Recently at a dinner gathering, I had thrust into my hands by the hostess a very old book, which she told me to read. The book is called “The Blue Island”, and is about the experiences of a passenger on the Titanic – an Englishman, William Thomas (WT) Stead – after he died when the ship sank in 1912.
The book was written through a medium, Pardoe Woodman, who, in 1921, and in the presence of WT Stead’s living daughter, Estelle, was contacted by WT Stead from The Other Side. Woodman’s hand began on its own to write what WT Stead communicated, and “The Blue Island” resulted.
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On sinking with the Titanic into the cold inky waters of the Atlantic in the wee hours of April 15th 1912, WT Stead found himself rushing upwards 
in the company of other just-dead, as if on a very fast elevator. Then he found himself in a land not unlike earth, except that its atmosphere was vaguely blue. Hence WT Stead called this land “The Blue Island”. His deceased father was there to meet him, as also were others.
Stead and his father had lots of catching up to do, which they did while walking along a sea shore and even stopping somewhere for refreshment. Later, they visited large structures designed for people to go, where they continue their education and seek further enlightenment. It appears that the Other Side is almost purely about learning and enlightenment. And, unlike on earth, there are no obstacles to studying anything you want, since you no longer are encumbered by a physical body. You and everyone else there are spirit people, but you appear to others as a body, because, well, how else would your friends, particularly if quite newly arrived from earth, recognise you? You still talk, but it is telepathic, and the talk is all the more honest for that.
But life there isn’t all learning, for you can also play the sports and games you did when on earth. However, after you’ve been there a while you usually become tired of playing the same old sports, and you’ll seek out activities more spiritually nurturing. You can still eat and sleep if you wish, but eventually you won’t wish to, because you no longer feel the need. And you needn’t be stuck with people there whom you don’t like, because groups are only drawn together, and friendships made, through activities which you partake in with other like-minded people. If you had pet animals on earth which have died, you meet them again on the Other Side.
When WT Stead had Pardoe Woodman record, in 1921, his experiences after 1912 (which are the content of the book) he (Stead) had recently moved from the Blue Island to another land on the Other Side, since he had nothing more to learn on the Blue Island. And he would, later on, be moving to yet further lands as he ascended the ladder to more learning and enlightenment. But Stead emphasised that, on the Other Side, you are free to visit anywhere you want, including earth, where you wish still to help those you left behind. In fact we on earth are being visited constantly by the spirits of our departed loved ones, who try to implant thoughts in our minds which influence us to act in our best interests. If only we knew that many of our thoughts which we think our own, are put there by our departed loved ones who have our best interests at heart.
On the Other Side you become frustrated when trying to communicate with those you left behind, because only when they think of you, can you more effectively communicate with them. Hence seances are so effective a means to communicate with those in the Other Side because of the power of group concentration which is the nuts-and-bolts of the seance. But, even if not part of a seance, we on This Side should try to think constantly of our departed loved ones, for they do so like this.
Stead emphasised that your mind, as you developed it on earth, is what you take to the Other Side – your mind with all the stored memories, emotions, everything. It forms the basis of your existence on the Other Side where everything is mind and spirit. Any pain or damage you caused others when on earth, you will be apprised of on the Other Side, and you will suffer accordingly. However, it’ll help straighten you out.
What about being re-incarnated? Well, you will eventually choose whether or not to return to earth to live again an earth-life. But if you just aren’t getting with the programme on the Other Side, you’ll be directed to return to This Side. It’s all up to you. As for WT Stead, he wished not to live again on This Side (or at least he didn’t in 1921) because he was having such a good time on the Other Side, where he says that, on the whole, you are far, far happier than on This Side.
WT Stead also said that on the Other Side, or at least on the Blue Island, you don’t become omniscient. But you know much more than you did on This Side, and thus know much more than do those you left behind. Hence, whenever you pay visits to This Side, you have much of value to convey to your left-behind loved ones.
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WT Stead’s account of the Other Side does at first sight seem too good to be true. The bits about playing games, taking refreshment, sleeping, and the physical environment and topography of the Other Side (the Blue Island) being so much like earth, sound a bit rich.
However, WT Stead said, through Pardoe Woodman, that he was describing the Blue Island, and his life there, in words which we on earth would understand, because our language was developed to describe only earthly experiences and consciousness. Hence the Blue Island, as Stead described it, is only an approximation of its reality.
