What is spirit soul and body. What is the soul and spirit in Orthodoxy and what is their difference

Truly the holy trinity. But if the body is no less clear, it has long been dismantled for parts, studied and examined, measured and weighed, then the soul, and even more so the spirit, was never found there. And the confusion is very strong, many have not understood the difference between the spirit and the soul. But let's figure it out together. We know (heard, read) that the One who created all this is the Spirit and His particle is in each of us, created from matter, but at the same time in His image and likeness. This is an axiom with which it is simply silly to argue. For as soon as the spirit leaves the body (suit), the person is declared dead and his physical shell is disposed of.

We do not have a body separate from our soul, the body is only a part of the soul endowed with five senses

The spirit is in everything and everywhere, when a tree burns in a fire, what remains? ashes, dust, but the crackling of a fire, which is so mesmerizing, is the moment the spirit leaves the wood. Spirit actually animates everything around. It is found in minerals, plants, and animals. But it is precisely the soul that distinguishes us so strongly from all these lower kingdoms of nature. It begins to form, apparently, a very long time ago, probably back in the mineral kingdom. For some time it is in a latent state, then it begins to develop, being filled with the experience of the surrounding world. And already to the state of man, it is formed quite well, but far from perfect. And now, being in the state of the human kingdom, the soul continues its truly endless Path. It is the actual layer between the spirit and the body.

For the spirit, the body is an instrument of knowledge of the world around it. The spirit itself, directly up to a certain time, cannot control the body, because this is the ultimate goal of the incarnation of a person. The bodies in which the spirit is directly manifested are known to us under the names of Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Seraphim of Sarov, and many other well-known and no less unknown saints. See how interesting it turns out. The spirit, imprisoned in the body, acting directly, is already the final result, which means that it needs some kind of intermediate tool, the soul, the representative of the forces of good, begins to form. But the body also has a brain - a representative of the forces of evil (matter). About these. These two forces are constantly exerting influence and pressure.

The force of matter affects the brain, forcing a person to obey his lower nature, his animal instincts, which have remained in a person from his stay in the animal kingdom. If anyone does not know, then a person as such begins his journey from afar. When He separated from Himself a part, what is called the spark of God, this particle began its evolution, passing in turn through all the kingdoms of nature. Mineral, vegetable, animal and finally becomes human. That is why in our body there are all kinds and heritage of these kingdoms. We have both minerals and vegetation, as well as animal instincts.

The animal nature of a person in the form of instincts makes a person multiply, get food and often perform far from moral deeds. At the initial level of development, a person lives for the most part by satisfying his lower, animal nature. This is also called the lower self of a person. While he also has a higher self, his spirit. It is precisely this higher self that affects the soul, forcing a person to think and perform completely different actions. Often you can hear yes and each of you no no yes and feel some kind of struggle within yourself. This is the struggle of these two forces, black (brain) and white (soul) wolves. Sometimes a person feels that some kind of force is simply tearing him apart, one pulling in one direction, the other in the other. This struggle is eternal and endless, for this is the very process of evolution. But if a person is not able to give up temptations, and his lower nature, he takes the path of involution. The fate of such people is very sad and unenviable. Although there are few of them.

The spirit for the body is actually an atomic reactor, an uninterrupted supplier of vital energy. Because material food serves only as fuel for the development of body cells, but it is the creative forces that are given by the spirit itself. Remember, when you eat well, you don't want anything anymore, that's why: the artist must be hungry. And you also probably heard more than once that they say about some person: he feeds on the holy spirit, they say, he can not eat for a long time. All these signs and sayings are nothing but the personification of the work of these structures. The brain also evolves along with the body, intellect appears in it, which, by the way, becomes dangerous at a certain level of development. And the brain needs energy all the time. Those who do a lot of mental activity know perfectly well that you can get hungry many times faster than if you were just digging the ground. Yes, and scientists already know that the work of the brain absorbs an incredible amount of energy. And here is a source! A whole atomic reactor, but how does the brain get to the spirit?! When is there a soul between them? This is where the brain begins its sinister game called "spiritual growth." A person rushes into all serious troubles wherever he can, some to church, some to a sect, some to Buddhism (it’s fashionable after all), who starts going to different pickups, courses, trainings for self-improvement, spiritual development, and off and on! The main thing is that the brain itself whispers to a person that he is already spiritually developed and holds God by the beard. A sad sight, of course, but a person must go through this too.

But how does the brain manage to deceive the soul? Very simple. Only when the soul is still quite young, and without life experience. The fact is that the evolution of spirit and matter does not go in parallel, there has been a shift. Just look how matter has brought human bodies to perfection? What beautiful men and women are born on Earth, and spirituality is far behind. Imagine for a second what the world would be like if, with the external beauty of the body, the inner beauty of the soul would be the same?! Perhaps this would be the perfection to which everyone is so stubbornly striving.

So the brain got carried away by the intellect and began to find all sorts of justifications for its vile deeds, justifications for violations of the laws of God, thereby creating plugs for conscience. And conscience is an approach to the heart. But each time, falling under the laws of justice, the laws of retribution, karmic laws, each time receiving what they deserve, either the brain gets tired of being cunning and cunning, or the soul becomes older, but one way or another, a person ceases to serve the forces of darkness and embark on the path of light and good .

And when the soul, having gone through all the ordeals of matter, having gained experience, becoming wise, reunites with the Spirit itself, a person reaches the level of holiness, the level of consciousness of Christ and Buddha. He understands and knows the difference between good and evil, he knows where the truth is and where the lie is. The lesson can be considered finished, a person no longer needs to return to the Earth class, and his soul and higher Self go on to improve further. For as it is said, there are many mansions in my Father's house.

To sum up, the spirit is eternal, immortal, it came from Him, and it will return to Him. The soul is formed in the course of evolution, but it can also go in the opposite direction, thereby perishing. That is, all records of your lives, memories and all incarnations, all experience will be erased, all personalities will be erased, not having time to become an individual. There is a danger of soul death. If you cut down one tree or even a dozen in the forest, the forest will not cease to be a forest. So He will not cease to be Him, He will separate from Himself another spark, which will begin the whole path of evolution from the very beginning. When people talk about the immortality of the soul, they simply confuse it with the spirit. Although the number of lost souls in the allotted time is negligible, there is still a risk of losing it. And at the same time, when the soul is reunited with the spirit, it truly becomes immortal. Also, do not confuse a spiritual person with a spiritual one.

