THE
HUMAN SOUL AND THE ANIMAL SOUL
Lecture
by Dr. Rudolf Steiner Berlin, November 10, 1910
You
may have noticed that the lecture today on “The Human Soul
and the Animal Soul” is to be followed by another in a week's
time on “The Human Spirit and the Animal Spirit.” The
reason why spirit and soul must be dealt with in two separate
lectures will not become completely clear until the next lecture has
been given. In the meantime let it be emphasized that when life and
existence are viewed in the light of spiritual science, the task is
in one respect more difficult than it is in modern science as we know
it today, where concepts and ideas which — if things are to be
truly comprehended — must be kept separate, are thrown
together. And it will be realized that the riddles connected with
soul and spirit in animal and in man cannot be solved unless the
distinction between soul and spirit is clear and unambiguous.
When we speak of “soul” in the sense of spiritual
science, the idea of inwardness, of inner experience, is
always bound up with this concept. And when we talk of “spirit”
with reference to the world around us, we are clear that in
everything we can see or with which we can be confronted, there is a
manifestation of spirit. Man would find himself involved in a strange
self-contradiction were he not to take for granted the presence of
spirit in all the phenomena of existence around him. Without falling
into disastrous self-contradiction, nobody can have an intelligent
grasp of the external world unless he admits that what he eventually
finds in his own spirit concerning this external world — the
concepts and ideas he acquires in order to understand outer phenomena
— has something to do with the things themselves. If when a man
believes he has learned anything from the concepts he has formed
about the things of the outer world, he will not admit that there
lives in these concepts something that is contained in the things
themselves, he can never advance to knowledge — if he is to be
true to himself and understand the nature of his own acts of
cognition. He alone can speak of knowledge in the real sense who says
to himself: “What I can ultimately discover and retain, what I
can bring to realization in my spirit in acts of knowledge, must be
contained, primarily, in the things themselves. And insofar as I take
something into my spirit from the things of the world, no matter to
which kingdom they belong, then in all kingdoms I must presuppose the
existence of spirit.”
This acknowledgment, of course, will not always be forthcoming. But
it can only fail to be made when a man has given way to the
self-contradiction referred to above. Therefore in speaking of
“spirit” we realize that it reveals itself in all worlds,
and we try to understand how it pours into, becomes manifest, in
these worlds. We speak differently of “soul.” We speak of
“soul” when the spiritual — that which we
assimilate with our intellect, our reason, and through which we
cognize things — when a being experiences the spirit inwardly.
We ascribe soul to a being which not only takes in but inwardly
experiences spirit, creates out of the spirit. Thus we speak of the
soul only when spirit is active in a being confronting us. In this
sense we find spirit inwardly creative in man and in animal.
If one clings to current ideas it is easy to disavow many things and
above all to disavow the results of spiritual investigation which
make it clear that man is not a single-membered but a many-membered
being. There are, of course, very many people today — one can
well understand this, one can feel with them and discern what is in
their minds — who, from their point of view, have reason to be
skeptical when it is said as the outcome of spiritual investigation
that man must be thought of as composed not only of the physical body
that is perceived through the senses and investigated by science, but
also of a higher body, the so-called “etheric body” or
“life-body” — which is not to be associated with
the hypothetical ether of physics. Equally, according to spiritual
science, there is a third member of the human being; namely, the
astral body; and also a fourth member, the “Ego,” the
“I.”
If the existence of these members is not acknowledged, it is
extremely easy, from the standpoint of modern scientific research, to
deny the validity of what is stated by spiritual science; it is easy
because before the validity of these things can be recognized the
whole character and method of spiritual-scientific research must to
some extent be understood.
