Creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has to be one of the most rational people on earth. But following his son’s death in World War I, he started believing in ‘spiritualism’ and wanted to speak to his son. He also believed in the existence of magic. Harry Houdini – a friend of Doyle and a renowned illusionist – decided to do something about his friend’s absurd belief.
He instructed Doyle to drop a ball into a bucket of white paint, then leave the house, walk three blocks away, write a message on a paper and return. When Doyle came back, he picked out the ball and placed it on a slate where the ball began rolling and spelled out the secret massage Doyle had written – “Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin”. The ball was made of iron and Houdini used a magnet to move it. As to how he knew the message – at one point he had simply asked Doyle for the paper to examine whether it was properly folded and returned a blank paper in its place. Houdini let his Doyle know that he had actually been tricked but never explained how. So Doyle remained convinced that magic was a real thing.