The Parapsychological Philanthropist

Basil had always been good. As a child, he didn't pull off the flies' wings or burn the ants, in high school he really did help old women across the street, and in middle age, though he earned $25,000 a year, he tithed $2,900 to the church, more than was expected.

Basil was a solid church-goer and devout believer, though he had a tendency to think for himself occasionally. One thought that bothered Basil was how much more good Christ might have accomplished had he kept a lower profile. For one thing, Christ would probably have lived longer. Also, he would, literally, have been able to have touched many more people. "If I ever obtain powers," thought Basil when he was in the fifth grade, "I won't let anyone know. I'll just use them for the good of others." The young boy didn't feel he was using blasphemy, just that he wanted to help as much as possible.

Well, Basil, miraculously, had a chance to put his money where his mouth was because when he was twenty-one, he

received extraordinary power by winning a fifteen-million dollar lottery.

After all his bills were settled, Basil bought a camper, a twenty-foot motor home small enough to go anywhere but large enough to live in. He quit his job and lived in his vehicle during his first trip out which was to the Pacific Northwest.

An oriental scripture says that good things come in twos and threes. So it was with Basil, because soon a second good thing befell Basil in the form of a young Ponderosa Pine tree near Bozeman, Montana. Getting smashed by the tree didn't seem like good luck to the now-retired clerk at the time, but soon after he saw it as such.

You see, as Basil lay in a contorted state under the trunk, he mused. Winning the lottery allowed him to quit his job. Quitting let him travel. Traveling brought him to Montana, and this led him to this tree and this state. It seemed so logical. But he couldn't figure why he was transformed instantly into a parapsychological phenomenon. That is, why, all of a sudden, he knew he was able to see the past and future of anyone he focused on.

Now, before you dismiss this as science fiction or an author taking literary license, the reader should know that such instant transformations have been known in the scientific community for decades. For instance, the Dane who fell off a roof and ever after saw the inner workings of criminals' minds so well that Scotland Yard and other police forces used him regularly to solve crimes. These are well

documented, so the story of Basil Fuller is completely believable.

But the acquisition of powers is not what made Basil extraordinary, it's what he did with them and his fifteen million-dollar landfall.

First, imagine a thirty-seven year-old sitting on a rock in a pine grove. A tree falls. First, it immobilizes him. Second, a blazing white light inside his head doesn't leave or diminish. Third, in his contorted, pretzel-state, he realizes clearly that he's undergone a change of phenomenal proportions: He knows that he's not only different now, but he possesses a great power.

Play with the scenario: Seventeen hours pass. No one's missed him because he was traveling alone. A rancher sees the camper. His German Shepherd smells him. The millionaire goes to a hospital. While he's there, he becomes aware of the nature of his powers, that he can "read" the past and future of the nurse, Maggie McCullen.

Now, while Basil lay in the hospital bed, his earlier confusion about Christ's high profile hit him. He knew that if he made a splash of his new-found powers he could be hounded and socially ridiculed. He remembered his fifth-grade words: He knew he must be cool.

After nurse Maggie left Basil, the man began what would become the great document of the 20th Century, The Fuller Papers. In it he created the format, the procedure, and projected results that all people could use who faced impending disasters if they wanted true treatment.

As most of us know by now, the format he created was:

l. Find what was going on in the "Treatee's" present. Basil told them this, though quietly and undercover, so the people could believe he knew what he was talking about.

2. Give information from the person's past that he can verify. Again, this would give credibility to his insights.

3. Give a preview of the person's impending disaster in such a way that it wouldn't shock him, but strong enough that he would believe it.

4. Give the subject a cashier check to cover the person's expenses in order to:

5. Take action to forestall what Basil saw in the person's future.

The peculiar aspect of the empowered millionaire's gift was that he could read effectively only those who faced an impending disaster, as if God had chosen him to alter only the destiny of the afflicted.

