A. What is the origin of the passions?

B. What is the difference between instinct and intelligence?

C. It is wise the natural law that determines the mutual destruction of living beings?

Text for reading

188. Instinct and Intelligence - Instinct is the hidden force that drives organic beings to spontaneous and unintentional acts, having their self-preservation in mind. In instinctive acts there is neither reflection, calculation nor premeditation. It thus that the plant seeks air, turns towards light and direct its roots toward water and nutritious soil; that the flower alternatively opens and closes according to necessity; that vines wrap around their support or grasp it with tendrils. It is by instinct that animals are warned about what is beneficial or harmful to them; that they seek out, according to the season, favorable climates; that, without having being taught, they construct [with various degrees of artfulness], and according to the species, soft bedding and shelters for their offspring, and traps to catch prey with which they are nourished; that they skillfully handle offensive and defensive weapons with which they are provided; that the sexes comes together; that the mother gives birth to her offspring and that they seek maternal breast.

189. Among human beings, instinct dominates exclusively at the beginning of life. It is by instinct that children make their first movements, grip their nourishment, cry to express their needs, imitate the sound of the voice and try to speak and walk. In adults certain acts are instinctive: such are the spontaneous movements to avoid a hazard, to flee from danger, and to maintain the one’s balance; such are, furthermore, the blink of the eyelids to moderate the bright light, the automatic opening of the mouth to breathing, etc.

190. The intelligence is revealed through intentional, thought-out, premeditated and calculated acts, according to the turn of the circumstances. It is undeniably an exclusive attribute of the soul.

191. Every automatic action is instinctive. The action denoting reflection, complexity and deliberation is intelligent. Intelligence is free; instinct is not. Instinct is a safe guide that never errs; intelligence, by the simple fact of being free, is sometimes subject to error.

192. Although the instinctive action lacks the character of the intelligent action, it nonetheless reveals an intelligent cause that is essentially provident. If one believes that instinct has its source in matter, one must believe that matter is intelligent, even more intelligent and provident than the soul, since the instinct does not err, while intelligence does.

193. If instinct is considered to be a rudimentary intelligence, how can it be that, in certain cases it is superior to rational intelligence? What gives it the ability to do things that intelligence cannot?

194. If instinct is the attribute of a special spiritual principle, what happens to this principle? If instinct were to disappear, would this principle be destroyed? If animals are provided only with instinct, their future is meaningless; their suffering has no compensation. This would be in disagreement with either the justice or the goodness of God.

195. According to another theory, instinct and intelligence would proceed from one and the same principle. Having arrived at a certain degree of development, this principle, which at first would have only had the qualities of instinct, would undergo a transformation that would give it free intelligence. If so, in intelligent individuals who lose their reason and are no longer guided except by instinct, intelligence would return to its primitive state; and when they regained their reason, their instinct would become intelligence again, and so on at each turn, which is not acceptable.

196. Moreover, instinct and intelligence are often displayed simultaneously in the same action. In walking, for example, the movement of the legs is instinctive; the person automatically places one foot mechanically ahead of the other without thinking about it. But when the person wants to speed up or moderate his or her step, to lift a foot or deviate from an obstacle, there is calculation and complexity; he or she acts with deliberate purpose. The involuntary impulse of the movement is the instinctive action; the calculated directing of the movement is the intelligent action. The carnivorous animal is driven by instinct to feed on flesh, but the precautions it takes modified according to circumstances in order to catch its prey, as well as its foresight of the possibilities, are acts of intelligence.

197. Another theory that allies itself perfectly with the idea of the unity of principle results from the essentially provident nature of instinct, and agrees with what Spiritism teaches concerning the relationship of the spiritual world with the physical world.

