PLURALITY OF EXISTENCES.

On reincarnation.

— 2. Justice of reincarnation. — 3. Incarnation in the different worlds. — 4. Progressive transmigration. — 5. Fate of children after death. — 6. Sexes in the Spirits. — 7. Kinship, filiation. — 8. Physical and moral resemblances. — 9. Innate ideas.

On reincarnation.

How can the soul, which has not attained perfection during corporeal life, finish purifying itself?

“By undergoing the trial of a new existence.”

a — How does it accomplish this new existence? Will it be through its transformation as a Spirit?

“In purifying itself, the soul undoubtedly undergoes a transformation, but for this the trial of corporeal life is necessary to it.”

b — Does the soul then pass through many corporeal existences?

“Yes, we all have many existences.

Those who say the contrary wish to keep you in the ignorance in which they themselves are. Such is their desire.”

c — It seems to follow from this principle that the soul, after having left one body, takes another, or, then, that it reincarnates in a new body. Is that how it is to be understood?

“Evidently.”

What is the aim sought by reincarnation?

“Expiation, progressive betterment of Humanity. Without this, where is justice?”

Is the number of corporeal existences limited, or does the Spirit reincarnate perpetually?

“With each new existence, the Spirit takes a step forward on the path of progress.

As soon as it finds itself cleansed of all impurities, it no longer has need of the trials of corporeal life.”

Is the number of incarnations the same for all Spirits?

“No; he who walks quickly spares himself many trials.

Nevertheless, the successive incarnations are always very numerous, for progress is almost infinite.”

What does the Spirit become after its last incarnation?

“A blessed Spirit; a pure Spirit.”

Justice of reincarnation.

On what is the dogma of reincarnation founded?

“On the justice of God and on revelation, 2 for we repeat incessantly: the good father always leaves a door open to his children for repentance. Does not reason tell you that it would be unjust to deprive forever of eternal felicity all those upon whom it did not depend to better themselves? Are not all men children of God?

Only among the egoists are found iniquity, implacable hatred, and punishments without remission.”

All Spirits tend toward perfection, and God grants them the means of attaining it by affording them the trials of corporeal life. His justice, however, grants them to accomplish, in new existences, what they were unable to do or to complete in a first trial.

God would not act with equity, nor in accordance with His goodness, were He to condemn forever those who may perhaps have encountered, arising from the very environment in which they were placed and beyond the will that animated them, obstacles to their betterment.

If the fate of man were irrevocably fixed after death, the balance in which God weighs the actions of all creatures would not be a single one, and there would be no impartiality in the treatment He bestows upon all.

The doctrine of reincarnation, that is, the one which consists in admitting for the Spirit many successive existences, is the only one that corresponds to the idea we form of the justice of God toward men who find themselves in an inferior moral condition; the only one that can explain the future and establish our hopes, since it offers us the means of redeeming our errors through new trials. Reason indicates it to us, and the Spirits teach it.

Man, who is conscious of his inferiority, draws consoling hope from the doctrine of reincarnation. If he believes in the justice of God, he cannot count on finding himself, forever, on a footing of equality with those who have done more than he. But the idea that this inferiority does not eternally disinherit him from the supreme good, and that, by means of new efforts, it will be given to him to conquer it, sustains him and revives his courage. Who is there who, at the end of his career, does not deplore having so late gained an experience from which he can no longer profit? Yet this tardy experience is not lost; the Spirit uses it in a new existence. Incarnation in the different worlds.

Do our various corporeal existences all take place on Earth?

“No; we live them in different worlds.

Those we pass here are neither the first nor the last; they are, however, among the most material and the most distant from perfection.”

With each new corporeal existence does the soul pass from one world to another, or can it have many on the same globe?

“It can live many times on the same globe, if it has not advanced enough to pass to a superior world.”

a — Can we then reappear many times on Earth?

“Certainly.”

b — Can we return to it, after having lived in other worlds?

