PSYCHIC ROULETTE

PLAYING GAMES WITH THE SUPERNATURAL

From ARTICLES BY G. VANDEMAN - Edited  

22- The Chill That Might Have Been

It was May 21, 1946. A young and daring scientist was carrying out a necessary experiment in preparation for the atomic test to be conducted in the waters of the South Pacific atoll at Bikini.

He had successfully performed such an experiment many times before. In his effort to determine the amount of U235 necessary for a chain reaction-scientists call it the critical mass-he would push two hemispheres of uranium toward each other. Then, just as the mass became critical, he would push them apart with his screw­driver, instantly stopping the chain reaction.

But that day, just as the material became critical, the screwdriver slipped!

The hemispheres of uranium came too close together. Instantly the room was filled with a dazzling bluish haze. Young Louis Slotin, instead of ducking and possibly saving himself, tore the two hemi­spheres apart with his bare hands, interrupting the chain reaction!

By this instant, self-forgetful daring, he saved the lives of the seven other persons in the room. He realized at once that he himself would be bound to succumb to the effects of the excessive radiation he had absorbed, but he did not lose self-control. Shouting to his colleagues to stand exactly where they had been at the moment of the disaster, he drew on the blackboard an accurate sketch of their relative positions so that doctors might discover the degree of radia­tion to which each had been exposed.

And then, as he waited beside the road with Al Graves, the scientist who except for himself had been most severely exposed-as they waited at the roadside for the car that was to take them to the hospital, he said quietly to his companion, "You'll come through all right. But I haven't the faintest chance myself."

It was only too true. Nine days later he died in terrible agony.

Almost twenty centuries ago the Son of God walked directly into sin's most concentrated radiation, allowed Himself to be touched by its curse, and let it take his life. The accumulated guilt of the ages released its deadly contamination over a hill outside Jerusalem. And He who made the atom permitted Himself to be nailed to the tower at ground zero, allowed unfeeling men to trigger the cruel device we call Calvary. But by that act He broke the chain reaction. He broke the power of sin.

And the people said, "He saved others; himself he cannot save." Matthew 27:42.

Never were truer words spoken, for to interrupt the chain reac­tion of sin, to stop its deadly fallout, the Son of God must give His own life. He could not save Himself and save others too. It is as if He spoke to every man, "You can come through all right. But I haven't the faintest chance Myself."

He could save man. Or He could save Himself. One or the other. It could not be both. Did it ever occur to you that Jesus might have chosen to save

Himself instead of man? He could have. Here He was, the Creator, about to die for a world that He had made. But it was a world that couldn't care less. He didn't have to do it. He could have called ten legions of angels to His side. They would have swept Him heavenward out of it all-at just a word from Him. He didn't have to stay in a hostile world. He could have left it to its chosen fate. Why didn't He?

He didn't have to endure the cruel taunts of little men. He could have come down from the cross in a blaze of fire that would have consumed them all. He could have staged the most spectacular demonstration of divine power the world had ever seen. He didn't have to save men. He could have wiped His hands of their peril and let them die for themselves. He could have gone back to heaven and left this little planet to spin itself out. And been without blame. Why didn't He?

But what if He had? Have you ever considered what life on this planet would have been like? Cold. Cheerless. Without a ray of hope. The life force gradually dwindling, running out. Nothing to restore it. Nothing ahead but a reckless hurtle into the deepest degradation-and the final death that man deserved. No pardon. No reprieve. No savior.

I shudder at the thought of what it might have been, could have been, would have been —without the Saviour to take our place.

But it staggers my mind even more to understand how any man or woman could want it that way! And yet that is exactly what the spirit world is. Cold. Cheerless. Without hope. Because the spirit world has no Jesus.

 A spirit claiming to be Jim Pike told his father that he hadn't heard anything about Jesus, and that none of his companions seemed to talk about Him.

"Have you seen Jesus?" another spirit was asked. And the spirit replied, "I have not seen Jesus over here, nor have I met any who have."

Spiritualism may talk about Jesus. There may be hymns in its seances. It may speak of Him as a great man, a great teacher, a great example. But it leaves His blood behind.

And any supposed hope for the world that leaves out the blood of Christ is an empty hope, a cold hope. Sherwood Eddy, though deeply impressed with psychic phenomena, said, "One sometimes feels in such writings the pantheistic chill of the arctic night."

Think of it! A world with no Jesus-no cross-no forgiveness­ and no hope! As if the Son of God had gone back to His heaven and left us to our fate! Satisfied with a future that offers nothing better than the frigid, isolated chill of outer space! And all by man's own choice! When it doesn't have to be that way!

How cold! How lonely! How forbidding!

23- Light for Lonely People

Rising from this troubled planet like an incense of doom is the cry of lonely millions, Why? Why? Why?

A sweet, innocent child dies of leukemia while we stand helplessly by. A plane loaded with somebody's loved ones plunges to the earth in flames. A submarine turns its nose to the bottom of the sea and never comes back. Why?

What does God see as He surveys this earth? What reaches His heart? Is it a riot of color and song? Certainly not. It is a symphony of tears.

Doesn't God care? Is He unconcerned? Are we only a forgotten cinder out on the edge of His universe? A world that doesn't really matter?

It was Goethe who said, "If I were God, this world of sin and suffering would break my heart."

It did.

A father had lost his son in battle. And he said bitterly to his minister, "Where was God when my son was killed?" The minister quietly replied, "He was in the same place He was when His Son was killed."

Do you see?

