Part II
Everything is Spirit
In the second part of my work I would like to discuss the nature and functions of the spirit. I want to show that everything in the universe is spirit: atoms, radiation, minerals as well as single-celled and multi-cellular organisms.
When you look around you will perceive your environment as colorful and spatial. The world around you seems real and concrete because you can touch things and can change them. When a heavy object falls onto your foot, it hurts and your foot may be bruised. When you are hungry you will definitely try to find something to eat.
This is one side of the world, which seems so real and so concrete.
But then you switch on the television. On the screen you see worlds with landscapes, people, animals and plants; you may roar with laughter or shut your eyes in fear, although what you see on the screen are just electro-magnetic waves of a specific wavelength which are received by the television set and translated into moving pictures.
When you lie down in your bed in the evening and wearily close your eyes to forget about the world around you, very often you will experience how you find yourself in a known or even unknown environment, how you move in your body, how visions are created, how you react to these images of your new world, how they make you feel good or how they frighten you. It does not even cross your mind that you are living in a world of illusions. And sometimes when you experience something beautiful or impressive in your dreams, you really regret being torn away again from this world and thrown back into an allegedly more real world.
That is the other side of the world, which gives us a small impression of how relative reality can be.
Despite our increasing but yet modest knowledge about our world and the universe, we have to admit that what seems so real to us is not actually what we assume at first. When I claim that there are no colors, I'm not actually telling you anything new, because for quite some time colors have been known as mere perceptions of our sensory organs which are due to light and a combination of various electro-magnetic waves. So whether colors appear as red, green, blue and yellow or one of the many mixed colors depends on how objects absorb or reflect light. Furthermore, it is well known that not all beings perceive the world homogeneously as colorful. So the sensation of colors in our environment depends on the sensory organs and the mental processes of a living being.
Since Einstein we have known that even time can be relative. Furthermore it is also well known that for older people time does not pass as quickly as for younger ones.
When you have to transport a sack that weighs 50kg you will feel the urgent wish to put it down as soon as possible. But the same sack would seem much lighter to an astronaut on the Moon, because gravity is much weaker on the Moon than it is on the Earth. The bodies of this world have their specific shapes and sizes because the world is as it is. When these bodies are accelerated, they undergo an increase in mass; when reaching the velocity of light, they would reach an infinite mass. So bodies and their shapes and weights are relative too.
You undoubtedly know that the universe once – maybe more than fifteen billion years ago – is supposed to have developed out of one single infinitesimally small point. The unimaginable amount of energy out of which later billions of galaxies were formed, is said to have been accommodated in this spatial pipsqueak. The assumption that the universe developed out of one single point is based on the observation that the universe is continuously expanding. If it is expanding, the conclusion that it once originated from a tiny point is logical.
I do not consider this conclusion of the physicists to be wrong, because it is based on logical considerations and mathematical calculations. I only consider the theory quite absurd that the enormous mass of energy involved in the process could have been generated by one single tiny point.
But if you assume that everything is spirit and spirit is colorless, spaceless and timeless, then it is much easier to give plausible explanations. The problem however is that the concept of »spirit« does not really mean very much to many people although they are mentally and spiritually active all the time and continuously experience how their own mind and spirit creates illusions and becomes active through their own will. But we have to understand our own spirit first to understand another spirit too.
One day I had the idea that space as we perceive it – just as in the case of colors – is »only« a perception and in reality does not exist independently. We have seen how easy it is to create images (and with these images spatial representations!), for example when using television sets, and to dissolve these images again.
I would like to remind the reader that mass (matter) and energy form the basis of the universe. Einstein discovered that mass and energy are only two different forms of the same thing. According to his famous formula E = mc² (energy = mass x the square of the velocity of light) mass can be translated into an enormous quantity of energy. On the other hand, just as much energy is necessary to »produce« mass.
Since Einstein it has been assumed that everything – the complete universe – is energy, energy that was partly transformed into mass during the evolution of the universe.
But what is energy?
Several various forms of energy are discussed in scientific works: nuclear energy, which is the newest and most dangerous of all forms of energy known to man because it can release enormous amounts of power; the well-known and highly beneficial electrical energy, which is used to power our television sets and radios; chemical energy, which animates our body and which generates warmth from wood, coal, oil or gas; radiation energy (light) and gravitation, which is the cause of potential energy.
Today's scientific knowledge often terminates in the idea that energy is the basis of the universe, which developed out of a tiny point after the big bang.
But everything looks quite different when spirit is assumed as the basis of everything that exists and when we come to understand the functions of the spirit. According to my understanding spirit is spaceless, timeless, shapeless and colorless. It is active through its inherent will and is capable of understanding and of expressing itself and its illusions in mental images.
