A Fascinating Trip into the Occult with Thom Nickels

By Sabina Clarke

Despite being raised in a strict Irish-German Roman Catholic household and schooled in the Baltimore catechism when Mass was said in Latin and nuns wore traditional habits, Thom Nickels looked beyond searching for adventure, curious about the world outside his inherited perimeter.

After a Mormon family moved into his neighborhood he read the only Mormon book he could find in his high school library No Man Knows My History by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church.

And his latest oeuvre From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami…Religious Cults in Philadelphia reflects his insatiable curiosity and sense of adventure; it is fascinating and fun and quirky and well researched.

He remembers decorating his family’s station wagon with JFK stickers constantly reminded by the nuns that if JFK were elected he would become the first Catholic president. He recalls that in his hometown of Frazer, PA Catholics were viewed by many the way that Amish in their broad brimmed hats are viewed today.

After being drilled in the tenets of Catholicism he attended a public high school that required readings of the King James Bible. As a Catholic he was urged not to participate and thus feels that he was perceived as anti-scripture. The Second Vatican Council diluted these distinctions yet the elimination of the Latin Mass bothers him still.

As a college student in Baltimore he first visited a fortune teller;

“Strolling down East Baltimore Street one evening, I spotted a gypsy shop and decided to have my palm read for $2. The ablaze with neon curtained-off room was no larger than a broom closet. The gypsy woman held my hand and told me that I needed instant karmic cleansing”… “The very day after the instant karmic cleansing, my landlord told me that he was selling his house and that I needed to find another place to live.”

Undeterred, he continued his quest with fortune tellers and once undercover as a reporter; so he has become an expert of sorts in this genre alone. And he jumped at the chance to be hypnotized for a past life regression. The hypnotist was Philadelphian Marianne Waylock, a former Roman Catholic nun who wrote a book of her psychic experiences while living in the convent.

I was particularly fascinated by the story of Father and Mother Divine and their Peace Mission Movement “Mother Divine had an easy and light spirit…she was quick to smile and laugh yet it was my impression that she was surrounded by stiff wooden Cigar Store Indian types who were quick to find fault and scold.”

When Nickels and his photographer friend Noel Miles were refused a follow-up interview, after the easy camaraderie of the first visit, they both felt that

“Mother was really a prisoner behind pearly gates and that she was no longer acting as a free agent.”

In 2016 and 2017 he interviewed the talented clairvoyant from Levittown Joseph Tittle who now resides in Sedona, Arizona. Tittle said 2020 would be a significant date “when secrets and lies will no longer have merit.” In one vision Tittle saw many people wearing face masks in 2020. Regarding President Trump he said, “I don’t like him but he is President-elect and we have to put creative energy around his presidency. He is a non-establishment type who is surrounding himself with the wrong people.”

Arlene Ostapowicz another Philadelphia psychic was a favorite among City Hall judges who sent limos to transport her to their chambers her accuracy was that much in demand. And there were the author’s memorable readings and dinners in psychic Valerie Morrison’s home in Roxborough.

Nickels recalls having high tea in the garden of the Rittenhouse Hotel with clairaudient Carolann Sano who gets her messages when she does a reading from angels or spirit guides. She reveals that forty-one saints in the Catholic Church were clairaudient.

The story of the diabolical Ira Einhorn the counter-culture celebrity who murdered his girlfriend Holly Maddux and stuffed her body into a suitcase in his closet makes an appearance as does “Philly Jesus” aka Michael Grant an ex-heroin addict who dressed in robes and had a long beard and began to think he really was Jesus.

Included are the different religious cults like Hare Krishna, the Mormons, the Swedenborgians the Christian Scientists, The Mennonites, the Amish, Scientology and Theosophy founded by the famous Madame Blavatsky who lived at 3420 Sansom Street now the site of the White Dog Café.

In the late 1970’s, Nickels rented a unique Victorian apartment in the building that was the headquarters for the West Chester, Pennsylvania Theosophical Society. He was urged by the landlord to attend the meetings but demurred because “most of the women members seemed to resemble Eleanor Roosevelt.” He remembers staring into the portrait of Madame Blavatsky for a revelation but nothing happened.

However he did have a very vivid dream in an Atlantic City B& B when on assignment as a reporter that required him to stay overnight. He dreamt that “a traditionally robed Catholic nun had visited me in my sleep and squeezed me into her wimple.” The next day he noticed a small stained glass window by the stairway landing and was told by the proprietor that the house used to be a convent. “Stories of spirit manifestations in the Nickels family were not uncommon,” said Nickels.

The book would not be complete without a chapter on the cult of the Pit bull and the author’s vivid if exaggerated fear of his next door neighbor’s Pits which sometimes visit him in his dreams. I will give just a taste of this hilarious meditation

“Pit bull lovers are like people who belong to religious cults. They have lost the ability to reason and think rationally. The pit bull to them is a golden calf. I have a neighbor who has three ferocious pit bulls. These dogs are not gentle. They growl in his backyard …when this neighbor of mine walks his pits, three at a time, they storm the street ahead of him, growling, snarling and racing as if possessed by demons…”

“When I am on my patio, I hear them in my neighbor’s house growling and clamoring to get out so they can attack me. These pits sometimes appear in my nightmares. Twenty charging pit bulls in a pack howling like wolves in Germany’s Black Forest. There is nowhere to escape.”

“As an animal lover, I have a hard time with pit bulls. I like my dogs to be graceful and sleek…I like the dog’s face not to be all jaw. The all-jaw look is the giveaway: this animal is about violence and death.”

Reporter’s Note: Part 2 of this article “An Interview with Author Thom Nickels” will appear in the November issue of the Irish Edition