412. But how or when did these manifestations of life become habitual or automatic functions? It must be said that, for the ordinary terrestrial person, whether it is someone of a deeply religious faith or a materialistically-minded researcher in science, the area where the answer to the above question lies, is a totally unknown terrain. Indeed, the question itself has not yet ever entered their heads. They have not yet realized how immensely primitive is their concept of the world. With a tribesman's naïvity they swear to the "lifelessness" of the colossal all-embracing, living, working terrain which is the background and prerequisite for the whole of their earthly existence and experience of life. They see water freezing into ice and ice melting into water. They see water evaporating into thin air, and air condensing back again into water. They see similar characteristics in all kinds of physical matter. Everything can be made to melt or vaporize and can dissolve into its constituent parts, and everything can condense into solid substance or matter. They see how everything represents varying degrees of this process. But that this condensing and dissolving process is based on an ability from the "divine world" to materialize or dematerialize turned into habitual consciousness or automatic functions in physical matter – this they do not see at all. And naturally they cannot be expected to know anything about it, for they have long since lost their awake conscious memories about their sojourn and experiences in that world. Therefore the religious believer continues to live on, happily satisfied with the explanation that "the ways of the Lord are past understanding", indeed he is even inclined to think that all material phenomena are "evil" and preferably should be scorned if one is to have any hope of gaining favour with the Godhead who is giving entrance to "heaven' or "paradise". And his delight or joy becomes all the greater seeing that, in his ignorance of life, he regards himself and those like-minded to be the only ones desired by the Godhead; all other fellow beings belong to that which is "evil". And animals are certainly to be regarded merely as food for these "chosen ones of God", just as plants, too, are to a great extent only for embellishing and decorating gardens, rooms and vases and, indeed, there is sometimes doubt that even they are alive. So, with regard to the "mineral kingdom" it is definitely a completely "dead" or "lifeless" world for those kind of people. The diligent materialistic scientist, or researcher, weighs and measures this world in endless detail, gathering an ocean of results on the way, but these constitute only "numbers". Nothing has as yet revealed to him that the substances or matter he is examining are manifestations of will or of thought transformed into automatic functions in physical appearance, and therefore are perfect expressions of consciousness and life.
      Although these materials reveal laws and purposes which prove the intellectuality behind them, and this again is the highest most distinctive characteristic of life itself, yet this has no influence on the purely materialistic researcher. His knowledge of the "mineral kingdom" is still only lifeless numbers, which, however materially useful these may be in the purely physical world, are utterly insignificant regarding any evidence concerning the identity of matter as thought, consciousness and life. Such a researcher, therefore, in all good faith, teaches that the "mineral kingdom" is a dead and lifeless world, without realizing how unscientific and meaningless this teaching is in reality. The complete and true awareness about life has thus quite escaped his understanding and recognition. He observes the outward phenomena of the "mineral kingdom", weighs and measures them without noting or sensing the vitally necessary spirit, consciousness, thought and will underlying the logic of these said phenomena. The result of his researches into the "mineral kingdom" are fully analogous with a person's description of a page of writing in some language he does not understand. In such a situation, all that this individual can do is to obtain knowledge of the size, style and number of letters and also the number of words and syllables – in other words he can acquire a great number of figures and totals, while remaining entirely ignorant of the thought or meaning in what the author of the writing has intended to convey by them.
      Just as this person remains quite devoid of understanding the thoughts and meaning expressed by this writing, in the same way the materialistic researcher remains quite ignorant of the deeper mental realities revealed by the "mineral kingdom's" functions and manifestations. He sees the "letters", "words" and "sentences". He can also classify them, but that they express thoughts or a mentality, and thus in some way constitute a language, he does not see. Consequently he cannot get in touch with such a mentality but must remain content with his cold, lifeless results, continuing to regard the "mineral kingdom" as identical with "death", although it constitutes an ocean of "expressions of life" – indeed there is not even a place or spot so small that it can be covered by a needle point which does not disclose movement or change which to the advanced investigator will be an irrefutable proof of its identity with life. Movement can never in any way express death, but will at all times, under all circumstances and in all situations be identical with materialization or dematerialization, which again cannot possibly exist without being a link in logical creation and thus, as an unshakeable fact, being identical with one or many living beings' conscious or unconscious manifestations of their presence in the Universe. Thus, the "mineral kingdom", due to the nature of all its types of energy as automatic functions, is identical with a multitude of I's beginning to express their longing for a world at a lower level, that is, for a contrast to their present level of existence. And as this present existence consists of the awake, day-conscious existence of "beings in bliss" inside their world of memories, it is from here that the energies of longing, through the subconsciousness, are transmitted further to the "outside" world.