Both Cannot be True

[Dimmesdale]

1. Mind and Body are distinct in kind, and

2. Mind and Body can interact with one another.

Now the first I do not accept at all. What people term "Mind" I believe to be material. It is of a higher order, but still, material. However, the popular idea of "mind" is to conflate it with soul, or consciousness, per se. So in that sense, I believe consciousness, the awareness (though not the field of the mind with its aggregate of thoughts which constitutes it) is distinct in kind from the body.

As to the second, Mind and Body, if they are distinct, (1) cannot interact with one another. For no distinct kinds can interact without having something in common, which would make them non-distinct kinds (by virtue of their having at least one attribute by which they can affect one another).

A material object is not a distinct kind from another material object. A hot brick can cause an ice cube to melt, because of an exchange of energy both objects have in common. But if consciousness and matter are distinct kinds, they have nothing to do with each other, and so cannot even be said to exist in the same "vicinity" so to speak.

How, then, can I say that I move my arm or hand, at the prompting of my mind?

People do not realize another option. It may be that I, as Soul, am the controller of my body, but only as mediated through God's own sanction. God "pulls the strings" so to speak, from a higher, causal level, at my own prompting. So, first, I decide. And, as a matter of course, matter arranges itself in such a way as part of the foreordained universal will that took my willing into account from beyond time..... Since both matter and spirit devolve from God, God can control both, as in relation to him spirit and matter are both one and the same.

God, in essence, is beyond all concepts, material and spiritual. The Absolute is the Absolute Controller of all that be.