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The Door Marked Summer
Door Marked Summer
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1981
4 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
About the author
Michael Bentine
32 books7 followersMichael Bentine CBE (26 January 1922 – 26 November 1996) was a British comedian, comic actor and founding member of the Goons. He was Peruvian Briton as a result of his father's nationality. In 1971, Bentine received the Order of Merit of Peru following his fund-raising work for the 1970 Great Peruvian Earthquake.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 6, 2018
A wonderful book and a good read, filled with integrity and absolute honesty, nothing sham about it. I'd heard about Michael Bentine's psychic abilities, but but knew very little of this side of his life prior to tracking down this book via alibris.
I read it ten years ago, and again much more recently when, being bereaved, I was looking for some comfort ... yes, reassurance I can actually believe that there is actually more to the world, and life, than the little we humans can actually see with our naked eyeballs. I would have loved to have met Bentine's parents: what fascinating and talented people. His accounts of early experiments into the paranormal are impressive, and very credible.
Overall the book radiates an absolute knowledge that there *is* more, and bereavement may be door slammed in our faces, but it's not permanently slammed, locked and barred. It'll open for each of us, too, at the right time, and its opening is cause for celebration, not lament, much less fear. Unreservedly five stars.
I read it ten years ago, and again much more recently when, being bereaved, I was looking for some comfort ... yes, reassurance I can actually believe that there is actually more to the world, and life, than the little we humans can actually see with our naked eyeballs. I would have loved to have met Bentine's parents: what fascinating and talented people. His accounts of early experiments into the paranormal are impressive, and very credible.
Overall the book radiates an absolute knowledge that there *is* more, and bereavement may be door slammed in our faces, but it's not permanently slammed, locked and barred. It'll open for each of us, too, at the right time, and its opening is cause for celebration, not lament, much less fear. Unreservedly five stars.
February 13, 2026
It was interesting as it’s a book written about spiritualism by someone who is without any doubt in its existence and who has been brought up in a family who totally believed in it. Well worth a read.
December 21, 2021
Michael Bentine is from my childhood and someone I have never forgotten.
But I picked up this book for a specific reason. He goes into great details about his psychic experiences stemming from a childhood amongst mediums, healers and psychics.
In this current age I cannot imagine his experiences being taken as valid or even real but the thing about Michael Bentine is that he was always seen as a sincere person.
Some of the scenarios he describes are so far removed from my (and probably your) reality that they are truly fantastic in that sense of the word.
Which brings me to the reason I decided to read this book, I felt I could trust his words about this reality that we live in that has always seemed to be more that it actually appears.
Given the prolific number of movies where reality is distorted in a totally believable and convincing manner, I'm looking at you Matrix, would that make it easier to accept such experiences now?
At one time spiritualism was a huge deal and a common part of people's lives in a way that is hard to imagine now. How many towns did NOT have a Spiritualist Church?
Except maybe, in the UK now, where huge theatres or cinemas are taken over for the evening by a stage full of mediums who call out messages for people in the audience from people on the other side. These events are huge. The one I went to was packed to the rafters and I'm sure there were many people who could not get in because the place was full.
For all the cynics, the messages that were called were very specific and in some cases to almost insane levels of detail that had people in tears. Some messages went unanswered, but beyond that, the feeling was never one of a bunch of charlatans hoodwinking a room full of suckers. My mum seemed to be regularly picked out by messages from her brother George with detail only known to her.
The thing is, before I digress off the page, is that these experiences are real and yet we have no framework for them in our reality, written off as devil worship or mass hypnosis etc, we do not even have a language in which to talk about them. And look at how we treat people who claim to be able to commune with the dead.
The standard scientific "if it cannot be reproduced in a lab then it is not real"approach doesn't negate the many experiences that people have that science cannot account for.
I would also add, bloody-mindedly, that science has been just as scathing and dismissive to other discoveries that later become part of the scientific cannon, I'm looking at you Plate Tectonics and you Phlogeston.
So where are we now? how solid is our reality?
Other cultures do not all have our rigid demarcation between the dead and the living, some cultures have their ancestors walking beside them. The fact that we have that rigid demarcation means that as far as we are concerned once you are dead it's all over and not only can we never have anything to do with you, but more importantly, you cannot have anything to do with us.
And yet, is that barrier really so impermeable?
Sometimes I am not surprised given how little attention we give to the living that we don't even consider the dead.
But I picked up this book for a specific reason. He goes into great details about his psychic experiences stemming from a childhood amongst mediums, healers and psychics.
In this current age I cannot imagine his experiences being taken as valid or even real but the thing about Michael Bentine is that he was always seen as a sincere person.
Some of the scenarios he describes are so far removed from my (and probably your) reality that they are truly fantastic in that sense of the word.
Which brings me to the reason I decided to read this book, I felt I could trust his words about this reality that we live in that has always seemed to be more that it actually appears.
Given the prolific number of movies where reality is distorted in a totally believable and convincing manner, I'm looking at you Matrix, would that make it easier to accept such experiences now?
