The mediumship of Keith Milton Rhinehart

Keith Milton Rhinehart

Although it is usually thought that good physical mediums are things of the past Keith Milton Rhinehart of Seattle, Washington has produced phenomena under controlled conditions which deeply impressed scientists in Japan.

Physicists and chemists from faculties of the universities of Tokyo and Osaka and from electro-technical laboratories publicly expressed their surprise in films that have been televised in Japan and the United States.

Rhinehart's manifestations in Japan occurred during a time when he was securely locked in a specially constructed chair, so designed that if the occupant so much as moved an inch it would be recorded.

Before being placed into the chair Rhinehart had been stripped and thoroughly examined, then given a simple dark kimono to wear. He was also carefully weighed, and measured, his blood pressure taken, his urine analysed and many other tests made. (These tests were repeated after the séance, and the results have been published; indicating that amazing physiological changes occur during mediumship.)

Rhinehart was then placed into the chair and tied securely. Both of his arms lay in wooden enclosures from which he could not move them without having his motions recorded. The chair arms were studded with small buttons connected to red lights, and if his arms were raised off the buttons, the red lights would flash on. There was also an automatic weighing device fitted into the chair, which had been especially constructed by scientists for the visit of this prominent American medium. The weighing device was wired to an electrical graph-chart that recorded any of his movements.

Under these test conditions many physical phenomena showing ectoplasm in various forms were produced under white light and photographed with still and movie cameras. Ectoplasm, a substance that comes from the body of a medium during trance, is quite often invisible. When it can be seen it looks like a milky-white substance of nebulous form and consistency. It has been analysed in a laboratory and has been found to contain human cells as well as another substance that has not yet been identified.

During the Japanese tests ectoplasm flowed from Rhinehart's nose, ears, throat, and solar plexus, levitating trumpets and producing partial materializations. Some of the phenomena were photographed on infrared motion picture film, later televised in Japan.

One sequence revealed an ectoplasmic-mass flowing from the entranced medium downward, then up over the edge of a nearby table. In the picture it appeared to be a long, thick swan's neck. The end of the mass, looking like the swan's beak, actually, consisted of two finger like protuberances, known as pseudopods, which grasped a pencil and drew with it on a sheet of paper. The drawing afterwards found to be a face, recognized by Mr. Mikami, the leader of a religious group, attending the séance, as the alleged face of his spirit guide. In a second picture, taken a short time after the first, so much ectoplasm had come out that it had covered the entire body of the medium.

At other séances, arranged under controlled conditions in Tokyo and Kyoto during the medium's visit to Japan in 1958, materialized spirits appeared: One was recognized as the deceased father of Professor Iki Goto, D.E., of Tokyo University an investigator at the séance. The spirit walked out of the cabinet down the room, turned around, and walked slowly back into the cabinet. A cabinet, of course is the dark, enclosed area in which the medium frequently sits in order, it is claimed to build power and to allow the ectoplasm a controlled area in which to form.

Some fifteen minutes later, the spirit appeared again. This time he had his sleeves rolled up and showed a scar he had received while in his "earth life." This phenomenon, illuminated by white light was witnessed by some three hundred sitters who marvelled and wondered, according to the widow of the late Wasaburo Asano, founder of modern psychical research in Japan and first president the Japanese Psychic Science Association.

"Just before the end of the séance," Mrs. Asana reports, "the guide requested that a basin be put near the medium, ready for him. when he was taken from the trance state. As soon as this was done the medium tore off the adhesive plaster that bound his mouth spat out hundreds of polished agates in rapid succession." After this more agates came from the trumpet that was poked through the cabinet curtain. There were a total of 720 pieces of agate, which were later examined by Kenichi Ikeda, a jeweller who valued them at more than five hundred yen apiece.

Keith Milton Rhinehart's trip around the world was his second world tour, and had been given to the young medium by his church, the Aquarian Foundation, as a coming-of-age present.

He visited forty countries and held séances under test conditions in many of the them, including England, India, and South Africa.

Keith Milton Rhinehart visits South Africa. (1958)

One of the most extraordinary séances of all time has taken place in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It was a joint séance at which two powerful physical mediums, Alec Harris and Keith Rhinehart, were linked by a broad stream of ectoplasm, and ten figures materialised.

The séance was given by Harris in return for one of Rhinehart's he attended in company with nearly 50 others, which went on for four hours!

Here he heard pure, fluent Zulu spoken to a native servant of the house by his "dead" father, through Rhinehart's direct-voice mediumship.

Nearly every sitter received a personal message.

The messages to Mr and Mrs Alec Harris included one from her mother, who gave both her Christian and surnames.

At the Harris séance, possibly unique of its kind, Rhinehart, the American medium who is on a round-the-world tour, sat with a dozen others and watched several figures materialise, including a spirit guide of his whom he recognised and conversed with.

This amazing figure had a spirit light glowing inside his ectoplasmic head, and shining through the eye sockets!

Then a tall materialised spirit figure, known as the "scientist", appeared bathed in a strong bluish light, put his hands on Rhinehart's solar plexus and drew forth a long stream of ectoplasm.

This he stretched and broadened as he walked backwards to Harris, to whose body he joined it.

He next took a section of the ectoplasm to a sitter and told him he was going to give him healing.

Mrs V. Carleton Jones, who was present, says that the "scientist" fed the ectoplasm into the patient's solar plexus drawing it as he did so from Rhinehart, via Harris.

It was a living force seen by all present, and it broadened and moved in a most amazing way.

Then, in a flash, it was gone!

A further magnificent materialisation occurred when a leading guide of the Harris circle appeared with his whole torso transparent and showing a glowing light within.

His arms were solid and his ectoplasmic draperies hid his lower limbs, but his body was just a shell, with a pulsating light coming and going in a fantastic manner.

Everything that took place was clearly seen in the light of three red bulbs.

Mrs Carleton Jones said that this séance seemed to dispel the theory that two physical mediums cannot sit in the same circle without cancelling each other's power.

"To me, this was among the most wonderful experiences I have ever been privileged to witness."

