7

Reincarnation of the Spirits. — Metempsychosis. — Purpose of reincarnation. — Temporal life is a sieve or a purifier for the Spirit. — Reincarnation in the different worlds. — Progressive physical and moral state of the beings that inhabit the different worlds. — Eternal life. — Wandering spirits. — Intervals between corporeal existences. — Trials of corporeal life. — Choice of trials. — Recollection of former existences. — Progressive march of the Spirits. — Physical and moral resemblances of man in his multiple existences. (Questions 125 to 152.)

Does the soul pass through many incarnations or, better said, through many corporeal existences? [Question 166 b.]

“Yes, we all have many corporeal existences. Those who say the contrary wish to keep you in the ignorance in which they themselves find themselves; that is their desire.”

a. What is the purpose of the various incarnations? [Question 167.]

“Expiation, the progressive improvement of Humanity. Without this, where would justice be?”

All the Spirits tend toward perfection, and God grants them the means to attain it through the trials of corporeal life. But, in His justice, He grants them to accomplish, in new existences, what they could not do or finish in a first trial.

God would not act with equity, nor in accordance with His goodness, if He punished forever those who encountered obstacles to their improvement, independently of their will, in the very environment in which they were placed. [Question 171.]

On what is the dogma of reincarnation founded? [Question 171.]

“On the justice of God and on revelation, for we ceaselessly repeat: the good father always leaves the children a door open to repentance. Does not reason tell you that it would be unjust to deprive forever of eternal happiness all those upon whom it did not depend to improve themselves? Are not all men children of God? It is only among selfish men that one finds iniquity, implacable hatred, and punishments without remission.” The dogma of reincarnation, that is, the one that consists in admitting for man many successive existences, is the only one that corresponds to the idea we form of the justice of God, with respect to men of inferior moral formation; the only one that can explain the future and establish our hopes, for it offers us the means of redeeming our errors through new trials. Reason indicates it to us, and the Spirits teach it. It is what Jesus meant by these words that were not understood: I was, I am, I shall be.

Would not the soul of man have been initially the principle of life of the most primitive living beings of Creation, in order to arrive, by means of a progressive law, at man, traversing the various degrees of the organic scale? [Questions

and 613.]

“No! No! Men, we are born so. Each thing progresses in its species and in its essence; man has never been anything other than man.”

Whatever the diversity of the existences through which our Spirit or our soul passes, they all belong to Humanity. It would be an error to believe that, by a progressive law, man has passed through the different degrees of the organic scale in order to arrive at his present state. Thus, his soul was not initially the principle of life of the primitive animate beings of Creation, in order to arrive successively at the superior degree: at man.

Does the doctrine of metempsychosis have any foundation of truth? “No, since man has always been himself.”

a. However erroneous it may be, would not the doctrine of metempsychosis result from the intuitive sentiment that man possesses of his various existences? [Question 613.]

“Yes, but man has distorted it, as he is wont to do with most of his intuitive ideas. Always the same pride, the same ambition!” The doctrine of metempsychosis is doubly erroneous, since, instead of being founded on the ascending march of Nature, it has as its principle the degradation of beings, which it makes pass from Humanity to the state of a brute.

Nevertheless, however false this doctrine may be, it does not fail to result from man’s intuitive sentiment about the different corporeal existences he has traversed or that he must yet traverse.

Since the Spirits cannot improve themselves except by means of the tribulations of corporeal existence, does it follow that material life is a kind of crucible, through which the beings of the spiritual world must pass in order to attain perfection? [Question 196.]

“Yes, that is exactly it.”

a. Is it the body that influences the Spirit so that the latter may improve, or is it the Spirit that influences the body? [Question

a.]

“Your Spirit is everything; your body is a garment that rots: that is all.” The vicissitudes of existence are trials that the Spirits must undergo in order to reach perfection. They improve themselves in these trials by avoiding evil and practicing good.

Corporeal life is, then, a kind of crucible or purifier, through which the beings of the incorporeal world must pass. However, this occurs only after numerous incarnations or successive purifications, by which they attain, in a time more or less long, according to their efforts, the end to which they aspire.

