Observations placeholder

How I Broke Houdini's Code (originally titled "A Round with the Magicians".)

Another Encounter with Thurston

About four years later I was in Detroit. Thurston had his magical show at a leading theater. I went with a friend. At one point in his routine Thurston did what he called his Spirit Cabinet Trick, and I was surprised to find on the printed program:

"This is a trick to amuse you and it is NOT an attack upon the religious beliefs of anyone."

When he finished this trick he called for the house lights and had them focused upon me. What next, I thought, deducing that someone had recognized me and told him I was present. Needing revenge, he would embarrass me if he could. Instead, he said to the audience, "What I have just done is a trick, but in the audience is a man whom I firmly believe can help you to communicate with your beloved dead." Then he asked me to come to his dressing room after the show.

When my friend and I went backstage to meet him, Thurston then told me that when we had our encounter in New York he knew very little about psychic things; just what everyone thinks he knows which is usually less than nothing. But he had determined to get back at me so he began sitting with reputable mediums wherever he could find one. "Now as a magician I know the limits of a trick," he said. "Under my own conditions and in my own hotel room I have proofs of survival which, satisfy me. I am now a member of the American Society for Psychical Research."

We became good friends and I later attended several séances in his house.