Hidden Soul Powers
LECTURE BY DR. RUDOLF STEINER, DELIVERED IN MUNICH,
FEBRUARY 27, 1912
E HAVE
spoken recently of many things concerning the existence of
hidden soul depths, and it will be well in any case to continue
to occupy ourselves with various details of this subject
which it may be useful for an anthroposophist to know.
Generally speaking, it must be said that a complete
clarification of these things is possible only if it can be
worked out on the basis of anthroposophical knowledge.
We
have considered what may be called the human organization from
the most diverse viewpoints. Therefore, when we wish to point
out something in hidden soul depths, it will be easy for each
one to relate it correctly to what was shown regarding the
human structure as we know it from the more or less elementary
presentations of the anthroposophical
world-conception.
It
has been repeated that everything included in our
visualizations and percepts, our impulses of will, our
feelings, in short, all that goes on in our souls under normal
conditions between awaking in the morning and falling asleep at
night, may be called the activities, peculiarities, and powers
of the ordinary consciousness. Now we shall indicate by a
diagram all that falls within this ordinary human
consciousness, all that is known and felt and willed between
waking and sleeping, within these two parallel lines (a–b).
In
this section (a–b) belong, in addition to our
visualizations, every sort of percept. Thus, if we put
ourselves into correspondence with the outer world
through our senses, and procure thereby in every possible
sense-impression a picture of this world, remaining in
connection, in touch with it, then that belongs also to our
ordinary consciousness. But since all our feelings and impulses
of will belong to it as well, one might say that in the area
indicated by the parallel lines (a–b) everything belongs of
which our normal soul activities give us information in
everyday life.
The
point is for us to know with certainty that to this so-called
soul life the physical body is assigned as an instrument,
including the senses and the nervous system. If we add two more
to these parallel lines we may indicate the physical sense
organs and the nervous system, which we may call the tools of
this consciousness — the sense organs chiefly, but also
to a certain extent the nervous system.
Below the threshold of this ordinary consciousness lies
everything which we may describe as the hidden aspects of
soul-life, or the subconscious. (See diagram, b–c.) We shall
get a good idea of all that is, so to speak, embedded in this
subconsciousness if we remember having heard that the human
being, through spiritual training, attains to imagination,
inspiration, and intuition;
[These three terms as used by Rudolf Steiner denote three
super-sensible faculties. (Tr.)]
so we must substitute for the thoughts, feelings and impulses of
will belonging to the surface consciousness, the
imagination, inspiration, and intuition of the
subconsciousness. We know, however, also that the subconscious
activity is not aroused by spiritual training alone, but that
it may exist as inheritance of an old, primitive atavistic
state of the human mind. Under these conditions there arise
what we define as visions, and visions of this naive
consciousness would correspond to imaginations gained
through training. Premonitions arise; and these might be
primitive inspirations. We can show at once the
difference between an inspiration and a premonition by a
significant example.
We
have already mentioned that in the course of the 20th
century there will occur in human evolution what may be
called a sort of spiritual return of Christ, and that there
will be a number of persons who experience this working of
Christ from the astral plane into our world in an etheric form.
We may acquire knowledge of this event by authentic
training, recognizing the trend of evolution, and also that
this must come about in the 20th century. It may, however,
happen, as it often does at the present time, that individuals
here and there are gifted with a natural, primitive,
clairvoyance which is, so to speak, a kind of obscure
inspiration which we may call a premonition of the approach of
Christ. Perhaps such people might not have accurate
knowledge of the matter involved, but even such an important
inspiration may arise as a premonition, though in the case of a
primitive consciousness it may not retain its premonitory or
visionary character. The vision constitutes some sort of
picture of a spiritual event. Let us say, for example, that
someone has lost a friend whose ego has passed through the gate
of death. This friend now dwells in the spiritual world, and a
kind of bond establishes itself between this person and the one
still living in this world. It may be that the person in this
world cannot rightly understand what the deceased desires and
has a false idea of what is being experienced by the departed.
