Editing Harry Houdini (section)

=== Rituals, Routine, and Environmental Control ===
Houdini’s daily life was '''structured around strict routines''': regular writing sessions, gymnastic workouts, dietary patterns, and silence during preparation. He could not perform unless rituals were completed in order, from costume fastening to last-minute physical checks.

He avoided noisy restaurants, disliked bright lights offstage, and traveled with a fixed set of items—tools, clothes, books—arranged exactly in suitcases. These behaviors indicate '''autistic environmental control and sensory defensiveness'''.

His dressing room was treated like a sanctuary: no one allowed during preparation, noise minimized, and '''ritual objects placed in fixed positions'''.
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