quote: "Most eastern spiritualists believe you have to be vegetarian in order to grow spiritually. Many western spiritualists say it do...." I fail to see what relevance this had to my earlier posting (which you appear to be responding to - am I right on that?)....

As you haven't defined what you mean by "spiritual people" there is no point either in talking about eastern or western 'spiritualists' until you have defined them too....

Now when I speak about 'Spiritualists' I can readily define the philosophy and religion that UK Spiritualists ((Modern Spiritualists to use the full name) follow. Yes in the UK, Spiritualism is a legally defined and recognised religion. And Spiritualists are those who subscribe to the values found there....

As a Modern Spiritualist (as defined) my understanding is influenced initially by the teachings underpinning that religion and by the spiritually-evolved teachers who gave their guidance to the movement.

As to your question "How and why did the soul start to go to the mineral kingdom?" well that's a subject worthy of its own thread, mentioned by myself only because mikron had raised the issue.