How can one know about the future? One can understand forecasts of events that are consequence of the present condition but not those that no connection to them and even less those that are attributed to chance. People say that future things do not exist and that they are still in the void then how can we know if they are going to happen? Nonetheless large is the number of predictions that became reality from which one can conclude that there is a phenomenon whose understanding we lack the key since there is no effect without a cause. Such a cause that we are going to try to find is provided by Spiritism that in itself is the key to so many mysteries and that will show us that the event of prediction itself is not outside the laws of nature.
As a comparison let us take an example of common things that will help us understand the principle that we will have to develop. Suppose a person placed at the top of a mountain, contemplating the vast extension of the prairies. In such a situation one mile will not be much and the person will be able to see from a glance the accidents of the terrain from the beginning to the end of the road. The traveler that follows that road for the first time knows that she will get to the end. That is a simple forecast of the consequence of the journey. But the accidents of the march, the ascents and descents, the creeks to be transposed, the forests to cross, the cliffs to avoid, the hiding thieves, the lodgings to rest, all of that will depend on the person. For that person future is unknown because her sight does not go beyond the little circle around. As for the duration of the trip it is measure by the time taken to cover the path. If the reference points are removed the duration disappears. For the observer on the top that eyes the traveler everything is present. Suppose now that the observer comes down to meet the traveler and say: “At a given time you will find such a thing; you will be attacked and helped.” The observer will be predicting the future. To the traveler that is future. To the observer that is present. If we now leave the circle of the purely material things and in our mind enter the domain of the spiritual life we will see that such a phenomenon takes place in a much greater scale. The dematerialized Spirits are like the person on the top of the mountain. Space and time do not exist to them. The extension and penetration of their vision are proportional to their depuration and elevation in the spiritual hierarchy. Regarding the inferior Spirits they are like a person holding a powerful telescope side by side with others that only observe with their naked eyes. The latter ones have a limited vision not only because they can hardly move away from the globe to which they are connected but also because the dense nature of their perispirit covers things that are faraway, like the fog does to the eyes of the body.
It is then understood that according to their degree of perfection a Spirit may embrace a period of a few years, a few centuries and even many thousands of years for what is a century when compared to eternity?
Before the eyes of such a Spirit the events do not take place in succession like the incidents of the traveler’s path. The start and finish are seen simultaneously. All the events that constitute the future to mankind on Earth are the present to that Spirit that could say with certainty: Such a thing will occur at such a time because that event is seen like the person on top of the mountain sees what is ahead of the traveler on the road. If such a Spirit does not say anything it is because such a knowledge of the future is harmful to people. It would preclude the use of one’s free-will and paralyze the work of progress. The good and bad ahead of us are unknown as part of the trial.
If such a faculty, even restrict, may be the attribute of a creature how about at the level of the Creator that embraces the infinite? There is no time for God; the beginning and the end of the world are the present. In such a scenario what is the life of a person, of a generation, of a people?
Nonetheless and since each one must concur to the general progress and certain events must result from their cooperation, in certain cases it may be useful that a person may foresee those events to pave the way and be ready to act when the time is right. That is why sometimes God allows the tip of the veil to be lifted but that is always with a useful objective and never to satisfy futile curiosity. Thus such a mission may be given to certain Spirits, not to all of them since some do not know more about the future than people do, but to sufficiently advanced Spirits for that matter. It must be said that such revelations are always done spontaneously and never or at least very rarely in response to a direct question. Such a mission may equally be given to certain persons and here is how.
Someone that has been assigned with the task of revealing something that is occult may unpretentiously receive it by inspiration of the Spirits that have that knowledge and then transmit it mechanically, unnoticeably. Besides, it is a known fact that be it during the sleep or vigil or even in cases of ecstasy of double vision, the soul detached from the body and has in a more or lesser degree the faculties of the free Spirit. If that is an advanced Spirit and most importantly if, like the prophets, had received a special mission in that respect, at that moment of emancipation of the soul the Spirit enjoys the capacity of embracing a more or less extensive period and sees events of the future as if in the present. The Spirit may then reveal them immediately or keep their memory when waking up. If those events must be kept in secret the Spirit will lose that memory or just keep a vague intuition that is sufficient for an instinctive guidance. That is why we can see such a faculty providentially developing in certain occasions like in cases of imminent danger, great calamities and in revolutions where the majority of the persecuted sects had numerous clairvoyants. That is also why we see great commanders marching resolutely against the enemy with the certainty of victory as well as geniuses like Christopher Columbus, for example, chasing an objective and somehow predicting the time of reaching it. The reason is that they saw that objective that is not unknown to their Spirit. Every phenomena whose cause was unknown was considered marvelous. Once the law behind them is known they enter the rank of natural things. The gift of prediction is not more supernatural than a large number of other phenomena because it is founded on the properties of the soul and in the law of relationship between the visible and the invisible worlds that became known through Spiritism. But how to admit the existence of an invisible world if the soul is not admitted or its individuality after death is not accepted? The skeptical that denies prescience is consistent with herself. There is still the need to define if that person is consistent with herself when it comes to the natural law.
