The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Nature of Humanity

[ 1 ] When considering man from the point of view of a supersensible mode of cognition, what applies to this mode of cognition in general immediately comes into effect. This observation is based on the recognition of the "revealed secret" in one's own human nature. Only a part of what is grasped as human essence in supersensible knowledge, namely the physical body, is accessible to the senses and the understanding based on them. In order to shed light on the concept of this physical body, attention must first be drawn to the phenomenon that lies spread out like the great enigma over all observation of life: death and, in connection with it, so-called inanimate nature, the realm of the mineral, which always carries death within it. This refers to facts whose full elucidation is only possible through supersensible knowledge and to which an important part of this book must be devoted. For the time being, however, only a few ideas are to be suggested here for orientation.

[ 2 ] Within the revealed world, the physical human body is that in which man is equal to the mineral world. On the other hand, that which distinguishes man from the mineral cannot be considered the physical body. For an unbiased view, the most important fact is that death exposes that part of the human being which, when death has occurred, is of the same nature as the mineral world. One can point to the corpse as that of the human being which is subject to processes after death that are found in the realm of the mineral world. One can emphasize the fact that in this member of the human being, the corpse, the same substances and forces are active as in the mineral realm; but it is necessary to emphasize no less strongly that with death decay occurs for this physical body. But it is also justified to say: certainly, the same substances and forces are active in the physical human body as in the mineral; but their activity is placed in a higher service during life. They only work like the mineral world when death has occurred. Then they appear as they must appear according to their own nature, namely as dissolvers of the physical body structure.

[ 3 ] So in man, the obvious must be sharply distinguished from the hidden. For during life, the hidden must wage a constant battle against the substances and forces of the mineral in the physical body. When this struggle ceases, the mineral activity emerges. - This points to the point at which the science of the supersensible must begin. It has to search for that which wages the battle indicated. And this is hidden from the observation of the senses. It is only accessible to supersensible observation. How man arrives at the point where this "hidden" is revealed to him in the same way as sensory phenomena are to the ordinary eye will be discussed in a later part of this book. Here, however, we will describe what emerges from supersensible observation.

[ 4 ] It has already been said that information about the way to higher vision can only be of value to man if he has first familiarized himself with what supersensible research reveals through mere narration. For one can also comprehend in this field that which one has not yet observed. Indeed, the good path to seeing is the one that starts from understanding.

[ 5 ] Although that which is hidden, which in the physical body fights against decay, can only be observed by higher vision, its effects are clearly evident to the power of judgment, which is limited to the obvious. And these effects are expressed in the form or shape in which the mineral substances and forces of the physical body are assembled during life. This form gradually disappears and the physical body becomes part of the rest of the mineral world when death has occurred. The supersensible view, however, can observe as an independent part of the human being that which prevents the physical substances and forces during life from going their own way, which leads to the dissolution of the physical body. This independent member is called the "etheric body" or "life body". - If misunderstandings are not to creep in right from the start, two things must be taken into account with regard to these designations of a second part of the human being. The word "ether" is used here in a different sense than it is used in contemporary physics. This describes, for example, the carrier of light as ether. Here, however, the word is to be limited in the sense given above. It is to be used for that which is accessible to higher vision and which only reveals itself to sense observation in its effects, namely in that it is able to give a certain form or shape to the mineral substances and forces present in the physical body. Nor should the word "body" be misunderstood. The words of ordinary language must be used to describe the higher things of existence. And these only express the sensual for sensory observation. In the sensory sense, of course, the "etheric body" is nothing corporeal, however fine one may imagine it to be. ^{The author of this book has stated in his "Theosophy" that the term "etheric body", "life body", is not simply intended to renew the view of the old "life force", which has been overcome by natural science.}