“Remember that the soul is always good; she may lack Knowledge in the three worlds, so she may be imperfect, but there is no evil in her.

“My Spirit is already among you and teaches the living, not noticing the dead”

Everything in the world is a manifestation of the divine triune principle. Spirit, soul and body are three single elements of all things: be it a plant, an animal, a person or a cosmic body.

Energy, in contact with matter, gives rise to interaction, the essence of which is life. All living things are alive only by this constant movement. Cells are constantly undergoing metabolic processes. Electrons revolve around atomic nuclei. The planets move around their suns. It is impossible to imagine life without this movement, just as it is impossible to imagine that the movement suddenly stops.

Spirit

The whole universe was created by spiritual creative energy. And this spiritual energy is the love of the Creator. As Saint Luke once wrote:

“Love cannot be contained in itself, for its main property is the need to pour out on someone and on something, and this need led to the creation of the world by God.”
Luka Voyno-Yasenetsky

The Spirit is the divine fire pouring out from the Source and breathing life into the frozen form. And just as energy cannot exist at rest, so the nature of the spirit is perpetual motion. Spirit is immortal, just as energy is immortal.

Energy is transformed into matter, matter is transformed into energy. Energy never disappears, but only changes its form. Therefore, the divine spirit is everywhere and in everything. Not without reason, in many traditions, God was likened to the Sun, which gives life to everything earthly. Plants use the energy of photons emitted by the Sun to build their own chemical bonds. On the example of the plant world, we clearly see how energy, merging with the material form, gives rise to life. All the same energy of light, undergoing multiple transformations, goes through the entire hierarchical chain of the natural world, creating on its way a riotous variety of species. And in everything, absolutely in everything, movement does not stop for a moment. This is how the presence of the spirit manifests itself.

A photon of light can be absorbed by an electron, changing the state of the latter - bringing it to a new energy level. But one day, the electron will return to its original position, and release the captured photon. The death of the physical form is not the end at all, but only another transformation of life-giving energy, when the spirit leaves its temporary container and returns to the original world of light. The body will one day return to where it came from - to the bosom of nature, and the spirit, which is energy, will regain its freedom, and head in a free stream to where a new incarnation awaits it.

When the spirit leaves the body, matter crumbles into bricks: atoms and quanta. Only the presence of the spirit can unite these bricks into a single system. The system is observed in everything: both in the Microcosm and in the Macrocosm. An atom, a cell, an organism, a solar system are all systems of different levels of reality. Together they make up the hierarchy of worlds.

Spirit is present on all levels. Movement is a sign of the presence of the spirit. In the world of physics such movement. expressed by the quantum energy. In a free state, energy manifests itself, for example, as a stream of photons of light. In the “captured” state, the quantum transfers its energy to the electron, forming a magnetic field around an even denser nucleus. The death of the physical means the release of quantum energy in the form of photons of light or an electromagnetic field.

Graphic representation of an atom: the nucleus inside and the electromagnetic field around

Soul

The soul is born at the meeting of the divine spark and the material form - the spirit and the body. It moves just as non-stop as all living things. And its path by default is directed towards development and evolution. The souls of living beings, step by step, go through a long path of rebirth, so that each time becoming more complex and improving, one day they will be born in human form.

Yes, everything has a soul. But only the human soul, as the pinnacle of the evolution of the biological world, is endowed with full freedom to choose its own path. Choice is the highest gift of the Creator. And it is the possibility of self-determination that makes us like God.

If a person had no choice, there would be no evil, suffering and lies. But then there would be no individuality and creativity. For there would be only one way for everyone. Life would be like a strict algorithm of actions. Such a life would have no meaning and would be similar to the life of biorobots who do not ask themselves questions, do not think, do not feel, do not analyze, but simply do what is set by someone in a hard-wired program.

In truth, the above is already quite similar to the modern world. After all, many people do not use their opportunity to choose. But, despite this, everyone has a multidimensional structure called the soul. And everyone is able to direct his soul on the path of evolution.

Symbolic image of the fine structure of the soul

Body

The body is only a temporary receptacle for the finer structures of the human essence. Someone relates it to the mortal bodies of the soul, someone calls it only an instrument of the soul on the path of evolution. Both are true. But at the same time, it is worth remembering that the spirit, soul and body are inseparable as long as a person is a person. Without a body, we will not be able to interact with the material world. But without the spirit and soul, the body turns to dust.

Yes, the physical form is only a reflection of the soul, and it is not eternal. But those who belittle the importance of the preservation of the bodily shell throughout life are wrong. The body was given to us by Mother Earth so that we would have the opportunity to gain experience in her world, which is necessary for the evolution of our soul. And a careless attitude towards one's body is the same violation as carelessness towards the subtle world. Therefore, there is nothing shameful in taking care of your body. On the contrary, it is important and necessary. You should keep him clean, give him the right rest and listen to his desires. After all, many desires come from instincts that are given to us in order to survive in the world of matter. Ignoring instincts can lead to undesirable consequences, in the same way as excessive following only one instinctive impulses. Remember, life is a constant search for the golden mean. And our incarnation in the world of matter is a training ground where souls learn by trial and error to find their middle path.

The physical form is a reflection of the soul, the extreme degree of materialization of the subtle in the dense.

Spirit, soul and body make up each individual unit of the world: be it an atom, an animal, a person or a planet. All living things are consciousness. Some unit of consciousness has gone further in its development, some less. Indeed, from the level of the planet, it may seem that a person is like a microparticle with electrons rotating around the nucleus.

Only these three elements of the universe together organize the movement of life, manifested in development and improvement. One would not exist without the other. After all, light is visible only when it has something to reflect from.

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword: it penetrates to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Heb. 4:12).

…and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved without blemish at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

Chapter first
What conclusions can we draw from the current state of natural science

Let's start our reasoning about the relationship between the body, soul and spirit from afar. Until the end of the 19th century, the system of exact sciences was striking in the clarity and accuracy of everything that they treat. Until recently, unconditional faith in the basic tenets of science reigned, and only a select few minds saw cracks in the majestic edifice of classical natural science. And then the great scientific discoveries at the very end of the past and at the beginning of this century unexpectedly shook the very foundations of this building and forced us to reconsider the basic ideas of physics and mechanics. Principles that seemed to have the most reliable mathematical basis are now being challenged by scientists. Books like Apri Poincaré's profound Science and Hypothesis provide proof of this on every page. This famous mathematician showed that even mathematics lives by many hypotheses and conventions. One of his most prominent colleagues at the Institute of Mathematics, Emil Picker, in one of his works showed how incoherent the principles of classical mechanics are, the main science that claims to formulate the general laws of the Universe.

