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

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
"He remembers the things of his life more or less distinctly and in detail, according to the
influence they have exercised on his state as a spirit; but you can easily understand that there
are many things in his life to which he attaches no importance, and which he does not even
seek to remember."
- Could he remember them if he wished to do so?
"He has the power of recalling the most minute details of every incident of his life, and even
of his thoughts; but when no useful purpose would be served by exerting this power, he does
not exert it."
307. In what way does his past life present itself to a spirit’s memory? Is it through an effort
of his imagination, or is it like a picture displayed before his eyes?
"It comes back to him in both ways. All the actions which he has an interest in remembering
appear to him as though they were present; the others are seen by him more or less vaguely in
his thought, or are entirely forgotten. The more dematerialised he is, the less importance does
he attach to material things. It has often happened to you, on evoking some wandering spirit
who has just left the earth, to find that he remembers neither the names of persons whom he
liked, nor details which to you appear to be important. He cares but little about them, and they
have faded from his memory. But you always find that he perfectly remembers the main facts
of his life which have conduced to his intellectual and moral progress."
308. Does a spirit remember all the existences which have preceded the one he has just
quitted?
"His entire past is spread out before him like the stages already accomplished by a traveller,
but, as we have told you, he does not remember all his past actions with absolute precision;
he remembers them more or less clearly in proportion to the influence they have had upon his
present state. As to his earliest existences, those which may be regarded as constituting the
period of spirit-infancy, they are lost in vagueness, and disappear in the night of oblivion.
309. How does a spirit regard the body he has just quitted?
"As an uncomfortable garment that hampered him, and that he is delighted to be rid of."
- What feeling is produced in him by seeing the decomposition of his body?