According to the magician Harry Houdini, Baggally was a believer in telepathy who had endorsed the mentalists Julius and Agnes Zancig as genuine telepaths, when they were actually "clever, silent and signal codists."[REF] .
Psychical researcher Eric Dingwall wrote that before attending séances with Palladino in 1908, Baggally "had studied trick methods, performed them himself" and was "almost totally sceptical as to the reality of any supernormal physical phenomena whatsoever."[REF]