4

Creation of Spirits. — Nature and immateriality of Spirits. — Form of Spirits. — Perispirit. — The spiritual world is the primitive normal world. — Spirits inhabit universal space. — Gift of ubiquity attributed to Spirits. — Faculty of seeing, in Spirits. — Mutual communications of Spirits. — Primitive state of Spirits: their progressive perfecting. — Different orders of Spirits. — All Spirits tend toward perfection. — Fall of the angels. — Demons. — Functions and attributions of Spirits. — Intellectual faculties of Spirits; their knowledge of the past and of the Future. — Pains and joys of Spirits. — Families of Spirits. (Questions

to 79 c.)

Did Spirits have a beginning, or do they exist, like God, from all eternity? [Question 78.]

“If they had not had a beginning, they would be equal to God, whereas they are His creation and are subject to His will. That God exists from all eternity is incontestable; as to the manner, however, in which He created us, we know nothing. You may say that we had no beginning if by this you mean that, being eternal, God must have created incessantly. But when and how He created each of us, I repeat to you, no one knows: therein lies the mystery.”

God created the intelligent beings that people the Universe outside the material world, and which are designated by the name of Spirits. The origin of Spirits, like the first cause of all things, is one of the secrets of God.

The Spirits themselves do not know in what manner they were made. They know only that they are a creation of God, because they are subject to His will; but, as happens with all creatures, mysteries also exist for them.

Are Spirits immaterial, or formed of some substance? Can we know their intimate nature? [Question 78.]

“How can one define a thing when terms of comparison are lacking and with a deficient language? Can a person blind from birth define light? Immaterial is not quite the term; incorporeal would be more exact, for you must understand that, being a creation, the Spirit must be something. It is matter quintessentialized, but without analogy for you, and so etereal that it cannot be perceived by your gross senses.”

The intimate nature of Spirits, as well as their origin, is a mystery which it is not given us to know in this world. We say that Spirits are immaterial because their essence differs from all that we know under the name of matter.

A people blind from birth would have no terms to express light and its effects. In the same way, with regard to the essence of superhuman beings, we are truly blind. We can define them only by means of always imperfect comparisons.

Are Spirits beings distinct from the Divinity, or are they merely emanations or portions of the Divinity, and, for this reason, called children of God? [Question 77.]

“My God! They are His work, exactly as a man who makes a machine; that machine is the work of the man, and not the man himself. You know that man, when he makes something beautiful and useful, calls it his daughter, his creation. Well then! The same is true with regard to God; we are His children, for we are His work.”

Spirits form part of the Creation, and, as such, are considered children of God; nevertheless, they are beings distinct from God Himself, just as the work is distinct from the workman. If they were merely emanations or irradiations of the Divinity, they would partake of all the infinite divine perfections.

Do Spirits have a determined, limited, and constant form? [Question 88.]

“To your eyes, no; to ours, yes. The Spirit is, if you will, a flame, a glow, or a spark.”

a. What is the color of that flame? [Question 88 a.]

“It depends on their degree of perfection. When the Spirit is pure, it may be compared to that of the ruby.”

Spirits have, in themselves, no form, no determined and constant extension, in the sense that we associate with these words. A flame, a glow, or an etereal spark, varying from dark to the brilliance of the ruby, according to the purity of the Spirit, is the only thing that could give us an idea of them, although a pale and incomplete one.

Does the Spirit properly so called have any covering, or, as some maintain, is it enveloped in some substance? [Question 93.]

“The Spirit is enveloped in a substance that is vaporous to you, but still quite gross to us; sufficiently vaporous, however, to be able to rise into the atmosphere and transport itself wherever it wishes.”

a. From where does the Spirit draw its envelope? [Question 94.]

“From the universal fluid of each globe.”

b. Is that envelope perceptible and does it take determined forms? [Question 95.]

“Yes, the form that the Spirit wishes, and it is in this way that it appears to you sometimes.”

