Dear reader,
on Halloween 86 years ago, october, 31 1926, the magician and escapologist Harry Houdini died. Many people know little or nothing about that name today. Although he achieved quite big things actually, not only in the field of entertainment as a magician and escapologist. I want to take the opportunity today to write a bit about him.
What many people don't know is that Harry Houdini wasn't his real name. He was born in Budapest in 1874 as Erik Weisz. His family moved to america when he was still young, they ended up living in New York. The family changed their name to "Weiss" and Erik called himself "Ehrich". When he was 17, he started doing magic shows and used the name Harry Houdini for himself. There are different theories why it was "Harry" as a first name. On the english wikipedia-page you can read that friends already called him "Harry". On the german wikipedia-page it reads that the magician Harry Kellar was is idol and he took the first name of him because of that. The name "Houdini" came from another magician-idol: Eugène Robert-Houdin. A friend of Houdini's told him that in french when you add an "i" at the end of "Houdin", it would mean "like Houdin". That's actually not the case, but makes a nice story about how he came to the name, I think.
He worked in a circus and traveled not only in america, but also europe, including germany and also russia. He's certainly most known for his escapology. Among other things he let himself be tied up and put under water in rivers. He also once was locked up (as part of the trick, not because he had done something wrong) and tied up in the Tower of London and was able to free himself. But he also did magic in different ways and for example he wrote a book on paper magic. He describes techniques to fold things out of paper. (Essentially how to do something like origami.) I heard he was quite good and skilled with card magic, too. He's known today for his escapology though. In a documentary on Harry Houdini that I saw, they said that he did his escapology at a time when the people in america felt captivated/imprisoned. To see that he unleashed himself was more than a mere entertainment act then. It was a symbol of freedom for themselves.
Harry Houdini was a mama's boy and when she died, he was very sad. At that time there were many people, who claimed they could get contact with the dead. But Harry Houdini with his own knowledge about magic, was smart and saw through the tricks of those people. Since he knew about the pain of this loss through the death of his own mother, he spent the rest of his life debunking charlatans and to safe moaning people from con artists. Because you can very well make pretty good money that way, if you're "skilled" enough and know how to do it. But I have absolutely no respect for those people. My point of view is that they really use this pain and make money from that. It's one thing if a funeral parlour wants money for the coffin, the memorial and funeral and all that. But to say that one can talk to the dead and in reality it's all just an act, that's clearly crossing a line for me. Maybe some of those people believe, that they truly can talk to the dead. But I believe that most of them know very well that this isn't reality and that what they do is simply a disrespectful tall tale.
The american magic duo Penn & Teller have a tv series where they investigate things we take for granted and let experts talk about that. The series is called "Bullshit" and the first episode was on talking to the dead. At the beginning Penn is standing in front of a grave stone with Harry Houdini's name and dates on it and talking to him. That even after so many years and his attempts people still talk to the dead. Then he turns to the camera saying, "See? Anyone can talk to the dead. Getting an answer, that's the hard part."
Harry Houdini's death is pretty mysterious. They say this is what happened: He had some blind gut or belly problem prior to october, 31. A student came to see him october, 22 to test Houdini. He had claimed that by contracting the muscles, he could be hit by someone and feel fine and be unhurt. So this man came and hit him in the belly. It's said that Houdini later claimed the belly problems came from the hitting and he, Houdini, didn't have enough time to prepare for the hitting. The belly problems got worse after that. A doctor diagnosed him with appendicitis. Houdini did his final show october, 24, went to the hospital after that and died there october, 31, aged 52.
Houdini and his wife thought up a code word. After one of them was dead, that person would try to make contact with the one still living. That word would be the proof that the connection was genuine. The code word was "Rosabelle believe". Up until 10 years after Houdini had died, his wife held an annual séance, to get in contact with her husband. This never happened at any time though. After the final try, she commented, "ten years is long enough to wait for any man."
Until next blog,
sarah
Wednesday 31 October 2012
Thursday 18 October 2012
It's over
Dear reader,
on monday at about 5:30 the phone rang. At the very first moment I thought a certain friend of my parents might be calling. He wakes up early in the morning. But he wouldn't call at this hour. It could only have been the hospital and it was. My mom died.
