Posted on 03/25/2024 4:05:25 PM PDT by Ezekiel
"My Brain is the key that sets me free."
"No prison can hold me; no hand or leg irons or steel locks can shackle me. No ropes or chains can keep me from my freedom."
"What the eyes sees, the ear hears, and the mind believes."
"Never tell the audience how good you are, they will soon find out for themselves."
"Never try to fool children, they expect nothing, and therefore see everything."
"An old trick well done is far better than a new trick with no effect."
More quotes at:
Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 -- October 31, 1926)
Resting place -- Machpelah Cemetery
"And although Houdini was actually born in Budapest, Hungary, he always called Appleton home."
Harry Houdini's 150th birthday magic and history on display in Appleton
In the Kabbala and Chasiduth -- especially Chabad Chasiduth -- it is explained that the apple symbolizes the G-dly soul of a Jew (Tapuach comes from the word Nofach - to blow, as in the morning prayer - Elokai Neshama), which the Almighty blew into man as His own "breath," as it were.
The Garden of Eden, where souls are nourished by the light of the Shechinah (Divine presence), is called Chakal Tapuchin, the "Garden (or field) of Apple Trees."
"Harry Houdini"
הארי הודיני
"Jew"
יהודי
Houdini himself insisted that his work was the result of his knowledge of the natural world, not that he was using mysterious spiritual forces. His secrets were in the application of his understanding. The so-called mystics were claiming access to spirits for how they could perform that which was not humanly possible. Harry Houdini knew otherwise, as he could replicate the work of those "spirits" by natural means.
He was open to the existence of a spiritual realm, but that meant proof had to come by a way not reproduceable through magic tricks. (Which is to say, you can't make this stuff up.)
Excerpts and links are here to provide the backdrop and history of the séances, claims, and debates.
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>>>
THE MISSION: HARRY HOUDINI'S WAR ON SPIRITUALISM
Harry Houdini was never a believer, though he claimed he wanted to be. When his mother, Cecilia Weiss, died in 1913, her last word, "forgive", made a considerable impression on him. He began to visit a number of spirit mediums in an attempt to receive confirmation that his mother was still out there somewhere beyond the veil, but, the more séances he attended, the more Harry began to believe that all mediums were frauds taking advantage of the vulnerable. None of them repeated his mother's last word, and to him, this proved it was all a sham.
For the rest of his life, he used his talents as an illusionist to reveal the sneaky tricks used by unscrupulous mediums to dupe the grieving out of cash, and his mission gained a small, but impassioned following. At times, though, his quest to expose mediums became almost pathological, famously resulting in nasty spat with Mina "Margery" Crandon, a Boston Medium known as the "Blonde Witch of Lime Street".
When Houdini heard that Scientific American was about to endorse Margery after attending her séances, he flew into a rage, vowing to expose her, and after taking in just two of her performances, he did just that, catching the Blonde Witch ringing bells with her toes, lifting the séance table with her head, and other feats of misdirection that, as a magician, he almost admired. "The slickest ruse I ever detected," he said of her performance.
>>>
Bess Houdini died on February 11, 1943. Presumably, no one has tried to contact her.
Regardless of where you fall on the scale of belief, it's easy to see that the conditions surrounding the Houdini séance were never anything but a complete mess. With both sides pushing and pulling Bess to represent their own best interests, anyone who claims to know the truth about the séance is either misinformed or purposefully disingenuous. The fact is, there is every reason to believe that there was a chance, however minuscule, that the ghostly spirit of Harry Houdini had successfully manifested in that room on January 8, 1929.
Ready for the worst part? If Houdini truly did pull off the greatest performance of his career, clawing his way back to proclaim life beyond the grave, then we have to accept that he was bullied right back into the afterlife by the very people who he'd trained to disbelieve. And you know what they say about magicians: the good ones never perform the same trick twice.
https://weekinweird.com/2016/01/27/successful-seance-houdini-spoke-from-beyond-the-grave/
***
It was a setting befitting the showmanship of Harry Houdini:
The bright, clear, cold evening of Halloween, 1936, atop the roof of Hollywood's high-profile Knickerbocker Hotel. There, the lights of Los Angeles glittered in the distance. Here, at 8 p.m., a dimly lit séance. Atop a table in the center of the attraction lay a pair of locked handcuffs on a silk pillow. A trumpet. A tambourine. Nearby, an invitation-only audience of 300 was crammed into a set of bleachers, waiting to see if the dead might come to life.
This was Bess Houdini's final attempt to contact the spirit of her husband, the master illusionist who had died on Halloween 10 years earlier, and the expectations were high.
>>>
For the family and friends of a man who spent much of his career debunking spiritualism, sponsoring a Houdini séance seemed a serious contradiction.
He had, after all, attended séances in an attempt to contact his deceased mother and found them to be stuff and nonsense. He challenged mediums to demonstrate any ghostly communication that he could not, as a magician, replicate by a trick. The rapping on the table, the ghostly moans, things floating in the air he showed that it was all done with special effects, hidden wires and the like.
