Either something very like this takes place, or we cease to exist as a self-conscious individual intelligence. There must remain and continue man’s self-conscious identity.
Furthermore, if this be true, the real nature of this individual intelligence we call the Self, in the last analysis, is likely to be as much a mystery as ever. We may know who we are without knowing what it is.
Now the composite nature of man, as we know it, not only justifies all these analogies, but seems to show that the modulus, the germ at least, of the spiritual body exists now within the physical; that it does not disintegrate when the physical body dies, but separates and coheres more closely than ever; and is still inhabited or possessed by the individual intelligence.
Moreover, it has often been seen by clairvoyants at the time of death, thus verifying the Biblical declaration, “there is a natural (physical) body, and there is a spiritual body.”
The composite structures of man’s organism above referred to are well known. They are called “systems.” The bony or Osseous system, the muscular system, the circulatory system, the lymphatic system, and the two nervous systems, serve as illustrations of the composite nature of man.
All of these “systems” more or less inter-penetrate and diffuse each other.
There is also a chemico-vital, kinetic, or magnetic body, diffused through and inter-penetrating all the rest. This gives the contrast between the living organism (with the flush of health upon the cheek and the light of intelligence in the eyes), and a corpse.
Death is often instantaneous, while decomposition often waits for days.
There is a still further analogy regarding a single function, like a sensory or motor impulse, passing to or from the central brain, the organ of consciousness. The journey is one of relays and orderly sequences.
This is proven in a great variety of forms of paresis. I cannot, as an individual intelligence, directly move my hand any more than I can move a mountain. I conceive the object or act and set the will in motion. The impulse traverses the nerves, is transferred to the muscle, and then, when the circuit is complete, I move my hand.