965- Is there anything material about the joys and sorrows of the soul after death?
“They cannot be material since the soul is not matter. Common sense says so. There is nothing carnal about future joys and sorrows, and that is why they are a thousand times more vivid than those experienced on earth. Once disengaged from matter, the spirit is more impressionable; matter no longer weakens its sensitivity.” (See nos. 237-257)
966- Why do human beings have such crude and absurd ideas about the joys and sorrows of the future life?
“Because their intelligence is not yet sufficiently developed. Does the child comprehend in the same way as the adult? Besides, it also depends on how they have been taught – that is the point at which there is the most need for reform.
“Your language is too incomplete to express what exists beyond your reach. Thus, it has been necessary to make comparisons, and you have taken such images and figures as reality itself. However, as people become more enlightened, they better comprehend the things that their language cannot express.”
967- What does the happiness of good spirits consist of?
“In knowing all things; in feeling no hatred, jealousy, envy, ambition or any of the passions that make people unhappy. The love that unites them is a source of supreme happiness. They do not experience the needs, sufferings or anxieties of material life. They are happy with the good they do. Moreover, the happiness of spirits is always in proportion to their progress. Actually, only the pure spirits enjoy supreme happiness; however, this does not mean the others are unhappy. Between the evil ones and the perfected ones, there is an infinity of gradations, in which enjoyments are proportioned to their moral state. Those who are already sufficiently advanced understand the happiness of those who have reached that state before them and they aspire to it, but for them it is a reason for emulation and not jealousy. They know that it depends on their own efforts to reach it and they labor toward that end with the calmness of a pure conscience. They are happy at no longer having to suffer what is endured by evil spirits.”
968- You place the absence of material needs among the conditions of happiness for spirits. But isn’t the satisfaction of those needs a source of enjoyment for humans?
“Yes, the gratification of their animal passions. When they cannot satisfy those needs, it is torture.”
969- What are we to understand when it is said that pure spirits are gathered in the bosom of God and employed in singing praises to God?
“It is an allegory to give you an idea of the knowledge they possess about the perfections of God because they see and comprehend God. Like all other allegories, however, you must not take it literally. Everything in nature sings, from the grain of sand on up, proclaiming the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God. But you must not suppose that the blessed spirits are absorbed in eternal contemplation. That would be a monotonous and dull happiness, and furthermore, a selfish one because their existence would be an unending uselessness. They no longer suffer the tribulations of corporeal life, which in itself is already an enjoyment. Later, as we have told you, they know and comprehend all things, and they make use of the intelligence they have acquired by aiding the progress of other spirits. That is their occupation, and at the same time, it is their enjoyment.”
970- What do the sufferings of low order spirits consist of?
“They are as varied as the causes that produce them and are in proportion to their degree of impurity, in the same way that enjoyments are in proportion to their degree of purity. We can thus sum them up: coveting everything they lack to be happy but not being able to obtain it; seeing happiness but being unable to attain it; regret, jealousy, rage and despair arising from everything that keeps them from being happy; remorse and an indescribable mental anguish. They long for all sorts of enjoyments but cannot satisfy them. That is what tortures them.”
971- Is the influence exerted by spirits over one another always good?
“It is always good on the part of good spirits, of course. However, perverse spirits endeavor to draw aside from the path of repentance and the good those whom they think are susceptible of being misled, and whom they often led into evil during their earthly lives.”
– So death does not deliver us from temptation?
“No, but the action of evil spirits is much less significant over other spirits than over human beings because other spirits are no longer sustained by material passions.” (See no. 996)
972- In what way do evil spirits tempt other spirits since they cannot count on the passions to help them?
“Although the passions no longer exist in the material sense, they still exist mentally in little-evolved spirits. They lure their victims to places where they can witness the spectacle of those passions and everything that arouses them.”
– But what end do those passions serve since they no longer have any real object?