Ernst Mach, in his History of Mechanics, expresses a similar opinion: “The foundations of mechanics, apparently the simplest, are in fact extremely complex; they are based on unrealizable experiments and can by no means be regarded as mathematical truths. The physicist Lucien Poincare writes: “There are no more great theories, recognized by all, regarding which there would still be unanimous agreement among researchers; a certain anarchy reigns in the realm of the natural sciences, no law seems to be truly necessary. We are present at the breaking of old concepts, and not at the completion of scientific work.

The ideas that seemed to the predecessors the most solidly justified are being revised. The idea that all phenomena can be explained mechanically is now abandoned. The very foundations of mechanics are disputed; new facts undermine faith in the absolute significance of the laws that were considered basic.

But if 30-40 years ago it was possible to say that physics (and mechanics) plunged into a state of anarchy, now this is no longer true. The revolutionary breakdown of the basic physical principles and ideas led to the creation of new concepts, deeper and more accurate than the previous ones. Moreover, these concepts do not simply reject the old classical mechanics, but consider it as an approximate theory that has its own well-defined limits of applicability. So, for example, it turned out that in the world of the smallest objects known to us - molecules, atoms, electrons, etc., classical mechanics ceases to be fair and must give way to a more accurate, although at the same time more complex and more abstract theory - quantum mechanics. At the same time, quantum mechanics is not something completely contradictory to classical mechanics: it includes the latter as an approximation suitable when considering objects with a sufficiently large mass. On the other hand, for processes characterized by high speeds of movement approaching the speed of light, classical mechanics also ceases to be valid and must be replaced by a more rigorous theory - relativistic mechanics, based on Einstein's theory of relativity.

The laws of the immutability of elements no longer exist, for the transformation of some elements into others has been indisputably proven.

It has been established that there are elements with the same atomic weight, but different chemical properties. A similar phenomenon a few years ago would have caused ridicule among chemists (T. Svedberg).

There are hopes of proof of the complex nature of atoms, so that there is no longer any doubt that heavy atoms are built from lighter ones. It is even probable that all elements are ultimately built from hydrogen. The helium atom, according to this hypothesis, consists of four very closely spaced hydrogen atoms. In turn, the hydrogen atom consists of two particles - an electron and a proton.

The atom has ceased to be the primary unit of matter, for it has been established that its structure is very complex. The smallest particles of matter currently known are electrons and positrons. Both have exactly the same mass, but differ in electrical charges: the electron is negatively charged, and the positron is positively charged.

In addition to these particles, there are heavier particles - protons and neutrons that are part of the nuclei. Their mass is also about the same (1840 times the mass of an electron), but while the proton is charged with positive electricity, the neutron does not carry any charge.

Recently, in the composition of cosmic rays entering our atmosphere from interstellar space, a whole series of new particles has been discovered, the mass of which varies within very large limits (from 100 to 30,000 electron masses). These particles have various names: mesons (or mesatrons), varitrons, etc. It has also been established that all these particles are not absolutely unchanged. Protons can pass into neutrons and vice versa, electrons, connecting with positrons, can cease to exist in the form of particles, turning into electromagnetic radiation. On the other hand, under certain conditions, an electromagnetic field can "generate" an electron-positron pair. Detected in cosmic rays, particles in the process of interaction with the atoms of the atmosphere can greatly change their mass.

In modern physical literature, the transformation of an electron-positron pair into radiation is often called the "annihilation" (destruction) of matter; the reverse process is called "materialization".

Consistent materialists consider such terminology only conditionally acceptable, but idealistically distorting the actual state of things. They say that there is no transformation of energy into mass and vice versa, since mass and energy belong to some reality - matter, and emerging particles have energy, and energy - mass.

This last assertion is completely new for us, brought up on the old physical concepts. However, we are very far from celebrating victory over materialism.

We have neither the right nor the incentive to object to the very important achievements of modern physics. From the fact that particles can change their mass, as has recently been established with respect to particles new to science discovered in cosmic rays, or simply cease to exist in the form of particles, turning into electromagnetic radiation (“annihilation” of electrons and protons), it is impossible draw conclusions about the disappearance of matter; Another form of matter is the electromagnetic field.

Both of these forms can change into one another in the same way that a liquid body can change into a solid or a gaseous one. Such transformations can, however, occur only if the laws of conservation of energy are observed. Energy cannot disappear or be created from nothing. It can only change its material shell, quantitatively remaining the same.

At present, physicists have abandoned the hypothesis of the existence of some weightless and at the same time absolutely elastic substance - the ether, replacing it with the concept of an electromagnetic field. The electromagnetic field is not a substance in the usual mechanical sense of the word. It does not have weight, hardness, elasticity, it does not consist of particles, etc. But it has energy and in this sense it should be considered as one of the forms of existence of matter. It is generated by the movement and interaction of elementary particles (for example, electrons). On the other hand, it itself acts on these particles and, under certain conditions, can even generate them.

Instead of weight, hardness, elasticity, etc., the electromagnetic field has other characteristics that determine its properties. These characteristics are the magnitude and direction of electric and magnetic forces at different points in space. The laws governing the electromagnetic field and its interaction with electric charges are dealt with by a special area of physics - electrodynamics; the laws of motion and interaction of material particles constitute the field of mechanics.

In the end, all products of dissociation of matter “leave” into the electromagnetic field. Regardless of the dissociating bodies and the method of dissociation, the products of this dissociation are always the same. Whether we are talking about the decay of the nuclei of radioactive substances, about the release from any metal under the influence of light, about the release produced by chemical reactions or combustion, etc., the products of these releases are always the same, although their quality, quantity and speed may be different. The material decays into elementary particles - neutrons, protons, mesons, electrons, positrons and others. The movement and interaction of these particles generates an electromagnetic field, magnetic and electrical vibrations of different frequencies, radio waves, infrared rays, visible rays, ultraviolet and gamma rays. Electrical phenomena underlie all chemical reactions, and they try to reduce all other forces to them.

