A. What determines the bodily death?
B. Did the first humans that appeared on earth have any resemblance to the ape? Do they have a common origin?
C. How does the union of the spirit with the body happen in the incarnation process?
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539. Are the spiritual principle and the vital principle one and the same thing? No. Since matter has a vitality independent of the spirit, and since the spirit has a vitality independent of matter, it is obvious that this two-fold vitality rests upon two different principles.
540. Might the spiritual principle have its source in the universal cosmic element? Might it not be only a transformation, a mode of existence of that element, such as light, electricity, heat, etc.?
541. If that were the case, the spiritual principle would undergo the vicissitudes of matter and it would be extinguished through disaggregation just as the vital principle is. The intelligent being would have only a momentary existence like the body, and at death it would return to nothingness, or to the universal whole, which would amount to the same thing. In other words, this would be the sanction of materialist doctrines.
542. The sui generis properties that are recognized in the spiritual principle prove that it has its own independent existence, since if its origin were in matter, it would lack such properties. Since intelligence and thought cannot be attributes of matter, by going back from the effects to the cause, one reaches the conclusion that the material element and the spiritual element are the two constitutive principles of the universe.
543. The individualized spiritual principle constitutes the beings called spirits, while the individualized material element constitutes the different organic and inorganic bodies of nature.
544. Accepting the spiritual being and the fact that its source cannot be found in matter, then what is its origin, its point of departure? Here, the means of investigation are completely lacking, just as for everything else connected with the origin of things. Humans can only verify what actually exists; concerning everything else, they can formulate only hypotheses; and whether the knowledge of human origins is beyond the reach of their present intelligence or whether it is useless or unsuitable for them to possess it at the moment, God has not given them such knowledge — not even through revelation.
545. What God does say to them through his messengers, and what humans can deduce otherwise by themselves from the principle of supreme justice — an essential attribute of the Divinity – is that all humans have the same point of departure; that they are all created simple and ignorant with an equal aptitude for progressing by means of their individual activity; that they will all reach the degree of perfection suitable to them through their own personal efforts; that being children of the same Father, they are all objects of the same consideration; and that none are more favored or more gifted than others, nor excused from the labor that will be imposed on everyone else to reach the goal.
546. Just as God has created material worlds throughout all eternity, God has also created spirit beings throughout all eternity; otherwise, material worlds would have no objective. It would be easier to conceive of spirit beings without material worlds than the latter without spirit beings. It is the material worlds that must furnish spirit beings with the elements of activity for the development of their intelligence.
547. Progress is the normal condition of spirit beings and relative perfection is the goal they must reach. Now, if God has created incessantly throughout all eternity, it follows that throughout all eternity there also have been beings that have reached the culminating point of the scale. Before the earth came into being, worlds had succeeded worlds, and when the earth emerged from the chaos of the elements, space was already populated with spirit beings of every degree of advancement, from those who had just been born to life to those who, since time immemorial, had taken their place among the pure spirits — commonly called angels.
548. The union of the spiritual principle and matter — before matter could be the object of labor of the spirit for the development of its faculties, it was necessary for the spirit to be able to act upon it, and this is why it came to dwell in it like a lumberjack dwells in the forest. Since matter had to be simultaneously the object and instrument of labor, God, instead of joining the spirit to rigid stone, created organized, flexible bodies capable of both receiving all the impulses of the spirit’s will and of lending itself to all its movements.
549. The body is therefore simultaneously the envelope and instrument of the spirit, and as the spirit acquires new aptitudes, it clothes itself in another envelope that is appropriate for the new type of work that it must perform, just as less heavy tools are employed by those capable of performing more delicate work.
550. To be more exact, it must be stated that it is the spirit itself that molds its own envelope and renders it adequate for its new requirements. The spirit perfects, develops and completes the organism to the degree that it feels the need to manifest new faculties; in other words, it tailors it to the stature of its intelligence. God furnishes the spirit with the materials, but it is up to the spirit to use them. That is why advanced races have an organism, or rather, a cerebral apparatus that is more perfected than that of primitive races. This also explains the special style that the spirit’s character imprints on the outline of the physiognomy and the appearance of the body.
