Example 1 - NOVEL.

— I am going to tell you of my suffering when I died. My Spirit, bound to the body by material links, had great difficulty in freeing itself, which was in itself a harsh anguish.

The life I was leaving at the age of 21 was still so vigorous that I could not believe in its loss. For that reason I sought the body, I was astonished, terrified at seeing myself lost in a whirlwind of shadows.

At last, the awareness of my state and the revelation of the faults committed, in all my incarnations, struck me suddenly, while an implacable light illumined the most secret depths of my soul, which felt itself laid bare and at once seized with overwhelming shame. I tried to flee from that influence by taking interest in the objects surrounding me, new ones, yet which I nevertheless already knew; 4 the luminous Spirits, floating in the ether, gave me the idea of a happiness to which I could not aspire; 5 dark and desolate forms, some plunged in tedious despair, others furious or ironic, glided around me or over the earth to which I was leaden-bound.

I saw the humans stirring, whose ignorance I envied; 7 a whole order of unknown sensations, or rather rediscovered ones, invaded me simultaneously.

As if dragged by an irresistible force, seeking to flee the relentless pain, I crossed distances, elements, material obstacles, without the beauties of nature nor the celestial splendors being able to calm for an instant the bitter pain of conscience, nor the dread caused by the revelation of eternity.

A mortal may forejudge material tortures by the shudderings of the flesh; but your frail pains, softened by hope, attenuated by distractions or killed by forgetfulness, will never give you the idea of the anguish of a soul that suffers without respite, without hope, without repentance.

After a time whose duration I cannot specify, envying the elect whose splendors I glimpsed, detesting the evil Spirits who pursued me with taunts, despising the humans whose vileness I saw, I passed from deep dejection to a senseless revolt.

“You finally called me, and for the first time a soft and tender feeling calmed me; I listened to the teachings your guides give you, the truth imposed itself upon me, I prayed; God heard me, He revealed Himself to me through His Clemency, as He had already revealed Himself to me through His Justice.”

Novel.