Toward the Light

An unpublished version of the Concluding Summary to Ardor’s Account, by Harry Eric Prior, amalgamated from the three English Toward the Light translations of 1950, 1975 and 1979. Syntax has been improved and redundancies eliminated, resulting in 2,601 fewer words than the official 1979 translation of the Summary. Editing notes available on request. <hprior1@tampabay.rr.com>

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Concluding Summary

33,516 WORDS

From eternity God was impersonal, until the moment Thought and Will met and became united in a harmony of perfect beauty. Then God arose as a personal Being, as Master of the Light and Vanquisher of Darkness, limited in His personal Being, without limit in His supreme Will, and containing time and space, limited as well as unlimited, in His all-comprehending Thought—an almighty Divinity Whom no human being can begin to comprehend. The most exalted, the most gloriously conceived image of God but faintly reflects His true glory, His omnipotence, His wisdom.

All human beings carry in their thought a reflection of God. The younger, the less developed the human spirit, the fainter, the more obscure the reflection, and the more human becomes the divine ideal, as all ideals springing from human conceptions are burdened with quite human feelings and qualities. Therefore, the more obscure the reflection, the more the individual cloaks the divine in mysticism, seeking perhaps in this way to cover up or explain away the incomprehensible—that which the mortal eye cannot see, or that of which feeble and undeveloped human thought cannot conceive. But the older, the more developed the spirit, the purer, the nobler and the more gloriously is God and the divine reflected in human thought, and the better will human beings be able to conceive of a high, divine ideal with which they try to become one through heartfelt prayer.

Not only is the sublimity and omnipotence of God reflected in the thought of each human being but so also is His paternal nature and His profound and all-embracing love. The thoughts, the actions and the lives of people of integrity and purity will therefore clearly reflect God’s compassionate love, and in their hearts they will carry the full trust of a child in a distant, invisible Father in whose keeping they feel happy and secure.

But the young and undeveloped human spirits, as yet predominantly influenced by Darkness, perceive God only faintly as the gentle, loving and just Father. Only too often does He appear to them as the stern, the unquestioned and fear-inspiring ruler, an avenging and demanding deity who grants nothing without bloody sacrificial tribute or scented offering—a divinity with whom mankind must barter constantly to receive the desired blessings. Yet even those many who now live in such servile fear of their God and Father will one day, through many incarnations of development, reach the absolute faith and trust in Him as of a child.

Many during mortal existence carry in their thoughts and in their hearts a beautiful and clear reflection of the Divinity, brought with them from life in the transcendental world but veiled and blurred by man-made dogma handed down from generation to generation. They must search deeply within themselves so as to be able to reject all false assertions and wrong conclusions, until the veil is lifted from the divine reflection that it may again stand for them pure and clear in all its radiant beauty.

With the passing of time, as century is added to century and Darkness is slowly eliminated, so will more and more people come to understand God’s boundless love, His justice, His gentleness and His compassion and will realize that they have belittled God by endowing Him, the Highest One, with mere human qualities that must be removed before His image can once more appear exalted, pure and noble.

Every human being should strive to understand this idealization of the Divinity.

When Christ in his Speech to mankind says: “My words shall go forth to all the peoples of the Earth. All will hear them, for they shall reach to the ends of the Earth”, he means not that those now able to understand and to rejoice in his Gospel of Love should forthwith go into the world and proclaim his words to others of different ideas and beliefs. Rather, he said this because he knew that sooner or later all people will—some in their present and others in their future incarnations—be able to accept his message with joy and understanding.

But though the time yet lies far ahead when all existing religions will have become as one, humans themselves can do much to draw this time nearer by heeding rather than ignoring their inner convictions and by not being indifferent or hostile to this message, presented them from the transcendental world. They should strive to make it known and to propagate it from person to person, from people to people, calmly and with dignity, without compelling propaganda or fanatic missionary zeal; for this message can be of great help, that the human spirit in mortal existence may become the mirror that catches and reflects a purer, a stronger and a more beautiful image of the Divinity than in the past. But all should realize that the reflection of God and the Divine, no matter how glorious it may become in earthly human existence can never fully reach its exalted ideal.

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God’s children who sprang from His Paternal bosom—the Eldest, the Youngest, and the human spirits—have all been gifted with life eternal; but since God compels no one ever to accept His gifts He has also endowed every spirit with a free will, with the right of self-determination, and thereby has limited His own Will and His own knowledge. On reaching a certain degree of maturity, all God’s children can, by the right of self-determination, choose to receive the gift of eternal life or to revert again to the Paternal bosom.

A distorted version of this fact is taught in Buddhism in which, according to some interpretations, the human spirit upon reaching the highest perfection sinks back into “Nirvana”— reverts, that is, into the Divinity. The Buddha himself taught originally that when the human spirit had attained to perfect freedom from all earthly influence and all earthly desire through numerous rebirths, it then returned to the source—to the Divinity—from which it sprang. This absorption or reversion was not considered by the Buddha as the annihilation of the individuality but as an indissoluble bond with the divine, whereby the reverted self could follow the earthly drama in serene contemplation. This absorption into the Divinity could sometimes be fleetingly discerned by certain highly advanced spirits in their human existence, indicating then that the spirit was living through its final incarnation.

All creation, the primary (the transcendental) as well as the secondary (the galaxies) and all that has been called forth from Darkness through the fall of the Eldest, can, should God so choose, be dissolved once more by His omnipotent Will into the elements from which it was created or evolved.

All being and all life exists only by virtue of the cosmic basis, primal Thought and primal Will—the source of all creation, the first cause and first beginning of all that is—God. And since God emanated Himself and thereby became capable of creation, He can, at any time should He choose, dissolve His own Being as well as all creation; in other words: revert Himself together with all that He created to that which He was, without beginning and without end—Thought and Will. Cosmos will endure only as long as God maintains in His all-embracing Thought the laws of creation (gravitation, cohesion, adhesion, centrifugal and centripetal force, and so on).

God can in theory thus allow Himself and all creation to sink back into “Logos”, but in practice He will never do so since through His infinite love for all His many children He has bound Himself for eternity by giving them the promise of everlasting life.

When God emanated Himself, He simultaneously drew Darkness under the Light in a mighty circulation through His flaming Being so that the Light should thus absorb and purge the Darkness.

When God resolved to create the galaxies, Darkness was far from being absorbed and eliminated but could be found with latent poles as a faint under-current in the circulatory waves of the Light.

As even the highest¹ frequencies of vibration of the Darkness that is enclosed by the Light are much slower than the lowest frequencies of the Light, Darkness will always tend to “precipitate” in the sea of the Light. For this reason God had to form the innermost core of the four mother suns from the less rapid vibrations of the Light—imperceptible to the human eye—which in turn enclosed the Darkness, with its still lower frequency of vibration. From the innermost cores of the globes to their outer limits, the vibrations increase in speed. As its frequency increases, the Light proportionately increases in concentration of strength and in ethereal radiance, so that the outer layer becomes like a radiant corona—not perceptible to the human eye—though without attaining to the degree of concentration and ethereal radiance emitted by those vibrations of the Light that, through the power of God’s Will, brought forth His own Kingdom (the central globe).

Since all the globes in the galaxies have their source, directly or indirectly, in the four original mother suns, they are of identical structure. But because the ether (the Light, and the Darkness precipitated in it) flows through and pervades all space, and thereby all the globes, the darker cores of the globes will gradually diminish as the circulating waves of the Light draw more and more Darkness away to be purged through God’s flaming Being.

When God had chosen the Earth as the dwelling place for the beings He had thought to create, He formed from the high—the ethereal—vibrations of the Light, a world of perfect beauty that surrounded the Earth as a sphere, a spherical stratum. It was God’s intent that those of His first-created children, who would be chosen to lead the inhabitants of the Earth, should remain here while carrying out their task. The ethereal radiations from this transcendental world should, by God’s plan and together with the ethereal-astral radiations of the corona of Light of the Earth’s sun, have regulated climatic conditions on the Earth itself.

But when the Eldest began their attempts at creation, large quantities of Darkness were separated from the ether, and these wrought destruction in the world of Light that God had formed round the Earth.² This disengagement activated the poles of Darkness, and as a portion of the disengaged Darkness slowly approached the Earth, the hitherto latent poles in the Globe’s core of Darkness were gradually activated under the influence of the approaching, polarized Darkness. As the Darkness drew closer to the core, it intermingled increasingly with the Globe’s ethereal corona of Light, causing a significant reduction in the corona’s frequency of vibration. When Darkness reached the core of the Earth, the entire Globe² was darkened and it appeared to be without any luminous corona (visible only from the transcendental world). But because the Light, through God’s victory over Darkness, can never be extinguished or conquered, Darkness could not eliminate or destroy the Globe’s ethereal radiation of Light, only contaminate and obscure it.

Although the frequency of vibration of the corona of Light was reduced and moderated by the influx of Darkness, the corona still radiated sufficient Light to contain or fixate the Darkness that had fused with the Earth’s core of Darkness. By this fixation, the life-principle of the polarized Darkness became merged with the seeds of Life—given by God—that were in the Globe’s corona of Light, and the cell in its various forms then appeared. Some of these cells were dual-sexed, others of single sex. The reproduction, or generation, of new dual cells took place, and does so still, by the simple processes of division, ligation, and the like; while on the other hand the generation of new single cells took place, and does so still, by a preceding union of two cells of opposite sex.

Some microbes can reproduce in two ways, as for instance when certain disease-producing bacteria enter the body as parasites and reproduce by a simple division that gradually reduces their vitality. The disease is neutralized as the bacteria expire or as their vitality is reduced to the point that they no longer interfere with the body’s normal functions. But should additional bacteria of the same strain enter the infected body before the previous bacteria have expired, the old and new merge and bring about new subdivisions. If the new bacteria are sufficiently vital, the older ones are revitalized and the illness flares anew until the vitality of the bacteria is weakened once more through numerous divisions. The disease can of course be alleviated or checked in other ways, by the body’s own antidoting ability for example, or by added antidotes, and so forth. The foregoing refers only to the normal life cycle of the bacteria.

Bacteria of related strains can likewise merge or be absorbed by one another with subsequent division as a result. New strains then appear that produce new diseases.

Each single seed of life that God by His Thought and Will had implanted in the Earth’s ethereal corona of Light, carried within itself the pattern, the prototype of the animal or the plant; that is, the form into which these seeds—by the Will of God and when determined by Him—should have been called forth in the world of Light that He would create on Earth. Since these seeds were instead brought forth to earthly life through a union with the life-principle of Darkness, they became subject to the distorting, malforming and degrading influence of Darkness. But because the corona of Light had fixated the Darkness that transformed the Globe, the Light retained an orderly, uplifting, selective and harmonizing influence on the single- and dual-sexed cells and their formations, which had been produced through the merger of the seeds with the life-principle of Darkness.

The dual-sexed cells represented the lowest reproductive life form of Darkness, which could not lead to higher or more complex forms, and were therefore not able to produce even the faintest reflection of the prototypes that rested in the God-given seeds of life. The union of the single-sexed cells (male and female), controlled and guided by the regulating and harmonizing influence of the corona of Light,³ is therefore a blind, mechanical simulation by Darkness of the consciously-willed union of primal Thought and primal Will that resulted in the emergence of God as a personal Being.

Under the influence of the corona of Light through millions of years, with the continuous cell division and cell formation resulting from the merging of male and female cells, ever more complex forms of life evolved. The various intricate tissues were organized into bone, muscle, nerves and the like, and into the various modes of digestion, reproduction, etc., both in the animal and in the plant kingdoms. All these forms continuously strive toward the patterns given by God in the original seeds of life. This striving was, and is still, constantly restrained and disturbed by the degenerative tendencies of Darkness, and during this time when the power of Darkness over the Earth was so much greater than that of the Light, the formation of cells led to the most grotesque forms, for example through mating by the animals at random, so that in many ways they were departing from rather than advancing toward the prototypes⁴ embedded in the seeds.⁴ As the Light gains in power over the “disengaged Darkness”, these mutations will disappear and the many hideous and harmful animal species will gradually die out over the coming thousands or millions of years. (True also for the plant kingdom.)

When human intelligence began experimenting with the creation of new forms within the prevailing animal and plant species, human beings in many ways forestalled the influence of the Light. If these hybrids are to achieve a natural, independent and continued propagation within their new forms, they must for hundreds, or thousands, perhaps millions of years be exposed to the same care and treatment they now get. Otherwise, when again left to themselves they will sooner or later revert to those forms they had reached under the slow but progressive ordering, elimination, adaptation and harmonization process of the corona of Light.

The earthly forms will, however, never reach the fullness of the prototypes given by God in the primary seeds, partly because these (for instance in the animal kingdom) had been destined to lead a life without propagation or death, and partly because Darkness cannot be completely eliminated until the Earth itself comes to its end.

When the Eldest created the human beings, they intended that the species should be maintained through reproduction. For this reason they endowed the male and female life-seeds of the human sexual cells with a characteristic, with a form that corresponded to the human type represented by the given seeds. These primordial seed prototypes (invisible to all human observation) were thus to be the principal foundation for the creatures of the Eldest and, through reproduction, were to be reborn and maintained in the future generations as long as the Earth was in the power of the Eldest. But when God adopted humanity and endowed the physical body with a divine element, the body was brought under the harmonizing influence of the Light; and as the Youngest let themselves in ever greater numbers be incarnated among humans, the fullness of beauty they all carried in their thought also began, through procreation, to exert a strong influence on the Eldest’s primary prototypes in the human life-seeds. This influence tended especially to produce a trend toward the beautification and ennoblement of the physical body. Through the millions of years that the human body has been subject to the progressive, elevating influence of the Youngest and of the Light, the primordial prototypes of the Eldest have gradually departed somewhat from the original degrading stamp of Darkness. This ennoblement is especially noticeable in those peoples among whom the Youngest have been regularly incarnated.

The human male and female life-seeds also accurately reflect at any time the personal characteristics of each individual. Thus, all outer and inner family traits and talents ancestrally inherited by each individual, as well as all experience personally acquired in life on Earth, lie dormant both in the physical and astral life-seeds of the individual and can be transmitted to the offspring through procreation.⁵ Through the coincidence of various internal and external circumstances, these latent characteristics and talents can be caused to reappear in the new individuals; however, outward characteristics as well as inner qualities can also, through various coinciding causes, be repressed through several generations only to reappear later in new combinations in some members of the family.

Through the incarnations of the Youngest, the primary human prototype is drawn further and further away from its original appearance, both astrally and physically. Were the Youngest, however, to discontinue their incarnations, their ennobling stamp on the human body would soon fade and the physical body would begin to resemble its original prototype. All the psychic enrichment gained by humans through the astral counterpart would likewise slowly fade, would almost vanish. And in addition, were God to withdraw the divine element, humans would within an appallingly short time—a few thousand years—revert to the characteristics given them by the Eldest, characteristics that would be far below and far more animal-like than those of the most primitive peoples of today. Then would the last trace of spiritual life that humanity has received through the incarnations of the Youngest also disappear completely. Human beings would again be entirely creatures of the Eldest.

Therefore: in the animal and plant kingdoms a slow approach to the primary prototypes is taking place under the upgrading and ordering influence of the Light, an approach to those prototypes that God, at the creation of the Earth, gave for the animal and plant life He intended to call forth. However, in humanity a slow departure from the primary prototype is taking place under the ordering and beautifying influence of the Light and of the Youngest, a departure from the primary prototypes given by the Eldest at the creation of mankind.

Under the influence of Darkness, a combination of circumstances during the development of new individuals can cause throwbacks (both astral and physical) to the original prototypes. Incursions of Darkness can likewise be so powerful as to cause deviations from these prototypes and thus produce malformed offspring. If the incursions go so deep as to impair the basis of the prototype, both astral and physical deviations, malformations and deficiencies can be inherited by the offspring. But should the human body for some reason become deformed or deficient during life on Earth, for example through amputations, surgical removal of organs, deformities caused by burns and the like, then the prototype is not altered. Only when Darkness intervenes directly and transmutes the prototype does the changed characteristic become heritable.

Because of the fixation by the corona of Light of the astral and molecular Darkness, all earthly life, all organic and inorganic substances arose as dualities, so that the forms that owed their existence only to the molecular vibrations of the fixated material Darkness—vibrations of larger particles—assumed an apparently solid consistency in the earthly world, but appeared misty and unreal when seen from the transcendental side; whereas the counterparts formed from the fixated astral Darkness—faster vibrations of smaller particles—in combination with the reduced and muted vibrations of the polluted corona of Light assumed solid⁶  and visible forms⁶ and figures⁶  when seen from the transcendental side, but remained invisible to the human eye when they subsequently entered the earthly world.

Thus: the Earth’s ethereal corona of Light fixated the Darkness that had merged with the core of the Earth; the faster and the slower vibrations of Darkness were thereby linked, so that the molecular products of Darkness were strengthened through the somewhat higher vibrations, smaller particles and greater cohesive and adhesive properties of the astral Darkness. The possibility was thereby created for the Light to gradually acquire a more regulating and balancing influence on the molecular products of Darkness on Earth, since the capacity of the molecules for stabilizing one another under their rotary wave-motions, as well as their capacity for mutual adhesion—as for example, in the structuring of cells—was significantly strengthened through the fixation and reinforcement by the corona of Light of the stabilizing, cohesive and adhesive properties of the particles of astral Darkness. Where a pathological state—infection by micro-organisms, or other abnormal conditions—might threaten to dissolve the bond between the molecular products of Darkness and their astral counterparts, the possibility was also created for the Light, through its strong vital force and stabilizing, cohesive and adhesive power, to counteract or arrest the incipient dissolution. And in cases where the cause of such a beginning separation could be removed or eliminated, the greater stabilizing, cohesive and adhesive capacity of the Light would be able once more to bind the loosened connection between the molecular products of Darkness and their astral counterparts, whereby the complete separation that would otherwise result in death and disintegration would be prevented, so that, for example, the life span of earthly forms of animals and plants could be prolonged through the re-establishment by the Light of the bond with their astral counterparts.

At the fixation by the corona of Light, of the Darkness that flowed into and over the Earth, and of the life-principle that existed in it, the life-potential of the molecular products of Darkness thus became improved and prolonged.

Had the globe’s ethereal corona of Light not been strong enough to fixate the Darkness, the Light would never have been able to gain any influence at all over the Darkness that had been separated by the Eldest, and the Earth—had it not disintegrated and dissolved—would then have come completely under the power of Darkness, since the ethereal corona of Light, which cannot be eliminated by Darkness, would have been re-absorbed by the ether. There would then have been only one way to re-establish order amid the destruction. God, by the power of His Will, would have had to dissolve and annihilate the globe, the ruined kingdom and His eldest fallen children, because by the ether’s re-absorption of the ethereal radiations of the Earth and the ruined kingdom, the territory thus conquered by Darkness would have been completely cut off from all further connection with the Light. But as God has endowed all His children with a free will, and thereby limited His power over them, He could never annihilate the Eldest—no matter how deeply fallen—without violating His promise. And so this means of restituting the fallen and the destruction that had occurred could never be realized, for if God had ended the existence of the Eldest, He would have done this against their wish and against their will.

