Above:  The materialization of Aunt Agg

About to turn 90 on August 8, Tom Harrison, the author of Life After Death - Living Proof, first published in 2004 and recently revised with 35 additional pages and more photographs, graciously answered some questions I put to him by e-mail.  My last blog post discussed some of the contents of the book about the mediumship of his mother, Minnie Harrison, who developed over time from clairvoyant and trance voice into a materialization medium.  As he had just been interviewed by Susan Farrow of Psychic News for the February 9, 2008 issue of that publication, some of my questions had already been answered in that interview.  Thus, rather than have him repeat those answers, Psychic News kindly gave permission to extract from their interview.  Such extracts are indicated by a (PN) at the end of the response.

Tom, in your book you mentioned that your mother's physical mediumship was foretold by Albert, the spirit guide of Helen Duncan, another renowned medium.  For the benefit of the readers of this publication, would you mind relating that story?

      "It was in 1938, about a year before the start of the second world war.  My mother was acting as hostess for a friend who had arranged a Helen Duncan sitting in his home in Middlesbrough, and I was fortunate to obtain a ticket for the sitting.

      "I sat at the back of the average-sized room, which held about twenty sitters in four rows facing the cabinet, which was illuminated by a red light.  A number of materialized spirits came and were recognized by their relatives or friends before Albert announced that someone named Jack Bessant was coming.  He was my mother's brother and had been a strong trance medium before his passing in 1927.  He came out of the cabinet and turned to speak to my mother, who was sitting alongside the curtain.  I must admit I could not see him clearly, but my mother was satisfied that it was her brother.

      "As Jack returned to the cabinet, we heard him speaking to Albert, but did not hear his actual words.  Albert then spoke very clearly and told us that whoever this spirit person had come to meet, they had great physical energy around them which would be used in the future.  And so it came to pass some eight years later, when the Saturday Night Club started sittings with my mother as medium." (PN)

As I understand it, your mother was primarily a clairvoyant and clairaudient before the Saturday Night Club was formed?

      "Yes, but knowing that my mother had trance potential, we hoped when we sat on 6^th April 1946, that we might get trance phenomena in simple form - which is exactly what happened.  But when Aunt Agg controlled my mother, she told us that we should sit with a trumpet because we would get results as good as her own!  I'm afraid we just could not believe what she said that evening, but nevertheless, circle member Syd Shipman made two trumpets in time for the next sitting and we went on from there.  Oh ye of little faith!"  (PN)

You wrote that you saw some 1,500 different spirit people from 1946 on.  Are you including repeat visits by various spirits?

       "It does include repeat visits by people like Aunt Agg and Granny Lumsden who came every week.  I estimate that Aunt Agg came 300 or more times and Granny Lumsden 200 or more, so there were probably 900 to 1,000 different people who materialized."  

I assume then that the spirit visitors were not limited to the relatives and friends of the usual circle members.

        "[Correct].  Over the years we had scores of guest sitters, the majority of whom were hoping to meet a close loved one who had passed over a few months prior to the sitting.   They wanted to clear any lingering doubts they may have had about their loved one's contentment and happiness in their new surroundings." (PN)

Did the spirit visitors appear in different attire?

        "The attire of all our spirits who materialized was always the same - an ectoplasmic robe as seen in our photographs.  The one exception was when Sunrise (Minnie Harrison's spirit control) materialized during out 52^nd sitting.  He built (materialized) in his earthly-type clothing complete with splendid feathered head-dress - a most imposing figure who had become a very close friend and protector during the 12 months of our sittings."

I know that the cabinet used with the materialization phenomenon is designed to provide extra darkness to aid in the materialization, but skeptics see it as simply a "dressing room" for a fraudulent medium.   Why is this cabinet necessary if the room is dark in the first place?   Did you ever look into the cabinet to observe the materialization?

