Physical Mediumship, Astral Travel, and Spirit Photography Evidence
To wrap up my survey of the evidence for animal afterlife, I’d like to briefly cover three remaining areas of evidence: physical mediumship, astral travel, and spirit photography. These areas don’t warrant separate articles, because the evidence isn’t as robust as it is elsewhere, but they deserve mention, because they add incrementally to the case for animal afterlife.
Physical Mediumship
Physical mediumship is a specialized type of mediumship. In it, a medium reportedly channels “ectoplasm,” which shapes itself into something tangible and physically present in the room – a voice box, for example, from which issues a recognizable voice of the departed, or a disembodied hand, which can can be felt. In some cases, full-body materializations are reported.
Granted, those are pretty wild claims. To be sure, there are reasons to be skeptical (e.g., there is a long history of fraud in the area, and all the sessions take place in the dark). However, there do appear to be genuine physical mediums (although they are rare) who have demonstrated an impressive track record of results under very controlled conditions (see, for example, Surviving Death, by Leslie Kean). And for what it’s worth, all sessions take place in a group setting, so there are always multiple witnesses. But you’re entitled to be skeptical.
At any rate, animals sometimes appear in physical mediumship sessions. I found 22 such cases in the literature. Most of them come from Sylvia Barbanell’s When Your Animal Dies. She reports the manifestation of dogs, cats, birds, squirrels, and a ferret.
Sometimes this is just the manifestation of their voice — the familiar call of a well-loved bird, followed by the flapping of wings, or a recognizable bark — but other times, such as in this remarkable case, it is the full body.
A well-known medium, Mr. Charles Glover Botham, used to hold a materialization home circle where, on one occasion the sitters were very surprised when a materialized form of a large dog suddenly appeared. He bounded forward in a most energetic manner and proceeded to jump excitedly from one sitter to another, resting his paws on their knees and sometimes licking a hand or a face. The animal seemed thoroughly to enjoy the amount of affection and interest displayed by the members of the circle, most of whom were great animal lovers.
The dog ran to a bowl of water that was always provided at the seances for psychic purposes [it is said to facilitate the energy]. The materialized animal proceeded to lap up the water eagerly and noisily, as though the excitement had made him thirsty. Afterwards, the bowl was found to be completely empty. There was not a drop of spilled water to be seen anywhere.
Sylvia Barbanell, When Your Animal Dies
Harold Sharp reports four other cases in Animals in the Spirit World. One of them involves his own pet monkey, Mickey.
Shock the Monkey
For context, it’s important to know that Mickey had a tendency to pick through his fur in search of bits of crystalized saltpeter, which apparently is a “tasty morsel” to monkeys. Sharp said that most people do not understand what the monkey is doing, and they commonly misinterpret the behavior as picking at fleas. Sharp said Mickey was “vain,” and “if anyone accused Mickey of flea-hunting, he felt it a great indignity and became angry.” So Mickey was a little sensitive on this issue.
Mickey passed away. Many years later, Mr. Sharp was sitting in a physical mediumship circle, when he “suddenly became aware of a considerable weight on my knee.” The medium told him, “Do not move, Mr. Sharp. There is a lovely large monkey materializing on your knee.” Mickey “gradually became visible.”
Then the medium saw Mickey picking at his fur. He shouted, “No, no, Mickey, you must not catch fleas in public!” At that, Mickey disappeared. Presumably, he was offended.
This may seem like a silly story, but it does have some elements that add to its credibility. The medium knew nothing of Mr. Sharp’s love of monkeys or about Mickey in particular. He knew nothing about monkeys’ habit of picking at their fur, the reason behind it, or how people commonly misinterpret this picking. Nor did he know that Mickey had a sore spot on this issue.
I found one other published case of physical mediumship involving animals, in Victor Zammit’s Afterlife Newsletter, April 2014. That totals 22 cases. No doubt there are more out there. For example, Leslie Flynt is a rigorously tested medium who has a very large archive of recorded sessions. Although I didn’t have the time to listen to all the recordings, I’m sure there is a critter in there somewhere.
Astral Travel
For those who don’t know, astral travel is a consciously initiated form of out-of-body experience (OBE) that reportedly involves experiencing other dimensions.