To the spiritual investigator himself, these four members of the
human being — physical body, etheric or life body, astral body
and ego — that is to say, one visible and three invisible,
super-sensible, members — are realities because he has developed
the faculties slumbering in his soul in such a way that he can
perceive the “higher” bodies of man just as ordinary eyes
can perceive the physical body. These “higher” members of
man are realities, and as invisible members underlie the visible
member, the physical body. But although they are perceptible
realities only to the spiritual investigator, it may nevertheless be
said that thinking can apprehend what is meant when reference is made
to these higher members of man's being. In the etheric body the
spiritual investigator recognizes the bearer of all the phenomena of
life, of the living, in man. Death ensues when the physical body is
deserted by the etheric or life body. Therefore the spiritual
investigator sees in this etheric or life body that which prevents
the physical body from coming under the sway of the physical and
chemical forces active in the physical body. The moment death occurs
the physical body becomes a combination of purely chemical and
physical forces and processes. That the human body during life is
extricated from the sway of these chemical and physical processes
which take possession of it immediately [after] death occurs, is due to the
etheric or life body. During life the etheric body wrenches the
chemical and physical substances and forces from their purely
physical operations and surrenders them again to these physical
activities only at the moment of death.
It is very easy to argue against this, but these arguments fall to
the ground when the matter is more deeply understood. Quite apart
from the fact that the etheric body is a reality to the spiritual
investigator, logical thinking will itself disclose that a living
organism is inconceivable without the existence of an etheric or life
body. Therefore in spiritual science we ascribe an etheric body also
to the plants. We say: Whereas man has still higher super-sensible
members — the astral body and the “I” — the
plant has only physical body and etheric body; and a mineral, as we
see it in the outer world, consists of physical body only.
Of the animal we say that an astral body is membered in the physical
body and etheric body — associating with these terms for the
time being nothing beyond what has just been said.
In the astral body, the spirit which, in the crystal, for example,
produces the structure, becomes inward, inwardly and
organically formative. In an animal the sense organs, the functions
of the animal soul, arise out of the inner organization itself.
Whereas in the mineral the spirit expends itself in elaborating the
form, it remains inwardly alive in the animal. And we speak of this
inner, living activity, this existence of the spirit within the
animal organization itself, as an activity of the astral body. But of
man we say that in him the astral body is also permeated by an “I,”
an ego, and we shall presently see what significance this has for
human life.
What do we really mean when we speak of “spirit”? We
ascribe to spirit that reality which we ourselves experience, as it
were, in our intelligence. Through our intelligence we execute
one thing or another; we bring the forces of different beings into an
ensemble. This creative intelligence of ours has a particular
characteristic. In that it enters into us in temporal existence, and
is a creative force, we form a concept of intelligence, of reason, of
creative intelligence, and then we look at the universe around us. —
We should have to be very shortsighted before we could possibly
ascribe intelligence, all that we call “spirit,” to
ourselves alone. The incapacity to penetrate the riddles of existence
is due, fundamentally, to the fact that man is nevertheless prone to
ascribe intelligence to himself alone and can never answer the
question: How comes it that I am able to apply intelligence to
existence. But when we look around us and see that the things of
space and time manifest in such a way that our intelligence can
apprehend the existence of law, then we say: What lives within us as
intelligence is also outspread in space and time, is actively at work
in space and time. When we look at the lifeless realm of nature, we
say that there the spirit is, as it were, frozen into matter, that
our intelligence can apprehend, can lay hold of what comes to
expression in the forms, in the law-determined workings of matter —
and thereby we have in our intelligence a kind of reflection of the
spirit weaving and working through the world. If we thus contemplate
the spirit in the great universe, and then compare the way in which it
is frozen, as it were, in the lifeless realm of existence with the
way it confronts us in the animal, we say to ourselves: If we look at
any particular animal, we see before us a self-enclosed existence,
creative in the same way as the spirit outspread in space and time is
creative. And a feeling will dawn in us of why those who knew what
they were doing called this spirit working actively in the animal,
the “astral body.” They turned their eyes to the great
universe through which the stars move in their courses and which men
apprehend through their intelligence, and they said: “The
spirit lives in the ordering of the universe and in a single animal
organism we see a certain conclusion, we see the spirit confined
within the space bounded by the animal's skin.” That
which is active in the animal and is identical with what is outspread
in space and time, they designated as the “astral body”
in the animal organism.
