It’s Halloween Eve, so what an ideal time to venture into the occult just a tad.

Every year, mention is made by the news media of the 1938 CBS broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” which was Orson Welles’ orchestrated event wherein he used fake news bulletins to create an extraordinarily eerie depiction of a Martian invasion here on Earth (in New Jersey). One day I will listen to the whole extravaganza on YouTube as I’ve only heard bits and pieces through the years, mostly those very convincing portions which sent panicked people fleeing for their collectives lives. It sure sounded convincing to me, at least for that particular period of time, maybe now, not so much. You can listen to the full, crackly and tinny-sounding broadcast by clicking here.

I’ve not ventured much into the world of the occult in my lifetime. Sure, there were spooky Halloween parties we had for our Brownie troops, when the lights went out and you went to a table to feel such squeamish items like body parts – icky, realistic livers, fingernails, eyeballs, bones and the like, inviting each of us young girls to let out a blood-curdling scream.

I also remember gathering as a group in the schoolyard at recess while one of our classmates sprawled on the ground as we all closed our eyes to will her body to be levitated into the air.  Yes, you are shaking your head for sure after reading that.

Or, how about a group of girls at a slumber party sitting around in curlers and jammies and trying to reach Great Aunt Edna at a pretend séance?  None of these experiences came to fruition of course and we soon tired of all that nonsense.

Be honest now and just ‘fess up … who didn’t sit with a friend trying to tell your future through the little window in the Magic 8-Ball or decide what action to take based on what the Ouija board said to do?  Yes, we’ve all been there, but maybe don’t care to admit it now.

I enjoyed watching spooky tales on “Twilight Zone” or “Night Gallery” back in the day, not just for the spooky tales narrated by Rod Serling, though they weren’t all that realistic, though, as a long-suffering arachnophobe, I shuddered watching that episode of the gigantic spider – silly girl!

I will admit that psychics left me a doubting Thomas ….

Years ago, when my mom was in her early 20s, she and my grandmother went to The Daffodil Tea Room in Toronto to have their fortunes told.  The Tea Room’s soothsayer did not use tea leaves or cards to predict the future, but instead would read fortunes by touching a personal object that guests proffered at the entrance to the Tea Room.  Once all the Tea Room guests were seated, having dropped a personal item into a basket when they arrived and paid their admission fee, the fortune teller took the stage, reached into the basket, pulled out each person’s item, one by one, then told their fortune.  After the predictions, that guest went to the stage and retrieved their personal item and was asked if the prediction seemed viable to them.

While, my mother and grandmother did this visit for fun, the psychic told Mom she would soon meet a fair-haired man from across water whom she would eventually marry.  Shortly thereafter, Mom was sitting on the front porch, when my father, fresh from landing in Toronto off a boat from Germany, was walking down the street and approached the porch to ask my mom for directions.  That was 1950 and they were married three years later.

I heard this oft-recited tale when I was growing up, probably the first time in response to my query about “how did you two meet?” and I thought it was a cute story, but perhaps just happenstance.  But that was before I heard of the famous psychic Gary Wayne.

And then there was renowned psychic Gary Wayne ….

Long after four children were allegedly murdered by the Oakland County Child Killer in 1976 and 1977, a famous Houston-area psychic by the name of Gary Wayne, was brought to the Detroit area in the mid-1980s by detectives still investigating this cold case.  Since Gary Wayne Wayne was credited with predicting President Reagan’s assassination attempt one week before that occurrence, it was hoped he could harness his psychic powers to assist them with clues to capture the child killer, which murders remain as unsolved cases to this day.  Gary Wayne was a guest on the J.P. McCarthy Show on WJR.  After host J.P. interviewed Gary Wayne, there was a half-hour time period for listeners to call in and speak to the psychic.  My mother was one of the lucky callers and told nothing to the program’s screener as she awaited the guest to speak with her.  Gary Wayne told my mom she had been the victim of a childhood accident which left her with substantial medical problems, including orthopedic and leg circulation maladies.  Gary Wayne further sympathized with her continued worries about her mother’s heart condition and said it preyed on her mind.  

Gary Wayne asked my mom if these statements were correct and she verified that yes, she had been hit by a car at age eleven and spent the next four years in the Hospital for Sick Children recuperating from her injuries; she had some forty-two orthopedic operations in her lifetime and suffered from poor circulation as well.  My grandmother and each of her siblings had heart problems, and my grandmother was in declining health at that time due to her weak heart and in fact succumbed to a heart attack in early 1986.  My mom was nearly numb that he “read her vibes” over the radio.  She called me at work and asked if we could go to a hotel in Southfield that weekend where Gary Wayne would take appointments to meet with you for thirty minutes and tell your fortune.  It was pricey as I recall, but we booked a half-hour session, fifteen minutes for each of us.

The experience was amazing and yet kind of scary.  We sat together at a table across from him.  He laid his head way back, let out a near-primal scream, then looked normal after that and relayed all kinds of events that had happened in the past and would happen in the future.  He pinpointed my mom right away as the woman he spoke to on the J.P. McCarthy show, even though she never gave him her name on the radio, and told us that plumbing troubles in the wall behind the bathtub would occur soon.  This revelation really fizzed my mom who called the plumber Monday morning to have him check out the pipes and plumbing.  He found no problems and chuckled at her belief that a psychic could predict a plumbing problem.  (Nothing ever happened in that regard.)

When it came time for my session, Gary Wayne told me I had a blonde woman enemy at work who would make trouble for me and that I would marry either a professional pilot who liked to golf or a professional golfer with his own plane (neither the former nor the latter has transpired to date).

But, while predicting those long-term future events, which I discounted as dubious, it was rather chilling when he looked me right in the eye and advised me not to cut my long hair as I would be sorry.  This totally freaked me out as I had been thinking of a change in my hair style for a while as I’d had long straight hair for years and needed a change.  Because I was very vain in those days, changing my hair style was a big undertaking for me.  Gary Wayne told me he knew I’d been preoccupied with the hairstyle change but don’t do it. (I did get my hair cut, hated it and proceeded to grow it long again, so yes, score one for Gary Wayne). 

At times during our sessions, this psychic’s voice changed, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, while relay his predictions.  I found myself thinking he was very weird and I was uneasy, yet I was afraid to think negatively toward him, lest he knew what I was thinking.  He also made us a tape and gave it to us as we left.   While it was a most-unusual experience and I’m glad we went, I’d never do it again.  

May the mystical, maniacal Devil’s Night be kind to you.