Have we lived with our family in past lives?

If we have already lived many lives, how old are our affections? And what of families in conflict? The answers dismantle, along the way, every human prejudice.

— The logic, the justice, and the goodness of God are incredible. One question: could the two of us have also been friends in previous existences?

— It is possible. But we could also have had a relationship of father and son, of brothers, or any other degree of kinship. All the good relationships in this life may already have a greater antiquity than one supposes. Reincarnation strengthens the bonds of family, whereas the uniqueness of existences breaks them.

— And how do you explain certain family relationships troubled by hatred, resentment, animosity?

— Certain spirits, who were already enemies in previous existences, come together in a family in order to dilute those antagonistic feelings. It is an attempt at reconciliation between those spirits, who do not always achieve that aim.

— Can it happen that two spirits who do not know one another incarnate into the same family?

— Yes, it can, they are the indifferent ones. Neither friends nor enemies. But normally, in space the Spirits form groups or families interwoven by affection, by sympathy, and by the similarity of their inclinations. Happy to find themselves together, these Spirits seek one another out. Incarnation separates them only momentarily, because, upon returning to spiritual life, they gather again, as friends returning from a journey. Often, indeed, some follow others into incarnation, coming here to gather in the same family, or in the same circle, in order to work together for their mutual advancement. If some incarnate and others do not, they do not thereby cease to be united in thought. Those who remain free watch over those who are in captivity. The more advanced strive to help the laggards to progress. After each existence, all have advanced a step along the path of improvement. (2)

— Since we have already had many existences, does our kinship extend beyond that which forms part of our present existence?

— It cannot be otherwise. The succession of bodily existences establishes between spirits bonds that go back to previous existences. That is why, often, the sympathy or antipathy that exists between two or more people seems strange to us.

— Can the spirit that animated the body of a man animate that of a woman, and vice versa?

— Evidently. The spirit must pass through every kind of experience that makes it better. If the spirit only ever animated the bodies of men, it would only know what men know, and vice versa.

Roger, thoughtful, says:

— That has enormous implications, Tom. It means that any man who today despises women may have been a woman in previous existences. And any prejudice of gender loses all meaning entirely.

— Exactly, Roger. And the same applies to racism, to xenophobia, to differences of social class. Science has already confirmed that there is only one human species — what exist are different ethnicities. If the spirit can incarnate in bodies of different ethnicities, genders, nationalities, and social classes, then all those prejudices reveal only the ignorance of those who hold them. Deep down, when we look upon another human being with contempt, we may be looking at what we once were or at what we shall be.

Excerpt from the work The Great Discovery, by César Manuel Malainho de Oliveira.
Read the full work · Listen to the work