In His omniscience, God had foreseen this and so had laid a world of Light around the Earth—the realm later ravaged by Darkness—formed from the rapid, ethereal vibrations of the Light, and has endowed the ethereal-astral corona of the globe with a strength of Light far greater than possessed by the other suns and the stars and planets. The Earth’s corona of Light thereby became so concentrated that it was transformed from the ethereal-astral into the ethereal, and thus became capable of fixating the in-flowing Darkness. Should any of God’s children succumb to Darkness, the possibility was thus created of restoring all things to their proper order over time through a steadily increasing influence by God and by the Light, even though this re-conquest from Darkness might take many eons to achieve, for there could, of course, be no question of exerting any force against the free will of the fallen children. 

With this provision, God thus succeeded in saving His eldest children from ultimate extinction.

The remaining astral Darkness that surrounded the globe and which had neither merged with the core nor been fixated by the corona of Light, partly absorbed the rays from the earthly sun’s ethereal-astral corona of Light so that the astral counterpart of the Earth, together with all counterparts of earthly life existing there, was left without illumination, without any appreciable difference between day and night. But the rays of the sun’s less luminous core, consisting of precipitated Darkness enclosed by the Light’s lower vibrations, were able to pass through astral Darkness almost without resistance and to illuminate the earthly world, though not able to illuminate the astral counterpart of the globe. (The slowest vibrations of the Light that enclose the sun’s core will in time become visible to the human eye.)

To help render the primordial state of the Earth’s astral counterpart more understandable to human thought, a comparison between astral conditions and an earthly scene might be useful. During a storm—a thunderstorm, say, which to humans is a visible manifestation of the powers of Darkness—the dark clouds will, depending on the severity of the storm, to a greater or a lesser extent block the rays of the sun normally visible to the human eye. Even though the sunlight has apparently vanished, the sun and its rays are still present behind the dense clouds. Similarly, the astral Darkness that enveloped the Earth held back the sun’s ethereal-astral radiations of Light, so that they reached neither the Earth nor its astral counterpart.

According to God’s plan, it was the ethereal-astral radiations of the earthly sun that should have illuminated and irradiated the Earth.

Neither the faintest luminous rays from the sun’s core of Darkness, nor the most luminous rays from the sun’s corona of Light will ever become visible to the eyes either of humans or of animals.

Since the Eldest had decided to create beings who could make themselves masters of the Earth, they had to attempt to produce a creature that without being an animal would nevertheless be modeled on both the astral and physical animal structure. To separate the molecular vibrations of the fixated Darkness and to create from these alone was impossible from the outset, because of the poor capacity for adhesion and cohesion of these molecules. Besides, the life-principle of molecular Darkness possessed not enough enduring vitality to form the sole basis for a regular and continued reproduction. Thus, it became necessary for the Eldest to utilize the life-principle of both the astral and the molecular Darkness which had been fixated by the corona of Light and which, by merging with the life-principle given by God in the corona of Light, had produced cells in all their various forms.

The difficulty in working with this “double material” delayed and greatly complicated the Eldest’s purpose, and since in the pursuit of their goal they constantly “overlooked” various minor details essential to the whole, they were forced to experiment at length with the design and assembly of cells into bone and organic tissue before they achieved a result satisfactory to them; a result that in a number of important and fundamental respects nonetheless turned out to be most unfortunate for human beings.

One of these many imperfections should be mentioned here, since it is especially important to humans, namely: the inability of the earthly physical body to regenerate and reconstruct adequately its inner organs, bones, and so forth.

As said before, some of the life-seeds embedded by God in the corona of Light before it was ravaged by Darkness, were destined to appear on Earth, under the influence of the Light, as various animal species having an enduring life in their original form and not subject to any manner of death or partial destruction. Hence, God gave no law for the regeneration of lost parts or impaired organs, since such would have been entirely superfluous in a world of the Light. But when Darkness awakened the latent seeds destined to become animal forms, these became in various ways subject to death and decay, and for the higher species of animal there was no prospect of regenerating by new growth any damaged or lost parts of the body. And when the Eldest proceeded to create human beings, partly with the existing animal forms as prototypes for their internal structure, they failed—confused as they were by Darkness—to consider this shortcoming. The Eldest thus established no laws under which the human body could reconstruct itself more adequately.

Thus, when humans through accident or by amputation lose part of or an entire limb, it cannot be replaced by any form of re-growth. Nor can anyone, no matter how highly developed the spirit, by the power of will or by the radiations of the spirit-body, cause new parts or new limbs to grow. Neither will prayers to God nor beseeching that He assist in such cases be of the least benefit, since God never violates the law for the construction and existence of the human body, the imperfect law established and followed by the Eldest when they formed and created the first human beings, and for whose shortcomings they alone are wholly responsible.

The possibility that God would take upon himself any responsibility for so incomplete a creation as the human body—in every respect a poor imitation of God’s own creations is out of the question.

Even had God intended to improve upon the creatures of the Eldest by establishing laws for the regeneration of lost organs and missing limbs, this would still have fallen short, for the human body as it now appears from the hand of its creators lacks also in a number of other ways of especial importance for human beings.

Had God sought, however, to relieve these deficiencies and to establish laws for the perfection and reconstruction of the physical body, He would thereby also have accepted responsibility for His fallen children’s work of creation. But God would no more do this than an artist on Earth would accept responsibility for the botchery and bungling of a pupil or an imitator. God will therefore never change that which was once given by the Eldest. Instead, He tries, through the intelligence with which He has enriched humans, to mitigate some of the many shortcomings—for example, through medicine or surgery, or, where the medical arts do not suffice, humans have learned to resort to artificial aids.

Through the many incarnations, the human spirit builds its individual personality. Just as mature or aging individuals can remember and look back upon their thoughts and feelings and recall incidents and actions from early childhood, and yet as adults in every way be able to identify with the child maturing slowly over the days and years, so can the released spirit remember as far back in time⁷ as thought can reach and still identify completely with all the figures to whom it gave spiritual life. The gradual development of the “self” unfolds before the spirit as a stream of images, from the first feeble personal beings to whom it has been bound, to those who have developed, slowly, into higher, more conscious personalities.

Therefore: Just as human beings at any given time represent the sum of the content of their lives, so do the individual personalities of released spirits represent the sum of the thoughts, feelings, actions and experiences of all their previous lifetimes on Earth.

However, the incarnations of the Youngest⁸ present a different picture. When the Youngest promised God to lead and teach the human beings, they were already highly developed personalities. When they look back upon their lifetimes as humans, it is more like actors and actresses in an earthly sense recalling the stage figures to whom they have given life over the years by their art and talent. Actors always prefer the roles that were closest to their own true personalities and were brought to life in the portrayal because of the distinctive character of the actors. Similarly, the Youngest, as they recollect previous lives, will also feel most attracted to and most closely identify with those human beings on whom they have left the purest and most noble spiritual imprint of their exalted individuality. And like the performers who on leaving the stage will cast off their masks and reveal their true selves, so will also the Youngest, when at death they leave the earthly scene and once more awaken to full consciousness, cast off the human mask and appear as the highly developed individualities they were before entering the earthly stage to take part in the great drama of the world.

Those Eldest who through their willful embodiment as human beings brought themselves under the Law of Retribution must all, through incarnation after incarnation, restore their personalities that were debased and distorted by Darkness. But in His compassion God extends the greatest possible help to these unfortunate beings by removing, as far as this is possible, the memory of all that they had experienced before the Earth came into being, so that to all appearances they are like human spirits.

Just as all released human spirits can look back upon their struggle out of Darkness and forward toward the Light, so can God follow His own struggle out of Darkness from eternity until the final victory was reached except it is for God not retrospection but experience in the present, for as He carries all time, finite as well as infinite, in His all-embracing Thought, the concept of time exists not for Him.

God gives the concepts of time and space for the use of all created beings. All are, to a lesser or greater degree, dependent upon these concepts. The higher the spirit rises, the more is it freed from these limiting concepts, without, however, ever attaining to full mastery over time and space. Even God’s Servants, since they have been emanated by God’s Will, are not entirely free of the concepts of time and space. Where God wishes to be, there He is, the instant the thought arises; but for God’s Servants some time must pass from the conception of the thought until it is carried out. It takes, for example, three seconds for God’s Servants to traverse the distance between God’s Kingdom and the Earth.

In all that has been created or brought to life on the Earth, there is found a faint reflection of God's own struggle forward. Each seed that has been put into the earth lies enclosed in the darkness of the soil until it inevitably sprouts forth into the light. The young of humans and mammals lie enclosed in the darkness of the maternal womb until the moment that they inevitably strive out into the light. The young of birds are enclosed in the darkness of the egg until they also inevitably struggle forth from the shell, and so forth. But the struggles of the seed, the child, the animal young and the young of birds from darkness into light, from becoming into being, these are unconscious, for it is the victorious power of the Light that calls them into existence. These unconscious struggles are thus no more than involuntary imitations of God’s conscious struggle.

In the struggle of humanity away from a primitive state, from the animal-like caricatures of their creators, to the state of development which has now been reached by average man, can also be seen a faint reflection and a likeness of God’s own struggle out of Darkness.

There is also found in the struggles of human beings away from a state of primitive, animal-like creatures—caricatures of their creators—to the state of development which has now been reached by average man, a reflection of and a similarity to God's own struggle out of the Darkness.

The greatest likeness can be found, however, in the struggle forward of each human spirit through the many earthly incarnations, from the deepest spiritual Darkness until certainty of the spirit’s own sovereign will for the Light releases it from the Earth and leads it slowly towards the goal, to God’s Kingdom—a goal still far in the future for even the most advanced human spirit.

However, the greatest similarity is found in each human spirit's struggle onward through the many earthly incarnations, from the deepest spiritual Darkness until the certainty of the spirit's own sovereign will for the Light releases it from the earth and slowly leads it towards the goal—God's Kingdom—a goal that still lies far in the future for even the most advanced human spirit.

The unceasing struggle of earthly life away from Darkness and toward the Light is, first, due to the Earth’s ethereal corona of Light which, by its fixation of the Darkness separated at the fall of the Eldest, became able to influence the earthly-material products of Darkness, and which, by the strength that God had concentrated in its radiations, became able to draw the chaotic life and distorted life-forms of Darkness into a more orderly state. Life on Earth as humans experience it therefore became a ceaseless struggle from the possibility to the reality of life, an existence that because of the brief duration of the material products of Darkness is constantly subject to decline, withering, death and destruction; a struggle and a cycle that will continue as long as the conditions for life are found on the Earth.

Even though the sun’s role as the Earth’s physical source of light and heat should not be disregarded but always considered in connection with life on Earth, the solar rays could never have called forth the profusion of forms of life that exist on the Earth had the ethereal corona of Light, the Earth’s soul, or psyche that is, not existed. Nor would the solar rays have exercised any significant regulating influence on existing conditions, apart from the greater or lesser influence that is dependent on and arises from the various positions of the globe in relation to the sun, and from the distance of the various regions of the Earth from its equator.

But as God, by the power of His Will, has formed an ethereal corona of Light around the Earth, the energy from it supports and strengthens the rays of the sun that penetrate the atmospheric layers to benefit the globe, so that the influence of this radiance upon earthly life thereby acquires a greater and more valuable significance.

Since the sun has been greatly affected by the many collisions with accumulations of Darkness that drifted and still drift about in space, the radiations from it that reach the Earth through the atmospheric layers are not of a uniform intensity, because the rays from the damaged areas of the sun are considerably weaker than the others. These differences influence the meteorological and climatic conditions on Earth.

The glacial or Ice Ages of the Earth were caused by the reduced strength of the sun’s radiance after collisions with drifting accumulations of Darkness; but because the radiance from the sun’s corona of Light and the surrounding Light-ether have eliminated large portions of the accumulations of Darkness that were depolarized by the collisions, more normal climatic conditions prevail once more on Earth now, many thousands of years later.

The corona of Light also acts as a condensing medium for the solar rays that reach the Earth. If the corona did not exist, the rays would be refracted during their passage through the Earth’s atmospheric layers and would seem to earthly eyes to be broken and scattered. As the corona now not only encloses the entire globe, but has in addition fixated the Darkness to whose astral and molecular vibrations the earthly bodies and the earthly forms owe their existence, all luminous bodies and sources of light each separately appear, like sunlight, with a unified monochromatic radiation of light. Gradually, as the exceedingly slow process of purging the corona of its Darkness takes place, the corona will increasingly be able to overcome the capacity for refraction and color-separation⁹ of the atmosphere, of water, glass and other materials. This slowly increasing resistance of the corona to all¹⁰ forms of refraction and scattering will in the future be of advantage to optical instruments in astronomy. Lenses will then be able to be significantly enlarged without color interference.

The Earth’s ethereal corona of Light is the vital energy of planetary life, a stabilizing, sustaining, regulating, unifying, stimulating and renewing energy that constantly radiates strength to the smallest things as well as to the largest—a power the Darkness can never destroy and which never diminishes, regardless of how much energy it emits.

Thus: Life on Earth is primarily dependent on the ethereal corona of Light that God in His providence created about the Earth so that, should any of His children succumb to Darkness, He would be able to redeem them and their possible creations from the power of Darkness.

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The astral counterparts of human beings, as of all animals, plants and objects, are interwoven with the forms visible to human sight. In these counterparts, created from the fixated astral Darkness and from the Light that fixated it, are contained and preserved first and foremost all the human primal urges common to all people; next, the instincts acquired over time that are not common to all, as they originate with each individual’s experiences in life on Earth. These acquired family instincts are the unconsciously accumulated sum of memories and knowledge, partly of learned mechanical motions and partly of feelings and impressions, acquired through experience.

The human primitive instincts retained in the father’s and the mother’s astral counterparts, together with instincts inherited from their ancestors, are passed on to the astral counterparts of their offspring through the human reproductive process just as the family characteristics of the physical body, its peculiarities, its weaknesses, disposition to illness and the like, are transmitted from generation to generation.

Whether the offspring inherits mostly from the father and his forefathers, or from the mother and her family, depends upon various psychological and physical conditions of the parents at the time the offspring receives life (intercourse and pregnancy).

The Eldest were not quite able to give regular laws for "inheritance" for the offspring from the parents. The present laws, still imperfect in many ways, are therefore partly due to the regulating influence of the Light. But as the Darkness diminishes, the laws will emerge more clearly and become more regular, as the human beings themselves can observe.

Through the astral counterparts, human beings thus inherit, firstly, the lower primitive instincts that originate directly with the Darkness, such as self-preservation, the urge to propagate, the assertion of the stronger over the weaker, and so forth; next, all that is acquired over time, routinely or by experience, through the individual’s evil, lawless ways, such as harmful physical habits, pleasure in inflicting suffering on others, criminal tendencies, excessive alcoholic indulgence, sexual unrestraint, and so forth. But since both the earthly body as well as its astral counterpart have come from the Darkness that was fixated by the Earth’s ethereal corona, humans also receive, by direct inheritance from the astral counterparts, those primitive impulses arising from the regulating and harmonizing influence of the Light, such as maternal concern, the impulse to protect the weaker, the individual’s tendency to follow a stronger or older leader, feelings for home and family, and the like; and finally, that accumulated by experience from generation to generation through individual lives and ethical actions, such as an instinctive aversion to base habits, bloodshed, immoral and criminal acts, and so forth, together with automatically acquired movements due to the pursuit of livelihoods not affected by Darkness. All these primitive drives and acquired instincts for good or evil accumulate in the astral counterpart and rest there latently until they emerge, usually in response to some external cause, and give visible proof of their presence.

The spirit that is bound to the human body gives the individual self¹¹ its personal characteristic within the family; but because there is a constant interaction between spirit and body—astral and physical bodies alike—the spirit is able to eliminate part of the lower primitive impulses and reduce the strength of the evil and low instincts inherited from the family, in favor of the regulating and harmonizing influence of the Light. Each human being who so desires, can, by power of will, not only purify, raise and improve the spiritual self, but also eliminate low instincts and impart new Light-instincts to the astral counterpart of any offspring, for example as regards ethical behavior. The more advanced the spirit bound to the human body, the better that spirit can control the lower, purely human impulses and instincts. But even though over several generations a family’s impulses and instincts may have been increased and ennobled by inspiration of the Light and lower urges and instincts subdued by the incarnation of high or advanced spirits into the family, there can be a sudden lessening of these urges and instincts and a predominance instead of impulses and instincts inspired by Darkness should a young, undeveloped and undisciplined spirit be bound to one of the family. Once more, then, the impulses and instincts of Darkness rise to the fore. The cause of such a spiritual decline in the offspring must in most cases be sought in one or in both parents. Those who do not try to subdue the lower impulses and instincts of the body to the best of their ability, and who fail to raise their personal ethics but only follow their inheritance without trying to improve it, cannot expect to see advanced or high spirits bound to any of their offspring.  This spiritual depravity is most striking in families into which one of the Eldest has been incarnated. However, when such incursions by Darkness have taken place undeservedly a countermove against the arbitrary incarnations of the Eldest, if possible, has often been made. Thus a high spirit (one of the Youngest) would be incarnated in some or all of the subsequent offspring to hopefully counterbalance the influence of Darkness on the succeeding generations, inasmuch as siblings in their formative years often exert a beneficial influence on the brother¹² or sister¹² to whose body a spirit of Darkness has been bound.

In a union of two persons where one is incarnated with a spirit of one of the Eldest and the other with a human spirit, the children of such a couple will usually be incarnated with highly developed spirits in order to counterbalance the influence of Darkness on the succeeding generations. But in those cases where the Elder was the first¹³ to bind one of his spirits to the expected offspring, the family has degenerated through several generations and a great effort was then necessary by the Youngest to restore the upward trend. But where the work has proven too much with no appreciable result, the Youngest—so as not to undermine their combined strength—have terminated their own incarnations in the families strongly afflicted by Darkness. Of necessity, those families have then been allowed to die out. In this way, many once prominent families have degenerated.

In instances where two persons had entered a relationship, one possessing a spirit of the Eldest, the other a spirit of the Youngest, the influence of the Darkness and that of the Light on the astral counterparts of the offspring has usually been almost equal as regards the instincts and impulses of Darkness and those of the Light. The upbringing of the offspring then becomes a deciding factor in determining if Darkness or the Light gains predominance.

The physical brain¹⁴ is the instrument through which the astral counterpart’s primitive impulses as well as the instincts of Darkness and those of the Light become apparent in the earthly world. This brain is also the instrument through which the distinguishing spiritual characteristics of the individual are revealed. However, there are decided differences between the ways in which the impulses, the instincts and the spirit manifest themselves.

