172- Are all of our different corporeal existences lived on earth?
“No, not all of them. They may be lived on other worlds as well. Those on this globe are neither the first nor the last, but they are of the most material and the farthest from perfection.”
173- With each new corporeal existence does the soul pass from one world to another, or does it live several lives on the same globe?
“It may live many lives on the same world if it has not evolved sufficiently to go to a more advanced one.”
– So we may reappear several times on the earth?
“Of course.”
– Can we come back to it again after having lived on other worlds?
“Certainly; you may have already lived on other worlds besides earth.”
174- Is it necessary to live again on the earth?
“No, but if you do not progress, you may go to another world that is no better – perhaps one that is even worse.”
172- Is there any special advantage in coming back to live on the earth?
“No special advantage, unless you come on a mission; however, in that case, you will progress nonetheless, just like you would on any other world.”
– Wouldn’t it be better to remain a spirit?
“No, no! That would keep you at a standstill. What you want is to evolve toward God.”
176- After having incarnated on other worlds, can spirits incarnate on this one without ever having come here before?
“Yes, just as you can incarnate on other globes. All worlds are in solidarity. What you have not accomplished on one, you may on another.”
– Then are there those who are on the earth for the first time?
“There are many and at various degrees.”
– Is there some kind of indication by which we may recognize a spirit who is on the earth for the first time?
“That would be of no use to you whatsoever.”
177- In order to arrive at the perfection and supreme bliss that are humankind’s final aim, must a spirit have lived on all the worlds in the entire universe?
“No, because there are many worlds of like degree, where the spirit would learn nothing new.”
– Then how can we explain the plurality of a spirit’s lives on the same globe?
“It may find itself there each time in very different situations, which will provide it with many opportunities to acquire experience.”
178- Can spirits be reborn corporeally on a world that is relatively less evolved than the one on which they have already lived?
“Yes, when they have a mission to fulfill that will aid their progress. They joyfully accept the tribulations of this kind of existence in such a case because they furnish them a means for their further advancement.”
– Mightn’t this also occur as an expiation, and mightn’t God send rebellious spirits to less evolved worlds?
“Spirits may remain at a standstill but they never regress. Thus, their punishment consists in not advancing and in having to recommence badly-used lives in an environment more suited to their nature.”
– Who are the ones who must recommence the same existence?
“Those who have failed in their mission or trials.”
179- Are the beings who inhabit each world all at the same degree of purification?
“No, it is like on earth. There are some who are more advanced and some who are less advanced.”
180- In passing from this world to another, does a spirit retain the intelligence it possessed here?
“Yes indeed, because intelligence is never lost. Such a spirit may not have the same means of expressing it, however. It depends both on its degree of purity and the state of the body it acquires.” (See: Influence of the Organism) 35
35 See questions 367-370. – Pub.
181- Do the beings who inhabit different worlds have bodies similar to ours?
“Of course they have bodies because the spirit must be clothed with matter in order to act upon matter. This envelope, however, is more material or less so, according to the degree of purity the spirit has reached. This is what determines the differences among the worlds through which we must pass, for there are many dwellings in God’s house, and therefore many degrees. Some recognize this and are conscious of it here on the earth, but others know nothing at all about it.”
182- Can we accurately know the physical and moral state of different worlds?
“We, the Spirits, can only reply to you according to your degree of evolution. This means that we must not reveal these things to everybody because not all are in the same position to comprehend them; hence, such revelations would be troubling to them.”
As spirits purify themselves, the bodies that clothe them also approach the spirit nature. Their matter becomes less dense and they no longer painfully drag themselves around on the ground. The needs of their physical bodies are less coarse and they no longer have to destroy other living beings in order to feed themselves. They are freer and have a perception unknown to us, which enables them to see things far away; in other words, they can see things through the eyes of their body that we can see only through thought.
The purification of spirits is reflected in the moral perfection of the beings in which they are incarnated. The animal passions become weaker, and selfishness gives way to a fraternal sentiment. It is thus that on worlds more highly evolved than our own, wars are unknown, and there are no motives for hatred and discord, because no one would dream of harming a fellow being. Their intuition concerning the future – which is a surety that a conscience void of remorse gives them – makes death no longer a cause for apprehension. Instead, they look upon it without fear and as a simple transformation.
