We’re all born. We’re all going to die.

From this truth of life comes the preoccupation of the moment of death are always recurring issues.

In this article, we do not intend to close the subject, quite the contrary! We are only bringing a very small part of this vast subject. After all, we are all going to experience this event.

The Spirits explained that not all Spirits go through the same processes. Each being is a consciousness different from the other. So, The Book of Spirits brings the following conclusions in its chapter III – Return of the Corporeal Life to the Spiritual Life:

163. Leaving the body, is the soul immediately aware of itself? – Immediate awareness is not the term: it is disturbed for some time.

164. Do all spirits experience, to the same degree and for the same time, the disturbance that follows the separation of soul and body? – No, it depends on your elevation. The one who is already purified recognizes himself almost immediately, because he detached himself from matter during his corporeal life, while the carnal man, whose conscience is not pure, retains the impression of matter for much longer.

Comment: Here it is evident that each person experiences a type of perception of death, according to what he has experienced in matter.

Now, in this question 165, Allan Kardec manages to go deeper into the nature of the disturbance, as well as better describe what the Spirits taught in their communications. Note that there is nothing with a set time. This part of the answer, in our view, is the most enlightening.

165. Knowledge of Spiritism exerts some influence on the longer duration
or less of the disturbance? – A great influence, because the Spirit understands his situation in advance: but the practice of goodness and purity of conscience are what exerts the greatest influence.

Kardec continues explaining in the same item how the Spirit experiences these first moments:

“At the moment of death, everything is confused at first; the soul needs some time to recognize itself; she feels stunned, in the same state as a man who has come out of a deep sleep and is trying to understand the situation. The lucidity of ideas and the memory of the past return, as the influence of matter fades and that kind of fog that clouds his thoughts dissipates.

The duration of the after-death disturbance is very variable: it can be from a few hours, to many months and even many years. Those in which it is shorter are those who have identified during their lifetime with their future state, because they are immediately aware of their position. “

Comment: In our emphasis, it seems that he gives a kind of advice.

“This disturbance presents particular circumstances, according to the character of the individuals and above all according to the type of death. In violent deaths, by suicide, torture, accident, apoplexy, injuries, etc., the Spirit is surprised, amazed, does not believe that he is dead and stubbornly maintains that he did not die. However, he sees his body, he knows that it is his, but he does not understand that he is separate. He seeks out the people he loves, addresses them, and doesn't understand why they don't listen to him. This illusion is maintained until the Spirit's complete detachment, and only then does it recognize its state and understand that it is no longer part of the world of the living.”

Comment: There are several reports of Spirits who attend his funeral, who do not understand why they are lying inside the coffin. They are completely lost!

“This phenomenon is easily explainable. Surprised by the unforeseen death, the Spirit is stunned by the sudden change that takes place within him. For him, death is still synonymous with destruction, annihilation; Now, how he continues to think, how he still sees and listens, don't consider yourself dead. And what increases his illusion is the fact that he sees himself in a body similar to the one he left on Earth, whose ethereal nature he has not yet had time to verify. He considers it solid and compact like the first, and when his attention is drawn to this point, he is surprised that he cannot feel it. This phenomenon is similar to that of inexperienced sleepwalkers, who do not believe they are sleeping. For them, sleep is synonymous with the suspension of faculties; Now, as they think freely and can see, they don't think they are sleeping. Some Spirits present this particularity, although death did not take them unexpectedly; but it is always more widespread among those who, despite being sick, did not think about dying. We then see the singular spectacle of a Spirit who attends his own funerals like those of a stranger, speaking about them as if about something that does not concern him, until the moment he understands the truth.”

Comment: The Spirit confuses its spiritual envelope (perispirit) with its carnal body, so that it does not realize that it no longer has a carnal body!

The disturbance that follows death is not at all painful for the good man: it is calm and in every way similar to that which accompanies a peaceful awakening. For one whose conscience is not pure it is full of anxieties and anxieties.

Comment: Once again, the clarifications of the Spirits give us the tips on how to make the moment of death so much softer!

Surprisingly, in the last paragraph of this chapter, Kardec says clearly about the collective disincarnations that occurred in accidents or catastrophes!

“In cases of collective death, it has been observed that all those who perish at the same time do not always see each other immediately. In the turmoil that follows death, each one goes his own way or only concerns himself with those who interest him.”

Kardec, The Spirits' Book, item 165

Comment: Dying at the same time in the same accident doesn't mean much after disincarnation! Everyone pursues their interests.

We do not intend to close the matter! After all, from what you've read so far, it's not conclusive, because each one has its particularities! Throughout Kardec's coding there are many descriptions of that moment and more explanations that the Spirits brought.

But one thing we will never escape: the moment of death.

By Suely GO Caine

We know how instinctive and from the beginnings the idea of continuity of existence of the spirit, after the death of the body. The comments to question 148 of The Spirits' Book highlight this issue:

(...) Man instinctively has the conviction that everything does not end for him with life; he has a horror of nothingness; it is in vain that he persists against the idea of a future life, and when the supreme moment arrives, there are few who do not ask what will become of them, because the idea of leaving life forever has something poignant about it. Who, in fact, could face with indifference an absolute and eternal separation from everything he loves? 

