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supersensible is contained in the sensory.
In passing over into sleep, the astral body only severs its connection with the ether and physical
bodies, the latter remaining bound together; in death, the physical body, however, is severed from the
ether body. The physical body is left to its own forces and must, for that reason, disintegrate as a
corpse.
When death occurs, the ether body enters into a state that it never experienced during the time between
birth and death, except under rare conditions that will be spoken of later. It is now united with its astral
body, without the presence of the physical body, for the ether body and astral body do not separate
immediately after death. For a time they remain together by means of a force whose existence is easily
to be understood. If it did not exist, the ether body could not sever itself from the physical body, for it
is bound to it.
This is seen in sleep when the astral body is unable to tear these two members of the human organism
apart. This force begins its activity at death. It severs the ether body from the physical, with the result
that the ether body is now united with the astral body. Supersensible observation shows that after death
this union varies in different people. Its duration is measured by days. For the present this duration is
only mentioned by way of information. Later the astral body separates from its ether body also and
continues on its way bereft of it.
During the union of the two bodies man is in a condition that enables him to perceive the experiences
of his astral body. As long as the physical body is present, the work of refreshing the worn out organs
must begin from outside the moment the astral body is severed from it. With the severance of the
physical body this work ceases. The force that is employed for this work when the human being sleeps
remains after death and can now be used to make the astral body's own processes perceptible.
An observation that clings to the externals of life may say that these are statements that are clear to
those endowed with supersensible perception, but there is no possibility of anyone else ascertaining the
truth about them. This is not a fact. What supersensible perception observes in this realm, removed
from ordinary perception, can be comprehended by ordinary thought power after it has once been
discovered.
This thought power must consider in the right way the relationships of life that are present in the
manifested world. Thinking, feeling, and willing stand in such a relationship to each other and to the
experiences of man in the outer world, that they remain incomprehensible if the manner of their
revealed activity is not considered as the expression of an unrevealed activity. This manifest activity
becomes clear to the judgment only when it can be looked upon, in its course within physical human
life, as the result of what supersensible knowledge establishes for the non-physical.
In regard to this activity we are, without supersensible knowledge, much like a man in a dark room
without light. Just as the physical objects around us are perceived only in the light, so will what takes
place through the soul-life of man be explicable only by means of supersensible knowledge.
During the union of the human being with his physical body, the outer world enters his consciousness
in images; after casting off this body, what the astral body experiences when it is not bound to the
outer world by means of physical sense organs becomes perceptible. It has at first no new experiences.
Union with the ether body prevents it from experiencing anything new. What it does possess, however,
is a memory of the past life.
The still present ether body allows this memory to appear as a comprehensive, living picture. This is
the first experience of the human being after death. He perceives the life between birth and death in a
series of pictures spread out before him. During physical life, memory exists only during the waking
state when man is united with his physical body. Memory is present only to the extent allowed by this
body. Nothing is lost to the soul that makes an impression upon it during life. Were the physical body
a perfect instrument for this, it would be possible at every moment of life to conjure up before the soul
the whole of life's past.
This hindrance disappears at death. As long as the human being retains the ether body, a certain
perfection of memory exists, and it disappears to the degree that the ether body loses the form it had
during its sojourn in the physical body, when it resembled the physical body. This is also the reason
why the astral body after a time separates from the ether body. It can remain united with the latter only
as long as the ether form, which corresponds to the physical body, endures. During life between birth
and death, a separation of the ether body from the physical body takes place only in exceptional cases,
and then only for a short time.
If, for example, a person presses heavily upon one of his limbs, a part of the ether body may separate
from the physical. When this occurs we may say that the limb has "gone to sleep." The peculiar feeling
one has at that time comes from the severance of the ether body. (Naturally, here also a materialistic
mode of thought may deny the existence of the invisible within the visible and say that all this simply
comes from the physical disturbance caused by the pressure.) In such a case, supersensible perception
is able to observe how the corresponding part of the ether body passes out of the physical. If a person
experiences an unusual shock, or something of the kind, a separation of the ether body from a large
part of the physical body may result for a short time.
This happens if a person for one reason or another sees himself suddenly near death; if, for example,
he is on the verge of drowning, or if, on a mountaineering trip, he is in danger of a precipitous fall.
What is told by people who have experienced such things comes very near the truth and may be
corroborated by supersensible observation. They state that in such moments their entire life passed
before the soul in a great memory-picture. Of the many examples that could be cited here, only one
will be referred to because it originates with a person to whose mode of thinking all that has been said
here about these experiences must appear as idle fancy.
For anyone who takes a few steps in supersensible observation, it is always useful to become
acquainted with the statements of those who consider this science as something fantastic. Such
statements cannot be so lightly attributed to the prejudice of the observer of the supersensible.
(Spiritual scientists may well learn a great deal from those who consider their endeavors nonsense, and
they need not be disconcerted if there is no reciprocal "affection" in this respect on the part of the
critics. To be sure, for supersensible perception itself there is no need of verification of its results
through such experiences.
It does not desire to prove anything by these references, but to elucidate its findings.) The eminent
criminologist and well known researcher in many other fields of natural science, Moritz Benedict,
relates a personal experience in his memoirs. Once, when he was near being drowned while bathing, he
saw in memory his whole life before him as though in a single picture. If others describe differently
the pictures experienced under similar circumstances, even in a way that lets them appear to have little
to do with the events of their past, this does not contradict what has been said.
For the pictures that occur in the quite unusual condition of the separation of the ether body from the
physical are often not readily explicable in regard to their relation to life. Proper consideration will
always recognize this relationship. Neither is it an objection if someone, for example, once came near
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