“But the whole thing is: how?” he said. “It is necessary to know a great deal in order to understand that. What is war? It is the result of planetary influences. Somewhere up there two or three planets have approached too near to each other; tension results. Have you noticed how, if a man passes quite close to you on a narrow pavement, you become all tense? The same tension takes place between planets. For them it lasts, perhaps, a second or two. But here, on the earth, people begin to slaughter one another, and they go on slaughtering maybe for several years. It seems to them at the time that they hate one another; or perhaps that they have to slaughter each other for some exalted purpose; or that they must defend somebody or something and that it is a very noble thing to do; or something else of the same kind. They fail to realize to what an extent they are mere pawns in the game. They think they signify something; they think they can move about as they like; they think they can decide to do this or that. But in reality all their movements, all their actions, are the result of planetary influences. And they themselves signify literally nothing. Then the moon plays a big part in this. But we will speak about the moon separately. Only it must be understood that neither Emperor Wilhelm, nor generals, nor ministers, nor parliaments, signify anything or can do anything. Everything that happens on a big scale is governed from outside, and governed either by accidental combinations of influences or by general COSMIC laws.” Fragments: One

“The advantage of the separate individual is that he is very small and that, in the economy of nature, it makes no difference whether there is one mechanical man more or less. We can easily understand this correlation of magnitudes if we imagine the correlation between a microscopic cell and our own body. The presence or absence of one cell will change nothing in the life of the body. We cannot be conscious of it, and it can have no influence on the life and functions of the organism. In exactly the same way a separate individual is too small to influence the life of the COSMIC organism to which he stands in the same relation (with regard to size) as a cell stands to our own organism. And this is precisely what makes his ‘evolution’ possible; on this are based his ‘possibilities.’ Fragments: Three

“This is the ‘Law of Three’ or the law of the three principles or the three forces. It consists of the fact that every phenomenon, on whatever scale and in whatever world it may take place, from molecular to COSMIC phenomena, is the result of the combination or the meeting of three different and opposing forces. Contemporary thought realizes the existence of two forces and the necessity of these two forces for the production of a phenomenon: force and resistance, positive and negative magnetism, positive and negative electricity, male and female cells, and so on. But it does not observe even these two forces always and everywhere. No question has ever been raised as to the third, or if it has been raised it has scarcely been heard. Fragments: Four

“The idea of relativity occupies a very important place in this teaching, and, later on, we shall return to it. But before anything else it is necessary to understand the relativity of each thing and of each manifestation according to the place it occupies in the COSMIC order. Fragments: Five

“We are on the earth and we depend entirely upon the laws that are operating on the earth. The earth is a very bad place from the COSMIC point of view — it is like the most remote part of northern Siberia, very far from everywhere, it is cold, life is very hard. Everything that in another place either comes by itself or is easily obtained, is here acquired only by hard labor; everything must be fought for both in life and in the work. In life it still happens sometimes that a man gets a legacy and afterwards lives without doing anything. But such a thing does not happen in the work. All are equal and all are equally beggars. Fragments: Five

“Returning to the law of three, one must learn to find the manifestations of this law in everything we do and in everything we study. The application of this law in any sphere at once reveals much that is new, much that we did not see before. Take chemistry, for instance. Ordinary science does not know of the law of three and it studies matter without taking into consideration its COSMIC properties. But besides ordinary chemistry there exists another, a special chemistry, or alchemy if you like, which studies matter taking into consideration its COSMIC properties. As has been said before, the COSMIC properties of each substance are determined first by its place, and secondly by the force which is acting through it at the given moment. Even in the same place the nature of a given substance undergoes a great change dependent upon the force which is being manifested through it. Each substance can be the conductor of any one of the three forces and, in accordance with this, it can be active, passive, or neutralizing. And it can be neither the first, nor the second, nor the third, if no force is manifesting through it at the given moment or if it is taken without relation to the manifestation of forces. In this way every substance appears, as it were, in four different aspects or states. In this connection it must be noted that when we speak of matter we do not speak of chemical elements. The special chemistry of which I speak looks upon every substance having a separate function, even the most complex, as an element. In this way only is it possible to study the COSMIC properties of matter, because all complex compounds have their own COSMIC purpose and significance. From this point of view an atom of a given substance is the smallest amount of the given substance which retains all its chemical, physical, and COSMIC properties. Consequently the size of the ‘atom’ of different substances is not the same. And in some cases an ‘atom’ may be a particle even visible to the naked eye. Fragments: Five

