Preface to Livets Bog

1. Experience of life. – 2. Living beings and fate. – 3. Pleasantness and unpleasantness. – 4. Our own knowledge and fate. – 5. The struggle for existence. Evolution. – 6. The one thing needful. – 7. Livets Bog a result of a sense of duty. – 8. The purpose of the illustrations. – 9. The symbols. – 10. Livets Bog is not the "one and only salvation" – Symptoms of ignorance – Holy writ and holy beings and the picture gallery of existence. – 11. The recognition of the true nature of Livets Bog. – 12. The biased faculty of love. – 13. To be only partly in contact with the Truth. – 14. Livets Bog and its opponents. – 15. The mission of Livets Bog – Life's direct speech – The religion of life. – 16 The seeker of Truth and the right source. "False prophets”. – 17. The special characteristics of the right source. The faculty to experience life as communication with the Godhead. – 18. Livets Bog and its reader. – 19. My relationship to Livets Bog and the core of the said book. Livets Bog as a defence for all beings. The Eternal Truth in a new incarnation. – 20. Information about myself – I experience a spiritual process, obtain "cosmic consciousness“. – 21. My cosmic sense horizon. – 22. My lack of reading, my primitive schooling and non-connection with spiritual sects and creeds and the value The releasing factor for my mission and my activities. A comparison between other human beings and myself.

1. Every living being that comes into the world, regardless of whether it belongs to the community of beings we call "terrestrial mankind" or whether it belongs to those forms of life which manifest themselves through what we are accustomed to recognize as "animals", "plants" and "minerals", is, without exception, subject to the experience of life.

2. As the experience of life can only exist as an interaction between two forms of energy, namely, the energy radiating from the universe in the form of our surroundings, and the energy radiating from our own inner being in the form of our manifestation, and as this interaction in the form of the experience of life is really identical with the creation of our own existence, it must be clearly evident that we, each of us, constitute a by no means insignificant factor in this creation of our fate, and this especially so owing to the fact that in a certain area we do possess a so-called "free will".

3. This is the same as to say that every living being is facing an ocean of forces, the collective manifestation of which under the concept of "nature" - in the form of the elements, in the form of substance or matter, in the form of thought climates and especially in the form of fellow beings - is able to affect it through a scale of greatly differing forms of manifestation, ranging from the most dreadful forms of unpleasantness to the most wonderful and radiant forms of pleasantness. This gigantic organization of forces may, then, just as easily affect the individual fearfully and horribly as it may affect him pleasurably or happily, and is therefore, in equal degree, a contributory factor in the creation of a happy as well as an unhappy fate for the individual.

4. As I mentioned before, we are not entirely at the mercy of these tremendous forces, for in reality, within the area governed by our free will, we constitute the dominating factor in the regulation of the influence of these tremendous forces upon our own existence. But again, as normally the most important factor behind our free will is our own knowledge, it depends on the scope of this knowledge whether we will meet a happy or unhappy fate. For if this knowledge does not cover an awareness of those realities which are identical with the unavoidable and necessary basis for a full harmony between our manifestations and the world energies, which will promote happiness, then we shall, in the same degree as our awareness deviates from it, meet a less ideal fate or experience of life. Consequently, our knowledge will in reality constitute the dominating factor in the regulation of our interaction with the influences directed towards us by nature. As we come to understand how to avoid those forms of energy that are uncomfortable and displeasing, we shall come more and more under the influence of those forms of energy that are pleasing and comfortable.

5. A glance at the world will tell us that the manifestation of living beings, the so-called "struggle for existence", is really identical with nothing more nor less than a striving to overcome everything of an unpleasant nature. When we build houses or when we wear clothes, then it is only for overcoming those world energies which in the form of an adverse climate, might otherwise undermine our experience of life. The same shows itself in civilized societies where we find schools, hospitals, philanthropic institutions, police forces, fire brigades, government and administrative measures, churches, sects or religious communities, for these realities are, every one without exception, synonymous with visible expressions of this struggle by human beings against those realities among world energies which are of an unsuitable nature for building up a happy fate for the individual. This "struggle for existence", or this ever-increasing effort by the individual to overcome and control the unpleasant forms of energy in nature, is normally recognized under the concept of "progress".

