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Summerland

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From the book “In search of the hereafter: a personal investigation into life after death” by Reginald Lester.

In 1950 a British couple, Reg and Marge Lester, suffered the loss of each other when she suddenly died of illness. Desperate to make contact, he sought out a direct-voice medium, allowing him to speak to her once again.

“I still can’t grasp the idea of another world where everything is as real and solid as here.”

“Now, listen. You haven’t yet got rid of that quaint idea that I’m sort of floating about in space. I’m not doing anything of the kind. I’m much more solid really than you are.”

“Do you mean to say that when I come over I shall be able to hug you again like I used to do here?

“Of course you will, you silly old thing! As much as you like!”

Editor’s note: The following discourse represents a compilation of several conversations between Reg and Marge; most of them via direct voice but some also by automatic writing.

Reg’s commentary: What are the conditions there? How do they live and work? How does it compare with our life on earth? Here again are my verbatim notes on the conversation:

REG. Are you allowed to tell me anything of the sort of conditions under which you live over there?

MARGE. Of course; why not?

REG. Tell me, then, do you have normal country scenery?

MARGE. Oh, yes. Conditions are not very much different from on Earth in that respect, only far more beautiful. We’ve got hills and valleys, rivers and sea, trees, flowers, grass – all those things, but so much lovelier.

REG. And you can go for walks over fields and long lanes, and so on, in quite a normal manner?

MARGE. Of course. It’s just the same in that way. Much of the scenery is not unlike our dear Devon [England].

REG. How lovely! Talking of Devon, it’s occurred to me to wonder if we shall be able to revisit some of our beloved spots there when eventually I come over to you?

MARGE. Yes, we shall. We don’t have to confine our visits to the etheric plane. We can revisit our favorite earthly spots together too.

REG. Have you done so yet?

MARGE. No. I'm waiting till you come to me.

REG. How sweet of you! You know, I still can’t grasp the idea of another world where everything is as real and solid as here.

MARGE. Now, listen. You haven’t yet got rid of that quaint idea that I’m sort of floating about in space. I’m not doing anything of the kind. I’m much more solid really than you are.

REG. Do you mean to say that when I come over I shall be able to hug you again like I used to do here?

MARGE. Of course you will, you silly old thing! (She often addressed me by this familiar phrase.) As much as you like! It’s you who are the shadowy one in comparison! That’s why we can just come back and walk through all your transparent walls and such like. They’re not really solid at all.

REG. What about buildings over there?

MARGE. Just as on earth…

REG. You told me at the previous talk that you had our home all waiting for me to come to. I didn’t take it literally then.

MARGE. But I meant it literally. I have here a complete replica of our home; every bit of furniture just the same, and the dear old rooms.

REG. Do you mean to say you have real rooms and furniture?

MARGE. Of course. I tell you, an exact replica. Even to the photos and pictures on the walls, the ornaments on the mantelpiece.

REG. But that’s incredible!

MARGE. No, not when you understand how real the etheric world is. It’s all so natural. That’s why they say, when we come over, that we are “coming home.” If we hadn’t our own familiar homes here it would feel like arriving suddenly in some foreign country, and we'd all be at sea.

REG. And do you just sit about normally in the rooms?

MARGE. I don’t “just sit about!” I’m very busy.

REG. But do you never rest?

MARGE. We can always rest when we wish. We can go and sit with a book by a stream, or wander into the lovely Gardens of Rest. But we don’t need any physical rest, you see.

REG. Do you sleep at all?

MARGE. No, I don’t need any. I haven’t done from the first. But some of them over here have been sleeping a long while. I am told it all depends how they are when they come over—I mean, what their earth life has been like. What a lot of questions you've written down today!

REG. Too many?

MARGE. Oh, no. I think it’s a good idea; it doesn’t waste any time.

REG. Just one last one before we go on to more intimate things. There seems some conflict of opinion as to how soon we should try to contact a loved one after the passing.

MARGE. That again depends on the nature of the passing…

REG. You've spoken about my continuing to grieve so much at my loss of your physical presence beside me. I’ve tried my utmost not to do so, but I’m afraid with little success.

MARGE. But it would have been unnatural if you hadn’t grieved. People who keep saying “Time is a great healer” are so wrong in cases like yours. It doesn’t get any easier for you, does it?

REG. It’s no good my pretending it does, because you know my inner feelings. But what I’m concerned about is being told that it is hindering your progress.