Now between a dim feeling of the kinship of what comes to expression
in the animal with what is spread out in space and time, and the
knowledge resulting from strict investigation carried out by
spiritual science, there is a long, long path. But this feeling is a
trustworthy guide and it will enable many a man, before he himself is
capable of this investigation, to perceive the truth of what the
spiritual investigator says. When we observe how this spirit which
with wonder and awe we see outspread in time and space, works in the
animal, we can say: In the animal we see springing forth from its
very organism the spiritual activity which is made manifest in all
the laws of spatial and temporal existence. There is no need to study
strange or rare phenomena, for those lying close at hand will
suffice. A man of discernment need not go far field to perceive how,
from the activity of animals, there go forth workings of the
spiritual which are also to be discovered in the whole range of
existence. — When he sees the wasp building its nest, he says
to himself: There I can see intelligence springing forth as it were,
from the animal organization itself; the intelligence which I
perceive out yonder in the cosmos when I direct my own intelligence
to the laws of existence, that same intelligence I perceive in the
spirit that is working in the animal organization. Observing the
activity of this spirit in the animal organization — no matter
where — he will say with truth: This spirit that is active in
the animal organization, this inwardness of the spirit in the animal,
far surpasses what man is able to produce in the way of intelligence!
An example lying near to hand has often been mentioned. — What
a long time man has had to wait in the course of his existence before
his own intelligence rendered him capable of producing paper! Think
of the forces of intelligence which man was obliged to apply and
master in his own soul life before he was able to produce paper. You
can read in any simple textbook of history what a great event it was
when men succeeded in making paper. But the wasps have been able to
do it for thousands of years! For what is to be found in the wasps'
nest is exactly the same as what man produces as “paper.”
So we see unmistakably that what flows out of man's
intelligence in his struggle for existence, springs from the animal
organism with full vigour of life. But as people generally go the
wrong way to work, they have been indulging for a long time in
strange speculation as to whether the animal is intelligent or not
intelligent — never noticing that the essential point has been
ignored. For the question cannot be whether the animal is or is not
intelligent, but whether in all that it accomplishes, the animal
unfolds what man can perform only through his intelligence. Then the
answer can be given that in the animal there is an inwardly creative
and powerful intelligence, operating directly out of animal life. And
it will then be possible to have an inkling of what the spiritual
investigator observes in the astral body and which he sees inwardly
and outwardly active in the animal, in that the intelligence is
creative in the organism itself, and creates from out of the
organism. The spiritual investigator speaks of the astral body when
there are present in the organism, organs which, through their
activity, accomplish something that man can accomplish only through
his intellect. And we see how this inner, spiritual activity is
distributed as it were among the different animals, how it comes out
in the faculties and skill of the various animal species. One species
can do this, another that — and this is due to differentiation
of the astral body in the various animal species.
We come now to consideration of the individual activity of the spirit
in the animal organism. This inner working of the spirit in an
organism, this experiencing of the spirit in its activity, is what we
call soul experience. Now when we study this soul experience
without bias or preconceptions, we find that it develops quite
differently in man and in the animal. A great deal has been and is
still being said on the subject of instinct in the animal and
conscious activity in man. It would be well, in this connection, to
cling less to words and to keep the real point more in mind —
to try to understand the nature of instinct. Our study has already
shown that instincts may far outstrip human intelligence, and that
the qualities here brought into evidence are not to be connected with
the word “instinct” in its ordinary sense. Man is so
ready to ask in his infinite pride: “Am I not greatly superior
to the animal?” But he would also do well to ask: “In
what respect have I remained behind the animal?” Then he would
find that he has remained behind the animal in respect of many
faculties — faculties which are innate in the animal, but which
man, if he is to develop them himself, has to acquire and master by
dint of effort.
