320. But as the I reveals – through this process or this creation – the fact that it has indeed been able to build up a physical body, and that this body, in its construction and equipment for the purpose it is to serve, is the highest expression of great intellectuality and previous knowledge, then it becomes obvious through this fact that intellectuality existed before the creation and existence of the body. Furthermore, as intellectuality can come about only through empirical experience, then before the creation of its physical body, the I must have had an existence in which it collected just those experiences which made it possible for it to create its present physical body in precisely that perfection which it represents.
      It therefore becomes obvious that the I must have existed before its present physical body and that, during this previous existence, it acquired its creative faculty and intellectuality which manifested with such a degree of habitual consciousness, or "C knowledge", that it was able to create its present physical body without any willed brain work, but on the contrary, solely as an automatic function, in the same way as the feet move automatically while walking. It can be taken for granted that most people understand that an individual's foot movements are made quite automatically and habitually without more cerebral interference than what is needed to determine in which direction to walk.
      As a function can only become a habit through repetition and habit is the same as an automatic function, and moreover, as the I's creation of its physical body proves to be an automatic function, this function will in itself constitute an irrefutable proof not only that the I existed as a "living being" before the formation of its present physical body, but also that the creation of this body is simply and solely a process of repetition. That is to say, that the creation by the I of its present physical body is but a single link in a long chain of creations of the same kind. Consequently, before the formation of its present physical body, the I had so long a chain of creations of physical bodies to look back upon, that this creative process has now become a purely automatic function.
      But if the capacity for creating new physical bodies is actually so dominating that it demonstrably exists as a routine, habitual or automatic function possessed by every living being, why should such a being not again create for itself a new physical body or tool, either when the old one is worn out, or, in its present situation, by some other means meets with a destructive catastrophe and is rendered useless?
      The fact that in its new physical body this living being has no recollection of its former bodies, disproves nothing, for a current physical body does not stand or fall by memories. The purely day-conscious memory which an individual has, does not cover even his present physical body's span of life. Who can remember his moment of birth? It is not usual even to remember one's first birthday. Indeed, has one not forgotten a great deal of one's present life?
      But if the first period of existence of one's present physical body is already lost in the mists of time, would it not be unnatural if the lifetimes of earlier bodies did not do the same?