1103. And it is possible that the above-mentioned thing is mentally so far removed that the being does not get close enough to it in its present life for it to become sufficiently well-defined to enable its senses to discern it clearly or perfectly. But even though it is not discerned clearly, it has, all the same, as previously mentioned, become an "inkling". But an "inkling" is, as will be remembered, the same as a budding "thought". An "inkling" is the same as the first emergence or presentation of a "thought". An "inkling" is a "thought" in a "nebulous state". But, as previously mentioned, it may be that the previously mentioned thing reacting to the sensory faculty as an "inkling" is mentally so far away that the individual cannot approach it in a straight line. A great many other mental things happen that must be experienced first. These other things can sometimes be so dominant and so demanding of the being's entire concentration of thought or ability to experience that in such a period, it does not sense the above-mentioned thing at all. This is then quite outside its awake day-consciousness, but re-emerges as the opportunity arises when the individual has reached beyond the phenomena that temporarily hid or covered it, thus rendering it invisible. The principle of experience is thus the same as on the physical plane. Here too from a summit one can catch a glimpse of phenomena on the outermost edge or circumference of the periphery. But in order to reach these phenomena, so that one can discern them more clearly or concretely, one has sometimes to go through deep valleys, where the phenomena are out of sight, until one again reaches sufficiently high summits. So, every time the phenomena have been out of sight one has come closer to them, which in turn means that they have become clearer. Every time one comes up on to a new summit that is closer to the phenomena mentioned above, the view becomes sharper and more detailed, so that we are ultimately in perfectly concrete or absolute contact with the actual things. The distance that prevented full sensory perception of the things has been covered. And things are no longer merely "inklings", but appear for us in their absoluteness, having become concrete knowledge or "fact". Thus, whether we are in the physical area or the mental area, it is a universal truth that the passage of things through our sensory perception from their beginning as feeble, misty "inklings" on the extreme edge of the horizon, until they become absolute "fact" or "knowledge" is interrupted several times. This interruption is due to the fact that our sensory faculty has been concentrated on other things. Other experiences have been more urgent and have forced us to devote our time to them before we could arrive at the details in the "area of inkling". We were thus compelled to pass through the "valleys", thereby temporarily losing sight of the distant visual goals in order to actually get closer to them and thereby be able to see them at such close quarters that we could correctly perceive their true or absolute analysis. But in the "valleys" there were also details that our senses reacted to and that thereby created "experiences" in our consciousness while we were on our way to the final or perfect experience of the above-mentioned distant goals for our sensory perception.
      Profound physical and spiritual experiences must thus be interrupted several times before they become completely perfect, which means, from being merely nebulous "inklings" until they become solid, concrete or absolute "knowledge". But the same holds true for the evolution of "experience" or "thought" as it does for the evolution of the "living being" itself. On its way from being an "inkling-being" (plant being) until it is a perfect, high-intellectual being indigenous to the "divine world", this being must of course also experience a series of "interruptions". These "interruptions" determine the alternating nature of the being's path of evolution that we call "reincarnation" or "rebirth".
      We see here that the being on its path towards perfection must traverse many different stages and be fully taken up by these, despite the fact that, for every stage it has passed, it has, however, come progressively closer to the goal of evolution in the distance, so that it sees this more clearly and can localise it better and better in order ultimately to fully attain the goal, where this becomes concrete "knowledge" or absolute "fact" or "reality". The terrestrial human being expresses each of these "interruptions" occurring on this great path of evolution by the illusory concept of "death". As we will see here in our analysis of the evolution of "thought", the concept of "death" is still merely a very primitively evolved "thought". This concept is still merely a "thought" at the nebulous stage of its cyclical path. It is merely an "inkling" without concrete or realistic details. The analysis of "death" has not as yet become a day-conscious "fact" for people in general. Some beings think that it is a total obliteration or annihilation of the living being in question, while others believe that it is the entrance to an "eternal paradise" or an "eternal hell", while yet others begin to "have an inkling" of what it really is, namely, a temporary interruption of the being's physical existence. From the analyses in "Livets Bog" we know that "death", as already mentioned, is merely a temporary interruption of physical life in favour of the being's passage through a spiritual existence, and that for every such interrupted physical life it experiences, it comes closer and closer to higher and more perfect "knowledge" or a higher and more perfect state of consciousness.
      But what is a more perfect state of consciousness other than the concrete "knowledge" or "reality" produced by "nebulous thoughts" or "inklings"? Is sensory perception not a continuous movement towards the details of the periphery so that these come into the very central range of the perspective and there become completely realistic or true facts that dominate and form the foundation for an absolutely perfect exercise of the will? But just as the evolution or passage of the "living being" in the spiral cycle is a transformation from "inkling consciousness" (plant consciousness) into the real or absolutely perfect "human being" or into the even more perfect being that belongs to the highest sphere, the "divine world", where the highest C-knowledge dominates, it is also the case with the evolution of thought in our own range of sensory perception. This takes place, as already mentioned, with temporary interruptions, undergoing "death" on its path through the cycle or on its way from "vague sensory perception" to "fact". It is thus in principle fully subject to reincarnation or rebirth in precisely the same way as the "living being". And with the following more detailed explanation of this analysis the advanced researcher will arrive at a very great divine experience of its own territory of consciousness and its own identity.