Harry Houdini's Secret Afterlife Code
28:13 Share

At Bright Horizons, infants discover first steps, toddlers discover independence, and preschoolers discover bold ideas. Our dedicated teachers and discovery-driven curriculum nurture curiosity, inspire creativity, and build lasting confidence so your child is ready to take on the world.

Come visit one of our Bright Horizons centers in the greater Chicago area and see for yourself how we turn wonder into wisdom. Schedule your visit today at brighthorizons.com. Famous magician and escapologist Harry Houdini was a vociferous and very outspoken critic of clairvoyance and mediums in his day.

He spent years and years investigating them and masking them for their fraudulent activities, and he wrote a book about them, detailing all of his investigations. He came to the conclusion that the mediums he looked into were all frauds, and he was incredibly angry about it because he believed they were preying on and exploiting extremely vulnerable people who were grieving for their lost loved ones.

in nineteen nineteen alone houdini attended at least a hundred seances and rather impressively he also claimed to have accumulated one of the largest libraries in the world on all aspects of spirituality and occultism including hauntings witchcraft demons with some of the texts going back as far as the year fourteen eighty nine

as for the claims of these clairvoyants abilities to speak to the dead houdini wrote i have not found one incident that savored of the genuine everything he said has been the result of deluded brains or those which were too actively and intensely willing to believe

As a result, he called spiritualism monstrous fiction, and he failed to understand how people could still support some of the mediums he'd uncovered as frauds, when they'd been caught cheating time and time again. He illustrates some of the fraud by describing the confession of one of the Fox sisters, Catherine and Margarita, who were the first celebrity mediums and toured America in the 1850s, giving demonstrations to packed audiences, and

and making a princely sum of about a hundred and fifty dollars a night which in those days was a huge amount of money

however many years after their time in the spotlight one of the sisters came out and confessed that the rapping sounds which would be heard at their sances had simply been the result of she said a perfect control of the muscles of the leg below the knee which governs the tendons of the foot and allow action of the toe and ankle bones that is not commonly known

the sisters were only young when they were giving their demonstrations and margaret fox points out that if it is started when a person is young they can train their muscles to work in this way and she gave a demonstration of this trickery by giving incorrect raps to questions to prove how raps were fraudulent movements of her own body rather than direct communication from spirits

physicians also proved by examining her in the act that the raps were produced by the joint in her toe and not by spirits houdini also ripped apart the famous davenport brothers corresponding with one of them in later life and receiving a written confession of their trickery too

the brother explained that the spirit manifestations at his shows were produced by physical dexterity and clever rope tricks not by spirits the brothers would cunningly slip out of their rope bindings in order to move around the room

in the dark to produce the sound of ringing bells and using other props at their public demonstrations the brother also explained that they would have confederates in their audience secret helpers

houdini also mentions another fraudulent incident relayed to him by the famous poet robert browning that when he had attended a sance with the medium d d home brown had been presented with a face that appeared to look like his own dead child only for the face later to turn out to be holmes's foot

although actually researching further into this it seems that browning changed his mind a couple of times in fact he once declared that if diddy home turned up at his home he would throw him down the stairs and yet prior to that he had actually said that it had been a genuine spirit child and his wife was fully convinced so there's differing opinions and browning himself

but houdini also describes how two investigators dressed from head to toe in black had crept into a demonstration being held by the italian medium palladino while hiding under a table they had watched her shift her feet and knock on the legs of the table to produce supernatural raps houdini wrote in his book

a magician among the spirits after twenty-five years of ardent research and endeavour i declare that nothing has been revealed to me to convince me that intercommunication has been established between the spirits of the departed and those still in the flesh

houdini believed that he was particularly well placed to spot a hoax or fraud because his life's work had been he said to invent and publicly present problems the secrets of which not even the members of the magical profession had been able to discover and the effects of which had proved as inexplicable to the scientists as any marvels of the medium

he says my record as a mystifier of the mystifiers qualifies me to look below the surface of any mystery problem presented to me and with my eyes trained by thirty years experience in the realms of mystery and occultism it is not strange that i view these so-called phenomena from a different angle than the ordinary layman or even the expert investigator

ludia was enraged with the frauds of the spiritualist movement because some people had even been driven to commit suicide in the belief that their loved ones were waiting for them in the after life after they had visited a medium or a seance and been given a message from them

but it wasn't that houdini didn't want to believe in the after life in fact he admits he made a pact with fourteen people close to him that when they died they would do all that they could to try to contact him including his own parents but he never received any messages from them his mother had promised him before her death that she would return to give a prearranged message but he never heard from her