It is relatively easy to understand the function of the spirit when you consider your own mental activities and those of other people.
Just imagine you want to build a house.
First you need to develop an idea about what your home should be like. Creatures that do not have any concept about buildings are not able to plan or build a house. Beings such as bees, rabbits or mice have totally different concepts about dwellings. While the human concept includes walls, bricks, concrete and iron, rabbits and mice may find holes in the ground an excellent habitation.
The (mental) concept of a roof over one's head is one thing, building a house is another. You will be most unlikely to spend your time toiling to move earth, carry bricks or push wheelbarrows if you do not feel an urgent desire to have a house for yourself. Your mind will certainly not sense the wish or even the necessity to plan a house, to raise the necessary funds and to toil evening after evening and weekend after weekend.
Therefore your mind must assume the will to plan and build a house. As soon as there is a will, it will constantly motivate you until the construction of the house is completed. The will uses all the means available, which it then shapes and forms.
From 1940 onwards a formerly unknown type of behavior of titmice was observed in England. The birds pecked holes in the tops of the milk bottles which were placed in front of the doors in the morning, and then drank the cream. Within the following few years this behavior spread from single villages to the whole country due to social stimulation among the birds. This new behavior only came to an end when stronger tops for milk bottles came into use.
Beekeepers know that bees search for places abundant with blooming flowers that provide nectar. As soon as a bee finds such a place, it communicates it to the other bees by showing a specific type of behavior. In the next flight the other bees join together to collect the nectar at that specific place.
On a »small hill« we have set up a rabbit warren. The rabbits burrow in the soil and dig deep holes in which they bear their offspring. One day I saw one of the local cats enter the rabbits’ nest and apparently carry away the small rabbits. In the end I couldn't bear to watch this, so I decided to interfere with nature. I took the last remaining young rabbit with me into our house. The small animal was a real pleasure for all of us, especially for the children. I observed that the small rabbit increasingly developed an unexpected type of behavior while living with us humans. I was totally astonished when I found out that this small animal was very fond of sweets, sausages and meat. I experimented with the rabbit and offered the animal a nice variety of foods, and behold - it first picked at the delicacies previously mentioned and left the carrots, lettuce and cabbage untouched.
As a programmer I have always had many ideas, and I am firmly convinced that programs have to be as simple and user-friendly as possible so that anyone can work with them without any problems. So I have a very specific view of these things, which is based on my personal experience and skills. When I recently developed a totally new version of a financial accounting program, I tried to make use of all available new technologies and tools, but I often came into conflict with my employees, who had to test the programs. Their view was based on what they were used to, namely on the predecessor versions of the program. I, however, had totally moved away from these versions and programmed in such a way that the program, supported by the newest tools and technologies, would work optimally. Only gradually could I make my employees understand and support the new routines.
I am convinced that the examples described above clearly show that the views of humans and animals differ, but that animals, like humans, perceive their environment, process experiences and draw their conclusions from what they perceive. But the way in which they perceive things is totally different, and it can be taken for granted that there are no two people in the world who perceive exactly the same thing and have exactly the same view of things. For example, a man who stands on a mountain for the first time and looks down to the valleys below, has a broad view of the world below him and thus may think - because he has never been anywhere else – he is looking over the world. Another man who stands on an even higher mountain and may see even farther than the first one, may also think that he is standing on top of the world and overlooking everything although there are still higher mountains that are three, four, seven or even eight thousand meters high.
If we are honest with ourselves we will certainly realize how easily we are deceived. Often in the course of life we believe we have understood things and the way of the world. So many people end up in mental dead ends and think they know everything and even know better than others. They are full of prejudices and cannot imagine that the world could be different from their own view of it. Frank people, however, admit that their view is limited due to their own spirit and the conditions of their environment.
Even people who are very learned and whose mind is open to everything actually have a very limited view. It reaches its limits first of all at the physical boundaries of our small Earth that moves around one of the billions of stars somewhere in the huge galaxy called the Milky Way, a galaxy which other creatures that may exist elsewhere in the universe most probably have not yet even noticed.
With some imagination it is not too difficult to put oneself into the situation of an animal and to imagine how, for example, a small rabbit feels, what desires, miseries and fears it has, how it is born blind, searches for the warmth of the nest and its mother's protection, and maybe after a fortnight it leaves the protecting nest for the first time in order to discover the world…
It is a beautiful day. Schnuffl, a small rabbit with long black and white ears, sees the green grass surrounding the cave for the first time. Instinctively it smells the grass, takes a mouthful of it and – behold! – it tastes good. Its innate natural fear of the new and unknown, however, soon makes the small rabbit return to its secure nest. But Schnuffl soon leaves the nest again, this time together with some of his siblings.