Man comes into existence at birth as a helpless being, whereas when
the animal is born, natural forces abound in its organism and it
brings with it as inherited “capital,” as it were, what
enables it to live as it has to live. We do not, of course, ignore
the fact that, to begin with, the animal too has much to learn. —
The chick is able to peck as soon as it is born but cannot at once
distinguish between what is good or not good for it, between what it
can or cannot digest. But that is only for a short time. The point is
that certain faculties of the animal come into evidence in a way
which makes it obvious that they lie in the line of heredity, they
are truly innate, and they emerge at the proper time. The fact that
some faculty does not begin to function until a particular time is no
proof that it could have been acquired only after cultivation. The
whole organization of animals and also of plants makes it obvious
that something which lies in the line of heredity can emerge only
when the organization of the being in question has already been in
existence for a considerable time. Just as a human being gets his
second teeth without having to wait until he himself acquires them by
his own efforts, so it is with certain faculties and abilities of the
animal. These faculties come into evidence only later, but for all
that they belong to heredity. Take the hermit crab as an example.
When it has lived for a time it has the urge to search for a snail
shell, because the back of its body is too soft to be a firm support.
This search for a snail shell in order to have protection for the
back of its body is undertaken at a definite time out of the urge of
self preservation, but then it occurs with certainty — that is
to say, it is innate in the very organization of the hermit crab.
Thus the moment the animal comes into existence we can perceive the
whole circuit of its life in broad outline; the manner in which the
animal is to develop is laid down at the moment of its birth and is
then further elaborated. In this process of development and
elaboration we recognize the activity of the spirit, and in the way
in which the animal participates in the process we recognize its life
of soul.
If the expression is not misunderstood, one could call the soul life
of the animal an “enjoyment of the spirit within the organism,”
and if we keep this idea in mind it will be a great help in
characterizing this soul life. But then we shall see — for the
time being we will confine ourselves to the higher animals —
that this experiencing of spiritual activity by the animal is largely
expended inwardly, that it lives itself out inwardly. Soul experience
in the animal consists in the hankerings of its organs, in the
cravings of its organs — and especially in the activity of
those organs that are directed to the inner life. An inkling of how
the animal as it were “enjoys” the work of the spirit
within it can be gained — although full clarity can be reached
only by spiritual investigation — by observing an animal
engaged in the process of digestion. While an animal is digesting its
food, that is to say, is experiencing the inner activity of the
spirit, it has its greatest feelings of well being. In its soul, the
animal experiences the inner, bodily reality in which the spirit is
directly at work. Thus in the animal kingdom, soul experience is in a
certain way bound up with the bodily nature. It is a delightful sight
to see a herd of cattle lying down to digest immediately after
grazing and to observe the soul life that is kindled in each animal.
This experience is even more intense in animals which sink into a
kind of digestive sleep. They are then experiencing the activity of
the spirit in their organs.
In the animal, the activity of the spirit is closely knit to the
organization. In that the spirit has built up a certain sum total of
organs, the animal has to bring to expression the manner in which the
spirit has worked in and is manifest in the organs; and it is not
possible for the animal to go beyond the bounds of the spirit
manifesting in the organs. When we observe the outer, psychic life
functions, the outer life processes of the animal in this or that
species, we see how closely the expressions of soul life are bound up
with its inner organization, that is to say, with what has been
wrought in the animal by the spirit. If we notice under what
conditions an animal shows fear, we can say: When it shows fear, this
is due to its particular organization. Again, when an animal shows a
tendency to thieve, we can say the same.
What has here been said from the standpoint of spiritual science has
been well put in the essay entitled “Is the Animal a Being of
Intelligence?” by Zell, a writer of great value in the realm of
research into the animal soul. Although this short essay is written
from a different standpoint, it gives most useful examples of how
psychic experience in animals is bound up with their organization,
and it can be taken as confirmation of what the spiritual
investigator discovers from quite another side.
Soul life in the animals is graduated in many variations in the
different animals because, in creating the organs, the spirit has in
each case given them a particular stamp. But we see that the
spiritual activity of creation — which is anchored in the
astral body — expends itself in organic formations, in what the
animal actually brings with it into the world. In creating these
specific formations, the spirit expends itself. The animal brings
with it into the world what it is able to bring and what existence
allows it to experience. It can go very little beyond this. This is
evidence that the spirit has spent itself, has poured itself out, in
the fashioning of the organs. In the formation of the organs,
however, the species of animal is revealed to us. Therefore to the
question: “What is it that the animal enjoys and experiences in
its life of soul?” we can answer: From birth until death the
animals' experiences are determined by its species. — It
experiences in its soul life, and from out of its own organism, what
it has been given by the spirit to accompany it into existence.
