I had occasion to “trip over” an article written by Eileen J. Garrett in her Tomorrow Magazine published in the Autumn 1958 issue which I found interesting as a comparison of trance states. Herewith I share a portion hoping you will find it equally interesting.
“Hypnosis does not stand alone in human experience, like a tree in a desert. To understand it more fully, we must see it in relation to other similar experiences. …In my own case, which has included experiences in self-hypnosis as well as hypnosis under medical supervision, many years were spent in activities involving mediumistic trance, both inside and outside laboratory settings. Despite these years of experience, I cannot be dogmatic about these different states of mind. I can simply state my own reactions—how it feels to be the subject, to be on the ‘inside’ in self-hypnosis, hypnosis and mediumistic trance.
In my own case, auto-hypnotic trance developed as part of an innocent escape process in childhood days. I continue to practice it. Perhaps a desire to escape plays a part, having its origin in the daydreaming and imaginary play of a child who had few close playmates. Later in life, self-hypnosis developed to a point where it became identified with amnesia. Eventually it grew into a means for perceiving and receiving information from the living—clairvoyantly, telepathically –and apparently from the dead, through mediumship.
…Today, in order to place myself in an auto-hypnotic trance, I begin by suggesting to myself that I am withdrawing from the world of reality. In a moment I close my eyes to the external world. I am no longer listening or taking note of anything. I am going within, within and within…. The focus of complete consciousness remains little understood. So are the conditions that govern the effects of hypnosis itself. Any study of awareness, or even of the conscious mind and the ‘sister mind’ which can be reached by hypnosis, would be richly rewarding. It might enable us to understand, moderate, inhibit, excite or depress the consciousness, enabling it to realize itself more fully, to renew itself from tensions that restrain it from functioning fully.
Freed of tensions, and conflicting tendencies, the mind can become more powerfully useful, able to utilize its rich endowments. There are various systems of mind-curing at work outside medical professions. Some of them are only half-understood by the amateurs who use them, who, however sincere, do not take into consideration what stimulation may do to the nervous system. I believe, nevertheless, that there is here at hand this ever-ready application of the mind to serve the best mental and physical interests of the individual. Modern methods of hypnosis point a route of entry into this area of self-awareness. The threshold to these intimate areas of the mind can be crossed through the patient suggestion of physician or therapist…
I am often asked whether it is easier to go into an auto-hypnotic mediumistic trance than it is to be placed under hypnosis by a physician. In the auto-hypnotic trance there is a sense of travel, of getting away from everything. On the other hand, when placed under hypnosis by the physician, I am always peculiarly mentally alert. I am listening to what he tells me; at the same time, I am telling myself that I must be in contact with him on another level, so that I will be ready, anxious and willing to obey.
Nevertheless, as he talks to me I am fast losing active consciousness and I am setting up, as it were, two gateways: one through which his words may reach me all the time; and another, through which my own mind will not function. So, working with a hypnotist gives me a much more restricted area than I have when I work auto-hypnotically.
The mediumistic trance utilizes more than just the normally automatic consciousness, which operates through known senses. It calls upon an additional consciousness, seems to insist on examining, taking in everything, even though it may not be comprehended. Now, when we let that idea of the consciousness emerge, it displays so much energy, it has so much more ‘life,’ so much more to give of energy, that there is the tendency for internal drama to be personified, that the inner excitement may show itself through all kinds of histrionics that are difficult to discipline. The mind, released from what we would call the ‘normal’ way of our thinking, is frisking about like a young dog, ready to fetch and carry all kinds of the most exciting bits of stuff it finds on the way…Auto-hypnosis, on the other hand, places me under my own suggestion. In a sense, it permits me to roam more widely. But this is largely a matter of degree. In both instances, the same reactions and mechanisms are at work. Indeed, in self-hypnosis, I will address myself as would an outsider, saying, ‘Eileen, you will now slowly relax, you will grow more passive, etc.’…
None should enter there casually, for within is a wider landscape which permits ‘vision’ and ‘communication.’ One should pause here to warn that, while the mind of man is capable of knowing reality and seeks to know it, the wise hypnotist will remember that within hypnosis a mystical union is resolved, when the conscious will has been temporarily abandoned. It becomes essential that the operation itself should be toward enlightenment, that when one is relieved of self-conscious effort, one should enter into a realm of innocence, where each muscle of the inner self is called up to produce greater energy, stimulation and knowledge.
Hypnotism should never be regarded as a form of ‘spoon-feeding’ of one person’s strength by another’s will. It should be a purposeful effort to seek for better means to the spiritual gifts by which the relationship of those concerned brings forth a deeper knowledge of the goal of life.”
As I continually find bits and pieces of articles, published and non-published, interviews and correspondence it becomes ever more clear to me that yes, Garrett was valuable for her psychic proclivities but even more so for her ever questioning mind and desire to understand how and why she could do what she could do psychically. I am sitting on a mound of information that she left behind which I am eager to sort through and organize. Perhaps a “how to” and “why” guide for future researchers and those who wrestle with similar “gifts,” “talents”, “characteristics” or even as some may consider “curses”– in whatever fashion we chose to categorize them. Perhaps I will call this future manuscript Going Within, Within and Within. Time will tell.
In the meanwhile as introspection was her life’s work I just posted a video as an attempt to describe the newly published CALL ME LUCIFER Dialogues with a Noble Stranger recently published by Afterworlds Press and available.
I wish you all the best for a healthy happy New Year!