The
Invisible Human Members and Practical Life
Berlin, 18th February, 1909
If
there is talk of the practical significance of the invisible,
particularly of the invisible in the human being, I would like
to illustrate by a comparison what I meant. Those people are
practical who turn their look, their view to the supersensible
view of existence, and those are impractical who stop at the
only exterior, at the mere physical. Is anybody, actually, the
true practitioner who has a horseshoe-shaped iron as a magnet
before himself and uses this thing for anything that appears
useful to him by all appearances? On the other hand, is such a
person not impractical in the true sense of the word, and
practical only someone who says to himself: in this piece of
iron something rests that makes a lot of higher, nobler
application possible to me than the mere inspection allows to
suppose. — This is, of course, only a comparison, because
we are not allowed to compare the higher forces about which we
speak today with any natural force. However, practical is only
someone who chooses the internal forces from the things and can
use the things corresponding to their true values. Compared
with those who can be led by a certain practical sense one
could quote Fichte's word of the practical significance of
ideals. Fichte (Johann Gottlieb F., 1762–1814) tried to explain
the determination of the human being using high ideals.
In
the introduction to his lectures on
The Vocation of the Scholar
(1794), he protests that none who speaks from such
high idealistic viewpoints knows what can be objected to it,
namely, that ideals cannot be shown directly in practical life.
Perhaps, those who put up these ideals know this better than
the opponents do. “We state only that reality has to be
assessed and modified according to them by those who feel
sufficient strength in themselves. Assumed, they could also not
convince themselves, they lose very little, after they are once
what they are; and, besides, humanity loses nothing. It becomes
thereby only obvious that one does not count on them in the
plan of the improvement of humanity. This will continue its way
without any doubt; the benevolent nature may provide for them
rain and sunshine, wholesome food and undisturbed circulation
of humours at the proper time and — clever thoughts as
well!” I want to point to this in particular. We briefly
want to imagine the invisible members of the human nature.
Spiritual science speaks of these invisible members of the
human nature, but not as of anything that is there, as of an
adjunct of the visible, but it speaks just of the spiritual as
of the creative of the visible.
An
almost obvious example is the following: everybody — also
someone who cannot see into in the workshop of spiritual life
— should imagine the senses of shame and anxiety
repeatedly, so that he learns to believe that the supersensible
is the reason of the sensuous. What are they? They are soul
experiences undoubtedly to someone who does not think
complicatedly. Anything, we must say, is there that threatens
us; the soul feels threatened. This expresses itself as
sensations of fear. Indeed, we could state various physical
mediations. This would be easy, of course, and the modern
researcher would hardly be able to state anything that the
spiritual scientist would not know, too. Nevertheless, the
matter is that the blood is forced back from the surface of the
body to the centre.
We
have a material process resulting from a soul process. The same
is the case with the sense of shame. Again, we have a
rearrangement of the blood, a change of the circulation caused
by something spiritual. What one sees here in microcosm and
what one can observe to a bigger extent, if because of a sad
event tears are shed shows that the soul can cause bodily
processes. Today, of course, there are people under the
influence of our not evidently but latently materialistic way
of thinking who also assert materialistic views here. I have
also quoted the sentence of a certain worldview: one cries not
because one is sad, but one is sad because one cries. This
sentence came, actually, from somebody who thought
idealistically, but one interpreted it wrong.
These are full-grown materialistic ways of thinking. Who has
retained a piece of healthy thinking from the materialistic
basis of our time sees in such evident connections between
physical facts and spiritual-mental facts something that can
make him gradually understand that spiritual science must say
from its point of view: everything material has a spiritual
origin.
Thus, something mental forms the basis of that which we see in
the human being, what we can seize with hands with him. It is
not the influence of the physical but just the primal ground of
the physical. We call that a physical body in the human being,
which he has in common with all beings surrounding him, which
he has in common with the mineral world. The next,
supersensible human member is the etheric body or life body. It
prevents the physical body to being a corpse during the whole
life, to following the principles of the physical only. Plants
and animals also have such an etheric body, which one can
deduce by thinking of someone who thinks philosophically only.
It is real to the clairvoyant like the physical body.
