"Your feelings and your emotions -- your capacity to love, to hate: this is all you. And this personality that is you can never die. It is not dependent on atoms for its existence. It just borrows them to make a garment so that it can function in the physical world, and while in that garment it will interact with other personalities and have the opportunity to learn and to grow through mutual experiences. The degree to which it learns and grows will, of course, depend on the inner desire. That inner desire for advancement is very strong in some -- yet totally nonexistent in others. It is the responsibility of those more advanced to assist those that are lagging behind, for it is most important that each person's short excursion into the physical-mortal realm not be wasted, for these are precious opportunities indeed." "That is most interesting," replied Dorothy, "although I'm not sure that I have understood all that you have said." "You will in time," replied the Elf, kindly. "Now, regarding your goldfish: as I said before, he did not die. You only assumed that he did because his body was motionless. He is, in fact, quite alive." "If he is alive, then where is he?" inquired Dorothy, looking rather puzzled. "Ah, now, that is a good question," said the Elf. "But, before I can answer it, let me explain about the rock, and about the other living things. All of the atoms which make up the physical world have a counterpart which cannot be seen. This counterpart takes up the same position in space as the atom, but extends slightly beyond it. The name of this duplicate atom is 'ANIM.' I believe Princess Saari told you about this." Dorothy nodded. "Your scientists are as yet unable to observe the ANIM, for their instruments are not sensitive enough. However, they have observed the effects of the ANIM through their study of anti-matter. Anti-matter is exactly as the name implies -- the opposite of matter, and is the substance of which infinite worlds are made, worlds which are normally unseen by people because of the fineness of their vibratory rate. The ultra-high frequencies of the ANIM world are simply unobservable by your scientists, although some of your people who have very sensitive natures have caught glimpses of these hidden worlds from time to time. All people on earth are merely visiting the atom world. Their normal residence is the ANIM world, but they have to enter into the dense atom world for experiences that can only be obtained in such an environment.