551. Once a spirit is born to spiritual life, in order to advance it must make use of its faculties, which are rudimentary at first. For this reason, it clothes itself in a corporeal envelope that is adequate for its state of intellectual infancy, an envelope it leaves behind to put on another as its abilities increase.
552. Since the body is exclusively material, it undergoes the vicissitudes of matter. After functioning for some time, it becomes disorganized and decomposes. Since the vital principle no longer finds the element needed for its activity, it is extinguished and the body dies, and since the lifeless body has become useless henceforth, the spirit leaves it as one leaves a house that is in ruins or clothes that are worn-out.
553. The body therefore is nothing but an envelope meant for receiving the spirit; thus, its origin and the materials from which it is constructed are of little importance. Whether or not the human body is a special creation, it is nonetheless composed of the same elements as the body of animals; it is animated by the same vital principle — in other words, lit by the same fire and illuminated by the same light — and is subject to the same vicissitudes and the same needs: there is no contesting this point.
554. If we were to subtract the spirit and consider matter only, the human being would have nothing that distinguishes it from the animal. However, all that changes when a distinction is made between the habitation and the inhabitant. A great lord, whether living under a thatched roof or dressed in the coarse woolen clothing of a peasant, is a great lord nonetheless. The same applies to the human being: it is not its garment of flesh that sets it above the animal and makes it a being apart; it is its spiritual being, its spirit.
555. A hypothesis concerning the origin of human bodies - Because of the similarity between the outward form of the human body and that of an ape, some physiologists have concluded that the former is only a transformation of the latter. There is nothing impossible in this, nor would the dignity of the human being suffer if such were the case. The bodies of apes could very well have served as garments for the first human spirits, who were necessarily little-advanced; for their incarnation on the earth, these garments were more appropriate for their needs and more adequate for the exercise of their faculties than the body of any other animal. Instead of a special garment having to be made for the spirit, it found one completely ready. It could therefore clothe itself in the skin of the ape without ceasing to be a human spirit, just as humans sometimes cover themselves in the skins of certain animals but remain human beings.
556. It must be well understood that this is only a hypothesis, which is in no way intended as a principle. It is given only to show that the origin of the body does not harm the spirit, which is the principal being, and that the similarity between the human body and that of the ape does not imply parity between its spirit and that of the ape.
557. In accepting this hypothesis, one could say that, under the influence and by the effect of the intellectual activity of its new inhabitant, the envelope became modified and embellished in its details, while retaining the general form of the whole. In procreating, these improved bodies reproduced displaying the same changes, much as what occurs with grafted trees. They gave origin to a new species that gradually pulled away from the primitive type as the spirit progressed. The ape spirit did not disappear, but continued to procreate ape bodies for its use — just as the fruit of the wild plant reproduces wild plants — whereas the human spirit continued to procreate human bodies, variants of the first mold in which it was established. The trunk bifurcated: it produced a branch and this branch became a trunk.
558. Since there are no abrupt transitions in nature, it is probable that the first humans that appeared on the earth must have differed little from the ape in outward appearance and, undoubtedly, also in intelligence.
559. The incarnation of spirits - Spiritism teaches us how the union of the spirit and the body occurs in incarnation. Due to its spiritual essence, the spirit is an indefinite, abstract being that cannot act directly upon matter; it needs an intermediary. This intermediary is the fluidic envelope, which is, in a certain way, an integral part of the spirit, a semi-material envelope, which one could say is linked to matter by its origin and to spirituality by its ethereal nature.
560. Like all matter, it is drawn from the universal cosmic fluid, which, in this instance, undergoes a special modification. This envelope, designated by the name perispirit, makes the spirit — an abstract being — into a concrete, definite being that is perceptible to thought. It renders it capable of acting upon tangible matter as well as all imponderable fluids, which, as we know, are the most powerful driving forces.