[ 6 ] When one reaches the mention of this "etheric body" or "life body" in the description of the supersensible, the point is already reached at which such a description must encounter the contradiction of some current views. The development of the human spirit has led to the point where, in our time, speaking of such a part of the human being must be regarded as something unscientific. The materialistic way of thinking has come to see in the living body nothing other than a combination of physical substances and forces, as is also found in the so-called inanimate body, in the mineral. Only the combination in the living is more complicated than in the inanimate. Not so long ago, ordinary science also held different views. Anyone who follows the writings of many a serious scientist from the first half of the nineteenth century will realize how even "real natural scientists" were aware that there is something else in the living body than in the inanimate mineral. They spoke of a "life force". Although this "life force" is not presented as what is described above as the "living body", the idea in question is based on an idea that there is such a thing. This "life force" was imagined as being added to the physical substances and forces in the living body in a similar way as the magnetic force is added to the mere iron in the magnet. Then came the time when this "life force" was removed from the stock of science. One wanted to suffice for everything with the mere physical and chemical causes. At present, some scientific thinkers have once again suffered a setback in this respect. It is admitted by some that the assumption of something similar to the "life force" is not complete nonsense after all. However, even the "scientist" who accepts this will not want to make common cause with the view of the "living body" presented here. As a rule, engaging in a discussion with such views from the point of view of supersensible knowledge will not lead to any goal. Rather, it should be a matter of recognizing that the materialistic way of thinking is a necessary side effect of the great scientific progress of our time. This progress is based on an enormous refinement of the means of sensory observation. And it is in the nature of man that he brings individual faculties to a certain degree of perfection at the expense of others. The precise observation of the senses, which has developed to such a significant degree through natural science, has had to relegate to the background the cultivation of those human faculties which lead into the "hidden worlds". But a time has come again in which this cultivation is necessary. And the hidden will not be recognized by fighting the judgments that result from the denial of this hidden with logical consistency, but by placing this hidden itself in the right light. It will then be recognized by those for whom the "time has come".

[ 7 ] It was only necessary to say this here so that one does not assume unfamiliarity with the viewpoints of natural science when speaking of an "etheric body", which in some circles must be considered something completely fantastic.

[ 8 ] This etheric body is therefore a second member of the human being. It has a higher degree of reality for supersensible cognition than the physical body. A description of how the supersensible cognition sees it can only be given in the following parts of this writing, when it will emerge in which sense such descriptions are to be taken. For the time being it may suffice to say that the etheric body permeates the physical body everywhere and that it is to be regarded as a kind of architect of the latter. All organs are held in their form and shape by the currents and movements of the etheric body. The physical heart is based on an "etheric heart", the physical brain on an "etheric brain" and so on. The etheric body is structured in itself like the physical body, only more complicated, and everything in it is in lively confusion where there are separate parts in the physical body.

[ 9 ] The human being has this etheric body in common with the vegetable, just as he has the physical body in common with the mineral. Every living thing has its etheric body.

