Eurípedes Kühl

Evolution of the Intelligent PrincipLe

Spirits - Origin - Creation - When Allan Kardec codified the Doctrine of the Spirits, he asked the Spirits (Questions nos. 78, 79 and 81 of The Book of Spirits), about their origin and how they were created. The High Spirits answered him: - How and when, nobody knows, and this is a mystery. The source is also a mystery. And they added: - The Spirits are the individualization of the Intelligent Principle and God creates them constantly.

Further, regarding Question 613 of The Book of Spirits, Kardec recorded:

The starting point of the Spirit is one of those issues that relate to the origin of things and God keeps it a secret. It is not supposed to absolutely be known by man. Therefore, man can only make assumptions about it. The Spirits, themselves, are far from knowing everything. And about what they do not know, they can also have more or less wise personal opinions. This is why, for example, that not all think the same way regarding the relationship between man and animals. According to some, the Spirit only reaches the human condition, after having gone through the different levels of Creation’s lower beings. According to others, the Spirit of man always belonged to the human race, without going through the animal stage.

(..). All these are mysteries and it is useless to try and clarify them, because, as we said, nothing can be done besides building systems (…) the present knowledge is not important for our progress and its mysterious relationships between men and animals would be of no use to us. This, we repeat, is one of God’s secrets.

I do not know if I understand well these words of Kardec, but here they seem to signal that the Encoder decided not to endorse or disapprove the details of the stages of the Intelligent Principle in the lower kingdoms. His thought was that, since the origin of the Spirit is a secret of God, it is no use for man to try and decode it.

But ... there are many Spiritist scholars, who, with a lot of good will and reliability, express their thoughts about it, in particular about the initial eventual permanence of the Spirit – after it was created and still in the phase of the Intelligent Principle – in the mineral and vegetal kingdoms…

Such conclusions are unanimous, and some are in favor, and others against. However, all are duly driven, according to the bibliography that supports them. Despite the controversy on the Spiritual fact, it is only unanimous that one day the human being was an irrational animal.

And here, thinking about this matter, I add… 

Ideas about the Creation of man - Secular beliefs told us about       “an Earthly Paradise" (Eden), where Adam and Eve lived, and that this Paradise was lost due to the recklessness (?) of both…

Sciences (Archaeology, Biology, Physics, and Chemistry) record the evolutionary steps of man, contemplating the "evolutionism".

Note: Modern Science refutes "creationism" (doctrine that defends that God creates the soul of each person by infusing it in the body). The Christians, with a fundamentalist tendency, invoke the biblical narratives (Genesis I, II and IX) to justify how the species appeared.

Spiritism, declaring the Divine Justice and reincarnation, on board of a "reasoned faith" records the evolutionary steps of the Spirit (or "Spiritual man"). In short, it declares:

- God is the uncreated Creator of everything and everyone;

- The Universal Cosmic Fluid emanates from God, and it is divided into:

Spiritual principle: (Monad which is the Intelligent Principle, and when it evolves, it becomes a Spirit). The Spirit Andre Luiz, in "Evolution in Two Worlds", Chapter III, item Evolution and Spiritual Body, pages 31-32, 11^th Edition, 1989 FEB, RJ/RJ defined "heavenly monad" as the Intelligent Principle in its first manifestations, i. e., in the first phase of the evolution of the living being.

The Spirit Emmanuel in "The Path of Light", Chapter I, Item The Word in the Earth's Creation, 13^th Edition, 1985 FEB, RJ/RJ details how life began on Earth and records when the first steps were given on how to organize life, adding that protoplasm was born within the orb and with it "Jesus casted the sacred germ of the first men on the surface of world”.

Material Principle: (all the matter in the Universe). 

Early stages of the Intelligent Principle – Not opening the door to polemics I hereby express my way of thinking, which does in no way express any boldness or disrespect towards Kardec: thinking and analyzing, I believe (it is only my opinion) that the Intelligent Principle did, in fact, go through the mineral, vegetal, and animal kingdoms. Being it an unconscious “Spiritual cell”, I believe that, after its creation, sidereal spirits fully monitored the initial stages in those two kingdoms.

In the mineral kingdom

I find myself thinking that it is in its passage through the mineral kingdom that the Intelligent Principle automatically absorbs a conditioning that will accompany it through all the other stages: the atomic aggregation (union ordered from atom to atom forming a single body) and still incorporates expressive nuances of the forces of attraction and molecular cohesion. As an example, I mention the well-ordered crystalline systems or crystallographic systems (a mineral has a crystalline structure, i.e., the atoms that form it are distributed orderly in space).

