Sir Arthur is reported as saying that mediumship is like an ear for music and might exist in “some vulgar person,” but that the medium is only a carrier of messages comparable to the boy who delivers telegrams. From the foregoing excerpts of Sir Arthur’s own statements it will be seen that he depends solely on his senses of seeing and hearing (the two weakest and most easily deceived) for his evidence. When once a medium has his confidence he believes implicitly what the medium tells him, accepts their “hear-say evidence” as gospel truth, notwithstanding that he admits they are possibly of a vulgar, dishonest class, often addicted to alcoholism to a degree of debauchery. It is extremely difficult to harmonize these statements.
As to the sense of sight coupled to the sense of hearing: while at Washington, D. C., Sir Arthur had a “sitting” with the Zancigs and after witnessing phenomena at their expert hands and minds, he gave them a letter of which the following is a transcript:
“I have tested Professor and Mrs. Zancig to-day and am quite assured that their remarkable performance, as I saw it, was due to psychic causes (thought transference) and not to trickery.
(Signed) “Arthur Conan Doyle.”
Mr. Jules Zancig is a magician, a member of the Society of American Magicians of which I have been the President for the past seven years. I believe he is one of the greatest second-sight artists that magical history records. In my researches for the past quarter of a century I have failed to trace anyone his superior. His system seems to be supreme. He never at any time claimed telepathy and as he has not, to my knowledge, obtained money by pretending telepathy or spirit presentations, it would not be fair to disclose his methods despite the fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put the stamp of genuineness on his work. Undoubtedly it appeared unfathomable to Sir Arthur and he therefore concluded that it was psychic and that there could be no other solution.
Mal-observation is responsible for a lot of misunderstanding, consequently misrepresentation, and as a result much investigation is rendered valueless. Such misrepresentation is not intended to deceive but is an honest expression of a conviction based on supposed facts by persons unaware that they are victims of illusion. One of the most, if not the most, flagrant instances of mal-observation I have ever known of is told of in a book by J. Hewat McKenzie, President of the British College of Psychic Science, entitled “Spirit Intercourse.” On page 107 he says:
“Houdini, called the ‘Handcuff King,’ who has so ably demonstrated his powers upon public-hall platforms is enabled by psychic power (though this he does not advertise), to open lock, handcuff, or bolt that is submitted to him. He has been imprisoned within heavily barred cells, doubly and trebly locked, and from them all he escaped with ease. This ability to unbolt locked doors is undoubtedly due to his mediumistic powers, and not to any normal mechanical operation on the lock. The force necessary to shoot a bolt within a lock is drawn from Houdini the medium, but it must not be thought that this is the only means by which he can escape from his prison, for at times his body has been dematerialized and withdrawn, but this will be treated in another part of this chapter.”
As I am the one most deeply concerned in this charge I am also the best equipped to deny such erroneous statements. I do claim to free myself from the restraint of fetters and confinement, but positively state that I accomplish my purpose purely by physical, not psychical means. The force necessary to “shoot a bolt within a lock,” is drawn from Houdini the living human being and not a medium. My methods are perfectly natural, resting on natural laws of physics. I do not dematerialize or materialize anything; I simply control and manipulate material things in a manner perfectly well understood by myself, and thoroughly accountable for and equally understandable (if not duplicable) by any person to whom I may elect to divulge my secrets. But I hope to carry these secrets to the grave as they are of no material benefit to mankind, and if they should be used by dishonest persons they might become a serious detriment.
On page 112 of his book Mr. McKenzie again refers to me saying:
“Houdini of world wide fame, previously mentioned, has for years demonstrated dematerialization, and the passage of matter through matter upon the public platform, while Mrs. Thompson of America, has demonstrated materialization. Mrs. Zancig has, with her husband, publicly exhibited her psychic gift, called ‘thought transference,’ which is purely soul projection, in all the leading world centres. Miss Fay, and several well known Japanese mediums, for years demonstrated the passage of matter through matter, and also materialization. These are only a few of the many who might be mentioned, who demonstrate psychic gifts before the public. Such public mediums do not, of course, advertise themselves as performing their wonders by occult powers, or through the help of spirits, and the public are therefore left in ignorance of how they perform their marvelous tricks, as they are called. The author has tested each of those mentioned, by a personal experiment from the stage, and several also in private, and can testify that they are mediums, performing most, if not all of their great wonders by spirit agency. They are naturally reluctant to acknowledge the fact, for the music-hall public would instantly resent any claims they might make that they performed their wonders by spirit power. Their audiences would regard such claims as ‘bunkum,’ and probably subject them to insult, if not to ill treatment, for the general public are entirely ignorant of such possibilities in the manipulation of psychical matter as related in this book, which a medium can develop with the co-operation of spirit entities. It can be left to the reader’s imagination to picture the face of a music-hall manager if he were asked to allow upon the stage a demonstration of spirit powers. Horrors! The poor man would not be able to sleep for nights if he thought ghosts were working around his buildings or upon his stage. Thus, knowing the attitude of men toward such things these wonders of wonders are produced upon the music-hall stage as clever ‘mystery’ tricks. The author does not wish his readers to suppose that the mechanical sleight-of-hand tricks carried out by Maskelyne and Devant and similar operators, have anything to do with the mediumistic gift, for they are a mechanical copy of true magic. These tricks are performed with tons of machinery, whereas the genuine medium can produce his wonders, if necessary, naked and in an empty room.