172. Do we accomplish all our different corporeal existences upon this earth?
"Not all of them, for those existences take place in many different worlds. The world in which you now are is neither the first nor the last of these, but is one of those that are the most material, and the furthest removed from perfection."
173. Does the soul, at each new corporeal existence, pass from one world to another or can it accomplish several existences on the same globe?
"It may live many times on the same globe, if it be not sufficiently advanced to pass into a higher one."
– We may, then, re-appear several times upon the earth?
"Certainly."
– Can we come back to it after having lived in other worlds?
"Assuredly you can; you may already have lived elsewhere as well as upon the earth."
174. Is it necessary to live again upon this earth?
"No; but if you do not advance, you may go into a world no better than this one, or even worse."
175. Is there any advantage in coming back to inhabit this earth?
"No special advantage, unless it be the fulfilment of a mission; in that case the spirit
advances, whether incarnated in this earth or elsewhere."
– Would it not be happier to remain as a spirit?
"No, no! for we should remain stationary; and we want to advance towards God."
176. Can spirits come to this world, for the first time, after having been incarnated in other worlds.'
"Yes; just as you may go into other ones. All the worlds of the universe are united by the bonds of solidarity; that which is not accomplished in one of them is accomplished in another."
– Some of those who are now upon this earth are here, then, for the first time?
"Many of them are so; and at various degrees of advancement."
– Is there any sign by which we can know the spirits who are here for the first time?
"Such knowledge would not be of the slightest use to you."
177. In order to arrive at the perfection and the supreme felicity which are the final aim of mankind, is it necessary for a spirit to pass through all the worlds that exist in the universe?
"No; for there are a great number of worlds of the same degree, in which a spirit would learn nothing new."
– How, then, are we to explain the plurality of his existences upon the same globe?
"He may find himself, each time he comes back, in very different situations, which afford him the opportunity of acquiring new experience."
178. Can spirits live corporeally in a world relatively inferior to the one in which they have already lived?
"Yes; when they have to fulfil a mission in aid of progress; and in that case they joyfully accept the tribulations of such an existence, because these will furnish them with the means of advancement."
– May this not occur also as an expiation? and may not rebellious spirits be sent by God into worlds of lower degree?
"Spirits may remain stationary, but they never retrograde; those who are rebellious are punished by not advancing, and by having to recommence their misused existences under the conditions suited to their nature."
– Who are they that are compelled to recommence the same existence?
"They who fail in the fulfilment of their mission, or in the endurance of the trial appointed to them."
179. Have all the human beings who inhabit any given world arrived at the same degree of perfection?
"No; it is in the other worlds as upon the earth; there are some who are more advanced, and others who are less so."
180. In passing from this world into another one, does a spirit retain the intelligence which he possessed in this one?
"Undoubtedly he does; intelligence is never lost. But he may not have the same means of manifesting it; for that depends both on his degree of advancement and on the quality of the body he will take." (Vide, Influence of Organism.)
181. Have the human beings who inhabit the other worlds bodies like ours?
"They undoubtedly have bodies, because it is necessary for the spirit to be clothed with matter in order to act upon matter; but this envelope is more or less material according to the degree of purity at which each spirit has arrived, and it is these gradations of purity that decide the different worlds through which we have to pass; for in our Father's house are many mansions, and therefore many degrees among those mansions. There are some who know this, and possess the consciousness of this fact, while upon the earth; and there are others who have no such intuition."
182. Can we obtain any exact knowledge of the physical and moral state of the different worlds?
"We, spirits, can only reply according to the degree at which you have arrived; that is to say, that we must not reveal these things to all, because some are not in the state which would enable them to understand such revelations, and would be confused by them."
In proportion as a spirit becomes purified, the body with which he clothes himself also approaches more nearly to the spirit-nature. The matter of which his body is composed is less dense; he no longer crawls heavily on the surface of the ground; his bodily needs are less gross; and the various living beings in those higher worlds are no longer obliged to destroy one another in order to feed themselves. A spirit incarnated in those worlds enjoys a greater degree of freedom, and possesses, in regard to objects at a distance, orders of perception of a nature unknown to us; he sees with his eyes what we see only in thought.
The purification of spirits determines the moral excellence of the corporeal beings in whom they are incarnated. The animal passions become weaker, and selfishness gives place to the sentiment of fraternity.
Thus, in worlds of higher degree than our earth, wars are unknown, because no one thinks of doing harm to his fellow-beings, and there is consequently no motive for hatred or discord. The foresight of their future, which is intuitive in the people of those worlds, and the sense of security resulting from a conscience void of remorse, cause them to look forward to death without fear, as being simply a process of transformation, the approach of which they perceive without the slightest uneasiness.
The duration of a lifetime, in the different worlds, appears to be proportionate to the degree of moral and physical superiority of each world; and this is perfectly consonant with reason. The less material is the body, the less subject is it to the vicissitudes which disorganise it; the purer the spirit, the less subject is he to the passions which undermine and destroy it. This correspondence between moral and physical conditions is a proof of the beneficence of providential law, even in worlds of low degree; as the duration of the suffering which is the characteristic of life in those worlds is thus rendered proportionally shorter.
