1691. But what does a section of such an epoch look like in the outer world? Is there anything on the physical plane of existence that can be pointed out as being effects of the presence of such a section of existence or the spiral cycle? Yes, there most certainly is. What does one think about the entire side of existence that we express as "lifeless"? What does one think about all the substances and materials that we express as "dead", and which together form what we call the "mineral kingdom"? Does not the "mineral kingdom" consist of an entire series of substances that are not organised in specific, individual organisms? If we look at the other kingdoms or sections in the spiral cycle, we see that without exception all the substances there are organised in organisms or bodies. In the plant kingdom we thus begin to be able to differentiate between specific individual organisms: the many different species of plants, grasses, bushes and trees. In the animal kingdom we see organisms that are even stronger and are characterised by having developed in a more individual direction. While the substances in the mineral kingdom lie dormant in great lifeless masses and units, matter on the other planes is expressive of life or living beings. What turns the mineral kingdom into a so-called "lifeless" world and the other kingdoms in the cycle into expressions of life? What makes the mineral kingdom appear to consist of "lifeless" matter, while the other kingdoms consist of "living beings"? Can there be a more basic cause than the fact that the living beings have stopped concentrating their consciousness outwardly through the outer worlds and therefore live a secluded life in their own personal inner world, which can consist only of memories of past lives that they have experienced in the outer worlds of the senses? It is a matter of course that with this attunement of consciousness they have no need of individual bodies or organisms. But when the beings do not transform the substances into organisms, that is, into the outward manifestation of the waking day-consciousness in the outer worlds, this matter cannot possibly gather or accumulate in living organisms. That this epoch or zone in the cycle can therefore be only a world of matter pure and simple, where no organisms, no wakingly day-conscious exercise of the will and no manifestation of life is revealed, apart from the movement that occurs in all substance, is of course only what must emerge as fact.