6. So, not being in possession of identical knowledge, all living beings consequently come to differ from each other in their interaction with nature, and thus come to experience widely differing fates, or forms of existence. And it is precisely through the chain of differing fates, or forms of existence thus evolved, that we are able to state that living beings are progressing through darkness into light, just as it is the perfect knowledge of this same chain that reveals to us from whence we come, where we are going, who we are and how to live, in order to bring our own expression of energy into contact with the manifestation directed towards us by nature, and so make ourselves subject to complete happiness. As this happiness or perfect fate of the individual thus depends upon an absolutely true knowledge of the profoundest laws and eternal basic principles of life and hence the knowledge of the very purpose of life, then from a cosmic point of view - because terrestrial mankind is still unaware - the acquisition of such knowledge will be synonymous with "the one thing needful".

7. As my own life is of such a nature that I have been enabled to experience for myself the above-mentioned knowledge in such a purity that in all ways it justifies the divine words: "Everything is very good"*, and consequently can only exist as synonymous with the exact and direct answer to the world's ever-present question: "What is Truth?", then I have felt that it is my duty to make this experience, or knowledge of mine, accessible to the general public; and it is precisely my first-hand knowledge about cosmic realities - in the form of a super-terrestrial Providence or Divine Being ruling the universe - which I am endeavouring to demonstrate by the expressions: "Livets Bog" and "Eternal Wisdom".

8. As such a demonstration must necessarily contain subjects or thought formations with which ordinary terrestrial mankind has not yet ever, or only occasionally, occupied himself, and consequently cannot have any mental training at all in maintaining or utilizing in his consciousness, I have thought it useful to give these thought realities materially visible expression, so that instead of merely constituting mental manifestations from which only practised thinkers or occultists would be able to benefit, they now appear as tangible, material pictorial forms which, accessible to physical sight, can be as readily and easily investigated as a distant geographical territory with its rivers, mountains and cities can be studied on a well-executed map of the said territory. So, the object of my illustrations is to make the study of the cosmic or spiritual universe as readily accessible to the general public as the study of physical, material territories is nowadays to a child at school by means of geography. For it is not, in fact, the purpose of life, or the plan of the divine world order, that the study of these most profound realities should continue to be available to only a few select people; particularly so, because there exists no better foundation or releasing factor for creating that "everlasting peace" so urgently desired by all humanity, than just the result of all peoples' access to the said study and to knowledge of the analysis of the cosmic universe.

9. In order to understand properly my form of illustration, it must be borne in mind, that the mental or cosmic realities expressed by my pictures have no material or physical form but are identical with cosmic universal laws, fundamental principles, ideas, causes and methods of sensing. But realities which have no material pictorial form cannot, of course, be reproduced, copied or photographed. Consequently, my illustrations are in no way identical with photographs or artistic reproductions of what they represent, as might very well be the case, for instance, with a geographical map. On the contrary, my illustrations come into being in the following way; when I wish to illustrate one or another of the above-named formless realities, I give to each of the more important, local details occurring in the said reality, a particular mark or sign, either in colour, line or shape. These varying signs are then combined or arranged in a certain order or succession which corresponds to the combination - invisible to the physical senses - in which they exist in reality. In this way, a material picture appears which in its nature is not a copy of, but a visible mark or clue to a reality invisible within the material field. The practical result of this is that the cosmic realities in this manner attain a certain accessibility to material sight, so that some of the human beings who have not yet developed a sensory endowment over and above that mentioned sight, will thus be enabled to begin to work with them at an earlier stage than might otherwise have been the case, and by that obtain knowledge of the experience of life which would otherwise have remained hidden. My illustrations do not, then, reproduce pictorially what they are intended to express, but on the contrary symbolize it, and hence can rightfully only be regarded as symbols.

