This is confusing because if human consciousness survives independently of body energy, why doesn’t the consciousness of spirit meddlers, who we assume never had a physical body, survive independently of a human body to inhabit?

The confusion is truly the contrast between the extremes of experience, because humans have only been away from Creator’s love energy for short periods of time, for example, during their incarnations and experiencing the disconnection to a significant degree, or from being in limbo for a time in between lives, which does happen. Both can cause decline in function and in health status, so to speak, of the energies of both consciousness and physical form. The plight of the spirit meddlers is far worse because their disconnection has been so profound and for such a long period of time. They are an extreme case. The deprivation has weakened them tremendously and without any connection remaining there is a real risk of reaching a point of no return when they become so dissipated they can no longer be reconstituted through an infusion of energy from a third-party, and then their fate is determined, is decided, and cannot be reversed.