Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 5, sect. 1623

1623. But "Adam" and "Eve", which in this case means terrestrial mankind, are not yet liberated from the animal traditions or the desire to "eat of the tree of knowledge". They must therefore remain for the time being in a world or sphere outside the original garden of light or Garden of Eden. Their animal, murderous, egoistic disposition would of course render any existence in the light impossible if this disposition were not placed in a physical sphere of like-minded beings that are enslaved by animal traditions or egoistic desires and bloodthirstiness. Here, among such beings that are similarly disposed with regard to greater or lesser animal traditions, "Adam" and "Eve" can enjoy the satisfaction of "eating of the tree of knowledge" and attain a fundamental knowledge of "good" and "evil, and thereby be perfected to such an extent that they ultimately no longer use their immense knowledge and know-how in the service of selfishness or egoism, but on the contrary are disposed only to serve everything and everyone, and, like the sun, emanate the culmination of life-giving force to all living things. Only in this way is it feasible for the living being to document or establish that its appearance is identical to "God's image after his likeness". But then the being is no longer a "male being" or a "female being", and has thus lost the preconditions that determine its culmination of suffering, darkness and death. That this is indeed the case is a matter of course. How could the living being otherwise acquire the ability to "love its neighbour as itself" and thereby God above all things?