Secrets of Life
Disclosures about important questions of life
- Chapter 16 -
ENERGY, SUBSTANCE AND SPIRIT
22 February 1871
THESE three words denote things of which people hold very erroneous concepts. The first two in particular give much trouble to the materialists because they believe to have found in them the whole universe, the reason for its coming into being, its existence and passing away, with which explanation God, or a Spiritual Being ruling everything, has been completely negated.
Since it is precisely the materialists, or the present "very learned professors" of geography, animal science and mineralogy, who cast around with these words, establish them as the first principle and believe thereby to have said all in all, we must still, if we want to tell these clever professors something which clearly proves their ignorance, begin with the concepts these words represent. For first of all one has to know what one needs as tool before one set to work, whereupon only the right use of one or the other tool proves the dexterity of the master.
So, what really is or is called "energy"?
Look, you men of learning who fancy to be so wise, who, after all the exploring and investigating, arrive at the very spot from which you began, who want to determine energy as a factor in the whole visible and invisible world; look, I have to tell you that energy, this highlypraised word on the title-pages of your books, is not something that exists independently or alone, but denotes only the product of another, invisible factor, which you do not wish to admit exists, by straight away declaring: "Energy is a natural law which is equal to movement or life."
But now we ask these scientists: If your whole world consists only of substance and the expression of energy, who gives the impulse to this energy so that it can, and must, express itself thus and not otherwise, always influencing through the application of its force the second article of faith of your science, namely, substance?
You see the stone roll down the mountain or fall from the air, and immediately you conclude: It is the force or the law of gravity, the earth's force of attraction, which sweeps away the stone deprived of its foundation until, having reached another firm base, it stops and remains there, in the expectation of another "force", which acts on it differently!
Well, if I had to be apprenticed to these scientists, and having heard their wise reasoning, I would ask how the world had created itself, how it sustains, and will destroy, itself, saying: "Gentlemen! It is true, you have shown Me the effects of a force; I have indeed tried it Myself and have found the tenets laid down by you confirmed. However, not being able to see the energy but merely feeling its effect, I should like to know what it actually is and have an explanation for it."
The learned gentlemen at once answer with one accord: "Energy is a natural law without which nature cannot exist."
"Good," say I, "you are right! But now I want to know also: Is there in nature an example of a thing that sets down its own laws? For you, gentlemen, do not recognize a Lawgiver although you try to silence Me with the concept of 'natural laws'. Well, I happen to be One of those pupils who want to know everything thoroughly and cannot be satisfied with half or meaningless, though 'scientific', expressions."
The learned gentlemen are getting angry with a pupil who wants to know more than they can offer and turn their backs on Me, and so I am coerced to find My own way out of the chaos of scientific expressions, for the ship of the scientists has become stuck in the shallow ground of their "natural laws".
Now that so many people talk of "energy", "natural forces", "propulsion", "repulsion", "gravity", "pressure", "attraction", etc., let us first try to form an idea as to what actually is "energy"; then let us see how it manifests in nature and how it influences the organic and inorganic life and which gives life, takes life, builds and destroys it and has thus become the sustainer of the universe.
So first of all -what is energy? Look, energy is nothing else but a perceptible manifestation in a thing which must change either its place or its form owing to another object influencing it, which is effected in such a way that in the exterior or interior of an object one can observe a movement, an increase or decrease in size, or even its dissolution.
Well, this drive of an alien object towards another is only the impulse, inherent in the second being, to escape the elements surrounding and influencing it; it is the impulse towards inertia, as opposed to movement.
The stone wants to lie at rest, which means it wants to continue in unison with its support where all its parts, down to the smallest atoms, do not feel disturbed in their dimension as to width, length and depth.
Thus, as soon as another object exerts an influence on the stone to tear it from its comfortable inertia, its whole nature resists; all its parts, formerly densely packed in complete inertia, begin to either expand or possibly contract, and to vibrate. In short, the stone, due to its resistance against the other object interfering with it, is no longer the hard, lifeless stone it previously had been, but it has life. Everything in it moves and vibrates.
