Ellen G. White’s “Spirit” Returns!

I do not know that Ellen White ever predicted that her own “spirit” would return after her death, though she clearly (and repeatedly) affirmed that evil spirits would impersonate the writers of the Bible to contradict what they had stated in the Scriptures. But in 1974 one of the three most famous women writers on psychic phenomena, Ruth Montgomery, declared that she had received a message from Ellen White in the great beyond!GVEGW 58.1

The story is a fascinating one: In that year (1974) Nicholas Steubing, a new convert to Seventh-day Adventism from the world of the occult, wanted to do some missionary work among the writers who had substantially influenced his life in the world of spiritualism. So he sent Ruth Montgomery a letter, together with a gift copy of The Great Controversy.GVEGW 58.2

Montgomery has written 11 books on various aspects of the occult, published between 1965 and 1983. Most of them enjoyed popular sales in the multimillion-copy bracket. ^{52A list of all of Ruth Montgomery’s published works appears in the biographical sketch “Ruth Shick Montgomery,” Who’s Who in America, 45th ed. (1988-1989), p. 2190.}GVEGW 58.3

On April 17, 1974, when she was well on her way to fame, Ruth Montgomery replied to Steubing in a personal, hand-signed letter that read:GVEGW 58.4

“Dear Nicholas Steubing:GVEGW 58.5

“Thanks so very much for sending The Great Controversy to me. I am reading it with interest, and it was most generous of you to think of me in this respect. She certainly is prejudiced against the Catholics, isn’t she—glad I was reared a Methodist!GVEGW 58.6

“Oddly enough, in the automatic writing session this morning the Guides brought me a communication that said, ‘The woman White who wrote the book you are reading is here and says: Please, please disregard what I wrote about communication with the living dead.’GVEGW 58.7

“I do thank you from the heart.GVEGW 58.8

“Sincerely,GVEGW 58.9

“[signed] Ruth Montgomery” ^{53Written at Cuernavaca, Mexico, from a photocopy of the original letter.}GVEGW 58.10