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

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
1014. How is it that spirits who, by their language, would seem to be of high degree, have
replied according to the commonly-received ideas to those who have questioned them in the
most serious spirit concerning hell and purgatory?
"They speak according to the comprehension of those who question them, when the latter are
too fully imbued with preconceived ideas, in order to avoid any abrupt interference with their
convictions. If a spirit should tell a Mussulman, without proper precautions, that Mahomet
was not a true prophet, he would not he listened to with much cordiality."
- Such precautions are conceivable on the' part of spirits who wish to instruct us; but how is
it that others, when questioned as to their situation, have replied that they were suffering the
torture's of hell or of purgatory?
"Spirits of inferior advancement, who are not yet completely dematerialised, retain a portion
of their earthly ideas, and describe their impressions by means of terms that are familiar to
them. They are in a state that allows of their obtaining only a very imperfect foresight of the
future; for which reason it often happens that spirits in erraticity, or but recently freed from
their earthly body, speak just as they would have done during their earthly life. Hell may be
understood as meaning a life of extremely painful trial, with uncertainty as to the future
attainment of any better state; and purgatory as a life that is also one of trial, but with the
certainty of a happier future. Do you not say, when undergoing any very intense physical or
mental distress, that you are suffering 'the tortures of the damned' ? But such an expression is
only a figure of speech, and is always employed as such."
1015. What is to be understood by the expression, "a soul in torment"?
"An errant and suffering soul, uncertain about its future, and to whom you can render, in its
endeavour to obtain relief, an assistance that it often solicits at your hands by the act of
addressing itself to you." (664.)
1016. In what sense is the word heaven to be understood?
"Do you suppose it to be a place like the Elysian Fields of the ancients, where all good spirits
are crowded together pell-mell, with no other care than that of enjoying, throughout eternity,
a passive felicity? No; it is universal space; it is the planets, the