Allan Kardec cytaty

„Czy duchy są wrażliwe na muzykę?
„Duchy niższe odczuwają rozkosz, gdy słyszą Waszą muzykę, ponieważ nie mogą jeszcze odczuć wznioślejszej. Jednak i Wasza muzyka, o ile jest naprawdę subtelna i ma głębokie podłoże religijne, sięga w niebiańskie sfery i ułatwia dobrym duchom do was dostęp. Muzyka ma dla duchów nieskończony czar stosownie do ich rozwiniętych właściwości. Słyszymy muzykę niebiańską, która jest najcudowniejszą i najprzyjemniejszą ze wszystkiego, czego może sobie wyobraźnia duchów przedstawić.””

„Czy namiętność jest czymś złym?
„Nie, namiętność polega na nadmiarze chęci; sama zasada chcenia była człowiekowi udzielana w dobrym celu, a namiętności mogą pobudzić człowieka do wszelkich czynów; tylko ich nadużycie wywołuje zło.””

„Zasada reinkarnacji jest głęboko chrześcijańska, gdyż opiera się na nieśmiertelności duszy, na karach i nagrodach przyszłych, na sprawiedliwości Bożej, na wolnej woli człowieka i na etyce Chrystusowej; nie jest więc sprzeczna z religią. Nawet słowa Chrystusa nie dopuszczają pod tym względem żadnej wątpliwości.
Czytamy w Ewangelii św. Jana w r. III.
„Odpowiedział Jezus Nikodemowi: Zaprawdę powiadam ci: Jeżeli się kto nie narodzi znowu, nie może widzieć Królestwa Bożego: Rzekł do niego Nikodem: Jakoż się może człowiek narodzić będąc stary? I zali powtóre może wejść w żywot matki swojej i narodzić się?
Odpowiedział Jezus: Zaprawdę, powiadam ci: Jeżeliby się kto nie narodził z wody, nie może wejść do Królestwa Bożego. Co się narodziło z ciała, ciało jest, a co się narodziło z ducha duch jest. Nie dziw się, że ci powiedziałem. Musicie się znowu narodzić.””

„Kiedy następuje połączenie duszy z ciałem?
„Połączenie zaczyna się od poczęcia, lecz zupełnie dopiero w chwili porodu. Duch złączony w danym ciele złączony jest z nią fluidyczną wstęgą; płacz, który wydaje dziecko przy narodzeniu oznajmia, że zalicza się ono już do żyjących na ziemi sług Bożych.””

„Na czym polega oddawanie czci?
„Jest to podniesienie do Boga myśli. Poprzez oddawanie czci przybliżamy się duchem do Boga.””

„Czy człowiek ma wolną wolę w działaniu?
„Skoro ma wolność myśli, ma też wolność w czynach. Bez wolnej woli człowiek byłby tylko maszyną.””

„Czy duchy są wdzięczne za pamięć tym, których kochali na ziemi?
„O wiele więcej, niż sądzicie; podnosi to ich szczęście, gdy są szczęśliwe; jest im pociechą w nieszczęściu.””

„Kto jest najdoskonalszym wzorem proroka?
„Jezus Chrystus.”
Uosobił On w Sobie wzór doskonałości moralnej, którą może na Ziemi osiągnąć człowiek. Bóg ofiarował nam Go jako najdoskonalszy wzór, a nauka, którą głosił jest najczystszym wyrazem Bożego Zakonu.””

„Jaki jest charakter prawdziwego proroka?
„Prawdziwy prorok jest dobrym, natchnionym przez Boga człowiekiem. Poznacie go po jego słowach i czynach. Bóg nie powoła kłamcy do głoszenia Prawdy.””

„Czy życie społeczne jest przyrodzonym prawem?
„Tak. Bóg stworzył człowieka do życia społecznego. Nie na darmo dał człowiekowi mowę i inne zdolności potrzebne do tego życia.””

„Dlaczego politeizm jest jedną z najdawniejszych i najbardziej rozpowszechnionych religii, chociaż jest wierzeniem mylnym?
„Gdy poprzez stopniową inwolucję w świecie grubej materii upadły duch ludzki zatracał coraz bardziej pamięć o Ojcu i Stworzycielu, przypominała mu Go cała przyroda tajemniczą swą mową. Wszystko, co przewyższało zakres jego pojęć nabierało dla niego mocy boskiej, a że otaczało go wiele przeróżnych tajemnic i wiele niepojętych dla niego potęg przyrody, powstawała w jego umyśle, wiara w wiele różnych bóstw. Ale zawsze istnieli ludzie świata, którzy rozumieli iż mnóstwo różnych sił nie może rządzić światem bez wyższego kierownictwa i ci wznosili się do pojęcia jednego Boga.””

“When a spirit has reached the end of the term assigned by Providence to his errant life, he chooses for himself the trials which he determines to undergo in order to hasten his progress - that is to say, the kind of existence which he believes will be most likely to furnish him with the means of advancing and the trials of this new existence always correspond to the faults which he has to expiate. If he triumphs in this new struggle, he rises in grade; if he succumbs, he has to try again.”

