reply to post by SonOfManPrinceMichael
Hello there,
Below are the excerpt of a book called "The Spirit's Book" by Allan Kardec, France 1857. The book is absolutely free so there's no copyright
problems. Btw you can download it
here or google for its name. I hope
the text below will be of any help.
MODS - The excerpts below are from a free book.
395. Can we obtain any revelations respecting our former existences?
"Not in all cases. There are, however, many who know who they have been and what they have done. If it were permitted to them to speak openly, they
would make curious revelations about the past."
396. Some persons believe themselves to have a vague remembrance of an unknown past, which comes before them like the fugitive image of a dream that
one vainly endeavours to recall. Is this belief only an illusion?
"It is sometimes real, hut it is often an illusion to he guarded against; for it may be merely the effect of an excited imagination."
397. In corporeal existences of a more elevated nature than ours, is the reminiscence of our anterior existences more exact?
"Yes; in proportion as the body is less material, the spirit incarnated in it remembers them more clearly. The remembrance of the past is always
clearer in those who inhabit worlds of a higher order."
398. A man's instinctive tendencies being a reflex of his past, does it follow that by studying those tendencies, he can ascertain what are the
faults he has formerly committed?
"Undoubtedly he can do so up to a certain point; but he would also have to take account of the improvement which may have been effected in his
spirit, and of the resolutions taken by him in the state of erraticity. His present existence may he very much better than his preceding one."
-Might it be worse? - that is to say, might a man commit, in a subsequent existence, faults which he had not committed in the preceding one?
"That depends on his advancement. If he were unable to resist temptation, he might be drawn into new faults as a consequence of the situation chosen
by him; but such faults must be considered as indicating a state which is stationary rather than retrograde, for a spirit may advance or remain
stationary, but he never goes back."
399. The vicissitudes of corporeal life being at once an expiation of the faults of the past and lessons for the future, can we, from the nature of
those vicissitudes, infer the character of our preceding existence?
"You can do so very frequently, since the nature of the punishment incurred always corresponds to that of the fault committed. Nevertheless, it would
not do to consider this as being an absolute rule. The instinctive tendencies furnish a more certain indication; for the trials undergone by a spirit
are as much for the future as for the past."
When a spirit has reached the end of the term assigned by Providence to his errant life, he chooses for himself the trials which he determines to
undergo in order to hasten his progress - that is to say, the kind of existence which he believes will be most likely to furnish him with the means of
advancing and the trials of this new existence always correspond to the faults which he has to expiate. If he triumphs in this new struggle, he rises
in grade; if he succumbs, he has to try again.
A spirit always possesses free-will. It is in virtue of this free-will that he chooses, when in the spirit-state, the trials he elects to undergo In
the corporeal life, and that he deliberates, when in the incarnate state whether he will do, or not do, and chooses between good and evil.
To deny a man's free-will will would be to reduce him to a machine.
When a spirit has re-entered corporeal life, he experiences a temporary forgetfulness of his former existences, as though these were hidden from him
by a veil. Sometimes, however, he preserves a vague consciousness of them, and they may, under certain circumstances, be revealed to him but this only
occurs as a result of the decision of higher spirits, who make that revelation spontaneously for some useful end, and never for the gratification of
idle curiosity.
A spirit's future existences cannot, in any case, be revealed to him during the corporeal life, because they will depend on the manner in which he
accomplishes his present existence, and on his own ulterior choice.
Temporary forgetfulness of the faults he has committed is no obstacle to a spirit's improvement for if he have not a precise remembrance of them, the
knowledge he had of them In the state of erraticity, and the desire he then conceived to repair them, guide him intuitively, and inspire him with the
Intention of resisting the evil tendency. This Intention is the voice of his conscience, and is seconded by the spirits who assist him, if he gives
heed to the suggestions with which they inspire him.
Although a man does not know exactly what may have been his acts in his former existences, he always knows the kind of faults of Which he has been
guilty, and what has been his ruling characteristic. He has only to study himself, and he will know what he has been, not by what he is, but by his
tendencies.
The vicissitudes of corporeal life are both an expiation of faults In the past. and trials designed to render us better for the future. They purify
and elevate, provided we hear them resignedly and unrepiningly.
The nature of the vicissitudes and trials that we have to undergo may also enlighten us in regard to what we have been end what we have done, just as
we infer the crimes of which a convict has been guilty from the penalty Inflicted on him by the law. Thus, he who has sinned through pride will be
punished by the humiliations of an inferior position the self-indulgent and avaricious, by poverty the hard-hearted, by the seventies he will undergo
the tyrant, by slavery a bad son. by the Ingratitude of his children the idle, by subjection to hard and incessant labour, and so on.
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Ps. About the question and answers, in short those questions were made by the French educator Allan Kardec to various mediums in the 1850's, usually
he would send the same question to about 10 mediums in France and sometimes even to other countries. In order to verify the fidelity of the answers,
they all had be equal (scientific method of comparison).
The Spirit's Book is definitely good reading, and free.