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M2273
Time, Space, Eternity and Immortality
by Martinus

1. What do we understand by "time"?
For the human being who is seeking the absolute truth about life or the solution to the very mystery of life itself, it is of great importance to also become acquainted with the analysis of time, space and eternity, as through a knowledge of this analysis the immortality of the living being will become a theoretical fact. We will therefore now look into this analysis a little.
What do we really understand by time? The concept of "time" is life's highest technical term for "movement". Movement and time are thus identical. Where there is no movement, no time exists, and where there is no time, no movement exists. Time and movement cannot therefore be separated, for the very reason that they constitute one and the same reality. As movement is a function, and a function is something that is created, a movement is thus a created reality. But as each created reality or any created thing cannot exist without constituting time, time is therefore also a created reality or phenomenon. But time cannot be sensed directly with the physical senses. It thus constitutes an aspect of visible created things or movements that is invisible; time is therefore something that one cannot directly sense with the physical senses. One can therefore sense it only indirectly through that part of created things or movements that is visible to the physical senses. With the physical senses we can experience time only through the existence of created things, from their beginning to their end. Such things are subject to having a beginning and an end. No created thing is eternal. Time is thus demarcated by two points or boundary posts, namely, emergence and cessation. Between these two boundary posts there is created a distance that is not, and cannot be, physical. But since it cannot be physical, it can only be psychic or spiritual. And this psychic or spiritual reality, which cannot be removed, we express as "time".
2. Time as an expression of the spiritual world
We call this distance between a thing's emergence and its cessation, its "lifespan" or "age". This age or lifespan thus constitutes a "space". But this space has none of the qualities of physical space and can therefore constitute only a psychic or spiritual space. As we all, because of our physical body, have an age, this means that we all live not only in a physical space, but also in a psychic or spiritual space. As no created realities or things whatsoever can exist without having an age, which is the same as a "period of time", no created realities or things whatsoever can exist in the physical world without being confined within such a period of time, which means that they cannot exist without being confined within a spiritual space. This in turn means that all existing inhabitants of the physical plane of existence are not only inhabitants of the physical world, but are, in an equally realistic way, inhabitants of the spiritual world. This therefore brings us into contact with the spiritual world, a world that is denied by many materialistic people, but which we meet here as an initial solid fact in the form of time. But this invisible spiritual world, which appears in the form of time, is completely filled up with "created things" that are accessible to the senses. These created things together constitute what we know as the physical plane of existence. All the details on this plane, stretching from planets, suns and milky ways to mesocosmic and microcosmic details, the organisms of living beings etc. thus occur not only in the physical world, but also in the spiritual world that lies hidden under the concept of "time". Time therefore constitutes our first realistic meeting with the spiritual world.
3. What we call "space"
So what are all these many created things whose existence or lifespan is identical to time? As all these realities or created things constitute a form of material space, they therefore represent what we in everyday speech refer to as "space". So what do we understand in the absolute sense by space? Space is identical to created things. There is no created thing whatsoever that does not constitute a space, just as there is no space that does not constitute a created thing. So what then is a created thing? A created thing is a logical construction of matter, that is to say, something that is intended to fulfil a purpose. All created phenomena in Nature, such as air, water, continents, seas, suns, planets and milky ways – quite apart from the many created things that are necessary in order to enable the living beings to exist on the physical plane of existence – constitute space.
4. The aim or purpose of created things
Created things cannot have created themselves. They prove to be nothing but constructions in matter. But because matter, in its most profound analysis, is nothing but movement combined in various forms, it is impossible for it to be the originator of logically constructed or created things. Logically created things reveal intelligence. But a movement cannot be the originator of intelligence. Logical constructions demonstrate that created things are intended to fulfil an aim. But the mere fact that they are intended to fulfil an aim or fulfil a purpose reveals a wish. But it is absolutely impossible for a movement to be the originator of a wish. The purpose or aim of certain created things appears to be the manifestation of curses, ruin, death and destruction, whereas the aim of other created things appears to be to release joy and blessing. This in turn means that created things can be intended for releasing hatred just as much as love. But hatred and love are feeling, and it is absolutely impossible for movement to have feeling. It can neither hate nor love. What we see here reveals the fact that behind created things, which in themselves are mere combinations of movements, there exist wishes, feeling and intelligence, in other words, there exists the wish to create hatred or love.