Personally I was very interested in the question of relativity in connection with place, that is, with place in the world. I had long since come to the idea of a relativity dependent upon the interrelation of sizes and velocities. But the idea of place, in the COSMIC order, was entirely new both to me and to all the others. How strange it was for me when, some time later, I became convinced that it was the same thing, in other words, that size and velocity determined the place and the place determined size and velocity. Fragments: Five

“There was a question about war. How to stop wars? Wars cannot be stopped. War is the result of the slavery in which men live. Strictly speaking men are not to blame for war. War is due to COSMIC forces, to planetary influences. But in men there is no resistance whatever against these influences, and there cannot be any, because men are slaves. If they were men and were capable of ‘doing,’ they would be able to resist these influences and refrain from killing one another.” Fragments: Six

“Those who dislike war have been trying to do so almost since the creation of the world,” said G. “And yet there has never been such a war as the present. Wars are not decreasing, they are increasing and war cannot be stopped by ordinary means. All these theories about universal peace, about peace conferences, and so on, are again simply laziness and hypocrisy. Men do not want to think about themselves, do not want to work on themselves, but think of how to make other people do what they want. If a sufficient number of people who wanted to stop war really did gather together they would first of all begin by making war upon those who disagreed with them. And it is still more certain that they would make war on people who also want to stop wars but in another way. And so they would fight. Men are what they are and they cannot be different. War has many causes that are unknown to us. Some causes are in men themselves, others are outside them. One must begin with the causes that are in man himself. How can he be independent of the external influences of great COSMIC forces when he is the slave of everything that surrounds him? He is controlled by everything around him. If he becomes free from things, he may then become free from planetary influences. Fragments: Six

ON ONE occasion while talking with G. I asked him whether he considered it possible to attain “COSMIC consciousness,” not for a brief moment only but for a longer period. I understood the expression “COSMIC consciousness” in the sense of a higher consciousness possible for man in the sense in which I had previously written about it in my book Tertium Organum. Fragments: Seven

“I do not know what you call ‘COSMIC consciousness,’ ” said G., “it is a vague and indefinite term; anyone can call anything he likes by it. In most cases what is called ‘COSMIC consciousness’ is simply fantasy, associative daydreaming connected with intensified work of the emotional center. Sometimes it comes near to ecstasy but most often it is merely a subjective emotional experience on the level of dreams. But even apart from all this before we can speak of ‘COSMIC consciousness’ we must define in general what consciousness is. Fragments: Seven

“The seven-tone scale is the formula of a COSMIC law which was worked out by ancient schools and applied to music. At the same time, however, if we study the manifestations of the law of octaves in vibrations of other kinds we shall see that the laws are everywhere the same, and that light, heat, chemical, magnetic, and other vibrations are subject to the same laws as sound vibrations. For instance, the light scale is known to physics; in chemistry the periodic system of the elements is without doubt closely connected with the principle of octaves although this connection is still not fully clear to science. Fragments: Seven

“A study of the structure of the seven-tone musical scale gives a very good foundation for understanding the COSMIC law<law of octaves. Fragments: Seven

“In this way the structure of the musical seven-tone scale gives a scheme of the COSMIC law of ‘intervals,’ or absent semitones. In this respect when octaves are spoken of in a ‘COSMIC’ or a ‘mechanical’ sense, only those intervals between mi-fa and si-do are called ‘intervals’ Fragments: Seven

