Knowledge in the Separated Human Soul

When the soul is separated from the body by death, it does not lose its faculties of intellect and will; nor does it lose its knowledge. But the intellect cannot, as it must in this life,turn to phantasms in using its acquired knowledge. For phantasmsare sense-images, and the separated soul has no senses. Therefore,in the state of separation, there is a change of mode or manner inthe operation of intellect.

The separated soul grasps things that are in themselves understandable by a direct grasp. For the soul, being separated from matter, is the more perfectly knowing and knowable;“nonmateriality is the root of knowing and of knowledge.”Thus the soul knows other souls perfectly, and knows angels lessperfectly.

The separated soul is suffused with light from God which gives it the intelligible species of things knowable, and thus it knows natural things. Angelic knowledge is more perfect than this knowledge of the separated soul, for angels are naturallyconstituted for knowing without using phantasms, and the separated soul is not naturally so constituted.

The separated soul knows individual things by itsretainedknowledge, habits and affections, under the divinelyimparted light which both supplies intelligible species andcompensates for the lack of phantasms which the intellect naturally requires for its operation. A soul with no retained knowledge, suchas the soul of an infant, has all its knowledge by divine ordinance and divine light. The separated soul does not know all individual things; it knows to the extent established by the divine order.

The habit of knowledge, such as the grasp of first principles, remains in the separated soul. Sentient knowing habits,of course, are not there, for the senses are not there. The soul cannot forget any longer, nor can it now be deceived by fallaciousreasoning.

Thus the mode of intellectual operation in a separated soul is one in harmony with a spiritual being; it depends upon the help of God through the ministration of supernal light.

Distance from the object known cannot hinder knowledge in the separated soul, for it knows through species imparted or preserved by divinely bestowed light in which local distance makes no difference at all.

Separated souls are naturally ignorant of what takes place on earth. But it is likely that the souls of the blessed in heaven are aware of what goes on among people on earth. Angels have this knowledge, and the souls enjoying the beatific vision are on apar with angels.