Joyce Collin-Smith

Joyce Yvonne Collin-Smith (née Hartley; 11 January 1919 – 9 November 2010), was an English author, journalist, and spiritualist.

Early life and education Joyce Yvonne Hartley was born on 11 January 1919 in Oxford, England. She was the daughter of Harold Osborne Hartley, editor of The Oxford Times, and Grace Sophia Hartley (née Horsefield). She attended Oxford High School on Belbroughton Road, Oxford. As a child, Hartley preferred the realm of imagination to the real world, often feeling as though there was someone in the room with her.

Career After leaving school, Collin-Smith joined The Oxford Times as its first woman reporter. She then moved to the Reading Standard. In the early 1950s, she travelled to Gurdjieff's commune in the suburbs of Mexico City to practise his work. One day, on top of the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan, she turned towards Collin and experienced a sudden epiphany: Here, standing before her, was the imaginary playmate of her childhood: "You're my brother! You're my brother!" she cried. "Very likely," Collin responded. "There is certainly a Karmic link."

In England, Collin-Smith turned her attention to Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, founder of the international spiritual movement Subud. When he and his wife visited London in 1956, she experienced the releasing effect of latihan, a principal practice of his organisation. Notwithstanding, she was unsettled by the violent cleansing and sexual stimulation, which she noted "rose to such a pitch that people were breaking up their marriages and linking up with others, and again others, like a perpetual version of an old-fashioned 'excuse me' dance."

An Eastern Daily Press journalist who wrote a feature in 2006 was impressed by her ability to foretell the future: "I have had some clients for years," she said, "They often come back when there is a big change in their lives and they say to me that generally what I said to them came true." Collin-Smith remained a popular speaker at conferences until she was well into her 80s. and moved to Africa, where her first book Locusts and Wild Honey was set.