She has attended scores of voice and materialisation séances.

Mrs Carleton Jones describes Rhinehart's public sittings in Johannesburg as a highlight in the psychic history of that city.

At his voice séance, half a dozen sitters received apports in the form of small hand-painted cards, each with a different subject.

Each came one at a time, through the floating trumpet.

Recipients were asked to feel inside the trumpet and announced that it was empty.

A rattling sound was next heard.

The sitter then said that a card had materialised inside the trumpet.

ADMIN EDIT I wondered where this had come from and was rescued by Psypioneer

“SIAMESE TWIN” MEDIUMS JOINED BY BAND
OF ECTOPLASM PRODUCE AMAZING
MATERIALISATIONS IN RED LIGHT
Spirit voice speaks “pure fluent Zulu”
14 The Two Worlds Thursday January 25, 1958 (front page) price 5d. No. 3661. http://www.woodlandway.org/PDF/PP6.4.April2010..pdf

"This is another story relating to Rhinehart, which comes from Susy Smith who researched haunted places from around the United States in the mid 1960's. Suzy is one of the major writers about this medium and lived in the same geographic area.

Part 1 setting the scene

In doing research for this and other stories I have made it a practice never to visit ghost houses with mediums. If a psychic person has happened to be along, I have noted his impressions; but it has not been my purpose to attempt to communicate with the alleged entities who haunt the houses I have visited.

Once, though, I found myself in a haunted school in the company of four mediums, and it was an experience I’ll never forget. This is what happened.

Jess Cauthorn of the Burnley School told me that he, himself, has heard these- manifestations. He had never believed in ghosts until that time. He isn’t really sure that he does now “I’m a realistic person,” Cauthorn said, “but there are some things you just can’t ignore-like the sound of desks being moved in an empty room behind locked doors.”Jess thought that perhaps the ghost had been more active in recent years because, “We’ve had to enlarge the school to accommodate more students."

John B. Nelson, said that, when he had been working on a big art project and didn’t want to stop, he had sometimes painted most of the night. When he was all alone in the building, and knew he was all alone, he would hear, at any moment between eleven o’clock at night and three o’clock in the morning, footsteps mounting those stairs. He would naturally go to see who was arriving, but nobody was there. At least, no physical presence was there.

“I was scared to death at first,” said John.

“Can you ever get used to a thing like that?” I asked.

“Not really,” he replied. “You just learn not to work here alone at night.” “New students don’t believe it, of course,” John went on. “But after they’ve been here some of them work late at night and then they hear it. Jennie Miller . . .“ and John nodded toward a girl who had just come into the room, “didn’t believe it at first. And she even stayed in the building several nights and didn’t hear anything

“But when I finally did,” Jennie interrupted him, “I went bellowing down the hall. I was all alone here and I wanted to run out, but I was scared to go down the stairs.”

The students got together and devised tests to catch the haunt. With masking tape they fastened thread across doorways about three feet off the floor. The next day, when they were sure that they had been the last ones out at night and the first ones in in the morning, they found some of the threads broken. On another occasion they stretched the thread across the stairway. Then they turned out the lights and waited upstairs. Some time later, they heard the steps come up both flights; but on examination the thread, which a living being would either have broken or knocked down, was intact.

Lest it be suspected that the noises heard on the stairs were just the normal creakings of old buildings, the students ask how that accounts for the fact that when they hear someone climbing, the creaks are sequential in order from bottom to top.

Cauthorn did not want his students alone there at night if there was any possible danger that a robber could be getting into the place in such a clever way that no one could catch him at it. So he had an insurance investigator check over the building carefully. When the place was pronounced perfectly safe, with all the locks and doors and windows secure against intruders, Jennie again worked late in her studio.

“While I was concentrating hard on my sketches,” she told me, “I heard a bang, and then a creak, and then the sound of somebody walking. Naturally I had all the lights on, and I hurried out into the hail to see who it was. Nobody was there.” Later that night she heard a key go into the lock of the front door and the squeaking sound of the door opening. “I rushed out and looked down the stairs,” she said, “but the door was not open and not a soul had come in.

Jennie’s friend, Ellen Pearce, had a studio on the third floor, and they worked there sometimes at night. The main light switch for that floor is on the inside of a room, and you have to grope your way across in the dark to find it. One night the girls heard a moan behind the door of that room, like a human being in great agony. Wondering who could possibly have gotten in there, and what could be happening, they fumbled their way across to the light switch, almost petrified with fright.

“But can you imagine our state when we got the light on and looked behind the door and no one was there?” asked Ellen.

I could. But I said I’d rather not.

Another student, Robert B. Theriault of Seattle, found a certain small room, used by the students for resting and coffee breaks, to be the most sinister of all. Once, when the lights were on in there, he was standing outside the door, but he knew someone was inside because he heard sounds as if magazine pages were being turned, and other movements. However, when he started to enter the room, the rustling stopped, and there was no one in there.

Henry Bennett is a commercial artist who had an apartment on the third floor while he was a student at the Burnley School around 1959-60. Cauthorn told me, “Hank was responsible for the security of the building at night. But often in the morning I would find the front door, or the fire door, wide open, or at least they would be unlocked when I arrived. Sometimes I really chewed Hank out, but he always insisted he had locked the doors and checked the place over the night before. I didn’t know what to think.”

Bennett confirmed to me that he always carefully locked the building each night. But the doors were often unlocked the next morning, and sometimes even open. “Many curious things happened while I was living there,” he said. “You would swear someone was walking up the stairs or moving furniture in some room, or some unseen person was doing construction work on the building. But when I’d turn on the lights, nobody was ever there.” Henry Bennett said that the ghost had not scared him; but he was talking from a distance of five years from the time of the events in which he had been involved.

Part 2 Enter Rhinehart

I was to get close to events within a very short time-for the mediums were gathering. Clyde Beck, a member of the American Society for Psychical Research and an individual who believes in attempting to work with all the equipment of a modern technician, had arrived first, loaded down with movie cameras and tape recorders-none of which were usable when things got interesting. By then we were all in the dark, and he had been unable to secure infrared lights and film. After Clyde, came several of the younger mediums of Rhinehart’s church-the Aquarian Foundation. Then came the feature attraction of the evening-Dr. Keith Milton Rhinehart, himself.

