503. The direct cause, then, of terrestrial people's fate of darkness is undoubtedly their very "relative" basic perception. Individually their levels vary greatly and they see life in correspondingly different ways. These beings are in the highest degree at cross-purposes with one another. This, of course, can only bring about dissention, war and suffering. Their knowledge or their science does not yet contain any perfect "cosmic chemistry". And the mental sphere of humanity is also the scene of an immense and extensive number of mistakes. The entire area of consciousness is, so to speak, one huge collection of illusory thought-climates. To an overwhelming degree this consciousness is based on illusion and thereby can itself only be an illusion. People wish wrongly and behave wrongly and consequently are forced to experience life in a wrong way. And existence becomes an experience of falsehood instead of truth, an experience of darkness instead of light and an experience of death instead of life.