970. Where do we find a terrestrial human being with the symptoms that have just been mentioned? Is it the primitive human being that is dissatisfied with its existence? No, quite the opposite; it lives in perfect harmony with physical existence and has a voracious appetite for purely "animal" food. The fact that its meals are alarmingly close those found in the pig's trough has not yet caused it any particular disgust. Is it the civilised human being that is bound by strong religious dogmas that is crying out in disgust and despair about itself? No, this being is for the time being completely content. It lives in the belief in its Godhead; indeed, it even lives in the belief that it, as a "saved" or "holy" being, is favoured by this Godhead. It therefore considers itself to be the "returned prodigal son". The fact that this being lives, to a certain extent, under an illusion and has not yet reached the point of representing this high stage to perfection is clearly shown by the fact that it lives solely in "belief". This in turn means that its identity as the "returned prodigal son" is merely a strong "supposition". But a supposition can at most be merely a "hypothesis". To possess perfect life or the acknowledgement of one's own immortality and of the Godhead merely as a hypothesis or supposition cannot be a perfect ultimate aim for, or culmination of, mentality. In order to represent this stage, suppositions or hypotheses must be replaced by absolute "knowledge". As long as a problem still consists merely of belief or hypothesis, it is still a mystery. And beings for whom life and the Godhead are a mystery instead of solid, absolute facts cannot one hundred per cent typify the "returned prodigal son". In a way they still have the same relationship to the Godhead as the primitive human being, even though they have of course been able to give their belief a higher or more refined and cultivated terminology than the primitive human beings have. And we see that doubt, disbelief and renouncement are also present within the ranks of these beings, and, as mentioned earlier in "Livets Bog", they suffer and become ill and are prone to accidents and difficulties just as much as those who do not belong to the circles of the "believers" or the "saved". That they try to make up for this by promising themselves a better existence after death in the hereafter does not alter the principle. For how should souls who are unable to live in contact with matter and their fellow beings in such a way that cosmically they have been able to brighten their fate here, be more able to come into contact with matter and their fellow beings on the other side of the grave? "Devil-consciousness" does not turn into "angel-consciousness" just because a being dies or relinquishes its physical body. Death does not lengthen or shorten the gap between the "prodigal son" and the "swine". These beings also die or go over to the hereafter where they must be true to their nature, so the "prodigal son" can still associate with these beings with whom he is related due to the similarity of their organisms. Death does not alter a being's temporary standard or level of evolution. Transformation does not take place so easily. If it did, the evolution, which we today know as a fact that the beings are subject to, would be totally superfluous. Only through "repentance" does "devil-consciousness" become "angel-consciousness". And this applies equally to the physical plane as to the spiritual plane. Whenever the being repents, it has discovered imperfection in its way of being and here it makes an about turn in order to take action to combat this imperfection, in order thereby to set its sights on a more beautiful, more sublime mode of existence. And was it not precisely this that was at the heart of the story of the "prodigal son"? Was it not the realisation of his debased state and his repentance over it that made him "come to his senses" and made him return to his father?