Suddenly the older rabbits return to the nest as fast as they can. They already know about the dangers of this world, have already learned that there are certain animals to be feared. So they always listen carefully, and the whole day they are cautious wherever they go and are beware of everyone, above all of those creatures that walk on two legs and address them with a sweet and soft voice, but then catch and carry away some of the other rabbits – and nobody knows where they take them.
Schnuffl soon finds out that among the beings walking on two legs there is a very small one who always brings him fine food, delicious, somewhat bitter tasting grasses and some unknown hard but delicious thing. So Schnuffl always listens carefully when he hears the noise »Maria«, for then this caring creature is usually somewhere near, brings him something nice to eat or is nice to him, although sometimes she touches him a bit roughly.
So the days pass and Schnuffl grows older and becomes bigger. He experiences how it turns dark and light, cold and warm and how sometimes he has more and sometimes less to eat. Many of his siblings, one after the other, have disappeared. Often he looks through the mesh of the fence that surrounds his habitation and on which he has often nibbled in vain. How much he would like to go out there and see the big world! He remembers the day when Maria took him with her and released him on a huge meadow with delicious grasses. How nice it was to run around freely and see and discover so many new things! If he could only finish that hole he had started digging under the fence. But every time when he had dug for hours and hours with his small paws, one of the big creatures walking on two legs came and covered the hole with earth, and last time it even covered it up with some very hard material, so that poor Schnuffl had to give up his plans and had to search for a new place to dig a hole…
I do not want to continue this story, because too often such stories end sadly. I just wanted to raise some feelings about how other creatures that are not called humans have wishes, hopes and fears too and experience life in their own way.
It is not just »instincts« that motivate animals, but their own spirit according to which they develop illusions and wishes and try to fulfil them. Bees learn how to build honeycombs and, similarly to humans, they hand down their knowledge to their offspring. Rabbits, when living with humans, learn and adopt habits from the humans, and humans often learn from the reasonable and logical behavior of the animals.
I take it for granted that there is no basic difference between animals and humans. They all live according to their mental activities, and it does not really matter whether they have a comprehensive or more limited view of the world.
When you study atoms you will be fascinated and stunned about how they work. In an atom there are a certain number of electrons that move in specific orbits around the nucleus. They can be charged or discharged etc. It is even more astonishing how they have been moving for millions of years without wearing down or consuming energy. They just move on, and it is totally natural, so natural that people assume that it simply has to be like that.
As a programmer I have noticed with fascination how much can be done and created with allegedly »lifeless matter«. I can see how my ideas – mental and pictorial ideas – are able to influence this »matter«.
If I write a simple command like »PRINT 5 * 20«, the machine executes this command immediately. Within a split second this command is interpreted by the basic programs and transmitted through a binary code to the processor, the »boss« of the computer, which then runs a series of processes until the result 100 is displayed on the monitor. In these processes many electrons are transmitted in one or another direction, switches are operated, results are saved on the clipboard, compared and so on.
If, for example many partial polling results are used in order to estimate the election outcome, many processes go on in the computers. Endlessly long programs – the ideas of programmers! – are loaded and stored on huge computers and retrieved and used according to the specific needs. To save, for example, the polling results of communities or districts, the ideas of programmers which have been formed into programs are opened. These programs give step-by-step commands governing which masks are displayed on the monitor and which input fields appear. Nothing happens coincidentally, everything follows a clear scheme. Even the smallest dot must be configured correctly, and every input error made by a user must be recognized and rejected immediately. In an incredibly short time an enormous amount of data, partial and final results are transmitted, instructions are implemented, saved and displayed on the monitors.
But what exactly happens during all these processes?
Every programmer knows that programming means above all developing ideas and writing these ideas into the computer. Without any ideas no programs can be written and computers cannot be »called to life«. So the programmers' ideas are written down, tested for logical correctness and finally saved on various computers for repeated use.
Computers, too, are just the outcome of human concepts and their implementation. All the technological developments, whether we welcome them or not, are based on human wishes and ideas.
But how can a computer understand what the programmer and later the user really wants?
Tell another person to fetch you a glass of water. If this person understands your language and is able to sense sound waves, he will know what you want. The concept is: take a glass, fill it with water, and bring it to your fellow human being. As many concepts are processed automatically in us, you just need to have the will to get up in order to fulfill the other person's wish. However, if this person does not have the will, he will ignore what he has heard.
He may simply pretend not to have heard or say, »Go and get your water yourself!« Then the thirsty person has to get up himself, may make an angry remark and get himself a glass of water.
A computer is not able to reject wishes (unless the program includes a function to do so). On the »lowest«, »material« level one command has to be followed by another command. As long as no new command is entered, the former one remains valid. A robot which is set into motion will continue moving until it receives a new command saying, »stop« or »change movement«.
