Harry Houdini Proves Survival of Death with a Secret Code

For the ultimate proof of surivival of death, we look to Hungarian immigrant Harry Houdini (1874 – 1926), the renowned escapologist, was also the arch-skeptic of the spiritualist movement. Just before his death in 1926, he and his wife, Bess, arranged a coded message that he would try to get to her from the other side … if the afterlife was real. After Harry Houdini crossed over, his wife did the rounds of mediums until, in 1929, the famous medium Arthur Ford, pastor of the First Spiritualist Church of New York, successfully received the message from Houdini. It took, Ford said, ten sittings and several months before the ten-word message was complete: “Rosabelle, answer, tell, pray, answer, look, tell, answer, answer, tell.”

When two church members presented the code to Bess, they saw a look of shock and asked if the words made sense to her. They did; it was the secret code she and her husband had used on stage, and known only by them. The two visitors arranged for Reverend Ford to hold a sitting in her home.

Two days later, Bess was lying on the sofa as Arthur Ford, sitting blindfolded with a handkerchief, went into a trance. As witnesses looked on, he spoke the words he’d written in the note, “Rosabelle, answer, tell, pray, answer, look, tell, answer, answer, tell,” in a strange voice which he said was Harry Houdini’s.

Ford asked her, “Does what I said make sense to you?” She said it did. Then Ford went on: “Thank you, sweetheart. Now take off your ring and tell the witnesses what ‘Rosabelle’ means.” Then softly Bess began to sing,

Rosabelle, sweet Rosabelle, I love you more than I can tell. Over me you cast a spell. I love you my sweet Rosabelle.

Through Ford, Houdini explained what this song meant to him and Bess – that Rosabelle was his own private and intimate pet name for Bess. He then went on: “The strange words of the message are the cues from the Houdini vaudeville mind-reading act. Each word or pair of words stood for a letter of the alphabet. They spell “Believe.”

Continuing, Houdini said, “The message I want to send back to my wife is: ‘ROSABELLE, BELIEVE!’”Fletcher, Ford’s control, then asked Mrs. Houdini, “Is this right?”

“Yes,” she replied with great feeling.

In conclusion, Fletcher relayed Houdini’s final words. “‘Tell the whole world that Harry Houdini still lives and will prove it a thousand times and more.’ He is pretty excited. He says, ‘I was perfectly honest and sincere in trying to disprove survival, though I resorted to tricks to prove my point for the simple reason that I did not believe communication was true, but I did no more than seemed justifiable. I am now sincere in sending this through in my desire to undo. Tell all those who lost faith because of my mistake to lay hold again of hope, and to live with the knowledge that life is continuous. That is my message to the world, through my wife and through this instrument.’”Houdini closed the sitting with: “Rosabelle, sweet Rosabelle, BELIEVE! Spare no time or money to undo the attitude of doubt I had on earth. Teach the truth to those who’ve lost the faith, my sweetheart. Tell the world there is no death.”

Mrs. Houdini signed the affirmation (reproduced here) as to what happened, and it was witnessed by three people of the highest integrity: Harry R. Zander, representative of the United Press; Mrs. Minnie Chester, life-long friend of Mrs. Houdini and John W. Stafford, associate editor of Scientific American.On the next day, January 9, 1930, the headline: “Widow Communes with Houdini!” showed up all around the world. Oddly, this story dominated the newspapers of the day, but today, the ultimate proof of survival of death is now just a footnote in the spiritual history books.

"Harry Houdini" is excerpted from "Death Without Fear" by Tony Stubbs