198. It is now known that some discarnate spirits have a mission to watch over incarnates, for whom they are protectors and guides, that they envelop them in their fluidic emanations, and that people often act unconsciously under the action of these emanations. It is known that instinct produces unconscious actions, which predominates in children and generally in beings whose intellect is weak. Thus, according to this theory, instinct would not be an attribute of neither the soul nor the matter. It would not belong to the living person per se, but would be an effect of the direct action of invisible protectors, who would compensate for their imperfection of the intelligence by personally causing unconscious acts necessary for the person’s self preservation. It would be like the leading strings with which one supports infants who still do not know how to walk. However, in the same way that we gradually eliminate the use of strings as the children begin to walk on their own, protector spirits leave their wards to themselves to extent that they can guide themselves by their own intelligence.

199. Thus, far from being the product of a rudimentary and incomplete intelligence, instinct would be the result of a foreign intelligence, in its fullness, a protective intelligence making up for insufficiency, either a younger intelligence –which it lead to do subconsciously for its own good what it was still incapable of doing for itself – or of a mature intelligence, but momentarily hampered in the use of his faculties, as it occurs in humans during infancy and in cases of mental impairment.

200. According to the saying that there is a god for children, fools and drunkards. This saying more truthful than one might think. That god is none other than the protector spirit, who watches over the person incapable of being protected by his or her own reason.

201. In this order of ideas one could go farther still. This theory, as rational as it may be, does not solve all the difficulties of the issue. If one was to observe the effects of instinct, one would notice above and foremost a uniformity of view and harmony, a certainty of outcome that no longer exists when instinct is replaced by intelligence. Furthermore, we recognize the profound wisdom in the allocation - so perfect and so constant – of the instinctive faculties applied to the needs of each species. Such uniformity could not exist without unity of thought, and unity of though is incompatible with the diversity of individual skills. Only this unity could produce such as perfectly harmonious whole, which goes on since the beginning of time and in all climates with regularity and mathematical precision that has never failed.

202. The uniformity that results from instinctive faculties is a characteristic fact that necessarily implies a unity cause. If the cause were inherent to each individual, there would be as many varieties of instincts as there are individuals, from the plant to the human being. A general, uniform and constant effect must have a general, uniform and constant cause; an effect that attests to wisdom and providence must have a wise and provident cause. Therefore, a wise and provident cause, by being necessarily intelligent, could not be exclusively material. 

203. Not finding incarnated or discarnate individual, the necessary qualities to produce such a result, it is necessary to go higher, i.e. to the Creator himself. If one recalls the explanation given about the way in which one can recognize providential action, and if one imagines all beings penetrated by a supremely intelligent divine fluid, one will understand the provident wisdom and uniformity which presides over all instinctive movements for the wellness of each individual. Such solicitude is more active the less resources individuals have in themselves and in their intelligence. That's why this solicitude shows itself greater and more absolute in animals and primitive beings than among man.

204. According to this theory, instinct is understood to be always a sure guide. The maternal instinct, the noblest of all, which materialism lowers the level of the attractive forces of matter, is enhanced and ennobled. Due to its consequences, it should not be left to capricious eventualities of the intelligence and free will. Through the mother, God personally watches over all newborn creatures.

205. This theory in no way destroys the role of protector spirits, whose aid is a fact acquired and proven through experience. However, one should note that the action of these spirits is essentially individual, that such action is modified according to the qualities of the protector and the ward, and that in no way have the uniformity and generality of instinct. God, in divine wisdom, leads the blind personally, while trusting to free intelligences the care of guiding those who can see, leaving each one the responsibility for their actions. The mission of protector spirits is a duty that they accept voluntarily and, which for them, is a means of advancement, depending on the way their performance.

206. All these ways of looking at instinct are necessarily theoretical and none have a secure sense of authenticity to be taken as a definitive solution. The issue will certainly be resolved someday, when the elements of observation that are still missing are finally brought together. Until then, we must limit ourselves to submitting the diverse opinions to the cauldron of reason and logic, and wait for the light to appear. The solution that is closest to the truth will surely be the one that best corresponds to the attributes of God, i.e., to the supreme goodness and justice.

