Eileen Garrett: An Extraordinary Discovery of Fabrication

[Note: The following is an abbreviated extract from the introduction in my soon to be published book about the woman known as Eileen J. Garrett.]

Eileen Garrett is often described as the most tested medium of the 20th Century, and one whose reputation is without blemish. Born in County Meath, Ireland, she moved England as a young woman. Her career as a medium began in the early 1920s when introduced to the London Spiritualist Alliance (LSA), and later the British College of Psychic Science (BCPS). It was in the 1930s that she first gained fame as a trance medium, when after a séance arranged by Harry Price held on October 7, 1930, at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, she began to channel dramatic information purporting to come from the captain of the R-101, the British airship that had crashed and burned near Beauvais in France two days earlier when on its maiden voyage to India.

Through Garrett, Flight-Lieutenant H. Carmichael Irwin allegedly gave “a detailed and apparently highly technical account of how the R-101 crashed” (Price, 1931: 269). At sittings held later by other inquirers, with Garrett again as the medium, additional crew members and several dignitaries who had been onboard the ship appeared to communicate and give their own accounts of the cause of the disaster. The information resulted in many considering the case strong evidence of survival.
   
In 1931 she was invited by the American Society for Psychical Research to participate in studies of her mediumship and a lecture tour in the United States. Later she took part in many other research projects, exploring aspects of her acclaimed supernormal abilities. Immigrating to America in 1940, she launched Creative Age Press in 1941, which, in addition to publishing books, issued Tomorrow, a monthly magazine. In 1951 she co-founded the Parapsychology Foundation with the support of the wealthy Congresswoman, Frances Payne Bolton. Garrett was the administrator and President of this Foundation designed to fund and otherwise support research into psychic phenomena and human consciousness until her death in 1970.
   
Garrett published three autobiographies: My Life as a Search for the Meaning of Mediumship (1939), Adventures in the Supernormal: A Personal Memoir (1949), and Many Voices: The Autobiography of a Medium (1968). Several of her other books also refer to her early life including Awareness (1943), and the posthumous, recently published Call Me Lucifer (2022). These works have been viewed by many as offering interesting insight not only into the mind of a medium but also the characterological aspects of so-called psychics and the way in which psychic abilities may manifest.

In the preface to Adventures in the Supernormal, Garrett wrote that coverage of so much of her background was “necessary to an understanding of the origin and functioning of supernormal perception” (1949: xi). That there is experimental evidence for Garrett’s psychic ability has also lent credence to and greater interest in her personal experiences than might otherwise have existed.

Both during her lifetime and in the years since her passing, reviews of Garrett’s life, especially the early years prior to her involvement in Spiritualism and psychical research, have been based on her autobiographies. These are sometimes supplemented by Allan Angoff’s biography, Eileen Garrett and the World Beyond the Senses (1974/2009), and a small number of other publications of varying reliability.

Although not recorded in any of her autobiographies, Garrett’s date and place of birth is usually listed as March 17, 1893,  at Beau Parc (Beauparc), County Meath, Ireland. Most treatises also give her name as Eileen Jeanette Vancho Lyttle Garrett, the various surnames listed reflecting what is understood to be her ancestral background: the daughter of a Spaniard with the surname Vancho; the adoption of the surname Lyttle from the aunt and uncle who cared for her after her parents committed suicide; and Garrett, the surname of her third husband, which she retained until her death.

Many refer to Garrett being raised on a farm in County Meath, Ireland, having three imaginary playmates called “The Children” with whom she communicated telepathically, and being harshly and unjustly treated by her Aunt Martha. Garrett is described as exhibiting paranormal ability from an early age. Pivotal incidents in her childhood that highlight this aspect are frequently mentioned: seeing the apparition of her aunt’s sister and her baby; watching a grey, misty substance rise from the bodies of ducklings she had killed; and the ghostly appearance of her uncle shortly after his death saying she would in two years leave Ireland to start a new life in London.
   
Other stories about her life upon moving to London include her marriage at sixteen to a much older man, the births, and tragic deaths of three sons, and later a daughter before the marriage ended. Also described are a second, short-lived marriage, to a young soldier during World War I who died on the battlefield at Ypres, and a third marriage that also ended in divorce. Garrett’s business ventures before and during WWI, and her career after the war, including the early years of her involvement in Spiritualism, are other topics often alluded to.

