Theosophy contends that all organisms--including animals and human beings--and all matter "flow" from a pure spiritual formation in the Absolute to a material one over time to become materialised and that they will later return to the Absolute after the cosmic cycle of life.

As Morgan summarises: "The Secret Doctrine laid out an emanationist view of the development of the physical universe, a process of ebb and flow in which spirit gradually unfolded itself in matter, attaining consciousness,