It has been established that light is also a form of electromagnetic energy, and electricity has a corpuscular or, as some incorrectly say, atomic structure (of course, those corpuscles - electrons that make up electricity cannot be called atoms). Millikan defines electricity cautiously and quite acceptably. Here are his words: “I did not try to answer the question:“ What is electricity? ”- and was content with establishing the position that, whatever it is in essence, it always appears before us as an exact multiple of some specific electrical unit ... ". Electricity is something more fundamental than material atoms, since it is an essential constituent of these one hundred different atoms. In the same way, it is something like matter built up from separate individuals, but differs from matter in that all its constituent units, as far as it can be defined, are exactly the same.

This is a great achievement of theoretical physics - the corpuscular theory of electricity. But, of course, one cannot say that, due to its corpuscular structure, it ceased to be energy and became something material. Physicists do not say this either, but only assert that energy has mass, and mass belongs to some reality - matter. This, of course, is not an identification of energy with matter, and electricity, no matter how close in essence it is to matter, remains energy for us and, at the same time, the most important, main part of atomic energy.

And yet this basis of the physical life of the world became known to us only about three hundred years ago, since the time of Volta. For thousands of years, electricity remained unknown to people.

Only fifty years ago science was enriched with the knowledge of new, extremely important forms of energy - radio waves, infrared rays, cathode rays, radioactivity and intra-atomic energy. This last energy, unimaginably grandiose and powerful, underlying the entire world dynamics, giving birth to the inexhaustible unfading thermal energy of the Sun, became known three hundred years later than electricity.

But does this give us the right to assume and even assert that there are other forms of energy unknown to us in the world, perhaps even more important for the world than intra-atomic energy?

The invisible part of the solar spectrum is 34%. And only a very small part of these 34% - infrared, ultraviolet, infrared rays - has been investigated, and the forms that underlie them have been understood. But what can be objected to the assumption, even the certainty, that many secrets are hidden behind the numerous Fraunhofer lines, forms of energy unknown to us, perhaps even more subtle than electrical energy?

From a material point of view, these as yet unknown forms of energy must be special forms of the existence of matter.

Let it be so, we have nothing to object to this, for we believe in the power of science. But if electricity cannot be called matter, but must undoubtedly be considered energy, into which particles of matter having a certain mass and physical properties can pass and be generated by it (the electric field), then do we have the right to assume that such forms of being of matter (or rather, of energy), which, by their properties, with much more reason than electricity, should be called semi-material?

And the very concept of "semi-material" contains the recognition of the existence and "non-material". Where is the basis for denying the legitimacy of our faith and confidence in the existence of purely spiritual energy, which we consider the primary and primogenitor of all physical forms of energy, and through them of matter itself?

How do we imagine this spiritual energy?

For us it is the omnipotent Divine love. Love cannot be contained in itself, because its main property is the need to pour out on someone and on something, and this need led to the creation of the world by God. By the word of the Lord the heavens are established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their strength(Ps. 32:6).

The energy of love, poured out by the all-good will of God, the Word of God, gave rise to all other forms of energy, which, in turn, gave birth first to particles of matter, and then through them the entire material world.

In another direction, the love of God poured out and created the entire spiritual world, the world of intelligent angelic beings, the human mind and the entire world of spiritual psychic phenomena (see Ps. 103:4; 32:6).

If we do not know many undoubtedly effective forms of energy, then this depends on the obvious insufficiency for the knowledge of the world life of our poor five senses and on the fact that scientific methods and reagents have not yet been found for discovering what is inaccessible to our senses.

But is it true that we have only five sense organs and there are no other organs and methods of direct perception?

Is it not possible a temporary aggravation of the ability of these organs to perceive forms of energy adequate to them? The visual acuity of an eagle, the sense of smell of a dog, to a great extent, exceed the power of these senses in a person. Pigeons have an unknown sense of direction that guides the accuracy of their flight. It is well known that the hearing and touch are aggravated in the blind. I believe that the undoubted facts of a mental order, which will be discussed further, oblige us not only to admit the possibility of sharpening our five senses, but also to add to them the heart as a special sense organ, the center of emotions and as an organ of our knowledge.

Chapter Two
The heart as an organ of higher knowledge

Already in the time of the ancient Greeks, the words φρήν, καρδία meant not only the heart in its direct meaning, but also the soul, mood, look, thought, even prudence, mind, conviction, etc.

"People's instinct" has long correctly assessed the important role of the heart in human life: "The heart stops beating - life has come to an end." That is why some people call the heart the "engine of life." We now know well how much physical and spiritual well-being depends on the correct function of the heart.

We have to hear in everyday life that the heart “suffers”, “hurts”, etc. In fiction, in fiction, expressions can be found: the heart “yearns”, “rejoices”, “feels”, etc. Thus, the heart became, as it were, a sense organ and, moreover, extremely subtle and universal.

It is necessary to dwell on this because “all these phenomena basically have a deep physiological meaning,” says I.P. Pavlov. In a distant epoch, when our ancestors were at the zoological stage of development, they reacted to all the stimuli they received almost exclusively with muscular activity, which prevailed over all other reflex acts. And muscular activity is closely connected with the activity of the heart and blood vessels. In a modern civilized person, muscular reflexes are almost already reduced to a minimum, but the changes in cardiac activity associated with the latter are well preserved ...

A modern civilized person, by working on himself, learns to hide his muscular reflexes, and only changes in cardiac activity can still indicate to us his experiences. Thus, the heart has remained for us a sense organ that subtly indicates our subjective state and always exposes it. For the doctor, it should be noted that how well the regulation of cardiac work occurs, due to muscular activity, of course, not excessive, just as poorly is the regulation of cardiac work during various disturbances that do not lead to muscular work. That is why the heart is so easily affected in people of the free professions, who carry out light physical labor, but are excessively subject to life's anxieties.

This is how the pathologist (“On the death of a person”) and the great physiologist Academician I.P. judge about the heart. Pavlov (“Course of Physiology”, edited by Prof. Savich. 1924).

Let's add some more remarks to this. The innervation of the heart is amazingly rich and complex. It is all intertwined with a network of fibers of the sympathetic nervous system and through it is most closely connected with the brain and spinal cord. From the vagus nerve, it receives a whole system of cerebral fibers, through which the complex effects of the central nervous system are transmitted to it and, very likely, the centripetal sensory impulses of the heart are sent to the brain. The functions of the sympathetic and autonomic nervous systems are still little studied and full of obscurity, but it is already quite clear that they are deeply important and versatile. And what is especially important for us, these nerve nodes and fibers undoubtedly play a very important role in the physiology of sensitivity.

