In this way we are brought to the conclusion that the
Life-principle must always provide itself with a body in which to function,
though it does not follow that this body must always be of the same
chemical constitution as the one we now possess. We might well imagine some
distant planet where the chemical combinations with which we are familiar
on earth did not obtain; but if the essential life-principle of any
individual were transported thither, then by the Law of the Creative
Process it would proceed to clothe itself with a material body drawn from
the atmosphere and substance of that planet; and the personality thus
produced would be quite at home there, for all his surroundings would be
perfectly natural to him, however different the laws of Nature might be
there from what we know here.
In such a conception as this we find the importance of the two leading
principles to which I have drawn attention--first, the power of the Spirit
to create _ex nihilo_, and secondly, the individual's recognition of the
basic principle of Unity giving permanence and solidity to the frame of
Nature. By the former the self-recognizing life-principle could produce any
sort of body it chose; and by the latter it would be led to project one in
harmony with the natural order of the particular planet, thus making all
the facts of that order solid realities to the individual, and himself a
solid and natural being to the other inhabitants of that world.
Pages:
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53