Well, what is the result when an otherwise inert object takes on movement? Look, the result is that it must relinquish its previous form and consistency is forced to become something else, for its elements are no longer as firmly bonded as previously. Therefore, the force exerted gains the upper hand, breaks up and smashes the stone and, if possible, even dissolves its components into dust.
Thus the force of gravity, or the force of attraction, of the earth on its constituent parts is always opposed by another force, namely, the force or the urge to destroy all that exists and then to form again something new out of it.
Energy, as it manifests and as man can see it work and feel it, is thus another factor which is neither in the stone nor in its surroundings but is caused and stimulated by other elements, makes the latter change their form and their constituent parts, taking life and bringing forth life and, thus destroying and rebuilding, ensures eternal permanency only by creating anew while at the same time destroying.
This energy manifests in all possible directions and in a variety of forms. Its causative factor is thus a higher power, which in its desire to manifest, is only visible as force. Hence, energy as an independent thing, as the learned materialists want to believe, does not exist at all, is never an independent vital factor, but the product of two higher factors, namely, of inertia and movement.
It is through these two important basic principles of the entire universe that the world exists, was created, is sustained and again transformed into something new.
Inertia is also expressed in the second name that we could give it, namely, in substance. And the life-activity influencing it, which sustains and quickens everything, is the spirit, which is the stimulator of energy and holds substance together, and is thus the principal factor of life in its entirety. For without spirit there is no life, without life no substance, and substance needs no energy; for energy is the product derived from the former, and if they are lacking, everything is lacking.
Now we have so far cleared up the concept of energy or force and can proceed to the next one through which energy manifests, that means to substance. For energy can only exist where there is resistance and where substance, as something material, supplies with its very components the physical resistance in the principle of inertia, where it opposes movement and thus becomes visible as force.
Now we ask: "What is substance?" and the scientists say: "Substance is everything which is capable of expansion as to length, width and depth."
Good, now we continue to ask: "Of what does substance consist?", and again the scientists will say:
"Substance is composed of all that is present in the entire universe in either a dissolved or compact form; substance is everything that could be called basic elements of creation."
Good, but now we ask: "How many kinds of substance are there, and how can one distinguish them, or separate them from one another?"
Then the scientists again say: "By means of chemical analysis we have found innumerable substances which (so far for us) are indissoluble, and these constitute the universe. Their various combinations bring forth everything we can physically see or feel. These combinations or, as they say, 'chemical compounds', however, are subject to certain laws, one of which is the law of assimilation, the other that of repulsion."
Now we ask again: "But gentlemen, you are again talking of laws, so that in the end I would still have to presume a Lawgiver."
Thereupon they reply: "Friend, this is not what we mean. The various kinds of substance have diverse characteristics whereby they are only allowed to enter into one or the other combination or contact, whilst others are a sheer impossibility."
Realizing that again we cannot fully agree with the professors, we must once more rely on ourselves and our five senses, and thus ask ourselves the question: What is substance? And our heart simply tells us:
"Substance" is nothing at all. "Substance" is too generalized a term, which, by classing everything equally, does not allow for any variation. If one wanted to define all there is in the visible world as substance, it would finally be impossible to find a single definition for combinations of dense and light, solid and volatile masses.
Thus "substance" is at best represented by the great ether space beyond the earth's atmosphere, where all the ingredients are present in solution that go into making of the world globes and the various kinds of atmosphere surrounding them.
Only there "substance" is present, namely, the great supply depot for the building of the universe. However, in, on and around the earth, substance is no longer "substance". For there are, according to the respective purpose, bound and combined elements which then, exposed to other, higher potencies, such as life, motion or force, are coerced into modification and change of form, transform themselves and appear in a new form as something different, after their activity in their former form has ceased.
Here on earth, substance is already bound in such a way that a separation into its primitive forms is no longer possible, since its individual components are so intricately united as to represent only in this most intimate amalgamation another entirety and oppose any separation by artificial means. Then the learned gentlemen believe to have discovered "laws" or so-called "natural laws" because they fail to achieve what a higher power, namely, the Spirit ruling over everything, achieves with ease.