A
spiritual way of thinking defends itself with pleasure to
understand the human body as a machine, however, does not need
to defend itself if one is not a “carriage pusher of
thinking from within.” One can absolutely say, the human
body is a complex mechanism if one wants to include the
physical and chemical in the mechanic. However, behind any
machine, a builder and preserver must be, so also here, and
this is the etheric body or life body, that is a loyal fighter
against decay. Only at death, it separates from the physical
body, and then the physical body follows as a corpse its
physical laws. Then it is a corpse. The etheric body is
something more certain than the mere physical body.
If
we keep on studying the human being, we get to another member
of his being, which every human being could already realise if
he said to himself, I face a human being, a physical body, and
an etheric body. Is there nothing else included in this human
being than what one can see from without, what physiology et
cetera disclose to us? Oh, there is something else: the sum of
emotions, sensations, desires and wishes, pains and sufferings,
impulses and passions.
All
that represents the astral body. Now one could say,
nevertheless, one cannot imagine that these things form a
concluded reality. However, the spiritual scientist can
perceive this clairvoyantly. There the astral body exists as
the physical body exists. Nevertheless, the healthy human mind
could also already say to itself that such a thing as an astral
body must be there. Why could it say that to itself? I want to
give you an example where, so to speak, with hands is to be
seized how the astral body works, actually. There are people
who say when the human being enters the physical world; he is
not yet as developed as later. The external science can
determine that, indeed, the senses and their organs exist in
the brain that, however, the connections of the single senses
in the brain develop relatively late. One can really study how
the connecting nerve cords develop from the hearing to the
facial sphere and make the human being the thinker finally. So
— the materialist concludes — one sees how the
internal parts develop bit by bit and then the world of
sensations, images, sufferings, joys, complexes of thought et
cetera flashes in the human being. — Imagine this
development of the human brain. The complex lines of thought,
which solve the world riddles, develop bit by bit. Are we then
allowed to call that a mere mechanism which has developed,
which builds itself up?
One
can also admire a marvellous construction, as for example that
of a clock. However, he would be a fool who wanted to believe
that the clock has originated by itself. Who is able to do
something, can develop only what he is able to do. Someone who
had seconds, minutes, the principles of the clock in himself
has joined it; one has thought ahead what we then reflect. Is
there nothing that joins these connecting cords in the brain in
such a way that you become a thinker finally? I mean, a healthy
thinking would have to realise that for that which develops a
master builder must exist who joins the cords, so that you can
become a thinker. We are loyal only to ourselves and to our
healthy human mind if we say, an astral body has to have
constructed the physical brain. In the first weeks, months,
years of the child, the astral body constructs the instrument
only, which is able later to solve the world riddles. Who does
not believe this, acts just as anybody who wants to use a
machine, but denies that a constructor was there who has built
it. The time will already come when again healthy judgments
prevail in the human being, when they say to themselves that
first the spiritual master builder must be there if anything
should originate. This master builder has been already there
before the human being is born.
The
third human member is this astral body, that which forms the
basis of the material again. The fourth human member is the
ego, which makes the human being the crown of creation. The
human being has the physical body in common with all minerals,
the etheric body with all plants, and the astral body with the
animals. He rises above the three physical realms by the ego.
Therefore, all religions have probably directed their attention
to the fact that there is only one name, which differs from all
other. There is one thing that can be never called from the
outside: this is in us as our core. No name can come from
without that signifies us. Therefore, “I” was in
the old Hebrew religion the inexpressible name that was
inexpressible for all others.
These are the four lower members of the human nature from which
only one is visible. The three others are real, are the primal
grounds of the real. Any member is a basic being and cause for
the next lower body; the ego-bearer for the astral body, the
astral body for the etheric body, the etheric body for the
physical body. Any experience of the ego imprints itself on the
astral body. Here all experiences of the ego express
themselves. Any momentary imagining, judging and feeling
originate in the human being that way.
What lives in the astral body, expresses itself, imprints
itself on the etheric or life body, and thereby it becomes
permanent, not momentary, but keeps itself in a certain way.
Let us assume that we pass momentary judgment; we make a mental
picture about this or that. If we form a mental picture
repeatedly, it becomes a habitual mental picture. Because it
becomes a habitual image, it imprints itself in the etheric
body. What lives in our memory, what we keep in mind from day
to day, lives in our etheric body or life body. The fact that
we play a piano piece once is in our astral body; the fact that
we acquire the talent, the habit of playing is in the etheric
body. All habits are in the etheric body or life body. If we
pass moral judgment, it is again an action of the astral body.
