P559:1, 49:0.1 All mortal-inhabited worlds are evolutionary in
origin and nature. These spheres are the spawning ground, the evolutionary
cradle, of the mortal races of time and space. Each unit of the ascendant life
is a veritable training school for the stage of existence just ahead, and this
is true of every stage of man's progressive Paradise ascent; just as true of the
initial mortal experience on an evolutionary planet as of the final universe
headquarters school which is not attended by ascending mortals until just before
their translation and the attainment of first-stage spirit existence.
P559:2, 49:0.2 All inhabited worlds are basically grouped for
celestial administration into the local systems.
P559:3, 49:0.3 There are thirty-six uninhabited planets nearing
the life-endowment stage, and several are now being made ready for the Life
Carriers. There are nearly two hundred spheres that are evolving so as to be
ready for life implantation within the next few million years.
P559:4, 49:0.4 Not all planets are suited to harbor mortal
life. Small ones having a high rate of axial revolution are wholly unsuited for
life habitats. In several of the physical systems the planets revolving around the central sun are too
large for habitation, their great mass occasioning oppressive gravity. Many of
these enormous spheres have satellites, sometimes a half dozen or more, and
these moons are often in size very near that of Earth, so that they are almost
ideal for habitation.
P559:6, 49:1.1 The universes of time and space are gradual in
development; the progression of life -- terrestrial or celestial -- is neither
arbitrary nor magical. Cosmic evolution may not always be understandable
(predictable), but it is strictly non-accidental.
P560:2, 49:1.3 All the worlds of a local system disclose
unmistakable physical kinship; nevertheless, each planet has its own scale of
life, no two worlds being exactly alike in plant and animal endowment. These
planetary variations in the system life types result from the decisions of the
Life Carriers. But these beings are neither capricious nor whimsical; the
universes are conducted in accordance with law and order.
P560:3, 49:1.4 Evolution is the rule of human development, but
the process itself varies greatly on different worlds. Life is sometimes
initiated in one center, sometimes in three, as it was on Earth. On the
atmospheric worlds it usually has a marine origin, but not always; much depends
on the physical status of a planet. The Life Carriers have great latitude in
their function of life initiation.
P560:7, 49:2.1 There is a standard and basic pattern of
vegetable and animal life in each system. But the Life Carriers are oftentimes
confronted with the necessity of modifying these basic patterns to conform to
the varying physical conditions that confront them on numerous worlds of space.
They foster a generalized system type of mortal creature, but there are seven
distinct physical types as well as thousands upon thousands of minor variants of
these seven outstanding differentiations:
P561:9, 49:2.3
1. The atmospheric types. The physical differences of the worlds of
mortal habitation are chiefly determined by the nature of the atmosphere; other
influences that contribute to the planetary differentiation of life are
relatively minor.
P561:10, 49:2.4
The present atmospheric status of Earth is almost ideal for the support of the
breathing type of man, but the human type can be so modified that it can live on
both the superatmospheric and the subatmospheric planets. Such modifications
also extend to the animal life, which differs greatly on the various inhabited
spheres. There is a very great modification of animal orders on both the sub-
and the superatmospheric worlds.
P561:12, 49:2.6
Beings such as the Earth races are classified as mid-breathers; you represent
the average or typical breathing order of mortal existence. If intelligent
creatures should exist on a planet with an atmosphere similar to that of your
near neighbor, Venus, they would belong to the superbreather group, while those
inhabiting a planet with an atmosphere as thin as that of your outer neighbor,
Mars, would be denominated subbreathers.
P561:13, 49:2.7
If mortals should inhabit a planet devoid of air, like your moon, they would
belong to the separate order of nonbreathers. This type represents a radical or
extreme adjustment to the planetary environment and is separately considered.
P561:14, 49:2.8 2. The elemental types. These
differentiations have to do with the relation of mortals to water, air, and
land, and there are four distinct species of intelligent life as they are
related to these habitats. The Earth races are of the land order.
P561:15, 49:2.9 It is quite impossible for you to envisage the
environment which prevails during the early ages of some worlds. These unusual
conditions make it necessary for the evolving animal life to remain in its
marine nursery habitat for longer periods than on those planets that very early
provide a hospitable land-and-atmosphere environment. Conversely, on some worlds
of the superbreathers, when the planet is not too large, it is sometimes
expedient to provide for a mortal type that can readily negotiate atmospheric
passage. These air navigators sometimes intervene between the water and land
groups, and they always live in a measure upon the ground, eventually evolving
into land dwellers. But on some worlds, for ages they continue to fly even after
they have become land-type beings.
