At this point Houdini relized he needed to make their show more interesting. He got a new idea from a book about spiritualism (talking with the spirits of dead people). At the time many people believed that it really was possible to speak with the dead. "Spiritualists" sometimes held performances that helped them believe this. They asked someone to tie them to a chair with a rope. Then, with the lights out, they untied themselves. Moving around the room, they made strange sounds that people thought were spirits. Than they tied themselves up again before the lights were turned on.