From out of This World

To the earthly eye, the hotel ballroom seemed less than a quarter full, but the Rev. Richard Renardo looked out over the empty chairs and said: "All our loved ones from the spirit world are with us. The room is not large enough when you consider it from that standpoint."

Loved ones from the spirit world hovered over Washington, D.C. to be in on the ninth annual convention of the Federation of Spiritual Churches and Associations, representing 365 spiritualist churches and some 15 "parent bodies." Last week at the Shoreham Hotel, the bright-eyed priests and priestesses of spiritualism wound up five days of speeches, seances and healing sessions, during which they compared notes on materializations and levitations, automatic writings and unfriendly state laws. For relaxation, the 200-odd delegates took in sightseeing tours and a weekend dinner-dance or rested their corporeal manifestations in the lobby and read "How It Feels to Die--by One Who Has!" in the latest Psychic Observer, or writings with a message, such as I Rode a Flying Saucer--the Mystery of the Flying Saucers Revealed Through George W. Van Tassel--Radioed to You by Other-World Intelligence in Reaction to Man's Destructive Action.

Six Principles. Spiritualists, who. are touchy about being mentioned in the same breath with tea-leaf readers and crystal-ball gazers, insist that they are a growing movement, attracting new members and permeating orthodox churches. They are most successful in California, Michigan and New York, least successful in the Bible belt. Actual membership figures are vague; estimates range from 162,000 to 250,000.

According to the federation's president, the Rev. Vernon R. Cummins, pastor of the First Spiritual Christian Church of San Antonio, Texas, most spiritualists believe in six basic principles: 1) A Supreme Being, 2) the "soul of man as the Son of God," 3) Jesus Christ as the "greatest demonstrator" of spiritualism (but not the only begotten Son of God), 4) "communication between the seen and unseen worlds," 5) "salvation by character development--not by the Blood of the Lamb," 6) "eternal progression''--i.e., no death. Beyond these tenets, spiritualist speculation ranges untrammeled. Chief current controversy: Is reincarnation possible?

Both Protestants and Roman Catholics, says President Cummins, often come to Sunday night spiritualist services--especially Protestants, "because it gives them someone to talk to."

A Bit More Religion? There were plenty of people to talk to when the convention's seances were under way. The Rev. Ernest Gleason got a message for a young man in the audience from a "tall and slender" lady "who is putting her arms around your neck." The Rev. Marie Sykes, 68, of Los Angeles' Central Spiritualist Church brought a woman messages from a spirit named "Blossom." One woman was ominously advised to get her "papers in readiness."

Some of those present seemed to feel that the spiritualist churches could use a bit more religion. "One of the vulnerable points of spiritualism," cried the Rev. Helen Graham of West Bloomfield, N.Y., thumping a Bible, "is that it doesn't use this book enough." The Rev. Clarence Haas of Warren, O. also looked to the Good Book, "I know Jesus Christ was a spiritualist," he told the group, "even if it don't say so."

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