Why are Some Burdened with Disabilities
Seeing poor souls in deformed bodies, or those with other types of severe disabilities is one of the main reasons why many people question the existence and /or justice of God. They ask “How could God be so cruel?” According to Divine Law, spirits are required to go through such trials when the choices made in their past warrant them. In the last chapter we discovered the life of Camilo Branco and saw how his cruelty in previous lives affected his trials in his next life. Now we shall go more in depth about what could be the consequences of our actions.
Yvonne A. Pereira psychographed the book Memoirs of a Suicide, published in 1955, with the help of two spirits. The first is Camilo Candido Botelho (his real name is Camilo Castelo Branco), the Portuguese writer whose story we recounted in the previous chapter. The other spirit is Leon Denis, who was one of the leading apostles of Spiritism after the passing of Allan Kardec[i].
The spirit author, Camilo spent some time in the lower zones, a very unpleasant episode, and when his intended life span completed, he was picked up and taken to the Mary of Nazareth Hospital. The entire complex was controlled by the mother of Jesus and was dedicated to suicides. Camilo endured a lengthy process to recover from his desperate act. As part of his recovery he and the group he was recovering with, were able to speak with knowledgeable spirits about the various aspects of the Spirit Hospital complex in which they spent their recovery. One of the areas of the Hospital contained the spirits who still lived in a stupor, unable to function in the spirit world. Camilo was told about this pitiful group:
“Be on the lookout for this new sort: the cocaine users, the lovers of opium and narcotics in general, addicts that succumbed to the ultimate state of decadence that a spirit, a creature of God, could fall into! They are in a lamentable state of vibrational depression. They are the true mental cases of the spirit world. They are morally, mentally and spiritually wretched because their monstrous vices not only drained and killed their physical body, but extended the dreadful consequences of their abominable intemperance to their astral body, contaminating it with impurities and pestiferous influences that polluted it atrociously. ”[ii]
Camino saw these spirits and described them as “dazed, weepy, suffering, disheartened”[iii]. He was told these misguided souls would be aided so they could at least understand their present situation and how they came to such a state. This is what Camino saw in the first part of the 1900’s. Imagine the horde the spirit world receives every day in our present age, more than 100 years later. We now have giant pharmaceutical companies pushing mind altering drugs at us, new way to “get high” invented annually, and a culture that actively promotes such behavior as a desirable state.
Reincarnation of Suicides
Camino wanted to know what will happen to them. He was told, they will reincarnate as they appear:
“Amid the suffering of the gloomy corners of the earth, and in the most wretched levels of society. Others will be the cancer-stricken, the paralytics, the mentally impaired, the hysterics, the convulsives, the incurable diseased beset with complexes that will challenge the noble science of earthly medicine… They will be an unpleasant burden on human society because they are the offspring of it and its wrongs; hence it is only fair that this same society house them and keep them as long as necessary – until such a calamitous situation is diminished!”[iv]
Not only do we have to pay for our wrongs, but the society that encouraged the behavior must also recompense. The message is for those who attempt to flee life, whether by inducing themselves into a temporary forgetfulness of their circumstances or by ending their life. We are not allowed to skip school. We are put here on earth for a reason, and if we try to avoid that duty, we shall eventually be reminded of the consequences.
Camino was shaken by the prospect of a lifetime of punishment and asked, “If I understand correctly, is the punitive reincarnation that awaits these wretches simply forced on them by this section of our Department as a medical treatment? … Is it an antidote … a remedy?”[v] He received this answer:
“Yes! It’s just a medical treatment! A type of treatment that the urgency and gravity of the illness imposes on the patient! A dolorous procedure, but one we do not hesitate to use, because we know that only afterward will their real convalescence begin. However, it will not be a punishment per se, because no one will have inflicted punishment or handed down a sentence; on the contrary, all of us here who serve the Law will have made every effort allowable to bring relief to their dreadful situation. What it really is – really! – is the effect of the cause that the patient himself created with the excesses he took pleasure in.”[vi]
Thankfully, Camino was told that Mary’s hospital watched over each one and gave them constant care. When spirits were finished with their sojourn, the hospital took them back and prepares the spirits for a normal life, a life where they would be able to improve themselves.
