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Kardec established that sexual communion depends on physical (i) organization and, in this regard, sexuality is an expression of corporeality. Physiologists study the Human Sexual Response (RSH) and areas of the brain, particularly the hypothalamus, as well as hormones and neurotransmitters related to the sexual experience.
Joanna de Angelis, in a 2007 work, confirms the Kardecian thinking, remembering that the sexual phenomenon takes place in the diencephalon (seat of the hypothalamus), where the varied states of excitement are expressed. In this region, the neurotransmitters specific to sexual function produce the cravings for desire and favor the organic reactions essential to the hunger for physiological communion. The author adds that Divinity established a specific area in the brain, so that reproduction could happen through automatisms, which evolution qualified for the better with the conscious cooperation of the feeling of affection. (ii)
It is necessary to consider, however, that, as all psychological activity takes place in the mind and the mind is a property of the Spirit, the cognitive aspects (thoughts and feelings) of sexuality take place in the dimension of the Spirit.
In summary: the activated brain circuits account for the sexual function, and the Spirit records, through thoughts and feelings, what happens in the brain, as a result of the activation of specific circuits.
The controversy in the understanding of the sexual dynamics arises from the concept, presented by disincarnated authors, that the thirst for sex is in the Spirit. Andre Luiz says that the thirst for sex is not found in the gross body, but in the soul, in its sublime organization (iii).
Emmanuel, on the other hand, states that [...] the suggestions of erotica are embedded in the structure of the soul. (iv)
Such thoughts are not found in Kardec's work, and we must examine them carefully. Therefore, it is necessary to define precisely the concept of sex. For Biology, sex is any exchange of genetic material, which can be identified even in single-celled beings, such as bacteria. The dictionaries, in turn, present the following definitions for the word sex:
1 - gathering of the distinctive characteristics that, present in animals, plants and humans, differentiate the reproductive system; female gender and male gender;
2 - sexual action or practice, that is, love relationship;
3 - the sexual organs; genitalia.
We do not think that these definitions (sex as genital differentiation, carnal communion and sexual organs) can be identified with the concept proposed by Andre Luiz. In the Spiritist Review of January 1866, Kardec well defined that Spirits do not have sex, since genders only exist in the body; Spirits not reproducing for each other, the sexual organs would be useless in the Spiritual world. In The Book of Spirits, in items 200 to 202, he states that Spirits do not have sex, since genders depend on the organization.
It seems more likely that Andre Luiz used the word sex giving it a different connotation than usual. Andre may have used the term sex in the sense of sexual impulse, creative impulse, sexual force, libido, terms widely used by Spiritist authors, when they refer to a force inherent in the Spirit and that sustains it in the different tasks of life.
Returning to the book “In the greater world”, Chapter. 11, we find Andre's notes about the concept of the creative impulse and perhaps this concept refers to this singular definition of sex. According to the author, the Spiritual individuality has in its intimate structure a special force, invested with powerful creative faculties - the creative impulse. Driven by this force, the human community advances, slowly, towards the supreme target of divine love. Desire, possession, sympathy, affection, creativity, devotion, renunciation and sacrifice are aspects of this sublimating journey, in which the soul gradually learns to use the creative impulse for more noble conquests. Freud identified this impulse in libido - erotic energy. Adler considered him in the desire for success (not necessarily personal, but also collective) and Jung saw in him the possibility of higher aspiration.
We see, from the text, the affinity that Andre demonstrates with the concepts of psychoanalysis, a theory that prevailed strongly in much of the 20th century, when Andre dictated the works of the well-known Nosso Lar (Our Home) Series.
One of Freud's greatest contributions was the idea that people are motivated primarily by impulses of which they have little or no awareness. The unconscious contains all these impulses, desires or instincts that are beyond consciousness, but which nevertheless motivate most of our feelings, actions and words. Freud postulated a dynamic, or motivational principle, to explain the driving force behind people's actions. For Freud, people are motivated to seek pleasure and reduce tension and anxiety. This motivation is derived from the psychic and physical energy that flows from your basic impulses.
Freud used the German word Trieb to refer to this impulse or stimulus within the person. This term was translated as instinct, impulse or drive. Impulses operate as a constant motivational force. The various impulses can be grouped under two headings: sex, or Eros, and aggression, destruction, or Thanatos. Freud used the word libido for the sex drive, but the energy of the aggressive drive remains unnamed.
