Probably there is no form of torture more commonly inflicted upon
the dying than that which is caused by administering stimulants. Such potions have the
effect of drawing a departing spirit into its body with the force of a catapult, to remain
and to suffer for sometime longer. Investigators of conditions beyond have heard many
complaints of such treatment. When it is seen that death must inevitably ensue, let not
selfish desire to keep a departing spirit a little longer prompt us to inflict such tortures
upon it. The death chamber should be a place of the utmost quiet, a place of peace and of
prayer, for at that time, and for
three and one-half days after the last breath, the spirit is passing through a
Gethsemane and needs all the assistance that can be given. The value of the life that has
just been passed depends greatly upon conditions which then prevail about the body; yes even
the conditions of its future life are influenced by our attitude during that time, so that
if ever we were our brother's keeper in life, we are a thousand times more so at death.
Post-mortem examinations, embalming and cremation during the
period mentioned, not only disturb the passing spirit mentally, but[pg 153]are productive of a certain amount of pain, for there is still a slight
connection with the discarded vehicle. If sanitary laws require us to prevent decomposition
while thus keeping the body for cremation, it may be packed in ice till the three and
one-half days have passed. After that time the spirit will not suffer, no matter what
happens to the body.
The
Panorama of a Past Life.
No matter how long we may keep the spirit from passing out
however, at last there will come a time when no stimulant can hold it and the last breath is
drawn. Then the silver cord, of which the Bible speaks, and which holds the higher and the
lower vehicles together, snaps in the heart and causes that organ to stop. That rupture
releases the vital body, and that with the desire body and mind float above the visible body
for from one to three and one-half days while the spirit is engaged in reviewing the past
life, an exceedingly important part of its post-mortem experience. Upon that review depends
its whole existence from death to a new birth.
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