me? Who's in the room. Malik has 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:51.240 a m and it's Malik. Yeah, I so I can. Yeah, 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.000 I've played with the Uigi board. I've gone there, and 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.480 did you believe it in the moment, No, because I 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.600 don't trust people. I mean, I I'm very open minded 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:02.839 about stuff. You know, there's a lot and I'm okay 0:13:02.920 --> 0:13:06.000 with not being able to explain stuff. I don't feel 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.560 like there has to be a scientific explanation for everything, 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:11.880 and so I'm cool with that, you know, I'm cool. 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:16.360 I love movies that have ambiguous endings, that's true. I 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.960 love in precision. So I'm yeah, like whatever. You know. Again, 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:23.280 I'm not going to judge, you know, what I think 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:25.520 or what other people think. But the Uiji board is 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.960 just totally a setup for people to to try and manipulate. 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:31.840 It's too much of a thumb on the scale. Yeah, 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:35.440 well that's fair assessment. I grew up in a neighborhood 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:37.680 with a lot of families. There were a bunch of girls, 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:40.560 and uh, we definitely play the Wegi board and I 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:42.160 dug it and I had no problem with it. But 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.320 I also didn't think that they was divining anything. I 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:45.960 thought it was just kind of we're just all doing 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:48.360 it and pretending, you know. I realized people actually believed, 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:50.800 you know, but yeah, whatever, that's but there's also there 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:52.800 are the people who are terrified of them, like they 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.360 don't want the wegi board in their house. You know. Also, 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:58.440 do you'd ever play light as a feather stuff as 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.240 a board. I'd heard about it. I saw that, and 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:02.880 that made me I was much more o believer in that. 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:06.240 So you mentioned science, right, and science at this time 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:09.240 is right in this like point where it's also starting 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:11.440 to shape with people believe not just what they think, 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:15.000 but what they believe. Right. There's this a funny, little 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:17.800 strange German Man by the name of Albert Einstein, that 0:14:17.920 --> 0:14:20.840 little kittie, yeah, with a fun fun hair. He was 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:24.000 up ending almost all reality at this point, but proving 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.640 that scientists really couldn't prove anything. You know, they knew 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:28.360 a bunch of stuff, but they couldn't prove anything. He 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:31.160 invents he through his theories of relativity, the way particle 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.320 duality of light, his explanation of the photo electric effect. 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.000 He wins a bunch of you know, Nobel prizes, but 0:14:37.040 --> 0:14:40.040 he also up ends reality. He basically says that everything 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:42.560 is relative to the observer. This is a huge win 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:45.640 for the spiritualist, the mentalist, and the psychics, and they're 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:47.800 saying the same thing as Einstein. It's all up to 0:14:47.880 --> 0:14:52.160 what you believe. So now let's get into our man, 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.880 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the most rational mind, the guy 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.200 who invented Sherlock Holmes. How do you think he plays 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:04.080 into all this? I have no idea. Well, he's you know, 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.080 he's rational. So you expect this guy to be the 0:15:06.160 --> 0:15:10.000 kind to basically be able to parse truth from fiction, 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.080 to be able to analyze things and not be just 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:17.000 swayed by emotion, right, but he goes to prove that 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:21.000 we are all victims of what we believe, So stick 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:23.880 with me. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had also had his 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:28.000 fair share of death and disease. His wife's brother died 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.720 in World War One in Belgium. His son Kingsley, got 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:32.920 himself wounded in France, also fighting in the war, and 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:35.960 then two years later he dies of pneumonia. Conan Doyle's 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:38.240 younger brother dies of the Spanish flu so it's just 0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:41.200 close to him. All in all, he loses eleven members 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.600 of his family are relative. So he's really velversed in 0:15:44.600 --> 0:15:48.320 this great darkness of that time, right, So he's willing 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:51.640 to do things like seances, and his wife is super 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.600 into it, so he starts, you know, he's legitimately somebody 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:56.920 had been curious about his whole life, but he starts 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.240 really getting into it after his son dies. Now I 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:05.720 want you to picture it ready, the autumn of nineteen September, 0:16:05.880 --> 0:16:08.080 ten months earlier. The Great War just finally come to 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:10.560 a close. There's that grief hanging there that I've mentioned 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.240 numerous times. