RETURN FROM CORPOREAL LIFE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE.

The soul after death; its individuality.

Eternal Life. — 2. Separation of the soul and the body. — 3. Spiritual perturbation.

The soul after death; its individuality.

Eternal Life.

What happens to the soul at the instant of death?

“It becomes a Spirit again, that is, it returns to the world of the Spirits, from which it had momentarily departed.”

Does the soul, after death, preserve its individuality?

“Yes; it never loses it. What would it be, if it did not preserve it?”

a — How does the soul demonstrate its individuality, since it no longer has a material body?

“It continues to have a fluid that is proper to it, drawn from the atmosphere of its planet, and which retains the appearance of its last incarnation: its perispirit.”

150b — Does the soul take nothing with it from this world?

“Nothing, except the memory and the desire to go to a better world, a memory full of sweetness or of bitterness, according to the use it made of life.

The purer it is, the better it will understand the futility of what it leaves behind on Earth.”

What is to be thought of the opinion of those who say that after death the soul returns to the universal whole?

“Does the totality of the Spirits not form a whole? does it not constitute a complete world?

When you are in an assembly, you are an integral part of it; but, nevertheless, you always preserve your individuality.”

What proof can we have of the individuality of the soul after death?

“Do you not have that proof in the communications you receive? If you were not blind, you would see; if you were not deaf, you would hear, for very often a voice speaks to you, revealing the existence of a being that is outside of you.”

Those who think that, through death, the soul re-enters the universal whole are in error, if they suppose that, like the drop of water that falls into the Ocean, it there loses its individuality.

They are correct, if by universal whole they understand the totality of incorporeal beings, a totality of which each soul or Spirit is an element.

If souls were merged into an amalgam, they would have only the qualities of the whole, nothing would distinguish them from one another. They would lack intelligence and personal qualities, when, on the contrary, in all communications, they show that they have consciousness of their self and a will of their own. The infinite diversity they present, in every respect, is the very consequence of their constituting distinct individualities.

If, after death, there were only what is called the great Whole, absorbing all individualities, that Whole would be uniform and, then, the communications received from the invisible world would be identical. Since, however, we there encounter beings good and bad, wise and ignorant, happy and unhappy; since there are there beings of all characters: cheerful and sad, frivolous and serious, etc., it becomes evident that they are distinct beings.

Individuality becomes still more evident when these beings prove their identity by incontestable indications, verifiable individual particulars, relating to their terrestrial lives. Nor can it be cast in doubt, when they make themselves visible in apparitions.

The individuality of the soul was taught to us in theory, as an article of faith. Spiritism makes it manifest and, in a certain way, material.

In what sense should eternal life be understood?

“It is the life of the Spirit that is eternal; that of the body is transitory and fleeting. When the body dies, the soul returns to eternal life.”

a — Would it not be more exact to call eternal life that of the pure Spirits, of those who, having attained perfection, are no longer subject to undergoing any further trial?

“That is rather eternal happiness. But this constitutes a question of words. Call things as you wish, provided that you understand one another.”

Separation of the soul and the body.

Is the separation of the soul and the body painful?

“No; the body almost always suffers more during life than at the moment of death; the soul takes no part in it.

The sufferings sometimes experienced at the instant of death are a delight for the Spirit, who sees the term of its exile arriving.”

In natural death, that which comes about through the exhaustion of the organs, in consequence of age, man leaves life without perceiving it: it is a lamp that goes out for lack of energy.

How is the separation of the soul and the body brought about?

“Once the bonds that retained it are broken, it detaches itself.”

a — Does the separation occur instantaneously by an abrupt transition? Is there some clearly drawn line of demarcation between life and death?

“No; the soul detaches itself gradually, it does not escape like a captive bird to which liberty is suddenly restored. Those two states touch and merge, so that the Spirit frees itself little by little from the bonds that held it. These bonds are untied, they are not broken.”

During life, the Spirit is bound to the body by its semi-material envelope, or perispirit. Death is the destruction of the body only, not that of this other covering, which separates from the body when organic life ceases in it.

Observation demonstrates that, at the instant of death, the disengagement of the perispirit is not completed suddenly; that, on the contrary, it is brought about gradually and with a very variable slowness, according to the individuals. In some it is quite rapid, and it may be said that the moment of death is more or less that of liberation. In others, above all in those whose life was wholly material and sensual, the disengagement is much less rapid, lasting sometimes days, weeks, and even months, which does not imply that there exists, in the body, the least vitality, nor the possibility of returning to life, but a simple affinity with the Spirit, an affinity that always keeps proportion with the preponderance that, during life, the Spirit gave to matter.

It is, indeed, rational to conceive that, the more the Spirit has identified itself with matter, the more painful it is for it to separate itself from it; whereas intellectual and moral activity, the elevation of thoughts, bring about a beginning of disengagement, even during the life of the body, so that, when death arrives, it is almost instantaneous.

Such is the result of the studies made in all the individuals who have been able to be observed at the time of death. These observations also prove that the affinity, persisting between the soul and the body in certain individuals, is sometimes very painful, inasmuch as the Spirit may experience the horror of decomposition. This case, however, is exceptional and peculiar to certain kinds of life and to certain kinds of death. It is observed with some suicides.

Can the definitive separation of the soul and the body occur before the complete cessation of organic life?

“In the agony, the soul has sometimes already left the body; there is nothing more than organic life. Man no longer has consciousness of himself; nevertheless, there still remains in him a breath of organic life.

The body is the machine that the heart sets in motion. It exists, as long as the heart makes the blood circulate in the veins, for which it does not need the soul.”

At the moment of death, does the soul ever feel any aspiration or ecstasy that gives it a glimpse of the world it is about to re-enter?

