477. And at this point we have before us the "herd" formation in its very newest or most advanced manifestation. All societies – professional just as much as political, religious or commercial – individually represent a special "herd". Each of these herds, again, is held together by its individuals' common attraction for some particular fixed idea. As an idea is the same as thought, all "herd" formation thus expresses a manifestation of thought. This "thought" constitutes the collective and binding element within the "herd", which becomes completely permeated and characterized by it. This means that each of these "herds" acquires a particular and definite mode of operation in relation to its surroundings. It acquires its own special way of releasing energy. It represents a specific form of movement which again may be characterized as a quality. Such a "herd", society or union actually makes visible for us the very highest analysis of the concept "substance" or "matter". In fact, there is absolutely no principle difference between this "substance" and what we otherwise usually understand by the term. Nonetheless, if we do not understand societies and unions to be "substances", this is actually due to the condition of "cosmic perspective". If we do not regard these as constituting "substances" – the combined energies' manifestations or types of movements which, together with our like-minded fellow beings, we all represent – this is only because we have the "substance" at such close quarters to ourselves, that we see it in all its basic details, which is just the opposite of the case concerning what we usually express as "substance" or "matter". This "matter" is at such a colossal cosmic or mental distance from our sensory perception that it is impossible for us with our ordinary physical day-consciousness to grasp its absolute fundamental details. As a consequence of their immense "cosmic distance" from our physical sensory perception, the fundamental details become so microscopic that they are totally beyond the range of our senses. What we do see of this "matter" is merely its collective appearance, that is to say, its superficial totality. In other words we see the "herd" but not its single individuals and their particular private existence in the same way as with the "substance" of which we ourselves make up a whole.