10. In connection with the information given above, I have felt in addition that it might be of advantage to give in advance a general view of the tolerant and unconstrained form in which Livets Bog makes its entry into this Globe's sphere of thought, hoping, in this way, to encourage the expression of an attitude most suitable and useful for the student with regard to the book in question. It is therefore my intention to make my reader understand that the universal world picture, or eternal wisdom which through a divine fatherly communication in the form of the direct speech of life has been infused into my consciousness, and the further transformation of which, in the form of Livets Bog, it has become my privilege to manifest to the world by virtue of the knowledge identical with the said manifestation, does not in any way claim, or suggest any right, to constitute a so-called "one and only salvation", for such claims or demands cannot possibly be put forward or indeed exist as anything but signs or symptoms of ignorance. For the Father, Providence or the Almighty assuredly never allows any single manifestation, no matter by whom or by what this manifestation may be expressed, to become powerful enough to render superfluous all other forms of manifestation, but on the contrary, makes equal use of all existing manifestations together in order to produce the blessedness that is best suited to the hopes and longings of every single person, and in this way makes every living being present itself as an absolutely indispensable performer in the gigantic adventure which is called "life". The manifestations of any single living being, be they never so brilliant or perfect, will then, in themselves, never be powerful enough to render superfluous all the other forms of influence exerted by Providence or the Almighty upon other living beings. Consequently, we have never seen and will never come to see that a so-called "holy man", or a so-called "holy writ" will be able to constitute more than a single fragment of the stupendous interaction of forces which every day reveal themselves to us as a living, illustrated picture-gallery in which universes, suns, planets and creatures, each with its own form of beauty or inspirational value, and all in accordance with our stage of development and our sensory power, sail before our wondering eyes.

11. Livets Bog is identical with a result produced by the material effects of the super-physical state of the entire universe emanating from such a large field, and being of such an extensive nature that a pure, unprejudiced, personally experienced general view of it can only be obtained through a set of sensory faculties which observe from a stage of evolution, or viewpoint, that can be reached only by the help of a fully developed faculty of love. Therefore the complete understanding and realization of the true nature of the book will be more and more partially coloured or transformed by the reader's own set of sensory equipment, to the same degree as he belongs to a stage of development where one still only possesses a less evolved or biased faculty of love.

12. A person possessing a biased faculty of love should be taken to mean here, someone whose personal experience material is not yet of such a character that he is able, innately, to see or sense that no manifestation whatsoever can exist without being at the same time a result of a lower and a basis for a higher state of manifestation. Then neither can he himself exist without being identical with an indispensable factor in the process called "evolution", nor without being at the same time a confirmation that: "Everything is very good". As an individual's experience material - as long as it does not contain those experiences which prove to the person in question that everything is very good - appears as a regulator of the same individual's faculty of love, the latter will respectively come to germinate and flourish only in those fields where the person's experience material is germinating and flourishing. But this, then, is the same as to say that the individual in such a case possesses a greater love and thus a greater capacity for feeling tolerance in those fields where his experience material is flourishing, than in the fields where it is only germinating, and he will accordingly be able to manifest himself in life only in a biased manner, or be more sympathetically inclined towards certain fields of experience than towards others.

13. As existence in itself in all its details or manifestations is synonymous with the only existing final and absolute Truth, (everything, or every type of manifestation in existence being useful to exactly the same degree and therefore correspondingly indispensable to the existing state of development or organization of individuals), then the fact of being more sympathetically inclined, or more appreciative towards one thing than towards another, amounts to being only partly in contact with the full manifestation of the real Truth. But this unbalanced attitude of the individual towards the real Truth is indeed very natural, for it can only be manifested by an individual who, as said above, by reason of having insufficient experience material, is unable to realize that everything is indeed very good, and whotherefore cannot but feel a certain degree of antipathy towards that in life which is more or less inharmonious with what he himself thinks is right. He consequently does not yet possess the experience material that forms the basis for an individual's transformation into an instrument for releasing towards all living beings a culminating sympathy or love entirely unbiased, independent and uninfluenced by their manifestations or their stage in development.