Actually an intelligent young man of twenty-nine, Keith was at that time affecting a mustache and goatee and a loud sports jacket-and he looked more like a beatnik guitar player than the pastor of a church.

He brought a few more people with him; so it turned out to be altogether a much larger group than we had anticipated. Since many people know little about mediums except the reputation some of them have for being fraudulent, I think perhaps I should take a moment here to discuss the subject. Extrasensory perception (or ESP) is not uncommon. Those who have a great amount of it are known as mediums, or “sensitives,” or “psychics.” They may be born with the natural talent in large degree, or they may have some slight ability and decide to improve it by sitting for development in classes at which a trained medium presides.

I have sat in a number of development groups myself, and have begun to exhibit an interesting amount of telepathy-I can sometimes see a picture clearly in my mind of something another person is at that moment thinking. I have on one or two occasions gone into a trancelike tate. I was not then completely unconscious, but my mind was withdrawn to the extent that I was not consciously instigating the words that were spoken through my mouth, words that purported to come from a deceased entity. Whether or not what I said came from my subconscious, I cannot state. I am only sure that certain information was given through me which I did not consciously know, and had not acquired normally.

Because of my own personal experience with this, I am aware that the material mediums produce may be genuine. I also know the effort, the countless hours sitting in classes, which many sensitives spend in order that their psychic talents may be developed as fully as possible. For this reason I must say definitely and firmly that all mediums are not fraudulent.

Yet I know that, just as there are quack doctors and shyster lawyers, there are phoney mediums. I have seen some who put on such sham acts that it was disgusting; and I have been furious, not only with them but with the gullible public who allowed themselves to be taken in by such trickery.

Keith Rhinehart is a natural-born medium who also spent years improving his native capabilities, beginning when he was in junior high school. When he is in good form, his powers are excellent. I have seen much evidence that, when he is entranced, genuine information has been given through him that he could have no possible normal way of knowing. This is usually referred to as “mental” mediumship. Although extremely adequate as a mental medium, Keith prefers to be known as a “physical” medium-one in whose presence curious physical phenomena occur.

One of his special abilities, it is claimed, is the production of “apports”-objects that are said to have been dematerialized from somewhere else on earth and then rematerialized inside the seance room. If the room has been thoroughly searched beforehand, the possibility of trap doors and secret compartments and false arms and bottoms to chairs, etc., eliminated, and the medium has been stripped and examined by a doctor, and then apports appear during the seance-it is hard not to consider their appearance as a supernormal manifestation. In the history of psychical research there is evidence for the appearance of apports, under conditions that have been so controlled as to give no opportunity for fraud.

I have seen apports appear in a lighted room under what I considered to be controlled conditions; but still I am reluctant to declare firmly once and for all that the phenomena were genuine. Many investigators much more highly trained than I have also hesitated to commit themselves. This is because there are some mediums who are so adept at prestidigitation that it is difficult for anyone ever to guarantee absolutely that he might not have in some way been hoodwinked.

I am going into this in such detail because of the events which followed at the Burnley School. I want it understood that I do not point an accusation of fraud at anybody for what occurred on the evening I am about to describe. And yet there is no possible way for me to be certain that there was not at least some lighthearted trickery involved. Then again, maybe there wasn’t. After all, we were in a building with a reputation for being haunted.

The members of Keith’s organization who came with him to the Burnley School that night had trained themselves very carefully, sitting hour after hour in dark rooms letting their natural mediumistic talents develop. I felt, and still feel, that they are sincere workers at their trade. In this group were Judith Crane, a very pretty, well- educated young woman who has gained considerable prominence as a medium,, and her fiancé, Donald Ballard, whom she has since married. Don is not a medium and is only a follower of psychic interests insofar as they affect Judy. I can’t help but believe that Don would have been furious if he had observed in Judy or her associates anything he thought was in any way dishonest-yet he was with the Aquarian Foundation members all the time that evening. The two other Aquarians present were Kenneth Bower and Helen Lester. The rest of the crowd that began to tour the haunted school included Jess Cauthorn, his students John Nelson and Jennie Miller, Clyde Beck, and me.

As we moved through the building I took notes on the impressions each sensitive expressed. Some were interesting in the light of the history of the school: It was sensed that there had been dancing and basketball in the big auditorium and that there had been exercise mats there at one time. But all this had been published in various newspaper accounts of the haunting which had appeared over the years, one as recent as June 1965, so the mediums could be given no special credit for their successes even if they were genuine “hits.” There is always the chance that they may have read the articles.

Several persons stated that a young man had been killed in or near the building long ago, and that he still hangs around and wants to dance and play basketball and have fun as he used to. (Unfortunately for the veracity of the tale, checks with the police since then have revealed no record of a killing in or near the school. An Associated Press reporter made a serious effort to track down verification of a murder, but with no results.)

We first decided to try to hold a seance in an area of the basement that had an unpaved dirt floor and old boards and boxes stacked in the corners. There we turned off the lights and sat at first with oüly one small candle. After a moment, we put that out and sat in the dank dark. Fortunately for my peace of mind, after later developments, some of the girls decided that there might be rats down there, and so we adjourned upstairs. At that time, none of us was in the least afraid of the ghost.

We finally chose a small room on the second floor, just large enough to hold the ten of us, and we put opaque screens over the windows and turned out all the lights. Just enough glow came in around the edge of the screens from the streetlight outside so that we could dimly see those. closest to us. Keith and I sat on a short couch, and the others milled about in the dark for a while.

Part3 The "Seance"

In order to learn if there might be any spirit about who wanted to make an effort to communicate, all those in the room except Keith and me put their fingers On the top of a tall stool. Almost at once it began to move around, so fast that they kept up with it only with difficulty. The stool banged itself with great force against the floor and the wall. It was asked to answer questions in code, with one rap for “Yes” and two for “No”; and it did give some answers this way to a few questions. But whatever was propelling the stool had no interest in such attempts to talk. It preferred to show off its great force by banging itself senselessly against the wall.