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is at a hotel 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.480 in the English coastal town of Portsmith. He's on stage 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.800 for a rally of spiritualist believers and with him on 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.000 stage this dude, Evan Powell. And Evan Powell is a 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.400 thirty eight year old medium, and Powell is like really 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.640 good at his job. He's conjuring up voices of multiple 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:31.200 departed souls from the audience. Everyone's blown away. Conan Doyle 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:33.480 and his wife are so struck by what he's doing. 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:35.240 They're like, hey, bro, like after this show, you want up, 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.160 gonna be pop upstairs into a little private set. And 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:42.280 he's like, okay, right, So he goes upstairs. Conan Doyle, 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.160 his wife and five of their fellow spiritualist all huddle 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:48.440 in this room. The candles are lit. They go, okay, medium, 0:16:48.480 --> 0:16:50.440 let's see what you can do. And first they're like, wait, 0:16:50.480 --> 0:16:51.920 we want to check them. So they search him, they 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.040 pat him down for anything, and it's like, okay, he's clean, 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.680 and they go, okay, strip him. They strip him half naked, right, 0:16:57.720 --> 0:16:59.640 and then they tie him to a chair. Is this 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:03.480 can exactly? Is this really still a psych So they're 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.760 you know, they're all getting kinky with him. We have 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:11.200 an offer for you, Mr Powell. So he's half naked, 0:17:11.200 --> 0:17:13.520 tied to his chair. They're like, okay, do your stuff right. 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:15.720 So they have the gas lights all low and their 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.760 flicker and it's like just this whatever, the seven of 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.000 them sitting there with Powell now ConA nod. He's a writer, 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.000 so he records what he sees and he says, I quote, 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.200 we had a strong phenomena from the start. The medium 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.639 was always groaning, muttering, or talking, so that there was 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.800 never a doubt where he was. Suddenly I heard a 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:38.560 voice out of the darkness, Conor no Doyle here, but 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.040 out of the darkness, Conan Doyle, here's in the medium's voice, 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:47.879 a voice that he recognizes, right, someone else's voice, and 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.240 he's the voice, says Jane. It is I His wife 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:55.639 cries it is Kingsley, I said, is that you boy? He? 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:57.879 And this is all quote he said, he said, in 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.760 a very intense whisper, in a tone all his own father. 0:18:01.359 --> 0:18:05.200 And then after a pause, forgive me, now this kind 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:07.720 of weird, right, just forgive me from the other side. 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.720 What for? So so Arthur cnan Doyle, this grieving father, 0:18:11.160 --> 0:18:13.480 he's able to hear from his dead son. It blows 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.760 his mind. Forget rationality, forget Sherlock Holmes, forget all that stuff. 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:20.199 He's like, bro, it's my boy. But not only does 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.760 he hear him, he feels his son's hand press on him. 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:25.960 He then feels his son kiss him on the forehead, 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:28.679 and his son whispers to him, I am so happy. 0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:32.320 I'm so happy, exactly just like that. After that point, 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:36.960 he's he's there. He is completely committed to spiritualism. He 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.480 at one point goes and says that quote, God has 0:18:40.480 --> 0:18:44.520 placed me in a very special position for conveying spiritualism 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.800 to that world which needed it so badly. Right, Spiritualism. 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.360 He's like, that's my religion. Bra Now, this dude, he's 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:53.560 like sixty years old at this time, and he had 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.679 been started out life as a Catholic. You were a 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.000 Catholic in Scotland. He was a Catholic born in scott 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:05.280 Is there a big scene Catholics in Scotland? Oh, it's dicey. 