225. The consciousness of the more advanced animal and the human being consists then of a nature, part physical and part mental. As we have pointed out, the plant constitutes the subconscious side of an instinct being and through it subconscious abilities are developed which should bring about day-consciousness and thereby cause that being's entry into the animal kingdom. Likewise, we have now pointed out that terrestrial mankind's thought process and spiritual bodies constitute his subconscious and through the transformation of this into day-consciousness he will enter the real human kingdom.
      If we have mentioned so many factors in the Introduction it is only to provide the reader or the seeker of Truth with a yardstick with which to measure the scope or capacity of physical knowledge here on Earth. For if he has no yardstick and does not realize when that knowledge constitutes genuine authority and when it does not, and does not know what capabilities the originators of that knowledge lack in grasping eternal realities or the Eternal Truth, then the seeker of Truth easily becomes the victim of an irrational belief that realities lying outside the present-day scope of science or recognized knowledge are fantasy or illusion. And because of this belief the individual is quite without spiritual standing and is unable to direct his course upwards towards life beyond the physical world. In order to make this important truth still more clear and before we pass over to the text of the symbol in order to present a concentrated survey of the present chapter, we will give a brief insight into the basis of the experience on which human science and knowledge rests.