General elements of the Universe: spirit and matter

We present in this issue the topic #60 from the Systematized Study of the Spiritist Doctrine, that is being presented weekly, according to the programme elaborated by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), structured in 6 modules and 147 topics.

If the reader uses this program for a study group, we suggest that questions proposed be discussed freely before the reading of the text that follows. If you would like to study alone, we ask you to try to answer the questions at first and only then read the text that follows. The answer key can be found at the end of the lesson. 

Questions

1. What does Science understand about matter?

2. How does Spiritism define matter?

3. How many general elements are there in the Universe?

4. What can Spiritism tell us about the universal fluid?

5. As for the matter, what are the teachings of the Spiritist Doctrine?  

Text 

The matter exists in states the man still ignores

1. Besides Science, which is the source of knowledge man can acquire with his own effort, applying intelligence, logical thinking and experimental methods, he has in the revelation another important source of acquiring knowledge. God allows that the revelation can be done through Superior Spirits, in the exclusive domain of the pure science, it means, without any other objective, practice or technology.

2. Earthly science has been limited to consider the unique existing realities of matter and energy. Going deeper, though, in the study of these two elements, man has come to the conclusion that they are so closely related that they represent, in fact, two expressions of the same reality, since matter is just condensed or concentrated energy, limited in its own strength and dynamism, truly slaved, closed, restricted to make up the dense matter of the material bodies.

3. Conversely, in certain conditions, matter can be affected, devolved, dissolved, disintegrating and releasing energy in diverse radiations of corpuscular nature. There is, though, always, side by side in the Universe, dense matter and free energy in reciprocal interactions, which coordinate the two inverse processes of condensation and releasing of energy. It is so huge the amount of knowledge that about this aspect of the Universe, Science and technology allowed the man to accumulate, but that, evidently, is out of reach for this summary.

4. It is important, though, to point out that Science does not consider, in the constitution of the Universe, only the material element, either in its dense state, or in its energy manifestations. Revelation did not proceed like this and went even further, by teaching that there are basically two general elements in the Universe: the material element and the spiritual element. More: the material element does not only cover the dense forms, visible and tangible, made of matter and density, extension and impenetrability, but also subtle states, inaccessible to our senses, in which disappear the tangibility and density and then comes the so-called penetrability, in relation to the dense matter.

5. Talking about this subject, replying to a question asked by Kardec, the Spirits of High Degree clarified that the matter exists in states that the man ignores and can be, for example, so ethereal and subtle as to make no impression upon your senses. Defining it, they said: “Matter is the element which enchains spirit, the instrument which serves it, and upon which, at the same time, it exerts its action.” (The Spirits’ Book, item 22).  

Matter and spirit are general elements of the Universe

6. According to the teachings that the Spirits gave in that opportunity, there would be two general elements of the Universe: matter and spirit, and above all, God, Creator, the First Cause of all things. God, spirit and matter make up, though, the principle of everything that exists, the universal trinity. But – remember the immortals – to the element is necessary to add the universal fluid, which plays the role of intermediary between the spirit and the matter itself, which is so thick for the spirit exert action on it.

7. Although it is correct to classify it as a material element, its universal fluid has special properties. It is placed between the spirit and the matter. It is fluid, just as matter is matter, and susceptible, by its countless combinations with the matter, to produce under the action of the spirit the infinite variety of things of what we only know a minimal part. The universal fluid, also called as cosmic fluid, primitive or elementary, is not only the agent the spirit utilizes, but it is also the principle for the matter not to be in a perpetual state of division not acquiring the qualities the gravity gives to it.

8. All in the Universe, as we can see, comes from God, who created the universal fluid that fills the infinite space and it is, truly, the primitive element in which forms what in the Universe is material, like the planets and beings. But God also created the spirit, intelligent element, which is subjected to a long elaboration through the many kingdoms of Nature. In contact with minerals, vegetables and animals, the intelligent principle receives impressions that, by repetition, get established, originating automatisms, reflexes, memory, instincts and habits that end up integrating conscious individualities, with reasoning and will, free agency and responsibility, made to progress until they get pure and perfect so that they can be close to the Supreme Intelligence.

9. The creating idea comes from God and can be found in the spirit, in which is concluded that only the spirit can conceive ideas; the matter, no. The idea takes shape by the action of divine will or the spirit upon the universal fluid that, being an intermediary between spirit and matter, is apt to receive influence, and transmit it.  

