The Spirits' Book

Allan Kardec

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607. You have stated that when the soul of a human being is born, it is in a state equivalent to that of human infancy, that its intelligence is just beginning to unfurl and that it is trying to live (See no. 190). Where does the soul accomplish this initial phase?
“In a series of existences that come before the period that you call humanity.”


a) Therefore, it seems that the soul is the intelligent principle of inferior beings of creation. Is it so?
“Have we not said that everything in nature is connected and tends towards unity? As we have explained, it is in those beings, which you are very far from knowing, that the intelligent principle is created, gradually individualized, and tries to live. Through its subjection to a preliminary process, like germination, the principle undergoes a transformation and becomes a spirit. The human phase then begins for each spirit with the consciousness of its future, the power of distinguishing between good and evil, and accountability for its actions. After infancy then comes childhood, youth, adolescence, and fnally mature adulthood. Do the greatest geniuses feel embarrassed because they were once formless fetuses in the wombs of their mothers? If anything should humiliate them, it is their inferiority before God and their inability to probe the depths of the Divine plans and the wisdom of the laws that regulate harmony in the universe. Recognize God’s greatness in this awe-inspiring harmony that establishes a sense of solidarity between everything in nature. Even the thought that God would have made anything without a purpose and created intelligent beings without a future, is an insult to the Creator’s goodness, which covers all creation.”


b) Does the period of humanity begin on Earth? “The Earth is not the frst point of the earliest phase of human incarnation; the human period generally starts in worlds that are even lower than yours. This rule is not unconditional and a spirit, upon entering the human phase, may be ready to live on Earth. Such a case, while possible, is uncommon and would be an exception to the general rule.”


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