Goethe was one who reflected deeply about the life of the animals and
of man and he wrote these fine words: “The animals are
instructed by their organs — so said the men of old. I add to
that: men, too, but they have the advantage of being able to instruct
their organs afresh.” (Letter to Wilhelm von Humboldt, 17th
March, 1802.)
These are words of great profundity. Of what is an animal capable in
life? What its organs make possible. And so an animal is nervous,
courageous or cowardly, rapacious or gentle, according to how the
spirit has poured itself into its organization. The creative activity
of the spirit has poured itself into its organization. The creative
activity of the spirit in its organs is mirrored in the soul life and
soul experiences of the animal. This means that soul experience in
the animal is confined within its species; it cannot go beyond the
species, the genus; it experiences itself as species, as genus.
Contrast with this, man's life of soul. Man's life of
soul as it comes to expression in his willing, his feeling, his
thinking, in his cravings, his interests and in his intelligence, is
something that when he enters existence at birth is not
bestowed upon him by heredity and cannot be passed on by the man
himself to his descendants. Far too little attention is paid to this
latter fact. Yet it is of infinite importance, a fact upon which all
observation of life should be based, and which may be put in somewhat
the following way. — As soon as an animal or human being has
acquired the power to reproduce his kind, the development of the
etheric body is, to a certain point, complete. This etheric body has
the power to bequeath what it contains within it to the descendants.
But if a human being lives beyond this point he cannot bequeath to
his descendants faculties which still remain to be developed. That is
obvious. The moment a human being reaches puberty, he possesses all
the faculties upon which hereditary transmission depends. Therefore
faculties which remain capable of development after the time
of puberty cannot be possessed by man in the same way as those which
originated in the etheric body and can be transmitted by heredity.
This is a cardinal truth of which sight must never be lost.
An important consideration in the study of human life is that from
birth to death a man is capable of learning new languages, and what
is equally significant is that if a man were to grow upon a distant,
uninhabited island, he could not develop this faculty at all. The
same applies to the faculty of forming concepts, and the development
of the mental picture of the “I.” These are things which
have nothing to do with heredity, and which cannot be transmitted by
heredity, because they do not belong to the species or genus. In what
does not belong to heredity, in faculties that remain capable of
development beyond and apart form heredity, man has something that is
not conditioned by the species or genus, but belongs to the
individuality. And in the faculty of speech, in the
possibility of forming ideas, and in the experience of the Ego
concept, there lies what man himself so brings into the world that by
means of it he instructs his organs afresh, teaching them what they
have not yet received, but which they must acquire.
This is a “transaction” between the human being and the
spirit, lying beyond the horizon of what he is able to experience.
Its results cannot be transmitted nor received into the qualities
which lie within the line of heredity. Man unfolds something which
cannot flow into the species, which is removed from the species.
Insofar as man is a generic being, he has inherited all the faculties
accruing to him as a generic being, just as the animal has inherited
them; only he does not inherit as much skill, as much spirit, as does
the animal. There is still something besides, which man can acquire
as individuality. And the life of the spirit connected with these
non-inherited qualities, constitutes his soul experiences —
which transcend those of the animal. In that man enjoys the fruits of
his work and activity insofar as they are acquired in life through
qualities that are not inherited, he unfolds a life of soul
transcending that of the animal.
Man comes into existence with less skill than the animal. He is less
skillful for the reason that the transaction with the spirit cannot
be undertaken until some time after birth, whereas in the animal it
has already been completed. Thus in its life of soul the animal
enjoys what heredity can bequeath to it. That is to say, the soul
life of the animal points to the past. And the moment we see
the soul life of the animal passing into death, all that the animal
can experience through its species also passes into death. Everything
that is individual soul experience in the animal is something that
has come to it from the past. In its existence the animal expends its
life of soul and there is no basis for immortality. On the other
hand, what is experienced in the animal soul lives on, ever and
again, in the life of the species. Therefore in the sense of
spiritual science we speak of a species — soul of the animal,
which constantly arises anew, constantly lives on within the species.
