514. When a plant being can make its roots grow in the direction of underground water courses and make its organism above ground take up a position leaning towards the light, then that is, to a certain degree, an automatic function. But it is also to some degree the beginning of a desire for the correct interaction with the surrounding energies and substances which is necessary for manifestation and existence. And the stronger this phase of consciousness grows, the stronger become the "experiences of sensing", until at last they develop to fully conscious experiences. And here the being begins to "realize" what is happening. Instead of life's effects being felt as "sensing", they are now perceived as realistic "fact". Thus, the being begins to acquire actual knowledge. And with the emergence of this knowledge into the consciousness, desire or "longing" becomes identical with what we call "will". This reality is thus the same as the I consciously taking over the direction of power in its own mentality or regulating its "desire" or "instinct of self-preservation". Now, from being an automatic function this "instinct of self-preservation" gradually becomes directed or guided consciously by the brain of the being. The being can thereby consciously steer its own display of energy or "mass of substance" towards or away from the surrounding energies, according to whether it perceives them as "pleasant" or "unpleasant". And here we have the being's appearance as a conscious "cosmic chemist" in its first weak beginnings.