Evolution

Introduction

Evolution is the term Martinus uses for the living being's movement through changing forms of experience, manifestation and consciousness. In his analysis, evolution is not limited to biological change. It is the continuing development of the whole living being as it passes through different relationships between its own energies and the energies of its surroundings. The result is experienced as movement towards increasingly advanced forms of existence. ^[1]

Martinus's account therefore connects the development of consciousness with changing organisms, physical and spiritual existence, and the acquisition of experience and ability. A living being gradually changes from animal ways of being towards a fully humane existence. He also treats the science of his time as the collective expression of intelligence energy, while regarding terrestrial humanity's intellect as still developing. His use of evolution should consequently be read as a spiritual-cosmological doctrine, not as a restatement of modern biological science. ^[2] ^[3] ^[4] ^[5]

Evolution as a movement through experience

Martinus begins with experience itself. He describes any experience as the reaction produced by an interaction between the energy of a living being and the energy of its surroundings. In this terminology, matter and energy include both the dense energies ordinarily called physical matter and more refined energies ordinarily called spirit. The kind of experience a being can have depends on the basic energies for which its senses are developed. ^[6]

He then describes six recurring forms of experience. A being is first influenced predominantly by one basic energy; when that form reaches its culmination, another becomes the principal influence, and the sequence continues through all six. When the first energy becomes predominant again, it does so in a higher form than before. Martinus calls this continuing movement “evolution”. ^[7]

This definition makes evolution both recurrent and progressive. The being does not simply discard earlier capacities. Rather, the recurring sequence is experienced in new combinations, so that the being can acquire further forms of consciousness and manifestation. Martinus describes the interplay of the energies as an eternally ascending spiral course. ^[8]

The evolutionary spiral and its kingdoms

The recurring sequence is organised in what Martinus calls a spiral cycle. A cycle passes through six kingdoms or planes of existence: the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, the real human kingdom, the kingdom of wisdom, the divine world and the kingdom of bliss. The first three are described as physical kingdoms and the latter three as spiritual or mental planes in the account given in Livets Bog and related works. ^[9]

The spiral is not a closed circle. After the six kingdoms have been experienced, the being enters another spiral cycle and passes through corresponding kingdoms in new forms. Martinus uses the image of a spiral because each repetition is connected with a higher variation. At the beginning of a new cycle, consciousness is recreated through the being's gradual sensory development and its interaction with a new organism. ^[10] ^[11]

Contrast is essential to this process. Martinus argues that experience depends on opposites: happiness is recognised in relation to unhappiness, and light in relation to darkness. The spiral therefore includes a culmination of darkness and suffering as well as a culmination of light, wisdom and love. The function attributed to the dark contrast is not that darkness is an independent ultimate power, but that experience of it makes it possible to recognise and value the light. ^[12]

The six basic energies

The kingdoms correspond to six basic energies. Martinus gives the following sequence: instinct energy and the plant kingdom; gravity energy and the animal kingdom; feeling energy and the real human kingdom; intelligence energy and the kingdom of wisdom; intuition energy and the divine world; and memory energy and the kingdom of bliss. He also describes a seventh “Mother energy”, associated with the plane of eternity, as the energy that binds the others together. ^[13]

These energies should not be understood as isolated substances or as exclusive to one kingdom. Martinus describes them as mutually present in every plane, but in different proportions. One energy is culminating, another is latent, and the remaining energies are increasing or decreasing in capacity. The resulting combination provides the material for the being's mentality, organism and way of experiencing life. ^[14] ^[15]

The sequence also shows a progression from the animal kingdom's gravity-dominated, self-preserving tendencies towards the greater role of intelligence and feeling in the human transition. Martinus describes the harmony of feeling and intelligence as the condition in which genuine love can emerge. ^[16] ^[17]

From animal to human

Martinus places terrestrial humanity in a transitional position. It has developed intelligence beyond the ordinary animal stage but still retains powerful animal tendencies. He therefore describes terrestrial human beings as beings in transition from animal to human, rather than as finished members of the real human kingdom. The transition is gradual: animal organisms and mentalities are transformed as the capacities associated with the higher energies develop. ^[18] ^[19]

In the animal kingdom, Martinus associates the dominance of gravity energy with the “killing principle”. Animals must often protect themselves and obtain nourishment through the organisms of other beings, so the struggle for power and self-preservation becomes a major evolutionary stimulus. Terrestrial humanity has inherited this mentality, but its growing intelligence gives it powers that can intensify the consequences of animal tendencies. ^[20] ^[21]

The next development is not simply a growth in intellectual ability. Martinus describes feeling and intelligence as needing to become harmonised. When intelligence is joined with ennobled feeling, the resulting activity is what he calls genuine love: action directed towards the benefit of other living beings, without being governed by the expectation of personal gain. ^[22]

Physical experience, karma and reincarnation

Physical existence has a particular educational function in this account. Martinus says that on the physical plane matter does not automatically obey thought, and therefore the being must learn to convert energy impulses into logical thoughts and constructions. He connects this with a law of logical creation: behaviour and other creation must ultimately be a joy and blessing to living beings, otherwise the result becomes catastrophic. ^[23] ^[24]

The continuity between stages is explained through reincarnation. The physical body is an instrument for experiencing and creating in physical matter. As the spirit develops, Martinus argues, it requires organisms suited to its new level; the replacement of one body by another therefore becomes an essential condition for the transformation from primitivity to intellectuality and from brutality to humaneness. This process is what he calls reincarnation or rebirth. ^[25]

