49See footnotes to nos. 211 and 213 for definitions of sympathy and sympathetic in this context – Tr.
386- Could two individuals who have already known and loved each other meet in another corporeal existence and recognize each other?
“Recognize each other, no; feel attracted to each other, yes. Frequently, intimate connections founded on sincere affection arise from no other cause. Two individuals are drawn together by apparently fortuitous circumstances, but it is actually the result of the attraction of two spirits who have been searching for each other amidst the crowds.”
– Wouldn’t they find great pleasure in being able to recognize each other?
“Not always. The memory of past lives might hold greater disadvantages than you suppose. After death, they will recognize each other and will remember the time they spent together.” (See no. 392)
387- Is sympathy always the result of their having known each other previously?
“No. Two spirits who have affinities naturally search for each other without their having been previously acquainted as incarnates.”
388- Wouldn’t the encounters which sometimes occur between certain persons, and which are attributed to chance, be the effect of a kind of sympathetic relationship?
“Among thinking beings there are connections that you do not yet know anything about. Magnetism is at the core of this science, which you will later comprehend better.”
389- Where does the instinctive repulsion come from when certain individuals meet each other for the first time?
“They are antipathetic spirits who perceive and recognize each other without ever having spoken to each other.”
390- Is instinctive antipathy always a sign of an evil nature?
“Two spirits are not necessarily evil just because they are not sympathetic. Antipathy may originate from a dissimilarity in their way of thinking. As they evolve, however, these shades of dissimilarity are erased and the antipathy disappears.”
391- Does the antipathy between two individuals arise first in the one whose spirit is worse or in the other whose spirit is better?
“It arises in both, but the causes and effects are different. An evil spirit feels antipathy towards anyone who may be able to judge and unmask it. Upon seeing a person for the first time, it perceives that that person will disapprove of it. Its dislike then changes into hatred and envy, which inspire it with the desire to do evil. The good spirit, on the other hand, is repulsed by the evil one because it knows it will not be understood by the other and that neither shares the same sentiments. However, aware of its higher moral principles, it feels neither hatred nor jealousy toward the other: it is content to simply avoid and pity it.”
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