Psycho-Phone Messages was originally published in 1921 by Francis Grierson, a mystic, musician, poet, prophet, and overall man of many talents. Grierson was born as Benjamin Henry Jesse Francis Shepard in 1848 in England, but grew up in Illinois. He later took his mother’s maiden name when publishing Modern Mysticism in 1899. 

By 1915, the Washington Herald hailed Grierson as the “Strangest Man in the World.” 

“So great, varied and unearthly are Grierson’s gifts that it is difficult to consider him as a human being,” the paper wrote. “If he had lived in ancient times his contemporaries would have made an oracle, prophet or saint out of him.”

His most particular talent was on display at the piano, where he completely improvised without ever learning to read a note of music. Grierson’s abilities led him to travels throughout Europe playing before crowned heads and causing Alexandre Dumas to say, “I predict for you a marvelous future.”

That future included an interest in Spiritualism. Grierson conducted séances across America and Europe, and in the late 1880s built a home in San Diego called Villa Montezuma. It would become a temple to occultism, with many séances being held within. 

This book, Grierson’s last, features messages from beyond the veil from a number of luminaries, all of which, he claimed, were recorded through the “psycho-phone.” Was this a device? His mind? Or simply more of his improvisational talents on display?