If a certain direction of judging imprints itself on us by
repeated judgments, the moral judgment becomes a permanent
once, it becomes conscience. The moral judgment is an
experience of the astral body; the conscience is an experience
of the etheric body or life body. Thus, we see how by the
interaction of the higher members with the lower ones the whole
human life builds itself up from within outwardly.
As
far as the human being is a mere physical being, he has the
etheric body or life body in common with the plants. What
allows the humours to ascend in the plants, what causes that
they subsist, reproduce, this causes the same in the human
being. However, on this etheric body or life body custom,
skill, conscience is imprinted top-down. Something
mental-spiritual is imprinted on the human beings top-down. The
experiences of the higher members are transferred more and more
to the lower members. It is important for the human being to
know that the higher members work into the denser members.
Thus, the human being can work into the lower members in
healthy, practical way.
The
human being can ruin again, what nature has given him. As with
the plant only malformation could originate if the etheric body
or life body did not regulate what goes forward, an internal
malformation originates in the human being if he works wrong
inside, from the ego on the lower members. The astral body must
be penetrated by the experiences of the ego in a healthy way.
Who does not admit that an astral body builds on the brain of
the child will also not realise how important it is that the
ego has a proper effect on the astral body. Who realises this,
however, says to himself, you are able to keep on working where
nature has stopped. If you allow the whole scale of sensations
to take place in healthy way, this continues working on your
physical body, on your brain, and thus you build up your
physical body during your whole life.
How
many human beings walk around today with writer's spasm? The
human body is wonderfully constructed. The human being adjusts
his hand with everything that he does to the world outdoors.
This cooperation of the hand with the outside goes adrift in
certain ways from him if he is not able to set his hand aglow,
to invigorate it with his inner life. This is a similar
process, as if one gets artificial teeth. It is essential that
all that we can get as our own is set aglow and invigorated by
our ego. You get trembling hands only if the hands go adrift
from the remaining forces to some degree. These are matters
which one takes into consideration most intensely again in a
not so distant future, and then one will realise what it means
to grasp the spirit of the human being again.
I
want to make clear this at an example. We remain in our field.
It will become apparent how that which happens in the spirit
really seizes the human being and makes him suitable or
unsuitable for life, practical or impractical. Let us take a
person who is impractical for life because he suffers from
certain sensations of anxiety, so that thereby nervousness
originates. This word already sounds the whole sum of lacking
practice. Any human being who does not control himself
completely in any respect is characterised as nervous, or one
uses the catchword of genetic predisposition if anything is
absent or exists that makes the human being impractical for
life. All these things do not originate from a careful
observation of the real facts, but because one has no palate
for the spiritual due to the materialistic way of thinking.
It
is important to pursue whether in the first times of life, when
the invisible works so intensely on the visible, everything
proceeds properly and is not disturbed. What is omitted here
cannot be corrected later. If something is not formed well
enough, the manifold discrepancies originate in the whole life.
The human being, who is not able to let harmonising experiences
surge up and down in the astral body, will always make himself
impractical for life in certain ways. Instead of searching for
genetic predispositions of fear and anxiety, we should rather
look for something that is formed by this or that experience
which has a solidifying effect on the physical body. It could
be, for example, — however, it needs not always be in
such a way — that a considerable part of claustrophobia
was caused possibly by a particular way of parenting in the
human being. He does not get loose from this evil because he
lacks the means to stir it up again. Imagine children who
recognise all festivities, actually, all the year round, only
because they are showered with presents! They receive more than
they can destroy. This abundance of undeserved gifts
immobilises certain striving forces, which would generate
healthy self-assurance. Such a thing can slumber in the human
being during the time when the external education fulfils him
or a new occupation absorbs him; but this appears once in the
form of claustrophobia.
One
cannot realise this if one does not understand what it means
that the astral body changes itself bit by bit into that which
the human being is in his physical, discernible behaviour. On
the other hand, we can find — if particular states of
unsuitability appear anyhow — that something presses on
his soul. He cannot say it, cannot confess it, and thinks to
have to conceal it. Because the human being does not find the
way to the word, it seizes the lower members and works on them.
What a soothing effect experiences the human being if he can
confess such a thing! Then he has the feeling, now it is no
longer lying on my heart like a stone, and this feeling of
relief works recovering. Confession is an important remedy in
this respect. The denominations have known this well. There we
realise how the invisible inside of the human being works on
the visible. Even certain reasonable doctors already realise
that one cannot cure unsuitability for practical life by
systematic application of cold water (Kneipp cure), but in such
a way that one has to induce a kind of confession, has to
detach something from the human being if healing should take
place.
