735. At this point the persistent sceptic or doubter might object that this talent is destroyed along with the physical organism at its so-called "death". But to this we must reply that it is totally unaffected by the destruction of the physical organism. The development of a talent extends from the first, primitive, faltering attempts to the most sublime extreme genius. The development of a talent proceeds only gradually, and in so doing expresses its field of development from primitivity to genius in a scale of steps. No living being can avoid representing one or other of the steps in this transformation. It can represent the step of the finished or perfect genius in a certain field, but it can also represent the step of the beginning stage in the same field. The position of our physical mentality in this series of steps will depend on how much time we have devoted to the field in question, or how much experience and practice in this we have already lived through. The fact that this experience and practice has not taken place in the present life does not alter the principle, since the talent will be all the more visible as a fact, the greater or more comprehensive the experiences we have had in the particular field in previous lives. The step that we represent reveals this irrefutably. If we had never devoted our time to the field in previous lives, we would not be able to represent any step at all. A step means in this case a yardstick with which one can measure a being's greater or lesser giftedness in a certain field, which is in turn respectively the same as "greater experience" or "lesser experience" in the particular field.
      But how can a being have a real "greater experience" or "lesser experience" when compared with other beings, without ever having experienced anything other than these beings? If the beings have not lived previously, a "greater experience" or a "lesser experience" compared with that of other beings – in the form of a talent or disposition that the beings are born with – would be totally out of the question. And any form of step would therefore also be out of the question. But now it is a fact that the beings' giftedness can, already in their first tender years, be divided up into steps. These steps make it an equally irrefutable fact that some beings represent "greater experience" and others "less experience". The being's possession of "greater experience" or "lesser experience" compared with that of other beings makes previous lives a living, visible reality during its present life. As talents cannot possibly exist without being a product of experience and practice, no talent whatsoever can come about other than as a result of previous experience and practice. But as every being is born with talents, some of which are under development, others that are complete and yet others that are degenerating, the being's present mental condition will be precisely an irrefutable confirmation or proof that it has lived through a previous existence, since the state of experience and practice, of which the talents that the being is born with are a product, can have taken place in only this previous existence.