sir arthur conan doyle a very dear friend of houdini's told houdini that this was simply because he was a sceptic but houdini implicitly stated that he wasn't and that he firmly believed there could be a life after death he said my mind has always been open

well after his own death houdini's wife bess took to holding a sance every hallowe'en in an effort to communicate with her dead husband the last sance took place at hallowe'en in nineteen thirty six on the roof-top of the knickerbocker hotel in hollywood

participants included the former president of the california spiritualist organization carol s fleming president of the pacific coast association of magicians and dr edward saint a former carnival showman and bess's business manager

there was also charles brick a judge of the california high court and jacob hyman eugenia's first performing partner and childhood friend along with two newspaper men and the paranormal investigator harold carrington fleming described the rather dramatic proceedings of the last hallowe'en seance in goldston's magical quarterly saying

a majestic march emanating from the concealed speakers of a powerful public-address system broke the silence all lights on the roof were extinguished except the ruby light over the shrine then the members of the inner circle rised to their feet the assemblage does likewise all standing at attention while the little widow was ushered to her place then silence hushed almost oppressive hopeful silence

mark diminution chief of the rare book and special collection division of the library of congress also describes the seance as such the lights of los angeles glittered in the distance a dimly lit seance atop a table in the centre lay a pair of locked handcuffs on a silk pillow a trumpet a tambourine an invitation only audience of three hundred was crammed into a set of bleachers waiting to see if the dead might come to life

bess's business manager saint sat in a huge oversized chair the back of which extended well above his head by his side a small shrine to houdini replete with the photographer's with the man's photograph beneath a dim bulb houdini promised bess that his spirit would deliver a message in code bess sat in a matchingly regal chair beside saint

And as the séance begins, Saint asks aloud, Are you here, Houdini? Please manifest yourself in any way possible.

take from this gathering any strength that may be necessary for you to use we have waited houdini oh so long never have you been able to present the evidence you promised and now harry bessie is pleading here in her heart for a prearranged sign from you speak speak houdini we are watching and waiting ring the bell houdini you must come through come through with the evidence

well unfortunately for everyone involved that night houdini did not come through and the evening was disappointingly brought to an end bess addressed the audience houdini did not come through my last hope is gone i do not believe that houdini can come back to me or to anyone after faithfully following through the ten-year houdini contract using every type of medium and seance it is now my personal and positive belief that spirit communication in any form is impossible

i now resolutely turn out the light good-night harry but it isn't quite that simple because the story doesn't end there before we continue perhaps it should be noted that in all the ten years of seances beth never invited an actual medium to be present at her seances if no clairvoyant was present how could she have realistically expected to hear a message from her dead husband

mrs houdini was apparently supposedly attempting to communicate with her deceased husband yet quite how this could be achieved is puzzling if she didn't invite any mediums bess's annual seances were widely covered by the newspapers at the time across the united states and often world-wide with readers feverishly following the progress or lack of when year after year no messages came

why then did bess suddenly release a public statement declaring that houdini had made contact with her well it turns out that before houdini died he'd left a secret code written down on a piece of paper which he then locked in a safety deposit box he'd agreed with bess that he would try to contact her after he died and give her the secret code

which she would then be able to compare with the code he had placed inside the safety deposit box without telling her the order of the words in the code

after houdini died bess had received hundreds of messages from far and wide from people saying they were medians and that houdini had given them a message for her but bess had declared that none of these messages were correct none of them contained houdini's secret agreed-upon code

then one day in nineteen twenty nine a medium by the name of arthur ford who was pastor of the first spiritualist church at carnegie hall in new york city and who was unknown to bess at the time announced that he had received a message from houdini's mother and the message was one lone word forgive

ford apparently had a regular spirit who would usually come through when he entered into trance at his sances then another message came through delivered again by fletcher the spirit who helped bring messages through and it consisted of another single word rosabell

followed by the statement that this word is the one thing that is going to unlock the rest the rest of the message would go on to be revealed over a further twenty-eight seances spanning a number of weeks

two weeks after receiving the word rosabelle a second word was communicated to ford by fletcher the spirit and the word was now at this point ford had no idea who these messages were intended for because fletcher hadn't told him yet

a few more weeks go by and another word is given the word is look and the spirit fletcher told ford this was the sixth word in the message more words were given over the following weeks answer pray tell

