Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 5, sect. 1819

1819. But in paradise there is always a snake, and so too in the terrestrial experience of paradise. "Stage A" of being in love does not exist for very long in its purest form. It does not take very long before hitherto hidden lower forces begin to make their presence felt. The great, sympathetic attitude of the being that is in love towards its beloved is not the love or unselfishness that it seemed to be at first; in fact, it is actually not love at all. The sympathy of amorous love has a tinge of real love only on the surface. The innermost nature of this sympathy is sheer selfishness, which is, of course, the opposite of the real love that is the fulfilment of the law. Amorous love or love of mating is a phenomenon that in the long run cannot exist without nourishment. Out of desire A a new desire thus gradually emerges. It demands possession of the beloved and his or her love in return. We will here in our analyses express this desire as amorous love's "desire B". If this desire is not satisfied and the being does not attain possession of its beloved, amorous or mating love will stagnate. And with this stagnation the true standard of evolution of the being that is in love is revealed. The limit of this being's true sympathetic ability as a rule now shows itself to be several degrees below the feeling of sympathy that its amorous love expressed. Indeed, this standard of sympathetic feeling can even be so low that it actually expresses nothing but coldness towards all fellow beings. Neighbourly love is thus almost completely lacking. And in a situation where the beloved cannot reciprocate the love of his or her admirer to the same extent as he or she is loved by the admirer, the admirer's general feeling, which as previously mentioned is actually mental coldness, in the worst case simply turns into deadly hatred towards his or her beloved. It is mainly this state that forms the basis of all crimes of passion and marital dramas, and, in the mildest cases, turns the being that is in love or the admirer into a victim who is forced to resign him- or herself to the melancholy and depression that we call "unrequited love".