172. To secure power and supremacy is still to a large extent the driving force in mankind's existence. That living beings in the animal kingdom have to be subject to such drastic, rigorous conditions and such a way of life is due to the fact that their sense perception is so primitive and underdeveloped that they can be influenced only through harsh and rough manifestations. However, through that influence the creature becomes more and more awakened to life. And in the same degree as this awakening gradually becomes fundamental, so does the influence become correspondingly of a more and more refined nature. And thus, little by little, a more refined form of experiencing life arises out of that cold, rigorous existence. This means an existence in which the individual's sense perception has become so susceptible and sensitive to finer shades of consciousness or spiritual powers that he can begin to have experiences of a less violent and aggressive kind than that representing the ordinary rough animal conditions of life. In the same way as a sleeping person cannot hear when one whispers or speaks softly, but on the other hand can be disturbed by noise or loud voices, so is a creature in the animal kingdom unable to be affected by finer shades of consciousness but is only susceptible to impacts more intense and more rousing. These influences, then, consist of all those factors which terrestrial mankind has gradually come to consider as "evil". So the animal is a sleeping creature which has to be awakened. When it is awake it hears both the whispers and the soft voices, which in this case means moderate, calm and refined manifestations. When this awakening has been effected, that creature is no longer an animal but a real human being. And it is in the last stage of this awakening process that terrestrial mankind finds itself already beginning to be able to hear or sense the finer shades of consciousness. And these belong to the concept of "religiousness". Terrestrial mankind is separated in this way from ordinary animals by entering a zone where a religious side of life commences to enter its consciousness. Naturally, this religiousness is of quite a primitive kind in terrestrial mankind's first stages of development, coloured by all the tendencies in the animal kingdom, although it still gives rise to a susceptibility for moral sense suitable to the level of consciousness. Concerning the first stages, this means a sense of morality which is stimulated or carried by the dark radiation from the Divine Creative Principle.
      That these religious powers have been able to gain a foothold in the consciousness of the animal and there begin to change it into a human being is actually due to the harsh, rigorous way of life in which it existed and in which to a certain degree terrestrial mankind still lives. Eventually, this way of existence was bound to develop a real terror and anxiety towards life within the individual. This fear is released through heart-rending cries when the creature concerned finds itself in real or supposed danger. We may sometimes hear this cry from a small defenceless animal when it falls to the gun of the hunter; we hear it inside the huge halls of the slaughterhouse and we hear it behind the thick walls of the vivisection laboratory; examples are endless. These cries are the first feeble, or latent, forms of a prayer to God; the first concentrated release of a shout for help, for protection, for compassion. In this way these cries are the creature's last despairing outlet when all its own strength is failing and just on this account it becomes an expression of appeal, although an unconscious one, to a higher authority for rescue and delivery.