14. As Livets Bog is given to a world especially reserved for human beings manifesting biased love or sympathy, I cannot, of course, quite prevent there being many - even among the most outstanding people - who will not be able to understand Livets Bog immediately, because it is equivalent to a version - regulated by a culminating faculty of love - of the existing, true, majestic world picture in all its balanced manifestation of universal unity. Although the book is presented in an elementary form adapted to the said people, this will probably not, after all, manage to preclude them - on account of their innate predispositions - from being compelled, more or less, in their study of the contents of the said book to overrate or underrate its related details, according to how much they are still biased in their consciousness. Therefore, they will only be able to give themselves an understanding, or mental image of those details which will be more or less biased in favour of those areas in which their faculties of love are most developed, and more or less to the disadvantage of areas in which this same faculty is least developed. Against this background all human beings will, through their natural ability, be forced in the latter areas to feel a form of intolerance which will become all the greater the less their faculty of love is developed in the same areas, for this intolerance will always appear to them in the guise of "justice", according to how much - in greater or lesser degree - they lack the ability in such areas to see that everything is, indeed, very good. Now, as this intolerance masked as justice exists, therefore, as a natural predisposition in the said human beings, they will not have any other means of mastering it than a possible outward or theoretical basis. By their concept of the absolute Truth - in other words of existing reality, with its laws, principles and ideas - they will differ from the picture given of it in Livets Bog to the same degree as their concept of it deviates from being unbiased or balanced. As this concept is, however, not created by their will, but by their personally acquired experience material up to the present - and this, as stated above, is of such a character that it has not yet been able to create a basis for a culminating faculty of love, and thus cannot possess a tolerance directed towards all areas - such individuals will be forced - possibly in several areas - to become even my opponents, however much they might wish otherwise. But as the result of such a divergent concept will always lead finally to an acknowledgement of reality, all who, on account of their natural predispositions, have been forced to become my opponents will, in actual fact, be my co-workers, and in this case, as in all other decrees of life, there will be no possible reason for retaliation, or reacting to the intolerance of such people with a reply generated by intolerance, but on the contrary, it can be quite a firm basis for a reply brought forth by love in the form of a guiding and helping hand. And the exposure of actual reality, or the Truth in the form of Livets Bog, will neither, therefore, in any single instance, prove a weaker defence for - or vindication of - its opponents than it constitutes in the case of all other living beings or individuals in existence.

15. Although in this Preface I have touched problems which will be given their special elucidation later on in the book, it is done, as I mentioned before, solely to inform the reader of the infinite understanding, tolerance and freedom that will be granted his concept of - and by that his attitude to - Livets Bog by that Source from which the said book came. This is regardless of whatever that attitude might be, so that his own thoughts, opinions and views by no means, either now or in the future, should ever be bound dogmatically by this same book. On the contrary, by it he will be granted all possible inspiration in full freedom to think for himself, to work for himself and furthermore, of his own free will to collect his own information from any kind of book or from any kind of place where for him these especially suitable - and thus inspiring - realities may be found. From the Source of Livets Bog it has long ago been realized that it is quite useless for a person to seek information in the said book if the information most appropriate to inspire him is to be found only in Islam, Buddhism or Christianity for instance, including their respective sects and textbooks, just as it is equally useless for a person to search in any of the places mentioned if the information that is of especial inspirational value to the said person can be found only in Livets Bog. The purpose of Livets Bog is therefore not to entice the reader away from any religion, sect, belief or concept of life to which he might adhere, and which may be of an especially animating value, or a divine inspiration to him. On the contrary, on the basis of its universal impartiality of the highest degree, it aims only to guide the seeker of Truth to the understanding of the daily events of life with its incidents, its happy and unhappy experiences, its light and dark scenes, as being identical with a communication released by Providence and especially adapted to him personally. The individual in question, as he gradually becomes conscious in his own eternal existence, will be able to reflect on this communication just as easily as he is now able to reflect on a communication with his fellows. Thus, to the researcher, Livets Bog will give an insight into how this previously mentioned communication or the direct speech of life, exists as life's absolutely sole fundamental religion, only able to exist with literally everybody as teachers, with everybody as pupils and with all things as doctrines. As all human beings thereby exist as inborn members of this religion, it has no preceding ceremonies of entry or initiation. And as its scope from eternity to eternity comprises nothing less than the entire universe itself, we have here the only existing religion, in which there is to be found literally but one flock and one shepherd.

As Livets Bog constitutes a reproduction of the experience of this all-embracing "religion of life" and has been manifested with the purpose of stimulating the development of the individual's ability to understand the said religion for himself, he will thus become able - not from Livets Bog - but from life's own direct speech, to see for himself what may and what may not be done, what is real and what is unreal, so it will be understandable that Livets Bog is not intended in any way at all to work as a stimulating force for the establishment of any sect, religion or creed. This is especially so because the "religion of life", as mentioned above, recognizes all living beings, those having faith and those who have not, both the so-called "holy" and the so-called "ungodly", as well as all animals and all people as its born members, practitioners and devotees. And for this same reason Livets Bog will neither come to present itself as a combination of specific prohibitions, religious laws or penalty clauses. On the contrary it will present itself as a purely voluntary guidance released by love to help the seeker of Truth studying in the school of life to find his way to whatever or whomever in his daily surroundings and experiences he might find to be an especially fashioned, life-giving inspiration or instructive purpose in the formation of a future happy fate for himself, completely without regard to whatever zone, condition or concept of life that "what" or "who" might represent. Livets Bog cannot, therefore, be encapsulated in, or monopolized by, any kind of sect or community; for, just because of its universal, impartial manifestation of love and wisdom, it can never come to exist without forming a textbook equally for those who are not members of any sect as it is for those who are, just by virtue of its identity as a universal expression of life's own living religion - of which everyone, as said above, is a member, and all things are doctrines.

