Chaos,
Complexity and the Influence of Spirits
on the Phenomena of Nature
Department of
Chemistry, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, New
Jersey 08854-8087 USA
Instituto de
Física da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo,
S.P.
(Original
version in Portuguese was first published in Revista Fidelidade
Espírita, 12, 20-26)
Abstract
We analyze the question about the influence of spirits upon the
phenomena of the nature. Despite the confirmation of this influence
from spirits, this subject was not studied deeply by Allan Kardec due
to lack of scientific knowledge. The development of the theories of
chaos and complexity allows us to analyze this question. It is shown
that the influence of spirits upon the phenomena of nature is perfectly
possible and that there is no need of a great amount of animalized
fluid to produce the influence. We show how the knowledge of chaos and
complexity helps us to understand the proposed solution.
KEYWORDS: Chaos; Complexity; Influence of spirits; phenomena of the
atmosphere; physical effects; physical manifestations.
I
- Introduction
In issue 45 of the chapter XV of “Genesis”, Allan Kardec transcribed an
event from the Gospel called as “The Calmed down Storm”[1]. In this
event Jesus and his disciples were sailing from a margin of a lake to
the other when strong winds suddenly appeared. The disciples became
scared and asked the Master for help. Jesus, according to the Gospel,
talked to the winds and to the waves in the lake making them calm down.
As He always did, He took advantage of the moment and talked about the
value of faith. Kardec, in issue 46 of the above reference and Cairbar
Schutel[2] commented the event. Kardec said that we do not know
“the secrets of Nature in order to say if there are, or not, hidden
intelligences controlling the action of the elements”. Cairbar Schutel
goes further asserting that all seismic and atmospheric phenomena are
driven by intelligent beings responsible by the manifestations of the
Nature.”(our translation)[2]. Both quotations state the possibility of
the action of spirits on the phenomenon of a storm but, as we shall
see, there is no explanation in the spiritist literature about how it
could happened.
The set of all phenomena known to the human being, from an apple
falling on the ground to the most beautiful bright of a star in the
Universe; from the nuclear fusion events occurring inside the Sun to
all of our lives, must remind us that the rules and mechanisms of all
these phenomena belong to Natural Law having therefore a divine origin.
Throughout history the human being tried to understand Natural Law
through the observation and study of all natural phenomena. In 1687 a
leap forward was taken in the study of these phenomena. Galileu and,
more formally, Isaac Newton started a new age in the way of making.
Science. They developed the mathematical way of describing the
mechanical phenomena of Nature.
In this paper, we shall present a possible explanation of how the
spirits can produce an influence in the large phenomena of Nature like
a big storm. We base our proposal in the developed scientific concepts
of the Theory of Chaos and Complexity.
It is known that the atmospheric phenomena are chaotic and complex[3].
A system is said to be chaotic[4] when it is too much sensitive to
small perturbations1. Consider, for example,
a billiard game with various balls. If the player makes a small error
in the direction of the kicked out ball, the final result, that is the
movement of all other balls, will be completely different from the
player’s planned movement and not only a little different from that, as
one could think of. This kind of dynamics, sensitive to the initial
conditions is called chaotic. As a consequence, we lose, effectively,
the power of foreseeing what is going to happen after the player’s
action if he or she has no total certainty of the direction the ball
will take.
A system is said to be complex [5] when its behavior is rich in
unexpected and varied possibilities even if its structure is not
complicated. The life is one of the best examples of complexity. The
characteristics of the one of the simplest forms of life, an amoeba,
for example, exhibit unexpected and varied qualities. Despite the great
velocity in processing data, our best computers are less complex than
the brain of a worm[6].
If we consider the gases that compose the atmosphere formed by lots of
small particles, we can imagine that they are colliding with one
another as in the billiard game. Therefore, it is natural to see that
the atmosphere can present chaotic and complex behavior. Stephen
Hawking, in his recent book[6], exposed this fact in a poetic form:
“The hitting of the wings of a butterfly can produce rain in the
Central Park in New York”. As he explains, it is not the hitting of the
wings that, simply, will cause rain, but this small perturbation can
influence others that can change the time evolution of the atmosphere
elsewhere. That is why the weather is so difficult to forecast and
makes us to consult the news about the weather every single week2.
Figure 1:
Strange Attractor obtained solving the differential equations of the
Lorenz’s model. x, y and z represent physical variables as temperature,
pressure and velocity of the particles.
In order to make forecasts Meteorology uses theoretical tools to
calculate the behavior of weather from a set of measured data. Edward
N. Lorenz proposed the first theoretical model [7] for the dynamics of
the atmosphere known as the Lorenz’s Model. Figure 1 shows an example
of the so-called the strange attractor that is a solution of the
Lorenz’s equations, obtained with his model.
Lorenz also showed [8] that there is a limit for the forecast of
weather around 2 weeks. We emphasize that there is a limit for the
human power of solving the problem of forecasting. It will be important
when we analyze the capacity of the superior spirits in making better
calculations and forecasts.
This paper is organized as follows. In section II we shall expose all
information found in Allan Kardec’s books about the influence of the
spirits in the phenomena of nature. We shall remember some basic ideas
behind the phenomena of physical effects, since the influence on the
phenomena of nature belongs to this class. In section III we shall show
that this influence is perfectly possible and requires a small quantity
of animalised fluid. Finally, in section IV we shall present the main
conclusions.
II - What Spiritism says
Besides the citations in “Genesis” and in Cairbar Schutel’s book about
the issues from 536 to 540 of the “Spirits’ Book” [9], there exists a
small mention in the Revista Espírita of September of 1859 [10],
whose title is “The storms”. This last reference does not add anything
to the contents present in the “Spirits’ Book”. Let us rewrite some of
these issues marking what we think important to our discussion. The
first issue is number 536-a:
“536-a Have these phenomena (of Nature) always some reference to
mankind ?
- They have sometimes a direct reference to man; but they have often no
other object than the re-establishment of the equilibrium and harmony
of the physical forces of nature.”
“536-b We fully admit that the will of God must be the primal cause of
these phenomena, as of everything else; but, as we know that the
spirits exercise an action upon the matter, and that they are the
agents of the divine will, we ask whether some among them do not exert
an influence upon the elements, to rouse, calm or direct them.
- It is evident that they must do so; it could not be otherwise. God
does not exercise a direct action upon matter; He has His devoted
agents at every step of the ladder of worlds.”
“537-a May there, in the same way, be spirits inhabiting the interior
of the earth and presiding over the development of geological phenomena
?
- Those spirits do not positively inhabit the earth, but they preside
over and direct its developments according to their various
attributions. You will some day have the explanation of all these
phenomena, and you will then understand them better.”(our marks).
“538 Do the spirits who preside over the phenomena of nature form a
special category in the spirit-world; are they beings apart, spirits
who have been incarnated like us?
- They are spirits who will be incarnated, or who have been so.”
“538-a Do those spirits belong to the higher or lower degrees of the
spirit-hierarchy ?
- That is according as their post is more or less material or
intelligent; some command, others execute; those who discharge material
functions are always of an inferior order, among spirits as among men.”
“539 In the production of certain phenomena, of storms, for example, is
it a single spirit that acts, or a mass of spirits ?
- A mass of spirits; or, rather, innumerable masses of spirits."
“540 Do the spirits who exert an action over the phenomena of nature
act with knowledge and intention, in virtue of freewill, or from an
instinctive and unreasoning impulse ?
- Some act in the one way, others in the other. (…) (about the inferior
spirits) They begin by executing the orders of their superiors;
subsequently, when their intelligence is more developed, they command
in their turn, and direct the processes of the material world; (…)."
These issues are the basis of our discussion.Let us organize the main
ideas in the following statements:
1. The spirits are God’s agents for the action in
accordance to divine wills.