On one of my visits to the old city of Jerusalem I was shown the place where it is believed that Abraham once stood with his son Isaac atop the mountain. I tried to picture it. There stood Abraham, his knife raised, ready to give up all he had for his God. And then an angel stayed his hand.

Fifteen centuries later, almost on that very spot, the God of the universe watched His own Son die. And there was no angel to stay the hand of death. No voice to cry out, "It is enough!"

Was it that way with you? Did you hope till the last that the hand of death would be restrained? Only to be finally disappointed?

I say it reverently. You and God have something in common now. The cross He has given to you is one that He first bore Himself. You can never look at Calvary and say He doesn't care! You can never look at Calvary and say He doesn't understand!

I picked up a little book the other day, a book prepared for those who mourn. I was somewhat surprised at its content. It tells the bereaved one when to weep and when to restrain his tears. It tells him what to think. It tells him whom to talk to, and how often and how long.

Well and good—perhaps. But God has more for you than that. He offers you more than psychological formulas and an explanation of life, however helpful. He has more for sorrowing hearts than an analysis of their emotions and a how-to-do-it manual for their tears!

Rather, I bring you hope from the Scriptures. I bring you comfort from an ancient and often neglected Book. But I bring you even more than that. I bring you a Person.

You see, you have lost a person. Nothing but a person can fill the place left empty.

It's one thing to be strong when a companion shares the load. But it's quite another thing to push on when you can no longer feel the lift on the other side of the burden. But said David, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me."

And God said through Isaiah, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." Isaiah 43:2.

Can't you trust a God like that?

Grief, you see, is sometimes so violent in its attack that we are tempted to reach out to stay God's hand. But don't, friend. Don't! Said the poet,

DON'T TOUCH HIS HAND!

A Master Artist paints.

 What you have thought to do

Would only blur the picture

That He makes.

You cannot see

That which His mind intends

To make of you.

Your awkward touch might easily

 Upset the colors, and the easel too.

Don't touch what He is doing.

You fear that He might spoil it all

Unless you hold Him back.

But wait!

Don't touch His hand!

 For He is God­—And He is wise—

­And He is love!

Yes, wait! You can trust a God like that!

One day we shall see that sorrow is sometimes only the veil with which God covers His presence as He stands close by. Where now we see only confusion and loss and broken patterns, then we shall see perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall see, one day soon, that God knows best how to answer prayer.

I wonder if you have heard the parable of the three trees that lived in the forest long ago. John Ellis Large tells it in his book Think on These Things. Listen:

"The first tree prayed that, when it was hewn down, it might become part of the timbers of a noble palace, the most magnificent building ever shaped by the creative hands of men. . . . Instead, it was faced with the bitter fact that its lovely grain was being used to throw a rude stable together. But it was the stable in which the Christ Child was born!

"The second tree petitioned God that, when the ax should be laid to its roots, its planks might be fashioned into the hull of the lordliest vessel that ever sailed the seven seas. . . . Instead, when it was chopped down, it was used to form the hull of a lowly fishing vessel, and the tree resented the insult to its grandeur. But that insignificant schooner was the one from which Jesus preached His incomparable words at the edge of the little Sea of Galilee!

"The third tree beseeched God that it might never feel the bite of the cruel ax, but that it might go on for years pointing its proud finger toward the sky. . . . Instead, the dark day came when the woodsmen arrived and laid the sharp blade to its resisting roots, and it cried out against God with every blow. But the shaken tree was fated to become the crossarms and the upright of the cross of Cal­vary, destined to point its noble fingers toward the sky forever!

"Not a single one of those trees lived to see its fondest wish come true. Not a single one got its deepest prayer answered, nor its own will fulfilled. But God, in fulfilling His will for those three trees, granted them a fulfillment infinitely beyond anything they could have desired or hoped for!"

You can trust a God like that!

I discover that there is far more than sympathy in the Word of God. Jesus did not say, "Blessed are they that mourn," and then pass by on the other side. He met death head—on, and did something about it!

Watch Him as He walks nineteen hundred years ago along a rocky path outside a little Palestine village. Approaching Him, moving slowly along the cobblestone street and out through the gates, is a funeral procession. A mother walks beside the now still form of the son who has been her pride and her support.

Jesus and the grieving mother are about to meet. Will He stop to offer her comfort? More than that. He calls the son to life and restores him to his mother.

Jesus was like that. His love was stronger than death. No one ever died in His presence. No one could. Lazarus could never have died if Jesus had been at his side. His sisters knew that. That's why each kept saying, "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." But now, four days after death had dealt its blow, Jesus had come to cheer the sorrowing sisters. How would He do it? How would He deal with death? What would He say to bring comfort in an hour like this?

He said simply, "Thy brother shall rise again."

And Martha understood. She knew what He meant. They had talked of these things before. And she replied, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

The resurrection at the last day. That is the hope of the Scriptures. There is no better news in all the Book than those simple words, "Your brother will rise again."

But He couldn't wait. Jesus couldn't wait. He was like that. He chose to demonstrate then and there what the resurrection would be like. He called out, "Lazarus, come forth!" And he came forth!

Someone has remarked that it is a good thing Jesus specified that He was speaking only to Lazarus. For if He had not, every grave on earth would have been torn open.

Yes, Jesus continually urged His followers to look beyond this life, to look beyond the grave and death. And then, in one of the most profound and miraculous demonstrations of all time, He laid down His own life-and after three days rose from the dead.

At that moment the power of death was broken. And now, for the first time in human history, there surged in man's breast the living conviction that his fondest hope, so long cherished, had at last been made certain. Our dead could be seen and loved again!