Everywhere we see how the world works: first someone has an idea about what has to be done. If the idea is followed by the will to implement this idea, implementation can actually begin. Step by step – often in millions of tiny steps – we strive to reach our aim until we finally attain it.
Think about prehistoric times, when people wandered around in the country as nomads. They searched for food, built tents or dwelled in some cave or on a tree – who knows exactly? They lived in small groups and exchanged information on where to pick delicious fruits or hunt good animals. Today we live in a network bound by enormous interdependencies in which the most important thing is to successfully specialize and, as a specialist, make one's contribution to society. We just need to find out what is demanded by society and can already start producing and making business.
Regardless of whether it is man, a dog or a cat, a being always has to know first in order to react. We need to have an idea about what is demanded or what has to be done. If a dog's master or mistress is angry, it is better for the dog to hide under the table; if our boss is in a bad mood, it is advisable to keep out of his way.
It is said that animals are guided only by their »instincts«. This does not at all correspond to my observations, apart from certain basic needs that animals and humans alike have to fulfill. But humans are subject to such basic needs as hunger, sexuality, thirst or warmth exactly as animals are. Animals can actually understand their environment and live according to their understanding.
But if the mind of humans, animals and even tiny single-celled organisms is able to understand, to develop concepts and ideas and act according to its will, then another consideration is more than logical, namely that even the spirit that forms atoms, electrons or light waves follows exactly the same principles. And it actually cannot be any other way: spirit is always spirit, regardless of what form it manifests itself in.
Many people have reservations when it comes to accepting the idea that other, lower beings have a spirit. Therefore I want to analyze these aspects in greater detail. I would like to discuss the example of a single-celled organism in order to demonstrate that there is only a relative difference between the body of a human and the body of a single-celled organism.
According to current knowledge the cell is the smallest unit of life. More complex structures such as tissues and organs, plants, animals or humans are made of millions, even billions of cells.
The cell is able to perform all vital functions, that is metabolism, growth, movement, reproduction and heredity. Cells are able to exchange energy, substances and information with their environment and are characterized by the highest possible degree of order.
Cells merit our special interest because:
The cell as an organism is a very complex system of components. Some of these components are visible under the light microscope, others, even smaller ones are only visible under the electron microscope. Cell structures that are visible under the light microscope are, for example, cell walls and cell cavities, the cell nucleus, which contains genetic information, the mitochondria, which are necessary for producing energy and the plastids, which are able to create starch. Organelles such as the ribosomes, which are responsible for protein synthesis, and the golgi apparatus - these are vescicles which have secretory functions – are only visible under the electron microscope. Cells, similarly to the human body, consist of various organs so that it can be said that cells are the smallest living organisms whose composition and function is similar to that of multi-cellular organisms.
A cell consists of electrons, ions, atoms and water molecules, as well as complex bio-molecules such as nucleic acids and proteins. Proteins are the most important components of an organism. Proteins have short or long chains of amino acids. Many people know the protein fibrin, which enables blood clotting. Also well known are enzymes which function as catalysts and enhance chemical reactions and, when hosted in a favorable substrate, can turn over a million times their own mass within a minute.
Amino acids are molecular compounds of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and sodium atoms. For example, the amino acid glycine consists of a compound formed by five hydrogen, one sodium, two carbon and two oxygen atoms.
Nucleic acids carry genetic information. In huge molecules, the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acids), genetic information is stored: the information that creates an enormous variety of organisms through specific development and replication of cells.
The life of a cell is manifold regardless of whether it is only a single-celled organism or it is specialized and active within an entire set of cells. As in the human body, numerous processes take place at any single moment, processes which are of vital importance for the life of the cell – and if these are part of an entire complex of cells – for the entire organism. Continuously more or less complex molecules must be produced, energy and substances must be exchanged with the environment, defects must be repaired, any arising difficulties must be solved and information must be exchanged within the cell system and with neighboring cells of a cell complex. The main difference between the processes in the body of a human and in a single cell is size, but in principle these processes have the same purpose, namely that a guiding energy controls processes, procures information and transmits it.
In the same way that the human mind reacts to the needs of the environment and increasingly gives up its independence in favor of specialization, cells react to information in the cell complex and carry out the activities demanded. Humans become engineers, doctors, biologists, carpenters or programmers, and through their specialization they restrict themselves so much to a specific field that they are no longer able to exist on their own. So it does not take long until vital information is forgotten and new information that is necessary for specialization is acquired.
From this short discourse we have seen that even »small« organisms such as cells (but what does »small« really mean?) are able to realize and to react to what they realize. Without this ability life would not be possible, because life means activity that is subject to a natural order and has to be fine-tuned with other organisms.