The theory of prescience may not solve all cases of prediction of the future in absolute terms but one must not deny the fact that it establishes its fundamental principle. If not everything can be explained that is due to the difficulty that human beings have in placing themselves in that kind of extraterrestrial stand point. Given the natural inferiority our thoughts are incessantly dragged to the material life and are frequently powerless to elevate above ground. With that respect certain persons are like those new birds whose wings are ever so weak that they can hardly fly or the short sighted ones that cannot see far away or finally like some others that lack a sense for certain perceptions. Nevertheless with some effort and the habit of meditation one can get there and the Spiritists do that faster than the others because they can better identify with and understand the spiritual life.
In order to understand spiritual things, that is, to have an idea as clear as that that we have about a landscape that stands before our eyes we do lack a sense, exactly like the blind person lacks a sense to understand the effects of light, colors and vision at a distance. We then only achieve that through an effort of our imagination, helped by comparisons that we make with familiar things. Material things, however, can only give us very imperfect images of spiritual things. That is why the comparisons should not be made word by word and believe, for example, that in the case that we are discussing the reach of the perceptive faculties of the Spirits are in proportion to their elevation and that they need to be on the top of the mountain or above the clouds to embrace time and space. Such a faculty is inherent to the level of spiritualization or, if you want, dematerialization. In other words spiritualization produces an effect that can be compared, although very imperfectly, to the vision of the whole of a person standing on the top of the mountain. That comparison only aimed at showing that events that are in the future to some may be in the present to others and in that case can be predicted but that does not mean that the effect is produced in the same way.
Therefore to enjoy such a perception the Spirit does not need to be transported to a given point in space. The one that is on Earth by our side may have it in its plenitude in the same way that the Spirit would have it even if located thousands of miles away, whereas we cannot see anything beyond the visual horizon. Since the vision of the Spirits is not produced neither in the same way nor with the same elements that it occurs with humans their horizon is very different. Well, that is precisely the sense that we miss to conceive it. Compared to an incarnate the Spirit is like a normal vision person compared to a blind one.
Besides, it is necessary to take into account that such a perception is not limited to the extension but it also incorporates penetration into all things. It is, and we repeat, a faculty inherent and proportional to the state of dematerialization. Such a faculty is lessened by incarnation but is not completely annulled because the soul is not contained in the body as if in a box. The incarnate has it in proportion to the evolution of the Spirit although always in a lesser degree than when separated from the body. That is what give to certain persons a power of penetration that others lack completely, a fairer moral assessment, a better understanding of the material things. The Spirit not only perceives but also remembers what was seen as a Spirit and that memory is like a picture that remains in their minds. During incarnation the Spirit sees but only vaguely like through a veil. In the state of freedom the Spirit clearly sees and conceives. The principle of vision is not outside but inside the Spirit. That is why there is no need for light.
The circle of ideas and conception broadens through the moral development; the Spirits purifies from the dense elements by the progressive dematerialization of the perispirit and that alters the subtlety of the perceptions and from that it becomes easy to understand that the extension of all faculties are a consequence of the progress of the Spirit. It is the degree of extension of the faculties that during the incarnation makes the Spirit more or less apt to conceive spiritual things. Such aptitude, however, is not a necessary consequence of the intellectual development because it is not given by common science. That is why we see people of great intelligence and knowledge that are as blind to spiritual matters as others are to material things. They reject those things because they do not understand them. That happens because their progress has not happened in that direction yet whereas there are people of common intelligence and education that learn them with great ease demonstrating that they had a previous intuition of them.
The possibility of changing their stand point seeing things from above not only gives the solution to the problem of prescience but also the key to a true and solid faith. It is also the most powerful element of strength and resignation because since life appears as a single point in the infinite one understands the little importance of things that seen from below seem so important. The incidents, miseries and vanities of life are belittled before the immense and splendid horizon of the future that unveils ahead. Someone that look at things in that way is hardly reached by vicissitudes and for that very reason is as happy as possible down here. One must then feel sorry for those that concentrate their minds in the narrow sphere of Earth because they feel the full power of the counter action of every tribulation that like so many other spearheads incessantly hurt them.
When it comes to the future of Spiritism, as it is well-known, the Spirits are unanimous in predicting the near ahead triumph despite the barriers that are imposed. Such a prediction is easy to them first because its propagation is the result of their personal work and consequently they know what must be done and second because all they need is to observe a period of short duration and in that period they see powerful supporters recruited by God and that will soon manifest.
Since they are not discarnate Spirits, the Spiritists must only look thirty years ahead and observe the new generation; consider what is happening today; follow the tracks and they will see the useless efforts of those that are called in to destroy Spiritism turning into ashes. They will see those efforts disappearing gradually side by side with the tree whose roots expand daily. This study will be completed by the references available between prediction and fatality. Meanwhile we refer the reader to what was said about the last point in The Spirits’ Book, item 851 and beyond.
