What are we, as Catholics, supposed to make of these things?
My thoughts on this subject, my thoughts on this subject are many. My wife and I had a conversation whilst walking home from the market today, and the subject came up. My view is this - man is tripartite. That is, man is made in the Image of God, God is One in Three and Three is One, and Man is One in Three and Three in One. Man is made up of three distinct parts. One - body. Here on Earth, our body is probably the most important part of our being. Aquinas called us the crowning animal. Our bodies are the epitome of billions of years of evolution guided by Gods Providence, and what's amazing is a 13th century saint, LONG before Charles Darwin in the 19th century, said this and was basically right on about such things as evolutionary biology and abiogenesis, but I digress.
Our bodies are intricate in understanding the connection of body, soul and spirit (the human trinity, if you will). Without our bodies, we cease to be human in the fullest sense of the word, because God created humans with a body, not pure spirits such as angels and demons. We are not bodiless minds. We have minds which function in a body, with an immaterial soul and spirit powering our embodied minds.
But what happens when the mind of the body malfunctions? Isn't this proof that the soul and spirit don't exist, that they are just figments of our imaginations? Absolutely not! All it proves is that the mind of our body exists simply as a broker or inter agent between spirit, soul, and body. See, the soul is easy to explain away, in a way. The soul is simply the animating agent of our bodies, and it is immaterial but connected to material in this life. At the moment of death, the soul and spirit detach together as one, and return to God. But the soul is simply the animating principle of life on earth, for all creatures, not just man.
Man is imbued with a third aspect, which creates a difficulty for our dilemma. Man has an immortal, immaterial SPIRIT as well. There are three kinds of spirit - the Spirit of God, the Ultimate Mind. The bodiless minds - the Spirits of the Angels and Heavenly Host, pure beings of consciousness who help drive the world around us and accomplish Gods will. And the spirit of man. The spirit of man is, obviously, linked closely with the Spirit of God. That's another discussion.
How does a man, who is supposedly contained in his spirit, his life, his emotions, his ego, his id, his superego, all his "freudianisms", have an immortal spirit that contains all his thoughts if when his mind becomes damaged, all seems lost? The answer lies in God. God being the Ultimate Mind, keeps our mind in tact, even if our mind is destroyed, it remains perfectly full and well in the Ultimate Mind. Remember, God is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him. Even if a persons mind (in the body) is destroyed, it is preserved in the Mind.
The body acts as a receiver for the Spirit, and the receiver can become broken. A television or radio with a broken antenna will receive a fuzzy signal. A mind malfunctioning with schizophrenia will receive a fuzzy signal. This is also where schizophrenia and spirits come into play. Spirits can affect the physical mind of man to the point where his mind malfunctions and sees things that aren't there - in this realm. They are there on a higher plane, but not on this realm. This is why many schizophrenics claim to see demons - they really are seeing demonic beings, but it's because there mind has been altered from the point God made it (good) to bad (corrupted by whatever influences, genetics, nature, whatever). This is why anti psychotic drugs can work to stop hallucinations in schizophrenics. It's not that the demons they were seeing wasn't real, it's that their mind was malfunctioning in a way that allow them to see things they aren't supposed to see. It's also the reason why men who have tried playing God and created a device that let people "see angels" when they stimulate certain parts of the brain did the same thing. They do not understand what they are peeking into. They are not meant to see the spiritual on this side of heaven, unless God wants them to for a reason. This is why entheogens fail also. Opening up your mind to divine realities should be done with prayer, not man made chemicals, tools, computers, or anything else. When the people using the "God helmet" put the helmet on, they were allowing themselves to see what surrounds them all the time. They changed the normal process of the brain, and mucked with it to the point where they can see things that they are not supposed to see. Remember those old cable boxes, where you could get them bugged and pickup HBO and skin channels? It's the same principle. They are not supposed to do this though, it is against nature. God does not want us ingesting poison mushrooms to "expand our minds" because it is against nature.
I feel like I've babbled a lot and talked about many random things, so I'll go even more random. Here's something I was scribbling in Word before I came on blogspot, and I'm not going to edit it, just copy paste, then I'm done with this post.
When one becomes brain damaged, you can see that the spirit
has been affected. Not in Gods eyes, no,
in Gods eyes, the person’s spirit remains the same, and were the person to die,
the persons faculties will be restored fully, in fact more so, seeing as now we
see through a glass that is dim, but then we shall see clearly. However, when a person is brain damaged,
their “radio, or receiver” if you will, has malfunctioned. There material brain can no longer interact correctly
with the immaterial spirit. It is
receiving the input from the spirit, but it’s misfiring. It’s like a computer with a bad hard
drive. The memory is there, but the
computer can’t read it for whatever reason.
It’s not lost, just inaccessible.
Such is the fate of those in a vegetative state or impaired
condition.
Grace and peace to all,
the Love of God the Father and the Son rest on us all,
and the Spirit of God sanctify you all,
Yours in Christ
Jason Prewara
IC XC NIKA
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