Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 4, sect. 1436

1436. Since the terrestrial human being thinks that its neighbour consists of "matter", its relationship to this neighbour will be a relationship to, and a treatment of, "matter". It wants it to be adapted to and moulded in its own interest. And where this neighbour does not allow itself to be subjected to this moulding without resistance, it will to a greater or lesser extent use force in the same way as it does in relation to "matter" or "substance". If rocks or stones will not yield to an ordinary blow from a hammer, explosives are used. Where one's neighbour does not yield to either ordinary mental force, speech or words, explosives, violence and force are also used against it. Where it will not let itself be subdued, it is sometimes annihilated. It is thrown into life's dustbin in the same way as any other old piece of junk or useless thing that no longer serves the interests of its executioners. The primitive terrestrial human being thus tries to subtract from or add to this neighbour as it now best suits its own interests – not as it suits its neighbour's interests. And it is this lack of consideration that reveals that the being cannot sense "life" in its neighbour, and that the latter is thus in reality sensed merely as "matter", even though it is seen to have the form of a "living being". The being that beats its neighbour and persecutes it, because this neighbour is not an advantage for the being, does not know the difference between "matter" and "spirit". It wants to place it on its anvil and believes that it can form it with a hammer, just as one can form a piece of glowing iron with an anvil and a hammer. And if it cannot form the being in this way, it often becomes this being's "deadly enemy" and will thereafter work to annihilate this being.