"As I was saying, the soul has more than one part, in the same manner as the brain. The larger part of it — identity, personality, consciousness, if you will — this is what springs loose and travels; but a small residual soul remains. It keeps the vacant body animate, so to speak, for otherwise vacancy would mean death, of course." "I see. The residual soul animates the brain stem; that is what you mean." "Yes. When you rise out of your body, you will leave a residual soul there. And when you come into this body, you will find the residual soul there as well. It's the very same residual soul I found when I took possession. And that soul will lock with any higher soul eagerly and automatically; it wants to embrace that higher soul. Without it, it feels incomplete." "And when death occurs both souls leave?" "Precisely. Both souls go together, the residual soul and the larger soul, in a violent evacuation, and then the body is a mere lifeless shell and begins its decay."
— The Tale of the Body Thief
