The Blue Island: Experiences of a New Arrival Beyond the Veil

Book Overview: W.T. Stead through Estelle Stead & Pardoe Woodman

If you are interested in finding out more about what it's like in the Afterlife, the Blue Island would be a very good place to start! It is a fairly simple and easy to understand overview of what happens especially what happens when the soul or Spirit first arrives on the other side.

How did this book come to be is nearly as interesting as the book itself and what it says about the Afterlife. In 1912 W.T. Stead decided on a whim to make a voyage to New York City to give a speech. Unfortunately for him, and perhaps more fortunately for you and me, he booked passage on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. And we all know what happened to 1500 individuals who took that one-way trip!

I have become very enamored with this story about the Blue Island. However, in my opinion, there's really a lot more to the setting of the story than that. If you look into the background of W.T. Stead, you soon discover that he was quite a character in his time. In the late 1800s he gained a reputation as a muckraker journalist in London. I would compare him to the gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson of the 1970s in our time.

In the 1890s W.T. Stead (1849-1912), founded and edited Borderland, A Quarterly Review covering such subjects as: Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Crystal Gazing, Hypnotism, Automatic Writing, Spiritualism, Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Psychics. He also published, The Review of Reviews which devoted considerable space to spiritualism and psychic matters. The journal included, articles by Col. H.S. Olcott (on "Theosophy"), pieces on magic mirrors, portraits of "Borderlanders" (Annie Besant, H.P. Blavatsky), accounts of the travails of the Theosophical Society, etc. It also first published "Letters from Julia," Stead's own experiences with the spirit of Julia Ames and with automatic writing.

In April 1912, the Titanic sank and William T. Stead was among the 1500 souls who drowned that day. He very soon communicated with his daughter, Estelle Stead, via a close friend of hers, Pardoe Woodman, a fellow actor at the time. This book is his story of how his new life in the spirit world unfolded. It is a classic tale of life after death, especially that in the first hours, days and months after death. It was first published in 1922.This is a relatively short channeled book.

Mr. Stead describes in various details of his passing over and spending time in the Transition Zone, which he calls the Blue Island. I call it God’s Waiting Room. This appears to be located in the Astral Plane. It offers a comprehensive coverage of the Astral Transition Zone, and thus answers fairly completely what happens after spirits "pass into the light". Interestingly, he did not travel through a tunnel of light, nor did he see any light immediately after his death on the Titanic.

Also interestingly, he reports that all the dead traveled together in a group to the Astral Transition Zone. It is a good coverage of the issue of communication by thought, as also the technique of materializing and transferring thoughts to mediums. The book is at it's strongest in describing his personal experiences, but it is at it's weakest when he tries to predict what lies ahead. Here he foresees the choice to reincarnate, and he repeats a common belief that one loses one's individuality in passing beyond the seventh spirit sphere, into the eternal realm. Many people are not aware that we pass to the Astral plane, or bypass that plane and pass to the spirit spheres. This is one reason why tales of life after death can differ significantly. It depends quite a bit on the level of ‘soul development’ that person has achieved while on his sojourn on Earth as well as over many lifetimes.

I really enjoyed this book and recommend it as an introduction to the early phases of the Afterlife. It was originally published in 1922 and it hasn't dated significantly. The book's thoughtful description of The Blue Island is very much as his studies had led him to anticipate. He also talks about how ones thoughts and actions shape their future via reincarnation, the importance of right thoughts and actions; though he doesn't use the word Karma or LOA, the "Law of Attraction" resulting in souls gravitating to people of like mind living in familiar environments, Steads provides an extremely positive view though he says there are people who, after death, are for one reason or another, initially on the Blue Island, are not happy.

“This is a classic for those interested in accounts of the afterlife. Despite having been written over a hundred years ago it's relevance has not dimmed and for all those interested in the work of spirit communication in its myriad forms, this is definitely not a book to pass up the opportunity of reading!” - Chloe Deas on Amazon

You can find this book on Amazon or even for free with a little help from Mr. Google!