“Without doubt. It is possible that you have already lived elsewhere and on Earth.”

Does living again on Earth constitute a necessity?

“No; but, if you have not progressed, you might go to another world that is worth no more than the Earth and that may even be worse than it.”

Is there any advantage in returning to inhabit the Earth?

“No particular advantage, unless it be on a mission, in which case one progresses there as on any other planet.”

a — Would one not be happier remaining in the condition of a Spirit?

“No, no; one would remain stationary, and what is wanted is to walk toward God.”

After having incarnated in other worlds, can Spirits incarnate in this one, without ever having been here before?

“Yes, in the same way that you can in others.

All the worlds are interdependent: what is not done in one is done in another.”

a — Thus, are there men who are on Earth for the first time?

“Many, and in diverse degrees of advancement.”

b — Can it be recognized, by any sign, that a Spirit is on Earth for the first time?

“That would be of no use.”

To arrive at perfection and supreme felicity, the final destiny of all men, must the Spirit pass through the succession of all the worlds existing in the Universe?

“No, for there are many worlds corresponding to each degree of the respective scale, and the Spirit, leaving one of them, would learn nothing new in the others of the same degree.”

a — How then is the plurality of its existences on the same globe explained?

“Each time it may occupy a position different from the previous ones, and in these diverse positions there present themselves to it just as many occasions to acquire experience.”

Can Spirits incarnate in a world relatively inferior to another in which they have already lived?

“Yes, when on a mission, with the object of aiding progress, in which case they joyfully accept the tribulations of such an existence, because it affords them a means of advancing.”

a — But may it not also occur as an expiation? Can God not banish rebellious Spirits to inferior worlds?

“Spirits may remain stationary, but they do not retrograde.

In the case of remaining stationary, their punishment consists in not advancing, in recommencing, in the environment suited to their nature, the existences ill employed.”

b — Which are those who have to recommence the same existence?

“Those who failed in their missions or in their trials.”

Have the beings who inhabit each world all attained the same level of perfection?

“No; in each one occurs what occurs on Earth: some Spirits are more advanced than others.”

In passing from this planet to another, does the Spirit retain the intelligence it had here?

“Without doubt; intelligence is not lost.

It may happen, however, that it does not have at its disposal the same means of manifesting it, this depending on its superiority and on the conditions of the body it takes.”

(See: Influence of the organism.)

Do the beings who inhabit the different worlds have bodies similar to ours?

“It is beyond doubt that they have bodies, because the Spirit needs to be clothed in matter in order to act upon matter.

This envelope, however, is more or less material, according to the degree of purity to which the Spirits have arrived.

It is this that marks the difference between the worlds we have to traverse, for there are many dwellings in the house of our Father, and consequently these dwellings are of many degrees.

Some know this and have consciousness of it on Earth; with others, however, it is not so.”

Is it possible for us to know exactly the physical and moral state of the different worlds?

“We, Spirits, can only answer according to the degree of advancement in which you find yourselves.

That is to say, we must not reveal these things to all, because not all are in a state to comprehend them, and such a revelation would disturb them.”

In proportion as the Spirit purifies itself, the body that clothes it likewise approaches the spiritual nature. Its matter becomes less dense, it ceases to creep painfully over the surface of the soil, its physical needs become less gross, it being no longer necessary that living beings destroy one another mutually in order to nourish themselves.

The Spirit is freer and has, of distant things, perceptions of which we are unaware. It sees with the eyes of the body what we only glimpse through thought.

From the purification of the Spirit there follows the moral perfecting of the beings they constitute, when incarnated. The animal passions grow weak, and egoism yields its place to the sentiment of fraternity.

Thus it is that, in the worlds superior to ours, wars are unknown, hatreds and discords being without object, because no one thinks of causing harm to his fellow being.

