AFTER DEATH

In 1892 William Stead discovered he had the gift of automatic writing and it was then that a discarnate entity claiming to be Julia Ames began to write using Stead39s hand Sitting alone with a tranquil mind I consciously placed my right hand with the pen held in the ordinary way at the disposal of Julia and watched with keen and skeptical interest to see what it would write Stead wrote at the time Julia Ames was a professional journalist who also edited the The Woman39s Union Signal of Chicago Ames had passed away during December 1891 and she and Stead had been friends Her closest friend was a woman named Ellen who Stead also knew Julia told Stead she wanted to relay her experiences from the 39other side39 so as to help Ellen understand that death far from being the end was an event to be worked toward and that although her body had died 39she39 hadn39t really died at all Explaining the process of her death Julia wrote I did not feel any pain in dying I felt only a great calm and peace Then I awoke and I was standing outside my old body in the room There was no one there at first just myself and just myself At first I wondered I was so strangely well Then I saw that I had passed over She added in another communication There is no death… Death is only a sense of deprivation and separation which the socalled living feel – an incident of limitation of ‘life’ Death only exists for the ‘living’ not for us The letters were dictated during a period between 1892 and 1893 and during this time Julia asked Stead to set up a 39Bureau39 a sort of facility where with the use of mediums spiritual communications between the living and the spirit world could take place Julia expressed great importance in our knowing more about our true reality stating you may think it strange that the verification of another life should increase the importance of this But such is the fact and you can never understand the importance of your life until you see it from this side You are