        "The spirits could materialize in the dark room without a cabinet.  We had seen nine of them build alongside my mother in the red light from sitting 32 to 36.  However, Sunrise explained to us that we could have a brighter light if my mother was ‘partitioned off,' sitting behind a curtain in a cabinet.  He also told us that the cabinet was a smaller space in which the energy could be concentrated  to help the spirits materialize and even stay longer.  Therefore, the cabinet was used for materializations from week 38.  We all knew that only my mother was seated in the cabinet, so there was no purpose in wanting to look inside."

You mentioned in the book that Dr. Jones took some samples of the ectoplasm.  What were his findings?

      "An ectoplasmic feather and one of the pieces of ectoplasm cut off by him were put into jars which had liquid in them - put there by the spirit chemists. The leader was a chemist called Swift who arranged to put the apported liquid in the jars for the pieces of ectoplasm.  He apologized for the unpleasant odour with the liquid he had put in the jar for the ectoplasmic feather.

      "The ectoplasm completely dissolved in a few days and Jones then took the jars with the dissolved ectoplasm to his laboratory in the hospital and examined the contents.  He told us the crystals which formed were ‘bleach like' in form but he could find nothing very special in them - which we all said was rather disappointing as we had expected something ‘different' but didn't know what."

Did the spirits ever talk about what they did when they weren't visiting you?

      "Yes, they talked about how they occupied themselves, in much the same way as they did here, but without the need to ‘earn money' to keep a physical body ‘alive.'  Their hobbies and other interests now took precedence - they could do anything they wanted so long as it did not conflict with others.  For example, my first wife, Doris, was trained as a nurse and was always very interested in children, so there was still lots for her to do, especially when children passed over.  Aunt Agg told us she occasionally acted as a medium for friends to contact spirits who had progressed to higher vibrations - not unlike how she used to help folks here to contact friends or relatives who were in the spirit world.  Libraries are available for keen readers and concerts for music lovers.  Gladys Hildred's sister, Mona, was the guardian for a spirit child named Prudence, who needed help, and she used to bring her to our sittings quite regularly.  The list of activities is endless."

Did you have any celebrities or otherwise famous people materialize?

       "We had no ‘historically known famous' people materializing but one man was ‘famous' as a leader and secretary in the Spiritualist movement.  Alfred Kitson, who lived in West Yorkshire and founded the Lyceum movement in UK, had visited Middlesbrough on 22^nd March 1924, 23 years ago to the day to open the new church and our two guest sitters that night (sitting 47, 22^nd March 1947) were Mr. and Mrs. Hudson, officers of the church, who officiated at the opening.  When they arrived home after the sitting they had to check their records regarding the date and found Alfred Kitson was exactly correct, but they certainly had not remembered such details as he had."       

Did you ever invite members of the Society for Psychical Research to observe the phenomena?

      "We never invited anyone from the SPR or any other research organization who would have made mother suffer the indignity and discomfort of their tests.  As a group we were completely satisfied as to the genuineness of the phenomena and simply enjoyed our weekly ‘get togethers' with our spirit friends and relatives.  That was the agreement we had made with Sunrise and his team when we started sitting, and it was always kept that way.  From time to time Sunrise reminded us of the agreement."

Did Sunrise ever explain why such an agreement was necessary?

     "The agreement as such was simply an understanding between the two worlds to really continue the friendly social Saturday evenings of the previous five years during the war at Syd and Gladys' home - but now also to reunite those who sat in the circle with their loved ones who were now in the Spirit world.  Like us, Sunrise did not want ‘his meedi' (as he called my mother) put to such unnecessary indignity and discomfort purely for the benefit of such arrogant people.  Over the years, we did have a number of skeptics who all left convinced of the genuineness of the phenomena they had witnessed.  As Dixon-Smith wrote in his book, any suggestion of fraud was preposterous under such conditions in the small room, and the most important aspect was that everyone enjoyed their evening with the spirit friends and relatives - all free of charge with supper included!"

    

It would appear that your mother was a much more powerful physical medium than Eusapia Paladino, the famous Italian medium of a half-century earlier, as she rarely produced full materializations - mostly just hands, touches, and table levitations.  Do you have any idea as to how to account for this?  Is the difference is in the power of the medium, the ability of the spirit scientists on the other side, the ability of the spirits to project themselves into the ectoplasm, or the harmony of the sitters, or some other factor?

