Born in Beauparc, Ireland, she was one of the most respected mediums of the 20th century. Her contributions to research, and to the phenomena developed through her mediumship, remain immeasurable.

From an early age her life was marked by tragedy. Her parents Anthony and Anne committed suicide when she was a child and she was adopted by her aunt and uncle. In her childhood she felt people, animals and plants around her, even various forms of light and energy. She had imaginary friends, whom she called ‘children’ and said that she did not go anywhere else to see them.

From a very young age she felt the presence of death through various experiences and understood that there was something "more" to life than the physical form and that this "more" separates from the body at the moment of death.

At the age of 15, due to tuberculosis and other respiratory illnesses she often faced, she left Ireland in search of a milder climate in England. She later met a man named Clive who began to visit her. She married him and during their brief marriage had three children, all of whom died at an early age. Then, eventually, Eileen was born, and her health deteriorated. She then recovered, and her marriage ended in divorce.

During the First World War she helped out at a hostel for convalescing soldiers, and it was during this period that she met her second husband, a young officer who was immediately called up to the front. The premonition that this marriage would be short-lived was confirmed when she was later told that he was missing in action and had been killed at Ypres.

Again she fell ill and while recovering, she befriended a young man, attracting his attention, whom she eventually married. It was at this time that she began to investigate psychically. As a sensitive she was very aware of people's moods and feelings. As a psychic researcher she recognised the need for open-minded realisation of phenomena. As an author, lecturer and publisher, she tried to share her ideas and experiences with the public.

One day, during a seance, through the table, she began to fall asleep and when she awoke, she discovered that the dead relatives of the people in the room had communicated through her. A gentleman who was present, familiar with the phenomenon of madiunity, explained to the young woman what had happened to her.

Despite her husband's warnings not to attend any meetings, she sought the advice of Mr. Hubnli who took it upon himself to guide Eileen to understand what was happening. Mrs. Eileen's mediumship had reached its peak, but fear, ill health and the breakdown of her marriage delayed its development. Despite this, she met and sought the personal advice of parapsychologist James Hewat McKenzie, founder of the British College of Psychical Science. And it was under his careful guidance that her mediumship was enhanced. Mr. McKenzie and his wife, Barbara, were well aware of the need for mediumship to extend beyond spirit messages. They recognised that mediumship could provide a tool by which the researcher could delve into the various dimensions and levels of perception of consciousness. Mr. McKenzie was probably the most powerful influence on Eileen J. Garrett. She continued to study and develop her mediumship at the British College until Hewat McKenzie's death on August 20, 1929.

At this point he decided to visit the United States, to seek help from the scientific community. She contacted many academic scientists and parapsychologists, undergoing intense physiological and psychological experimentation, in the hope that such tests might shed some more light on the processes of mediumship and psychism. With Hereward Carrigton, one of the leading researchers of the period, she had decades devoted to psychical research, with a special emphasis on the various phenomena of mediumship.

When the Second World War broke out in Europe, she was in France working with children and refugees. She stayed there until the end of 1940, until she spontaneously realised that she had to leave and look for another job. Miraculously, she arrived in Lisbon and found a passage on a refugee ship bound for New York.

Her life took a definitive turn. A few months after her arrival in New York, she founded the monthly magazine "Tomorrow" devoted to literary and public affairs. Later she also started the publishing firm "Edad Press".

Her greatest achievement, however, was the formation of the Parapsychology Foundation Inc. in New York City in 1951. Her honesty and business acumen helped this foundation to become one of the most respected, publishing several magazines, newsletters and reports, under the supervision of Mrs. Garrett. From the autumn of 1952 the journals Tomorrow, Parapsychology Monographs, International Journal of Parapsychology, Parapsychology Review and Parapsychology Review were published continuously until they were discontinued only a few years ago. The Parapsychology Foundation hosted twenty-eight annual International Conferences on parapsychology and related sciences.

Returning to Eileen J. Garrett's mediumship, she received trance communications from a 14th century Arab soldier named Uvani, who expressed an interest in helping to prove survival, and that he was henceforth to serve as her guide, while controlling her mediumship. Also Abdul Latif, a 17th century Persian physician who was primarily concerned with healing. And speaking very rarely and in more philosophical and spiritual matters, Tahotah and Ramah manifested themselves.

One of her most memorable communications, as a medium, was the case of the British airship R101 that crashed in Beauvais, France, on 5 October 1930. Nandor Fodor, PhD in Law from the Royal Hungarian University of Science in Budapest, a parapsychologist and psychoanalyst, considered to be one of the leading authorities of the time, commented on this event as follows:

"At a session at the National Psychical Research Laboratory on 7 October 1930, two days after the explosion of R101, Flight Lieutenant HC Irwin, captain of the aircraft, suddenly through Mrs Garrett's mediumship, announced his presence and gave the listeners a highly technical account of how the aircraft crashed. The account was taken in shorthand and a copy was submitted to the Air Ministry. According to expert opinion, a number of remarks in the message were noted down in every detail, with what was later found in the course of the official investigation. EF Spanner, the well-known naval architect and marine engineer, came to the same conclusions in his book "The Tragedy of the R101".

Despite the wealth of information and evidence of survival that came through her, she was never quite convinced that her mediumship came from an independent source. An attitude that made her faculty marvellous. Her quest for more information about the secrets of mind consciousness and its relationship to the physical organism was always outstanding.

She published several books, of which we highlight: Adventures in the Supernormal; Telepathy; Consciousness; The Sense and Nonsense of Prophecy; Life is the Healer; and Many Voices.

In the foreword to "The Autobiography of a Medium" in 1968 she wrote:

"I have a gift, an ability - a delusion, if you will - that is called psychic. I don't care what you may call it, to live with and use this psychic ability has long since accustomed me to a variety of epithets, ranging from expressions of almost reverence, through doubt and pity, to open reproaches. In short, I have been called many things, from a charlatan to a miracle woman I am at least none of these".

For Eileen J. Garrett, mediumship was not a "breaking down of the personality", but a state of wholeness. She wisely considered that communication with the "other world" may well become a substitute for life in this world. Understanding that this world, in which we live, has priority in this existence as it is the core of the mediumistic ethic.

Eileenn J. Garrett died on 15 September 1970 in Nice, France, after a period of declining health.