“Nothing can develop by staying on one level. Ascent or descent is the inevitable COSMIC condition of any action. We neither understand nor see what is going on around and within us, either because we do not allow for the inevitability of descent when there is no ascent, or because we take descent to be ascent. These are two of the fundamental causes of our self-deception. We do not see the first one because we continually think that things can remain for a long time at the same level; and we do not see the second because ascents where we see them are in fact impossible, as impossible as it is to increase consciousness by mechanical means. Fragments: Seven

“And it is only in octaves of a COSMIC order, both descending and ascending, that vibrations develop in a consecutive and orderly way, following the same direction in which they started. Fragments: Seven

“In the big COSMIC octave, which reaches us in the form of the ray of creation, we can see the first complete example of the law of octaves. The ray of creation begins with the Absolute. The Absolute is the All. The All, possessing full unity, full will, and full consciousness, creates worlds within itself, in this way beginning the descending world octave. The Absolute is the do of this octave. The worlds which the Absolute creates in itself are si. The ‘interval’ between do and si in this case is filled by the will of the Absolute. The process of creation is developed further by the force of the original impulse and an ‘additional shock.’ Si passes into la which for us is our star world, the Milky Way. La passes into sol — our sun, the solar system. Sol passes into fa — the planetary world. And here between the planetary world as a whole and our earth occurs an ‘interval.’ This means that the planetary radiations carrying various influences to the earth are not able to reach it, or, to speak more correctly, they are not received, the earth reflects them. In order to fill the ‘interval’ at this point of the ray of creation a special apparatus is created for receiving and transmitting the influences coming from the planets. This apparatus is organic life on earth. Organic life transmits to the earth all the influences intended for it and makes possible the further development and growth of the earth, mi of the COSMIC octave, and then of the moon or re, after which follows another do — Nothing. Between All and Nothing passes the ray of creation. Fragments: Seven

“The greatest insult for a ‘man-machine’ is to tell him that he can do nothing, can attain nothing, that he can never move towards any aim whatever and that in striving towards one he will inevitably create another. Actually of course it cannot be otherwise. The ‘man-machine’ is in the power of accident. His activities may fall by accident into some sort of channel which has been created by COSMIC or mechanical forces and they may by accident move along this channel for a certain time, giving the illusion that aims of some kind are being attained. Such accidental correspondence of results with the aims we have set before us or the attainment of aims in small things which can have no consequences creates in mechanical man the conviction that he is able to attain any aim, ‘is able to conquer nature’ as it is called, is able to ‘arrange the whole of his life,’ and so on. Fragments: Seven

“In what way can control be attained? “The technical part of this is explained by the law of octaves. Octaves can develop consecutively and continuously in the desired direction if ‘additional shocks’ enter them at the moments necessary, that is, at the moments when vibrations slow down. If ‘additional shocks’ do not enter at the necessary moments octaves change their direction. To entertain hopes of accidental ‘shocks’ coming from somewhere by themselves at the moments necessary is of course out of the question. There remains for a man the choice either of finding a direction for his activities which corresponds to the mechanical line of events of a given moment, in other words of ‘going where the wind blows’ or ‘swimming with the stream,’ even if this contradicts his inner inclinations, convictions, and sympathies, or of reconciling himself to the failure of everything he starts out to do; or he can learn to recognize the moments of the ‘intervals’ in all lines of his activity and learn to create the ‘additional shocks,’ in other words, learn to apply to his own activities the method which COSMIC forces make use of in creating ‘additional shocks’ at the moments necessary. Fragments: Seven

“How a school is created on the principles of the law of octaves will be explained in due course. And this in its turn will explain to you one aspect of the union of the law of seven with the law of three. In the meantime it can be said only that in school teaching, a man is given examples of both descending (creative) and ascending (or evolutionary) COSMIC octaves. Western thought, knowing neither about octaves nor about the law of three, confuses the ascending and the descending lines and does not understand that the line of evolution is opposed to the line’ of creation, that is to say, it goes against it as though against the stream. Fragments: Seven

