Since the beings of the earlier epoch, as mentioned, have not reached so far down into the world of the spiral cycle, these beings - that is, the animals, jungle Man or primitive Man of the past - in a way represent a higher spiritual stage than the people of the following period. This spiritual stage was expressed in that form of psyche or spirituality which is now sustained by those abilities which we today call "psychic phenomena", such as clairvoyance, telepathy, mediumism, psychic will-power or magic, besides the inevitable belief in higher beings, spirits and gods which stood behind the physical natural forces and the creation of Man's fate. These beings could not differentiate between hair-fine physical details as the man of today can, but judged or assessed other beings by the way in which they appeared to clairvoyant sight. So they saw in the beings' auras whether they were friend or foe, whether they were dangerous or harmless, just as they of course also saw the radiation or auras of different kinds of physical matter. Through this psychic form of existence they were led reasonably unharmed until they reached a little way into the period of materialism where their instincts had noticeably degenerated, whereby the ability to uphold the necessary laws to a corresponding degree lost its foundation. So the killing principle attained an all-dominating position in the same beings' psyche. But before the beings reached this materialistic state and while they still lived in an excessive psychic appearance, their psychic condition was concentrated in a psychic will.

It is a degenerated repercussion from what in antiquity and the Middle Ages was known as "sorcery" or "witchcraft" and which also to some degree is present in primitive Man today even if in very weak and doubtful manifestations. In addition to this there are genuine individual cases or psychic abilities within the area of cultured Man. But here one must be careful, because hundreds of people claim to have higher psychic abilities such as clairvoyance, cosmic glimpses or even cosmic consciousness, although they are in reality totally excluded from possessing powers in that direction. The higher spiritual or psychic position they claim is sometimes only a blatant (though camouflaged) self-glorification based on psychopathic tendencies.

According to the laws of the cycle, all the above-mentioned real psychic abilities must degenerate in favour of a development of intellectual abilities through which the human being can acquire a realistic, awake day-conscious knowledge of the structure of matter and the law of all creation. Gradually, as instinct degenerated, the "expulsion from the Garden of Paradise" which in this case means the psychic world actually took place. Adam and Eve, that is, human beings, were left alone with matter, which is in turn the same as nature or the elements, and had to learn to overcome these. This became "the eating of the Tree of Knowledge" and the modern materialistic perception of the universe arose. Here one is totally without understanding of all things psychic and spiritual, even though one has a gigantic ability to think in physical terms. As the otherwise infallible instinct has here degenerated and constitutes only a very latent and unreliable phenomenon, the materialistic human being will have to steer his existence with his intelligence. This epoch, without contact with the psychic world, must become the cosmic death which was to be the consequence of "the eating of the Tree of Knowledge". Through this epoch the being should in turn discover that his phenomenal knowledge of matter is not the final solution of life. His great knowledge must be supplemented by a corresponding knowledge of his own psychic or spiritual identity, which is beyond time and space. And the terrestrial human beings in the spiral cycle who are furthest advanced have also begun to be filled with a desire to experience the true solution of the mystery of life, which is not to be found in physical science's solutions in the form of weights and measures. It can only be experienced through details which lie beyond everything which can be weighed and measured or experienced with the physical senses and the psychic abilities which were the basis of life in the past but which are now only rudimentary phenomena where they exist at all.

These psychic abilities of the past are, as previously mentioned, very degenerated and therefore highly unreliable and doubtful and are completely lost to the great majority. As they still show a degeneration or declining tendency even among those beings in whom they are most prominent, it will be impossible to arrive at the solution of the mystery of life along this path. This will become the more a fact as one, by means of these psychic abilities, can see only the physical world on a higher material plane. One still sees only matter in which life is hidden. One can see rays and waves, but these also constitute matter and are not the living being itself or the source of life. Even the most outstanding of the psychically gifted people of today cannot solve the riddle of the mystery of life or the problem of the universe. It was not psychic ability in the form of clairvoyance or mediumism which made the world-redeemer one with "the Way, the Truth and the Life". If these psychic abilities of the past could give people this elevated position, Moses would, to the very highest degree, have been "the Way, the Truth and the Life", which, as the facts show, was definitely not the case, in spite of his psychic and magical abilities. We also see that neither the mystics nor the psychically gifted people of India or other exotic countries -apart from people with cosmic consciousness - have been able to promote world-redemption. We therefore have to differentiate between the psychic ability which culminated in Moses and the psychic ability which culminated in Christ or the beings whom we call "initiated". We also see that even in the Bible these two forms of mentality are differentiated. The psychic or mental condition which Christ represented, that is, the mentality of the initiated or the human being with the highest knowledge, is again and again referred to as "the Holy Spirit". It is thereby shown that there exists a form of mentality which is not holy. This mentality is therefore the mentality of the uninitiated human being, whether this is of a psychic or physical, materialistic nature. We must therefore express this psyche of the past - which particularly manifests itself in the form of magic, clairvoyance, mediumism and so on, which together constitute what we call "spiritualism" - as low-psychic, while we have to express the mentality which gives the individual the highest absolute knowledge, the great birth or initiation, as high-psychic. That it is this high-psychic mentality or holy spirit (and not a degenerating, dying relic of the past) which is the future solution for mankind would, after this analysis, be more and more obvious to the developed and absolutely honest researcher or seeker after truth.

This of course does not mean that spiritualism cannot be used in the service of the "good" and be a comfort, joy and encouragement where it can be practised in its purest form which is absolutely unselfish and which promotes neighbourly love. (1950)