No one who desires clear concepts can deny the justification of this.
The work of the spirit in the animal genus and species is experienced
in the single animal individuality. But we see, too, that this
experience points to the past, and that the very moment this past is
exhausted, when the soul life must go towards death, towards its
ending, the sunset glow begins.
It is different when, without preconceived ideas, we observe the soul
life of man. There we see that when man is born, something comes with
him that has not been expended in his organs; we see how he
works further upon his organs, how he really teaches his organs. From
this, however, we realize that in his individual life man is in
direct interconnection with the spirit; he experiences in his life of
soul not only what is transmitted to him by the past, but also what
comes from outside to meet him in life, what is presented to him
directly as spirit.
Thus man's life of soul is twofold: like the animal, his soul
experiences the species to which he belongs as a human being; this he
lives out as a being of the past, and it is this that goes forward to
death when the spirit withdraws from the organs, when the organs
begin to lignify, to wither away. But man's own dealings with
the spirit do not belong to his organs; this is something that man
has taken into his etheric body independently of the organs.
Hence it is something that does not relegate him to the past that is
inherited but is a seed for further life. In the measure in which we
see that the inner man emancipates himself from his organs, that is
to say, becomes individual, in that same measure we can say with
logical truth that here we see the immortal part of man crystallize
out of the bodily life.
So do we learn to feel that this grows in the human being,
whereas in respect of what has been inherited he experiences the past
in his life of soul. Thus there grows in man something that goes
forward to the future that cannot be absorbed into the line of
heredity. This is evident if we observe the life of soul in man and
in animal. We see how closely the soul life of the animal is bound to
its organism, how closely its faculties and skill, indeed all its
experiences, are bound up with its organs and with its inherited
characteristics. We can rightly observe the soul life of the animal
only when we look for it in the self enjoyment of its bodily nature.
That is the essential point. We see very little of the essential
nature of an animal by watching the delight it takes in the outer
world — but a great deal when we observe how it experiences its
own digestion. The highest level of experience in the soul life of an
animal lies within the boundaries of the organs. In its soul
experiences the animal spends itself within its organization; and
what remains to it for its outer life is significant for the animal
only insofar as it can be experienced inwardly in its life of soul.
It is of course the case — and this is also confirmed by the
spiritual investigator — that the heights where the eagle
passes its existence do give rise to experiences in its life of soul.
But this experience lies in the activity of what lives in its organs
and comes to expression within them. In man, soul experience
emancipates itself from the inner enjoyment, the inner experiencing
of the organs — and man has to pay the price for this. The
animal has a certain security in its instincts; it knows which food
is harmful and which is good for it. The animal injures itself very
much less than it is injured by man. Animals are injured most of all
when man keeps them in captivity. But in the freedom of nature, when
the animal follows what is innate in its organism, its instincts are
unerring, because it is so closely united with its organs. The human
being, on the other hand, emancipates himself from his organs; and
the consequence is that he can no longer directly adhere to what is
good or bad for him. He becomes insecure. And whereas the animal
displays passions that are in keeping with its organs, the human
being unfolds passions which are possibly far more injurious and are
not fitting for his organs. Whereas the spider spins its web with
unerring certainty and it would be absurd to talk to it of reasoning,
man is obliged to think a great deal before he can perfect any
handiwork. For he can make great errors. Man's life of soul has
emancipated itself from his bodily nature, but at a cost.
But man can unite with the spirit from the other side; he can receive
into his soul what the spirit conveys to him. He is able to receive
the spirit without the spirit having first to pour through the
organs, through the bodily nature, whereas the animal is dependent
upon how the spirit pours into its organs. The animal experiences
within itself how the spirit flows into its organs. Man, on the other
hand, wrests his organs away form the life of soul and thus
experiences the direct inpouring of the spirit into his soul.