5. The fixed point of the universe
But wishes, feeling and intelligence or hatred and love can exist only as characteristics of a living being. So who or what is this living being? It is absolutely impossible for it to be matter because matter consists of diverse combinations of movements. And no one has ever seen that a movement, a gust of wind or the movement of a train or a car can wish, can have intelligence, can hate or love. So this inevitably brings us to an invisible originator of these wishes, of the feeling and intelligence, of the hatred and of the love that is manifested through matter or created things. We have arrived at a "something" that has consciousness and an ability to create. This "something" is the originator of created things. As it is the originator of created things, it is impossible for it to be a created thing itself. But as it is not created, it does not consist of something that is constructed or assembled. But as it is not constructed or assembled, it cannot be destroyed or broken down either. It can therefore have neither a beginning nor an end. This therefore enables us to see that it is eternal, in fact that it constitutes "eternity" itself. But as eternity is "something" that is not movement, is not matter, is not created and therefore has neither a beginning nor an end, it can exist only as the absolutely one and only existing "fixed point" of the universe.
6. Eternity constitutes a living "something"
Eternity therefore constitutes a "something" that is the absolute opposite of everything that we are able to sense or observe as the physical universe, which in itself comprises only combinations of types of movements, which in turn are the same as "created things". We have therefore arrived at firm realities in the analysis of the universe or the solution to the mystery of life, namely, the "fixed point" and "movement". Movement proves to constitute creative processes. The result of these, namely, the created things, reveal themselves as constituting a result of wishes, and of feeling and intelligence. As these phenomena can exist only as characteristics of a living being, this "something" that we express as "eternity" becomes evident as a "living being", especially as there is absolutely nothing else whatsoever beyond matter, movement and creation in the universe.
7. The universe constitutes a living being
Eternity is therefore something other and much more than merely a concept describing infinity in time. It constitutes a "fixed point" that proves to be the originator of all movement and thereby of all creation as well as the result of this creation. Eternity or the "fixed point" in the universe proves to be a "divine something" that has consciousness, by means of which it promotes, among other things, wishes, feeling and intelligence through its ability to create, and through which it can also experience the effects of its process of creation and manifestation. This therefore enables us to see that the universe fulfils precisely those three conditions that are necessary in order for a "something" to appear as a "living being". This living being constitutes an experiencing and creating "eternal something", which is the same as this living being's "I". As mentioned above, this "something" or "I" has an ability to create. This ability to create consists partly of the I's eternal part, which constitutes its superconsciousness, and partly its created, temporal ability to sense and create, which constitutes the being's subconsciousness. To this belongs, among other things, the being's physical body. This body, as well as other organs of the subconsciousness, belongs to "what is created", whereas sensing and creating belong to the ability to create. In my cosmic analyses in Livets Bog (The Book of Life) I have expressed the basic analysis of the universe as a triune principle that can more precisely be described as "X1", "X2" and "X3", which respectively constitute the "I", the "ability to create" and "what is created". The indivisibility of these three principles and the way they mutually supplement one other constitutes the "living being". If we look at the analysis of the universe - eternity, time and space - we have exactly the same analysis. "Eternity" is the universe's "I" or "X1". As time has proven itself to be a psychic or spiritual aspect of every single existing created thing, and this spiritual aspect is "movement", and movement in turn triggers change, which in turn is the same as "creation", the faculty for time is thus a contributory factor in the living being's ability to create. The contribution made by this faculty for time in the process of creation gives rise to the fact that no creation whatsoever can take place without it also being a creation of "time". All creation of "time" comes about, just like all other creation, by means of the principle "X2". In this way "time" is thus a product of creation and belongs to the principle "X3". We have therefore reached, by means of our observation of eternity, time and space, the great basic analysis of the universe – the triune principle, which is the same as "a living being".