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That Garrett’s background might not be as it was so vividly described may come as a shock to many. Yet recent investigation has established beyond doubt that most, though perhaps not all, of that recorded about Garrett’s childhood in Ireland and early years in London proves untrue. The details of Garrett’s birth, name, parentage, and childhood circumstances are all incorrect. Garrett’s description of her move to London, marriages, divorces, children, life, work, and business ventures is also mostly false or in other respects misrepresentative of her early adult life.

Five years ago, Julie Coyle, an SNUi member living in Ireland began investigating Garrett’s Irish origins and found concerning discrepancies. At almost the same time, I, in Australia, also happened to undertake research into Garrett’s background, and like Julie discovered an extensive pattern of falsehoods, reordering of true events, mixed with the presentation of fabricated stories seemingly designed to disguise and hide the truth about her past.

Julie and I were first in contact back in 2021, but decided to continue to work independently. Both of us decided to publish our findings in a book format. Julie’s book was recently published and is entitled “The Early Life of Irish Psychic and Trance Medium Eileen J. Garrett – Fact or Fabrication?” and is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/Psychic-Trance-Medium-Eileen-Garrett/dp/191654441X

My book, entitled “Behind the Medium’s Mask: Eileen Garrett’s Shadow Self” is in the final stages of preparation and will be published shortly. The approach taken to the topic by Julie and I is quite different although both of us have relied on primary sources to support the core research findings. For that reason, I am happy to draw everyone’s attention to, not only notice of my own forthcoming book on Garrett, but also Julie’s book.

As Julie has recently joined the forum she may like to post further information about her book, as I will of mine in the coming weeks.

Lis

Here is an image of the front cover of Julie Coyle's book on Eileen Garrett.

Thanks Lis for your introduction to my recently published biography on Eileen J. Garrett and I am eagerly awaiting your own publication shortly. I am a Spiritualist living in Co. Meath, Ireland which is only 30 mins drive from Beauparc, Navan where Garrett was reared. I was interested in researching about Garrett from an Irish Spiritualist point of view in order to highlight her life in Ireland, as she is little known in Ireland or in the area she was born and reared. My interest in genealogy was a great help when I began my primary research in 2018 which then took me on a 5 year journey to try to understand this complex woman and why she would have felt it necessary to fabricate her backstory. Lis has mentioned that Garrett wrote her father was a Spanish man. The true researched facts are that this man never existed and her real parents were James Savage and Anne Brownell with her being born Emily Jane Savage on 14th March 1892 and not the 17th March 1893 as she always stated. Even her own daughter and close family friends always celebrated her birthday on St. Patrick's Day (17th March). On further investigation, I also discovered that not only was most of her early backstory fabricated but that her accounts of her early life in London were also fabricated. She invented a character called Clive Barry whom she said she married young and with whom she had 3 infant boys who all died young before her daughter was born in 1916. None of this information divulged by Garrett is true and her daughter Eileen Lyttle (later Mrs Coly - President of the Parapsychology Foundation from 1970 to 2013) was the only child she ever gave birth to. Sadly, further on in my research, I was to discover that Garrett's death in Sept 1970 was not from a stroke but was medically certified as being caused by an overdose of sleeping pills, a few days after she had hosted her Nineteenth Parapsychology Foundation at Le Piol, St. Paul de Vence, France. Throughout my research I have always tried to understand Garrett and give a plausible explanation as to why she would fabricate her early Irish stories and her early adult London stories. I hope that you all enjoy the book and I am personally very pleased that the truthful story of Eileen Jeanette Garrett (Jean Little/Emily Jane Savage) has now been "outed" and is being received very well in the area of Kentstown and Beauparc in Navan, Co. Meath with my ground breaking discovery that a world famous Irish person was born in Savage's Cottage in Balrath Woods.

Thanks Julie

I know from Lis's time on her research what a journey of discovery it was. Better still you both travelled that journey independently proving this life story conclusively, because the evidence is, naturally, the same. This leaves no room for people to question the accuracy of what really happened.

I am sure people will enjoy both books because of the differences in style and the approach, each book having some unique elements.

Best wishes Jim (Admin with Lis)