Fraudulent Spiritualism Unveiled

By: David P. Abbott

Narrated by: Kami Kolburn

David Phelps Abbott (1863-1934) was a magician, author and inventor who created such effects as the floating ball. A contemporary and friend of Harry Houdini, Abbott made it a calling to expose charlatans who used the tricks of his trade for unscrupulous purposes, especially those who claimed to communicate with the dead at the expense of their living counterparts.

He explains that any presentation of the magical, whether by nature or artist, has some mundane mechanics behind it. While all art seeks to disguise its source, magic has a unique relationship to its mechanics. The magicians or the charlatans aims to displace one’s attention from one cause to another.

In this work, Abbott examines some of the acts that he considered disreputable - and by exposing these seemingly impossible feats he reveals how people are manipulated.

Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks