Through introspection, I know that I am; and by observation I note that when death comes, this I Am appears no longer to be. The body lies cold, inert, lifeless; its warmth, color and responsiveness have fled. Is it possible for one observing this process doubt that something tangible and real has left this plane? When the body is given to the native elements from which it sprang, the knowing, willing and thinking factors that constitute human personality and an individualized stream of consciousness have departed.
The table has four legs, yet it does not walk; the ear does not hear; nor does the tongue wag unless there is someone to wag it. The brain does not think, if the brain were endowed with power from on high, it would think on forever; isolate it and it will not think. It is the thinker using the brain, who thinks. There is also one using the power of vision, looking through the windows of the eyes, who sees.
The soul needs a physical body here, else it would not have evolved one. But when by reason of disease, decay or accident the physical body is no longer an adequate instrument through which the soul may function, it lays the present body aside and continues to function through a more subtle one.
When we pass from this plane, shall we become spirits or shall we have tangible bodies? Form is necessary to self-expression. We reiterate, there can be no consciousness without something of which to be conscious. It is of the first laws of consciousness to clothe itself in form. The soul clothes itself in form here, and if it continues to live after the passing of the physical body, it is reasonable to conclude that it will still need and have a body. If the soul can create and sustain a body here, there is no reason to deny its ability to create and sustain one hereafter! We are spirits now as much as we ever shall be. The laws of Mind and Spirit do not change with the passing of the physical body. But the question might be asked, "From what substance would the soul create a new body?" The new idea of the ether supplies a theory to fit this need.