Arthur Ford was born in Titusville, Florida in 1896.  Part of a Baptist family, he questioned church doctrines, especially those concerning life after death. Even though he was excommunicated from the church at the age of 16, he entered Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky with the intention of becoming a minister.

The First World War interrupted his education. Ford joined the army in 1918. He never saw action in Europe, but he witnessed the terrible toll that the influenza epidemic took on the army camps the following year. During that time, he began to have visions, knowing who would die of the disease.  He also heard the names of the soldiers who would be killed in action.  For many months, Ford thought that he was going insane. It was not until he returned to college, that psychology professor, Elmer Snoddy, suggested he might be experiencing some kind of ESP.

After completing college, Ford married Sallie Stewart and was ordained as a minister of the Disciples of Christ Church in Barbourville, Kentucky. Although he was an excellent orator, his improving mediumistic abilities were at odds with both his ministry and his personal relationships. The friction led to a divorce from his wife and separation from the church. He began lecturing about life after death, entering a trance state and relaying messages from the spirit world. When he later met Hindu Yogi Paramhansa Yogananda, he learned how to reach a Yogic trance state and established more control over his psychic abilities.

In 1924, Ford began working with spirit guide, Fletcher, a boyhood friend of Ford’s who had been killed in action in Europe during the war. With Fletcher’s guidance, Ford established the First Spiritualist Church of New York, the first of many churches and spiritual organizations that he would found or lead. Ford became a celebrity in the Spiritualist community. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle called him one of the most amazing mental mediums of all times.

Ford’s most controversial claim to fame occurred in 1928. It was commonly reported that before his death Harry Houdini said he would send a coded message to his wife, Beatrice, if there was life after death. Ford went into trance and received messages from a woman who said she was Houdini’s mother. During a series of ten sittings, Beatrice received a coded message that said: Rosabelle Believe.

The media erupted with arguments supporting and refuting Ford’s claim. Beatrice wrote in a letter: “Regardless of any statement made to the contrary: I wish to declare that the message, in its entirety, and in the agreed upon sequence, given to me by Arthur Ford, is the correct message prearranged between Mr. Houdini and myself.”

Others argued that Houdini’s secret code was published in Houdini, His Life Story the year before and that Rosabelle was engraved in Beatrice’s wedding ring. They said that Ford had done his homework and discovered the secret message. Beatrice later decided that Ford had misled her and refused to accept his message as proof of Houdini’s existence after death.

Ford’s life took a tragic turn in 1930. A truck crashed into the car in which he was driving with his sister and another woman. The women were killed, and he suffered serious injuries. He became addicted to morphine during his hospital stay and afterward turned to alcohol. He married and divorced, and lost contact with his spirit guide, Fletcher. It wasn’t until after a complete breakdown that he joined Alcoholics Anonymous and recovered. He began once again to provide demonstrations. He also participated in the founding of Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship in 1956. He spent his final years in Miami, Florida, where he died of cardiac arrest in 1971.

Additional Reading:

Ford, A. and M. Harmon Bro (1958) Nothing So Strange: The Autobiography of Arthur Ford. Harper and Row.

https://www.spiritualismandbeyond.com/history.html

Spraggett, A. (1973) Arthur Ford, The Man Who Talked to the Dead. New American Library, W.W. Norton.

Steiger, B. (2013) Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places. Visible Ink Press.