At one time spiritualism was a huge deal and a common part of people's lives in a way that is hard to imagine now. How many towns did NOT have a Spiritualist Church?
Except maybe, in the UK now, where huge theatres or cinemas are taken over for the evening by a stage full of mediums who call out messages for people in the audience from people on the other side. These events are huge. The one I went to was packed to the rafters and I'm sure there were many people who could not get in because the place was full.
For all the cynics, the messages that were called were very specific and in some cases to almost insane levels of detail that had people in tears. Some messages went unanswered, but beyond that, the feeling was never one of a bunch of charlatans hoodwinking a room full of suckers. My mum seemed to be regularly picked out by messages from her brother George with detail only known to her.
The thing is, before I digress off the page, is that these experiences are real and yet we have no framework for them in our reality, written off as devil worship or mass hypnosis etc, we do not even have a language in which to talk about them. And look at how we treat people who claim to be able to commune with the dead.
The standard scientific "if it cannot be reproduced in a lab then it is not real"approach doesn't negate the many experiences that people have that science cannot account for.
I would also add, bloody-mindedly, that science has been just as scathing and dismissive to other discoveries that later become part of the scientific cannon, I'm looking at you Plate Tectonics and you Phlogeston.
So where are we now? how solid is our reality?
Other cultures do not all have our rigid demarcation between the dead and the living, some cultures have their ancestors walking beside them. The fact that we have that rigid demarcation means that as far as we are concerned once you are dead it's all over and not only can we never have anything to do with you, but more importantly, you cannot have anything to do with us.
And yet, is that barrier really so impermeable?
Sometimes I am not surprised given how little attention we give to the living that we don't even consider the dead.
March 22, 2022
Fell ill during this one (just a heavy cold) and so probably didn't enjoy it as much as I might have if I'd been happy and healthy. That said, I was a little disappointed in that it didn't mean as much to me as I'd hoped it might. I came to this wanting to be enlightened in some way but instead I just feel as though I've read someone's recollections of a life spent investigating and experiencing the paranormal. Some of it I believe, some of it I think is probably subjective and some of it I simply don't know what to make of: ultimately though, it hasn't inspired or enlightened me.
June 2, 2025
📚✨ A Door Marked Summer by Michael Bentine - a beautifully honest journey into the paranormal from the Goon Show legend. His spiritual experiences are compelling & thought-provoking. A must-read! 🚪☀️ #soulfulbooks #bookreview #paranormal #spirituality #consciousness #SpiritualJourney
Read my Review here: https://wp.me/p9J5H9-p9
March 3, 2019
A brilliant and inspiring read. The chapter on the magical grocer is a favorite.
August 12, 2016
Hmm. I got this book because I was told by the spiritual healer that I am currently consulting that this and one of MB's other books, was what inspired him to take up the healing full time.I was/still am intrigued to learn more about this area and thought it a good place to start.
Michael is an excellent writer and his tales of his life, and the studies that he and particularly his parents did are fascinating. I am amazed that this guy, the presenter of Potty Time etc etc was such an accomplished practitioner of this discipline.
For me I guess I was looking for a slightly more direct account of the subject area and found the book a little diluted in parts - but in others it is highly believable and MB clearly appreciates how the whole subject area could be dismissed unless the reader is drawn along carefully.
Interesting and well written.
Michael is an excellent writer and his tales of his life, and the studies that he and particularly his parents did are fascinating. I am amazed that this guy, the presenter of Potty Time etc etc was such an accomplished practitioner of this discipline.
For me I guess I was looking for a slightly more direct account of the subject area and found the book a little diluted in parts - but in others it is highly believable and MB clearly appreciates how the whole subject area could be dismissed unless the reader is drawn along carefully.
Interesting and well written.
September 3, 2016
I first read this book decades ago, but it is one of the books I have kept & even replaced after loaning it out & not getting it returned. It is an autobiography of a very well known man who just happens to also be psychic.
This book is very readable for anyone interested in the life & work of Mr B. It is unsensational, humorous & covers Michaels experiences at Bergen-Belson where as a British Intelligence officer he entered the camp with liberating American troops.
This book is very readable for anyone interested in the life & work of Mr B. It is unsensational, humorous & covers Michaels experiences at Bergen-Belson where as a British Intelligence officer he entered the camp with liberating American troops.
August 16, 2013
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Door-Marked-S...
Michael Bentine apart from being a comic was also a spiritualist with some unusual beliefs. This well written book is a short but fascinating account of his psychic experiences and beliefs.
An unexpected dimension to a man I thought I knew something of - until I read this.
Michael Bentine apart from being a comic was also a spiritualist with some unusual beliefs. This well written book is a short but fascinating account of his psychic experiences and beliefs.
An unexpected dimension to a man I thought I knew something of - until I read this.
May 25, 2012
Diary entry from 1988
January 9, 2022
I have read this book many times, and saw Michael Bentime at the Grand Theatre. I found the experience touching, funny and along with the book a comforting time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews