www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology Perceptive abilities of souls?

Hello!

I've been trying to learn more about the relation of soul and body, and I'm having trouble finding any good information that isn't totally wrapped up in Aristotle. That's all well and good, but I'd rather cast my net a bit wider than one school of thought.

Does the soul perceive on its own? That all of the information that we have comes only through the bodily senses strikes me as materialistic.

Is the information received through the soul (if any) due to its inherent abilities, or is it only through God's "infusion" (for lack of a better word) of this knowledge?

Take the perception of the presence of good or evil as an example - such as discerning a holy person, or that terrible feeling that you get when you know you are in an evil place. Now certainly these impressions can be incorrect, but let's presume to work with ones that are accurate.

Do these ideas only come through the bodily senses and previously acquired knowledge, quickly being processed "subconsciously" by the mind? In the example above, let's say I walk into someone's house and see a pagan totem or some such, is my mind simply saying to me, "you know that this object indicates spiritual danger, you should leave?"

Or is this thought/feeling a grace from God, directly or via my guardian angel (or anyone else) warning me? Or is it indeed some faculty of the soul that perceives something of its own ability? Or none of these, or all three?

If anyone has any answers, or can point me to some Fathers or later holy writers who speak on the topic, I'd be much obliged.

Thanks in advance,
Booth

This is precisely the kind of stuff I wonder about, so you're not alone in these musings! It's sort of a holistic thing with the mind, body, and soul. The soul uses our "animal" senses, but can know or perceive without them. Like pure intellect. Like angels. So in the case of, say, one instance where I walked into a person's home who practiced native American spirituality, I could feel it like a weighty energy in the air, but unbaptized at the time though a believer. So I think this is a both/and situation. The body, mind, heart and soul are so closely united that they all respond in some way. Demonic things would be preternatural, and our bodies have/are receptive to preternatural things. The soul itself could be said to be preternatural. This also explains many people with purified noetic faculties showing traits like telepathy and clairvoyance.

From The Congregation for the Doctrin of the Faith's (Cardinal Ratzinger) "Instruction on Respect for Human Life"

For it is only in keeping with his true nature that the human person can achieve self-realization as a "unified totality":(9) and this nature is at the same time corporal and spiritual. By virtue of its substantial union with a spiritual soul, the human body cannot be considered as a mere complex of tissues, organs and functions, nor can it be evaluated in the same way as the body of animals; rather it is a constitutive part of the person who manifests and expresses himself through it. The natural moral law expresses and lays down the purposes, rights and duties which are based upon the bodily and spiritual nature of the human person. Therefore this law cannot be thought of as simply a set of norms on the biological level; rather it must be defined as the rational order whereby man is called by the Creator to direct and regulate his life and actions and in particular to make use of his own body.(10) A first consequence can be deduced from these principles: an intervention on the human body affects not only the tissues, the organs and their functions but also involves the person himself on different levels. It involves, therefore, perhaps in an implicit but nonetheless real way, a moral significance and responsibility. Pope John Paul II forcefully reaffirmed this to the World Medical Association when he said: "Each human person, in his absolutely unique singularity, is constituted not only by his spirit, but by his body as well. Thus, in the body and through the body, one touches the person himself in his concrete reality. To respect the dignity of man consequently amounts to safeguarding this identity of the man 'corpore et anima unus', as the Second Vatican Council says (Gaudium et Spes, 14, par.1). (3. ANTHROPOLOGY AND PROCEDURES
IN THE BIOMEDICAL FIELD)

My personal belief is that it is the soul which makes the human animal a "person."

Fr Deacon Paul