I had some wonderful years with Lasse. We were together almost every day, and we often had very earnest discussions.

One day we had to have something to eat. So Lasse went into the kitchen to boil some eggs in a saucepan. While the eggs were boiling we carried on our discussion and forgot them. Then we heard a bang coming from the kitchen - and then the eggs sat up on the ceiling. All the water had boiled away.

Sometimes we spent an entire Sunday together, and then we really talked and discussed things at great length.

Late in the evening when I wanted to go home (it was a 5 or 6 kilometre walk) he would accompany me. The whole way we discussed cosmic problems and when we reached my lodgings in Nørrebro I would accompany him back to Amager!

It didn't take long for Lasse to realize that I had to give up my office job at the dairy. He had earned rather a lot that year and offered to support me financially. I was now freed from my job and could devote myself entirely to my task of drawing symbols and writing analyses. I told Lasse that his help should be regarded as a loan, which I would repay when I could.

Some months later, however, Lasse became unemployed or didn't earn as much money as before and so he had difficulty in helping me. But then there were other supporters of my work who stepped in and offered to help me.

When I left my job at Enigheden Dairy the manager said that I could come back at any time I wanted to. So now I got in touch with him. I could certainly have my office job back, but I had the idea that it would be better for me to work in the dairy itself instead of in the office. I thought that I would then be less brain-tired and would thus be better able to manage my spiritual work in my leisure time.

But it turned out that every day I was far too tired to do any writing; so it lay almost entirely dormant.

The manager, who was always friendly towards me, understood my situation. He and his wife sometimes invited me to their home. He regarded me as an "oracle" to whom one could always turn when a problem arose.

One day I had to decide whether a driver who had swindled the dairy ought to be dismissed. The affair began one afternoon when the clerks were about to have their usual coffee or tea. A girl was sent down to the dairy for a bottle of cream. When the bottle was opened it turned out that it contained not cream but buttermilk. And now it was discovered that it was not the only cream-bottle containing buttermilk. It therefore had to be one of the drivers who was doing something illegal. The drivers had the right to return the bottles of milk, cream and other products that they had not sold in the course of the day; they then had the price of each refunded. But there was one driver who returned buttermilk as cream in order to make a little money illegally.

The next day we discovered which driver it was - an eighteen-year-old youth. The foreman decided to dismiss him immediately. The youth was very unhappy and ashamed, and hardly dared go home to his parents.

Some days later two control-drivers spoke to the manager about the case, asking if it was not possible to re-employ the young man. But the manager could not promise anything. He came to me and asked what I would do if I had to decide. I answered that if it were up to me he would be allowed to come back.

"Yes - but we have to make an example of him," he said. "We cannot let the drivers steal from us like this!"

I answered that there were many other drivers whom I thought more appropriate as examples. "The young man is one of our best drivers; he has been here since he was a milkboy, and he has seen how the other drivers get drunk and cheat each other as much as they can. He has never learned anything else. He is not really a thief by nature. If he loses his job in this way a bad reference will follow him for years and it will be impossible for him to get another job. But if he is allowed to stay here one can safely trust that he will not do anything else unlawful. He has received a serious warning."

The manager answered that he might re-employ the driver; he would consider the matter.

One of the dairy's other drivers was an older brother of the driver who had been dismissed. I spoke to him and recommended him to persuade his brother to come and see the manager and tell him that he was very sorry about what had happened. I was almost sure that he would then get his job back. And before a week had passed the young man was back at work.

It was rumoured among the dairymen and drivers that I had defended the young driver in this way, which meant that I became extremely popular with them all.

It was of course wonderful to be popular with so many people, but I speculated every day as to how I could get on with my cosmic analyses and symbols.

But fortunately there were other friends who now stepped in with support so that from the autumn of 1922 I could devote myself entirely to my spiritual work, I had, however, to live very frugally and austerely.

Lasse wanted to introduce me to his family. He had a sister and a brother-in-law who lived in Frederiksberg; they were called Christine and Ole Sørensen. They had two small girls aged eight and five, named Agnete and Emilie. The family lived on the ground floor of a terraced house (7H Pile Allé), and I spent many happy hours there with them.

Lasse came too as a rule. He could never understand how I was happy to lie on the floor and play with the children when we had just been sitting at the table talking about profound spiritual problems.

One day a little room on the second floor became vacant; so the Sørensens let it to me and I moved in.

