new church life: september/october 2017
of Mars did not remain in their
state, which amongst us is called the
state of integrity, that others would
succeed from a new earth, who
would be similar; for when one race
perishes, another succeeds; for there
can be nothing lacking, so the Lord
provides.” (Spiritual Experiences
3250)
I do not see any clear indication
elsewhere that the population had
already perished, but then again, I
may have missed some clues given
by the Lord in other places in the
Heavenly Doctrine.
There may be a whole other
approach to understanding why it is that we may never be able to conclusively
detect the presence of inhabitants or their fauna and flora on many other
planets. We need to carefully study the doctrine of discrete and continuous
degrees as it is presented in the Heavenly Doctrine, and most fully in that
marvelous series in Divine Love And Wisdom 167 - 281.
We are assured that for anything natural or spiritual to exist it must
consist of three distinct degrees that are related as end, cause and effect. In
the spiritual world there are three heavens that are just so related, yet each has
such a distinct existence that those in the lowest heaven ordinarily have no
conscious awareness of angels in each of the higher heavens, and those in the
middle heaven, ordinarily, have no conscious awareness of those in the highest
heaven.
We also know from the doctrine that in the natural world there are three
discrete/distinct degrees of existence. Are these, perhaps, also so distinct that
we could have three levels/degrees/dimensions of existence in the natural
world, with embodied people living in them, and again those in a discretely
lower/grosser degree/level/dimension be ordinarily unaware of those (with all
their distinctive fauna and flora) living in one of the higher ones?
Perhaps all we might see and detect with our instruments in respect to
some other planets is that degree of existence that is on our own level, which
serves them as a general base, container and support, but on which or in which
they do not ordinarily consciously live. Perhaps, if we visited such inhabited
planets, we and all our instruments could pass right through them without any
awareness of their presence and existence.
Is there any basis in doctrine for the above (possibly wild) speculation? Of
In short, as so many
teachings of our Lord
indicate, in matters such
as this the problem is not
with the Word, but in the
heredity, in the culture, in
the sensual, materialistic
character of many
people of this planet.
430