Keith and I got monstrously bored watching this-it is very routine in mediumistic circles. Catching me yawning, he asked if we should call it all off and go home.

“In a few minutes,” I said, “if nothing else happens.”

Soon the game with the stool palled on the participants, and they all settled down quietly, pulling their chairs into a circle facing Keith and me. After a few moments of extreme silence, when the full impact of the darkness crept over us, I glanced toward Keith-and suddenly realized that he was staring at me fixedly with the most malevolent expression I have ever had directed my way. He kept it up, not moving, for at least three minutes. The way he looked, with his dark hair, glittering eyes, mustache, and goatee, one could almost suspect that the devil himself had become incarnate in our midst. Not being quite unsophisticated enough to believe that, I decided instead that the medium must have been taken over into trance, and prepared myself for a discussion with some spirit entity who was obviously “earthbound” and must be convinced that he should stop haunting this school. I began racking my brain for suitable phrases from those who had published their experiences involving other such delicate situations.

“Who are you?” erupted suddenly and loudly from the medium.

I jumped a foot and a half into the air and started to shake. “We’re here to help you,” I quavered. Then I began to explain to him that he had passed through the experience called death and that he must adjust himself to that fact and go away and stop bothering the people at this school-that there were helpful spirits around him who would give him advice and assistance if he would but listen to them.

“I’m not dead,” he shrieked, interrupting me. Then he lunged at me, waving his arms, and shouted, “Get out! Get out, all of you!” And no matter how much I talked to him he kept repeating this refrain with the appropriate motions. It was coming to my attention that the

techniques that may have worked for those glib writers who had calmed obstreperous entities with a few well-chosen words were not likely to be so successful in my case. I started on a new tack.

“Did you know it is the year 1965?” I asked.

Keith almost leaped out of his seat. “No, no,” he cried. Then apparently taking a second to estimate, he added, “That would make me sixty years old. I’m not old. I’m young!” Yet, as if the idea of his death were beginning to penetrate after all, he began to mutter about blood and a knife. “Blood all over everything,” he said, and then such things as: “He got me in the back. I just wanted to stay here and play games and dance but John did me in. He did it; blood, blood, it spurted! The knife dripped blood! John did it. He always hated me.” Then, as if taking me for his false friend John he leaned toward me once again, with a look of utter viciousness, and shouted into my face, “Get out, all of you. Go away and leave me alone.”

As this dialogue is now written, from notes made the day after the episode, I am appalled by how silly it all was. Even as I sat there participating in this drama, the realization was very present that it was overplayed and amateurish. In retrospect the whole evening seems a trivial travesty of a bad movie or a television turkey.

But while the events were going on and I was participating in them, it was rather necessary to take them at face value, which was not in the least comfortable when the entranced medium kept jumping my way threateningly from time to time. Finally, he lunged and waved his arms in my direction just once too often and I got up and moved over to a bench just opposite the couch. The Thing, whoever it was, by then was muttering irresponsibly to himself, and I saw him glance down at my expensive camera which was on the floor beside where my feet had been. Lest he be inspired to break it, I reached over and picked it up.

As I did so, the maniacal look on Keith’s face made me think, “Oh, if I could just get a picture of this for the book.” I began to sight the camera at him. Fortunately, I did not have time to flash the bulb-for if it is true, as I have since learned that all spiritualists believe, that any flash of light or sudden shock might kill an entranced medium, it might have been I instead of a ghost who was the villain of this piece.

When the camera went up to my eye, Keith cried, “What are you doing?” and made a leap for me.

I shouted, “Don’t you touch me!” and kicked him. It was just a little kick and it barely connected with his leg; but he plummeted to the floor as if I had landed a rock on his skull. I didn’t do anything then for a minute but sit and quiver. Then I began to worry for fear the medium was badly injured, because he was lying there prone, breathing as if each gasp might be his last. I had not more than touched him, but it was evidently enough to have caused the entity to lose his hold.

All of us sat with eyes glued on him, to see if he would come out of it; finally, we heaved sighs of relief as we heard the deep sonorous tones of the medium’s special “spirit guide,” who acts as his “control” and takes care of him, saying through him, “This is Dr. Robert John Kensington, and we have things in hand.” Keith, still entranced, but now by his proper control, got up and sat back on the couch, Dr. Kensington apologizing all the while for having allowed him to be taken over by such an irresponsible entity. He said that he had not realized that the spirit was actually insane until he had gotten into Keith’s body; and that the number of mediums present acted as a battery that gave the entity more power.

Keith then came out of his trance, asked for a drink of water, and sat holding his head, complaining of a violent headache. He asked what had happened, and somebody began to tell him. I was doing a lot of thinking, very negatively. If this had all been an act, it was such an overdone performance that it was hardly worthy of Keith’s histrionic ability. . . . yet if it had not been put on-Good Heavens! I’d been in real danger! I turned and said, perhaps a bit sarcastically: “How did it happen, may I ask, that all of you sat there so calmly while I was being attacked by a maniac?”

The Aquarian Foundation members told me that they knew that touching the medium when he was in such a state would have injured him.

“But what if I had been injured?”

“You didn’t have a thing to worry about,” they assured me. “We were surrounding everyone with protective thoughts, so everything was completely under control.” Under control? I almost had a camera wrapped around my head!

Keith had nearly been clobbered, too, Jess Cauthorn told me later. When we had a long retrospective chat about the evening’s experiences he said that he and John Nelson had been sitting on the edges of their chairs, signaling each other, and ready to spring if the medium got one inch closer to me. They had been considering the entire thing to be a clumsy hoax; but they wondered why, if it was a hoax, Keith had not known he was going too far and would be in danger from them if he got the least bit rough. This was part of the whole big mystery. If he was putting on an act, why did he not realize the possibility of being physically restrained by those two men so much larger than he? There were many mysteries about this evening that have never been resolved; and this was one of them. Yet the biggest mystery of all occurred after we left the seance room. It put a slightly different light on the whole performance. But it did not solve anything.