(…)

No one, it is said, has come back from there to tell us what exists. This, however, is an error, and the mission of Spiritism is precisely to enlighten us about this future, to make us, to a certain extent, see and touch it, no longer through reasoning, but through facts. Thanks to spiritist communications, this is no longer a presumption, a probability about which each one imagines at will, which poets embellish with their fictions or embellish with allegorical images that seduce us. It is reality that shows us its face, because it is the beings from beyond the grave who come to tell us about their situation, tell us what they do, allow us to witness, so to speak, all the adventures of their new life and by this means show us the inevitable fate that is in store for us, according to our merits or our crimes.”

Well then! It is not necessary to consider that anyone has “come back” to tell how he is in the spiritual plane, since there are countless reports, studies carried out around narratives obtained in mediumistic sessions, sometimes with rich details, that Kardec collected and gathered through of a developed scientific method, and in chapter VIII, Future penalties according to Spiritism, of the book Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism, clarifies:

“The Spiritist Doctrine, with regard to future penalties, is no more founded on a preconceived theory than its other parts. In everything she relies on observations, which is what gives her authority. No one then imagined that souls, after death, should find themselves in this or that situation. It is the very beings who left the Earth who come today - with God's permission and because humanity enters a new phase - to initiate us into the mysteries of the future life, to describe their happy or unhappy position, their impressions and their transformation in the death of the body. . The spirits come today, in short, to complete the teaching of Christ on this point.”

But… after all… will we find ourselves in a circumscribed place in the spiritual life? The answer is negative; there are no records in the spiritist doctrine of places reserved for the suffering or the happy, nor any subdivisions.

Spiritism teaches us that the spirit in need of progress, which is attached to matter, shares the world to which it naturally maintains affinity, to which it has an attraction, while the one that has evolved, having detached itself from matter, travels through different worlds. . Answers 232 and 233 of The Book of Spirits clarify the issue:

232. In the wandering state, can spirits go to all worlds? - According. When the Spirit leaves the body, it is not yet completely disconnected from matter and still belongs to the world in which it lived or to a world of the same degree; unless, during his lifetime, he has risen. This is the objective to which he must turn, for without it he would never be perfected. He can, however, go to some higher worlds, passing through them as a foreigner. He does nothing more than catch a glimpse of them, and that is what gives him the desire to improve himself, to be worthy of the happiness that is enjoyed in them and to be able to inhabit them.

233. Do spirits already purified come to the lower worlds? – They come often to help them progress; without it, these worlds would be left to themselves, without guides to guide them.

However, we often come across messages from spirits that narrate that they are in certain places of suffering, or that experience physical sensations, such portray the illusions that the spirit attached to matter can create for itself, but which are nothing more than a perception of the spirit that narrates it, and which, therefore, is not universal. 

From what we can infer is that the happy or unhappy state is inherent to the degree of purification or imperfections of the spirit, as we can conclude by reading items 1 to 25 of chapter VIII. book Heaven and Hell, or divine justice according to Spiritism, with emphasis on items 1 to 3 transcribed below:

1°) The soul or spirit is subject, in the spiritual life, to the consequences of all the imperfections of which it did not get rid of during the corporeal life. Your happy or unhappy state is inherent to the degree of your debugging or your imperfections. 

2°) Since all spirits are perfectible, by virtue of the law of progress, they carry within themselves the elements of their happiness or future unhappiness and the means of acquiring one and avoiding the other by working towards their own advancement. 

3°) Perfect happiness is linked to perfection, that is, to the complete purification of the spirit. Every imperfection is a cause of suffering, just as every acquired quality is a cause of satisfaction and alleviation of suffering; whence it follows that the sum of happiness and unhappiness is in proportion to the sum of the good or bad qualities possessed by the spirit.

However, let us pay attention to the study of the first edition of the book Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism and from the book Genesis – Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism, by Allan Kardec, behold, the adulterations found in the 4th and 5th editions of the aforementioned books do not hover over this edition, respectively.

Another information obtained through the method of the universality of spirits, and which makes up the spiritist doctrine, is that spirits come together by a kind of affinity (not associated with the idea of merely material affinity) and form groups, according to the answer 278 of O Spirits Book:

278. Are Spirits of different orders mixed? - Yes and no; that is, they see each other, but they are distinguished from each other. They move away or approach according to the similarity or divergence of their feelings, as between you. It is a whole world, of which yours is the dark reflection. Those of the same order come together by a kind of affinity, and form groups or families of spirits united by sympathy and purposes; the good, by the desire to do good; the wicked, from the desire to do evil, from the shame of their faults and from the need to find themselves among beings similar to them. Like a big city, where men of all classes and of all conditions see each other and meet, without being confused, where societies are formed by the similarity of tastes, where vice and virtue rub shoulders, without speaking. .

In the Spiritist Magazine May/1858, under the title Eternal Halves , the spirit of São Luís also leaves interesting notes: 

"No. There is no particular and fatal union of two souls. There is union between all spirits, but in different degrees, according to the position they occupy, that is, according to the perfection acquired: the more perfect, the more united. From discord all human ills spring; from concord comes complete happiness.

(...) 3 ─ Once united, two perfectly sympathetic spirits remain united for eternity or can they separate and unite with other spirits? All Spirits are united with each other. I speak of those who have reached perfection. In the lower spheres, when a Spirit rises, he is no longer sympathetic to those he has left. 4 ─ Are two sympathetic spirits complementing each other or is this sympathy the result of a perfect identity? The sympathy that attracts one Spirit to another results from the perfect agreement of their inclinations and their instincts. If one were to complete the other, it would lose its individuality.”

These are reduced reflections on the subject. And what are yours? What texts do you know that could expand our studies? Would you like to study with us?!

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