As I have explained previously, there is, in all beings who have become terrestrial human beings, a "Christ child" that has been born in their mentality, which is the same as a cosmic talent kernel for true human consciousness, which when fully developed allows the human being to appear in "God's image after his likeness". This talent kernel is in an absolutely latent state in animals and cannot find expression in them, since the conditions that animals live under are such that they must give expression to an animal consciousness in order to exist. This is not completely the case with human beings and especially with the advanced, modern, terrestrial human beings. For this reason, the law for human beings is that, in order to be in contact with their destiny or with the divine objective, for which reason they have been born on Earth, they should nourish this Christ child, this divine talent, that they have therefore been blessed with. This talent, which is the Christ mentality or the truly human mentality, has caused human beings to become master of the animals, and to an extremely high degree, master of the physical elements. All that there is now left for them to do in order to be like God is to be able to control the mental elements. The Christ talent in the human being makes this being a growing mental being that will be able to juggle just as much with the cosmic or mental forces as it has now trained in controlling atoms or material substances.

The real human being's final destiny is to be a being that, like God, creates perfectly and does not kill and murder its fellow created beings, like animals do. By killing, murdering and mutilating the beings in their surroundings the human being comes into conflict with the great divine talent for human consciousness, which the Christ consciousness is in itself. Human beings absolutely cannot bear to kill. In any situation whatsoever in which a human being releases this action it mutilates its own cosmic mentality. He becomes a Herod who attempts to murder the Christ child and does not understand that in so doing he is murdering his own royal dignity. Human dignity, royal dignity or Christ mentality are exactly one and the same thing. To nourish, feed and look after this little Christ child within oneself, in one's own mentality, is therefore the true daily way of being. Any deviation at all from this is a corresponding assault on one's own existence as a god-like human being. These deviations are an indication of the mutilated or crucified Christ in one's own mentality. It is these mutilations we know under the term unhappy fates, sorrows, all possible forms of illness or any disharmony whatsoever in our relationship to other human beings. It does not necessarily mean that these other human beings are in disharmony with us. Christ was not in disharmony with those who were crucifying him. He knew that they did not know what they were doing. That is the reason why he was able to say: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". Always remember that. You are only in disharmony with yourself or your Christ being in those situations in which you persecute other beings, totally regardless of what motivation you have for persecuting these other beings, and regardless of how much these beings may be against you. At any rate, they cannot be any worse towards you than Christ's executioners were towards him, and yet he understood them and forgave them. Whatever one thinks and however much one protests, there is never ever any avoiding the fact that one crucifies oneself by persecuting and crucifying others. And it is just as certain that all ill human beings, all who are in hospital, all who are invalids, all who are cold and hungry, in short, all who have an unhappy fate, are experiencing the effects of the crucifixion of the Christ being in themselves.

If we others judge these human beings and say that they have brought it on themselves, and we reveal in every way extreme insensitivity and lack of understanding and hold them in contempt, we are then crucifying Christ within ourselves. We are then not understanding, as Christ did in his time, that they know not what they do. For this reason there will never be any situation whatsoever where we have the right to persecute and hold in contempt our fellow beings, no matter what they have done. The greater the animal consciousness that they manifest, the greater is the fact that these beings' Christ consciousness is still a child's consciousness. And on this point does not Christ say: "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of God"? You may well say that you cannot let people just do what they like. That would mean that nothing would function as it should in this world. But do not think that the world is out of order because you, with your whole consciousness, become a being that understands the true kernel in the situation and therefore understands and forgives. Do not think that just because you become a vegetarian all other human beings will straight away become vegetarians, thereby putting the slaughterers out of a job. Do not believe that because you do not want to punish a human being all others will have exactly the same thought as you do, thereby removing the need for public authorities or the judicial system. They will go on existing for as long as there is the slightest need for them; such an institution exists with the specific purpose of helping human beings to not have to protect themselves against coarse animal behaviour. Nevertheless it cannot protect you against being killed if that is inextricably bound to your evolution and fate. It cannot protect you in any situation where you yourself are crucifying Christ within yourself, in other words where you are persecuting other human beings. No, you can perfectly well say to yourself: "From now on, I will not under any circumstances take part in murdering, killing and mutilating", and this applies just as much on the mental plane as on the physical plane.

