Personality Survives Death

Sir William Barrett FRS (1844-1925) was a physicist who initiated the founding of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882 and was active in the field for 50 years. His wife was a prominent gynaecologist and in this book describes the outcome of 35 sittings with the renowned trance medium Gladys Osborne Leonard – the book was first published in 1938, and is not one that I had come across before despite having written a book about survival (I was familiar with Deathbed Visions). It contains a great deal of persuasive evidential material, including highly significant book tests with corresponding texts and page references. Some of the more personal material has been removed, and it is interesting that Sir William said before he died that he thought that convincing evidence must be applicable only to oneself and must therefore be of a very intimate and personal character, probably trivial and only known to one person hence his belief that 'absolute proof could only be conveyed to one person – to others it would be second-hand evidence.' This reminded me of Freeman Dyson's introduction to Extraordinary Knowing by Elizabeth Lloyd Meyer where he describes the quite remarkable incident of the clairvoyant discovery of Lisby's daughter's harp while remarking that he was not obliged to believe anything extraordinary as this did not happen to him. I thought this disingenuous at the time, but Barrett's remark makes it more understandable.

There is plenty of highly significant circumstantial survival evidence described here, including some related to Barrett's own death and his continuing relationship with FWH Myers, but there is also valuable philosophical material and even an extensive discussion on the role of diet in relation to cancer, something not yet established at that time. Barrett sees the vital principle as belonging to the etheric rather than the physical, which is also a factor in the genesis of disease. He stresses the importance of cultivating the mind while in the physical and of living according to the law of love as a principle. He remarks that when communicating he cannot come through with his whole self and, interestingly, that after death the conscious and subconscious join 'to make a complete mind that knows and remembers everything'; however, the limitation of physical sphere communication means that 'only a portion of one's mind can function for the time being.' (p. 49) The epilogue notes how Barrett's memory and character came through the scripts where 'research on any subject meant to him exactness in method combined with an open mind, ready to accept only what is absolutely proven, irrespective of preconceived ideas' - and there is no doubt that we are dealing here with a first-rate intelligence. This is a classic book that repays careful study.