We
want to look at the reverse now. There are reasonable doctors
who say to themselves, one has to turn to the soul of the human
being if one wants to know how the human being becomes
unsuitable in certain respects. These doctors know that joy and
desire are remedies, that they work recovering, that they
soften again, what is solidified and ossified, and bring it
under our control. However, this is not enough, just as little
as it is enough if anybody says, the concealed secret must be
detached from the soul of the human being. They do not know
that everything that is experience of the inside has a big
significance even if it appears wrong. Should we cancel
everything mysterious in the human nature because it appears
wrong with some persons? Should we make the doctors father
confessors, as it one demands here and there? It can also be
infinitely recovering for the soul if it is able to draw the
veil of secret about some things. A Persian saying says, one
saves the time that one uses for silent reflection, before one
says something, in relation to the time of remorse about that
which one has said thoughtlessly! Goethe pronounced the word of
the “obvious secret” not without reason. In
everything sensuous that surrounds us, we can realise something
mysterious, something that lies so deeply in the things and
that one cannot pronounce; however, it still flows from soul to
soul. Health spreads out if the human being can feel the secret
of life that way.
Spiritual science maintains this secret of life. Indeed, it
does not make it easy for the human beings to approach the
things. It is not so comfortable to approach them. Spiritual
science can only stimulate, only say, this and that exists.
Then the human being has to approach and co-operate. It may be
uncomfortable, but it is infinitely healthy. The innermost
member of the human being is thereby stimulated; spiritual
science works immediately on the ego. If we hear anything about
the evolution of the planets, if to us is told about the
invisible members of the human nature, what goes from life to
life with the human being — with all that one appeals
immediately to the ego. All these world-enclosing ideas do not
remain dry ideas and abstractions. They emit warmth and bliss;
warmth and bliss irradiate and penetrate the astral body of the
human being. Contentment and bliss originate from that which
spiritual science offers. What sets the human being aglow as
warmth, as fire keeps moving to his life body. The forces of
spiritual science itself penetrate all forces of the etheric
body, and the etheric body transfers the forces again to the
physical body, it transfers it as a skill, in such a way that,
for example, the hand becomes dexterous and practical if the
great, elated ideas of spiritual science flow into the physical
body.
Spiritual science makes the brain a flexible, pliable tool, so
that it can get away from prejudices. Spiritual science works
strongly down until the physical body of the human being. Up to
the practical movements, he can be immersed in spiritual
science. I want to give you an example of that. It helps,
indeed, if one makes gymnastics possible to the child. This is
an exceptionally healthy exercise if one makes it properly.
Already in the talk on education, I have drawn your attention
to the fact that it is important to remain aware that the human
being is not only a physical apparatus, but is spiritualised by
higher members. One should be able to project oneself
completely into doing gymnastics to share any emotion of the
etheric and the astral bodies. I knew a gym teacher, who was a
big theorist. He knew the human physical body to a hair's
breadth. He also had to give theoretical physical education. It
does not matter that one knows the physical exactly, but that
he experiences an increase of the inner ease with any exercise.
One should experience purposefully what should be the single
exercise. Who has a living feeling, not only an abstract idea
of the physical body knows that one can have a living feeling
for everything that the child experiences, for example, while
climbing up a ladder.
A
sort of gymnastics is imaginable that works so harmoniously on
the cooperation of the etheric and the physical bodies that the
best basis is laid of a good memory in old age. In addition,
that which takes action visibly is properly understood only if
it is understood from spiritual science. We would have the best
means against the dwindling memory in old age in gymnastics if
one wanted to do physical education from spiritual science.
Spiritual science is no theory, nothing dogmatic, but bestows
something living to life. Once one will realise that only by
spiritual science the human being can become a true
practitioner of life. Someone only is a practical person who
can use this life who is not its slave. The human being should
always control his outer nature with his invisible members. The
human being becomes a practitioner only down to the last detail
of his life if he is the guide of the bodily. That human being
is a practical person who can understand out of a true
understanding of his members what Fichte said, but what is
often misunderstood. This will be the ideal of the human being
if he controls the visible from his invisible again: “The
human being can what he has to do; and if he says: I cannot, he
does not want it.”
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