“I trust my clearing up of the seance, from my point of view is satisfactory, and that you do not harbor any ill feelings, because I hold both Lady Doyle and yourself in the highest esteem. I know you treat this as a religion but personally I cannot do so, for up to the present time I have never seen or heard anything that could convert me.
“Trusting you will accept my letter in the same honest, good faith feeling as it has been written.
“With best wishes to Lady Doyle, yourself and the family, in which Mrs. Houdini joins,
“Sincerely yours,
(Signed) “Houdini.”
In January 1923, the Scientific American issued a challenge of $2500. to the first person to produce a psychic photograph under test conditions. An additional $2500. was offered to the first person who, under the test conditions, defined, and to the satisfaction of the judges named, produced an objective psychic manifestation of physical character as defined, and of such sort that permanent instrumental record may be made of its occurrence.
The committee named were: Dr. William McDougall, D.Sc., Professor of Psychology at Harvard; Daniel Frisk Comstock, Ph.D., former member of the Faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Walter Franklin Prince, Ph.D., Principal Research Officer for the S. P. R.; Hereward Carrington, Ph.D., Psychic Investigator; J. Malcolm Bird, Member of the Scientific American Staff; and myself.[91]
Sir Arthur’s letter is self-explanatory.
“Windlesham,
Crowborough,
Sussex.
“January 1, 1923.
“My dear Houdini:
“... I see that you are on the Scientific American Committee, but how can it be called an Impartial Committee when you have committed yourself to such statements as that some Spiritualists pass away before they realize how they have been deluded, etc? You have every possible right to hold such an opinion, but you can’t sit on an Impartial Committee afterwards. It becomes biased at once. What I wanted was five good clear-headed men who can push to it without any prejudice at all, like the Dialectical Society[92] of London, who unanimously endorsed the phenomena.