The intuition their inhabitants have of the future, the security that a conscience free from remorse gives them, cause death to occasion them no apprehension. They face it directly, without fear, as a simple transformation.

The duration of life, in the different worlds, seems to keep proportion with the degree of physical and moral superiority of each one, which is perfectly rational. The less material the body, the less subject it is to the vicissitudes that disorganize it. The purer the Spirit, the fewer passions to undermine it. This too is a grace of Providence, which in this way shortens sufferings.

In going from one world to another, does the Spirit pass through a new infancy?

“Everywhere infancy is a necessary transition, but it is not everywhere as dull as in your world.”

Has the Spirit the faculty of choosing the world in which it shall go to dwell?

“Not always. It may ask to be permitted to go to this or that one, and it may obtain it, if it merits it, for the accessibility of the worlds, for Spirits, depends on their degree of elevation.”

a — If the Spirit asks nothing, what is it that determines the world in which it will reincarnate?

“The degree of its elevation.”

Is the physical and moral state of living beings perpetually the same in each world?

“No; the worlds too are subject to the law of progress.

All began, like yours, in an inferior state, and the Earth itself will undergo an identical transformation. It will become a paradise, when men have become good.”

Thus it is that the races which today people the Earth will one day disappear, replaced by beings ever more perfect, since these new transformed races will succeed the present ones, as these succeeded others still more gross.

Will there be worlds where the Spirit, ceasing to clothe itself in material bodies, has only the perispirit for an envelope?

“There are, 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.”

a — It seems to follow from this that, between the state corresponding to the last incarnations and that of the pure Spirit, there is no perfectly marked dividing line; is there not?

“Such a demarcation does not exist. The difference between one state and the other gradually fades away and ends by being imperceptible, just as happens with night at the first brightness of dawn.”

Is the substance of the perispirit the same in all the worlds?

“No; it is more or less ethereal.

In passing from one world to another, the Spirit clothes itself in the matter proper to that other, this change operating, however, with the rapidity of lightning.”

Do the pure Spirits inhabit special worlds, or do they find themselves in universal space, without being any more linked to one world than to others?

“They inhabit certain worlds, but they do not remain bound to them, as men are to the Earth; they can, better than others, be everywhere.” n Progressive transmigration.

From the beginning of its formation, does the Spirit enjoy the fullness of its faculties?

“No, for the Spirit, like man, also has infancy.

In its origin, the life of the Spirit is merely instinctive. It has scarcely consciousness of itself and of its acts. Intelligence develops only little by little.”

What is the state of the soul in its first incarnation?

“That of infancy in corporeal life. Intelligence is then only just unfolding: the soul tries itself out for life.”

Are the souls of our savages souls in the state of infancy?

“Of relative infancy, for they are already developed souls, seeing that they already nourish passions.”

a — Then, are the passions a sign of development?

“Of development, yes; of perfection, however, no.

They are a sign of activity and of consciousness of the self, for, in the primitive soul, intelligence and life are in the state of a germ.”

The life of the Spirit, in its entirety, presents the same phases that we observe in corporeal life. It passes gradually from the state of embryo to that of infancy, to arrive, traversing successive periods, at that of the adult, which is that of perfection, with the difference that for the Spirit there is no decline, nor decrepitude, as in corporeal life; 4 that its life, which had a beginning, will have no end; 5 that an immense time is necessary to it, from our point of view, to pass from spiritual infancy to complete development; 6 and that its progress is accomplished, not in a single world, but by its living in diverse worlds.

The life of the Spirit, then, is composed of a series of corporeal existences, each one of which represents for it an occasion to progress, in the same way that each corporeal existence is composed of a series of days, in each one of which man obtains an increase of experience and of instruction. But, just as, in the life of man, there are days that produce no fruit, so in that of the Spirit there are corporeal existences from which it gathers no result, because it did not know how to take advantage of them.

Can someone, by an impeccable conduct in the present life, cross all the degrees of the scale of perfecting and become a pure Spirit, without passing through other intermediate degrees?