The prophet Isaiah, long centuries before, had written it. He had said, "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. . . . And the earth shall cast out the dead." Isaiah 26:19. Your dead men will live. Does not that mean, Your dead, too, will live? Wonderful news!

 Isaiah had declared it a possibility. But Jesus demonstrated it as a fact.

Let me ask you, Do you believe that Jesus rose from the dead? Then remember this. The resurrection of your loved one is as certain as the resurrection of Christ.

 But someone is saying, "This is all so wonderful. But this is not for me. You see, my son, my daughter, did not believe."

I ask you, How do you know?

I think of a mother who did her best to train her boy in the ways of right. But he turned out to be a thief. And at last he was executed for his crime. His was one of three crosses on a hill outside Jerusalem. His mother may well have stood by weeping, her sobs caught up in the noise of the crowd. She may not have heard her son's words as he turned in those last moments to the One dying at his side and said, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." She may never have known.

Don't be too sure, then, that someone dear to you is without hope. Can you not leave it in God's hands? You too can turn to the Scriptures and share in its comfort and its hope. Listen to this:

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18.

I ask you. Could there be any better news—any better comfort? Picture it if you can. The Son of God piercing the vaulted heavens, moving down the star-studded procession way of the skies, attended by myriads of angels. And then He calls out with a voice of thunder, "Awake, you that sleep in the dust of the earth. Arise to everlasting life!" And your dead too will hear!

That voice calling our beloved dead will be heard the world around. Families will be reunited. Children snatched away by death will be placed again in their mothers' arms. What a reunion!

What does this mean to you? What does it mean to me? It means that there is something better beyond this day!

Think for a moment. Think what that day will mean to the crip­pled, to the blind, to those weakened by disease, to minds confused by fear. God says, "He will open the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf. The lame man will leap up like a deer, and those who could not speak will shout and sing!" Isaiah 35:5, 6. LB.

But think what it will mean to the able-bodied and the strong, to those who love life and want to live. You see, death may even seem welcome to a body ravaged by disease and pain. But to the strong and youthful, death can mean only disappointed hopes, disillusionment, shattered ambitions..

But here is the answer to death's sting. Not in the discoveries of science, not in the exploration of outer space, not in anything man can do, but in the promise of the resurrection made by One who Himself demonstrated its possibility—here is our hope!

I find an intriguing parallel in the story that is told of one of the most significant battles in world history—that of the Duke of Wel­lington and Napoleon Bonaparte. The old verger of Winchester Cathedral never tired of telling the story of the day when the news of the battle reached England. It came by sailing vessel to the south coast and was carried overland by semaphore to the top of Winches­ter Cathedral and on to London.

The populace eagerly waited as the semaphore spelled out the words, "W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D"

Just then a dense fog settled down over the harbor, as this incom­plete message was waved on to London. A pall of gloom and dis­couragement settled over the land. Streets were barricaded. Women and the elderly prepared to defend their country in the streets and in the fields if necessary. But finally the fog lifted, and the semaphore signals came through again: "W-E-L-L-I-N-G­ T-O-N D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D T-H-E E-N-E-M-Y."

 Can you imagine the wild delirium of joy that spread like a prairie fire, made all the more exhilarating when contrasted with the ear­lier news so grossly misunderstood?

Need I draw the parallel? Does not this experience illustrate the meaning that the disciples read into Christ's crucifixion?

The sun refused to shine on the scene. Darkness covered the earth. The resounding peals of thunder reduced the slender faith of the disciples to just two words: "J-E-S-U-S D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D."

As they laid His limp, lifeless body in a borrowed tomb, their depression deepened. Hear them reasoning, "We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel" They thought they had made a mistake. Surely Jesus must not be the long-awaited Saviour after all.

But then as the light broke on that resurrection morning, the message which should have been understood by His closest fol­lowers began to be clarified. And the world has ever since been able to read the life-giving and glorious message: "J-E-S-U-S D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D D-E-A-T-H."

I ask you, is there any better news? Tongue cannot tell it, pen cannot write it-the hope that this completed message brings to the human breast. Take courage, friend. There is hope beyond this day. Its good-byes are not as final as you may have thought. For on the resurrection morning your dead too will live!

Here is light for lonely people. A light that won't go out. It may mean waiting just a little while. Not long. But it's a hope that is real. It's a hope that won't let you down. It isn't the false hope of the darkened room. There's no darkness in it.

Rather, it's a land where there is no night. A country lighted by the throne of God. Loved ones together, with never again a good­bye. And no one will ever be lonely. For God will wipe away all tears. And when God wipes away the tears, could they ever need wiping again?

24- The Script in the Crystal Ball

It was in 1965, in Brazil, that a self-styled prophet named Aladino Felix began making some uncanny predictions. He warned that a disaster would soon take place in Rio de Janeiro. Sure enough, only a month later, floods and landslides struck the city, killing six hundred.

Then in 1966 he said that a Russian cosmonaut would soon die. It happened. In the fall of 1967 he appeared on Brazil television and soberly discussed the forthcoming assassinations in the United States. He named Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy. It was only natural that many people should be impressed by the accuracy of his major and minor predictions. So when he began predicting an outbreak of violence, bombings, and murders in Brazil in 1968, it was no surprise when a wave of strange terrorist activities actually began.

There was a rash of bank robberies. An armored payroll train was robbed. Police stations and public buildings in Sao Paulo were dynamited. Brazilian police worked overtime and rounded up eigh­teen members of the gang. They had planned to assassinate top officials and take over the entire government of Brazil.

The leader of the gang turned out to be-Aladino Felix!