Over time, the basic primal impulses of self-preservation, procreation and so forth have gradually become part of the consciousness of the human spirit, common to all humanity. The primal urges, of both Darkness and the Light, are therefore contained not only in the brain of the astral counterpart but are also present as faint memories and feelings in the brain of the human spirit (the psychic brain). If, say, for some external reason a human individual should for the first time need one of the primal instincts, it is automatically awakened at that moment in those astral brain cells that store, latently, the needed instinctual knowledge. At this awakening, the relevant astral cells vibrate and the vibrations are transmitted to the corresponding cells of the physical brain—interwoven with the astral brain—which thus receives the subconscious knowledge of the astral counterpart. The physical brain then passes the vibrations received on to the relevant nerves, muscles and organs. Simultaneously, as the vibrations from the astral brain cells are transmitted to the physical brain, they are also transmitted through the absorption layer (the casing) to the spirit’s psychic brain—the large nerve center—where they awaken the corresponding memory or feeling of the primitive impulse in the spirit that is bound to the human body. A normal human will therefore feel or act consciously after having received this double prompting, partly through the astral counterpart’s subconscious knowledge and partly through the spirit’s awakening conscious memories that stem from experiences in previous earthly lives. With these memories as a basis, it becomes the concern of the spiritual self to restrain—to bring under control—the primitive impulses of Darkness, so that such things as self-assertiveness at the expense of someone weaker can be subdued, or the urge to procreate can be ennobled.

From the foregoing must be excepted the impulse for self-preservation, which in an infant is clearly subconscious. Not until later, when the spiritual self awakens to consciousness in the earthly world does the individual become conscious of the impulse.

It need not always be an external cause that awakens the primal impulses of Darkness to react in some way. If a very young human spirit, for example, or one of the Eldest, is bound to the human body, the reaction can often take place through a thought recalled by the spirit. This memory, in undisciplined spirits, can activate the astral brain, which passes the received vibrations of thought on to the corresponding cells of the physical brain whereupon the individual becomes conscious of the impulse.

Purely instinctive influences on the physical brain are due entirely to subconsciously accumulated experiences and knowledge in the astral brain, without contribution by the spirit. Instincts of Darkness or of the Light therefore manifest in actions and movements for which there is no basis of thought at the moment of action. For example, if someone is assaulted with blows and the like, that person usually reacts according to the instinct of self-defense¹⁵ and strikes out without thought as to where the retaliatory blows land, or whether they hit anything at all. The action is then purely instinctive, but should the person assailed stop to consider—even for seconds—how best to ward off the attack, by hitting back, kicking or the like, then the spirit is involved and through the thought the parrying blows, kicks and so forth are consciously performed. With such conscious action the responsibility of the self for the result of the action is much greater than for a purely instinctive response.

The spirit’s independent communication of thought to the astral and physical brains goes through the cord (the life-giving cord) that binds the spirit to the human body. The cord has its source in the large nerve center¹⁶ of the spirit-body that corresponds to the physical brain. From there, the cord passes through the casing to terminate in the astral brain, which, as previously said, is completely inter-woven with the physical.

The cord, which in this manner must serve as the thought-channel between the spirit’s large nerve center and the human body’s brain, is not fully but only partly interwoven with the various areas and ramified parts of the nerve center. The parts of the nerve center meant to be included in the area connected to the cord—or thought-channel—depend on the spiritual stage chosen for the human individual during the earth-life. This provision is of special importance for the Youngest—the pioneers of mankind. Were the Youngest, upon entry into life on Earth, to bring with them all the knowledge, experience, artistic genius and so forth that lay within their spiritual consciousness, they would be rendered entirely unfit to live amidst humanity. They bring only as much of their intrinsic individuality as will be useful during the forthcoming incarnation, whether they are to be artists, scientists, inventors, religious reformers, statesmen or rulers, and so forth. When the decision for the mission on Earth has been made and the spirit has been bound to a human embryo, the cord is interwoven with those parts of the large nerve center whose spiritual weight is to characterize and enable the future human to carry out the task accepted by the spirit bound to the body. If it appears the individual is following the proper path and is capable, despite the attacks of Darkness, to fulfill a yet greater role beyond that chosen before the incarnation, then, by the power of God’s Will, the interweaving of the cord with the spirit’s large nerve center can be expanded to include further areas, so that the individual personality of the human can grow within its sphere of activity. Further areas of the psychic brain can likewise be interwoven with the cord during life on Earth, if deemed necessary to raise the human personality in these further spiritual areas that in some way or other concern the original mission undertaken by the spirit.

With the help of the layer of insulation—the side of the casing facing the spirit—the remaining parts of the spirit’s nerve center are prevented from exerting their influence through the physical brain, so that only those parts with which the brain is in direct connection through the cord can put their stamp upon the human personality.

All that is withheld of the spirit’s knowledge, recollections from previous incarnations, learning and so forth, therefore lies outside the human consciousness. If the layer of isolation has been damaged by the influence of Darkness, more or less of this withheld matter can penetrate to the human consciousness and have a disturbing effect on the personality. One will normally not remember anything from previous existences because such memories would often hinder the individual in best utilizing the present lifetime on Earth. If, say, someone had been a wrongdoer in the previous incarnation, the memory would only be painful and hinder the spiritual development of the individual. Or, had one been a prominent figure with many material goods and a life of leisure, perhaps with no thought for less fortunate fellow beings, and then is in the present incarnation a poor laborer, say, then such an individual might be tempted to compare past and present. The result would be a constant discontent with the present and a hindrance to all spiritual progress.

Only in a few isolated cases, where considered useful by the transcendental world, are humans able to receive information regarding one or more past incarnations. But such information is given only by the spirits of the Light when certain there can be no possible abuse of same. Individuals are therefore strongly urged never themselves to seek information about their previous lives.

Information about lives to come on Earth cannot be given by the spirits of the Light, as God never plans more than one such life at a time for the human beings, and it is always based on the preceding lifetime.

Human spirits in the transcendental world can clearly recall their previous earthly existences. (Summary, pages 270-71 in 1979 edition.)

The physical brain plays an important role as receiver and communicator of the experience and knowledge unconsciously accumulated in the astral brain, and of the knowledge, learning, and experience consciously acquired by the spirit during life on Earth.

The following explains how the physical brain receives from its counterpart the accumulated memories and subconscious knowledge that through succeeding generations become instincts inspired either by the Light or by Darkness:

If a person is a craftsman, say a shoemaker, tailor, mason, carpenter or the like, or is engaged in such daily physical activities as choreographic or rhythmic movements, sports, the exercise of technical or manual skills and so forth, the motions of these activities or exercises are carried out with conscious thought while they are being learned. Through the eyes, the physical brain of a normal person receives an image of the task to be performed. This image is transmitted through vibrations of the physical brain cells to the astral brain cells and is then intercepted by the absorption layer (the side of the casing facing the astral counterpart) and transmitted from there to the spirit-body’s large nerve center, the psychic brain. The spirit by its thought retains the image it has received, and through the thought-channel—the cord—the spirit lets the thought follow closely the motions performed during the task so as to learn each detail; but once the physical body, guided by thought and will, has learned to perform the task so that the thought no longer needs to direct it, the individual movements become quite automatic and are repeated independently of thought. As the astral counterpart is completely interwoven with the physical body, the counterpart learns the motion along with the physical body. The subconscious memory of these mechanically acquired movements is stored in the astral brain cells and inherited by the offspring with whom it remains dormant until awakened as instinct through an external or an internal cause. Even if none in the first generations occupy themselves with these tasks whose mechanically or automatically learned movements rest latently in the brain of the counterpart, the memory of these can still be preserved by individuals in the immediately following generations¹⁷ and will, if they be needed, reappear in one or another of the family members.  The individual then quickly and easily adapts to the task, handles the various tools and carries out the movements required, or takes up the necessary positions, as though they had already been learned. In contrast, an individual whose ancestors have never been accomplished in such tasks will perform the same motions awkwardly and clumsily until the task has been mastered with the help of thought.

However there are exceptions, since humans can be “trained” to perform simple tasks without the help of thought, in a manner similar to the training given animals (torture and beatings are, of course, excluded from this comparison). This applies to those who are mentally retarded or deficient (persons with undeveloped or abnormal brains, that is), so that the spirit cannot enter into proper contact or sufficient rapport with them, either through the absorption layer or through the thought-channel.

Thus, the spirit communicates with the astral and the physical brains through the cord whereas the physical and the astral brains communicate with the spirit through the absorption layer of the casing.

Loss of memory not caused by illness, concussion, or advanced age is usually due to an insufficient use of the astral brain cells and the areas of the spirit’s large nerve center wherein is kept that which is apparently forgotten.

The knowledge, experience and so forth, transmitted to the spirit’s large nerve center through the physical and the astral brain is stored there in well-defined areas. These are connected to the cord (the thought-channel) through fine fibers, or threads, so that the spirit can by its thought and will reproduce the material stored in the astral and the physical brains. If this reproduction of knowledge and experience is not kept active through meditation, retrospection or the like, the fine fibers in the nerve center slacken and become incapable of reproducing what is stored. The corresponding cells of the astral brain then cease to function and lose their elasticity; that is, they can no longer achieve the required frequency, whereupon the stored material recedes into the memory or sinks below the boundary of recollection.

It is often possible through hypnosis to ascertain that apparently forgotten matter is not really lost but still retained in the spirit’s memory—the large nerve center—and can be recalled by a hypnotist; for the spirit, influenced by the stronger will of the hypnotist, will receive an additional energy that enables it to overcome the normal physical limitation. Through this strengthened interplay of energy, the spirit by its own will and thought is again able to reproduce what has been stored—but usually only for as long as the hypnosis is in effect. Indeed, repeated hypnosis might restore enough strength to the fibers of the cord and the astral cells that the forgotten matter may also even be recalled under normal circumstances. But hypnosis repeated many times is not advisable, for it can cause the subject great psychic harm. For example, it can often be destructive morally if the hypnotist is unprincipled. By using a subject both properly and improperly, an unscrupulous hypnotist can weaken the subject’s will and subsequently make the subject completely dependent on the will of the hypnotist.

Forgotten matter can also reappear in the memory under narcosis or high fever, but it usually fades again when normal conditions are restored. However, the temporarily recalled matter can sometimes linger faintly.

The personality, represented by the visible human body, thus consists of three factors: 1) the psychic, 2) the astral, and 3) the physical brain. Naturally, of these only the physical brain is manifest in the earthly world.

1) The psychic brain¹⁸ is the seat, or source, of thought and will and also of conscious action—guided by the thought and the will. All knowledge, experience, learning and so forth that the psychic brain receives can by the help of thought be transformed into both psychic and physical values and results. Thus, thought, guided by the will—for either good or for evil—analyzes, coordinates, recreates, refines or sorts everything it receives, then radiates the resulting material through innumerable facets of more or less brilliant nuances, all in accordance with the preceding process of thought. The more advanced the spirit whose psychic brain is the main factor of the human personality, the more prolific the activity of the thought, the more diversified the nuances and the brighter the radiance of the facets. Every thought process regardless how faint or short is perceived concretely by normal persons, since they can to a greater or lesser extent “feel” their thoughts working. All these thoughts that have been reflected upon come into permanent possession of the individual. Values derived during life on Earth from experience, learning, and so forth, are retained by the spirit from incarnation to incarnation and increased with each new incarnation.

In this way, through the process of thought, each individual builds or shapes his or her spiritual personality.

2) The astral brain, on the other hand, automatically accumulates and retains all impressions received during earthly human life until given occasion to reproduce what it has received, exactly as recorded, with no additions.

This can be illustrated as follows:

Someone gazes, say, at the ruins of an ancient castle. If the visual contemplation is accompanied by thought, an image of what is seen will be formed—through the vision and the physical brain—in both the astral and in the psychic brain. But if the viewer gazes unthinkingly upon the ruins and surroundings,¹⁹ as so often happens, then only the astral brain captures a reflection of that seen. The psychic brain remains unaffected, when the thought does not react to the vibrations of the astral cells. Later when, for some external reason—perhaps seeing a somewhat similar scene—the image of the ruin recorded in the astral brain automatically emerges in the physical brain, reproduced there exactly as the astral brain once received it. If the thought now concentrates on this emerging image, the image also assumes definite form in the psychic brain. Then, with the emerging image of the ruins from the subconscious as a start, the person can, say, by the power of thought, create a splendid castle with ramparts, moats, and so forth—a probable reconstruction of the original castle now in ruins. It is thus the thought that has worked upon and utilized the image of the ruin that was preserved and automatically reproduced by the astral brain, as the latter is able only to repeat that received, not to form from it.

The astral brain is affected not only through sight, but also through the other senses—hearing, smell and so forth. Impressions of experiences, events, sounds, tones and so forth can thus reappear on a given occasion—can be reproduced, that is, exactly as they were received.

An example follows of the many automatic movements humans perform with the help of the astral brain during everyday life:

In a room are two washstands, separated by a cupboard. Normally, a mirror hangs by a nail over one washstand. Someone enters, their psychic mind momentarily engrossed in a train of thought far removed from the immediate situation. However, the person’s eye catches sight of the mirror, lying at that moment, for example, on a table where it does not belong. The person’s astral brain instantly produces a mental image of the mirror hanging on the wall and, without interrupting his or her train of thought, the person takes the mirror—quite automatically—goes toward one of the washstands, holds up the mirror and lets it slide down the wall to allow the string to catch on the nail. The move fails and is repeated three, four or five times, still quite automatically. But with the repeated moves the vibrations of the astral brain cells awaken the individual from his or her thoughts. The train of thought started long before is thus suddenly interrupted, and the thought of the individual is willfully given a new direction. He or she lowers the hand holding the mirror, studies the wall and through the concentration of conscious thought discovers there is no nail whereon to hang the mirror—the nail is over the other washstand. The astral brain (the human subconscious) was incapable even of the following reasoning: that the mirror would not hang upon the wall because there was nothing to hang it on. Not until the vibrations of several unsuccessfully repeated movements awakened the individual’s consciousness—the spirit— could the subconscious error of the astral brain be corrected.

Finally, an example of the way a human being, to whose physical body an undeveloped spirit is bound, can, through autosuggestion believe he or she has “seen” every detail of an event, even though it was perceived only in fragments:

Someone witnesses, for example, an accident that is due to several “coincidences”. The shock of being present at the maiming or sudden death of one or more fellow beings causes an involuntary closure of the witness’s eyes—perhaps for only a few seconds. The image that through the sight and through the physical brain is registered in the astral and the psychic brains is then quite incomplete, since these can receive an image only of what the witness has “seen”. Later, recalling what took place and what he or she experienced, the witness tries by thought to piece together the recorded fragments. As an “eye witness”, the witness should of course know what had happened, but not recalling²⁰ closing the eyes²¹—perhaps at the decisive moment—the witness’s thought sets about reconstructing a plausible general impression: it happened in such and such a way. . . But with the constant repetition of such thoughts, new images assume—through the thought-channel, the cord—definite form in the astral brain. These images appear with every repetition of what the eyewitness has experienced, and, supported by the thought, they become steadily clearer until the individual becomes convinced of having seen the accident in every detail; and although he very well knows that his thoughts have dwelt at length on the same subject, still he is deceived by the train of images that his thought has composed. As a rule it is useless that another eyewitness unfolds the event for him as it has really taken place, for he will, in most cases, stoutly maintain that his is the correct version.

Such uncritical thinking serves no other purpose than to push back the original exact but fragmented image received by the astral and the psychic brains and to produce a train of self-composed images having nothing to do with reality.

If a more advanced or a high spirit is bound to the physical body, such self-suggestion will not be able to take place as the spiritual self will quickly survey the situation and understand that it has received that which has happened only in fragments. And if the individual tries to gather these fragments into a complete picture, he or she will likewise realize that it was their own thought which had filled in the gaps.

Thus, the astral brain, the human subconscious, can never formulate, combine nor create new thoughts from its unconsciously stored knowledge—its impressions, learning, motions, or anything seen, heard or read—since it is able only to reproduce that which is received.

3) The physical brain—the receiver and communicator—is the only apparent factor in the human personality that, being an organ, is easily subjected to human scientific investigation. But since the other two factors cannot be materially investigated as can the physical brain, mankind has hitherto been unable to recognize these two non-visible but highly important factors—important, because so much of the human personality can only be explained and understood through their existence.

Had the Eldest, upon creating the human beings, separated the material Darkness (the molecular) from the astral Darkness—as was their intent—and proceeded solely on a molecular basis, humans would have been endowed with only a physical brain (this refers only to human beings without the spiritual consciousness given by God). This brain could only have received—not retained anything. Each new impression would at once erase the previous one, and even if the physical brain were exposed daily to the same impressions these would each time be equally new to the individual. No experience, no knowledge, absolutely nothing could have been passed on to the offspring of such beings. Humans would then have become lesser than animals, whose astral counterpart’s brain retains urges, instincts, feelings, and so on, that can be passed on with a regulating and improving effect.

The Eldest soon realized, however, that they could never succeed in creating from material Darkness alone, so they proceeded to create from the double material.²² Thus, like the animals, humans were given an automatic retentive ability—the astral brain—that, through the vibrations of the physical brain cells, receives and retains impressions that would otherwise vanish as soon as received.

When God had bound a spiritual being to the physical human body, the brain of the body became an instrument also for the spirit so that the physical human could be influenced not only by earthly surroundings but by the transcendental as well.

As previously explained, humans can through the astral counterpart pass on to their offspring instinctive skills that in future generations can bring benefit and pleasure to the individual. Through this inheritance, human talent is created—whether a craft that can be enriched and ennobled by this talent or any of the forms of art, such as poetry, painting, sculpture or music. The manner in which individuals understand and utilize their abilities, their talents and their gifts will clearly reveal to what extent they, by means of their spiritual selves, draw their creations in under the influence of the Light and away from that of the Darkness. The better a talented person is able to approach all that is natural, beautiful, exalted, harmonious and pure, the greater is the influence of the Light on the work; whereas unnatural, distorted and ugly forms and lines, discordant tones and harsh, jarring sounds reveal the influence of Darkness toward decadence. The same holds true for literature that emphasizes and glorifies all that is ugly in life, that defends immorality and tends to degrade the thought and the imagination.

The same rule applies to all such creatively productive people. They reveal themselves through their work as they are—spokesmen for the Light or for the Darkness.

To contribute something new within existing forms of art, science or other fields, or to create something entirely new, hitherto unknown, be it in the arts, in science or in any other area, requires the genius possessed only by the Youngest or the Eldest, and from the creations of their genius as humans it is also apparent whether the work is produced in the service of the Light or serves Darkness.

Talent can thus be passed on from generation to generation, whereas genius can never be inherited; but genius can be brought forth from talent, that is, the high spirits often let themselves be incarnated in families where, through inherited talent, they can sooner and more easily display their genius as desired.