“In examining the ray of creation or COSMIC octave we see that ‘intervals’ should come in the development of this octave: the first between do and si, that is between world 1 and world 3, between the Absolute and ‘all worlds,’ and the second between fa and mi, that is, between world 24 and world 48, between ‘all planets’ and the earth. But the first ‘interval’ is filled by the will of the Absolute. One of the manifestations of the will of the Absolute consists precisely in the filling of this ‘interval’ by means of a conscious manifestation of neu­tralizing force which fills up the ‘interval’ between the active and the passive forces. With the second ‘interval’ the situation is more complicated. Something is missing between the planets and the earth. Planetary influences cannot pass to the earth consecutively and fully. An ‘additional shock’ is indispensable; the creation of some new conditions to insure a proper passage of forces is indispensable. Fragments: Seven

And once dwelling on this theme he gave us a diagram of the structure of the octave in which one of the links was “organic life on earth.” “This additional or lateral octave in the ray of creation begins in the sun,” he said. “The sun, sol of the COSMIC octave, begins at a certain moment to sound as do, sol do. Fragments: Seven

“It is necessary to realize that every note of any octave, in the present instance every note of the COSMIC octave, may represent do of some other lateral octave issuing from it. Or it would be still more exact to say that any note of any octave may at the same time be any note of any other octave passing through it. Fragments: Seven

“In the present instance sol begins to sound as do. Descending to the level of the planets this new octave passes into si; descending still lower it produces three notes, la, sol, fa, which create and constitute organic life on earth in the form that we know it; mi of this octave blends with mi of the COSMIC octave, that is, with the earth, and re with the re of the COSMIC octave, that is, with the moon.” Fragments: Seven

“Altogether in examining the ‘table of hydrogens,’ it must always be remembered that each ‘hydrogen’ of this table includes an enormous number of different substances connected together by one and the same function in our organism and representing a definite ‘COSMIC group.’ Fragments: Nine

“In addition it is possible to point out in the table of atomic weights elements which correspond to certain hydrogens, that is, elements whose atomic weights stand almost in the correct octave ratio to one another. Thus ‘hydrogen’ 24 corresponds to fluorine, Fl., atomic weight 19; ‘hydrogen’ 48 corresponds to Chlorine, CL., atomic weight 35.5; ‘hydrogen’ 96 corresponds to Bromine, Br., atomic weight 80; and ‘hydrogen’ 192 corresponds to Iodine, I., atomic weight 127. The atomic weights of these elements stand almost in the ratio of an octave to one another, in other words, the atomic weight of one of them is almost twice as much as the atomic weight of another. The slight inexactitude, that is, the incomplete octave relationship, is brought about by the fact that ordinary chemistry does not take into consideration all the properties of a substance, namely, it does not take into consideration ‘COSMIC properties.’ The chemistry of which we speak here studies matter on a different basis from ordinary chemistry and takes into consideration not only the chemical and physical, but also the psychic and COSMIC properties of matter. Fragments: Nine

“This chemistry or alchemy regards matter first of all from the point of view of its functions which determine its place in the universe and its relations to other matters and then from the point of view of its relation to man and to man’s functions. By an atom of a substance is meant a certain small quantity of the given substance that retains all its chemical, COSMIC, and psychic properties, because, in addition to its COSMIC properties, every substance also possesses psychic properties, that is, a certain degree of intelligence. The concept ‘atom’ may therefore refer not only to elements, but also to all compound matters possessing definite functions in the universe or in the life of man. There can be an atom of water, an atom of air (that is, atmospheric air suitable for man’s breathing), an atom of bread, an atom of meat, and so on. An atom of water will in this case be one-tenth of one-tenth of a cubic millimeter of water taken at a certain temperature by a special thermometer. This will be a tiny drop of water which under certain conditions can be seen with the naked eye. Fragments: Nine

“This atom is the smallest quantity of water that retains all the properties of water. On further division some of these properties disappear, that is to say, it will not be water but something approaching the gaseous state of water, steam, which does not differ chemically in any way from water in a liquid state but possesses different functions and therefore different COSMIC and psychic properties. Fragments: Nine