     "I feel you have answered your own question, Mike.  I agree with all your ‘reasons,' particularly the importance of true harmony and the desire and ability of the team on the other side.  As much as some mediums would like to develop physical phenomena it is just not in their ‘make up' to enable the spirit workers to meet their wishes.  The medium we sit with now is very keen to have physical phenomena.  So far he is doing well with trance development and some transfiguration, but nothing ‘physical," much to his weekly disappointment."

Along the same line, Gladys Osborne Leonard, England's best known medium, and Leonora Piper, America's best known medium, never really advanced beyond the trance voice, although the direct voice occasionally manifested with Mrs. Leonard.  Certainly, there were no materializations reported with either of them.  Do you have thoughts as to why that was?

       "Apart from the last answer, I am sure we agree that there is also a great need for top quality ‘mental' and trance mediumship which can reach a much wider public audience - like Mrs. Leonard and my Aunt Agg (Agnes Abbott), who alone with others regularly filled many of the large halls in London." 
  

Have you witnessed any materialization phenomena since your mother passed over?

        "Yes, I have been privileged to witness materialization over the past four or five years whenever Ann and I have visited UK and sat with Stewart Alexander in Hull. Currently, it is always in the dark but the footsteps can be clearly heard walking around the room.  When Dr. Barnett stops in front of me for healing purposes, I feel the strength in his hands as he places them on my head, shoulders and down my back.  The medium, Stewart, is strapped in his chair and Dr. Barnett is clearly an independent spirit person.  Walter Stinson, the Circle leader in spirit, is working towards getting spirit lighting to illuminate the materializations.

       "Before moving to Spain in January 2000, we were regular members of Stewart's weekly home circle and witnessed much physical phenomena, including trumpet movements and spirit voices, but the materializations developed later, some four to five years ago." 

Have you heard from your mother, Aunt Agg, or others since your mother's transition?

     "Yes, I have had contact with my mother, father, my first wife Doris, Aunt Agg, Sunrise, Uncle Jack and others, including Mrs. Leonard, who is closely linked with Denise, a regular member of Stewart Alexander's circle."

Why do you think red lights are permitted by the spirits with some mediums and not with others?  You'd think that if they figured out how to use them with your mother, they could use them with today's mediums.  Either the spirit scientists on the other side are not sharing their knowledge with each other or it has something to do with the strength of the medium.  Any thoughts on that?

          "Regarding the red lights, I believe the main reason is linked to the 'strength' of the medium...Not the physical strength of course but the 'inner' strength and 'make up' of the individual which we are unable to describe or comprehend.   My mother was certainly not physically strong having suffered from cancer since 1940, but had that special inner strength for the spirits to work with and even allow the red light and photographs,

including infra red. And again we do have a red light some of the time in Stewart's circle to show the materialized hands and to see reports of this I suggest that you get the book about him from Amazon.com,  Experiences of Trance, Physical Mediumship and Associated Phenomena, Part 2 by Katie Halliwell."

You told Psychic News that your mother developed rapidly from clairvoyance to full materializations, about eight months, and that normal development usually calls for many years.  You further stated that you feel the absence of such quality mediumship today is a result of our fast-paced world and the lack of conditions and patience necessary to let the phenomena develop.   What exactly does the medium need to do to develop?  I infer from some of your comments that the spirit scientists are doing all the work. 

        "Again, this question is closely linked with some of your others.  It is true that the Spirit world is 'at the controls' but as you appreciate, mediums are different individuals  and there is nothing specific they can do to obtain physical phenomena, 'on tap.'   Only patience and dedication with a harmonious group of sitters - but even then, it may never

happen for them. The eight months was from us starting to sit regularly but the group had met almost every week for the previous 5 years, although not with the intention of it being a circle for development of the mediumship when our 'energy bank' was built and used when we started sitting. But who knows what the spirit-side was up to all that time. The spirit side may be 'in control' but we do not know what adjustments have to be made with the medium's make up for these things to be possible and what changes need to be made in the way the spirit-side can work, for each of us is a unique individual and what works for one may not for another."

