Day 85: Union of Soul and Body

More from The Spirits' Book by Allan Kardec. Fascinating...

Union of Soul and Body

344. At what moment is the soul united to the body?
“The union begins at the moment of conception, but is only complete at the moment of birth. From the moment of conception, the spirit designated to inhabit a given body is united to that body by a fluidic link, which becomes closer and closer up to the instant of birth; the cry then uttered by the infant announces that he is numbered among the living.”

345. Is the union between the spirit and the body definitive from the moment of conception? Could the spirit, during this first period of that union, renounce inhabiting the body designed for him?
“The union between them is definitive in this sense – namely, that no other spirit could replace the one who has been designated for that body. But, as the links which hold them together are at first very weak, they are easily broken, and may be severed by the will of a spirit who draws back from the trial he had chosen. But, in that case, the child does not live.”

346. What becomes of a spirit, if the body he has chosen happens to die before birth?
“He chooses another body.”
- What can be the use of premature deaths?
“Such deaths are most frequently caused by the imperfections of matter.”

347. What benefit can a spirit derive from his incarnation in a body which dies a few days after birth?
“In such a case, the new being’s consciousness of his existence is so slightly developed that his death is of little importance. As we have told you, such deaths are often intended mainly as a trial for the parents.”

348. Does the spirit know beforehand that the body he chooses has no chance of living?
“He sometimes knows it; but if he chooses it on this account, it is because he shrinks from the trial he foresees.”

349. When, from any cause, a spirit has failed to accomplish a proposed incarnation, is another existence provided for him immediately?
“Not always immediately. The spirit requires time to make a new choice, unless his instantaneous reincarnation had been previously decided upon.”

350. When a spirit is definitely united to an infant body, and it is thus too late for him to refuse this union, does he sometimes regret the choice he has made?
“If you mean to ask whether, as a man, he may complain of the life he has to undergo, and whether he may not wish it were otherwise, I answer, Yes; but if you mean to ask whether he regrets the choice he has made, I answer, No, for he does not remember that he has made it. A spirit, when once incarnated, cannot regret a choice which he is not conscious of having made; but he may find the burden he has assumed too heavy, and, if he believes it to be beyond his strength, he may have recourse to suicide.”

351. Does a spirit, in the interval between conception and birth, enjoy the use of all his faculties?
“He does so more or less according to the various periods of gestation; for he is not yet incarnated in his new body, but only attached to it. From the instant of conception confusion begins to take possession of the spirit, who is thus made aware that the moment has come for him to enter upon a new existence; and this confusion becomes more and more dense until the period of birth. In the interval between these two terms, his state is nearly that of an incarnated spirit during the sleep of the body. In proportions as the moment of birth approaches, his ideas become effaced, together with his remembrance of the past, of which, when once he has entered on corporeal life, he is no longer conscious. But this remembrance comes back to him little by little when he has returned to the spirit-world.”

352. Does the spirit, at the moment of birth, recover the plenitude of his faculties?
“No; they are gradually developed with the growth of his organs. The corporeal life is for him a new existence; he has to learn the use of his bodily instruments. His ideas come back to him little by little, as in the case of a man who, waking out of slumber, should find himself in a different situation from that in which he was before he fell asleep.”

353. The union of the spirit and the body not being completely and definitively consummated until birth has taken place, can the foetus be considered as having a soul?
“The spirit who is to animate it exists, as it were, outside of it; strictly speaking, therefore, it has no soul, since the incarnation of the latter is only in course of being effected; but it is linked to the soul which it is to have.”

354. What is the nature of intra-uterine life?
“That of the plant which vegetates. The foetus, however, lives with vegetable and animal life, to which the union of a soul with the child-body at birth adds spiritual life.”

355. Are there, as is indicated by science, children so constituted that they cannot live, and if so, for what purpose are they produced?
“That often happens. Such births are permitted as a trial, either for the parents or for the spirit appointed to animate it.”

356. Are there, among still-born children, some who were never intended for the incarnation of a spirit?
“Yes, there are some who never had a spirit assigned to them, for whom nothing was to be done. In such a case, it is simply as a trial for the parents that the child arrives.”
- Can a being of this nature come to its term?
“Yes, sometimes; but it does not live.”
- Every child that survives its birth has, then, necessarily a spirit incarnated in it?
What would it be if such were not the case? It would not be a human being.”

357. What are, for a spirit, the consequences of abortion?
“It is an existence that is null, and must be commenced over again.”

358. Is artificial abortion a crime, no matter at what period of gestation it may be produced?
“Every transgression of the law of God is a crime. The mother, or any other, who take the life of an unborn child, is necessarily criminal; for, by so doing, a soul is prevented from undergoing the trial of which the body thus destroyed was to have been the instrument.”

359. In cases in which the life of the mother would be endangered by the birth of the child, is it a crime to sacrifice the child in order to save the mother?
“It is better to sacrifice the being whose existence is not yet complete than the being whose existence is complete.”

360. Is it rational to treat the foetus with the same respect as the body of a child that has lived?
“In the one, as in the other, you should recognise the will and handiwork of God, and these are always to be respected.”