718. As we have seen, all the unfulfilled wishes and longings that occur as a visible factor in the consciousness of every civilised human being are a revelation of the fact that the functioning of this being's thoughts or consciousness constitutes a preparation for something that does not take place in the being's present terrestrial life. The many unsatisfied wishes are oscillations of energy that can be brought to a halt only by being brought into balance, which in turn cannot possibly exist without being identical to their opposite. And the opposite of wishes and longings can be only their satisfaction. Since this being's consciousness consists to a large extent of wishes and longings that do not reach their balance or satisfaction in the being's present terrestrial life, their satisfaction must come about at a time when the being no longer has its present physical organism. Here something in the being that is not completed therefore becomes evident. As all beings represent the unsatisfied wishes, this must mean that they are all, at the time of their present physical death, unfinished beings. In all of them without exception, preparations have been released for something that has not been completed. This uncompleted state is not a phenomenon limited to one single being or to a very small percentage of all living beings but constitutes a one hundred per cent common phenomenon. One is forced to acknowledge that it is a fact that Nature has a purpose with this extremely predominant phenomenon, unless of course one lives in the superstition that Nature creates chaos, waste and meaninglessness.