The past decade plus in working with recently bereaved families piqued my own mind about Life after Death. My big question when I started as a Celebrant was "Does our conscious self survive after death?" I don't have any answer about how that works, but I now know without a doubt that we indeed continue to have an influence on our loved ones. I have had very direct messages from the recently dead, who were relentless in making their wishes known and making sure I was the conduit to get that done. I wrote about some of them, in my stories.
I'd say keep an open mind. "There are more things in heaven and earth than we have dreamed of." A great writer on MEDIUM to follow is John Ege. He often writes on the topic and he is tremendously brilliant.