371- Is there any basis for the opinion that mentally impaired individuals have a soul of a little-evolved nature?
“No. They have a human soul who is frequently more intelligent than you might think, and who suffers immensely from the insufficiency of its means to communicate – as a mute suffers from the inability to speak.”
48The 1857 original contained the heading “Idiotisme”, for which there are several translations in modern English: Idiocy: Idiot: A person of profound mental retardation having a mental age below three years, and generally unable to learn connected speech or guard against common dangers. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive” (American Heritage College Dictionary, 1979). The definition used most often in the U.S. is from the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR). According to the AAMR, mental retardation is a disability that occurs before age 18. It is characterized by significant limitations in intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social and practical adaptive skills (AAMR, 2002).
Herein, the term will be defined as mental impairment – Tr.
372- What is the aim of Providence in creating unfortunate beings like the mentally impaired?
“The spirits who dwell in such bodies are expiating past wrongs. They suffer from their constraints and from the impossibility of expressing themselves because of undeveloped or defective brains.”
– Then is it inaccurate to say that organs do not exercise any influence on the faculties?
“We have never said that organs have no influence at all; rather, they exercise a very great influence on the manifestation of the faculties, but they themselves do not produce the faculties – that is the difference. A good musician will not make good music with a bad instrument, but that does not mean he or she is not a good musician.”
It is necessary to distinguish between the normal state and the pathological state. In the normal state, mental ability may overcome material obstacles. However, there are cases where matter offers so much resistance that the manifestations are hindered or distorted, as is the case with mental impairment and insanity. These are pathological cases, and in such states the soul is not in possession of its full reasoning ability, which is why human law exempts such persons from responsibility for their acts.
373- What could possibly be the merit in the existence of beings who, like the mentally impaired, can do neither good nor evil, and therefore cannot progress?
“It is an expiation imposed for their having abused certain faculties in a former life; it is a temporary pause.”
– So the body of a mentally impaired person may confine a spirit who perhaps animated the body of a genius in a preceding existence?
“Yes, genius sometimes becomes a curse when it is abused.”
Moral superiority does not always imply intellectual superiority, and the greatest geniuses may have much to expiate. Consequently, they often live a present existence that is inferior when compared to those they have already lived – a cause of great suffering. The impediments that these spirits experience when they try to express themselves are for them like chains that fetter the movements of an active person. One could say that the mentally impaired are disabled in the brain, as others are disabled in their limbs or eyes.
374- In the spirit state, are the mentally impaired conscious of their mental state?
“Yes, quite often. They understand that the chains hindering their development are a trial and an expiation.”
375- What is the situation of the spirit in the state of insanity?
“When freed from the body, the spirit receives impressions directly, and directly exerts its action upon matter. Once incarnated, however, it finds itself in completely different conditions and in need of acting with the help of special organs. If one part or a group of these organs is altered, the spirit’s actions are interrupted– defective eyes cause blindness; defective ears cause deafness, etc. Now imagine that the organ presiding over the manifestations of intelligence and will is partially or entirely damaged or modified and you will easily understand that the use of such an incomplete or distorted organ will result in an affliction that the spirit is fully aware of, but whose course it is powerless to deter.”
– Then it is always the body and not the spirit that is dysfunctional?
“Yes, but you must not lose sight of the fact that just as a spirit acts upon matter, matter reacts upon the spirit to a certain degree; hence, a spirit may find itself momentarily controlled by the alteration of its organs through which it manifests and receives various impressions. It may happen that, with time, and after the insanity has lasted quite a while, the repetition of the same acts end up exerting on the spirit an influence from which it will not be freed until its complete separation from every material effect.”
376- What is the reason for insanity sometimes leading to suicide?
“The spirit suffers immensely from its constraints and from the powerlessness to freely manifest itself. Thus, it seeks a way to break its ties in death.”
377- After death, does the spirit of a mentally impaired person continue to feel the derangement of its faculties?
“It may feel it for quite some time until it is completely disconnected from matter, like a person who, upon awakening, continues to feel the confusion into which sleep has immersed him or her.”
378- How is it possible for the impairment of the brain to react upon the spirit after death?
“It is a remembrance. A weight bears down upon the spirit, and since it was not aware of everything that took place during its insanity, it requires some time to be able to understand its current state. That is why the longer insanity lasts during life, the longer the affliction and the constraint will last after death. Disconnected from the body, the spirit continues to feel the impression of its bonds for some time thereafter.”
Site Espírita 