NO GOOD-BYES: My Search into Life Beyond Death

Automatic writing, ouija boards, trance states and such among the celebrity set. Adela St. Johns first made contact with the spirits via daughter Elaine after the WW II death of son Bill: Bill used Elaine's hand, we hear, to scrawl out comforting messages about his essential okayness and the necessity for mom to stop grieving, lest she ""hold him back."" After that it's off and away in style: messages are received (through a variety of sources, since Elaine loses interest) from the likes of John F. Kennedy, who fudges on the question of his assassination (""The road is too long and tangled""); Clark Gable, who orders St. Johns to send Gloria Swanson roses on her eightieth birthday; and Eddie Rickenbacker, whose wavelength was picked up by a medium acquaintance while he was lost at sea: he denied sending a message, but remembered thinking about the incident the medium subsequently described. St. Johns also cultivated a circle of lesser psychic lights, whose exploits are breathlessly conveyed. Altogether this is a pitch for faith, stability, and an end to grief: the spirits seem unanimous on the need for all three. Yes, and good old-fashioned prayers may move them onward more quickly. There is also some ""evidence"" to the effect that we may keep reincarnating (St. Johns herself remembers being a lady-in-waiting at the court of Elizabeth I). So if the current epidemic of apparitions hasn't yet given your spine a decent chill, this is for you. Otherwise, piffle.