I have frequently in my personal and professional life been asked how to help people who are experiencing exceptional human experiences specifically unexpected and often unwanted psychic functioning. From time to time I have had my own experiences to contend with and have often looked to the writings of Eileen J. Garrett in her capacity as a noted trance medium and psychic as well as a much beloved maternal grandmother to help me come to grips with what I experienced and glean a greater understanding of the event and myself.
By no means having the degree of her psychic gifts yet struggling with my own experiences I often found solace and food for thought in reading her works as I navigated the psychic realms. Taken from one of her autobiographies MY LIFE AS A SEARCH FOR THE MEANING OF MEDIUMSHIP published in 1939 I am hoping that her commentary may help some of you in the same boat.
“I could not explain to anyone what was really taking place within me; after all, I had no words to describe these experiences, even to myself, and I had become resigned to bearing them alone. Too often had the term of “madness” been applied to me in the past, when I sought outside help in dealing with these unexpected happenings. Now, my growing ability to control my two minds, made it possible for me to carry on my business and personal life with what seemed to my friends, an air of security and confidence. No one was allowed any longer, to know or share with me the difficulties or complexities of my two minds. As a result of this conscious protection of the activity of my second mind, I was accused of being hard and indifferent. No one guessed what struggle and conflict produced this outer shell for my own defense and protection,
Eileen J. Garrett
I began to ask myself very seriously, what was the double self which separated me from other people? Now that I had received verification and proof that my visioning was connected with actual events, I could no longer accept the implication of madness…I knew that my mind was normal for me. I began dimly to be aware that this functioning of these perceptions had a meaning beyond what I could yet comprehend. My problem was now to understand the inter-relation and the working of these two minds, more clearly, so that instead of being used against my wishes by either of them, I should learn to use them consciously.
During the next year the process of dealing with myself became easier. I had an increase of visioning which I could now control by allowing it to happen when I was ready and also by being able to shut it out at will. This new mastery of two minds, lessened my fatigue and nervousness… These events which I now witnessed, were of a wider variety and range of subject than ever before. They were seldom connected with my personal life, but were often episodes related to past or future happenings in the lives of people I knew. Often I would hear snatches of conversation which at the time of registering them, had no meaning for me; but perhaps a few days later, to my amazement, I might find myself in a room with several people and listen again to this identical conversation which had reached my hearing from ‘somewhere’ several days before it actually took place. Sometimes I would hear the names of people and places mentioned, which at the time sounded strange, were unknown; months later, these very names would crop up again, through some unexpected meeting with new people, who would turn out to have some definite association with these very names and places which had been thrust into my consciousness…
As I struggled to find words to express myself, the meaning of what I was going through, I came to feel that Mind was a greater phenomenon than anyone had yet seemed to realize. Whilst one tiny ribbon of it guided the mechanics of conscious thought, there must be vast realms of untapped and unfathomed sources which touched and linked all aspects of life with each other. I began to sense the vastness of the Universal Scheme in which each individual plays a minute part. I began to know that the human being was not nearly as important in the evolution of the Universe, as he liked to believe. He was only one channel through which the Force of Intelligence of the World worked toward its one Evolution. Man was but an incident in the larger scheme of things. I worked out a method for myself by which I could conceive of the Evolution of the Universe. It seemed probable to me that individuals had no comprehensive minds of their own, but had brains which were delicate mechanisms, which simply permitted them to participate, according to the degree of their capacity, in this evolution.”
The italic emphasis was Garrett’s. Personally I think she was on to something. Do you?