The fact that such a condition exists presents itself in a
vision which, as a picture, may be false though founded upon
the fact that the dead is really trying to establish a bond
with the living, and this gives weight to the presentiment so
that the living person who experiences it knows certain things,
either about the past or future, which are inaccessible to
normal consciousness. If the human soul acquires,
however, a definite perception, not a vision which may, under
the circumstances, be false, but a factual perception
— an occurrence, let us say, of the sense world, but in
this case in a sphere invisible to the physical senses, or an
incident in the super-sensible world — it is called in
occultism deuteroscopy, or second sight. With all this I
have described to you only what takes place although
subconsciously, within the human soul, whether developed by
correct training or appearing as a natural clairvoyance.
The
phenomena enumerated when contrasting the subconscious with the
ordinary consciousness, differ considerably from those confined
to the conscious mind. The relation of this ordinary
consciousness to the underlying causes of its activities
has already been described in one aspect by this phrase: the
impotence of ordinary consciousness. The eye sees a rose,
but this eye, which is so constituted that in our consciousness
the image of the rose arises has, like the consciousness
itself, no power over the blooming, growth and fading of the
rose in spite of its perception and the resultant image. The
rose blooms and fades through the activity of the forces of
nature and neither the eye nor the consciousness has any
control beyond the sphere which is accessible to their
perception.
This is not the case regarding subconscious happenings. We must
hold fast to this fact, for it is extraordinarily important.
When we perceive something through the use of our eyes in
normal sight, pictures in color or anything else, we can alter
nothing in the objective facts by mere perception. If
nothing happens to harm our eyes they remain unchanged by the
mere act of seeing; only by crossing the boundary between
normal and blinding light do we injure our eyes. Thus it may be
said that if we confine ourselves to the facts of the
normal consciousness, we do not react upon ourselves. Our
organism is so constituted that changes are not ordinarily
induced in us by this consciousness.
It
is quite otherwise with that which appears in the
subconscious. Let us assume that we are forming an
imagination, or that we have a vision which may be the response
of a good being. This good being is not in the physical, but in
the super-sensible world, and let us imagine this world where
such beings exist and which we perceive, perchance, through an
imagination or a vision, to be between these lines (b–c). In
that world we have to seek all objects of subconscious
perception. But if we identify anything in that other
world as an evil or demonic being, either through an imaginary
image or a vision, we are not, in regard to this being as
powerless as we are with the eye in regard to the rose. If in a
super-sensible imagination or vision of an evil being we develop
a strong feeling that it must depart, it is bound to feel as if
it were powerfully thrust from us. It is the same when we form
an imagination or vision of a good being. If in this case we
develop a sympathetic feeling, the being feels impelled
to approach and to connect itself with us. All beings who in
one way or another inhabit that world feel, when we form
visions of them, our attracting or repelling forces. With
our subconsciousness we are in a position resembling somewhat
that of the eye if with it we were able not only to see a rose,
but by means of simple sight could arouse a desire that the
rose approach and could draw it toward us or, if the eye,
seeing something disgusting, could not only form such a
judgment but could remove this object by mere antipathy.
The subconscious is in touch with a world in which the sympathy
and antipathy which are present in the human soul can take
effect. It is necessary for us to impress this upon our
minds.
Sympathy and antipathy, and in general all subconscious
impulses, act in the manner described not only upon their
own world, but above all upon what is within ourselves; and not
only upon a part of the etheric body, but upon certain forces
of the physical body. We must consider here as enclosed between
these lines (b–c) that living force within the human being
which, pulsing in his blood, can be called the blood warming
power and, also, the force residing in our healthy or
unhealthy breathing power, conditioned more or
less by our whole organism. (See diagram b–c.) To all this,
upon which the subconscious works within us, there belongs in
addition a large part of what is called the human etheric body.
The subconscious or hidden soul powers work within us so as to
affect our blood heat upon which depend the pulsation, the
liveliness or sluggishness of our circulation. It may thus be
comprehended that our subconsciousness is directly
connected with the circulation of our blood. A slower or
a more rapid circulation depends primarily upon the
subconscious powers of the individual.
An
influence upon the demonic or beneficent beings inhabiting the
outer world can only be exerted if the human being has visions,
imaginations, or some other sort of subconscious perception of
a certain clarity. That is to say, if they really stand before
him; only then can his sympathy or antipathy set in motion
subconscious powers that act like magic in this outer world.