At this point, you may perhaps think to yourself that you are actually far advanced in looking after and caring for your Christ child. But is it in fact the case? Is it not just as the world redeemer once said: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall"? In conclusion, I will just mention a topic that is really one of the most difficult to root out and therefore also one of the most harmful to the Christ child in the human beings in question. It is the act of trading in stolen goods. Normally you know trading in stolen goods merely as buying stolen goods from a thief, in other words buying from another human being things that have obviously been stolen. But buying stolen goods is actually an expression of the same mentality as that of the person who carried out the theft. One might perhaps say that the trader in stolen goods is more careful, more afraid of being found out, than the thief. He does not dare to steal things himself, but on the sly or in all secrecy he is happy to sell the items to others whether in his own shop or in a totally underhand way in the streets or workplaces. If he is found out the trader in stolen goods will be punished just as much as the thief. But it is not just in plain and simple robbery that one can be a trader in stolen goods, that is to say an assistant in mutilating or crucifying other human beings. An area in which an infinite number of human beings murder, kill and mutilate on a daily basis is with their gift of speech. Words are the last murder weapons that human beings will put down. I have experienced that what seem to be extremely good human beings, human beings who are very interested in spiritual matters, even sitting with tears in their eyes when they come to spiritual lectures, are nevertheless formidable murderers and killers with their words. Such beings can in certain situations cause many other beings, who had otherwise come some way in developing and taking care of the Christ consciousness in themselves, to sabotage this way of being that they have. To deliver degrading or apparently compromising news about other human beings is murder. It is a crucifixion of Christ in not only themselves; they also cause their listeners, who are not sufficiently stable, to sabotage their Christ consciousness. Just think how much sabotage of the Christ mentality takes place on the basis of mental trading in stolen goods. Some human beings are attracted to a religious or spiritual movement, and attend the movement's lectures, and are very much stimulated to develop their Christ mentality. But there are some people in the movement who in one way or another get hold of some words that have come from dissatisfied or competing spiritual movements, which they, owing to the fact that they themselves in one way of another feel offended or believe that they have been wronged, to some degree dress up and pass on to one or other of the people who are doing well. Among these people there will always be some who are not sufficiently stable, and who listen with great interest to gossip and slander and feel antipathy or anger towards the cause that has otherwise been a life-saver to them. And so it comes about that they no longer attend lectures or read books from this movement or by its originator. And in so doing they have begun the crucifixion of their own Christ mentality. And we can see that Jesus was right: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall".

It is not always the case that the mental trading in stolen goods is at its origin meant as something bad, very often it is more through thoughtlessness that they tell the news to people who they think will not pass it on. And even though such sensational news is accompanied by the plea to not pass it on to others, one can be certain that this does not stop the news from going further, but is merely an empty phrase that accompanies the news. There is in human beings a certain urge to be the centre of a gathering, even to the point of being the "star of the day", and then such news is an absolutely superb tool. And in order to create a particular effect, a few words and facial expressions are added so that the listeners will be really shocked. And if the person in question who is the trader in mental stolen goods has something against the object of the gossip or the news, you can be certain that the murder weapon (the words) will be extremely sharp-edged so that it can really enlarge the wound leading to death or mutilation. There are human beings who have trained this ability to slander to the level of a talent – they permanently tell lies – so that finally they have absolutely no memory of what they themselves have added to the gossip and what they themselves heard in the first place. And at this stage the being has become a psychopath or a pathological liar. The derailment is complete. They will end up in a future epoch, either in present or in future lives, going through very severe states in which they become weaned of the habit of lying. Such beings even have devil consciousness. They assassinate everyone who is not to their advantage. The urge to slander is therefore just as dangerous for one's health as alcohol and other such vices – in fact it is even more dangerous because it is invisible. One cannot implant the idea enough – in those human beings who are on the road to taking care of their Christ child – of not listening to slander, because there will be nothing to pass on and one will then not become derailed. It is not so surprising that the world redeemer urges us to "let your 'Yes' be 'yes' and your 'No', 'no'. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one".

Mental trading in stolen goods is the most infectious disease of our times. We can see how extremely wide-spread it is, even to the point of being authorised. Do you think that the compromising sensational news in newspapers and magazines is controlled so that here there is no degree of crucifixion or persecution of the objects of the sensation? Why should the private letters of well-known people be made public? As long as people want to pry into other people's intimate affairs, such sensations will be an attractive item of commerce. Should one not cancel or go without newspapers and books that are designed to be tasty material for sensation seekers and slanderers? Is this not what advertisements for newspapers are designed to show? Do these not usually read: this or that well-known person is in jail or has in some other way come into a compromising situation. Do you think that the speech of the newspapers is yes, yes and no, no? In all situations in which they bring derogatory items of news about other people they are institutions of crucifixion, with which it is best not to trade in stolen goods. I do not mean that one should not take newspapers; I mean that one should sort the material that one reads so that one does not become infected, becoming a trader in stolen goods, passing on such mutilating items of news. It is not what goes into your consciousness that is dangerous, it is what comes out of your mouth that can be impure and lethal. There is of course much that is good in the newspapers, and one should not cast the baby out with the bathwater.

The vast majority of human beings are, due to their, and other human beings', uncontrolled, derogatory flood of words, therefore so to speak heavily armed murderers. As a murderer, whether mentally or physically, one is not a very good carer of one's Christ child or one's inner son-of-God being. Everyone who wants to have a healthily growing Christ child or Christ mentality must, in all situations in which he feels crucified by others, make into his life-motto the words of Christ on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do". This is absolutely the only way to the great birth, to cosmic consciousness, to being one with God and therefore to being oneself the master of life and death, the human being in God's image.