Captain Rainbow: A Hero of My Soul

Back in the mid-1970s, I received a strange telephone call from a man who identified himself as "Captain Rainbow." He told me that he was the inventor of "Captain Rainbow's Laser Visors" -- and that he was planning to sell one to every citizen of China. (The "rainbow visor" was made with defraction grating that turned all images into rainbows of light. Captain Rainbow told me he believed it stimulated all of the chakras.) When I described this mysterious caller to my wife, Janelle, her response was, "Well, why don't you invite him over for lunch." That was the beginning of a friendship that lasted for decades.

Captain Rainbow was actually attorney, William Jennings, of San Jose, California. He is a person who epitomized, for me, the heroic trial lawyer -- standing up for the small guy against large, corporate, interests. On his desk, he had a small statue of Don Quixote -- and he thought of himself as the sort of attorney who would be willing to take on a windmill. (On one occasion, he told me he had changed his name from William to Will I Am.)

In October 1980, after I had received my doctoral degree in parapsychology from the University of California, Berkeley, a popular magazine, Psychology Today (which then had a circulation of over 1 million subscribers), wrote a libelous story attacking me. The very pseudo-skeptic debunkers who had tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent the university from awarding my degree now tried to attack my credibility -- and they used Psychology Today as their weapon of choice. (They brazenly intended, I think, to pressure the university to withdraw the degree that it had already granted.) It was intolerable to these people that a major university should award a doctoral degree in parapsychology. (And, to this day, 26 years later, my degree remains unique in the United States.)

They basically claimed that I probably had not even received my doctoral degree -- and that, if I had received it, I certainly had not earned it. They portrayed me as a shoddy researcher who got through the university (if at all) by threatening lawsuits. I was mortified by this article. Job opportunities evaporated. My health began to suffer. Even my parapsychological colleagues began to avoid me.

Just when all hope seemed lost, Bill Jennings came to the rescue -- suggesting, against all odds, that I file a libel suit against the magazine. (I had not previously threatened or considered filing any lawsuits.) We knew that these lawsuits are virtually impossible to win. We also knew that, in the few cases where victory is achieved, they are almost always overturned upon appeal. The burden on the plaintiff is to prove that the defendant acted maliciously -- and, also, that there were actual damages.

Bill Jennings and I worked on this case together for five years -- putting in hundreds of hours of work -- teaming up against two very well funded and experienced law firms. We had to handle numerous motions filed to dismiss our case out of hand. At one point, I was subjected to a hostile interrogatory that lasted for an entire week. On another occasion, we travelled to New York together for our interrogatory with the Psychology Today writer. And, when I didn't have any money (as I did not in those difficult days) Bill Jennings covered the expenses, and even hired me as his legal assistant to work on this case and other projects.

At the end of the day, we forced Psychology Today, and one other co-defendant, to pay a $30,000 settlement. That would not be a lot of money by today's standards. But, it put me on the path toward prosperity. It enabled me to make a down payment on my first house, in San Rafael, California -- certainly one of the best investments I ever made. More importantly, that settlement enabled me to regain my self-respect and the respect of my colleagues as well. Within months thereafter, I launched the Thinking Allowed television series that was shown weekly on national television for over fifteen years.

Later on, after I assumed the presidency of the Intuition Network, Bill Jennings joined in and became the director of our "Intuitive Bar Association" group of intuitive lawyers. (The photo above shows Bill participating in an intuitive exercise, during one of our conferences.) Bill Jennings died in 2001. But he lives on in my heart. I consider him one of the great heros of my life -- and I still feel indebted to him for his courage and honor in battling a windmill in my behalf.

I will always remember the big bear hugs I received from Bill, upon every visit. Even when he was struggling with heart disease, he never hesitated to grab me and pick me up off the floor. He was a man of enormous love.