This distinct standing-before-the-soul in the subconsciousness
is not necessary for the effect upon our own inner organism as
described above. (See diagram b–c). Whether the person in
question knows or does not know which imaginations correspond
to a certain sympathy, this sympathy nevertheless affects the
circulation of his blood, his breathing system, and his etheric
body.
Let
us assume that during a certain period of his life someone has
a tendency to have feelings of nausea. If he were subject to
visions or had imaginative sight, he would recognize these
visions and imaginations as perceptions of his own being; they
would appear projected into space, but would, nevertheless,
belong to his own inner world. They would represent the sort of
inner forces that produced the feelings of nausea. But even if
he could not practice this kind of self-knowledge and
were simply nauseated, these inner forces would act upon him
nevertheless. They would influence the warmth of his
blood and his forces of breathing. It is actually the case that
a human being possesses more or less healthy breathing and
circulation, according to the character of his
subconscious feelings. The activity of his etheric body
and, indeed, all his functions, are dependent upon the world of
feelings existing within him.
When, however, the facts of the subconscious mind are really
experienced by the soul, it is shown not only that this
connection exists, but that because of it a continuous effect
is produced upon the general human organism. There are certain
feelings, certain states of mind, that work down into the
subconscious and, because they call forth definite
conditions of blood, of the breathing power, and of the etheric
body, affect the organism beneficially, or obstruct the entire
life. Thus, as a result of what works down into the
subconscious, something is always arising or subsiding. The
human being either deprives himself of his life forces, or adds
to them through what he sends over from his state of
consciousness into the subconscious conditions. If he takes
pleasure in a lie he has told, if he is not horrified at it
— this being the normal feeling about lies — if
instead he feels indulgence, or even satisfaction, then what he
feels about it is sent down into his subconscious. This injures
the circulation, breathing, and the forces of the etheric body.
The result is that when this human being goes through the gate
of death he will have become stunted, poorer in forces,
something will have died in him which would have lived had he
felt the normal horror and disgust at his lie. In the
latter case, his disgust would have worked against the lie,
transformed itself into the forces here indicated (see
diagram), and he would have succeeded in sending something
enlivening, creative, into his organism.
We
see from the fact that forces are continually transferred from
the conscious to the subconscious, that the human being
contributes from this subconscious to his own
invigoration or deterioration. True, he is not yet strong
enough in his present state to spoil out of his soul, so to
speak, any other parts of his organism except the
circulation of his blood, his breathing system, and etheric
body. He cannot injure the coarser and more solid
portions, but is able to affect detrimentally one part
only of his organism. What he has injured is most
distinctly visible when what remains of the etheric body has
been influenced in this way; for the etheric body is in
constant connection with the warmth of the blood and the
constitution of the breath. It is impaired by evil feelings.
Through good, normal, and sincere feelings it gains, however,
fertilizing, strengthening and maturing powers. We may say,
therefore, that a human being, through his subconscious
activities works directly, creating or depleting, upon the
factual reality of his organism by descending from the level of
his powerless surface-consciousness, into the region
where something arises or perishes within his own soul, and
thereby in his entire organism.
We
have seen because the subconscious may be experienced more or
less consciously by the soul and something may be known about
it, that it achieves an influence in a sphere which we may
describe by an expression used throughout the Middle Ages as
the elemental world. A human being cannot enter directly
into any kind of connection with this elemental world; he can
do so only indirectly through those experiences within
himself which are effects of the subconsciousness upon
the organism. But when he has for a time learned to know
himself so as to be able to say: if you feel this, and
send down this or that emanation from your conduct into your
subconsciousness, you destroy certain things or cripple them;
if you have other experiences and send down a different
sort of reaction you improve yourself, — if a human being
for a time observes within himself this ebb and flow of
destructive and beneficent forces, he will become ever
riper in self-knowledge. This is the genuine form of
self-knowledge.
