PROPER CARE OF THE DECEASED 225from that impress the feeling will be realized when the
Ego enters the Desire World, but we may note here
thatthe intensity of feeling realized depends upon the
length of time consumed in the process of etching and
the attention given thereto by the man. If he was
undisturbed for a long period, a deep clear-cut
impress will be made upon the desire body. He will
feel the wrong he did more keenly in Purgatory, and be
more abundantly strengthened in his good qualities in
heaven, and though the experience will be lost in a
future life,the feelings will remain, as the “still small
voice”. Where the feelings have been strongly indented
upon the desire body of an Ego, this voice will speak
in no vague and uncertain terms. It will impel him
beyond gainsaying, forcing him to desist from that
which caused him pain in the life before and compel
him to yield to that which is good. Therefore the
panorama passes BACKWARDS, so that the Ego sees
first the effects, and then the underlying causes.
When the body is buried, the vital body
disintegrates slowly at the same time as the dense
body, so that when, for instance, an arm has decayed in
the grave, the etheric arm of the vital body which
hovers over the grave also disappears, and so on until
the last vestige of the body is gone. But where
cremation is performed the vital body disintegrates at
once, and as that is the storehouse of the pictures of the
past life which are being etched upon the desire body
to form the basis of life in Purgatory and the First
Heaven, this would be a great calamity where
cremation is performed before the three and one-half
days are passed. Unless help were given, the passing
Spirit could not hold it together. And that is part of the