Do our various incarnations all take place on Earth? [Question 172.]

“No; not all of them.”

a. Where do they take place? [Question 172.]

“In the different worlds.”

b. Can we reappear many times on Earth? [Question

a.]

“Certainly.”

c. Can we return to Earth after having lived in other worlds? [Question

b.]

“Yes.”

d. After having incarnated in other worlds, can the Spirits incarnate on Earth, without ever having been here? [Question 176.]

“Yes, just as you can in other globes.”

e. Can we know when a Spirit is in its first incarnation? [Question

b.]

“No.”

The different incarnations do not necessarily all take place on Earth: they may be accomplished in the various worlds that compose the Universe. The one we pass on Earth is neither the first nor the last, although it is one of the most material and the most distant from perfection. It is possible that each of us has already appeared on Earth, as it is possible that we shall reappear here one day; it is what we shall know when we have divested ourselves of the thick garment that compresses us, because then we shall have recovered the recollection of the past.

The first incarnation of the Spirits is a mystery that it is not given to us to unveil.

Are the Spirits of different sexes? [Question 201.]

“No; the same Spirit can animate different sexes alternately.” The Spirits have no sex, and in their various incarnations they can animate, alternately, bodies of men or of women. 96

Do the beings that inhabit the different worlds have bodies similar to ours? [Question 181.]

“Without doubt they have bodies, because the Spirit needs to be clothed in matter; but this envelope is more or less material, according to the degree of purity to which the Spirits have arrived. It is this that distinguishes the worlds we must traverse, for there are many mansions in the house of our Father, and these mansions are of many degrees. Some know it and are conscious of it here on Earth, which does not happen with others.”

a. Can we know exactly the physical and moral state of the different worlds? [Question 182.]

“We, Spirits, can only answer according to the degree of advancement in which you find yourselves; that is to say: we cannot reveal these things to all, for not all are in a condition to understand them, and this would disturb them.” The conditions for incarnation in the different worlds vary according to the perfection of the Spirit; in proportion as the latter approaches perfection, the body that clothes it likewise approaches the spiritual nature. Matter is less dense, it no longer drags itself painfully over the surface of the ground, its physical needs are less gross, it being no longer necessary for living beings to destroy one another in order to feed themselves. The Spirit is freer and has, of distant things, perceptions that we do not know. It sees with the eyes of the body what we only glimpse through thought. The progressive purification of the Spirits is reflected in the moral perfection of the beings in which they are incarnated. The animal passions weaken, and selfishness yields its place to the sentiment of fraternity. It is thus that, in the worlds superior to Earth, wars are unknown, hatreds and discords have no object, for no one thinks of harming his fellow.

Can the Spirits incarnate in a world less perfect than the one to which they already belong? [Question 178.]

“Yes.”

a. Why, then, subject them to the tribulations of an inferior existence, once they are already purified?

“It is a mission to aid progress.”

The Spirits who inhabit a superior world can incarnate in less perfect worlds; in that case, it is not a matter of expiation, but of a mission, which they fulfill by assisting men on the path of progress, a mission they accept gladly for the opportunity they have to practice good.

Have the beings that inhabit each world all attained the same degree of perfection? [Question 179.]

“No; it is as on Earth: there are beings more and less advanced.” Not all the beings that inhabit each world have reached the same degree of perfection. Just as we see on Earth races more or less advanced, each world also harbors beings more or less perfected, although on the whole superior or inferior to us (Note 3).

Is the physical and moral state of living beings perpetually the same on each Globe? [Question 185.]

“No.”

a. Did all the worlds begin, like ours, in an inferior state? “Yes.”

b. Will Earth also undergo the transformation that has already occurred in other worlds? “Certainly. It will become a terrestrial paradise, when men have become good.”

The physical and moral state of living beings is not perpetually the same on each globe. All the worlds began to be peopled by the inferior races, which gradually refined themselves. It is thus that the races that today people the Earth will one day disappear and will be replaced by beings ever more perfect; these transformed races will succeed the present ones, as these succeeded others still more gross. 97

Will there be worlds where the Spirit, ceasing to clothe itself in material bodies, has only the perispirit as its envelope? [Question 186.]