In the United States, in 1967, a man named Fred Evans had set himself up as a prophet and was predicting major black uprisings. In the spring of 1968 he moved into Cleveland, Ohio. And then, on the night of July 23, 1968, rioting broke out in Cleveland. Snipers dressed in African clothing had killed ten and wounded nineteen by the time the police could gain control. The leader of this ring of well-equipped and well-organized snipers turned out to be-Fred Ahmed Evans!

Am I suggesting that these men originated the predictions and then carried them out? Am I hinting at a pattern here—that those who make predictions often, or at least sometimes, engineer their fulfillment themselves in order to establish their credibility?

Yes. And no. I am certainly not suggesting that when Jeane Dixon predicts an assassination or a plane crash she has any plans secretly to help along their fulfillment. Certainly not. But even in the case of Aladino Felix and Fred Evans it is doubtful that when the predic­tions were made they had any thought of participation in their fulfillment. It is more likely that, in their case, they simply became so caught up with the prophecy that they found themselves drawn into it, as into a whirlpool.

You see, I do not believe that Aladino Felix or Fred Evans or Jeane Dixon or any of the psychics are the real originators of their predictions. The evidence is that these predictions come from a source outside themselves, in the unseen world, and that they are all tuned in to the same source.

For instance, Jeane Dixon has said that the vibrations of the Kennedy family are very strong. She was not the only one who predicted the assassination of the Kennedy brothers. It seemed to hang in the very air. The assassination of John Kennedy was also predicted by Ernesto Montgomery. Anne Gehman predicted both tragedies. We have already mentioned the foretelling of the Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King tragedies on Brazil television..

R. D. Smallridge was an Arkansas truck driver. But a wide variety of strange and inexplicable things happened to him, and eventually he gave up truck driving and became a minister. December of 1967 found him in California.

Late one night he put aside the book he had been reading and strolled over to the clock on the mantel. It was exactly 12:05 am. Suddenly, he insists, a bright blue light materialized and drifted toward him. Just as it touched him, he says that the room faded away and he found himself in another room surrounded by a group of strange but humanlike beings. He says they were conversing in an odd language, but that he was able to understand it. Allegedly they told him that Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy would die suddenly in 1968 and that there would be widespread rioting and civil unrest.

Mr. Smallridge claims that after about two hours he was trans­ported back to the living room. The clock still said 12:05.

In the summer of 1963 comedian Red Skelton was lounging on a California beach. He later told a reporter that he lapsed into a semitrance for about an hour. When he recovered full conscious­ness, he discovered a terrifying message, written in his own hand, in the notebook that he always carries with him. He does not remember writing it or even thinking it. But here was the message: "President Kennedy will be killed in November."

Probably there are others, of whom I am not aware, who pre­dicted these tragedies.

Now, all this evidence points to one conclusion—that evidently all these people were tuned in to one source. They got the informa­tion from the same place. The prophecies did not originate with them, but with entities in the unseen world. And we have consid­ered only the evidence concerned with these tragedies. When the overall evidence is assembled, it is absolutely overwhelming.

And so I ask, Is it possible that the spirit originators of these predictions had something to do with carrying them out? Were the minds of the assassins encouraged and influenced in some way? Did the spirits broadcast these predictions over the psychic wires because they felt at least relatively confident that they could en­gineer their fulfillment and thus establish confidence in psychic forecasts of coming events?

In other words, put it this way. Are the pictures in the crystal ball, and all the rest of these psychic predictions, really glimpses of the future? Or are they simply scripts that spirit entities in the unseen world intend to follow if they can, in order to establish credibility among those who follow their ratings?

What is behind all this? Again and again the same psychic intelli­gence is released to mediums, psychics, automatic writers, crystal­ball readers, flying-saucer enthusiasts, and what-have-you. Often the predictions are wrong. But sometimes they are uncannily right-often enough to get a lot of people wondering.

Said one psychic buff, "If a psychic can pick up on my past, and present, telling me things about my life that nobody but myself could possibly know, then he may be sufficiently tuned in to fore­cast my future."

A writer who was gathering material for a book visited Rita Brown, a psychic medium who specializes in numerology. She took his name, added the new first name he had adopted as a writer, and included his birth date. She arranged some numbers into a chart. Then she started to read it.

"When you were seventeen you left home for good." True.

"Then between 1950 and 1955 you were living in a big city trying hard but accomplishing little." He gulped. True again.

"In 1956 you broke the patterns of the previous years and started traveling:"

Uncanny, but true.

 "You traveled until 1959, when you decided to take a permanent residence."

Absolutely right.

 "You stayed in one place, were ill in 1962, made an important decision in 1965, and uprooted yourself once more in 1970."

 He was absolutely bewildered. "But how can you tell me this?" he exclaimed. "It happened just as you said it did!"

 "Of course it did. Numbers don't lie. Two and two makes four every time."

 "But if you've hit everything perfectly in the past, without ever meeting me before, then you must be right about the future."

 "Aha," she smiled, "that's exactly why I did your past. Now you will be convinced that what I say about the years to come is also correct. "

 And I seem to hear a chorus of voices from the spirit world echoing her words. "Aha! That's exactly why I did your past. Now you will be convinced that what I say about the years to come is also correct. "

That is exactly the game the spirit world is playing. That is the strategy. To be right enough times that they will be believed. And the end of the game is control. And deception.

And so the psychic predictors have their batting averages. If the batting average is high, people pay attention. People get scared. If the psychic was right about a suicide and a plane crash, isn't there a good chance that he will be right about the state of California slipping into the sea?

