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

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ALLAN KARDEC
"They undoubtedly have bodies, because it is necessary for the spirit to be clothed with matter
in order to act upon matter; but. this envelope is more or less material according to the degree
of purity at which each spirit has arrived, and it is these gradations of purity that decide the
different worlds through which we have to pass; for in our Father's house are many mansions,
and therefore many degrees among those mansions. There are some who know this, and
possess the consciousness of this fact, while upon the earth; and there are others who have no
such intuition."
182. Can we obtain any exact knowledge of the physical and moral state of the different
worlds?
“We, spirits, can only reply according to the degree at which you have arrived; that is to say,
that we must not reveal these things to all, because some are not in the state which would
enable them to understand such revelations, and would be confused by them."
In proportion as a spirit becomes purified, the body with which he clothes himself also approaches more
nearly to the spirit-nature. The matter of which his body is composed is less dense he no longer crawls
heavily on the surface of the ground ; his bodily needs are less gross and the various living beings in those
higher worlds are no longer obliged to destroy one another in order to feed themselves. A spirit
incarnated in those worlds enjoys a greater degree of freedom, and possesses, in regard to objects at a
distance, orders of perception of a nature unknown to us; he sees with his eyes what we see only in
thought.
The purification of spirits determines the moral excellence of the corporeal beings in whom they are
incarnated. The animal passions become weaker, and selfishness gives place to the sentiment of fraternity.
Thus, in worlds of higher degree than our earth, wars are unknown, because no one thinks of doing harm
to his fellow-beings, and there is consequently no motive for hatred or discord. The foresight of their
future, which is intuitive in the people of those worlds, and the sense of security resulting from a
conscience void of remorse, cause them to look forward to death without fear, as being simply a process of
transformation, the approach of which they perceive without the sightest uneasiness.
The duration of a lifetime, in the different worlds, appears to be proportionate to the degree of moral and
physical superiority of each world and this is perfectly consonant with reason. The less material is the
body, the less subject is it to the vicissitudes which disorganise it ; the purer the spirit, the less subject is it
to the passions which undermine and destroy it. This correspondence between moral and physical
conditions is a proof of the beneficence of providential law, even in worlds of low degree ; as the duration
of the suffering which is the characteristic of life in those worlds is thus rendered proportionally shorter.
183. In passing from one world to another, does the spirit pass through a new infancy?
"Infancy is, in all worlds, a necessary transition; but it is not, in all of them, so stupid as it in
yours."
184. Has a spirit the choice of the new world which lie is to inhabit?