But before Houdini's death, he and Bess made a pact that the first to die would try to contact the survivor from the beyond. If contact was not made within 10 years, the pact would be broken and the notion of communication with the dead refuted. Houdini promised Bess that his spirit would deliver a message in code and open a pair of locked silver handcuffs. Their secret code word was "Rosabelle," followed by the phrase: "answer -- tell -- pray -- answer -- look -- tell -- answer -- answer -- tell" -- a shorthand used between the two when they had been on stage together. In their code, it spelled "Believe."
That coded promise was, as it turned out, final proof of the man's genius.
After his death, spiritualists across the country, if not the world, said Houdini had contacted them. In Chicago, his ghost supposedly walked in to a room. In Kansas City, the ghost wrote a letter. In New Zealand, it drank a cup of tea. But -- thanks to Houdini's foresight -- none could claim he had spoken in the code that only his wife knew.
Therefore, this séance was the last gasp.
>>>
Hollywood, Houdini and the Halloween Seance of 1936
***
A seance for Houdini is a Halloween tradition, held every year on the anniversary of the magician's death -- 31 October 1926.
>>>
Dietrich herself seemed to still have hope that Houdini would make himself heard. "Here's my opinion: if anyone could escape from the beyond, what do you think? It would be Houdini, right?" she said.
The tradition of the seances began after the magician died. Houdini, who exposed fraudulent mediums purporting to commune with the dead, devised a system with his wife, Beatrice, before he died to test whether such communications were really possible. They created a secret code -- a cryptic combination of the word believe and their favorite song, Rosabelle -- so she could confirm it was him genuinely returning to the land of the living and not a trick by a medium.
>>>
But despite the group's efforts, the magician did not make an appearance. Dietrich blew out the candles. "Good night, Harry," they said in unison.
"What most people don't realize is that Houdini never said that he would come back. He said he would try to come back," Dietrich had said during the interview. The seance was a way to test whether it is possible to communicate with the dead as well as remember the story of Houdini.
After the event, Mathieson said he wasn't surprised that Houdini didn't make an appearance. "I don't think he would be surprised, either," he said with a laugh.
Houdini fans hold annual seance: 'If anyone could escape the beyond, it's him'
***
Houdini died Oct. 31, 1926, and for the next 10 years Bess held séances on Halloween night in an attempt to make contact with her husband. He never showed, and in 1936 Bess called it quits and is quoted as saying "10 years is long enough to wait for any man."
The mystery of the Houdini séance has continued over the years, with séances being conducted on Oct. 31 worldwide in efforts to communicate with the great illusionist.
Making contact with Harry Houdini
***
Bottom line: the infamous note (code message) written and placed in a Safety Deposit Box by Bess after Houdini died does exist.
That said, I believe Houdini's lawyer decided it was best if it only existed in Bess's imagination.
Bess Houdini's infamous note in the safety deposit box
***
Houdini was the most famous escape artist of all time. But was he able to escape Death?
If anyone could return from The Other Side, it certainly would have been Houdini.
<<<
Despite all of the effort, attention and interest, Houdini has apparently not spoken to anyone since he breathed his last earthly words to his brother Hardeen on Halloween night in 1926.
***
Aside from his fame as a stage magician and astonishing escape artist, Houdini was just as well known - especially in the later part of his career - as a debunker of spirit mediums and phony séances. He felt, however, that if it were possible for anyone to come back, he would find a way to do it.
https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2011/10/houdini-seance.html
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"No prison can hold me; no hand or leg irons or steel locks can shackle me. No ropes or chains can keep me from my freedom."
Nearby, an invitation-only audience of 300 was crammed into a set of bleachers, waiting to see if the dead might come to life:
The equivalent of 6 nights then..
The Lost Kitchen brings crowds of people from all over the country to the small town of Freedom which has a population of around 700 people.
>>>
The Lost Kitchen, which welcomes around 50 people each night, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
>>>
French first introduced the postcard system in 2018 after being bombarded with phone calls for reservations.
'It gave everyone the same opportunity and it just took a little bit of effort,' she previously told NEWS CENTER Maine.
'We decided if you didn't have the patience to write your name on a note card and pop it in the mail, you were not going to have the patience for a 4-hour dinner, so it was basically helping anyone out who wouldn't enjoy it.'
>>>
Perhaps the trouble in connecting with the spirit of Harry Houdini was that none of those so-called mystics were on a first name basis, were impatiently trying to make contact with "Houdini". Meanwhile, what's in a name. He always called Appleton home, and
it is explained that the apple symbolizes the G-dly soul of a Jew...
<--->
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me"
רוח אדני יהוה עלי
Harry Houdini:
הארי הודיני
36:
ל"ו
.. the year of the 10th 'last séance' which was then produced by way of 78 rpm:
78:
ע"ח
Pulled from:
"Never try to fool children, they expect nothing, and therefore see everything."Isaiah 61
1. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to announce good news to the humble; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound:
2. To proclaim an acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn:
3. To appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified:
4. And they shall build the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations:
The "bookends" of "רוח אדני יהוה עלי" are a resh and a yud, forming the numeral "210" [ר"י].