P562:1, 49:2.10 It is both amazing and amusing to observe the
early civilization of a primitive race of human beings taking shape, in one
case, in the air and treetops and, in another, midst the shallow waters of
sheltered tropic basins, as well as on the bottom, sides, and shores of these
marine gardens of the dawn races of such extraordinary spheres. Even on Earth
there was a long age during which primitive man preserved himself and advanced
his primitive civilization by living for the most part in the treetops, as did
his earlier arboreal ancestors. And on Earth you still have a group of
diminutive mammals (the bat family) that are air navigators, and your seals and
whales, of marine habitat, are also of the mammalian order.
P562:3, 49:2.12 3. The gravity types. By modification of
creative design, intelligent beings are so constructed that they can freely
function on spheres both smaller and larger than Earth, thus being, in measure,
accommodated to the gravity of those planets which are not of ideal size and
density.
P562:4, 49:2.13 The various planetary types of mortals vary in
height. Some of the larger worlds are peopled with beings that are quite small
in height.
P562:5, 49:2.14 4. The temperature types. It is possible to create living beings that can withstand temperatures both much higher and much lower than the life range of the Earth races. There are five distinct orders of beings as they are classified with reference to heat-regulating mechanisms. In this scale the Earth races are number three. Thirty per cent of the worlds are peopled with races of modified temperature types. Twelve per cent belong to the higher temperature ranges, eighteen per cent to the lower, as compared with Earthlings, who function in the mid-temperature group.
P562:6, 49:2.15 5. The electric types. The electric,
magnetic, and electronic behavior of the worlds varies greatly. There are ten
designs of mortal life variously fashioned to withstand the differential energy
of the spheres. These ten varieties also react in slightly different ways to the
chemical rays of ordinary sunlight. But these slight physical variations in no
way affect the intellectual or the spiritual life.
P562:7, 49:2.16 Of the electric groupings of mortal life,
almost twenty-five per cent belong to class number four, the Earth type of
existence.
P563:1, 49:2.17 6. The energizing types. Not all worlds
are alike in the manner of taking in energy. Not all inhabited worlds have an
atmospheric ocean suited to respiratory exchange of gases, such as is present on
Earth. During the earlier and the later stages of many planets, beings of your
present order could not exist; and when the respiratory factors of a planet are
very high or very low, but when all other prerequisites to intelligent life are
adequate, the Life Carriers often establish on such worlds a modified form of
mortal existence, beings who are competent to effect their life-process
exchanges directly by means of light-energy and the firsthand power
transmutations of the Master Physical Controllers.
P563:2, 49:2.18 There are six differing types of animal and
mortal nutrition: The subbreathers employ the first type of nutrition, the
marine dwellers the second, the mid-breathers the third, as on Earth. The
superbreathers employ the fourth type of energy intake, while the nonbreathers
utilize the fifth order of nutrition and energy. The sixth technique of
energizing is limited to the midway creatures.
P563:3, 49:2.19 7. The unnamed types. There are numerous additional physical variations in planetary life, but all of these differences are wholly matters of anatomical modification, physiologic differentiation, and electrochemical adjustment. Such distinctions do not concern the intellectual or the spiritual life.
P563:4, 49:3.1 The majority of inhabited planets are peopled with the breathing type of intelligent beings. But there are also orders of mortals who are able to live on worlds with little or no air.
P563:5, 49:3.2 There are very few of the nonbreather type of
inhabited worlds because this more recently organized section still abounds in
meteoric space bodies; and worlds without a protective friction atmosphere are
subject to incessant bombardment by these wanderers. Even some of the comets
consist of meteor swarms, but as a rule they are disrupted smaller bodies of
matter.
P563:6, 49:3.3 Millions upon millions of meteorites enter
the atmosphere of Earth daily, coming in at the rate of almost two hundred miles
a second. On the nonbreathing worlds the advanced races must do much to protect
themselves from meteor damage by making electrical installations that operate to
consume or shunt the meteors. Great danger confronts them when they venture
beyond these protected zones. These worlds are also subject to disastrous
electrical storms of a nature unknown on Earth. During such times of tremendous
energy fluctuation the inhabitants must take refuge in their special structures
of protective insulation.