I'm happy for her. My mom was french and had the accident when she was on holiday in france. She rode her bike a lot and had the accident on her bike. My dad was with her and a couple of good friends, too. The weather was great. apart from the shock of falling, I think, she was happy at that moment. When my dad arrived at the accident, she was already in a coma. I know, there's lot debate even among doctors, how much someone in a coma still senses. I'd like to believe that she at least didn't sense much after the accident. Her final conscious moments were happy anyway and that makes me happy for her.
Until next blog,
sarah
on monday at about 5:30 the phone rang. At the very first moment I thought a certain friend of my parents might be calling. He wakes up early in the morning. But he wouldn't call at this hour. It could only have been the hospital and it was. My mom died.
I'm happy for her. My mom was french and had the accident when she was on holiday in france. She rode her bike a lot and had the accident on her bike. My dad was with her and a couple of good friends, too. The weather was great. apart from the shock of falling, I think, she was happy at that moment. When my dad arrived at the accident, she was already in a coma. I know, there's lot debate even among doctors, how much someone in a coma still senses. I'd like to believe that she at least didn't sense much after the accident. Her final conscious moments were happy anyway and that makes me happy for her.
Until next blog,
sarah
Sunday 7 October 2012
Darn mirror neurons!
Dear reader,
my mom will die. We went to the doctor on tuesday and got the MRI results and to make a long story short: my mom is bleeding deep in the brain on many places. Since thursday she also has fever. The doctor already told us on tuesday that an infect is about to come. There is no more hope. At least we know what's coming now and there's somewhat of an end in sight to her suffering, the suffering of all of us.
For several weeks now I've had headaches on and off. My dad told me the other day that, he too, has headaches sometimes. I think the places change for me. I don't pay much attention to it. For my dad the headache is where my mom was hit on the head. Responsible for this phenomena is what's called mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are neurons (nerves) in primates' brains, which are activated when we watch others do things. What's so special about them is that the same neurons are active both when we are (passive) watching someone and (active) actually doing something. So for the brain it doesn't matter whether we watch someone or do the activity ourselves. In both cases the same area, the same neurons are active. There's much debate going on about mirror neurons. The way I understand it, they are making us smile when we see others smile. They say when I was little and a certain friend started crying, I cried, too.
Something else is related to this, too, I think: ideomotor movents. I don't know, if this is actually true, but for me the words are made of "idea" and "motoric". The idea, which is the thought of a movement, leads to real movement. They are tiny, sort of micro-movements, but still movements. They're muscle movements then, or muscle tension, something like that and not actual visible movements. You can make "movements you thought of" visible though. Take a piece of string. Anything works. Something thin, long. On one end you put some weight on it. It doesn't have to be very heavy actually, just enough to serve as a pendulum. (Alternatively you can actually use a pendulum, too. I like to take a necklace I have with a stone hanging on it.) The pendulum needs hang in the air like that. Ideally take the string between your thumb and index finger only. You can support the elbow somewhere, but the wrist and upper arm have to be unsupported in any way. The elbow might rest on the arm of a chair and the string hanging next to the chair or use a table or something. Then concentrate on the end of the pendulum that's in the air. For starters just imagine it moving in no particular way at all, just moving. Then start playing with it: side to side, left to right, back and forth, or circle. If you want to and the pendulum is moving nicely, you can take a look at your hand now. The hand is making the movement. The string is only serving to make movement longer and more visible and the weight at the end of it, makes the movement even more visible. Many people may know the pendulum as a tool for witches, to (supposedly) communicate with spirits. In fact however there's nothing but micro-movements we thought of made visible through the pendulum. Some may be outraged or others still skeptical, but the so-called Ouija board, works the same way. (That's a board with the letters of the alphabet and you've got an arrow on which one or more people place their fingers and the arrow moves to the letters creating words as answers to questions asked). Flying tables or other objects are done with another trick, but what's called moving tables or moving glasses is done with ideomotor movements. The Ouija board only works if at least one of the persons involved knows the right answer. Derren Brown in his book "Tricks of the Mind" writes about one time when he was with friends and they wanted to communicate with one of his dead relatives. He knew about ideomotor movements at that time and deliberately didn't want to touch the arrow of the Ouija board. After the group asked for the name of the dead relative, they got a name all right, but it was not the real name of the relative and later one of the group said he had the name in his head. That's why that name came up.
