I have spent a goodly part of my life in study and research. During the last 30 years, I have read every single piece of literature on the subject of spiritualism that I could. I have accumulated one of the largest libraries in the world on psychic phenomena, spiritualism, magic, witchcraft, demonology, evil spirits, etc - some of the material going back as far as 1489. And I doubt if any one in the world has so complete a library on modern spiritualism, but nothing I ever read concerning the so-called spiritualistic phenomena has impressed me as being genuine.

It is true that some of the things I read seemed mystifying, but I question if they would be were they to be reproduced under different circumstances, under test conditions, and before expert mystifiers and open-minded committees. Mine has not been an investigation of a few days or weeks or months, but one that has extended over 30 years and in that time, I have not found one incident that savored of the genuine.

If there had been any real unalloyed demonstration to work on - one that did not reek of fraud, one that could not be reproduced by earthly powers - then there would be something for a foundation, but up to the present time, everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains or those which were too actively and intensely willing to believe. Houdini.