Thus, our anatomical and physiological knowledge of the heart not only does not interfere, but rather even encourages us to consider the heart as the most important sensory organ, and not just the central motor of blood circulation.

But Scripture tells us much more about the heart. Almost every page of the Bible speaks of the heart, and for the first time anyone who reads it cannot fail to notice that the heart is given importance not only as the central sense organ, but also as the most important organ of knowledge, the organ of thought and the perception of spiritual influences. And more than that: the heart, according to Holy Scripture, is the organ of man's communication with God, therefore, it is the organ of higher knowledge.

Truly comprehensive, according to the Holy Scriptures, is the role of the heart in the field of feelings. It “rejoices” (Jer. 15:16; Esf. 1:10; Ps. 103:15; Proverbs 15:13; 15:15; 17:22; Judges 16:25), “rejoices” (Lamentations). 5:15; Proverbs 27:9; Proverbs 15:30; Isaiah 66:14; Ps. 12:6; 15:9; Proverbs 23:15; Eccl. 12, 3; Jer. 4, 19; Ps. 24, 17), “tormented” BEFORE that the Psalmist cries out (Jer. 4, 19; 2 Kings 6, 11; Ps. 72, 21), “torn FROM malice (Acts 7:54) and Cleopas “burns” with trembling foreboding (Luke 24:32). It is “indignant” at the Lord (Prov. 19:3), “wrath nestles” in it (Eccl. 9:3), “adulterous passion” (Matt. 5:28), “envy” (James 3:14) , "arrogance" (Prov. 16, 5), "boldness and fear" (Ps. 26, 3; Lev. 26, 36), "impurity of lusts" (Rom. 1, 24), "reproaches crush" him (Ps. 68, 21). But it also perceives “consolations” (Phlm. 1, 7), is capable of a great feeling of “trust” in God (Ps. 27, 7; Proverbs 3, 5) and “compassion for its sins” (Ps. 33, 19 ), can be a container of "meekness and humility" (Mt. 11, 29).

In addition to this fullness of feelings, the heart has the highest ability to feel God, which the Apostle Paul speaks of in the Athenian Areopagus: so that they may seek God, whether they feel Him and whether they find(Acts 17:27).

Many ascetics of piety, many reverends, speak of the feeling of God, or rather, of the grace-filled influences of the Spirit of God on the heart. All of them more or less clearly felt the same as the holy prophet Jeremiah: was in my heart like a burning fire(Jer. 20:9).

Where does this fire come from? St. Ephraim the Syrian, the great secretary of God's grace, answers us: “He who is inaccessible to every mind enters the heart and dwells in it. The hidden from the fiery ones is found in the heart. The earth lifts up His feet, but a pure heart bears Him in itself and, we add, contemplates Him without eyes, according to the word of Christ: blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God(Matthew 5:8)." We read the same in John of the Ladder: “Spiritual fire that has come into the heart resurrects prayer: after its resurrection and ascension to heaven, there is a descent of heavenly fire into the chamber of the soul.”

And here are the words of Macarius the Great: “The heart governs all organs, and when grace occupies all the departments of the heart, it rules over all thoughts and members, for there is the mind and all the thoughts of the soul ... For there it must be seen whether the grace of the law of the spirit is written.”

Where exactly"? In the main organ, where is the throne of grace and where is the mind and all the thoughts of the soul - that is, in the heart.

Let us not multiply similar statements that lived the deepest spiritual life. Many of them can be found in the "Philokalia". All of them, from their own experience, say that with a good and grace-filled disposition of the soul, a quiet joy, deep peace and warmth are felt in the heart, which always increase with unswerving and fervent prayer and after good deeds. On the contrary, the impact on the heart of the spirit of Satan and his servants gives rise to a vague anxiety in him, some kind of burning sensation, coldness and unaccountable anxiety.

It is by these feelings of the heart that the ascetics advise to evaluate their spiritual state and to distinguish the Spirit of Light from the Spirit of Darkness.

But it is not only such, more or less vague sensations that limit the ability of the heart to communicate with God. Dubious as it may be for unbelievers, we affirm that the heart can take quite definite suggestions directly as the words of God. But this is not only for the saints. And I, like many others, experienced this more than once with great strength and deep emotional excitement. When I read or listened to the words of the Holy Scriptures, I suddenly got an amazing feeling that these were the words of God addressed directly to me. They sounded like thunder to me, like lightning through my brain and heart. Separate phrases quite unexpectedly pulled out of the context of Scripture for me, lit up with a bright dazzling light and were indelibly imprinted in my mind. And always these lightning-fast phrases. God's words were the most important, most necessary for me at that moment suggestions, instructions or even prophecies, which invariably came true later. Their strength was sometimes colossal, amazing, incomparable with the strength of any ordinary psychic influences. After I, partly due to circumstances beyond my control, left my hierarchal service for several years, one day during the vigil, when the reading of the Gospel was to begin, I suddenly felt excitement from a vague foreboding that something terrible was about to happen. Words resounded, which I myself often calmly read: Simon Ionin! do you love me more than they do?… feed my lambs(John 21:15). This reproach from God, the call to resume the abandoned service suddenly shook me so powerfully that I trembled all over until the end of the vigil, then I did not close my eyes all night, and for about a month and a half after that, at every memory of this extraordinary event, I was shaken by sobs and tears.

Let skeptics not think that I set myself up for this experience with melancholy memories of the abandoned sacred service and remorse of conscience. On the contrary, I was then focused on my illness and the operation that was coming to me, I was in the most normal state of mind, very far from any kind of exaltation.

It was also possible for the holy prophets to directly hear the words of God and perceive them with their hearts. And he said to me: Son of man! all my words that I will speak to you, receive with your heart and listen with your ears(Ezekiel 3:10).

My heart says from You: "Seek my face"; and I will seek Your face, Lord(Ps. 26:8).

The prophet Jeremiah speaks of his calling as a direct conversation with God.

The prophet Ezekiel, after describing his extraordinary vision of the glory of God, continues: Seeing this, I fell on my face and heard the voice of one speaking, and He said to me: Son of man! stand on your feet and I will speak to you. And while He was speaking to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me(Ezekiel 2:1-2).

All the prophets say in the name of God: “And the Lord said to me,” “Thus says the Lord,” “And the word of the Lord came to me.”