[ 10 ] From the etheric body, supersensible observation ascends to a further member of the human being. To form an idea of this member, it points to the phenomenon of sleep, just as it pointed to death in the etheric body. - All human creation is based on activity in waking, as far as the revelation is concerned. However, this activity is only possible if the human being repeatedly draws the strengthening of his exhausted powers from sleep. Action and thought fade away in sleep, all pain and pleasure sink into conscious life. As if from hidden, mysterious wells, conscious forces emerge from the unconsciousness of sleep when man awakens. It is the same consciousness that sinks down into the dark depths when we fall asleep and rises up again when we wake up. That which awakens life again and again from the state of unconsciousness is, in the sense of supersensible knowledge, the third member of the human being. It can be called the astral body. Just as the physical body cannot maintain its form through the mineral substances and forces within it, but must, for the sake of this preservation, be permeated by the etheric body, so the forces of the etheric body cannot shine through themselves with the light of consciousness. An etheric body left to itself would have to be in a state of sleep all the time. One could also say that it could only maintain a plant existence in the physical body. A waking etheric body is illuminated by an astral body. For sensory observation, the effect of this astral body disappears when the human being sinks into sleep. For supersensible observation it still remains; only it appears separate from the etheric body or lifted out of it. Sense observation is not concerned with the astral body itself, but only with its effects in the manifestations. And these are not directly present during sleep. In the same sense that man has his physical body in common with the minerals, his etheric body with the plants, he is of the same nature as the animals with regard to his astral body. The plants are in a perpetual state of sleep. Those who do not judge these things accurately can easily fall into the error of ascribing to plants a kind of consciousness similar to that of animals and humans in the waking state. But this can only happen if one has an imprecise idea of consciousness. It is then said that when an external stimulus is exerted on the plant, it performs certain movements just like the animal. One speaks of the sensitivity of some plants, which, for example, contract their leaves when certain external things act on them. However, the characteristic of consciousness is not that a being shows a certain counter-effect to an effect, but that the being experiences something within itself that adds something new to the mere counter-effect. Otherwise one could also speak of consciousness when a piece of iron expands under the influence of heat. Consciousness is only present when the being, for example, experiences pain internally through the effect of heat.^{b1Discussions such as those given in this book on the faculty of memory can very easily be misunderstood. For he who only observes the external processes will not readily notice the difference between what happens to the animal, or even to the plant, when something like memory occurs, and what is here characterized as real memory for man. Certainly, if an animal performs an action a third, fourth, etc. Certainly, if an animal performs an action a third, fourth, etc. time, it may perform it in such a way that the external process appears as if memory and the learning associated with it were present. Indeed, as some naturalists and their followers do, one may even extend the concept of memory to say that when the chick crawls out of the egg shell, it pecks at the grains and even knows how to move its head and body in such a way that it reaches its goal. It could not have learned this in the egg shell, but it is learned through the thousands and thousands of beings from which it descends (as Hering, for example, says)8 The phenomenon here can be described as something that looks like memory. But one will never come to a real understanding of the human being if one does not consider the very special thing that occurs in man as the process of the real perception of earlier experiences at later times, not merely as an influence of earlier states on later ones. Here in this book memory is called this perception of the past, not merely the self-altered reappearance of the earlier in the later. If one wanted to use the word memory for the corresponding processes in the plant and animal kingdoms, one would have to have a different one for man. In the above description of this book, it is not the word that is important, but the fact that the difference must be recognized in order to understand the human being. Nor can even very high levels of intelligence in animals apparently be brought together with what is called memory here.}

[ 11 ] The fourth element of his being, which supersensible knowledge must ascribe to man, he now no longer has in common with the world of the manifest that surrounds him. It is what distinguishes him from his fellow beings, that which makes him the crown of the creation that initially belongs to him. Supersensible knowledge forms a conception of this further member of the human entity by pointing out that even within the waking experiences there is still an essential difference. This difference becomes immediately apparent when man directs his attention to the fact that in the waking state he is on the one hand constantly in the midst of experiences that must come and go, and that on the other hand he also has experiences in which this is not the case. This becomes particularly clear when we compare the experiences of humans with those of animals. The animal experiences the influences of the external world with great regularity and becomes aware of hunger and thirst under the influence of warmth and cold, pain and pleasure, and under certain regularly occurring processes of its body. Man's life is not exhausted by such experiences. He can develop desires and wishes that go beyond all this. In the case of animals, if one were able to go far enough, one would always be able to prove where the cause of an action or a sensation lies outside or within the body. This is by no means the case with man. He can generate desires and cravings for which the cause is not sufficient either within or outside his body. Everything that falls into this area must be given a special source. And this source can be seen in the sense of supersensible science in the "I" of the human being. The "I" can therefore be addressed as the fourth member of the human being. - If the astral body were left to itself, pleasure and pain, feelings of hunger and thirst would take place in it; but what would then not come about is the sensation that there is something remaining in all of this. It is not the abiding as such that is designated here as "I", but that which experiences this abiding. In this area, the terms must be defined very clearly if misunderstandings are not to arise. The dawning of the "I-feeling" begins with the realization of a permanent, lasting thing in the change of inner experiences. It is not the fact that a being feels hunger, for example, that can give it a sense of self. The hunger arises when the renewed reasons for it assert themselves in the being concerned. It will then raid its food precisely because these renewed causes are there. The ego-feeling only arises when not only these renewed inducements drive towards the food, but when a desire has arisen during a previous satiation and the consciousness of this desire has remained, so that not only the present experience of hunger, but the past experience of desire drives towards the food. - Just as the physical body disintegrates if it is not held together by the etheric body; just as the etheric body sinks into unconsciousness if it is not illuminated by the astral body, so the astral body would have to let the past sink into oblivion again and again if it were not rescued by the "I" into the present. What death is to the physical body and sleep is to the etheric body, the astral body would have to let the past sink into oblivion again and again if it were not rescued by the "I" into the present. What death is to the physical body and sleep is to the etheric body, forgetting is to the astral body. One can also say that life belongs to the etheric body, consciousness to the astral body and remembrance to the ego.

