by Suzy Charnas

Created on: July 02, 2008

The human condition iexpresses itself in a constant war between the lofty mpulses of the soul, which knows itself to be immortal and also part of some much greater whole, and the body, which has a very simple basic program of its own: to survive as long as it can and, if possible, to reproduce. It seems as if the body *knows* that it is *not* immortal but condemned to perish sooner or later, no exceptions. That's why it will do literally anything to survive, and damned near anything for an opportunity to make a copy of itself, however imperfect.

The soul, on the other hand, is compellingly attracted to aspects of embodiment (the feedback of the senses, physical mobility and the pleasures of muscular action, sexual sensations, and the comforts of simple bodily closeness), looks beyond the body's limited lifetime and pursues other goals. The soul aspires to learn all that the body can teach about existing in a physical world, experiences not accessible to a pure spirit but necessary to the soul's spiritual evolution. So the soul incarnates (once or many times depending on what you believe), and then finds itself enmeshed in the body's immediate demands and visceral terror of personal pain, damage, and death.

The body has no choice in the matter; it runs on instinct, and is wired to survive and reproduce. Its instincts have been refined by the force of evolution to suit its environment. Any deviation from the commands of instinct are likely to be fatal (the bear that does not hibernate will starve to death searching for food during the winter); so all activity is turned over to instinct in the animal body, which in the wild rarely gets an opportunity to do anything other than what instinct prompts anyway - its life is too short and pressured by all kinds of dangers. Sparrows, cougars, elands, and carp do not suffer from hypertension or have nervous breakdowns (at least so far as we know): this is because almost all of their choices are made *for* them, by their instinct-driven nervous systems. They don't get to worry about doing A instead of B. If instinct says so, it's A no matter what, no ifs, ands, or buts.

Choice is the province of the soul, which has the power to over-ride the body's instinctual demands to survive and propagate. The soul can decide to sacrifice itself, or to not have children, or to take extravagant physical risks with the body for the adrenaline rush, things which the body alone would never do. In addition, another layer of commands is grafted

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