Gradually, as the physical brain develops with the growth of the body from childhood to a more mature age, it becomes an increasingly useful instrument for the spirit bound to the physical body. The personal, distinguishing characteristics of the individual grow more distinct; one acquires an ever greater ability to receive impressions through the physical brain, to bring to fruition through the thought-channel the abilities brought from the transcendental world and by the power of one’s will to advance ethically and thus to possibly make use of inherited family talents. But however well-developed the human brain may become, it can never act independently, since the independent thought process comes solely from the spirit bound to the human body.

The physical brain—as an instrument for the spirit—is best compared with a musical instrument, such as a violin. The violin cannot independently sound a single note.²³ Tones are not produced until the bow is drawn over the strings, and then the sound issuing will closely reflect the talent of the musician. The genius will with ease produce a wealth of tones and sounds and combine them to a whole of harmonious beauty while an unmusical person on the same instrument—be it the finest of Cremonas—can but call forth a succession of dissonant sounds. Between the genius and the unmusical individual is to be found a range of those who are more or less musically gifted and accomplished, each playing according to his or her individual talent and ability. But let one string snap and the greatest genius can call forth only harsh and grating sounds from that string. Likewise is the physical brain the instrument of the spirit. The higher the spirit, the better and more fully can the brain be employed in the transposition of the thoughts of the spirit so that they can appear in the earthly world. But let parts of the brain be impaired by illness or aging, then even the most advanced spirit cannot effectively employ the damaged cells.

If a child early shows signs of being exceptionally talented, those raising the child should guard against allowing these abilities to be developed too soon lest this be at the expense of other brain tissues, for the brain can easily suffer damage from a one-sided development during the formative years. The risk then is of passing a weak, stunted brain on to any descendants.

With defective or completely abnormal brains, the interaction between spirit and brain becomes more or less incomplete, and the more incomplete the interaction the closer the human being comes to animal-like behavior and action. If spirits of the Light during development of an embryo become aware that the brain will be abnormal or predisposed to ailments that in later life could partially or completely destroy or harden the brain tissue, they as a rule attach to the body a younger, less developed spirit. The spirit then will not suffer because of an inability to absorb impressions or knowledge or to assert the self sufficiently in the earthly world. But if someone during earthly life becomes personally guilty (through improper living habits, drunkenness, various bodily excesses, etc.) of leaving a feeble body and brain predisposed to illness as a heritage to any descendants, the spirit that failed to discipline either the self or the body which was the visible representative of the self in life, will, under the Law of Retribution again and again be bound to that family to whom it had brought partial or wholly physical degeneration. Where a more highly developed spirit is the cause of decadence in a family, the spirit will suffer because of its inability to assert itself in life on Earth. As they gradually came under the Law of Retribution many of the Eldest who through their willful incarnations had caused otherwise sound families to degenerate, have had to atone for their sinful and lawless conduct and ways of life in previous incarnations by being bound to partially or wholly degenerated human bodies. 

All the abnormalities of the physical body are brought under the Law of Retribution whenever possible, so that spirits bound to defective bodies have always in some way been guilty in an earlier incarnation of actions that can bring retribution in the form of an impaired, malformed, or deficient body.

If a man or a woman, through no fault of either, acquires a physical ailment that directly or indirectly can be inherited by the offspring, they should never bring children into the world until the ailment is fully cured and cannot be passed on to the children.

If someone is fully aware of the inheritability of such an ailment yet nevertheless procreates, that person must bear full responsibility for the suffering thus brought upon the family. Under the Law of Retribution, the spirit that was bound to such a person’s body will be repeatedly incarnated into the family whose disposition toward illness is due to lack of responsibility by the spirit in that life on Earth during which the ailment was made heritable.

However, those unaware of the heritability of their disease will be exempt from incarnation in the afflicted family. Such spirits will then be bound to that family whose members have in one way or another brought on themselves an incarnation of bodily suffering.

Thus: the same rule applies to all humans: the thoughts and conscious actions of the present incarnation determine if succeeding incarnations become lives of greater or lesser spiritual and bodily suffering, or of health and happiness.

The human astral counterpart cannot separate from the physical body until death sets in. The “double” that occasionally appears is therefore not the counterpart but either the spirit bound to the human body or a phantom—a thought-image “created” by the spirit. It is, however, difficult for humans to discern if it is a phantom or a spirit that appears before them. If the double appears shortly before the actual individual arrives, and if that individual has not given thought to the locale nor to the people who see the double there, then it is the spirit that has arrived ahead of the body; but if the actual individual does not subsequently appear then the double is ordinarily a phantom. The individual has imagined himself at a given place and his thought-image becomes visible to those present there. But if it can be ascertained that the individual was asleep when the double appeared then it is normally the spirit²⁴ seen, not the phantom.

Only the Eldest and the Youngest possess this ability.

During sleep, the vitality of the body is renewed through the influence of the Light that replenishes energy lost through spiritual or physical activity when awake. The younger the body, the better and more easily is this loss made good by a new supply of life energy. If the body is aged or ailing, the replenishment will not be as complete because the bodily organism at an advanced age or in a sickly state cannot absorb the currents of the Light as fully as can a younger or healthier body. And when the time comes that the body, because of age or serious illness can no longer react to the Light and renew its vitality, it begins to approach its dissolution—a process completed by death.

During its formative years and while its metabolism is strong, the physical body needs much sleep so as to develop in health and harmony through the absorption of currents from the Light-ether and the Earth’s corona of Light. When growth ceases and the metabolism slows, neither the fully-grown nor aged body can absorb the currents of the Light as completely as before. As a result, the more one ages the less sleep will be needed. However, about six hours should be the minimum since insufficient sleep can prematurely weaken an aging body if it lacks abundant health. After prolonged illness the weakened body needs somewhat longer periods of sleep than normal so as to be supplied with the necessary amount of the energy of the Light.

Very elderly individuals can feel so physically exhausted in their final years that they constantly “doze off”. This need for frequent sleep is usually due to mental lethargy—the self no longer has the energy to stay spiritually or physically active. This senile dozing does not strengthen but only weakens the body even more and hastens its dissolution.

It is in sleep that the human body can best come into contact with the currents of Light of the surrounding ether. Enough restful sleep is always essential for the physical body weakened by loss of energy. Sleep for a normal person also affords rest for the spirit that is bound to the body. If the spirit—constantly fatigued by its presence within the Earth’s atmosphere of Darkness—is denied necessary rest and additional Light at the same time as the physical body, the individual will, after sleep, feel mentally wearied and unable to perform the earthly tasks with sufficient mental alertness.

During sleep the guardian spirit often gives warnings to those who may have strayed onto paths that can lead them away from their intended callings in life on Earth. These warnings can be given as visionary, symbolic dreams or as words of caution that at times, on awakening, can be clearly and firmly impressed upon the memory. But not all can recall these admonitions equally clearly, whether given as visions or in words. Usually a feeling persists that something or other is not as it should be. By reviewing the recent past or reconsidering plans for the future, those warned by the guardian spirit during sleep may often discover the cause for the warning. That person’s task is then to correct errors, take a different course, or make good use of the message in some other way.

Messages by the guardian spirit through dreams can also be comforting, encouraging, reproving or prophetic.

During sleep, many humans have been enticed and assisted by the Eldest into releasing themselves from their bodies to undertake nocturnal excursions on their own. Impressions received by the spirit on these excursions, for example from association with the Earth-bound spirits, were transmitted through the cord to the brain of the sleeping body, thus producing more or less clear and continuous images of the experience, which then sometimes, through the brain of the astral counterpart, could be remembered in the waking state as dreams.

Through hideous and obscene dream-images, the discarnate Eldest and the Earth-bound spirits have likewise attempted to corrupt the human mind and thought in order to gain greater power over humans.

Many dreams originate with sickly conditions of the body or are due to a wrong position of the body during sleep so that too much blood flows to the brain tissues and cause the brain to react to the increased pressure instead of resting. Such abnormal conditions can prompt the astral brain to bring up obscure memories that almost always lead back to something experienced, seen, read or heard. Loud voices and sensations of heat or cold can likewise stimulate the astral brain to transmit some memory images. Dreams of more consistency can result from the ever-active thoughts of the spirit as it attempts to co-ordinate the confused images transmitted by the astral brain. But as the connection between the psychic and the physical brain is always somewhat slackened during the sleep of the physical body, the spiritual self can seldom bring satisfactory order to the chaos of the dreams.

In rare instances the psychic brain of a sleeping person can transmit memories from previous lives on Earth.

While spirit and body are united, the “life-giving cord” that connects them cannot be seen from the transcendental side. But as soon as the spirit separates from the body, for example during sleep, the cord is extended or spun out more and more—like a spider’s thread—as the cord absorbs the aura of Light or of Darkness that surrounds the spirit-body. When the entire aura has been used up, or spun out, the cord tightens and automatically withdraws, and the spirit must follow until it unites again with the body, likewise quite automatically. The greater the aura of Darkness or the Light, the farther the spirit can move from the body. Since their auras are not very large, human spirits can move only short distances—30 to 60 or up to 100 meters. The Eldest and the Youngest, however, can move over long distances. The Youngest can even reach their spiritual dwellings in the outermost sphere around the Earth. Since the cord is highly elastic it cannot disrupt, but the spirit must remember not to use up the entire aura, as it will then invariably be drawn back.

As already mentioned, many human spirits had over time learned from the Eldest how to disembody during sleep. But with the return of the Elder (Ardor) to God, normal conditions have been restored, so that human spirits, while the body rests, can no longer release²⁵ themselves without help,²⁵ since God has removed this unlawfully acquired knowledge from their spiritual memories.

If a more advanced human spirit has pledged before incarnation to help the high spirits in a mission during life on Earth, the guardian spirit with God’s permission can release the spirit from the sleeping body to remind it in various ways of its pledge or to help in the fulfillment of the pledge by instructive discourse. If necessary the guardian spirit can bring its charge to its habitation in the spheres, augmenting with its own radiations of Light the human spirit’s aura so that the cord can extend far beyond normal reach.

Whenever they wish, the Youngest have the ability to leave the body during nightly sleep but never do so unless prompted by their guardian spirit.

Those Eldest incarnated by Ardor and still living on Earth as humans have all, during nocturnal sleep release, been informed by the Youngest of the return of Ardor. Each has also been admonished to conform to the laws given by God for the spirit while it is bound to the earthly body. Most have submitted voluntarily to these laws and, by His Will God has eliminated enough of their aura of Darkness that, like the human spirits, they can move only short distances from the body and can only be released without assistance when body and spirit separate spontaneously on the body’s sudden unconsciousness through illness, accident or anesthesia.²⁶ Since God compels none to submit to His laws, those few of the Eldest who declined to comply are still able to move as far from the earthly body during sleep as before. But to counteract as much as possible any harmful influence on humans, one of the Youngest accompanies each of the Eldest during any such nocturnal excursions.

In séances where the manifestations of Darkness still occur, these incarnated Eldest²⁷ often appear under false names and with false messages and so forth. This cannot be prevented as long as humans continue experimenting with Darkness. Attention is again directed to that stated earlier (pages 248-51 in 1979 edition) regarding the offensive practice of séances, their unlawfulness, and the dangers to which mediums and participants expose themselves by submitting to the influence of Darkness. As soon as these Eldest have terminated their lives on Earth this disorder will cease forever, as they will not again be incarnated until they have advanced far enough toward the Light that they will voluntarily submit to the laws of God.

When the Eldest created the human beings they adjusted their organs of sight to catch and reflect the sun’s fainter luminous beams, originating with the globe's nucleus of Darkness.²⁸ The human eye therefore cannot normally see the astral-material emissions of the Light of the ethereal-astral corona of the sun.  But gradually, as the Darkness about the Earth is eliminated, some of the sun’s more luminous rays that come from the astral-material vibrations of the Light will be able to penetrate to the Earth and by this intensify,²⁹ beautify and brighten the sunlight. The human eye will then slowly adjust to this stronger sunlight.

The Eldest terminated the interweaving of the human astral and physical organs of vision at a given point so that humans would “see” only the forms and figures of the earthly world, not their corresponding astral forms. Not until God had given the human body spiritual life could the humans to whom the Youngest were bound “see” spontaneously or continuously with the spirit’s eye. Later, this held true also for those to whom the Eldest, or more advanced human spirits were bound.

The connection between the human astral and physical organs of hearing was also broken off at a particular point by the Eldest, so that the astral sounds might not be heard. Clairaudients therefore use the hearing organs of the spirit, not those of the astral counterpart.

All animals, unlike human beings, have double vision. The physical eyes of the body capture and reflect the earthly forms while the eyes of the astral counterpart capture and reflect the astral counterparts. But since animals owe their existence mainly to the molecular vibrations of Darkness and therefore lead their lives in the earthly world, their astral vision is the weaker so that all they see of astral forms are the counterparts released from the earthly material world.³⁰ Animals can also see the spirit bound to the human body, but only as a misty extension of the contours of the earthly figure. The astral organs of sight of the animals cannot however perceive the strong rays of Light emitted from the radiant spirit-bodies of the Youngest, nor can they see the ethereal-astral corona of Light of the sun and the stars.

When the Earth-bound spirits walked the globe, the animals were able to see them but could not distinguish between the living and the “dead” humans.

The astral and physical hearing organs of animals are also closely interconnected so that animals are able to hear a number of sounds inaudible to humans.

Like humans, the animals have primal impulses that in part originate directly with Darkness and in part from the regulating and harmonizing influence of the Light from the corona of the Earth. Through the astral counterparts these instincts are likewise inherited from individual to individual in the various species and subdivisions of animals.

During the past millions of years the counterparts of the many animal species have acquired a certain amount of knowledge through experience, and this can likewise be passed on from individual to individual. This acquired knowledge lies latent until the animal needs to use it. The animal’s physical brain will then, when necessary, be automatically stimulated by the astral brain and the subconscious knowledge will manifest itself in the earthly world as instinctive actions and feelings. As no spirit is bound to the animal body, an animal will always act impulsively and with no conscious understanding of why it acts or feels in such a way. Without exception, every animal acts and feels only as prompted by the subconscious knowledge of its astral counterpart. The most extensive training by humans cannot evoke independent thinking in an animal. All skills acquired by the higher animal species through training, will for them always remain automatic, subconscious knowledge. New experience and knowledge acquired by each animal during its life will be inherited by its offspring and will always emerge for the animal’s benefit if needed.

The more care and kindness shown animals, the closer many can attach themselves to humans. They can in all their behavior then display an immediate devotion and faithfulness hardly to be equaled in the human world. But even such devotion and faithfulness is instinctive and often acquired from generation to generation through close association with man.

Because of the regulating and adaptive properties and harmonizing influence³¹ of the Light, more order has gradually come into the animal world so that the animals in many ways lead highly regulated lives.³¹ This applies to all earthly animal life, the higher as well as the lower. Through the ethereal corona of the Earth—the Earth’s psyche—unconscious life is everywhere guided toward greater order and harmony.

(On the basis of the information given concerning the knowledge, unconsciously acquired by the human astral counterparts under the influence of Darkness or the Light, humans can themselves draw comparisons with the lives of animals and determine what is due to the regulating, purifying, separating and harmonizing influence of the Light, and what is caused by the eroding and destructive power of Darkness.)

When earthly life forms and objects are destroyed by death, decomposition, burning and the like, their astral counterparts loosen, as previously said, and are released. Simultaneously, the radiations of the corona of Light withdraw and eject the counterparts released from the physical forms or objects. These then are absorbed by the accumulations of Darkness that constantly surround the globe. With this continuous rejection of astral counterparts, the globe’s ethereal corona of Light is gradually purged of the Darkness that broke forth over the Earth at the downfall of the Eldest. As the corona of Light is purified, its influence upon earthly life increases; but since earthly life comes from the Darkness originally fixated by the corona of Light, the globe will not be fully cleansed until all life on Earth has ceased—at a time known only to God.

When the accumulations of Darkness that have absorbed the astral counterparts are in one way or another depolarized, for example by collisions amongst themselves, by collision with the Earth’s radiations of Darkness or the like, they are absorbed and eliminated by the Light-ether—but not by the corona of Light.

If collisions of polarized astral or spiritual Darkness occur indoors, they can often be perceived by humans who are not mediums. The sounds produced by these collisions depend on the size of the accumulations and can vary from a faint crackle to loud explosive crashes of shorter or longer duration. However, the phenomena of the Light that always accompany de-polarizations can only in few instances be observed by anyone other than mediums.

As the Youngest began incarnating among human beings, the Light was again brought to the Earth. It came partly through the Passage of Light that God by His Will had laid through the ruined Kingdom and partly from the ethereal radiations of Light from the incarnated Youngest, and the effect was to draw forth into reality in the earthly world more of the as yet latent seeds of life. The astral counterparts of these animal and plant forms have a greater strength of Light than the other counterparts (from the transcendental world they appear faintly tinted, while the others appear gray or black). When these earthly life forms and figures are destroyed, the Light in their counterparts is separated and absorbed partly by the corona of Light and partly by the Light-ether; the Darkness in the counterparts is as usual absorbed by accumulations of Darkness.

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The Darkness that was separated from the Light-ether by the thought and will of the Eldest when they had departed God’s Kingdom, was concentrated on and around the Earth; but the destruction this caused spread far and wide and affected the greater part of the galaxy (the “Milky Way”) which includes the Earth.

Certain anomalies in the planetary system to which the Earth belongs are thus due to the Eldest’s experiments with the Darkness, by which they caused a number of disturbances in the laws given by God for the regular orbits of the celestial bodies.

Since none of the ethereal-astral coronas of Light of the suns and the other globes are formed from the most rapid vibrations of the Light, as is God’s Kingdom, nor intensified by a further infusion of Light in the same way as is the corona of the Earth, these coronas were not strong enough to either repel or to fixate the separated Darkness that drifted about in large accumulations, and continues still to drift aimlessly³² in space. When this Darkness approaches the globes of the Earth’s universe, the poles in the precipitated cores of Darkness in these globes are awakened from their latent state and exercise an attraction upon the steadily approaching accumulation of Darkness; at the moment of collision, cataclysms and anomalies arise, but the accumulations of Darkness are thereby depolarized and can then be absorbed and eliminated by the Light-ether.

Globes not destroyed but forced out of their original orbits after collision with accumulations of Darkness, have often during their irregular movement through space been attracted and held by larger suns which have then forced the wandering globes into new, regular orbits. Globes not captured in this way continue through space until, for example, they collide with other globes or accumulations of Darkness and are destroyed.

Larger fragments of globes—the cores of Darkness—that have been dispersed through collisions and in their paths have penetrated the solar system of the Earth to threaten the Earth with a destructive collision, are diverted by God into elliptical orbits with the sun at one focal point and an astral, immaterial Light-center established by God’s Will at the other focal point.

If the accumulations of Darkness are attracted by the mother globe itself (the sun), partial eruptions come about, but are not able to destroy the globe or deflect it from its orbit; the accumulations are too small for this in relation to the enormous size of the sun.

The irregular destruction of globes occurs only in the Earth’s Milky Way system, where Darkness has been separated from the Light-ether. If globes in the other three systems disintegrate, this takes place by God’s Will.

