Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 3, sect. 811

811. If the all-dominating and will-directing sense of centre that we express as the I was an extremely detailed and highly coloured phenomenon, there would exist nothing at all in our consciousness that could experience anything at all. Everything would be movement or matter. The two contrasts that constitute the absolute requirement of all sensory perception, no matter how small, would be entirely lacking. Consciousness would be an ocean. But how would we find the individuality of the drops in this ocean? Indeed, how would there exist any individuality at all? The sense of centre or the sense of I is the only thing that can separate the drop from the ocean. But if this is entirely lacking, the drop could never in any situation whatsoever be isolated. Individuality would be an absolute impossibility. But it is the case that this sense wholly dominates every normal human being's consciousness; indeed, it dominates not only every being's "inner world"; it is also, albeit indirectly, the most visible reality in every being's "outer world". It is solely the presence of this divine "something", or I in the being, that forms the basis of our seeing the living beings as separate single beings or individuals. We see oceans of consciousness appearing in "single" drops. And finally, it becomes evident that this observation becomes clearer and clearer, the more highly evolved the living being becomes. With evolution, the sense of individuality becomes, in all areas, more and more unshakable. The opposite would be absolutely the case if it were not the sense of a real phenomenon, but thus merely an imaginary picture. This picture would, when it comes into contact with a growing intellectuality, completely fade or evaporate like dew in the sun. But no living being can cause this sense to evaporate. Even the most extreme materialist who one hundred per cent denies the existence of the divine "something" or the I, upon which the principle of individuality is exclusively based, confirms to the very highest degree, through this very denial, his own individuality, as the denial in itself can exist only as a revelation of his own I's separation from "it". This "it" is in this case the "denial". The denial is, in turn, "something" he is manifesting. This "he" is actually the expression of the individuality from which his denial is disassociating itself, thereby establishing its originator as an "individuality". One can therefore see that the highest characteristic of the living being cannot be dissolved through imagination, words or thoughts. It exists eternally, unshakably and independently of both denial and confirmation. It is constantly "something that is", whether we want it or not, and whether we understand it or do not understand it.