Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Celia Alleyne: A Fairy Woman? December 22, 2016

In 1920 the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research published a letter from Celia Alleyne. I like this letter because having been through tens of such cases from the twentieth century now this is (a) written by a person of above average intelligence and (b) average in terms of relations with the ‘fairies’ (or whatever glitch of consciousness this was).

You ask me to tell you about the ‘Fairies’ I saw in my childhood. I have always been conscious of other forms of spirit life besides our own. I can remember when I was five, before I could read fairy tales (and we were not told any), slipping out of bed at dawn and going into the garden to talk with the fairies; it was when I could be alone and away from my brothers and sisters that I felt and saw them. They were always beautiful, never old, not very young, just without age. Sometimes I would at night suddenly awake feeling rigid with fright, and I used at once to send a call to the fairies to come to me, and first I would hear faint music growing louder and louder till my room was filled with music, and from every side little fairies came and glided along the coverlet and all my fear was turned to joy, and they put me to sleep again.

The fairies then seem to have fulfilled the role of an invisible friend to a young girl.

I did not talk much about the fairies, I never realized other people didn’t see them. I thought my brothers and sisters too noisy to see them. I have often known them come to my aid when in childish difficulties, but I never mixed the fairies up with the human spirits which I often saw… Another thing which may interest you is that as a child I could see in the dark; there was no darkness for me, I could see a blue light which showed things to me, not a diffused light, but a guiding light which I fought the fairies brought for me. You ask me about size. My impression is from four to six inches (15 cm). Concerning clothing – not any; they appeared to me iridescent, instead of being a solid whole they were visible vibrating particles, without the appearance of any actual sex. I have never noticed any wings. I am really rather an active sort of person and not in the least inclined to sleep or doze during the daytime. All my friends call me extremely practical!

Earlier in the letter, CA claims that she continues to see the fairies.

Since I have grown up I have still seen the fairies but the conditions must be right. A short time ago I was on the Downs in the morning and it was very still and quiet and no one about, and as I sat in the grass I felt the conditions change – I became aware of faculties which normally I have not at all. I could hear each blade of grass vibrating and there was harmony in every note, I could see an aura to every flower and the fairies were there in colours like the auras. My material body was forgotten, I seemed to be in a new, inner world of colour, music, and scent, and perfect peace and happiness.

The very fact that CA knew of the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research suggests that she would have been exposed to certain theosophic and spiritualist ideas that have their echo here. But still what short circuit in the brain or nature means that a steady percentage of the human race (1%, 6%, 10%…) has these experiences periodically? And what is it that curses or blesses them? drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com