Just as the germ of a fruit is enveloped by the perisperm, the Spirit properly so called is clothed in an envelope which, by comparison, may be called perispirit.

The perispirit is of a semimaterial nature, that is, of a nature intermediate between the spirit and matter. It takes determined forms according to the will of the Spirit and can, in certain cases, impress our senses.

The substance of the perispirit is drawn from the universal fluid. It is more or less etereal, according to the constitutive state of each globe. Passing from one world to another, the Spirit changes its envelope or perispirit, as we change our clothing.

Do Spirits have individuality?

“Yes; they are never confounded.”

Spirits have individuality and their own existence. They are distinguished from one another without ever being confounded.

Do Spirits constitute a world apart, outside the one we see? [Question 84.]

“Yes, the world of Spirits or of the incorporeal intelligences.” Spirits constitute a whole incorporeal world, invisible to us in our normal state, whereas the corporeal beings constitute the material and visible world.

Which of the two, the spiritual world or the corporeal world, is the principal in the order of things? [Question 85.]

“The spiritual world.”

a. Does the spiritual world preexist everything?

“It preexists and survives everything.” [Question 85.]

b. Could the corporeal world cease to exist, or never have existed, without this altering the essence of the spiritual world? [Question 86.]

“Yes; they are independent.”

The spiritual world, or world of Spirits, is the normal world, primitive, preexistent to and surviving everything. The corporeal world is secondary, transitory, passing, and subordinate; it is perishable because matter, in transforming itself, ceaselessly produces new beings, animate or inanimate; it could cease to exist, or never have existed, without thereby altering the essence of the spiritual world.

Do Spirits occupy a determined and circumscribed region in universal space? [Question 87.]

“No; they are everywhere.”

a. Are they around us, at our side?

“Yes, and they observe you.”

Spirits do not inhabit a determined place; they are everywhere, the Universe is their domain; the infinite spaces are filled with them. They are around us, at our side, as well as in the most distant regions and even in the bowels of the Earth.

Do Spirits transport themselves instantaneously from one place to another? “Yes.”

a. Do Spirits spend any time traversing space? [Question 89.]

“Yes, but with the rapidity of thought.”

b. Does matter offer an obstacle to Spirits? [Question 91.]

“No; they penetrate everything.”

The etereal essence of Spirits allows them to traverse space and transport themselves readily from one place to another and from one world to another.

Matter offers them no obstacle; they penetrate everything, introduce themselves anywhere: the air, the earth, the waters, and even fire are equally accessible to them.

Can the same Spirit divide itself or exist in several points at the same time? [Question 92.]

“No; there can be no division of one and the same Spirit; but each is a center that irradiates in different directions, and that is why they seem to be in many places at the same time. Do you see the Sun? It is only one; nevertheless, it irradiates in all directions and carries its rays very far. Yet, it does not divide itself.”

Each Spirit is an indivisible unity; consequently, it cannot be, at the same time, in several different points. Each of them is an intellectual center or focus that irradiates in different directions, as the brain irradiates thought, without thereby dividing itself. Only in this sense is the gift of ubiquity attributed to Spirits to be understood.

Is the sight of Spirits circumscribed like that of corporeal beings? [Question 245.]

“No.”

a. Where is it located?

“In their whole being.” [Question 245.]

b. Can Spirits see simultaneously in the two hemispheres? [Question 247.]

“Yes, they see everywhere; for them there is no darkness.” In Spirits, the faculty of seeing is not circumscribed as in corporeal beings; it is a property inherent to their nature and which resides in their whole being, as light resides in a luminous body. It is a kind of universal lucidity that extends to everything, that embraces simultaneously space, the times, and things, a lucidity for which there is no darkness, nor material obstacles.

Can Spirits hide from one another? [Question 283.]

