Eileen J. Garrett

Psychic experiences were part of Eileen Garrett’s life from the moment she saw an infant for the first time. She sensed and saw around people, animals, and plants various forms of light and energy which she initially termed “surrounds”. She had imaginary playmates, something to which many of us can relate, whom she called “the children”. She claimed that their appearance was a normal part of her life and that she “did not have to go to them in any particular place, or make any adjustments” in order to see them.

One day, while quite young, she saw her favorite aunt, who lived about twenty miles away, walking up the path carrying a baby. As the aunt approached, she said to young Eileen, “I am going away now, and I must take the baby with me.” Eileen quickly ran into the house to relate this to her adoptive aunt, who immediately punished her for making up stories. The following day she learned that her aunt Leone had died in childbirth, along with the baby.

This unfortunate introduction to death had its impact upon young Eileen. She had many questions concerning birth and death, none of which anyone, least of all her aunt, cared to discuss with her. As a means of protest, and in response to some undeserved punishment, she drowned some ducklings of which her aunt was very proud. She recalls, “The little dead bodies were quiet, but a strange movement was occurring all about them. A gray, smoke-like substance rose up from each small form. This nebulous, fluid stuff wove and curled as it rose in winding spiral curves, and I saw it take new shape as it moved out and away from the quiet forms.” Thus, she became aware, at a young age, that there was more to life than the physical form, and that this “more” separated itself from the body at the time of death.

Illness plagued Eileen Garrett’s younger years. Tuberculosis and other respiratory conditions flared up frequently and, at age fifteen, she left Ireland for the milder climate of England. She stayed in England with relatives and, soon thereafter, was courted by an older gentleman named Clive, whom she married within a few months. She gave birth to three sons, all of whom died at early ages. The eldest and second-born sons both died of meningitis within weeks of each other. The third died a few hours after birth. Eventually, she gave birth to her daughter, Eileen. Once again, her health deteriorated and, by the time she recovered, her marriage had ended in divorce.

During World War I, she opened a hostel for convalescent soldiers. It was during this period that she met and married her second husband, a young officer who was immediately called to the front. She had a premonition that this marriage would be short-lived. In her memoirs she wrote:

Two days later, he was listed as missing in action and, shortly thereafter, he was listed as having been killed in Ypres.

Again, she fell ill and, while recuperating, she became friendly with a young man whom she eventually married. She readily admits, “I drifted into my third marriage without any thought of its being permanent.” It was at about this time that Mrs. Garrett began investigating psychic matters. Despite all this unhappiness and tragedy, she was being prepared for her major role in life: that of a sensitive.

One day, during a table rapping session, she became drowsy and started falling asleep. When she awakened, she discovered that dead relatives of others in the room had communicated through her. In spite of her husband’s warnings never to attend such meetings again, she sought the advice of one Mr. Huhnli who took it upon himself to guide Eileen in her understanding of what was happening to her. At one such meeting, she was entranced by an Arab soldier called Uvani who expressed his interest in helping prove survival.

Mrs. Garrett’s mediumship had finally come to the surface, but fear, ill health, and the break-up of her marriage delayed its development. Despite this delay, she eventually came to meet J. Hewat McKenzie, founder of the British College of Psychic Science. It was under his careful guidance at the College that her mediumship blossomed. Mr. McKenzie and his wife, Barbara, were keenly aware of the need for mediumship to expand well beyond that of messages from the spirits. They recognized that mediumship could provide a tool whereby the investigator could delve into the various dimensions and levels of perception and consciousness. Mr. McKenzie was probably the most powerful influence upon Eileen Garrett, as well as her attitudes concerning the process of communication. She continued studying and developing her mediumship at the College until Hewat McKenzie’s death in 1929.

Marriage was once again in the offing and, once again, after a premonition, it ended in tragedy. Both she and her fiancé became ill on the same day. He died of pneumonia, and she barely survived a mastoid operation. Confused about what to do, convinced that her mediumship resulted from nothing more than a split personality, and quite fed up with the Spiritualist “message game”, she decided to come to the United States and seek help from the scientific community.

In the United States, she was able to make connections with many noted scientists and parapsychologists. She subjected herself to intense physiological and psychological experimentation, hoping that such testing might shed light upon the processes of mediumship and psychism. She traveled to and from the States, searching, studying, and experimenting.

When the Second World War broke out in Europe, she was in France working with children and refugees. She remained there until the end of 1940, when, in a “wholly spontaneous and of external origin” flash, she knew she should leave and seek other work. Quite miraculously, she arrived at Lisbon and found passage on a refugee boat to New York.

Her life now took a definitive course. Within a few months of her arrival in New York, she started Tomorrow, a monthly magazine of literary and public affairs. She also started the publishing firm, Creative Age Press.

Eileen Garrett’s greatest achievement was the founding of the Parapsychology Foundation, in 1951. Her honesty and acumen for business affairs helped make this one of today’s most respected foundations of its type. Over the years, the Parapsychology Foundation has published several fine journals, newsletters, and reports, many under the presidency of Mrs. Garrett herself. In the autumn of 1952, Tomorrow was re-instituted as a quarterly journal for the study of psychic science. In January, 1955, the Foundation began publishing its bimonthly newsletter, followed, in 1958, by a series of Parapsychological Monographs, and, in 1959, by the very prestigious International Journal of Parapsychology. In March, 1970, the Foundation began publishing the Parapsychology Review, a bimonthly review of articles, news, and books. Unfortunately, the Parapsychology Review suspended publication a few years ago. The Parapsychology Foundation has hosted twenty-eight Annual International Conferences on parapsychology and allied sciences.

Eileen Garrett had four trance communicators. Uvani, a fourteenth century Arab soldier, was the control of the mediumship. Abdul Latif, a seventeenth century Persian physician, dealt primarily with healing. Speaking seldomly and on more philosophic and spiritual matters, were Tahotah and Ramah. These two claimed no earthy incarnations.

One of Eileen Garrett’s more memorable communications, as a medium, was the case of the R101. Here is what Nandor Fodor says about this in his Encyclopedia of Psychic Science:

Despite the wealth of information and evidence of survival which came through Eileen Garrett, she was never quite convinced that her mediumship stemmed from a separate source; an attitude which, in our opinion, made her mediumship so profoundly wonderful. She was always searching for more information concerning the secrets behind the consciousness of the mind and its relationship to the physical organism. She was a prolific writer and the author of: Adventures in the Supernormal; Telepathy; Awareness; The Sense and Nonsense of Prophecy; Life is the Healer; and Many Voices.

In the preface to her autobiography, she wrote:

This statement best sums up Mrs. Garrett’s point of view concerning her work. On September 15, 1970, Eileen J. Garrett passed to Spirit after one final and very painful struggle with bone cancer.

The First Spiritual Temple Trust is proud to have hosted Mrs. Garrett on the following dates, for public lectures and private sittings: December 2, 1955; May 2, 1956; November 13, 1957; and May 13, 1959. Furthermore, whenever Mrs. Garrett was in Boston, she would stop in at the Temple to bid her greetings.

We remember her as a fine medium, an astute researcher, a productive writer, and a hard-working businesswoman.