Books by Michael Tymn

When it comes to the subjects of God and life after death, some people demand evidence that extends to absolute certainty. At the other extreme are those who are content with a belief based on emotion, instinct, or the opinion of higher authority, what is referred to as blind faith. In between are varying degrees of belief or certainty ranging from extreme skepticism to strong conviction. Discussions and debates on the two subjects are often interwoven, usually beginning with the implication that one must have proof of God before even considering the survival of consciousness at death. Since God, whatever He, She or It happens to be, is apparently beyond both human comprehension and mainstream science, the discussion or debate often stalls without proper consideration being given to the evidence strongly suggesting that consciousness does survive death in a larger life. The evidence supporting survival has come to us through research carried out by many distinguished scientists and scholars in the fields of mediumship, after-death communication, past-life studies, near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, deathbed visions and other psychic phenomena. The most convincing evidence was gathered between 1850 and 1935, but it was rejected by religion because some of it conflicted with established dogma and doctrine, even though it supported the primary tenet of religion, human survival after death. It was rejected by science because it defied strict scientific examination and conflicted with the emerging materialistic worldview embraced by supposedly progressive and enlightened people. Neither the religionist nor the scientist could seemingly get past the need to prove God before looking at the evidence for survival. Without involving the existence or non-existence of God, god, or gods, this book examines some of the best evidence for survival studied between 1850 and the present day, the majority taking place before 1935. Time has not eroded the validity of those cases and the research surrounding them, although popular internet references generally subscribe to the materialistic worldview and are biased heavily toward debunking them all, while offering twisted, distorted, misleading, incomplete and uninformed explanations. Indeed, many of the cases reported in this book are bizarre and exceed the normal boggle threshold, but it should be kept in mind that the scientists and scholars who reported on them did so after numerous observations, often under highly controlled conditions, and with their reputations on the line.  The book begins with experiences by both the author and the publisher before discussing the mind-boggling phenomena and the research surrounding them, all leading to a conclusion that No one really dies.  

I have been asked many times why so much of what I write about - life after death, psychical research, and related paranormal subjects is taken from research done a hundred or more years ago, and why I don't write more about modern mediums and researchers. Part of the reason is that there has been relatively very little research looking at evidence of survival after death since 1930. But that is a secondary reason. The primary reason is that I am convinced that the phenomena observed by the pioneers of psychical research, especially in the area of mediumship and, concomitantly, in the area of spirit communication, were much more dynamic and evidential than those of today. Sometime around 1920, when Professor James Hyslop, one of the key pioneers, died, the research reached a point of diminishing returns. The scientists and scholars engaged in the research began to realize that they were continually reinventing the wheel and would never succeed in producing evidence to satisfy either the scientific fundamentalists or the religious fundamentalists. As strong as the evidence was, it did not offer the absolute proof the skeptics demanded.The pioneers were followed by researchers, who, having witnessed the derision heaped on their predesessors by materialistic "know-nothings," were concerned with their reputations in academic circles. Since consciousness survival had come to be a taboo subject in academia, the new breed of researcher focused on ESP - often going out of their way to avoid the survival of consciousness issue. In fact, a fair percentage of parapsychologists, while accepting the reality of ESP, rejected the spirit or survival hypothesis, concluding that all such phenomena were somehow produced by the subconscious of the individuals involved in their experiments. Such a conclusion was much more academically and scientifically acceptable and made sure funds for further research were available. To even hint at the spirit hypothesis was to invite disdain. While a few later researchers delved into the area of past-life studies, their work received little attention from mainstream science and was ignored or resisted by orthodox religions. When, during the 1970s, research began in the field of near-death experiences, the researchers, wanting to be scientifically proper, focused more on the positive effects of the NDE than on the survival implications. It was not until late in the 1990s, when Dr. Gary Schwartz of the University of Arizona, began investigating the clairvoyant type of mediumship that survival research again resurfaced. But Schwartz came under attack by many scientific fundamentalists and research in this area was further discouraged. This volume, intended as the first of four volumes, covers the period before 1882, the year the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) was organized and more formal scientific methods were employed. The pre-1882 researchers were by no means ignorant of the scientific methods necessary to validate mediums, and it becomes clear to the discerning reader that these pioneers were very much on guard against deception and mindful of other explanations, including the subconscious theories.It also becomes apparent to the serious student of this subject that the earliest researchers went beyond the evidential aspects of mediumship and recorded many messages concerning the afterlife environment and the meaning of this life. They served as the foundation for a whole new philosophy, one that made some sense of the afterlife and gave meaning to this life.

This book is not quite like other books about the Titanic. As the title suggests, it is an attempt to explore the more transcendental aspects of the Titanic story - those suggesting a non-mechanistic universe. The subjects include premonitions, apparitions, out-of-body experiences, telepathic communication among the living, and after-death communication, many related to the Titanic passengers, others offered in support of the Titanic phenomena. Many of them have to do with other ocean tragedies. Chief among the Titanic passengers in this book is William T. Stead, a British journalist, who did not survive the disaster but apparently survived in another dimension, from which he communicated in the weeks following his death. . The Titanic story offers us the opportunity to examine death in a safe haven with the added bonus that, unlike most stories involving death, the parties actually have time to contemplate theirs death, some to escape, some to succumb. More than any other modern story, the Titanic might be viewed as a microcosm of life, a "community" isolated in the vast reaches of the ocean, one offering wealth and poverty, the opulence of first class and the ordinariness of steerage class, with a middle or second class in between. Every type of emotion, mindset, virtue and vice is represented - love and fear, hope and despair, bravery and cowardice, arrogance and humbleness, pomp and shame, selfishness and brotherhood. To accent it all, the iceberg impacted by the leviathan was reported as being a rare black berg looming high over the vessel, as if a giant evil predator. More than anything though, the Titanic story represents the struggle between man's inner and outer self, a struggle which many people are interested in but prefer to avoid except in books or movies.