4. "The Great One fought and entered into combat. All that He met appeared to Him a subject for display of power. Within the fourth He found a field of battle and settled down to fight. He saw the right and knew the wrong and vibrated between the two, fighting first one and then the other, but missing all the time that midway point where battle is not known. There harmony, ease, rest and peaceful silence will be found. He weakened all the forms which used His strength and power. Yet all the time He sought for beauty; searched for loveliness; and yearned for peace. Despair overtook Him in His courses, and with despair the will-to-live could not survive. Yet all the time the loveliness was there."

Here we have a strong indication as to the reason why humanity (the fourth kingdom in nature) succumbs with such rapidity and such ease to disease. The conflicts to which humanity is so constantly summoned, both in group form and as individuals, lead - until understood and used as a means to triumph and progress - to a condition of constant devitalization. Where this is present, resistance to disease fades out and practically all forms of ill health and bodily ills become possible. Diffusion of energy leads to a constant lessening of this resistance. As a result you have debility, quick and bad reaction to the disease indigenous in the planet itself, and a rapid taking on of infections and of contagious diseases. It is this energy which lies behind what we call epidemics, and influenza is one of its main expressions. [302]