“No; they can move away from one another, but they always see each other.” The faculty of seeing is unlimited among Spirits; consequently, they cannot hide from one another. They may even move apart, but always seeing each other. No hiding place can subtract them from sight.

Can Spirits reciprocally conceal their thoughts from one another? [Question 283.]

“No; for them everything is patent, above all when they are perfect.” From the indefinite sight and penetration of Spirits follows the reciprocal knowledge of their thoughts. Nothing among them could be dissimulated, principally when they are perfect.

How do Spirits communicate among themselves? [Question 282.]

“They see and understand one another. Speech is material: it is the reflection of the Spirit.”

From the intuition of their reciprocal thoughts follows, for Spirits, the mode of their communications; they see and understand one another, without need of speech.

Were Spirits created good and bad, or do the good and the bad exist among them? [Question 115.]

“God created all Spirits simple and ignorant, that is, without knowledge. To each He gave a mission, with the aim of enlightening them and of making them arrive progressively at perfection, through the knowledge of truth, to bring them near to Himself. For them, eternal and unmixed happiness consists in that perfection.” “Spirits acquire that knowledge by passing through the trials that God imposes on them. Some accept those trials with submission and arrive more quickly at the goal destined for them. Others endure it only murmuring and thus, through their own fault, remain far from perfection and from the promised happiness.” 80

a. According to this, would Spirits resemble, in their origin, ignorant children without experience, acquiring only little by little the knowledge they lack as they traverse the different phases of life? [Question

a.]

“Yes, the comparison is just; the rebellious child remains ignorant and imperfect; its greater or lesser progress will depend on its docility. But the life of man has a term, whereas that of Spirits extends to infinity.”

Are all Spirits equal among themselves? [Question 96.]

“No; they are of different orders.”

a. On what is the difference that exists among them based?

“On the degree of perfection they have reached.” [Question 96.]

b. Among Spirits, how many orders or degrees of perfection are there? [Question 97.]

“The number is unlimited, but it can be reduced to three principal ones.” The spiritual world is thus composed of more or less perfect Spirits. This difference constitutes among them a hierarchy based on the degree of purification they have reached. We can divide them into three principal orders; but this number has nothing absolute about it, considering that each order presents an infinity of degrees.

Which are the Spirits of the first order? [Question

and 113.]

“The pure Spirits, those who have attained perfection.” [Question 97.]

a. What are angels, archangels, or seraphim? [Question 113.]

“Pure Spirits.”

b. Are angels beings of a nature different from that of other Spirits? [Question 128.]

“No; all have traversed the different degrees of the scale. But, as we have already said, some fulfilled their mission without murmuring and arrived more quickly.” [Question 129.]

In the first rank of the spiritual hierarchy are the Spirits who have attained perfection. They are the pure Spirits who, having no more trials to undergo, remain for all eternity in the glory of God. They are sometimes designated by the names of angels, archangels, or seraphim. Angels do not constitute beings of a special nature; like the other Spirits, they have traversed the different orders. The man who has acquired the maximum of knowledge and experience is not, for that reason, endowed with a nature different from that which he possessed in infancy.

Which are the Spirits of the second order? [Question

to 111.]

“Those who have arrived at the middle of the scale.”

a. What characterizes the Spirits of the second order? [Question 107.]

“The desire for good is their preoccupation.”

b. Do they have only the desire for good, or do they also have the power to practice it? [Question 98.]

“They have that power according to their degree of perfection; but all still have to undergo trials.”

The Spirits of the second order are those who still have trials to undergo. They are in an intermediate plane, between the pure Spirits and the inferior Spirits, and they approach more or less the one or the other, according to their degree of perfection.

They are perfected enough to have only the desire for good, but not sufficiently elevated to have sovereign Science, for perfection is acquired only by those who have traversed all the degrees of spiritual life.

Which are the Spirits of the third order? [Question

to 106.]

“Those who are still in the inferior part of the scale: the imperfect Spirits.”

a. What characterizes the Spirits of the third order? [Question 101.]