It was very convenient for me to move in there because I had suddenly lost my previous lodgings. I had just moved out of my room in Jagtvej where I had lived for five years. From there I had moved to Henrik Ibsensvej, where a woman had sublet her flat to me because she had to look after another woman who was sick and lived somewhere else.

But my stay in Henrik Ibsensvej was very brief, because the sick woman died the same day as I moved in. I was therefore very happy that I could move in with the Sørensen family in Pile Allé, even if it I had only a small, modest room right up under the roof.

The family was always exceedingly loving and helpful to me. I ate with them, and Mrs. Sørensen washed and repaired my clothes.

It was very self-sacrificing of them, considering that their finances often gave them a great deal to think about.

One evening I was sitting in a tramcar - on my way home to Nørrebro - when a man got on and sat down just opposite me. I could feel that his organs were terribly affected by a serious illness. I almost fainted. I stood up and staggered out onto the back platform, where I tried to keep myself upright by clinging to a handle. The other passengers thought I was drunk. I could hear them saying that I was a terrible drunk.

Then the conductor came. "You'll have to get off here!" he said.

I answered that I had to go only three stops more.

"That doesn't matter. You have to get off here!"

I staggered off the tram and got up onto the pavement, but shortly afterwards I fell into the entrance to a basement passage, where I remained lying unconscious.

I came to when a couple of young people helped me to my feet.

"Was I lying down there?" I asked.

"Yes, we saw from the tram that you fell down, so we got off to help you."

"That was terribly kind of you."

"But you are not drunk at all."

"No -I have never been drunk!"

"Oh well, it was terribly warm in the tram - now you must take a taxi home."

"No, that won't be necessary. Now I feel better and can easily walk the rest of the way."

From that day onwards I was more careful about taking a tram. I dared to do so only when I could see that it was almost empty, because where there are many people there is always someone who is ill. I didn't dare go to the cinema either if the film dealt with violence and murder. But I did everything I could to combat and overcome this weakness, and finally I succeeded.

A year before my "initiation" I experienced something that I thought very strange.

I had come home from the office and was sitting eating my evening meal. I had a book lying on the table and read a little of it.

Suddenly I started up and then found myself standing in the middle of the room. But at the same time I was still sitting at the table. I wondered if I was dead.

Then I felt myself start up again - and now I was sitting back at the table, eating.

I was very frightened by this strange experience. But now, since having gone through my initiation, I realise that I can leave my body without difficulty.

The first time I tried it I suddenly saw a strange city in radiant sunshine. There were desert-like landscapes around the city. I later realised that it was Damascus I had been in.

Another time I went in this way to Jerusalem. A blue cloud always formed itself first. Out of this cloud a landscape appeared. I could see that it was the field near Jerusalem that was called "The Bloody Field" because Judas bought it with the thirty pieces of silver he got for betraying Jesus.

On a later occasion I saved a man from being killed. The usual cloud formed and out of it there appeared a South Sea island. I saw a man sitting by a lake. He was almost black. There were also some Negro cabins. Now another man appeared from a cabin. He was armed with a club and he crept up on the sitting man. He looked very evil, and it was obvious that the man by the lake was about to be murdered.

Suddenly the evil-looking man saw me. He was horrified, threw the club away and fled.

Even though I could save people's lives in this way I realised that I had not got my cosmic consciousness in order to carry out that kind of experiment. It was not my mission: I had to concentrate on writing my cosmic analyses and on drawing symbols.

Also it can be very dangerous to leave one's body in this way. I could see that I would destroy my intelligence if I continued with these experiments. And as I was destined to use my intelligence at a very high level, I did not dare to do such things any more.

If one looks at spiritualistic mediums one finds their feelings are very developed at the expense of their intelligence. They have no independent opinions but always have to ask the spirits, and they do not even know if they are real spirits that they are dealing with.

As I've said before, I had a piano in my room. I had never learned to play from music but I enjoyed playing short, easy pieces by ear.

One day I contacted a music teacher, because now I wanted to play the piano from music.

After my first lesson I sat the whole evening practising reading music. But the next day, when I sat down at the typewriter, I discovered that it was impossible for me to write a single line and I realised that I would have to give up my piano-playing if I wanted to go on writing. So I had to part with the piano. I passed it on to an acquaintance who undertook to pay the remaining instalments.

Now I had peace and quiet for my spiritual work in my little room in Pile Allé.

I slowly became more experienced as a writer, and, as I realised that it was a great help for the readers of my analyses if they were accompanied by easily understandable symbols, I gradually produced about a dozen. One of the symbols that I thought about most was the one that is today known as the "main symbol". I had to make several draughts and sketches before all the details were in place.

