282. How do spirits hold communication with one another?
"They see and comprehend one another. Speech is material; it is a reflex of spirit. The
universal fluid establishes a constant communication between them; it is the vehicle by which
thought is transmitted, as the air, in your world, is the vehicle of sound. This fluid constitutes
a sort of universal telegraph, which unites all worlds, and enables spirits to correspond from
one world to another."
283. Can spirits hide their thoughts from each other? Can they hide themselves from one another?
"No; with them everything is open, and especially so with those who have attained to
perfection. They may withdraw from one another, but they are always visible to each other.
This, however, is not an absolute rule, for the higher spirits are perfectly able to render
themselves invisible to the lower ones, when they consider it to he useful to do so."
284. How can spirits, who have no longer a body, establish their individuality, and cause it to be distinguishable from that of the other spiritual beings by whom they are surrounded?
"Their individuality is established by their perispirit, which makes of each spirit a separate
personality, distinct from all others, as the body does among men."
285. Do spirits recognise one another as having lived together upon the earth? Does the son
recognise his father, the friend, his friend?
"Yes; and from generation to generation."
- How do those who have known each other on the earth recognise one another in the world of spirits?
“We see our past life, and read therein as in a hook; on seeing the past of our friends and our
enemies, we see their passage from life to death."
286. Does the soul see, immediately on quitting its mortal remains, the relations and friends who have returned before it into the world of spirits?
"Immediately is not always the right word; for, as we have said, the soul requires some time
to resume its self-consciousness, and to shake off the veil of materiality."
289. Do our relatives and friends sometimes come to meet us when we are leaving the earth?
"Yes, they come to meet the soul of those they love; they felicitate it as one who has returned
from a journey if it have escaped the dangers of the road, and they aid it in freeing itself from
the bonds of the flesh. To be met thus by those they have loved is a favour granted to the
souls of the upright; while the soul of the wicked is punished by being left alone, or is only
surrounded by spirits like itself."
By Allan Kardec from his book "The Spirits Book"