“Ignorance and all the bad passions that retard their perfecting.”

b. Are the Spirits of the third order all essentially bad?

“No; some do neither good nor evil; others, on the contrary, rejoice in evil and are satisfied when they find occasion to practice it.”

c. What should be understood by goblins?

“Goblins, hobgoblins, and imps: it is all the same thing. They are frivolous Spirits, bunglers rather than bad, who take more pleasure in mischief than in malice, and who find pleasure in mystifying and causing small annoyances.” [Question 103.]

The Spirits of the third order are the imperfect Spirits, that is, those who still have almost all the rungs to traverse. They are characterized by ignorance, by pride, by egoism, and by all the bad passions that are consequent to them.

They can be divided into three principal classes:

1st — Neutral Spirits — those who are neither good enough to do good, nor bad enough to do evil. [Question 105.]

2nd — Impure Spirits — those who are inclined to evil, which they make the object of their preoccupations. [Question 102.]

3rd — Mischievous Spirits — they are frivolous, malicious, inconsequent, more turbulent than bad; they meddle in everything, take pleasure in causing small griefs and slight joys, in maliciously inducing to error by means of mystifications. They are also designated by the names of goblins or imps. [Question 103.]

Are Spirits good or bad by nature, or is it they themselves who improve? [Question 114.]

“It is the Spirits themselves who improve.”

a. Do Spirits belong perpetually to the same order?

“In improving themselves, they pass from an inferior order to a superior order.” [Question 114.]

Spirits are not good or bad by the very essence of their nature, nor do they remain belonging perpetually to the same order. They are all Spirits who improve and who, in purifying themselves, pass from an inferior order to a superior one.

Are there Spirits who will remain forever in the inferior orders? [Question 116.]

“No; all will become perfect. They change order, but it takes time, because, as we have already said another time, a just and merciful father cannot eternally banish his children. Would you claim that God, so great, so good, so just, were worse than yourselves?”

a. Does it depend on Spirits to shorten the time of their trials? [Question 117.]

“Certainly. They arrive more or less quickly, according to their desire and submission to the will of God. Does not a docile child instruct itself more quickly than a rebellious child?”

There are no Spirits condemned to remain perpetually in the inferior classes. In passing through the trials to which they are submitted, all improve and will attain the superior degree in eternal life. The successive improvement of Spirits forms part of the designs of Providence. All progress in virtue of a power that dominates them, as man passes from infancy to mature age; all change and transform themselves in a time more or less long, according to their own desire, for it depends on their will to arrive more quickly or less quickly.

Can Spirits degenerate? [Question 118.]

“No; as they advance, they understand what was distancing them from perfection. When the Spirit finishes a trial, it keeps the knowledge it acquired and forgets it no more.”

Spirits who have attained a superior degree cannot degenerate nor fail again; they have the knowledge of good and evil; the experience they have acquired prevents them from retrograding.

What then should we think of the belief in fallen Spirits? “We have already said that all Spirits were created ignorant and without experience; they learn the truth through the trials to which they are submitted and in the missions given to them. Those who fulfill their missions without complaints advance; the others remain in the rear. They are not, therefore, fallen; they are, if you will, rebellious Spirits, just as the unruly child toward its father. God, however, is not pitiless; He ceaselessly furnishes them the means of improving themselves; it falls to them to make use of them more or less quickly, according to the desire of each, and it is in this that free will consists.” The idea of the fall of Spirits supposes a degradation. Now, all Spirits having the same point of departure, which is the state of ignorance and inexperience, they can only elevate themselves or remain stationary; consequently, there can be no fall in the vulgar sense attached to this word. Their elevation depends on the very desire they may have to progress and on the submission they manifest to the will of God; considering, however, that some Spirits have not accepted without complaints the mission it falls to them to carry out, they are punished by themselves, suffering for a longer time the pains inherent to their own inferiority; but such suffering is not eternal, for sooner or later they understand the fault they committed and advance progressively. There is, then, in the case, simple rebellion, and not a fall. They are not rebel angels, seeing that the angels, who are Spirits who have arrived at perfection, cannot degenerate. 81

Are there demons in the sense given to this word? [Question 131.]