183. In passing from one world to another, does the spirit pass through a new infancy?
"Infancy is, in all worlds, a necessary transition; but it is not, in all of them, so stupid as it in yours."
184. Has a spirit the choice of the new world which he is to inhabit?
"Not always; but he can make his demand, and it may be granted, but only if he have
deserved it; for the various worlds are only accessible to spirits according to the degree of their elevation."
– If a spirit make no such demand, what is it that decides as to the world in which he will be reincarnated?
"The degree of his elevation."
185. Is the physical and moral state of the living beings of each globe always the same?
"No; worlds, like the beings that live in them, are subject to the law of progress. All have begun, like yours, by being in a state of inferiority; and the earth will undergo a transformation similar to that which has been accomplished by the others. It will become a terrestrial paradise, when the men by whom it is inhabited have become good."
The races which now people the earth will gradually disappear, and will be succeeded by others more and more perfect Those transformed races will succeed the races now upon the earth, as these have succeeded earlier races, still more gross than the present ones.
186. Are there worlds in which the spirit, ceasing to inhabit a material body, has no longer any other envelope than the perspirit?
"Yes, and this envelope itself becomes so etherealised that, for you, it is as though it did not exist. This is the state of the fully purified spirits."
– It would seem, from this statement, that there is no clearly marked line of demarcation between the state of the latter incarnations and that of pure spirit?
"No such demarcation exists. The difference between them growing gradually less and less, they blend into one another as the darkness of night melts into the dawn."
187. Is the substance of the perispirit the same in all globes?
"No; it is more or less ethereal. On passing from one world to another, a spirit clothes himself with the matter proper to each, changing his envelope with the rapidity of lightning."
188. Do the pure spirits inhabit special worlds, or are they in universal space without being attached to any particular globe?
"The pure spirits inhabit certain worlds, but they are not confined to them as men are
confined to the earth; they possess, in a higher degree than any others, the power of
instantaneous locomotion, which is equivalent to ubiquity.
According to the statements of spirits, the earth, as regards the physical and moral qualities of its inhabitants, is one of the least advanced of all the globes of our solar system. Mars is stated to be at a point even lower than that of the earth, and Jupiter to be greatly superior to the earth in every respect The sun is not a world inhabited by corporeal beings, but is a place of meeting for the spirits of a higher order who, from thence, send out the radiations of their thought towards the other worlds of our solar system, which they govern through the instrumentality of spirits of a less elevated degree, to whom they transmit their action by the intermediary of the universal fluid. As regards its physical constitution, the sun would appear to be a focus of electricity; and all the other suns seem to be identical with ours in nature and function.
The size of planets, and their distance from the sun, have no necessary relation with their degree of advancement; for Venus is said to he more advanced than the earth, and Saturn is declared to be less advanced than Jupiter.
The souls of many persons well known in this earth are said to be reincarnated in Jupiter, one of the worlds nearest to perfection; and much surprise has been felt on hearing it stated that persons who, when here, were not supposed to merit such a favour, should have been admitted into so advanced a globe. But there is nothing in this fact that need surprise us, if we consider, first, that certain spirits who have inhabited this planet may have been sent hither in fulfilment of a mission which, to our eyes, did not seem to place them in the foremost rank; secondly, that they may have had, between their lives here and in Jupiter, intermediary existences in which they have advanced; and thirdly, that there are innumerable degrees of development in that world as in this one, and that there may be as much difference between these degrees as there is, amongst us, between the savage and the civilised man. It no more follows that a spirit is on a level with the most advanced beings of Jupiter because he inhabits that planet than it follows that an ignoramus is on a level with a philosopher because he inhabits the same town.
The conditions of longevity, also, are as various in other worlds as they are on our earth; and no comparison can be established between the ages of those who inhabit them. A person who had died some years previously, on being evoked, stated that he had been incarnated for six months in a world the name of which is unknown to us. Being questioned as to his age in that world, he replied, "That is a point which I am unable to decide; because, in the first place, we do not count time in the same way as you do, and, in the next place, our mode of existence is not the same as yours. Our development is much more rapid in this world; for, although it is only six of your months since I came here, I may say that, as regards intelligence, I am about what one usually is at the age of thirty in your earth."
A great number of similar replies have been given by other spirits; and these statements contain nothing improbable. Do we not see upon our earth a host of animals that acquire their normal development in the course of a few months? Why should not men do the same in other spheres? And it is to be remarked, moreover, that the degree of development acquired by a man at the age of thirty upon the earth may be only a sort of infancy in comparison with what he is destined to arrive at in worlds of higher degree. Short-sighted indeed are they who look upon our present selves as being in all respects the normal type of creation; and to suppose that there can be no other modes of existence than our present one, is, in sooth, a strange narrowing of our idea of the possibilities of the divine action.
The Spirits' book » BOOK FIRST - CAUSES » CHAPTER III - CREATION » Formation of Worlds » 41