[ 12 ] It is even easier to fall into the error of ascribing consciousness to the plant than to speak of memory in the case of animals. It is so obvious to think of memory when the dog recognizes its master, whom it may not have seen for a long time. But in reality, such recognition is not based on memory at all, but on something completely different. The dog feels a certain attraction to its master. This stems from the nature of the latter. This essence gives the dog pleasure when the master is present for him. And every time this presence of the master occurs, it is the cause of a renewal of pleasure. But memory only exists when a being does not merely feel with its experiences in the present, but when it retains those of the past. One could even admit this and still fall into the error that the dog has memory. For one could say that it mourns when its master leaves it, so its memory of him remains. This is also an incorrect judgment. By living together with its master, the dog needs his presence and feels his absence in a similar way to the way it feels hunger. He who does not make such distinctions will not come to clarity about the true conditions of life.

[ 13 ] From certain prejudices it will be objected against this representation that one cannot know whether something similar to human memory is present in animals or not. However, such an objection is based on untrained observation. Anyone who can really observe how the animal behaves in the context of its experiences will notice the difference between this behavior and that of humans. And he realizes that the animal behaves in a way that corresponds to the absence of memory. For extrasensory observation, this is readily apparent. But what comes directly to the consciousness of this supersensible observation can also be recognized by its effects in this area by sensory perception and its thinking penetration. If it is said that man knows of his memory through inner observation of the soul, which he cannot do with animals, such an assertion is based on a fatal error. What man has to say to himself about his power of recollection he cannot take from any inner observation of the soul, but only from what he experiences with himself in his attitude to the things and processes of the external world. He has these experiences with himself and with another person and also with the animals in quite the same way. It is only an illusion that blinds man when he believes that he judges the existence of memory only on the basis of inner observation. What underlies memory as a force may be called inner; the judgment of this force is also acquired for the person by looking at the context of life in the outside world. And this connection can be judged in the animal as well as in oneself. With regard to such things, our common psychology suffers from its completely untrained, imprecise ideas, which are highly deceptive due to errors of observation.

[ 14 ] For the "I", memory and forgetting mean something quite similar to waking and sleep for the astral body. Just as sleep makes the worries and sorrows of the day disappear into nothingness, forgetting spreads a veil over the bad experiences of life and thereby erases a part of the past. And just as sleep is necessary to reinvigorate the exhausted forces of life, man must erase certain parts of his past from his memory if he is to face new experiences freely and impartially. But it is precisely from forgetting that he gains strength for the perception of the new. Think of things like learning to write. All the details that the child has to go through in order to learn to write are forgotten. What remains is the ability to write. How would a person write if, every time they put pen to paper, all the experiences that they had to go through when learning to write rose up in their soul as memories?

[ 15 ] Now memory occurs in different stages. The simplest form of memory is when a person perceives an object and then, after turning away from the object, is able to reawaken the idea of it. The person has formed this idea while perceiving the object. A process has taken place between his astral body and his ego. The astral body has made the outer impression of the object conscious. But the knowledge of the object would only last as long as it is present if the ego did not take the knowledge into itself and make it its possession. At this point, the supersensible perception separates the physical from the spiritual. One speaks of the astral body as long as one has the emergence of knowledge of a present object in mind. But that which gives duration to knowledge is called the soul. At the same time, however, we can see from what has been said how closely connected in man the astral body is with that part of the soul which gives duration to knowledge. Both are to a certain extent united into one member of the human being. That is why this union can also be called the astral body. Also, if one wants a precise designation, one can speak of the astral body of man as the soul body, and of the soul, insofar as it is united with this, as the sentient soul.