The natural scientists and scholars, who, of course, only recognize facts where nature operates by coarse or great means, these gentlemen fail to understand that despite their denial there is still something which is beyond their chemical analyses, their microscopes and telescopes, their barometers, electrometers, thermometers, anemo-and other meters. What they observe are nothing but crude processes in the retorts and stills. Although they attach much importance to them, they fail to understand them and, since they refuse to recognize a Lord and lawgiver, they invest these substances with intelligence and say: "They follow only such and such an impulse," in the same way as they follow theirs, namely, the materialistic one of the illusion of really knowing or seeing something.
What for them is a mystery of nature and will forever remain an insoluble question concerning their own body, namely, the correlation between matter and the spiritual, or how the brain mass, which is certainly something material-visible, only produces something spiritual, or how the metabolism in their own body works so that they can enjoy a healthy life; this, the spirit, they do not want to find!
These gentlemen, who in nature do not want to acknowledge a Lord, a higher power, while daily, even hourly, they can observe in their own body that the spirit is capable of ruling over matter, assume a natural law which forms energy and substance into that which they see visibly and feel invisibly before them. However, for their own body, where the same process takes place, they are unwilling to acknowledge a natural law, but want to rule autocratically.
"How weak and biased you are, you poor blind people!" This voice sounds in your direction from living and also from seemingly dead objects of visible nature, everywhere it calls out to you:
We do exist! But not chained together by chance or according to your "laws", but we were formed out of, and through, a higher power, attracting and repelling each other according to our individuality, and all this only in order to provide you skeptics with a pleasant sojourn on this earth and also, even though you do not wish to hear it, to always call out to your wisdom-pride:
We do exist! But we are not, as you blind people believe, "energy" or "substance"; we are "spirit", that is, imprisoned Spiritual, loosed Spiritual, Spiritual creating forms and again destroying them. In the end we will emerge from all this conflict spiritualized, to show you that everything in the whole of nature is spirit and that you merely lack the necessary spirit of comprehension and that, despite the revelation on the part of visible and invisible nature, you refuse to condescend to the confession: Yes, now we realize that we know nothing! When this exclamation comes forth from your heart and head, you will have taken the first step towards the greatest goal set you by this very same great Spirit, who treats you with so much forbearance and grace and does everything possible to prove to you that He, a Spirit, cannot create matter, but only Spiritual!
Now that I have pointed out to you most of the nonsense of all the materialistic systems of science, we want to pass on to our own field, so as to prove to all skeptics (of good will) that there is no such thing as "energy" or "substance", but that there is only "spirit", spirits, and One spiritual Supreme Creator! Amen.
23 February 1871
Yesterday we have asserted that spirit is the main constituent and the main sustainer of the whole universe; today we have to prove what we asserted yesterday.
Look, the first question arising here is really this: What actually is "spirit", and of what is it composed?
To answer this question will probably be a little difficult; however, we shall try to make this clear to you by means of an example so that you may well be able to distinguish between "spirit" and "manifestation of force".
Now let us assume somebody wants to commence a certain work, which according to his understanding, logically begun and consistently pursued, should produce a certain result. Well, in order to affect this, he will first conceive an idea, then think it over and reflect on it and then he will mentally review the steps of the whole procedure from beginning to end. Further, having painstakingly considered and pondered everything, he will procure the means and materials required and then, under the influence of the initially conceived idea, process, mix and combine them until the final result emerges.
Now, if you want to visualize this process quite clearly, you will see that the spiritual idea, or the vital potency which carries within it all the power to make everything out of everything at will and which you may call the innermost life, is this potency (mighty will), thus the carrier, promoter and creator of the whole project conceived by it. Everything this potency wants to use in the pursuance of its purpose it must first permeate with its own energy, so that under the influence of this energy the whole gradually combines into a homogeneous edifice, which then in reality expresses the initially conceived idea.
This spiritualizing of matter, or the utilization of matter for an action, this arousing of the spirit-elements reposing in matter to a collective effort, is the actual life, or the driving wheel of the entire machine. This activating vital force, which is beyond all the ponderable and imponderable elements, is therefore actually "the Spirit" which then, after all its gradations up to Me, as the sole Creator and Lord of the created, comprises everything this potency in its highest expression can be.