2. There are agents in all degrees of the evolutionary
scale. There are some who command and make the decisions and others who
execute the action upon the elements. The spirits that command have the
capacity of calculating and forecasting the consequences of each action
that the other agents do.
3. A great amount of spirits meets together in order to
execute the task.
Before going to the next section, where we shall explain how the
spirits can control the phenomena of nature, let us remember the
important basic principles of Spiritism that are necessary for a
physical effect to occur. From chapter IV of the second part of “The
Mediun’s Book” [11], we got the following statements:
* A spirit can only move a solid object if he or she
combines a portion of the universal fluid with the fluid that is
detached from an appropriated medium.
* A spirit can act and use the animalised fluid from
mediums that are not aware that they are donating the fluids.
* A spirit can act upon solid, liquid or gaseous
matter.
With all these principles we can analyze the influence of spirits upon
the phenomena of nature being aware that these phenomena are chaotic
and complex.
III - Influence of the spirits upon
phenomena of nature
As we saw in the previous section, the superior spirits taught that
spirits, in general, are God’s agents for the actions upon the nature.
We also saw that superior spirits (the commanders) and the others (the
executers) work together for the compliance of divine tasks. In this
section we shall show that in front of a large-scale phenomenon as, for
example, a storm, it is not necessary that the action by the spirits
takes place in every single part of the space where the storm occurs.
We shall estimate the order of magnitude of the volume occupied by a
storm on a relatively small city. We shall do this in order to see the
unfeasibility of the action upon all space. After that, we shall
discuss, with the help of the actual scientific knowledge, a proposal
about how the spirits could really influence a storm acting in a much
smaller region of the space where the storm is happening.
Let us consider a city whose area is 100km2 (we can imagine
a square area with side of 10km long). Let us consider also a set of
clouds in a height3 of 5km. If we multiply
the area by the height we can have the estimation of the space volume
for this storm: 100 x 5 = 500km3. One cubic meter (1m3)
is the same as the volume of 1000 litres. The unit of cubic kilometer
(1km3) is equivalent to a volume of 1.000.000.000 of cubic
meters (1 billion m3).
These are 1000 billions or 1 trillion of litres of volume for each km3
of space. Imagine that a spirit wishes to make an influence upon a
litre of water or air in such a way to produce a given movement. One
litre of everything is a significant volume of space when we think in a
phenomenon like that. Let us suppose that one medium is enough to
supply the spirits with animalised fluid. Imagine, now, that in order
to produce even a very small action upon a storm we need to make the
action in a volume of more than 1 trillion of litres of a mixture of
air, steam and liquid water. How many mediums are necessary to do this
task? Imagine, also, that several storms are occurring in several
places around the world at the same time. If it was not enough, imagine
that to make a storm go to another course it is also necessary to act
upon the neighbor areas because they can have different temperatures
and pressures that can prevent the storm from taking another direction.
Figure 2 gives a good idea of the magnitude of a storm compared
with the size of our buildings.
Figure 2:
Storm getting close to a city. Compare the size of the set formed by
clouds and rain with the size of the buildings.
It leads us to see the unfeasibility of the influence from the spirits
upon all space. Even a great mass of spirits cannot act precisely upon
the storm. However, if we take in account that the dynamics of the
storm is chaotic and complex we can see a light in the end of the
tunnel. We already know that a chaotic dynamics means that the system
is sensitive to small perturbation in some of its parts. If we could
calculate precisely the effect of a given perturbation or a set
of sequential perturbations in small regions of the space we
could control the temporal evolution of the phenomenon to a desired
result. We saw that superior spirits command the influence upon these
phenomena. The principle number 2 (section II) tells us that superior
spirits are capable of making these calculations and deciding the best
action. In the Introduction we commented on the limits of human
knowledge. We believe that it is perfectly possible to the superior
spirits to perform much more precise calculations and forecasts for
every perturbation executed by the other spirits. Therefore, it could
be enough to act in a portion of the space less than 1% of the total
volume. Although we cannot estimate what this size is (we must remember
that our scientific knowledge cannot do that), we can say with all
certainty that it is not necessary to act upon all space occupied by
the storm. So, it is not necessary a great amount of animalised fluid
in order to make this influence. Finally, it means that the influence
of the spirits upon the phenomena of nature is perfectly feasible.
