290 - (15). Can spirits tell us of our past existences?

"God sometimes, for a special object, permits those existences to be revealed to you. When such knowledge will conduce to your instruction and edification, the revelation is permitted; but, in such cases, it always comes to you spontaneously, and in some unforeseen manner. It is never permitted for the satisfaction of mere curiosity"

- Why is it that some spirits never refuse to deal in this kind of revelation?

"Because they are mocking spirits who are amusing themselves at your expense". In general, every revelation of this kind which has not an eminently serious and useful end may be set down as false. Mocking spirits like to flatter your self-love by pretending that you have been rich or powerful in former existences; and there are mediums and believers who accept as gospel everything that is told them in their minds, and who cannot see that their present advancement in no way justifies the exalted positions which; through a petty vanity that causes as much amusement to spirits as to men; they fancy themselves to have formerly occupied. It would be more reasonable, more in conformity with the progressive march of beings, and also more honourable to themselves, to suppose that they have ascended rather than descended. No revelations of this kind are entitled to credence, unless they have come spontaneously, and through several mediums, all strangers to each other, and ignorant of what may have been previously revealed on the subject; when these conditions exist, there is good reason for believing the statements thus made."

- If we may not know our anterior individuality, is it the same in regard to the kind of existence we have had, and the good and bad qualities which have been our predominant characteristics in our former lives?

"No; such knowledge is often permitted, because it may tend to your improvement; but, by studying what you now are, you may yourself infer what you have been" (See The Spirits' Book, 392, Forgetfulness of the Past).

16. Can anything be revealed to us about our future existences?

"No; whatever spirits may tell you on this subject is all nonsense, as you may easily see; for your future existence cannot be fixed beforehand, because it will be what you will have made it for yourselves, both by your conduct during your present life on earth, and also by the choice which you will make, in regard to that new existence, when you have re-entered the spirit-world. The less you have to expiate, the more happy will that existence be; but to foreknow the where and the how of that phase of your career is an impossibility, excepting in the special case (a very rare one) of spirits who are only on your earth for the accomplishment of an important mission, and for whom the road is, so to say, traced out beforehand, and may therefore be foreseen."