304. Does a spirit remember his corporeal existence?

"Yes; having lived many times as a human being, he remembers what he has been, and often smiles pityingly at the follies of his past."

 

As a man, who has reached the age of reason, smiles at the follies of his youth and the sillinesses of his childhood.

 

305. Does the remembrance of his corporeal existence present itself to a spirit, complete, and spontaneously, immediately after his death?

"No; it comes back to him little by little, in proportion as he fixes his attention upon it, as objects gradually become visible out of a fog."

 

306. Does a spirit remember the details of all the events of his life? Does he take in the whole of his life at a single retrospective glance?

"He remembers the things of his life more or less distinctly and in detail, according to the influence they have exercised on his state as a spirit; but you can easily understand that there are many things in his life to which he attaches no importance, and which he does not even seek to remember."

 

– Could he remember them if he wished to do so?

"He has the power of recalling the most minute details of every incident of his life, and even of his thoughts; but when no useful purpose would be served by exerting this power, he does not exert it."

 

307. In what way does his past life present itself to a spirit's memory? Is it through an effort of his imagination, or is it like a picture displayed before his eyes?

"It comes back to him in both ways. All the actions which he has an interest in remembering appear to him as though they were present; the others are seen by him more or less vaguely in his thought, or are entirely forgotten. The more dematerialised he is, the less importance does he attach to material things. It has often happened to you, on evoking some wandering spirit who has just left the earth, to find that he remembers neither the names of persons whom he liked, nor details which to you appear to be important. He cares but little about them, and they have faded from his memory. But you always find that he perfectly remembers the main facts of his life which have conduced to his intellectual and moral progress."

 

308. Does a spirit remember all the existences which have preceded the one he has just quitted?

"His entire past is spread out before him like the stages already accomplished by a traveller, but, as we have told you, he does not remember all his past actions with absolute precision; he remembers them more or less clearly in proportion to the influence they have had upon his present state. As to his earliest existences, those which may be regarded as constituting the period of spirit-infancy, they are lost in vagueness, and disappear in the night of oblivion.

 

309. How does a spirit regard the body he has just quitted?

"As an uncomfortable garment that hampered him, and that he is delighted to be rid of."

 

– What feeling is produced in him by seeing the decomposition of his body?

"Almost always that of indifference; as something about which he no longer cares."

 

310. After a time, does a spirit recognise the mortal remains, or other objects, that once belonged to him?

"Sometimes he does so; but this depends on the more or less elevated point of view from which he regards terrestrial things."

 

311. Is a spirit’s attention attracted to the material relics of himself by the respect entertained for those objects by his survivors, and does he see this respect with pleasure?

"A spirit is always gratified at being held in kindly remembrance by those he has left. The objects thus preserved in remembrance of him serve to recall him to the memory of those by whom they are preserved; but it is the action of their thought which attracts him, and not those objects."

 

312. Do spirits retain the remembrance of the sufferings endured by them in their last

corporeal existence?

"They frequently do so; and this remembrance makes them realise all the more vividly the worth of the felicity they enjoy as spirits."

 

313. Does he who has been happy down here regret his terrestrial enjoyments on quitting the earth?

"Only spirits of inferior degree can regret material satisfactions in harmony with impurity of nature, and which are expiated by suffering. For spirits of higher degrees of elevation, the happiness of eternity is immeasurably preferable to the ephemeral pleasures of the earthly life."

 

As the adult despises what constituted the delights of is infancy.

 

314. When a man, who has commenced a series of important labours in view of some useful end, has seen these labours interrupted by death, does he, in the other world, feel regret at having had to leave them unfinished?

"No, because he sees that others are destined to complete them. On the contrary, he endeavours to act upon the minds of other human beings, so as to lead them to carry on what he had begun. His aim while upon the earth was to be useful to the human race: his aim is the same in the spirit-world."

 

315. When a man has left behind him works of art or of literature, does he preserve for them in the other life the interest he took in them while living upon the earth?

"He judges them from another point of view, according to his elevation, and he often blames what he formerly admired."

 

316. Does a spirit still take an interest in the labours which are going on upon the earth, in the progress of the arts and sciences?

"That depends on his degree of elevation, and on the mission he may have to fulfil. What appears magnificent to you often appears a very small matter to spirits; if they take an interest in it, it is only as a man of learning takes an interest in the work of a schoolboy. They examine whatever indicates the elevation of incarnated spirits and mark the degree of their progress."

 

317. Do spirits, after death, retain any preference for their native country?

"For spirits of elevated degree, their country is the universe; in regard to the earth, their only preference is for the place in which there is the greatest number of persons with whom they are in sympathy."

 

The situation of spirits, and their way of looking at things, are infinitely varied, according to their various degrees of moral and intellectual development. Spirits of a high order generally make but short sojourns upon the earth; all that goes on here is so paltry in comparison with the grandeurs of infinity, the matters to which men attribute most importance appear to them so puerile, that the things of this earth have very little interest for them, unless they have been sent to it for the purpose of quickening the progress of its people. Spirits of lower degree visit our earth more frequently, but they judge its affairs from a higher point of view than that of their corporeal life. The common ruck of spirits may be said to be sedentary  among us; they constitute the great mass of the ambient population of the invisible world. They retain very much the same ideas, tastes, and tendencies which they had while clothed with their corporeal envelope, and mix themselves up with our gatherings, our occupation, our amusements, in all of which they take a part more or less active according to their character. Being no longer able to satisfy their material passions, they take delight in witnessing the excesses of those who abandon themselves to their indulgence, to which they excite them by every means in their power. Among their number are some who are better disposed, and who see and observe in order to acquire knowledge and to advance.

 

318. Do spirits modify their ideas in the other life?

"Very considerably. A spirit's ideas undergo very great modifications in proportion as he becomes dematerialised. He may sometimes retain the same ideas for a long period, but little by little the influence of matter diminishes, and he sees more clearly. It is then that he seeks for the means of advancing."

 

319. As spirits had already lived in the other world before being incarnated, why do they feel astonished on re-entering that world?

"This feeling is only momentary, and results from the confusion that follows their waking; they soon recover their knowledge of themselves, as the memory of the past comes back to them, and the impression of the terrestrial life becomes effaced." (Vide 163 et seq.)