We continue today the methodical study of “Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism” by Allan Kardec. The first edition was published in August 1, 1865. This work is part of the Kardecian Pentateuch. The answers to the questions suggested for discussion are at the end of the text below.
Questions for discussion
A. What occurs when the unbeliever is dying?
B. What impressed Sanson when he awoke in the spiritual world?
C. How do Spirits appear to those returning to the spiritual world?
D. How do Spirits see themselves in the spiritual world? Do they feel their own hands, head, and arms?
Reading Text
128. Sanson said that the Spirit's sight could not be compared to human's sight. The Spirit has an insight that covers everything, and is even able to guess others' thoughts. He can also change into the most appropriate form to appear. "However, the Spirit who has completed probation - explained Sanson - prefers the form that led him up to God." (Part II, Chapter II, Part III, question 10).
129. Kardec asked him if, in his new state, Sanson was a male or female. Sanson said, "There is no reason for us to be masculine or feminine, because Spirits do not reproduce. God created the Spirits as He wished, and, according to His wonderful designs, having given them the incarnation on Earth, subordinated them to the laws of reproduction of the species, characterized by the union of the sexes. However, you must know, without further explanation, that the Spirits cannot have sex. "(Part II, Chapter II, Part III, Question 11).
130. In footnote following Sanson's answer, Kardec says, "The pure Spirits fully understand their nature, however, among the lower Spirits, not yet dematerialized there are many who believe themselves incarnated on Earth with the same passions and desires. Thus, they think they are still the same as before, i.e., man or woman, and some do believe they have a gender." (Part II, Chapter II, Part III, Question 11, Kardec's footnote).
131. About the session that was taking place there, Sanson said that everything seemed much clearer now than before, when he was incarnate, since he could read the thoughts of all, and he was happy because of the good impression he had about all the Spirits there. Moreover, Sanson added, "I wish the same criteria could be felt not only in Paris but all over France, where there are groups that separate, envying one another, dominated by turbulent Spirits who delight themselves in discord, when Spiritism teaches us the complete and utter forgetting of self." (Part II, Chapter II, Part III, Question 12).
132. The Encoder asked him to explain how it was possible to read other people's thoughts and how this transmission operates. "It is not easy," Sanson said. "To explain this extraordinary miracle of our vision to you, because, to do it, I would have to explain about new information and you would not understand it, because your powers are still limited by matter. Patience ... Be good and you will achieve everything. Currently, you only have what God has given you, but keep on the continuous progress, and in the future, you will be like us. Try to die in grace and you will learn a lot. "(Part II, Chapter II, Part III, Question 13).
133. Sanson provided, however, a small clue to the Kardec's question. "The air you breathe, ethereal as we are too, is like a stereotype so to speak, of your mind; the breath that you exhale is, more or less, the written page of your thoughts, read and commented on by the Spirits who are constantly with you, messengers of a divine telegraphy, which transmits and records everything." (Part II, Chapter II, Part III, Question 13).
134. After Sanson's first spiritual appearance the Spiritist Society of Paris, the Spirit of Georges explained that the death of Sanson was hopeful and peaceful and Spiritual life took over with no disruption or shock. Georges said that his last breath was a hymn of thanksgiving and love. Few are those who go through this rough transition like this! (Part II, Chapter II, "The death of the righteous").
135. Just as the man in perfect health, suddenly mutilated, suffers pain in the members separated from the body, also the soul of the unbeliever, separated from the body, disrupts and rushes into space, unaware of itself. (Part II, Chapter II, "The death of the righteous.")
136. Love, states Georges, has no limits; it fills the Space, and gives and receives reciprocally its divine consolation. Deeper than the waves of the sea, over the infinite Space, love must unite all in the holy communion of charity, sublime fusion of the finite and the eternal. (Part II, Chapter II, "The death of the righteous").
Answers to the proposed questions
A. What occurs when the unbeliever is dying?
Unbelievers experience in the last moments the anguish of those terrible nightmares where they see themselves on cliffs and abysms ready to engulf them, and they want to escape and cannot, and try to cling to anything, but do not find support and fall; they want to scream, yell and there is no sound. Sanson said, we see them squirm, twitching their hands, gasping, and many other symptoms of the nightmare they are suffering. (Heaven and Hell, Part II, Chapter II, Sanson, section II, questions 5 and 6.)
B. What impressed Sanson when he awoke in the spiritual world?
Sanson said it was as if he was dazed, unable to understand things, because lucidity does not return immediately. However, God allowed him to regain his faculties, and it was when he found himself surrounded by numerous, good and faithful friends. All protective Spirits surrounded him smiling, an unequaled joy radiated from their countenances and he too was strong and cheerful, and could effortlessly move through Space. What he saw, said Sanson, cannot be described in the language of men. (Ibid, Part II, Chapter II, Sanson, section II, questions 7 and 8).
C. How do Spirits appear to those returning to the spiritual world?
They keep their human form and this is how they appear (Ibid, Part II, Chapter II, Sanson, section III, question 9).
D. How do Spirits see themselves in the spiritual world? Do they feel their own hands, head, and arms?
The Spirit, maintaining his idealized human form, can have all the mentioned members without conflict. Sanson said he felt perfectly well his hands, and fingers, because he could, at ease, come and shake hands with others, embodied or not. (Ibid, Part II, Chapter II, Sanson, section III, questions 10 and 11.)