“If there were demons, they would be the work of God. And would God be just and good if He had created beings eternally devoted to evil and unhappy forever? If there are demons, it is in your gross world and in others like it that they reside. They are those hypocritical men who make of a just God a bad and vengeful God and who think they please Him by the abominations they commit in His name.”

By demons, according to the vulgar acceptation of the word, are understood beings essentially and perpetually malevolent; they would, like all things, be created by God. Now, God, who is sovereignly just and good, cannot have created beings naturally predisposed to evil and condemned forever. If they were not the work of God, they would exist, like Him, from all eternity, or else there would be many sovereign powers.

Do Spirits have anything else to do besides improving themselves personally? [Question 558.]

“They concur to the harmony of the Universe, executing the wills of God, whose ministers they are.”

a. Do the inferior and imperfect Spirits also perform a useful function in the Universe? [Question 559.]

“All have their useful mission. Does not the least qualified of masons concur to the construction of the edifice, as much as the architect?” Spirits are the ministers of God and the agents of His will; it is through them that God governs the world. All, from the first to the last, concur to the harmony of the Universe; each one has a role in the general order, according to the class to which it belongs; it is in this that their mission consists, and it is in performing it that they perfect themselves and acquire the knowledge that one day will make them perfect.

Does each Spirit have special attributions? [Question 560.]

“It is to say that we have to inhabit all the regions and acquire the knowledge of all things, presiding successively over all the components of the Universe. But, as Ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything. Thus, such a Spirit today fulfills in this world its destiny; such another will fulfill or has already fulfilled its own, in another epoch, on the earth, in the water, in the air, etc.”

In order to instruct themselves about all things, Spirits have successively to traverse the different phases of the physical order and of the moral order of the Universe. In this way, while some preside on Earth over the geological phenomena, others preside over the phenomena of the air, of the waters, of vegetation, of the birth and death of living beings, of the production and destruction of all things; it is through them that the revolutions which transform the face of the worlds are accomplished.

Are the functions that Spirits perform in the order of things permanent for each of them, or are they exclusive attributions of certain classes? [Question 561.]

“All have to traverse the different degrees of the scale in order to perfect themselves. God, who is just, could not have given to some science without labor, while others acquire it only with much effort.”

The functions exercised by Spirits are not permanent for each of them, nor exclusive to certain classes, seeing that it is necessary for all to fulfill their destiny in order to attain perfection. The same thing happens among men, where no one arrives at the supreme degree of skill in any art whatever, without first acquiring the necessary knowledge in the practice of the most minute parts of that art.

Would the idea of gnomes, of sylphs, and of other genii created by the imagination not seem to have its source in the acquired knowledge or in the intuition of the diverse functions of Spirits?

“Without doubt; in what you call fables there are often great truths. Most have their source in the revelation of the things of On High, but which were taken literally; therein lies the error.”

The idea of the functions that Spirits exercise, like the Spiritist Doctrine itself, is found under diverse forms in the belief of all peoples and in all epochs, with the difference that they made distinct beings out of what is but a temporary attribute. It was thus that the imagination invented the gnomes, the sylphs, the nymphs, and the whole phalanx of genii.

Do Spirits have perceptions unknown to us?

“Certainly, for your faculties are limited by your organs. Intelligence is an attribute of the Spirit, but one that manifests itself more freely when the latter has no obstacles to overcome.” [Question 237.]

Intelligence is an essential attribute of the nature of the Spirit, being confounded with it. The faculty of knowing is a consequence of intelligence, a faculty that exercises itself freely and without hindrance, when it is not circumscribed by the material organs. It is for this reason that Spirits have perceptions unknown to us.

