Carlos María de Heredia (1872-1951) was a Mexican magician and

Jesuit priest The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

. He was a leading Catholic critic of

spiritism Spiritism may refer to: Religion * Espiritismo, a Latin American and Caribbean belief that evolved and less evolved spirits can affect health, luck and other aspects of human life * Kardecist spiritism, a new religious movement established in ...

Biography

Heredia was born in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

and spent his life investigating and exposing the tricks of

. He worked as a professor at the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. ...

. At the Catholic Club of New York in 1920, he held a mock

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French language, French word for "session", from the Old French , "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general and mundane: one ma ...

for five hundred people. He showed the audience how easily one could fake

mediumship Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or ghost, spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or ...

tricks such as the

levitation Levitation, Levitate, or Levitating may refer to: Concepts *Levitation (illusion), an illusion where a magician appears to levitate a person or object *Levitation (paranormal), the claimed paranormal phenomenon of levitation, occurring without an ...

of objects and how easily people can be fooled in the séance room. Heredia had revealed how the fake ectoplasm "spirit hand" was made by using a rubber glove, paraffin and a jar of cold water. The work of Heredia in debunking the tricks of fraudulent mediums has been praised by the skeptic

Daniel Loxton Daniel Loxton (born 1975) is a Canadian writer, illustrator, and skeptic. He wrote or co-wrote several books including ''Tales of Prehistoric Life,'' a children's science trilogy, and '' Abominable Science!'', a scientific look at cryptozoology. ...

. His book ''Spiritism and Common Sense'' (1922) has been described as a "highly critical examination of paranormal phenomena." Heredia was a friend with the magicians

Harry Houdini Erik Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known professionally as Harry Houdini ( ), was a Hungarian-American escapologist, illusionist, and stunt performer noted for his escape acts. Houdini first attracted notice in vaudeville in ...

and John Mulholland. In his ''Magician Among the Spirits'' (1924), Houdini cited a fraudulent method that Heredia had used to produce a spirit photograph. Houdini, Harry. (1924). ''A Magician Among The Spirits''. Harper and Brothers. p. 114

Publications

* * ''True Spiritualism'' (1924) * ''Los Fraudes Espiritistas y los Fenómenos Metapsíquicos'' (1931) * ''The Quest of Ben Hered: Memoirs of a Reporter in the Time of Christ'' (1947)

References

External links

Priest Exposes Spiritism
- The New York Times {{DEFAULTSORT:Heredia, Carlos Maria de 1872 births 1951 deaths 20th-century Jesuits Critics of Spiritualism Harry Houdini Mexican Jesuits People from Mexico City