The life-form or mental condition of the animal kingdom must thus be described as a constant struggle or interaction between two basic energies, of which one is characterised by a tendency to expand and the other by a tendency to contract. Where the latter energy suddenly becomes the lesser of the two an explosion must of course always follow. I cannot here go into detailed analyses, for they would take up far too much space; I can, however, mention that these explosions in the mental life, from being quite microscopic or absolutely beyond observation by physical sensory perception, spread through the conscious mental life and manifestations of the individual further and further until they finally assume such considerable dimensions that they manifest themselves on the physical plane as identical to, among other things, the most profound causes of war, terror and mutilation. All forms of suffering will thus, when analysed cosmically, be based on an excess of the energy of gravity and a deficiency of the energy of feeling in the conscious mental life. But, as the same principle that deposits hard skin on a hand doing rough work, in order to protect it, also endows the individual, through repeated explosions or sufferings, with a correspondingly increasing ability to use the energy of feeling, he becomes more and more master of the energy of gravity or the explosions (outbursts of rage or anger). They gradually become less violent, being more and more restrained, and an increasingly calm mental life begins to be manifested. But as individuals at this stage still primarily have only the remains of the first basic energy of the spiral zone, that is "the energy of instinct", with which to make themselves conscious in their emotional life, the realisation of this emotional life becomes realistic fact only in the form of "pleasantness" and "unpleasantness", not in the form of detailed analyses. By means of the ability to make use of "the energy of instinct", which means "instinct", the individual cannot define but only sense vaguely. This in turn means that his reasoning cannot become analyses suitable for the intelligence through instinct and is therefore not practical, absolute knowledge but only suppositions, which again are the same as vague notions. As the energy of instinct has, however, already culminated in the plant kingdom and is thus degenerating, or on the decline, in the animal kingdom, and especially so at its human stage, the vague notions of the individual will to a corresponding degree be untrustworthy or inaccurate. And the individual's realisation in the form of instinct or vague sensing will thus be correspondingly inaccurate.
      As knowledge that is based on vague notions is the same as belief, every kind of belief that is based on inaccurate notions will be the same as superstition. Superstition is thus the same as incorrect understanding of the experience of life or reality. But as superstition is thus a disharmony in existence, the individual's principle of creation (which, as previously mentioned, gave rise to the hard skin for the protection of his hand and in the same way expanded his faculty for feeling as a resistance against the explosions of the energy of gravity) will now also give rise to a "hard skin" in defence against superstition. This hard skin is the ability to make use of the fourth basic energy of the spiral zone, namely "the energy of intelligence". By means of this the individual gradually becomes able to confirm or disprove the vague notions and thereby comes into possession of the analyses of absolute facts, which is the same as absolute knowledge. Intelligence is thus the same as the ability of the individual to acquire certainty instead of vague notions.