Allan Kardec: The Spirits’ Book

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

The Spirits’ Book consists of four “books,” subdivided into chapters. These books contain a total of 1,019 questions posed by Kardec to a number of spirits, including those of the American statesman Benjamin Franklin, Emanuel Swedenborg, the French Catholic theologian François Fénelon, the philosopher and theologian Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Louis IX of France, Saint Vincent de Paul, the Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato, and “The Spirit of Truth” (the term for God used throughout The Spirits’ Book). The accompanying excerpt is from book 2, “The Spirit-World; or, The World of Spirits,” which contains 537 questions, numbered 76 through 613.

This selection addresses the general nature and experience of a spirit as it exists within the spirit world. Thus the questions involve the definition of a spirit, the postmortem transition from soul into spirit, and several details about the individual spirit’s autonomy, consciousness, and relationship to the material world. In the responses, text within quotation marks is understood to be the spirits’ words, while additional text (like the note to question 76) is Kardec’s. This selection is important for both Spiritism and the wider Spiritualism movement, as it is the first attempt to codify the concept of spirit phenomena.

Chapter I

Questions 76–78

Kardec begins the second book by asking questions to define spirits and their relationship to God. Through this question-and-answer exchange, Kardec concludes that spirits are “intelligent beings” that embody a certain universal ubiquity in contrast to the average mundane concept of the material world. Kardec inquires about the relationship between God and these spirits: Are spirits equal with God or are they created beings? According to Kardec, these spirits’ responses suggest that they, like all humankind, are creations of God and are thus inferior to Him. Whereas “God has existed from all eternity,” spirits are subsequent creations.

Questions 79–81

Kardec then asks about the nature and creation of spirits. In framing his question, he suggests that there are two general elements within the universe, the “intelligent” and the “material.” Kardec is told that spirits are constituted by intelligent elements, whereas the physical body is merely inert matter and made solely of the material element. Through further inquiry, he learns that the creation of spirits is an ongoing process for God and is not confined to a specific time. He acknowledges, however, that any particular details of spirit creation remain a “mystery.”

Questions 82 and 83

A paramount question is whether or not spirits are immaterial. In the response, the spirits inform Kardec that human perception cannot understand, much less describe, the nature of spirits, as humans consistently choose to interpret unfamiliar phenomena by contrasting them with the human experience. Instead of “immaterial,” spirits propose “incorporeal” as a better description. The spirit is bodiless “quintessentialised matter” and advanced beyond human senses. Kardec also learns that with this incorporeal state comes an endless duration of life. In other words, spirits are immortal.

Chapter III

Questions 149–153

Kardec then asks a series of questions about the soul and death. What happens to one’s soul after one dies? The spirits answer that the soul returns to the spirit realm, where it had resided before life on earth. As this soul once again becomes a spirit, it does retain its autonomy, losing only its corporeal property. The soul retains memories of its former life and experiences a yearning to “go to a better world” in its next incarnation. The spirits add that the very fact that Kardec is communicating with them is proof of their retention of knowledge in the spirit realm. Furthermore, the life of a spirit is “eternal.”

Questions 154–157

Kardec then begins to probe into the experience of the soul that is making the transition back into the spirit realm. According to the spirits, the body is merely a transitory state, called the “perispirit,” or, more precisely, the perispirit is a “semi-material envelope” that allows the spirit to adhere to the body. Thus life begins in the spirit realm, only to make several lateral journeys into the material world. This separation of soul from body is said to be easy in cases where the individual has lived a life of “intellectual and moral activity, and habitual elevation of thought,” but “extremely painful” in other cases, especially suicide, where the spirit is forced to “perceive all the horror of the decomposition” of the body.

After inquiring further about the soul’s transitory process, Kardec learns that the soul does not necessarily exit its perispirit instantaneously but rather in a more gradual fashion. Interestingly, Kardec is told that it is also possible for the soul to leave its perispirit prematurely. Furthermore, it is equally possible for the soul to glean a glimpse of the spirit realm just prior to leaving its perispirit, as at this point the soul acquires a degree of independence from its corporeal matter. In this way, Kardec is reminded that the material body will thrive as long as the anatomical capacity is still functioning, regardless of the soul’s fleeting transition.The heart may continue to pump even after the soul has departed.

Questions 158–160

Kardec then begins another series of questions relating to reincarnation. Proposing the metaphor of a caterpillar’s metamorphosis, Kardec is once again reminded that humankind’s earthly conceptualizations cannot be applied literally to the spirit realm. That is, such a metaphor is useful, yet it is also an oversimplification of the reincarnation process.

Probing further, Kardec asks about the experience of encountering the spirit world in relation to a soul’s emotional consciousness as well as the possibilities of reuniting with other souls that were part of its perispirit experience. Kardec is told that the emotional consciousness and all other feelings associated with it depend upon the soul’s record of malevolence or benevolence. If a soul has engaged in the former, that soul will experience shame, whereas a soul that has engaged in the latter is relieved of all burden and comfortably flourishes among the spirits. In addition, the spirits reveal that a soul can certainly reunite with those whom the soul knew in the material world—some will even “come to meet him on his return to the spirit-world, and help to free him from the bonds of matter.”

Questions 161 and 162

Kardec briefly revisits the subject of the separation of the soul to ask about such cases as “violent,” “accidental,” and rare forms of death—decapitation for example. In such circumstances, though the perispirit’s tenure is cut short, the bodily organs otherwise continue to function, and separation of spirit from body is “effected more slowly.” Kardec asks if cessation of life takes place simultaneously with the separation of the soul in such instances. The spirits respond by stating that the interval between cessation and separation is brief if there is any at all.

Questions 163–165

Finally, Kardec asks the spirits to address his concerns about “confusion” that he believes may occur among souls passing into the spirit realm. Imagining the transition between the material world and the spirit world to be a confusing one, Kardec seeks a fuller understanding. In response, the spirits concede that many souls may, in fact, experience confusion, depending on their “degree of elevation.” Those who have freed themselves from the “thralldom of materiality” make the transition more readily than the “carnally minded.” The latter find it more difficult to escape the bonds of matter. However, Kardec is given confirmation that through a knowledge of “Spiritism” a soul may assuage this state of confusion.