LECTURE III
Berlin, 28th September 1905
(10)
There are three elements in evolution which must be differentiated:
form, life and consciousness. Today we will speak about the different
kinds of consciousness.
We can regard plants and lower animals as the means whereby higher
beings extend their senses into the world in order to behold this
world through them. Let us take our start from the sense organs of the
plants. When we speak of these we must be clear that we are not only
dealing with the sense organs of the single plants, but with beings in
higher worlds. The plants are, as it were, only the feelers which are
extended by the higher beings; they gain information through the
plants.
All plants have cells, more especially at the root-tip but also in
other places, in which granules of starch are to be found. Even in
otherwise non-starch-containing plants, these starch granules appear
at the root-tips. Members of the lily family, for instance, which
otherwise contain no starch, possess these starch granules in the
cells attached to the roots. These starch granules are loose and
movable, and the important point is whether they are situated in one
place or another.
Whenever a plant turns even slightly, one starch granule falls towards
the other side. This the plant cannot stand. It then turns again in
such a way that the granules come back to their right position. And
these starch granules actually lie in a symmetrical relationship to
the direction of the gravity of the earth. The plant grows upwards
because it senses the direction of gravity. By observing the starch
granules at the root-tips, we learn to recognise a kind of sense
organ. This is for a plant the sense of gravity. This sense belongs
not only to the plant, but to the soul of the whole earth, which
orders the growth of the plant in accordance with this sense.
This is of primary importance. The plant takes its direction in
accordance with gravity. Now if one takes a wheel, for instance a
water-wheel, into which plants can be inserted, and turns the wheel
together with the plants, another force is added to the force of
gravity: a revolving force. This is now in every part of the plant,
and its roots and stalks grow in the direction of the tangent of the
wheel, in the direction of the tangential force, not the force of
gravity. In accordance with this, the starch granules adjust their
position.
Let us now consider the human ear. At first we have the outer auditory
passage, then the tympanum, and in the inner ear the little auditory
bones: hammer, anvil and stirrup quite minute bones. Hearing
depends upon these little bones bringing the other organs into
vibration. Further in we find three semicircular membranous canals
arranged according to the three dimensions. These are filled with
fluid. Then we find, further within the ear, the labyrinth, a
structure in the form of a snail shell, filled with very fine little
hairs. Each of these is tuned, like the strings of a piano, to a
particular pitch. The labyrinth is connected with the auditory nerve
that goes to the brain.
The three semicircular canals are especially interesting. They stand
in relation to one another in the three directions of space. They are
filled with little otoliths, similar to the starch granules of the
plant. When these are disturbed a person cannot hold himself erect or
walk in an upright position. In the case of fainting the rush of blood
to the head can cause a disturbance in the three canals. The sense of
direction in man depends on these three semicircular canals. This
is the same sense which in the plant, as sense of balance, is
localised in the root-tips. What occurs in the root-tips is, in the
human being, developed up above in the head.
In surveying the whole evolution: plant, animal, man, one discovers
definite relationships between them. The plant is reversed in man. The
direction of the animal lies midway between them. The plant has sunk
its roots into the earth and directs its sexual organs upward towards
the sun. If we turn the plant halfway round we have the animal. If we
turn it right round we have man. That is the original significance of
the cross;
(11)
plant kingdom, animal kingdom, human kingdom. The
plant sinks its roots into the earth. The animal is the half-reversed
plant. Man is the completely reversed plant. This is why Plato says:
The World Soul is stretched on the Cross of the World Body.
(12)
In the plant the organ of direction lies in the root-tips. In man it
is in the head. What in man is the head, is the root in the case of
the plant. The reason, why in man the sense of direction is connected
with the sense of hearing, is that hearing is the sense which raises
man into a higher kingdom. The last faculty to be attained by man is
the faculty of speech. Again, speech is connected with the upright
carriage, which without the sense of direction or balance would not be
possible. The sound which man produces through speech is the active
complement to the passive sense of hearing. What in the plant is
simply a sense of orientation has become in man the sense of hearing,
which bears within itself the old sense of orientation in the three
semicircular canals, which are arranged in accordance with the three
dimensions of space.
Every being possesses consciousness. This is also true of the plant,
but its consciousness lies on the devachanic plane, on the mental
plane. A diagram of the consciousness of the plant would have to be
done in the following way:
The plants can also speak and answer us, only we must learn to observe
them on the mental plane. There they tell us their own names.
Man's consciousness reaches down to the physical plane. Here his
consciousness depends upon the same organ with which the plant is made
fast to the earth. We first learn to know man in a true sense when we
see how he produces speech and in speech the word Ich (I).
This I has its roots in the mental plane. Without the faculty
of uttering the little word I we might regard the human form
also as that of an animal.
The plant has its roots in the mental plane and man by means of his
organ of hearing is an inhabitant of the mental plane. This is why we
connect the Es denkt (it thinks) with speech. The ear is a higher
development of the sense of direction. Because man in relation to the
plant has reversed his position and turned again to the spirit, he has
in the organ of hearing the old residue of the sense of direction. He
gives himself his direction. These are therefore two opposite kinds of
consciousness: the plant's consciousness on the mental plane and here
the consciousness of man, who carries his being down from the mental
world into the physical world. This earthly consciousness of man is
called Kama-manas.
