258- While in the errant state and before a new corporeal existence, does a spirit have the awareness and foresight of what will happen to it during its new lifetime?
“The spirit itself chooses the kinds of trials it will undergo. Its free will consists in doing so.”
– Then it is not God who imposes the tribulations of life on it as a chastisement?
“Nothing happens without God’s permission, because it was God who established all the laws that govern the universe. You may as well ask why God made such and such a law instead of some other one! In giving a spirit freedom of choice, God leaves to it the entire responsibility for its acts and their consequences. Nothing stands in the way of its future. The path of the good or the path of evil is an open choice. If the spirit succumbs to its trials, there is still the consolation that not everything is lost, because God, out of divine goodness, allows it to start over where it failed. It is necessary to distinguish between what is the work of God’s will and what is the work of human will. If a danger threatens you, it is not you who have created it, but God. However, you have willingly exposed yourself to it, because you saw it as a way to advance, and God has allowed it to happen.”
259- If our spirit chooses the kinds of trials it will undergo, are all the tribulations of life therefore foreseen and chosen by us?
“Not all of them, because it cannot be said that you have chosen and foreseen everything that happens to you in the world – not even the smallest things. You have chosen the kinds of trials; the details are consequences of the position you have chosen, and frequently, of your own actions. If a spirit has been born among evildoers, for example, it already knew what kind of temptations it would face, but it did not know how it would act in any given situation; its actions are the products of its volition or free will. In choosing a particular path, a spirit knows it will have to endure the struggles that arise thereon and it knows the nature of the tribulations it will encounter, but it does not know what events await it. The details spring from circumstances and the force of things. Only the major events that will influence its destiny are foreseen. If you walk down a path full of ruts, you know you must be very cautious because you run the risk of tripping, but you do not know when you will trip, and maybe you will not trip at all if you are sufficiently on your guard. If you are walking down the sidewalk and a tile falls on your head, you must not think that it was ‘written beforehand’, as it is commonly said.”
260- Why would a spirit want to be born among evildoers?
“It has to be sent into the environment in which it can experience its requested trial. To this end, it must find an analogous situation; for example, in order to struggle against the instinct of thievery, it must dwell among thieves.”
– If there were no longer any evil individuals on earth, would spirits not be able to find the necessary conditions for certain trials?
“And would that be something to regret? That is what happens on highly evolved worlds, where evil has no access; thus only good spirits dwell on them. Use all your efforts to ensure that the same happens as soon as possible on your earth.”
261- In the trials it has to undergo to reach perfection, must a spirit experience every type of temptation possible? In other words, will it have to go through all the circumstances that can trigger pride, jealousy, greed, lust, etc.?
“Of course not. You should be aware of the fact that there are those who from the beginning have taken a road that has spared them many trials, but those who allow themselves to be led along the evil road risk all its dangers. For instance, a spirit may ask for wealth and it will be given. Then, depending on its character, it may become greedy or wasteful, selfish or generous, or it may indulge in all the pleasures of sensuality. This, however, does not mean that it had to succumb to all those tendencies.”
262- How can a spirit, who at its origin is simple, ignorant and inexperienced, consciously choose an existence and be responsible for its choices?
“God compensates for its inexperience by outlining the path it should follow, as you do for a child from birth. However, as the spirit’s free will develops, God gradually leaves it the freedom to choose its own way. It is at this point that the spirit will choose the wrong path if it does not listen to the advice of good spirits. This is what we may call the ‘fall of man’.”
– When a spirit enjoys its free will, does the choice of its next corporeal existence always depend solely on its own volition, or can it be imposed on the spirit by God’s will as an expiation?
“God knows how to wait: God never hastens expiation. Nevertheless, God can impose a certain existence on a spirit when, due to its impurity or ill will, it is not capable of determining what would be most useful, and when God sees that such an existence could serve for its purification and advancement, and at the same time, its expiation.”
263- Do spirits make their choice immediately after death?
“No, because many of them believe in eternal punishment, and as we have already told you, this in itself is a punishment.”
