The Living Being
Introduction
In Martinus's cosmology, a living being (Danish: levende væsen) is any entity that consists of three inseparable principles: an eternal self or "I" (X1), a creative and experiential ability (X2), and an organism or body (X3). These three together constitute what Martinus terms a "trinitarian principle", and no living being can exist unless all three are present and united. The concept extends far beyond ordinary biological life: from the smallest subatomic particles to planets, solar systems, galaxies, and the universe as a whole — all are, in Martinus's analyses, living beings.
Because every independent energy unit in existence is the body of a living being, the universe is, in Martinus's words, "filled with life." The Godhead itself is identified as the one supreme all-encompassing living being, of which all individual living beings are constituent parts.
The Three Principles of the Living Being
Martinus demonstrates that every living being is composed of three mutually dependent principles, which he designates X1, X2, and X3.
X1 is the "I" — the nameless, eternal "something" that is the subject behind all experience and creation. In itself it has no size, no age, and cannot be directly perceived. It can only be known through its creations in matter.
X2 is the creative and experiential ability — the faculty by which the I connects to matter and produces organised, purposeful creation. Because all ordered creation presupposes prior logical thought, X2 is the evidence of X1's existence wherever planned creation appears.
X3 is the organism or body — the material result of X1 and X2 working together, the visible manifestation through which the living being acts and is recognised by other living beings.
Martinus writes in Livets Bog, volume 2, §314:
The three principles: the I, the consciousness or creative-and-experiential ability, and matter or substance — which we already know respectively as "X1", "X2" and "X3" — constitute exactly the three conditions required for a "something" to appear as a "living being".
These three are inseparable. There is never an I without consciousness and an organism, nor matter without a living being to animate it. The material world is therefore not inert: every independently existing energy unit is, to cosmic perception, the body of a living being.
The Eternal I and the Mortal Body
While the living being as a whole is eternal, its individual physical body is a created, temporary instrument. The I existed before the body was built, and it continues after the body dissolves.
Death, Martinus clarifies, is not the separation of the I from its organism. The organism consists of six bodies or instruments; the physical body is only one of them. At physical death the I simply relinquishes its physical instrument while retaining the five remaining bodies, and its existence as an experiencing and creating being continues uninterrupted. The I, being beyond time and space, has no beginning and no end. As stated in Livets Bog 2, §315:
The I will always be prior to and after the creation. And it is precisely through this that it becomes visible as elevated above time, since time can only be the expression of the duration of "created" things from their origin to their cessation.
This understanding is foundational to Martinus's teaching on reincarnation: the eternal I incarnates repeatedly, building new physical instruments in accordance with its ongoing development.
Living Beings at Every Scale
One of the most distinctive features of Martinus's analysis is the extension of the concept of "living being" across all scales of existence — what he calls microcosmos, mesocosmos, and macrocosmos.
Within the human organism, every organ — the brain, heart, lungs, liver — is itself a living being. Cells, bacteria, molecules, atoms, and electrons are likewise each living beings when perceived with cosmic sensory faculties.
Conversely, entities far larger than humans are also living beings. The Earth is a living being; the solar system is a living being that forms an organ within a larger being; the Milky Way is a living being; and the universe as a whole is one single, all-encompassing living being. Martinus writes in Livets Bog 1, §270:
The greatest living being we are thus in contact with is the universe itself, which in itself constitutes one single great and living organism, serving as a manifestation for a corresponding living being. In this living being's organism, all other living beings' organisms or bodies live and move.
Living beings are thus grouped into three main categories in relation to any given observer: universe beings (universvæsener), whose organism constitutes the observer's universe; fellow beings (medvæsener), who share the same universe side by side; and matter beings (stofvæsener), who live within the observer's own organism as organs and cells. These three categories are each other's conditions of existence, and the boundaries between them correspond to what Martinus calls spiral zones (spiralzoner).
Matter, Spirit, and the Living Being
Martinus draws a direct consequence from the trinitarian analysis: matter and spirit are identical. Because all independently existing matter is the organised body of a living being, and because organised creation can only be the product of consciousness and intention, all matter is ultimately an expression of "spirit" in Martinus's sense — that is, of living, purposeful being.
In Livets Bog 2, §318, he concludes:
"Spirit" and "matter" are identical. The first great cosmic-chemical analysis of the matter of the universe is thus this: it is "spirit". And the eternal expression "the Spirit of God hovered over the waters" — which means "God's consciousness was present in all matter" — here begins to become visible as a scientific truth.
The universe and everything within it is therefore not a collection of dead forces operating by chance. Every movement, every energy, every structure reflects the creative activity of living beings. This stands in direct contrast to a purely materialist worldview, which Martinus regards as the deepest form of spiritual incapacity: denying the "I" that constitutes one's own innermost reality.
The Universe as One Living Being — The Godhead
Because the entire universe shares the same trinitarian structure as every individual living being — a single all-encompassing I, a creative ability, and a total organism made up of all existing bodies — the universe is itself one supreme living being. This is what Martinus identifies as the Godhead (Guddommen) or "the Father." All individual living beings are, in his terminology, "sons of God" (gudesønner): the constituent units of the Godhead's organism.
Individual living beings thus stand in a double relationship to the Godhead: they live and move within the Godhead's organism, and the Godhead in turn lives and manifests through them. As stated in Livets Bog 1, §251:
"In the Godhead we live, move, and exist", and "through us the Godhead lives, moves, and exists".
This mutual relation is described further in Livets vej, chapter 2, where the living beings' cosmic journey through alternating zones of darkness and light is called the Godhead's "eternal breath" — the rhythmic pulse through which both the Godhead and all individual living beings maintain and renew their consciousness.
The Living Being and the Ladder of Development
All living beings participate in an eternal evolutionary process, passing through kingdoms — mineral, plant, animal, human, and beyond — across an immense span of cosmic time. Each being's current form of manifestation represents a particular rung on what Martinus calls the "ladder of development" (udviklingsstigen).
The quality of a living being's manifestation — whether it expresses disharmony or harmony, suffering-creating or bliss-creating patterns — reflects its position on this ladder, not the nature of its eternal I. The I itself remains unchanged; only its created instruments evolve. At the apex of the ladder, a living being attains cosmic consciousness, the full experience of its own identity as an eternal, immortal creator — at one with the Godhead.
References
- Martinus: Livets Bog, volume 1, sections 54, 58, 251, 270, 271, 274
- Martinus: Livets Bog, volume 2, sections 314, 315, 316, 317, 318, 319
- Martinus: Livets Bog, volume 3, section 962
- Martinus: Livets vej, chapters 2 and 6