Once we have grasped what the spirit really is and how the spirit
lives itself out within the soul, these things are of infinite
significance. We shall, however, have to wait for the lecture on
“Human Spirit and Animal Spirit” before they can be fully
clarified. But when we think about the inner life of soul we get a
feeling of the difference between man and animal if we contrast the
inward bodily life of the animal soul with the outward bodily life of
the human soul. Because of this outward bodily life, the human soul
can become spiritually more inward. The fact that the human soul can
delight in the things of the external world, can take in what the
spirit in its external manifestations says to the soul, man owes to
the circumstance that his soul has emancipated itself from the bodily
nature, has separated from the inward bodily experience of the spirit
and has gained the certainty of experiencing the spirit itself at the
cost of uncertainty and lack of skill, of imperfectly developed
instincts.
It is quite easy to say: How is it possible to speak of an animal
“soul,” since “soul” implies the notion of
inwardness and man cannot look into the inner life of another being.
The people who base themselves on this glib objection are the very
ones who refuse to listen to any talk of soul experience, because —
so they contend — soul experience can only be “within
ourselves” and can therefore be inferred in another being only
by analogy. But if these things are taken as they really are and not
talked about in the abstract, it is quite clear that the very way a
being lives reveals what it actually experiences inwardly. Anyone who
refuses to believe that a being lives according to what it
experiences inwardly will be incapable of any real observation of the
world. Admittedly, without demonstration, there is no absolute
guarantee in direct observation that the animal experiences something
in its life of soul when it shows pleasure in digesting. But a man
who compares things in the world, and does not confine his
observation to one phenomenon only, will soon recognize that there
are many good reasons for speaking in this way. Once we have acquired
a feeling of the difference of soul experience in the animal and in
the human being, this feeling and perception will help us to
understand the nature of soul life in the animal. Above all we shall
feel with greater and greater clarity how man's life of soul is
emancipated from spirit as a bodily experience. It is the
spirit that creates the organs and works in the organism, building it
into what it is, and when we speak of the building of the organs we
are speaking of the spirit as it works in the etheric body. When the
astral body inserts itself into the organization, this spirit can,
under certain preconditions, be experienced in a particular way. If
we take seriously what has been said above about physical body,
etheric body and astral body, we can say: In human beings and animals
the physical body is the lowest member of their being; the etheric
body so fashions the chemical and physical substances that they
become life processes. The etheric body lives within the physical
body, comprises and embraces the chemical and physical processes. In
all this lives the astral body, experiencing — as soul
experience — everything that is going on in the etheric body.
Thus the etheric body is the active, creative principle working on
the physical body, and the astral body is that part of the animal or
human being which experiences the deeds of the etheric body. Thus the
physical body is united with the etheric body in the building up of
the organs; and the etheric body is united with the astral body in
the inner experiencing of this upbuilding and activity of the organs.
Everything in the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral
body is mutually related.
Now what is it that evokes soul experience of a particular kind? That
which pours, as it were, over the whole inner organization in man and
animal. We can best understand this particular kind of experience by
observing it in certain circumstances. Is there anyone who is not
familiar with the characteristic form of soul experience which is
present only while the animal is growing and the size of its organs
is increasing and which stops when growth is completed? What
expresses itself there in the experience of exuberant energy is
connected with certain work that is being performed by the etheric
body on the physical body and is an indication that the work is
proceeding in the proper way. But what stands out prominently in this
condition is always present as a certain feeling of well being in the
soul, a feeling of life, of comfort or discomfort; and this depends
upon whether the etheric body has or has not command over the
physical organization, is able to master it or not. If the etheric
body is unable to assert itself properly in the physical organs, this
expresses itself in the astral body in a feeling of discomfort. But
if the activity of the etheric body can everywhere find access to the
physical organs, if that activity can take effect with the help of
the physical organs, this engenders the feeling of general well being
in men — either in a subtler or cruder form. If indigestion
occurs, this can only mean that the etheric body cannot carry out an
activity which it ought to carry out. This makes itself manifest in
the accompanying discomfort. Or let us suppose someone has so
exhausted himself by thinking that the organ of the brain “goes
on strike.” In such a case the etheric body is still able to
think, but the brain is no longer able to participate. Then the
thinking begins to cause headaches; and from there the discomfort
spreads into the general feeling of life. This is particularly
intensified when the part of the organ that is built up by the
etheric body is completely disorganized. We say then: “It is as
though the skin cannot expand when outer heat makes it want to
expand,” or, “I feel as if a burning brand is being held
to my head.” In such a case the etheric body is meeting with
resistance. Not being absorbed or seized by external impressions, it
then comes up against a physical body to which it is not adjusted,
and this expresses itself in the astral body as a feeling of pain.