207. With instinct being the guide and the passions the driving forces of the soul in the early period of their development, they are sometimes confused as to their outcome. There are, however, differences between them that are important to consider. Instinct is sure guide, always good. At some point it may become useless, but never harmful. It weakens with the predominance of intelligence.

208. At the early ages of the soul, the passions have in common with instinct the fact that beings are impelled by an equally unconscious force. Passions are born, more particularly, from the needs of the body and have a greater hold on the body than instinct does. What distinguishes them above all from instinct is that they are individual and contrary to instinct, and they do not produce general and uniform effects. On the contrary, we see them vary in intensity and nature according to individuals. They are useful as stimulants until hatch the moral sense, which is turns a passive being into a rational one. At that point, they not only become useless but harmful to the progress of the Spirit, in whom they retard dematerialization. They weaken with the development of reason.

209. People who act consistently by instinct might be very good, but retain their intelligence dormant. They are like children who do not rid themselves of their leading strings and thus do not know how to make use of their legs.

210. Those who do not control their passions can be highly intelligent, but at the same time very evil. Instinct disappears by itself; the passions are tamed only through effort of the will.

211. Destruction of living beings by one another - The mutual destruction of living beings is among the laws of Nature, which at first glance, seems least reconcilable with God’s goodness.

212. On may ask why God has created the need for them to mutually destroy themselves in order to nourish themselves at the expense of others.

213. To those who only see matter, who limit their view to the present life, this indeed seems to be an imperfection in the divine work. This is because people generally judge God's perfection from a human standpoint; their own measuring stick of God’s wisdom, they think that God would not know how to make something better than they themselves could do. Their shortsightedness does not allow them to judge the whole, and they do not understand that a real good can result from an apparent evil.

214. Only knowledge of the spiritual principle, considered in its true essence, and the great law of unity that comprises the harmony of creation, can give man the key to this mystery and show them providential wisdom and harmony exactly where they see only an anomaly and a contradiction.  

Answers to Proposed Questions 

A. What is the origin of the passions?  

The origin of all passions and of all vices find themselves in self-preservation, this instinct is found in all its vigor in animals and primitive beings, in whom it masters exclusively without the counterweight of the moral sense, for not yet being awaken to the moral sense. All passions have a providential utility (otherwise God would have made useless and even harmful things). In abuse is where evil resides and man abuses through his free will. Later, illuminated by his own interest he will be free to choose between good and evil. (Genesis, Ch. III, items 10, 18 and 19.)  

B. What is the difference between instinct and intelligence?  

In instinctive acts there is neither reflection, calculation nor premeditation. It thus that the plant seeks air, turns towards light and direct its roots toward water and nutritious soil; that the flower alternatively opens and closes according to necessity; that vines wrap around their support or grasp it with tendrils. The intelligence is revealed through intentional, thought-out, premeditated and calculated acts, according to the turn of the circumstances. It is undeniably an exclusive attribute of the soul. Every automatic action is instinctive. The action denoting reflection, complexity and deliberation is intelligent. Intelligence is free; instinct is not. Instinct is a safe guide that never errs; intelligence, by the simple fact of being free, is sometimes subject to error. Instinct lacks the character of an intelligent act; however it reveals an intelligent cause, essentially able to predict. (Genesis, Ch. III, items 11 and 12) 

C. It is wise the natural law that determines the mutual destruction of living beings?  

Yes. To those who only see matter, who limit their view to the present life, this indeed seems to be an imperfection in the divine work. This is because people generally judge God's perfection from a human standpoint; their own measuring stick of God’s wisdom, they think that God would not know how to make something better than they themselves could do. Their shortsightedness does not allow them to judge the whole, and they do not understand that a real good can result from an apparent evil. Only knowledge of the spiritual principle, considered in its true essence, and the great law of unity that comprises the harmony of creation, can give man the key to this mystery and show them providential wisdom and harmony exactly where they see only an anomaly and a contradiction. (Genesis, Ch. III, Item 20)