“Yes, and even this envelope becomes so ethereal that for you it is as if it did not exist. Such is the state of the pure Spirits.” In proportion as the Spirits purify themselves, they divest themselves, in the successive incarnations and according to the world they inhabit, of the gross envelope of the inferior worlds.

Having reached a certain degree of superiority, their envelope consists only of the perispirit . In the last degree of purification the Spirit remains, for us, as if divested of any and all envelope.

Into what is the Spirit transformed after its last incarnation? [Question 170.]

“Into a blessed Spirit; it is eternal life.”

a. So eternal life would be the state of the soul that has traversed all the corporeal existences?

“Yes, it enjoys perfect happiness; but this happiness is not that of the selfish one: the soul is always happy through the good it can do.” The Spirits who have reached absolute perfection no longer need incarnation; they are pure Spirits; this is for them eternal life. Eternal life is the state of the Spirits who have attained the supreme degree of purity and who, no longer needing to undergo the trials of material life, enjoy unalterable happiness. It is the life of which Jesus spoke, when he said: “My kingdom is not of this world.”

Is the perispirit an integral and inseparable part of the Spirit? “No; the Spirit can divest itself of it.” 98

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

“From the fluid of each globe.”

b. Is the substance that composes the perispirit the same in all the globes? [Question 187.]

“No; it is more or less ethereal.”

c. In passing from one world to another, does the Spirit leave its perispirit to take another? “Yes, and with the swiftness of lightning.”

The semi-material substance of which the perispirit is formed is inherent in each globe, and its nature is more or less ethereal according to the world to which it belongs.

In their transmigrations from one world to another, the Spirits divest themselves of the perispirit of the world they leave, in order to clothe themselves instantly in that of the world they enter. It is under this envelope that they appear to us sometimes with human figuration or any other, whether in dreams or even in the waking state, but always inaccessible to touch. 99

Does the soul reincarnate immediately after the separation from the body? [Question 223.]

“Sometimes it reincarnates immediately, but most often only after intervals more or less long.”

a. What may be the duration of these intervals? [Question

a.]

“From a few minutes to a few centuries; it depends on the degree of purity of the Spirits. But, in general, the just one reincarnates immediately in a better condition, that is, endowed with a more ample faculty of perception of the past, the future, and the present.

“Sometimes the Spirit reincarnates right afterward, in a more painful condition than the one it had before. An evildoer, a murderer, can reincarnate immediately in conditions that allow him to repent. If, in the material existence in which he committed the crime, he was perhaps in a condition to be able to satisfy all his needs, in the new incarnation he will find himself deprived of those conditions and will lose the company of those with whom he maintained bonds of friendship.”

The reincarnation of the soul may occur immediately after the separation from the body; most of the time, however, it takes place only with intervals more or less long. The number of incarnations and the duration of the intervals cannot be revealed to us; it will depend on the degree of purity to which the Spirits have arrived.

The man who is conscious of his inferiority draws from the doctrine of reincarnation a consoling hope. If he believes in the justice of God, he cannot expect that, in eternity, he will be equal to those who acted better than he. The idea that this inferiority will not disinherit him forever from the supreme good, and that he will be able to conquer it through new efforts, is what sustains him and gives him courage. Who is there who, at the end of his career, does not lament having acquired too late an experience of which he can no longer take advantage? This belated experience is not lost; the Spirit will take advantage of it in a new existence. (Note 4).

What becomes of the soul in the interval between the various incarnations? [Question 224.]

“A wandering spirit, which aspires to a new destiny.”

a. Among the wandering spirits will there be only inferior Spirits? “There are wandering spirits of all degrees.”

b. Are the wandering spirits happy or unhappy? [Question 231.]

“It depends on the perfection in which they find themselves.” In the intervals that separate each incarnation, the soul is a wandering spirit that aspires to a new existence that it must fulfill. The wandering spirits are not necessarily in a state of absolute inferiority. They are more or less elevated and, consequently, more or less happy, according to the good or the evil they have done.

