"The Bible has been given to the Western World by the Recording Angels who give to each and all exactly what they need for their development."
  — Max Heindel

References: Genesis 1, 2 and 5.

  In order that man may become an independent, original Creator, it is necessary that his training should include sufficient latitude for the exercise of the individual originality which distinguishes creation from imitation. So long as certain features of the old Form meet with the requirements of progression they are retained, but at each rebirth the evolving Life adds such original improvements as are necessary for its further expression.

  Starting with the simplest organisms, the Life which is now Man built the Form to suit its necessities. In due time, as the entity progressed, it became evident that new improvements must be added which conflicted with the lines previously followed. A new start must be given it in a new species, where it could retrieve any previous mistakes which experience taught would preclude further development if the old lines were adhered to, and thus the evolving life would be enabled to progress farther in a new species. When later experience proved that the new form also was inadequate, inasmuch as it could not adapt itself to some improvement necessary to the progress of the evolving life, it too was discarded and still another departure made, in a form adaptable to the necessary improvement.

  Thus by successive steps does the evolving Life improve its vehicles, and the improvement is still going on. Man, who is in the vanguard of progress, has built his bodies, from the similitude of the amoeba up to the human form until he is now using the best and most highly organized bodies on Earth. Between deaths and rebirths we are constantly building bodies in which to function during our lives and a far greater degree of efficiency than the present will yet be reached. If we make mistakes in building between lives, they become evident when we are using the body in Earth life, and it is well for us if we are able to perceive and realize our mistakes, that we may avoid making them afresh life after life.

  But just as the builder of houses would lag commercially if he did not constantly improve his methods to meet the exigencies of his business, so those who persistently adhere to the old forms fail to rise above the species and are left behind, as stragglers. These stragglers take the forms outgrown by the pioneers, as previously explained, and they compose the lower species of any kingdom in which they are evolving. As the Life which is now Man passed through stages analogous to the mineral, plant, and animal kingdoms, stragglers were left all along the way who had failed to reach the necessary standard to keep abreast of the crest-wave of evolution. They took the discarded Forms of the pioneers and used them as stepping stones, by means of which they tried to overtake the others, but the advanced forms did not stand still. In the progress of Evolution there is no halting place. In evolving Life, as in commerce, there is no such things as merely "holding your own." Progression or Retrogression is the Law. The form that is not capable of further improvement must degenerate.

  Therefore there is one line of improving forms ensouled by the pioneers of the evolving Life, and another line of degenerating forms, outgrown by the pioneers but ensouled by the stragglers, as long as there are any stragglers of that particular life wave to which those forms originally belonged.

  When there are no more stragglers, the species gradually dies out. The Forms have been crystallized beyond the possibility of being improved by tenants of increasing inability. They therefore return to the mineral kingdom, fossilize and are added to the different strata of the Earth's crust.

  The assertion of material science that man has ascended through the different kingdoms of plant and animal which exist about us now to anthropoid and thence to man, is not quite correct. Man has never inhabited forms identical with those of our present-day animals, nor the present-day anthropoid species; but he has inhabited forms which were similar to but higher than those of the present anthropoids.

  The scientist sees that there is an anatomical likeness between man and the monkey, and as the evolutionary impulse always makes for improvement, he concludes that man must have descended from the monkey, but he is always baffled in his efforts to find the "missing link" connecting the two.

  From the point where the pioneers of our life wave occupied ape-like forms, they have progressed to their present stage of development, while the Forms (which were the "missing link") have degenerated and are now ensouled by the last stragglers of the Saturn Period.

  The lower monkeys, instead of being the progenitors of the higher species, are stragglers occupying the most degenerated specimens of what was once the human form. Instead of man having ascended from the anthropoids, the reverse is true — the anthropoids have degenerated from man. Material science, dealing only with Form, has thus misled itself and drawn erroneous conclusions in this matter.

  The same relative conditions are to be found in the animal kingdom. The pioneers of the life wave which entered evolution in the Sun Period are our present-day mammals. The different grades correspond to the steps once taken by man, but the forms are all degenerating under the management of the stragglers. Similarly, the pioneers of the life wave which entered evolution in the Moon Period are found among the fruit trees, while the stragglers of that life wave ensoul all other plant forms.

  Each life wave, however, remains definitely confined within its own borders. The anthropoids may overtake us and become human beings, but no other animal will reach our particular point of development. They will reach a similar stage, but under different conditions, in the Jupiter Period. The present plants will be the humanity of the Venus Period, under a still greater difference of conditions, and our minerals will reach the human stage under the conditions of the Vulcan Period.

  It will be noted that the modern evolutionary theory, particularly that of Haeckel, would, if it were completely reversed, be in almost the forms outgrown by the pioneers as previously explained, and they are in perfect accord with the knowledge of esoteric science:

  The monkey has degenerated from man.

  The polyps are the last generation left behind by the mammals.

  The mosses are the lowest degenerations of the plant kingdom.

  The mineral kingdom is the final goal of the forms of all the kingdoms when they have reached the acme of degeneration.

  A corroboration of this is found in coal, which was once vegetable or plant forms; also in petrified wood and fossilized remains of various animal forms. Common stone or rock, which no scientist would admit had its origin in another kingdom, is to the esoteric investigator as truly mineralized plants as coal itself. The mineralogist will learnedly explain that it is composed of hornblende, feldspar, and mica, but the trained clairvoyant, who can trace it back in the Memory of Nature through millions of years, can supplement that statement by adding: Yes, and that which you call hornblende and feldspar are the leaves and stems of prehistoric flowers, and the mica is all that remains of their petals.

  The esoteric teaching of evolution is also corroborated by the science of embryology in the antenatal recapitulation of all past stages of development. The difference between the ovum of a human being and of some of the higher mammals, and even of the higher developments in the plant kingdom, is indistinguishable, even under the microscope. Experts are unable to tell which is animal and which is human. Even after several of the initial antenatal stages have been passed through, the experts cannot differentiate between animal and human embryo.

  But if the animal ovum is studied through the entire period of gestation, it will be observed that it passes through the mineral and plant stages only, and is born when it reaches the animal stage. This is because the Life ensouling such an ovum passed through its mineral evolution in the Sun Period, its plant life in the Moon Period, and is now forced to stop at the animal stage in the Earth Period.

  On the other hand, the Life which uses the human ovum had its mineral existence in the Saturn Period, passed the animal stage in the Moon Period, has still some scope for Epigenesis after it has reached the animal stage and therefore goes on to the human — nor does it stop there. The father and mother give the substance of their bodies for the building of a child's body, but Epigenesis makes it possible to add something which makes the child different from the parents.

  Where Epigenesis is inactive in the individual, family, nations or Race — there evolution ceases and degeneration commences.

  (You are welcome to e-mail your answers and/or comments to us. Please be sure to include the course name and Independent Study Module number in your e-mail to us. Or, you are also welcome to use the answer form below.)

1. Describe how the evolving Life improves its vehicles.
2. Who are the stragglers of our live wave?
3. What are the only two paths open to evolving life?
4. What relation do the anthropoids have to human beings?
5. What is true concerning the confines of each life wave?
6. What is the acme of degeneration of all forms?
7. What does a study of the human ovum reveal in regard to evolution?