“No, for what man judges perfect is far from perfection. There are qualities that are unknown and incomprehensible to him.

He may be as perfect as his earthly nature allows, but that is not absolute perfection.

It happens with the Spirit as it happens with the child who, however precocious it may be, has to pass through youth before reaching the age of maturity; and also with the sick man who, to recover his health, has to pass through convalescence.

Moreover, the Spirit must progress in science and in morality. If it has advanced only in one sense, it matters that it advance in the other, in order to reach the upper extremity of the scale.

Nevertheless, the more man advances in his present life, the less long and painful will be the trials that follow.” a — Can man at least, in the present life, prepare with certainty, for himself, a future existence less laden with bitterness?

“Without doubt. He can reduce the length and the difficulties of the road. Only the careless one remains always at the same point.”

Can a man, in his new existences, descend lower than he is in the present one?

“With regard to social position, yes; as a Spirit, no.”

Is it possible that, in a new incarnation, the soul of a man of good animates the body of a scoundrel?

“No, since it cannot degenerate.”

a — Can the soul of a perverse man become that of a man of good?

“Yes, if he has repented. This then constitutes a reward.”

The march of the Spirits is progressive, never retrograde. They rise gradually in the hierarchy and do not descend from the category to which they have ascended.

In their different corporeal existences, they may descend as men, not as Spirits. Thus, the soul of a potentate of the Earth may later animate the most humble laborer and vice versa, because, among men, the categories are frequently in inverse proportion to the elevation of moral qualities. Herod was a king and Jesus a carpenter.

Will not the possibility of bettering themselves in another existence be such as to make certain persons persevere in the bad path, dominated by the idea that they may correct themselves later on?

“He who thinks thus believes in nothing, and the idea of an eternal punishment would restrain him no more than any other, because his reason rejects it, and such an idea leads to incredulity regarding everything. If only rational means had been employed to guide men, there would not be so many skeptics.

In fact, an imperfect Spirit may, during corporeal life, think as you say; but, once it sees itself freed from matter, it will think otherwise, for it will soon find that it made a wrong calculation, and then it will bring a sentiment opposed to that one into its new existence.

It is thus that progress is effected, and that is the reason why, on Earth, men are unequally advanced. Some already have an experience that others lack, but which they will acquire little by little. It depends on themselves whether their progress is accelerated or indefinitely delayed.”

Man, who occupies a bad position, desires to change it as quickly as possible. He who is persuaded that the tribulations of earthly life are a consequence of his imperfections will seek to secure for himself a new existence less painful, and this idea will turn him away from the path of evil more quickly than the eternal fire in which he does not believe.

Since Spirits cannot perfect themselves except by means of the tribulations of corporeal existence, does it follow that material life is a kind of crucible or purifier, through which all the beings of the spiritual world have to pass in order to attain perfection? “Yes, it is exactly that. They better themselves in these trials, by avoiding evil and practicing good; but only at the end of more or less long time, according to the efforts they employ; only after many incarnations or successive purifications do they attain the end toward which they tend.” a — Is it the body that influences the Spirit so that the latter betters itself, or the Spirit that influences the body?

“Your Spirit is everything; your body is a mere garment that rots: that is all.”

The juice of the vine offers us a material likeness of the different degrees of the purification of the soul. It contains the liquor that is called spirit or alcohol, but weakened by an immensity of foreign substances that alter its essence. This attains absolute purity only after multiple distillations, in each one of which it sheds some impurities. The body is the alembic into which the soul has to enter in order to purify itself. The foreign substances are likened to the perispirit, which also purifies itself, in proportion as the Spirit approaches perfection. Fate of children after death.

Can the Spirit of a child who died at a tender age be as advanced as that of an adult?

“Sometimes it is much more so, for it may be that it has already lived much more and acquired a greater sum of experience, above all if it has progressed.”

a — Can the Spirit of a child then be more advanced than that of its father?