They received revelation from God awake and in dreams through visions (Ezekiel's visions ch. 40-48; Daniel's dream ch. 7, his visions ch. 8-10; visions of Amos ch. 8-9; visions of Zechariah ch. 1-6) .

Here is what the holy fathers say about these different ways of receiving revelation from God.

“If anyone assumes that prophetic visions, images and revelations were a matter of fantasy and occurred in a natural order, let him know that he is rushing far from the right goal and truth. For the prophets, and at the present time the priests who are with us, did not see in such a natural order and order and imagined that they saw divinely nothing more than nature, it was impressed in their mind and represented by the inexpressible power and grace of the Holy Spirit, as Basil the Great says : "By some unnamed power, the prophets received imagination in their minds, having it undistracted and pure, and they heard the word of God as if proclaimed in them." And the prophets also saw visions by the action of the Spirit, which imprinted images in their sovereign mind. And Gregory the Theologian: “He (that is, the Holy Spirit) acted first in the angelic and heavenly powers, then in the fathers and prophets, of whom some saw God and knew, others foresaw the future, when their ruling mind from the Spirit took such images, according to which they were present with the future as with the present” (Monks Kallistos and Ignatius).

This excerpt from the writings of Kallistos and Ignatius does not speak of the perception by the prophets of God's revelations with the heart, but with the perception of the mind, but in the future we will point out that the Holy Scripture ascribes to the heart those functions that in psychological science are considered to belong to the mind, and it is the heart that is called the organ of the highest knowledge. Scripture speaks not only about the ability of the heart to perceive the impact of the Spirit of God, but represents it as an organ that God perfects and corrects, as the center of our spiritual life and knowledge of God.

Here are a number of texts that testify to this with greater clarity.

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them a heart of flesh.(Ezekiel 11:19).

Thou hast instilled Thy fear in our hearts, that we may call upon Thy name; and we will glorify Thee in our migration, for we have cast from our hearts all the iniquity of our fathers, who have sinned against Thee(Var. 3, 7).

The cause of the law is written in their hearts(Rom. 2:15).

Cast away from yourselves all your sins with which you have sinned, and create for yourself a new heart and a new spirit.(Ezekiel 18:31).

He gave you the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know Him, and enlightened the eyes of your heart, that you might know what is the hope of His calling (Eph. 1,17–18).

The heart of this people is hardened, and they can hardly hear with their ears, and they close their eyes, so that they will not see with their eyes, and they will not hear with their ears, and they will not understand with their hearts, and they will not turn so that I heal them.(Isaiah 6:10).

God has sent the Spirit into your hearts(Gal. 4:6).

Indwell Christ in your hearts(Eph. 3:17).

The peace of God…will guard your hearts(Phil. 4, 7).

I will put my fear in their hearts(Jer. 32, 40).

I will put my laws in their hearts(Heb. 10:16).

God's love has been shed abroad in our hearts(Rom. 5:5).

God... lit up our hearts(2 Cor. 4:6).

In the parable of the sower, the Lord Himself says that the seed of the Word of God is sown in the human heart and kept by him if it is pure, or stolen from it by the devil if he does not know how to worthily store it.

The heart carries out the highest functions of the human spirit - faith in God and love for Him.

Believe with the heart unto righteousness, but confess with the mouth unto salvation(Rom. 10, 10).

If... you will... believe with your heart(Rom. 10:9).

Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart(Matthew 22:37).

Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart(Deut. 13:3).

Love the Lord your God with all your heart(Deut. 6:5).

sanctify the Lord God in your hearts(1 Pet. 3:15).

With the heart we pray, and one of the great forms of prayer is the silent cry to God. So Anna, the mother of the prophet Samuel, prayed for the gift of this great son to her. On Mount Sinai, God said to Moses: Why are you crying to Me?(Exod. 14:15) - and he prayed without words, without moving his lips.

Their heart cries out to God- says the prophet Jeremiah (Lamentations 2, 18).

Landrieu put it well in his book Prayer: “Once an angel said to one of the fiery souls: “What are you really doing? You shake the heavenly palace, and nothing is heard there except your cries. However, this soul did not utter a word: only her heart was agitated, and this invisible movement was enough to shake the height of heaven.

The heart is the repository of good and evil, as the Lord Jesus Christ told us: Creatures of vipers! how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man brings forth good things from a good treasure, and an evil man brings forth evil things from an evil treasure.(Matthew 12:34-35).

And further: What comes out of the mouth - comes out of the heart - this defiles a person, for from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemy (Matt. 15:18-19) in the heart is the seat of our conscience, this Guardian Angel. If our heart condemns us...(1 John 3:20).

The prophet Elisha told his servant Gehazi about the amazing ability of the heart: Did not my heart accompany you when that man from his chariot turned towards you?(2 Kings 5:26). So the heart of loving mothers accompanies their children in everything, but, of course, not with such prophetic clairvoyance as the heart of Elisha accompanied Gehazi.

The heart is meant not only for feeling and for communion with God. Holy Scripture testifies that it is also an organ of desire, a source of will, good and evil intentions.

Many people consider the concepts of "soul" and "spirit" to be the same in meaning. But is it really so? How do these two words explain: soul and spirit - what is the difference?

Each person consists of three entities: soul, spirit and body. They harmoniously combine into a single whole. The loss of one component means the loss of the person himself.

What is a soul?

The soul is the intangible essence of a person, which defines him as a unique personality. She lives in the body and is the link between the outer and inner world. Only thanks to it a person lives, suffers, loves, communicates and learns the world around him. If there is no soul, there will be no life.

If the body exists without a soul, it is not a person, but some kind of machine to perform various functions.

The soul enters the body at birth and leaves it at death. But until now, many are arguing about where the soul lives?

According to one version, the soul is in the ears.
The Jewish peoples think that the soul resides in the blood.
The inhabitants of the indigenous northern peoples assigned a place to the soul on the most important cervical vertebra.
Orthodox believe that the soul settles in the lungs, stomach or head.

In Christianity, the soul is immortal. It has a mind and feelings, even has its own weight. Scientists have found that the body after death becomes lighter by 22 grams.

Spirit is the highest entity that also lives in the human body. If a plant or animal can have a soul, then only a creature with a higher mind can have a spirit. The scripture says that the spirit is the breath of life.

Thanks to the spirit, people stand out from the whole living world and become above everything. The formation of the spirit occurs in childhood. It is will and knowledge, strength and self-knowledge. The spirit is expressed by striving for the Lord, rejecting everything worldly and sinful.