“That is precisely what comprises their torture: misers see gold that they cannot possess; debauchees see orgies that they cannot take part in; the haughty see the honors that they envy, but which they cannot enjoy.”
973- What are the greatest sufferings evil spirits have to endure?
“It is utterly impossible to describe the mental tortures that are the punishment for some crimes. The actual spirits who suffer them find it difficult to give you an idea of them, but assuredly, the most frightful is the thought of being condemned forever.”
People’s idea about the joys and sorrows of the soul after death is more accurate or less according to their state of intelligence. As they become more evolved, their thinking also becomes more refined and more divested of materiality. They comprehend things more rationally and they cease to take the images of figurative language literally. The most enlightened reasoning teaches us that the soul is an entirely spiritual being and that it cannot be affected by impressions that act only upon matter. However, it does not follow that it is free of suffering or that it is not punished for its wrongdoing. (See no. 237)
Spirit communications are meant to show us the future state of the soul, no longer as a matter of theory, but as a reality. They place before us all the vicissitudes of life beyond the grave, but at the same time they also show us that they are the perfectly logical consequences of the terrestrial life. Although divested of the fantastic accoutrements created by the human imagination, they are nonetheless painful for those who have made a bad use of their faculties. The diversity of such consequences is infinite, but may be generally summed up in the fact that each soul is punished for its specific sins. Some are punished by the incessant sight of the evil they committed; others, by regret, fear, shame, doubt, loneliness, darkness and separation from those who are dear to them, etc.
974- Where does the doctrine of eternal fire come from?
“An image taken as reality – like so many others.”
– But couldn’t this fear lead to a good result?
“See for yourself whether or not it even restrains those who teach it. If you teach things that reason will later reject, you produce an impression that will be neither durable nor healthy.”
Incapable of translating the nature of those sufferings into their own language, humans have not found a more forceful comparison for such sufferings than fire, which represents the cruelest torture possible and is the symbol of the most potent action. It is for this reason that the belief in eternal fire may be traced back to cultures have inherited it from their ancestors. Furthermore, it is for this reason that in their figurative language they speak of fiery passions, burning with love, burning with jealousy, etc.
975- Do low order spirits comprehend the happiness of the morally upright?
“Yes, and that is what tortures them, for they understand that they are deprived of it due to their own fault. That is why the spirit, freed from matter, aspires to a new corporeal existence. It knows that each existence, if well employed, will shorten the duration of that torment. With that in mind, it chooses the trials that will expiate its wrongs. You must remember that the spirit suffers for all the wrong it has done or which it has intentionally caused, for all the good that it might have done but didn’t, and for all the evil that resulted from the good it failed to do.
“The discarnate spirit is no longer enveloped by the veil of matter. It is as though it has emerged from a fog and sees what is keeping it from happiness. Hence, it suffers even more because it understands the extent of its guilt. For the spirit, illusion no longer exists; it sees things as they really are.”
Spirits in the errant state, on the one hand, take in all their past existences at a glance; on the other, they foresee the promised future and comprehend what they lack to reach it. Like a hiker who has reached the top of a hill, they see both the course that they have already traveled and how far they must yet travel to reach their destination.
976- Is the sight of suffering spirits a cause of affliction for the good ones, and if so, does it disturb their happiness?
“It is not an affliction, because they know that such evil will end, and they help the others in their betterment by lending them a helping hand. That is their occupation and a joy when they succeed.”
– This is understandable for spirits who are unknown or indifferent to them, but doesn’t the sight of the sorrows and sufferings of those who were dear to them on earth disturb their happiness?
“If they did not see your sufferings, it would mean they are estranged from you after death. Religion tells you that souls continue to see you but that they regard your afflictions from another point of view – they know that your sufferings will aid your advancement if you bear them with resignation. Such spirits are more afflicted by the lack of courage that holds you back than by the sufferings they know are only temporary.”
977- Since spirits cannot hide their thoughts from one another, and since all the acts of their lives are known, does it follow that those who are guilty continually see their victims as being present?
