The disguises we present ourselves to the world
The idea that physical bodies are merely disguises that the spirits come into the world to make progress in this Kardec's work, which has led some scholar spirits to compare different bodily existences to theater plays where the persona of each actor changes as the role it should play.
The comparison is nothing absurd, although we should point out that - if each actor in the play follows a predefined text and a script - in life is the person who prepares them. Of course, before reincarnating, the outlines of existence can be configured in the call reincarnation program, but their development and actions of each day follow the exercise of our free will, and not the decision of an author or a director, as it happens in dramas and soap operas.
Whenever we talk about reincarnation, it does not cost us remember how this concept is implied in the work of Allan Kardec. The dialogue that gave origin to questions 166 and 167 from The Spirits’ Book, and the first and major work of spiritual doctrine, explains well the issue:
166. How can the soul, which has not reached perfection during bodily life, ending up in debug? "Suffering proof of a new existence."
a) How to accomplish this new existence? Will it be by its transformation as Spirit? "Debugging itself, the soul undoubtedly experiences a transformation, but for that it is needed a bodily life proof."
b) Does the soul then go through many physical existences? "Yes, we all have many lifetimes. Those who say otherwise intend to keep them in ignorance of what they themselves are. This is their desire."
c) It would appear from this principle that the soul after leaving the body, takes another, or then is reincarnated in a new body. This is how it should be understood? "Of course."
167. What is the common goal with reincarnation? "Atonement, progressive improvement of mankind. Without it, where is justice?"
In every life, individuality persists, but the persona and the role being played by the Spirit who returns to earth may be quite different from one existence to another.
Persona, in colloquial usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. It is an Italian word derived from the Latin for a kind of mask made to resonate with the voice of the actor, allowing it to be well heard by spectators, as well as to give the actor the appearance that the role demanded.
The idea of disguise, to which we refer in the preamble, is implied in that word and it was with this sense that Dr. Demeure, who died on January 26th, 1865, used it in a message posted on Revue Spirite: "How happy I am! I'm not old or sick; My body was just a cover imposed; I am young and beautiful, beautiful from this eternal youth of spirits whose wrinkles not furrow the face, whose hair does not whiten under the action of time." (Revue Spirite 1865, pages 80 and 81)
Spiritual instructors had used it in response to the question 738 The Spirits’ Book, reproduced below:
"Well, as we have said, the life of the body is very little. A century on your world is nothing more than a flash in eternity. Then, nothing is the sufferings of a few days or a few months that you complain. It represents a school gave you and it will serve you in the future. Spirits, which pre-exist and survive everything, mold the real world. These the sons of God and the whole object of your solicitude. The bodies are mere disguises with which they appear in the world."
As Adelino Silveira reports in his book Moments with Chico Xavier, in 1997 Maria João de Deus, Chico Xavier’s mother in her ultimate existence, communicated to the medium that her reincarnation was imminent. Here is how she reported it:
"Imagine that your father needs to reincarnate and he said he will only reincarnate if I reincarnate as his wife. I went to the Cidália, your second mother, who created you so dearly and never made a difference between my children and hers. She told me that she also needs to get back to Earth. So I told her: Cidália, you were so good to my children, made many sacrifices so many humiliations endured by them. I never forgot when you told João Cândido you would only marry him if he were to pick my children were scattered to various places that you create them. Since my decision to return to the body, I have reflected a lot about all this and I come to ask you if you would accept to be our first born daughter? We hugged and cried a lot. When I said goodbye, I asked her: Cidália, is there anything I can do for you when been your mother? She told me:
- Dona Maria, I've always had much inclination towards music and could not get close to an instrument. I’ve always loved the piano.
- Well, my daughter. I will print on my heart a desire to come up with my first daughter inclination for music. Jesus will give us the joy of owning a piano."
The event shows what we have said at the beginning: our bodies are merely disguises which comply with a certain goal and after that it is undone, but the truly life in which nonexistent disguises, proceeds in the so-called spiritual home.