One day, as I was standing at my drawing-board putting the finishing touches to the symbol, I realised that I was not alone. On each side of me stood a figure dressed in white, a "spiritual master". Totally silent and passive, they stood for a moment with folded arms, looking at the symbol. Then they nodded and disappeared. From that day on I felt that I had the sympathy and support of the entire spiritual world.

One day I bought a second-hand slide-projector, and with great difficulty I transferred the "main symbol" and some of my other symbols to slide plates. I had to get help from a photographer, who showed me how one could colour the slides.

Now I was ready to demonstrate the eternal world picture. I felt that the time was ripe to show it to a larger circle of interested people.

I knew by name Carl Vett - he was the managing director of a department store - and I knew that he was very interested in spiritual matters. He travelled to a lot to occult meetings and congresses. I now felt I should contact him and wrote him a polite letter enclosing the preface to "Livets Bog (The Book of Life)".

I received a friendly reply from him. He had read my letter with great interest and would like to introduce me to a wise old man by the name of Bernhard Løw, who had been a manufacturer and lived in Ordrup. He had had a bell foundry. He was now the leader of the Anthroposophical Society. He would without doubt be aware of the value of my work.

For those interested he held meetings in his house (23 Kirkevej, Ordrup) every Sunday afternoon. The meetings took the form of a kind of study circle.

In September 1928 I was invited to one of their Sunday meetings. I travelled there by tram and had my slides and slide-projector with me. I found my way to the Løw family's house and rang the doorbell.

It was Løw himself who opened the door. He was an old gentleman with a white beard, very upright, with a huge mild face and lovely blue eyes. He welcomed me and I went inside and met his wife, their two daughters and a son-in-law, who were all very friendly. There were also some few others present who were interested in anthroposophy - including Carl Vett.

We sat in a large room and Løw asked me a number of questions and was very satisfied with, and impressed by, my precise and thorough answers to his spiritually scientific questions.

And then they were to see my slides, in another room. I told them what the symbols meant and explained the entire world picture for them. They were completely enthralled. Løw said afterwards, "Well - I don't have cosmic consciousness, but if I had to create the world picture, I would have to do it like that. There is no other way to do it!"

At Løw's request I came again the following Sundays and showed more of my symbols. And Løw was prepared with a lot of questions, which I answered.

Løw had been a "seeker" his entire life. He had devoted most of his time to the writings of Rudolf Steiner, a universal genius who had had some "cosmic glimpses" and who, in 1913, had founded Anthroposophy.

Løw knew what answers Steiner had to various spiritually scientific questions, and now he wanted to hear my answers to the same questions. Every time he thought my answers were clearer and more thorough.

Løw had been so interested in Rudolf Steiner that the latter, some years previously, had invited him to his home in Switzerland. Steiner had his headquarters in Dornach in the north of Switzerland. There Løw had been his guest for a long period and so had had the opportunity to study this interesting personality at close quarters.

Løw was acquainted with some old prophecies including those of Nostradamus about the coming world teacher, "The Man from the North", who should appear in precisely that decade. He longed very intensely to meet this world teacher. He had had the idea that it was perhaps Steiner himself. But when Løw, after his long stay with Steiner, was taking leave of him they had a last conversation.

Steiner said that in a hundred years there would no longer be anything called Anthroposophy. Løw then asked him, "But... what will there be then?"

Steiner's answer was rather symbolic: "I see a break in the clouds above your own fatherland, Denmark. There, in a few years, a new world teacher will appear. As he will need support it would be wonderful if there was someone to help him!"

Løw now moved back to Denmark, where he resumed the Ordrup anthroposophical study circles and also set up study circles in the provinces.

And now he had come into contact with me.

Not all the participants in Løw's study circles were equally enthusiastic about me. One of them said to Løw, "It isn't Martinus but we ourselves who should bring these things to light!"

"Can you perhaps draw that kind of symbol?" asked Løw. "Or can you explain the world picture?"

Well, no - he could not.

"Yes, indeed, but I can't either - so it must be Martinus!"

Løw was always unshakably loyal towards me, even if some of the participants in his study circle gradually disappeared.

"They don't understand it, those camels!" was his comment.

I was very fond of my new friends, but financially I was very badly off and it preyed on my mind that I was unable to repay the money that Lasse had helped me with. It was a matter of a sum corresponding to a normal year's income. And now Lasse was also in difficulties, because he was unemployed.