So we understand “pain” in the astral body by conceiving
it as the expression of weakness of the etheric body in relation to
the physical body. An etheric body that is in harmony with its
physical body works back upon the astral body in such a way that the
feeling of well being is an inner experience of health. On the other
hand, an etheric body that is at odds with its physical body works
back upon the astral body in such a way that pain and discomfort are
bound to arise in it. Now we shall be able to realize that because in
the higher animals — it will be better to speak of the lower
animals in the next lecture — the life of soul is so intimately
bound up with the bodily nature, this soul experience will be much
more deeply felt — as will also be the case in a disordered
body — than it can be in a disordered human body.
Because the soul life of man is emancipated from the inner, bodily
experience, pain that is merely due to bodily circumstances is far
less torturing, it gnaws much less deeply into the soul than in the
higher animals. We can also observe that bodily pain in children is a
much keener psychic pain than in later life, because in the measure
in which the adult human being becomes independent of his bodily
organization, he finds in the qualities which arise immediately out
of his soul, the means to struggle against bodily pain; whereas the
higher animal, being so closely bound up with its bodily nature,
feels pain with infinitely greater intensity than man. Those who
maintain that human pain can be more intense than pain felt by the
animals, are talking without foundation. Pain in the animal is far,
far more deep-seated than purely bodily pain in man can ever be.
So we see that in rising above this bodily nature, man draws out
something from the innermost depths of his being; namely, his “I”,
his ego. That which he does not inherit, which can sustain its
existence above and apart from the species, which he must develop
more and more through his individuality — that pertains to the
ego. It is this that must enter human existence; it cannot be
imparted by heredity, for it proceeds from the human individuality
which comes from the spiritual realms into existence at birth and
after death returns again to the spiritual realms. Therefore we speak
of a core of being in man which passes on from life to life, because
we can apprehend it in actual existence, provided only that we
observe life with unprejudiced eyes.
I have tried today to indicate how it can be established from direct
experience that we may speak of a being in man who is not inherited
but enters human existence from quite another side and when what man
inherits is dissolved by death can pass into another spiritual
existence. When further principles of spiritual science are
understood, this needs no more explanation because spiritual
investigation relies on direct vision and can bring from quite
another side the proof and evidence for what was intended to be made
clear today from experiences of everyday life. But it is also
possible for spiritual science so to relate together these everyday
experiences that they reveal to us that which can establish in man
the hope — based upon observation of facts — of an
enduring life of soul that transcends bodily existence.
So we see how observation of existence everywhere confirms the words
of Goethe already quoted. Soul experience in the animal is enclosed
within the circle of its organs. The organs are everywhere the
masters, fashioned by the spirit in order that the animal can
experience a soul life in keeping with its organs and is able to make
use of them. Man, on the other hand, enters existence in such a way
that his organs themselves give him no guidance upon what he must
take from life and impress into his life of soul. But just here we
find that which gives him his guarantee of immortality, that which is
eternal because it cannot originate in heredity.
That is what Goethe meant by the words: “The animal is
instructed by its organs, but man has the advantage of being able to
instruct his organs afresh.” Anyone who understands this in the
right way — that in the course of his existence man is capable
of teaching his organs afresh — will say to himself: How a man
teaches his organs becomes manifest in the life of soul and here his
union with the spirit is revealed, a union that is indissoluble
because it does not spend itself and does not come from the past but
points the way to, and is the seed for, the future, the means whereby
man can attain that which in his soul will engender the power to
vanquish the old death in life that is ever and again renewed.
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