Did man evolve from lower life forms or did God make man in the finished form?Hilarion: The question assumes that man is a life form that either had to evolve from an initial, more primitive species, or was made fully manifest in his present form. Neither of these concepts express the full truth of the matter.
In order to explain, we must sketch the theory of lifestreams, so that the reader will grasp the nature of the energies and categories that the question evokes.
Mankind is a single lifestream which has had many earlier experiences in forms other than human, but which is now concentrating on the lessons which the human form can teach.
For example, the lifestream which is now humanity on this planet has undergone a mineral manifestation, one in the vegetable kingdom, and another as an animal genus including a number of species. However, these more elementary learning phases in the past, the lessons have been mastered and the karma arising from the earlier manifestations has been set aside.
Each lifestream, as we point out in Other Kingdoms, is "breathed forth" from the sea of spirit, sometimes called "the body of God," to begin its sequence of life-form experiences. These follow normally in the order: air, mineral, vegetable, animal, man. It is important to realize that the essence of the life stream exists apart from any dependence upon any given form whether animal, mineral, man or whatever. The essence is never lost and has neither a beginning nor an end.
The forms which any lifestreams inhabits are merely tools for learning and are not to be considered a special or unique characteristic of the life-stream.
Now, the human form which man now uses for learning on the earth plane has been the preferred form for only some ten million years- a period much shorter than the animal phase was, for example, and vastly shorter than the mineral, at least as man now measures time. But, length of time is not the most significant factor. What is important is the rapidity of the learning that any particular phase can offer to the life-stream.
Generally speaking, the phase of man allows much faster assimilation of important lessons, whereas the mineral and vegetable phases are more difficult to learn through and require more time. The reason for explaining the background to this question is now plain: the form which this lifestream is currently using, being merely one of a series of forms, is not as important as the realization that the essence of man is the lifestream as a whole. Having stated that, however, we, do wish to give some understanding of the process through which the current model of man was developed for the lifestream.
When the lifestream began its phase as man, it couldn't immediately inhabit a complex, rational and and sensitive vehicle such as the current physical body which humanity uses. The previous experiences of the life stream had not prepared it to think consciously or to feel at the depth which is now common. Only the physical sensations were to some extent familiar. Therefore, there had to be a long period of acclimation to the basic pattern of man, and this had to take place without any profound experience of rational thought or emotional sensitivity. These latter characteristics, it was known, would develop slowly with the passage of time and the accumulation of experience.
Hence, the first manifestation of this lifestream as man on the earth utilized an aetheric form (as it would now be considered), of the general configuration of man, but with only a single eye. The fragments of the lifestream inhabiting these creatures were not thinking, rational entities, but rather functioned largely upon the psychic levels to keep in tune with each other.
Indeed there was little concept of separateness as between the different units, since they all felt still that they were essentially one entity, namely the lifestream itself.
In order to instill a sense of individuality, many adventures and phases had to be experienced. Many of these are hinted at in the material in which Edgar Cayce brought through psychically. Still, other experiences were intended to contribute to man an emotional, affectional nature and then later phases were planned so that the spark of rationality and intellect could be fanned into flame. We have not the space required to detail all of these fascinating adventures as they actually happened. Soon, however the true records of the human race will be discovered, and they will reveal what we have hinted at.
Finally, we may address the original question: how man attained his present life-form.
The form has gone through many changes as it is adapted to the advances of intellect and emotion which the life-stream was mastering. However, these changes would never have arisen merely through Darwinian "natural selection," and "the survival of the fittest." In a world where physical prowess determined aptitude for mere physical survival, the Darwinian process would have allowed the strongest and more brutish types to predominate, and the genetic inheritance from these individuals would not have been one that would have allowed the flowering of the intellect or the blossoming of the emotional nature.
In order to permit these special adaptations, certain additional strains of "man" were fed into the genetic pool at various times in man's history. When it was necessary to to give man a greater capacity for rational and abstract thought, a strain of human from a particular sun-system was imported and mixed genetically with man as he then was on this planet. When an increase in emotional sensitivity was to be bought into manifestation, another genetic strain was brought and so on.
We understand that what we have set out above will not sit well with many who wish to take the words of Genesis literally, namely that God made man in his image. However, we have explained elsewhere that the underlying occult meaning of this phrase is that man possesses the Triangle of Being, i.e. the capacity for physical, emotional and mental experience, thus manifesting at his own level the same categories as are found in the Highest Creator; represented as God The Father, The Christ, and the Holy Ghost.
At a more simple level, this phrase in Genesis should be read in the plural. (As it is in the original Hebrew:Elohim) that the gods made man in their image. This part of the scriptures, as so many others, was meant to be true at several levels simultaneously. Hence, in addition to the meaning relating to the Triangle of Being, there is also the interpretation according to which the "gods" i.e certain advanced humanoids from another star- system, using techniques of genetic engineering , literally "made" a new and more advanced life- form for the human lifestream to work through. The new form being one very close to their own image because certain of their genetic characteristics were transplanted into the human stock as it then was.
We have attempted here to detail some of the vast concepts behind the simple query as to man's current form. However, we have no wish to detract from the fundamental and eternal notion that "man," stems from God ultimately, and that in the last analysis it is God who has made not only man, but everything that has manifested in Creation. He makes each lifestream. He projects the environment for that stream to inhabit and through lesser beings to whom He has entrusted the task and given the great privilege of creating life forms he brings into being the perfect vehicles at the just the right times to allow the lifestream to progress spiritually at the fastest rate.
"More Answers" Hilarion through Maurice Cooke