by the time new year came fletcher told ford that the message was to be given to beatrice houdini and that he was getting these words from harry houdini who was of course dead by january the fifth the final word of the message had been revealed this was followed by further communication from fletcher the spirit who instructed that everything was to be written down and delivered to beatrice houdini on behalf of her dead husband

he told ford you're to take this message to her and upon acceptance of it houdini wishes her to follow the plan they agreed upon prior to his passing the coded message houdini gave in full was as such rosabelle answer tell pray answer look tell answer answer tell

well his message was duly written down and signed by all those present including a new york broker called francis r fast and john w stamford associate editor of the scientific american

a further message received through fletcher was he says the code is only known to him and his wife and that no one on earth but these two know it he says there is no danger on that score and that she must make it public it must come from her you are nothing more than agents there will be a veritable storm that many will seek to destroy her and she will be accused of everything that is not good but she is honest enough to keep the pact which they repeated over and over before his death

i know that she will be happy because neither of us believed that it would be possible the following day was a sunday and mr fast and mr stafford who had both been present at the sances when the messages came through set off to go to bess's house they were strangers to mrs houdini who lived with her mother sister and two close friends miss minnie chester and miss julie

on new year's day mrs houdini had been hurt in a fall but regardless when the two strangers appeared at her door she agreed to let them in mr fast and mr stafford quickly explained why they'd come and mrs houdini told them that her husband had left a coded message in a locked box at a vault in new york city

houdini had not told her the order of the words in the code she said and the gentleman suggested she accompany them to the location of the safety deposit box where it could be opened mrs houdini agreed and off they went to retrieve it as they opened the box in the vault at the manufacturer's trust company they discovered an envelope inside

upon opening the envelope mrs thudeney could clearly see that the words her husband had written down on the piece of paper were exactly the same words the two gentlemen had received in their sances with arthur ford along with the words thudeney had written were instructions for beatrice to sing the song rosabelle and to take off her wedding-ring

bess took off her ring and began to sing the lyrics to the song as requested it was the song she had performed in one of her first ever shows with houdini rosabelle sweet rosabelle i love you more than i can tell over me you cast a spell

these lyrics had been engraved on the inside of her wedding ring in the days that followed the new york sun the times and a multitude of other newspapers followed the story of this much longed-for message because bess quickly released a very public statement about what had happened

bess wrote a declaration on her own stationery in the presence of an attorney that the coded message she had received from her husband was completely correct in every detail it was identical to the message houdini had written down and locked up in the vault

as reporters flocked to interview her mrs houdini told them i never saw mr ford or any of the persons with him until that day of course i knew the code but i had no idea what combination of words harry would use and when he sent believe it was a surprise she explained that while she had known the words she had not known the sequence in which houdini would deliver them

it also came to be apparent that a charles williams mrs houdini's press agent had previously asked her to reveal the code so that he could include it in the book he was writing about houdini but bess had remained tight-lipped and never revealed the code to any one she was insistent about this

mrs houdini had previously offered a ten thousand dollar reward to any one who could tell her the code and the correct sequence although she had apparently withdrawn the offer some time later when urged to do so for some reason by prominent spiritualists

upon the release of bess's affidavit that harry had communicated with her from the after life fears and vitriolic arguments and attacks upon bess just as houdini had predicted in his message broke out among the newspaper reporters and spiritualists and most of the articles were full of hateful ridicule of bess while readers held insults at her too

a private letter written by mrs houdini to walter winchell a newspaper columnist was made public when he decided to publish it against her wishes bess had written dear mr walter winchell this letter is not for publicity i do not need publicity i want to let harry's old friends know that i did not betray his trust

i wish to tell you emphatically that i was no party to any fraud for two years i have been praying to receive the message from my husband every day for two years i have received messages from all parts of the world had i wanted a publicity stunt i no doubt could have chosen any of those sensational messages when i repudiated these messages no one said a word

when the real message the message that harry and i had agreed upon came to me and i accepted it as the truth i was greeted with jeers why those who denounce the entire thing as a fraud claim i had given mr ford the message if mr ford said this i brand him a liar

well ford hadn't said this anyway but she continues mr ford has since strongly denied this ugly thing others say the message has been common property and known to them for some time every one has a different opinion of how the message was obtained when any one accuses me of giving the words then i will fight and fight till the breath leaves my body if any one 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 intent of going on the stage or as some papers said on a lecture tour my husband made it possible for me to live in greatest comfort i don't need to earn money

