350. As mentioned previously, the first basic energy is "instinct-energy". In "Livets Bog", Section 225, this is indicated as the energy which dominates the "plant kingdom". In this book it is illustrated by the colour red.
      For people in general the word "instinct" really covers just a quality of consciousness. This quality consists of the faculty to "sense". But the faculty to "sense" is actually a function, and a function is the same as a "movement". And further, "movement" cannot exist without being identical with a display of energy. This special energy by which the experience of instinct is promoted constitutes, then, the first of life's basic energies.
      The term "first", with reference to this energy, should not be understood as its actual "beginning", for there is no such thing. Life's basic energies and basic principles are eternal realities. They have absolutely no beginning and no end. What is meant here, in describing "instinct-energy" as the "first", is just that it is expressing the initial energy in that section of the "spiral" where development begins. It is the weakest of these basic energies. Therefore it is obvious that in the area where it is dominating, consciousness itself must be at its weakest. Consequently the plant kingdom constitutes the most elementary zone to be found.
      It is true enough that minerals seem to express an even more elementary form of life, but this form of life cannot be included as physical life for, as we shall see later, it is a subconscious function in the sixth kingdom which is of an entirely spiritual nature and therefore does not manifest itself at all in day-consciousness on the physical plane. In that kingdom beings cannot "sense" in the way that plants do. Through their faculty of instinct, beings in the plant kingdom possess the beginnings of a day-conscious function on the physical plane. Through the ability to sense the plant can, in an elementary way, experience physical phenomena and thus, in a correspondingly elementary way, "consider" these phenomena. It can "sense" sunlight, it can "sense" water courses in the earth, it can "sense" the cold of night, indeed, in a general way, it can "sense" what is beneficial for it and what is detrimental. We see how plants grow towards the light. We see trees encourage their roots to grow towards water courses in the earth if there are any nearby, and in the same way we see how very many plants close up their small petals towards evening as a safeguard against the coolness of night. These functions which "consider" the effects of surroundings are, of course, quite without cerebral knowledge. Here the function of the brain is in its most elementary form. As we shall see in Symbol No. 9, the fourth basic energy, or "intelligence-energy", is entirely latent in plant-beings. This is exactly why their physical experiences only remain in a form of "sensing".
      The plant has only an elementary cerebral function, so its ability to analyse will be correspondingly elementary. It can only distinguish roughly between "pleasant" and "unpleasant". It cannot, like Man, comprehend what kind of "pleasant" or "unpleasant" it encounters. Its experience is a feeling-reaction without any details which it has a certain capacity to open or close up according to whether it senses "pleasantness" or "unpleasantness".
      With the help of this ability to sense, the I breaks through to the physical plane. So this manner of "sensing" is the first faint dawn of physical day-consciousness.
      As this "sensing" is a function, then there must be something that functions. This something is primarily the I's organ for this sensing. But an organ cannot develop except on the basis of training and practice. The plant's ability to sense has long become a "habit" or "automatic function". How, then, has it been possible for the plant to carry out the training and practice which has gradually been evolving this organ within itself? In fact, this training and practice is very simple, and for terrestrial man it is, to a great extent, something that is obvious and which may freely and easily be observed. But hardly anyone notices it. On Sundays in summertime terrestrial people stream out of the towns and cities in their thousands. They enjoy the sight of the thousandfold variations of these plant life-forms, their colours, perfumes and patterns. In the spring they will break green leaves off the trees and pick the flowers, carrying home this, their booty, to put in water so as to bring its atmosphere, life and scent into their living rooms. Quite unawares they have this urge to add to the decor of their own homes certain products of creation brought forth by "craftsmen" from another world who differ from those of their own sphere. They see only the beauty of such spoils of Nature which they have brought home so that they can decorate a table or a windowsill in order to raise their own products up into a still more attractive and flattering light. As it stands, this is merely an egoistic or selfish action that takes place on the part of terrestrial man. He has only used these plant-creations as an addition to his own creation of comfort and well-being. But, of course, he can also use plant-creations for an unselfish purpose. This will happen even more so, the more unselfish the individual is himself. He can use flowers, plants and greenery as gifts for birthdays, Christmas and other forms of celebration. But as a rule the ordinary terrestrial person never considers how this affects the fate of a plant-being. Indeed, he lives in absolute ignorance of the "plant I's" existence and almost certainly has the tendency to consider all vegetation, if not lifeless, then at least without consciousness. But this ignorance on the part of terrestrial man is precisely that which qualifies him to be one of Providence's greatest tools for the release of the "killing principle" with regard to the plant-being. No form of living being is subjected to the effects of the "killing principle" to such a degree as the plant-being. Terrestrial man cuts off branches, picks flowers, fells trees, indeed even at times uses the latter for fuel. Apart from this – and like many other creatures – to a great extent he must use the plant-being as food. But it is not terrestrial man and animals alone who manifest the "killing principle" with regard to plants; also Nature itself does so to the very highest degree. Through storms and frost, heatwaves and drought, plant-beings are drastically affected. Because they constitute the primary food or nourishment for animals and humans they are, from the outset, created to have the nature of their bodies injured or destroyed. The entire plant world together is thus the object of very energetic and severe treatment by the whole of Nature. But for the plant-being, who is still unconscious on the physical plane, it is just all this injury which awakens it to life on this plane. These effects during thousands of years gradually cause the plant-being to notice the difference between damaging effects and those life-giving effects which promote physical health and growth. And here commences the first dawning tendency to become day-conscious, namely the faculty for a "sensing". The plant-being begins to notice the dawn of a new world.
      However, through millennia of winds and storms, rain and sunshine, brutality and injury the plant becomes prodigiously well-trained and practised in the function of this sensing, and with this superior skill, new characteristics of consciousness awaken. But the faculty for being aware of the difference between "pleasantness" and "unpleasantness" arouses a desire and a longing for the pleasant. This desire develops an incipient wish to attain that which it "senses" as pleasant. And so through aeons of time the plant develops new abilities and faculties. It develops organs which enable it to take a consciously active part in creating some satisfaction for its growing physical desires. And it reaches a stage where it can almost be considered as something between an "animal" and a "plant". In this state it is no longer a "plant" in pure form, nor is it yet a pure form of animal. Such a being is called a "carnivorous plant".
      A plant of this kind has now advanced so far that it finds pleasure in food or nourishment which is different from that which is generally normal for plants. Instead of obtaining nourishment through its roots in the form of liquids from the earth it now obtains a good deal of its nourishment from living organisms, which it becomes ever more efficient in destroying and dissolving. Here we see a kind of beginning of what is termed "digestion" in animals. The thousands of years' drastic effects on the part of Nature to which the plant-being has been subject, has thus produced a reaction in the plant-being's consciousness in the form of a "sensing function". This function constitutes a specially combined manifestation of energy, that is, a particular type of vibration or energy-form. And it is this energy-form we call "instinct" or "instinct-energy". Therefore this energy is the I's first great source of power.