Stead also said that the Blue Island (the Other Side) isn’t so much a reflection of earth, as earth is a reflection of the Other Side. Thus the Other Side is much more real than This Side.
WT Stead, in what he said in “The Blue Island” (the book), seemed the same Victorian gentleman he was when still on This Side, and had the same biases. For instance, I didn’t get the impression when reading “The Blue Island” that any of those who he encountered on the Other Side were female (I could be wrong, though). It was his father who met him when he Crossed Over. What, then, about Stead’s mother? She might, admittedly, have still been on This Side, despite that she would have been old, given her son, WT, was sixty-three when he Crossed Over.
Stead said through Pardoe Woodman:
“………. Patriotism still holds with me, as with most of us, and will continue to hold so long as I have personal ties upon earth………..”.
This seemed odd to say in 1921, which, after all, was shortly after millions had been killed in World War One – a slaughter which was the product of the mindless patriotism of pre-1914 Europe. Stead, while saying he knew so much more, and was aware of so much more, than when still on This Side, appeared to have learned nothing from the First World War, which he would doubtless have known about, even though by that time on the Other Side.
What Stead said about our minds – that everything in them, and the way we’ve shaped them, we take over to the Other Side, and that they will be the foundation of how we are in the next world – rings true, for our nightly dreams tell us that our minds contain our memories of all we’ve experienced since we were born, so that our minds ultimately forget nothing. Why should this be? Perhaps because our memories, and our accordingly shaped minds, do in fact become the foundation of our lives after we finally cross to The Other Side?
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – who was much interested in spiritualism, having written a book about its history – wrote an introduction to “The Blue Island”, saying that, while it didn’t describe an after-life world totally like other accounts, it had more similarities with them than differences.
Conan Doyle pointed out that:
“……..the next world is infinitely more complex and subdivided – (My Father’s house has many mansions) – and that, even in this small world, the accounts of two witnesses would never be the same……..”.
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What of WT Stead himself, when still on This Side? What manner of man was he?
He was a well-known journalist and newspaper editor in Victorian England, who crusaded against against injustice and social ills. As an editor he helped bring about changes in several laws. Stead also crusaded against war and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was also a spiritualist, and had paranormal experiences which he wrote about. Thus, when he departed to The Other Side after the Titanic sank, he was disoriented hardly at all because his spiritualist studies and experiences had prepared him for what he might expect.
Stead, when still on This Side, had written about spiritualist mediums thus:
“……Mediums are among the most valuable members of the community. They are like a seeing man in the world of the blind. They need to be sought for as hidden treasure, and preserved and cared for as the only instruments by which it is possible successfully to undertake the exploration of the other world. Instead of which, they are, as a rule, sneered at, derided, and treated as if they were knaves and liars………”.
As for life after death, he had written:
“……….I believe that when our friends and relatives die they are merely liberated from their mortal bodies. They go on living, without losing their sense of personality. In some cases after death there is unconsciousness which lasts for some time. But in most cases the dead are very much more alive than they were before they ceased to breathe, and usually whenever they loved much they are extremely anxious to comfort their sorrowing friends by assurances of their welfare and of their continued existence………”.
If we are to believe “The Blue Island”, it is much like what WT Stead experienced after he Crossed Over. So, if we are to believe “The Blue Island”, we have little to fear when we finally leave this earthly vale of tears.
* Online text of *The Blue Island.*
Boundary Beyond 
December 7th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
W.T. Stead achieved the raising of the age of consent from 13 to 16 in England. He did this by reporting in the Pall Mall Gazette in July 1887 how he had, for the purpose of the report, “purchased” a 13 year old virgin from her mother for £5 and taken her to a gynaecologist to check her virginity with a view to prostitution. He then disclosed his identity and left the child to her fate.
He was later successfully prosecuted for abduction and in the trial it was proved that he had told the mother that the child was required for domestic service.
I make this note not to question what he did but draw attention to the all-important matter of credibility of witnesses in the subject you write of.
December 8th, 2010 at 7:35 am
Despite that Stead deceived the child’s mother, he did it in a good cause.
So his intentions were good, although, through the lens of our 21st century sensibilities, his behaviour was grossly inappropriate.
But this shouldn’t damage the credibility of his accounts of his experiences as a spiritualist.