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:09.000 I lived in Glasgow and it's there's a lot of sectarianism, 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:10.719 we'll put it that way. Yeah, So it looks like 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:13.120 he was willing to flee the sextarianism and find something 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:16.640 more unifying and global in mind. So spiritualism just reaches 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:19.080 like into his heart. And then also he has the 0:19:19.119 --> 0:19:22.639 emotional connection with his son and that need to talk 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.359 to the dead, just like everybody else at this time. Now, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:30.920 what could possibly test his faith in this connection to spiritualism? God, 0:19:31.280 --> 0:19:33.200 I told you up top, my man Harry who did 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:36.520 That's right? That's right. So after this quick break, we'll 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:39.120 be right back to bring my man Harry Houdini into 0:19:39.160 --> 0:20:03.879 the story. Okay, So it's nineteen nine Arthur Conan Doyle, 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.400 sixty year old man, grieving father, lost eleven relatives all 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.520 to war illness, and he's now thoroughly convinced that he 0:20:10.560 --> 0:20:13.199 can still speak to his dead son if he can 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:16.640 find the right Canadian medium to speak through. Right, that's 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.879 where we are now, this whole like sayan scene. I 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:21.840 have to admit, the only thing I've ever picturing when 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:24.119 I was like reading about this was Paully Walnuts and 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:29.800 the Sopranos and that sance. Do you remember that? Yes? Yes? 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:31.480 Do you remember? Like when are you sitting there telling 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:34.600 all the soul that the medium is looking up above 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.320 him and there's all the souls competing to like basically 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:40.800 like finger him for their murder? Hey, what's he's looking around? 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.119 And after he tells tone of hey, tone, I'm dragon souls. 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:47.560 That's one of the things. I mean, that's sort of 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:52.320 like recenters you when you're watching it of imagining if 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:54.880 that's the case that they have all these people following 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.639 them around, and like that was the thing with with Polly, 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.840 like when you saw the magnitude, like the number of 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:03.119 people and you're just like, oh man, yeah, he's put 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:07.520 a lot of people into some serious dirt maps. Yeah, okay, 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:09.360 time to shake things up in this story. But bring 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.000 in my man Harry Hudini now. To properly picture him, 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:14.960 I want you to imagine that Hudini looks like a 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:20.480 more attractive Harvey Kitel Need, like that one real name, 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:24.560 Eric Wise Hudini was this like really headstrong, your curial man. 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:27.200 He's hot tempered, he's proud, he's you know, not without 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:30.600 being stereotypical. He's a very what I have experienced from Hungarians, 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:34.520 very hungarian. Right, he's not going to like balk on anything. 0:21:34.560 --> 0:21:36.440 He's got like a chip on his shoulder and he's like, look, 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.320 you know how long we've been able to maintain Hungary. 0:21:39.359 --> 0:21:40.919 Do you know why we did it? Because we believe 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:42.840 and we fight for what we believe in. I'm like, word, 0:21:43.160 --> 0:21:46.320 I get that. Houdini. Now, Hudini is this you know, 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:49.520 Hungarian born magician and an escape artist. As you pointed 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:52.120 out earlier, he was also the president of the Society 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:56.360 of American Magicians, which I didn't even know the leadership exactly. 0:21:56.400 --> 0:21:59.160 He was the leader for his crew Sam the Society 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:02.600 of American Mitchell you know, as the president of the society. 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:05.200 Of course, he hates all these like mediums and psychics 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:07.760 which make them look bad. Here's what the magicians and 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:09.720 illusion is getting like wrapped up in all of this. 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:13.280 They can't be like mistaken for mesmerists. Right now, Hudini, 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:15.080 as you pointed out, group famous for it as an 0:22:15.160 --> 0:22:17.200 escape artist. But I want people to understand when I 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:19.520 say a scape artist, he would like have a cop 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:21.359 come up on stage and handcuff him, and then he 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:23.360 would embarrass the cop by breaking out of the handcuffs 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:25.240 while he was talking to him. That was like a 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:28.399 warm up appetizer. Later on he'd be like, they have 0:22:28.600 --> 0:22:32.520 chain wrapped around him, the straight jacket. Then he put 0:22:32.600 --> 0:22:34.600 me put underwater and he'd have to get out of 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:36.879