320- Are spirits sensitive to being remembered by those who loved them on earth?
“Much more than you may suppose. Being remembered adds to their happiness if they are already happy and consoles them if they are despondent.”
321- Does Memorial Day hold a more solemn meaning for spirits? Do they prepare to visit those who will pray over their graves?
“Spirits answer to the call of thought on that day as on all others.”
– Is it for them a meeting day at their gravesides?
“They assemble in greater numbers on that day because the number of persons who call to them is larger, but each one only pays attention to its friends and not the crowd of indifferent people.”
– In what form do they come and what would they look like if they could make themselves visible?
“They would look like they did while alive.”
322- Do forgotten spirits, whose graves are not visited by anyone, come despite that fact and feel troubled at not seeing any friends remembering them?
“What is the earth to them? They are only linked to it by the heart. If no one loves them any longer, there is nothing that can make spirits feel connected to the earth. They have the whole universe before them.”
323- Does a visit made to its grave provide more satisfaction to a spirit than a prayer made on its behalf in someone’s home?
“A visit to its grave is a way of showing that one is thinking of the absent spirit – it is the exteriorization of the thought. I have already told you that it is the prayer that blesses the act of remembering. The place itself is of little importance if the memory comes from the heart.”
324- Do the spirits of individuals who are to be honored with statues or monuments attend the inaugurations and watch them with pleasure?
“Many watch them when they can, but they are less sensitive to the honors paid to them than to the memories.”
325- Where does the desire come from where certain persons wish to be buried in one place rather than in another? Do they return to it with more satisfaction after death? And is the importance given to a physical thing a sign of a spirit’s impure nature?
“A spirit’s affection for certain places is a sign of moral impurity. What does one piece of earth represent more than another to an evolved spirit? Doesn’t it know that its soul will be reunited with its loved ones, even though their bones may be far apart?”
– Should gathering together the mortal remains of all the members of a family be considered meaningless?
“No. It is a pious custom and a witness to the sympathy of loved ones. If such gatherings mean little to spirits, they are nonetheless useful to humans – their memories are better concentrated.”
326- Is a soul that has returned to life as a spirit sensitive to the honors paid to its mortal remains?
“When a spirit has already reached a certain degree of purification, it has no more earthly vanity and it comprehends the futility of all these things. Nevertheless, you should know that there are spirits who, in the first moments of death, take great satisfaction in the honors paid to them. Others become disturbed if they see that their envelope is being forgotten, because they still hold on to some of the prejudices of this world.”
327- Do spirits ever watch their own burial?
“They frequently do, but sometimes they do not perceive what is happening if they are still in the state of confusion.”
– Do they feel flattered by a large gathering at their burial?
“More so or less so, according to the sentiments of the people gathered there.”
328- Does the spirit attend the meetings of its heirs?
“Almost always. God wills it for its instruction and as punishment for guilty ones. It is there that the spirit judges what its heirs’ declarations of affection are really worth. All sentiments become patent to the spirit, and the disappointment it feels in seeing the greed of those who divide up the spoils makes their true sentiments very clear; however, their time shall also come.”
329- Is the instinctive respect of people for the dead in all times and among all cultures the result of the intuition of a future existence?
“It is its natural consequence. Without it, such respect would have no meaning.”
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