Based on the example of a computer I have already shown how a fascinating number of processes take place which are controlled by the processor which in turn receives its information from people via programs. Nowadays everyone should understand that ideas in the form of programs can operate even in so-called »soulless things«. Without human ideas, without the will of the humans, such devices could neither exist nor work.
An important aspect of the matter and energy level is that ideas are presented in such a way that they are actually understood. It is useless to sit in front of a computer or robot and talk to these machines, as it is useless to recite Schiller's poems to a cow.
We humans also only understand what we perceive through our sensory organs. Other signals – such as radio waves – remain hidden to us while they can be sensed by a radio receiver that has the necessary sensors. Most people are obviously not susceptible for spiritual messages because they do not have the necessary sensors. But could this not change dramatically in a future, more spiritual age?
When transmitting information it is crucial to use a suitable way for it to be able to reach the receiver.
Humans can gain an idea of their environment and its possibilities and needs. Developments in the past few decades have led to a dramatic adaptation of human beings to new conditions and opportunities. In this process understanding new needs and possibilities has been of utmost importance.
Similarly - and this has been repeatedly confirmed by behavioral scientists - animals and plants adapt to new conditions in their environment. They understand their new habitat and adapt to the new conditions.
The idea that atoms, molecules and elementary particles are »lifeless« seems rather implausible to me. They all carry out activities, and to be active means to live. Maybe, no probably, we will realize some day how galaxies are interrelated with each other and that the complete universe is comparable to a huge body. Maybe these processes will one day be repeated »bottom-up«. What is going on in a cell also happens in a comparable way in the body of an organism. And what is going on in the body of an organism could analogously also happen in the huge entity of the universe, in which stars and planets could represent the atomic nuclei and electrons and the Milky Way could represent the cells. But is there spirit behind all these processes?
Our thoughts will come up against barriers again and again, barriers which only the spirit can break through. Nowadays we spend far too much time trying to understand ourselves and life itself. But time will pass, and the world tomorrow will not be the same as it is today.
I am firmly convinced that for a happy and caring coexistence of all creatures a certain basic knowledge is necessary, but that it is meaningless whether and how many other world systems exist and whether these – a concept I deem rather improbable – are created and governed by somebody or not. It is however a matter of fact that through the activities of the entire spirit the universe has been changing day after day in the course of billions and billions of years and will change in the future through mental ideas and concepts of the entire spirit. In the millions of years since man has existed, only humans, animals and plants have inhabited the worlds – and it will no doubt remain so.
We have already learned that spirit can only manifest itself, but can never be »shown« in its true nature and thus »proven«. This is precisely the reason why we have so far looked for the spirit within us in vain. We cannot »find« it because it can only do exactly what we constantly experience: express itself in ideas and activities.
Astronomers and physicists have established to their amazement that we - according to present calculations – can only prove the existence of around 4% (!) of the universe and that around 23% of matter is invisible and 73% of energy is not identifiable. This 23% matter is described as ‘dark matter’ and the 73% energy as ‘dark energy’. The existence of ‘dark matter’ was discovered by, for example, calculating the speed or orbit of stars around the centre of a galaxy and comparing it to the gravity resulting from the mass of all the stars, planets, gas clouds etc. Our solar system thus orbits around the centre of the Milky Way at a speed of 220 km/s or 792,000 km/hour. The sun develops an enormous centrifugal force in this process which has to be compensated for by the force of gravity, otherwise our sun along with its planets would have long since been projected out of the galaxy. There must be a suitably large mass between the sun and the galactic centre in order to develop to the necessary gravitational force. If one calculates the total visible matter, however, one is amazed to establish that there is far too little of it. Therefore there has to be something else which is holding our solar system in the galaxy.
Dark matter does not betray its own existence in any way. It emits no radiation of any kind known to man. Nevertheless, its mass must be gigantic; it is estimated to be five or six times larger than the total observed mass of the galaxy.
If we then have to admit we can only establish the existence of the major part of being through its effect but not its existence in form, size or colour, then it should not be difficult to consider the existence of spirit possible, given that we ourselves are equipped with such spirit and can continuously observe its activity.
Human spirit, which is even capable of realizing truth, needs appropriate means and conditions for developing its innate possibilities. It finds these conditions in the body and the environment. Spirit without a body is lifeless spirit that cannot become aware of its existence.
Maybe there is an unconscious drive inherent in each spirit to seek its own development together with other spirits. This would explain why even the »smallest« spirits have come to form joint existences and begun to form groups of elementary particles and atoms. During the gradual evolution of the world, the basic conditions were laid for the development of a »greater« spirit. Consequently simple »single-celled organisms« evolved and later plants, animals and humans.
