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

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THE SPIRITS’' BOOK
443. The ecstatic sometimes professes to see things which are evidently the product of an
imagination impressed with earthly beliefs and prejudices. What he sees, therefore, is not
always real?
"What he sees is real for him; but, as his spirit is always under the influence of terrestrial
ideas, he may see it in his own way, or, to speak more correctly, he may express it in a
language accommodated to his prejudices, or to the ideas in which he has been brought up, or
to your own, in order the better to make himself understood It is in this way that he is most
apt to err."
444. What degree of confidence should be accorded to the revelations of persons in a state of
trance?
"The ecstatic may very frequently be mistaken, especially when he seeks to penetrate what
must remain a mystery for man; for he then abandons himself to his own ideas, or becomes
the sport of deceiving spirits, who take advantage of his enthusiasm to dazzle him with false
appearances."
445. What inductions are to be drawn from the phenomena of somnambulism and of trance?
May they not be considered as a sort of initiation into the future life?
"It would be more correct to say that, in those states, the somnambulist may obtain glimpses
of his past and future lives. Let man study those phenomena; he will find in them the solution
of more than one mystery which his unassisted reason seeks in vain to penetrate."
446. Could the phenomena of somnambulism and trance be made to accord with theoretic
materialism?
"He who should study them honestly, and without preconceived ideas, could not be either a
materialist or an atheist."
Second-Sight.
447. Is there any connection between the phenomena of what is designated as second-sight
and those of dreaming and somnambulism ?
"They are all the same thing. What you call second-sight is also a state in which the spirit is
partially free, although the body is not asleep. Second-sight is soul-sight."
448. Is the faculty of second-sight a permanent one?
"The faculty of second-sight is permanent, but its exercise is not. In worlds less material than
yours, spirits free themselves