IV - Conclusion
In the paper of reference [3], Dr. Ross N. Hoffman says that he thinks
it is possible, in a close future, to control these large phenomena of
nature. He uses the same theories of chaos and complexity to base his
affirmations. If a scientist, representing a scientific opinion,
believes that it is possible, it is correct to say that this knowledge
is well developed in the spiritual world.
As we saw, the union of the intellectual advance of the superior
spirits with the chaotic nature of the phenomena of nature permits one
to understand how spirits could influence these phenomena without the
necessity of consuming lots of animalised fluid. This proposal is in
accordance to what the spirits answered in the issue number 537-a,
about the explanation and understanding of that influence.
There is one point left for us to comment on. It is about the number of
spirits needed to produce the influence upon the phenomenon (point
number 3 of section II). That point says that there is the need for a
large number of spirits to perform the task. Although, as we showed, it
is not necessary to act upon all regions of the space where a storm is
occurring it does not mean that this influence is something simple and
that only one spirit is enough to do the task. As it is described in
chapter 10 of “Missionários da Luz” [13], a physical effect like
the materialization of a throat requires the presence of a great number
of spirits.
Therefore, the complexity of the phenomena of nature also requires a
large amount of spirits to provide the correct action upon them.
Finally, we remember that this work presents one way by which the
spirits could influence the phenomena of nature. We do not intent that
this is the only solution for this problem.
*
1 The word “perturbation” means a
small influence that generates a small changing in a given system.
2 And even so we fell surprised with
the variations of the behavior of the atmosphere!
3 Clouds of storms have a base at 2 or 3km of
altitude and its top can reach the maximum height of 20km[12]. In our
estimations we chose the value of 5km, but if we consider the superior
limit of 20km, the problem of the unfeasibility of the influence of the
spirits upon nature becomes more evident.
Acknowledgements
The author is pleased to thank Mrs. Floriza S. A. Chagas, Dr. Alexandre
C. Gonçalves, Dra. Hebe M. L. de Souza, Sr. Henri Barreto, Dr.
Zalmino Zimmermann and Prof. Dr. Silvio S. Chibeni by critical reading
of this compuscript and by valuable suggestions. The author would like
to specially thank Mr. Antonio Leite for the incentive to produce a
translation of the original paper from Portuguese and Mr. Renato Costa
for a great review of this translation.
References
[1] A. Kardec, A Gênese, Editora IDE, (1992).
[2] C. Schutel, Parábolas e Ensinos de Jesus, Editora CASA
EDITORA O CLARIM, 12a Edição, (1987).
[3] R. N. Hoffman, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 83,
p.241, (2002).
[4] E. Ott, Chaos in Dynamical Systems, Cambridge University Press,
(1993).
[5] Y. Bar–Yam, Dynamics of Complex Systems, Perseus Books, (1997).
[6] S. Hawking, O Universo Numa Casca de Nóz, Editora Mandarim,
2a Edição, (2002).
[7] E. N. Lorenz, Journal of Atmospheric Science, 20, p.130, (1963).
[8] E. N. Lorenz, Tellus, 34, p.505, (1982).
[9] A. Kardec, The Spirits’ Book, Editora FEB, 6a Edição,
(1996).
[10] A. Kardec, Revista Espírita, 8, p.276, (1859).
[11] A. Kardec, The Mediuns’s Book, Editora FEB, 1a
Edição, (1986).
[12] M. M. F. Saba, Física na Escola, 2, p.19, (2001).
[13] A. Luiz, Psicografia de F. C. Xavier, Missionários da Luz,
Editora FEB, 26a Edição, (1995).