16. To every seeker of Truth, or student of the highest problems in life, it will be extremely important to be guided to the right informative Source. As divine wisdom radiates through so many widely differing forms of human beings, sciences, religions and arts, the seeker of Truth can have difficulties in finding out which of these mentioned realities and which form of the same reality will constitute the right informative Source especially adapted for him. It may, therefore, be helpful to state here that, for a reality or manifestation to be identical with the right Source for an individual, it must be of such a nature that it exactly harmonizes with the level of consciousness or zone of experience to which the individual in question belongs, and which, consequently, will affect this same individual as a life-giving inspiration. If the reality in question lies too far ahead of the said individual's field of experience or level of consciousness, it will seem too far-fetched to the same individual in just the same way as it would be naïve if it were too far below his level of development, and then, in both cases, it would not touch those chords in the individual's consciousness which would enable him to experience the said reality as truth. But when something cannot be experienced as truth, the same thing will have a touch of untruth. And here we are facing the basic principle of the problems which are usually known under the concept of "false prophets", "false Messiahs", "false world teachers" and so on. As we see here, these persons need not be absolutely false but will only become false where their life-giving or informative value is so far in advance of, or so far behind such an individual's level of character or stage of development, that no contact or reasonable connection between them can be initiated.

Therefore, for every individual or every seeker of Truth, in daily behaviour and experience of life it is a matter of finding those people, those forms of manifestation, that kind of reading, that occupation or that little or that much, which must be for him the same as an absolutely life-giving or stimulating basis for his development from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light, from the dismal kingdoms of sorrow and shadows to the radiant zones around the eternal Godhead.

17. In order to help the seeker of Truth to recognize if he has found the right source which is especially valid for him, it will be helpful to mention that such people, things or manifestations that are of especial inspirational value to an individual, or such realities which can operate as identical with the above-mentioned stimulating basis, can very easily be recognized by the fact that they - by being experienced and sensed - send through the individual in question a flow of warm waves, a flow of life-force and energy, of ideas, of longing to represent a higher degree of perfection, a flow of hope and faith in Providence and the Father, of divine satisfaction, harmony and happiness and an irresistible urge for loving; in other words, an increased ability to love everything and everybody. Where he is in contact with one or more of these flows, there is his right place in life. And without question, solely there can the individual have hope of acquiring the first feeble tendencies towards the ability to experience consciously his own daily existence as a divine fatherly communication, or talk reserved and adjusted by Providence especially for him, precisely the one and only existing form for tuning in his consciousness or attitude to that experience of life through which it is possible for the individual to become one with the Way, the Truth and the Life, and thereby one with the Father or to become conscious in the Godhead. Whether the individual has his contact with the above-mentioned flows via this or that religion, via Livets Bog or any other book, or via one or other of the many other realities in life, is thus of very minor importance. The main point is, however, that the individual is just there, where he either has, or can obtain, contact with that through which his own inspiration can be released.

18. Having said this, I hope that the reader will be able to realize that in Livets Bog one will not find any kind of intolerance, but on the contrary, will be met with the very greatest understanding and sympathy by this very book, completely irrespective of what level of consciousness or state of character one may happen to have, and consequently completely irrespective of whatever attitude towards Livets Bog one might adopt.

In connection with this, I trust I have guided Livets Bog away from all those factors which, through a mistaken interpretation of the true nature of the book, would otherwise have made it dogmatically binding or repressive for independent thought and manifestation both now and in the future.

