330. Do spirits foresee the epoch of their next return to corporeal life?

"They have the presentiment of that return, as a blind man feels the heat of the fire he is approaching. They know that they will be reincarnated, as you know that you will die; but without knowing when the change will occur." – (166.)

– Reincarnation, then, is a necessity of spirit-life, as death is a necessity of corporeal life?

"Certainly."

331. Do all spirits occupy themselves beforehand with their approaching incarnation?

"There are some who never give it a thought, and who even know nothing about it; that depends on their greater or less degree of advancement. In some cases, the uncertainty in which they are left in regard to their future is a punishment."

332. Can a spirit hasten or retard the moment of his reincarnation?

"He may hasten it by the action of a strong desire; he may also put it off if he shrink from the trial awaiting him (for the cowardly and the indifferent are to be found among spirits as among men), but he cannot do so with impunity. He suffers from such delay, as the sick man suffers who shrinks from employing the remedy which alone can cure him."

333. If a spirit found himself tolerably happy in an average condition among errant spirits, could he prolong that state indefinitely?

"No, not indefinitely. The necessity of advancing is one which is felt by every spirit, sooner or later. All spirits have to ascend; it is their destiny."

334. Is the union of a given soul with a given body predestined beforehand, or is the choice of a body only made at the last moment?

"The spirit who is to animate a given body is always designated beforehand. Each spirit, on choosing the trial he elects to undergo, demands to be reincarnated; and God, who sees and knows all things, has foreseen and foreknown that such and such a soul would be united to such and such a body."

335. Is the spirit allowed to choose the body into which he will enter, or does he only choose the kind of life which is to serve for his trial?

"He may choose a body also, for the imperfections of a given body are so many trials that will aid his advancement, if he succeeds in vanquishing the obstacles thus placed in his way. This choice does not always depend on himself, but he may ask to be allowed to make it."

– Could a spirit refuse, at the last moment, to enter into the body that had been chosen by him?

"If he refused, he would suffer much more than one who had not attempted to undergo a new trial."

336. Could it happen that a child about to be born should find no spirit willing to incarnate himself in it?

"God provides for all contingences. Every child who is predestined to be born viable, is also predestined to have a soul. Nothing is ever created without design."

337. Is the union of a given soul with a given body ever imposed by God?

"It is sometimes imposed, as well as the different trials to be undergone by a spirit, and especially when the latter is still too backward to be able to choose wisely for himself. A spirit may be constrained, as an expiation, to unite himself with the body of a child that, by the circumstances of its birth, and the position it will have in the world, will become for him an instrument of chastisement."

338. If several spirits demanded to incarnate themselves in a body about to be born, in what way would the decision be made between them?

"In such a case, it is God who judges as to which spirit is best fitted to fulfil the destiny appointed for the child; but, as I have already told you, the spirit is designated before the instant in which he is to unite himself with the body."

339. Is the moment of incarnation accompanied by a confusion similar to that which follows the spirit’s separation from the body?

"Yes, but much greater and especially much longer. At death, the spirit is emancipated from the state of slavery; at birth, he re-enters it."

340. Does the moment in which he is to reincarnate himself appear to a spirit as a solemn one? Does he accomplish that act as something serious and important for him?

"He is like a traveller who embarks on a perilous voyage, and who does not know whether he may not find his death in the waves among which he is venturing."

Just as the death of the body is a sort of re-birth for the spirit, so reincarnation is for him a sort of death, or rather of exile and claustration. He quits the world of spirits for the corporeal world just as a man quits the corporeal world for the world of spirits. A spirit knows that he will be reincarnated, just as a man knows that he will die; but, like the latter, he only becomes aware of the change at the moment when it occurs. It is at this moment that the confusion produced by the change takes possession of him, as is the case with a man in the act of dying; and this confusion lasts until his new existence is fully established. The commencement of reincarnation is, for the spirit, a sort of dying.

341. Is a spirit’s uncertainty, in regard to the successful issue of the trials he is about to undergo in his new life, a cause of anxiety to him before his incarnation?

"Yes, of very great anxiety, since those trials will retard or hasten his advancement, according as he shall have borne them ill or well."

342. Is a spirit accompanied, at the moment of his reincarnation, by spirit-friends who come to be present at his departure from the spirit-world, as they come to receive him when he returns to it?

"That depends on the sphere which the spirit inhabits. If he belongs to a sphere in which affection reigns, spirits who love him remain with him to the last moment, encourage him, and often even follow him in his new life."

343. Is it the spirit-friends who thus follow us in our earthly life that we sometimes see in our dreams manifesting affection for us, but whose features are unknown to us?

"Yes, in very many cases; they come to visit you as you visit a prisoner in his cell."