8. Living beings and the Godhead
We have now come so far in our observation of the universe that we have seen that it constitutes an eternally existing living being. So what about ourselves as living beings? Well, now that we have seen what it is that forms the basic analysis of the universe, it should not be difficult to discover our own situation in this universe. We saw that the universe consists of three eternal realities that caused it to appear as a living being. It had a "living something" that was above all created phenomena and was inaccessible to direct sensing. As this "something" was not created, it could only have the one single analysis, namely, that it is "something that is", and that over and above this description it is in itself nameless. This is the reason why we have expressed it as "X1". We saw that this "something" had an ability to create that was equally nameless, because it was not created either and was therefore eternal. For this reason we have expressed it as "X2". After that come the eternally changing results of the creations that the I manifests through its ability to create. This principle with the changing results of the ability to create is of course equally nameless, as it has no beginning or end either, but constitutes on the contrary an eternal reality. We have therefore, as already mentioned, called this principle "X3". But as the universe consists also of living beings in microcosmos and macrocosmos as well as in mesocosmos, these living beings must inevitably be what makes the universe a living being. Every living being in existence constitutes individually the same triune principle, namely, an I, an ability to create and the eternally changing results of this ability to create, that respectively constitute "X1", "X2" and "X3". Together all existing living beings make up an indivisible unit. We call this unit the "universe". In turn, the universe constitutes, as we have already mentioned, an eternally all-embracing, working organism. The I or "X1" in this organism is made up of the combined I's or "X1" of all existing living beings. In the same way the ability to create of this gigantic I, which is made up of all I's, comprises the combined abilities to create or "X2" of all living beings. And similarly the result of the combined abilities to create or "X3" of the living beings constitutes this gigantic being's "X3", which is the same as the universe that we can perceive with our senses. That the combined three "X's" of all existing living beings can form this gigantic being's, that is the Godhead's, "something that is" or its three "X's", is due to the very fact that all existing beings are an organically cooperating unit. This cooperating unit in the form of the universe is the Godhead's physical and psychic revelation of itself as the eternal Father and originator of all existing living beings. All existing living beings thus exist as the Godhead's tools for sensing and creating. Without these tools for sensing there would be no Godhead at all, and without a Godhead no tools for sensing whatsoever and thereby no living beings whatsoever either. The Godhead and the living beings are thus an indivisible unit.
9. Immortality
As the combined I's of all existing living beings make up God's I, it is impossible for the living beings to die, cease or pass away. They cannot have had any beginning whatsoever and will never ever be able to come to an end. The mortality that the beings' physical organisms are subject to is merely something that occurs with or happens to matter. It does not affect the being's I or superconsciousness. Death is merely a liberation of the being from a defective, or to some degree unusable, organism. The being can therefore change bodies or organs owing to the very fact that it has an eternal I and an equally eternal superconsciousness. This replacement of physical bodies or organisms, we express as "reincarnation" or "rebirth". Our I is thus not only immortal, but it has the ability to replace organs and bodies when they become old and worn out. After that you are able, by means of certain phenomena, to incarnate in new, healthy bodies or organs and in that way gain access to the eternal experience of life. The cosmic analysis of time, space and eternity is therefore a revelation of our immortality or our eternal existence as living beings in the absolutely one and only true Godhead in whom we all live, move and have our being.
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Original Danish title: Tiden, rummet, evigheden og udødeligheden. First published Årskrift (Yearbook) 1962. Translated by Andrew Brown, 2004.
Article ID: M2273
Published in the English edition of Kosmos no. 1, 2004

© Martinus Institut 1981, www.martinus.dk

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