“In the case of those who are killed in battle, as in all other cases of violent death, a spirit, during the first few moments, is in a state of bewilderment, and as though he were stunned. He does not know that he is dead and seems to be taking part in the action. It is only little by little that the reality of his situation becomes apparent to him.”

“Intellectual superiority is not always accompanied by an equal degree of moral superiority, and the greatest geniuses may have much to expiate. For this reason, they often have to undergo an existence inferior to the one they have previously accomplished, which is a cause of suffering for them the hindrances to the manifestation of his faculties thus imposed upon a spirit being like chains that fetter the movements of a vigorous man. The idiot may be said to be lame in the brain, as the halt is lame in the legs, and the blind, in the eyes.”

“Affections are more solid and lasting among spirits than among men, because they are not subordinated to the caprices of material interests and self-love.”

“The spirit acquires an increase of knowledge and experience in each of his corporeal existences. He loses sight of part of these gains during his reincarnation in matter, which is too gross to allow of his remembering them in their entirety; but he remembers them as a spirit. It is thus that some somnambulists give evidence of possessing knowledge beyond their present degree of instruction, and even of their apparent intellectual capacity. The intellectual and scientific inferiority of a somnambulist in his waking state, therefore, proves nothing against his possession of the knowledge he may display in his lucid state. According to the circumstances of the moment and the aim proposed, he may draw this knowledge from the stores of his own experience, from his clairvoyant perception of things actually occurring, or from the counsels which he receives from other spirits; but, in proportion as his own spirit is more or less advanced, he will make his statements more or less correctly.”

“During life, a spirit is held to the body by his semi-material envelope, or perispirit. Death is the destruction of the body only, but not of this second envelope, which separates itself from the body when the play of organic life ceases in the latter. Observation shows us that the separation of the perispirit from the body is not suddenly completed at the moment of death, but is only effected gradually, and more or less slowly in different individuals. In some cases it is effected so quickly that the perispirit is entirely separated from the body within a few hours of the death of the latter but in other cases, and especially in the case of those whose life has been grossly material and sensual, this deliverance is much less rapid, and sometimes takes days, weeks, and even months, for its accomplishment. This delay does not imply the slightest persistence of vitality in the body, nor any possibility of its return to life, but is simply the result of a certain affinity between the body and the spirit which affinity is always more or less tenacious in proportion to the preponderance of materiality in the affections of the spirit during his earthly life.”

“Spirits incarnate themselves as men or as women, because they are of no sex and, as it is necessary for them to develop themselves in every direction, both sexes, as well as every variety of social position. furnish them with special trials and duties, and with the opportunity of acquiring experience. A spirit who had always incarnated itself as a man would be only known by men, and vice versa.”

“The line of march of all spirits is always progressive, never retrograde. They raise themselves gradually In the hierarchy of existence they never descend from the rank at which they have once arrived. In the course of their different corporeal existences they may descend in rank as men, but not as spirits. Thus the soul of one who has been at the pinnacle of earthly power may, in a subsequent incarnation, animate the humblest day-labourer, and vice versa; for the elevation of ranks among men is often In the inverse ratio of that of the moral sentiments. Herod was a king, and Jesus, a carpenter.”

“A master who had been cruel to his slaves might become a slave in his turn, and undergo the torments he had inflicted on others. He who has wielded authority may, in a new existence, be obliged to obey those who formerly bent to his will. Such an existence may be imposed upon him as an expiation if he have abused his power. But a good spirit may also choose an influential existence among the people of some lower race, in order to hasten their advancement; in that case, such a reincarnation is a mission.”

“As spirits transport themselves from point to point with the rapidity of thought, they may be said to see everywhere at the same time. A spirit's thought may radiate at the same moment on many different points; but this faculty depends on his purity. The more impure the spirit, the narrower is his range of sight. It is only the higher spirits who can take in a whole at a single glance.”

“If there be a doctrine that should win over the most incredulous by its charm and its beauty, it is that of the existence of spirit-protectors, or guardian-angels. To think that you have always near you beings who are superior to you, and who are always beside you to counsel you, to sustain you, to aid you in climbing the steep ascent of self-improvement, whose friendship is truer and more devoted than the most intimate union that you can contract upon the earth-is not such an idea most consoling? Those beings are near you by the command of God. It is He who has placed them beside you. They are there for love of Him, and they fulfil towards you a noble but laborious mission. They are with you wherever you may be; in the dungeon, in solitude, in the lazar-house, even in the haunts of debauchery. Nothing ever separates you from the friend whom you cannot see, but whose gentle impulsions are felt, and whose wise monitions are heard, in the innermost recesses of your heart.”

“You often say, 'I have had a strange dream, a frightful dream, without any likeness to reality' You are mistaken in thinking it to be so; for it is often a reminiscence of places and things which you have seen in the past, or a foresight of those which you will see in another existence, or in this one at some future time. The body being torpid, the spirit tries to break his chain, and seeks, in the past or in the future, for the means of doing so.”