The I

Introduction

In Martinus’s analysis, the I is the innermost, eternal identity of a living being. It is not identical with the changing organism or any other visible manifestation. Rather, it is the invisible centre that creates, experiences and directs manifestation. Martinus identifies this centre with X1 and describes it as the eternally unchangeable “fixed point” from which the being’s changing movements can be measured.

X1, X2 and X3

Martinus explains the living being through three inseparable principles, called X1, X2 and X3. X1 is the I; X2 is the I’s creative faculty; and X3 is the result of that faculty, the outer and visible expression of the I. What is ordinarily perceived as a living being therefore belongs to X3, not to the I in isolation.

These principles are not three independent entities. The I cannot appear as a creator without a creative faculty and something created, while a created expression presupposes both an organiser and the ability to organise. Martinus therefore describes the living being as a triune unity. Its life is disclosed through the collaboration of the three principles, even though X1, X2 and X3 are each, considered in themselves, beyond sensory perception.

The I is not identical with the changing body and personality through which it is expressed, but neither is it unrelated to manifestation. The I is disclosed through the activity of X2 and the expressions of X3. Visibility is something produced; the invisible I is what stands behind and precedes that production.

Superconsciousness, will and bodily construction

The superconsciousness is closely related to X2, but Martinus does not identify it with the I itself. He calls it the “body of eternity”: the enduring organism or tool through which the living being organises the energies required for its total manifestation. It contains the “fate-element”, in which abilities and skills are stored as talent-kernels. Since these faculties exist before particular bodies are formed and remain after those bodies cease, the superconsciousness cannot be located in any one of the six bodies of manifestation.

Martinus describes the superconsciousness as supported by the body of eternity. In this eternal body the being gathers its highest mental values, while the fate-element contains the talent-kernels. The body of eternity is identified with X2 in the account of the individual’s higher organism. From this level, wishes and desires send energy outward, sometimes automatically and, in beings with cosmic consciousness, through day-conscious will. When these energies meet the energies of the surrounding world, creation or manifestation arises.

The relation between will and superconsciousness is developmental. Martinus argues that the superconsciousness’s present automatic guidance is the result of earlier, day-conscious acts of will. Former choices and inclinations become organised as talent-kernels and later influence attraction to, or repulsion from, particular energies and substances. Thus the superconsciousness can guide a being outside its current day-conscious awareness, while its character has nevertheless been shaped by earlier conscious will. Present acts of will in turn help determine how the superconsciousness will express itself in a future physical life.

The body of eternity is consequently the organ for bodily construction. Martinus says that the individual gathers experiences, knowledge, skills and abilities in this eternal body and creates physical bodies from it, transferring abilities from one life to another. The physical organism is therefore an instrument of X1, built through the higher organism associated with X2.

The physical body and created manifestation

A physical body is a temporary tool for sensing and creating in physical matter. Martinus compares it to any other tool: use produces wear and tear, and the body passes through growth, maturity, ageing and breakdown. These changes concern the created instrument, not the identity of the I that uses it.

For this reason Martinus distinguishes physical death from the destruction of the living being. Death is the cessation of the form of manifestation possible through one particular physical body. The I continues to function and create through the other parts of its total organism, and the superconsciousness provides continuity between successive bodies.

The six bodies of manifestation belong to what Martinus calls the subconsciousness and are at the disposal of the living being for manifestation. The superconsciousness, by contrast, is associated with the fate-element and body of eternity. In the physical condition, the being is normally conscious chiefly through the body supported by gravity-energy; the other bodies and the superconsciousness remain outside ordinary day-consciousness while continuing to organise manifestation.

The I as causeless cause and fixed point

The sensory world can be analysed as an endless chain of cause and effect: a cause becomes an effect, and that effect becomes a new cause. In this chain, the causes found through analysis prove to be effects of other causes.

Martinus locates the deeper cause in the I. Effects and movements cannot themselves create or experience; they are subject to will and logic. The I is therefore described as the “first” cause of the individual’s causes and effects. It is not a product of a preceding thought or cause, but “that which thinks”, “that which creates” and “that which manifests”. In this sense it is the “causeless cause”: the prerequisite behind movement rather than another movement within the chain.

This is also the meaning of the I as fixed point. Martinus describes everything otherwise sensed or experienced as peripheral in relation to the I, which is the still centre around which the rest of the living being moves or vibrates. In the highest spheres of the evolutionary spiral, the I experiences itself as the fixed point in the universe: movements affect matter, while the I does not itself travel with those movements.

The Godhead and individual living beings

Martinus compares the I’s fixed-point experience with the impression that God might have. In the divine world, a being experiences matter as coming to the I rather than the I having to move towards it. He also describes perfected beings as abiding in the mentality of the Godhead, with divine wisdom, desire, power and love entering their mentality.

Martinus further describes the perfected being as becoming “one with the Father” and manifesting in God’s image and likeness. The individual living being is thus a son of God: an eternal centre that participates in creative power, while still being an individual. This development culminates in cosmic consciousness and perfected creation, rather than in the physical body or any temporary personality.

The I is consequently both universal in kind and individual in expression. Every living being has the same fundamental triune structure—an I, a creative faculty and a created expression—but its manifestation is shaped by its own experiences, abilities, talent-kernels and acts of will. The diversity of beings belongs to the changing expressions of X2 and X3; the enduring identity that makes each being a living subject is X1, the I.