Since I at one time didn't even have the money for the tram fare to Ordrup, I had to stay away from the weekly gatherings at Løw's house for a time. Løw couldn't understand why he didn't see me anymore. But a certain lady in the study circle said that she could well understand it: "Martinus has almost certainly not got enough money for the tramcar!"

"No - is it really as bad as that?", said Løw. "Then we must help him."

Some days later Løw turned up at my lodgings and asked me about my financial situation and got out of me how much I owed Lasse. Then he asked me to come to his house as soon as possible.

Both Løw and his wife were very happy when I once again came out to them and Løw gave me a large envelope, saying that there was in it enough money to pay the debt outstanding to Lasse. And there was also enough to pay the interest and the interest on the interest. And even more.

Lasse was of course happily surprised when he suddenly got all his money back, and he didn't want to accept any interest.

"You can keep that for yourself," he said. "You are in need too!"

The next time I visited the family, Løw showed me an expensive pocket watch that he had bought in Switzerland. It was a large gold watch with a chain, and it could strike the hour.

"You are to have it!" said Løw. "My wife and I have decided."

"Yes, and you may sell it," said his wife, "if you think that you are more in need of the money."

Of course I very much appreciated their beautiful thought, and I thanked them many times. It was a very beautiful watch that never needed to be wound up. This was something quite new and unknown at that time.

Now I was very often invited out to Løw's, and he also invited those of his friends whom he knew to be really interested in my work. These also became my friends, and there were many influential people among them.

My new friends also wanted to have me visit them in their homes, and I was invited out almost every evening. They were all very interested, and I had to answer so many questions that our gatherings would last until long past midnight.

I also began to receive a lot of letters that had to be answered.

One day in the summer of 1929, Løw said, "You ought to have a younger man to help you; you cannot go on being alone with this task."

I too felt that I ought to have a younger assistant.

I was still writing the first volume of "Livets Bog", and Løw promised me that he would finance its printing and publication.

Rudolf Steiner had died in Switzerland in 1925. Some years later Løw invited his widow on a trip to Denmark. She stayed at the Løws' house in Ordrup, and he told her about me and my work.

He thought she would be interested to meet me, and he would therefore arrange a gathering at his home, so that we could have the opportunity to meet each other.

But Mrs. Steiner did not wish to meet me. Her comment was "My husband has already given the world what it needs!"

Løw was very surprised at this reaction, but I wasn't.

I often visited my old friends in Hillerød, Palle Ivert the dentist and his wife, who spoke a good deal of a young man with whom they had become acquainted: Gerner Larsson, who was 22 years old and lived in Hillerød too. His full name was Erik Gerner Larsson. His father had a large market garden where Erik was an apprentice. For a while he had been in Grenå, where he had taken over a flower shop.

But he had soon had to give up the shop because of ill-health. He had been in hospital with a serious stomach ulcer; now he lived with his parents again in Hillerød, but the doctors didn't believe he would survive the illness.

When I was visiting Mr. and Mrs. Ivert one Sunday I met the young man. He had been for a walk round the castle lake to say goodbye to it all.

When I greeted him I realised immediately that it was he who should be my first assistant. It turned out that he was extremely interested in hearing about my work.

I could not promise him that his future with me would be a bed of roses but I felt convinced that Providence had chosen him to take up a prominent role in the service of my mission.

A family that had made my acquaintance and which was very interested in my work helped me to get a proper flat. I had up to then lodged in a little room, but now I came to live in a nice, cosy flat in Lykkesholms Allé in Frederiksberg. Now Gerner Larsson moved in there too. It was August 1929.

During the first year Gerner Larsson had to earn a living as a consultant to a various nurseries and flower shops. He went round to a number of large villas to arrange their flowers and potted plants. He had also a small income from decorating some of the city's largest cinemas with flowers. But that ended with Løw taking it upon himself to support him so that he could work solely for me.

As my first assistant or secretary Gerner Larsson was to be trained to give lectures and run study groups in Copenhagen and the provinces.

And it turned out that, from a spiritual point of view, he was a blank page. He had totally grown away from the orthodox Christianity he learned as a child; he knew nothing of any other religious teaching. He had been neither a theosophist, an anthroposophist, a spiritualist nor the like. In brief, he had never followed any religious direction or movement. But his spiritual hunger was so strong that he, as a dry sponge absorbs water, absorbed the great main analyses of spiritual science through our personal conversations and my answers to his hundreds of questions. At the same time he had a developed faculty of intuition that enabled him at almost lightning speed to grasp the great cosmic analyses or truths without any long explanations. He possessed therefore all the particular, highly developed faculties that are necessary if one is to be trained in the shortest possible time as a teacher or expert in spiritual science.

