All human beings who have not yet arrived at the epoch of old age are usually afraid of dying; they do not willingly let go of their lives. This is also the case with animals. We are all struggling to preserve life. In hospitals we are struggling against death, in the homes and in human beings' everyday existence we are struggling to preserve life. No one wants to die, as long as they are fit and healthy and they have a favourable fate. The fact that the wish to die can sometimes be found in the elderly is due to the fact that they have become decrepit, their senses have become weakened and their organisms do not have enough power for them to be able to look after themselves. It is not so surprising that in such a situation they can want to die; the same wish can also arise in young people who have become seriously ill and weakened and totally dependent on other people. What can we learn from this? Why does it take an unusable organism to bring forth the longing for death? Why is it that all people are normally reluctant to die? After all, dying is something that is just as natural as being born. It is just as natural as sleeping at night-time, and one does not really feel any reluctance against that. It is a joy to be able to go to bed and sleep when one is tired, one is not afraid of the unconsciousness that we call "sleep", because everyone takes it for granted that they will wake up again once they have had a good night's sleep. But they do not take it for granted in the case of death. If they did, they would not feel any particular anxiety in connection with death. But death is an unknown quantity to human beings; they do not know that in reality it is absolutely impossible for them to die.

Human beings who blindly believe in the dogmas of Christianity might well be afraid of ending up in "hell" or of being condemned to "damnation". Non-believers can be afraid that death is the same as a total cessation of their existence, an eternal obliteration. Death is really a mystery for both believers and non-believers. The only thing that is absolutely certain for all human beings is that sometime, sooner or later, their physical organism will go into the process called death, and since one is used to identifying oneself with this organism, which at some point will become lifeless and begin to disintegrate, one thinks that one can die. If one of our loved ones passes away the person in question has disappeared from our physical senses; all that is left is a dead body that we can see and feel. The human being in question has in fact truly "left" their physical body and this is the reason why we cannot sense him or her. The "something" that has left the physical body is totally inaccessible to physical perception and has always been so, also when we thought that we experienced this human being directly. But we have never done so. We have experienced the effects that this living being created for a while through a physical tool in this physical world. The being itself has been, as we all are, inaccessible to physical perception and has now stopped using the tool or the physical body through which it has for a while been possible to experience the being indirectly here in the physical world. The only thing that is left of the living being in question is something that is totally inaccessible to the physical senses, but this part that is totally inaccessible to physical sensing is really the primary part of the being in question, it is nothing other than the living being itself, which was master of the physical organism before it died. It was this invisible being that spoke, saw and heard with the help of the organism. It was this invisible being that directed the organism to walk, stand still, sit down or run. It was this invisible being that through its organism showed us friendliness, understanding and perhaps even love – or the opposite. With the help of this organism this invisible being could create and produce in physical matter with its abilities and talents, the effects of which we could experience in this way. But the fact that this organism was also in itself a created thing or a tool should not be a mystery to anyone since it is built up or begun just like absolutely any other created thing and is subject to the same laws. It can become worn out, it can be misused and fall to pieces. No created thing can last for ever, no matter however much it is taken care of. That which is created is something that comes into being and in turn sooner or later ceases to exist. Once the organism has ceased to exist its invisible originator can no longer normally make itself known in the physical world. The people who are left behind in this world perhaps think that the being in question has ceased to exist. The truth is however that they merely cannot come into contact with him or her through physical vibrations and wavelengths, because the being in question's physical apparatus has become unusable.

Is there something in the physical living being that points to the fact that the physical organism is not the living being itself, and that this living being constitutes an invisible reality beyond this organism? Certainly, the entire living being's physical existence is in itself a revelation of this invisible and real something beyond the organism. What is there about the physical organism that does not point to an originator for which it is a tool? Are the eyes independent? Are the organs of taste and smell independent? Or do the inner organs, such as the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys etc., simply exist for their own sake? Are they not all without exception in-built, essential, co-operating pieces of equipment in an indispensable tool for a living being's physical manifestation? Every single organ, whether large or small, triggers off a function that is a contributory vital necessity for physical experience. But since the entire organism is made up entirely of such organs, whose assistance is required in order for the living being to perceive and manifest, where is the living being itself? Is it in the kidneys or in the heart? Is it in the eyes or in the nose? We know that it is not. But is it in the brain? No, the brain is also an organ that must be in constant connection with the other organs in order for the experience of life to take place on the physical plane. It is a tool, together with other tools all of which co-operate to make the organism a perfect piece of equipment. But for whom?

I would think we all know from experience that there are certain things that we are so used to experiencing that we gradually do not notice them at all. This also applies to the experience of being a spiritual being. In reality we recognise to a very high degree that we are a spiritual being, but it has become so much of a habit that we do not notice this aspect of our experiences. It is this spiritual being in our physical organism that constitutes our real self, and we express it as our "I". We say "I saw", "I walked", "I said", "I was happy" etc. Who is this "I"? It was not just your eyes that saw, or your feet that walked. It was not just your mouth that spoke, and neither can it be your physical organism that was happy, since it is built up merely of subordinate organs that exist in order to make the organism into a perfect tool for an invisible "something" that manifests and experiences. Our "I" must be this "something". Our eyes cannot decide where they should look, our legs cannot decide where they should walk, and our mouth does not decide what it should say. Is it not in fact our "I" that decides all these things? Is it not also our "I" that feels joy and sorrow? The "I" is the primary factor and the organism the secondary factor or the tool through which one experiences and manifests. The "I" can be connected to a physical organism, but it can also free itself from it. But if it can do this it must have a spiritual structure by means of which this process – the connection to an organism and the liberation from an organism – can take place.

The spiritual structure of the being consists of its entire mental state, its thoughts and feelings, its desires, wishes and will. From the "I's" superconsciousness-structure, in which it constitutes the fixed point, its entire experience of life goes out and in through its day consciousness. From here the forces are released that are the being in question's way of affecting other beings. And this is where the forces enter that are an effect, from the surroundings, of the forces that the being has released. It is these effects that become its fate, its experiences of "evil" and "good". If we now begin to understand that the living being is not identical to its physical organism, but consists of an eternal, spiritual structure that surrounds its I, we can also begin to understand its fate. Without this knowledge it will be impossible for human beings to grasp why it is that the beings in everyday life have such widely differing fates. Since they do not die when the physical body does but they go on living thanks to their spiritual or cosmic structure, and after a period of time once again create a physical body for themselves and are therefore born once again onto the physical plane, it is natural that they continue this new physical existence on the evolutionary step that they reached in the previous physical life. And the effects of the physical actions that they have released towards their neighbour in previous lives they now have a chance of experiencing in this new physical life. This chain of cause and effect is released by the eternal structure that I call the living being's eternity body.