Studies on reincarnation

I. Limits of reincarnation. — II. Reincarnation and the aspirations of man. — III. The action of fluids in reincarnation. — IV. Earthly affections and reincarnation. — V. Progress hindered by indefinite reincarnation.

I.

Limits of reincarnation.

Reincarnation is necessary as long as matter dominates the Spirit. But once the incarnate Spirit has come to dominate matter and to nullify the effects of its reaction upon the moral being, reincarnation no longer has any usefulness nor reason to exist. Indeed, the body is necessary to the Spirit for its progressive labor until, having come to wield this instrument at will, to imprint its will upon it, the labor is accomplished. Then it needs another field for its march, for its advancement toward the infinite; it needs another circle of studies, where the gross matter of the inferior spheres is unknown. Having purified itself and experienced its sensations, on Earth or on analogous globes, it is ripe for the spiritual life and its studies. Having raised itself above all corporeal sensations, it no longer has any of those desires or needs inherent to corporeity: it is Spirit and lives by spiritual sensations, which are infinitely more delightful than the most agreeable corporeal sensations. II.

— Reincarnation and the aspirations of man.

The aspirations of the soul lead to their realization, and this realization is fulfilled in reincarnation, while the Spirit is engaged in material labor. Let me explain myself. Let us take the Spirit at its beginnings in the human career: stupid and brutish, it nevertheless feels the divine spark within it, since it adores a God, whom it materializes in keeping with its own materiality. In this being, still close to the animal, there is an instinctive aspiration, almost unconscious, toward a less inferior state. It begins by desiring to satisfy its material appetites and envies those whom it sees in a better state than its own; thus, in a following incarnation, it itself chooses, or rather, is drawn into a more perfected body; and always, in each of its existences, it desires a material improvement; never feeling satisfied, it wishes ever to rise, because the aspiration to happiness is the great lever of progress. As the corporeal sensations become greater, more perfected, its spiritual sensations also awaken and grow. Then begins the moral labor, and the purification of the soul joins with the aspiration of the body to reach the superior state.

This state of equality between material and spiritual aspirations is not of long duration; soon the Spirit rises above matter and its sensations can no longer be satisfied by it; it needs more; it needs better; but there, the body having been brought to sensory perfection, it cannot follow the Spirit which then dominates it and detaches itself from it more and more, as from a useless instrument; it directs all its desires, all its aspirations, toward a superior state; it feels that the corporeal needs which were to it a motive of happiness in their satisfactions are no more than an encumbrance, a debasement, a sad necessity, from which it aspires to free itself in order to enjoy, without hindrance, all the spiritual bliss it foresees. III.

— The action of fluids in reincarnation.

Fluids being the agents that set our corporeal apparatus in motion, they are also the elements of our aspirations, for there are corporeal fluids and spiritual fluids, all tending to rise and to unite with fluids of the same nature. These fluids compose the spiritual body of the Spirit which, in the condition of incarnate, acts by means of them upon the human machine that it is its task to perfect, for everything is labor in Creation, everything concurs to general progress.

The Spirit has free will, and always seeks what is agreeable to it and what satisfies it. If it is an inferior and material Spirit, it seeks its satisfactions in materiality and, then, will give impulse to its corporeal fluids, which will dominate, but will always tend to grow and rise materially. Thus, the aspirations of these incarnates will be material and, returning to the condition of Spirit, it will seek a new incarnation, in which it will satisfy its material needs and desires; because, mark this well, corporeal aspiration cannot ask, as its realization, anything but a new corporeity, whereas spiritual aspiration attaches itself only to the sensations of the Spirit. To this it will be solicited by its fluids, which it has allowed to become materialized; and as in the act of reincarnation the fluids act to attract the Spirit into the body that has been formed, there being therefore attraction and union of fluids, the reincarnation operates under conditions that will give satisfaction to the aspirations of its preceding existence. There are spiritual fluids as there are material fluids, if the latter dominate; but then, when the spiritual surpasses the material, the Spirit, which judges in a different manner, chooses or is attracted by different sympathies; as it needs purification and reaches this only through labor, the incarnations chosen are more painful for it because, after having given supremacy to matter and to its fluids, it must constrain it, struggle against it and dominate it. Hence those existences so sorrowful and which often seem unjustly inflicted upon good and intelligent Spirits. These complete their last corporeal stage and enter, upon leaving this world, into the superior spheres, where their superior aspirations will find their realization. IV.

— Earthly affections and reincarnation.

