How did Tylor connect dreams, death, and apparitions to beliefs about souls?

Edward Burnett Tylor proposed that the concept of animism originated as a "crude childlike natural philosophy" through spontaneous reflection on human experiences. He argued that these experiences provided the foundational evidence for a "doctrine of souls," which he considered the earliest stage of religious development.1

Tylor connected these phenomena to the belief in souls in the following ways:

• Dreams: He asserted that people everywhere would be struck by the vividness of dream images. When individuals dreamed of distant friends or deceased kin, they reasoned that these experiences were proof of the existence of souls that could exist independently of the physical body.1
• Death and Apparitions: Tylor viewed the transition from life to death as a primary catalyst for reflection. The observation of death, combined with the occurrence of apparitions or visions of the deceased, led early humans to conclude that a soul or spirit must persist after the body has ceased to function.1

By interpreting these experiences as evidence of spiritual beings, Tylor believed humanity developed a "doctrine of spirits," which eventually expanded into more complex religious systems.1