In the lectures here at the holiday centre I generally stick to subjects that are directly relevant to everyday life, thereby avoiding as much as possible more difficult, higher analyses. For that reason I would like to talk this evening about a subject that has a particular message for us all. The subject is, "the guardians of the threshold".

As long as pleasantness or what is presumed pleasant is exclusively the releasing factor in the determination of will, human beings will go on and on releasing suffering or the sort of unhappy fate that is these days more or less linked to all terrestrial human beings.

But the results of the wrong dispositions, the wrong releasing of will and the many terrible sufferings and anxieties create more and more experience of the need for a really rational knowledge, thereby developing the receptivity to "the holy spirit".

The severe sufferings have therefore brought the individual to the point of discovering and recognising his own ultimately inadequate ability to guide and lead his own being, his own inner characteristics and dispositions. And with this recognition, which in turn forms the basis of what we call "humility", world redemption or the Christ principle steps in to help. This principle in turn is one that penetrates everything and is present everywhere in Nature. This is the principle that determines that every child born into the world has parents whose duty it is to take loving care of it until it can fend for itself. And it is the same principle that forms the basis for the creation of all forms of religion, for the creation of every kind of improvement, raising and expansion of morality and healthy thinking, and is manifested here through elder brothers in evolution who thereby appear as "prophets" and "wise men" and of whom the most evolved and influential are those we call "Christ beings" or "world redeemers". And this also applies today. Christ's promise, "the Comforter", "the holy spirit" that "the Father will send in my name" etc. is already in the process of being fulfilled. Today "the holy spirit" is radiating with renewed power in over the world. This spirit is not a person but shining cosmic matter that is the only thing that can provide the material for the creation of those thoughts in the brain and consciousness that form the highest knowledge of God, the nature of the universe and the highest laws of life. Today this matter, in the form of a cosmic wave of energy from the centre of our milky way system, is shining directly in over the Scandinavian countries. And it is this that, for example, is a condition of my being able to manifest the highest cosmic knowledge. My consciousness has reached a stage where it has evolved sufficiently to enable it to receive, experience and manifest back "the holy spirit". And those beings that today have evolved to the point of being interested in this highest enlightenment together make up the "generations to come" to whom Christ announced would be sent the aforementioned "Comforter" that these "generations to come" would be able to understand.

You can check for yourself whether it really is "the holy spirit" that is manifested or revealed through me. Christ himself indicated its distinctive characteristic and declared, "the tree is known by its fruits". My "fruits" are my explanation and documentation of the identity of the "wise men's" highest sayings as truth, as science. And nowhere in my manifestations will one find anything at all that does not in every way fit exactly into the great all-inclusive answer that culminates in love and that is the Godhead's own view of life: "Everything is very good". And thus my work cannot fail to lead you towards that bright mental state that I have called "the great birth". It is in fact the case that many of you have begun to experience the closeness of the divine spirit through my work, my analyses and cosmic knowledge.

This "threshold" has its "guardians". This term is somewhat drastic, but is really only symbolic. One must not think that at the gates to the "kingdom of God" there are guardians in military gear with swords and bayonets, or firearms and explosives. Neither should one think that these "guardians" are fantastic psychic beings with great magic powers, demons or demi-demons, mystical trolls that can kill with the glance of an eye or that use words to cast spells. No, the "kingdom of God" is firmly guarded by a completely different kind of "guardian". But these guardians are no less dangerous than the former, especially because they appear to those they are preventing from passing over the "threshold" as the most radiant angelic figures, endowed with the most charming and perfect grace imaginable. But this splendour is really only how it seems on the surface. These "guardians" are nothing more or less than the beings' own unfinished characteristics and dispositions.

If, for example, a being in his enthusiasm or out of a feeling of joy has to a greater or lesser extent offered the light, or any person through which the light is manifested, financial support, physical work or other special expressions of sympathy, the unfinished characteristics, as opposed to the finished ones, will to a corresponding degree create claims or demands for favours or special attention directed to that person. The enthusiasm for the light can of course be so strong that it can keep these claims or demands at bay for some time. But gradually as the connection to the light through the few finished or well-developed characteristics becomes more of an everyday matter, these can no longer hold the desires from the unfinished characteristics in check. The result is that there gradually arises in the mentality of the being in question a correspondingly growing disagreement that eventually ends up being greater than the joy at the light. The unfinished characteristics, all of which are inevitably egoistic in nature, create a feeling that one is disregarded, ignored or unappreciated by the representatives of the light. One feels unjustly treated by those one has helped or supported. This feeling can even be so strong that one feels justified in opposing this "martyrdom", seeking to combat it. And without in fact knowing it, one has become well established in a process of persecuting and combating the very light that one previously loved above everything else on Earth.