264- What guides a spirit in choosing the trials it wants to bear?
“It chooses what may serve as an expiation according to the nature of its wrongs and whatever might enable it to evolve more quickly. Some spirits may impose a life of poverty and hardship on themselves in order to try to bear it with courage. Others may wish to experience the temptations of fortune and power, which are much more dangerous than poverty because of the abuse and ill use that may be made of them, and because of the base passions they encourage. Still others may desire to be tested in the struggles they will have to bear in the contact with various vices.”
265- If some spirits choose contact with vice as a trial, are there others who choose it out of affinity and the desire to live in surroundings that cater to their tastes, or where they may give free rein to their materialistic tendencies?
“Of course there are, but only among those whose moral sense is still underdeveloped; the trial derives from this, and they must endure it for a longer time. Sooner or later, they will understand that satisfying their crude passions has deplorable consequences, which they will have to endure for a period that will seem like an eternity. God may leave them in this state until they have understood their wrongs and then ask for the means of redeeming them through profitable trials.”
266- Wouldn’t it be natural for a spirit to choose the least painful trials possible?
“For you, yes; for the spirit, no. Once it has freed itself from matter, illusion disappears and it thinks differently.”
Human beings, subjected to the influence of carnal ideas on earth, only see the painful side of their trials. That is why it seems logical that they would choose those which, from their own point of view, may coexist with material pleasures. However, in the spirit life, they compare such crude and fleeting pleasures with the unchangeable happiness of which they get a glimpse; then, of what importance are a few temporary hardships? A spirit may therefore choose the hardest trial, and consequently the most painful existence, hoping to arrive at a better state more quickly, just as a patient often chooses the nastiest medicine in order to be healed more quickly. Explorers who aspire to having their name linked to the discovery of an unknown country do not choose a course covered with flowers; they know the dangers they will have to face but they also know the glory awaiting them if they succeed.
The doctrine of the freedom to choose our lives and the trials we must undergo ceases to seem unusual when we consider the fact that when spirits are disengaged from matter, they judge things differently than we do. They foresee the goal, and that goal seems far more important than the fleeting pleasures of the world. After each existence, they see the steps they have already taken and they understand what they yet lack in purity to reach the goal. That is the reason why they willingly submit to all the vicissitudes of corporeal life, even requesting the ones that will help them arrive more quickly. Therefore, it should not be surprising to us that a spirit does not prefer a softer life. In its state of imperfection, it cannot enjoy life without suffering; it can get only a glimpse of the goal, and it is for reaching it that it seeks to improve itself.
Do we not see similar examples every day? Do individuals who work part of their life without rest or respite in order to accumulate what is necessary for their well-being perform a self-imposed task with a view to a better future? Do not soldiers who volunteer for a perilous mission or explorers who confront dangers no less formidable in the interest of science or their own fortune willingly submit themselves to trials that will bring them honor and profit if they overcome them? What will people not submit or expose themselves to for their own gain or glory? Are not all competitive examinations voluntary trials for improving in a chosen career? No one arrives at a highly important social position in the sciences, arts or industry without going through a series of lower positions, which in themselves are other types of trials. Human life is thus a copy of the spirit life; we find incidents of the latter in the former, only on a smaller scale. If during our time on earth we often choose the most difficult trials, with a view to evolving further, why would a spirit, who sees even farther down the road, and for whom earthly life is only a fleeting incident, not choose a painful and laborious existence if it will lead it toward eternal happiness? Those who say that if they could choose their existence they would ask to be princes or millionaires are like the near-sighted who cannot see what they touch. They are like gluttonous children who, when asked what they want to be when they grow up answer, “a cake baker or candy maker.”
Likewise, hikers in the depths of a fog-obscured valley see neither the length nor breadth of their path, but upon reaching the top of a mountain, they behold the path they have traveled and how far they still must travel and the obstacles that they must still overcome; hence, they choose the surest means to reach their goal. Incarnate spirits are like hikers in the depths of the valley: when freed of earthly ties, it is as though they have reached the top of the mountain. For the hiker, the goal is rest after a wearisome trek; for the spirit, it is supreme happiness after its trials and tribulations.