The lifespan on different worlds appears to be proportionate to the spirit’s degree of moral and physical advancement, and this is perfectly logical. The less material the body is, the less it is subject to the torments that disorganize it; the purer the spirit is, the less it is subject to the passions that undermine it. This is a further design of Providence, who desires for suffering to be shortened as much as possible.
183- In passing from one world to another, must a spirit experience a new childhood?
“Childhood is a necessary transition on all worlds, but it is not always as obtuse as it is on yours.”
184- Can spirits choose the new world they will inhabit?
“Not always, but they may ask for and receive what they desire if they deserve it, because spirits only have access to worlds according to their degree of purification.”
– If a spirit doesn’t make a request, what determines the world on which it will reincarnate?
“Its degree of purification.”
185- Is the physical and moral state of living beings on each globe perpetually the same?
“No. All worlds are subject to the law of progress. All began like yours: in an inferior state; however, the earth will undergo a transformation. It will become a terrestrial paradise when all humankind chooses good over evil.”
Thus, the race that populates the earth today will disappear someday and will be replaced gradually by more highly evolved beings. Such races will succeed the current one, just as the current one succeeded others that were even less evolved.
186- Are there worlds on which the spirit no longer lives in a material body and only has the perispirit as its envelope?
“Yes, and that envelope itself becomes so etherealized that to you it is as if it did not exist at all. This is the state of the pure spirits.”
– So based on this premise, it would seem that there is no precise line separating the state of the final incarnations and that of a pure spirit?
“There is no such line. The difference diminishes little by little, finally becoming imperceptible – like the night fading away at the first light of day.”
187- Is the perispirit’s substance the same on all globes?
“No, it is more etherealized on some than on others. When it goes from one world to another, a spirit clothes itself with the matter proper for each world at a speed faster than lightning.”
188- Do pure spirits inhabit special worlds, or do they inhabit universal space without being attached to any particular globe?
“Pure spirits inhabit certain worlds, but they are not confined to them as people are to the earth. They are much better than all others at being ubiquitous.”36
36 According to some spirits, of all the globes that comprise our solar system, the earth is one of those whose inhabitants are the least physically and morally advanced. Mars, as a planet per se, is even less advanced, whereas Jupiter is far superior in every respect. The sun is not inhabited by corporeal beings, but is a meeting place for high order spirits, who radiate their thought from there to other worlds, which they govern with the aid of low order spirits by communicating with them through the universal fluid. Regarding its physical constitution, the sun could be a focus of electricity. It appears that all suns operate in the same way.
Size and distance from the sun has no necessary bearing on the degree of the other planets’ development, because it appears that Venus is more evolved than Earth, and Saturn less so than Jupiter.
Many spirits who have animated well-known personalities on earth are said to have reincarnated on Jupiter, one of the worlds nearest to perfection. It is surprising that on a globe so advanced, persons may be found who might not have been considered so very evolved when they lived on the earth. However, this is not so astonishing if we consider the possibility that certain spirits who inhabit that planet could have been sent to the earth to fulfill missions that did not place them in very prominent positions, at least by earthly standards. Second, between their earthly existence and their life on Jupiter they may have had intermediate ones in which they evolved further. Third, on that world as on this one, there are different degrees of development, and between those degrees, there may be as much difference as that separating the primitive from the civilized individual on the earth. Thus, the fact that they inhabit Jupiter does not mean they are at the level of the most evolved beings, in the same way that all persons are not on the same level as scholars at the Institute simply because they happen to live in Paris.
The conditions of longevity are not everywhere the same as they are on earth; thus, an age-based comparison is not possible. A person who had died some years ago was evoked [through a medium] and stated that he had reincarnated just six months ago on a world whose name he withheld from us. When questioned about his age there, he replied, “I cannot calculate it, because we do not count time like you; moreover, our way of life is not the same. We develop much more quickly, so much so that it has been only six of your months since I came here. But I must say that in regards to intelligence, I am already about thirty earth years old.”
Many similar replies have been given by other spirits, and these statements contain nothing implausible. After all, don’t we see animals on the earth that reach full maturity in only a few months? Why shouldn’t it be the same with human beings on other spheres? On the other hand, notice that the development acquired by a thirty-year old person on the earth may be only a type of infancy in comparison with what he or she could reach elsewhere. We would have to be very short-sighted to consider ourselves the prototypes of creation, and it would be demeaning to the Divinity to believe that nothing else could have been created besides us. – Auth.
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