We continue today the methodical study of “Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism” by Allan Kardec. The first edition was published on [JS1]  August 1, 1865. This work is part of the Spiritist Pentateuch. The answers to the questions suggested for discussion are at the end of the text below. 

Questions for discussion 

A. What is the importance of faith in the treatment of patients?

B. Is there any meaning or purpose in people's lives lacking any material resource, such as beggars?

C. Could the abnegation that some people have toward their bosses be due to relationships from past lives?

D. Why do awful and apparently unfair sufferings happen to good and honorable people? 

Text for reading

251. Antonio B. was a talented writer, esteemed by his fellow citizens. He lived in Lombardia, victim to a condition of apparent death then buried alive. Fifteen days after his burial, a fortuitous incident led to reopening his coffin. To his family surprise, they saw that the body had changed position and that one of the hands had been partially gnawed on by the deceased. (Part II, chap. VIII, Antonio B.) 

252. Before describing the sensations experienced inside the closed coffin, Antonio B. explained that the cause of his atonement was that in his previous existence he buried his wife alive! It is the law of retaliation to which I had to be submitted: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, affirmed the spirit. (Part II, chap. VIII, Antonio B.) 

253 Here's what Antonio B. experienced inside the coffin: "The voice no longer able to resound in an environment deprived of air! Oh! What torture is that of a misfortunate being who vainly struggles to breathe in an atmosphere depleted of air. Alas! I was like someone condemned to a furnace, only without the heat. (Part II, chap. VIII, Antonio B.) 

254. Analyzing the Antonio B., case Kardec asked Erastus what advantage can humankind gain from such punishments. Erastus answered: “Punishments do not occur in order to develop humankind, but to punish the guilty individual. Frankly, humankind as a whole has no interest in the suffering of one of its members. In this case, the punishment fit the wrong. Why are there insane, mentally impaired and paralytic individuals? Why do some die by fire? Why do some suffer the tortures of a long agony, unable to live or die?” (Part II, chap. VIII, Antonio B.) 

255. Concluding his analysis, Kardec explains: “God’s justice always reaches the guilty, and although it may arrive late sometimes, it does not fail to follow its course nonetheless. It is highly moralizing to realize that if greatly guilty individuals live their existence peacefully, and often in abundance of earthly assets, their hour of expiation will nevertheless sound sooner or later. Thus, an honorable existence does not exclude the trials of life, since one has chosen or accepted them as a supplement to expiation; it is the remaining balance on a debt that we pay before we receive the award for the progress we have accomplished. (Part II, chap. VIII, Antonio B., Kardec’s comments) 

256. Mr. Letil, a manufacturer who lived on the outskirts of Paris, died a horrible death in April of 1864. A vat of boiling varnish caught fire and in the blink of an eye his body was covered with flaming matter. Although Letil knew right away that he was lost, he had enough strength to walk to his home, more than three hundred yards away. By the time he could be given first aid, shreds of charred flesh were falling off, and the bones on part of his body and face were exposed. He survived for twelve hours in excruciating suffering; despite it all, he kept perfect lucidity until the last moment. (Part II, chap. VIII, Letil) 

257. Properly assisted in the spiritual world, Letil provided the following communication at the Spiritist Society of Paris to explain his discarnation and the cause of his expiation. “Two centuries ago, I ordered a young girl, as innocent as one could be at that age – about 12 to 14 years – to be burned at the stake. What was she accused of? Alas! For having been the accomplice of a conspiracy against the policy of the clergy. At the time, I was an Italian judge of the Inquisition. And since the executioners didn’t dare touch the body of the poor child, I myself was both judge and executioner.” (Part II, chap. VIII, Letil)

258. Addressing all who deplore the forgetting of past lives, Letil exclaimed: “Oh, you children of the New Doctrine, you sometimes say: we cannot remember what we did previously and that is why we cannot avoid the evils to which we expose ourselves. It is due to our forgetfulness of the past! Oh, my brothers! Praise God, for if he were to allow you to have such remembrance, there would be no peace in your hearts while on earth. How could you, constantly assailed by shame and remorse, enjoy a moment of peace? Forgetfulness is a blessing; remembrance here is a torture.” (Part II, chap. VIII, Letil) 

Answers to Proposed Questions

A. What is the importance of faith in the treatment of patients? 

Faith is essential to achieve the desired result. It takes trust in God and the pursuit to inspire patients with sincere faith, otherwise nothing will be achieved. Julienne-Marie said: “Whenever you ask God to allow the good spirits to pour their beneficial fluids over you and the request does not make you feel an involuntary shudder, it is because your prayer was not sufficiently fervent to be heard. Your prayer will only have been answered if you feel the shudder.” (Heaven and Hell, Part II, chap. VIII, Julienne-Marie, the Beggar, first question)

B. Is there any meaning or purpose in people's lives lacking any material resource, such as beggars? 

Evidently so. The examples of Julienne-Marie and Max, narrated in this work, are proof of that. Julienne-Marie said that she returned to Earth with the trial of poverty in order to punish her useless pride that made her repel the poor and miserable in her past. Thus, in this way she passed by the law of retaliation, making her the most hideous beggar of her country. But with no complaints endured her trial, sensing a better life that she would no longer return to this world of exile and misfortune. Max, who in his previous life was a rich and powerful lord in the same region where later he was reborn in poverty. Proud of his nobility, fortune had been his downfall, the result of a life of pleasure, games, orgies, in which vassals were crushed and oppressed by him. After long suffering in the spiritual life, Max reincarnated into a family of poor bourgeois. As a child, he lost his parents, he was helpless and alone in the world. At age 40 was completely paralyzed; thereafter he had to beg for more than 50 years in the same land where he was once an absolute master. Upon returning to the spiritual world Max was redeemed and happy for having sustained his expiation with dignity and resignation.  (Heaven and Hell, Part II, chap. VIII, Julienne-Marie and Max, The Beggar; second communication)

C. Could the abnegation that some people have toward their bosses be due to relationships from past lives? 

Surely. And [at least] this is the most common case. Sometimes these people today in the subordinate position are members of the same family. Or, as in the case described in this work, they are slaves seeking recognition to pay off a debt and to concurrently contribute to their progress through their dedication. Few people understand the effects of sympathy from previous life relations’ produce in the world in which we live. Death does not stop at all these relations, which may last for centuries and centuries. (Heaven and Hell, Part II, chap. VIII, The Story of a Servant and Adelaide-Marguerite Gosse)

D. Why do awful and apparently unfair sufferings happen to good and honorable people? 

There is no injustice in the laws of God. The spirits themselves reveal the cause of these sufferings which seem unjust when they involve good and honorable people. Anthony B. described his trial attributing it to a punishment for a brutal existence! He said: “What is the duration of one lifetime in light of eternity? Of course, I sought to act rightly during my latest incarnation, but I had accepted such an epilogue, i.e. before incarnating.” Is that in his previous existence he had buried alive his own wife, then he suffered the law of retaliation, a known and appropriate procedure in a world trials and tribulations such as Earth. (Heaven and Hell, Part II, chap. VIII, Antonio B., questions 7 and 8)