When God had promised His fallen children to take the human beings into His care, He created six astral worlds or dwelling places around the Earth. These were laid as spheres, or globular layers, around the ruined kingdom. The inner sphere was the darkest, though considerably brighter than the world of the Eldest, contaminated and obscured by Darkness as it was. The second was somewhat brighter than the first, and so forth until the outermost or sixth sphere, formed from the high ethereal vibrations of the Light. The atmospheric conditions of the spheres are regulated partly from this outermost Light-world and partly by the ethereal rays of the Sun (prevented by Darkness from reaching the Earth). The innermost spheres, nearest the Earth, are partly dependent for their climate on the position of the Earth in relation to the sun; but as the emissions of the Light from the outermost sphere also irradiate these worlds, conditions there are far better than on the globe itself. Each sphere has its own atmospheric layer that, like the spheres themselves, is not visible to the human eye.

Many will insist that, as one can plainly see, there cannot possibly exist inhabited worlds around the Earth, because they would obstruct the view of the luminous globes in outer space.  Thus an analogy with earthly conditions will be given here that may make it easier to understand the presence of the spheres.

If one looks, for instance, into the clear, still water of a woodland pond one can distinctly see the plant and animal life therein, but one sees not the myriad life forms that teem in the water itself. Should a drop of the water then be examined under a microscope, an abundance of living organisms is discovered whose existence would not otherwise be suspected. It is somewhat similar with the spheres, not perceivable by the physical organs of sight yet to the spiritual—the “enlarged” or strengthened—sight, easily discernible.

The outermost world, where the Youngest dwell while they lead mankind, was also formed to be an outer defense against the accumulations of Darkness that existed, and still exist, in the encompassing universe. God concentrated the radiations from this world to such an extent that in addition to absorbing the depolarized Darkness they could also repel the Darkness that threatened the Earth from outer space. Any new influx of Darkness was thereby barred so that no greater catastrophe that might partially or completely destroy the globe could ever occur.

Meteorites are small fragments of condensed Darkness from fractured globes and pass easily through the spheres without causing any destruction there. From the transcendental world they appear as dark, misty accumulations. While falling through the spheres, especially the sphere farthest from the Earth,³³ their size is much reduced under the dissolving influence of the rays of the Light (not of the solar rays). When passing through the Earth’s atmosphere the meteorites burst into white heat (in a physical sense) and often disintegrate still further, so that only few reach the Earth as larger pieces.

Owing to the rapidity with which the meteorites fall, the radiations of Light from the sixth sphere are not able to repel them, as they can the accumulations of Darkness but can only partially dissolve these fragments as they hurtle toward the Earth. However, these fragmented cores of Darkness will never pose a real danger to the Earth.

In advance of the wave of Light sent by God, that surged through the ruined kingdom at the time the spirits bound by sin and bound to the Earth returned³⁴ to the spheres, a violent astral storm was called forth by the Will of God that depolarized the remaining Darkness, which was later to be absorbed by the wave of Light whose brightness was considerably reduced as a result of this absorption. This reduced brightness is best compared to a faintly luminous dawn. As the absorbed Darkness is purified and removed through the circulation of the Light-ether, the brightness will gradually increase over millions of years until the full intensity of the Light is again reached. How long this will take is known only to God, but it will be completed before humanity departs the Earth.

The effects of the more violent astral storms are often detected in the physical world as greater or lesser disturbances in the earthly magnetism. However, the storms that rage outside the atmospheric layers of the Earth can be felt and detected only when they are especially powerful.

Gradually, as the depolarized Darkness from the ruined kingdom is eliminated, more and more rays from the astral-material part of the sun’s corona of Light will reach the Earth. Thus the sunlight will slowly gain in clarity and intensity, century by century, and this will be observable from the Earth.³⁵                  

In future, the wave of Light that eliminated the ruined kingdom and surrounds the Globe outside the atmosphere of the Earth as an insulation layer, will prevent the unattached accumulations of Darkness that drift about on and around the Earth—both inside and outside the atmospheric layers—from penetrating, darkening and completely destroying the innermost dwelling places—the spheres. Such destruction has often occurred in the past, obliging God time and again to purify and restore these spheres.

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Apart from the fact that Darkness, guided by the intelligence of the Eldest, has in many ways hampered and prevented the advance of the Light in a spiritual sense, it has also without guidance blindly and aimlessly created disturbance on the Globe itself through the many awesome natural disasters that from the earliest times have caused death and destruction which the Youngest could not prevent.

These natural disasters are mainly due to the radiations of Darkness of the globe itself, which attract the accumulations of Darkness present in layers of varying density within the Earth’s atmosphere. The severity of the eruption depends on the innate power and density of the two mutually attracting and approaching forms of Darkness. At the eruption, occurring the moment the radiations of the globe meet with the attracted accumulation of Darkness, the two forms of Darkness are depolarized and can then be eliminated by the Light-ether.

Even though the Elder has returned to God’s Kingdom, all the forms of natural disaster will persist. But there is a possibility they will diminish, in direct proportion to the depolarization and elimination of the Darkness.

Before the time of the wave of Light that obliterated the ruined kingdom, part of the depolarized Darkness had been eliminated through absorption by the wide-spread radiations of Light emanating from the spirit-bodies of the incarnated Youngest. But after the disappearance of the ruined kingdom,³⁶ the wave of Light, which has replaced it as a huge insulation layer around the Earth, also takes part in the elimination of the neutralized Darkness. From the insulation layer of Light, the discarnate Youngest have extruded fine strands of Light through those strata of Darkness that rest directly on and around the globe. These strands are led—also by the Youngest—to areas of neutralized Darkness in order to absorb and thus remove it from the Earth. This Darkness is then drawn, through the ether-currents of Light, into the great purging circulation through God’s flaming Being.

Any depolarized Darkness not after a certain time absorbed and eliminated, is gradually again re-merged with the polarized Darkness and returns thus after a period of dormancy (neutralization) to its original forms.

Although the Light is constantly eliminating large quantities of neutralized Darkness, the process is exceedingly slow because the Light can only absorb the depolarized Darkness which appears, for instance, as a result of cataclysms (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, thunderstorms and the like) or comes from many other outbreaks of the numerous and very varied forms of the energies of the Darkness.

 (Regarding the depolarization of spiritual Darkness, see the Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 173-74 in 1979 edition.)

Between the lowest and the highest frequencies (that is, rates of vibration) of the Darkness extends an extremely wide range of rapidity, concentration and radiation that manifests itself in numerous material and immaterial forms, for example: 1) energy, such as electricity, electromagnetism, steam power, and so forth; 2) radiation, such as sunlight (solar rays of the lower and lowest frequencies originating in the sun’s core of Darkness), phosphorescent light, artificial light (produced by electricity, gas, oil, etc.), heat, radioactivity, and so forth; 3) matter and substance; and a great many other forms as yet unknown to humanity.

When God assumed the guidance of His fallen children's creatures, He took over also the work of restoring order to the chaotic conditions on the Earth, caused by the incursions of Darkness, and as the Earth was gradually supplied with more and more Light—partly through the Passage of Light, partly through the ethereal radiations of Light from the auras of the spirit-bodies of the Youngest——Darkness came increasingly under the regulating influence³⁷ of the Light and was thus made to serve the Light by helping to restore the destruction wrought through the downfall of the Eldest. Thus: the more regular a law—whether a law of energy, radiation, matter and substance, or it directly concerns reproduction and propagation—the greater the influence of the Light; while the more a law suffers from irregularities and deviations, the lesser is the influence of the Light. And where human free will must be considered, the Darkness generally has the greater influence on the established order. An example easily comprehended by all, regarding irregular laws in which human free will interferes, is given here:

If conception and birth took place under God-given laws or under laws that had become completely subordinated to the Light, the period from conception to birth would always be exactly the same. No abnormalities would occur during pregnancy, no premature or abnormal births would then ever take place, and the infant would be completely healthy, well-formed and able to survive. But as God has not given these laws, and as man's own poor habits and ways of life to a great extent make conception and birth dependent on the influence of the Darkness, the regulating influence of the Light has far from reached its full extent in this area.

Over the ages the Light has gained a far more regular and ordering influence on propagation in the animal kingdom—especially among animals in the wild—than on humans. Endowed with no independent will, animals simply follow their impulses and instincts, unresistingly submitting, albeit slowly, to the increasing influence of the Light. But because of the spirit bound to the body, human beings live a conscious life with free will for good or evil. As long as humans understand not how to use their free will³⁸ properly, as long as they allow Darkness to dominate them instead of voluntarily submitting to the Light, then can the Light only imperfectly regulate the laws that determine, for example, the propagation of the human race and the liberation of the human body from abnormality and deformity.

All that to humans may appear as the intervention of supernatural powers, all that people of undeveloped intellect and perception are unable to explain, has over time been regarded as miracle, superstition, fantasy and the like. All these apparently inexplicable phenomena occur under regular psychic and astral laws—when they are authentic. But as humans have only little knowledge—many none at all—of the various manifestations of psychic and astral powers, they will not or cannot understand that behind the apparently "supernatural" is a natural explanation.

These laws for supersensory phenomena are known, and were known, to both the spirits of the Light and to those of Darkness, for which reason although permanent and regular in themselves they have often been used unlawfully. One result of such use by an Earth-bound spirit without God’s permission was, for example, the discovery of the healing waters of the spring at Lourdes. This discovery, now widely known, is a typical example of a phenomenon some see as miraculous, others as pure superstition.

The French peasant girl Bernadette,³⁹ who was the intermediary between the physical and the transcendental worlds when the existence of the spring at Lourdes was revealed, spoke truthfully of what she saw and heard. However, the female apparition she saw was not, as Bernadette believed, the Mother of Jesus. The spirit she saw, who had knowledge of the astral and the psychic laws, appeared visibly and audibly without God's sanction before the young girl, who was clairvoyant and clairaudient. In her most previous incarnation this spirit had been a prominent Frenchwoman whose conduct had in many ways been very harmful to France.  The people's anger and hatred, along with her own consciousness of guilt, bound her—after mortal death—to roam restlessly for years in the astral counterpart of the Earth, unable to ascend to her home in the spheres. On her restless wanderings she discovered an underground (but to her visible) vein of water containing certain radioactive properties. As she knew that the water, if applied at the site (its radioactivity was very transient), would provide relief for some bodily sufferings and partially or even entirely a cure for certain diseases, she thought that she could atone for some of her guilt toward the people of the country by revealing her discovery to them. She therefore addressed herself to Bernadette who, as said, had mediumistic abilities, and in order to gain greater credence she presented her message in such a way that she could be seen as the “Virgin Mary”. Her words were: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” She knew this description befitted her no more than it did the mother of Jesus, but excusing herself by the Jesuit adage that the end justifies the means she had no hesitation in leading people to perceive her as the “immaculate virgin who conceived without sin” — the mother of Jesus. As must all others guilty of falsehood, she has had to atone fully for this deception. The nature of her atonement is a matter between her and God.

Much use is made of the curative waters at the spring of Lourdes. However, the healings are not always due to the radioactive radiations alone, but often to autosuggestion by the sick. The absolute faith in being healed that many of them possess, together with the sincere prayers and intercessions for help that are heard by God, draw the healing rays of the Light-ether to the sick, and the desired healing is partially or completely achieved. Even if such prayers and intercessions are directed to the Virgin Mary, God will answer them when they are offered in deepest trust. But only a few of the body’s ailments can be cured in this way, and not all reports of recoveries at the spring are truthful.

In view of the foregoing, the healings that occur through the application of water from the spring at Lourdes⁴⁰ can be regarded neither as miracles nor as cures based entirely on superstition, any more than can discovery of the spring. The apparently supernatural in this case does have a natural, lawful background; but the laws under which the existence of the spring was made known to human beings were improperly used, that is, without God’s permission.

People have often made demands upon beings from the transcendental world, fulfillment of which were and still are contrary to God’s laws. It has happened, for example, that members of spiritualistic circles have often demanded of spirits who manifested themselves during séances that they should prove their existence, their personal identity and their spiritual strength, or demonstrate they were emissaries from God and so forth by performing materializations, dematerializations and many other such “feats”. Doubtless unaware of it, these spiritualists have thus often demanded that their spiritual communicators act against God-given laws. And when the spirits have not wished to so act and thus failed to produce the desired evidence, these people have forthwith labeled as frauds the spirits or their mediums without willingness to investigate or respect the reasons for their refusal. Such conduct by humans is as senseless as that of a thief telling an honest person: “Go and steal, and I shall believe in your honesty!”

Humans must learn in future to respect the psychic and the astral laws, even though they do not understand them; learn that they must not demand, only pray; learn to receive with gratitude the proofs given them from the transcendental according to God's insight and wish, learn that the spirits of the Light never violate a law simply because some people will not understand until they have seen or received what they demand. And of one thing can humans be certain: the greater their demands, the less given from the transcendental world. Only they who seek the truth through unselfish prayer, with absolute trust, only they can achieve the necessary rapport with the spirits of the Light in order to receive the help they seek.

The laws of lesser, greater or complete regularity that directly concern purely earthly conditions, whether relating to energy, to radiation, to matter and substance, and so forth, or to the psychic or astral laws that govern the contact of the transcendental world with the physical, all these laws are provisional, are temporary—that is, they apply only to the Earth, and only for as long as the Globe exists.

Through that intelligence with which God has enriched humanity, and through guidance from the incarnated Youngest, some of the forces of Darkness—electricity, electro-magnetism, steam power and so forth—have been put to use in the earthly world and therefore, being partly under human control, in many ways are made to help ease and improve life on Earth.

Many toxic substances—organic and inorganic—that originate in the Darkness have similarly been put to use in the service of the Light, for example as medicines and disinfectants, or utilized in many other ways such as pigments, etching reagents and so forth.

A number of explosive substances that in the service of Darkness are used to cause death and destruction—for example as weapons of war—also serve the progress of the Light, such as in the leveling of ground, blasting of obstructions, drilling and so forth.

Ailments of the body also compel Darkness to contribute toward the overall balance. An acute illness can relieve the sufferer of accrued Darkness—strains of micro-organisms and the like—that threaten to destroy the body. The cure, among other things due to the healing influence of the corona of Light and the Light-ether, restores health to the body—the accrued Darkness is eliminated and balance thereby restored.

Through the Laws of Retribution and Reincarnation, also temporary and given by God for mankind’s advancement on Earth, the spiritual destruction and disturbance that Darkness constantly causes among humans is equalized and counter balanced in many ways.

Through the Law of Retribution each evil thought and every wrongful act reverts to the one who conceived of the thought or committed the act. In this way the originator must endure the same spiritual or physical sufferings intended for or brought upon others.⁴¹ Balance is then restored through the sufferings endured by the originator.

Similarly, catastrophes brought on by the influence of Darkness to cause disturbance and destruction in human life are utilized by God to restore balance under the Law of Retribution. In this way, Darkness is also made to serve the cause of the Light. For instance, those who, directly or indirectly, become victims of earthquakes, mine or traffic accidents or of fire, of the devastations of war, such as maiming, disease, starvation, loss of property and so forth, will always—because of the spiritual and physical suffering endured—see their guilt of misdeeds, taking of lives and other crimes of previous incarnations counter-balanced and annulled, so as to make their future lives on Earth brighter and happier. All must therefore clearly understand that no one endures any greater mental or bodily suffering⁴² than is his or her due from previous lives, and as God is never without means to intercede if necessary, those who are free of guilt and require no expiation in this manner will never be exposed to this kind of suffering. (See pages 252-53 in 1979 edition.)

Above the Law of Retribution stands God's compassion. All who fully repent of their sins can through their remorse obtain God's permission to expiate these sins by one or more deeds of love or mercy towards those against whom they have sinned.

Even death must serve the Light and life, as the spirit released by death and endowed with the results of accumulated experiences from the recently ended life on Earth, stands ready to receive new experience and new enrichment through further earthly lives.

And when the many incarnations of humanity have ended according to the Law of Balance of the Light, God will through a mighty cataclysm cause remaining Darkness not yet depolarized to assist in the dissolution of the globe, which through the fall of the Eldest had been brought under the dominion of the Darkness. Then will the perfect and final balance be achieved: mankind will have been released forever from the Earth— for millions of years the stage for human sin and grief and suffering; the globe will disintegrate and the Darkness that depolarizes through the cataclysm will be absorbed and transported by the circulating Light to its ultimate purging through God’s flaming Being—and the saga of the Earth will have come to an end.

All that has been said concerning the vibrations, depolarization, radiations and various other manifestations of Darkness as well as the descriptions of the regulating and balancing influence of the Light has only been in broad outline. Specific knowledge of the various branches of the natural sciences is required in order for the transcendental side to furnish a more thorough and detailed explanation. But those with scientific training who wish to proceed from the basis given can always be assured of effective help from their spiritual leaders—the discarnate Youngest. Much that can be brought to light and utilized by human intelligence is yet unknown and unresolved, while similarly a number of the powers of Darkness remain to be brought under human control and made useful in many ways.

Since the Earth is a world of Darkness, human intelligence will be engaged mainly in utilizing the products of Darkness. But humans will gradually learn to discern and determine where the influence of the Light intervenes in the existing order.

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Ever since the Eldest, in the remote prehistoric past, were agreed on opposing the incarnated Youngest so as to obstruct their leadership of humanity, the Elder has, like God⁴³ outlined plans for the incarnations of the Youngest and the human spirits. By these plans, the Eldest, or the Elder himself, sought to lead humans astray and away from the paths of life desired by God.

The Elder has in the same way pre-determined the fates of entire peoples, entire nations, to lead as many as possible away from the paths of the Light.

Since all thoughts⁴⁴—evil as well as good—are caught and reflected by the ether, the Elder’s decisions about future events were recorded as images in the ether of Darkness about the Globe.

Three types of ether-images occur: images for the future, images of the present, and after-images.

1) Images for the future are, as already mentioned, the records of the Elder’s predeterminations for the fate and conduct of individual humans and of entire nations. These images, meant to bring misfortune and suffering upon humanity, like all else originating with Darkness have also been made to serve the cause of the Light under the Law of Balance. The discarnate Youngest—the leaders and guardian spirits of mankind—have thus been able to discern from these forecasts what plots and designs threatened their charges at the hands of the Eldest. By observing whether the contours of the images were indistinct or sharply defined, the Youngest have been able to ascertain if the recorded events lay near or far from the present, whereupon they could then take precautions that might avert or mitigate destructive or ominous happenings that threatened the individual or all humanity.