“The work of the factory consists in transforming one kind of matter into another, namely, the coarser matters, in the COSMIC sense, into finer ones. The factory receives, as raw material from the outer world, a number of coarse ‘hydrogens’ and transforms them into finer hydrogens by means of a whole series of complicated alchemical processes. But in the ordinary conditions of life the production by the human factory of the finer ‘hydrogens,’ in which, from the point of view of the possibility of higher states of consciousness and the work of higher centers, we are particularly interested, is insufficient and they are all wasted on the existence of the factory itself. If we could succeed in bringing the production up to its possible maximum we should then begin to save the fine ‘hydrogens.’ Then the whole of the body, all the tissues, all the cells, would become saturated with these fine ‘hydrogens’ which would gradually settle in them, crystallizing in a special way. This crystallization of the fine ‘hydrogens’ would gradually bring the whole organism onto a higher level, onto a higher plane of being. Fragments: Nine

“Physical food is H768, or la, sol, fa of the third COSMIC octave of radiations. This ‘hydrogen’ enters the lower story of the organism as ‘oxygen’ do 768. Fragments: Nine

“At the given place in the organism “where mi 192 ought, apparently, to come to a stop there enters the ‘second food’ — air, in the form of do 192, that is, mi, re, do of the second COSMIC octave of radiations. The note do possesses all the necessary semitones, that is, all the energy necessary for the transition to the next note, and it gives as it were a part of its energy to the note mi which has the same density as itself. The energy of do gives mi 192 force enough, while uniting with ‘carbon’ 48 already in the organism, to pass into ‘nitrogen’ 96. ‘Nitrogen’ 96 will be the note fa. Fragments: Nine

“The third octave begins with do 48. “Impressions enter the organism in the form of ‘oxygen’ 48, that is, la, sol, fa of the second COSMIC octaoctave Sun-Earth. Fragments: Nine

“In order to understand the analogy between man, the human organism, and the universe, let us take the world as we did before in the form of three octaves from the Absolute to the sun, from the sun to the earth, and from the earth to the moon. Each of these three octaves lacks a semitone between fa and mi and in each octave the place of this missing semitone is taken by a certain kind of ‘shock’ which is created artificially at the given point. If we now begin to look for an analogy between the three-story factory and the three octaves of the universe, we ought to realize that the three ‘additional shocks’ in the three octaves of the universe correspond to the three kinds of food entering the human organism. The ‘shock’ in the lower octave corresponds to physical food; this ‘shock’ is do 768 of the COSMIC three-story factory. The ‘shock’ in the middle octave corresponds to air. It is do 192 of the COSMIC factory. The ‘shock’ in the upper octave corresponds to impressions; it is do 48 of the COSMIC factory. In the inner work of this COSMIC three-story factory all three kinds of food undergo the same transformation as in the human factory, on the same plan and in accordance with the same laws. A further study of the analogy between man and the universe is possible only after an exact study of the human machine and after the respective ‘places’ of each of the ‘hydrogens’ in our organism has been established exactly. This means that to proceed with any further study we must find the exact purpose of each ‘hydrogen,’ that is to say, each ‘hydrogen’ must be defined chemically, psychologically, physiologically, and anatomically, in other words, its functions, its place in the human organism, and, if possible, the peculiar sensations connected with it must be defined. Fragments: Nine

“As I have already explained before,” said G., “what is called ‘atom’ is the smallest amount of any substance in which the substance retains all its properties, physical, chemical, psychical, and COSMIC. From this point of view there can, for instance, be an ‘atom of water.’ Fragments: Ten