“That is very frequent. Do you not yourselves see it so often on Earth?”

Not having been able to do evil, does the Spirit of a child who died at a tender age belong to some of the superior categories?

“If it did not do evil, neither did it do good, and God does not exempt it from the trials it has to suffer.

If it is a pure Spirit, it is not so by the fact of having animated only a child, but because it had already progressed to purity.”

Why is life so frequently interrupted in infancy?

“The short duration of the child’s life may represent, for the Spirit that animated it, the complement of a preceding existence interrupted before the moment when it should have ended, 2 and its death, also not rarely, constitutes a trial or expiation for the parents.” a — What happens to the Spirit of a child who dies very small?

“It recommences another existence.”

If man had a single existence and if, this being extinguished, his fate were decided for eternity, what would be the merit of half the human race, of that which dies in infancy, in enjoying, without efforts, eternal felicity, and by what right would it find itself exempt from the conditions, at times so hard, to which the other half sees itself subjected? Such an order of things would not correspond to the justice of God.

With reincarnation, equality is real for all. The future touches all without exception and without favor toward anyone whatsoever. The laggards have only themselves to blame.

It is necessary that man have the merit of his acts, as he has the responsibility for them.

Besides, it is not rational to consider infancy as a normal state of innocence. Are there not seen children endowed with the worst instincts, at an age when education can yet have had no influence? Are there not some who seem to bring from the cradle cunning, treachery, perfidy, even an inclination to theft and to murder, notwithstanding the good examples given to them on all sides?

The civil law absolves them of their crimes, because, in fact, they act more by instinct than intentionally. But whence will come instincts so diverse in children of the same age, raised in identical conditions and subject to the same influences? Whence the precocious perversity, if not from the inferiority of the Spirit, since education contributed nothing to it? Those who reveal themselves vicious do so because their Spirits have progressed very little. They suffer then, by effect of this lack of progress, the consequences, not of the acts they perform in infancy, but of those of their previous existences. Thus it is that the law is one and the same for all and that all are reached by the justice of God. Sexes in the Spirits.

Do the Spirits have sexes?

“Not as you understand it, for the sexes depend on the organization.

There is among them love and sympathy, but based on the concordance of sentiments.”

In a new existence, can the Spirit that animated the body of a man animate that of a woman and vice versa?

“Certainly; they are the same Spirits that animate men and women.”

When wandering, what does the Spirit prefer: to incarnate in the body of a man, or in that of a woman?

“That matters little to it. What guides it in the choice are the trials through which it is to pass.”

Spirits incarnate as men or as women, because they have no sex. Since it is incumbent on them to progress in everything, each sex, like each social position, affords them special trials and duties, and with that, an opportunity to gain experience. He who incarnated only as a man would know only what men know. Kinship, filiation.

Do the parents transmit to the children a portion of their souls, or do they limit themselves to giving them animal life, to which, later, another soul comes to add moral life?

“They give them only animal life, for the soul is indivisible.

A dull father may have intelligent children and vice versa.”

Since we have had many existences, does our kindred go beyond that which the present existence has created for us?

“It cannot be otherwise.

The succession of corporeal existences establishes between the Spirits links that go back to your previous existences.

Hence, often, the sympathy that comes to exist between you and certain Spirits who seem strangers to you.”

To some persons the doctrine of reincarnation appears destructive of the bonds of family, in making them anterior to the present existence.

“It extends them; it does not destroy them.

Kinship being founded on prior affections, the bonds existing between the members of one and the same family are less precarious.

This doctrine broadens the duties of fraternity, for, in your neighbor, or in your servant, there may be found a Spirit to whom you have been bound by the bonds of blood relationship.” a — It nevertheless diminishes the importance that some attach to genealogy, seeing that anyone may have had for a father a Spirit who belonged to another race, or who lived in a very different condition.