Flying low (and therefore soon coming down) I recall that our physical body – a wonder that only Divine Wisdom could create – is all of it originated from the mineral kingdom.

I am supported by the following opinions:

- Jorge Andrea dos Santos, devoted Spiritist scholar, in "Creative Impulses of Evolution", Chapter I, item Origin of Life, page 42, 3^rd edition, 1995 Spiritist Publishing Society FVLorenz, RJ / RJ: -. Millions and millions of years go by and the pure energies, unaware of its mechanics, with no experience, run along the evolutionary scale... It is the Intelligent Principle marching, victorious, in a constant and orderly search: the individualization!

- Leon Denis in “The Problem of the Being, of Fate and Pain", 1^st Part, IX, Evolution and Purpose of the Soul, page 123, 17^th Edition, 1993 FEB, RJ/RJ: In a plant the intelligence is asleep; in an animal it is like a dream; only in man does it wake up, becomes aware of itself, owns itself and becomes conscious; from there onwards, progress, in some way fatal in lower forms of nature, can only be accomplished through the concordance of human will and the Eternal laws.

- J. Herculano Pires in "Agony of Religions", Chapter VI, item The Creation of Man, 3^rd Edition, 1989 Edition Paideia, SP/SP: The ore is born from the atom; from the ore, the vegetal; and from the latter, man; and from man, the Angel, the Archangel and as many Spiritual creatures we want to list.

- The Spirit Andre Luiz, through the psychographics of Chico Xavier, in the book "In the Greatest World", Chapter 3, The Mental House, page 45, 7^th Edition, 1977 FEB, RJ/RJ repeats the words of Calderaro, the Instructor: The chrysalis of consciousness, which lies in the crystal rolling on the river current, is in a liberation process; the trees that sometimes straighten themselves for hundreds of years, withstanding the winter blows and cherished by the caresses of spring, are conquering the memory; the female tiger, licking the newly born little tigers, is learning the rudiments of love; the squealing monkey is beginning to learn how to talk.

- Still Andre Luiz, in the aforementioned "Evolution in Two Worlds", Part 1, Chapter III:

From the atomic crystallization and from the minerals, viruses and the protoplasm of the bacteria ... the Intelligent Principle tested for millennia...; from stage to stage… the Monad, poured from the Spiritual Plan on the Physical Plane, crossed the most elementary sieves of adaptation.

- From the same author and work, Part 1, Chapter VI: Genealogy of the Spirit (…) With the Heavenly Supervision the Intelligent Principle took, since the viruses and bacteria of the early hours of the protoplasm on Earth, more or less fifteen million centuries to be able to, as a thinking being, although in embryonic stage of reason, cast its first issues of continuous thought to the Cosmic Spaces. 

In the plant kingdom

Again the Spirit Andre Luiz, throughout the work "Evolution in Two Worlds," mentions the evolutionary stages and characteristics of the plants:

- Manifestations + advanced (photosynthesis, for example).
- Birth / feeding / growth / reproduction / death
- Initial expressions of sensitivity
- Initial expressions of sexuality:
- Phanerogams plants (hermaphroditism)
(Phaneros = apparent + gams = marriage)
(Apparent reproductive organs = flowers)

- Cryptogamic plants (sexual reproduction)
(Kryptos = hidden + gams = marriage)

- The cosmic determinism will guide the plant colonies to a standard procedure, to the limit where animal life begins, which species act from instinct always in the same manner.

- Vegetal colonies of the same species were gathered together and simultaneously coexisting with immense and several varieties of other plants (forests, for example) in gregariousness which can be an expression of rudimentary psyche.

My opinion, therefore very personal, is that the Intelligent Principle - stays in the mineral kingdom, and then in the vegetal kingdom (these two stages sum thousands and thousands of years, who knows?), where they are coupled, by and under the order and supervision of Sidereal Spirits, agents duly backed by Jesus, as Christ (anointed by God):

- The mineral kingdom: molecular aggregation system, i.e., the union of atoms.
Recalling that in the future it will be more fragmented minerals that will form the molecules of the organic bodies of all living beings;

- The plants: allocation of vitality and of the sublime metabolisms of organic life (birth, growth, reproduction, death, rebirth, and so on).

After that each Intelligent Principle becomes individualized (Question 79 "The Book of Spirits"), enters the animal kingdom and, I think, it is then awarded by the Superior Spirits (Ministers of God?) a "soul inferior to man" (Question 597 "The Book of Spirits"); the Intelligent Principle undergoes a transformation and becomes a Spirit (Question 607, Ibid).
From then on, the species are subject to the Divine Law of Progress, i. e. they have to go through the long evolution path.