19. Having explained the tolerance and sympathy that will be shown to every reader's or investigator's attitude towards Livets Bog from the Source whence this book has emanated, all that is left for me now is to give a short survey of my own relationship to it and to the core of the matter in its content, which is herewith expressed in the following lines:

For terrestrial mankind's present dawning level of cosmic consciousness, Livets Bog constitutes an apt and complete description of the universe, life or existence, transformed down from that zone in evolution where all super-physical or spiritual realities do not exist as mysticism or utopias, but on the contrary, manifest themselves in fullest measure as constituting the fundamental, conscious experiences and details of daily life in the way that I, through my own cosmic set of sensory organs - developed and regulated by love, intelligence and intuition - have been able to experience it.

In the above manner life has shown itself to me as a state of radiant light and perfection as well as revealing living beings' identity as "Sons of God". It has further shown me that love is the most powerful factor in all manifestation, in that to be a joy and blessing for everything with which one comes into contact is the only way for the individual to throw light on himself, on his divine Father and on the existing world order. At the same time it is the only thing that can liberate or lead him away from everything known under the concept of "pain", and finally that every individual's fate is built up from the effects of which he himself is the cause. And so I have felt that by revealing my condition of consciousness in the form of pictures, text, speech and my way of life, I can be of use as a helping hand to all those who are in search of the Truth, the Father or the Godhead, and be of use to everything with which the Father has surrounded me. The fundamental usefulness in this may, amongst other things, be emphasized thus - that Livets Bog, on account of the universal outlook it represents, exists as constituting in itself the one and only great defence for the reader in the face of all those who might happen to appear as his critics. The reader's main purpose, then, is to inspire his critics to learn to love him in such a way that they will be kind and considerate towards him, and at the same time he must show them that every time they forgive him, however more or less serious the annoyance he may have caused them, they free themselves from one of the sandbags, the weight of which in the form of "non-forgiveness" keeps them tied to the lower and less developed planes of existence, and from where, to the same degree as these sandbags have been released, they can, more and more freely and unhindered, lift themselves up to lighter and happier planes and regions of existence before the eternal throne. This will show them that the outcome is not a beautiful dream but a true reality in daily existence all around them; it will teach the reader's critics to understand that he, just like themselves and all other existing beings, works in the same garden, and that, as I have already pointed out, there is only one God and one religion, the living illustrating doctrines of which every single moment are being demonstrated to every individual son of God by a fatherly communication, via the surroundings adapted to his temporary level of evolution. It will make it clear as well that this one God and this one religion comprises and constitutes all that exists and that all else in life under the concepts of "religions" are but echoes or clusters of rays from this one all-embracing living religion's immense ocean of light.

As the Father has thus permitted my personal experience, state of consciousness and the course of events in my life, to be of such a nature that its transcription in the form of Livets Bog has become identical with a disclosure of all living beings' identity as "sons of God", simultaneously uncovering the close mutual relationship between all religions like clusters of rays from one and the same sea of light and thereby constituting a further defence of all living beings, He has thereby in a wonderful way made Livets Bog a tool for the demonstration and the removal of the last remnant of that form of ignorance which leads to intolerance and its companion, "suffering". For ignorance is in fact the true cause of everything known to the world as "evil". Where ignorance has been removed the so-called "evil" ceases to exist.

Everything which falls under the term "evil" is thus identical with the effects of ignorance, and consequently such effects cannot exist without at the same time representing the motivating factor behind all forms of the question - "Why?" or the cry - "More knowledge!" which from the thousandfold legions of human beings is directed towards the Eternal Light. And so the Father, precisely by making Livets Bog the above-mentioned tool, has made it a reflection of His own inexhaustible principle of wisdom casting it back in response to the said cry. He has thus allowed the "Eternal Truth" to appear in a new incarnation so that it can continue to shine upon and give out warmth over the world in everlasting youthful beauty, power and radiance.

20. As for information about myself, I have only this to say - that since I have been enabled to experience life in the way referred to in this Preface, it is entirely due to the facts which will be elucidated in detail later in Livets Bog under the term the "Great Birth". Therefore here in the Preface only the following explanation is necessary - that the birth referred to is synonymous with the release of a super-physical or spiritual process which will occur in any individual's consciousness when this has been brought forward to the manifestation of an evolutionary stage especially adapted for love, intelligence and intuition. This will consequently cause the release of the latent super-physical or spiritual faculties dwelling in the said individual, and in this way impart to him a corresponding spiritual or cosmic sense horizon in which he experiences fundamentally his own immortality, the purpose of life and the eternal Godhead. As regards my present incarnation, I experienced this spiritual process in all its fundamental magnitude when I was thirty years old. After having repeatedly passed through its powerful white and golden baptism of fire, I discovered that I had acquired entirely new faculties. I began, as it were, to be able to look straight into eternity itself.