Because it was unable to practice evil, does the Spirit of a child that died at a tender age belong to the superior categories? [Question 198.]

“No; if it did not do evil, neither did it do good, and God does not exempt it from the trials it must endure.”

a. Into what is the Spirit of a child that died at a tender age transformed? [Question 199 a.]

“It enters another body and begins a new existence anew.”

b. Why does life so frequently break off in childhood? [Question 199.]

“It may be, for the Spirit, the complement of an existence and, almost always, an expiation for the parents.”

Like all the others, the Spirit of the child does not attain the state of absolute purity except after having merited it by its acts, and God does not release it from the trials through which it must pass. The soul of the child that dies at birth, or before having full consciousness and liberty of its acts, has merited neither penalties nor rewards; it will fulfill its mission in another existence.

Often, the duration of the child’s life is, for the Spirit incarnated in it, the complement of an existence interrupted before the required term, and its death a trial or an expiation for the parents.

Does repentance take place in the corporeal state or in the spiritual state? [Question 990.]

“In the spiritual state; but it can also occur in the corporeal state, when you well understand the difference between good and evil.”

a. What is the consequence of repentance in the spiritual state? [Question 991.]

“The desire for a new incarnation in order to purify oneself.”

b. Does repentance always happen in the corporeal state?

“Much more than is believed, although, frequently, too late.”

c. What is the consequence of repentance in the corporeal state? [Question 992.]

“To advance, already in the present life, if there is still time for man to repair his faults.”

For the man who understands the difference existing between good and evil, repentance begins in the corporeal state, for conscience reproaches him for his errors and he can improve himself. Repentance takes place always in the spiritual state, when, then, it is already too late to amend oneself; all regret is superfluous, since the Spirit can no longer soften its lot, except by purifying itself through a new incarnation. After death, it understands the faults that deprive it of the happiness enjoyed by the superior Spirits and aspires to a new existence, in which it may expiate them; this, however, is not granted to it at its pleasure; it must wait until the time is fulfilled.

Does the perverse man who did not recognize his faults during life always recognize them after death? [Question 994.]

“Yes; he always recognizes them, and then he suffers more, because he sees and feels in himself all the evil he practiced.”

The perverse man who has not recognized his faults during life will always recognize them when he becomes a Spirit; he will suffer, then, much more, for he will understand how guilty he was and will suffer from all the harms he did to others or of which he was the voluntary cause.

Does expiation take place in the corporeal state or in the spiritual state? [Question 998.]

“We have already said that the Spirit is everything, the body is nothing. The Spirit experiences it; the body is the instrument.”

Expiation is accomplished during corporeal existence by means of the trials to which the Spirit is subjected. The Spirit undergoes them, the body is the instrument. The punishment consists in the moral sufferings inherent in its inferiority in spiritual life.

Can the Spirit choose the body in which it is to incarnate? [Question 335.]

“No; it can choose only the kind of trials it is to undergo, and it is in this that its free will consists.” 100

a. So, all the tribulations we experience in life would have been foreseen and chosen by ourselves? 101 [Question 259.]

“Yes.”

b. What guides the Spirit in the choice of the trials it wishes to undergo? [Question 264.]

“It chooses, according to the nature of its faults, the trials that lead it to expiate them and make it progress more quickly.”

c. Can the Spirit make the choice of its trials during corporeal life? [Question 267.]

“Its desire may have influence, depending on the intention. As a free Spirit, however, it almost always sees things in a way quite different from when it is incarnated. It is the Spirit that makes the choice; but, once again, it can make it even in material life, for there are always moments in which the Spirit becomes independent of the matter in which it dwells.” It does not fall to the Spirit to choose the body in which it is to incarnate, but to choose the kind of trials it wishes to undergo, and it is in this that its free will consists. Thus, then, some may impose upon themselves a life of miseries and privations in order to try to bear it with courage; others wish to try themselves through the temptations of fortune and of power, far more dangerous through the abuse and the misuse that can be made of them, besides the evil passions they develop. Under the influence of carnal ideas, man, on Earth, sees in the trials only the painful side. It is for this reason that it seems natural to him to choose those that, from his point of view, can coexist with material pleasures. In spiritual life, however, he thinks otherwise; he compares those fleeting and gross enjoyments with the unalterable happiness he glimpses and, from then on, of what importance to him are some passing sufferings? (Note 5.) [Question 266.]

