Eileen J.Garrett Scholarship

The annual Eileen J. Garrett Scholarship in the amount of $2000 is designed to assist a student attending an accredited college or university who wishes to pursue the academic study of the science of parapsychology. Successful application will demonstrate a previous interest in parapsychology by including a sample of writing on the subject along with a copy of academic transcript along with three letters of reference and a statement of what they hope to accomplish. Applications will be taken until July 1st of each year going forward with the scholarship awarded in the early autumn of the same year.

The Foundation is happy to congratulation the 2017 Garrett Scholar, Erike A. Pratte, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Northampton in England who is currently lecturing and pursuing a PhD in psychology at the University of Northampton in England. Erika, who hails from coastal Virginia in the U.S., holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Pennsylvania State University and a master’s degree in psychology from the University of West Georgia. Erika is also the editor, publisher, and co-creator of the Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psychology, an international periodical dedicated to providing an integrative approach to promoting awareness and knowledge of exceptional experiences via peer-reviewed research articles, personal accounts and creative pieces such as poetry and artwork.

Erika’s dissertation is currently titled “Therapeutic Approaches towards Near-Death Experiences.” Often, a near-death experience (NDE) is a catalyst for transformation within a person and his/her life. An individual who has a near-death experience needs to integrate not only what happened during the NDE but the personal changes that follow (such as a shift in spiritual beliefs and life priorities, a focus on making meaning on one’s life, etc.), which can cause stress for not only the near-death experiencer (NDEr) but those closest to him/her, which thus causes more stress on the NDEr.