It only made the confusion worse.

Rather depressed by the episode that had just taken place, I had gathered my nerve, my wits, and my camera and walked out of the seance room to try to get another picture or two of the school building.

I was accompanied by Keith and Clyde Beck. The others remained in the room and then spread out, eventually going downstairs. The three of us walked back down the hall and into the auditorium, around a
corner and about fifty feet from the seance room. After discussing the possibility of getting a photo of the large room, and deciding it would be useless to try with my equipment, I started to walk back up the hall. Hearing a funny sound from Keith, I turned to look at him.

His eyes were getting that glassy, glittery look again, and he began to mumble, “I told you there was something I could do you couldn’t” and other phrases that weren’t particularly intelligible. He approached me
menacingly.

“It’s got him again,” I shrieked, rushing up the hall away from him.

“Clyde, do something!” Clyde did something; he watched to see what was going to happen next. I moved on as quickly as possible, hollering to the people downstairs. Aquarians came bounding up, and as they did the medium began to speak once more in the deep tones of his control. “This is Dr. Robert John Kensington,” he said. “The entity got back in once again because there was something he insisted on saying. Will you please call the owner of the building?”

Jess Cauthorn was just arriving up the stairs on a run, and he said breathlessly, “I’m here.”

“Do you recall if there was a rock about the size of a brick in that room where the seance was held?” Dr. Kensington asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” answered Jess. “I’m almost sure there was not.”

“Well, the entity was trying to say that he had the power to bring apports,” the voice went on. “Now if you will go into the seance room you will find a rock there close to where Miss Smith was sitting.”

We all rushed into the room, and sure enough, right where my feet had been when I sat on the end of the bench, there was now a smooth, oval rock as large as a brick. It could not have been there when my feet were cringing in that spot a few minutes before.

The next day, at my suggestion, students went into the basement of the school building and reported that they found a hole the exact size, into which the rock fit neatly. It was in an area of the dirt where there were a few other similar stones scattered about. They immediately decided that this was the proof they needed that the whole thing had been a hoax. But it really wasn’t necessarily that convincing. Even if the rock had come from there, this would not prove it wasn’t an apport, because an apport has to come from somewhere; and the spirit would not in that brief interval have gone wandering afar to dig one up. He was said to be haunting this place. If he had decided he wanted a rock to heave at me, would he have thought of looking anywhere else for it?

As can be imagined, we all did a great deal of arguing and conjecturing for days afterward. All except Keith Milton Rhinehart, who went home with a terrible headache and was said to have been confined to his bed. As we thought about the apport and tried to explain it, we realized that the medium, being a rather slight man, could not possibly have hidden so large a rock on his person in order to bring it up from the basement without being observed. If one of the women members of the Aquarian Foundation had managed to secrete it somewhere (in some oversize handbag?) how did Keith, down the hall with me, know about it?

The only answer, except one really dealing with ghosts and apports and other supernormal things, is that the whole event was an extravaganza put on by the entire group of mediums in collaboration, to show the visiting author a good time and give her something to write about. But Keith and all the others knew that I was prepared to write scathingly about them if I discovered them in anything fraudulent, or even in anything particularly suspicious looking. They were aware, moreover, that they had much more at stake than a haunted school, for I was in Seattle investigating whether or not the phenomena of all Keith’s services and seances were genuine; and I had a magazine contact that they knew was eager for the story. Why, under those circumstances, would they play stupid games with me? Why also would Keith have run the risk of being injured when he leaped at me, knowing full well that the non-Aquarians in the group would certainly have defended me?

Although my experience at the Burnley School was effective enough to scare me temporarily out of my wits, it could not have been permanently convincing. Of all the questions raised by this incident, the biggest that remains is this: If the Aquarians had decided to put on an act, why wasn’t it a better act? These were intelligent adults, not children; they couldn’t have been stupid enough to have produced such an overblown, overacted melodrama and expected it to be believed.

But an old, earthbound spirit so dumb as to hang around a school for sixty years without knowing it was time to graduate-be might have acted just the way he did that night. After all, we were in a building in which a great many genuinely unexplainable manifestations bad already occurred.

I came out of this whole adventure with only one conclusion: You’d better keep your cool if you’re going to fool with an old school ghoul."

Hi All,

After seeing all this about Rhinehart aome time ago I became fascinated especially when it became clear that his very existence was not acknowledged by the National Spiritualist Association Of Churches in the USA. I also received more information about him from a Canadian member of the original Spiritualist Chatroom and found that although teh Aquarian Foundation he formed still operated several Missions the museum in Seattle was not open to the public because of disputes internally and with his family.

My interest was clearly piqued by all of this why would such a major figure of Physical Mediumship be overlooked in his own country. I realise that his major work period coincided with Lamar Keenes publication Psychic Mafia and the exposing of the fraudulent physical phenomena at Camp Chesterfield, an NSAC camp. However, although this may have made the Spiritualist churches wary I thought the sheer record from his seances may have been enough.

It is difficult to establish much about Rhinehart but what can be pieced together makes it fairly clear why Spiritualism has overlooked him.

I will start with a bit of a rundown on him.

Firstly a brief write up on the current state of his self founded church "The Aquarian Foundation' founded in 1955 from a brief recent note on teh internet about sects and sults.

"The Aquarian Foundation was started in Seattle years ago. Although it kind of looks like a Spiritualist Church it is not. Spiritualism (see www.nsac.org... ) believes in the life after death and contact with the "so called dead."

The Aquarian Foundation just replays cassette tapes of what their founder had given as a lectures. They do invoke the white fire and violet flame. Their idea of "spiritual healing: is to readjust one's auras only.

They do have the trumpets, NSAC hymnals and other items that you would find in a Spiritualist Church but they are on a way different path than spiritualism.

The mediums request a $15 fee to give you a message and you have to write your question on an index card. I have been to real Spiritualist Churches before and I never had to tell the mediums anything, they were able to tell me things that I've never told them.

