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

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ALLAN KARDEC
is a punishment inflicted by God, while in others, it has been granted to them at their own
request, to enable them to pursue studies which they can prosecute more effectually in the
disincarnate state."
225. Is erraticity necessarily a sign of inferiority on the part of spirits.'
"No, for there are errant spirits of every degree. Incarnation is a transitional state, as we have
already told you. In their normal state, spirits are disengaged from matter."
226. Would it be correct to say that all spirits who arc not incarnated are errant?
"Yes, as regards those who are to be reincarnated; but the pure spirits who have attained to
perfection are not errant; their state is definitive."
In virtue of their special qualities, spirits are of different orders or degrees of advancement, through
which they pass successively as they become purified. As regards their state, they may be-1. Incarnated,
that is to say, united to a material body; 2. Errant or wandering, that is to say disengaged from the
material body and awaiting a new incarnation for purposes of Improvement; 3. Pure 'pints, that is to say,
perfected, and having no further need of incarnation.
227. In what way do wandering spirits obtain instruction? It can hardly be in the same way
as men.
"They study their past, and seek out the means of raising them-selves to a higher degree.
Possessed of vision, they observe all that is going on in the regions through which they pass.
They listen to the discourse of enlightened men, and to the counsels of spirits more advanced
than themselves, and they thus acquire new ideas."
228. Do spirits retain any human passion?
"Elevated spirits, on quitting their bodily envelope, leave behind them the evil passions of
humanity, and retain only the love of goodness. But inferior spirits retain their earthly
imperfections. Were it not for this retention, they would be of the highest order.”
229. How is it that spirits, on quitting the earth, do not leave behind them all their evil
passions, since they are then able to perceive the disastrous consequences of those passions?
"You have among you persons who are, for instance, excessively jealous; do you imagine that
they lose this defect at once on quitting your world ? There remains with spirits, after their
departure from the earthly life, and especially with those who have had