Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 4, sect. 1265

1265. Thus there is, indeed, no getting away from acknowledging the stability or the fixed reactions of the various energies or substances. The fact that a substance invariably reacts in its own, specific way, that it eternally tastes as it does, that it is poisonous or destructive, or is beneficial towards this or that, is precisely the foundation of all conscious mental life and creation. All conscious mental life consists of one thing only, namely, of experiencing how substances or energies react with one thing or another. Does any other way of experiencing life exist? How would it be possible to gather experiences in any other way? And is it not precisely by virtue of the permanent or perpetual reactions of the substances that we are able to use these reactions in our creative activities? Is it not because of these reactions that, before creating something specific, we can plan this creation? Is this not true of the housewife doing her daily cooking, as well as for the constructional engineer when planning a large construction? What is a cookery book other than a list of the "effects of substances" or reactions that a housewife can use in her preparation of nutritious food? And what are the engineer's working plans other than a list describing combinations of the "effects of substances" that are necessary or can be used to advantage in this or that envisaged creation? But how could these lists be made and plans be drafted if the reactions or characteristics of the substances or materials concerned did not exist and were not known in advance as fixed, permanent principles that were independent of wishes? If these principles were not eternal or unalterable, all creation, all manifestation and thereby all conscious mental life would thus be an absolute impossibility in the universe.