In the case of the nurse, Maggie McCullen, Basil gave the following, now-documented information according to his format:

"l. Maggie McCullen, RN. Born August l7, l948. Two brothers (George, 50, Benny, 46), one sister (Claire, 44). Pet dog, Snarls, a black and white terrier, died when she was hit by a red Chevy with the license plate MZX=l29 at the corner of Ivy and l7th Street in l958. Present phone number 9l2-7765. Father smokes White Owl cigars and keeps a .38 revolver in the second drawer of his dresser under a monogrammed blue bathrobe which he got at

Penny's for $38.50 in North Haven, Conn. on his 67th birthday.

2. In a former life, you were almost engaged to Joseph Crucheck who later became a Bishop. Your name then was Celeste Andersen and you lived on 371 Barshank Street in Minneapolis. If you go there, you will find under the third plank on the right of the porch an ivory key with the initials CA, l84l. Young Crucheck gave it to you before he decided to become a priest. JC is engraved under CA. It was also then that you picked up a curse from the young man's highly sensitive aunt, a curse that is about to reach its fulfillment.

3. Enclosed is a check for $4,700. If you take it to the Cathedral of Christ in Duluth and give it as a donation, you will "pay off" the evil intended for you. If you keep the money for yourself, you will not ward off the evil effects.

4. You have been feeling "out of sorts" during the last month. You were so upset last October 5 that you couldn't go to work. Over a three-day period you took l6 Tylenol and drank three cans of pineapple juice and two quarts of water. In May you went to a doctor (T.H. Miller) in Missoula because you thought you were pregnant. Dr. Miller said you had a virus and needed more rest. And last week you had the first bloody nose in your life (you were so shocked you accidentally blew your nose on the violet handkerchief your sister, Bonnie, gave you for you birthday two years ago). Each of these conditions were your deeper self feeling the impending disaster which is that you are "scheduled" to acquire hepatitis and die by Thanksgiving.

If you suspect what you've read so far is true, you may think that taking gamma globulin will keep the hepatitis from striking. Believe me, it will do no good. Not unless you give the $4,700 to the Cathedral."

After Basil left the hospital he got the cashiers check and sent the "Treatment" to the address he'd psychically seen in Maggie's head. Did Nurse McCullen follow through? Keep the money? Live a normal life or acquire hepatitis and die young? She chose the former, and all because everything in the Treatment proved true. While Maggie was a woman of science and not superstitution or believer in past lives, there was too much evidence not to act, especially since the money was free.

So Basil Fuller was extraordinary in more than one way: He could see the past of those about to experience a disaster; he could see the details of how to avert dangers; he had the money to help; he could tell what would happen if the person followed his prescription; and he knew he was convinced he could never reveal his powers lest the populace, unaccustomed to such a power, might do him in.

The Maggie McCullen incident was only the first. Basil, you see, lived until he was ninety-two. Which means that the man used his gift for fifty-five years without being found out.

And how he used his power! From Bozeman to Baltimore, Arlington to Atlanta, Freeport to Freeport, Basil Fuller calmly, honorably, and philanthropically spread his wings. He never let his "Treatees" know of his powers nor his desire

to help. He never checked on them or put demands on their use of the money: He only told them what would happen if they didn't follow his insights. Basil always gave the people the freedom of choice.

Now that years have passed since Mr. Fuller has died, his story can be told, but out of respect for the man who wanted to keep a low profile, I hope the media follow his wishes and keeps the eventual movies, books, and specials low-key. Basil was wise to remain incognito during his long life. I hope the future uses its power as wisely.

You may know one or more of Basil's "Treatees," or be one yourself. But it's unlikely that you've heard the details of the psychic readings or their full stories, because of the profound personal nature of the facts. Also, the people who Fuller touched were moved so deeply that they sensed the same thing he did: That his philanthropic acts would probably be misinterpreted and abused. Nevertheless, everyone that has been involved has sensed that his fortune, psychic powers, and no-strings-attached generosity, could only have been God-sent.

Whether you know of a Treatee or have been one yourself, you know that Basil Fuller valued unconditional giving and helping above fanfare.

So you can sing happily, Hip-Hip-Hooray for the parapsychological philanthropist.