P564:1, 49:3.4
Life on the worlds of the nonbreathers is radically different from what it is on
Earth. The nonbreathers do not eat food or drink water, as do the Earth races.
The reactions of the nervous system, the heat-regulating mechanism, and the
metabolism of these specialized peoples are radically different from such
functions of Earth mortals. Almost every act of living, aside from reproduction,
differs, and even the methods of procreation are somewhat different.
P564:2, 49:3.5 On the nonbreathing worlds the animal species
are radically unlike those found on the atmospheric planets. The nonbreathing
plan of life varies from the technique of existence on an atmospheric world;
even in survival their peoples differ, being candidates for Spirit fusion.
Nevertheless, these beings enjoy life and carry forward the activities of the
realm with the same relative trials and joys that are experienced by the mortals
living on atmospheric worlds. In mind and character the nonbreathers do not
differ from other mortal types.
P564:3, 49:3.6 You would be more than interested in the
planetary conduct of this type of mortal because such a race of beings inhabits
a sphere in close proximity to Earth.
P564:4, 49:4.1 There are great differences between the mortals
of the different worlds, even among those belonging to the same intellectual and
physical types, but all mortals of will dignity are erect animals, bipeds.
P564:5, 49:4.2 There are six basic evolutionary races: three
primary -- red, yellow, and blue; and three secondary -- orange, green, and
indigo. Most inhabited worlds have all of these races, but many of the
three-brained planets harbor only the three primary types. Some local systems
also have only these three races.
P564:6, 49:4.3 The average special physical-sense endowment of
human beings is twelve, though the special senses of the three-brained mortals
are extended slightly beyond those of the one- and two-brained types; they can
see and hear considerably more than the Earth races.
P564:7, 49:4.4 Young are usually born singly, multiple births
being the exception, and the family life is fairly uniform on all types of
planets. Sex equality prevails on all advanced worlds; male and female are equal
in mind endowment and spiritual status. We do not regard a planet as having
emerged from barbarism so long as one sex seeks to tyrannize over the other.
This feature of creature experience is always greatly improved.
P564:8, 49:4.5 Seasons and temperature variations occur on all
sunlighted and sun-heated planets. Agriculture is universal on all atmospheric
worlds; tilling the soil is the one pursuit that is common to the advancing
races of all such planets.
P564:9, 49:4.6 Mortals all have the same general struggles with
microscopic foes in their early days, such as you now experience on Earth,
though perhaps not so extensive. The length of life varies on the different
planets from twenty-five years on the primitive worlds to near five hundred on
the more advanced and older spheres.
P564:10, 49:4.7 Human beings are all gregarious, both tribal and
racial. These group segregations are inherent in their origin and constitution.
Such tendencies can be modified only by advancing civilization and by gradual
spiritualization. The social, economic, and governmental problems of the
inhabited worlds vary in accordance with the age of the planets.
P564:11, 49:4.8 Mind is the bestowal of the Infinite Spirit and
functions quite the same in diverse environments. The mind of mortals is akin,
regardless of certain structural and chemical differences that characterize the
physical natures of the will creatures of the local systems. Regardless of
personal or physical planetary differences, the mental life of all these various
orders of mortals is very similar, and their immediate careers after death are
very much alike.
P565:1, 49:4.9 But mortal mind without immortal spirit cannot
survive. The mind of man is mortal; only the bestowed spirit is immortal.
Survival is dependent on spiritualization by the ministry of the Adjuster -- on
the birth and evolution of the immortal soul; at least, there must not have
developed an antagonism towards the Adjuster's mission of effecting the
spiritual transformation of the material mind.
P565:2, 49:5.1 It will be somewhat difficult to make an adequate portrayal of the planetary series of mortals because you know so little about them, and because there are so many variations. Mortal creatures may, however, be studied from numerous viewpoints, among which are the following:
P565:10, 49:5.2 The inhabited spheres of the universes are peopled with mortals who simultaneously classify in some one or more categories of each of these seven generalized classes of evolutionary creature life. But even these general classifications make no provision for such beings as midsoniters, nor for certain other forms of intelligent life. The inhabited worlds, as they have been presented in these narratives, are peopled with evolutionary mortal creatures, but there are other life forms.
P565:11, 49:5.3 1. Adjustment to planetary environment.
