The Drama of Love and Death: A Study of Human Evolution and TransfigurationCarpenter, Edward
Philosophy
The Drama of Love and Death: A Study of Human Evolution and Transfiguration
Carpenter, Edward
Death; Love; Personality
all four divisions, that the elements of them are not at all times
present in consciousness, but to a large degree remain conscious or
hidden or subliminal.
CHAPTER IV
THE PASSAGE OF DEATH
Allowing, then, that our human nature may be roughly divided as above
into four main constituents, the destiny of two of these at death seems
pretty clear. It is clear that (1) the central self remains (whether
“we” know it or not) the same as it ever was, and ever will be, eternal,
shining in glory and irradiating the world. It goes on, to be the
birth-source, may be, of numberless lives to come. On the other hand, it
is equally clear that (4) the actual visible tangible body dies,
perishes, and is broken up. Though it may return, in its elements and
through what we call Nature, into the great birth-source, it ceases as
an individual body to exist, and passes even before the eyes of
onlookers into other forms. The fate of these two portions of the human
entity can hardly be doubted—of the innermost central portion,
continuance, with but slow or secular change, if any; of the outermost
material shell, immediate decay and dissolution.
What, then, may we suppose is the destiny of the other two portions, the
human and the animal part? I think we may fairly suppose that they each
share to a considerable degree the destiny of that extreme to which they
are closest related. The outer personality or animal life, (3), is most
closely related to the body. Its passions and desires (though in
themselves psychical and mental entities) look always to the body for
their expression and satisfaction. It is difficult to suppose them
functioning _without_ the body. We cannot, for instance, very well
imagine the passion for drink without some kind of mouth or gullet
through which to work (though of course it may carry on a sort of
dream-activity by representing these channels to itself, or creating
mental images of them). And similarly of the passion of personal vanity,
or the passion of sex: they refer themselves always to the body, in some
degree or other.
It is clear then, I think, that when the body in death breaks up, these
psychic elements which function through it and correspond to the various
parts and organs—these passions and desires, and with them the whole
animal being—are to some extent involved in the ruin. They are (in most
cases) smitten with dire suffering and confusion. A terrible misgiving
and dismay assault them; and with the break-up and disruption of the
body they too experience the agonies of disruption, and foresee their
own dissolution and death.[41]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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