Spiritualism and Psychic-Mediums on Death and the Survival of Consciousness

It’s an elaborate, and somewhat consistent, view of the afterlife…

In this series on Death and the Survival of Consciousness, my intention was to cover a few more perspectives before leaping into the contemporary Western viewpoint as presented by Spiritualism in general, and psychic-mediums that I have known and with whom I’ve worked. Because this is the most familiar territory for me, I thought it better to explore other things first.

Recently, however, I came across an article by Ken Korczak (which you should read), in which he discusses the 1923 book, The Blue Island (which you should also read — there’s a link on the bottom of Ken’s article). The book is essentially a channeled account of the afterlife by a departed news reporter who died on the Titanic. Upon reading both the article and the book, I realized I had come across a kind of Rosetta Stone of Spiritualism, and my attention has been thoroughly immersed in it. So why wait?

First, let me say that what psychic-mediums (PM) have shared with me about the afterlife, based on their impressions in contact with the departed, is almost entirely consistent with The Blue Island. No PM I’ve spoken with has ever given such a complete picture of the Beyond, but the individual pieces of information they offered was remarkably like The Blue Island. There are other sources that give similar accounts as well, but none is as clear and direct as The Blue Island.

The book is overtly Spiritualist, and the last chapter is in fact a defense of Spiritualism with a capital “S” (something I think detracts a bit from the book’s validity). At the time the book was written, Spiritualism was already well into its eighth decade, and so could represent a kind of compendium or distillation of Spiritualist accounts of the afterlife. And since it’s been around for a hundred years at this point, it may have influenced more recent reports. The place described resonates with afterlife descriptions as well as ‘healing places’ that can be accessed while alive.

I’m not being overly skeptical in that assessment, but we have to acknowledge the possibility that a certain stream of ideas ‘caught hold’ of the Spiritualists and influenced them consciously or unconsciously. Arthur Conan Doyle suggests as much in his preface to the book. In this article, I’m going to discuss parallels and contrasts, and in doing so I’m presenting information rather than judging.

Leaving Earth

One notable contrast to what we usually think about the dying process is that the narrator, W.T. Stead, describes souls gathering together after the Titanic sank, and when all were present they were whooshed up to the blue island in a kind of celestial elevator.

That’s very different from the accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs). There was no tunnel, no bright light, no loving being that was encountered. There was also no life review — that came much later. Upon reaching what Stead calls the blue island (for that’s its dominant hue), he is met by his father, who serves as a guide, and meeting departed relatives is something that is often reported in near-death accounts. Also consistent with NDEs is Stead’s statement that there was “little grief on our arrival.”

Two thoughts occur to me on the differences between Stead’s account and NDEs. First, he died in a mass disaster, and that may have had an effect. Many, but by no means all, NDEs are related to medical conditions that might allow for a more drawn out and peaceful process. Second, NDEs are, ultimately, near death experiences, not death experiences, and therefore may have different a phenomenological characteristics.

It’s All Very Normal

In his account, Stead says several times that the afterlife is very like earthly life, although better. There’s no pressure around existence: no need to scurry for food, clothing, and shelter. There’s also no day and night or other markings of time, so that the departed have some difficulty relating to Earth time, although they are aware of goings-on down here (and it is, apparently down).

The departed continue to engage in the activities that they enjoyed while living, although in a more pleasurable and less pressured way. He says, for example, that musicians will continue to make music, with their talents and abilities greatly enhanced.

The psychic-mediums I have interviewed report very much the same thing. One PM was shown a vision of a woodland path when he asked his departed grandmother what the afterlife was like. On asking if it was like a walk in the woods, she answered, “it is for you,” meaning that he could do that which he loves. Another PM described a departed relation as cooking for a heavenly B’nai Brith chapter, as she had enjoyed doing in life. That seemed unlikely, but is consistent with Stead’s account.

Stead makes it clear that these earthly pastimes are essentially a means of helping the newly arrived feel more comfortable. Ultimately, they are about working out attachments, and eventually these activities are abandoned in favor of spiritual learning and development.