MARGE. Don’t believe a word of that. It’s done nothing of the sort. It certainly made it more difficult to get through to you, especially in the early days, when your grief was like a brick wall to penetrate. But it couldn’t have been otherwise for us. We always said we should never be any good without one another, didn’t we? But about this progress question—listen! Neither my progress nor yours is hindered in the slightest, so long as you continue to carry a bright face to the world—as you are doing—and go ahead with your normal work. But if you’d gone and buried yourself in a corner to fret, then it could have made difficulties for us both…

REG. What really matters most, then, is your state of mind during the actual sittings?

MARGE. Yes. Between whiles you cannot help your inner tension. Only I know how terribly you are still churned up inside. While you still are bound to earthly conditions, it’s not reasonable to expect to be free of all mental pain.

REG. Now, just a question I’ve been wanting to ask you. As you went over knowing nothing about the spirit world did you have to rest a long while before you could get adapted to it all?

MARGE. No dear, I didn’t have to rest so long as some people. For a little while I did not realize I had passed over and thought I must still be under some sort of anesthetic at the hospital as everything seemed muddly and hazy. But presently I was able to take stock of my surroundings

REG. It worried me a good deal to think of your going over there all alone with none of your relatives on that side at all.

MARGE. I just came back to the only real safe anchor I knew and that was you. It was so amazing and wonderful when I realized I could come back to you and later on even talk to you.

REG. Some people have the idea that coming back to our plane after you've passed over makes you temporarily earthbound. Is that so?

MARGE. Of course not. It helps to calm us. The only real earthbound people are those poor souls who are in their earthly body still. You have no idea of the wonderful sense of freedom one experiences when the body slips away.

REG. Did the coming back to me like this interrupt the progress of your work over there?

MARGE. No. I can come back with the rapidity of thought, and remember too we seem to have all our faculties enhanced.

REG. Can you tell me any more about your work over there?

MARGE. My music is still of prime importance. Healing work also. I help you with yours.

REG. Yes, I've realized that. Did any of those whom you knew come to meet you when you were able to take stock of your surroundings?

MARGE. Yes dear. All my friends greeted me then and took me to places where all the great composers still work. It was heavenly. Yes really heavenly. It was just the very thing to most acclimatize me. I found that I could still play the piano whenever I liked. Such joy.

REG. It’s still so difficult here for us to realize that you're living in a solid world.

MARGE. Yes truly dear. It is all as solid as your earth. The pianos are beautiful models. Mine is all white and silver. Wait till you see it and hear me play. Chopin, he still plays. Can you imagine me dressing to go to a concert here?

REG. Surely not!

MARGE. Yes. I go with my old friends at the Royal Academy of Music.

REG. How interesting! Now, there’s another question I want to ask you. You told me the other week that you and I travel about a lot on the earth-plane during my sleep-state. I had been under the impression that I came over to your plane.

MARGE. Only occasionally. Usually I meet you here.

REG. Well, what do we do flitting about down here?

MARGE. We often visit some of your patients for purposes of healing them while they sleep. Yes we are a great help there. We work on their etheric bodies.

REG. Do we work all the time on these nightly excursions? Don’t we ever have any time off?

MARGE. Don’t we just. Through the fields and woods we wander. You will remember it all one day when you come here. I still hold your hand when we walk together. It is lovely. So sweet. The buildings here are truly magnificent. Reminiscent of Ancient Greece in places. The architecture is superb. You would find a wealth of copy here. In some places where the architects have given rein to their imagination the buildings soar to the sky.

REG. I take it that only applies to some of the buildings, and that the homes are of normal height, like over here?

MARGE. Yes dear, now you have got it. There are temples of worship, churches, and halls of learning.

REG. As you know, I rarely recollect any of my nightly visits on awaking, but I did remember going into a hall of learning the other night where there were tiers and tiers of seats, and I met you. But as soon as I meet you I always wake up. It’s so disappointing.

MARGE. Yes that was one of the occasions when you came over to my plane. But that is the trouble, we cannot keep together in the etheric.

REG. You are probably more accurate than most in speaking of visits to your plane as etheric and not astral travel.

MARGE. I call it etheric, and so do others here. I know how you look forward to meeting me there. As I do you.

REG. Yes, I go right off to sleep at once now that I know I’m off to meet you each night.

