Monday, January 11, 2016

I'm getting a vision

"The Witch of Lime Street:  Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World" by David Jaher tells the true story of how Houdini and his gang of scientist  exposed the scam artists otherwise known as Spiritualist.  Scientific American, a magazine during the 1920's, had arranged to have a contest for the medium that could pass all of their tests to be claimed "genuine".  During the 20's, America was going through a paranormal phase.  It was all the vogue.  Everyone wanted to believe it was true, though probably no one really did.  But it was fun to believe.  Much like our present day essential oils.  Houdini, however, was a skeptic, mostly because at one time he had been a fake mind reader/ medium.  His job in the contest was to figure out how the medium was faking.  He always got his ghost.  The medium that came the closest was Margery, the wife of a surgeon who deeply believed in spiritualism, even when he was faking it.  Margery was more charming then convincing and sometimes, that is all it takes.
This is a long, detailed book.  It is extremely well researched and beautifully written.  However, it is not a light read.  If you know little about this era or Houdini, I recommend watching the biography movie, Houdini, the one with Adrien Brody first.  It will help with catch up and visualization.  I received this book in exchange for an honest review from www.bloggingforbooks.com.

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