UNKNOWN BUT KNOWN

Arthur Ford electrified the psychic community some years ago when he received Houdini's post-mortem message to his wife. The aim here is ""to show that human personality survives death, and to record that under certain circumstances physical materials are manipulated by nonphysical psychic forces."" Psychical philosophy can easily reinterpret religious history as Mr. Ford then proceeds to demonstrate--Moses as a clairaudient who ""produced automatic writing""; Jesus, however, as a medium and His miracles are dismissed airily with a wave of a mystic hand. Other ""mediums,"" prominent historically, are Francis of Assisi, St. Joan, George Fox, Emanuel Swedenborg. According to Mr. Ford, Yeats wrote his later work under the influence of his wife's guide (she produced volumes of automatic writing), Arthur Conan Doyle was a convert and recently, so was Bishop James A. Pike after receiving a message from his son (a suicide). Mr. Ford also relates his own experiences via his control Fletcher (a former French Canadian) and tries to explain what happens when we ""pass over."" He generally explains how to tune in (prayer or meditation) and also warns that psychic talent contains ""no guarantee of moral rectitude."" But essentially more questions are raised than answered for the audience which reads Ruth Montgomery's Here and Hereafter today.