So last night, a friend of mine studying nursing told me that she saw her first dead body the other day. She said that when she entered the room where he was, she could "feel" his absense. I told her I knew what she meant. I've seen a few dead bodies in my day. I've been in a room with someone about to die too, and it's completely different. She agreed with me on one point. I told her that people often say "there's no such thing as an athiest in the trenches", and I'm not sure I agree with that if you're talking about someone who fears for their life. But if you say it to mean that in the trenches you see a lot of death around you, then I can understand it. You see, I could never be an athiest now that I've seen death, because seeing that inanimate body makes you acutely aware of how little the physical self means to the soul. I mean, when you're looking at that dead body, the spooky part isn't facing some fear about your own immortality, it's knowing totally and completely that the person you loved is no longer there, even though you're looking straight at them. In time, once you can cope with missing them, it's almost comforting. The body may be essential to life, but it is certainly not essential to existence.