“That is something people always ask,” he said. “Whatever they may be speaking about, they ask: Ought it to be like that and how can it be changed, that is, what ought to be done in such a case? As though it were possible to change anything, as though it were possible to do anything. You at least ought to have realized by now how naive such questions are. Cosmic forces have created this state of affairs and COSMIC forces control this state of affairs. And you ask: Can it be left like that or should it be changed! God himself could change nothing. Do you remember what was said about the forty-eight laws? They cannot be changed, but liberation from a considerable portion of them is possible, that is to say, there is a possibility of changing the state of affairs for oneself, it is possible to escape from the general law. You should understand that in this case as well as in all others the general law cannot be changed. But one can change one’s own position in relation to this law; one can escape from the general law. The more so since in this law about which I speak, that is, in the power of sex over people, are included many different possibilities. It includes the chief form of slavery and it is also the chief possibility of liberation. This is what you must understand. Fragments: Twelve

that is, in one case x between mi and fa, and in the other between sol and la, where it is not necessary. “The apparent placing of the interval in its wrong place itself shows to those who are able to read the symbol what kind of ‘shock’ is required for the passage of si to do. “In order to understand this, it is essential to recollect what was said about the role of ‘shocks’ in the processes proceeding in man and in the universe. “When we examined the application of the law of octaves to the cosmos then the step ‘sun-earth’ was represented in this way: “In relation to the three octaves of radiation it was pointed out that the passage of do to si, the filling of the interval, takes place within the organism of the sun. It was pointed out in the COSMIC octave in relation to the ‘interval’ do-si that this passage is accomplished by the will of the Absolute. The passage fa-mi in the COSMIC octave is accomplished mechanically with the help of a special machine which makes it possible for fa, which enters it, to acquire by a series of inner processes the characteristics of sol standing above it, without changing its note, that is, to accumulate, as it were, the inner energy for passing independently into the next note, into mi. Fragments: Fourteen

“The COSMIC octave ‘Absolute-moon’ has, according to the law of three, been broken into three subordinate octaves. In these three octaves the cosmos is like man; the same ‘three stories,’ the same three shocks. Fragments: Fourteen

“Where, in the COSMIC octaves of radiation, the place of the interval fa-mi appears, in the diagram are marked the ‘machines’ which are found there in the same way as in the human body. Fragments: Fourteen

“The process of the transition fa-mi can be represented in the most schematic way thus: the COSMIC fa enters this machine like the food of the lower story and begins its cycle of changes. Therefore in the beginning it sounds in the machine as do. The substance sol of the COSMIC octave serves as the substance which enters the middle story like the air in breathing, which helps the note fa inside the machine to pass into the note mi. This sol on entering the machine also sounds as do. The matter which has now been obtained is joined in the upper story by the substance of the COSMIC la, which enters the upper story of the machine, also as do. Fragments: Fourteen

“The next circle is called the ‘mesoteric,’ that is to say, the middle. People who belong to this circle possess all the qualities possessed by the members of the esoteric circle with the sole difference that their knowledge is of a more theoretical character.’ This refers, of course, to knowledge of a COSMIC character. They know and understand many things which have not yet found expression in their actions. They know more than they do. But their understanding is precisely as exact as, and therefore precisely identical with, the understanding of the people of the esoteric circle. Between them there can be, no discord, there can be no misunderstanding. One understands in the way they all understand, and all understand in the way one understands. But as was said before, this understanding compared with the understanding of the esoteric circle is somewhat more theoretical. Fragments: Fifteen

“The third circle is called the ‘exoteric,’ that is, the outer, because it is the outer circle of the inner part of humanity. The people who belong to this circle possess much of that which belongs to people of the esoteric and mesoteric circles but their COSMIC knowledge is of a more philosophical character, that is to say, it is more abstract than the knowledge of the mesoteric circle. A member of the mesoteric circle calculates, a member of the exoteric circle contemplates. Their understanding may not be expressed in actions. But there cannot be differences in understanding between them. What one understands all the others understand. Fragments: Fifteen

“But such pseudo-esoteric systems also play their part in the work and activities of esoteric circles. Namely, they are the intermediaries between humanity which is entirely immersed in the materialistic life and schools which are interested in the education of a certain number of people, as much for the purposes of their own existences as for the purposes of the work of a COSMIC character which they may be carrying out. The very idea of esotericism, the idea of initiation, reaches people in most cases through pseudo-esoteric systems and schools; and if there were not these pseudo-esoteric schools the vast majority of humanity would have no possibility whatever of hearing and learning of the existence of anything greater than life because the truth in its pure form would be inaccessible for them. By reason of the many characteristics of man’s being, particularly of the contemporary being, truth can only come to people in the form of a lie — only in this form are they able to accept it; only in this form are they able to digest and assimilate it. Truth undefiled would be, for them, indigestible food. Fragments: Fifteen

