Author Description

From NovelGuide.com: "Smith's autobiographical works, Confessions of a Psychic (1971) and Conversion of a Psychic (1978), are deeply personal. Smith writes openly, even ingenuously, of herself and her psychic experiences. Her honesty provides the very evidence needed by skeptics to explain away her psychic life as the fabrication of her unconscious mind. She reveals herself as physically crippled, unwillingly single, and lonely. Yet the seemingly clear pattern of need fulfillment proves not to be clear. The spirit mother is bossy but not all—knowing. The spirit admirer is, as he was at death, ignorant, selfish, and dull. Nor does Smith's handling of her painful psychic misadventures draw attention; she does not discuss her difficulties until she has them under reasonable control. Smith's conversion to a born-again Christian, described in her second autobiography, provides skeptics with similar ammunition—but ammunition still not sufficient to prove her insincerity. Smith has made a unique literary contribution. Her many works documenting psychic events and processes have brought an unprecedented amount of information on this subject to the public view, in simple, easily understandable language. Her books on herself provide a different, more moving insight. Smith shares with her readers the difficult, sometimes painful, process of becoming a psychic and, finally, of finding a living Jesus and the close comfort of a loving God."