Does that mean the pendulum is nothing but a cheap toy to play with ideomotor movements made visible? No. You can really communicate using a pendulum. Communicate with your unconscious. You can for example use it, if you're unsure making a decision. Either set up a movement for yes and no. (Be careful! Don't use left for yes and right for no. Make it distinct movements such as left and right for yes and circle for no.) Or you wish for any which movement may come up for yes and then ask for another movement for no. And then you can ask all kinds of questions and see what your unconscious thinks about them and shows you through movement. You could work with more than yes and no only, but I wouldn't make it more complicated than necessary. You could use diagonal for "maybe", too, or back and forth for "not sure". Something like that. You can also take a piece of paper and write a word in each corner (for example: yes, no, maybe, not sure) use the middle of the paper as a "starting point" and start swinging. The answers will be defined depending on which of the corners you end up.
The great escapologist Harry Houdini was a real mommy's boy. He was deeply hurt when his mom had died. He would have loved to be able to communicate with her. But he saw through the methods the so-called mediums used to supposedly communicate with the dead and spend much time debunking charlatan. I don't know, if it's possible to talk to the dead or not. What I do know however and wanted to describe here is that things like the pendulum or the Ouija board work entirely without "an invisible hand". And still this effect and the possibilities to really use it, fascinate me.
I once heard that our muscles already do ideomotor movements, before we do the real movements. So our body knows how we want to move next, before we actually do it. What good is our conscious then?
Until next blog,
sarah
my mom will die. We went to the doctor on tuesday and got the MRI results and to make a long story short: my mom is bleeding deep in the brain on many places. Since thursday she also has fever. The doctor already told us on tuesday that an infect is about to come. There is no more hope. At least we know what's coming now and there's somewhat of an end in sight to her suffering, the suffering of all of us.
For several weeks now I've had headaches on and off. My dad told me the other day that, he too, has headaches sometimes. I think the places change for me. I don't pay much attention to it. For my dad the headache is where my mom was hit on the head. Responsible for this phenomena is what's called mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are neurons (nerves) in primates' brains, which are activated when we watch others do things. What's so special about them is that the same neurons are active both when we are (passive) watching someone and (active) actually doing something. So for the brain it doesn't matter whether we watch someone or do the activity ourselves. In both cases the same area, the same neurons are active. There's much debate going on about mirror neurons. The way I understand it, they are making us smile when we see others smile. They say when I was little and a certain friend started crying, I cried, too.
Something else is related to this, too, I think: ideomotor movents. I don't know, if this is actually true, but for me the words are made of "idea" and "motoric". The idea, which is the thought of a movement, leads to real movement. They are tiny, sort of micro-movements, but still movements. They're muscle movements then, or muscle tension, something like that and not actual visible movements. You can make "movements you thought of" visible though. Take a piece of string. Anything works. Something thin, long. On one end you put some weight on it. It doesn't have to be very heavy actually, just enough to serve as a pendulum. (Alternatively you can actually use a pendulum, too. I like to take a necklace I have with a stone hanging on it.) The pendulum needs hang in the air like that. Ideally take the string between your thumb and index finger only. You can support the elbow somewhere, but the wrist and upper arm have to be unsupported in any way. The elbow might rest on the arm of a chair and the string hanging next to the chair or use a table or something. Then concentrate on the end of the pendulum that's in the air. For starters just imagine it moving in no particular way at all, just moving. Then start playing with it: side to side, left to right, back and forth, or circle. If you want to and the pendulum is moving nicely, you can take a look at your hand now. The hand is making the movement. The string is only serving to make movement longer and more visible and the weight at the end of it, makes the movement even more visible. Many people may know the pendulum as a tool for witches, to (supposedly) communicate with spirits. In fact however there's nothing but micro-movements we thought of made visible through the pendulum. Some may be outraged or others still skeptical, but the so-called Ouija board, works the same way. (That's a board with the letters of the alphabet and you've got an arrow on which one or more people place their fingers and the arrow moves to the letters creating words as answers to questions asked). Flying tables or other objects are done with another trick, but what's called moving tables or moving glasses is done with ideomotor movements. The Ouija board only works if at least one of the persons involved knows the right answer. Derren Brown in his book "Tricks of the Mind" writes about one time when he was with friends and they wanted to communicate with one of his dead relatives. He knew about ideomotor movements at that time and deliberately didn't want to touch the arrow of the Ouija board. After the group asked for the name of the dead relative, they got a name all right, but it was not the real name of the relative and later one of the group said he had the name in his head. That's why that name came up.