The movement through physical forms is presented as a long sequence. After the kingdom of bliss, the being again develops a relationship with physical matter, passing through mineral, plant, animal and human forms as its physical sensory structure is rebuilt. The human organism is described as the culmination of the physical instrument for experiencing and manifesting life. ^[26]

Karma is related to this continuity of action and experience. Martinus describes suffering and unhappy fate as effects of mistaken will and action, while the experience of disharmony can awaken a desire for knowledge, ordered relations and spiritual development. In this way, cause and effect become part of the being's gradual moral development. ^[27] ^[28]

The use of suffering in this explanation requires care. Martinus's framework presents suffering as an effect of unfinished ways of acting and as an experience that can awaken humaneness, rather than as an independent goal. The developmental interpretation is part of his cosmological analysis and does not remove the immediate reality of pain. ^[29] ^[30]

The completion of human evolution

The completed human being is defined ethically as well as intellectually. Martinus says that the true human kingdom will arise through the development of neighbourly love and the reduction of egoism. In that kingdom, beings are no longer governed by the animal principle of power and persecution, but by a humane way of being directed towards the benefit of others. ^[31] ^[32]

Martinus's kingdoms are therefore stages or modes of experience within a long process, not merely a conventional biological taxonomy. The body is treated as an instrument for experience and creation, and organisms change as the living being develops. The distinction between plant, animal and human refers consequently to both visible form and the dominant combination of consciousness energies. ^[33] ^[34] ^[35]

When thinking and humaneness have reached their highest level, physical rebirth is no longer necessary. Martinus describes the being as then able to create more easily and perfectly in spiritual matter, which obeys thought more readily than physical matter. Reincarnation becomes superfluous, and the being continues its experience in the kingdom of wisdom, the divine world and the kingdom of bliss. In this perfected state, Martinus also describes the being as loving all and experiencing its spiritual existence as a permanent paradise. ^[36] ^[37]

Evolution as a movement towards love

The direction of evolution in Martinus's system can therefore be stated as a movement from instinctive and force-based existence towards conscious wisdom and love. Intelligence is important because it makes analysis and knowledge possible, but it must be harmonised with feeling if it is to serve a humane way of being. ^[38] ^[39]

Martinus presents the future human kingdom as the outcome of this gradual transformation. Terrestrial humanity is not yet finished, but the conflict between animal and human tendencies is itself a transitional condition. Through experience, reincarnation, the effects of action and the growth of neighbourly love, the unfinished being is said to be moving towards a state in which its actions become a joy and blessing to other living beings. ^[40] ^[41]

Reading the concept

Martinus's kingdoms should not be confused with a conventional biological taxonomy. The terms “plant”, “animal” and “human” refer not only to visible organisms but also to dominant modes of consciousness and combinations of basic energies. Terrestrial human beings may possess a human organism while still belonging partly to the animal kingdom in their mentality, because animal tendencies remain active in their way of being. ^[42] ^[43]

Nor does the concept present darkness as a permanent destination. The animal and unfinished human stages are described as the region where suffering and destructive behaviour culminate, but also as the source of experience from which wisdom and humaneness can develop. In Martinus's presentation, the long-term direction of the process is established by the being's passage through contrasts and by the gradual replacement of egoism with neighbourly love. ^[44] ^[45]

References

[1] Menneskehedens skæbne, section 1.9 (*)

[2] Menneskehedens skæbne, section 1.9 (*)

[3] Menneskehedens skæbne, section 1.34 (*)

[4] Vejen til paradis, section 1.20 (*)

[5] Livets Bog 1, section 171

[6] Menneskehedens skæbne, section 1.9 (*)

[7] Menneskehedens skæbne, section 1.9 (*)

[8] Livets Bog 2, section 442

[9] Meditation, section 3.10 (*)

[10] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 13.13

[11] Vejen til paradis, section 1.18 (*)

[12] Meditation, section 3.10 (*)

[13] Livets Bog 1, section 261

[14] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 13.13

[15] Livets Bog 2, section 442

[16] Livets Bog 1, section 171

[17] Livets Bog 1, section 178

[18] Livets Bog 1, section 171

[19] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 13.13

[20] Livets Bog 1, section 171

[21] Meditation, section 3.11 (*)

[22] Livets Bog 1, section 178

[23] Vejen til paradis, section 1.20 (*)

[24] Vejen til paradis, section 1.17 (*)

[25] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 17.10

[26] Vejen til paradis, section 1.16 (*)

[27] Menneskehedens skæbne, section 1.31 (*)

[28] Kosmisk bevidsthed, section 1.13 (*)

[29] Menneskehedens skæbne, section 1.31 (*)

[30] Meditation, section 3.10 (*)

[31] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 12.2

[32] Livets Bog 1, section 178

[33] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 17.10

[34] Vejen til paradis, section 1.16 (*)

[35] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 13.13

[36] Vejen til paradis, section 1.20 (*)

[37] Vejen til paradis, section 1.57 (*)

[38] Livets Bog 1, section 178

[39] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 13.13

[40] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 12.2

[41] Vejen til paradis, section 1.20 (*)

[42] Livets Bog 1, section 171

[43] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 13.13

[44] Meditation, section 3.10 (*)

[45] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 12.2

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