ESP    Due to my studies into the field of psychic phenomena, when I returned to Rhode Island in late 1973, (I had gone to the University of Rhode Island from 1966-70), I decided to offer courses, and began teaching at the schools of continuing education at the University of Rhode Island (URI) and also Providence College. Topics included theories on Atlantis and Lemuria, the structure of the psyche, telepathy, psychokinesis, out of body experiences and life after death, and also such theoreticians as Jane Roberts, Rudolf Steiner, Carl Jung, Wilhelm Reich, P.D. Ouspensky and Gurdjieff.

   My friend who I had met while working in Manhattan, Lower East Side artist, Robert Adsit, had a funky gallery on East 9th Street. Often, when I travelled to his place, he usually had yet another occult tome to give me, some written as far back as the mid-1800's. It was in the storefront next to his, however, that a seemingly insignificant event occurred that created a chain reaction that radically changed my life. It was a Tibetan shop that contained authentic artifacts, statues and books. One old 50c paperback captured my attention: The Third Eye, autobiography of a Tibetan lama by Lobsang Rampa, copyright 1956.

    On the cover was a 1950's photograph of an overweight Caucasian man who bore a striking resemblance to Orson Welles with a sci-fi glass eye air-brushed into the center of his forehead. What the heck was this guy doing on the cover of Rampa's book? I had no idea, I thought it was a 50's thing, but purchased it anyway and returned to Rhode Island to continue writing my Master's thesis which the University of Chicago was still waiting for.

    It was at that time that I met a highly intuitive lanky fellow by the name of Howard Smukler. A polisci major and former electrician, endowed with an exceptional sense of humor and appreciation of the absurd, Howard was teaching a course on UFO's at both the New School in New York and also at URI Extension Division in Providence where I was also teaching. Howard, no doubt, a closet genius, (who is now a successful lawyer in San Francisco), not only had every book I ever owned on parapsychology, and every book I ever wanted, but also about a hundred on a topic I knew nothing about, UFO's. "Here, take this one... or that one," he would say, as he reached into the stack and tossed me another. Essentially unattached to material things, Howard generously offered me such gems as Secrets of the Pyramids, the weighty Roots of Consciousness, The Bermuda Triangle, I Rode a Flying Saucer and another on Sasquatch.

    Able to communicate to any echelon on equal footing, and using his ingenuity and great wit, Howard had convinced URI Extension into funding what he called the "Occult Studies Program" which offered courses on ESP, UFO's, Astrology, Tarot and Yoga. The program also offered the academic Journal of Occult Studies, edited by Howard, who was also director of the program, with me as associate editor (which I found out, just recently, has just been resurrected on the internet).

    Although we had managed to produce four issues, with articles on pyramid power, synchronicity, Uri Geller, (who was now world famous, because of Puharich's biography), and the physics of consciousness, Howard was not content. One day he returned from New York as editor-in- chief of two separate national magazines, Ancient Astronauts and ESP. He had simply walked into Countrywide Publications and pitched the publisher, Myron Fass, on both topics. "How'd you do it?" I said completely amazed at his most recent coup. "I figured that if the guy could have magazines on remote controlled airplanes and show dogs, they could have one on ESP or extraterrestrials. I pitched each topic, and to my amazement, Myron gave me both! As long as I can keep the circulation above 20,000, he doesn't care what it's on," he said. "You could do one on toilet seats."

WIZARD: THE LIFE & TIMES OF NIKOLA TESLA has been called the definitive biography on the inventor's fantastic life. The story begins with Tesla's heritage, follows childhood and early life through his school years in Graz and Budapest to his first jobs in Europe and then to his acclaimed work in America.

PUBLISHER: Citadel Press 540 pages illustrations, index $19.95

To purchase online click on Amazon.com

For Autographed copy of WIZARD

Soft cover     $35.00 post paid

Hard cover    $200.00 (very rare)