Since this potency must naturally be arranged in such a way that it can logically create something, which logic you recognize as natural law, it follows that if something is clearly created for permanency, this first cause effecting its creation does not intend its destruction, but its preservation. Therefore, this spiritual potency must have "a pleasure" in the created, which is nothing else but inclination, and what is "inclination" if not love? Just as aversion, or the stimulus towards the destruction of the created, would have to be termed hate.
Hence it follows that the Primordial Spirit, or the highest potency, being the creating, active principle and imperishable life, is love, or, in other words: the highest potency, God, is Love!
Where there is love, no destruction, no hate are possible!
Now, since the Spirit in My Person, as an eternal, independent identity must have as its fundamental principle the main attribute "love", it follows that I must also possess all the other attributes belonging to love, which cannot exist without love and without which love cannot exist.
These attributes are: Meekness, patience, perseverance (or faithfulness), humility and, since all created things are My products, as it were My children, in them also fatherly love finds its loftiest expression.
Now look, if the Creator wants to create something, He must surely endow the created with something of His own self, so that it may resemble its Creator and become worthy of Him!
Thus, in order to call into existence the universe with all its worlds and suns, with their plant, mineral and animal kingdoms, I had to endow each of these parts, thus all things of the universe, with a certain quantum of Myself, with a wish to gradually strive upward and an urge to again return to Me. By virtue of the fact that "like is always attracted to like", in everything created a spiritual part as you can understand and grasp it was solidified, or several small particles were condensed into a larger volume (form), so that according to the degree of relationship of the spirit particles the latter adhere to one another more or less densely, thus forming a body.
In this manner everything you call matter was created, be it in easily soluble, volatile or solid elements, up to, and including, the hardest rock.
Everywhere the main constituent is, and was, spirit which, in various combinations with its own kind or others, has brought forth larger or smaller, more or less solid masses.
You have an eloquent example in water, which, as a flexible, light element under the influence of heat easily changes into air; or, conversely, as soon as a certain amount of heat escapes from its parts or from single atoms, turns into a rigid, solid clump of ice.
Here the difference consists only in that the water turns into ice because of a lack of warmth, or of love in the individual parts towards each other, whereas in the entire created world it is precisely love that unites everything. For love forces everything to attract each other and through this urge to unite with each other as closely as possible, elicits from love the other important vital factor, namely, warmth which, owing to its inseparable partnership with love, is equivalent to it.
Where love has brought together the like-minded spirit-particles, a blissful urge or warmth is created. Where warmth develops, a nascent state gradually sets in, a striving for a better situation, for finer, better combinations; in a word, the other visible factor, namely life, comes into being.
Where there is no love, there is no warmth, and where there is no warmth, there is no life!
This life, as a product of warmth and love, or of the friction of movement among the individual bound spirit-particles, in turn gives rise to another factor of creation. For where there is warmth, there is friction, where there is increased friction, heat develops, and where heat increases, the consuming or the nascent state begins, where the spirit-particles turn into other, higher, lighter forms, which joyful release they manifest through violent vibrations or quivering, and this manifestation is finally called light!
Therefore, where there is love, there is warmth, where there is warmth, there is life, where there is life, there is light!
Now we have before us these three main factors making up a creation, which help to create and sustain it and without which nothing exists. For in all that is created, one or the other factor is always predominant, and where all these three life-carriers cease to exist, there is no creating, no life, no warmth, but death, cold and destruction or disintegration, so that these dissolved parts can again return to the cycle of the living.
Now look, "energy" is only the spiritual urge to newly create out of the existing. When this urge manifests in reality, it is recognized by your natural scientists as natural laws.
"Substance" is only solidified Spiritual which, as you see here on earth, long ago has lost its primitive forms and, visible in more solid, coarser constituents, is no longer substance, but matter which, through the mutual influence of the strong on the weaker, of the greater on the smaller, causes the disintegration and change of the same, so as to liberate the spirits bound there and open for them the way to higher levels.
This breaking up, or the influence of one on the other, manifests to your eyes as "life", as the great natural law of "coming into existence and ceasing to exist", where the one by dissolving must complement the other, so that it can enter the great gamut and the road back to Me.
