This is the question I most often get asked, regarding RSS. After years of mulling it over, I'm still not sure--BUT I'm inclined to say Richard Shaver was indeed for real, and believed in what he said.

Take, for example, his rock books. At the time, I thought to myself "What a dumb idea!" Yet, many years later, scientists have indeed put, via holography, 500 pictures on one negative.

Shaver spent most of his later years trying to interpret these mixed up rock books, by painting what he could sense in the rocks, and selling the rocks themselves. In my opinion, Shaver had tremendous talent as an artist. Yet despite my pleas to Shaver that he concentrate on painting, he would have none of it. In spite of being in poor financial straits most of the time, he did not turn to full time painting. He kept sticking with those blasted rocks, regarding the painting as a mere tool to help him in his research. This in itself, showed his integrity.

Shaver also predicted UFOs before they were seen, which makes me think he may have been another Velikovsky.

He [Shaver] was often cheated and lied to. There was even a falling out between Shaver and Palmer. But Palmer himself said, in a 1950s "Dream Quest" -- "Why did we ever fool with Shaver? Because of his unusual imagination." Or was it just imagination?