2.3 Life After Death
The Soul after Death
At death, the soul becomes a spirit again; that is, it returns to the spirit world that it had left for a time.
The soul preserves its individuality after death and never loses it. It preserves that individuality even though it no longer has a material body, because it still retains a fluidic envelope drawn from its planet and bearing the appearance of its last incarnation: the perispirit.
The soul takes nothing from this world except its memories and the desire to go to a better world. These memories are full of sweetness or bitterness, depending on how the soul has lived its earthly life. The purer it is, the more clearly it understands the futility of what it has left behind on earth.
The opinion that the soul returns to the universal whole after death is mistaken if this means that it loses its individuality like a drop of water falling into the ocean. Nevertheless, it is correct if by universal whole one means the entire assemblage of incorporeal beings, of which each soul or spirit is a member.
All spirits taken together make up a whole, but each still retains its own individuality.
Evidence for the soul’s individuality after death is found in the communications received. If people were not blind, they would see; if they were not deaf, they would hear, because a voice often speaks to them and reveals the existence of a being outside themselves.
If souls were merged into the universal whole, they would possess only the qualities of that whole, and nothing would distinguish them from one another; they would have no intelligence or qualities of their own. Yet in all their communications with us, they reveal self-awareness and a distinct will. The infinite diversity they display in every respect is evidence of their individuality. If there were nothing after death except what is called the Great Whole, absorbing all individualities, that whole would have to be homogeneous, and the communications received from the invisible world would all have to be identical.
It is clear, however, that we are dealing with distinct beings, for we encounter good and evil, knowledgeable and ignorant, happy and downcast beings of every kind: joyful and sad, frivolous and serious, and so on. Individuality becomes even more evident when these beings prove their identity through unmistakable signs and verifiable personal details related to their earthly lives. Nor can there be any doubt about such individuality when they manifest through apparitions. The individuality of the soul has been taught theoretically as an article of faith, but Spiritism makes it evident and, to a certain extent, tangible.
Eternal life should be understood in the sense that only the life of the spirit is eternal; the life of the body is transitory and temporary. When the body dies, the soul returns to eternal life.
The expression may also be understood as referring to the life of pure spirits, who no longer undergo trials because they have attained perfection. That indeed represents eternal happiness, but it is largely a matter of words. Things may be called whatever one wishes, provided the terms used are understood.
The Separation of the Soul from the Body
The separation of the soul from the body is not a painful process. Often the body suffers more during life than at the moment of death; the soul itself feels nothing at death. The suffering sometimes experienced at the moment of death is, for the spirit, a kind of relief, for it sees that the end of its exile is at hand.
In a natural death resulting from the depletion of organic vitality through age, a person passes from life without even realizing it, like a light that goes out for lack of energy.
Once the bonds that hold the soul are loosened, it disengages itself. This separation does not occur instantly through an abrupt transition, and there is no sharply defined dividing line between life and death. The soul frees itself gradually. It does not escape like a captive bird suddenly set free. These two states touch and blend into one another; thus the spirit little by little disengages from its bonds: they unravel rather than break.
During life, the spirit is connected to the body by its semi-material envelope, or perispirit. Death destroys the body but not the perispiritual envelope, which separates from the body when organic life ceases. Observation shows that at the moment of death the spirit’s departure is not sudden; it occurs gradually and may vary in speed according to the individual.
For some, it is very rapid indeed, and in such a case one could say that the moment of death is also that of liberation, which follows almost immediately. For others, especially those whose life has been materialistic and sensual, the separation takes much longer, sometimes lasting days, weeks, or even months. This does not imply that any vitality remains in the body or that a return to life is possible. It means only that an affinity persists between body and spirit, an affinity that always depends on the importance the spirit attached to matter during life.
It is logical to believe that the more the spirit identified with matter, the more it suffers in separating from it. On the other hand, intellectual and moral activity, along with elevated thoughts, begin this separation even during bodily life, so that when death finally comes, the separation is almost instantaneous. Such conclusions arise from observation of individuals at the moment of death and show that the affinity persisting between soul and body in some persons can be extremely painful. The spirit may even experience the horror of decomposition. Such a case is exceptional and peculiar to certain kinds of death, suicide for example.
The definitive separation between soul and body may occur before the complete cessation of organic life. Sometimes, in the death throes, the soul has already left the body, which then retains nothing but organic life. The individual no longer has self-awareness, and yet a faint breath of life remains. The body is a machine kept in motion by the heart; it continues to live as long as the heart circulates blood through the veins, and for that it does not need the soul.
