Frances Ripley was born in Edinburgh in 1924. Over the period from 1966 to 1992 during which she drew the ethereal beings in this book, she experienced a wide range of psychic, emotional and physical sensations. Frances never in any sense depicted the Devas and other ethereal beings that appeared to her. She did not see forms outside of herself from which she drew. Instead, what was essential was for her to be sensitive to, and identify with, a particular feeling emanating from the Being to be drawn.

Dramatic changes in her pulse rate would signal when she was to sit down and draw. Her mind would enter a state that was, paradoxically, both clear and focused, open and sharply aware. In this state she drew the images in this book, without actually being aware of what she was drawing at the time; only afterwards would a name come to her as her 'vision unseen' was made manifest on paper.