Carlos María de Heredia

Carlos María de Heredia

Carlos María de Heredia (1872-1951) was a Mexican magician and Jesuit priest. Heredia was born in Mexico City and spent his life investigating and exposing the tricks of spiritism.^[1] He worked as a professor at the College of the Holy Cross. At the Catholic Club of New York in 1920, he held a mock séance for five hundred people. He showed the audience how easily one could fake mediumship tricks such as the levitation of objects and how easily people can be fooled in the séance room.^[2] Heredia had revealed how the fake ectoplasm "spirit hand" was made by using a rubber glove, paraffin and a jar of cold water.^[3] The work of Heredia in debunking the tricks of fraudulent mediums has been praised by the skeptic Daniel Loxton.^[4]

Publications

• Spiritism and Common Sense (1922)

References

1. J. L. Peabody. (1923). Spirit Pictures and a Speaking Skull. Popular Mechanics. pp. 817-820
2. Lawrence Samuel. (2011). Supernatural America: A Cultural History. Praeger. p. 7. ISBN 978-0313398995
3. Spirit Hands, "ectoplasm," and Rubber Gloves
4. Daniel Loxton. (2013). Same Darkness, Same Light. Skepticblog

External links

• Spiritism and Common Sense