PSYCHIC ROULETTE George E. Vandeman Printed by SIGNS PUBLISHING COMPANY, WARBURTON, VICTORIA, 3799, AUSTRALIA. Australasian Conference Association Limited PSYCHIC ROULETTE – George Vandeman Contents 1. Typewriter in a Trance 2. Playing Dice With the Universe 3. The Haunted Bishop 4. Psychic Pastimes 5. Helter Skelter 6. Psychic Ice Is Thin 7. Who's Tossing Them Back? 8. Has Anybody Told Arthur Ford? 9. Answering Service for the Dead 10. Hijacked 11. Fight Plan 12. The Wheel of Karma 13. Light Beams and Hearsay 14. Wouldn't You Rather Have a Garden? 15. Watch Out for the Stars 16. The Spell of the East 17. The Day After Hypnosis 18. The Brain Games 19. The Return of the Witches 20. They Call It Protection 21. What's Wrong With the Spirit World? 22. The Chill That Might Have Been 23. Light for Lonely People 24. The Script in the Crystal Ball 25. How to Tell a Fake 26. Do You Care Who Heals You? 27. Flying Saucers Aren't Finished 28. The Ultimate Hoax 29. What About the Year 1999? 30. Rescue From Orion 2 PSYCHIC ROULETTE – George Vanderman 1. Typewriter in a Trance Evidently Arthur Ford didn't waste any time, once he was dead. Before the day was out he had sent word back from the other side that he was feeling—as young as the merry month of May. The next morning he was on the line the typewriter line himself, chatting with an old friend. And hardly were his ashes scattered over the Atlantic when he began dictating a book that was destined to become a best seller. So says the book's earthbound author, Ruth Montgomery. Arthur Ford, of course, was America's foremost psychic medium when he died of a heart attack on January 4, 1971, at the age of 73. He is perhaps best remembered as the medium who conducted the televised seance, aired on the Canadian network, in which Bishop Pike allegedly talked with his suicide son. The book claims to be an inside, first-hand, eyewitness account of what the afterlife is like. And its phenomenal sale is a witness to man's eternal curiosity about the other side of death. Everybody wants to know! Ruth Montgomery says that she did not write the book, that Arthur Ford did. Her part was only to sit at her typewriter for fifteen minutes a day from January 4 to May 7, 1971. She simply placed a sheet of yellow paper in the typewriter, meditated, and prayed for protection. Then she placed her fingers on the keys in touch position, and Arthur Ford, from the unseen world, typed the messages single-spaced without punctuation or capitalization. That's the way it happened, she says. And she remarks that the spirit-world spelling is better than her own. The book is spiced with bright and breezy talk concerning the whereabouts of famous names, from Jack Kennedy to Winston Churchill to Marilyn Monroe. But, strangely enough, Arthur Ford doesn't seem to know just what has happened to either God or Jesus. Never has so detailed a description of the afterlife been available for $5.95. It attacks many previously held notions and beliefs about the hereafter. Some who read it are pleased. Some are disappointed. Newsweek comments, By comparison to Ford's bland busy bodylessness, the heaven-or hell- of traditional Christian doctrine looks downright exciting." At this point it might be appropriate to assess what the book has accomplished thus far, or may be expected to accomplish-other than some sizable royalty cheeks. Ruth Montgomery says that letters have come in by the thousands. People have told her that the book saved them from divorce and suicide and despair. Perhaps so. And, on the plus side, the book does contain some clear admonition about giving up cigarettes and drugs and drink. Mrs. Montgomery was still smoking, however, when she came to Los Angeles to plug the book in April 1972. Leaving such tangibles as royalties and cigarettes, the results are more difficult to tabulate. One thing is certain. The man or woman who wishes to be assured that there is no death, no hell, no judgment, and no devil to worry about would find the book comforting. The man who doesn't want God looking over his shoulder, either now or later, the man who would prefer a future life in which both God and Jesus keep themselves out of sight, and so remote as to scarcely intrude even upon his thoughts-that man would be reassured. And the man who either doubts or neglects the ancient Book that Christians have long believed to be divinely inspired would take comfort in the fact that Arthur Ford scarcely mentions it. If all this is the kind of assurance needed in this hectic generation, then it is there for the reading. And if a man prefers a vague, confused picture of a meaningless, less-than-half-real, sure-to-be boring future, this is it. If he wants an entertaining, breezily written tranquilizer for his serious thoughts about God and His claims upon a man, this is the book. Put it this way: If this book is authentic, if it is a true picture of the world beyond, then it is the biggest story of all time. If it is not, then it is difficult to estimate its potential for damage to the human spirit. The big question, of course, is this: Did Arthur Ford write it? If not, who did? We intend to find out. 3 PSYCHIC ROULETTE – George Vanderman 2. Playing Dice With the Universe Is man playing dice with the universe? And if he is, is it safe? When he knocks at the door of the unseen world, who answers? Who originates the strange messages that type themselves, without human guidance, on waiting typewriters? Who paints the pictures in the crystal balls? Is somebody running an answering service for the dead? What about this accelerated feedback from the unseen? What about the games that people play with the mind? Are they harmless pastimes? Or questionable passports to psychic addiction? Man is tossing balls across the wall of the unseen world. And somebody is tossing them back. Who? And is it dangerous? Maybe we ought to know. Picture a man lying on the battlefield, wounded and alone. He sees a figure coming toward him in the semi-darkness. But is it a friend or an enemy? Suppose he should whisper, "Who goes there?" What would be the answer? Would it be a bullet, a friendly word, or silence? Should he gamble? Or would it be safer to make no sound? It is not unlike man's dilemma today. He desperately wants to know what is on the other side. He wants to know who goes there. Should he toss a ball over the wall and see if it comes back? Is it safe to initiate the game without knowing the identity of his opposite player? Or is he gambling with destiny? I was passing through London the day that King George died. Princess Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, you remember, were in Africa en route to Australia, and little Prince Charles and Princess Anne were vacationing with their royal grandparents at Sandringham. On the morning of the king's death immediate news of the bereavement was withheld from the children, who were playing in the nursery. However, little Prince Charles noticed that the maids who came in to care for the room were weeping. "Why is everyone so unhappy?" he inquired. And the nurse told him quietly, Because Grandpa has gone away. The little prince was soon asking for Granny. When at last the Queen Mother came into the nursery, Prince Charles climbed tip on her knee. Then, looking intently into her face, he asked, Where has Grandpa gone?" The Queen Mother was silent. At the moment she could think of nothing to say. What would you have said? Death, from the day it first coldly introduced itself to man, has been a forbidding enigma. But it has been reserved for this generation to probe deeper into the mystery of death than any other. This is a generation that wants to know. It is satisfied with nothing less. It is little wonder, then, that we find ourselves surrounded by a psychic cinerama that defies description. No man can close his eyes to it. It is here. We can see it, hear it, feel it. And every man must decide what his relationship to it shall be. Do those who turn to psychic phenomena find the answers? Are the voices they hear out of the silence the voices of the dead? Can we reach out into another world with our fingertips? And if we can, is it safe to do so? Here we meet an issue that comes very close to the inner man. For who can fail to understand the loneliness, the silence, that settles down upon the person who has seen some tired life slip into the shadows of death? Yesterday life was complete. Doors were open. Good-byes were followed by reunion. But today life has broken in two. Doors have slammed shut. And it all seems so final. No wonder the lonely seek comfort from whatever source. No wonder the lonely cry out, Tell me it isn't so! Tell me there is no death!" We can have only compassion for those who knock on the door of the unseen and listen for an answer. But do the voices that answer back show the same compassion? That is the question.