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my questions, Tom.  Do you have any parting comments?

        "Just this:  As the spirits remind us quite often, it is the harmony, dedication and intent that enable them to work with us."

Tom Harrison's book is available at Amazon.com and Amazon.com.UK

 

"Watseka, Illinois has been swept by a tidal wave of excitement, on account of the presumed insanity of one Lurancy Vennum, a young girl belonging to an unpretentious family in the suburbs of the city.  Her insanity, as it was thought to be, dates from July 11^th, A.D., 1877, and the remarkable phenomena continued until her perfect restoration through the aid of friendly Spiritualists and spirits on the 21^st of May, 1878."

      So began an article appearing in the September 1879 issue of the Religio-Philosophical Journal, titled "The Case of Lurancy Vennum," written by Dr. E. Winchester Stevens, a physician who treated the afflicted girl.    The case would later be referred to as "The Watseka Wonder."

       Mary Lurancy Vennum, who went by "Rancy," was born on April 16, 1864.  It was on July 11, 1877, when she was 13 years old, that she told her mother that she was not feeling well, had a "fit," and remained unconscious for five hours.  Upon regaining consciousness, she told her family that she felt "very strange and queer," but she rested comfortably that night.  "The next day the rigid state returned, and passing beyond the rigidity, her mind took cognizance of two states of being at the same time," Stevens recorded.  "Lying as if dead, she spoke freely, telling the family what persons and spirits she could see, describing them and calling some of them by name.  Among those mentioned were her (deceased) sister and brother, for she exclaimed, ‘Oh, mother!  Can't you see little Laura and Bertie?  They are so beautiful!' etc., etc.   Bertie died when Lurancy was but three years old." 

      Over the next two months, Rancy had a number of similar trances, describing heaven and the "angels."   However, sometime in September she appeared to return to her normal self.   On November 27, she began experiencing severe stomach pains five or six times a day, and on December 11, she entered a trance state and again began seeing "angels."  These trances continued over the next seven weeks and Rancy would often appear to be in a state of ecstasy, claiming that she was in heaven.  Two physicians and the family's Methodist minister concluded that she was insane and recommended an asylum.

      Upon hearing of the situation at the Vennum home, Asa Roff, a lawyer and one of the town's founders, called upon Rancy's parents and persuaded them to let Dr. Stevens of Janesville, Wisconsin, examine the girl before having her committed to an asylum. Roff and his wife were very sympathetic to the Vennum's situation as they had experienced a similar ordeal with their daughter, Mary, a dozen years earlier. 
 

      Stevens and Roff visited the Vennum family on January 31, 1878.  They found Rancy sitting near the stove, looking "very sullen and crabbed."   She called her father "Old Black Dick" and her mother "Old Granny."    When Stevens asked her name, she replied somewhat antagonistically that it was Katrina Hogan, giving her age as 63 and saying she was from Germany.   After carrying on a conversation with Stevens, she suddenly changed personalities and claimed to be a man named Willie Canning.    "Willie" then started asking Stevens who he was, what his beliefs were, whether he went to church, liked to smoke, liked to drink, etc.   After an hour and a half, Lurancy fell on the floor and went into a trance.  She then began answering Stevens' questions "with rationality and understanding,"  She apologized for having such evil conditions about her and said she knew the evil spirits calling themselves Katrina and Willie. 

        Stevens suggested that she look around her for a higher, purer, more intelligent, and more rational spirit to control her.  After looking around, Rancy said there were a great many spirits there willing to come, but that one "angel" who stepped forward gave her name as Mary Roff.    Asa Roff immediately spoke up and said that was his daughter.

