Seven lectures given by Alice Bailey are brought together in this book of seven chapters under the headings:

1. The Field of Evolution.

2. The Evolution of Substance.

3. The Evolution of Form, or Group Evolution.

4. The Evolution of Man, the Thinker.

5. The Evolution of Consciousness.

6. The Goal of Evolution.

7. Cosmic Evolution.

The scientific relation of matter and consciousness is discussed as evolution progressively affects the atomic substance of all forms, subjective and objective.

The purpose of the lectures was to present "the testimony of science" to this relationship and "to observe the manifestation of these relations and of certain basic laws in successively higher states of being, thus to bring a realization of the universality of the evolutionary process and its actuality." They serve as an introduction to the more detailed study and application of the laws of life and human unfoldment generally included in the term "occultism".

Much progress has been made in atomic science and in man's knowledge of the structure of the universe, the constitution of man, and the relation between the two.

This book provides an intelligible basis for a study of consciousness in depth and in right relation to the life pattern of the universe. The "atom" emerges as a minute but complete replica of the energy structure common to all forms of life—cosmic, planetary, human and subhuman.

Groupings and relationships are shown as they exist on a small and on a vast scale within the evolutionary process, and the effects of energy interplay on the whole structure of consciousness.

The teachings and sayings of the Christ are quoted to cement the inescapable link between the scientific and the philosophical, or religious aspects of divinity.

Each divine principle can be expressed in terms which relate to any human attribute or activity.

Here is the synthesis of life in form.