NEUOFFENBARUNG16 March 1842
[Fl.01_004,01] We have now seen how this little creature fulfils its purpose with respect to the negative pole. Yet what we have learned is only part of its purpose on that side. It has many secondary purposes as well. A wise master of a household assigns each worker a principal duty and also provides various small, useful tasks alongside it, so that none of the worker’s activities will be wasted. Before we turn to another principal part of the creature’s work, let us learn about some of these secondary duties.
[Fl.01_004,02] My dear little ones, in summer it may often vex you to have so many flies buzzing about a room and bothering you, especially when they become particularly persistent. Yet no one should scold this little creature on that account. On just such days the flies perform an important little service, above all for people and for the domestic animals they keep. You would like to know what that useful service is. Have a little patience: a brief reminder must come first, and then you shall hear it.
[Fl.01_004,03] My dear little children, on a very warm summer’s day, especially when you notice that the mercury in the barometer stands very low, countless billions upon billions of atomic creatures are born from the low-lying ether into the atmosphere. Because of them you often see the air thicken into such a blue haze that you can scarcely make out places only a few hours away.
[Fl.01_004,04] When you breathe on such occasions, several trillions enter you each time. Though these creatures are so tiny that you would not notice a thousand million of them in a heap, the several decillions a person sometimes inhales on such a day amount to something considerable. They might well suffice to take away a person’s natural life suddenly, for these creatures are extremely dangerous to bodily life. In their effects on natural life their nature is almost that of what is called prussic acid at its most potent.
[Fl.01_004,05] We know that now, but we do not yet know what the fly has to do with it. This is precisely the secondary service of which I spoke earlier, and after this preliminary explanation you shall hear it at once.
[Fl.01_004,06] The portion of these “atomic ether creatures” that a person inhales is not the most dangerous to health. It is promptly and usefully taken up by the blood, which at that time is already short of the oxygen it needs. The situation is quite different for the portion that settles on the skin, especially where the pores are most open.
[Fl.01_004,07] When these little creatures enter there, they assume a positive character in relation to those taken up by the blood. As long as this outer pole does not outweigh the inner one, as at a moderate temperature, there is no danger. But if the outer pole outweighs the inner by even a millionth, life is in the greatest danger. A reversal of poles could then take place in the person, with the same effect as a prick from a needle dipped in the strongest prussic acid.
[Fl.01_004,08] If the outer positive pole were suddenly to exceed the inner negative pole by as much as one hundredth, there would be a sudden, visible electrical discharge. In a few moments the person might be so utterly consumed that only half a handful of foul-smelling ash would remain of the body.
[Fl.01_004,09] For the first case, consider plague diseases: they are consequences of precisely this kind. The second case is certainly rarer, but what are called spontaneous combustions are by no means unheard of, especially in southern countries.
[Fl.01_004,10] Now that we know this, let us look at our little household workers and observe what they do.
[Fl.01_004,11] Our fly also has a pair of eyes so large in proportion to the creature that they account for nearly a seventh of its whole being. Each eye is itself made up of more than a thousand little eyes. These are arranged as regularly as the cells of a beehive. Each tapers to a point like a cone, and all converge on a common point of sight. They thus serve the little creature as a microscope of incomprehensible magnifying power, with which it can see every one of the atomic creatures already mentioned.
[Fl.01_004,12] Its stomach is also so constituted that these little creatures are a principal food for it. Whenever a fly sees a cluster of these atomic creatures on a person’s skin, it flies there at once and is unlikely to leave until it has devoured what it found.
[Fl.01_004,13] Besides its eyes, the little creature has a pair of small antennae that serve as its nose. It can use its eyes only at short distances, but its antennae often serve it at very great distances. I tell you, some flies can smell food they like from hours away by means of these antennae.
[Fl.01_004,14] See, My dear little children, here is another wonder of this little creature, the secondary purpose of its existence that we set out to consider.
[Fl.01_004,15] Is that not a very useful service? Indeed, take this to heart: if in any place, especially in summer, this little creature suddenly disappears, you may take it as a sure sign that I am not far away with a mighty rod of correction.
[Fl.01_004,16] Just as this secondary service of the little creature now stands plainly before you, it performs several other services of this useful kind.
[Fl.01_004,17] If we wished to learn about them all in full, I would have to dictate to you for several years. But you may take it as certain that everything that exists, including the fly, is there for a thousand good purposes.
[Fl.01_004,18] So as not to draw this matter out too long, I shall show you only two more such useful secondary purposes to confirm what I have told you before we pass to the creature’s positive pole. Let that be enough again for today.
Source: Jakob Lorber, Die Fliege, German text based on the sixth edition (1988). The English translation preserves the source’s paragraph identifiers. It presents the work as a nineteenth-century spiritual text, including its historical accounts of nature.