You may recall the California earthquake fiasco of 1969. The nation's clairvoyant community had predicted that sometime in April a large slice of California would slide into the Pacific Ocean as the result of a cataclysmic earthquake. The forecast frightened millions. Several hundred fled the state. Some took to small rented planes and flew high over the threatened landscape. There was a good deal of jocular speculation as to why Governor Reagan hap­pened to leave the state just at that time.

But the next morning California was still there. The swamis had lost by a landslide.

 Ernesto Montgomery, of Los Angeles, who predicted the Sharon Tate murders, sent out the word that California would be destroyed by earthquakes and fires on April 22, 1972. But again, it didn't happen.

It is interesting that in the Scriptures God points to His ability to foretell the future as an evidence that He is the true God. For instance, He says, "I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done." Isaiah 46:9,10.

And He throws out this challenge to false gods, "Shew the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods." Isaiah 41:23.

The God of heaven leaves no room for error when it comes to His own prophets. He says, "When the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him." Jeremiah 28:9.

A true prophet, with God as his source of information, does not operate on the basis of a batting average. He must be right all the time-not just some of the time. The only exception is in the case of a conditional prophecy. The prophecy concerning Nineveh, given through Jonah, is an example. The city was to be destroyed in forty days. But because Nineveh repented, the punishment was not carried out.

But now comes the interesting thing. While a prophet's predic­tions, if he is genuine, must come true, yet a false prophet's predic­tion may also come true-and it doesn't mean that he has the divine credentials. The first few verses of Deuteronomy 13 describe this situation: "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

A prediction, then, even though it turns out to be uncannily correct, does not stamp a prophet as genuine. A prophet must be known, and evaluated, not by his batting average, but by his public statements, the tendency of his teaching. If he is involved with other gods, if he is not in harmony with the government of God and the law of God, if his statements are found to contradict any part of the Written Word of God, then he is not a true prophet. For a true prophet will never contradict another true prophet.

Evidently God is willing for psychic prophets, unconnected with Himself, to play their prophecy games—up to a point. He lets them be right some of the time. He lets them tamper with the relatively minor things. But the psychic world has no power to predict the great crises in world history, the march of nations, the converging of Bible prophecies in the final days of earth's history, and the return of our Lord to this earth. These are reserved to God. And not even a prophet of God will predict the date when time will end, for Jesus said, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Matthew 24:36.

And so the pattern that is so evident in psychic prediction makes sense. Sometimes, many times, they miss. But again and again they are uncannily right in the things of lesser importance-the plane crashes, the weddings, the suicides, the assassinations. The things over which the spirit entities hope to have some control. The things in which they can influence minds. The areas in which they have some hope of engineering fulfillment. These predictions are evi­dently not glimpses of the future at all, but rather a script they intend to follow if they can.

The earmarks of divine revelation are not there. Marriages, suicides, plane crashes-are these God's message to men? Is God to become nothing more than a dependable reservation agency? Where are the broad lines of prophecy?

Predictions are being fulfilled. Yes. And sometimes lives are spared or some good is done. But are we to depend upon the crystal ball in an hour as serious as this? Are psychic predictions the hope of mankind? Has the dramatic impact of a psychic forecast taken the place of the stability of Scripture? Has it replaced the stately march of divine prediction?

This, then, is the way the psychic game is played. Several minor predictions come out uncannily correct. Then, just when people are convinced that whoever is behind these predictions has complete knowledge of the future, they introduce a joker into the deck. They prophesy something big. And it doesn't happen.

This is the tiger behind the door. And we'll meet the tiger again!

25- How to Tell a Fake

It was on December 19, 1887, that the San Francisco Daily Examiner reported a most unusual story. It was banner lined: "Sealskins in heaven. Lady spirits with a taste for ulsters and diamonds. Clothes for the stars. A suit sent to Saturn seen on Kearney street. An amazed old gentleman."

It seems that a Mrs. Patterson frequently held seances at her boardinghouse at the corner of Mission and Third. She had two lodgers, Mr. Clifford and Mr. Wild, who helped her to make contact with spirits that lived supposedly on the planet Saturn. One of her steady clients was an elderly carriage maker named McTavish. The spirits gave him business advice, and Mr. McTavish was planning to be taken to Saturn himself when the "next celestial rays were solid enough." The old gentleman was liberal with his money and his gifts, and the medium told him that these gifts had been sent on to Saturn.

Then one day it happened. Mr. McTavish was walking along Kearney Street, when he noticed in front of him an expensive tailor-made suit. He recognized it as the very suit that the spirits had asked him to have made and sent to them. The spirits had even specified the size and the color that they wanted. And this was it! He tapped the wearer of the suit on the shoulder, and discovered, to his great surprise, that it was Mr. Wild!

The Examiner printed the conversation word for word.

"What does this mean, sir? These clothes are the same that I bought to be sent to Saturn."

"Well, they've been sent to Saturn."

"Sent to Saturn!"

"Yes sir, they've been there more'n a week."

"Then how the devil does it happen that you have them on your back?"

"Mr. McTavish," said Mr. Wild in a tone of great pity, "you surprise me. It knocks me cold it does, to hear a man with your light talking like that. In one sense, this is the Saturn suit-in the same way that when you're dead your body will be you. Have I got to tell a man with your light that the speerits don't take to the speerit world the actyil things you give 'em, but only the essential semblance of 'em? How do you suppose they could pack a real suit of clothes through eighteen-hundred million miles of space? Don't you see?"

 "It-it begins to break upon me," said Mr. McTavish, mopping his brow in bewilderment.

