Death--and After?

Soul or Spirit—that survives death. This last classification—if classification it may be called—is entirely inadequate, if we are to seek any rational explanation, or even a lucid statement, of the phenomena of existence after death original: "post-mortem existence".

The three-fold vieworiginal: "tripartite view"; the philosophical or religious system that divides a human being into three parts: body, soul, and spirit. of man’s nature gives a more reasonable representation of his constitution, but is inadequate to explain many phenomena. The seven-fold divisionoriginal: "septenary division"; a central teaching in Theosophy that classifies the human being into seven distinct "principles" or layers of being. alone gives a reasonable theory consistent with the facts we have to deal with, and therefore, though it may seem elaborate, the student will do wisely to make himself familiar with it.

If he were studying only the body and desired to understand its activities, he would have to classify its tissues at far greater length and with far more minuteness than I am using here. He would have to learn the differences between muscular, nervous, glandular, bony, cartilaginous, epithelial, and connective tissues, and all their varieties; and if he rebelled, in his ignorance, against such an elaborate division, it would be explained to him that only by such an analysis of the different components of the body can the varied and complicated phenomena of life-activity be understood. One kind of tissue is wanted for support, another for movement, another for secretion, another for absorption, and so on; and if each kind does not have its own distinctive name, dire confusion and misunderstanding must result, and physical functions remain unintelligible.

In the long run, time is gained, as well as clearness, by learning a few necessary technical terms, and as clearness is above all things needed in trying to explain and to understand very complicated phenomena after death original: "post-mortem phenomena", I find myself compelled—contrary to my