Super Powers

As PMs have often told me, our powers of manifestation are much greater on the other side. “If you want a glass of beer on the other side, you just think it and you have it,” one psychic said to me, encouragingly. She went on to explain that things are slowed down on our material plane because we can’t handle the rapid manifestation with our limited capacity. In his account of the afterlife, Stead also emphasizes that manifestation is easy, and that includes travel.

Equality, Writ Large

I’ve made the point before that the disparities between accounts of the afterlife might be due to cultural norms. As the Beyond is a non-physical place (if we can even think of it as a place), it is perhaps constructed by consciousness in such a way that our expectations guide our experience. Thus, a Tibetan Buddhist might encounter the peaceful and wrathful deities described in the Bardo Thodal, while a Christian would arrive in heaven, or, possibly, hell.

By contrast, Stead is forthright in stating that people of “all races and degrees of development” are present on the blue island. From his descriptions, it seems as though the blue island is the central stopover point for all people.

Further On Up the Road

The ‘blue island’ is only a temporary place where souls become acclimated to the afterlife. After some time there, Stead went to what he called The Real World, which is very much like the earth, and even has familiar buildings. In the Real World, spiritual work continues. Stead says that there are further planes of existence, for more or less spiritually advanced souls.

One reviews the recent life on this plane, guided by spiritual teachers. Then a determination is made to reincarnate, or not. Some folks are directed to reincarnate, needing more time on earth to evolve. Others have a choice as to whether they will return to material existence — perhaps to help others.

Karma

In concert with Buddhist teachings, every action and thought (intentional thought) is considered in the afterlife. It seems very much that the karmic debt is paid there, rather than in the next life, which is different than most Eastern (and Western) descriptions of the karmic process. This paying of debt seems to be a matter of bringing the consequences of our actions into full awareness, rather than the physical acting-out of karma that we often assume for terrestrial karmic debt — that opens up the possibility of going through the same process here on earth, which is encouraging.

Timeline

According to Stead, the time spent between lives is “much longer” than the longest life on earth. That contrasts with other accounts. Tibetans give the process a mere 49 days, more or less. Verifiable accounts of past lives vary in terms of the length of time between lives, but a period of years or decades is often given — part of what makes the past lives verifiable is that records are still available and sometimes there are still living people to provide information.

The Motor Vehicle Bureau in the Sky?

Like many accounts of the afterlife, Stead presents a place with buildings for various functions, including one for Scientific Research. There are Advanced Spirit Instructors who teach, and apparently also give tests, though Stead emphasizes that these things are done with more benevolence and care than we might expect from earthly exams. Still, it sounds a bit more bureaucratic than I would expect.

To be fair, rather than the accounts of the afterlife being influenced by our terrestrial bureaucracies, it could go the other way around and our institutions might be merely dim reflections of far kinder and more orderly realities. Stead suggests as much, when he says that our world is a reflection of the afterlife.

Inconclusive Conclusions

There’s much more that could be said about The Blue Island, Spiritualism, and the reports of psychic-mediums, but I’m approaching the 7 minute mark and that’s long for a Medium article.

In all of these contemporary Western accounts of the afterlife, there are some consistencies: the importance of spiritual evolution, a welcoming and benevolent afterlife environment, and, for most of us, eventual rebirth.

In contrast to most literature, both East and West, we have in The Blue Island and Spiritualism a detailed account of the between-life states, something that is generally absent — the Bardo Thodal being a notable exception. However, the differences between these two accounts are so remarkable as to make them essentially irreconcilable. They only agree in that the power of mind is greater in the afterlife.

Even for one who is inclined to believe or has certainty about past lives and spiritual evolution, The Blue Island, Spiritualism, and the reports of psychic-mediums, leave room for some doubt as to the particulars. It is, however, undeniably a fertile ground for inquiry and consideration.

Post-script: There is a very unconvincing photo of the author’s daughter with his spirit in the front of the book, which has to send up skeptical antennae.