In the interval between corporeal existences, does the Spirit have knowledge of all its former lives? [Question 308.]

“Yes; it remembers all its existences, although it does not remember, in an absolute way, all the acts it practiced. You often evoke a wandering spirit that has just left the Earth and that does not remember the names of the persons it loved, nor details that, to you, seem important; this matters little to it and falls into oblivion. What it remembers very well are the principal facts that help it to improve itself.” In His wisdom, Providence judged it good to hide from man the mystery of his former existences. On incarnating, the Spirit loses the recollection of them, but, on entering again into spiritual life, its various existences come back to its memory, as well as all the acts it practiced. However, there are unimportant details that it does not value and that fall into oblivion. It remembers principally the faults and the facts that can influence its improvement.

How can we improve, if we do not know the errors committed in the former existences? [Question 393.]

“With each new existence you acquire more intelligence and can distinguish better good from evil. Where would the merit be if you remembered all the past?”

The loss of the recollection of our former existences during incarnation, as well as of the errors we may have committed, does not constitute an obstacle to our improvement, because in each new existence the intelligence of man becomes more developed and he understands better good and evil. 102

Can we have some revelations about our former existences? [Question 395.]

“Not always. Nevertheless, many persons know what they were and what they did. If they were permitted to say it openly, they would make extraordinary revelations about the past.”

a. Some persons think they have a vague recollection of an unknown past. Is this idea only an illusion? [Question 396.]

“Sometimes it is real; frequently, however, it is an illusion against which man must guard himself.”

b. In the corporeal existences of a nature more elevated than ours, is the recollection of the former existences more precise? [Question 397.]

“Yes; in proportion as the body becomes less material, man recalls better.”

The mystery of our former existences is not always absolutely impenetrable; it may be permitted to certain persons to take knowledge of what they were and what they did in the past, although it is not always permitted them to reveal it. There are those who keep a vague recollection of the past, more or less like the fleeting image of a dream that one vainly seeks to capture. This recollection becomes ever clearer, in proportion as man rises in the scale of the beings that inhabit the worlds of a superior order.

Except in the case of a direct revelation, the recollection we think we have of our past must not be accepted except with great reserve, since it may be the effect of illusion or of an overexcited imagination.

In his new existences, can man descend lower than he already is in the present one? [Question 193.]

“In terms of social position, yes; as a Spirit, no.”

a. Can man retreat on the path of progress?

“No; but only cease to progress.”

b. We have seen, nevertheless, some peoples fall back into barbarism. [Question 786.]

“It is a time of stoppage; a step backward, in order to advance later. We must see Humanity in its whole and not in some details.” The march of the Spirits is progressive and never retrograde. They rise gradually in the hierarchy and do not descend from the category they have reached.

In their different corporeal existences they may descend in social position, but not as Spirits.

Thus, the soul of a powerful one of the Earth may later animate the most humble laborer and vice versa, because, among men, social positions often keep an inverse relation with the elevation of the moral sentiments.

Herod was a king; and Jesus, a carpenter. [Question

a.]

Is it possible, in a new incarnation, for the soul of a good man to animate the body of a villain? [Question 194.]

“No, since it cannot degenerate.”

a. Can the soul of a perverse man transform itself into that of a good man? [Question 194 a.]

“Yes, if it has repented. This, then, is a reward.”

Since the Spirit cannot fall from its class, but always progressing, it results that the soul of a good man cannot, in a new existence, animate the body of a villain; but the soul of a perverse one may become that of a good man, if it has understood its faults, which will be for it a reward.

Does man preserve, in his new existences, the traits of the moral character of his former lives? [Question 216.]

