The Blue Island, Experiences of a New Arrival Beyond The Veil

A Book by W. T. Stead, Recorded by Pardoe Woodman & Estelle Stead (Pub Date: 1922)

I have a love and a fascination with Spiritualist writings from the late 1800s to the early 1900s and this book is a classic of this type. The account of William T. Stead’s death and transition to the Afterlife, which he calls “the Blue Island” is a fascinating narrative of an investigative journalist’s transition from Earth-life into the Afterlife as a passenger on the ill-fated journey of the ocean liner, Titanic in 1912. The account is told some time after the disaster through the mediumship collaboration of his daughter Estelle Stead and her psychic friend, Pardoe Woodman. The book was first published in 1922, and to give it greater credibility, the foreword is by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The author on the other side is the investigative journalist, who was a well-known newspaper editor and reporter whose job it was to bring light to the unacknowledged ills of the underbelly of society. For example, one thing he was noted for was exposing the problem of child prostitution. Unbelievable as it may seem to our modern sensibilities, his work forced a change in the age of consent for girls from 13 to 16.

On April 10, 1912, William Thomas Stead boarded the S.S. Titanic bound from Southampton to New York, to take part in a peace congress at Carnegie Hall. Stead was not only a writer who advocated for social and political change, he was also interested in psychic phenomena and the supernatural. In an eerie instance of foreshadowing, Stead wrote a fictional story about a ship run by a Captain Smith facing dangerous icebergs in the early 1890s. Stead died aboard the Titanic about 20 years later.

In The Blue Island we are rewarded with reporting from the other side through the keen, well-tuned eyes of this well-known journalist. Add that to the fact that he went down with the Titanic, I think this should be a fascinating read for just about anyone interested in these topics. As the son of a preacher and a mother who was interested in writing about social ills, he had a strong sense of right and wrong that served him throughout his career. Once on the other side he had a powerfully-tuned moral reference point from which to judge what he saw happening on Earth. I won’t spoil the read for you except to provide a few samples. From the foreword by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: “I can hardly think that anyone has read more accounts, printed, typed and written, than I have done… In all there is the same talk of solid ground, of familiar flowers and animals, of congenial occupations—all very different to the vague and uncomfortable heaven of the churches. I confess that I cannot trace in any of these to a place exactly corresponding to the Blue Island, though the color blue is, of course, that of healing, and an island may be only an isolated sphere — the ante-chamber to others. I believe that such material details as sleep, nourishment, etc., depend upon the exact position of the soul in its evolution, the lower the soul the more material the conditions…

It is of enormous importance that the human race should know these things, for it not only takes away all fears of death, but it must, as in the case of your father, be of the very greatest help when one is suddenly called to the other side, and finds oneself at once in known surroundings, sure of one’s future, instead of that most unpleasant period of readjustment during which souls have to unlearn what their teachers here have taught and adapt themselves to unfamiliar facts.” Mr. Stead is able to get through to his daughter certain details of the afterlife that he finds himself in, such as the various types of ‘rest houses’ with opportunities to recuperate and learn whatever that spirit is interested in. Lucid details of the afterlife are covered, such as a building where spirits go in order to facilitate messages back to people living on Earth.

On the topic of what we would call karma, he has this to say, “On being established here, in the Real World, each one is interviewed by one of the Advanced Spirit Instructors and the whole record of Earth is discussed and analyzed. Reason, motive and result. The full and detailed record contains everything, there is nothing overlooked, and this is the time for paying the bill. Each is interviewed alone, and there is a minute analysis of all events, acts and thoughts. Then there is the making good to be gone through, the sum total to be paid…for all our thoughtlessness and our unkind acts and words—all that have had direct results must be paid for. We have then to spend time in close touch with Earth, in order, by influence, to make good for our past misdoings; make good as far as possible.”

On the topic of Reincarnation: He describes how, at some point in your evolution, you will again come in contact with your whole record. “A record in full of all former states, and from this sphere, if your record has qualified to the point of allowing it, you will be given the choice of returning to Earth again through reincarnation. If your record does not qualify for choice in this matter, you will be directed either to return or to continue according to what the Teachers—the Purified—consider will afford you most opportunity for recreating yourself and cleansing yourself in the necessary way. It is from this sphere that spirits return to Earth…”

In summary, what I feel he is trying to get across is that when we die we continue on in what he calls ‘the Real World’ of which the Earth world is but a poor reflection and a training ground for the higher, more fulfilling Afterlife. We are always evolving and progressing whether here or there. If we play our cards right and are mostly loving beings, then our reward in the Real World will be that much more glorious and we will not, of necessity, have to return to Earth life in order to make up for past indiscretions and bad behavior.

According to the author, The Blue island is a sort of ‘Way Station’ where we heal, learn and balance out whatever needs to be balanced and healed before we can progress to higher levels. It is not heaven as the churches have led us to believe, but an environment of our own creation. So, just after death we will find ourselves in an environment that appears pretty much like Earth life to the point that even our bodies and clothing might look similar to what we are used to. However, this is so that we do not have to be shocked with radical change. Then after we acclimatize to the new world, The Blue Island, if you want to call it that, and have adjusted to our new environment, we are ready to move on to whatever adventure the next world holds for us.