I consider a life of spirit alone without a body impossible. If certain reports suggest that life in another world system in the hereafter can exist on a merely spiritual level, then we have to keep in mind that all these reports without exception state that these spiritual beings have a »subtle body« too. However, whether the hereafter really exists as a hereafter, or whether this life actually exists in some other galaxies (it is love's labor's lost to discuss that!) – life can only express itself in activities. To live means to be active, to experience, to reach one's aims and to live happily together with others.
In order to live in this world called Earth the creatures living in it have to adapt to certain atomic and molecular structures. To do so cells use bio-molecular and inorganic substances, especially water and numerous water-soluble substances. Multi-cellular organisms form, depending on their way of reproduction, a multi-cellular body from one cell or from two merged cells.
It is still unclear how spirit actually adapts to bodily substances. There is hardly any literature discussing this subject. According to the work of the English doctor Laurence Bendit and his clairvoyant wife and nurse Phoebe (see chapter »The Bridge of Consciousness«), the zygote (the fertilized ovum which through cell division has already taken the form of a multi-cellular organism) is supposed to be the physical focus for the spirit's embodiment. The authors of the book use many terms taken from far-eastern philosophy with which the reader might not be familiar. So I would like to sum up the findings of the authors in simple words.
Mrs. and Mr. Bendit speak about many layers that lie between the body and the spiritual being, and whose medium layer is the »ethereal« sphere. Clairvoyants can see these ethereal spheres. They say that it seems as if there was a beam of light forming a horizontal circle on the ethereal level and clearly circumscribing this area. In the center of this circle the clairvoyant Mrs. Bendit sees a tiny rotating disc of intense golden light, a kind of mini-sun. While rotating, the golden core emits radiation that influences all layers of the being and makes it move. A complicated pattern of interconnected streams is formed. These streams move at a high speed. The pattern is individual and determined by the nature of the spirit. It gradually assumes the form of a three-dimensional ball.
The fabric of energy thus created hangs more or less over the zygote in the ethereal sphere. Many zygotes die away immediately; but if there is a magnetic connection between the zygote and the round sphere, germination is initiated. The magnetic bond draws together the germ and the sphere surrounding it until the zygote, which most probably is now in the morula or blastula stage, and the rotating field of energies merge.
According to my understanding of space there is no spatial problem any longer in this kind of embodiment. It is conceivable that the beings coming to this Earth actually come from the hereafter or from another world system totally unknown to us, but it is also imaginable that they lived before in worlds of our universe whose vital basis was gradually or suddenly destroyed.
What everyone should think about is that people come to this earth with preformed personalities which are influenced during childhood, but, as every mother and father knows, can hardly be changed. People’s mental capacities are certainly determined by the spirit, but not the forces these beings are endowed with and which draw one person in a certain direction and another person in a totally different direction.
It is also unclear how ideas like those of the Bendits are compatible with other forms of reproduction in which development does not start in a cell. What happens for example to a branch which is rammed into the soil and starts growing into a new tree?
Usually the cell is the starting point for the development of a new individual. But the possibility exists that development of a new organism starts from an entire complex of cells. In agriculture and forestry, reproduction by cuttings is widely used. Such cuttings are taken from the mother plant and set roots when placed in humid soil or water. In begonias for example, leaves can regenerate in vine pieces of the stem, and in asteraceas parts of the roots so that they can develop into new plants.
The idea that it is spirit that develops and controls the body is put on a serious test in this form of reproduction. Embodiment of spirit actually seems rather implausible in the case of a cutting. Our problem is that we hardly know anything about the processes involved in embodiment of the spirit. Therefore we can hardly grasp which forces are active in this process, when embodiment really takes place, how tight the link between body and spirit is and under which circumstances this embodiment may also occur in fully developed cell complexes.
We can see in plants, animals and humans how the entire organism is structured in such a way that it is able to adapt appropriately to the environment. With their eyes humans can see, with their ears they can hear, with their hands they can touch, with their feet they can walk and their stomachs serve to digest food which is necessary for generating energy etc. Through the sensory organs the mind can understand its environment and react to it using its bodily tools. Even the beauty of the flowers or of many female beings, as well as the strength of the males living on this Earth originally had the purpose of ensuring reproduction and continued existence of the species.
The bodies of any living being must fit into the environment and be frequently adapted to changing conditions so that the embodiment of spirit in the species in question seems ensured too. In animals and humans alike there is the brain that is capable of perceiving the environment and its conditions. In plants whose sensory organs are not so developed, adaptation of new spirit through certain forces may be sufficient, as is the case with cuttings.
The immediate decay of the body as soon as the spirit passes away from this world seems to be further evidence that it is the spirit that controls the body and makes it useable. Like a car without a driver, a body without a spirit is meaningless. It loses control and becomes immediately prone to forces that make it decline.