“Yes, that can happen. But, in improving himself, he changes. His social position may, also, not be the same. If from a sovereign he becomes a ragpicker, his tastes will be very different and you would have difficulty in recognizing him.” Since the Spirit is the same in its various incarnations, its manifestations may keep certain analogies from one to another. Man may, then, preserve the traits of the moral character of his former existences; but the tastes, the habits, and the tendencies change, whether in social position, which may be very different, or through the improvement of the Spirit, which, from proud and wicked, may become humble and humane, if it has repented.

In his different incarnations, does man preserve the traits of the physical character of the former existences? [Question 217.]

“No; the body is destroyed and the new one bears no relation to the old. Nevertheless, the Spirit is reflected in the body. Certainly the body is only matter, but, in spite of this, it is modeled by the capacities of the Spirit, which imprints on it a certain character, principally on the face, which means to say that the face, more particularly, reflects the soul. It is for this reason that a person who is excessively ugly, when a good, judicious, and humanitarian Spirit has incarnated in her, has something that pleases, whereas there are most beautiful faces that cause you no impression, being able even to inspire repulsion in you. You might suppose that only well-formed bodies serve as envelope to more perfect Spirits, when you find every day good men under a deformed exterior.”

The physical characters of man are attributes of the body, and the body being destroyed by decomposition, the one that clothes the soul in a new incarnation keeps no essential relation with the one it left; it would be, then, absurd to deduce a succession of existences taking as a basis only an eventual resemblance.

Nevertheless, even though the body and the Spirit are of different nature and are connected with each other only by indirect and fragile bonds, the body is, in a certain way, modeled by the Spirit. The face is the reflection of the latter, and it is not without reason that the eyes are pointed to as the mirror of the soul. Thus, even without there being a pronounced likeness, the physiognomy, by reflecting the character of the Spirit, can give rise to what is called “a family air”; and under the most humble envelope one may find the expression of grandeur and of dignity, while under the garb of the monarch one sees sometimes that of baseness and of ignominy.

[94] Tr. N.: The expression “of the Spirits.” does not form part of the original title of this chapter. It appears, however, in the Table of Contents of the 1st French edition, which is why we have inserted it in this translation. [95]

Tr. N.: The Spirits of the Codification, with the Spirit of Truth at their head, saw fit to modify this concept, as can be verified in the final passage of the answer to question 540, of the definitive edition, namely: “[...] It is thus that everything serves, everything is linked together in Nature, from the primitive atom to the archangel, who also began with the atom [...].”, a thesis that prevailed in the other books of the Codification and, later, in the work of the continuators of Kardec, beginning with Delanne and Léon Denis. See also the four last paragraphs of Allan Kardec’s comments on question no. 613, of the definitive edition of The Spirits’ Book, paragraphs that were only added by him beginning with the 4th edition of the work, published in 1861, and that reveal the extreme devotion, the prudent care, the zeal beyond all proof, and the peerless elegance of the Codifier in approaching a delicate theme that, for now, according to his words, still forms part of the secrets of God.

[96]

Tr. N.: Inquired whether the Spirits have sex, the Immortals answered Kardec thus: “Not as you understand it, because the sexes depend on the organism. There is among them love and sympathy, but based on the affinity of sentiments”. (Question 200, of the 2nd French edition of The Spirits’ Book)

[97] E. N.: See “Explanatory Note”, p. 551.

[98]

Tr. N.: See the answer to question 186, of the definitive edition of 1860, which settles the matter. [99]

Tr. N.: Always inaccessible to touch is not quite the term. The Spirit can manifest itself at the same time by sight and by touch, as is clearly demonstrated by the books Spiritual Facts, by William Crookes, and The Work of the Dead, by Nogueira de Faria, both published by the FEB (see also question 202 a, of this translation, p. 188).

[100] Tr.

N.: The Spirit can also, in certain cases, choose the body. See the answer to question 335, of the definitive edition of The Spirits’ Book.

[101] Tr.

N.: “all.” is not quite the term. See the answer to question 259, of the definitive edition of The Spirits’ Book.

[102] Tr.

N.: See also The Gospel According to Spiritism, chapter V, item 11.