There are vicious inclinations which are evidently inherent in the spirit, because they have more to do with the great moral than with the physical. Others seem more like a consequence of the organism, and for this reason one feels less responsible, for example: predispositions to anger, indolence, sensuality, etc.

It is now perfectly recognized by the spiritualist philosophers that the brain organs, corresponding to the various aptitudes, owe their development to the activity of their spirit, and that thus developed is an effect and not a cause. A man is not a musician because he has the protrusion of music, but he has this protrusion because his spirit is a musician. If the activity of the spirit works on the brain, it must also work on the other parts of the organism. Thus, the spirit is the craftsman who arranges his own body, so to speak, in order to conform it to his needs and to the manifestation of his tendencies. With this in mind, the perfection of the body of the advanced races will not be the product of different creations, but the result of the work of the spirit, which perfects its instrument as it increases its faculties.

As a natural consequence of this principle, the moral dispositions of the spirit must modify the qualities of the blood, give it more or less activity, provoke secretions more or less abundant of bile or other fluids. So, for example, the glutton’s mouth water at the sight of an appetizing bite. In this case, it is not the bite that can over-excite the organ of taste, since there is no contact, but the spirit, which works by virtue of the sensitivity that has been awakened, with the action of thought, on this organ, while on another, the sight of a large bite does not produce any effect. For the same reason a sensitive person shedds tears easily. The abundance of tears does not give sensitivity to the spirit, but the sensitivity of the spirit causes the abundant secretion of tears. The organism, under the impulse of sensuality, has appropriated this normal disposition of spirit, as it has appropriated that of the spirit of the glutton.

A lazy and indolent spirit will leave your organism in an atony state with regard to its character, while if active and energetic it will give your blood and nerves very different qualities. The action of the spirit on the physical part is so evident that serious disturbances are often seen to occur as a result of violent moral shocks. The common expression: Emotion has changed his blood, not as meaningless as one might think. But what could have changed the blood, but the moral dispositions of the spirit?

It can therefore be admitted that temperament is at least partly determined by the nature of the spirit, which is cause and not effect. We say in part, because there are cases where the physical certainly influences the moral. This happens when a morbid or abnormal state is determined by an accidental external cause, independent of the spirit, such as temperature, climate, hereditary defects of constitution, a transient discomfort, etc. Then, the moral of the spirit in its manifestations can be affected by the pathological state, without its intrinsic nature being modified.

To excuse its defects by the weakness of the meat is nothing but a subterfuge to avoid responsibility. The flesh is weak only because the spirit is weak, which destroys the excuse and leaves the spirit responsible for its actions. The flesh has no thought or will. It never prevails over the spirit, which is the thinking and voluntary being. The spirit is the one who gives to the flesh the qualities corresponding to his instincts, as an artist imprints to his material work the seal of his genius. The spirit, emancipated from the instincts of bestiality, is composed a body that is not a tyrant for his aspirations towards the spirituality of his being. Then is when man eats to live, for living is a necessity, but he does not live to eat.

Thus, the spirit bears moral responsibility for its own actions. But the reason manifests that the consequences of this responsibility must be related to the intellectual development of the spirit. The more enlightened he is, the less excuse he has, because with intelligence and moral sense are born notions of good and evil, of right and wrong.

This law explains the poor outcome of medicine in certain cases. Temperament is of course an effect and not a cause, and the efforts made to change it are necessarily paralyzed by the moral dispositions of the spirit, which opposes an unconscious resistance and neutralizes the therapeutic action. Give if possible, encourage the fearful, and you will see the physiological effects of fear cease.

It is proof, I repeat, the need of conventional medicine to take into account the action of the spiritual element on the organism.