First impressions of a Spirit

I will speak of the strange change that takes place in the Spirit immediately after its liberation. It evaporates from the remains it abandons, as a flame detaches from the source that produced it; then there follows a great perturbation and that strange doubt: am I dead or alive? The absence of the ordinary sensations produced by the body surprises and immobilizes it, so to speak. Like a man accustomed to a heavy burden, our soul, suddenly relieved, does not know what to do with its liberty; then, infinite space, the countless wonders of the stars, succeeding one another in a harmonious rhythm, the solicitous Spirits, floating in the air and dazzling with a subtle light that seems to pass through them, the feeling of liberation that suddenly floods over it, the need to launch itself also into space like birds that wish to train their own wings, such are the first impressions that all of us feel. I cannot reveal to you all the phases of this existence; I will only add that, as soon as it is satisfied with its enchantment, the avid soul wishes to launch itself and rise higher, to the regions of the true beautiful, of the true good, and this aspiration is the torment of the Spirits thirsting for the infinite. Like the chrysalis, they wait to shed their skin; they feel the wings sprouting that will carry them, radiant, to the blessed azure. But, still held back by the bonds of sin, they must hover between Heaven and Earth, belonging neither to the one nor to the other. What are all earthly aspirations, compared to the insatiable ardor of the being who has glimpsed a corner of eternity! Suffer, then, enough, to arrive purified among us. Spiritism will help you, for it is a blessed work; it binds the Spirits and the living to one another, forming the links of an invisible chain that rises up to God. Delphine de Girardin. n [1]

[cf. Delphine de Girardin.]