THE THEORY OF LIFE
From Dorothy’s Last Journal Entry
December 1932
“ As this theory gradually evolved, It seemed more and more clear to me that it is necessary to think of Life as one great indestructible whole, and to banish the common conception of lives as separate and complete entities. Life, as it appears to me, is the greatest, most wonderful and complex of natural forces, but like all others it can be demonstrated only through certain suitable media…
So it seems to me with all living forms. While they remain in a state sufficiently perfect and have not been disconnected from the current of life, they will demonstrate life, i.e. live. The current was first applied, or rather carried on in the first unicellular state, and will continue until either the body becomes damaged and imperfect, or life is suspended for a sufficient length of time so that it becomes disconnected...
Hence, so-called souls are not so larger or smaller than others. Ourselves merely demonstrate life less or more perfectly according to the adequacy of our bodies, the suitability of our surroundings. According to the degree of development and perfection of the living organism, is the demonstration of life. The Human body is the greatest of the organisms, with its highly developed brain, demonstrates life more brightly and deeply, and shows a higher attribute —consciousness. But the life demonstrated is not merely part of, but is the same as that demonstrated by monkeys, animals and all living things, including the insects and plants. That is no special creation separated from other animals by possessing that thing which is the conception of his own mind —a soul….
So the story of evolution unfolds, life shines more clearly and brightly in these forms which more clearly approach the perfect and whose existence is maintained at the expense of the less perfect forms.”
—Dorothy Hughes Popenoe