Reincarnation of Criminal Suicides
Next, Camino and his group walked through another ward full of more painful scenes, black terrible thoughts emanating from each of the patients. Camino wished to know why he senses such awful feelings from each of the bed ridden souls. His enquiry received an immediate response:
“But how could it be otherwise? After all, they were the moral criminals; tormenters who, compelled by the turpitude of their own instincts, harmed and injured their neighbor; human monsters that satiated themselves with the misery they inflicted on the hearts and lives of others… How could rooms such as this one not be contaminated by darkness, when such darkness originated from inside these men; when they had taken pleasure in its folds, causing it and bringing it into their social and private lives, and then making it worse with the horrific blow of suicide?! … There they lay, in their sick beds, exactly as they had been while on earth: gallant men, seducers, deceivers, hypocrites, liars, corrupt, often occupying the highest positions in society.”[vii]
Reading this, when we hear of some high level criminal escaping their crime by suicide and think regretfully about how they adverted their just punishment, we now know differently. Their punishment is beyond what we could imagine. It is not just some time behind bars, where they will lose their freedom, but still get three square meals per day, but rather a lifetime to think about the possibilities of redemption. These criminals, whose last thought was that they were able to run away from all responsibilities, will be reincarnated as, “mentally-impaired, insane, epileptic, deaf and even blind individuals, … and in the degree equivalent to their crime.”[viii]
Even the weight of the crime will not preclude these spirits from receiving help in the physical world. The Hospital administrators report that many will be reincarnated close to mediums who will able to assist them to restore balance in their lives. Plus, they will be watched over by benefactors in the spirit world who lend assistance to all who attempt to find the right path.
Upon seeing the rows upon rows of the afflicted spirits, Camilo wondered why the punishment must be so harsh. After all people commit crimes every day. He was told, “Have you forgotten the tears these wretches made their brothers and sisters shed by inflicting them with torments caused by their selfishness and other vile expressions of their criminal hearts?”[ix]
“Pain”, the Teacher
The path to redemption is long and laborious. We all must pay for what we sowed. In The Spirits Book;
999. Does sincere repentance during the earthly life suffice to efface the faults of that life, and to restore the wrong-doer to the favor of God?
“Repentance helps forward the amelioration of the spirit, but all wrongdoing has to be expiated.”[x]
Hence, there is no shortcut. No easy path for redemption. We can’t lie our way out, we can’t hire someone else to take the punishment, and there is no one to bribe to let us off the hook. We must pay the bill with our own time and labor.
At the end of the long tour through the wards of the truly pitiful spirits, Camino was told that all will recover eventually. The method of that recovery is described by those whose love and compassion will direct the care of the mournful spirits.
“Pain the Teacher will correct their anomalies and reconcile them with the Law! God is Infinite Mercy, my friends! He wants his people to live in harmony with the eternal beauty of his laws! And since we know that these laws are incorruptible, it is up to us to obey and respect them so that we don’t wind up having to drink the bitter gall of the consequences that we created for ourselves with our freewill when we left the natural and luminous pathway.”[xi]
Does this seem harsh? That we have people with heart rendering disabilities around us, people who are wonderful friends suddenly die of an incurable disease, is a daily tragedy on this planet. The reason is that we are living on a planet of atonement, a place where we are learning to become better spirits, a place where, I am sure, all of us, have in some distant past, committed a heinous crime for which we too, had to pay a lifetime of debt.
Remember, most spirits, once they realize the extent of their wrongs, sign up and ask for their penance. Knowing that we all are immortal, it is natural for the wiser ones to discharge their debt by a seemingly brief (in the scheme of things), horrendous stay on earth. They do so with the aspiration to once more, after the trial, restart the ascent.
I will end with a message from the author, Yvonne Pereira, who in a footnote made this plea directly to all of us: “You, who are reading these pages! When you come across brothers or sisters suffering such abnormalities, do not shy away from silently praying in their presence: your harmonious vibrations will also be an excellent therapy!”[xii]
Learn more about yourself and how you help plan your own life in the spirit world - read The Case for Reincarnation - Your Path to Perfection.
[[i]] Wikipedia, “Leon Denis”, n.d., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Denis (accessed June 6, 2014)
[[ii]] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 275
[[iii]] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 276
[[iv]] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 278
[[v]] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 279
[[vi]] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 279
[[vii]] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 281
[[viii]] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 282
[[ix]] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 283
[[x]] Kardec, Allan, The Spirits Book, White Crow Books, Ques. 999, p. 508
[[xi]] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 284
[[xii]] Pereira, Y. A., Memoirs of a Suicide, EDICEI, p. 227 (footnote)