He received a significant part of his training during our walks out in the open. We often went to Dyrehaven (A large country park to the north of Copenhagen). From Klampenborg we walked up to Peter Lieps House and drank tea; then we strolled up by the Erimitagen (A royal hunting lodge (no longer used) in Dyrehaven), down to Springforbi, and back to Klampenborg.

There is a special atmosphere about Eremitagesletten (Eremitage Plain), a very special atmosphere. The air is lighter and cleaner than normal. Clairvoyant people can see that there is a "spiritual city" there, inhabited by highly developed discarnated people.

It is the radiance from this that explains the special atmosphere.

About 1929 Lasse wrote to Krishnamurti. This letter made Krishnamurti aware of my existence and my mission.

On my 39^th birthday, 11^th August 1929, Krishnamurti disbanded the society that had been created around him, declaring that he did not want any followers.

"Now we must rent a hall," he said. "Then everyone who is interested can come and hear you lecture."

So we rented a hall seating over 200 people. It was in Forhåbningsholms A11é 11. I bought a larger slide-projector so that I could show my symbols in the hall.

My first lecture took place on Monday, 1^st December 1930. The hall was completely full of people and I felt very nervous and shy. To save the situation, I had written out some pages that I could read aloud, if necessary.

I said a silent prayer, and after I had got a little way into the lecture I felt so inspired that I could lay the manuscript aside, and then I gave a lecture that held the audience's attention for two hours.

After my first public lecture I gave a couple more lectures in the same hall.

But after that, because of the large attendance, we had to find a bigger hall. We found one on Frederiksholms Kanal, where Borups High School is situated; its large hall could accommodate over 500 people.

Here for nine years I gave monthly lectures during the winter. The lectures were illustrated by slides, first and foremost of my symbols. The hall was as a rule full to the last seat. A couple of times a year I also gave lectures in some of the larger towns in the provinces.

Løw ran some study circles in the provinces, mostly in Jutland, and he wanted me to give lectures there too.

We went on several lecture tours; Gerner Larsson came too. Later he was to take over these lecture tours.

We travelled by train and on one occasion when we got to Ålborg, Løw and Gerner Larsson wanted very much to see the area where I was brought up.

We went to Sindal and visited Moskildvad, my childhood home, which had now been taken over by a family I didn't know. I showed them the farm where I had been a herdboy. We saw my old school and the presbytery too.

In 1930 I finished writing the first volume of "Livets Bog (The Book of Life)", and now the book was due to be printed and published. Løw, who had undertaken to finance the printing, did not want us to skimp on the equipment or the materials. We were to have the best printer and the best paper. Since the book was to include a number of my symbols in many colours, it became a rather costly affair. The sum that Løw put at my disposal was enough for 1000 copies. It was, however, possible to increase the number printed to 2000, thanks to some good supporters of my work.

Løw never managed to see the finished book. He died quietly and peacefully during the night of 16^th June 1931 at the age of 88. His wife Augusta Løw loyally honoured her husband's promise to finance the book, which was published in July 1932.

Lasse had all the time believed that the book would immediately become a best-seller, and that my work would spread very quickly and that I should very soon become famous.

I, however, did not share his optimism and I had no ambitions about becoming famous as long as I lived here.

I wanted to have peace to work in, but this was sometimes hard to come by since more and more people wanted to talk to me.

There were also many letters needing answering. My secretary, Gerner Larsson, could, however, take care of this correspondence. And in 1932 he established study circles in Copenhagen and in the provinces, where he gave many lectures.

In Copenhagen the study circles took place in a hall in 1 Gammel Mønt; later they were moved to Borups High School's smaller hall.

In 1932 we moved to a larger flat (31 Joakim Larsensvej), and here we set up an office that we called "Livets Bog's Bureau".

In September 1933 Gerner Larsson married Thora Hammarlund, who like himself was from Hillerød. The newly-weds moved into a new home in Vanløse.

Seven years passed before the second volume of "Livets Bog" was published. During these seven years I wrote a number of shorter books: "Logic", "The Ideal Food", "Bisættelse (Funeral)", "Easter", "On the Birth of My Mission", "The Culture of Giving" and others.

These books were published first in serialized form in our monthly magazine KOSMOS, which we started in April 1933. They were later published as small independent books.

The books were to serve as material for beginners in cosmic thinking.