        Mary Roff was born on October 8, 1846 and died on July 5, 1865 at age 18.  (Rancy was just a year old when Mary Roff died.)   Mary began suffering from "fits" at an early age and would often become violent.  Her physicians diagnosed it as "catalepsy."   According to reports gathered by Smith, she would become "a raving maniac of the most violent kind" and later would enter a clairvoyant state in which she had no normal sense of sight, feeling, or sound and seemed not to recognize anyone, including her family members.  She could see as if blindfolded and could even read a book without the cover being open.   After one of her fits, she died.

       Asa and Ana Roff were forced to put Mary in a sanatorium for a time, something which they later regretted as they eventually came to realize that there were spiritual forces at work.  It was due to the mistakes he felt he had made with his daughter, that Asa Roff was prompted to call upon the Vennums and suggest that Dr. Stevens, a Spiritualist as well as a physician, examine their daughter.

      After apparently discussing the matter with some spirits, Rancy then announced that she was going to let Mary Roff take over her body for a period of time. "From the wild, angry, ungovernable girl, to be kept only by lock and key, or the more-distressing watch-care of almost frantic parents, or the rigid corpse-like cataleptic, as believed, the girl has now become mild, docile, polite, and timid, knowing none of the (Vennum) family but constantly pleading to go home," Stevens further recorded. 

       Upon hearing of the situation, Mary Roff's older sister, Minerva Alter, paid a visit to the Vennum home with Ana Roff.  "There comes my ma and sister Nervie!" Rancy exclaimed, using her pet name for Minerva, a name not heard by anyone since Mary had died. After that reunion, Rancy, as Mary Roff, became even more homesick and begged to "go home."   Reluctantly, the Vennums consented.   

       "On the 11^th day of February 1878, they (the Vennums) sent the girl to Mr. Roff's, where she met her "pa and ma" and each member of the family, with the most gratifying expressions of love and affection, by words and embraces," Stevens continued.  "On being asked how long she would stay, she said, ‘The angels will let me stay until some time in May,' and she made it her home there until May 21, three months and ten days, a happy and contented daughter and sister in a borrowed body."

       During those three-plus months, Rancy, as Mary, recognized old neighbors and friends.  When Mrs. Parker and her daughter-in-law, Nellie, came calling, Rancy greeted them as "Auntie Parker" and "Nellie."  Rancy asked  Auntie Parker if she remembered when she (Mary Roff) and Nervie used to come to her house and sing, something which both Mrs. Parker and Nervie both clearly remembered. When another neighbor visited, Rancy called her Mrs. Lord, even though Mary Lord, a widow when Mary Roff knew her, had remarried and had become Mrs. Wagoner.

      As a test one day in March, Asa Roff, asked his wife to retrieve a velvet hat which their daughter wore before her death.   It was placed on the table while Rancy was outside.  When Rancy entered the house, she said, "Oh, there is the headdress I wore when my hair was short."  Lawyer that he was, Asa Roff tested Rancy in other ways and became satisfied that his deceased daughter was indeed occupying the body of Rancy Vennum.  On February 19, he wrote to Dr. Stevens, who had returned to his home:  "...she recognizes everybody and everything that she knew when in her body twelve or more years ago.  She knows nobody nor anything whatever that is known by Lurancy...she has been nothing but Mary since she has been here, and knows nothing but what Mary knew. She has entered the trance once every other day for some days.  She is perfectly happy."

       In another letter to Dr. Stevens, Asa Roff wrote that while Rancy was in trance one day, the voice of someone who claimed to have lived and died in Tennessee spoke through Rancy and told him that Mary would retain control of Lurancy's body until it was restored to good health.

       During the first month in the Roff home, Rancy refused to eat, explaining to her "parents" that her nourishment was coming from heaven and it was necessary for her to refrain from food until the body was ready. Gradually, she came to eat with the family.

       On May 7, Mary (Rancy) called her mother (Ana) to a private room and told her that Lurancy Vennum was coming back.  A change of personality then took place and the girl asked Ana where she was, began crying, and said she wanted to go home.  However, after about five minutes, Mary returned to Rancy's body.