The ultimate goal of sex drive (reduction of sexual tension) cannot be changed, but the way in which the purpose is achieved can vary. Since this path is flexible and because sexual pleasure comes from organs other than the genitals, many behaviors originally motivated by Eros are difficult to recognize as sexual behavior.
For Freud, all pleasurable activity is traceable to the sexual impulse. Most people are able to sublimate a part of the libido, in the service of higher cultural values, while at the same time retaining enough sexual drive to pursue individual erotic pleasure. (v)
The mediumistic work of Chico Xavier and, to a certain extent, the work of Divaldo Franco were notoriously influenced by Freudian thought. We can see the remarkable similarity with the foundations of psychoanalysis, in the Spiritist texts below.
André Luiz:
[...] we cannot affirm that everything, in carnal circles, constitutes sex, a desire for importance and a higher ambition; however, having come to the present understanding, we can assure you that everything in life is a creative impulse. All beings that we know, from the worm to the angel, are heirs of the Divinity that gives us life and we are all custodians of creative faculties. (vi)
[...] The natural energy of sex, inherent in life itself, generates magnetic charges in all beings, due to the creative function that it has, charges that are characterized by clear potentials of attraction in the psychic system of each one and that, in accumulating, invade all the sensitive fields of the soul, as if to obliterate other mechanisms of action, as if we were in front of a plant claiming adequate control [...] the sexual instinct is not only an agent of reproduction among the higher forms, but, above all, it is the restorative of Spiritual forces, by which the incarnated or disincarnated creatures feed each other, in the exchange of psychic-magnetic rays that are necessary for their progress. (vii)
Emmanuel:
Libido or the sexual instinct in the form of psychic energy, tending to the preservation of life, remains, in many cases, in the caress of the parents [...] (viii)
Acting in this way, out of love, donating the body to the service of others, and, in this way, supporting the brothers of Humanity, in various ways, they convert life, without sexual connections, into a path of access to sublimation, becoming accustomed to different climates of creativity, because the sexual energy in them has not stopped the flow itself; this energy is simply channeled towards other goals - those of a Spiritual nature. (ix)
Joanna de Ângelis:
Giving the reproductive amplitude to sex, which is its primary function, we find it in the force of attraction maintained by life. In man, it is also the agent of inspiration and beauty, of courage and love, and its expressions must be channeled towards the ideals of sustaining culture, in philosophy, in science, in religion, in the society of liberation of beings. Well conducted, sexual force is life, while, if left to disrespect, it becomes poison and swampland, which victimizes without mercy those who abuse it through misuse. (x)
Chico / Emmanuel:
It is enough that we know how to transmute the sexual force in our affective connections with each other, even without sexual contact, to always find love, because love is the law of life. But, if we know how to transmute sexual energy into service, work, organization, fulfillment, sublimation, we will always find in love based on unexpected sex, the deepest Spiritual force in life to guarantee our organic and mental euphoria on Earth. (xi)
In conclusion, it seems appropriate, in view of the subject, that the word sex is used, as Kardec accepted, as an organic function, proper to the incarnated Spirit, and experienced by the Spirit, which is the seat of thoughts and feelings. Admitting, according to the Freudian proposal, the concept of creative impulse (validated, in part, by the mediumistic work of Chico and Divaldo), it would be a motivational force, inherent to living beings, that feeds their actions, including sexuality.
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[1] LE, item 200, ver também RE, janeiro de 1866.
[2] Encontro com a Paz e a saúde, cap.9.
[3] No mundo maior, cap. 11 e Evolução em dois mundos, parte I, cap. XVIII.
[4] Vida e sexo, cap. 1.
[5] Teorias da personalidade, Feist e Roberts.
[6] André Luiz, No mundo maior, cap. 11.
[7] André Luiz em Evolução em dois mundos, cap.18 parte I .
[8] Emmanuel, em Vida e sexo, cap. 15.
[9] Emmanuel, em Vida e sexo, cap. 23.
[10] Joanna de Ângelis, em Momentos de alegria, cap. 16.
[11] Chico/Emmanuel, Lições de sabedoria, cap. 33. |