"I thought it would," said Mr. Wild. "I saw your spirit guide dematerialize these here clothes with my own eyes in our rooms. She carried away the soul of these togs, an' the dross, the dead body of 'em, was left behind, and I took it. Wasn't that right? You wouldn't want me to throw the clothes away, would you, after the spirit guide had made 'em sacred like?"

"No, no; certainly not," murmured Mr. McTavish. "I see it all now." He shook Mr. Wild's hand heartily, as if thankful for the new insight, and departed on his way.

We smile, and pat ourselves on the back that we are not that gullible. We are more sophisticated, more discerning. But what if today's hoaxes, today's deceptions, are not that crude, not that easily recognized? What then?

Like many people, you may have seen just enough of obvious fraud to lead you to cast all psychic phenomena aside as trickery and hoax. You may have dismissed it all from your mind as fraud. But while some of it may be trickery-and even its own adherents admit that within the psychic circle there is much fraud—yet the person who dismisses it all as trickery or fraud has not had the slightest glimpse into the real drawing power of these movements which had their origin in ancient times and which have left indelible marks on all the centuries. Today no man or woman can be oblivious to the impact of the psychic.

Unfortunately, if you think that the reports of psychic phenomena are all fake, you are a perfect setup for exploitation by the spirit world.

Why? Because when one day some of these things happen to you-things you were sure couldn't happen to anybody-you are likely to be a pushover. You aren't prepared. You were too secure in your belief that these things were impossible, that they were just the imaginings of weak minds. You have no defense.

On the other hand, he who has the mistaken idea that everything that is supernatural must be from God, that if you can't explain it God must have done it-he is already an easy mark.

Both groups are equally in danger. Those who say all is fraud. And those who say all miracles are from God. Evidently in a day like this it's stay awake or perish. You have to be able to spot a deception and spot it quickly. Then what is one to do? Where is the safeguard?

Take the matter of psychic predictions again. Many psychics build up a following with an impressive list of fulfillments. They also make long-range predictions, far into the distant future—far enough to be safe. The prophet himself by then will be safely off the scene. You and I won't be around to check. There seems to be nothing a man can do with a prediction like that but to wait and see.

But there is. There has to be. There isn't time to wait and see. We have to be able to test the validity of these predictions, and these prophets, now. It is now that men and women are deciding whether or not to trust these self-styled predictors of the future. There must be a better way to check them out than wait-and-see.

And there is. It is simply this. The character of the message gives away the identity of the sender. It may not be obvious at first. But sooner or later the telltale marks of a hoax will show up if it is a hoax.

For instance. Most, if not all, of the messages that come from the other side, are involved with the one basic claim that the dead are not really dead, that they are alive somewhere and can communi­cate. It is the echo, the unmistakable echo, of the words of the serpent in Eden, You will not surely die. Is it difficult, then, to know, to be sure, that such a message does not originate with God but with the serpent?

And there is another telltale idea straight from Eden. The ser­pent's other lie—you will be as gods—may not be quite so easy to recognize at first. But if you watch for it, you will find the psychic world absolutely riddled with it.

This from a swami in Calcutta, the seat of meditation: "The basic teaching of the Vedanta says that the real nature of man is divine, and the aim of every individual on earth is to try to unfold the divinity which is inherent in him." The swami continued, "Re­member, God is in you. God is in everything. The idea of God as a personal deity is the result of ignorance of one's own real nature, which is divine."

This from the BeatIe George Harrison: "The ultimate thing is to manifest divinity and become one with the Creator."

This from Satanist Anton LaVey: "Say unto thine own heart, 'I am mine own redeemer.' "

This from chanting hippies high on LSD: "Let's all be Jesus till it starts to hurt."

This allegedly from Arthur Ford in the spirit world: "Curtsying before him, she asks to be taken directly to God. The man replies, 'But, madam, all of us are god.' " "Bosh! There has never been a time when we were not, and we always will be, even though in constantly changing forms and stages, for we are as much God as God is a part of us." "That is why I would have you picture each of us as God, as well as a part of God, for you and we are the gods who decide whether we grow or remain as embryos." "Thus we are as much a part of Him as He is of us, and... we must strive ever onward through many earth cycles until we achieve sufficient perfection to rejoin God as co-creators. It is the law, for no imperfect thing will ever have the opportunity to become a part of the Godhead….Thus our ceaseless attempts to return to the physical state in order to erase our rough edges and be able to fit into the Godhead."

And this from a teacher of wicca-craft: "When this oneness with the universe takes place, you become one with God. That means you become as powerful as God. You have the same creative poten­tial God has."

Do you hear the echo of the serpent's voice? Could it be plainer? It doesn't hurt to remember that it was Lucifer's desire and deter­mination to be like God, to have the place of God, that got him cast out of heaven in the first place.

If the mediums, the crystal-ball gazers, all these tamperers with the unseen—if they would just compare the messages they get from the other side with the plain, understandable Word of an ancient Book, they could tell where their messages are coming from. And they would be shocked unless they are hopelessly hooked on the deceptions of the father of lies.

We have at our fingertips, if we will use it, a dependable, reliable. never-fail test for the validity or non-validity of the messages and the phenomena of the psychic world. Here it is: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20.

The Living Bible, Paraphrased says, "If their messages are dif­ferent than mine, it is because I have not sent them; for they have no light or truth in them."

Yet, strangely enough, few psychics have ever even thought of checking out their work by the Bible.

Jeane Dixon, appearing on television, was asked by a member of the studio audience if her predictions agreed with those of the Bible. She responded, with a look of sincere but complete surprise, "I don't know. No one has ever asked me that."