“That is exact; but this importance rests on pride. Titles, social category, wealth, this is what such persons venerate in their ancestors. One who would blush to count, as a forebear, an honored shoemaker, would pride himself on descending from a dissolute nobleman.

But, say what they will, or do what they will, they will not prevent things from being as they are, for it was not by consulting their vanity that God formulated the laws of Nature.”

From the fact that there is no filiation between the Spirits of the descendants of any family, will it follow that the cult of ancestors is ridiculous?

“By no means. Every man should consider himself fortunate to belong to a family in which elevated Spirits have incarnated.

Although the Spirits do not proceed from one another, they nonetheless devote no less affection to those who are linked to them by the ties of family, since they are often drawn to this or that family by sympathy, or by the bonds previously established.

But be assured that your ancestors are not honored by the cult you render to them out of pride. Their merits are not reflected in you, except in the measure of the efforts you employ to follow the good examples they gave you. Only under these conditions is the remembrance you keep of them pleasing and even useful to them.” Physical and moral resemblances.

Frequently, the parents transmit to the children the physical resemblance. Will they also transmit some moral resemblance?

“No, for different are the souls or Spirits of the one and the other.

The body derives from the body, but the Spirit does not proceed from the Spirit.

Among the descendants of the races there is only blood relationship.”

a — Whence originate the moral resemblances that customarily exist between parents and children?

“It is that the one and the other are sympathetic Spirits, who reciprocally attracted one another by the analogy of their inclinations.”

Do the Spirits of the parents exercise no influence over the child after its birth?

“On the contrary: they exercise a very great influence. As we have already said, the Spirits have to contribute to the progress of one another. Well then, the Spirits of the parents have for their mission to develop those of their children through education. This constitutes for them a task. They will become guilty, if they come to fail in its performance.”

Why is it that from good and virtuous parents are born children of a perverse nature? In other words: why is it that the good qualities of the parents do not always attract, by sympathy, a good Spirit to animate their child?

“It is not rare that a bad Spirit asks to be given good parents, in the hope that their counsels will direct it onto a better path, and often God grants it what it desires.”

By their thoughts and prayers can the parents attract to the body, in formation, of the child a good Spirit, in preference to an inferior one?

“No, but they can better the Spirit of the child who has been born to them and is entrusted to them. Such is their duty.

Bad children are a trial for the parents.”

Whence derives the similarity of character that often exists between two brothers, especially if twins?

“They are sympathetic Spirits who draw near to one another by analogy of sentiments and feel happy to be together.”

Are there two Spirits, or, in other words, two souls, in the children whose bodies are born joined, having some organs in common?

“Yes, but the resemblance between them is such that they seem to you, in many cases, but one.”

Since in twins the Spirits incarnate by sympathy, whence comes the aversion that is sometimes noted between them?

“It is not the rule that the Spirits of twins are sympathetic. It also happens that bad Spirits decide to struggle together on the stage of life.”

What is to be thought of those stories of children who struggle in the maternal womb?

“Legends! To signify how inveterate was the hatred they reciprocally bore one another, they represent it as making itself felt before their birth. In general, you do not take poetic images much into account.”

What is it that gives rise to the distinctive character noted in each people?

“The Spirits too group themselves in families, forming them by the analogy of their inclinations, more or less pure, according to the elevation they have attained. Well then! a people is a great family formed by the gathering of sympathetic Spirits. In the tendency that the members of these families present, to unite, lies the origin of the resemblance which, existing between the individuals, constitutes the distinctive character of each people.

Do you think that good and humanitarian Spirits seek, in which to incarnate, a rude and gross people? No. The Spirits sympathize with collectivities, as they sympathize with individuals. In those within whose bosom they find themselves, they are in the environment that is proper to them.”

In its new existences will the Spirit retain traces of the moral character of its previous existences?

