The Birth of the Spirit - October 11, 2010
What constitutes sentience? And furthermore, is being self-aware indicative of a spirit? These are heady questions that millions have asked for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, so I will in no way attempt to ANSWER the question. I merely find my thoughts gravitating towards these Big Questions because I just became an uncle. Seeing my nephew, Ethan Thomas, for the first time was a sublime joy...but it also made me wonder. Does the soul of a baby come into the body upon conception, sometime within the womb, or is its birth into our world the thing that facilitates spirit descending into a corporeal form? What bridges the gap between oblivion, the Ether, the "over there", and "over here"? As a baby, I remember little to nothing. Perhaps sleeping, knowing the comfort and warmth of my cradle and my mothers arms. But that's about it, and those memories are fleeting and tenuous, and were only formed around 1 year of age if not later. So what does that mean, that memory is the great indicator of consciousness, that only when we have the ability to form lasting engrams can we claim to be ensouled? At birth, we are a blank slate, what they call Tabula Rasa in Latin. We have no impressions, experiences, or knowledge to distinguish us, and thus we have no true identity. If our personality is the product of our memories and projections, our interactions and our choices, then we do not take on the mantle of individuality until well into infancy. We are intensely present, and our immediacy makes learning rapid and wholly natural. But, what of the soul? When does a person attain a spirit? As I asked before, is it given to all of us immediately upon birth? Is it thrust into our being when we're old enough to have formed a personality? Or is it a process? Perhaps it takes years, even decades, to EARN a spirit through self-contemplation, revelation, rigorous inquiry, and passionate searching.
Personally, I feel the spirit and the personality are not reliant on one another. One can exist without the other, and often does, in the case of both babies and sociopaths. A psychopath certainly has a personality, or pattern of behaviour, that is representative of a self....although I feel this breed of human is truly without remorse, regret, or FEELING...and thus is devoid of spirit. On the other-hand, I challenge you to hold a newborn baby and not feel the presence of Spirit or know, without a doubt, that you're holding something sacred and precious. But I'm also of the mind that the spirit doesn't choose to enter the body until it literally emerges from the birthing canal, which is a very delicate subject for theists, as it would make abortion a non-issue. Still, I'm only speaking my opinion, as I'm sure mothers...who nurse their babies for 9 whole months within their womb, probably carry very different ideas about when their children were blessed with a spirit.
In any event, I believe that an emergent personality can and will arise after enough worldly impressions have affected a babies consciousness, but also that the child's genes will affect who he is in his development as well. The baby's spirit is always there, always watching and experiencing, but never interfering. It's a passive state of being that merely allows life experiences to enfold. It simply IS.
And only when we find ourselves lost and disconnected and need to feel that oneness with Spirit again . . .that same oneness that was our natural state as babies....only when we're at that age where we need a higher truth, a purpose, something to make sense of life and put things into perspective....only then will Spirit become activated, so to speak, and interact with our journey in any meaningful way. Until then, we are basically steeped in Spirit, and that's why the wonder and innocence of childhood is so effortless.
A newborn baby is Spirit made manifest, and ...as the old saying goes....is God's opinion that the world should go on.