The dogma of indefinite reincarnation meets with opposition in the heart of the incarnate who loves, for, in the presence of this infinity of existences, producing new bonds in each of them, he asks with astonishment what becomes of particular affections, and whether these are not merged into a single general love, which would destroy the persistence of individual affection. He asks himself whether this individual affection is not merely a means of advancement, and then discouragement insinuates itself into his soul, because true affection experiences the need of an eternal love, feeling that it will never tire of loving. The thought of these thousands of identical affections seems to him an impossibility, even admitting greater faculties for love. The incarnate who studies Spiritism seriously, without a preconceived idea in favor of one system rather than another, feels himself drawn to reincarnation by the justice that results from the progress and advancement of the Spirit in each new existence; but when he studies it from the point of view of the affections of the heart, he doubts and is alarmed, in spite of himself. Unable to reconcile these two sentiments, he says to himself that here too there is a veil to be lifted, and his thought at work attracts the lights of the Spirits to reconcile the heart with reason.

I have already said it before: incarnation goes only to where materiality is nullified. I have shown how material progress had at first perfected the corporeal sensations of the incarnate Spirit; how spiritual progress, coming afterward, had counterbalanced the influence of matter, subordinating it at last to its will, and that, having reached this degree of spiritual mastery, corporeity had lost its reason to exist, for the labor was accomplished.

Let us now examine the question of affection under its two aspects, material and spiritual.

First of all, what is affection, what is love? Still the fluidic attraction, drawing one being toward another, uniting them in a single sentiment. This attraction can be of two different natures, since fluids are of two natures. But in order for affection to persist eternally, it must be spiritual and disinterested; abnegation and devotion are required, and that no personal sentiment be the motive of this sympathetic attraction. As soon as in this sentiment there is personality, there is materiality. Now, no material affection persists in the domains of the Spirit. Thus, every affection that results only from animal instinct or from egoism is destroyed with earthly death; this is how beings said to be loved are forgotten after a short time of separation! You loved them for yourselves, and not for them, who exist no more, since you forgot them and replaced them; you sought consolation in forgetfulness; they become indifferent to you, because you no longer have love. Contemplate Humanity and see how few are the true affections on Earth! Thus, one should not be so astonished at the multiplicity of affections contracted there. They are relatively in the minority, but they exist, and those that are real persist and perpetuate themselves under all forms, first on Earth, then continuing in the state of Spirit, in a friendship or a love that is unalterable, which only grows and rises ever higher.

Let us study this true affection: spiritual affection.

Spiritual affection has for its basis the spiritual fluidic affinity which, acting alone, determines sympathy. When it is so, it is the soul that loves the soul, and this affection takes on strength only through the manifestation of the soul's sentiments. Two Spirits united spiritually seek one another and always tend to draw near; their fluids are attractive. If they are on the same globe, they will be impelled toward one another; if separated by earthly death, their thoughts will unite in remembrance, and the reunion will take place in the freedom of sleep; and when the hour of a new incarnation sounds for one of them, it will seek to draw near to its friend, entering into what is its material lineage, and it will do so all the more easily as its material perispiritual fluids find affinities in the corporeal matter of the incarnates who gave birth to the new being. Hence a new increase of affection, a new manifestation of love. Such a friend Spirit who loved you as a father will love you as a son, as a brother, or as a friend, and each of these bonds will increase from incarnation to incarnation and will perpetuate itself in an unalterable manner when, your labor accomplished, you live the life of the Spirit. But this true affection is not common on Earth, and matter comes to retard it, to nullify its effects, according as it dominates the Spirit. True friendship, true love, being spiritual, all that pertains to matter is not of its nature and in no way concurs to material identification. The affinity persists, but remains in a latent state until, the spiritual fluid triumphing, the sympathetic progress takes effect anew. In sum, spiritual affection is the only one that resists in the domain of the Spirit. On Earth and in the spheres of corporeal labor, it concurs to the moral advancement of the incarnate Spirit which, under the sympathetic influence, performs miracles of abnegation and of devotion to the beloved beings. Here, in the celestial abodes, it is the complete satisfaction of all aspirations and the greatest happiness that the Spirit can enjoy.

V.

— Progress hindered by indefinite reincarnation.