Note: With reference to the evolution of species: animals that are humanized (this is another controversial topic). Yvonne A. Pereira and Andre Luiz refer only to very few species.

However, Theosophy is prodigal about this issue… But this intriguing subject has here no appropriate space for reflections.

I emphasize that I am one of those who believe that in the first two stages the Intelligent Principle (the Monad) is fully unconscious and tutored by Higher Spirits.

The Spirit Andre Luiz records that this protection remains partially in animals when they receive their physiological control functions, specific to each species.

Returning to the Intelligent Principle: I have no news that any Spirit has said that there is a soul in an animal or plant. Kardec records that this only occurs from animals onwards.

In fact, I consider it impossible to believe that a cliff, with billions of years has a "soul"; the same for plants, some of them millenary. However, I accept that they may be the cradle of future souls (the Intelligent Principle).

Anyway, I would be a great fool to imagine that my views are "certainties". All of them are only product of analyzes, reflections regarding mere possibilities.

Following is the opinion of some Spiritist scholars on this subject:

Spiritist Conceptions - As already mentioned, this a controversial matter among Spiritists, from Kardec to our days. By the way, Kardec predicted it...

If Science defines matter as organic and inorganic, on the other hand Spiritism believes that the kingdoms are four: mineral, vegetal, animal and hominal. (I add one more: the Angelic Kingdom).

Two questions about this exciting matter:

- The Intelligent Principle, when created, does it start an evolutionary stage in the lower kingdoms (mineral and vegetal), only in the animal kingdom, or directly in the hominal kingdom?

- If it comes from lower kingdoms, where did it accomplish its stage?

There are several studies and opinions on this matter. I list some of them: 

In the mineral kingdom (in the primitive protoplasm)

Gabriel Delanne, in "The Evolution of the Soul", Chapter 6, item Cosmic Evolution, 7^th edition, 1992 FEB, RJ/RJ: Protoplasm = it is within the primitive seas... that this viscous mass was formed, the first manifestation of intelligent life, which develops in a progressive and parallel manner, and produces a countless number of plant and animal forms, so as to reach, after a series of centuries or millennia, the work so patiently pursued: - the appearance of the conscious being - man.

Regarding Question 540 of "The Book of Spirits":

"Everything is linked together in Nature: from the primitive atom to the Archangel, who also began as atom".

Still in “The Book of Spirits”, Question 607:

- (..). Can one consider the soul to have been the Intelligent Principle of Creation’s inferior beings?

- (…) It is in these beings ("Creation’s inferior beings"), which we are far from knowing their total, that the Intelligent Principle is elaborated, becomes gradually individualized and rehearses for life. In a certain way it is a preparatory work, such as germination, through which the Intelligent Principle suffers a change and becomes Spirit.

(Here we have a clear statement that the Intelligent Principle becomes a Spirit).

But, as we shall see further on, some of these statements have been altered with time... 

In the plant kingdom

Question 591 of "The Book of Spirits":

"In the higher worlds, plants are always plants, animals are always animals and men are always men".

So, I'll just move on to the animal kingdom, whose records in the Codification practically exclude that the Intelligent Principle has matured both in the mineral and in vegetal kingdoms (I said there is no consensus)… 

In the animal kingdom

Some Spiritists accept the creation of the Intelligent Principle from the animal kingdom onwards, considering that Questions nos. 606 and 607 of the "The Book of Spirits" are not object to such an interpretation. They are based on Question no. 606:

"The Human and Animal Soul emanate from a single principle, however, in man it went through a development that puts it above the soul that exists in the animal".

Andre Luiz in "Missionaries of Light", Chapter 13, page 234, 21^st edition, 1988 FEB, RJ/RJ says through Alexandre:

(…). Remember that the most perfect bodies of our Planetary Home initially come from the amoeba". 

In the hominal kingdom

Here, there is no controversy, even because Question 115 of “The Book of Spirits” clarifies:

"God created all Spirits, simple and ignorant”.

But if it is in the hominal kingdom that the Intelligent Principle changes into Spirit (Question no. 607 of “The Book of Spirits”), then we ask: and where was it before?

 Anyway, "entering the Humanity period" the Spirit will be equipped by Providence with three sublime capabilities with which it will head towards Eternity:

A. Continuous thinking and intelligence

B. Free will

C. Awareness (where the Moral Laws are recorded).

Author's Note:

I suggest that those, who are interested in more and better reflections about the progress of the Spirit, since its creation, read judicious and wisely the following informative work: THE EVOLUTION OF THE INTELLIGENT PRINCIPLE, Durval Ciamponi, 2001, Edition FEESP, SP/SPAGE.