10. A spirit attaches itself all the more strongly to the life of the body, in proportion to its inability to see anything beyond it; it feels that the organic life is escaping it, and it does its utmost to retain it within its grasp. Instead of yielding itself up to the movement that is drawing it away, the spirit resists it with all its might; and, in some instances, the struggle is thus prolonged for days, for weeks, or for months. Undoubtedly, in such cases, the spirit is no longer in possession of its usual lucidity; the confusion attendant on dissolution has begun, for such a spirit, long before death actually occurs; but its suffering is nonetheless severe, and the state of vagueness and doubt in which the spirit finds itself, its uncertainty as to what will become of it, add poignancy to its trouble. Death at length takes place, but the spirit’s misery is not ended. Its mental confusion still continues; it feels that it is alive, but the spirit knows not whether it is living with the fleshly life or with spirit-life; and its struggles are prolonged until the last links between its perispirit and its body are completely broken. In such a case, death has put a term to the disease which has killed the body, but it has not arrested the repercussion of the physical effects of the corporeal dissolution in the consciousness of the spirit; so long as any points of contact exist between the body and the perispirit, the spirit feels, and suffers from the process of decay that is transpiring in the former.
