“There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” Those words have fallen from the lips of priests, over the bodies of the so-called dead, for thousands of years, yet not a single minister who uttered them, nor one among the millions of mourners, who for centuries past heard them, ever formed any rational conception of what they meant and for ages the world has been filled with sorrow.”

“Had they understood nature’s purpose, and known the advantages which the so-called dead gained through the process of dissolution, they would have been com- forted. In the presence of such truth, all creeds wither and decay, and old teachings fail to satisfy. That this is a fact, every one who mourns must testify. There must be something wrong with a system of philosophy or a teaching that always fails when put to the test. When the earth clods fall upon the physical body of one held dear, hope sees a star; but hope is not knowledge, and tears fall on furrowed cheeks. If those who still remain but knew that death, as it is called, was only change – a progression – and that the departed still live, and if they knew about their present abiding place, the world of gloom would turn to one of joy.”

“There is a natural, by that I mean a physical, body, and there is a spiritual body; but those bare propositions, standing alone, convey nothing to the human mind. They must be followed by facts explaining, if it be a fact, how there can possibly be two bodies in one when only one is visible to sight and sensible to touch. Without knowing the law of nature involved, without proof that one survives, although the other goes back to mingle with the elements from whence it came, it is utterly impossible to comprehend what was intended by the words first quoted.”

“I have seen spirit bodies materialize, have touched them and found them as the natural. I have heard them speak and tell over and over again that they had bodies, the same bodies as when they lived the earth life. Still I was not satisfied, and sought to know the character of the two, how they blended, how they worked as one, what natural law was involved, what happened in the dissolution process, why two were necessary, to the end that I might comprehend the fact, for until such knowledge was acquired I had only a very hazy idea, if any, of the situation.”

“As fast as I was able to comprehend the facts, they were given me, and lo and behold, like all natural laws, I found all simple.”

“This planet is but one in the federation of the infinite. All the universe is filled with life, and on this earth, as on others, this force impregnates, finds lodgment, and is clothed in physical garments, to the end that it may increase, multiply, develop, and in time go back to the infinite from whence it came. In that manner and through that process, it increases the sum total of what we call God or universal good, but it is only by change that that process designed by the Infinite can be carried forward, and death, so-called, is but one of the steps in life’s progression.”

“When matter is receptive, an atom from the life mass is clothed, and from the moment of conception commences its journey back to its source. How fast it develops, what progress it makes, depends much on environment. Its form depends upon the substance which clothes it. Whether physical expression appears as man or animal, in earth, rocks, growing things or the water of the sea, depends on how, and under what conditions, it obtains its start here. All is life, expressed in visible form, and where there is life there is thought, and neither life nor thought can be destroyed.”

“There is also physical evidence tending to prove the same proposition. One has his leg amputated, and still feels that he can move his foot; another loses his arm, but still can use his hand and move his fingers. Such is their impression and feeling. Many with whom I have talked are very serious in this matter, and they are right – amputation can only remove the covering of an arm or leg; no part of the etheric body form can be cut off. This remains intact, whatever occurs to the outer covering, for in dissolution it appears intact. A body in that advanced plane may be undeveloped, shrunken and deformed, but it will be all there, and it will appear just as one has made it.”

“Life is expressed in form; without form it could not function. We cannot see the mighty oak in the heart of the acorn, but it is there in all its splendid promise. We cannot see man, the wonder of creation, in the fluid that first clothes it in its conception, but man is there with form and feature, strength and character, which will ever have continuity. With mankind the spirit body is clothed, in the beginning, with a flesh garment, a material vibrating more slowly than the ether of which it is composed, and the process of growth commences.”

“The next change is the physical birth; then comes earth life and the development, physical and spiritual; next is the separation of the spiritual from the outer covering in the change called death – no more wonderful and not half so mysterious as birth; then on, to climb the heights in everlasting life. Such are the teachings that have come to me, voice to voice, from spirit people – some whom I personally have known, and others whom I have come to know and respect in this work.”

“Volumes could be written on this subject from what is now known. Every man, woman and child living on this earth plane, did possess in the beginning, and possesses now, an inner or spirit body, composed and made up of that material we call ether, a substance and material so fine and of such rapid vibration that the physical eye can not see it. This inner or etheric body alone has sensation. It takes form and feature, stature and expression, while earth life lasts, and retains these in the next life as well.”

“This inner spirit body, during this stage of its development, is simply clothed, covered or housed in a visible, slowly vibrating garment that we call flesh, which has no sensation. This is evident from the fact that when the one is separated from the other, the outer body has no sensation or motion, so that it decays and loses form.”

“That experience called death is nature’s process by which the two are separated. The habitation, for some cause, becomes unfit for further occupancy. The spirit, or the inner body, is released for further progression from the tenement which is no longer habitable. The earth body goes back into its elements, to be used again to clothe other forms of life. The inner or spirit body, holding its same form, invisible then as before but functioning as before, labors and finds further opportunity for growth and spirituality. This it finds in the zones or belts that surround this globe, and, when proper conditions are made, it answers to our call, and tells us of life in its new plane, invisible to mortal eye.”

“I asked this question of Dr. David Hossack, who has been in spirit life nearly a century:”

“Is my understanding correct, that here and now we have, and possess, an inner etheric body, which, divested of its flesh garment, passes intact to the spirit world?””

“In reply he said: “There is an inner, etheric body, composed of minute particles, of such substance that it can, and does, pass into spirit life. Your outer bodies are too gross and material to effect the change. The inner body is but the mind, the thought, the soul of the person. It is in the semblance of the material body, but whether beautiful or ugly, strong or weak, depends upon the inner life of the person to whom belongs that particular spark of the great radiance called life, or God.”

“Some there be who build a fair body, and some there be who come into this life with a body so misshapen and sickly it takes much effort to effect an upright, clean one. They all come with bodies naturally, as all things have minds, after one fashion or another; but the conditions of these bodies are very different. Naturally, the mind, being the reality of man, is that which lives on, beautiful or disfigured by good or evil thoughts, as the case may be. The only comfort is that every one has opportunity here to work out the change in himself, and sometimes those changes are very…”

“rapid.”

Another said: “In earth life I gave all for wearing apparel; and when I reached the spirit world, I did not have rags enough to cover me, and the beauty of my form had vanished. I was misshapen and distorted. At first I could not understand that it was my spiritual body that was so deformed, for I had not given the spiritual part of me a thought while on earth. In fact, the earth was all in all for me, and I did not trouble myself to think of an-other life, deeming the time better spent in enjoying the things I knew I possessed.”

““A spirit came and offered to clothe me, but no sooner did the garments touch my body than they were discolored. My progress has been slow, but after many years of suffering I have developed my spirit and restored its beauty, but it is different from what it was in the life below:””

“But evidence of all things spiritual must, of necessity, come from those who live there. Their condition is different, their laws are different, for they live in a world invisible to our eyes, and we cannot insist, if we would understand their life, on applying physical laws and methods. It is from spirit people that I have sought knowledge, and from them, and through years of investigation and research, I have come to know as a fact that “there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.””

The Inner Spirit Body is an extract from Frontiers of the Afterlife By Edward C. Randall.