Unlock Your Mind – A story from Houdini’s Life
I’m sure you’ve all heard of the great illusionist of yesteryear – Harry Houdini. Houdini was a master magician as well as a fabulous locksmith. Houdini was probably the most famous escape artist in the world. I read an interesting incident from his life this week. I’m not sure if the story I’m about to share with you is part of his legend or part of his history, but it surely is fascinating.
Houdini was very confident in his talents. He claimed that he could escape from any Jail cell in the World in less than an hour, provided he could go into the cell dressed in street clothes. And every time he was given this challenge, he accepted and did just as he promised. He was left alone in a locked cell and in a few short minutes he would miraculously escape.
But one time things didn’t go as Houdini planned…
A small town in the British Isles built a new jail cell and they were proud of it. “Come give us a try,” they said to Houdini, and he agreed.
He walked into the prison cell bristling with confidence. After all, he had done this hundreds of times before. Houdini hid inside his belt a special lock pick he had designed. Once the jail cell was closed, Houdini took off his coat, and set to work with his lock pick. But he discovered that something was unusual about this particular lock.
For 30 minutes he worked and got nowhere. And his confident expression disappeared.
An hour passed, and still he had not been able to open the door. By now he was bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, but he still could not pick the lock. He tried all the tricks of his trade but nothing worked.
After two hours and totally exhausted, Houdini literally collapsed against the door. The door swung open and he discovered it had not been locked in the first place! It was locked only to him in his mind.