Where does the Spirit dwell in the body?

One says, in the Banner of Light, that the spirit, the intelligent part, the motive power, does not dwell within the body. Now I had supposed that the spiritual body dwelt within the material body and separated from it at death and became the immortal form of the inner spirit. Will you explain this point?

No―it does not dwell within the body any more than the performer on the musical instrument dwells within the instrument. It is outside of the body, but adapted to it, so far as it is in rapport with the body. So far as there is disease, the spirit is not present in full action―has lost its control precisely on the same principle that a musical performer would lose control of the instrument when one of the keys was out of order. 

People who believe that the spirit dwells within the body will have to unlearn their mistake sooner or later.

―William E. Channing in Spirit