The universal fluid is the elementary principle of all things

10. To sum it up, Kardec tells in his work the following teachings about the universal fluid: 1st. The universal fluid is a divine creation, not an emanation from the Creator. 2nd. Universal element, it is the elementary principle of all things. 3rd. To find it in its absolute purity, we need to reach the pure Spirits, because in our world it is more or less modified, to form the compact matter that surrounds us. 4th. It is the element of the electrical fluid, but the state closer to its absolute simplicity we call as animal magnetic fluid. 5th. The universal fluid is imponderable.

11. As for the matter teaches the Spiritism: 1st. Matter is formed by only one primitive element; bodies deemed simple are, actually, transformations of the primitive matter. 2nd. The properties of the matter result of the modifications that the elementary molecules suffer, in some circumstances, due to its union. 3rd. The elementary matter is susceptible to experience all modifications and acquire all properties. 4th. It is correct to say that in the matter there are only two essential properties: the strength and the movement. The other properties are just secondary effects that vary according to the intensity, direction of movement and the order of molecules. 5th. The molecules have shape, which is constant in the primitive elementary molecules and variable in the secondary molecules, that are just clusters of the first one. 6th. What we call molecule is, though, a long way from the elementary molecule.

12. The Spiritist teachings about the matter are admirable anticipation of truths about the discontinuity of matter and its unicity. The first has already been proved by the Science; the latter is considered to be truth nowadays.

13. With effect, although it is currently considered, based on constitution of matter, besides molecules and atoms, many other particles, like hadrons ^([1]) and leptons ^([2]), at Kardec’s time the particles considered as the smallest portions of the substances were called molecules. Kardec could not, therefore, employ in his tine another term but molecules to name these particles, either the ones that represent the dense matter or the subtle states of the matter directly derived from the universal fluid. The idea is, though, the same, it means, the matter is only one and, despite its apparent diversity, all substances are just modifications of the cosmic matter or primitive elementary substance, in which derivates what is material in the Universe. 

Answer Key

1. What does Science understand about matter? A.:  Matter is just condensed or concentrated energy, limited in its own strength and dynamism, truly slaved, closed, restricted to make up the dense matter of the material bodies

2. How does Spiritism define matter? A.: “Matter is the element which enchains spirit, the instrument which serves it, and upon which, at the same time, it exerts its action.” (The Spirits’ Book, item 22)  

3. How many general elements are there in the Universe? A.: According to the teachings that the Spirits gave in that opportunity, there would be two general elements of the Universe: matter and spirit, and above all, God, Creator, the First Cause of all things. God, spirit and matter make up, though, the principle of everything that exists, the universal trinity. But – remember the immortals – to the element is necessary to add the universal fluid, which plays the role of intermediary between the spirit and the matter itself, which is so thick for the spirit exert action on it.

4. What can Spiritism tell us about the universal fluid? A.: 1st. The universal fluid is a divine creation, not an emanation from the Creator. 2nd. Universal element, it is the elementary principle of all things. 3rd. To find it in its absolute purity, we need to reach the pure Spirits, because in our world it is more or less modified, to form the compact matter that surrounds us. 4th. It is the element of the electrical fluid, but the state closer to its absolute simplicity we call as animal magnetic fluid. 5th. The universal fluid is imponderable.

5. As for the matter, what are the teachings of the Spiritist Doctrine? A.: Com 1st. Matter is formed by only one primitive element; bodies deemed simple are, actually, transformations of the primitive matter. 2nd. The properties of the matter result of the modifications that the elementary molecules suffer, in some circumstances, due to its union. 3rd. The elementary matter is susceptible to experience all modifications and acquire all properties. 4th. It is correct to say that in the matter there are only two essential properties: the strength and the movement. The other properties are just secondary effects that vary according to the intensity, direction of movement and the order of molecules. 5th. The molecules have shape, which is constant in the primitive elementary molecules and variable in the secondary molecules, that are just clusters of the first one. 6th. What we call molecule is, though, a long way from the elementary molecule.
 

Bibliography: 

The Spirits’ Book, by Allan Kardec, items 17 - 34.   

The Mediums’ Book, by Allan Kardec, item 74.

Physical and Biological Sciences, by José Coimbra Duarte, 26th. Edition, pages. 17 - 19.

[1] Hadron: A hadron, (from Greek ἁδρός, hadros, thick), in particle physics, is any strongly interacting composite subatomic particle. All hadrons are composed of quarks.

[2] Lepton: In physics, a lepton is a sub-atomic particle with spin of 1/2 that does not experience the strong interaction (that is, the strong nuclear force). The leptons form a family of fermions that are distinct from the other known family of fermions, the quarks.