MARGE. Yes, and it’s good for you. That is a perfect rest for your poor old tired body. You are a different being when I put my arms round you and carry you away to my home.

REG. What a heavy bundle for you!

MARGE. The etheric has no weight silly. The real you, your soul, I mean.

REG. But I understand the etheric body does weigh something?

MARGE. So slight that it is not noticeable.

REG. We keep on being told that family relationships cease when we pass over. Now, I don’t like that idea. I want to think that I shall always have you as my wife.

MARGE. There is not the slightest doubt about it.

REG. Then all those Spiritualists who tell us differently are wrong?

MARGE. They are wrong. I do know one thing. That is that only people who are really in perfect harmony together, such as we are, always finally join up again. I have witnessed several meetings like that. Next question?

REG. I'm never quite sure how much you are aware of what I’m doing during the days.

MARGE. I seem to know most things about you. But I cannot always be sure of how much I get across. You know I’m quite young-looking again, dear?

REG. Oh, dear, how old I must look to you!

MARGE. Don’t be silly! I don’t see your physical body at all. Only your etheric.

REG. And does that always look young?

MARGE. Not always. It looks just the age you feel in spirit. I mean, if you feel young in spirit, you look young here. Last year, when you were in such despair, you looked so old, but now that you're serene and happier in spirit again, your etheric body looks to me about the age it did when we were married.

REG. What! —back in my early twenties?

MARGE. Yes. You must remember that it is only memories of your physical body that we have. We don’t see it any more. [changing the subject] Oh, Reg, the music here is superb! I meet all the great composers. And my beautiful silver-white piano—it’s so lovely! I play such a lot, and very often to help and comfort many over here who are still distressed and troubled. Music helps them more than anything. You have to realize that when we pass over we don’t alter a bit. I mean, we don’t suddenly become saints. We still have our little characteristic weaknesses and failings. And, oh, Reg, there are some awful rogues over here, too.

REG. That surprise(s) me quite a bit.

MARGE. So you see it’s not so very different here after all. I heard Helen and your friend talking just now about reincarnation, but I don’t believe in it.

REG. Don’t you? That’s interesting to know!

MARGE. My personal opinion is that it’s all rubbish. I know there’s a difference of opinion about it even over here. Maybe some souls reincarnate now and then for a special reason, but I’m sure they are exceptions, from all I’ve heard. Even then you have full free will not to reincarnate if you don’t wish to.

Reg’s commentary: This part of the talk I considered to be of first-class evidence, because my wife was putting forward a point of view in direct opposition to that of the medium through whom she was speaking! This proved that the medium’s personality could not be intervening at all.

Editor’s note: This talk of “rogues” in the next world can make one feel uneasy. Will these unsavory elements ruin our happiness there? No, there’s no need to mix with them (unless one is providing a rescuing service).

This question bothered Conan Doyle when he was a young man. An aged friend helped him to a better view. Allow me to reprint a comment from the “life 1-minute” page:

From “The New Revelation” (1918) by the great afterlife researcher, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of "Sherlock" fame:

“I was in [medical] practice in Southsea [near Portsmouth, England] at this time [circa. 1880], and dwelling there was General Drayson, a man of very remarkable character, and one of the pioneers of Spiritualism in this country. To him I went with my difficulties [concerning how to make sense of various reports from the other side], and he listened to them very patiently.

“He made light of my criticism of the foolish nature of many of these messages, and of the absolute falseness of some:

‘You have not got the fundamental truth into your head,’ said he. ‘That truth is, that every spirit in the flesh passes over to the next world exactly as it is, with no change whatever. This world is full of weak or foolish people. So is the next. You need not mix with them, any more than you do in this world. One chooses one's companions.

‘But suppose a man in this world, who had lived in his house alone and never mixed with his fellows, was at last to put his head out of the window to see what sort of place it was, what would happen? Some naughty boy would probably say something rude. Anyhow, he would see nothing of the wisdom or greatness of the world. He would draw his head in, thinking it was a very poor place.

‘That is just what you have done. In a mixed seance, with no definite aim, you have thrust your head into the next world and you have met some naughty boys. Go forward and try to reach something better.’

“That was General Drayson's explanation, and though it did not satisfy me at the time, I think now that it was a rough approximation to the truth. These were my first steps in Spiritualism. I was still a sceptic, but at least I was an inquirer.”