Why the concept of "death" has emerged in the world
1399. By straining all its physical senses and its well-developed intelligence, the terrestrial human being can, through the discovery of skeletons, layers of coal and earth, types of stone and so on, see that the Earth has undergone a very long evolution, and gradually more and more steps have been revealed, each of them more beautiful, more noble and belonging to a more intellectual level than the previous ones. These discoveries are precisely sufficient to allow it to see that the Earth and everything upon it has come into existence by steps, and that all living beings are situated on these steps. Since these physical senses do not enable it to see anything other than the outer surface of physical power, it can see only that the combination of matter that it calls a "living being" has been "created", has come into existence and will similarly perish and decompose. Since its physical senses do not enable it to see the spiritual matter or the form of energy that in reality occurs below the outer physical surface or behind the so-called "physical body", the being believes that this body constitutes the whole of the being or its highest self. It thereby has the impression that the living being is a "created thing" and can therefore exist only according to the laws of "created things". In this way the concept of "death" emerged in the world. With its awake, physical day-consciousness the being does not see its spiritual life, which means the reaction of its consciousness, thoughts and mental life, as extending beyond that span of time in which the physical body can express it. If something happens to the physical body, if, for example, it is mutilated or in some other way weakened so that it can no longer obey the demands of the consciousness, the being can no longer manifest itself on the physical plane, and its physical body then lies motionless and still, and immediately begins to decompose or rot. We call such a body a "corpse". And the being that previously consisted of this physical body and the consciousness that revealed itself through it is now perceived as something that no longer exists. And so here we have arrived at life's greatest illusion, indeed, we have arrived at the very thing that has since been perceived as the "punishment for the Fall". As will be remembered, a voice sounded in the "Garden of Eden" saying, "But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
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