And yes, they exclude people with Epilepsy from their services. Somehow I don't see this organziation being part of any secret societies or conspiracy. I have heard from friends around Seattle that the founder of the Aquarian Foundation had obtained the money for their headquarter building by sueing the Seattle police department for slander because of some alleged incidents involving him and children. But I am unable to confirm or dispute that either."

In a way the name choice was difficult given that just accross the Canadian border from Seattle the original Aquarian Foundation had turned into an astonishing scam in the 1930's (see my thread in the New Age area).

However it was chosen Rhinehart opened this church in his early 20's in 1955. he was a flamboyant character and became noted for his White Cadillac and Rhinestone Jackets. His church stepped a long way from Spiritualism and in fact Rhinehart became a major channeller for the acsended masters the rather dubious invention of the Theosophists of which I am totally unconvinced.

I have found the following brief write up.
"
The Aquarian Foundation was a Spiritualist church built around the mediumship of its founder Rev. Keith Milton Rhinehart. It was founded in 1955 and existed for several decades as a single congregation in Seattle. Rhinehart articulated an eclectic occult perspective that combined elements of Theosophy and Eastern religion with more traditional Spiritualism. Rhinehart also claimed contact with the ascended masters identified with the Theosophical Society. Through the 1960s Rhinehart gained some fame as a "materialization" medium. In the 1970s his ideas began to spread across the United States and into Canada. Rhinehart claimed to possess the stigmata, the extraordinary appearance of the wounds of Christ, which appeared on his body and were seen by many.
The work of the Aquarian Foundation centered upon contact with the ascended masters, who constituted the Great Brotherhood of Cosmic Light (termed by some the Great White Brotherhood), the spiritual hierarchy that mediates divine energies to humanity. Many of the sessions during which Rhinehart channeled messages from the masters have been recorded, transcribed, printed, and were distributed to the foundations's various centers.
The brotherhood affirmed a belief in karma and reincarnation, the evolution of the soul, the law of cause and effect, and the eventual attainment of personal mastery. Among those contacted by Rhinehart were Saint Germain, Master Morya, Sanat Kumara, and Djual Khul (all prominent figures in Theosophy and the I Am Movement). Also included among the masters were the Angel Moroni (the angel who gave the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith Jr.), Mahatma Ghandi, and flying saucer entities Clarion and Ashtar. The foundation's last known address was 315 15th Ave. E., Seattle, WA 98112.
Sources:
Rhinehart, Keith Milton. Soul Mates and Twin Rays. Seattle, Wash.: Aquarian Foundation, 1972."

More to follow

Jim

Hi All, To follow on,

Having found this and more reinforcing teh eclectic views of the Foundation I felt I had established the reason for Spiritualism's cold shoulder. However I found that there was even more to this story.

On top of everything else Rhinehart became heavily involved in a legal case which turns up very easily on Google as it is a leading authority in its field. It is also teh area that nearly bankrupted the Foundation

U.S. Supreme Court
Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart, 467 U.S. 20 (1984)
Seattle Times Co. v. Rhinehart
No. 82-1721
Argued February 21, 1984
Decided May 21, 1984
467 U.S. 20
CERTIORARI TO THE SUPREME COURT OF WASHINGTON
Syllabus
Respondent Rhinehart is the spiritual leader of a religious group, respondent Aquarian Foundation. In recent years, petitioner newspaper companies published several stories about Rhinehart and the Foundation. A damages action for alleged defamation and invasions of privacy was brought in a Washington state court by respondents (who also include certain members of the Foundation) against petitioners (who also include the authors of the articles and their spouses). During the course of extensive discovery, respondents refused to disclose certain information, including the identity of the Foundation's donors and members. Pursuant to state discovery Rules modeled on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the trial court issued an order compelling respondents to identify all donors who made contributions during the five years preceding the date of the complaint, along with the amounts donated. The court also required respondents to divulge enough membership information to substantiate any claims of diminished membership. However, pursuant to the State's Rule 26(c), the court also issued a protective order prohibiting petitioners from publishing, disseminating, or using the information in any way except where necessary to prepare for and try the case. In seeking the protective order, respondents had submitted affidavits of several Foundation members averring that public release of the information would adversely affect Foundation membership and income and would subject its members to harassment and reprisals. By its terms, the protective order did not apply to information gained by means other than the discovery process. The Washington Supreme Court affirmed both the production order and the protective order, concluding that even if the latter order was assumed to constitute a prior restraint of free expression, the trial court had not violated its discretion in issuing the order.
Held: The protective order issued in this case does not offend the First Amendment. P P. 29-37.
(a) In addressing the First Amendment question presented here, it is necessary to consider whether the "practice in question [furthers] an important or substantial governmental interest unrelated to the suppression of expression" and whether
"the limitation of First Amendment
Page 467 U. S. 21
freedoms [is] no greater than is necessary or essential to the protection of the particular governmental interest involved."
Procunier v. Martinez, 416 U. S. 396, 413. Pp. 31-32.
(b) Judicial limitations on a party's ability to disseminate information discovered in advance of trial implicates the First Amendment rights of the restricted party to a far lesser extent than would restraints on dissemination of information in other contexts. Rules authorizing discovery are a matter of legislative grace. A litigant has no First Amendment right of access to information made available only for purposes of trying his suit. Furthermore, restraints placed on discovered information are not a restriction on a traditionally public source of information. P P. 32-34.
(c) Rule 26(c) furthers a substantial governmental interest unrelated to the suppression of expression. Liberal pretrial discovery under the State's Rules has a significant potential for abuse. There is an opportunity for litigants to obtain -- incidentally or purposefully -- information that not only is irrelevant but, if publicly released, could be damaging to reputation and privacy. The prevention of such abuse is sufficient justification for the authorization of protective orders. P P. 34-36.
(d) The provision for protective orders in the Washington Rules -- conferring broad discretion on the trial court -- requires, in itself, no heightened First Amendment scrutiny. The unique character of the discovery process requires that the trial court have substantial latitude to fashion protective orders. P. 36.
(e) In this case, the trial court entered the protective order upon a showing that constituted good cause as required by Rule 26(c). Also, the order is limited to the context of pretrial civil discovery, and does not restrict dissemination if the information is obtained from other sources. It is sufficient for purposes of this Court's decision that the highest court in the State found no abuse of discretion in the trial court's decision to issue a protective order pursuant to a constitutional state law. P P. 36-37.
98 Wash.2d 226, 654 P.2d 673, affirmed.
POWELL, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court. BRENNAN, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which MARSHALL, J., joined, post, P. 37.
Page 467 U. S. 22
JUSTICE POWELL delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents the issue whether parties to civil litigation have a First Amendment right to disseminate, in advance of trial, information gained through the pretrial discovery process.

