The Nature of God
God, the Spirituality, the Divine Intelligence, or whatever name you wish to call that which is the be all and end all of everything has always stood outside our comprehension. Many ask if God exists, then who created God? The answer comes back God is infinite, had no beginning and no end. God is the beginning and end state of everything. Who can really understand that concept?
What is God
The Book of Spirits, codified by Allan Kardec, tells us from the mouth of high spirits, who should know better than us, what is God:
“1. What is God?
God is the Supreme Intelligence--First Cause of all things.
2. What is to be understood by infinity?
That which has neither beginning nor end; the unknown: all that is unknown is infinite.
3. Can it be said that God is infinity?
An incomplete definition. Poverty of human speech incompetent to define what transcends human intelligence.
God is infinite in His perfections, but ‘infinity’ is an abstraction. To say that God is infinity is to substitute the attribute of a thing for the thing itself, and to define something unknown by reference to some other thing equally unknown.”[i]
The question, to our minds, consistently returns to a circular answer, the nature of God is unknowable, because we are incapable of comprehension. Again, The Spirits Book confirms our limitations, but hints at a future state where we shall begin to realize the place of God within God’s environment:
“10. Can man comprehend the essential nature of God?
No; he lacks the sense required for comprehending it.
11. Will man ever become able to comprehend the mystery of the Divinity?
When his mind shall no longer be obscured by matter, and when, by his perfection, he shall have brought himself nearer to God, we will see and comprehend Him.
The inferiority of the human faculties renders it impossible for man to comprehend the essential nature of God. In the infancy of the race, man often confounds the Creator with the creature, and attributes to the former the imperfections of the latter. But, in proportion as his moral sense becomes developed, man's thought penetrates more deeply into the nature of things, and he is able to form to himself a more just and more rational idea of the Divine Being, although his idea of that Being must always be imperfect and incomplete.”[ii]
I concede that I don’t have the capacity, right at this moment in my immortal life, for understanding the concept of the Divine. But, we could infer, via the trajectory of the make-up of ever-increasing levels of spirits, a bit of the make-up of those close to God.
Spirit – What is Spirit?
The key is the phrase, “When his mind shall no longer be obscured by matter”. From The Book of Spirits, and from subsequent books by Spiritist mediums channeling spirits, such as Chico Xavier and Yvonne Pereira, we are told lower spirits are made of a ratio of matter and spirit energy, while as spirits move up levels, the ratio of spirit energy over matter increases. Hence, as we ascend we become ever more spirit energy, to one day becoming pure spirit energy. The usual use is just the word “spirit”, but I add “energy” to denote an unknown form, but which possesses power.
I use the word spirit energy as a broad term and not how we define energy, as in electrical charges, etc. I believe that, as yet, we don’t understand the composition of a pure spirit. The only thing I can state with certainty, as per The Spirits Book, is that spirit energy is part of a composition of spirit, matter and universal fluid that make up the universe. We are told, in response to Question 25 in The Spirits Book that, in fact, matter is formed of universal fluid. That to give intelligence to matter takes spirit energy and matter together:
“25. Is spirit independent of matter, or is it only one of the properties of matter, as colors are a property of light, and as sound is a property of the air?
Spirit and matter are distinct from one another; but the union of spirit and matter is necessary to give intelligent activity to matter."[iii]
Spirit – Advances into Pure Thought
This leaves us with the conclusion, that as a spirit advances it becomes a being that is less and less associated with our conception of life and enters into the realm of pure thought. Thought, according to our earthly society is a concept of an idea generated by the physical operation of our brain. The idea of a thought living and existing outside of a sequence of electrical discharges in our brain is not considered a reality or a possibility by a vast majority of people.
Nevertheless, thought encapsulated in a system of spirit energy, independent of a living organism, as we know it, is the logical end result.
Hence, the reluctance of many to believe in a higher power, a Divinity which exists outside of our physical realm. But, this is precisely what many religions have presented to us for thousands of years. The concept of mankind, removing itself from the physical to the pure mental state, where physical limitations, such as aging and sickness, are no longer present, is a central theme. Spiritism is no different; it does supply us with more information and a rational basis, but no absolute proof.
Pure Thought – Comes in different forms as a spirit advances
There is one more data point to introduce. In the book, Beyond the Veil, by the Rev. G. Vale Owen, there is a mention of a relatively high spirit at a ceremony where Jesus, in his sublime form, walks down a line of high spirits and affects each spirit he passes differently. Problems which were hard to solve, were suddenly apparent, other such occurrences, happened to each soul in line. The spirit narrating the scene, mentioned that if he would actually touch Jesus, he would be destroyed, since his spirit and matter, could not directly interact with Jesus’ makeup without drastic consequences.
I take from this story two points. First conjecture; while we are immortal, it may be possible for us to be obliterated, even in spirit form. Second conjecture; there are forms of spirit (or types of energy, dark matter, or whatever) that are truly incomprehensible to us, down at our elementary level on earth. Therefore, if the form of Jesus is a mystery, for he is no mere angel (or a spirit of a high degree), but is on an even more exalted level than those spirits which have been mentioned in other literature. Imagine stages of spirits above Jesus and what they must be composed of.
I say stages above Jesus, for it is stated there are other spirits at Jesus’s level and higher, who manage our part of the universe, as mentioned in Spiritist literature, such as On the Road to the Light, by the spirit Emmanuel.
As spirits ascend, their ability to focus thoughts to move and/or create matter is enhanced. Therefore, it is not just their intelligence that is increasing, but their very make-up. As a spirit rises, their form also undergoes a transformation of their being which is encased, or is, their intelligence, being, character, groups of thoughts, or will.
At some point in time, a spirit will rise enough to start to comprehend the Supreme Intelligence. To understand something, one must understand sufficiently basic concepts to grasp the whole. Therefore, they begin to see the reality (the building blocks) of no beginning and no end, eternity, and infinity.
Analogy of the Power of Pure Thought
Centuries past, the idea of thought causing action would be more along the lines of spells and witchcraft. Incantations that would transform matter or spirit in different material or actions. Rational thinkers rejected that as lacking proof, which makes sense given that whereas, we physical beings on earth, do send out thoughts, the ability to operate on matter to conform to our will is for all purposes non-existent.
Currently, we have daily, if not in increments of microseconds, substantiation of the power of thought. Not our own, but of the will of others upon our lives. This is called software, which depends on two foundations. First an environment, built upon hardware that allows the processing of electrical messages and has physical interfaces to other devices. Second, an Operating System, such as Apple’s IOS, Microsoft Windows and Google’s Android, which serve to regulate, monitor, and enable software code to perform the function that it was intended for.
Earth is but a poor mirror of the spirit realm, therefore, our development and conception of modern computers is but a foreshadowing of what is seemingly the omnipresence power of a high spirit, to send/receive messages, cause action by thought, ability to plug into unseen resources, access information from periods of time and space, and move by the speed of thought. Perhaps, by analyzing the working of our personal devices, our smart phones, laptops, the worldwide internet, we can begin to comprehend the superior environment of the spirit world.
If you wish to learn more about Spiritism, please read my book, Spiritism - Everything is Connected.
[i] Kardec, A., The Spirits Book, White Crow Books, Questions 1,2,3
[ii] Kardec, A., The Spirits Book, White Crow Books, Questions 10,11
[iii] Kardec, A., The Spirits Book, White Crow Books, Question 25