As with the other areas discussed here, it is perfectly reasonable to be skeptical. Although there is some limited evidence to support astral travel’s veridicality with regard to this dimension (i.e., present day life on Earth), evidence for the validity of its observations beyond that (e.g., of afterlife dimension/s) is lacking. It’s up to you, what you make of these reports.
I found about a dozen accounts of animals appearing in astral travels. Harold Sharp reports a number of encounters with animals in astral travel, in his book. For example, he describes seeing “a friend with his raven and a couple of dogs which I had not met before,” a boy with a rabbit, and then later, “a perfect menagerie of animals […] playing in absolute freedom.”
Further afield, I found lions and tigers, foxes, elephants, monkeys and meditative camels, and tropical birds of brilliant color. Indeed, every living creature you could think of. The prophesy that the lion should lie down with the lamb was no fable. In this land without fear, harming instincts seemed to be non-existent.
Harold Sharp, Animals in the Spirit World
Other accounts can be found in Animal Immortality, by Bill Schul, and The Soul of Your Pet, by Scott Smith. Well-known astral travelers such as Jurgen Ziewe also report seeing animals.
Spirit Photography
Spirit photography is one form of Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC), which involves the use of electronic devices to receive messages from dead people. Other forms of ITC include electronic voice phenomena (EVP), telephone calls or radio transmissions. There is evidence that at least some cases of ITC are real (see “Calling Earth,” for example).
The problem is that most ITC evidence comes from human beings, not animals. This isn’t too surprising when you consider that animals aren’t all that adept with electronic devices. You might conceivably get a phone call from your dead granny, but you wouldn’t expect one from your deceased dog.
Same goes for radio broadcasts, smartphone use, and other forms of ITC. (Animals do show up in EVPs, but that doesn’t tend to make it into the published literature.)
Spirit photography is a bit of an exception, though. I found 12 cases of spirit photography involving animals. These reports can be found in the following sources: Animals in the Spirit World, by Harold Sharp, The Soul of Your Pet, by Scott Smith, Victor Zammit’s Afterlife Report, April 2014, The Strange World of Animals and Pets, by Vincent Gaddis, and When Your Animal Dies, by Sylvia Barbanell.
If you aren’t familiar, spirit photography refers to images that appear on film (sometimes unexposed film, under carefully controlled conditions) which closely resemble the appearance of a deceased individual — in these cases, departed pets.
It is reasonable to be skeptical of these cases. The photos are typically not reproduced, so there is no way to judge the quality of the evidence. When they are reproduced, I’d say that, in about half the cases, they are not very convincing.
There are undoubtedly more cases somewhere on the internet, but I limited myself to the published literature.
Takeaway
So what are we to make of all this? You’re free to make your own judgement, of course. I’ll give you my assessment.
There are reasons to be skeptical of each area, and yet there is also some evidence to support each. I don’t want to exaggerate the weight or persuasiveness of any of this evidence. But on the other hand, I think there are a couple reasons to grant it some consideration.
First reason is that it’s not an all-or-nothing situation. We don’t have to decide between “It’s all true vs. “It’s all bullshit.” Like most things, it’s probably a mix of both. I’m fond of quoting Ted Sturgeon’s Rule: “90% of everything is crap.” It’s a cynical little formula with wide applicability. In this case, who knows, maybe it’s 95% crap. However, that still leave 5% non-crap.
Remember William James and the white crow?
If you wish to upset the law that all crows are black, you mustn’t seek to show that no crows are; it is enough if you prove one single crow to be white.
William James
In other words, if you want to demonstrate that animal have an afterlife, then all you need is one non-crappy crow. Although it’s reasonable to be skeptical, is it reasonable to believe that a full 100% of this is crap? All of it, no exceptions?
The other reason is consistency. Consistency is important, because it helps to establish validity or credibility. The evidence discussed here is entirely consistent with what we’ve seen from other areas (NDEs, ADCs, evidential mediumship, etc.). It all suggests that animals have an afterlife.
Think of a court trial. An attorney puts several witnesses on the stand. Some of them are strong, others weak. But as long as their stories are consistent — as long as they don’t contradict each other — then they are mutually reinforcing. All the witnesses, weak and strong, go into supporting the case.
That’s analogous to what we have here. Although these may be “weak witnesses,” they help to support the case, because they tell essentially the same story that the other, stronger witnesses do. They are all pointing in the the same direction. Although they may be small weights on the balance, they tip the scales further and help to make the case for animal afterlife.
