Havel's description of a belief in the survival of human personality is thought provoking and suggestive, but certainly isn't really a logically reasoned philosophical "proof" of immortality. Nor is it really the foundation of his own certainty. He admits as much to his wife at the end of the passage we quoted in the last post -
"You have often wondered where I, such a rational man, come by my conviction that the human soul is immortal. In time, I'll try to write something longer and more fundamental about it; but if you like, you may take what I've written today as a small contribution to the subject. I haven't explained the real root of my faith in immortality, I've merely indicated a way in which modern man can conceive of immortality or how he might include it in his picture of his world."
The mystic vision is no less present in our modern age of unbelief, but it has a harder time giving voice to its insights, because, for far too many, there no longer exists a commonly accepted language in which to express the experience. They, like Wittgenstein, find themselves simply saying - "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."
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