“Often the soul feels the bonds that bind it to the body coming undone. It then employs all its efforts to undo them entirely.

Already in part disengaged from matter, it sees the future unfold before it and enjoys, by anticipation, the state of Spirit.”

Can the example of the caterpillar that, first, crawls along the ground, then encloses itself in its chrysalis in a state of apparent death, in order at last to be reborn into a brilliant existence, give us an idea of terrestrial life, of the tomb, and, finally, of our new existence? “A limited idea. The image is good; nevertheless, it must not be taken literally, as frequently happens with you.”

What sensation does the soul experience at the moment in which it recognizes that it is in the world of the Spirits?

“It depends. If you practiced evil, impelled by the desire to practice it, in the first moment you will feel ashamed at having practiced it.

With the soul of the just one things happen in a quite different way. It feels as though relieved of a great weight, for it fears no scrutinizing gaze.”

Does the Spirit meet immediately with those whom it knew on Earth and who died before it?

“Yes, according to the affection it bore them and that which they devoted to it. Often those acquaintances of its come to receive it at the entrance to the world of the Spirits and help it to free itself from the bands of matter. It also meets with many of those whom it knew and lost sight of during its terrestrial life. It sees those who are in erraticity, just as it sees the incarnate, and it goes to visit them.”

In the case of violent and accidental death, when the organs have not yet been weakened in consequence of age or of illnesses, do the separation of the soul and the cessation of life occur simultaneously?

“Generally it is so; but, in all cases, very brief is the instant that intervenes between the one and the other.”

After decapitation, for example, does man retain for some instants the consciousness of himself?

“Not rarely he retains it for some minutes, until organic life has been completely extinguished. But, also, almost always the apprehension of death makes him lose that consciousness before the moment of the execution.”

What is meant here is the consciousness that the executed person can have of himself, as a man and by means of the organs, and not as a Spirit. If he did not lose that consciousness before the execution, he can retain it for a few brief instants. It, however, necessarily ceases with the organic life of the brain, which does not mean that the perispirit is entirely separated from the body.

On the contrary: in all cases of violent death, when death does not result from the gradual extinction of the vital forces, the more tenacious are the bonds that bind the body to the perispirit and, therefore, the slower the complete disengagement. Spiritual perturbation.

Does the soul have consciousness of itself immediately after leaving the body?

“Immediately is not quite the right term. The soul passes some time in a state of perturbation.”

Is the perturbation that follows the separation of the soul and the body of the same degree and the same duration for all Spirits?

“No; it depends on the elevation of each one.

He who is already purified recognizes himself almost immediately, for he freed himself from matter before the life of the body ceased, 3 whereas the carnal man, he whose conscience is not yet pure, retains for much longer the impression of matter.”

Does the knowledge of Spiritism exert any influence on the duration, more or less long, of the perturbation?

“A very great influence, since the Spirit already understood its situation beforehand. But the practice of good and a pure conscience are what exert the greatest influence.”

At the time of death, everything, at first, is confused. The soul needs some time to enter into the knowledge of itself. It finds itself as though dazed, in the state of a person who has awakened from a deep sleep and seeks to orient himself regarding his situation. The lucidity of ideas and the memory of the past return to it, as the influence of the matter it has just abandoned fades, and as the kind of mist that obscures its thoughts dissipates.

Very variable is the time the perturbation that follows death lasts. It can be of a few hours, as also of many months and even of many years.

Those who, from when they still lived on Earth, identified themselves with the future state that awaited them, are the ones in whom it is least long, because these understand immediately the position in which they find themselves.

That perturbation presents special circumstances, according to the characters of the individuals and, principally, the kind of death.

In cases of violent death, by suicide, execution, accident, apoplexy, wound, etc., the Spirit is surprised, astonished, and does not believe itself dead. It obstinately maintains that it is not. Nevertheless, it sees its own body, recognizes that this body is its own, but does not understand that it finds itself separated from it. It approaches the persons it esteems, speaks to them, and does not perceive why they do not hear it.

Such an illusion is prolonged until the complete disengagement of the perispirit. Only then does the Spirit recognize itself as such and understand that it no longer belongs to the number of the living.

This phenomenon is easily explained. Surprised unexpectedly by death, the Spirit is stunned by the abrupt change that has taken place in it; it still considers death as synonymous with destruction, with annihilation. Now, because it thinks, sees, hears, it has the sensation of not being dead.

The illusion is increased still further by the fact of its seeing itself with a body similar, in form, to the preceding one, but whose ethereal nature it has not yet had time to study. It judges it solid and compact like the first and, when its attention is drawn to this point, it marvels at not being able to touch it.

This phenomenon is analogous to what occurs with some inexperienced somnambulists, who do not believe themselves to be sleeping. It is that they take sleep to be synonymous with the suspension of the faculties. Now, since they think freely and see, they naturally judge that they are not sleeping.

Certain Spirits reveal this particularity, even though death did not come upon them unexpectedly; nevertheless, it always presents itself more generalized among those who, although ill, did not think of dying.

One then observes the singular spectacle of a Spirit attending its own burial as if it were that of a stranger, speaking of that act as of a thing that does not concern it, until the moment in which it understands the truth.

The perturbation that follows death has nothing painful about it for the man of good, who keeps himself calm, similar in every way to one who follows the phases of a tranquil awakening.

For him whose conscience is not yet pure, the perturbation is full of anxiety and of anguish, which increase in proportion as he becomes aware of his situation.

In cases of collective death, it has been observed that all those who perish at the same time do not always see one another again immediately. Seized by the perturbation that follows death, each one goes off on his own way, or concerns himself only with those who matter to him.