44 Or discarnate – Tr.
223- Does the soul reincarnate immediately after separation from the body?
“Sometimes it reincarnates immediately, but most often after an interval of longer or shorter duration. On more highly evolved worlds, reincarnation is almost always immediate. Since the corporeal matter of those worlds is less coarse, an incarnate spirit enjoys nearly all of its spirit faculties. Its normal state is the same as that of your lucid somnambulists.”
224- What becomes of the soul during the intervals between incarnations?
“It becomes an errant spirit, aspiring to and awaiting a new destiny.”
– How long may such intervals last?
“From a few hours to thousands of centuries. Strictly speaking, there is no outside limit assigned to the errant state. It may last for a very long time, but never forever. Sooner or later, a spirit always has the opportunity to begin another existence, which serves for the purification of its previous ones.”
– Does the length of the interval depend on the spirit’s own will, or can it be imposed as an expiation?
“It is a consequence of its free will. Spirits know full well what they are doing in prolonging it, but for some, extending it is also a punishment inflicted by God. Others ask for it to be extended in order to pursue studies that cannot be done productively except in the spirit state.”
225- Is the errant state in and of itself an indication of spirits who are less evolved?
“No, since there are errant spirits of every degree. Incarnation is the state that is transitory, as we have already stated. In their normal state, spirits are disengaged from matter.”
226- Could we say that all spirits who are not incarnate are errant?
“Those who must reincarnate, yes, but the pure spirits, who have reached perfection, are not errant: their state is definitive.”
Regarding their inmost qualities, spirits belong to different orders or degrees, through which they pass successively as they purify themselves. Regarding their state as spirits, they may be incarnate, that is, connected to a body; errant, that is, disconnected from the material body while awaiting a new incarnation in order to improve themselves; or pure, that is, perfected and having no further need of incarnation.
227- How do errant spirits learn, since it can hardly be in the same way as for us?
“They study their past and seek ways to evolve. They watch and observe what is going on in the realms through which they pass. They listen to the discourse of enlightened individuals and the counsels of spirits who are more evolved than they are, and this provides them with ideas that they do not yet possess.”
228- Do spirits retain any of the human passions?
“Upon losing their corporeal envelope, high order spirits leave evil passions behind and retain only the ideals of the good, but low order ones retain their passions; otherwise, they would belong to the first order.”
229- When they leave the earth behind, why don’t spirits abandon their evil passions since they are able to see the trouble they can cause?
“In your world, there are persons who are excessively jealous, for instance. Do you believe they will lose that defect upon leaving? After they leave the earth, since they are not entirely freed from matter – especially those who have displayed strong passions – they retain a sort of atmosphere around them that is infused with all their evil qualities. They only occasionally glimpse the truth so as to have the moral path revealed to them.”
230- Can a spirit progress while in the errant state?
“It may improve itself a great deal; it always depends on its own will and desire. However, it puts its newly-acquired ideas into practice only during corporeal life.”
231- Are errant spirits happy or unhappy?
“Their degree of happiness or unhappiness depends on what they have merited. They either suffer from the passions whose essence they have retained, or they are happy according to their degree of dematerialization. In the errant state, a spirit realizes what it lacks in order to be happier; thus, it searches for the means to attain it. However, it is not always permitted to reincarnate when it wants to. This in itself is a punishment.”
232- While in the errant state, can spirits visit other worlds?
“That depends. When the spirit leaves the body, it is still not completely disconnected from matter. Hence, it still belongs to the world on which it has lived – or to one of the same degree – unless it has progressed sufficiently during its lifetime. Progression is the purpose to which it must hold, for it will never perfect itself unless it progresses. Nevertheless, it may go to certain more highly evolved worlds, but as an outsider; it can get only glimpses of such worlds, and these glimpses are what drive it to improve itself so that it may become worthy of the happiness enjoyed on them, and to be able to inhabit them later.”
233- Do spirits who are already purified ever go to less evolved worlds?
“They frequently do so in order to help such worlds progress. Without these spirits, these worlds would be left to themselves, without guides to direct them.”
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