ACQUIRINGFIRST-HANDKNOWLEDGE 457
consciousness of any species is in proportion to the
development of the bony frameworkwithin. The Ego must
have the solid bones with the semi-fluid red marrow, in
order to be able to build the red blood corpuscles for its
expression.
That is the highest development of the dense body. It
signifies nothing in this connection that the highest class of
animals have an internal bone formation similar to man's,
but still have no indwelling spirit. They belong to a different
stream of evolution.
THE LAW OF ASSIMILATION
The Law of Assimilation allows no particle to be built
into our bodies that we, as spirits, have not overcome and
made subject to ourselves. The forces active along these
lines are, as we remember, principally our “dead,” who have
entered “heaven” and are learning there to build bodies to
use here, but they work according to certain laws that they
cannot circumvent. There is life in every particle of food that
we take into our bodies, and before we can build that life
into our bodies by the process of assimilation, we must
overcome and make it subject to ourselves. Otherwise there
could be no harmony in the body. All parts would act
independently, as they do when the co-ordinating life has
been withdrawn. That would be what we call decay, the
process of disintegration, which is the direct opposite of
assimilation. The more individualized is the particle to be
assimilated, the more energy will it require to digest it and
the shorter time will it remain before seeking to reassert
itself.
Human beings are not organized in such a manner that
they can live upon solid minerals. When a purely mineral
substance, such as salt, is eaten, it passes through the body