449. Ordinary animals, then, have no knowledge of their own being. They experience only the outside world. They see only that which concerns the instinct of self-preservation. They concentrate solely on food, mating and their offspring. But these are all occurrences which happen outside of the being itself. Thus the animal only has the ability to detect or realize as existence things that happen outside itself.
      Naturally it can feel pain, hunger and thirst, but these factors cannot ever lead it to think about its own identity as respectively constituting "I" and "it". Such reflections could never be experienced by a pure animal. Only when, after a lengthy period of development, it begins to acquire human tendencies, will the faculty of reflection which is necessary at this point, slowly gain access to its consciousness. But by then it is no longer an "animal" as such; it is a rudimentary "terrestrial human being".
      Here on Earth these kinds of rudimentary "terrestrial human beings" have become extinct long ago. Quite a number of links are missing between the most primitive of human species now alive and the most advanced kinds of animals. Later on in "Livets Bog" we shall return to the question of why these links are missing here on Earth.
      The fact that an "animal" does not recognize itself and therefore only senses the existence of things other than itself, is entirely due to the fact that, generally speaking, it only meets dangers and disadvantages from these other things. Consequently the "animal" at all times has had to concentrate the whole of its incipient capability and faculty of reflection onto the outer world. There were always dangers which had to be assessed. But from itself, its own identity, or inner "self", there came no danger at all. All its consciousness and creation of its organisms has been an automatic function, "C knowledge" from an earlier spiral's intellectual sphere. All its individual needs, such as food and drink, reproduction and the creation of factors which would promote the conservation of the species, the particular functions of its organism, its own equipment and adaption to climates and life-conditions and so forth, have all been phenomena which grew automatically as the result of a long vanished day-conscious function of the brain, a "C knowledge", which wholly and completely guaranteed and made possible the manifestation of these realities without any present intellectual speculation or reasoning. All these phenomena at this stage have been manifested quite outside the being's day-consciousness. All its desires and longings had, in fact, been incarnated as independent organs long ago, therefore they no longer needed to be supported or maintained by conscious thought. They existed in the animal's organism as conditions of life which had to be fulfilled. Consequently the animal had no cause for reflection about anything whatsoever concerning the nature, inclinations or longings of its own being. All these have become automatic functions, that is to say – "C knowledge". However, as the being's unconscious, inborn nature came into collision with the outside world it gradually became more and more a cause for consideration. At this point there was continuously resistance to be overcome. And so this resistance became the releasing agent for the creation of intelligence, and later on of intellectuality within the being in its new spiral. And so it was the outside world which became the living being's first discovery in that spiral. The discovery of itself, its own identity and being were mental phenomena which did not come into its consciousness until much later. A tiger out hunting its prey as well as the prey which is being hunted by the tiger are absolutely unaware of their own selves. The whole of their consciousness is taken up by outside events. The tiger is an outside phenomenon for the prey and the prey is an outside phenomenon for the tiger. The basis for the meeting or the connection between these beings is thus due to causes which have their origin in inborn automatic functions and lie outside their present day-consciousness. On the other hand, it does, in the highest degree, lie within the day-consciousness of those beings, that is, within their will-promoting sphere of thought – how that meeting will develop. To some degree here, consideration is necessary on both sides. The prey must develop its thoughts and abilities in the direction of making good its escape or getting the better of its pursuer, and the tiger develops its conscious manifestation of thought for the advancement of the strongest possible attack and superiority in pursuit. But none of these actions prompts or necessitates any form of speculation or consideration on the part of either creature as to itself or its "I". There is as yet no danger incurred by not knowing oneself, while it is extremely dangerous for beings at this particular stage not to be aware of other beings and outward phenomena. This is the reason why beings at a certain stage of development in the spiral appear as creatures who have senses or consciousness directed only outward towards the outside world, while they are still quite unable to direct their attention inward towards their own inner world. It is this stage, or section of the spiral which constitutes the "animal kingdom" and to which terrestrial man still belongs.