237- Once in the world of spirits, does the soul still have the perceptions it had in this life?
“Yes, and others that it did not have because its body was like a veil that obscured them. Intelligence is a natural attribute of the spirit, but it is expressed more freely when it is unshackled.”
238- Are the perceptions and understanding of spirits unlimited? In other words, do they know everything?
“The nearer they approach perfection, the more they know. If they are high order spirits, they know much. Low order spirits are more or less ignorant on all subjects.”
239- Do spirits comprehend the beginning of things?
“That too depends on how evolved and purified they are. Low order spirits do not know any more than humans.”
240- Do spirits perceive time as we do?
“No, and that is what causes you to misunderstand us when it comes to setting dates or epochs.”
Spirits live outside of time as we know it; for them, duration of time practically does not exist. The centuries that are so long to us are to them only instants that disappear into eternity, in the same way that the unevenness of the ground would fade and disappear to someone high in space
241- Do spirits have a more correct and precise idea of the present than we do?
“More so or less so, like someone who sees clearly has a more correct idea of things than a blind person. Spirits see what you do not see, and they judge differently than you; but once again, it depends on how evolved they are.”
242- How do spirits have knowledge about the past? Is such knowledge unlimited for them?
“When we concern ourselves with it, the past is present, precisely in the same way you remember something that has impressed you during your exile. However, since we are no longer hampered by the material veil that clouds your minds, we remember things that have disappeared from your memory. Spirits, however, do not know everything, especially their own creation.”
243- Do spirits know the future?
“Again, it depends on how purified they are. Most of the time, they may glimpse it, but they do not always have permission to reveal it. When they do see it, it appears to them to be the present. A spirit sees the future more clearly the more it approaches God. After death, the soul sees and takes in its past migrations at a glance, but it cannot see what God has in store for it. For that, it is necessary for it to have become one with God after many lives.”
– Do spirits who have reached perfection possess complete knowledge of the future?
“Complete is not the right term because God alone is sovereign; no one can equal God.”
244- Do spirits see God?
“Only high order spirits see and understand God; low order spirits feel and intuit God.”
– When a low order spirit says that a thing is forbidden or permitted to it by God, how does it know that the order has actually come from God?
“It does not see God but senses the divine sovereignty, and when something must not be done or when a word must not be spoken, it receives a sort of intuition, a secret warning, which keeps it from proceeding. Don’t you yourselves have presentiments that are like secret warnings to do or not to do something? The same happens with us, but to a higher degree; you should understand that, since the essence of spirits is more subtle than yours, we can more easily receive divine warnings.”
– Is the order transmitted by God directly or through other spirits?
“It does not come from God directly, because to communicate with God directly one must deserve it. God transmits divine orders through spirits who are more evolved in purification and instruction.”
245- Is spirits’ sight circumscribed as it is in corporeal beings?
“No, it resides within the entire spirit.”
246- Do spirits need light in order to see?
“They see with their own light, without the need for outside light. There is no darkness for them, except that in which they may find themselves due to expiation.”
247- Do spirits need to move about in order to see in two different places? For instance, can they see what is happening simultaneously in two hemispheres of the globe?
“Since spirits travel at the speed of thought, we can say that they see everywhere all at once. Their thought can radiate and be directed to many points at the same time, but this faculty depends on their purity; the less pure they are, the more limited their sight. Only the high order spirits can see everything as a whole.”
Among spirits, the faculty of sight is inherent to their nature and permeates their whole being like light in a luminous object. It is a type of universal lucidity extending to everything, simultaneously embracing space, time and things, and for which there are no darkness or material obstacles. One should understand that it must be this way because in human beings sight functions through an organ that receives the light; thus, without light they remain in darkness. In spirits, however, since the faculty of sight is an inherent attribute independent of any outside agent, sight does not depend on light. (See: Ubiquity, no. 92)
248- Do spirits see things as distinctly as we do?
“More distinctly, for their sight penetrates what yours cannot. Nothing obscures it.”
249- Do spirits perceive sounds?
“Yes, and they also perceive those that your limited senses cannot.”
– Is the hearing faculty, like that of sight, in their whole being?
“All perceptions are attributes of the spirit and are part of its being. When it is clothed with a material body, perceptions only arrive through organic channels. In the state of freedom, however, they are no longer localized.”
250- Since the perceptions are attributes of the spirit itself, can it stop using them?
“A spirit only sees and hears what it wants to; at least this is generally the case, especially for more evolved spirits, because less evolved ones frequently must hear and see what may be useful for their improvement, whether they want to or not.”
251- Are spirits sensitive to music?
“Do you mean your music? What is that kind of music when compared to celestial music, that harmony of which no one on earth can have an idea? One is to the other what the primitive chant is when compared with a soft melody. Nevertheless, ordinary spirits may take a certain pleasure in listening to your music because they are not yet able to appreciate anything more sublime. For spirits, music has infinite charm due to their highly developed sensitive qualities. Of course, I am referring to celestial music, which is everything the spiritual imagination can conceive of as the most beautiful and delicate of all.”
252- Are spirits sensitive to the beauties of nature?
“The beauties of nature on different globes are so diverse that they are far from knowing about all of them. Yes, they are sensitive to them according to their aptitudes for appreciating and comprehending them. Evolved spirits enjoy the beauties of the whole, before which the beauties of detail fade, so to speak.”
253- Do spirits experience our physical needs and sufferings?
“They know about them, for they have endured them, but they do not experience them physically as you do, because they are spirits.”
254- Do spirits feel fatigue and the need for rest?
“They cannot feel fatigue as you understand it, and therefore they do not need corporeal rest, because they do not possess organs in which the energies must be restored. However, spirits do rest, meaning they do not remain in a state of constant activity. They do not act in a physical way, because their action is entirely intellectual and their rest is entirely mental. There are moments when their thought decreases in activity and is no longer directed toward any object in particular. This is a true repose for them, but it cannot be compared to that of the body. The kind of fatigue that spirits can experience is in proportion to how evolved they are; the more purified they are, the less rest they need.”
255- When a spirit says that it is suffering, what is the nature of such suffering?
“Mental anguish, which tortures it more acutely than physical suffering.”
256- Why do some spirits complain about the cold or heat?
“It is a remembrance of what they suffered during their life, a feeling as painful as the reality itself. Frequently, they use these expressions to express their situation. When they remember their body, they experience a sensation similar to when you take off a heavy coat – immediately afterwards you continue to feel its weight on your shoulders.”
Site Espírita 