Livets Bog, vol. 3
Life substance no. 12 – the will
935. In this element dwells the ability to "turn" energy and thereby the ability to "give out" as well as to "receive" energy. But this "receiving" and "giving out" is not a blind, and for the I, unregulated process. On the contrary, it is to the highest degree controlled by the I. Whose control could it otherwise be subject to? And it is precisely on this account that the process appears, as it does, in such an endless wealth of variations ranging from the culmination of "unpleasantness" to the culmination of "pleasure". The character of this process is thus in the first place determined by the I. This ability to determine or regulate, which lies behind the "receiving" and "giving out" of energy in the fate element, reveals itself in everyday existence in the way the individual expresses itself, and constitutes what we term "will". And we will record this as "life substance no. 12".