Spiritualism
Mediums trying to contact the dead for the sake of the living are a commonplace of humaniti cultures. Often these figures are persecuted either because their very existence challenges the power structure, as in Medieval Europe or Traditional China or because society denies they can be anything but a fraud, 20th century USA. In the 3I mediums are assumed to be in cahoots with the
Zhodani.
Mediums themselves range from the sincere to ice hearted frauds. Some traditional cultures provide cover and a respectable social position for mediums, but most do what they do under the hostile eye of the authorities. Some worlds have the equivalent of the
New Age movement where the medium can be a spiritual advisor. But the anti-psi police are always out in force.
Still, none of this ends belief in an afterlife, nor the will of people to contact the dearly departed. Or for that matter either the will of believers to aid them or the will of grifters to rip them off. And the Zhodani really do use mediums and their hangers-on as cover.
However you slice it, it leads to playable complications.