Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 5, sect. 1700

1700. It is this "spirit" that makes an organism "alive" or makes a suitable combination of substances constitute a "living being". As long as this spirit has possessed or permeates the physical organism, it obeys the "spirit" and manifests itself as something that is "alive", since, through it, the "spirit" manifests a perpetual, planned interaction between itself and the physical world. And we say of this organism, and the expression of thoughts and will manifested through it, that it constitutes a "living being". When this "spirit" withdraws from the organism, it is left lying peacefully, and will gradually decompose. And we call such an organism that has been abandoned by its "spirit" a "corpse". Through this analysis we thus now understand that "mineral matter" is "lifeless" because it is "devoid of spirit". It has been abandoned by the I and its world of thoughts. That is to say that the real living being that lives in the organism, the originator of the organism, has left this organism. This spiritual originator has thus the ability to step out of the physical organism and thereby withdraw from its interaction with the physical world. It is evident here that this originator is "conscious" and not "unconscious", because it can make plans and have aims that form the basis for the creation and construction of the physical organism, plans and aims that must of necessity exist prior to any physical manifestation or creation. How and at whose wish and command could it otherwise have emerged? If the being were unconscious on the spiritual plane, how could it then create a new physical organism and return repeatedly to the physical plane at all? The living being does not create or work out plans and aims in an unconscious state, but in a wakingly day-conscious one. As is apparent from all the other analyses in "Livets Bog" regarding this aspect of the living being, it is thus absolutely only the combination of the I and its world of thoughts portrayed here that determines reincarnation and physical creation. When the I possesses or overshadows physical matter with its spirit in order to create an organism, this matter first becomes "vegetable" matter and later "animal" matter. When it no longer possesses or overshadows these forms of matter, they again become "lifeless" substance, that is to say "mineral matter". All "mineral matter" in the world is "devoid of spirit", and thereby "unconscious". If the I allows its spirit to leave the physical organism without entirely cutting off its connection to this organism, it will be only partly unconscious in this organism. We call this partial unconsciousness "sleep". During sleep the I's interaction or correspondence with the physical world through its physical organism is reduced to a very latent state, but not in such a way that it cannot allow this interaction to be fully activated again when needed. When this interaction is activated again, we say that the being "wakes up". This "sleep" comes not only in a normal way as a natural necessity but can also be produced artificially by anaesthetics, by injuries to the physical organism and by hypnosis and self-hypnosis. But all these artificial forms are abnormal and can be injurious, if not fatal. They can thus in the worst case completely destroy the spirit's connection to the physical organism, which is thereby rendered useless far too prematurely and separates from the I, after which it becomes a "corpse".