All spirits say that in the errant state they search, study and observe in order to make their choices. Do we not have an example of this in the corporeal life? Do we not often spend years searching for a career, which we end up choosing because we think it to be the most suitable for our goals? If we fail at that one, we seek another. Each career we embrace is a phase, a period of our life. Do we not spend each day choosing what we will do tomorrow? So what are its different corporeal lives to a spirit except phases, periods and days of its spirit life, which, as we know, is the normal one? The corporeal life is nothing more than transitory and temporary.
267- Can a spirit choose its next corporeal life during its present one?
“Its desire may have an influence, depending on its intention. In the spirit state, however, it frequently sees things quite differently. It is the spirit as such that makes the choice; but even so, it may make it during its material life because a spirit always has moments in which it is independent of the matter it inhabits.”
– Don’t many individuals desire greatness and wealth, but not as an expiation or a trial?
“Undoubtedly. It is the flesh that desires greatness and wealth in order to enjoy them, but it is the spirit who desires them in order to experience the tribulations they can cause.”
268- Until it reaches the state of perfect purity, does a spirit have to constantly undergo trials?
“Yes, but they are not as you understand them; you call material tribulations trials. Even though it may not yet be perfect, a spirit who reaches a certain degree does not have any more trials to endure. However, it always has non suffering duties consisting in helping others to improve themselves; these will in turn help it evolve further.”
269- Can a spirit be mistaken as to the effectiveness of a trial it chooses?
“It may choose one that exceeds its strength, and then it succumbs. It may also choose one that will not be profitable at all; for example, a kind of idle and useless life. In such a case, however, upon returning to the spirit world it realizes that it has gained nothing and asks to make up for lost time.”
270- Why do persons have certain vocations or the desire to follow one career instead of another?
“It seems to me that you can answer this question yourselves. Isn’t it the result of everything we have said about the choice of trials and the progress accomplished in a preceding existence?”
271- When a spirit in the errant state studies the conditions that will enable it to progress, how could it possibly imagine it could do so by being born among cannibals?
“Spirits who have already advanced are not born among cannibals – only those of the same nature as cannibals, or those who are even less evolved.”
We know that our cannibals are not at the lowest degree of the scale and that there are worlds where brutality and ferocity have no comparison on earth. Such spirits are therefore even less evolved than the least evolved on our world. To be among our cannibals is progress for them, just as it would be progress for our cannibals to exercise a profession among us that would require them to shed blood. If they aim no higher, it is because their moral impurity does not allow them to comprehend a more complete progress. A spirit cannot advance except gradually; it cannot simply leap over the gap between barbarity and civility. In this resides one of the necessities of reincarnation, truly showing it to be in accord with God’s justice; otherwise, what would become of the millions of beings who die every day in the ultimate state of degradation if they had no means of lifting themselves out of it? Why would God withhold from them the favors granted to others?
272- Can spirits who come from a world that is less evolved than earth or from a much less advanced people, such as cannibals, be born amongst civilized people?
“Yes, there are those who go astray by wanting to ascend too quickly, but they are out of place among you. They display habits and instincts that clash with yours.”
Such beings present us with the sad spectacle of ferocity in the midst of civility. Returning to live among cannibals would not be a regression for them, because it would be no more than a resumption of their proper place, even perhaps with some advantage.
273- Could a person belonging to a civilized culture reincarnate into a less advanced one as an expiation?
“Yes, but it would depend on the kind of expiation. Masters who had been cruel to their servants might become servants themselves and suffer the harsh treatment they used to inflict on others. Those who gave orders at one time might, in a new existence, obey those who formerly bent to their will. This would be an expiation if they used to abuse their power, and God can impose it on them. Furthermore, a good spirit may choose an influential life among such a culture to enable it to advance; in that case, it is a mission.”
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