Are the perceptions and knowledge of Spirits unlimited? In a word: do they know everything? [Question 238.]

“No; nevertheless, the more they approach perfection, the more they know.”

The perceptions and knowledge are not unlimited for all Spirits, but proportional to the degree of purity and of perfection they have reached.

Do Spirits understand duration, as we do? [Question 240.]

“No, and it is this that makes you not always understand us, when it is a matter of determining dates or epochs.”

The intelligence of Spirits embraces eternity. Duration, for them, annuls itself, so to speak, and the centuries, so long for us, are, in their eyes, but brief instants.

Do Spirits form a more precise and more just idea of the present than we do? [Question 241.]

“More or less like the one who sees clearly forms a more exact idea of things than the blind man does. Spirits see what you do not see; they judge, therefore, in a manner different from yours. But, once again, this depends on their elevation.” The faculty of seeing everything, joined to the breadth of the intellectual perceptions and to the penetration of thought, furnishes Spirits an absolute knowledge of the present, allowing them to embrace, at a single glance, all contemporary events. It is for this reason that they judge things with more good sense than we ourselves would do, hindered as we are by our terrestrial envelope.

How is it that Spirits have knowledge of the past? [Question 242.]

“The past, when we occupy ourselves with it, is present, exactly as you remember a thing that impressed you in the course of your exile. Simply, since we no longer have the material veil that obscures your intelligence, we remember things that for you are effaced.”

a. Is that knowledge unlimited for them? [Question 242.]

“No; Spirits do not know everything, beginning with their own creation.” With the duration of time being effaced, the past comes to the memory of Spirits and shows them, as present, the events most distant from us. They know, then, the past, except the origin and the beginning of things which, for them as for us, remain wrapped in a mysterious veil, until they have attained supreme perfection. As the breadth of the perceptions of Spirits is subordinate to the degree of their elevation, the knowledge they have of the past, even for vulgar things, will depend on that elevation.

Do Spirits know the future? [Question 243.]

“This too depends on their perfection. Often, they only glimpse it, but it is not always permitted them to reveal it. When they see it, the future appears present to them.”

a. Do the Spirits who have attained absolute perfection have complete knowledge of the future? [Question 243 a.]

“Complete is not quite the term, for only God is sovereign Lord and no one can equal Him.”

The knowledge of the future has, for Spirits, limits which it is not permitted them to surpass. They know it according to their degree of perfection. According to that degree, they prejudge it with greater or lesser exactness, as a consequence of the present; they glimpse it and can, if it be in the designs of Providence, make a partial revelation. The future, then, unfolds before them: they see it as they see the past and the present.

Do Spirits experience our needs and physical sufferings? Do they feel fatigue and the need of repose? [Question

and 254.]

“No; they are Spirits. It is true that they know them, because they have already suffered them, but they do not feel them as you do, materially.”

By virtue of their spiritual essence, Spirits cannot be subject to the influences that affect matter. They do not feel our needs, nor our physical sufferings, nor fatigue, nor do they need repose, although they understand them. 82

Are Spirits happy or unhappy?

“Happy or unhappy, according to their degree of perfection.”

a. Are there those who enjoy unalterable happiness?

“Yes, the pure Spirits. All will attain it; it depends on them.” The pains and joys of Spirits are inherent to their nature and to the degree of perfection they have attained. Perfect and unmixed happiness is the appanage of the pure Spirits; until then, they enjoy only an incomplete happiness.

Can we understand the nature of the pains and joys of Spirits, comparing them to those we experience on Earth?

“No; their pains and joys have nothing carnal about them.” The pains and joys of Spirits have nothing of the corporeal sensations and, nevertheless, are a thousand times more vivid than those we experience on Earth, as much in good as in evil.

Are the Spirits of different orders mingled with one another? [Question 278.]

