Philip Smith begins his memoir Walking Through Walls with a prologue, where we get a real hint of what is coming. Here he is 14 years old and coming home late from a party, around 11pm. The house is dark, the door is locked, and when finally the door opens,
From the shadow emerged a tall man with grayish skin. I had never seen this guy before; he had the stature and demeanor of Lurch. Without any introduction, he looked at me with a cool stare and said in a flat, robotlike voice, "We are currently in communication with the master souls of the eleventh plane. Your father is deep in trance and cannot be disturbed."
Lurch began to back away and close the door. He then paused and asked, "Why did you even bother to knock? After all, you are your father's son. Haven't you learned to walk through walls yet?"
Miami based Lew Smith was the interior decorator of the wealthy in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. He designed interiors for everyone from Haitian President Paul Magliore and Cuban President Carlos Prio to the socialites of Palm Beach. In fact, Philip was raised traveling the Caribbean, drinking Planter's Punch with dark rum in Bahamian hotel bars at the ripe old age of six.
The Jewish family lived in the outskirts of Dade County, where there were no Jews and plenty of rednecks. Philip's mother was a beautiful woman who smoked unfiltered camels, drank a bit too much, was fascinated by the habits and lifestyles of the rich and famous, and always wore the same little black cocktail dress. She was always impeccably done up, down to the makeup and sunglasses, no matter what time of day or night. She loved her husband's fame, and enjoyed traveling, hosting parties, and aspired to a better and more exciting life. Her work was to support her husband, which she did by assisting in the office and entertaining at home.
Then one day her husband came home complaining of sanpaku, a toxic disorder caused by too much yang energy in the body. He decided that the cure was a vegetarian macrobiotic diet. As he started focusing more on his body and energy and hanging out with more psychics and other weird types, he grew further apart from his wife and son.
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