       On May 21, Asa Roff recorded in a letter to Dr. Stevens:  "Mary is to leave the body of Rancy today, about 11 o'clock, so she says.  She is bidding neighbors and friends good-by...She tells me to write to Dr. Stevens as follows:  ‘Tell him I am going to heaven and Rancy is coming home well.'  She says she will see your dear children in spirit life...She talked most lovingly about the separation to take place, and most beautiful was her talk about heaven and her home."

       At 11 o'clock, Rancy "returned" and, speaking to Asa Roff as if a stranger, asked to be taken to her home.    She lived a normal life from then on.

 

In his 1989 presidential address to the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), the late Professor Ian Stevenson pointed out that between 1910 and 1980 at least six presidents of the SPR asserted that telepathy had been proved, or nearly so.  He wondered why, if telepathy had been proved by 1910, later presidents found it necessary to reiterate the claim.

Dr. Stevenson speculated that each generation of researchers tends to believe its methods superior to those of its predecessors and therefore they may have seen the earlier evidence as not so strong.  He also theorized that mainstream science and the world at large did not hear the earlier assertions and therefore it was necessary to repeat them again and again.

Now, nearly three decades after the 1980 assertion, two years short of a century since it was first announced that telepathy had been proved, it does not appear that mainstream science is any closer to accepting it than it was then.  In the Foreword to Parapsychology and the Skeptics, Dr. Rupert Sheldrake quotes Professor Peter Atkins, an Oxford chemist, as saying that "there is no reason to suppose that telepathy is anything more than a charlatan's fantasy."   In a BBC debate, Sheldrake asked Carter if had actually looked at the evidence.  Atkins' reply was, "No, but I would be very suspicious of it."

At his website, Sheldrake, one of the few present day scientists speaking out in favor of paranormal phenomena, mentions an August 2007 television debate with Richard Dawkins, a geneticist and author of the book The God Delusion.  Sheldrake reported that Dawkins said he would like to believe in telepathy, but there just isn't any evidence for it.   Dawkins added that if telepathy really occurred it would "turn the laws of physics upside down" and that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

In effect, Dawkins was restating the precept of early 19^th Century astronomer and mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace, which is that "the rigor of proof must be proportionate to the gravity of the conclusion."   Apparently, the ganzfeld experiments, considered the best in the area of telepathy, didn't impress Dawkins, if he bothered to study them.    

And so it is also with the evidence for the survival of consciousness at death, which goes beyond telepathy in defying the mechanistic laws of the universe accepted by mainstream science.  Nearly all of the early psychical researchers concluded that the evidence for survival was conclusive. Consider these statements:

Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), co-originator with Charles Darwin of the natural selection theory:    My position is that the phenomena of Spiritualism in their entirety do not require further confirmation.  They are proved quite as well as facts are proved in other sciences.

Sir William Barrett (1844-1925), professor of physics at the Royal College in Dublin for 37 years, knighted for his contributions to mainstream science: I am personally convinced that the evidence we have published decidedly demonstrates (1) the existence of a spiritual world, (2) survival after death, and (3) of occasional communication from those who have passed over.  

Sir Oliver Lodge (1851-1940),  professor of physics and pioneer in electricity and radio:    I tell you with all my strength of the conviction which I can muster that we do persist, that people still continue to take an interest in what is going on, that they know far more about things on this earth than we do, and are able from time to time to communicate with us.

Dr. James H. Hyslop (1854-1920), professor of ethics and logic at Columbia University before becoming a full-time psychical researcher:   Personally, I regard the fact of survival after death as scientifically proved.  I agree that this opinion is not upheld in scientific quarters.  But this is neither our fault nor the fault of the facts.  Evolution was not believed until long after it was proved.  The fault lay with those who were too ignorant or too stubborn to accept the facts.  History shows that every intelligent man who has gone into this investigation, if he gave it adequate examination at all, has come out believing in spirits; this circumstance places the burden or proof on the shoulders of the skeptic.

