Much inspired writing over the years claims to have originated from dis-incarnate beings, and Elsa Barker was no exception. She encountered automatic writing in 1912, and the entity responsible for the writing claimed to be Judge David Patterson Hatch, a lawyer from Los Angeles.

The judge explained that he had recently passed over and that he wanted to document his experiences on the other side in the form of letters that he would write through Elsa’s hand. Within a few days, Barker received verification from a friend that the judge had indeed died recently in Los Angeles.

Over the next three years, over 100 letters were ‘dictated’ and published as a trilogy, debuting with Letters from a Living Dean Man, followed by War Letters from the Living Dead Man and Last Letters from the Living Dead Man. Coming shortly after WT Stead’s bestselling channelled work, Letters from Julia, the letters are now considered an essential guide to the afterlife. All are fascinating, informative and inspirational and are required reading for anyone interested in life and death, the afterlife, and why we are here.

Do not fear death; but stay on earth as long as you can.
Not withstanding the companionship I have here,
I sometimes regret my failure in holding on to the world.
But regrets have less weight on this side—like our bodies.
Everything is well with me.
I will tell you things that have never been told.
Letter 5: Letters From a Living Dead Man

Elsa Barker, American author and poet, was born in 1869 in Leicester, Vermont, USA. Throughout her life, Barker’s poems and short stories were published in various books and magazines.

Her debut novel, The Son of Mary Bethel, was published in 1909 and this was followed in 1910 by her first collection of poetry, The Frozen Grail and Other Poems. Barker was a spiritual writer and one evening in 1912, while she was in Paris, she began automatic writing, the phenomenon where someone other than her own subconscious was writing using her hand. What followed was the trilogy of Living Dead Man books.