210 years is the traditional number of years for the length of the Egyptian bondage.
An extended power outage would not stop Houdini from responding.
Are we sure ???
After the event, Mathieson said he wasn't surprised that Houdini didn't make an appearance. "I don't think he would be surprised, either," he said with a laugh.
In the spirit of Purim and the hidden mysteries of the star (Esther: "star", "hidden"), Purim marking the 150 [קן], it's definitely worth viewing the location and placement of Houdini's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
7001 Hollywood Blvd... ("zero is not a natural number") 🕊️
That view from the street is the surprise "Chumash" signage above the whole scene, even for the casting of fortunes:
9 And Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the Cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which faces Mamre,
https://www.chabad.org/dailystudy/torahreading.asp?tdate=10/31/1975
Harry Houdini (March 24, 1874 -- October 31, 1926)
Resting place -- Machpelah Cemetery
Thus the star was set on October 31, 1975 (26 Cheshvan, 5736) -- the 49th anniversary of Houdini's death. Why not the 50th? The answer is right here, because you can't make this stuff up:
49 denotes the complete cycle within the physical universe.1 This is a natural development, one that reaches the extremities of the outer boundaries. This may be the furthest limit as far as nature is concerned -- but it is not the endpoint. But the ultimate destination of a Jew is his arrival at the second phase -- one where he somehow manages the supernatural leap from 49 to arrive at the transcendental quality of 50.
(Houdini himself insisted that his work was the result of his knowledge of the natural world.)
Besides, the POSTCARD idea is certainly fitting, because of all the types of messaging and reservation options, a postcard is open, revealed writing, hence:
postcard: גְּלוּיָה f.n. NH postcard. [Properly f. pass. part. of Biblical Heb. גָּלָה (= he uncovered, revealed). See גלה.]
compare:
megillah [מגילה]
revelation [הִתגַלוּת]
revealed [גילה]
'We decided if you didn't have the patience to write your name on a note card and pop it in the mail, you were not going to have the patience for a 4-hour dinner, so it was basically helping anyone out who wouldn't enjoy it.'
Freedom -- as noted above, is a small town of about 700 [ן]. Anyone have the fish [שֶׁמֶךְ]? No joke -- that would be the concealed, hidden support (samech) fish of the alef-beit, the one that returned surreptitiously by way of Arabic. In disguise, as a shin. Not much of a disguise -- it's all explained right here on Wiktionary.
Remember that recent post about the 700? I'd added a note at the end that when the sum of "cursed be Haman" is calculated with the value of the final nun, the sum is 1152, the same as
"a complete healing from heaven".
Who has the patience for any comparisons though,
to proclaim an acceptable year of the Lord [שׁנת־רצון ליהוה , 1152], and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.
הודיני
<--->
Meaning
that is, namely, in other words (formal)
דהיינו ~ ְּדְּהַיְנוּ
dehaynu
See, the stuff I... leave out.. 😉
Worth reposting:
"Harry Houdini"
הארי הודיני
"Jew"
יהודי
Good one!
That’s truly The Point.
😁
Do you have a secret code so we’ll know it’s you?
Houdini was the first man to fly an airplane on the Australian continent.
Seriously. 114 years and seven days ago today.
He brought the plane with him from Europe. He apparently taught himself to fly (in Germany), and his first flight didn’t go so well. Might have had no other choice since airplanes in 1909 were so primitive that there weren’t many 2-seater/trainers.
Once he’d worked out the landing wheels-first thing, he was possessed of the the notion that he needed to go to Australia (population 4.4 million) to show off his newfound flying abilities. So he did.
So he wasn’t just the first to fly an airplane in Oz, he also was the first person to import one.
That's an excellent question because now that you mention it, it's actually in here all over the place.
Funny and weird!
Haha. I'm going to have to look this story up. Thanks.
Photos or it didn’t happen, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ARBgJxVS0c
It’s important to understand that for many years after Kittyhawk, there still was widespread disbelief that it was possible to fly. By 1908, President Roosevelt had wearied of the press writing that the Wrights were hoaxers so he invited the brothers to a command performance and ordered the DC press corps not only to be in attendance but also to write an accurate account of events.
So it’s a fair bet that a goodly portion of the people who came to see Houdini probably expected it was just going to be another parlor trick.
My internet seems to have returned for real, so I could finally watch the vid.
That was neat, thanks.
23rd recognized aviator of the world.
Now I know! Here’s a place where my “random” data fun pool makes me smile:
There’s some interesting traditions about the Torah, that when Moses smashed the tablets, the letters of the alefbeit when *flying* up into heaven, but only 22 of them returned.
Thus, as the story goes, there were actually 23 letters, not just the 22 that are known to this day.
Somewhere this mysterious “23rd letter” is hanging out, and the Messiah will bring it back down to earth when he arrives.
So, a funny/weird overlap with the theme of this thread, of “the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me..”
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