PURPORTEDLY “ARTHUR FORD’S OWN ACCOUNT OF LIFE” AFTER DEATH
Ruth Shick Montgomery (1912-2001) was a journalist and syndicated columnist in Washington, DC., who later became a psychic who wrote a number of metaphysical books (sometimes through ‘automatic writing’), and claimed that she could communicate with medium Arthur Ford after his death.
She wrote in the introductory section of this 1971 book, “Automatic writing is as mysterious as the cycle of birth and death and considerably more difficult to prove… We know that many books have been written totally by means of this directed force… Almost invariably the source claims to be a discarnate who once lived in the flesh... I do not claim to know the answer. I can only attest that the vivid descriptions of the afterlife imparted through this book are not products of my imagination or conscious knowledge and that in these instances where assertions are provable, they were totally unknown to me before they came through my typewriter… This book I believe to be Arthur Ford’s own account of life in the next stages of existence beyond the portal that man calls death.”
In the first chapter, she recounts, “the telephone roused me… A familiar voice … said, ‘Ruth… Arthur [Ford] is dead.’ … Arthur Ford dead! It was too soul-shattering to contemplate… Two months earlier… I returned to the hotel… to find a message, ‘Call Arthur Ford, no matter how late the hour.’ … I called him … and we had a wonderful visit together. He had heard reports of my speech the evening before at New York’s Universalist Church and was pleased… It was the last time that I would hear his voice.” (Pg. 15)
She explains, “Soon after meeting Arthur Ford I discovered that I was able to do automatic writing, and a high-minded control who called herself Lily dictated much of the material which I used in my book ‘A Search for the Truth’ and in a chapter of ‘Here and Hereafter.’ Then… I abandoned automatic writing… I had proven at least to my own satisfaction that communication with the so-called dead is possible, [but] I had no wish to become a medium.’” (Pg. 16) But later, “I suddenly felt an impelling urge to … once again try automatic writing… the writing began: ‘Ruth, this is Lily and the group. Arthur Ford is here and wants you to know that he … feels great and does not want you to grieve…’” (Pg. 16-17) The next day, “Arthur then came through himself, writing, ‘Ruth, this is Art. For the time being, never mind telling people that we’re in communication, because every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the country is going to be claiming that…” (Pg. 17)
She states, “Within a few days after Ford’s funeral, when he took over my typewriter for fifteen minutes every morning, he made plain that we were to collaborate on a book which would describe what life is like on the other side of the door called death. Arthur Ford is apparently a very determined soul who leaves no stone unturned.” (Pg. 77)
In a later session, “I asked whether souls in the spirit state have sex identity, and Arthur replied, ‘No, we are both male and female---or, more aptly, we are neither, but simply a unique ego… possessing the completeness of a whole rather than a divided sex…’ I wanted to know the ‘why’ of homosexuals, and he responded, ‘Those who return to physical body with sexes confused were not able to decide here whether they wished to return as man or woman and had such poorly defined urges one way or another that they retain some of this confusion.’” (Pg. 118)
In another session, “Ford began again, writing, ‘Ruth, every phony medium … has been claiming to produce poor old Napoleon at her séances. Let’s get it straight. He went back into another incarnation almost immediately, because he lusted for one more victorious battle. He found it in his next life, but as a weary foot soldier. Since then he has had two lives in Portugal and Brazil, also of short duration. But he … does not want to spend long periods in contemplation and review.” (Pg. 131)
She acknowledges, “If there is any subject that I dislike to think about, it is bad habits… Readers of ‘A Search for the Truth will recall that Lily succeeded in persuading me to give up cigarette smoking; but two years later… I returned to the filthy habit. I still like a cocktail or two before dinner… My old friend Arthur Ford was a gentle man, but he collected his own collection of bad habits. Through no fault of his own, he was for a time addicted to drugs, and in order to overcome that problem he became an alcoholic… even in his last years, he occasionally fell off the wagon, with near-disastrous results… Consequently, I expected far more understanding from the spirit Ford than from my stern guide, Lily, but Arthur soon took me to tack for these frailties of the flesh.” (Pg. 155)
Exploring her own ‘past lives,’ she recounts, “under hypnosis… I caught up with the crowd surrounding Jesus in the desert and became one of his large group of followers. Then, sitting with him at a house in Bethany, I realized that I was a sister of Lazarus, but I knew that I was neither Mary nor Martha… This seemed too ridiculous for further contemplation, so I kept it to myself… one day on impulse I bought a copy of the book ‘The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ’… I read only small portions each day; but great was my bafflement when I stumbled across a passage which discussed Lazarus and his THREE sisters---Martha, Mary, and Ruth…” (Pg. 179)
She states, “for what they are worth, I now disclose the predictions that Arthur Ford himself has made to me since passing… ‘Jordan will not much longer remain a separate nation. It will be gobbled up by Israel and Syria… Vietnam? America will gradually withdraw from the arena of fighting, but the bloodshed will continue for a long time yet, without peace or sanity… the hedonistic society of the Communist world will turn more and more toward God, because of these scientific mysteries (the psychic) which will more and more attract the attention of Soviet physicists and natural scientists. As they turn toward God… Russia will turn more and more toward a freer society… the Mexican economy will hold strong under good leadership. A fine place to invest now… [Cuba] will negotiate with America and bring it back into the family of nations… Will California and Manhattan go into the sea before the end of the century? This eruption is overdue and will occur too long hence… The San Andreas fault in California … breaks apart and the land sinks into the sea. Manhattan somewhat later…” (Pg. 205-208)
She notes at the end of the book, “All of the material for this book was received during a four-month period beginning January 4, 1971, and concluding on May 7… I asked Arthur Ford if he would still be available at least until the book was published to answer queries, and he replied, ‘Won’t be too far away, and Lily will always be able to find me for you. Don’t worry… I’m not going anyplace.’” (Pg. 213)
The incorrect predictions of ‘Ford’ cast doubts over the rest; Caveat emptor…