Each of the sense organs has a consciousness of its own. These
different forms of consciousness, the consciousness of the visible,
the audible, the sense of smell and so on, are brought together in the
soul. The consciousness only becomes manasic when its separate forms
are gathered together in the centre of the soul. Without this
integration man would fall apart into the consciousness of his organs.
These were originally fashioned through the solar plexus, through the
sympathetic nervous system. When man himself was a sort of plant, he
too was not yet conscious on the physical plane. At that time the
higher consciousness first developed the organs.
In a condition of deep trance the central consciousness is silenced.
Then the separate organs are conscious and the person begins to see
with the pit of the stomach and the solar plexus. Such a consciousness
was possessed by the Seeress of Prevost.
(13)
She describes correctly
light forms which are however only to be observed by the consciousness
of the organs. The lowest consciousness is that of the minerals. A
somewhat more centralised consciousness, one more like the
consciousness of present day man, is the astral consciousness. The
development of consciousness in the whole astral body finds its
expression in the spinal cord. Then a person perceives the world in
pictures. Only those people whose physical brain does not operate have
such a consciousness. Idiots, for instance, see the world in pictures;
their soul life is analogous to dream life. They can only say that
they know nothing of what is going on around them. Other beings in the
world have a similar consciousness.
When someone develops astral consciousness, so that he experiences
dreams consciously, he can undertake the following: Let us assume that
we are in a position to develop this consciousness and imagine
ourselves standing before the flower called Venus Fly Trap. If we gaze
at it long enough and let it work upon us quite exclusively there
comes the moment when we have the feeling that the centre of
consciousness sinks down from the head and creeps into the plant.
(14)
One is then conscious in the plant and sees the world through it. One
must transfer one's consciousness, into the plant. Then one becomes
aware of how things appear to the astral perception of this being. One
then experiences this soul. A sensitive plant's consciousness is quite
similar to that of an idiot; not a purely mental consciousness. Such a
plant has brought consciousness down to the astral plane. Thus there
are two kinds of plants; those which only have their consciousness on
the mental plane, and those which have it also on the astral plane.
Certain kinds of animals also have a consciousness on the astral
plane, which is likewise the plane of idiot consciousness. Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky mentions especially certain Indian night insects,
nocturnal moths. Spiders also have an astral consciousness;
(15)
the delicate spider webs are actually spun out of the astral plane. The
spiders are merely the instruments of astral activity. The ants too,
like the spiders have a consciousness on the astral plane. There the
ant heaps have their soul. This is why the behaviour of the ants is so
precisely regulated.
(16)
The minerals also have consciousness. This lies on the higher mental
plane, in higher regions than that of the plant. Blavatsky calls it
Kama-prana consciousness. Man too can later achieve this consciousness
while retaining his present state of consciousness undisturbed. He
then no longer needs to enter into a physical body, no longer needs to
be incarnated. The stones are below on the physical plane and their
consciousness is in the higher regions of the mental plane. The
crystals are ordered from above. When a man is able to raise his
consciousness to this level he then forms his physical body for
himself out of the minerals of the world.
The three parts of the brain (thinking, feeling, willing) must later
become completely separated. Then man's consciousness must be master
of his brain, as in an ant heap a higher consciousness rules. But as
in the ant heap, one can separate the workers, the males and females
from one another, so, later, a complete separation into three parts
can also take place in the brain. Then man becomes a planetary spirit,
a creator who brings things into being. As the Earth Spirit builds the
crust of the earth, so at that stage man also will build a planet. For
this he must have a Kama-pranasic consciousness. Today he has only a
Kama-manasic consciousness. This consists in the consciousness of the
organs being saturated, impregnated with understanding (Manas). The
consciousness becomes, as Blavatsky says, rationalised. The process of
rationalisation is brought about during the ascent from animal to man.
Organ-consciousness by itself can recognise the objective, but does
not know the means whereby it can be achieved. Rationalised
consciousness can direct the means. Blavatsky says quite rightly: A
dog, for instance, which is shut into a room has the instinct to get
out, but he cannot do this because his instinct is not as yet
sufficiently imbued with understanding to enable him to take the
necessary steps; whereas man immediately grasps the situation and
frees himself. We therefore differentiate with Blavatsky:
- The organic consciousness possessed by the organs.
- The astral consciousness possessed by animals, certain plants and
idiots.
- The kama-pranasic consciousness of the stones, also to be achieved
later by man.
- The kama-manasic consciousness, dependent on understanding.
In this way one must differentiate the members of the cross of
world-existence.
The real meaning of the cross is infinitely deep. The old sagas also
are pictures, drawn out of such depths. A great service was bestowed
on the human soul by the sagas, as long as man in earlier times could
understand their truths in his feeling life. An example of this
is the old saga of the sphinx.
(17)
The sphinx propounded the riddle:
In the morning it goes on four, at mid-day on two and in the evening
on three. What is that? It is man. To begin with, in the morning of
the earth, man in his animal state went on fours. The front limbs were
at that time organs of movement. He then raised himself to the upright
position. The limb system separated off into two categories and the
organs divided into the physical-sensible and the spiritual organs. He
then went on two. In the distant future the lower organs will fall
away and also the right hand. Only the left hand and the two petalled
lotus flower will remain. Then he goes on three. That is why the
Vulcan human being limps.
(18)
His legs are in retrogression; they
cease to have significance. At the end of evolution, in the Vulcan
metamorphosis of the Earth, man will be the three-membered being that
the saga indicates as the ideal.
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