Houdini, reincarnation, and a magician named Von Treck

[JohnCox]

Okay, this one is bit off the wall, but interesting. Did Houdini really believe he was a reincarnation of a German magician who died doing a buried alive stunt?

http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2012/01 ... d-von.html

[houdini's ghost]

Walter was a genius, but, a full of the blarney genius. He knew more than anybody, but, what he didn't know, he made up. Dr. Morris Young wrote about Houdini's Vanishing Elephant with Walter and was positive Walter told him he'd seen Houdini perform it twice. I talked to Walter at great length about the elephant because I was writing about it as well. He gave me the impression he had seen Houdini do it.
But, one late night on the Long John Nevil radio show, Long John asked Walter if he'd seen Houdini perform the Vanishing Elephant, and Walter said, "I never did see Houdini perform it, but, I spoke to many people who did."
Anyway, never mind. But the subject of reincarnation comes up quite a lot with Houdini. Some samples:

American Hebrew June 13, 1924
"Sometimes I wonder," said Houdini with a touch of sentiment, "whether I am truly a reincarnation, of some old magician because magic never did seem a mystery to me."

Houdini's bio in full evening show souvenir program 1925
"Houdini does not believe in reincarnation, but he does admit that something within him told him how the lock could be opened. It might have been an inspiration, it might be an inborn talent for mechanics."

Grim Game pressbook 1919
"I believe in a form of reincarnation and I have discussed the question of spiritualism with scientists and learned men all over the world. I believe there is something behind the veil that has not yet been penetrated, but, I do not believe in spiritualism as practiced by so-called mediums. I do not think that spirits return."

August 23, 1922 "Houdini Answers Questions About Psychic Phenomena"
"As regards genius, I agree absolutely with the scientific consensus that it is caused by mental abnormality, analogous to physical abnormality which makes giants, dwarfs, and other freaks of the human race.The fact that exceptional children are born of altogether unexceptional parents proves nothing. If the history of the family is traced, it will be found usually that some forefather was possessed, to a certain degree, of the genius exhibited by the latest generation.
"This brings us to the question of reincarnation, by which souls who have not worked out their destiny return later to fufil their God given task. As far as I am concerned, this is only a theory. Still, it is of a highly interesting nature, and forms a basis for my motion picture, "
'The Man From Beyond.'"

Free Press, reprinted in the Literary Digest nov 20, 1926
"There is something in the theory of reincarnation," said he. "Just how much, I can not say, nor do I believe it will greatly profit us to seek to tear aside the veil. In due time it shall be lifted and we shall see, with Milton, 'the bright countenance of Truth.'
"I firmly believe, and this belief is based on investigation, observation and, in a measure, Personal expriencethat somehow, some where and some time, we return in another human form, to carry on, as it were, through another lifetime, perhaps through many succeeding life times, until some strange destiny is worked out to its ultimate solution.
"Everyone has had the exprience of saying a thing and immediately getting an indistinct flash of memory that tells of having formerly somewhere, some time, said or done the same thing under exactly similar circumstances.
"I, myself, hve entered some Old World city for the first time in
my life, so far as I was aware, and found the streets familiar, known just where to go to locate a certain house, for instance.
"Things hve come to me that it seemed could only hve been results of some former expriences. I seemed from earliest childhood to have a grasp upon certain faculties and a knowledge not according to my years--as if the understanding were from past education and that I had entered the world with certain fixed principles and ideas that could not have been at that
time the resuit of any prsent ducation "I do not believe in spiritualism as practised by so-called mediums. I do not believe that spirits return, because to my way of thinking they are on a plane of thought which render it as impossible for them to communicate with us earth folk as it is for the sleeper to communicate with his friend who is awake.
"I can not believe that the good that is in us ever dies, that the great things we do are ever wasted, or that we--those of us who have developed individual traits of character or accomplisment, distinctive works for good--shall perish utterly or fail to reap the reward of good things well done here on earth.
"Possibly the Great Intelligence that rules the universe plans beyond our ken; knows what lives shall be most essential to the well-being of the world and sends them back to finish what they have begun and have been forced to lay down before the beckoning finger of the Dark Angel."

(The Stage, magazine unknown), Jan 22, 1915
He believes in reincarnation and bases this belief on mind intrusions which have come to him in various parts of the globe when he has been locked in cells and dungeons.
"I always find something familiar about bars and locks. It seem to me that some time or another I have seen and felt them before."

[JohnCox]

Thanks Pat. As you show above, reincarnation does seem to come up a lot with Houdini. Funny how I never really noticed how much until now.

Joe Notaro over at the blog Harry Houdini Circumstantial Evidence has posted the article from The Grim Game pressbook and an ad for the movie that, oddly, is headlined "Houdini Believe in Reincarnation."

http://harryhoudinicircumstantialevidence.com/?p=279

[houdini's ghost]

You think he was already trying to sell "The Man From Beyond?"
Often, when Houdini mentions reincarnation, it is surrounded by lies: (I'm paraphrasing, but, I'm close) "When I am feeling my way out of a pitch black dungeon in Russia, I get the feeling that I have been there before."

[JohnCox]

Good point about how it's typically couched around fictions. I sometimes wonder if, in the early '20s, Houdini wasn't trying to find some way to cash in on the whole past life/spiritualism/mysticism thing. TMFB is a prime example. But then he discovered debunking it was the way to go.

BTW, David Byron believes he's found "Von Treck".

http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2012/01 ... -life.html

[JohnCox]

Joseph Pecore and Bill Goodwin have now chimed in on this and helped uncover more about Houdini and "Baron Trenck."