Does that mean the pendulum is nothing but a cheap toy to play with ideomotor movements made visible? No. You can really communicate using a pendulum. Communicate with your unconscious. You can for example use it, if you're unsure making a decision. Either set up a movement for yes and no. (Be careful! Don't use left for yes and right for no. Make it distinct movements such as left and right for yes and circle for no.) Or you wish for any which movement may come up for yes and then ask for another movement for no. And then you can ask all kinds of questions and see what your unconscious thinks about them and shows you through movement. You could work with more than yes and no only, but I wouldn't make it more complicated than necessary. You could use diagonal for "maybe", too, or back and forth for "not sure". Something like that. You can also take a piece of paper and write a word in each corner (for example: yes, no, maybe, not sure) use the middle of the paper as a "starting point" and start swinging. The answers will be defined depending on which of the corners you end up.
The great escapologist Harry Houdini was a real mommy's boy. He was deeply hurt when his mom had died. He would have loved to be able to communicate with her. But he saw through the methods the so-called mediums used to supposedly communicate with the dead and spend much time debunking charlatan. I don't know, if it's possible to talk to the dead or not. What I do know however and wanted to describe here is that things like the pendulum or the Ouija board work entirely without "an invisible hand". And still this effect and the possibilities to really use it, fascinate me.
I once heard that our muscles already do ideomotor movements, before we do the real movements. So our body knows how we want to move next, before we actually do it. What good is our conscious then?
Until next blog,
sarah
Tuesday 2 October 2012
Turtle
Dear reader,
it's difficult not being able to do anything but wait. It's not quite like that. We brought my mom an mp3 player yesterday with music. I wish we could do more. Others tell us repeatedly to call them, if there's anything they can do. But the biggest work my mom has to do herself now.
Today had a documentary on tv. The Top 10 of oldest animals on the earth. I first thought we'd watch that together. But then friends of my parents' wanted to come. So I didn't watch it. But I immediately thought of turtles. I heard once that the reason for them to reach such an old age is that they do everything slowly. Hectic pace, always fast and rushing damages the body.
Today and yesterday my dad seemed extremely down. Maybe my sister and I see the situation more positive than it is. Or my dad is too pessimistic, because he understands all the medical stuff and sees more of the negative because of that. Probably we'll meet somewhere in the middle of it.
Anyway, before my dad went to bed, I told him that turtles live to be so old, because they do everything slowly. I told him, "Give her time. Give yourself time." Then he went to the bathroom and I went to my room. I knew I have a soft turtle here. Someone had bought it some time ago and as I was looking for a hand puppet a while back, I found it and brought it to my room. I found it and went into the hall way. I hesitated. On the bed or on the desk? I decided on the desk in the hall way and went back into my room. Some minutes later, my dad stuck his head in and said with a very tired look, "I'll take it into bed with me." That's what I had hoped for anyway. :-)
Until next blog,
sarah
it's difficult not being able to do anything but wait. It's not quite like that. We brought my mom an mp3 player yesterday with music. I wish we could do more. Others tell us repeatedly to call them, if there's anything they can do. But the biggest work my mom has to do herself now.
Today had a documentary on tv. The Top 10 of oldest animals on the earth. I first thought we'd watch that together. But then friends of my parents' wanted to come. So I didn't watch it. But I immediately thought of turtles. I heard once that the reason for them to reach such an old age is that they do everything slowly. Hectic pace, always fast and rushing damages the body.
Today and yesterday my dad seemed extremely down. Maybe my sister and I see the situation more positive than it is. Or my dad is too pessimistic, because he understands all the medical stuff and sees more of the negative because of that. Probably we'll meet somewhere in the middle of it.
Anyway, before my dad went to bed, I told him that turtles live to be so old, because they do everything slowly. I told him, "Give her time. Give yourself time." Then he went to the bathroom and I went to my room. I knew I have a soft turtle here. Someone had bought it some time ago and as I was looking for a hand puppet a while back, I found it and brought it to my room. I found it and went into the hall way. I hesitated. On the bed or on the desk? I decided on the desk in the hall way and went back into my room. Some minutes later, my dad stuck his head in and said with a very tired look, "I'll take it into bed with me." That's what I had hoped for anyway. :-)
Until next blog,
sarah
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