ARCHIVAL UPDATES: ESP AND PSYCHIC POWER

Steven Tyler's ESP and Psychic Power is now available to read and download at archive dot org! This marks this title's digital debut and places it alongside Tyler's UFO reader Are the Invaders Coming?

After the main event, Tower Books includes their usual great spread of ads for other intriguing reads across various genres:

Courtesy Tower Books, 1970.

ESP AND YOU by Susy Smith

"An incubus is as good an excuse for hanky-panky as has even been invented."

Macfadden-Bartell's classy cover hides one sexy journey into the unknown from that "girl with the improbable name" (I still haven't figured out what that's supposed to mean) Susy Smith, as she uncovers incubi, succubi, ghost lovers, and mass sexual hysteria from the middle ages to modern day suburbia! That's only a part of her exploration of ESP, but man is it a heady brew to lead with.

Smith covers multiple cases of nuns (and Mohammedan girls too!) succumbing to sexual mania, lest we think the literature doesn't support the existence of incubi. Modern housewives and widows aren't immune either, though sometimes Smith says it's hard to tell whether they're being visited by departed lovers or by demons. This is one reason she advises against Ouija boards, as any old demon can call themselves whatever they want when you're pushing the planchette around. She also questions how many "genuine" cases of possession or visitation it really takes to kick off a fad or mania from otherwise unaffected ladies.

Smith carries on with a racy theme through subjects such as ESP in twins, with showgirls Lou and Lee Gerick explaining their psychic connection: once they even purchased identical all white outfits at the same time, despite the two of them being separated in Idaho and Hollywood!

Twins Lou and Lee ... or is it Lee and Lou?

Picture from a 1964 USO show they did.

Their card!

Smith outlines Freud and Jung's ESP experiences, cites heavily from Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun, and interviews a man developing his ESP through LSD under the pseudonym Melvin Mallory. Poltergeists, witches, and vampires all come in for guest roles as well, with Smith very interested in the interplay between psyche, culture, and forces from beyond - how much of any given phenomenon is culturally expressed, or projected out from one's self, or otherwise influenced in ways we might not appreciate?

After so much steamy research, Smith has to assure us that the psychically gifted aren't just a bunch of perverts, though "still, all in all, Nandor Fodor found a lot of psychics who were weirdos!" And there's always Aleister Crowley, too!

According to Fodor's research, Smith tells us that spirits and demons can change one's sexual orientation through possession, leading to lesbianism and homosexuality in heterosexual mediums! Smith also hedges that perhaps these are cases of repressed feelings. Throughout this text, Smith comes back to the idea that no matter what strange forces may be at work, we are all human after all.

Susy includes a nice bibliography in her usual practice, though her discernment as to the quality of various sources may be a bit lacking at times - she admits as much when repeating somewhat shaky stories such as the fraudulent medium Eusapia Palladino, who Smith believes possessed genuine powers while still resorting to trickery from time to time. Sometimes, Smith says, we just can't be sure as to the true facts of a case and can only take people at their word, and she concludes that many of the stories she's covered are just too subjective to prove something one way or the other.

Smith also cites cases and correspondence from her own previous books including World of the Strange, previously reviewed at this blog.

She ends her saucy psychic tour with some final words from author R. Dewitt Miller:

ESP and You is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Macfadden-Bartell Books, 1972

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.

This title is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Tower Books, 1970