Harry Houdini was also searching for somebody to help him contact his mother at that time, and he and Doyle became friends. But Houdini quickly exposed most of the "mediums" as frauds and lay the tricks they used bare. He would appear at sances and shout, "I am Houdini! And you are a fraud!"
Houdini tried to convince Arthur that he was wasting his time with those people's lies, but Doyle was a fervent believer and refused to see Houdini's point.
That was when Houdini decided to invite him over and show him how mediums tricked their audiences. He performed some typical spiritualist tricks. It did not have the desired effect. Instead, Arthur then believed that Houdini, too, was an 'undercover' medium!
Arthur's wife, Jean, conducted a sance and "contacted" Houdini's mother. The reading was flawed in many ways, but the biggest mistake was that Houdini's "mother" started the contact by drawing a cross by using Jean as a medium. As Houdini pointed out, his mother was Jewish and would never have done that!
Later, when Houdini said that he has never met with a convincing medium in twenty-five years, Doyle and his wife felt deeply offended, and the friendship ended there.