Self-knowledge gained in this manner is as definite in its
effect as would be a scorpion's sting on our toe every time we
felt in the physical world the impulse to lie or were tolerant
of lying. We may be sure that one observing such an immediate
result would cease to lie. If the direct physical effect upon
us should be a more or less serious mutilation it would
resemble what actually happens, although unperceived, through
what is sent down into the subconscious mind from these
daily experiences. What is sent down because of our
tolerant attitude toward a lie is such that it does bite off
and take away from us something the loss of which injures us
and which through our future karma we must regain. If we send
down a right feeling into the subconscious mind — there
is naturally an almost endless scale of feeling which may
descend — we grow within ourselves, create new life
forces in our organism. Such an observation of our own
up-building or deterioration is an immediate result of true
self-knowledge.
It
has been recently reported that many do not understand how to
distinguish a genuine vision or imagination
[This term as used by Rudolf Steiner, denotes a super-sensible faculty (Tr.)]
belonging to something objective from that which appears in
space but is the creation of our own subjective nature. Well,
it cannot be said: write down this or that and you will then be
able to make the distinction. There are no such rules. One
learns gradually through development; and the ability rightly
to distinguish that which belongs to ourselves alone from
that which, as outer vision, belongs to a genuine entity can be
attained only when we have endured the continual gnawing of
deadly subconscious activities. We are then equipped with a
certain assurance. Then also the condition arises in which a
human being, confronting a vision or imagination may ask
himself: Can you penetrate it through the power of your
spiritual sight? If the vision persists when this active
force is turned upon it then it is an objective fact, but if
this concentrated gaze extinguishes the vision it is proved to
be only his own creation. Anyone who, in this respect, does not
take precautions may have before him thousands of pictures from
the Akashic Record; if he does not test them to see whether or
not they can be extinguished by a resolutely active gaze, the
akashic pictures which may give so much information, count only
as images developed by his own inner nature. It could
happen, for example, that such a person sees nothing beyond
himself, externalizing himself in quite dramatic images which
he believes to extend throughout the entire Atlantean world,
throughout generations of human evolution — but which may
be, in spite of such apparent objectivity, nothing but the
projection of his own inner self.
When the human being has passed through the gate of death the
obstructions no longer exist by which something within
himself becomes an objective vision. In ordinary life of
the present day what is subconsciously experienced, sent down
by the individual human being into his subconscious mind,
does not always become vision and imagination. It becomes
imagination through correct training, and vision in the case of
atavistic clairvoyance. When the human being has passed through
the gate of death his collective inner self becomes at once an
objective world. It is there confronting him, Kamaloca
[Region of Burning Desire, or of Cleansing Fire; also Purgatory.]
being in essence nothing but a world built up
around us out of that which is experienced within our own soul.
This condition is reversed only in Devachan.
[Devachan = Heaven]
Thus we can easily comprehend what has been said regarding the
effect of sympathy or antipathy present in visions,
imaginations, inspirations and premonitions: that these
act in all cases upon the objective elemental world. Upon this
point it has been stated that in the physically incarnate
personality only that which he has developed into vision and
imagination acts upon this elemental world. In the case
of the dead the forces affect the elemental world which
were present in the subconscious mind, and which are always
taken along when a human being passes through the gate of
death, so that everything experienced after death
influences in reality the elemental world. As surely as
waves are aroused in a stream by whipping it do the
subconscious experiences transmit themselves after death
to the elemental world; as certainly as waves that are whipped
extend in flattening circles, or a current of air passes
undeterred on its way, do these forces spread over the
elemental world. Therefore this world is constantly
filled with that which is aroused by the content of the
subconscious mind which mortals take with them through
the gate of death. The point concerning us here is that we gain
the ability to bring about the conditions necessary for sight
in the elemental world. One need not wonder at the clairvoyant
when he recognizes quite correctly that occurrences in
that world are activities of the dead. It is even possible, as
you will see, to follow the effects of these after-death
experiences into the physical world — of course under
certain conditions. When the clairvoyant has gone through all
that has been described, and acquired the ability to perceive
the elemental world, he reaches then after a time a point where
he may have strange experiences.