“Yes and no; they see one another, but they are distinguished from one another.”

a. Are there Spirits who attract one another and others who repel one another? “Without doubt, according to the analogy or the antipathy of their sentiments, as happens among you. The Spirits detached from matter repel or attract one another, just as it happens among the incarnates. It is a whole world of which yours is a pale reflection.”

Although Spirits are everywhere, the different orders do not mingle; they see one another from a distance. Those of the same category reunite by a kind of affinity and form groups or families of Spirits united by the bonds of sympathy.

Such is a great city, where men of all classes and conditions see and meet one another, without being confounded; where societies are formed by the analogy of tastes; where vice and virtue dwell side by side without speaking to one another.

What is the motive that attracts the good Spirits?

“The desire to do good; sympathy. Like attracts like.”

a. What are the occupations of the good Spirits?

“To watch over the fulfillment of good; to occupy themselves with Humanity and with the means of improving it.”

b. What is the nature of the relations between the good Spirits and the bad ones? [Question 280.]

“The good ones endeavor to combat the bad inclinations of the others, in order to help them rise. It is their mission.”

The good Spirits attract one another by the similitude of joys, by the communion of sentiments and thoughts, and by the desire to do good. The sentiments of love and benevolence are exclusive attributes of the good Spirits. Their occupation consists in watching over the exact fulfillment of all that is good and struggling against the bad inclinations of the inferior Spirits, in order to help them rise.

It is thus that we hear the good Spirits through the voice of conscience, to which we so often stop our ears.

What is the motive that attracts the bad Spirits?

“The desire to do evil; shame at their faults and the need to remain in the midst of beings who are like them.”

a. Why do the inferior Spirits take pleasure in evil?

“Out of the spite of not having deserved to be among the good.” [Question 281.]

b. Do Spirits have special passions from which Humanity is exempt? [Question 363.]

“No; otherwise they would have communicated them to you.”

c. Do Spirits exercise influence on one another? “Yes, the superior ones over the inferior ones.” The inferior Spirits attract one another by the similitude of their bad tendencies and by the desire to do evil.

Envy, jealousy, pride, egoism, and all the bad passions are peculiar to the imperfect Spirits, who find themselves, by their moral inferiority and ignorance, under the influence of the superior Spirits. They take pleasure in evil out of the envy and jealousy they feel of the happiness of the good; it is their desire to prevent, as much as they can, the still imperfect Spirits from attaining the supreme good; they want the others to feel what they themselves experience.

Do Spirits devote particular affections to one another? [Question 291.]

“Yes, as among men.”

a. Do Spirits hold hatred among themselves? [Question 292.]

“Yes, the impure Spirits.”

b. Are the affections of Spirits purer than those of men?

“The more perfect the Spirit, the purer is the affection they hold among themselves.”

c. Are the reciprocal affections of Spirits susceptible to alterations? [Question 296.]

“No, for all sentiments are uncovered; they cannot deceive themselves.”

Besides the similitude of thoughts that unites the Spirits of the same order, there are among them individual affections founded on special sympathies. The more perfect they are, the purer are these affections; for them, the love that unites them is a source of supreme happiness. Hatred exists only among the impure Spirits.

As Spirits cannot dissimulate their thoughts, hypocrisy is impossible among them; it is for this reason that their affections are unalterable.

[80] T. N.: In respect for the original, we do not place quotation marks around the answer to question 53. See footnote nº 74, on p. 73.

[81] T. N.: For greater details on the subject, see Spiritist Review, January 1862: “Essay on the interpretation of the doctrine of the fallen angels”; Genesis, chapter XI, item 43 and following: “Doctrine of the fallen angels and of the loss of paradise” (FEB Editions). [82] T. N.: See, in the definitive edition of The Spirits' Book, the answer to question nº 256, as well as the dissertation of Kardec (item 257), entitled “Theoretical essay on the sensation of Spirits”.