ESP AND PSYCHIC POWER by Steven Tyler

The mysterious Steven Tyler returns with a text on ESP, running through the big names and big ideas of the midcentury psychic scene! This one is an odd duck, not quite a straightforward skeptic text like his UFO volume, Are The Invaders Coming? but not one of the myriad psychic hagiographies that cluttered the market back then (and now). Tyler goes over wannabe psychic detectives like the dual Dutchmen Peter Hurkos and Gerard Croiset, giving credence to the idea that they could possibly be receiving clues from the other side, though he's forced to admit they have their share of misses and Hurkos especially does not acquit himself well:

Even his devoted admirers became suspicious. The year before the Boston fiasco, Jeane Dixon had been discussing Hurkos with Dr. Regis Riesenman, a psychiatrist with an interest in psychical research. Dr. Riesenman had once brought Hurkos to Virginia to solve a grisly child-murder. Mrs. Dixon told him that Hurkos was headed for trouble. It was a safe prediction. A short while later Hurkos was arrested for impersonating an FBI officer and for carrying a small arsenal of guns. He was later freed and is still active today, giving readings on a circuit of spiritualist churches.

Psychic titan Eileen Garrett admits with some equivocation that law enforcement should probably not be relying on psychic detectives for reliable information. Tyler devotes considerable space to superstar psychic Jeane Dixon, and just as in Jeane Dixon: Prophet or Fraud? her supposed powers of prognostication don't hold up to scrutiny.

Tyler notes that Dixon's so-called prediction of JFK's assassination is "more intricate than inspired," based on continually rewriting her words from years before: her early '50s predictions of a blue eyed democrat "dying in office" becomes an assassination after the fact, for example. She also thinks the USSR had something to do with it, despite all real evidence pointing squarely at a domestic obscenity ... but that's nothing new for Dixon. Tyler also makes note of the obsessive doom and gloom of Dixon's predictions, stoking mainstream American fears over racial strife, labor strife, and all those goddamn crazy foreigners.

Some history of psychical research follows, with stuffy old Nandor Fodor, Eileen Garrett, and J.B. Rhine among others attempting to quantify the unknown under laboratory conditions. Tyler is bullish on what may yet result from their early probings of mysterious forces.

Highlights of the obligatory witchcraft chapter include W.I.T.C.H, the Women's International Terrorist Corp from Hell, though wikipedia lists the C as standing for Conspiracy, not Corp! Anton LaVey makes his usual slimy appearance, complete with a nude redheaded altar. Way to freak out the squares, Anton.

The final chapters detail how to develop your own ESP, which Tyler says is inherent in all of us. There's a little self help action at the end with using your new psychic powers for wealth and wellbeing - that's kind of silly, Steven! Still, altogether not a bad ESP primer from Tyler and Tower Books.

Tower Books, 1970