Action of Spirit on Matter

Postulate. Mesmer's theory and the Spiritist Doctrine affirm that Spirits act on matter only through thought and will:

Spirits act on spiritual fluids, not manipulating them as men manipulate gases, but with the help of thought and will, which are for the Spirit what the hand is for man.

(KARDEC, [1868] 2018, p. 290)

For Mesmer, there are no fluids, as the science of his time postulated, such as caloric, electric, magnetic, vital fluids, etc. His theory conceived the Universal Cosmic Fluid, whence all matter would be formed and therefore fills everything, as if we were fish, immersed in the ocean ((FIGUEIREDO, Paulo Henrique de. Mesmer – A Ciência Negada do Magnetismo Animal. FEAL, 2022)). The different states of matter would be linked to a different wave state, which is proven by modern physics. Thus, for a Spirit to act on fluid matter, it does not act with its hands or with physical force, but through its will. This is how a Spirit can, through its perispirit, appear in different forms, shaping it as it wishes. However, it can only act on fluid matter. To act on denser matter, something more is necessary: either a body, in which to incarnate, or a body whose control is momentarily ceded by another incarnated Spirit, or, simply, the help of an incarnated, lucid and by his own will.

It is for this principle that a Spirit, as proved in the experiments at the time of Kardec, CANNOT make itself visible, materially, much less tangible, without the existence of a special medium, who provides the "ectoplasm", which would be a species of more animalized spiritual fluid. If it were not so - what is determined by the laws of Nature, or Divine Laws - it would be enough for a Spirit, who wants to do evil, take a knife or a pistol and commit any crime. He can, however, inspire someone to do so, and that person, in accepting the suggestion, has his own responsibility.

Do spirits act on the phenomena of Nature?

At first, we are going to find something that seems incongruous with everything that has been said so far. I make it clear that, in this topic, I am relying on what was born of my understanding, and not entirely on postulates of Spiritism.

First, we have question nº 537 of The Spirits' Book:

537. The mythology of the ancients was based entirely on spiritist ideas, with the only difference being that they considered spirits to be divinities. They represented these gods or these spirits with special attributions. Thus, some were in charge of the winds, others of lightning, others of presiding over the phenomenon of vegetation, etc. Is such a belief without foundation?

“So little is it destitute of foundation, that it is still far from the truth.”

So the Spirits are saying that there are those who govern the phenomena of Nature? It seems so. But, in the first place, we were taught, by Kardec, to accept nothing without passing through the sieve of reason. Now, we know today the forces of nature that cause storms to arise. We know the action of temperature on the winds, the reason for the formation of clouds that generate precipitation and even the reason for the electrical discharge by lightning. These phenomena are so predictable that there are already mathematical computational models that can predict, with a high accuracy rate, when and how much it will rain, and with a few weeks in advance.

So, why should there be Spirits commanding something predictable and that obeys the Laws of Nature?

Proceed to question 538:

538. Do the Spirits who preside over the phenomena of nature form a special category in the spirit world? Are they beings apart, or Spirits who were incarnated like us?

“Which were or will be.”

The) - Do these spirits belong to the higher or lower orders of the spiritist hierarchy?

“That depends on the more or less material, more or less intelligent the role they play. Some command, others execute. Those who perform material things are always of a lower order, both among spirits and among men.”

Thus, it is understood that the higher spirits no they would interact directly on the elements, but leave that to the less developed spirits — which is rational, after all this becomes a learning exercise for them too. Kardec follows, with my emphasis:

539. Is the production of certain phenomena, storms, for example, the work of a single Spirit, or do many come together, forming large masses, to produce them?

“They gather in innumerable masses.”

540. Do the Spirits that exert action in the phenomena of nature operate with knowledge of the cause, using their free will, or by the effect of instinctive or unreflected impulse?

“Some yes, others no. Let's make a comparison. Consider these myriads of animals that, little by little, make islands and archipelagos emerge from the sea. You think that there is no providential end there and that this transformation of the surface of the globe is not necessary for the general harmony? Nonetheless, they are animals of the lowest order that perform these works, providing for their needs and without suspecting that they are instruments of God.. Well, well: in the same way, the most backward spirits offer utility to the whole. While rehearse for life, before they are fully aware of their acts and are in the enjoyment of free will, they act on certain phenomena, of which the agents are unconsciously constituted.. First, execute. Later, when their intelligences have already reached a certain development, they will order and direct the things of the material world. Then they will be able to direct those of the moral world. This is how everything works, how everything is linked together in nature, from the primitive atom to the archangel, who also started with the atom.. Admirable law of harmony, which your timid spirit cannot yet grasp in its entirety.!”

