How psychic powers book came to be

The book “Understanding the Psychic Powers of Man," which I have recently completely revised, has had a long and colorful history. It is the first book of its kind written by a Filipino author. It first came out in commercial book form in 1978 and was in print for 20 long years! It only ceased to be printed in 1998. My publisher, Anvil Publishing, had been asking me to revise it so they could publish a new edition of it but I didn't have time, or the interest to do so until now, 30 years after its first publication.

Let me recall how this book came to be written. In the early 70's after I obtained my Master in Business Management (MBM) degree from the Asian Institute of Management, I went back to my hobby or avocation, namely, doing psychic research and experimentation.

In a few years, I developed enough knowledge about the subject to be considered some sort of an authority on it, although it was far from the impression I had of myself.

Then I noticed that the questions were the same ones being asked wherever I went. I found myself repeating the same answers I had given to others before. So, one day, I thought of summarizing the most significant lessons I had learned from these readings, as well as true-to-life experiences of people who were good enough to share their psychic stories with me.

The summary I wrote grew into a hundred or so pages which the now late Proserfina, wife of officemate Atty. Prescillano Adamos, typed. I printed only 100 copies of the typewritten material and sold them to my friends at cost.

Meantime, I had the mimeographed manuscript displayed at the ESP seminars of Chita Albert-CuUnjieng, in Manila.

One day, Chita's aunt, Telly Albert-Zulueta, former editor of Weekly Women's Magazine, happened to read the manuscript and asked me if I would be interested in having it serialized in the magazine. Although she was no longer connected with the magazine, she would ask the current editor, Luisa Linsangan, to take a look at it. Ms. Linsangan liked it and ran the whole manuscript in four long installments in her magazine. The response from readers was so amazing the editor asked me if I could contribute articles to the magazine on a regular basis. That launched my career as a writer.

Not only that. One day, I received a call from Ben Ramos, whose family owned National Book Store, the largest bookstore chain in the country. He asked me if I would be willing to have my articles in the Weekly Women's Magazine published in book form. After adding two chapters to the series that came out in the women's magazine I asked a friend, Narzalina Lim (who later became Secretary of Tourism under the Cory Aquino administration) to edit the work and fortunately she agreed to do it.

Then I asked the well-known veteran journalist and educator, Maximo V. Soliven, to write the Introduction or Foreword to the book and to my great surprise, he agreed to do it. I also asked a German scientist and parapsychologist, Dr. Alfred Stelter, to comment on the book, which he did.

When the book finally came out in 1978, many prominent people came during the launching.

The book became an instant best seller and it had been reprinted about seventeen times until it ceased publication in 1998 when the publishing arm of National Book Store was absorbed by its sister company Anvil Publishing Corp.

Note: For information on books, seminars and paranormal consultancy provided by the Inner Mind Development Institute, please call 810-7245 or 892-6806 or e-mail innerawareness_2005@yahoo.com.ph.

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