[ 16 ] The I rises to a higher level of its essence when it directs its activity towards that which it has made its possession from the knowledge of objects. This is the activity through which the ego detaches itself more and more from the objects of perception in order to work in its own possession. The part of the soul to which this happens can be called the mind soul or mind soul. - It is characteristic of both the sensory soul and the intellectual soul that they work with what they receive through the impressions of the objects perceived by the senses and retain them in their memory. The soul is completely devoted to what is external to it. This too it has received from outside, which it makes its own possession through memory. But it can go beyond all this. It is not only a soul of sensation and understanding. The supersensible view is most easily able to form an idea of this going beyond when it points to a simple fact that only needs to be appreciated in its comprehensive meaning. It is that in the whole scope of language there is a single name that is different in its essence from all other names. This is precisely the name "I". Any other name can be given by any person to the things or beings to which it belongs. The "I" as a designation for a being only has meaning if this being gives itself this designation. The name "I" can never penetrate a person's ear from outside as his designation; only the being itself can apply it to itself. "I am an I only for myself; for everyone else I am a you; and everyone else is a you for me." This fact is the outward expression of a deeply meaningful truth. The very essence of the "I" is independent of anything external; therefore its name cannot be called to it by anything external. Those religious confessions that have consciously maintained their connection with the supersensible view therefore call the designation "I" the "ineffable name of God". For it is precisely what is implied that is referred to when this expression is used. No external thing has access to that part of the human soul which is hereby envisaged. Here is the "hidden sanctuary" of the soul. Only a being with whom the soul is of the same nature can gain access to it. "The God who dwells in man speaks when the soul recognizes itself as I." Just as the sentient soul and the intellectual soul live in the outer world, a third member of the soul immerses itself in the divine when it comes to perceive its own essence.

[ 17 ] It is easy to misunderstand this, as if such views declared the ego to be one with God. But they do not say at all that the ego is God, but only that it is of one kind and essence with the divine. Does anyone claim that the drop of water taken from the sea is the sea when he says that the drop is of the same essence or substance as the sea? If you really want to use a comparison, you can say: just as the drop relates to the sea, so the "I" relates to the divine. Man can find a divine within himself because his very essence is taken from the divine. Thus, through this third member of the soul, man acquires an inner knowledge of himself, just as he acquires knowledge of the outer world through the astral body. This is why secret science can also call this third soul member the consciousness soul. And in its sense, the soul consists of three members: the sensory soul, the intellectual soul and the consciousness soul, just as the body consists of three members, the physical body, the etheric body and the astral body.

[ 18 ] Psychological observation errors, similar to those already discussed for the assessment of the ability to remember, also make the right insight into the essence of the "I" difficult. Some things that we think we understand can be taken as a refutation of what has been explained above in this respect, whereas in reality they are a confirmation. Such is the case, for example, with the remarks made by Eduard von Hartmann on page 55 f. of his "Grundrisses der Psychologie" ^{System der Philosophie im Grundriss. Bad Sachsa 1908.} on the "ego": "First of all, self-consciousness is older than the word ego. The personal pronouns are a rather late product of linguistic development and have only the value of abbreviations for language. The word 'I' is a shorter substitute for the speaker's proper name, but a substitute that every speaker needs as such, no matter what proper name others use to refer to him. Self-consciousness can develop to a very high level in animals and in uninstructed deaf-mute people, even without being linked to a proper name. The awareness of the proper name can completely replace the lack of use of the ego. With this insight, the magical nimbus with which the word "I" is clothed for many is removed; it cannot add the slightest thing to the concept of self-consciousness, but merely receives its entire content from it." One can quite agree with such views; also with the fact that the word "I" is not given a magical aura that only clouds the prudent view of the matter. But the essence of a thing is not determined by how gradually the word designation is brought about for this thing. What matters is that the real essence of the I in self-consciousness is "older than the word I". And that man is compelled to use this little word, with its peculiarities that are unique to him, for that which he experiences differently in his interaction with the outside world than the animal can experience. Just as little can be recognized about the essence of the triangle by showing how the "word" triangle has formed, just as little can be known about the essence of the ego by showing how the ego has developed from a different use of words in the development of language.