There are three general groups of inhabited worlds from the standpoint of the
adjustment of creature life to the planetary environment: the normal adjustment
group, the radical adjustment group, and the experimental group.
P565:12, 49:5.4 Normal adjustments to planetary conditions
follow the general physical patterns previously considered. The worlds of the
nonbreathers typify the radical or extreme adjustment, but other types are also
included in this group. Experimental worlds are usually ideally adapted to the
typical life forms, and on these decimal planets the Life Carriers attempt to
produce beneficial variations in the standard life designs. Since your world is
an experimental planet, it differs markedly from its sister spheres; many forms
of life have appeared on Earth that are not found elsewhere; likewise are many
common species absent from your planet.
P566:1, 49:5.6 2. Brain-type series. The one physical
uniformity of mortals is the brain and nervous system; nevertheless, there are
three basic organizations of the brain mechanism: the one-, the two-, and the
three-brained types. Earthlings are of the two-brained type, somewhat more
imaginative, adventurous, and philosophical than the one-brained mortals but
somewhat less spiritual and ethical than the three-brained orders. These brain
differences characterize even the prehuman animal existences.
P566:3, 49:5.8 While the terrestrial attainments of the
one-brained races are slightly limited in comparison with the two-brained
orders, the older planets of the three-brained group exhibit civilizations that
would astound Earthlings, and which would somewhat shame yours by comparison. In
mechanical development and material civilization, even in intellectual progress,
the two-brained mortal worlds are able to equal the three-brained spheres. But
in the higher control of mind and development of intellectual and spiritual
reciprocation, you are somewhat inferior.
P566:5, 49:5.10
While the three-brained peoples are capable of a slightly higher planetary
evolution than either the one- or two-brained orders, all have the same type of
life plasm and carry on planetary activities in very similar ways, much as do
human beings on Earth. These three types of mortals are distributed throughout
the worlds of the local systems. In the majority of cases planetary conditions
had very little to do with the decisions of the Life Carriers to project these
varied orders of mortals on the different worlds; it is a prerogative of the
Life Carriers thus to plan and execute.
P566:6, 49:5.11 These three orders stand on an equal footing in
the ascension career. Each must traverse the same intellectual scale of
development, and each must master the same spiritual tests of progression. The
system administration and the constellation overcontrol of these different
worlds are uniformly free from discrimination; even the regimes of the Planetary
Princes are identical.
P566:7, 49:5.12 3. Spirit-reception series. There are three groups of mind design as related to contact with spirit affairs. This classification does not refer to the one-, two-, and three-brained orders of mortals; it refers primarily to gland chemistry, more particularly to the organization of certain glands comparable to the pituitary bodies. The races on some worlds have one gland, on others two, as do Earthlings, while on still other spheres the races have three of these unique bodies. The inherent imagination and spiritual receptivity is definitely influenced by this differential chemical endowment.
P566:8, 49:5.13 Of the spirit-reception types, sixty-five per
cent are of the second group, like the Earth races. Twelve per cent are of the
first type, naturally less receptive, while twenty-three per cent are more
spiritually inclined during terrestrial life. But such distinctions do not
survive natural death; all of these racial differences pertain only to the life
in the flesh.
P567:1, 49:5.14 4. Planetary-mortal epochs. This
classification recognizes the succession of temporal dispensations as they
affect man's terrestrial status and his reception of celestial ministry.
P567:2, 49:5.15 Life is initiated on the planets by the Life
Carriers, who watch over its development until sometime after the evolutionary
appearance of mortal man.
P567:9, 49:5.22 5. Creature-kinship serials. Planets are not only organized vertically into systems, constellations, and so on, but the universe administration also provides for horizontal groupings according to type, series, and other relationships. This lateral administration of the universe pertains more particularly to the co-ordination of activities of a kindred nature that have been independently fostered on different spheres.
P568:1, 49:5.23 Kinship factors are manifest on all levels, for kinship serials exist among nonhuman personalities as well as among mortal creatures -- even between human and superhuman orders. Intelligent beings are vertically related in twelve great groups of seven major divisions each. The co-ordination of these uniquely related groups of living beings is probably effected by some not fully comprehended technique of the Supreme Being.