For nations, the Elder normally outlined his predeterminations for a number of centuries ahead so that by the time of his return to God many images had been recorded in the ether of the Darkness surrounding the Earth, meant to affect the ways of living of all peoples and all nations for many years to come in accordance with his will. Not only that, but when some years before his return he understood the Light must ultimately defeat him he had devised further appalling occurrences for the future of nations. These took the form of devastating wars, assassinations, yet more wars, misfortune and misery and so on and on, the Elder reasoning that the mutual hatred, envy and lust for power among humans would help him draw Darkness closer about the Earth and thus, despite the counteraction of the Youngest, postpone the day of victory of the Light over him. The Youngest, aware of both these and the earlier predeterminations, did their utmost to prevent them from becoming reality on the earthly plane. At the time⁴⁵ that Christ succeeded in winning back his older brother, a number of these ominous events had already come to pass as realities on the Earth, while others were about to do so. The Youngest tried in many ways to divert or moderate the existing and impending conflicts between the governments of the nations and thus, if possible, forestall the outbreak of the appalling wars such conflicts would otherwise bring. But their persistent efforts to guide the leaders and the rulers into peaceful settlements of their standing disputes proved fruitless and many of the Elder’s ether-recordings were called to reality in the earthly world by the will for evil of human beings themselves. Although the Elder bears chief responsibility for the recorded predeterminations, humans must also bear grave and onerous guilt for the horrors, murders and misdeeds committed through human malice, hatred, greed and lust for power. Such deeds could have been avoided had humans striven for the good and the true in life instead of heeding the promptings of revenge and injustice. And are the Youngest in future to be able to prevent the Elder’s remaining, threatening ether-recordings from being brought about on the earthly plane at the time appointed by him, humans must themselves—especially those who lead and rule—assist by paying greater heed to the admonitions of their conscience. The efforts of the Youngest otherwise will be in vain, for God compels none to turn away from Darkness, compels none to do that which is right.

Clairvoyant human beings have often been able to see images of the Elder’s forecasts, but through abnormal refractions in the ether these images occasionally also have become known to non-mediums. Some have thus simultaneously seen ether-images—forewarnings—such as of marching soldiers, of battle scenes, murders and the like. The images have appeared in the open (somewhat like earthly reflections in the atmosphere—mirages) or in enclosed spaces, for example in halls and rooms of manor houses and castles, in ordinary dwellings and so on where the actual crimes foreshadowed by the ether-images subsequently came to reality.

Similarly, abnormal refractions in the ethereal sound-waves have produced sounds audible in the earthly world as omens—such as sounds of battle, of train collisions, of cries, sighs and groans, of firm, stealthy or dragging footsteps, and much more.

These phenomena will not be explained in more detail, since all will gradually cease as the Darkness is eliminated.

Not all criminal acts originate with the Elder’s ether-recordings. Often they are due to mutual human hatred, envy and so forth. Likewise, by no means can all misfortunes of past, present and future be blamed on the Elder. Many are due to human recklessness, indolence, negligence, dereliction of duty, and so forth. Persons who in these or in other ways cause the maiming or death of themselves or of others must bear the full responsibility and cannot lay the blame upon the Elder.

2) Images of the present are recordings in the ether of human thoughts that likewise in many ways influence the lives of the individual human being and of all mankind.

As all thoughts are received and transmitted by the ether-waves, people influence⁴⁶ each other for good or for evil. Depraved, weak people attract unclean and evil thoughts to themselves so that they often commit acts under the influence or compulsion of thoughts conceived by others. Those who send forth⁴⁷the thoughts and those who carry them into action must in such instances share the responsibility. But only God can then determine if the actions are due to one’s own thoughts or to thoughts attracted toward or forced upon one.

The principle psychic law on which the telepathic power of thought is based will not be disclosed from the transcendental side, since the ethical level of mankind is not yet advanced enough to preclude the abuse of such knowledge.

By experiment however, humans may possibly themselves come to recognize and apply some of the more elementary laws for telepathy of thought.

3) After-images are reflections in the ether of human actions carried out by plan or brought about through sudden thoughts (one’s own, or attracted, or imposed from without).

The moment thought becomes action, its image fades and vanishes, and as the action is carried out it is recorded or reflected in all detail. However, the image of the action seldom corresponds entirely to the image of the thought since people almost never carry out their actions exactly as intended, even if planned with the greatest of care. Many unexpected turns of events often interfere at the moment of action whereby much can be changed or prevented.

The after-images that reflect evil human actions such as murder or similar misdeeds, are often fixed for long periods in the accumulations of Darkness at the scene of the crime. These images dissolve and disappear when the perpetrators have fully repented of the sin. If the offender fails to repent during life on Earth or during the period for contemplation and repentance allotted each spirit on release at physical death, the image remains at the scene of the crime until the sin has been atoned for in some way in a new incarnation. Thus, after-images have often remained for centuries at the same place.

In contrast to the thoughts, borne off by the ether-waves, the images of evil and vile actions are reflected in the accumulations of Darkness, to remain there until they fade and disappear. Images of good actions are reflected in the radiations of Light from the spirit-body.

The radiations of Darkness from after-images can often evoke a distinct feeling of unease in sensitive people who may be present at scenes of past crimes. Clairvoyants have often seen and described after-images of battle, murder, robbery and other misdeeds.

After-images of good or insignificant actions dissolve and gradually fade away as the action withdraws in the individual’s memory; but when the human spirit is released at earthly death, everything—both good and bad—stands recorded in the consciousness of the spirit.

In similar fashion as after-images are retained in accumulations of Darkness, sounds from crimes already committed such as cries, blows, axe strokes, tramping, shuffling footsteps and so forth, can be retained for long periods in accumulations of Darkness. These may occasionally become audible in the earthly world at scenes of past crimes, and can be so “real” as to be heard by people not gifted as mediums. They will cease as the accumulations of Darkness are gradually eliminated.

As human thought is a reflection of God’s Thought, humans are able, by the existence of their thought, to give form and shape to the products of their imagination so that these can appear visibly on the astral plane. In contrast to the spiritual beings that God has created, the figments of human fantasy are not everlasting but only ephemeral and their existence subject to dissolution and extinction.

The more advanced the spirit bound to the human body, the more distinct and real its thought-images or phantoms. But rarely do people shape or finish their thoughts completely, so that what appears or is brought forth in the spiritual-astral substance is usually blurry, colorless and incomplete. Authors, painters, sculptors, poets and others who wish to transform their thought with the help of earthly materials so that in some way it can be perceived and understood by their fellow beings, consciously or subconsciously form or create in their minds one or more images of that which they wish to make accessible to perception by the senses. The clarity, degree of color and durability of the images and phantoms are dependent on their creators’ ability to work in the spiritual-astral material.  As a rule, the images are obliterated when the originator relinquishes the initial thought to allow new images, new phantoms to appear.

Since clairvoyant humans can usually see these thought-phantoms but not always distinguish between a phantom or a human spirit within their field of vision, many legends and fantastic tales have arisen regarding the so-called "elemental spirits".

From the earliest ages, after God had endowed mankind with spiritual life (thought and will), the human beings—especially the most primitive, least developed—have imagined nature populated with invisible beings capable of intervening in earthly existence in various ways, and of making themselves visible to the human eye. The forests, seas, rivers, lakes, mountains and so forth all had their own spirits—good or bad-natured, helpful, mischievous or vindictive beings. In the forms created by human thought, they could be seen by clairvoyants. Many even believed the elemental spirits ruled over and regulated nature, that animal and plant life was dependent on the vigilance of these creatures. As all natural life is subject to established laws, it is easy to see that all such beliefs are but fantasy. Gradually, as human spirits mature, as their insight deepens and they lose all belief in independently thinking and acting elemental spirits, and as these beliefs therefore no longer occupy their thought, the phantoms will dissolve and disappear.

Owing to the removal of all Earth-bound spirits, possessions by these spirits can no longer take place. Where an apparent possession is now found, the cause of such malicious, evil or confused behavior must be explained in other ways. Three possibilities are:

1) One of the Eldest is bound to the body (many are still incarnated among humans). (NOTE: This applies at the time of publication, the year 1920.)

2) Split personality, that is, memories from previous lives on Earth emerge in the person’s consciousness to cause regression to one or more earlier personalities. This can occur if the layer of isolation between the spirit and the body has been damaged by the incursions of Darkness, often brought about by the individual’s own evil thoughts and sinful mode of life; or it may be due to misuse of mediumistic talent.

While the spirits of the dead walked the Earth’s plane, split personalities⁴⁸ often arose from their malignant possession of human beings. The “dead” would thrust aside the spirit bound to the body and assume its place. But as the parasitic spirit was not bound by the life-giving cord, its energy would sooner or later weaken, obliging it to return the borrowed body to its rightful owner, who would only be partly in rapport with the physical brain during the possession. The spirit thus temporarily thrust aside could usually remember it had shared its physical body with one or more intruders, but sometimes there was no such remembrance.

3) Radiations from accumulations of Darkness that collect about an individual, attracted by the Darkness emitting from that individual’s personality. The meeting of these two forms of Darkness will then result in evil and impure thoughts or in criminal actions.

There is often a fourth category, but here the spirit bound to the physical body is usually not responsible for what happens. For example, if the physical brain⁴⁹ has in some way been damaged by concussion, sickness or old age, the spirit cannot come into rapport with it and so loses some, occasionally all control with the result that such persons are no longer "themselves"—that is, they lose their individual personalities.

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When the Youngest upon God's entreaty agreed to allow themselves to be incarnated on the Earth, the human race was still few in number and lived widely scattered about the globe.

Since the humans were, as they came from the Eldest's hand, ill-equipped to sustain and defend themselves, their struggle for survival carried off thousands and more thousands at a very young age.

Some of the human types then in existence were of such a low order that there was but the smallest possibility of leading these creatures to greater spiritual maturity and bodily refinement, so that the Youngest from the outset hesitated to be incarnated among them. A few types were then selected, and the Youngest embarked on the monumental work: to lead the human beings out of the Darkness and forwards to their Father’s Kingdom.

There are thus human racial types in whose midst the Youngest have never been incarnated. The spiritual level now attained by a number of these primitive types is reached by means of the divine element⁵⁰ given every human individual at the moment of conception, and which always with each new rebirth adds a spiritual plus to the human spirit. Newly-created and young spirits are mostly incarnated among these primitive beings—entirely or half-savage peoples. Gradually, as God’s need of these peoples for initial human incarnations diminishes, they will become extinct.

When the first incarnations among the more primitive peoples have ended, as the spirit matures and its will strengthens, it is incarnated among more highly developed and finally among the most advanced human racial types. This happens so that the spirit in every aspect of life can learn to overcome evil in all its forms. The human spirit must in this way experience everything that is offered by life on Earth and thereby achieve a comprehensive development of thought and will, although allowance must be made for the natural limitation that follows from the fact that a male spirit is always bound to a male body and a female spirit to a female body (exceptions being the unlawful incarnations of the Eldest. (See Commentary to Ardor’s Account, pages 201-02 in 1979 edition.)

Through millions of years, inconceivably slowly, step by step and generation after generation, the Youngest led humans forward, gradually giving them new and greater knowledge, and more and more means by which to improve their daily existence.

In the beginning and through many ages, the Youngest in their human existence stood but a few degrees above the human beings in intelligence and spiritual superiority.

The innate sense of beauty of the incarnated female Youngest left its stamp on the bodily appearance of their offspring and gradually improved upon it.

At a certain time in the prehistoric past the Eldest began in many ways to oppose and hinder the Youngest’s efforts by constantly drawing across the Earth more and more of the Darkness from the ruined kingdom, and by directing it to the places where the greatest human progress was evident.

As stated previously, the first truly civilized realm,⁵¹ which developed after millions of years, was situated in the Pacific Ocean. But many thousands of years before this realm was destroyed and disintegrated into island groups, the process of civilization⁵² had begun at other places on Earth, for example on the Island of the Atlantic Ocean, in the eastern part of Central Africa and at a few places in Asia.

After the Island had perished, the work of the Youngest was transferred mainly to northern and to eastern Africa and to the interior and southern parts of Asia.

At that time, humans still led mostly nomadic lives, with no single ruler (tribal elders usually acted as leaders in any domestic affairs). Laboriously they herded their cattle from place to place over vast distances. Thus became widely spread across the Earth many of the families that through the repeated incarnations of the Youngest had received a stamp of greater nobility and beauty, both spiritually and physically, than that originally bestowed upon their ancestors. These families intermingled again with the peoples already found at the places where the wanderers settled for longer or shorter periods of their nomadic lives. The spiritual level of these peoples was higher or lower according to whether or not the Youngest had been incarnated among them. Intercourse between the nomads and the original settlers produced new types, new races, and some families were improved by this interbreeding while others degenerated and met with extinction.

When the African realm also perished and its inhabitants fled to various other places, the Youngest transferred their efforts to northeastern Africa—the later Egypt—while a new process of civilization was begun in southern Europe, and the work already underway in Asia was continued.

Until about half a century before the destruction of the island in the Atlantic Ocean, the Youngest had succeeded, despite the Eldest's countermoves, in leading the human beings (except for the most primitive types) forward on a fairly straight course. But from the moment the Eldest chose to begin incarnating themselves, they were able to offer an even stronger resistance to the Youngest. In human form, the Eldest more easily gained power over their weak and immature fellow beings with the result that the slow and relatively steady progress of civilization and of the Light was supplanted by an erratic sequence of advance and retreat. For since the Eldest, as related in Ardor's Account, sought incarnation as human beings primarily where they could best achieve high positions⁵³ that would presumably satisfy their lust for earthly power and their urge to dominate, and since the great spiritual strength that was due to their inadequate insulation layer was especially prominent against the background of the poor spiritual level of the little-developed human beings, it was necessary for the Youngest to counteract this domination by allowing still more of their spiritual strength and individuality to manifest itself in their earthly existence. In this way arose the great leading figures of history—in both the service of good and of evil—represented respectively by the Youngest and the Eldest, male as well as female. These figures who contrast so sharply with one another in their great disparity, can be found in all historical records, from the time of the earliest civilizations of antiquity to the present.

When the incarnated Eldest's superiority grew too great, the Youngest had to withdraw, but only in order to meet again as human beings in other countries and there make a still greater contribution to the culture already prevailing in those places. In this way the many and mighty civilized nations of ancient times were created—civilizations that, when the Eldest gained mastery and the Youngest were forced into retreat, stagnated completely. Sooner or later the culture of the Light declined, the independence of the populace was diminished, and a number of the mighty realms were subjugated by neighboring peoples and met with partial or complete extinction.

About 800 years before the eldest of the Youngest's incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth, the Youngest were near exhaustion and close to losing heart as the incarnated Eldest steadily gained greater and greater power over human beings. Only a few of the Youngest dared venture among humans, but those who came brought with them an abundance of spiritual teachings, of new and noble thought, of new artistic expression in color and form, in order with all their might to take up the struggle against the Eldest.

To this era, that lasted to about the time of the birth of Christ, belong, for example, some of the Jewish prophets,⁵⁴ some Chaldean, Arabian and Indian scholars, the two great religious founders Zarathustra and Buddha,⁵⁵ the great men of China, Lao-tze, Kung-tze and Meng-tze, some of the Greek poets, more scholars and philosophers, some of the most prominent leaders in the intellectual life of the Roman Empire, and a number of other leaders in the arts, natural sciences, statesmanship, and so on in all civilized countries of the time.

At that time, astronomy was especially highly developed in Egypt, Chaldea and in China, and was partly known in India.

Astrology, an offshoot of astronomy, is an ancient “science”, but actually has no right to be called such, for the stars have never had the least influence on human destiny. If a horoscope sometimes was accurate, it was because the astrologer who made the calculations had intuitively seen or read the Elder’s recordings of future-images in the ether, or because the Elder often caused his forecasts to coincide with the “laws of the stars”, believed by astrologers to determine human fate.

Despite all the beauty and all the knowledge the Youngest gave humanity in this period, they were yet unable to defeat the Eldest, who grew ever more powerful. The Youngest who stayed in the spheres turned therefore to God for more help and for greater strength.

When God, in His discourse⁵⁶ with the Youngest, had strengthened and comforted them, they took up with new courage the task which had almost come to a standstill, and about eight decades after taking counsel with God there then followed the eldest of the Youngest's incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth.

But again the Youngest verged on despair when, after the return of Jesus to the spheres from his life on Earth, his heirs proved incapable of completing the great task set them: to bring the teachings of Jesus in their pure and unadulterated form into the world, and when Saul (or Paul), through his many wrongful interpretations dictated by the Elder, removed this teaching still further from its original form.

He of the Youngest who was incarnated as Saul and who, before his incarnation, had pledged to open the eyes of the Jewish scholars to the truths in the teaching of Jesus, was authoritative and strong-willed—characteristics easily transformed into obstinacy in the earthly world. He was later reborn as the reformer, Martin Luther, for the purpose of cleansing Christianity of the fallacies he had added to the teaching of Jesus while he lived as the man Saul.

Since Christianity spread primarily toward the northwest, and as the Youngest in their many attempts to restore it to its rightful form had to be incarnated where there were the best opportunities for opposing the false doctrines implanted by the Elder, the culture of the Light spread more and more across Europe after the death of Jesus of Nazareth, but always accompanied by the debasing and destructive counter-actions of the Eldest.

Many of the Youngest were of course still being incarnated in lands outside Europe, but most were sent there.

Since the Youngest had for centuries primarily emphasized the purification of the teaching of Jesus, it became impossible for them to continue their original cultural work as forcefully as before, and thus the incarnated Eldest, and with them the Darkness, gained ever greater power over mankind to obstruct and unsettle the guidance of the Youngest.

Some of the Youngest were even led so far astray by the Elder and by the dense Darkness that he continually gathered about them during their human existence, that they often fought stoutly to defend that which they had been sent to the earthly scene to oppose and to root out. And again came a time when most of the Youngest favored abandoning the task and letting human beings follow their own course. But Christ appealed to them anew, urging them to ask God for still greater spiritual strength and greater power of resistance in their earthly lives so that Darkness should not overcome them all.

When God had again⁵⁷ spoken to the Youngest, had shown them the disadvantages in their procedure, had pointed out how, by bringing humanity still more and still greater knowledge in various fields they could inspire people to search for the truth themselves and in this way open their eyes to the numerous delusions, a multitude of the Youngest were once more incarnated, initiating the period known in history as the Renaissance.

But as mankind had by now populated large parts of the globe, the Youngest's work became greater and more complex. Besides their own incarnations they had also to serve as guardian spirits, guide the incarnations of human beings and be teachers to the human spirits during the latter's stay in the spheres between incarnations. The work began to overwhelm them.

But those many of the Eldest⁵⁸ who had long since repented of their fall and of their sin (the creation of mankind) and who now, purified, stayed in their Father’s Kingdom and followed the work of their younger brothers and sisters with profound gratitude, then asked their Father’s permission to themselves contribute to this so very extensive work. In answer, God entrusted them the task of assisting as guardian spirits for human beings, and of participating as leaders in the instruction given human spirits when in the spheres. Further, when the Youngest voluntarily shortened their allotted time of rest after each completed earthly life, the work could then continue on its regular course.