Dr. Robert Crookall (1890-1969), a geologist who became a full-time psychical researcher in 1952:    The whole of the available evidence is explicable on the hypothesis of the survival of the human soul in a Soul Body. There is no longer a ‘deadlock' or ‘stalemate' on the question of survival.  On the contrary, survival is as well established as the theory of evolution.

 Based on the conclusions of those early researchers and several dozen other very credible scientists and scholars, there should be no further need for survival research.  We should be able to invoke the legal doctrine of Res Judicata - "It has been decided."  We live on!  Case closed!

Yet, the research of those early pioneers has been filed away in dust-covered file cabinets and all but forgotten.  It has been repudiated, rejected, refuted, resisted, and ridiculed.  Mainstream science has smirked, snickered, scoffed, and sneered at it, calling it outdated and pseudoscience.  In an article titled The Mystery of Consciousness (Time Magazine, January 29, 2007), Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, states that "attempts to contact the souls of the dead (a pursuit of serious scientists a century ago) turned up only cheap magic tricks."

In the December 27, 2007 issue of the Arizona Daily Star, David Sbarra, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, is quoted as stating, "I can say with 100-percent certainty that there is no scientific evidence that individuals are capable of channeling with dead relatives..."

Recent authors waving the banner of science, including Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens (god is not great), Sam Harris (The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason), Victor J. Stenger (God: The Failed Hypothesis) and Michel Onfray (Atheist Manifesto) indirectly dismiss the evidence for survival by dismissing God.  They all seem to take a deductive approach, i.e., assuming that God must be identified or discovered before survival can be considered., or no God, no survival.  None seems to have seriously considered taking the inductive approach of finding God by looking at all the evidence in favor of survival.  

Contrary to the claims by pseudoskeptics that all of that old research is outdated or has been overturned, the fact is that it is as solid now as it ever was as modern theories of quantum mechanics have given more meaning to it.  It is simply not understood by the pseudoskeptics because they are unwilling to take the time to really examine it.  They have a will to disbelieve.     

While the case for spirit communication and, concomitantly, survival, was seemingly made a century ago, we have more recent evidence for survival coming to us through research in the areas of reincarnation, near-death experiences, clairvoyance, and induced after-death communication.  However, scientific fundamentalists have also found ways to dismiss that evidence.  Indeed, it seems that those involved in paranormal research that ultimately leads to the question of whether consciousness survives physical death must continually reinvent the wheel.  In the engineering profession, they speak of reinventing the square wheel, which, in effect, means ending up with a result worse than the standard already achieved.   It often seems that survival research is doing just this.

One would assume that the evidence for survival would be welcomed as good news, since total extinction or obliteration of the personality is not a particularly inviting thought for most people.  "The decisive question for man is:  Is he related to something infinite or not?  That is the telling question of his life," wrote Carl Jung, the pioneering Swiss psychiatrist.  "Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid fixing our interest upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance." 

And yet, the subject is still met with scorn and contempt by mainstream science and orthodox religion, while the media makes light of it, taking serious reports about paranormal phenomena and translating them to tongue-in-cheek "spook" stories. 

       

Why are mainstream science, orthodox religion, and the media so reluctant to accept the evidence for spiritual phenomena and survival?  Why hasn't the evidence stood the test of time? 

It is clear why orthodox religion rejects it.  While most of the communication coming through post biblical mediums and near-death experiencers is consistent with their dogma and doctrine, a small portion of it is in conflict with that dogma and doctrine. Thus, it threatens the authority of the religious leaders and they find it necessary to say that the book of revelation is closed. They cite various passages of the Old Testament which seem to suggest that it is all demonic while ignoring or give self-serving interpretations to passages in the Bible which appear to be in opposition to those Old Testament passages.    Canon (Dr.) Michael Perry of the Church of England states that many Old Testament prohibitions no longer have any force for Christians, pointing out that in the 19^th chapter of Leviticus, where we are told not to listen to mediums we are also told not to wear a garment woven of two kinds of cloth or to shave the edges of our beards.  He believes such prohibitions were part of an attempt to maintain the purity of Israelite religion at a time when the beliefs of other surrounding nations were filtering in.  Yet, religious fundamentalists cling to the old teachings out of fear.  