As clairvoyants Mrs. and Mr. Bendit observed the complete process of embodiment, birth and the development of the spirit until earthly death. They say that the incoming human individual hovers above the growing body at his own psychic level. "He is not yet consciously linked to it, prehaps not even aware of it. At the quickening, however, it seems that the human individual becomes, perhaps for the first time, attentive to what is taking place in the vehicle he is to inhabit. It is as if the weight of this body were now such that he feels the drag of it, and is compelled to look down, and for the first time to pay attention to it. At this moment, a new ray of vital energy flashes into the embryonic field.
At birth the etheric field is almost colorless and uncoordinated, yet the potentiality of both color and organization are there, and can be recognized by the trained percipient. In fact, both the color and the degree of coordination vary from moment to moment, as the attention of the child becomes focused or recedes in diffuse awareness of general conditions. It is as if when interest in something is aroused, and consciousness becomes outward-turned, and focused on the object of interest, the etheric, which has hitherto been somewhat loose and vaguely formed, becomes for the moment more tense and sharply defined, especially round the head. Moreover, its opalescent quality becomes suffused with brighter light and color which, while still faint, show definite tints. When attention is relaxed the etheric returns to is previous state, except that some slight residue is left from the experience which permanently adds to its quality and resilience. These accretions to the fabric of the etheric are indications of progressive mental development – or, more exactly, of the impact of the mind on the etheric field.
As the child becomes increasingly self- conscious there is a progressive but radical change in the etheric aura, especially about the head. It becoms clear and defined in a way the preconscious child is not. It must be added here that certain children seem to be self-conscious from birth, and the same clear definition of the head aura is then present from earliest times. At this period – usually around seven – the chakras change. At birth they are to be seen as shallow depressions on the surface of the aura, with a thin channel like a stalk running back to the etheric spinal cord. Gradually, however, they deepen, and at the same time come forward beyond the surface of the etheric so that they are like cornucopias or nasturtium flowers growing from the spine, and they develop a fine mesh of etheric energies like a membrane, over the open end. This membrane or web has a special function, in that it filtes the impacts from the psychic world and limits what enters physical consciousness.
If serious damage occurs to the etheric, and especially to the chakras, the individual is reduced to the defenceless state he was in as an infant, and loses his adult grip on objective reality. If development is normal and has taken place under good conditions, about the age of seven the child enters into posession of a fully formed, if not fully developed, etheric organism in which all the levels of energy will be functioning basically in the way they will function for the rest of its life.”
As I pointed out at the beginning, I have observed such forces in myself for many years, forces and powers which somehow spun. These energies are observed and sensed by many people. In far-eastern philosophy they are widely known as chakras.
Like many other people who have studied this phenomenon I think that these forces are a link between the embodied spirit and the earthly body. I also think that an increasing understanding of these forces can explain much that otherwise might not be explained at all. In his book »Lehrbuch der Neuropsychologie« (»Textbook of Neuropsychology«) Giselher Guttmann, a professor at the University of Vienna, analyzes the structure and function of nerve cells and perception. He shows how difficult it is to find the exact place and substrate of learning.
About the place of learning Guttmann writes that for a long time it has been assumed that the cortex of the cerebrum is of crucial importance for every learning process. But he also points out that learning without the cortex of the cerebrum is possible, too. This was shown in numerous animal tests in which conditioning was possible even after complete decortications. He also emphasizes that organisms that have a totally different nervous system and no cerebral cortex can also learn. For more highly developed vertebrates and especially humans, however, an intact cortex seems to be necessary for acquiring behavior adapted to the conditions of the environment. But is there any convincing evidence that the biological basis for learning activities is actually found in this region of the brain? According to Guttmann the vast number of lesion experiments comprehensively discussed in older literature does not provide any satisfactory explanation. There is hardly any region in the central nervous system after whose elimination no further changes were observed in acquired behavior.
Various experiments show that the control of learning processes can also depend on other activities, says Guttmann. Above all it is highly interesting that not every form of exciting information (stimulus) automatically leads to learning, but that there are other factors which obviously decide about whether this information should be memorized or not.
It was proved in numerous experiments that there is no clearly defined place of learning. It seems as if some extra-cortical region continuously decides in which of the two hemispheres of the brain sensory information should be stored.
As far as control of learning processes is concerned, Guttmann writes that at least two totally separated memory systems exist, a memory and a long-term memory, which differ in numerous functional peculiarities. In the short-term memory new information is obviously stored and maintained for the duration of about ten seconds in an uncoded form. In this phase information is very much prone to disturbances and may disappear without leaving traces if no processes are enacted through specific mechanisms which ensure that this information is consolidated and transferred to the long-term memory. One of the structures responsible for this process is the hippocampus, after the failure of which the ability to transfer information from the short-term to the long-term memory is blocked.
