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

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
chance, and whose remaining fragments, having been thrown together again at random, have lost all
intelligible meaning.
403. Why do we not always remember our dreams?
"What you call sleep is only the repose of the body, for the spirit is always in motion. During
sleep he recovers a portion of his liberty, and enters into communication with those who are
dear to him, either in this world, or in other worlds; but as the matter of the body is heavy and
gross, it is difficult for him to retain, on waking, the impressions he has received during sleep,
because those impressions were not received by him through the bodily organs."
404. What is to be thought of the signification attributed to dreams ?
"Dreams are not really indications in the sense attributed to them by fortune-tellers; for it is
absurd to believe that a certain kind of dream announces the happening of a certain kind of
event. But they are indications in this sense-viz., that they present images which are real for
the spirit, though they may have nothing to do with what takes place in his present corporeal
life. Dreams are also, in many cases, as we have said, a remembrance; they may also be
sometimes a presentiment of the future, if permitted by God, or the sight of something which
is taking place at the time in some other place to which the soul has transported itself. Have
you not many instances proving that persons may appear to their relatives and friends in
dreams, and give them notice of what is happening to them? What are apparitions, if not the
soul or spirit of persons who come to communicate with you ? When you acquire the
certainty that what you saw has really taken place, is it not a proof that it was no freak of your
imagination, especially if what you saw were something which you had not thought of when
you were awake?"
405. We often see in dreams things which appear to be presentiments, but which do not come
to pass,-how is this?
"Those things may take place in the experience of the spirit. though not in that of the body;
that is to say, that the spirit sees what he wishes to see because he goes to find it. You must
not forget that, during sleep, the spirit is always more or less under the influence of matter;
that, consequently, he is never completely free from terrestrial ideas, and that the objects of
his waking thoughts may therefore give to his dreams the appearance of what