Background

Speaking of my son Zaher’s background, I would start, if I may, about his home and family who would be recognized as his first direct background.
Originally, I, the father (Costa Khoury) was from BEIR ZEIT, 15 miles north of JERUSALEM, where all my children, including Zaher, were born.
In 1942, I graduated from An-Nahda College in Jerusalem and taught in the same college for three years.
In 1951, my wife Hiyam and I got married and within ten years we had six children; four boys and two girls.
It was in 1952 in Jericho when I first got interested in Spiritualism and when I discovered that my wife has the power of healing and the gift of trance uttering mediumship—where it becomes possible for an expert spirit to communicate by using the vocal cords and tongue of the physical to give messages.
In 1955 I had collected so much information and read so many books about the subject that I could put it all in a book I called “LIFE AFTER DEATH,” which I published in the Arabic language at that time.
Originally, I was brought up from a religious family. My grandfather was a Greek Orthodox Priest. My father was a teacher for over fifty years of his life teaching in church schools. My Uncle, “Al-Khoury Bulus,” was also a Greek Orthodox Priest who was known in the Jerusalem district as a great spiritual healer and as an exorcist.
All this did not stop me from thinking freely and logically. Moreover, I could never feel comfortable with “blind faiths.” I always felt that God gave us eyes and ears to use for seeing and hearing and also gave us our minds to use for what they were created for.
With the little knowledge and limited education I had during my early twenties as far as religious teachings are concerned, I lost my faith and beliefs. It’s just that I couldn’t take it as is, blindly. When Spiritualism was first introduced to me I became suspicious, curious, and interested to prove its falseness. But the the more I investigated my doubts, the more my doubts were beaten. Until finally I gained back my faith, but this time based on facts, realities, and logic. I remember in one of our seance meetings at that time, I was told: “A second book will be published in the right form, at the right time, and in the right place in America.” To us, this information at that time sounded meaningless, especially when no one was thinking of going to America. And I was personally against the idea of leaving my country and homeland.
A few months later, the West Bank was taken by Israel, and I was forced to leave with my family and relocate. And America was the only place to think of.
In 1968 I bought a restaurant in Castro Valley, California, where the contribution of the whole family was needed. This of course kept us all close together.
Speaking now about my son Zaher; since the days of his childhood, we the parents always spoke of the subject of spiritualism. I am sure that at that time he had no idea of what it was, not to say that he wasn’t curious about the subject. It’s just that he was too busy playing with his friends to really notice. I remember when he was the age of nine, his only interests were of swinging from trees and climbing rocks. I had never really seen him interested in the poetic or artistic fields.
Food was his only hobby. I just couldn’t get him interested in anything else. He would go to school, but later I found out he spent most of his time in the parking lot with his friends instead
of being in class.
It was truly a hard experience for me to keep after him but I never gave up on him. And so, on it went. Meanwhile, we the parents and the subject of spiritualism for a long time became silent.
As far as my son Zaher, he seemed to be going further and further out of touch with his family. When I would have the chance to talk to him, he seemed to always ignore the fact that he was not going on the right path.
I became very worried about his future, and with all our words of warnings I and his mother had hoped that he would finally see the light. But he became more and more lost into the world of darkness.
I suppose all his suffering by ones who deceived him had made him go down in confidence and to go further out of reach from us, the ones who truly loved him.
Oh well, what could we do? As parents we feared for him and watched him as close as we could and with every chance that we had to bring him back home, we did.
He was sixteen, uneducated, with no intention of a professional future, just totally blind when he left home to live on his own with his friends.
This went on for about two years and he was about eighteen when he decided to join the Navy. I had thought that it would be better than what he was in at that time.
So off he went and after a couple of years he had found that there was much more to life than he had imagined.
I must admit, he did seem to have a brighter outlook on life, but that was all. He still had that nagging urge to find something more exciting on his own.
Then one day I thought that it was all over for him. Somehow, he met a young, charming woman, and without our approval they got married.
With no protection of any kind or any support from ones around, they lived together for about two years until that day which ended with a shock. Each went his own way. It was so fast and for no known reason as they said.
We felt sorry for both of them and tried to help, but it seemed too late. I never forget the state of disappointment he was in.
I am just glad that my son was strong enough mentally to pull through it all and come out even finer than he ever was. And from what he had experienced, he received the best education to reform anyone’s mind.
Well, I feel, before I close my words about his past and background, I should say that what I had experienced with him later, was out of this world and has nothing to do with him or his personal knowledge, because as I mentioned he had nothing to offer other than his body, soul, and mind to the great Supernatural Intelligence and Power, “THE UNIVERSAL MIND,” and his messengers who gave him what he honestly conveyed to the people of Earth. And now I can end my introduction written by me about my son Zaher and by me it is signed this Tuesday, the 29th of May 1984.

Ken Costa Kury