[ 19 ] It is only in the conscious soul that the true nature of the "I" is revealed. For while the soul loses itself to others in sensation and understanding, it grasps its own essence as a consciousness soul. Therefore, this "I" cannot be perceived by the consciousness soul in any other way than through a certain inner activity. The ideas of external objects are formed as these objects come and go; and these ideas continue to work in the mind through their own power. But if the "I" is to perceive itself, it cannot merely give itself; it must first bring up its essence from its own depths through inner activity in order to have an awareness of it. With the perception of the "I" - with self-contemplation - an inner activity of the "I" begins. Through this activity, the perception of the "I" in the consciousness soul has a completely different meaning for man than the observation of everything that comes to him through the three limbs of the body and through the other two limbs of the soul. The power that makes the I manifest in the consciousness soul is the same as that which manifests itself in the rest of the world. Only it does not emerge directly in the body and in the lower members of the soul, but reveals itself gradually in its effects. The lowest revelation is that through the physical body; then it goes up step by step to that which fills the intellectual soul. One could say that with the ascent of each stage one of the veils with which the hidden is enveloped falls. In that which fills the consciousness soul, this hiddenness enters the innermost temple of the soul without a veil. But there it only shows itself like a drop from the sea of all-pervading spirituality. But man must first grasp this spirituality here. He must recognize it in himself; then he can also find it in its revelations. What penetrates like a drop into the soul of consciousness is what secret science calls the spirit. Thus the consciousness soul is connected with the spirit, which is the hidden part of all that is revealed. If man now wants to grasp the spirit in all revelation, he must do so in the same way as he grasps the ego in the consciousness soul. He must turn the activity that led him to perceive this I towards the revealed world. In this way, however, he develops to higher levels of his being. He adds something new to the members of his body and soul. The next thing is that he also conquers that which lies hidden in the lower members of his soul. And this happens through his work on his soul, which starts from the ego. How the human being is involved in this work becomes clear when one compares a person who is still completely devoted to lower desires and so-called sensual pleasure with a noble idealist. The latter becomes the former when the latter withdraws from certain lower inclinations and turns to higher ones. He has thereby had an ennobling, spiritualizing effect on his soul from the ego. The ego has become master within the life of the soul. This can go so far that no desire, no lust can take hold in the soul without the ego being the force that makes entry possible. In this way, the whole soul then becomes a revelation of the ego, as only the consciousness soul was before. Basically, all cultural life and all spiritual striving of human beings consists of a work that has this dominion of the ego as its goal. Every human being currently alive is involved in this work: he may or may not want to, he may or may not be aware of this fact.

[ 20 ] Through this work, however, the human being ascends to higher levels. Through it, man develops new members of his being. These lie hidden behind what is revealed to him. But man can not only make himself ruler over his soul through the work on his soul from the ego, so that it drives out the hidden from the revealed, but he can also extend this work. It can reach over to the astral body. In this way the ego takes possession of this astral body by uniting itself with its hidden essence. This astral body conquered by the ego and transformed by it can be called the spirit self. (This is the same as what is called "manas" in reference to Oriental wisdom). In the spirit-self there is a higher member of the human being, one that is present in it as it were in germ form and that emerges more and more in the course of its work on itself.^{b2It is not possible to draw a firm boundary between the changes that take place in the astral body through the activity of the ego and those that take place in the etheric body. The one merges into the other. When man learns something and thereby acquires a certain capacity of judgment, a change has taken place in the astral body; but if this judgment changes the constitution of his soul, so that he becomes accustomed to feel differently about a thing after learning it than before, a change has taken place in the etheric body. Everything that becomes human property in such a way that a person can remember it again and again is based on a change in the etheric body. What gradually becomes a fixed treasure of the memory is based on the fact that the work on the astral body has been transferred to the etheric body.}

