PREDICTIONS FOR 1974 compiled and edited by Warren Smith

Here's a real load of midcentury occult meatloaf that must have been waiting to spring off the grocery store spinner rack, as working writer Warren Smith assembles 33 psychics of varying pedigree for predictions on the upcoming year of 1974! We get some big names like "PK Man" and all around self promoter Ted Owens, the Countess Amaya (last seen in The Strange Ones by Smith, from 1972), Malva Dee and Beaverton's own Tenny Hale, as well as also-rans and unknowns like "Aquarius" the anonymous college student, the "Black Psychic" Dr. Ernesto Montgomery (who seems ill-served by this reductive label), fake fakir Komar, and a host of others who are lost to the ages, with nary a wikipedia page or archived news article to commemorate them. Regardless of their purported status, we get the expected spread of generic, oddball, infuriating, and just plain wrong predictions about what to expect in '74 ...

Cancer will be cured, as will schizophrenia. Nixon will resign, be impeached, or be totally vindicated. Stuff will get more expensive. Young people will either accept their lot, or raise hell! China, the USSR, or some terrorist group will start a nuclear war ... or bring about world peace! Liza Minelli will divorce, get remarried, and divorce again. On and on it goes, a numbing litany of "predictions" that soon blend together between psychics, to the point where it would be hard to remember who to credit with any actual hits. Regardless, Smith and Award Books are sure to place a disclaimer front and center that NONE of the predictions within are to serve as the basis for any financial decisions!

One of the standout chapters features Leo Martello, a legendary gay rights and wiccan activist and author of an excellent witchcraft primer featured on the blog back in 2020. Martello's predictions seem less ethereally inspired than simply savvy, with a mix of accuracy. Near misses include predicting impeachment for Nixon post-Watergate and farm strikes which were still a decade off in actuality. Dead on predictions include the the implication of the CIA in SE Asian drug trafficking. Silly stuff from Martello includes massacres by psychotic Vietnam vets and "a dubious witch killed in a car crash," (now who exactly was he throwing shade at?) along with the usual celebrity divorces everybody else comments on throughout this volume. Martello is the rare left-wing celebrity psychic, and even predicts that reactionary race baiter Jeane Dixon will face public backlash for her stances.

Martello looking tres sinistre ...

... and a little more approachable!

In line with Martello, Tenny Hale ("looking chic like a model instead of a psychic") predicts that fundamentalists will take over Christianity in America. Again, this is less of an astral vision and more straight observation, though it's better than the piffle some of these other psychics dredge up to fill pages. India/Pakistan and Palestine/Israel are two big geopolitical topics that crop up again and again, with varying pessimism and perspectives. Another hot topic of the time is the status of the American Indian: some psychics are bullish on America's first people gaining full rights and reparations, while others feel the issue will fade from the headlines.

Tenny Hale

Our final chapter is from Ruth Zimmerman, the Illinois housewife who tunes in. True to the era and focus of this volume, she says Jack Paar may suffer a head injury and that Dean Martin should be careful of his nose! The back page ads are solid gold, with Brad Steiger, Brinsley le Poer Trench, and some titans of SF represented.

Predictions For 1974 is available to read and download at archive dot org.

This book was owned by Earle L. Blanton, Jr.

Award Books, 1973

REINCARNATION by Hans Stefan Santesson

Now here's a handsome volume! And satisfying too, as author Hans Stefan Santesson presents a solid little primer on cultural attitudes to the idea of reincarnation through the ages. Santesson was an editor, primarily of science fiction, with an interest in the paranormal that lead him to write this text among others. There's honestly not a lot for me to say about this one, as Santesson does a quietly professional job putting it all together. He has some gentle but firm criticism for paranormal researchers such as Morey Bernstein, the amateur hypnotist who popularized the massively popular case of Bridey Murphy. In general Santesson strives for even-handed appraisals of the evidence, and achieves what so many paranormal authors can only feint at with their assertions to rationality and fair judgement. This proves to be a prudent approach, considering the disappointing conclusion of the Bridey Murphy saga. An important theme throughout is the power of folk traditions and mythology separate from (and sometimes in opposition to!) official dogmas and doctrine.

Santesson gives us a nice bibliography and recommended reading. In contrast to the solid main text, the ads in the back feature multiple titles by hash-slinger Brad Steiger, including his seminal pseudonymous bullshit volume The Abominable Snowmen. Such as it ever was in the world of the paranormal paperbacks!

Award Books, 1969

AN OCCULT DICTIONARY compiled by Howard V. Chambers

An occult dictionary for the millions! Chambers warns us in the forward that this is NOT to be a definitive volume, and thank goodness he does. If you don't already know your Zabulon from your Zaebos you'd be in a peck of trouble if you had to reach for this book in the middle of a ritual! To wit: the entry for Zabulon  leaves out the demon's Biblical namesake. The focus on "parapsychology" on the cover is also odd, considering the entries obviously cover all manner of occult fields.

Occult dictionaries and encyclopedias hit it big in the midcentury. No longer dusty grimoires or specialty texts, you could find plentiful ads for these books in Fate magazine and within other paperbacks, often as enticement for book club memberships:

From a 1969 paperback

From Fate, 1973

From Fate, 1973

From now on any such text will be tagged under Guide, and no need to summon Verdelet.

An Occult Dictionary is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Award Books, 1966

TELECULT POWER by Reese Dubin

Self help drivel with some charming retro illustrations. Author Reese Dubin "is the author of a number of books from Prentice Hall. Rapid Healing Foods, Miracle Medicine Foods, Doctor’s Amazing Sped Reducing Diet, Telecult Power, and Miracle Food Cures from the Bible have sold over 1 million copies combined. Mr. Dubin lives in Northern New Jersey."

Available to read and download at archive dot org.

Award Books, 1970