410. The "kingdom of bliss" is consequently a very distinctive sphere and distinguishes itself from the spiral's other kingdoms in that it can be experienced only as an "inner" world. However, as already indicated, it obviously has an "outer world" which just like all other manifestations in the Universe consists of energy, and this again consists intrinsically of substance or matter. But a "being in bliss" possesses no organs or senses with which to register this matter after its intuitive faculties have ceased to function "outwardly". Henceforth, it can sense fundamentally only in those forms of energy, or "wave-lengths", which make up memories. On the other hand the "outward aspect" of the "kingdom of bliss" can be sensed by beings, including terrestrial man, who have organs or senses for experiencing the "outside world". As already pointed out, these beings apprehend the "outward aspect" of the "kingdom of bliss" as the "mineral kingdom".
      But in this "outer world", unlike in their own world, there are no awake day-conscious functions which can be seen or understood by beings with these organs as expressing manifestations of will or thought, and so they have had to accustom themselves to regard the functions of energy in the "mineral kingdom" as "lifeless". And so we see that the beautiful and divine spheres of this same kingdom still constitute a completely unknown terrain for those beings due to a lack of "cosmic consciousness".
      The immensely beautiful "outer world" which the "kingdom of bliss" has in the form of the "mineral kingdom" is for them an empty, lifeless world. Its marvellous crystals, its wonderful frost patterns on our windows in winter, its dense and solid materials in the form of gold, silver and precious stones, its splendidly flaming and illuminating materials in the form of solar and galactic systems, its mountains erupting fire and its rugged rock-formations, its hills and dales, its peaks and precipices, its colours and sounds, its thunder and lightning, in short all its manifestations, from fire to ice, from the daytime's sunshine to the darkness of night, are all regarded by beings of the terrestrial zone – and indeed even by scientifically minded people – as lifeless functions. And in spite of the fact that the phenomena in the world described above obviously obey laws, and laws, again, are the same as plans and plans, again, cannot be other than identical with thought, and thought is a function of consciousness which is the same as life, nevertheless the "mineral kingdom" is definitely regarded by intelligent terrestrial beings as constituting a "dead" kingdom.