[ 21 ] Just as man conquers his astral body by penetrating to the hidden forces behind it, the same happens in the course of development with the etheric body. The work on this etheric body, however, is more intensive than that on the astral body, for what is hidden in the former is wrapped in two, whereas what is hidden in the astral body is only wrapped in a veil. One can form an idea of the difference in the work on the two bodies by pointing to certain changes that can occur with the human being in the course of his development. First of all, consider how certain characteristics of the human soul develop when the ego works on the soul. How pleasure and desires, joy and pain can change. A person need only think back to the time of his childhood. What did he enjoy then; what caused him suffering? What did he learn in addition to what he was able to do as a child? But all this is only an expression of how the ego has gained control over the astral body. For this is the bearer of pleasure and suffering, of joy and pain. And compare with this how little certain other characteristics of the human being change in the course of time, for example, his temperament, the deeper peculiarities of his character, and so on. A person who is quick-tempered as a child will often retain certain aspects of his temper later in life. The matter is so striking that there are thinkers who completely deny the possibility that a person's basic character can change. They assume that it is something that remains throughout life and only reveals itself to one side or the other. However, such a judgment is only based on a lack of observation. Anyone who has the sense to see such things will realize that a person's character and temperament also change under the influence of his ego. However, this change is a slow one in relation to the change in the characteristics described above. One can use the comparison that the relationship between the two changes is like the advance of the hour hand of the clock in relation to the minute hand. Now the forces which bring about this change of character or temperament belong to the hidden region of the etheric body. They are of the same nature as the forces which prevail in the realm of life, i.e. the forces of growth, nourishment and those which serve procreation. The further explanations in this book will shed the right light on these things. - Thus it is not when man merely indulges in pleasure and suffering, joy and pain, that the ego works on the astral body, but when the characteristics of these soul qualities change. And in the same way the work extends to the etheric body when the ego turns its activity to a change in its character traits, its temperaments, and so on. Every human being also works on this latter change: he may be conscious of it or not. The strongest impulses that work towards this change in ordinary life are the religious ones. If the ego allows the impulses which flow from religion to work upon it again and again, they form a power in it which works into the etheric body and transforms it just as lesser impulses of life bring about the transformation of the astral body. These lesser impulses of life, which come to man through learning, reflection, refinement of the feelings, etc., are subject to the manifold changing existence; but the religious sensations impose something unified on all thinking, feeling and willing. They spread, as it were, a common, uniform light over the whole life of the soul. Man thinks and feels this today, that tomorrow. The most diverse causes lead to this. But whoever, through his religious feeling of whatever kind, senses something that runs through all changes, will relate what he thinks and feels today to this basic feeling just as much as the experiences of his soul tomorrow. The religious confession thus has something pervasive in the life of the soul; its influences become stronger and stronger in the course of time because they work in continuous repetition. This is why they acquire the power to affect the etheric body. - The influences of true art have a similar effect on man. When, through the outer form, color and tone of a work of art, he permeates its spiritual substratum with imagination and feeling, then the impulses which the ego receives as a result do indeed affect the etheric body. If you think this thought through to the end, you can appreciate the immense importance of art for all human development. Here are just a few things that provide the ego with the impulses to work on the etheric body. There are many such influences in human life which are not as obvious to the observing eye as those mentioned. But it is already evident from these that there is another part of man's being hidden within him, which the ego is working out more and more. This member can be described as the second part of the spirit, namely the life spirit. (It is the same as what is called "buddhi" in accordance with Oriental wisdom). The expression "spirit of life" is the appropriate one because the same forces are at work in what it denotes as in the "body of life"; only in these forces, when they manifest themselves as the body of life, the human ego is not active. But when they manifest themselves as the spirit of life, they are permeated by the activity of the ego.

