The Religion of the Veda: The Ancient Religion of India (from Rig-Veda to Upanishads) c11.19

c11.19

The belief that man has a soul depends in the main upon two observations: First, breath of life and its cessation after death. Life's breath is construed by primitive observers as an entity which lives with the living body and leaves it at death. When life's breath departs, the soul departs. Secondly, intercourse of the living with the dead continues in dreams and hallucinations. This shows that the dead after all exist. Primitive man does not recognise illusions.