Thomas Edison: Life Beyond

Learn about famous inventor, Thomas Edison, and what he believed about life after death.

“Life can't make life. Life is. It is not made.” - Thomas A. Edison

That quote may surprise some who read it, especially when it is revealed that famed inventor, Thomas Alva Edison, wrote it in his book, Diary and Sundry Observations.

Edison apparently felt strongly that we are part of something much greater than our perceived selves, something eternal. That much is evident after reading through the last chapter entitled, The Realms Beyond. But the scientist knew that if life after death were ever to be proven, it would take science to prove it.

A couple times in his book, Thomas Edison does indicate that he at least had ideas about creating a device that would be able to detect whatever it is that may survive after the body ceases to be animate. Not certain of what could be recorded, it would appear that he did make attempts to resolve whether or not the human personality survives beyond death. Edison's idea was that an apparatus could be designed that would magnify remaining evidence of what many call “the soul.” He envisioned that one day survival of the human personality would one day be proven.

Edison did not find any satisfaction in the various theories or faiths with regard to the origins of life. Surprisingly, the creator of the light bulb viewed life as something indestructible – eternal. He also felt that there is a “fixed quantity of life on this planet.” Taking this concept further, Thomas Edison viewed everything living as being made of what he called “life-units.” He believed that these life-units were too minute to be seen by a microscope and that millions or maybe billions of them made up each life form. The deep thinker theorized that the body of a human or any other animal were simply machines that were animated, meaning given life, by the myriad of life-units.

The great mind that was Thomas Edison pointed out in his diary that many people believe that their body is what is living but that he disagrees with this. He felt that what was really living were these invisible life-units – pieces of life imbued within a shell. When the physical body that was once alive ceases to be, Edison felt these life-units would disassemble and probably reassemble in another life form. He saw that there was no such thing as chance; everything has a definite ordered plan at work behind it.

If the body of people and animals are animated with a life force as Edison suggested, this would raise an obvious question: How can the individual personality exist? Thomas Edison firmly believed that the personality was evidence that there had to be “master entities” directing the life-units within each life form, residing somewhere within the brain. Thomas Edison felt the bigger question was this: What happens to these master entities when the body expires? Do these master entities break apart or stay together? Should the master entities break-up and disseminate, then eternal life would continue on but only as an impersonal one. If the master entities remained intact, then the personality of each individual was also eternal and remained intact. Thomas Edison, like most of us, also hoped that the definition of eternal life proved to be the latter.

The inventor of the photograph and motion pictures foresaw that it would be possible to create a device that could receive communications from the deceased if the life-units still possessed our memory, meaning our personality. Edison also noted that, of course, these life-units that survived beyond the life of the body would also need to be willing to communicate.

“Life does not cease to exist,” he wrote. I think many might agree. - LC