At the moment of death, the soul sometimes experiences a yearning or an ecstasy that offers a foreglimpse of the world it is about to reenter. It often feels the bonds holding it to the body loosening, and it exerts all its effort to sever them completely. Already partly released from matter, it beholds the future unfolding before it and enjoys the spirit state in advance.
The example of the caterpillar, which begins by crawling on the ground and then shuts itself up in its cocoon in apparent death, only to be reborn into a brilliant existence, can offer a faint image of earthly life, followed by the grave and then a new existence. The comparison is apt, but it must not be taken literally.
The sensation the soul experiences when it realizes that it is in the spirit world depends on its moral state. If it has done evil for the love of evil, it is at first ashamed of what it has done. For one that has been morally upright, the experience is altogether different: it feels relieved of a great weight and does not fear the most searching scrutiny.
A spirit immediately encounters those it knew on earth who died before it, according to the affection they bore one another. They almost always come to receive it as it returns to the spirit world, and they may even help free it from the bonds of matter. It also sees many whom it had lost sight of during its earthly sojourn. In addition, it sees those who are in the errant state and visits those who are still incarnate.
In violent or accidental death, when the organs have not yet been weakened by age or disease, the separation of the soul and the cessation of life usually occur at the same time. In any case, however, the interval between them is very brief.
After beheading, for example, an individual often remains conscious for a few moments until organic life is completely extinguished. Yet in many cases the fear of death causes a loss of consciousness before the actual moment of execution.
This refers simply to the consciousness that victims may have of themselves by means of the body, and not as spirits. If they do not lose consciousness before execution, they may retain it for a few very brief moments, but they must necessarily lose it with the organic life of the brain. This does not mean, however, that the perispirit has completely detached from the body. On the contrary, in all cases of violent death, that is, when death does not result from a gradual extinction of the vital forces, the bonds joining the body to the perispirit are more tenacious, and complete separation is slower.
The Spirit’s State of Confusion after Death
Upon leaving the body, the soul is not immediately conscious of itself; it remains in a state of confusion for some time.
Not all spirits experience this confusion to the same degree or for the same length of time. It depends on how far they have advanced. Those who are already purified become almost immediately self-aware because they were detached from matter during bodily life. By contrast, carnal individuals with impure consciences retain the impression of matter much longer.
An understanding of Spiritism has a considerable influence on the shorter or longer duration of this confusion, because the spirit understood beforehand what its situation would be. The practice of good and purity of conscience, however, exert the greatest influence.
At the moment of death, everything at first appears confused. The soul needs some time to recognize itself; it feels dazed, like someone waking from a deep sleep and trying to understand the situation. The lucidity of its ideas and the memory of its past return as the influence of the matter from which it has just freed itself fades away, and the kind of fog that had obscured its thoughts dissipates.
The duration of the confused state following death varies greatly: it may last a few hours, several months, or even years. Those who experience it for the shortest time are those who identified themselves with their future state during life, because they immediately understand their position.
This confusion takes on particular forms depending on the character of the individual and especially on the type of death involved. In violent deaths—suicide, capital punishment, accident, stroke, mortal wounds, and the like—the spirit is surprised and astonished; it does not believe itself to be dead and stubbornly insists that it has not died. Yet it sees its body lying there and knows whose body it is, while not understanding that it is now separate from it. It seeks out loved ones and speaks to them, but cannot understand why they cannot hear. This illusion lasts until the separation is complete, and only then does it realize its situation and understand that it no longer belongs to the world of the living.
This phenomenon is easy to explain. Surprised by an unforeseen death, the spirit is stunned by the sudden change that has taken place. It still believes that death is synonymous with destruction and annihilation, and since it continues to think, see, and hear, it does not consider itself dead. This illusion is reinforced by the fact that it finds itself in a body similar to the one it has just left, while not yet recognizing its ethereal nature. It assumes itself to be solid and compact like the former body and is astonished when told that this body is not tangible.
This is similar to the experience of inexperienced somnambulists who do not believe they are asleep. To them, sleep is synonymous with the suspension of the faculties, and since they can see and think freely, they do not realize that they are asleep. Even in cases where death has not occurred unexpectedly, some spirits display this peculiarity. However, it is more common among those who had never thought about death despite having been ill. This sometimes leads to the curious spectacle of spirits attending their own funeral as though it were someone else’s and speaking of it as though it in no way concerned them, until they suddenly grasp the truth.
For morally upright individuals, the confusion following death is not painful; they are calm, and their perceptions resemble those of a peaceful awakening. But for those whose conscience is not pure, it is full of anxiety and anguish.
In cases of collective death, it has been observed that all those who perish at the same time do not always see one another immediately. In the confusion following death, each spirit goes its own way or concerns itself only with those in whom it takes an interest.