123. First category in group A. Of the above six categories, the first three, as mentioned, will form Group A, consisting of human beings who all, without exception, have more or less grown out of the old world impulse. In the first of the three categories mentioned, one will find all the people whose development has been of such a nature that their faculties of feeling and intelligence are comparatively equally matched and therefore mutually regulate each other. Such people will therefore always appear in a sound mental balance, for their power of intelligence and common sense is developed just enough so as never to allow their emotions to give way to an exaggerated or unbalanced explosion - it is ever present as a ruling and regulating factor - and in the same way they cannot ever venture too far out, either intellectually or theoretically, into anything unnatural or unrealistic because their faculty of feeling will be powerful enough to regulate any such tendencies. As the emotions of such people have largely been cleansed of coarse or low tendencies and passions, and their purity, as mentioned, regulates these people's intelligence and protects them from indulging in fantastic hypotheses or theories, then any form of intelligence and common sense that they manifest will be identical with "wisdom". And because their highly evolved feelings cannot be activated without being regulated by this wisdom, then any form of emotional manifestation by such people can exist only as "love". According to cosmic analyses as outlined here, wisdom can be made up only of pure intelligence regulated by pure feeling - and love only of pure feeling regulated by wisdom. Hence, with regard to the most advanced of these people, wisdom and love will be the general features of their manifestations. To a large degree they have grown beyond the ordinary urges and desires of terrestrial mankind such as ambition, arrogance and jealousy, as well as falling in love and marriage, and now they find themselves in a zone of development which will later be described in Livets Bog under the concept of the "zone of infertility", where their sexual and reproductive powers are transformed and adjusted to be used by a higher form of consciousness. Naturally, it is also a matter of course that these people are not plagued by such vices as smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol or taking in other kinds of narcotics which are so destructive to physical well-being, just as meat-eating or consuming food which is produced by the death or mutilation of animal beings represents for all these people a stage of development passed and left behind a long time ago. Indeed, it can also be emphasized that a few of the people mentioned have already experienced some of the "preliminary signs of the Great Birth" - they have acquired partial "cosmic consciousness" appearing in this way as partially initiated beings who will, in their next lives on Earth, face the fundamental experience of the Great Birth, becoming to the fullest extent "one with the Way, the Truth and the Life". Until then, these people will still have to obtain their enlightenment from books, from the so-called "masters of wisdom" and from the world redeemers. The "forecourt of the Great Birth" could well express that place in evolution for people in the first category who are not numerous but may possibly be found in all five continents of the world. By virtue of their very advanced stage of development, released from ambition and unnecessary material demands, they live their lives very much in obscurity, unnoticed, quietly and modestly, indeed, sometimes even in solitude. This applies more especially in the East, where sometimes these people have withdrawn completely, and can be found as monks and sages in quiet monasteries, or as hermits in the mountains totally dedicated, while being of benefit and pleasure to all human beings and all animals who may pass them by. In the West, on the contrary, people of the first category live equally well amid the bustle and noise of the big cities as in the quiet of the countryside. On account of their advanced state of development, their materialistic sense is of such a weak and lesser nature that they would never be suited for holding important positions in material enterprises, and so we find them mostly amongst subordinate employees in such small, unimportant jobs as clerks, craftsmen, stewards, general labourers and the like.
      Human beings in the first category have advanced in their development to the point of feeling great respect and tolerance towards the religious ideas and concepts held by others, although they themselves have grown away from such a stage. They will never be heard to criticize or argue, and in fact it is very seldom that they even express their own particular view of life, except under urgent request, and only then where there is the possibility of it being entirely beneficial. Preference for life in obscurity is one of their typical virtues, and therefore it could be said that they sometimes become like a type of "hermit" or "recluse" in the most dense centres of civilisation, anonymously devoting themselves to the benefit and welfare of the masses. It must be added, however, that there are to be found just a few of these people who have in some way deviated from this general rule and - partly because of their own half-initiation and partly because of support from higher spiritual beings - have become founders of great spiritual orders, movements or fraternities. As mentioned in the above analysis, those in the first category have not the smallest desire for power, but with their quiet wisdom and loving kindness they influence their surroundings so that they become endowed with a power far surpassing all earthly pomp and pride, allowing them to become synonymous with those foundation stones upon which the new real human kingdom is to be built. They constitute the finer parts in the present embryo of the coming Kingdom of God on Earth.
      Human beings in the first category have thus evolved into the most significant representatives of mankind and, on account of their highly developed nature -liberated from all old traditions and prejudices, relieved from dogmas and relying firmly upon the spirit - it is easy for them to understand the present world situation and to meet the new release from the Creative Principle with an open and loving attitude. They are thus the most sympathetic and best qualified seekers of Truth and will quietly become the leading practitioners of the new spiritual refinement within terrestrial humanity.