- Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle

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Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle

• Psychics & Other Frauds

I have long been aware that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ended his friendship with Harry Houdini on account of Doyle's blind, gullible belief in the very scam Houdini had disproven over and over. But not until I read Final Séance did I become convinced that incurable adherence to a security belief in the face of irrefutable evidence can only be described as a form of insanity. And I am far from the first person to reach that conclusion.
. . .
And when even an investigator as incredibly gullible as J.B. Rhine (who went on to authenticate ESP in a horse) saw through one of Doyle's pet mediums, Doyle placed a notice in the Boston newspapers, "J.B. Rhine is an Ass" (203).

Book Review: The Gullibility of Conan Doyle

Richard Evans Lee
August 27, 2002 • Permalink
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Edifying Spectacle
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Psychics & Other Frauds
Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle
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Edifying Spectacle

Anti-theism, skepticism: noting wishful thinking and quackery.