Mrs. Dixon, by the time her second book was published, was evidently more familiar with the Bible.

It is a good thing to remember, however, that the words of a messenger of God will be in complete agreement—not almost agreement—with the written revelation of God. To know Scripture, to quote it liberally, is not enough. The New Testament says that Satan quoted Scripture to Jesus in the wilderness above the Jordan.

The fact is that the more truth is mixed in with error, the more treacherous the final blend becomes. To cover error with a halo of truth is one of the devil's favorite tricks. And I believe we are fast approaching a day when truth and error will appear so nearly alike, so almost parallel, the false diverging so slightly from the genuine, that it will be impossible to escape deception without a knowledge of God's written revelation. Our defense will not be in studying the counterfeit, but in a working familiarity with the true.

Rene Noorbergen, a best-selling author in the field of the psychic, makes some devastating comments. Speaking of the psychics, he says, "However, all of them, without exception, will gladly open their Bibles to show how similar their extrasensory gift is to that of the biblical prophets. They proudly refer to it in trying to justify their ability, and this is the worst thing any psychic can do. It opens up the way for the use of biblical references to test their ability, and if they regard the Bible as authoritative enough to be utilized as an absolute standard, then it should also be qualified enough to judge—and if need be, condemn.

"And it is precisely on this point that true prophets and psychic mediums can be separated."

He continues, "Comparing all those who profess to have the extrasensory psychic gift (astrologers, mediums, clairvoyants, clairaudients, palmists, crystal gazers, telepathists, etc.) and sub­mitting their abilities to the same basic set of biblical standards, one arrives at the mind-shattering conclusion that all psychic mediums—and this includes such greats as Edgar Cayce, Jeane Dixon, Daniel Logan, Gerard Croiset, Peter Hurkos, Arthur Ford, etc.—without exception not only violate many basic biblical prin­ciples, but also more often than not act in stark contradiction to the biblical norms for a true prophet."

No wonder the disciple John was led to give this caution, "Try the spirits whether they are of God." 1 John 4: 1.

And John suggests one way by which the counterfeit may be separated from the genuine. "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God."

What does the psychic world do with Jesus Christ? What is its relation to Jesus who claimed to be the Son of God? It is important, and revealing, to ask.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said it as straight as it could be said. "Spiritualism will sweep the world and make it a better place in which to live. When it rules over the world, it will banish the blood of Christ."

The spirit world is willing to say that Jesus was a great medium. That, of course, He was not. He had nothing to do with the occult world except to challenge it and set some of its captives free.

The spirit world is willing to speak of an ethical Jesus. It may say very commendable things about Him. It may praise Him to the skies-as a man. It was while looking for the historical Jesus that Bishop Pike lost his life out in the Jordan desert.

But Jesus as the Son of God and the only Saviour from sin? That is something else. Edgar Cayce even claimed that Jesus sinned.

 And of course if Jesus did sin, He could be no man's Savior.

The psychic world has no room for a Savior. It has no room for sin. Karma is the closest it gets to it. You can read a lot of psychic literature without even encountering the word "sin." I am thinking of one book that covers a wide range of the psychic world. But in its more than three hundred pages I cannot recall once seeing the word. And this is typical of the psychic.

To recognize sin would be to recognize the need of a Savior. And that is something Satan is not about to do. What does man need of a Savior? He can't die anyway. That's the reasoning ever since Eden. And as for man's fall, in the perverted logic of the serpent it was a fall upward. If a man can't die, and if he is constantly progressing upward, how could he possibly need a Savior? Satan prefers a gospel in which man saves himself. And this, in view of his hatred of the cross, is not really surprising.

Error sometimes so closely parallels truth, for a time, that it is difficult to detect. But error, sooner or later, will show the telltale marks of its origin. When a prophet talks about a child born in the East in 1962 eventually becoming the Savior of the world, it ought to ring an alarm bell. And when a prophet changes his mind and says the child will not be the Savior but the antichrist, the bell ought to jangle again. For would a true prophet of God change his mind?

One writer, moving around the wide and exceedingly varied circle of psychic activity, has included Jesus freaks in his book. One wonders why. Perhaps he felt that some fringe elements of the Jesus movement are an expression of the same dissatisfaction with the status quo, the same search for spiritual ecstasy, that has led some youth to drugs and others to the East.

This generation, it seems, will climb any stair, pay any price, to find the emotional involvement that a cold, intellectual world has denied it.

In fact, this search for an emotional anchor may account for more than we realize. Not only the turn to drugs and mysticism and far-out sounds, but the spirit of protest in the streets. The trend toward informality in worship. It probably lies in the background of the current popularity of speaking in tongues, or glossolalia, as it is called.

Evidently multitudes have failed to find the answers in tradi­tional religion. And so they have been intrigued by charismatic claims, drawn almost irresistibly by the promise of ecstasy that they have never known.

It adds up to this. There is a craving for something. There is a vacuum. That vacuum will be filled-either by the fresh breezes of a new faith in Christ, or by the contrary winds of other gods and other saviors.

It seems only reasonable that those who claim to be Jesus people should be submitted to the same tests as psychics. How do they measure up, as individuals, to the yardstick of the written revelation of Jesus Christ? They are Jesus people so long as they follow Jesus. But talking about Jesus is not enough. Talking about the cross is not enough.

Some Jesus people bear the marks of a visit to the cross. Others do not. A group so flexible, and so loosely organized, as the Jesus movement, cannot be accurately evaluated by looking at the whole.

