William R. Ferguson

William R. Ferguson was born on July 23, 1900. He had one sister. He was a mail carrier and another time a taxi driver. He had five children with his wife, Marie. Ferguson taught himself a technique of relaxation which he called "absolute relaxation", and wrote a 1937 book entitled Relax First which set out this practice. He taught this technique to others.

Ferguson claimed that through this technique of "absolute relaxation", he was able to travel to other dimensions. Ferguson claimed that while he was in one of these states of absolute relaxation, on July 9, 1938, his body became charged with energy, and that he was then transported to the seventh dimension, where he stayed for two hours, resulting in his soul being "illuminated". He claimed that his body was incorporeal upon his return, but that he soon regained his physical form. A week after this, he claimed that he was moved to the "center of creation", now experiencing the sixth dimension, and witnessed creation through "pure intelligent energy" moving through a "cube of pure universal substance".

Fraud trial

A customer eventually complained to police after not getting a result from the Zerret Applicator. On September 11, 1948, Ferguson, Stanakis, and Flay Smith, one of his salespeople, were arrested in Chicago and were held and charged with running a scam. All three were released on $1,000 bond, and the post office issued a fraud order that banned them from mailing items. Ferguson claimed he was uninterested in money and cared only about helping humanity. In October, Ferguson was charged with fraud by the prosecutor. His defense lawyer called over 40 witnesses, who testified to a judge that the device had helped them. In response, the judge expressed his doubts and stated "I think you are all suckers. But I'll keep an open mind." After the arrests, the devices were studied by city chemists.

In April 1949, Ferguson and Stanakis were charged federally with a violation of the Pure Food and Drug Act, for entering a misbranded therapeutic device into interstate commerce. Attorney Robert C. Eardley said they had sent three shipments of the device across interstate lines, with misleading information. During the federal trial in 1950 presided over by judge John P. Barnes, it was demonstrated by American nuclear physicist Bernard Waldman, using a Geiger counter, that the Zerret contained no radioactive material. Several physicians testified that the object was useless. Physiologist Anton Julius Carlson testified that the devices had no therapeutic value. A chemical analysis was done on the contents of the Zerret, and its contents were found to be the same as Chicago tap water. Stanakis and Ferguson were tried by a jury, which delivered its verdict on May 17, 1950. They were found guilty and convicted of fraud, specifically of entering a misbranded therapeutic device into interstate commerce. Ferguson was sentenced to two years in federal prison and Stanakis was sentenced to a year. Ferguson served only a year in prison.