Author: Harry Houdini
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Magic tricks
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Author: James Malcolm Bird
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Parapsychology
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Author: William Kalush
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1847396194
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 998

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Book Description
Using exclusive access to newly uncovered archives, Kalush and Sloman reveal the clandestine agreements in which the British and Americans recruited Houdini to be an active secret agent. In exchange for his cooperation, the governments of these two countries facilitated his rise to the top of the world stage. The authors give thrilling accounts of his assignments, such as his participation in early aerial surveillance and his use of his own magic magazine to communicate espionage-related information. After the war, Houdini embarked upon what became his most dangerous mission when he took on the Spiritualist movement. Convinced that Spiritualist mediums were frauds, he became obsessed with exposing them. But the Spiritualists were a powerful adversary. An organized network of fanatics, led by Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, worked relentlessly to orchestrate a campaign that would silence Houdini forever. Grounded in solid research, but as exciting and dramatic as a good thriller, THE SECRET LIFE OF HOUDINI traces the magician's long and circuitous route from struggling vaudevillian to worldwide legend.

Author: Egil Asprem
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438469926
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 662

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Challenges the conventional view of a “disenchanted” and secular modernity, and recovers the complex relation that exists between science, religion, and esotericism in the modern world. Max Weber famously characterized the ongoing process of intellectualization and rationalization that separates the natural world from the divine (by excluding magic and value from the realm of science, and reason and fact from the realm of religion) as the “disenchantment of the world.” Egil Asprem argues for a conceptual shift in how we view this key narrative of modernity. Instead of a sociohistorical process of disenchantment that produces increasingly rational minds, Asprem maintains that the continued presence of “magic” and “enchantment” in people’s everyday experience of the world created an intellectual problem for those few who were socialized to believe that nature should contain no such incalculable mysteries. Drawing on a wide range of early twentieth-century primary sources from theoretical physics, occultism, embryology, radioactivity, psychical research, and other fields, Asprem casts the intellectual life of high modernity as a synchronic struggle across conspicuously different fields that shared surprisingly similar intellectual problems about value, meaning, and the limits of knowledge. “The Problem of Disenchantment is, in its entirety, extraordinarily well researched, argued, and written—representing at once the most complete and nuanced treatment of the notion of disenchantment within this network of scientific, religious, philosophical, and esoteric discourses and currents.” — Nova Religio

Author: Massimo Polidoro
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615925872
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
This intriguing examination of the bizarre and the strange by a topnotch investigator will interest both skeptics and believers alike. Illustrations.

Author: Cynthia von Buhler
Publisher: Titan Comics
ISBN: 1785865633
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
Unappreciated at her father’s detective agency, the fabulous, rabbit-loving Minky Woodcock straps on her gumshoes in order to uncover a magical mystery involving noted author Arthur Conan Doyle and world-famous escape artist Harry Houdini. “Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini” is based on bizarre facts and mysterious questions regarding Harry Houdini’s death on October 31, 1926.Visitin the evidence page at MinkyWoodcock.com to see the news clippings, photographs, letters, telegrams, court documents and medical reports which formed the basis of this series. Collects Minky Woodcock: The Girl Who Handcuffed Houdini #1-4 “I was seduced by Cynthia’s art. She is a wonder.” – Neil Gaiman “Absolutely stunning and stimulating. 10 out of 10!” – The GGW

Author: Massimo Polidoro
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615924248
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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. . . Polidoro has written--and written well--a saga of two Titans that is also a remarkable exploration of both superstition and obsession, at the lush twilight of the Edwardian era.--Baltimore SunThis is the story of an unusual friendship between two of the most intriguing characters of the early 20th century-renowned escape artist Harry Houdini and celebrated mystery writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes). Both men were fascinated by the occult practice of spiritualism, Houdini as an ardent skeptic who often publicly exposed fraudulent mediums and Conan Doyle as a true believer who became convinced that the dead could and did communicate with the living. Despite their differing perspectives the two men not only respected each other but became friends. The correspondence between them on the subject provides a fascinating glimpse not only into the personalities of two talented and interesting celebrities but also into a psychic phenomenon that is the ancestor of today's channeling craze.Based on original correspondence, photographs, and his own extensive research, Massimo Polidoro reconstructs this unusual friendship between a believer and a skeptic, which weathered mediums, seances, an apparition of Houdini's departed mother, automatic writing by Conan Doyle's wife, public debunkings, and hurt feelings. He also discusses the final rift that ended the friendship of the two strong-willed men. Fans of Conan Doyle, Houdini, magic, and the historical roots of the New Age will be delighted by this amazing story.Massimo Polidoro is executive director of the Italian Committee for the Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, editor of Scienza & Paranormale (Science and the Paranormal), and author of twelve books on the paranormal.

Author: George H. Schwartz
Publisher: Rizzoli International Publications
ISBN: 0847828247
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 146

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Book Description
Posters, photography, and objects from the height of Spiritualism and the history of magic gain renewed power when seen through today’s lens. The human desire to connect with the dead since the mid-19th century gave rise to a fascination with the supernatural and the magical. Mediums and magicians from Harry Houdini, Margery the Medium, Howard Thurston, and the Fox Sisters offered “communication” with the departed at séances and magic shows, two interrelated forms of popular culture that relied heavily on illusions and stagecraft. This is the first illustrated volume to gather the art and objects that made medium and magician performances iconic during the Spiritualism movement and beyond, a time when people actively debated and wondered, "can spirits return?" An international selection of paintings, photographs, posters, stage apparatuses, film, publications, and other objects reveal how audiences were entranced and mystified by these experiential performances, captivating willing believers and garnering skeptics as they navigated the intersecting realms of science and spirituality. From the origins of the iconic Oujia board to spirit photography, this book is a treasure trove.

Author: American Society for Psychical Research
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Parapsychology
Languages : en
Pages : 778

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List of members in v. 1, 6, 12.

Author: Deborah Noyes
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110161689X
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
“Noyes makes history accessible and irresistible . . . Excellent.”* A century ago, the curious idea that spirits not only survive death but can be contacted on the “other side” was widespread. Psychic mediums led countless séances, claiming to connect the grieving with their lost relations through everything from frenzied trance writing to sticky expulsions of ectoplasm. The craze caught Harry Houdini’s attention. Well-known by then as most renowned magician and escape artist, he began to investigate these spiritual phenomena. Are ghosts real? Can we communicate with them? Catch them in photographs? Or are all mediums “flim-flammers,” employing tricks and illusions like Houdini himself? Peopled with odd and fascinating characters, Houdini’s gripping quest will excite readers’ universal wonderment with life, death, and the possibility of the Beyond. *School Library Journal, starred review of Ten Days a Madwoman