“Partly in connection with what I have just said it is imperative that you should understand the principles of the classification and the definition of living beings from the COSMIC point of view, from the point of view of their COSMIC existence. In ordinary science classification is made according to external traits — bones, teeth, functions; mammals, vertebrates, rodents, and so on; in exact knowledge classification is made according to COSMIC traits. As a matter of fact there are exact traits, identical for every­thing living, which allows us to establish the class and the species of a given creature with the utmost exactitude, both in relation to other creatures as well as to its own place in the universe. Fragments: Sixteen

“These traits are the traits of being. The COSMIC level of being of every living creature is determined: “First of all by what this creature eats, “Secondly by what he breathes, and “Thirdly by the medium in which it lives. “These are the three COSMIC traits of being. Fragments: Sixteen

“These COSMIC traits of being are immediately connected with the definition of intelligence according to the ‘table of hydrogens.’ Fragments: Sixteen

“If these principles of classification and definition are understood in the right way, many things become clear and comprehensible. No living being can change its food at will, or the air it breathes, or the medium in which it lives. The COSMIC order of each being determines its food as well as the air it breathes and the medium in which it lives. Fragments: Sixteen

“When we talked before about the octaves of food in the three-story factory we saw that ‘all the finer ‘hydrogens’ needed for the working, the growth, and the evolution of the organism were prepared from three kinds of food, that is, from food in the strict meaning of the word — eatables and drink, from air which we breathe, and from impressions. Now let us suppose that we could improve the quality of food and air, feed, let us say, on ‘hydrogen’ 384 instead of 768 and breathe ‘hydrogen’ 96 instead of 192. How much simpler and easier the preparation of fine matters in the organism would be then. But the whole point is that this is impossible. The organism is adapted to transform precisely these coarse matters into fine matters, and if you give it fine matters instead of coarse matters it will not be in a position to transform them and it will very soon die. Neither air nor food can be changed. But impressions, that is, the quality of the impressions possible to man, are not subject to any COSMIC law. Man cannot improve his food, he cannot improve the air. Improvement in this case would be actually making things worse. For instance ‘hydrogen* 96 instead of 192 would be either very rarefied air or very hot incandescent gases which man cannot possibly breathe; fire is ‘hydrogen’ 96. It is exactly the same with food. ‘Hydrogen’ 384 is water. If man could improve his food, that is, make it finer, he would have to feed on water and breathe fire. It is clear that this is impossible. But while it is not possible for him to improve his food and air he can improve his impressions to a very high degree and in this way introduce fine ‘hydrogens’ into the organism. It is precisely on this that the possibility of evolution is based. A man is not at all obliged to feed on the dull impressions of H48, he can have both H24, H12, and H6, and even H3. This changes the whole picture and a man who makes higher ‘hydrogens’ the food for the upper story of his machine will certainly differ from one who feeds on the lower ‘hydrogens.’” Fragments: Sixteen

In one of the following conversations G. again returned to the subject of classification according to COSMIC traits. Fragments: Sixteen

“According to this diagram every kind of creature, every degree of being, is defined by what serves as food for this kind of creature or being of a given level and for what they themselves serve as food, because in the COSMIC order each class of creature feeds on a definite class of lower creature and is food for a definite class of higher creatures.” Fragments: Sixteen

‘The square next below is — plants. The next — minerals, the next -metals, which constitute a separate COSMIC group among minerals; and the following square has no name in our language because we never meet with matter in this state on the earth’s surface. This square comes into contact with the Absolute. You remember we spoke before about ‘Holy the Firm.’ This is ‘Holy the Firm.’” Fragments: Sixteen