An entirely fascinating transcript of the trial is available in many places as a result of the key principles decided in Rhinehart's favour.

Then of course there was Rhineharts imprisonment for his sexual offence against a 16 year old boy in 1965 and his failure to overturn the decision at appeal in 1967 although 4 years later the charge was "vacated". The Foundation stood behind him and organised a protest the flyers for which are available on the net.

In honesty by the later years although there were still descriptions of physical phenomena most notable are the many references about for example

"We were offered to be Spiritual Leaders for the Aquarian Foundation, by its Founder and Spiritual Leader, Keith Milton Rhinehart. 2. www.kumaras.org
www.kumaras.org/id4.html - [Cached]
Published on: 9/1/2005 Last Visited: 4/13/2007

even the more contemporary of physical phenomenists, Keith Milton Rhinehart who was and is an amazing soul that graced my life while here and, after as well. In his teachings, both public as a matter of record and private, he readied me for this mission here by passing into me, his legacy, the Lineage of Kumaras. Even

Also I will note the most recent physical incarnation of a Master, Rev. Keith Milton Rhinehart, who founded the Aquarian Foundation and was just almost incomprehensible the sheer matrix of his extended ability to produce physical phenomena of all types. Altho unfortunately, with his passing, the Aquarian Foundation was quickly usurped by very negative forces (which happens alot) the teachings there in that Foundation go a long ways to preparing anyone for authentic Ascended Master/Star Visitor Contact. IF you're interested that is ... the teaching there speaks for themselves and is worthy of study. It is a shame that he has now passed.

Keith was my 'earthly' 'guru' or teacher for over 18 years. After his passing over, he passed his legacy on to me at one point which even I did not understand fully at the time, what all that would eventually come to mean to me.
...
A very BIG one for me....because Keith at one time, in bringing thru my beloved grandfather, Comte St. Germain, mentioned this!!
...
I certainly am when it comes to the works of all physical phenomenists; including Madame Blavatsky, Eva C. and Rev. Keith Rhinehart ... and now, myself.
...
A good study of such subjects as Ive brought to Light today, will bear me out as historical FACT as well as a good study of the documentation of not only my own works while a member of the Aquarian Foundation and the very specific messages brought to me by Keith in front of the entire membership and now with the manifesting of crop circles via the channeling of Creationary Forces. 3. Spiritual Psychic Art - Portals and Corridors
www.spiritualpsychicart.com/bo "

So at the end there are as many questions about who and what the flamboyant character was about. It is hardly suprisng that his name is not well known amongst Spiritualists especially as his teachings have no relationship to our philosophy.

Cheers

Jim

Hi Jim

I am aware of the articles and claims written about Rhinehart nevertheless he was an outstanding physical medium at the age of twenty-one when he went on his world tour as I stated before.

I was in South Africa when he visited that country.

He came to Cape Town and gave a brilliant demonstration of clairvoyance. In the audience were Mona van der Watt and her husband.

Rhinehart singled her out and, amongst other good evidence, gave her the names of some of her guides which were all correct.

She had no doubt that he had a genuine gift.

His joint demonstration with Alec Harris is certainly one of the most astonishing demonstrations of physical mediumship ever seen.

I know that Barbanell organised meetings in London for Rhinehart and also wrote very favourably about him.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility, as a young man surrounded by sycophants constantly praising his abilities, that he started to believe the stories about him.

Inevitably his mediumship took a wrong turn with the results stated in your research.

It's a sad story from which valuable lessons can be drawn.

It takes a very strong character to be able to withstand the plaudits of the crowd and to keep one's feet firmly on the ground.

Z

Hi Z,

I agree it certainly does and he achieved such amazing things so early on in his life, it is sad to see that the latter years leave him so unrecognised. I also wish the Foundation in Seattle had not turned into such a secretive place as tehre must be so much information there. I admit where they have taken it all may take a bit of handling if you visited it.

I believe he set up the Foundation when he was 22 so a year after South Africa is that right?

Cheers

Jim

Hi Jim

You may well be right!

Rhinehart left the USA five months prior to his trip to South Africa on a a world tour paid for as a 21st birthday gift by the Seattle church of which he was the minister.

He visited 30 countries and lectured and held seances in over half of them.

He was the first visiting medium to demonstrate psychic phenomena in Turkey.

After his first seance there which was printed on the front page of an Istanbul newspaper over 600 Moslems arrived for the second seance.

Spirit communicators manged to speak in their native tongues and give their native names.

After leaving South Africa he visited India then went on to Japan.

In March 1958 he returned to America after visiting Honolulu.

Cheers

Z

Greetings in the name of Spirit.

I knew KMR for a while. He was incredibly gifted in many, many ways. As a intuitive reader and psychic, there are few who had his gifts and abilities, and could touch others as he could.

However, ability or powers do not a master make. He knew I could see beyond the veil that so carefully masked a deeper reality. Messengers were sent to explain...

Energy is still energy. Beyond the sounds which make for language on this dimensional plane, the language of the Cosmos is found within the self, and there are no words. A simple flash of pure thought, brings with it, a whole and complete comprehension. While such comprehension is instantaneous, (to those who have the heart and mind to listen), it would take tens of thousands of words to explain the simple act of knowing within that briefest flash of energy transference....