“That may occur. But, in bettering itself, it changes. It may also happen that its social position comes to be other. If from master it passes to slave, entirely different will be its tastes, and you would hardly recognize it.

The Spirit being always the same in the diverse incarnations, there may exist certain analogies between its manifestations, although modified by the habits of the position it occupies, until a notable perfecting has completely changed its character, for, from proud and bad, it may become humble and kind, if it repents.”

And of the physical character of its past existences does the Spirit retain traces in its later existences?

“The new body that it takes has no relation with the one that was previously destroyed. Nevertheless, the Spirit is reflected in the body. Without doubt this is solely matter, yet, notwithstanding, it is molded by the capacities of the Spirit, which impresses upon it a certain stamp, above all upon the face, which is why it is true to say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul, that is, that the countenance of the individual reflects in a particular manner its soul.

Thus it is that a person exceedingly ugly, when a good, judicious, humanitarian Spirit dwells in him, has something that pleases, whereas there are most beautiful faces that make no impression on you, that even come to inspire repulsion in you. You might suppose that only well-shaped bodies serve as an envelope to the most perfect Spirits, when the truth is that every day you come upon men of good, under a deformed exterior.

Without there being a pronounced resemblance, the similarity of tastes and of inclinations may therefore give rise to what is called a family air.”

Since the body that the soul takes in one incarnation keeps no essential relation with that in which it clothed itself in a previous incarnation, seeing that the former may come to it from a source very different from that of the latter, it would be absurd to claim that, in a series of existences, there is a resemblance that is entirely fortuitous.

Nevertheless, the qualities of the Spirit frequently modify the organs that serve it for its manifestations and impress upon its physical countenance, and even upon the whole of its manners, a special stamp.

It is thus that, under a corporeal envelope of the most humble appearance, one may come upon the expression of grandeur and of dignity, while under an envelope of lordly aspect one frequently perceives that of baseness and of ignominy. It is not infrequent to observe that certain persons, rising from the most lowly position, take without effort the habits and manners of high society. It seems that there they come to find themselves once more in their element. Others, on the contrary, despite birth and education, always show themselves out of place in such an environment. In what manner is this fact to be explained, if not as a reflection of that which the Spirit was before? Innate ideas.

When incarnated, does the Spirit retain any vestige of the perceptions it had and of the knowledge it acquired in its previous existences?

“It keeps a vague remembrance, which gives it what are called innate ideas.”

a — Is the theory of innate ideas not, then, chimerical?

“No; the knowledge acquired in each existence is no longer lost.

Freed from matter, the Spirit always has it present. During the incarnation, it forgets it in part, momentarily; but the intuition it keeps of it aids its progress. If it were not so, it would have to recommence constantly.

In each new existence, the point of departure, for the Spirit, is that at which, in the preceding existence, it remained.” b — A great connection must then exist between two consecutive existences?

“Not always as great as you perhaps suppose, since very different are, often, the positions of the Spirit in the two, and since, in the interval from one to the other, it may have progressed .”

What is the origin of the extraordinary faculties of those individuals who, without study, seem to have the intuition of certain kinds of knowledge, that of languages, of calculation, etc.?

“Remembrance of the past; previous progress of the soul, but of which it is not conscious. Whence would you have such knowledge come from? The body changes, the Spirit, however, does not change, though it changes its garb.”

Can the Spirit, in changing bodies, lose some intellectual faculties, cease to have, for example, the taste for the arts?

“Yes, from the moment it has defiled its intelligence or used it ill.

Then, any faculty whatever may remain dormant during an existence, because the Spirit wishes to exercise another, which has no relation with that one. This, then, remains in a latent state, to reappear later.”

Should there be attributed to a retrospective remembrance the instinctive sentiment that man, even when a savage, possesses of the existence of God and the presentiment of the future life?

“It is a remembrance that he keeps of what he knew as a Spirit before incarnating. But pride frequently stifles this sentiment.”

a — Will there be due to this same remembrance certain beliefs relative to the Spiritist Doctrine, which are observed among all peoples?