Let
us suppose that a clairvoyant looks at a rose with his
physical eyes, and receives a sense impression. Let us
further suppose that he has trained himself so that the color
red gives him a definite shade of feeling. This is
necessary, for without it the process goes no further. Unless
colors and tones produce definite nuances of feeling when
clairvoyance is directed at an outside object, the sight
progresses no further. Suppose that he gives the rose away.
Then, if he is not clairvoyant, what he felt would have sunk
into his subconscious mind, and would be working, either
beneficially or detrimentally, upon his health, and so on. But
if he is clairvoyant, he would perceive just how the
image of the rose acts in his subconscious mind. That is to
say, he would have a visionary picture, an imagination of
the rose. He would perceive at the same time — as has
been explained — how his feeling about the rose
affected, either beneficially or detrimentally, his
etheric or his physical body. He would observe the action
of all this upon his own organism. When he has this image
before himself he will be able by its means to exert an
attractive force upon the being which we may call the
group-soul of the rose and which underlies its
existence. He will be looking into the elemental world,
seeing the rose's group-soul in so far as it dwells there.
If
the clairvoyant goes still further, has emerged from
perception of the rose, has given it away, has followed
his own inner procedure in concentrating upon the rose and its
results, and has reached the point of seeing something of it in
the elemental world — then there appears in place of the
rose a wonderful shining image belonging to the elemental
world. Then, if the procedure has been followed up to this
point, something special happens. The clairvoyant can now
disregard what is before him. He can then give the command to
himself: Do not look with your inner sight at what seems to be
a living etheric being going out into the world. Do not regard
it! Then, strangely, the clairvoyant sees something which,
passing through his eye, shows him how the forces act which
form it, how they issue from the human etheric body and build
up the eye. He sees the formative forces belonging to his own
physical body. He sees his own physical eye as he ordinarily
sees an external object. That is in fact something which may
occur. A way may be followed from the outer object up to
the point where, in absolute inner darkness — no other
sense impressions being admitted — what the eye
looks like is seen in a spiritual picture. The human
being sees his own inner organ. He has entered the region (see
diagram), which is really formative in the physical
world: the creative physical world. It is first perceived by
the clairvoyant in observing his own physical organization.
Thus he follows the way back to himself. What sent such forces
into our eye that we see it giving out rays of light which
really express the essential nature of sight? Then we see the
eye surrounded by a sort of yellow glow; we see it enclosed
within us. This was brought fourth by the entire process that
brought the human being finally up to this point.
The
forces that may issue from a dead person follow the same
course. The human being takes with him the contents of his
subconscious mind into the world that he inhabits after
he passes through the gate of death. Just as we enter our own
physical eye, do the forces sent out by the dead from the
elemental world reenter the physical world. The deceased
has perhaps an especial longing for someone whom he has left
behind. This longing, at the time lying in the subconscious,
becomes at once a living vision and in this way affects the
elemental world. What was only a vision in the physical world
becomes a power in the elemental world. This power follows the
way indicated through the longing for the one who is living
and, if the conditions permit, it may create some disturbance
in the physical world near the living, who may notice rapping
sounds or something of the kind. These are heard just like any
physical sounds. Occurrences of this kind, originating in this
way, would be noticed more frequently than is usually the case
were people more observant of the times favorable to such
activities. The times of gradual going to sleep and of similar
awaking are the most favorable, but no attention is paid to
them; yet there are few, if any, who have never received during
such moments of transition what were really manifestations of
the super-sensible world, ranging all the way from disturbing
noises to audible words.
All
this has been pointed out today in order to show both the
reality and the nature of the connection between human beings
and the world. Impressions of an objective sense-world,
received by the ordinary consciousness, are powerless and
without any real relation — even to that world; but as
soon as the human experience descends into the
subconscious the relation with realities is established. The
helplessness of the former consciousness passes over into a
delicate magic, and when the human being has passed through the
gate of death and is released from the physical body, his
experiences are such that they are effective both in the
elemental world and, under favorable circumstances, even
upon the physical plane where they may be observed by the
ordinary consciousness.
In
describing what may take place, only the simplest example has
been used, because it is best to begin with the simplest case.
Of course we shall — since we have left ourselves time
for it — work out also what we need to know in order to
proceed to more complicated matters which may lead us
into the more intimate relations between the world and
humanity.
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