QA176 QUESTION: There are a number of substances that have been used through the ages for medicinal reasons, as well as for effecting the health of human beings. I would like to ask, for instance, about the vibrations in gold, about the effect of precious stones that many people wear, about the proximity of crystals in human beings. I realize, of course, that this is not the answer to health. But what is the common function principle why man has all the time reached for the substances and used them? Can you shed some light on this?
ANSWER: Now, yes, I would shed some light on this, but not in the way you expect it. I’m afraid I’ll have to answer it in a different way, because, you see, if I would answer such a question in the sense of “this metal or this crystal or this mineral is good for that and that and that,” people would use it in a mechanical way. And that would be very unbeneficial.
They would do what mankind is always prone to do. They would take it in the easy way, in a magical way, and then it becomes immediately a distortion of truth. For ultimately, it is always a question of consciousness.
If one’s own inner consciousness becomes more and more purified, more and more in harmony with the universal law, all the instincts become healthier and more perceptive and more intuitive and more aware. So then the human being’s natural inclination automatically tends toward finding the mineral, the metal, the stone, the food, the plant, the color, the energy system that is most compatible with his own individuality.
Then it is a realization that comes from within and has a meaning. It will be a natural process that is not mechanical, that is meaningful, that is a result rather than a panacea. And that is then good. Then the instincts that become healthier and healthier head automatically to what is good, and do not make rules that are blind and mechanical and then become like a magic means. Then it arises out of the inner consciousness and not out of outer laziness and mechanically.
Now, there is one thing I would like to say here. All the natural resources of Earth contain natural life, and it is significant that in this society the natural substances are more and more compensated for or substituted with unnatural, artificial ones. This is precisely the mechanical mind, the mind that wants to avoid to go the hard and difficult road of truth within, and therefore arrive at its own awakening and find his own real innermost being.
This laziness and evasion of mankind as a whole has created a separatism, a mechanicalness, and an artificiality in everything. Therefore, even an answer that would be given of telling you how to use natural means would still be in the spirit of this mechanical separatism. It does not arise out of organic growth within. Then organic substances will be sought meaningfully by the person. They will not be of primary importance; the primary importance will always be the consciousness.
QUESTION: Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with this. But for some peculiar reason to me, I have a feeling of fascination about certain minerals, certain stones. It has to do with the energy field of those substances, and it is a domain of great excitement for me, which I look forward to working at some time when I can. {You will} I really want to ask whether by investigating such substances, the common function principle of the energy forces in man, in nature, in the plants can be understood and used usefully?
ANSWER: Yes. When you will come into a later period in your life, when you will have time to devote to such research, you will, for example, find – and this much I can say, because this would not be against the spirit of my answer before – certain common denominators of energy frequency currents of the energy field among certain minerals, plants and human attitudes.
Then you will see a correlation that will take on a very meaningful life. But you will have to do this work by research, for contacts such as this must never be in order to avoid the trial and error of finding answers, which is in itself a tremendously important activity on the part of man.
It is a creative activity that must not be curtailed. But you will find certain common denominators, aspects. The more you will see and correlate energy fields, the more you will see certain common denominators of human attitudes, plants, life, types of plants, types of minerals, types of metal.
QUESTION: If you have in yourself a feeling about these things, which you just spoke of, for other people – if you see deep inside yourself some colors, some stones, that you know are somehow connected with these people and for them, is it wrong to call this to their attention?
ANSWER: Well, it is not a question of wrong. It is just a question of in what attitude would the person take this? You see, such things can so easily become a superstition, a panacea, a substitute for the real thing of freeing up the jewel – the greatest jewel of all, which is your real innermost consciousness, your innermost being.
If it is done in this way, it leads to an impasse. It leads to a dead-end street. But if it is done in a sense of “well, it’s nice,” then it has its use – if it is not done in any way that substitutes the real importance of things. The moment a person attaches importance to it and thinks because he’s near this stone or that mineral that that will help him, he is already on the wrong road.
That cannot help him, nor can the other stone harm him. It is the consciousness and the attitude and the feelings that are the all-important thing. When that arises, your own compatibilities will make themselves known. To say this stone is good for you is already very misleading.
QUESTION: When you talk about the real self, I was wondering about this. I know that when I die, this particular identity won’t be here any more.
ANSWER: You know wrong.
QUESTION: My friend won’t be here any more.
ANSWER: You know wrong.
QUESTION: Well, there’ll be a different person, perhaps, but it won’t be this one.
ANSWER: It will be exactly the same person.
QUESTION: Well, we know with the astrology that my birth is an expression of a particular moment, a particular planetary configuration that isn’t going to repeat itself again.
ANSWER: That is not the point. It is not a question of repeating itself. It is a question of an ongoing process of consciousness. As long as you are in the flesh, this ongoing process of consciousness manifests to others in the flesh. They see you as your present identity that happens to be called by a certain name at this time, and is born at a certain place at a certain time.
But the consciousness is not changed within you. Everything you are, everything you feel, everything you think, every one of your attitudes continues to be. It is not eliminated because you leave this body of your flesh. The attitude that makes this body does not cease to exist. The only thing that will change is when your consciousness changes.
QUESTION: Well, what I wanted to ask is, the real self or the deeper self, is this a collective thing? Is there only one such thing or are there many?
ANSWER: Well, it is very difficult to answer this, because it would be wrong to say Yes and it would be wrong to say No. It is both. It is one universal consciousness that manifests in myriad ways over and again, and loses itself, as I explained in the lecture about Creation and about creating. This manifestation of consciousness can lose itself and lose itself, and get further alienated from its true identity. And then it doesn’t know who it is.
QUESTION: Well, even in our worst distortions, then we are expressions of this true self.
ANSWER: Absolutely.
QUESTION: But when we speak of getting back to the real self or the deeper self, are we speaking of getting back to the one unified consciousness?
ANSWER: Not necessarily. It can still be the manifestation of an individualization of that unified consciousness. The universal self individualizes itself in many forms. And it could individualize itself in its pure form, without the distortion and losing itself.
QUESTION: About the energies of the organism, at the time of birth, is there such a process where the cosmic energies of the person focus on the individual in a polarized way and create a central axis?
ANSWER: Yes, there is such a thing. That is quite true.
QUESTION: And does the function of the individual subsequently depend upon this axis?
ANSWER: No. The constellation of this axis, which includes the astrological constellations and other constellations, is dependent on the individual that is being born – it is a result of that. It is exactly the other way around.