21. I realized that I was an immortal being and that all other living beings in existence were eternal realities which, like myself, had an endless chain of previously lived lives behind them, that all of us have evolved from low, primitive forms of existence to our present stage, that this is only a temporary link on this evolutionary scale, and that we are thus on our way forward towards gigantic, higher planes of existence away in the far distance. I saw that the universe constitutes one single enormous living being in which all other beings are - one and all - organs, and that we - all people, animals, plants and minerals - form one family, and that we, figuratively speaking, are of the same flesh and blood. I saw brilliant and scintillating worlds with unimaginable humanities, humanities possessing morals and idealism which, divinely unfolding and in harmony with the law of existence, and in relation to generally accepted earthly morals, was like comparing an oasis to the desert. But I also saw worlds which were of a much lower nature, worlds in which barbarism constituted such a determining power that the living beings there had to kill in order to live; in fact, worlds where the ruling conditions of life were synonymous with the most enormous violation of the law of existence, thus turning these worlds into the most conspicuous setting for a display of illness and distress, misery, sorrow and suffering, which in actual fact indicates globes in a category from which this terrestrial Globe cannot quite be exempt. Furthermore, I saw that the darkness or the so-called "evil" in reality was identical with the individuals' development of those qualifications which are absolutely necessary if life in the later higher worlds is to be experienced by them as happiness or bliss, and by that I came to realize that "darkness" is just as great a blessing for cosmic understanding as is "light", and that everything in the divine sight is "very good". But I felt too that this knowledge could never be experienced, or could never stand forth as a true reality for any human being until his faculty of love is so far developed in its evolution that he is only able to be good or loving towards all living beings, and thus could never misuse that said knowledge in making it a defence for egoistic or unloving actions. Thus I have felt the entire universe pervaded by an endless love and wisdom. Wherever I directed my sight in the "darkness", there it became light - I had become my own source of light. The cosmic baptism of fire through which I had passed - the closer analysis of which I cannot specify here - had thus released in me entirely new sensory abilities, abilities which enabled me - not in glimpses - but on the contrary in a permanent state of awake day-consciousness - to apprehend all main spiritual forces, invisible causes, eternal world laws, basic energies and basic principles behind the physical world. The mystery of existence was therefore no longer a mystery to me. I had become conscious in the life of the whole universe, and had been initiated into the "Divine Creative Principle".

22. One point also worthy of note is that after the experience described above I was completely unable to read. The mere thought of reading a book was enough to produce a feeling in my brain as if it were going to burst. And during the period from the time when I went through that spiritual process, until I had looked through the entire world picture fundamentally and manifested it in picture form, I was not in touch with any kind of book or any other kind of theoretical guidance. Also, before the awakening of my cosmic faculties I must be considered as having been quite an unread person, never having really studied but only having received ordinary primary schooling, which, as I was born in the countryside, meant just three hours twice a week in the summer and only a little more in the winter. In that school I was brought up in Christianity or in what I call in my own message the "old spiritual world impulse". So, with the exception of my childhood learning, I had not been in connection with either theosophy, anthroposophy, spiritualism or any other particular school of thought of the time until after I had experienced the entire world picture and then manifested it in the form of my symbols and drawings. Thanks to these fortunate circumstances my entire cosmic manifestation will now belong to the world in its complete original purity, and this indicates that my existence constitutes a living proof of the fact that there is indeed a stage in eternal evolution when it is possible - quite independently of books or of other people's learnt theoretical knowledge, but by absolute self-realization - to arrive at the highest knowledge and wisdom and, in the middle of an earthly physical state, to achieve elevation to an eternal transfigured existence.

This my cosmic experience and condition became the releasing factor for my subsequent activities in the world and for the creation of Livets Bog. But as this spiritual process, as mentioned before, will be experienced by every human being when, in its eternal existence, it is passing through that stage of development which is necessary for the said experience, then it will be seen here that, concerning sensory gifts, I do not represent any special privilege or any exception to the rule, and thus in eternal evolution I could not possibly constitute one single jot more than that which all other living beings before me have been, and which all other living beings after me will be.

© Martinus Institut