281. As the terrestrial living being's bodies correspond to the basic energies and terrestrial mankind is living in the second basic zone of energy, then it is the body corresponding to that energy which has been developed the most. It will also be the only one of the bodies in which mankind is actually conscious. This body we already know as the "body of gravity" or "physical body". It is the only one in which terrestrial people are fundamentally conscious and therefore the so-called "physical world" is the only one of their six sense horizons which they fundamentally accept as the experience of life. They are conscious of that part of their life lying outside the physical world (that is, the five other sense horizons), just in a faint and instinctive way, because the latter can be experienced only with the help of the other bodies which to a certain extent are still appearing in an embryonic state or are latent. That part of life which has its fundamental manifestation in that period when the individual's physical body, on account of age, has been destroyed and has to be built up anew, will therefore be for him of such a primitive kind that he cannot be conscious of it here in his sentient physical life. That part of his experience of life, in other words his spiritual existence, he has therefore defined as "death". And as "death" is a term signifying the opposite of life we are here witnessing how the facts mentioned above have instilled in terrestrial man that superstition which at times allows him to accept death as a genuine reality and thereby shut out the recognition of his own true identity as an "immortal being".
      As "death" is thus the term for the opposite of life and the opposite of life is a reality which, seen cosmically, is not to be found anywhere whatsoever in the whole universe, then the term "death", whenever and wherever it occurs, will be without exception synonymous with an expression of ignorance and, for a cosmic being, will always show itself as identical with the primitive being's expression for that part of his own life which is unknown and lies outside his physical existence.