Allan Kardec-THE Spirit's Book_ The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine (1989)

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ALLAN KARDEC
"They arrive more quickly at the goal. And besides, the sufferings of life are often a
consequence of the imperfection of the spirit; therefore, the fewer his imperfections, the less
will be his sufferings. He who is neither envious, jealous, avaricious, nor ambitious, will not
have to undergo the torments which are a consequence of those defects."
134. What is the soul?
"An incarnate spirit."
The Soul
- What was the soul before its union with a body?
"A spirit."
- Souls and spirits are, then, the very same thing?
"Yes; souls are only spirits. Before uniting itself with a body, the soul is one of the intelligent
beings who people the invisible world, and who temporarily assume a fleshly body in order to
effect their purification and enlightenment."
135. Is there in man anything else than a soul and a body?'
"There is the link which unites the soul and the body."
- What is tile nature of that link?
"It is semi-material-that is to say, of a nature intermediate between soul and body, as it must
necessarily be. in order that they may be enabled to communicate with each other. It is by
means of this link that the spirit acts upon matter, and that matter acts reciprocally upon the
spirit."
Man is thus formed of three essential elements or parts: -
1st. The body, or material being, analogous to the animals, and animated by the same vital principle;
2d. The soul, or incarnated spirit, of which the body is the habitation;
3d. The intermediary principle, or perispirit; a semi-material substance, which constitutes the innermost
envelope of the spirit, and unites the soul with the body. This triplicity is analogous to that of the fruit,
which consists of the germ, the perisperm, and the rind or shell.
136. is the soul independent of the vital principle?'
'“The body is only the envelope of the soul, as we have repeatedly told you."
- Can a body exist without a soul?'
"Yes; but it is only when the body ceases to live that the soul quits it, Previous to birth, the
union between the soul and the body is not complete; but. when this union is definitively
established, it is only the death of the body that can sever the bonds that unite it to the soul,
and thus allow the soul to withdraw