Furthermore man sees in the world of dreams. He travels in the East, he
travels in the West, although his body is stationary, his body is here. It
is that reality in him which makes the journey while the body sleeps.
There is no doubt that a reality exists other than the outward, physical
reality. Again for instance a person is dead, is buried in the ground.
Afterward you see him in the world of dreams and speak with him although
his body is interred in the earth. Who is the person you see in your
dreams, talk to and who also speaks with you? This again proves that there
is another reality different from the physical one which dies and is
buried. Thus it is certain that in man there is a reality which is not the
physical body. Sometimes the body becomes weak but that other reality is
in its own normal state. The body goes to sleep, becomes as one dead but
that reality is moving about, comprehending things, expressing them and is
even conscious of itself.
This other and inner reality is called the heavenly body, the ethereal
form which corresponds to this body. This is the conscious reality which
discovers the inner meaning of things, for the outer body of man does not
discover anything. The inner ethereal reality grasps the mysteries of
existence, discovers scientific truths and indicates their technical
application. It discovers electricity, produces the telegraph, the
telephone and opens the door to the world of arts. If the outer material
body did this, the animal would likewise be able to make scientific and
wonderful discoveries, for the animal shares with man all physical powers
and limitations. What then is that power which penetrates the realities of
existence and which is not to be found in the animal? It is the inner
reality which comprehends things, throws light upon the mysteries of life
and being, discovers the heavenly Kingdom, unseals the mysteries of God
and differentiates man from the brute. Of this there can be no doubt.
As we have before indicated, this human reality stands between the higher
and the lower in man, between the world of the animal and the world of
divinity. When the animal proclivity in man becomes predominant, he sinks
even lower than the brute. When the heavenly powers are triumphant in his
nature, he becomes the noblest and most superior being in the world of
creation. All the imperfections found in the animal are found in man. In
him there is antagonism, hatred and selfish struggle for existence; in his
nature lurk jealousy, revenge, ferocity, cunning, hypocrisy, greed,
injustice and tyranny. So to speak, the reality of man is clad in the
outer garment of the animal, the habiliments of the world of nature, the
world of darkness, imperfections and unlimited baseness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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