M3028
On sensory perception outside time and space
Question: How does one experience by means of non-temporal and non-spatial sensory perception?
Answer: In order that sensory perception can take place at all there must be something which can sense. And here we arrive at one of life's first great basic analyses, namely this: that there is "something which senses" and "something which is sensed". This is one of the eternal solutions of life, which means solutions which are not temporal and spatial. This principle is beyond all concepts of space, time and volume. Any condition for evolving further in non-temporal and spatial, and thereby eternal, solutions or incipient cosmic consciousness will therefore be a matter of getting to know the true analysis of "what senses" and "what is sensed". That these phenomena cannot possibly be the same thing is a piece of knowledge which the spiritual researcher must accept as fact, since this knowledge is the unshakable foundation for all further cosmic development and mental stability. Everything that can be classed "what senses" constitutes an eternal phenomenon, while "what is sensed" constitutes only a temporary or changeable phenomenon. When such things constitute only temporary phenomena, they are therefore limited and thereby a contrast to infinity and eternity. They are bound to place and size both in time and space.
Now, it will perhaps be objected that one can perfectly well sense "what senses", but this is in reality a total impossibility. Any such idea can exist only as an illusion. No being has ever in reality directly sensed "what senses". That we can observe a living being, that we can see an animal or human being certainly does not mean, in a cosmic sense, that we see "what senses". No human being or animal can constitute "what senses". An "animal" is a term for a means of consciousness or a kind of organism which constitutes a tool for this means or form of sensory perception. A "human being" is also only a term for a particular means of manifesting and the organism or the body which is the tool for this. Everything which appears under the terms "human beings", "plants", "minerals", "galaxies", "star- and planet-systems" or "macrocosmic" as well as "microcosmic details" will thus, in the absolute sense, constitute only means of sensing and creating and the organs or bodies manifesting in concentrated matter through which the means of sensing and creating in question can be manifested. But a method of sensing which is in reality also the same as a method of creating, and the instrument, that organism or body through which it is manifested, cannot possibly sense or be identical with "what senses". "What senses" must be what experiences and manifests its own life through this method of sensing. Since everything which can be sensed or experienced directly cannot possibly exist without being organs or tools for experience and creation or methods of experiencing life, it follows that "the something which senses" or uses it or that means of sensing and the organism for this must exist beyond this organism and sense-perception. This "Something" thus uses the sensory method and the organism for this and can make itself free of this sensory method and organism in favour of a new sensory method and a new organism for this when the former sensory method and organism have become outlived and obsolete. The means of sensing and the organisms must therefore change, must be transitory, while what experiences the means of sensing and the organisms must be able to survive these. If what experiences or senses could not give up its organisms in favour of new methods of sensing and thus in this way survive the changing forms of sensing, the experience of life would be an impossibility. The experience of life is exclusively an experience of transformation. Without change - no experience of life whatsoever. So "what senses" cannot thus be sensed; neither does it need to be sensed. Its existence is confirmed through our own I as well as through the I in every living being. It thus constitutes "what senses". As it is the source of all sensory perception and creation through the being, these products cannot constitute any analysis whatsoever of its own nature. It existed both before ... and after the sensory perception and the creation and has thus an existence beyond this creation. In this, its existence is beyond time and space and has no analysis whatsoever apart from this: that it constitutes "Something which is". But "Something which is" cannot be created or come into existence. It exists. It cannot therefore be sensed . Only creation can be sensed, just as sensory perception in itself is creation. Creation can therefore release itself in the manifestation of that which does not exist. There was a time when our present organism did not exist; it had therefore to be created. Likewise there was a time when our present perception of life did not exist; it had therefore to be created. At one time the present Earth, the present solar system and galaxy did not exist either; these phenomena had therefore also to be created. But, since "something" cannot come from "nothing", just as "something" cannot become "nothing", creation could in no way whatsoever be a "production of nothing". It could be only a transformation of what already exists, which means physical or spiritual matter. But the collected material for sensory perception and creation in the form of this matter thus becomes neither greater nor less. It is also therefore, in its fundamental analysis, eternal in its nature and therefore beyond time and space. It is likewise "Something which is". To sense in this way the eternal realities behind the temporal is to sense outside time and space. The analysis of the world-picture or the solution of the mystery of life in such analyses is the same as the "Holy Spirit" or cosmic consciousness. Only in these non-temporal and non-spatial solutions exists the revelation of the eternal truth or reality.
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Question no. 28 First published in Danish in Kontaktbrev no. 24, 1951. Translated by Mary McGovern, 1988.
Article ID: M3028
Published in the English edition of Kosmos no. 4, 1988 and no. 7, 2004
© Martinus Institut 1981, www.martinus.dk
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