18.1 Spiritual, mental and physical operations

The reason for these three, we saw, is that they are images of the three components of God. These components must act together if any results are to be achieved. The basic principle of operation is this: love acts by means of wisdom in order together to produce actions. They have distinct existences in the three realms, but the overall effects of operation are similar (since all of creation is an image of God).

The best way of seeing the operation of substances in the three realms is as multiple generative levels as discussed in Chapter 5. If we place them in the order shown in Table 18.1, then we have a generative sequence as we go down the list. These operations are governed by the principle of Postulate 10, where the new life being received is always in accordance with what has actually been done at each level. The successive stages of operation are:

1. God generates first the spiritual realm, where there are containing-substances which appropriate and retain love. The particular existing containing-substances select which loves from God can be appropriated and retained (by Postulate 10).
2. The spiritual realm (of loves) acts by producing new thoughts in the mental realm, where there are containing-substances which appropriate and retain ideas. The particular existing containing-substances select which ideas generated by the spiritual realm can be appropriated and retained (by Postulate 10 again).
3. The mental realm (of ideas) acts, in conjunction with the loves from the spiritual, by producing new effects in the final physical realm where there are containing-substances which appropriate and retain actions. The fact that there are such containing-substances selects which actions generated by the spiritual+mental realms can be appropriated and retained.
4. The physical realm (of actions) is the final effect of the chain and is the ‘bottom line’ or termination of all the processes. The set of effects which actually occur is the ultimate selection of which results come to full achievement.