I thought this one was a bit of a lark, but it's getting darn interesting! Updates here:

http://www.wildabouthoudini.com/2012/01 ... -life.html

[houdini's ghost]

And this from a 1925 Sphinx--from an article about magicians who were Masons by Henry Ridgely Evans:
Who has not heard of Baron von Trenck, Casanova, and Latude, those famous prison breakers of the eighteenth century, who defied the dungeons of arbitrary power? Well, we have in this twentieth century a composite of these menHarry Houdini, the escape artist par excellence, whose specialty is freeing himself from handcuffs, leg-irons, and straight jackets. He escapes also from wooden boxes in which he has been nailed up. from bags and tin cases which have been corded and sealed. There is something very uncanny about his performance. In order to attract the attention of the press, Houdini visits the police stations, and, after being handcuffed by the police officials and locked in a cell, manages to effect his escape, leaving the handcufts behind him as souvenirs. Frequently he undergoes this test in a nude condition. His immense success and popularity with the public of two continents has caused a host of imitators to spring up, all of whom claim to be "handcuff kings." But they lack the finish, the showmanship, and the audacity of the original. There is nothing occult about his tricks. Various theories have been advanced concerning his act, but up to the present time his peculiar methods of freeing himself from handcuffs, leg-irons, etc., are locked in his own breast.
Harry Houdini is the son of Jewish parents, his father being a learned Rabbi. Houdini was born April 6, 1874, in Appleton, Wis. In his ninth year he started out to earn his living as a contortionist and trapeze performer in a 5-cent circus, located in his home town. His mother disliked his occupation, or at least thought he might improve upon it. and, much to his regret, took
him away from the circus and had him apprenticed to a locksmith. It was an inspiration on the good old lady's part, for it is owing to his knowledge of locks and keys that Houdini
climbed into fame. However, at that period of his career the trade of locksmithing had no charm for him. To use his own expression: "One day I made a bolt for the door, and never again entered my master's workshop." The youthful Houdini ran away from home and traveled with a show as a sleight-ofhand artist, a clown, and Punch and Judy performer. Eventually he sought to rival the Davenport Brothers in their rope-tying
Brother Houdini possesses inventive genius of a high order.
In his studies of the occult, for he is a student of mysticism, he has been very much impressed with the Hindoo doctrine of reincarnation. Plato believed in the pre-existence of the soul, and declared that knowledge was largely reminiscence. If reincarnation be true, and we have lived other lives than our present ones, then light is thrown on the extraordinary talents possessed by some people, which the doctrine of heredity fails to account for. In an interview with a Philadelphia journalist Houdini once remarked:
"I must have had other incarnations on this earth plane, the memories of which are stored up in my subliminal self and bubble up to the surface at times in my waking consciousness, else how could I have gone into the ancient prison in Moscow, Russia, every step along its intricate corridors familiar to me, known at once the great lock I was to open, and opened it as easily as with the proper key? How could I have had the same intuition and performed the same feat in the century-old Kangs at Tien- Tsin, China; and the antiquated jail at Amsterdam, Holland?"
Ah, how indeed, unless he had recovered in some occult manner the memory of former exploits? Many will say that the ingenious Mr. Houdini was romancing; others that he was actuated by ancestral memories. We inherit much from our ancestors; why not their memories? To a certain extent they live again in us. But we are wading in deep water here, and had better seek dry land again lest we be overwhelmed.
Houdini's collection of play bills and programs of eminent magicians, living and dead, constitutes a veritable history of natural magic and prestidigitation, to say nothing of the largest library of magic books in the world. His house in New York is a storehouse of information for magicians. Houdini is the author of a number of books on magic and kindred topics, the most ambitious of which is "A Magician Among the Spirits," New York, 1924. At present Houdini is engaged in an active crusade against bogus spirit mediums.
He was raised to the degree of Master Mason in St. Cecile Lodge, New York, about two years ago. He took his Scottish Rite degrees in the Consistory of New York City. He is a noble of Mecca Temple, Mystic Shrine, of New York.

[JohnCox]

Great find, Patrick! Thanks.

[houdini's ghost]

"I must have had other incarnations on this earth plane, the memories of which are stored up in my subliminal self and bubble up to the surface at times in my waking consciousness, else how could I have gone into the ancient prison in Moscow, Russia, every step along its intricate corridors familiar to me, known at once the great lock I was to open, and opened it as easily as with the proper key? How could I have had the same intuition and performed the same feat in the century-old Kangs at Tien-Tsin, China; and the antiquated jail at Amsterdam, Holland?"
China?

[JohnCox]

Nice. What's this from?

[Eric Fry]

I think the likeliest explanation is Houdini was indulging in showman's license to make himself seem spooky. On the face of it, it's made up. When was he in China? When did he escape from an ancient jail in Russia or the Netherlands?

[JohnCox]

Good point, Eric. This almost sounds like something out of one of his (ghosted) shorts stories.

[Joe Pecore]

Nice. What's this from?

That quote from Houdini is in a July 1920 "Sphinx" article by Henry R. Evans reprinting a section of the magazine The New Age, which states the quote comes from an interview with a Philadelphia journalist.

Here is the rest of the paragraph from the book:
Ah, how indeed, unless he had recovered in some occult manner the memory of former exploits? The Chosen People suffered many persecutions in the past; the prison, the stake, and the gibbet. But many will say that the ingenious Mr. Houdini was romancing; others that he was actuated by ancestral memories. We inherit much from our ancestors, why not their memories? To a certain extent they live again in us. But we are wading in deep waters here, and had better seek dry land again lest we be overwhelmed.