Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 5, sect. 1699

1699. But what then can ensure that "mineral matter" can become "vegetable" and "animal" matter, and be able to return once again to the mineral state? We see of course in daily life that, through various processes, "mineral matter" becomes "vegetable" and "animal" matter, and, as such, becomes material for the creation of organisms. But we see too when an organism "dies" how it decomposes and its fluids "evaporate". And gradually, as the organism dries out completely, its substance again becomes "mineral matter", which is subject to the law of disintegration so that it can pass into the cycle of matter and become "earth", chemicals and salts, which in turn can be nutrition and material for the building up of a new organism. It is thereby established as fact that a governing power exists behind the substances, a power that is able to select and combine substances in certain forms or organise them in appropriate ways. This power transforms matter into material for the building up of, for example, a heart, lungs, a liver, kidneys, glands, flesh, blood and nerves. From the same matter it forms organs for sight, hearing, smell, taste and sensation, all of these organs without exception being fitting phenomena or tools with which a "something" can experience and manifest. But when these organs are thus built up so that they can be tools for only this experience and manifestation, they are in themselves an irrefutable proof of the existence of this "something". And this fact thus revealed confirms the existence of a willing, thinking and acting I in all living beings, an I that forms the basis for the fact that we say "my body", "my eyes", "my ears", and go on declaring the existence of the I with such expressions as: "I ran", "I walked", "I was happy" and so on. That this I or "something" cannot be identical with any of the organs of the body or organism is evident because each of them, from the brain down to the very smallest glandular function, is a subordinate tool created for a purpose. This purpose must have existed before the tool came into existence, and must then have been a thought or a willed something, but in whom? As for the brain, it cannot have been the will, since, just like all the other organs in the organism, it can be defined only as being subordinate to will and purpose, and is thereby evidently an object owned by the originator of this will and purpose. A living being thus says "my brain", just as it says "my hand", "my eyes" and so on. That which expresses itself as the originator of the brain must therefore have existed before the brain came into existence. All the living being's organs were of course links in the aim, the purpose or the plan that simply must have existed before it ever became a physical reality. Thus we return to the inevitable, willing and deciding "something" or I and its world of thoughts in the living being. This I and its world of thoughts thus cannot be anything physical or material. It is only through its manifestation, through its mastery of physical matter, that it indirectly reveals itself as a reality or fact. This thus means that this I and its world of thoughts constitute that which is "really alive" in the organism. Since this is invisible, indeed, seems "immaterial" on the physical plane, it has been expressed as the living being's "spirit".