Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 5, sect. 1610

1610. This flaming sword temporarily transforms the state of the son of God from a "double-poled state" to a "single-poled state". And to the extent that this "single-poled state" grows, the being loses its ability to be in contact with the highest laws of life. It thereby loses a corresponding degree of the freedom that depends on contact with these laws. And the being's ability to manifest and experience life becomes increasingly limited. The "bewitching" of the "king's son" (the son of God) is well under way. He turns to stone and becomes increasingly one with matter. This incipient loss of cosmic freedom is thus an incipient cosmic imprisonment. The first stage of this cosmic imprisonment is, as previously mentioned, bodily imprisonment, in which the being's freedom of movement in space compared to its original mental capacity for movement can be likened only to a snail's pace compared to the speed of a projectile, even with the most modern means of transport such as propeller-driven and jet-propelled aircraft. And with regard to the being's imprisonment in "time" it has merely a very tiny, microscopic spot to move around on; indeed, it is almost nailed to the spot. This little spot is called the "now". The "now" is merely a spark, a lightning flash from the colossal fire that it itself constitutes in the form of eternity. In truth, this is the culmination of the son of God's experience of death. In him eternity is a lifeless colossus. His life is thousands upon thousands of years long, indeed, is a completely unlimited number of millions of years long, but his day-conscious, waking knowledge of this enormous terrain of life can be counted in merely hours and days. He regards himself as being so and so many years old, as having such and such a weight, and such and such measurements. But what are this age, weight or measurements in relation to eternity and infinity? Do not the greatest numbers shrink to inconceivable minuteness; indeed, do they not diminish continuously and eternally the more they are held up against the boundlessness of eternity? Can a "cosmic corpse" be more obviously and unshakeably manifested than in this son of God's physical and materialistic recognition of himself? Being identical to eternity, he is of gigantic dimensions, but his consciousness has long since vanished in the imperceptible, dark minuteness of the microcosmos and continues to diminish. Can any process of death be more real?