My grandmother, trance medium, Eileen J. Garrett was known to be ambivalent as to the meaning of her mediumship. As countless others who also face dealing with psychic manifestations she at first was understandably very uncomfortable with this so called “gift”. She has written and underscored often her appreciation for the works of Edward Carpenter who helped her come to grips with her psychic self. In her autobiography Adventures in the Supernormal she writes “ In the two years of my close friendship with Edward Carpenter I had what I can only describe as the most profound spiritual experience of my life, one which gave me a sense of release, of being set free, of being reborn. He helped to liberate me from the burdens of my past confusions… Through him, I learned that my intense curiosity and urgent need to live in two selves were not the products of an unbalanced mind but positive powers beyond the range of contemporary understanding. For the first time in my life, I realized that my perceptions were truly not hallucinations but the result of capacities for inner comprehension, capacities for what Edward Carpenter called ‘cosmic consciousness.’ Whatever I might say of Edward Carpenter would be inadequate to express my spiritual debt to one of the greatest beings of the modern world. ” I can personally attest that Garrett was not prone to “gushing” thus I was curious to personally delve into his work to gain a greater understanding of just why she felt such a debt.
In my search for Carpenter I was extremely lucky to find a copy of his book The Drama of Love and Death—A Study of Human Evolution and Transfiguration, apart from the shelves of the PF library but in her own personal archives. Published in 1912 by Mitchell Kennerley in New York and London the copy I unearthed was signed by her and even better underlined presumably by her with salient passages and commentary that I can only assume meant a lot to her which serves me well as I seek to better understand more fully the factors that added to the totality of that complex personality, Garrett.
Taken from that tome I now share with you some of Carpenter’s thoughts as to the value of the study of mediumship which Garrett apparently took to heart and which I believe may be of great value to us presently engaged in such research and for the exceptional few, who personally experience it. I will in future share other findings in future blogs but I urge you to check out Carpenter’s writings.
“…The phenomena connected with mediums and séances have been so amazing and unexpected that they have often produced a kind of fear and dismay. The religious people have been terrified at the prospect of having to acknowledge miracles not connected with the Church; or of having to confess to the resurrection of John Smith as well as Jesus Christ. The scientific folk (in many of most quarters) being always just on the point of completing their pet scheme of the universe—whatever it may happen to be at the time—have naturally been in no mood to admit to new facts that would totally disarrange their systems; and have, therefore, with a few brilliant exceptions, consistently closed their eyes or looked another way. And the general public, not without reason, has feared to embark on a subject which might easily float it away from the dry land of practical life, into one knows not what sea of doubt or even delusion.
But these difficulties attend at all times the introduction of a new subject—or at least of one which is new in the generation concerned; and can of course not be allowed to interfere with the candid and impartial examination of the subject, or with the assimilations, as far as feasible, of its message. It should certainly, I think, be admitted that there are dangers attending the new science—or rather attending the hasty and careless investigation of it—just as there are attending any other science. There is no doubt that the phenomena connected with it are so astounding that they in some cases unhinge people’s minds, or at least for the time upset them; and what we have already said once or twice of the frequent bodily exhaustion of the Medium not to mention the occasional exhaustion of the sitters, must convince us that the greatest care should be exercised with trance conditions, and that the whole subject should be studied with a view to discovering its proper and best handling…
Mediums and trance phenomena—prophecy, second sight, speaking in strange tongues, the appearance of flames and lights, and of figures apparently from the dead—are things that have been known all down history, and recognized almost as a matter of course, both among quite primitive peoples like the Kaffirs, or the Aleuts or the Mongolians, or among the more cultured like the Greeks, the Romans, the Hindus, Chinese and so forth. The Bible teems with references to wizards and ‘necromancers’ and the story of the Witch of Endor gives us a penetrating glimpse into what was evidently a common practice of ‘consultation.’ These phenomena have never been so common as to break up and disorganize the routine of ordinary life, yet they have always been there, and recognized, as on the fringe or borderland—in somewhat the same way as the knowledge or recognition of Death does not interfere with daily life or prevent us making engagements; though we know it may do so at any time. And beyond any direct uses that trance-communication and manifestations may have now, or may have had in the past, we may fairly suppose that as examples of real things and of a real world lying just outside the sphere of our ordinary and actual experience they may be of immense value—both as delivering us from a cramped and petty belief that we have already fathomed the possibilities of the universe, and as giving us just a hint and a glimpse of directions in which we may fairly look for the future. That we should for the present be limited for the most part to a definite sphere of activity, or to a definite region of creation, seems only natural. ‘One world, please at a time!’ said Thoreau when on his deathbed he was plagued by some pious person about the future of life; and if we in our daily life were entangled in the manifestations of two very different planes of existence it might be greatly baffling. At the same time, the occasional hint or message from another plane may be of the greatest help…
Condensations and manifestations (as of beings from such other plane) may be abnormal at present. They may be rare, they may occur under unexpected and even unhealthy conditions, they may cause dislocations of mind and of morals, they may be confused and confusing… Possibly a time is coming when Mediumship, instead of being left over (as not infrequently now) to quite ignorant and uncultured specimens of humanity, and being exercised in haphazard, careless fashion, or for monetary gain, or personal vanity, will be looked upon as a sacred and responsible office, worthy of and requiring considerable preparation and instruction, demanding the respect of the pubic, yet thoroughly criticized, both in method and result, by intelligent examination and logic. Possibly a time is coming when messages and manifestations from another plane than that of our daily life will come to us under the most obviously healthy and sane conditions, and will be fully recognized as having value and even in their way, authority.”
Let us hope!