"The guardians of the threshold" particularly consist of not being able to see this "beam in one's own eye". And to the extent that one is unable to see it but can only see all the faults, in fact even the slightest of faults, in one's neighbour, one will without doubt have a feeling of being vastly superior in evolution to this neighbour, in fact sometimes have the feeling of being completely without faults. Naturally this can to a corresponding degree cause one to feel those unpleasant things that there may be in one's existence as "martyrdom" and the originators of this "martyrdom" as one's persecutors. These "persecutors" are not always fellow beings outside of the light. They can of course just as well be fellow beings within it. In fact one can even have the attitude that the greatest representative of the light, the "world redeemer" himself, is organising things wrongly. Do we not have the account of Judas? Do not believe, whatever you do, that he was some sort of "bandit", as people have almost sought to make him out to be according to the accounts that have come down to us. Do not believe either that it was the thirty pieces of silver that made Judas betray Jesus. No, Jesus' disciples were not a group of "bandits" or "money-grubbers". They were a group of beings that had come so far in evolution that there were characteristics in them that gave them a receptivity and enthusiasm for the light and meant that they were in the light, and lived side by side with the world redeemer and became his personal friends. And do you not think that these beings were extremely happy about this friendship? But did the unfinished characteristics not turn up here too, making their presence felt and tearing the disciples away from the light for a while? Did we not witness the extraordinary fact that they actually did not believe Jesus' own account of his approaching suffering and death? Do we not see in the same account the apostle Peter refusing to acknowledge that he knew and was closely associated with Jesus, through his repeated lying? – And did not the light fade away from him? – Is it not actually written that "he went out and wept bitterly"?

Concerning Judas, one should not believe that he acted other than from intentions that he supposed to be the best and most noble. If this were not the case he would have been what we would call a "bandit". But because it is not possible to imagine Jesus' personally chosen companions and friends as "bandits", it becomes clear that Judas must have had a motive for his ill-fated action that to him seemed noble. And this fact is further emphasised by his suicide. Do you not think this was precisely a result of remorse and despair over the reality that revealed itself to him as he had been the cause of Jesus' capture? Do you not think it was sorrow over the ill-treatment his dispositions had brought on his dearly-beloved Master? What else could it be? But did he not understand beforehand that his action would inevitably bring this terrible ill-treatment on the world redeemer? Definitely not! That was something he truly had not understood. "The guardians of the threshold", his own unfinished characteristics – which in this case means his strong desire to show the world, his sceptical family and his friends from the past, his Master's greatness – had long ago caused him to believe that "the son of God" was omnipotent and thereby physically untouchable. They had also caused him to believe that anyone who would lay hands on him would find themselves paralysed and through his (Judas') action the greatness and the divine origin of the world redeemer would be revealed and made plain to all people.

But divine greatness is not revealed through brutal psychic or physical expressions or power. The world redeemer does not act by bringing death or disablement upon his opponents and sceptics with earthquakes, thunder and lightning, no more than with swords and spears or bows and arrows. Quite the opposite, he acts exclusively by "turning the right cheek when he is smitten on the left".

In this account we have the best picture of the mission that takes place under the concept of "the guardians of the threshold". We have seen Judas enter the light and become a disciple of the world redeemer. And we have seen how his unfinished characteristics, desire for sensation and resultant impatience over what seemed to him the far-too-slow growth in the Jesus-movement, made him do something he thought could benefit it and speed it up. This conviction was in fact merely a camouflaged justification for the satisfying of the egoistic or selfish desires that he still had in his consciousness and that actually cut him off from being able to fully follow his Master, in fact they completely drowned out his Master's words.

But a world redeemer does not make concessions to human beings' bad, egoistic desires, no matter how much the being in question has supported the world redeemer, no matter how much the being thinks he has sacrificed himself for him or his cause or the light. All the steps of human consciousness are apparent to him and every human delusion can be seen for what it is with a routine ease. All he can do is therefore follow his own route independent of praise and criticism, independent of whether the outlook promises to bring support or opposition, independent of the prospect of thereby losing friends or making enemies. Only in this way and in this way alone can he permanently be "one with the way, the truth and the life". Otherwise he would be one with deluded, blinded and unfinished beings whose power and influence he would be bowing down to.