“Common sense tells you that it cannot be otherwise.”
– Is this revealing of all its reprehensible acts and the perpetual sight of its victims a punishment for the guilty spirit?
“More than you might think, but it only lasts until it has expiated its wrong-doing either as a spirit or as an individual in new corporeal existences.”
When we find ourselves in the world of spirits, our entire past will be uncovered; the good and the evil we have done will also be known. Those who have done evil will try in vain to avoid the sight of their victims and their inevitable presence will be an incessant punishment and regret for them until they have expiated their wrongs. Moral individuals, on the contrary, will only encounter friendly and benevolent eyes everywhere.
For evil persons, there is no greater torment on earth than the presence of their victims and that is why they always avoid them. What will become of them when, divested of the illusion of the passions, they comprehend the evil they have done, see their most secret actions revealed, find their hypocrisy unmasked, and perceive that they cannot hide from their victim’s sight? To the same extent that the soul of the wicked feels shame, regret, and remorse, that of the righteous enjoys perfect peace.
978- Doesn’t the memory of the wrongs committed by a soul while still imperfect disturb its happiness even after it has purified itself?
“No, because it has atoned for its wrongs and has come forth victorious from the trials to which it had submitted itself for that very purpose.”
979- Aren’t the trials it still must undergo in order to complete its purification a heavy concern that disturbs its happiness?
“In the case of the soul that still remains tainted, yes. That is why it cannot enjoy perfect happiness until it is entirely pure. Nonetheless, for the soul who has already progressed, the thought of the trials it still must undergo has nothing painful about it.”
A soul who has reached a certain degree of purity enjoys happiness. A feeling of sweet satisfaction surrounds it and it feels happy with everything it sees and all that surrounds it. The veil has been lifted, uncovering the marvels and mysteries of creation, and divine perfections appear in all their splendor.
980- Is the link of affinity that unites spirits of the same order a source of happiness for them?
“The unity of spirits who are attuned to one another through the good is one of their greatest joys because they do not have to fear seeing that unity disturbed by selfishness. On entirely spiritual worlds, they form families animated by the same sentiment, and from that they derive their spiritual happiness – the same as in your world when you group yourselves into categories and enjoy a certain pleasure when you get together. The pure and sincere affection they feel, and of which they are the object, is a source of happiness. There are neither false friends nor hypocrites among them.”
Humans enjoy the first-fruits of this happiness on the earth when they meet souls with whom they can enter into a pure and holy unity. In a life of greater purity, such pleasure will be beyond words and unlimited because they will only meet sympathetic souls whom selfishness has not made indifferent. In nature everything is love; selfishness is what destroys it.
981- Regarding the future state of the spirit, is there any difference between those who have feared death and those who have looked upon it with indifference or even with joy?
“The difference can be very great, although this is usually obliterated by the causes that produce such fear or desire. Those who fear death or those who desire it may be moved by very different sentiments, and it is these sentiments that will influence a spirit’s future state. For instance, it is obvious that those who desire death only because it will put an end to their troubles are, in reality, complaining against Providence and against the trials they must endure.”
982- Is it necessary to make a profession of faith in Spiritism and to believe in the manifestations in order to ensure our well-being in the next life?
“If that were so, then all those who do not believe in them, or who have not had the opportunity of learning anything about them, would be disinherited, which is absurd. Only the good ensures one’s future well-being. The good is always the good, whatever the path that leads to it.” (See nos. 165-799)
Belief in Spiritism aids our self-improvement by ensuring our ideas regarding certain points about the future; it hastens the advancement of individuals and the masses because it enables us to ascertain what we will be someday, making it a support and a light to guide us. Spiritism teaches us to bear our trials with patience and resignation, and turns us away from doing things that might delay our future happiness. Through its teachings, Spiritism contributes to our future joys, but it has never stated that we may not attain to that happiness without it.
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