840. But the degeneration races ahead. Adam and Eve are getting further and further away from the "Garden of Eden". The eating of the "tree of knowledge of good and evil" is becoming greater and greater, in fact so great that it is beginning to outdo the eating of the fruits of the garden that were originally permitted, namely, "the normal marriage and everything that goes with it". This normally permitted eating of the fruits, which used to be the absolute condition for the being's normal happiness, now has absolutely no attraction whatsoever for many individuals; indeed it would be sheer misery for these beings if they committed themselves to marriage. These beings do not marry, except for a few who think that by doing so they will be "rescued" from their "strange" condition, which up to now has generally been branded as "abnormal" by the primitive or ignorant section of society. Indeed, there are even some who go so far as to try to hide or camouflage their condition in the form of a marriage. But such occurrences are, of course, completely at variance with the laws of life and bring unhappiness to the being concerned, quite apart from the deception or crime against the other party in the marriage. Of course, not included here are those beings whose unmarried state is due only to impotence or a purely outer organic defect that either wholly or partially renders normal marital sexual intercourse impossible, but whose mentality is otherwise normally based on the desire for the opposite sex.
      So, we can see that within the societies there exist many beings, both men and women, that do not marry. How then do such beings think and behave? What is it that stimulates and encourages these solitary individuals to live life? At best, we see such beings devoting themselves to some particular mission, sometimes showing themselves to be great geniuses or in some other outward way providing the driving force behind projects that are beneficial to society. Their everyday private conduct and dealings are as a rule exemplary, apart from the "peculiarity" of not being married. The purely sexual aspect of their lives and their sexual release is usually something that constitutes their most intimate secret and is a completely closed world to all whom it equally completely does not concern. They therefore never in any way bring shame onto their own particular kind. It is within this particular kind of being that are to be found the absolutely most refined, sublime and highly cultivated human beings on Earth. That these beings' deeply intimate sexuality also requires physical release, even though this process to a large extent takes place mentally, becomes clear through the fact that they still find themselves in either a "male" or a "female" organism, even though mentally they are neither male nor female beings, but are, on the contrary, almost equally day-conscious in both poles, the opposite pole as well as that represented by their own organism.
      Since such a male or female organism cannot normally exist without being equipped with sexual organs and the glands and secretions that go with them, which need to be released, this release has to take place. If it did not, there would arise an unnatural tension in the mental functioning, a sexual hunger, that before long would bring the individual totally out of mental balance. We cannot go into details here as this subject is merely a subsidiary analysis in the section dealing with "life substances", but we will just emphasise that these beings' immense genius, clear reasoning and logical way of thinking, their overwhelming energy and capacity for work, also their high intellectuality and completely balanced mental state, constitutes a radiant guarantee that they are in no way sexually overwrought individuals, whose thoughts are tied up with endless speculation about a sexual hunger that is burning inside them, which would certainly be the case if the hunger were not released. It is a matter of course that this hunger is not released through sexual intercourse with a being of the opposite sex. As they are double-poled beings, they have absolutely none of the hunger that is sensed as a desire for the opposite sex. And a hunger that they neither have nor feel will certainly not require release or satisfaction. These beings' high level of culture and sublime feelings can vouch absolutely for the fact that, despite this, their sexual release is in no way criminal or in any other way causes annoyance or unpleasantness to others. These beings' sexual release, both physical and mental, can thus take place only in one hundred per cent contact with the true laws of love, a condition of which is that this release may take place only whenever it, as a consequence, does not cause any other being any pain, tears or suffering. Such beings therefore hold their sexuality within limits in which its release in itself can only be a hundred per cent blessing. The term "a hundred per cent blessing" should be understood here as a phenomenon that gives its originator the sensation of extraordinary liberation and consequent mental equilibrium, an outstanding enjoyment of life and the urge to devote itself exclusively to the generation of energy that can be used to serve unselfish ideals and aims. A sexual release that to such a degree of perfection gives both partners the ability to live unhindered and happy in the principle "it is more blessed to give than to receive" can also be only a blessing for the partners' surroundings. And the sexual release thereby reveals itself as the actual "highest fire", which means the highest supporting source of warmth behind every mental, and subsequently every physical, manifestation. The term "mental warmth" should here be understood as "fellow feeling" or "sympathy". A sexual release is therefore the same as the very culmination of sympathy. And whenever such a release finds expression in the aforementioned perfect, unselfish effects for its partners, it transforms life itself, and thereby the universe, into "love". And it is in this scintillating radiance of love itself that the being "sees God" and becomes "one with the Father" and thereby discovers itself to be "the way, the truth, and the life". Religions define this state using terms such as "initiation", "being filled with the Holy Spirit" and such like, and here in "Livets Bog" it is expressed as the "great birth" with the release of "cosmic consciousness".