Thus, where your scientists suspect only natural laws which, notwithstanding their ideas, follow only My will, precisely there only a spiritual life can exist and develop, a life which by far surpasses everything tangible the ideas and concepts of your scientists can grasp.
And for this very reason, namely, because the Spiritual does not submit to their will and refuses to become their monopoly, they have decided that their best course lies in denying it altogether.
For them there exists no God, no lawgiver, although they presume natural laws; for them, it is "substance", which makes its own laws, thus an intelligent substance!
For them, the laws are only a certain "must"; according to their concepts, everything in the universe breaks up into substantial elements and from there again begins its mechanical cycle. For them there is no upward development, but an eternal stagnation.
If they are contented after their own dissolution to become a part of "oxygen, carbon or nitrogen", or some other ponderable or imponderable "element", I have no objections. I can even comply with their wish and allow them to swim about as a quantum of some sort of air for some millions of years in the atmosphere of some planet. However, the time will come when also this dreamlike state will become tedious to the awareness manifesting itself, but then the road from a particle of air to a human soul will be somewhat slow and difficult!
So far I have let them do as free human beings what they like. It has indeed been the case with most of them that, when they are confronted with the so cold-bloodedly acclaimed dissolution of all things in the form of death, they themselves would like to recant all they have written, if only it were possible, shrinking back from the desolate picture they have formed of the world and have also tried to impose on others.
Were it not for My unlimited love for, and My mercy with, these misguided children, I would certainly have to deal differently with them. However, I act like one with sight who also forgives the blind man who collides with him or even knocks him down; for the blind one does not know what he has done.
Spirit is omnipresent, no matter how much and how often your philosophers and scientists try to disavow it. Without spirit, there would be neither a creation nor a sun glittering in the sky, nor would there be any life!
Indeed, it is only spirit and the spiritual element which impart life and give a beautiful impulse to the rigid form and "life" to the seemingly dead and unfeeling matter and urge everything to the song of rejoicing for the highest and greatest Spirit, who is love personified, up to Me.
Without spirit there could be no love, and what would life be without love? Chaos, a cold nature, nothing that warms, comforts, hallows!
Even in your human-earthly life, what is life without love? Where is there a sentiment equal to love! What renders also nature beautiful and sublime? What is there in music that evokes exalted feelings? What is it that inspires and warms the poor, suffering, enduring heart?
It is the ray of love which wafts around you through the material nature and penetrates the invisible spiritual spheres, moving, urging you on towards an embrace, a drawing near to another person, where you again perceive the beating of a heart which, like yours, beats for the beautiful and holy.
What would be all that you see visible before you, did not this spiritual bond pass through all living beings, and what would unite Me with you, drawing you to Me, and Me to you, if not love?
This holy, blissful feeling, which reaches from the physical limits of your nature to far beyond all stars, where in eternal bliss and tranquility is waiting the One who gave you this gift as His very own self and wants to let you feel that without love, the world would have been created in vain!
Regard this world as nothing else but a spiritual panorama where spirits, united in thousands of forms, represent always only the same thing as they call out to you; the light-ray of a sun millions upon millions of miles distant from you, as well as the worm crawling at your feet, all join in the same hymn of praise: "God is love!"
Yes, I am "Love", I am "the Spirit", who lovingly created everything, lovingly sustains everything;
I am the God, who once descended to you on this small earth globe in order to achieve His greatest work of love and humility.
Yes, I am the God who, as Spirit or highest Potency, does not want to be alone in creation;
I am the God who wants to be a Father and wants to see loving children around Him who, although able to realize His might, shall only love Him!
These are the reasons why I now do not cease to remind you again and again by calling out:
"Do not forget your origin! You are My created beings, spiritual products! Do strive through your actions to become worthy of Me, to become My children!"
This is why all the heavens and all the depths of My creation are calling out to you, so that you may hear the same call everywhere:
"Love God above all! For He is Love, He created us for love -and only for love! Strive to become worthy of Him, so that His words to you may not be wasted!"
This call sounds everywhere. Awaken in your hearts the same feelings, please your Father with your love and prove it to Him when dealing with your fellowmen. This is the wish of your Father! Amen!