The Search For Survival. A Review of Trevor Hamilton, 'Tell My Mother I’m Not Dead'

Tell My Mother I’m Not Dead: A Case Study in Mediumship Research

by Trevor Hamilton,

Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2012.

£8.95, $17.90, 191pp, Appendices, Glossary, Resources and References.

Tell My Mother I’m Not Dead is a personal and intellectual journey for Trevor Hamilton. As a retired academic with intellectual energy and curiosity, as well as a heavy dose of scepticism concerning the paranormal, Hamilton makes a refreshing guide into the world of mediumship and Spiritualism. His search was a response to the death of his son, Ralph, and of his natural desire to reconnect with him. It also sets out to resolve what Hamilton describes as ‘the most important single issue that there was’, i.e. ‘Did we survive bodily death, and if so what did this tell us about the nature of reality, and, fundamentally important, how should we live?’ (p.37). Hamilton found few people open to discussing such fundamental questions, and this book represents an attempt to address these issues through his own research and by reflecting on his personal experiences.

The book is divided into two main parts. In the first, Experiences, we have a chronological account of Hamilton’s emotional journey, together with that of his wife Anne, and of his visits to various mediums. Ten accounts of particular sittings that took place in England between 2002 and 2010 are given, with an assessment of the content and accuracy of the sessions. The anonymity of the individual mediums is preserved in most cases but the context of the sittings is described. The second part, Reflections, addresses what Hamilton sees as eight salient questions arising from his research into mediumship. He draws on both contemporary and older literature in parapsychology in order address issues such as ‘Can a sitter replicate phenomena across a number of mediums and does this support or weaken the survival hypothesis?’ (p.106), and  ‘Is it possible to identify those conditions which make for  successful sittings, and what are the implications of this for the guidance and training of sitters, mediums, and researchers?’ (pp.139-140). As author of the highly acclaimed biography of one of parapsychology’s pioneer researchers, F W H Myers[i], Hamilton is very well placed to review this material. He is familiar with the SPR (Society for Psychical Research) archives, for instance, and well aware of the long history of investigation and weight of evidence pointing to the validity of many parapsychological phenomena.

            This does not make Hamilton ‘a believer’. He is rather a hopeful seeker, but honest and exacting when looking at and analysing his personal encounters with mediums. Most, it must be said, produce a substantial amount of accurate information. When it is laid out in the cold light of day, away from the emotion and expectations engendered by a ‘sitting’, however, much of it is fairly general, rather vague and insubstantial. Hamilton is aware of these issues and evaluates his responses to the sittings with a refreshing degree of reflexivity.

            In the third, briefer section of the book, the Conclusion and Postscript, Hamilton states that he did not feel the need to prove the validity of mediumship per se, which in his opinion had been done with the historical studies of mediums such as Mrs Piper, Mrs Leonard, and Mrs Garrett, all of whom had been extensively investigated by members of the SPR and other researchers adopting the most stringent criteria. Hamilton did note, however, the paucity of information regarding the conditions of any afterlife state from his sittings. This has also been my own experience, and one must turn to channelled writings or accounts of OBEs (out of body experiences) for such accounts. He does mention one such narrative, Paul K. Stoller’s book of communications with his deceased son Galen, in My Life after Life, but finds it not to his taste, more in the realm of science fantasy (p.158).[ii] It is possible that a wider exposure to this genre would have changed Hamilton’s mind, as although it has some unique features, Galen’s account accords well with many other postmortem descriptions published over the last fifty years or more. By way of correction (in what is a generally well edited typescript) the journal Paranthropology appears in the bibliography on a couple of occasions as Paranthology. No doubt less of a mouthful, but inaccurate.

            I found Hamilton’s approach congenial as, apart from anything else, his open minded but analytical stance reflects my own (cf. my  account of a visit to a clairvoyant medium: http://exploringtheafterlife.blogspot.co.uk). For those who wish to know what a sitting with a contemporary medium in the UK is like, and what one might expect from it, Tell My Mother I’m Not Dead is a useful guide. The book makes a valuable contribution to contemporary research on UK mediumship, a subject that is still treated as the object of ridicule by many journalists and intellectuals, often with little or no firsthand experience of the phenomenon. The personal narrative carries the reader through the Hamilton’s search for answers to the tragedy and mystery of death and survival in a way that is both compelling and at times moving. There are no easy or clear answers to many of the questions asked, and Hamilton avoids the temptation to provide them. We do, at least, have a road map and guide through some of the territory, inviting the reader to continue the exploration.

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[i] Immortal Longings: FWH Myers and the Victorian Search for Life After Death. Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2009.

[ii] My review of this book can be found at: http://www.afterliferesearch.co.uk under Research/Reviews. See also an account of T.E. Lawrence’s postmortem experience as channeled through Jane Sherwood: http://exploringtheafterlife.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/no-escape-from-immortality.html