“This doctrine is as old as the world; such is the reason why we find it everywhere, which constitutes proof that it is true.

Keeping the intuition of its state as a Spirit, the incarnated Spirit has, instinctively, consciousness of the invisible world, but prejudices very often falsify this idea and ignorance mingles superstition with it.” [1] According to the Spirits, of all the worlds that compose our planetary system, the Earth is among those whose inhabitants are least advanced, physically and morally.

Mars would be still below it, while Jupiter would be far superior to it, in all respects. [Reference to the communication of the Spirit Georges, recorded by the Codifier in the Spiritist Review of 1860; however, understanding, above all, the vibrational differences between the spheres of life of the respective orbs that compose our system, and confronting the above affirmation with other more recent descriptions of the planet Mars through the Spirits of Maria João de Deus in Letters from a Dead Woman and Humberto de Campos in New Messages, the affirmations of the Spirit Georges should not merit credence.

To learn about the spiritual conditions of Georges read: Preliminary Observations. See also: Jupiter and other worlds; Description of Jupiter by Bernard Palissy.] The sun would not be a world inhabited by corporeal beings, but simply a place of gathering of the superior Spirits, who from there radiate their thoughts to the other worlds, which they direct through the intermediary of less elevated Spirits, transmitting them to these by means of the universal fluid. Considered from the point of view of its physical constitution, the sun would be a focus of electricity.

All the suns would be, as it were, in an analogous situation.

The volume of each one and the distance at which it is from the Sun keep no necessary relation with the degree of its advancement, for, otherwise, Venus would have to be held to be more advanced than the Earth and Saturn less than Jupiter. [On Saturn, see: Letters from a Dead Woman.]

Many Spirits, who on Earth animated known personalities, said they were reincarnated on Jupiter, one of the worlds nearest to perfection, and it has caused astonishment that, on that globe so advanced, there should be men to whom general opinion here did not attribute such elevation. In this there is nothing surprising, once it is considered that, possibly, certain Spirits, inhabitants of that planet, were sent to the Earth to perform there a certain mission which, in our eyes, did not place them in the first rank. In the second place, it should be considered that, between the existence they had on Earth and the one they came to have on Jupiter, they may have had others, intermediate, in which they bettered themselves. Finally, it must be considered that, on that world, as on ours, manifold are the degrees of development and that, between these degrees, there may intervene there the distance that runs, among us, from the savage to the civilized man. Thus, from the fact that a Spirit inhabits Jupiter it does not follow that it is on the level of the most advanced beings, in the same way that no one can consider himself in the category of a scholar of the Institute, merely because he resides in Paris. The conditions of longevity are not, either, anywhere, the same as on Earth, and the ages cannot be compared. Evoked, a Spirit who had disincarnated some years before, said that, since six months before, he had been incarnated in a world whose name is unknown to us. Questioned about the age he had in that world, he said: “I cannot estimate it, because we do not count time as you count it. Then, the modes of existence are not identical. We, there, develop much more rapidly. Nevertheless, although there are no more than six of your months that I have been there, I can say that, as to intelligence, I have thirty years of the age that I had on Earth.” Many analogous answers were given by other Spirits, and the fact presents nothing improbable. Do we not see that, on Earth, an immensity of animals in a few months acquire their normal development?

Why could not the same occur with man in other spheres? Let us note, besides, that the development that man attains on Earth at thirty years is perhaps no more than a kind of infancy, compared with what is incumbent on him to attain. Very short of sight shows himself the one who takes us in everything for prototypes of creation, just as it is to debase the Divinity to imagine that, apart from man, nothing more is possible to God. [For a better comprehension of these words of Allan Kardec let us attend to the considerations of Emmanuel in the lesson:

Plurality of the inhabited worlds, especially in indicators

and 8.]