Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 4, sect. 1255

1255. The essential thing for these pioneers of neighbourly love or a new cultural or moral epoch is thus not to suddenly change the world of today or to make "political" propaganda for changing the present laws of society. These laws are exactly as they have to be in order to benefit this society most. What has to be changed today must be done by "politicians" who are more in contact with the social consciousness of today than the above-mentioned pioneers can be. Similarly is it not a matter of "converting" or "changing" the members of one's family, one's spouse, one's young sons and daughters, just as "converting" other people, friends or associates within one's circle of acquaintances is naturally not important either. Attempts in this direction will in most cases create exactly the opposite of the intended effect. Instead of getting these beings to be in favour of one's own point of view, they can in the worst cases even become enemies and persecutors of this point of view and thereby of oneself. The fact is that people in general have the idea that beings from the same social level or the same outer layer of society can understand the same things and should therefore be able to be made interested in the same problems, subjects or phenomena. But in reality this is not the case. This is particularly evident in the religious sphere. When people can so often fall victim to the illusion of believing that their relatives, friends or acquaintances must inevitably have the same glowing interest in one or another subject that they themselves feel enthusiastic about, it is of course due to the fact that people on the outer mental surface can have so many interests in common and here be almost completely in agreement. Two beings may thus have the same view of purely "political" subjects, they may be interested in the same sports, indeed, they may even be interested in the study of the same fields of material science and may even be bound to one another as apparently inseparable friends. It is therefore not so surprising that they each must believe that they know the other inside out. If one of them therefore gets into contact with a new sphere of interest that can fascinate this person very much, he or she will think that this sphere of interest to an equally great extent will also interest the other party. And here the great difference that there may be in the deeper or innermost part of their psyches rises to the surface. Here it often turns out that what is self-evident or a matter of course to one party can be quite incomprehensible to the other. And it is because of this that many otherwise good, intimately connected friends and relatives have come to a parting of the ways. In a situation where one meets real "cosmic science" it can even turn out that the one who does not understand, whether it be a spouse, a brother, a sister, a father, a mother or a friend, becomes downright "angry", intolerant and denounces the other as a "fanatic". And the less the person who is misunderstood has the ability to keep his new understanding and attitude to himself, the worse it becomes; indeed, in the worst case it can even lead to his or her marriage ending in divorce, to exclusion from his or her circle of friends, to exclusion from the family circle as well as to him or her being denounced as the "black sheep" of the family.