Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 3, sect. 911

911. But does not this great common longing for something more perfect, which shines like a blazing fire in the mentality of every terrestrial human being, "criminal" and "saint" alike, bring to light the power of thought and will that has transformed the glowing materials, the flaming sea of fire, into a world that can be inhabited by myriads of living, flesh and blood beings? Does this not in a way bring us to an open door leading into the macrocosmic mentality that has wished for this transformation? Is not each individual's longing for something higher, for something perfect, the same as a tiny droplet of the great macrocosmic being's wish? And is not this wish therefore the same as an ocean formed out of the collective wishes of the microbeings? And is not our own longing for paradise or a higher form of existence one of the "droplets" that make up this ocean? And is it not precisely the same interaction that is visible between a macrobeing and its microbeings as that which manifests within ourselves? Are not our own flesh and blood, our organs and limbs, the same as oceans made up of microbeings? Is not every single one of these tiny beings a "droplet" in the ocean or natural element, or in that part of the world or universe that makes up our collective physical and mental manifestation, wishes and desires? When a strong impulse, longing or desire passes through our brain, is it not conceivable that it animates the tiny brain cells? Does not each single cell constitute a droplet of the collective impulse that we ourselves sense? These minute forms of life are therefore, in a way, taking part in our impulse, our desire and our life. How else could we lift our hand or foot, move our tongue or eyelids? If our wish to lift a hand or foot, move our tongue or eyelid in a given situation, could not be transmitted to the areas in question and animate them with the power that constitutes our wish, what else could bring the thought to the attention of these parts of the body so as to fulfil our wish?
Since it is a fact that our musculature, our blood and nervous system are built up of tiny cells, which are tiny living organisms that confirm their identity as life by being, in principle, subject to its laws of nourishment and procreation or by displaying other features that are unshakable symptoms or characteristics of life, these small beings or forms of life must also represent mentality. But if they have mentality, that is to say consciousness, is it not conceivable that this consciousness is animated by the impulse or power of our wish in such a way that it also becomes their wish? Were it not so, these tiny cells or microbeings would be dead phenomena whose function would then be automatic and set in motion entirely from outside. But facts show that the cells or the microbeings do express life; they are living beings. It also becomes clear that these beings' life-impulses are also governed by a prevailing desire within their little mentality, otherwise there would be no reason whatsoever for them to have mentality or life. Longing is therefore in the case of these tiny beings, as much as in everything else that is alive, the dynamic force behind their maintenance of life, behind their evolution or their onward journey. But where would they get this force from if it did not come – like all their other vital force, physical nourishment etc. – from the macro-individual in which they are micro-individuals? And why should not the same principle apply in the case of our own brain or our own mentality? Why should the impulses or the driving forces that animate us not be drops of the same ocean, that is to say drops of an impulse of consciousness from a being so large that, in relation to it, we are only its microbeings? Why should this not just as well be the case with us, as it is with the living beings that comprise our own organism? Why should not the same principle apply to phenomena that are above us as to those that are under us? Why should this not apply, or constitute the leading factor, just as much in the macrocosmos as in the microcosmos, especially as the macrocosmos is in reality just a continuation of the microcosmos?