Nevertheless, the Youngest met with enormous difficulties.⁵⁹ Especially did those who had undertaken to cleanse the teachings of Jesus often suffer the greatest defeats. Still, they slowly fought their way forward against all opposition, though with varying success on different fronts—now the Light and the Youngest had the upper hand, now Darkness, the Elder and the incarnated Eldest.

After persistent efforts for some centuries, conditions on the Earth had reached a point at which the eldest of the Youngest (Christ) might once more be incarnated so as to perhaps crown the work. In human form, with human emotions, but this time without human fear⁶⁰ of the Evil One he would be able to show compassion for the Elder—the Prince of Hell—and to pray from his heart for his salvation. And by appearing as a religious reformer he would also be able to restore to its original form the teaching that he, as Jesus of Nazareth, had presented humanity.

But God knew that despite the resolve of the eldest of the Youngest to do his utmost, there would also in this incarnation be a possibility that Darkness might overcome him and thus expose his gentle and loving mind anew to much deep suffering. And when God saw that despite the many acts of fraud by the mediums, more and more people tried in earnest and with understanding to communicate⁶¹ with the dead, He chose—even though the spiritualistic connections were often highly inadequate and misleading—to let Christ make an attempt, with humans as intermediaries, to reach the intended goal in this way and thus be spared all the suffering of a difficult life on Earth. With this decision and by this means, the unlawful application of astral and psychic laws by the spirits of Darkness could also be brought under more orderly conditions, so that the communications established between the transcendental and the sensory worlds might serve the cause of the Light rather than the Darkness. In this way the spiritualistic errors, fallacies, abuses and frauds could also be exposed, fought and uprooted, with the possibility the Light could victoriously bring to a complete and final end the abuse of the astral and psychic laws by the discarnate Eldest and the human spirits. And God pointed to that Shorter Road by which Christ and his helpers have now, after indescribable difficulties, sacrifices and disappointments, reached the desired result: the return of the Earth-bound spirits to their abodes in the spheres, the absorption of the ruined Kingdom by the wave of Light, the Elder’s complete redemption, his voluntary confession and his prayerful plea to human beings for forgiveness for all his sins against them, and the imparting of this entire message along with the teachings of Christ in the form of a speech to humanity.   

Since Christ has thus fulfilled the first part of his promise to his Father: to deliver his eldest brother from the power of Darkness, to impart to humans certain truths concerning life hereafter, and to provide clear and complete direction on how life on Earth should be lived, God has relieved him of the need for any future incarnation so that he may devote himself entirely to the fulfillment of the second part of his promise: to guide human beings to the Home of He Who is the Father of them all.

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The constant ebb and flow of fortunes in the spiritual struggle on Earth between the incarnate Youngest and Eldest created most unfavorable conditions for mankind. The Youngest were prevented from leading humans forward in a straight line—from letting them, as far as possible, follow the slowly rising cultures so that they might mature both inwardly and outwardly. And so the Youngest had to change tactics and (as earlier said) had to raise their personalities to a disproportionate degree above humans in order to attain at least some favorable results by being able to stand their ground against the incarnated Eldest and defeat them in the course of time. Culture for the average human being has thus only often been a forced veneer, a facade that shatters easily on the least occasion and allows the true nature of the human being—the human animal—to reappear. Especially in later and most recent times, this disparity appears all the more glaringly incongruous against the background of apparently advanced spiritual culture in so many countries—a culture, however, sustained only by a minority which it will take ordinary humans hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years to attain and to assimilate.

Should the Youngest cease suddenly their incarnations in future, a universal stagnation would result and human beings would then have to rely, for as long as possible (page 264 in 1979 edition), on that already given them of invention, natural sciences, poetry, the arts of color, form, tone, and of much more, until the Youngest would again be born among them, for humanity will not in future be given anything new of importance through the genius of the Eldest. Those Eldest who have been incarnated since Ardor's return in 1912, are all incarnated under God's direction, and their genius is, by His Will, withheld, so that they cannot become pioneers and innovators in the earthly world. They will in everything appear to be only ordinary human beings.

Over the course of time, the Eldest ones have become divided into three groups:

1) Those who first repented of their sins and of their fall and who then returned to God’s Kingdom without ever being incarnated. They never will be incarnated, but (as said earlier) are atoning for their sins against human beings by helping their younger brothers and sisters lead mankind towards the Light.

2) Those who, after a few arbitrary incarnations, remained in the ruined kingdom. However, some let themselves be incarnated by the Elder from time to time so as to assist him in his evil designs on humans, and especially against the incarnated Youngest. These Eldest—many at present incarnate—will in times to come be incarnated under the leadership of God, to atone in new lives on Earth for their sins and their crimes against humanity.

3) Those to whom life in the ruined kingdom became intolerable and who, without cessation, continued their unlawfully begun incarnations. These have now progressed far enough that all have—long since—submitted to God’s direction. The divine element bestowed at conception on each future human being has been of much help to them, since with each earthly rebirth their darkened spirit has received a spiritual plus whereby their struggle toward the Light has been considerably advanced and facilitated. But they still have much to atone for before they can return to God’s Kingdom.

As the many thousands of Eldest presently living on Earth, incarnated by the Elder, gradually “die out”—are released from their physical bodies—they are brought to distant astral abodes in one of the other three “Milky Way” systems. There they must remain until remembrance of their fall and of their many sins awakens, whereupon they will be incarnated under God’s direction in order to make atonement and to rehabilitate their personalities. When the last of Ardor’s still “living” helpers departs mortal life, in about 50 to 60 years, humans will be free of the last tie that binds them to their creators. The faint spiritual current⁶² that infused the creatures from the Eldest during their attempts to create, disrupts the moment the last earthly body of these Eldest expires. Ever since the first appearance of human beings, this current has imparted to their astral counterparts a faint spiritual life so as not to subject them to the perishability of Darkness.⁶³ Once this current is broken off, God will be released from His promise to His first repentant children: to let a divine element merge with the spiritual life bestowed by the Eldest, thereby to allow humanity to partake of eternal life and to release the counterparts so that upon death of the human body they can be dissolved and absorbed into the Darkness from which they were formed.

Thus: when the current from the Eldest ends, God will create no more spirits. The human spirits will then constitute a completed whole, with no further addition of new beings. But in order to ease the journey of His many children to His Home, it is God’s intention not to break off the divine stream of Light that flows from Him to humanity but to allow it to continue to infuse them all, so that in future human spirits will still receive with each new incarnation a further spiritual plus from God. By this precious gift the spirit is endowed with ever-increasing strength and power of will, an invaluable help on the difficult journey. However, millions of years must yet pass before the younger and the last-created human spirits can be released from life on Earth.

The number of incarnations for the human spirit varies widely. It is not the same for all, since the number depends on the individual’s free will toward good or toward evil. Human spirits who during their incarnations have been directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of many others, whether through murderous or other unfortunate means, or who as earthly rulers have exposed their subjects to death in wars of conquest or religion and in family feuds and so forth, must experience many more incarnations to atone for these many deaths than those not guilty of such crimes. The most a human spirit has been bound to the Earth and its spheres before release from further incarnations is about three million earthly years, the least about one and three-quarter million years. This includes the years for rest and learning in the spheres. Many of the first, the oldest human spirits, have long ago been released from further incarnation and are continuing their journey on globes in the distant galaxy opposite the Earth’s Milky Way system. Here they slowly mature under the tutelage of God’s Servants until they can enter God’s Kingdom, there to be received by their Father.

These spirits will never return to the Earth to participate in the work of the Youngest, a task for which they are still too immature even though their will toward the Light has overcome Darkness. And when after millions of years they have reached the goal of their journeying, their help on Earth will be superfluous since by then there will no longer be any human beings on the globe. The last humans will have left this first stage of their journey to continue it on the distant globes.

The reason the human spirits, after release from life on Earth, are brought to the Earth’s neighboring galaxy is that most of the globes in the Earth’s own galaxy are contaminated by Darkness. Should God call forth life on these globes it would have to be similar to that on Earth—a life of Darkness in worlds of Darkness, which could only hinder and oppress the human spirits. When these spirits are released from life on Earth, they will therefore fully and forever have dissolved the bonds of Darkness and will belong only to the Light and to the worlds of the Light. The Earth is thus the only globe within its galaxy that supports living beings.

Although Darkness can never bind human beings as fully as it did the Eldest—for the higher the spirit that succumbs to Darkness, the deeper and more lasting its fall—the power of Darkness over humans is nevertheless great, inasmuch as they arose from the Darkness. But through the will for the good, and with heartfelt prayer to God, all can gradually free themselves from the heavy yoke of Darkness. The more the will is directed to the attracting power of the Light, that much lesser can Darkness exert its influence. Moreover, since Darkness no longer has discarnate “servants” to bring humans under its magnetic power, all who sincerely desire the good and the true will find it easier to avoid its influence in times to come.

For the present though, the few who submit completely to God’s guidance can be counted as one in a million and many generations must pass before the spiritual weapons of love, justice and tolerance can gain victory over the murderous earthly weapons by which nations and peoples settle their many disputes.

In numerous areas and in all possible ways the incarnated Eldest have drawn mankind downwards and harmed and opposed the work of the Youngest. From remote antiquity when they were first incarnated, the genius of the Eldest has been employed to serve the Darkness.

Through written works on the natural sciences, philosophy, literature, and fanatical religion they led people astray and away from the paths of the Light.

Many of the inventions that have brutalized humanity and have led to destruction, torture and death are mainly due to the Eldest—the weapons of destruction of ancient times, the many instruments of torture, the invention of gunpowder, the first firearms, and practically everything else of this nature that has evolved from these beginnings up to our times..

A few of the inventions of explosive and destructive substances that have been brought forth with intent to benefit humanity are due to some of the Youngest who in their existence as humans were led astray by the Elder.

But not only the Eldest have hindered the Youngest in their work, human beings themselves have time and again proved to have no understanding of and to be hostile and unreceptive to the gifts and the truths the Youngest have tried to bring them. Rarely, if ever, have God’s emissaries been understood while they still lived among people on Earth. Not until the passing of one or more generations have the Youngest normally been even partly understood. Again, this goes back to the fact that what they presented was too advanced to be comprehended by the immature human spirits, who even in the most advanced civilizations and societies have always been in the majority. During their human embodiment, the Youngest have thus often been somewhat isolated. Time and again they have faced scorn, anger, hatred and persecution. Many have suffered painful death inflicted by humans as a reward for their self-sacrificing work, their patience and perseverance, and for the unfailing love with which each sought in every way to overcome Darkness and the influence of the Elder. Only the love and thanks of God, their Father, given after each completed incarnation, has helped them bear the suffering, sorrow, disappointment and scorn heaped on them by the very beings for whom they sacrificed so much.

Whether human beings will over time come to better understand and appreciate that brought them by God’s emissaries, and whether they themselves will contribute to a development whereby the culture of the spirit and the culture of the heart can in common follow a straight path towards the Light, must for now be left in abeyance—perhaps for centuries—before humans can answer it, as it should be answered.

But for human beings themselves to be able to take up the struggle against Darkness in earnest—not only against the Darkness harbored within them, in their thoughts and feelings, and against that which everywhere surrounds them in the earthly world, but also against the Darkness that threatens them through the ether-recordings⁶⁴ of the Elder—they must first of all learn tolerance for one another’s opinions and points of view, since tolerance is the basic element of love. If people in smaller, closer-knit groups learned to yield to one another instead of deriding and mocking one another, tolerance and then love could the easier be extended to the many until all mankind—sooner or later—would stand united in the common struggle out of Darkness.

This applies first of all to the intolerance among the leaders and followers of the higher religions, for it must be remembered that the spiritual values of greater or lesser merit imparted to humanity in religious life have been given only in fragments, often at long intervals and always to some extent distorted⁶⁵ by the Elder, who always and by all possible means has tried to obscure the pure and absolute truths to prevent humans from gaining any precise knowledge. But those who wish and who are able to draw parallels between all religions from the earliest days to the present, can find some of the truths of the Light in them all, often repeated in somewhat different forms, but all more or less obscured by man-made dogmas and couched in human thoughts and misconceptions.⁶⁶ No religious body, therefore, has the right to maintain that only it offers salvation, that its followers alone are the chosen, that they only shall inherit God’s Kingdom and be granted the glory and happiness of eternal life. Nor has it the right to denounce and be scornful of others who think and believe differently. Such narrowness, such self-assertion at the expense of one’s fellow-beings is the gravest of religious delusions. Eternal life belongs to all who wish to accept it; God’s Kingdom is open to all; every human shares in God’s love; to all He shows the same patience, the same compassion; not to a single human being does He ever close His heart, and to none does He shut the gates to the Paternal Home. To God, the Creator and Father of the human spirit, it matters not what earthly belief the individual professes, only that humans in mind and in heart, in thought and in action should live according to their faith, and not merely observe its outer forms or cling to its man-made dogmas or to that dictated by habit or by ritual, and of no spiritual value at all for eternal life. Only that which calls upon, evokes and maintains the best, the noblest and the finest in human thought and feeling, has permanent worth for the individual.

No more than God forces a particular religion upon anyone, does He demand honor and worship in any prescribed manner. Every religious community has the right to conduct gatherings and divine services according to the forms and rules in greatest harmony with its adherents’ perception of beauty and of the exalted. But none have the right to promote the form of worship accepted in their own community to the detriment of all other forms, as if it were the best and only way for the congregation to honor its God and Father and commune with the divine. All worship should be voluntary, without coercion of any kind, neither in one or the other respect, for whether people gather in temples, churches, auditoriums or in their homes, God hears always their songs of praise, their thanksgiving and their prayers when their thoughts and devotions are truly heartfelt.

Not only in religious faith should people learn to yield to each other and to tolerate one another’s opinions and points of view, they should also in social and political life seek common ground, seek in fellowship to cast off the yoke of Darkness, so that the journey of all towards the distant goal may be accomplished more favorably than hitherto.

How can humans themselves help toward the achievement of this task?

First and foremost, by never acting against their better judgment, by always heeding the inner prompting of the conscience and by teaching the coming generations to strive for truth, justice and peace on Earth.

In bringing up new generations, women have a special task which many in recent times have partly or completely neglected whilst taking up the cause of equal rights with men. It goes without saying that a woman has the right, according to her ability, to take part in social and political activity, provided she has no young children in need of her care. Motherhood brings attendant material and educational duties that suffer because of obligations and tasks assumed outside the home.

Every woman should know that by giving birth, she also answers for her children's spiritual growth.⁶⁷ It is the mother who influences the formation of the young child's spirit; it rests with her to weed out with patience and unfailing love the shoots of the seeds of Darkness found in each child's mind; it rests with her to develop and to form the child's perception of the good and true in life and to instill abhorrence of all that is impure, of falsehood, violence, taking the law into one's own hands, and to regard all warfare as abominable.

Every mother should know that after her mortal death when she must account for her life on Earth, God will first ask: “How did you bring up your child, what spiritual values did you implant in your child’s soul, and what example did you set by your own conduct?” Many a mother has ashamedly had to answer: “I neglected my child, I left the spiritual upbringing of my child in the hands of others, and, through my own conduct I set my child a poor example!”  It matters not that such a mother can add: “But I gave much of my time and my talents to my country and my community.” God’s answer will then be: “You have not benefited but harmed your country and your community, for you have neglected and failed to honor the human spirit that was entrusted to your care, and through your negligence you have given your country a poor and useless citizen.”

Mothers who bring up their children to be truthful, just and peace-loving citizens benefit their nation much more than those who leave maternal duties and education of their children to others in order to participate in social and political life.

The father also has a great responsibility in bringing up children. First, he must provide for their purely material needs; but if the children are many and the mother’s health is delicate, or should she die, leaving under-age children behind, then the responsibility for their ethical upbringing rests with the father.

Both parents have a great responsibility, not only for the direct but the indirect rearing of the children, as both have the task of making life in the home as bright, peaceful and harmonious as possible. Next, it is not only the parents' task but their duty to keep all dispute⁶⁸ between them away from the children, as nothing is so destructive to the young generation as a discordant home. When people enter into marriage, in whatever manner this takes place, both parties must realize the responsibilities they bear towards the future generation. Husband and wife should, as far as possible, be at the same social level and have enough common interests and spiritual kinship that they can build a heartfelt and lasting friendship on this, so that they are not tempted, in the course of some years, to part. People ought never to enter into marriage under compulsion or with the reservation that it can be dissolved, as divorce should be the very last resort. But if it is quite impossible for husband and wife to yield to one another and live together in peace and tolerance, then lawful divorce has its legitimacy for the sake of the children, as they are then far better served by being reared outside the home, or living with the least guilty of the two parties.

Parents should strive, both directly and indirectly, to give their children the best possible upbringing, and not permit them to suffer the consequences of marital strife and discord, so that the coming generation⁶⁹ may be endowed with a pure, bright and tolerant disposition, and so that in all circumstances of life they may remember their home with happiness, and from the memories of their childhood derive strength to resist the temptations in life and the ways of Darkness.

Equally important to the upbringing of children is legislation. Humans can themselves help improve conditions on Earth by enacting well-chosen laws that restrain not the free will or compel anyone to act against the best and the noblest within them. Coercive laws of any kind laid down by leaders and rulers only promote the power of Darkness and hinder the advance of the Light. There must of course be laws to regulate domestic and international affairs, but if these laws compel people to act against their inner convictions or their conscience or if they impede the natural development of the free will, such laws will only be destructive and the rulers will have abused their power.

Among such coercive laws must be regarded, for instance, compulsory military service.

As long as military service is only “peaceful”, the outdoor exercise and the discipline can often benefit body and spirit, provided the military leaders act humanely and do not cause degradation and demoralization by abuse of their authority. But when war games turn to grim reality with soldiers facing living masses who will become fodder for their cannon, sabers, bayonets and other weapons, and they know they will maim or kill many, then most must go against their inner conviction to act in the manner demanded by the leadership of their country. The best and the noblest in the spiritual lives of such persons is often destroyed, since in order to deaden the rising abhorrence for their actions they let themselves be gripped by the din and fury of battle and act blindly so as to avoid thinking of the horror before them. Such people should never be forced into combat, since usually it is they who, in the confusion and degrading turmoil of battle, unnecessarily commit the worst, and the needless, atrocities.

But as long as military service is compulsory, it is of no use for individuals or groups to refuse to comply with the duty demanded by a country’s government since such insubordination only harms the disobedient and in no way upsets the existing order. There is but one thing to do: submit to the duties imposed by society, even though they clash with one’s innermost feelings. The individual then stands with a clear conscience, while the responsibility for forcing such actions on others rests with those who originate and enforce such laws.

The repeal of these coercive laws must begin with the leaders, the legislators, the rulers. When they realize such coercion cannot be in harmony with God’s wishes and purposes, the time will have come to repeal and replace the existing laws with new ones.

