The concept of a separation of soul and body paves the road towards the idea of a higher spiritual experience. In his short story "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" Edgar Allen Poe uses vivid and suspenseful imagery to describe the effects of inner spirituality and the natural process of death and how easily it can be tampered with, although it shouldn't be. This is all presented through his description of a separation of mind and body. Poe's short story at first was regarded to be an actual scientific publication, like those featured in medical journals. This is due to the fact it was never designated to be "fiction" and was first released anonymously, which helped people perceive Poe's idea of a separation of mind and body as more than just a thought, but as a reality. The story follows a man who is fascinated by the idea of mesmerism and decides to try hypnotizing an old friend right before his death. As the dying man, M. Valdemar, fades into cessation, his tongue begins to move and announce that he is dead, showing the decay of his body but not his soul. 

The narrator, whose name is never announced, begins by explaining his desire to mesmerize someone who is in a state of "articulo mortis" or at the point of death. He aspired to see if "in such a condition, there existed in the patient any susceptibility to the magnetic influence" and if it the mesmerizing process was "impaired or increased by the condition". Thirdly, he was curious "for how long a period the encroachments of Death might be arrested by the process." These all reflect the concept of a separation of the mind and body at the point of death. He sought out a way to maintain the conscience while the body is in a state of decay. The question is why this would have mattered at all. Why would Poe (as the narrator) want people to believe that the soul is separate from our physical forms? In essence, he feels the soul exists even when the body ceases to. Poe seems to imply the existence of an afterlife, whether that be religious or that of our world (i.e. ghosts). He seems to feel that while our bodies die our minds live on, and in this case the mind and soul have been trapped inside the body.

The narrator, along with the doctors and nurses who accompanied him during his original experiment, decided to keep the deceased Valdemar's body for a total of 7 months before finally "waking" him. When they had asked the man "can you explain to us what are your feelings or wishes now?" the man, who converses through only his tongue, responds with "For god's sake!-quick!-quick!-put me to sleep-or, quick!-waken me!-quick!-I say to you that I am dead!" The mind was aware of the state of the body, as if it were a separate entity altogether. The mind also brings God into this, showing another piece of religious involvement, and possibly implying that he wishes to join god and not be held prisoner in a shell of a man.  The narrator decided it was time to end the supernatural occurrence and performed his "mesmeric passes" while all the while the man's tongue screeched "Dead! Dead!" These screams can lead one to imply that the spirit of Valdemar longed to be in another place. After the man had been "waken up" his body had "absolutely rotted away beneath [the narrators] hands. Upon the bed, before that whole company, there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome-of detestable putrescence." The soul is what held the body together, and after it had disappeared to wherever it would have gone, the body crumbled into decay as it should have 7 months earlier. This reverts back to the idea of religion and how being spiritual holds a person together and without it we become just an empty shell. 

Edgar Allen Poe uses vivid and suspenseful imagery to describe the effects of inner spirituality and how death is a natural occurrence and should not be tampered with. Valdemar's spirit was trapped in his body because of being mesmerized by the narrator. The reality of the situation was severely realized by the fact that Poe never designated it as a work of fiction, and did not own up to the fact that he wrote it, leaving it to be anonymous. This made people believe that it was an actual experiment done, and Poe had actually received letters from scientists and medical professionals trying to recreate the experiment. The public now had reason to believe in Poe's zombie-esque spirit, and the idea of spirits and bodies being separate. The spirit of a dying individual must leave the body, and in the story the mesmerizing effect on Valdemar prevents his spirit from ascending, descending, or whatever his spirit supposedly would've done. Poe, who was raised Christian, unorthodoxly presents many religious motifs in his suspenseful works, and this short story reflects those. Whether it be in the belief in heaven and hell, or an afterlife of this door, he spirit moves on after death leaving only a shell of what used to be. 

