Houdini And Hope In A Time Of Pandemic

The famous magician Harry Houdini spent years trying to communicate with his mother who had passed away. He went to séances and psychics, all in the hopes of somehow receiving word that she was in a better place.

Finally in disgust at the frauds he encountered, he became a debunker of the psychics who were preying upon hurting people. However, he never gave up hope that one day he would find a way to reach his mother.

As a number of years passed, he made a secret pact with his wife, Bess. He didn’t want her to suffer at the hands of con-artists as he did, so they came up with a ten word code. The idea was that if one of them died and the other went to a psychic, were the psychic really be able to contact the dead he would receive the code from the other side.

When Harry died an untimely death, Bess spent ten years going to psychics in an attempt to contact him, offering a $10,000 reward for any medium able to speak to her beloved husband.

After a decade, Bess gave up. At the close of the final séance she simply said, “This is the end, Harry, good night.”

The secret phrase between Harry and Bess was, “Rosabelle — Answer — Tell — Pray, Answer — Look — Tell — Answer, Answer — Tell.” Each word represented a letter.

When put together the code spelled, “BELIEVE.”

It was Solomon who stated, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12). Indeed, it has been well said that when character is lost, all is lost. The same can be said about hope.

There is a famous tale about a young boy who was the eternal optimist, so his parents took him to a psychiatrist to help him become more grounded. The counselor took the boy into a room filled with horse manure.

Immediately the boy began digging through the pile. “What are you doing?” asked the psychiatrist. To which the boy replied, “With all this manure there must be a pony in here somewhere.”

The story was one of President Reagan’s favorites, and it was something Solomon understood. Hope brings peace to our hearts, and when we experience a breakthrough it is like a starving man finding a tree of life.

As Albert Einstein stated, “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.”

It truly is one of the secrets to a fulfilled life, but it is not written in a code. Instead it is written upon hearts that never give up hope and even in the face of the greatest odds choose to believe.