122. How can spirits, at their origin, when they have not yet acquired self-consciousness, possess freedom of choice between good and evil? Is there in them any principle, any tendency, which inclines them towards either road rather than towards the other?
[The Spirit's answer:] "Free-will is developed in proportion as the spirit acquires the consciousness of himself. Freedom would not exist for the spirit if his choice were solicited by a cause independent of his will. The cause which determines his choice is not in him, but is exterior to him, in the influences to which he voluntarily yields in virtue of the freedom of his will. It is this choice that is represented under the grand figure of the fall of man and of original sin. Some spirits have yielded to temptation; others have withstood it." - The Spirits' Book, Allan Kardec
My Commentary: Free will requires a sufficiently developed intelligence in order to function. Self consciousness permits the entity (human or spirit) to observe and compare self with not-self, and the Subject-Mediator relationship is established. The Object of Desire is modeled by the Mediator. (Subject=Eve; Mediator=Serpent; Object=Fruit) This is the triangle of Secret Desire according to the Mimetic theory of Rene Girard. The entity (human or spirit Subject) uses its knowledge and relationships to make choices. The entity can have knowledge that certain decisions bring harm to others.
Temptation occurs when the Mediator or Model appears to portray the Object of Desire as having greater value to the Subject than any known harms which may occur.
Rationalization is used internally to erode barriers to action until Desire overrides all inhibition. When entities observe each other modeling a particular negative behavior, the barriers to action decrease exponentially with each additional participant in a destructive action. This is the
modus operandi of the violent mob. "Sinner! Foreigner! Deviant!" cries the enraged mob. The first to cast a stone becomes the model for the rest of the participants in the mob. They seek catharsis and a unanimous Object upon which to channel their collective anger. (There is a magical/occult element to this which no academic would openly consider, to wit that such mobs attract sympathetic (angry, vindictive) entities that add their own inclinations to the mob and feed off of the incarnate humans' emotional energies. That's a discussion for another thread.)
Complicating the matter further, the Mediator of Desire can be an antagonist to the Subject in pursuit of the Object, such as the classic love triangle of competing suitors for the same woman. A further permutation occurs when the Mediator and Object are the same from the perspective of the Subject. Said the Serpent to Eve: "You will be like God..."
15. What should we think of the opinion holding that all the bodies in nature, all the beings and globes in the universe are components of the Divinity, and taken all together comprise the Divinity itself; i.e. the pantheistic doctrine?
[The Spirit's answer:] “Since humans are unable to make themselves God, they would like to at least be a part of God.” - The Spirits' Book, Allan Kardec
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"The object is only a means of reaching the mediator. The desire is aimed at the mediator's being. Proust compares this terrible desire to be the Other with thirst: 'Thirst - like that which burns a parched land - for a life which would be a more perfect drink for my soul to absorb in long gulps, all the more greedily because it has never tasted a single drop.'" - Chapter II, "Men Become Gods in the Eyes of Each Other"; Deceit, Desire & the Novel by Rene Girard
"This terrible desire to be the Other," as Girard said, is quite common in advertising. Buy the jeans, BE the sexy model! Smoke the cigarette, be the Marlboro Man! Now you know how you're being manipulated, so your free will is strengthened. Use it wisely.
Gotta use humour to make a point...lol
