176. That zone of development where terrestrial people are found represents a whole scale of different stages in the awakening process. Those nearest to the beings we call animals are hardy and their development mainly takes place through brutality, harshness and suffering. But as we approach nearer to the real human kingdom we find living beings of a more and more refined nature, more and more receptive and sensitive to the high energies such as feeling, intelligence and intuition. And we say about these people that they are "enlightened", "cultured", "intellectual", just as we also begin to meet at this point those we know under such definitions as artists, authors, scientists, geniuses and the like. In other words, these people have to a certain extent begun to make use of spiritual energies, to develop spiritual organs, to create spiritual manifestations and thus to turn into spiritual beings. And the nearer we approach the real human kingdom the more we find people devoid of crude materialistic desires such as feelings for revenge, for gross physical pleasures or for the appropriation of wealth and valuables. Their interest in material things is thus strongly reduced, to the benefit of spiritual interests, true knowledge, real creativity and genuine love. And so in these people there is beginning to dawn a transfigured existence.
      Every single person on Earth then, is on the way to this transfigured existence. Whether he is near it or still finds himself in a strongly animal form of existence will be shown by whichever forms of energy his development is able to sense; in other words, how coarse are the powers still influencing him or whether fine and noble impulses, thoughts, nuances of feeling and intuition can pass through his consciousness and be used in his manifestations. If he is receptive to the refined current of spiritual energy which in the form of an inner voice neutralizes every kind of wish for self-advancement, for lying, deceiving and killing; for hunting, fishing and enjoyment in eating flesh and blood; for not turning the right cheek when struck on the left, for not bearing insults; for not responding to higher teaching and instruction; for not feeling tolerance and so forth, then all this shows that the "Kingdom of Heaven" or the "Great Birth" is at hand. It shows that the spiritual organs are already progressing in development and that the individual has begun to use them. In the opposite case, if the individual is still not aware of such an inner "voice" it shows that in those areas mentioned above he is still asleep and can only be awakened by a stronger "voice", which means pain and suffering. In all those areas where the individual is incapable of using spiritual energies - that is, wisdom, intuition and love - he can be susceptible only to materialism and gravity energy, which undoubtedly promotes the principle of suffering, that rough awakening process which the one who is cosmically asleep has to undergo before he can develop from animal to human being. In this awakening process terrestrial mankind finds itself at different stages. At some stages human beings are sensitive or receptive to the finer energies or impulses, they are highly developed in feeling and intelligence, their thoughts and actions being for the benefit of their fellow men. At other stages, on the other hand, there are those who are only receptive to physical energies and thus have no particular feeling for any higher world but live chiefly just for their own interests. And so people on the Globe are to be found at many different levels of character and therefore not equally receptive to spiritual energies. It is necessary here to refer to this point before we pass on in the following chapters to show the great analyses of life which have come into being solely on the basis of organs developed for cosmic energy. One has to understand that in the same measure as one can grasp and accept the ensuing cosmic analyses and descriptions in Livets Bog one is oneself receptive to spiritual energy, while the opposite is the case to the same degree as one is lacking interest in, and ability to understand, these realities. If the latter appears to anyone as a flight of fancy or as something arousing antipathy and intolerance, this shows unmistakably how that person's organs of cosmic energy are still latent or unfit for use, and that the senses are still governed by gravity energy, which means physical energy. We see here once again that there is no reason whatsoever to feel indignation towards those people who may be antagonistic to spiritual or cosmic analyses, because for them these realities are actually still a closed book, and their opposition can only be supported by the same circumstances as brought Jesus to the Cross, namely that: "They know not what they do". But what one does not know or cannot be brought to understand through the instruction and behaviour of others, one will come to learn through life's own direct speech, which means by personal events and experience. And what one is incapable of understanding in the present life one will be able to understand in coming lives.