Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 3, sect. 955

955. As we already know, the I's fate element and its talent kernels form the instruction centre of the "theatre of fate", from where the impulses are conveyed to the theatre's "control room" or "technical" department – the "subconsciousness" – where in the form of automatic functions they constitute the hidden basis for bringing about the "combination of scenery", the "disguise" of the "performers" (God and the son of God) or the "stage setting" that can bring the facade of the play of fate towards the "audience" so that it fulfils its purpose, which is in the first place, as we have said, to constitute a demonstration of "hell", or an initiation of the son of God into one of the two main factors or contrasts of the experience of life. In this way the eternal "member of the audience" of the experience of life (the I) experiences its existence and structure and witnesses that it does not constitute an automatic function that is eternally controlled and fixed in advance and that allows the I to comply with the laws of life only so that it permanently shines in the highest culmination of perfection or sensation of well-being. Such well-being would not be a product of free will, it would not be a product of choice or of effort, training or practice, and it must consequently be totally devoid of the creative joy that is the faithful attendant of every acquisition of a new capability, no matter how small. The production or creation of brilliance, perfection or love would thus be exclusively the product of a mental straitjacket and must sooner or later bring the I to the point of screaming and yelling for relief, quite apart from the fact that no such straitjacket can possibly exist. The I's manifestation of perfection is not a product of its connection to a fixed ability to not be able to manifest otherwise. It is precisely by virtue of the fact that the I can manifest and experience the absolute opposite of perfection, well-being or pleasure that its complete "free will" or absolute sovereignty becomes a fact. So, as we have said, "fate" constitutes a "play" in which the two contrasts are manifested and experienced in equal degree by the I, exactly according to its will, wish or desire. The play of fate therefore represents exactly the place that is necessary so that the I can appear with an existing absolute free will. This play gives the I free access to all existing mental areas that can possibly arise as normal wishes or desires in its consciousness. It can therefore obtain satisfaction of whatever it can want in a normal way. Everything that it can want can in principle be only one or another shade of love or hate. Whatever it might wish, whether it wishes to be a genius in some form of creation, that creation will be able to represent only some degree of either killing or caressing. If it wishes to defend itself and whatever it considers its property – whether its religion or material things – from other beings, this act of defence will constitute a degree of killing. If, on the other hand, it wishes to create beautiful and perfect things, whether in ordinary everyday work or in art, this creation can in reality be only a degree of love or caressing, since making a thing beautiful and perfect can be only the same as making the thing in such a way that it gives an equivalent pleasure and inspiration to whoever is going to see it. But a thing that is a pleasure and inspiration to look at can be considered only a kind of "caress" to the person to whom it gives pleasure. Absolutely everything that can normally be thought of, and that can therefore be a wish or desire, lies within the area of the play of fate and can be fulfilled within it. And as a result, the I's complete "free will" becomes visible here as an absolute reality. It can wish to do "evil" and has this wish fulfilled, and equally it can wish to do "good" and has this wish fulfilled. Which other wishes could it have or which others could it want? None at all. For whatever it might wish for in this respect – even though the individual itself may be unaware of it and irrespective of the disguise in which the wishes might appear – would be merely an annihilation of the I itself and the eternal laws that are connected to it and that form the basis of the faculty of thinking or consciousness, that is to say, life itself. But such an annihilation can be absolutely ruled out, as the I in itself does not form a part of "that which is created" and cannot therefore be annihilated, since only what has been produced or "created" can in turn be "destroyed".