It is very difficult to find the substrate of learning, that certain something that stores an incredibly large amount of information. As science does not yet take into account the existence of a spirit and still does not know which forces act between the body and the mind, scientists cannot do much more than pose questions. They simply cannot find a proper archive in which information is stored. The brain is a plausible place for switching mechanisms, but as an archive it is not at all satisfactory.
As we have no other choice but to try and find an explanation in the body, it is assumed that stimuli of the central nervous system are not only to be considered as the basis for sensory and effectorial activities, but should also be assumed to be the substrate for learning, says Guttmann. But he asks how a certain set of circumstances with regard to stimulation can be maintained so that even after a long time they can still be used in exactly the same way. As Guttmann doubts that this is possible, he points out that it certainly cannot be the only memory and thus it cannot be the biological basis for the long-term memory either.
Another assumption is that the functions of learning are based in the macromolecules. This would mean that the DNA structure, which is not inherited, changes. But as the DNA structure is highly stable, this idea is very unlikely too. Another consideration is whether less stable ribonucleic acids might function as memories because every nerve activity may lead to an increase in the RNA metabolism.
Guttmann says that these events are certainly not evidence that RNA are actually involved in learning, but that this only shows that their concentration changes in accordance with the extent of activity in a nerve cell.
There are other theories as well, but altogether they do not yield any satisfactory explanation on how memory is structured and works. One gains exactly the impression that the brain must have if a guiding spirit actually exists, namely that the brain is a huge central control and switching system with certain clipboard functions.
It actually seems that spirit embodies and that during this embodiment an entire series of forces is developed which are responsible for bodily awareness and for many types of acquired behavior. Furthermore it is likely that the embodied spirit is endowed with a spiritual structure (a kind of spiritual body - the soul), which determines the personality of a living being apart from its prime spiritual qualities. The spiritual and mental pattern could and most probably will determine which vital substances, according to the construction plans of the DNA, will be used and which ones disregarded.
My next consideration is meant to support my conviction that not everything can be as we have assumed so far:
Living beings develop from single-celled to multi-cellular organisms and subsequently to plants, animals and humans. Through reproduction of genetic substances, through mutation and natural selection thousands of species have developed.
Man most obviously developed out of some kind of monkey by taking the body of a monkey and becoming increasingly intelligent in the course of time. According to biological laws monkeys changed their genetic inventory through mutation and thus created an advantage in natural selection by adopting more intelligent behavior. Finally man's evolution had advanced so far that, when looking back on his development, we actually could consider him man and no longer monkey.
This sounds so logical that evidently nobody has realized so far that if it was only like that evolution would have to repeat itself again and again. Monkeys would repeatedly develop through mutation of their genetic substances, would behave more intelligently and finally would evolve into man. But this is exactly what does not happen!
Of course it can be said that coincidence plays a vital role. I would immediately agree with this argument if it were not for the fact that not only does the development from monkey to man not repeat itself, but also development of other creatures into other higher organisms. Why do fish always stay fish even though they change their appearance? Why are there no horses that can learn how to read and write, why no snakes which deal with philosophical questions and why no worms that produce cars?
We have to understand that most obviously there are other factors involved in the development of organisms which have not yet been taken into account.
If we consider the fact that living beings repeatedly change their appearance through mutation and natural selection, but nevertheless stay basically the same as they were, there is only one inevitable logical conclusion: They are subject to certain conditions which they cannot overcome through evolution.
In other words: All kinds of living beings always stay the same in their original nature. They can and have to adapt to their environment, but their innermost nature does not essentially change, because they are not able to develop beyond their limited frame.
So it is most likely that an original spirit actually exists, a spirit according to which a fish has to stay a fish, an insect stays an insect, a monkey stays a monkey and man stays man. They adapt to their environment but basically they remain as they are.
A human could have a totally different body in another world, but still would stay a human. A fish might live without water in another world but still remain a fish, though in a body which allows existence on dry land, and the spirit active in elementary particles could still create atoms and molecular structures somewhere else which cannot be compared to those of this world.
It is difficult at this moment in time to answer the question of what spirit actually is and how it was formed. It occurs to me again and again that we should understand spirit in the sense of a type of information, but that is only an idea which comes to me and which may not be right. However, I am optimistic the humans after me will solve this question, will examine my statements and possibly also correct them. If at some stage there are many people researching in the right direction, many mysteries will be resolved where no light can be seen today. I hope that my research has taken a step in the right direction and has thus served my fellow humans.
Finally, please do not forget that it is human to err, and that the truth is not easy to find even for those who seek it. To me, it seems that the really important thing is to bear truthfulness and charity within oneself, and to always be prepared to reject that which we recognise as false.