290. Questions on Past and Future Existences.
15. "Can the spirits acquaint us with our past existences ? "
" God sometimes permits them to be revealed ac cording to the end ; if for your edification and instruc tion, they will be true, and in such case the revelation is almost always made spontaneously, and in a totally unforeseen manner ; but He never permits it to sat isfy a vain curiosity."
—"Why do some spirits never refuse to give such revelations ? "
" They arc bantering spirits, who amuse themselves at your expense. In general, you should regard as false, or, at least, suspicious, all revelations of this na ture that have not one eminently serious and useful aim. Mocking spirits please themselves in flattering self-love, by pretended origins. There are mediums and believers, who accept for current coin all that is said on this subject, and who do not see that the ac tual state of their spirit justifies in nothing the rank they pretend to have occupied ; a small vanity, with which the bantering spirits are as much amused as men. It would be more logical and more in conform ity with the progression of beings, that they should ascend, not have descended ; it would be more honor able to them. In order that these revelations should be worthy of confidence, they should have been made spontaneously by various mediums, strangers to each other, to whom they should have been anteriorly revealed : then there would be evident reason for believing them."
—" If we may not know our anterior individuality, is it the same as to the kind of existence we have had, the social position we have occupied, the qualities and defects that have predominated in us ? "
" No ; that may be revealed, because you may profit by it, for your advancement ; but in studying your present, you can yourselves deduce your past." (See Book on Spirits — Forgetfulness of the Past, No. 392-)
16. " Can anything be revealed to us of our future existences ? "
" No ; all that some spirits tell you on this subject is simply a jest, —easily understood to be so ; your future existence is not decreed in advance, for it will be what you yourself have made it, by your' conduct in the world, and by the resolutions you will have made when you shall have become spirits. The less you have to expiate, the happier you will be ; but to know where and how this existence will be, is impossible, except in the special and rare cases of spirits who are on the earth only to accomplish an important mission, because then their way is in some sort traced in advance.