P568:2, 49:5.24 6. Adjuster-fusion series. The relation of the personality status to the indwelling Mystery Monitor wholly determines the spiritual classification or grouping of all mortals during their prefusion experience. Almost ninety per cent of some of the inhabited worlds are peopled with Adjuster-fusion mortals in contrast with a near-by universe where scarcely more than one half of the worlds harbor beings who are Adjuster-indwelt candidates for eternal fusion.
P568:3, 49:5.25 7. Techniques of terrestrial escape. There is fundamentally only one way in which individual human life can be initiated on the inhabited worlds, and that is through creature procreation and natural birth; but there are numerous techniques whereby man escapes his terrestrial status and gains access to the inward moving stream of Paradise ascenders.
P570:1, 49:6.12 Children who die when too young to have Thought
Adjusters are repersonalized on the finaliter world of the local systems
concomitant with the arrival of either parent on the mansion worlds. A child
acquires physical entity at mortal birth, but in the matter of survival all
Adjusterless children are reckoned as still attached to their parents.
P570:2, 49:6.13 In due course Thought Adjusters come to indwell
these little ones, while the ministry
to both groups of the probationary-dependent orders of survival is in general
similar to that of the more advanced parent or is equivalent to that of the
parent in case only one survives. Those attaining the third circle, regardless
of the status of their parents, are accorded personal guardians.
P570:3, 49:6.14 Similar probation nurseries are maintained on the finaliter spheres of the constellation and the universe headquarters for the Adjusterless children of the primary and secondary modified orders of ascenders.
P576:6, 50:5.3 The mortal races on an average world of time and
space will successively pass through the following seven developmental epochs:
P576:7, 50:5.4 1. The nutrition epoch. The prehuman creatures and the dawn races of primitive man are chiefly concerned with food problems. These evolving beings spend their waking hours either in seeking food or in fighting, offensively or defensively. The food quest is paramount in the minds of these early ancestors of subsequent civilization.
P576:8, 50:5.5 2. The security age. Just as soon as the primitive hunter can spare any time from the search for food, he turns this leisure to augmenting his security. More and more attention is devoted to the technique of war. Homes are fortified, and the clans are solidified by mutual fear and by the inculcation of hate for foreign groups. Self-preservation is a pursuit that always follows self-maintenance.
P577:1, 50:5.6 3. The material-comfort era. After food problems have been partially solved and some degree of security has been attained, the additional leisure is utilized to promote personal comfort. Luxury vies with necessity in occupying the center of the stage of human activities. Such an age is all too often characterized by tyranny, intolerance, gluttony, and drunkenness. The weaker elements of the races incline towards excesses and brutality. Gradually these pleasure-seeking weaklings are subjugated by the more strong and truth-loving elements of the advancing civilization.
P577:2, 50:5.7 4. The quest for knowledge and wisdom. Food, security, pleasure, and leisure provide the foundation for the development of culture and the spread of knowledge. The effort to execute knowledge results in wisdom, and when a culture has learned how to profit and improve by experience, civilization has really arrived. Food, security, and material comfort still dominate society, but many forward-looking individuals are hungering for knowledge and thirsting for wisdom. Every child is provided an opportunity to learn by doing; education is the watchword of these ages.
P577:3, 50:5.8 5. The epoch of philosophy and brotherhood. When mortals learn to think and begin to profit by experience, they become philosophical -- they start out to reason within themselves and to exercise discriminative judgment. The society of this age becomes ethical, and the mortals of such an era are truly becoming moral beings. Wise moral beings are capable of establishing human brotherhood on such a progressing world. Ethical and moral beings can learn how to live in accordance with the golden rule.
P577:4, 50:5.9 6. The age of spiritual striving. When evolving mortals have passed through the physical, intellectual, and social stages of development, sooner or later they attain those levels of personal insight that impel them to seek for spiritual satisfactions and cosmic understandings. Religion is completing the ascent from the emotional domains of fear and superstition to the high levels of cosmic wisdom and personal spiritual experience. Education aspires to the attainment of meanings, and culture grasps at cosmic relationships and true values. Such evolving mortals are genuinely cultured, truly educated, and exquisitely God-knowing.
P577:5, 50:5.10 7. The era of light and life. This is the flowering of the successive ages of physical security, intellectual expansion, social culture, and spiritual achievement. These human accomplishments are now blended, associated, and co-ordinated in cosmic unity and unselfish service. Within the limitations of finite nature and material endowments there are no bounds set upon the possibilities of evolutionary attainment by the advancing generations who successively live upon these supernal and settled worlds of time and space.