i have gotten the message i have been waiting for from my beloved how if not by spiritual aid i do not know and now after i told the world every one seems to have known the code yet never told me and i am accused of giving the words in conclusion may i say that god and harry 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 regardless of beatrice's insistence however newspapers across the u s continued to hurl accusations at her it was all trickery and lies they said and it made great headlines for them

a new york evening graphic headline read houdini message a big hoax the clairvoyant ford did his best to try to defend beatrice saying from the moment that mrs houdini pronounced the message genuine there began a flood of attack ranging from the ludicrous to the vicious mrs houdini's veracity was questioned she was accused of giving the code to someone who then gave it to me as if there could be any comfort for her in securing a message she already knew from a source she didn't believe existed

she was also scathed for selling out her own husband who had so widely publicized his conviction that all mediums were fakes

things were getting very uncomfortable for houdini's widow and perhaps this is why only months later bess did a public u-turn and recanted her sworn testimony and when she heard that ford was using her signed declaration to promote his service as a medium her lawyer advised her to issue a lawsuit against him bess replied to her lawyer saying i did not say that i believed the message came through spiritual aid or that i believed in spiritualism

I did say the words I heard were the words I expected to hear. I never said I believed the letter came from Houdini. I never said I believed in spiritualism. And I still say the same.

her lawyer then issued a public statement on her behalf which said she had sought to penetrate beyond the grave and communicate with her husband but had now renounced faith in such a possibility she denied that any of the mediums presented the clue by which she was to recognize a legitimate message the new york times pounced on the development by writing mrs beatrice houdini who spent ten years trying to reach her husband in the spirit world

renounced to-day her long-cherished faith in communication after death and added that she was sceptical about any form of life hereafter and they quoted bess as declaring ten years is long enough to wait for any man bess even repeated her retraction in her last will and testament which reads i do not now nor did i at any time believe in spirit communication or spirit messages

yet curiously a very rare nineteen forty seven booklet released by dale news inc of new york entitled houdini unmasked code message received goes into the background in greater detail surrounding bess's receipt of her after-life message from her husband

the purpose of this booklet is to present facts and authenticated data collected over a period of twenty-five years that will settle once and for all the great controversy did mrs houdini receive the coded message from her husband and if so why did she deny it

The pamphlet contains, they say, the facts of the case, which are as follows. Fourteen years before her passing, Mrs. Houdini began to publicly state that she did not believe. Every Halloween at midnight, she gathered a group of newspaper men on the top floor of a Hollywood hotel and, without a medium, tried to call Houdini back. For ten years, the newspapers printed the sordid details of this great Halloween hoax.

the pamphlet says they will now reveal true story which they say was repeatedly submitted to all the large press associations but none printed it hence the publication of the pamphlet attempting to set the record straight mrs houdini they say carried out the charade of annual seances in order to discredit spiritualism

not only that but they assert that she did it for the money when in the fall they say of nineteen thirty eight when mrs houdini with the promise of making a million dollars had starred in a motion picture entitled religious racketeers

According to the pamphlet, the movie was due to be premiered at the Buffalo Theatre in New York City. Well, on the website wildaboutharry.com, a dedicated website full of massive details about Houdini's life, they say Bess and Edward Saint developed this movie idea with a specific aim in mind. Bess would unmask and denigrate all the fraud being perpetrated by the spiritualist movement in a dramatic feature film.

st claim to the film will go into immediate production and promised this sensational picture will be packed with ghostly dynamite that will blast the fakes frauds and humbugging religious racketeers hiding behind the cloak of spiritualistic superstition madame houdini will play the part of herself on screen and her long experience in tracking down the miracle mongers will be vividly portrayed in the spooky and mystic laden production

yet bess had publicly stated that her husband had communicated with her after death and that she had no need to make any money so had she retracted the statement that she had received the coded message from her dead husband because she could profit from exposing the fake mediums who of course houdini himself had done as well who were operating at that time

Or was it simply the case that now she was a widow without the support of her husband, so she'd caved in and changed her statement because she'd been so publicly ridiculed and attacked by the newspapers and their readers too when she'd said she'd received contact from her dead husband? Well, all we can do now is wonder.

At Bright Horizons, infants discover first steps, toddlers discover independence, and preschoolers discover bold ideas. Our dedicated teachers and discovery-driven curriculum nurture curiosity, inspire creativity, and build lasting confidence so your child is ready to take on the world.

Come visit one of our Bright Horizons centers in the greater Chicago area and see for yourself how we turn wonder into wisdom. Schedule your visit today at brighthorizons.com.