Scientific fundamentalists, most media representatives included, claim to reject the evidence because it does not meet strict scientific methodology or standards, including being subject to replication.  And, yet, they accept many other things in this category, including biological evolution.   Very few things in science have been proved with absolute certainty.

In an article appearing in the winter 2002 issue of the Journal of Near-Death Studies, Dr. Arthur Hastings, professor and director of the William James Center for Consciousness Studies at the Institute for Transpersonal Psychology, addressed this resistance to belief. "The fear of being irrational is powerful," he wrote. "In this Western culture, which is strongly rationalistic, the charge of being irrational is a damning one."

Hastings further suggested that many scientists, acting out of fear, arrive at a determination not to believe.  This, he concluded, is often a product of ego defense mechanisms, such as rationalization, projection, and dissociation. He discussed the Pam Reynolds' NDE, considered one of the most evidential, commenting that if the case were taken seriously it would challenge accepted beliefs, self-identity, emotions, commitments, and scientific personas as well as raise fears and result in conclusions that would require deep shifts in belief systems.

Dr. John O'M. Bockris, a retired professor of physics, sees it much the same way.   "It is simply hubris - that exaggerated pride in one's own achievements which means that - and this applies in particular to professors at universities - those whose careers have been built upon certain theories - existing viewpoints - and who have taught a science based on these, are horrified to learn that they may not have been speaking the truth," he explains the resistance to ideas outside of the existing scientific paradigm.  He blames these closed-minded scientists for leading many in the West to approach death without hope, thereby giving rise to a more materialistic and hedonistic world.

"The antagonism which it excites seems to be mainly due to the fact that [a spirit world] is, and has long been in some form or other, the belief of the religious world and of the ignorant and superstitious of all ages, while a total disbelief in spiritual existence has been the distinctive badge of modern scientific skepticism," Alfred Russel Wallace opined. 

    

I recently discussed the resistance of academia to survival evidence with Dr. Stafford Betty, professor of religious studies at California State University, Bakersfield. His observations have been much the same as Wallace's.   "My atheistic friends resist even the slightest whiff of an argument for an afterlife," Professor Betty told me.  "I have not seen more closed minds.  Why is this?  Why would anyone resist such good news - the kind of news strongly supported by serious, in-depth research on the NDE, for example?   I think I know.  It is not so much that my hard-bitten friends hate the thought of living beyond death; what they hate is religion.  And they associate religion with the afterlife.  It doesn't matter how hard you try to convince them that the contemporary case for afterlife is not based on sacred texts, but on empirical studies conducted by well-credentialed social scientists or doctors.  It doesn't matter.  Their minds are set.  Also, the older generation (in their 70s and 80s) grew up hearing that the only things that were real were material.  Changing their minds on that score would threaten their very identity.  So they bravely move toward death, trying not to think about it, and gritting their teeth when they have to.  I think the young are less invested in metaphysical materialism than the elderly.  There minds are slightly more open, if only because of the barrage of Hollywood films set in an afterlife."      

It may very well be that we are not supposed to know for certain.  During the 1850s, Victor Hugo, the distinguished French author, was sitting with a medium and communicating with a spirit that claimed to have been Martin Luther, when alive. Hugo asked why God does not better reveal himself. To which the spirit of Luther replied:      "Because doubt is the instrument which forges the human spirit.  If the day were to come when the human spirit no longer doubted, the human soul would fly off and leave the plough behind, for it would have acquired wings. The earth would lie fallow.  Now, God is the sower and man is the harvester.  The celestial seed demands that the human ploughshare remain in the furrow of life."

If absolute proof is neither desirable nor possible and the blind faith of religion falls well short of meeting the needs of the rational mind, it would seem that the best we can hope for is the conviction, or true faith, that has been given to those who have been able to properly test, discern, and accept the phenomena.