The answers you seek are found by those who learn to listen within. Not with one's ears, but by Being... listening with the heart and spirit - right action will manifest. This is especially important for the novice and those young within the path of awakening.

Stay connected, listen well.

Zenoian

Hi Zenoian

Welcome to the site but I haven't a clue what you are talking about.

Regards

Z

Hi Zenoian

Welcome indeed to this forum although I'd much prefer your greetings to be from you rather than in the name of spirit - unless you have been appointed to convey greetings from 'them' to 'us'???

It's made me download this whole thread for printing, though, and perhaps you'll be able to enlarge first-hand on the subject matter?

Hi Zenoian,

From your writing may I presume you are a member of the " Aquarian Foundation " which Keith Milton Rhinehart founded. The contents of your message are very much in line with the ascension mystic occult element of that body.

There is a lot better material about the foundation available but earlier in this thread I have given a background on teh Foundation and the little that can be established about the man and the earlier Foundation of the same name in a nearby geographic area by Brother xii which had not dissimilar views but came more directly out of Theosophy.

In the area on other beliefs in this forum I have put on information concerning the "Brother". Properly the mention of the Aquarian Foundation should also be in that "New Age" area of beliefs. It has always been somewhat of a concern to me that the Foundation has a rather large weekly advertisement in Psychic News but in reality I suppose it is fair enough everyone has a right to look at and take their own pathway.

I am sorry Zenoian but as a Spiritualist who has looked deeply at the ongoing strands of the Ascension movements and the "masters' named above I have rejected them because of the failed past claims lade by these "entity " and the mis information they seem to spread. However, I am comfortable to respect your personal beliefs and those of the Foundation.

My interest here in forum is purely about the apparently amazing gift for physical mediumship he had especially in his early days not in any sense in the belief system he created subsequently when he decided he was a living ascended master. Indeed this later development explains entirely why the NSAC have effectively no reference for Rhinehart in the USA

I have settled comfortably upon the simple non occult or mystical Spiritualist movement which through its truth and philosophy offers profound value to the world.

In light

Jim

Hello,

Z, thank you for the reception.

However, I do not believe you have 'not a clue as to what I am referring to. I think you are very sharp and astute. However, if you have had contact with KMR for any period of time when he has been off the podium, there would have been some knocks on your 'intuitive' door, so to speak. Unless, your internal connection has been diverted to listen with exterior ears.

If one has psychic or spiritual gifts, it does not necessarily follow that the person who wields them possesses the ethical and moral balance that is inherent within higher consciousness. KMR knew some saw him as he was, and much of what he did was high art of misdirection and manipulation. He genius was in melding the world of 'spiritualism,' with all of it's abilities, levels, and imperfections, with the pristine balance of higher 'Spirituality.' For using special gifts for personal gain, a price was exacted, he himself created and was held accountable for.

I am not here to slam his memory. I dropped in because the moment called for it. If anyone finds any of what is written or said of value, *that is entirely up to them; their own inner spirit to decide.* Myself, I have little to offer.

*(is not this latter statement a clue? Does the student listen to the teacher on the external, or filter whatever experiences through his inner connection. If the latter, how does one make the transition from the exoteric, to the esoteric)?

Jim,

thank you for your reply.

You wrote:

I am sorry Zenoian but as a Spiritualist who has looked deeply at the ongoing strands of the Ascension movements and the "masters' named above I have rejected them because of the failed past claims lade by these "entity " and the mis information they seem to spread.

...then you finished with:

However, I am comfortable to respect your personal beliefs and those of the Foundation.

I quite agree. I am not, and have not been a member of that, or any group or foundation. Moreover, I do not ascribe to the perverted self aggrandizing aspects of such movements. In truth, the 'Way' is quite simple, and need not be hampered by such cumbersome burdens as forms, structure, belief systems, ritual, and cosmology which man creates to assume a degree of power. Power over those who seek in ernest. In the case of the aforementioned person, he knew what he was doing, and a reckoning, a facing of self was brought about.

Mac,

Thank you for your interest and reply. I very much understand you, and that which is going on beneath your words. What you did not say is of interest. You are on the brink of something - Something of a breakthrough.

Take a deeper look at your signature which reads:

....you don't need eyes to see, you need vision

...

Now set that aside, and contemplate the thought of listening... what it means, how it serves, and ultimately how it liberates one to freedom from earthly confines. Then, sit back and listen. I see the change. Today, your energy is buzzing; you are due.

You write:

... I'd much prefer your greetings to be from you rather than in the name of spirit - unless you have been appointed to convey greetings from 'them' to 'us'???

LOL, appointed...? Well, more like Blessed. But, yes, I have a job to do, and there are those who speak through me.

HOWEVER - and make NO mistake about this:

The way to your, and others SELF REALIZATION, liberation, is NOT found by looking at me as the teacher with answers. Even if ALL which is said comes to pass, and I am 100% accurate do NOT look at personification. This would be doing a dis-service to yourself.

One must realize that teachers are 'TOOLS' to help GUIDE, one to their own consciousness. Instead, they misdirect the student (sometimes innocently) based on their own upbringing and beliefs. This fosters a dependancy. They say, "All knowledge is within, etc, yet by becoming dependent, you actually create a separation from that which you seek.

To say it another way: they wean the student to a form, or structure. The student becomes attached to the teacher and begins to develop a 'dependence' upon the answers given. Even if the road found holds truth, by becoming dependent one loses the 'Truer' connection to their own spiritual self, or 'Way.' This is important to understand!!!

Of course, it is okay to have a teacher to help guide one to 'THEM SELF. But see them as tools, and all information must be filtered through One's own spiritual self. In this way, when you have learned what you must, you can freely move forward. Far too many must learn to break free of the servitude and dependence upon spiritual leaders.

When one realizes that there is never a separation, that we are always One with God, the Universe, or whatever you choose to call it... (A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet) It is where your attention is that decides who you are.

'You cannot learn what you do not know'

My time here is limited. Email me. Zenoian@yahoo.com

Stay Connected, Listen within.

Zenoian