Until now reincarnation has been admitted in a much too prolonged manner; it has not been considered that this prolongation of corporeity, although ever less material, entailed needs that would necessarily delay the progress of the Spirit. Indeed, in admitting the persistence of generation in the superior worlds, one attributes corporeal needs to the incarnate Spirit, one gives it duties and occupations that are still material, which subject it and check the impulse of its spiritual studies. What is the need of these hindrances? Can the Spirit not enjoy the joys of love without suffering corporeal infirmities? Even on Earth, this sentiment exists in itself, independent of the material part of our being; however rare they may be, there are sufficient examples to prove that it must be felt, in a more general way, among the more spiritualized beings. Reincarnation provides the union of bodies; pure love, only the union of souls. The Spirits unite according to affections initiated in inferior worlds, and work together for their spiritual progress. They have a fluidic organization entirely different from that which was the consequence of their corporeal apparatus, and their labors are exercised upon fluids, and not upon material objects. They go to spheres which, likewise, have accomplished their material period and whose human labor occasioned dematerialization, spheres which, having reached the apogee of their perfecting, have also undergone a superior transformation that renders them apt to experience other modifications, but in an entirely fluidic sense. Now you understand the immense force of fluid, a force you can scarcely ascertain, but which you neither see nor touch. In a state less heavy than the one you are in, you will have other means of seeing, touching, working this fluid, which is the great agent of universal life. Why, then, would the Spirit still need a body for a labor that is beyond corporeal appreciations? You will say to me that this body would be in relation with the new labors that the Spirit must accomplish; but, considering that these labors will be completely fluidic and spiritual in the superior spheres, why give it the encumbrance of corporeal needs, since reincarnation always determines, as I have said, generation and nourishment, that is, needs of matter to be satisfied and, in return, hindrances for the Spirit? Understand that the Spirit must be free in its flight toward the infinite; understand that, having come out of the swaddling clothes of matter, it aspires, like the child, to walk and to run without being held back by maternal zeal, and that those first needs of the child's first education are superfluous for the grown child, and unbearable for the adolescent. Do not desire, then, to remain in infancy; regard yourselves as pupils who are doing their last school studies and are preparing to enter the world, to have their position in it and to begin labors of another kind, which their preliminary studies will have facilitated. Spiritism is the lever that, at a single bound, will raise to the spiritual state every incarnate who, wishing to understand it well and to put it into practice, will strive to dominate matter, to become its master, to annihilate it; every Spirit of good will can put itself in a condition to pass, upon leaving this world, into a spiritual state without earthly return. It lacks only faith or active will. Spiritism offers it to all who are willing to understand it in its moralizing sense.

A protector Spirit of the medium.

Observation. – This communication bears no other signature, which proves that it is not necessary to have had a celebrated name on Earth to dictate good things.

It is to be noted the analogy existing between the communication from Sens, transcribed above, and the first part of this one. Doubtless this latter is more developed, but the fundamental idea concerning the necessity of incarnation is the same. We cite both to show that the great principles of the doctrine are taught everywhere and that it is thus that the unity of Spiritism will be constituted and consolidated. This concordance is the best criterion of truth. Now, it does not pass unnoticed that the eccentric and systematic theories, dictated by pseudo-learned Spirits, are always confined to a narrow and individual circle, which is why none has prevailed, and also because they are not to be feared, for they have only an ephemeral existence, which fades away like a feeble light before the brightness of day. As for the last communication, it would be superfluous to point out its high import, both in substance and in form. It may be summarized thus:

The life of the Spirit, considered from the point of view of progress, presents three principal periods, namely:

1st – Material period, in which the influence of matter dominates that of the Spirit. It is the state of men who give themselves over to brutal and carnal passions, to sensuality; whose aspirations are exclusively earthly, attached to temporal goods, or refractory to spiritual ideas;

2nd – Period of equilibrium, in which the influences of matter and of the Spirit are exercised simultaneously; in which man, although subjected to material needs, foresees and understands the spiritual state; in which he works to come out of the corporeal state;

In these two periods the Spirit is subject to reincarnation, which takes place in the inferior and intermediate worlds.

3rd – Spiritual period, in which, the Spirit having completely dominated matter, it no longer needs incarnation, nor material labor, for its labor is entirely spiritual; it is the state of the Spirits in the superior worlds.

The ease with which certain persons accept Spiritist ideas, of which, it seems, they have the intuition, indicates that they belong to the second period; but between this and the others there is a multitude of degrees that the Spirit crosses all the more rapidly the nearer it is to the spiritual period. It is thus that, from a material world like the Earth, it may go to dwell in a superior world, like Jupiter, for example, if its moral and spiritual advancement is sufficient to dispense it from passing through the intermediate degrees. It depends, then, upon man to leave the Earth without return, as a world of expiation and trial for him, or to return to it only on a mission.