As a transition from present conditions to the time when a general and universal peace among all nations is a reality, all military service should be voluntary,⁷⁰ with no slightest compulsion of the individual, since responsibility for the many untimely deaths, the many murders and atrocities and the destruction is placed by God upon the leaders, the legislators and the rulers, even though the individual soldier—aggressor as well as defender—must account for all unnecessary cruelties of which he is personally guilty. On the other hand, if military service is made voluntary until further notice, then the chief responsibility will be evenly divided among all the participants in war, the leaders as well as the soldiers in the field.

All warfare is counter to the Will of God and in conflict with the laws of the Light and it benefits neither one nor the other warring nation to call upon God’s assistance⁷¹ as supreme warlord. Any prayer to God to bless weapons or armies so that under His leadership they may gain victory is therefore blasphemous.

Any conception of God as giving leadership in war must be banished, since all bloodshed, all wanton  destruction of property, all attempts to overthrow anyone or anything is entirely incompatible with God’s ways. Again and again God has sought to lead humans to a full understanding of unselfish concern for the welfare of others and respect for others’ property rights. From the oldest times, God’s emissaries have repeatedly called to humans: “You shall not kill, nor take by force, not rob, nor plunder!” But the appeal has been in vain thus far. Human beings have not yet been able to free themselves from the primal urge of self-assertion by brute force at the expense of their fellow beings. As long as the peoples of the nations of the world do not unite and strive toward mutual peace and tolerance, as long as humans cannot, with complete faith in God as the Father, and faith in His justice, place everything in His hands and with trust submit to His guidance, as long as the will of the many is not one with His Will, then can bloodshed, violence and war not cease, then can the hope for peace not be victorious on Earth.

Humans must overcome the influence of Darkness, overcome hatred, curses, envy and lust for power by faith in God’s existence and by trusting His guidance, rather than through prayers for help to crush their enemies and opponents by acts of violence—for God never hears and never answers such prayers.

Could one imagine an entire people united in trust in God, with absolute confidence that no ambitious, envious or rapacious neighbors could do them harm, then even the most evil of designs would collapse in face of such full and unshakable faith. But where is such a people to be found? Mankind is yet in its infancy. Centuries or millenniums may pass before full understanding of such an unshakable relationship of trust between God and humans will come about.

Thus, all warfare is rooted in Darkness and is brought about by the mutual intolerance of nations, in turn attributed to the lust for power of their leaders and rulers. If the human will for evil thus produces hostilities and destruction and war has begun, the nation that initiates the hostilities must bear the responsibility for aggression as well as for the defensive actions forced upon the other nation or nations, regardless of the forms the war may take. And as long as the nation under attack limits itself to the defense of its lands, of its rights, the aggressor will remain in the wrong. But should the defender carry hostilities into the adversary’s territory in order to attack rather than to defend, both sides immediately share the blame for all that happens (this applies to all warfare, on land, or by sea or air).

The victory or defeat of the warring parties can in no way be ascribed to God. Never does God take part in the hostilities, neither on the side of the aggressor nor on the side of the defender. Only prayers for help to restore peace will be heard by God, but His many and persistent attempts to speak to the leaders as their “conscience” are largely ignored.

The victor in war overcomes the enemy only with numerical or strategic superiority and the like, or through its people's common hatred of the enemy and their united will to victory. Never is a victory gained with God's help.

Any individual—civilian or military—who praises, defends and glorifies war in written word or speech rather than evoking aversion to this deed of Darkness and enlightening others as to the degradation and brutality of war, assumes a heavy burden of personal responsibility and must, at the end of the earthly life, account in full to God for the motivations for such actions.

Even though peoples wage wars amongst themselves and even though God hears not their prayers for victory, yet never are His earthly children out of His sight. He seeks either directly or through the discarnate Youngest to awaken remorse among the leaders, just as He tries in many ways to instil in them an awareness of their abuse of power and of the wrong they have committed, so as to bring about a pact of peace before one of the parties succumbs to the superior force. But these attempts are also mostly ignored by humans.

Many of the discarnate Youngest gather where the fighting is fiercest, in order by their presence to minimize the effect of the erupting Darkness and to divert those accumulations of Darkness inevitably drawn to the scenes of battle by the passions unleashed. They come also to bring the thousands of spirits of the slain humans back to their dwellings in the spheres.

The Youngest will also, for as long as there is a state of war, attempt to evoke feelings of compassion and to inspire acts of mercy among those directly or indirectly involved in the war so as to counteract the influence of Darkness.

Patriotic love for one’s country⁷² is normally a fine and exalted sentiment but becomes ugly and degrading when, aroused by the passions of war, it turns into egoism and self-adulation. Regarding such self-overestimation and smugness, human beings should never forget those men and women who from the earliest times and in the various nations have risen high above average man, and who in the service of the Light have exerted a lasting cultural influence on the peoples of their countries in religion, ethics, science, social matters and politics. These have all been the incarnated Youngest, who, under the leadership of God, have let themselves be born at those places where existed, at that time the best prospects for introducing innovations and improvement.  And as even the most developed human spirits have not yet reached such a point as to be able to enrich their fellow humans to any significant degree, either spiritually or materially, nor yet succeeded in raising themselves above the purely human level in spiritual respect, humanity has not the least ground for self-overestimation or self-admiration, but reason only to thank God for the abundance of the gifts with which He has enriched them through His emissaries.

So that no government by the few, nor by a single head of state should in future be tempted through error of judgment or hasty decision to involve their own and thereby one or more other nations in total and destructive war, all states should agree upon a common governing body. It would be represented by all countries and all camps, to act not as a peace conference from time to time but as a permanent authority⁷³ with delegates elected for a longer period of office and entrusted with the power to jointly resolve all national disputes and entanglements. All disputes of any kind ought to and can be settled peacefully and diplomatically. In no way can humanity defend before God its presumed right to settle its disagreements by arms and by force.

If all nations, the peoples of East and of West, would meet voluntarily in a joint effort to achieve a lasting peace, they would be assured of receiving all possible help from the transcendental world under the supreme leadership of God Himself. However, it will be of no use to establish a general world authority until the will exists in full sincerity and accord to fulfill the hope of such an “eternal peace”. But once such collaboration has begun, it should never be breached. The nation that deceitfully disregards such an agreement thereby assumes a heavy responsibility, for every vow broken attracts Darkness to those who deliberately engage in deceit, and the gathered Darkness will draw into reality on the earthly plane the Elder’s recorded images for future happenings and thus for long periods again hinder the toilsome journeying of mankind.

These proposals for a general world authority or international court of law have in various ways been put forward by humans in the past, but without awakening the proper response and understanding.

With permission from our God and Father, this proposal is hereby advanced from the transcendental world—from the spiritual leaders of mankind—in the hope that those who are well placed to advocate and implement some treaty of this nature will heed these words in times to come.

And when the time does come that all humanity in full understanding should agree to enact an inviolable pact of peace, manufacture of all armaments and weapons of war should also cease, nevermore to be resumed.

Through an inviolable pact of peace between all the peoples and the nations, human beings will lay a firm foundation for an effective and a fruitful joint endeavor between the children of the Light and the children of the Earth, an endeavor that will in many ways be a great help to the Youngest in their work for mankind, and benefit especially those of the Youngest incarnated as humans.

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 “Lead us till we enter Thy Kingdom!” These are the words of the venerable old prayer taught his apostles by Jesus of Nazareth.

Under the supreme leadership of God must humans themselves make their way to the goal. God’s Kingdom can never come to humanity on Earth, for were God to let the divine sea of Light of His world descend upon the globe, all the weak and undeveloped human spirits would, unresistingly, be drawn back into His Paternal bosom, and everything there was upon the Earth, the living as well as the lifeless, would at once be absorbed and merged into the waves of the sea of Light. However bright and peaceful the conditions and existence on Earth may thus become, life there will only be the faintest reflection of life in the Kingdom of God and as no human being can come into God’s immediate presence without being absorbed into Him who endowed the human spirit with the gift of life, Christ must not only be the guide of all human beings, but also their Father’s representative to them until their spirit has attained such strength as to be able to enter the Home of the Father.

Slowly, humans journey towards the distant goal—a mighty pilgrimage from all corners of the world. And leading the pilgrimage is that most patient, loving and self-sacrificing of all leaders—Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of mankind. From his torch held high, the light falls bright and clear on the ways and the paths that lead to the goal. And if any lose their way on the long and difficult journey, Christ searches until he finds those who have gone astray, for he has vowed to lead all into His Father’s waiting embrace.

How much time has yet to pass before mankind will acknowledge and receive Christ for what he is—their faithful brother and leader—and with his help unite in the common task of creating brighter and happier circumstances on Earth and thus to improve the human condition, this no one knows—not even God—for the free will of human beings for good or for evil must answer this question. But sooner or later the time will come when all will stand united and of one accord, when the will of all is one with the Will of God so that fully, in the least as in the greatest, in spirit and in truth, He is the God and Father of all human beings. And then will the ancient legend of the angels’ song of praise at the birth of Christ come true, then the words: “Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men” will rise in chorus from humanity and from the Youngest, their spiritual leaders.

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The Youngest who were the companions and helpers of Christ in the final and difficult struggle with Darkness to win back their beloved brother, now pray together to Almighty God: “Father, bestow Your blessing on our task, that our words shall not sound in vain in the wilderness of human ignorance! Father, teach the human beings to forgive our eldest brother even as You have forgiven him, that they may indeed journey forward, toward the Light and toward Your Kingdom!”

FOOTNOTES

(If you are reading this in a computerized file format, page references cannot be found unless you have a copy of the original printed book on hand. Harry may attempt making a new file with the page breaks inserted. If he does, it will replace this file.)

1) By contrast, the highest frequency of the polarized Darkness that separated at the fall of the Eldest stood about halfway between the lowest and the highest frequencies of the Light.

2 twice) Most of the globes in the galactic system (the “Milky Way”) to which the Earth belongs, are more or less contaminated by Darkness. Many are completely saturated.

3) According to the laws that have been established by the Thought and Will of God for the eternally radiating energy of Light, the lawless and aimless chaos on Earth is redirected toward order and purpose, toward greater usefulness, greater beauty and perfection.

4) As a consequence of the overwhelming influence of Darkness at that time, many of the primary prototypes given by God were completely destroyed. Thus, the creatures that evolved from the damaged seeds bore not the faintest resemblance to the original prototypes

5) See also pages 274-75.

6 three times) Though not as firm in its consistency as that produced by the vibrations of the Light, for example in the higher spheres.

7) Just as a human being cannot recall the very first years of life, a released human spirit cannot recall the very first incarnations.

8) The Youngest can of course recall even their very first incarnations.

9) The colors will gradually etherealize — become purer and clearer until they disappear completely.

10) The special refraction that separates colors at sunrise and sunset will become much more difficult for the corona of Light to overcome than ordinary refraction. The time required will probably exceed the millions of years in all probability still allotted to earthly life. However, during the Earth’s lifetime mankind will be able to observe the etherealization of the color-spectrum produced by this special refraction.

11) The self is the spirit and all the good and evil inherited through the astral counterpart.

12 three times) Sometimes twins have been incarnated with a spirit of Darkness and with a spirit of the Light respectively.

13) The spirits of Darkness were bound to the embryo in the third month of pregnancy.

14) By the physical brain is meant the greater as well as the smaller part of the brain along with the part that continues into the spinal cord. It is of course not intended here to explain the function of the various centers of the physical brain, merely to outline the interconnections between the psychic brain of the spirit, the astral brain of the counterpart, and the brain of the physical body.

15) The instinct of self-defense has been acquired by humans over millions of years of struggle for existence, and so must definitely be regarded as an instinct and not as a primal impulse.

16) Commentary, pages 187-88, regarding the structure of the spirit-body.

17) These memories can fade completely in later generations.

18) Summary, pages 312-13, regarding split personality.

19) The image the physical brain cells received through the eyes can be so faint it cannot be impressed on the astral cells. The astral brain cannot then, of course, reproduce anything of what was seen.

20) The shock may blur remembrance of it.

21) A sudden fright can momentarily paralyze one’s consciousness so that the physical and astral brain cells are unable to vibrate. Nothing of what is seen registers as long as the paralysis lasts. Gaps may then occur and interrupt the overall image, even though the eyes remain open.

22) Since astral Darkness formed an integrated entity with the corona of Light, the Eldest were not able to separate it. The material with which they worked therefore appeared as if it was double, but actually it was composed of three elements: the corona of Light, and the astral and the molecular Darkness.

The ability of the astral brain to retain values and impressions received through the physical brain is thus determined by the Earth’s corona of Light which fixates the astral Darkness. Although the astral and physical brain cells can be destroyed, the innermost principle of the astral cells cannot be annihilated since it is created from the indestructible radiations of the corona of Light. Not until the physical body has expired will the radiations of the Light withdraw (Summary, page 295). A spirit bound to an imbecilic person will, through the Light-principle of the astral cells, receive impressions that are transmitted through the absorption layer. But the spirit does not become conscious of these impressions until released from the physical body.

23) A violin can produce faint tones if the strings are activated by sound-waves from a piano, say. By itself, without action of some sort or other, it cannot produce sound.

24) By their thought and their will, the Eldest have often given themselves an appearance corresponding to living human beings, and by appearing visibly on the plane of the earth thus "acted" as doubles of these persons.

25) Spirits often disembody under narcosis, fainting spells, or the like, but then it is entirely automatic.

26) Commentary, page 191.

27) These Eldest are scattered over the Earth, in many countries. When awake they usually remember nothing of their nocturnal excursions but a few can at times remember them as faint, blurred dreams. During sleep-release these spirits are able to participate in séances of materialization, dematerialization, levitation, and so forth.

28) The human eye cannot catch the weakest luminous rays from the sun’s nucleus of Darkness.

29) This will happen also to all other celestial bodies, likewise to those that reflect only the sunlight (non-luminous globes). Over the centuries the “stars” will thus gain in luminosity. Excepted are of course those stars so extensively damaged by Darkness that their luminosity is in strong decline.

30) It requires about 48 hours for the released counterpart of the larger animals to dissolve completely, but the smaller the counterparts the less time needed.

31 twice) As examples: the lives of ants and bees, the ingenious nest-building of many species of birds, the migrations of birds, the migrations of fish between oceans and fresh water, and so on. Countless examples exist in the animal worlds of the air, land, and sea

32) God does not prevent the collision of accumulations of Darkness with the globes, because the Darkness is thereby depolarized and eliminated. God intervenes only when the Earth is threatened.

33) The spheres are outside the Earth’s atmosphere but inside the lunar orbit.

34) In the year 1911.

35) Summary, page 294.

36) In the year 1911.

37) The Light supplied to the Earth in this way thus takes part together with the Earth’s ethereal corona of Light in the great ordering, adjusting, segregating and harmonizing work in the earthly world of Darkness.

38) Speech of God’s Servant, page 136.

39) Those who have no knowledge of the spring at Lourdes are referred to the book Lourdes by the French writer Emile Zola and Lourdes by the Danish writer Johannes Jorgensen; also to the book Lourdes by Dr. Boissarie and to Les Apparitions de Lourdes by J.B. Estrade. —Publisher’s note.

40) Or from other similar springs.

41) Speech of Christ, pages 111-115.

42) Suffering that humans bring on themselves, such as by thoughtless or unhygienic ways of life, indifference, carelessness, wantonness, needless over-exertion and so forth, are not counter-balanced. Humans must then suffer the consequences.

43) Commentary to Ardor’s Account, page 184.

44) The thoughts of God and the discarnate Youngest are not recorded in the ether that surrounds the Globe.

45) In the year 1912.

46) Mass suggestion through thought can for example give rise to patriotism, war fervor, revolutionary movements, the founding of religious sects and so forth.

47) Since the thought has its seat in the large nerve center of the spirit-body, it is the psychic brain that is influenced, it being both the transmitter and the receiver of thought.

47) Split personalities were not and are not always authentic, since they are often the result of a human desire to attract attention or to appear interesting.

49) Summary, page 288, regarding the afflicted, abnormal brain.

50) Commentary, page 189.

51) Ardor has mentioned only the prehistoric civilizations because humans possess no historical accounts or traditions from those times; only legends exist.

52) The Ice Ages that laid waste to some parts of the Earth are not mentioned by Ardor since they did not directly interfere with the work of the Youngest.

53) This does not mean that all rulers were of the Eldest; both human spirits and the Youngest have often been bound to humans who held high office, both ecclesiastical and secular.

54) Some of the prophets were of the Eldest, whose prophecies were inspired by the Elder or by his predeterminations. Summary, pages 307-09.

55) None of the great religious founders before Jesus is directly mentioned in Ardor’s Account because they were only to prepare the way, to make mankind more receptive to what was to come, that is, and because the Account was intended to emphasize the work of the eldest of the Youngest on behalf of humanity. He of the Youngest who was incarnated as Zarathustra was later reborn as Mani; Buddha was reborn as Mohammed.

56) Ardor’s Account, pages 31-32.

57) Ardor’s Account, pages 85-86.

58) The Eldest who had returned at God’s request. Ardor’s Account, pages 14-15.

59) The Youngest are often born under humble and difficult circumstances to demonstrate to humans how much can be accomplished in life on Earth through sheer will and energy.

60) It was God’s intention that the eldest of the Youngest be incarnated in one of the many liberal-minded families to be found at that time in a number of countries.

61) In the middle of the 19th century.

62) Ardor’s Account, page 13, and Commentary to Ardor’s Account, page 178.

63) Ardor’s Account, page 14, regarding human shadows.

64) Concluding Summary, pages 307-09.

65) Even the ancient myth of Adam and Eve has in it some truth, though couched in purely human form. During an earthly existence, one of the Youngest tried through this myth to convey an explanation of the origin of humanity. Adam and Eve thus symbolize the Elder and his female dual; the serpent symbolizes the alluring, attracting and binding power of Darkness; the apple on the branch of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil symbolizes the life-principle of Darkness, surrounded by and held fast by the Light. The serpent represents Darkness which tempted the woman to sin; the woman tempted the man to eat of the Tree to gain knowledge — to master, that is, the life-principle of Darkness. Removing the apple from the tree symbolizes the separation of Darkness and the Light. By their fall, Adam and Eve (the Eldest) were banished from the Garden of Eden (God’s Kingdom). Cain and Abel symbolize the various types of human beings who owe their existence to God’s fallen children. Cain’s murder of his brother symbolizes how sin and death came into the earthly world through the birth, or creation, of Cain and Abel (humanity).

66) In the ancient heroic legends and religious myths of many peoples, parallels can also be found that are due to the influence of the Elder — for example, gods who are also human (God-men), trinities, virgin births.

67) Refers only to the upbringing of children within the home, not to spiritual and other education through schools and institutions.

68) Speech of Christ, page 127.

69) Speech of Christ, page 127, regarding the relationship between parents and of children born out of wedlock

70) Speech of Christ, page 125.

71) Speech of Christ, pages 114-15.

72) Those who despise or bear hatred of other nations or other races will in succeeding incarnations invariably be born among those they hated so that they may learn love for them.

73) Written in 1916. —Publisher’s note.

END