Mrs. Garrett's Haitian Trip

Mrs. Eileen J. Garrett, who is occasionally a medium, recently made several trips to Haiti to study paranormal experiences and practices in that fairly primitive land. Besides being a medium, Mrs. Garrett is a physical researcher, founder of the Parapsychology Foundation, editor and publisher of Tomorrow magazine, and author of Telepathy, The Sense and Nonsense of Prophecy. The Boston Spiritual Society, while normally specializing in the seance, invited Mrs. Garrett to speak to its members and the interested public Tuesday night in the Music Room of the Exeter Theater. Appearing with her was Mista Shabine, a native Haitian princess, who attends Columbia University and makes discs for the Remington Record Company.

It seems that Mrs. Garrett first got wind of the goings on in Haiti when she visited Jamaica with a desire to look into various rites there; but, as she says, the University of Jamaica is too conservative. The officials at that institution were not willing to help her in her work and suggested she try Haiti, which she promptly did.

Once in Haiti, Mrs. Garrett contacted a U.N. official whom she prefers not to mention by name. She had mysteriously arrived at the height of the voodoo season, and the U.N. figure accompanied her to a celebration of native rites. The Witch Doctor, as he is called, immediately recognized in Mrs. Garrett the one white woman ever to be a favorite of the Haitian god, Papaleba. It is at this point, actually, that her uncanny and mystical experiences commenced.

No sooner had the Witch Doctor, or Unga, divined certain extraordinary qualities of Mrs. Garrett than she fell into a trance. The "healing stones" sacred to Papaleba were tossed into a fire, and Mrs. Garrett was ordered to fetch and lay them before the altar of Papaleba. She accomplished this feat without burning her flesh; and thus, as she says, she passed her "trial by fire." As illustration, Mista Shabine sang for the audience the introductory chant to Papaleba.

Mrs. Garrett soon returned to her home in New York, bringing with her the healing stones and an altar. For she had accepted not only the pleasures but the obligations consequent on being the chosen of Papaleba. Every day she placed flowers before the altar to keep the god happy. But something was wrong. Many mornings the flowers were strewn about her living room floor, and other such wild disorders occurred frequently.

Finally, Cimbe, another Haitian god, came to her in the dark of the night and told her to come back to Haiti immediately. Mrs. Garrett was more mystified than ever by all these phenomena, but she obeyed Cimbe and returned to her old haunts. The Unga, or Witch Doctor, introduced her to another god, Papabidigri, and everything was all right again.

However, Mrs. Garrett is still very much involved with the Haitian gods because she lacks formal introductions to Kolosh, Dambala (the snake god), and Papaunga. She does not really mind her new responsibilities, though, because she feels that the Western world would not be in its present fix if there were more Papalebas around. At the same time, she regards it as her mission and duty to explain rationally parapsychological manifestations to the Haitian people.

Although it may have no direct bearing on Mrs. Garrett's talk, I remember one time I was fishing off the Florida Keys. Things had been slow all day and the Captain was cracking open his second point of Four Roses. Suddenly, what looked like a large island loomed up close behind the boat, and, in a summary fashion, smacked the teaser and then the bait. Momentarily surprised, the Captain set down his bottle and shouted, "Give him plenty of line!" This I did, but the island-like serpent took all my new nylon line and all my backing, despite the fact that the star drag was full on.

Later, on shore, we discussed this phenomenon. After consulting local authorities, the Captain and I decided that the island was a Guatemalan Dragger-crunch, which appears only when all the world's children under the age of six have brushed their teeth three times a day.