At the conclusion of a channeling session held by Pat Sisson, Jerry notices something unusual and inexplicable about an elderly woman.

Jerry and his friends continue their investigations into psychic phenomena.  One such investigation profoundly challenges Jerry's belief system.

Jerry and some of his close friends begin investigating claims of psychic abilities and happenings in the East Tennessee area.  They meet monthly to report on their findings.  They encounter apparent fraud as well as good people believing in the reality of their experiences.

Jerry decides to go to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to receive a psychic reading from Doc Hanson after reading a book that verified some of Doc Hanson's predictions.

A year or two after graduating from the University of Tennessee and still pursuing his interest in psychic phenomena, Jerry makes an unplanned stop to visit a roadside psychic.  He is surprised that she appears to be so much younger than her picture on the large billboard beside her house. He has doubts about this adventure.

At the end of his first year of graduate school toward a doctorate in psychology, Jerry decides to see a woman claiming to be a psychic.  He is surprised by the woman's appearance and by her predictions.

During his senior year of college, Jerry has to carry out an order given him by his supervisor of work in the student-dining hall.  The recipient of the action of the order becomes so angry that he challenges Jerry to a fight. 

Completing his last summer working on a Texas gulf coast dredge boat and returning to central Kentucky for his senior year of college, Jerry decides to explore Houston, Texas, late one Saturday evening before catching a train in the morning.  The events of that evening confront his sense of trust on several levels.

While working as a deckhand on an ocean-going dredge boat out of Port Lavaca, Texas, in the summer of his sophomore college year, Jerry learns the ropes.  He also encounters racial injustice that explodes into violence.

As a three year old living in Granite City, Illinois, Jerry runs away from a daycare center.  He gets lost and is helped by a stranger.