561. The perispiritual fluid is therefore the link between the spirit and matter. During its union with the body, it is the vehicle of its thought for transmitting movement to the various parts of the organism, which act under the impulse of its will, and for enabling repercussion within the spirit of the sensations produced by exterior agents. The nerves are its conducting wires, in the same way that the metal wire is the conductor of the electric energy in the telegraph.
562. When the spirit must incarnate in a human body that is about to be formed, a fluidic tie, which is nothing but an extension of its perispirit, connects it to the zygote, to which it is attracted by an irresistible force from the moment of conception. As the fetus develops, the tie tightens. Under the influence of the fetus’ vital material principle, the perispirit, which possesses certain properties of matter, is united molecule by molecule to the body that is forming, a fact from which one may deduce that the spirit, through the intermediary of its perispirit, sort of takes root in the fetus, much as a plant takes root in the soil. When the fetus is fully developed, the union is complete and the being is born to external life.
563. By an opposite effect, this union between the perispirit and corporeal matter (a union that had been completed under the influence of the zygote’s vital principle) terminates when this principle ceases to act due to the disorganization of the body. This union, which had been maintained only by an actuating force, breaks down as soon as this force ceases to act. Then, the perispirit disengages molecule by molecule — as when it was uniting — and the spirit is set free. Thus, it is not the departure of the spirit that causes the death of the body; rather, the death of the body is what causes the departure of the spirit.
Answers to Proposed Questions
A. What determines the bodily death?
Being exclusively material, the body suffers the vicissitudes of matter. After working for some time, it becomes disorganized and decomposes. The vital principle, not finding element for its activity, is depleted and the body dies. This union between the perispirit and corporeal matter (a union that had been completed under the influence of the zygote’s vital principle) terminates when this principle ceases to act due to the disorganization of the body. This union, which had been maintained only by an actuating force, breaks down as soon as this force ceases to act. (Genesis, chap. XI, items 13 and 18)
B. Did the first humans that appeared on earth have any resemblance to the ape? Do they have a common origin?
On the similarity, the answer is yes. Due to this similarity, some physiologists have concluded that the body of man is only a transformation of the body of ape. There is nothing impossible in this, nor would the dignity of the human being suffer if such were the case. The bodies of apes could very well have served as garments for the first human spirits, who were necessarily little-advanced; for their incarnation on the earth, these garments were more appropriate for their needs and more adequate for the exercise of their faculties than the body of any other animal. Instead of a special garment having to be made for the spirit, it found one completely ready. It could therefore clothe itself in the skin of the ape without ceasing to be a human spirit, just as humans sometimes cover themselves in the skins of certain animals but remain human beings. It must be well understood that this is only a hypothesis, which is in no way intended as a principle. It is given only to show that the origin of the body does not harm the spirit, which is the principal being, and that the similarity between the human body and that of the ape does not imply parity between its spirit and that of the ape. (Genesis, chap. XI, items 15 and 16)
C. How does the union of the spirit with the body happen in the incarnation process?
Due to its spiritual essence, the spirit is an indefinite, abstract being that cannot act directly upon matter; it needs an intermediary. This intermediary is the fluidic envelope, which is, in a certain way, an integral part of the spirit. When the spirit must incarnate in a human body that is about to be formed, a fluidic tie, which is nothing but an extension of its perispirit, connects it to the zygote, to which it is attracted by an irresistible force from the moment of conception. As the fetus develops, the tie tightens. Under the influence of the fetus’ vital material principle, the perispirit, which possesses certain properties of matter, is united molecule by molecule to the body that is forming, a fact from which one may deduce that the spirit, through the intermediary of its perispirit, sort of takes root in the fetus, much as a plant takes root in the soil. When the fetus is fully developed, the union is complete and the being is born to external life. (Genesis, chap. XI, items 17 and 18)