Here we come to something very important. In the answer to question n.º 539, it is clarified that the spirits acting on such phenomena act together in masses. Is not a Spirit, then, that interacts on these phenomena. Since they are masses of Spirits, in question No. 540 Kardec seeks to understand whether these masses are intelligent and rational, acting by their will or not.

Let us first note something important: the Spirit does not use storms to exemplify its response, but uses the example of an island that can be formed by the action of infinite tiny animals, with the action of time, as happens with corals. In question no. 537, Kardec gives several examples of the possibilities of spiritual action, including, among them, winds, lightning and the phenomena of vegetation. The Spirit's answer, limited by several questions, the first being the commitment not to reveal to man what he himself must conclude, by science, was answered in a generic way, and fits well with the phenomena of the last class.

The answer to question #540 demonstrates that inferior beings (from the evolutionary point of view) obey the laws of nature, that is, instinct, blindly, but that, in doing so, they serve a greater purpose. This greater purpose is not fulfilled by miracles or fits, but through the laws of Nature, which are the laws of God, which aim at general harmony. This means that it is not Spirits of any kind that cause a natural disaster, but the consequence, precisely, of Nature. A disaster can happen, for example, by the action of bacteria that slowly corrode the iron of a bridge that, at a certain moment, falls, or by the action of fungi that act in a certain way in a soil of a mountainous region that, saturated then by the rain, become soaked and slide over a whole city.

And here we come to an important point: the simplest living beings, from the cell, the virus and the bacterium, also have a spiritual principle. Estaria explicado, portanto, os Espíritos reunidos em “massas inumeráveis”, governadas pela Natureza, que fazem a harmonia que nosso “acanhado espírito ainda não pode apreender em seu conjunto”.

So, when it is said that Spirits preside over the phenomena of Nature, what is being said is that there are higher Spirits, who, by your influence, govern the lower, linked directly school subjects.

Can a Spirit act directly on matter?

I believe that the issue has been clarified, but to reinforce the concept, let's go back to The Spirits' Book. In the following three questions and in their answers, the principle that Spirits you can not act directly on the matter:

526. Having, as they have, action on matter, can spirits cause certain effects, with the aim of causing an event to occur? For example: a man has to die; climbs a ladder, the ladder breaks and he dies from the fall. Was it the spirits who broke the ladder, so that that man's destiny could be fulfilled?

“It is true that spirits act on matter, but in order to comply with the laws of nature, not to derogate from them, causing, at a given moment, an unexpected event to occur and contrary to those laws. In the example you pictured, the ladder broke because it was rotten, or because it wasn't strong enough to support a man's weight. If it was that man's destiny to perish in such a way, the Spirits would inspire him to climb the ladder in question, which would have to break under his weight, resulting in his death by a natural effect and without being forced to do so. mister the production of a miracle.”

527. Let us take another example, in which matter does not enter its natural state. A man has to die by lightning. Take refuge under a tree. Pops the lightning and kills him. Could it be that it was the Spirits who caused the lightning, directing it towards man?

“It is the same as before. Lightning struck that tree at such a moment because it was in the laws of nature that it should. He was not directed to the tree because the man was under it. To this one, yes, the idea was inspired of taking shelter under a tree on which the lightning would strike, because the tree would not fail to be hit, just because the man was not under its frond.”

528. In the case of a malicious person shooting at another a projectile that only passes close to him without hitting him, could it have happened that a good spirit had deflected the projectile?

“If the individual shot does not have to perish in this way, the kind Spirit will inspire him to deviate, or else he will be able to dazzle the one who is holding the weapon, in order to make him aim badly, because, once the weapon is fired, the projectile follows the line it has to travel.”

Spirits do not derogate from the Laws of Nature by a moral principle, but simply because these Laws are natural and are fulfilled as much as it is fulfilled that, on the surface of any celestial body, when releasing an object, it will fall, due to the law of gravity, with a speed that will depend on the mass of that body (planet, star, etc.).

conclusions

The digression carried out so far served to give a greater basis to another article of my authorship, “Black magic, spells, baths in rock salt and herbs, amulets, Wicca: does it all exist?” (click here to read). Magic, as many imagine, does not exist. Otherwise, we would be subject to being hit, against our will, and no matter how well we are, by any spell. We can, of course, be reached by material means, by the action of the individual's will, supported or not by incarnate Spirits. But, by non-material means, the maximum possible is for a Spirit to interact with fluidic matter, which, in order to identify with ours, depends exclusively on our ostensible permission or our impotence to fight it, as we do not have moral subsidies to so much.

And you, what did you think of all this thinking developed here? Leave your comment below!