It is the spirit that is drawn to harmony and everything that is high in life.

The Lord God saved us so that we no longer commit sinful deeds, but live in the spirit. We must become not highly moral, highly spiritual people. Many kind people are not spiritual. They just live, doing worldly things, but they do not feel the presence of the spirit. And there are those who, in fact, led an ordinary life, but were spiritually rich.

What is the difference?

Having understood these concepts for ourselves, we can draw several conclusions:

soul and spirit are completely different concepts;
Every living being has a soul, but only man has a spirit;
the soul often experiences the influence of others;
the soul enters a person at birth, and the spirit appears only in moments of repentance and acceptance of God;
when the soul leaves the body, the person dies, and if the spirit leaves the body, then the person continues to live, committing sins;
only the spirit can know the word of God, the soul can only feel it.

It is impossible to draw a clear line between these two definitions. Each religious teaching has its own interpretations of these two entities. For an Orthodox person, the answer must be sought. After all, only this scripture can help in determining what the soul and spirit are, what is the difference.

Foreword

For several decades of our century, the Russian Church lived under the pressure of the most severe persecution. One of the many aspects of these persecutions was moral-intellectual terror. Having monopolized all branches of culture, the atheistic power proclaimed in the name of science that there is no God. How many of those of little faith have these obsessive declarations made even more of little faith! But even those who were firm in faith, but little knowing (and great knowledge has always been and always will be the lot of a minority) did not know what to object when the final verdict of religion was brought to them from the godless world by their own children or grandchildren. Here, undoubtedly, is one of the main reasons for the suppression of the continuity of faith in most Russian families.

The persecutors paid special attention to making the Church silent in the face of the most violent and shameless attacks against her. The famous Stalinist Constitution understood “freedom of conscience” as “freedom of religious worship and anti-religious propaganda”, obviously (which was repeatedly stated by various “officials”) denying the Church the right to “religious propaganda”. The condition for a "quiet and serene life" for a priest and for every Christian was the refusal to preach. In many churches, the sermon ceased to sound altogether, in others it was limited to "gospel topics", often in accentuated archaeological coverage. Apologetics (the defense of the faith against atheism) was completely banned, and even in theological seminaries and academies, when they were revived after a quarter-century break, there was no course with that name.

The book before you is a work on apologetics. Its author, Archbishop Luke (Voino-Yasenetsky), was a wonderful doctor, and could carry out this service to suffering humanity until the end of his life with a completely clear conscience. But he felt a call to an even higher service, and in the most terrible years for the Church, he takes the priesthood, and soon the episcopal rank. After a short stay in the departments that changed at the will of others, there were many years of imprisonment. Then came the years of the fragile and ambiguous “Stalinist concordat”, when, under the influence of military events, a revival of church life took place, within a rather narrow framework. The vast majority of priests who returned from prisons and camps had one feeling: “well, now we can serve,” Vladyka Luka wanted not only to serve, but also to fight for the souls of those who were far from the Church. This is how this book appeared, one of the remarkable works of church "samizdat", which, incidentally, existed even in the most dangerous years, when there was no trace of intellectual literary samizdat, not to mention political.

In his book, Archbishop Luke examines the theory of higher nervous activity of Academician I. Pavlov, which in the USSR was declared the highest achievement of materialism, and shows that the only philosophical doctrine that allows one to include Pavlov's theory is the most anti-materialistic of all that philosophy has given in our century, the teachings of A. Bergson. When a laureate of the Stalin Prize in Medicine comes up with this kind of apologetic theory, it is much more weighty than if it were developed even by a great theologian, but less experienced in the natural sciences.

When evaluating the book of the ever-memorable Vladyka Luke, we must always keep in mind the goals that the author set for himself. This book is not a treatise on dogmatic theology or anthropology. For example, the distinction between spirit and soul here is not at all a metaphysical assertion. And these concepts themselves, as presented by the eminent author, are to a large extent dynamic: recognizing the influence of the bodily side of a person on the spiritual, the author sees the reverse influence of the spirit on the body, and “spirit” calls the sphere where the spiritual side prevails and dominates, and “soul” - that a sphere where the spiritual is closely connected with the corporeal and depends on it.

A wonderful book by a man who served God all his life and defended the faith and the Church in deed, word and writing, will continue to help many and many in gaining faith, joy in the Lord and in overcoming "anti-religious prejudices."

Archpriest VALENTIN ASMUS

Chapter first

What conclusions can we draw from the current state of natural science

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword: it penetrates to the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)

And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved without blemish at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 5:23)

Let's start our reasoning about the relationship between the body, soul and spirit from afar. Until the end of the 19th century, the system of exact sciences was striking in the clarity and accuracy of everything that they treat. Until recently, unconditional faith in the basic tenets of science reigned, and only a select few minds saw cracks in the majestic edifice of classical natural science. And then the great scientific discoveries at the very end of the past and at the beginning of this century unexpectedly shook the very foundations of this building and forced us to reconsider the basic ideas of physics and mechanics. Principles that seemed to have the most reliable mathematical basis are now being challenged by scientists. Books like Henri Poincaré's profound Science and Hypothesis provide proof of this on every page. This famous mathematician showed that even mathematics lives by many hypotheses and conventions. One of his most prominent colleagues at the Institute of Mathematics, Emil Picker, in one of his works shows how incoherent the principles of classical mechanics are, this basic science that claims to formulate the general laws of the Universe.

Ernst Mach, in his History of Mechanics, expresses a similar opinion: The fundamentals of mechanics, apparently the simplest, are in fact extremely complex; they are based on experiments that cannot be carried out, and in no case can they be considered as mathematical truths. The physicist Lucien Poincaré writes: There are no more great theories, universally recognized, about which there would still be unanimous agreement among researchers; a certain anarchy reigns in the realm of the natural sciences, no law seems to be truly necessary. We are present at the breaking of old concepts, and not at the completion of scientific work. The ideas that seemed to the predecessors the most solidly justified are being revised. The idea that all phenomena can be explained mechanically is now abandoned. The very foundations of mechanics are disputed; new facts undermine faith in the absolute significance of the laws that were considered basic.