We must look at the individual. Has he met Jesus? Or has he not? And there is one sure way to tell. The person who has visited the cross, and who understands something of what happened there and why, will come away with a new and deeper respect for the law of God. If in his witness for Christ, no matter how emotional or how otherwise convincing, he belittles the law of God or minimizes its importance, then we have a right to question whether he has ever been to the cross at all.

Jesus, while on earth, had a lot of followers—until the going got rough. Jesus was popular enough when He was feeding the mul­titudes with miracle bread. He was popular enough the day He rode into Jerusalem at the head of an excited crowd.

But some of the same people who joined in the fanfare of the parade, turned silently away from the loneliness of the cross. Some of those who had shouted His praise the loudest were among those who joined, only days later, in the wild, deafening cry, “Nail Him to the cross!"

It's the same today. It isn't difficult to follow Him now. It's easy to ride the bandwagon of His current popularity. There is no persecu­tion involved, no ostracism from society, no burning at the stake.

But one cannot help wondering what will happen when the bands stop playing, the fanfare fades into the distance, and every drum is silent.

Bandwagons, whether their passengers are astrology buffs or Jesus freaks or just habitual hangers-on, are not really the safest transportation. Bandwagons have a disturbing habit of breaking down. And what then?

26- Do You Care Who Heals You?

 A patient appeared at the door of a healer who had been making some rather striking claims in newspaper ads. She told the healer that the doctors had diagnosed her as having a serious blood dis­ease, possibly leukemia.

The healer replied, "I'm not a medical doctor. I treat with the mind and use hypnosis. The medical profession doesn't have a cure for leukemia. But we have cured leukemia. We have cured cancer, even terminal cancer." Then she outlined the procedure that she would use.

"Lend me your mind," she said, "to remove the debris and get your mind functioning properly." She explained that the mind must be put into a passive state through hypnosis so that it could be cleansed of all the negative "garbage." Positive thoughts would be injected, the mind would purify the blood, and the body would then function as it should.

The patient turned out to be a policewoman who had secretly recorded the conversation. The healer was later arrested.

But notice. "Lend me your mind." The mind must first be sur­rendered as part of the price of healing.

 Maria Moreno, the Mexican marvel, differs from the majority of psychic healers in that she often prescribes specific remedies by means of a mediumistic corps of medical guides.

A young woman named Judy visited her one day for a reading.

Dr. Dermas, one of Maria's spirit guides, said that a faulty thyroid was Judy's problem.

Judy nodded, not quite sure whether to be impressed or amused.

"You want Dr. Dermas to help?" asked Maria.

And Judy said politely, "If he will."

Maria seemed to be holding a private conference with Dr. Der­mas. Then she said, "All right. Dr. Dermas is going to give you a transfusion. Don't worry, it will not hurt."

This was unexpected. But Judy said, "Fine, give me the transfu­sion." Maria took Judy's arm, held it as if preparing for a transfusion, and then grimaced as an imaginary needle pricked her skin.

Judy wanted to know where the blood was coming from.

And Maria said, "Dr. Dermas says the blood is coming from your husband."

Judy could hardly restrain a smile as she thanked Dr. Dermas through Maria and made her departure. But strangely enough, her husband, who knew nothing about the transfusion, came home with all the symptoms of a man who had lost too much blood. He was chilled to the bone, and so weak he could not stand. But Judy felt fine. Several other "transfusions" followed.

A wild story. Wouldn't you say?

It is reported that in London a duodenal ulcer was removed by a being from the spirit world who identified himself as the spirit of a certain Dr. Reynolds who was said to have died more than a century ago. Here is a case where a "materialized" spirit actually worked at a surgical table.

Describing the incident, Ellaine Elmore said, "The hands of the spirit seemed to disappear inside the patient's body. While per­forming the operation, the materialized spirit declared he would bring 'the ulcer through a temporary hole in the stomach.' After the ulcer was removed, it was sent to a laboratory in Manchester and identified as 'an acute duodenal ulcer.' The medical authority per­forming the analysis certified it as an acute ulcer and commented on the 'freshness of the tissue and also the fact that there was no trace of modern surgical methods having been used.' "

How far will all this go? Already, in various parts of the world, there are spiritualistic hospitals, staffed with spiritualistic "doc­tors" and "nurses." There are more and more husband-and-wife teams, with the husband a physician and the wife a medium. Even a twelve-year-old boy, after a course in Mind Dynamics, was able to diagnose bone cancer in an eighty-year-old man a hundred miles away.

And the psychic David Bubar unreservedly predicted that "Many medical doctors will join the ranks of the faith healers." Think of it—medical doctors as faith healers!

Is it possible that people today are so anxious to be healed, and so unconcerned about who does the healing, that they are willing to surrender their minds to hypnotic healers, or be treated by spirit doctors, or operated on by materialized spirit surgeons?

Evidently a lot of people just aren't particular. At any rate, Ruth Montgomery says that she has received ten thousand requests for the services of a magnetic healer of whom she wrote in one of her books.

But doesn't God heal today? Isn't there genuine healing? Yes, He does. And yes, there is. But God does not make a publicity thing out of it. And He does not heal indiscriminately. In true divine healing there is a recognition of the fact that men often bring about their own illnesses by their disregard of the laws of health. True healing is combined with teaching men how to live so that the affliction will not return. And true healing takes into account the will of God-that healing mayor may not be in harmony with His plan.

But much of today' s faith healing takes no account of the will of God. Rather, the healer demands healing. He commands God to heal. He makes of God a publicity agent and a tool. The prayer of many a faith healer today is not the submission of a child of God, but the arrogance of magic. And the fact that it works, that undeniable miracles result, is no proof of divine origin.