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Joseph Francis Rinn (1868–1952) was an American magician and skeptic of
paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...
phenomena.


Career

Rinn grew up in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. He coached
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 ...
as a teenager in
running Running is a method of terrestrial locomotion by which humans and other animals move quickly on foot. Running is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are above the ground (though there are exceptions). This is in contrast to walkin ...
at the Pastime Athletic Club. He remained a friend to Houdini and exposed many fraudulent
medium Medium may refer to: Aircraft *Medium bomber, a class of warplane * Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''The Medium'' (1921 film), a German silent film * ''The Medium'' (1951 film), a film vers ...
s throughout his career. His sister, Bridgette, was a Catholic nun. He was a former one-year member of the
American Society for Psychical Research The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States dedicated to parapsychology. Until recently, it maintained offices and a library in New York City that were open to members and ...
and a lifelong inquirer into
psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...
matters. He was a member of the
Society of American Magicians The Society of American Magicians (S.A.M.) is the oldest fraternal magic organization in the world. Its purpose is "to advance, elevate, and preserve magic as a performing art, to promote harmonious fellowship throughout the world of magic, and ...
. Rinn was notable for describing the tricks of physical mediums. He exposed the
billet reading Billet reading, or the envelope trick, is a mentalism, mentalist effect in which a performer pretends to use clairvoyance to read messages on folded papers or inside sealed envelopes. It is a widely performed "standard" of the mentalist craft sinc ...
of Bert Reese. Science writer
Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing magic, scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writin ...
has noted that Rinn had provided "good description of one of Reese's billet-reading performances, with an explanation of how he did it." Rinn would offer huge amounts of
money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are: m ...
, up to $10,000 to anyone who could demonstrate a psychic event; however, as nobody ever did, the money went unclaimed. He was friends with another debunker of spiritualism the magician John Mulholland. Rinn's work in debunking psychic phenomena has been praised by psychologists in the field of
anomalistic psychology In psychology, anomalistic psychology is the study of human behaviour and experience connected with what is often called the paranormal, with few assumptions made about the validity of the reported phenomena. Early history According to anomalisti ...
. One claim that Rinn investigated that turned out to be true was the Mynah bird of Emma Cecilia Thursby that could sing in different languages and play the piano. According to Rinn an autopsy of the bird revealed an extraordinarily large brain and this was responsible for the bird's great abilities. Rinn was an
anti-vaccinationist Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine hesitancy by dissem ...
. In 1911, he denounced smallpox vaccination.


Metropolitan Psychical Society

Rinn became disillusioned with the
American Society for Psychical Research The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) is the oldest psychical research organization in the United States dedicated to parapsychology. Until recently, it maintained offices and a library in New York City that were open to members and ...
as he believed they had failed to expose cases of psychic fraud so in 1905 he formed a skeptical group known as the Metropolitan Psychical Society. Notable skeptical members who were also magicians included Winfield S. Davis and James L. Kellogg. In January, 1910 a series of séance sittings were held in the physics laboratory at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
with the medium Eusapia Palladino. Scientists such as
Robert W. Wood Robert Williams Wood (May 2, 1868 – August 11, 1955) was an American physicist and inventor who made pivotal contributions to the field of optics. He pioneered infrared and ultraviolet photography. Wood's patents and theoretical work inform m ...
and
Edmund Beecher Wilson Edmund Beecher Wilson (October 19, 1856 – March 3, 1939) was a pioneering American zoologist and geneticist. He wrote one of the most influential textbooks in modern biology, ''The Cell''. He discovered the chromosomal XY sex-determination s ...
attended. Davis, Kellogg, Rinn and John W. Sargent, a past-president of the Society of American Magicians were present in the last séance sittings in April. They discovered that Palladino had freed her left foot to perform the phenomena. Rinn gave a full account of fraudulent behavior observed in a séance of Palladino.


Reception

Rinn's book ''Searchlight on Psychical Research'' (1954) was described in a review as the "death knell of spiritualism" as it exposed the fraud and tricks involved in
spiritualist Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at least ...
activities. In the book ''A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology'' (1985), authors Gerd H. Hövelmann,
Marcello Truzzi Marcello Truzzi (September 6, 1935 – February 2, 2003) was an American sociologist and academic who was professor of sociology at New College of Florida and later at Eastern Michigan University, founding co-chairman of the Committee for the Sc ...
and Piet Hein Hoebens described the book as:
A flawed but nonetheless very important critical work by a man prominent in conjuring circles (Rinn was a successful businessman and part-time magician and exposer/ investigator of spirit mediums) who has given us material in this that today appears nowhere else. Because Rinn deals with his own direct experiences and, especially, because he quotes at length from now obscure and forgotten newspaper records, the book is invaluable. It is a book full of opinions, gossip, and anecdotes, and it needs to be read that way — not as a work of objective scholarship. Aside from its wealth of detail, the book is also an important document showing the outlook of a strong skeptic.
Biographer
William Lindsay Gresham William Lindsay Gresham (; August 20, 1909 – September 14, 1962) was an American novelist and non-fiction author particularly well-regarded among readers of noir fiction, noir. His best-known work is ''Nightmare Alley (novel), Nightmare Alley' ...
noted that the book did contain inaccuracies but is valuable for its reprinting of clippings dealing with Harry Houdini. Skeptic Melvin Harris wrote that the book has "many faults and inaccuracies, but for all that, it offers many hints to investigators and points researchers in many fruitful directions."Harris, Melvin. (2003). ''Investigating the Unexplained: Psychic Detectives, the Amityville Horror-mongers, Jack the Ripper, and Other Mysteries of the Paranormal''.
Prometheus Books Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by the philosopher Paul Kurtz (who was also the founder of the Council for Secular Humanism, Center for Inquiry, and co-founder of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry). The publ ...
. p. 221.
Commenting in 2013,
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. ...
has described the book as the "deepest and most important sources of skeptical literature on paranormal investigation from about 1890–1950."


Publications

*''Sixty Years of Psychical Research: Houdini and I Among the Spiritualists'' (New York: Truth Seeker Company, 1950). Reprinted in England as ''Searchlight on Psychical Research'' (London: Rider and Company, 1954)


References


External links

*William Henry Salter. (1952)
''Sixty Years of Psychical Research''
Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 36: 431-438.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rinn, Joseph 1868 births 1962 deaths American anti-vaccination activists American skeptics American magicians American male writers Critics of parapsychology Critics of Spiritualism Entertainers from New York City Harry Houdini