e., through the eyes, ears, etc.). They will not be able to experience bodily pains and pleasures. They will not be able to engage in bodily activities. Taking a walk, getting dressed, playing catch-these sorts of activities will be impossib le.But if by the word "soul" we mean in part. the constellation of those human activities that would typically be classified as "mental," then the claim that our souls survive death entails the claim that our mental abi lities and properties survive death. This means that human persons in the interim state can be spoken of as having experiences, beliefs, wishes. knowledge, memory, inner (rather than bodily) feelings, thoughts. language (assuming memory of earthly existen ce)-in short, just about everything that makes up what we call personality. H.H. Price, in his classic article " Survival and the Idea of ' Another World '," argues convincingly that disembodied souls can also be aware of each other's existence, can commu nicate with each other telepathically, and can have dreamlike (rather than bodily) perceptions of their world. 8But Aquinas argues that the disembodied existence of the person in the interim state is so deficient that ultimate happiness is impossible. No one in whom some perfection is lacking is ultimately happy, for in such a state there trill always be unfulfilled desiring It is contrary to the nature of the soul to be without the body, Aquinas says, and he takes this to mean both that the disembodied state must only be temporary, and that the true bliss of the human person is only attained after reembodiment, i.e., in the general resurrection. He says: " Man cannot achieve his ultimate happiness unless the soul be once again united to the body." 'The second main claim of the theory that I am calling temporary disembodiment is that at the general resurrection, the body will be raised from the ground and reunited with the soul. As the second century writer Athe nagoras says: ".