But if 30-40 years ago it was possible to say that physics (and mechanics) plunged into a state of anarchy, now this is no longer true. The revolutionary breakdown of the basic physical principles and ideas led to the creation of new concepts, deeper and more accurate than the previous ones. Moreover, these concepts do not just reject the old classical mechanics, but consider it as an approximate theory that has its own well-defined limits of applicability. So, for example, it turned out that in the world of the smallest objects known to us - molecules, atoms, electrons, etc. - classical mechanics ceases to be fair and must give way to a more accurate, although at the same time more complex and more abstract theory - quantum mechanics. At the same time, quantum mechanics is not something completely contradictory to classical mechanics: it includes the latter as an approximation suitable when considering objects with a sufficiently large mass. On the other hand, for processes characterized by high speeds of movement approaching the speed of light, classical mechanics also ceases to be valid and must be replaced by a more rigorous theory - relativistic mechanics, based on Einstein's theory of relativity.

The laws of the immutability of elements no longer exist, for the transformation of some elements into others has been indisputably proven.

It has been established that there are elements with the same atomic weights, but different chemical properties. A similar phenomenon a few years ago would have caused ridicule among chemists (T. Svedberg).

There are hopes of proof of the complex nature of atoms; therefore, there is no longer any doubt that heavy atoms are built from lighter ones. It is even probable that all elements are ultimately built from hydrogen. The helium atom, according to this hypothesis, consists of four very closely spaced hydrogen atoms. In turn, the hydrogen atom consists of two particles - an electron and a proton.

Recently, in the composition of cosmic rays entering our atmosphere from interstellar space, a whole series of new particles has been discovered, the mass of which varies within very large limits (from 100 to 30,000 electron masses). These particles have various names: mesons (or mesatrons), varitrons, etc. It has also been established that all these particles are not absolutely unchanged. Protons can turn into neutrons and vice versa; electrons, connecting with positrons, can cease to exist in the form of particles, turning into electromagnetic radiation. On the other hand, under certain conditions, an electromagnetic field can "generate" an electron-positron pair. Particles found in cosmic rays in the process of interaction with the atoms of the atmosphere can greatly change their mass.

This last assertion is completely new for us, brought up on the old physical concepts. However, we are very far from celebrating victory over materialism.

At present, physicists have abandoned the hypothesis of the existence of some weightless and, at the same time, absolutely elastic substance - the ether, replacing it with the concept of an electromagnetic field. The electromagnetic field is not a substance in the usual mechanical sense of the word. It does not have weight, hardness, elasticity, it does not consist of particles, etc. But it has energy and in this sense it should be considered as one of the forms of existence of matter. It is generated by the movement and interaction of elementary particles - electrons and others. On the other hand, it itself acts on these particles and, under certain conditions, can even generate them.

Instead of weight, hardness and elasticity, etc., the electromagnetic field has other characteristics that determine its properties. These characteristics are the magnitude and direction of electric and magnetic forces at different points in space. The laws governing the electromagnetic field and its interaction with electric charges are dealt with by a special area of physics - electrodynamics; the laws of motion and interaction of material particles constitute the field of mechanics.

In the end, all products of dissociation of matter “leave” into the electromagnetic field. Regardless of the dissociating bodies and the method of dissociation, the products of this dissociation are always the same. Whether it is the decay of the nuclei of radioactive substances, the release from any metal under the influence of light, the release produced by chemical reactions or combustion, etc., the products of these releases are always the same, although their quality, quantity and speed may be different. The material decays into elementary particles - neutrons, protons, mesons, electrons, positrons and others. The movement and interaction of these particles generates an electromagnetic field, magnetic and electrical vibrations of different frequencies, radio waves, infrared rays, visible rays, ultraviolet and gamma rays. Electrical phenomena underlie all chemical reactions, and they try to reduce all other forces to them.

It has been established that light is also a form of electromagnetic energy, and electricity has a corpuscular or, as some incorrectly say, atomic structure (of course, those corpuscles - electrons that make up electricity cannot be called atoms). Millikan defines electricity cautiously and quite acceptably. Here are his words: I did not try to answer the question "What is electricity?" and contented himself with establishing the proposition that, whatever it may be in essence, it always appears to us as an exact multiple of some definite electrical unit. Electricity is something more fundamental than material atoms, since it is an essential constituent of these one hundred different atoms. In the same way, it is something like matter, built up from separate individuals, but differs from matter in that all its constituent units, as far as it can be defined, are exactly the same.

Meanwhile, this basis of the physical life of the world became known to us only 300 years ago, since the time of Volta. For thousands of years, electricity remained unknown to people.

Only 50 years ago, science was enriched with the knowledge of new, extremely important forms of energy - radio waves, infrared rays, cathode rays, radioactivity and intra-atomic energy. This last energy, unimaginably grandiose and powerful, underlying the whole world dynamics, giving birth to the inexhaustible unfading thermal energy of the sun, became known 300 years later than electricity.

But does this give us the right to assume and even assert that there are other forms of energy unknown to us in the world, perhaps even more important for the world than intra-atomic energy?

From a material point of view, these as yet unknown forms of energy must be special forms of the existence of matter.

And the very concept of "semi-material" contains the recognition of the existence and "non-material".

Where is the reason to deny the legitimacy of our faith and confidence in the existence of purely spiritual energy, which we consider the primary and primogenitor of all physical forms of energy, and through them of matter itself?

How do we imagine this spiritual energy?

For us it is the omnipotent Divine love. Love cannot be contained in itself, for its main property is the need to pour out on someone and on something, and this need led to the creation of the world by God.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the spirit of her mouth all their strength (Ps. 32:6).

The energy of love, poured out according to the all-good will of God. The Word of God gave rise to all other forms of energy, which, in turn, gave rise first to the particles of matter, and then through them the entire material world.

If we do not know the many undoubtedly effective forms of energy, then this depends on the obvious insufficiency of our poor five senses for the knowledge of the world life and on the fact that scientific methods and reagents have not yet been found for discovering what is inaccessible to our senses.

But is it true that we have only five sense organs and there are no other organs and methods of direct perception?

Is it not possible a temporary aggravation of the ability of these organs to perceive forms of energy adequate to them?

The visual acuity of an eagle, the sense of smell of a dog, to a great extent, exceed the power of these senses in a person. Pigeons have an unknown sense of direction that guides the accuracy of their flight. The aggravation of hearing and touch of the blind is well known.

I believe that the undoubted facts of a mental order, which will be discussed further, oblige us not only to admit the possibility of sharpening our five senses, but also to add to them the heart as a special sense organ, the center of emotions and the organ of our knowledge.

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