[ 22 ] The intellectual development of man, his purification and refinement of feelings and expressions of will are the measure of his transformation of the astral body into the spirit self; his religious experiences and some other experiences imprint themselves on the etheric body and turn it into the life spirit. In the ordinary course of life this happens more or less unconsciously, but the so-called initiation of man consists in the fact that he is pointed by supersensible knowledge to the means by which he can quite consciously take this work in the spirit-self and life-spirit into his own hands. These means will be discussed in later parts of this writing. For the time being, it is a matter of showing that in addition to the soul and the body, the spirit is also active in man. This will also be shown later, how this spirit belongs to the eternal nature of man, in contrast to the perishable body.

[ 23 ] But the work on the astral body and the etheric body does not exhaust the activity of the ego. It also extends to the physical body. A hint of the influence of the ego on the physical body can be seen when certain experiences cause, for example, blushing or blanching. Here the ego is indeed the initiator of a process in the physical body. If, through the activity of the ego, changes occur in the human being in relation to its influence in the physical body, then the ego is really united with the hidden forces of this physical body. With the same forces that bring about its physical processes. One can then say that the ego works on the physical body through such activity. This expression must not be misunderstood. The opinion must not arise that this work is something grossly material. What appears in the physical body as the gross material is only what is revealed in it. Behind this revelation lie the hidden forces of its being. And these are of a spiritual nature. We are not speaking here of work on the material, as which the physical body appears, but of the spiritual work on the invisible forces which bring it into being and again bring it to disintegration. In ordinary life, the human being can only become aware of this work of the ego on the physical body with very little clarity. This clarity only comes in full measure when, under the influence of supersensible knowledge, the human being consciously takes the work into his own hands. Then, however, it becomes apparent that there is a third spiritual link in the human being. It is that which can be called the spiritual man in contrast to the physical man. (In Oriental wisdom, this "spiritual man" is called the "Atma".)

[ 24 ] We are also easily misled with regard to the spiritual man by the fact that we see the physical body as the lowest member of the human being and therefore find it difficult to accept the idea that the work on this physical body should lead to the highest member of the human being. But precisely because the physical body conceals the spirit active in it under three veils, the highest kind of human work is necessary to unite the ego with that which is its hidden spirit.

[ 25 ] In this way, man presents himself to the secret science as an entity composed of various members. The physical body, the etheric body and the astral body are bodily. Souls are: Sensory soul, intellectual soul and consciousness soul. The I spreads its light in the soul. And spiritual are: Spirit self, life spirit and spirit man. It is clear from the above that the sentient soul and the astral body are closely united and form a whole in a certain respect. In a similar way, the consciousness soul and the spirit self are a whole. For in the consciousness soul the spirit shines forth and from it it radiates through the other members of the human nature. With this in mind, we can also speak of the following division of the human being. One can summarize astral body and sensory soul as one member, likewise consciousness soul and spirit self and can call the mind soul, because it has part in the I-nature, because it is in a certain respect already the "I", which is only not yet conscious of its spiritual being, as "I" in a bad way and then gets seven parts of the human being: 1. Physical body 2. etheric body or life body; 3. astral body; 4. ego; 5. spirit self; 6. life spirit; 7. spirit man.

[ 26 ] Even for people accustomed to materialistic ideas, this division of the human being in the sense of the number seven would not have the "unclear magic" that they often attribute to it, if they were to adhere exactly to the meaning of the above arguments and not put this "magic" into the matter itself from the outset. In no other way, only from the point of view of a higher form of observation of the world, should these "seven" members of man be spoken of, just as one speaks of the seven colors of light or of the seven tones of the musical scale (by regarding the octave as a repetition of the fundamental tone). Just as the light appears in seven colors, the tone in seven steps, so the uniform human nature appears in the seven members indicated. As little as the number seven carries with it something of "superstition" in the case of sound and color, so little is this the case with reference to it in the division of man. (It has been said on one occasion, when this was once put forward verbally, that the matter with the number seven does not apply to colors, since beyond the "red" and the "violet" there are also colors that the eye simply does not perceive. But even in view of this, the comparison with the colors is correct, because the essence of man continues beyond the physical body on the one hand and beyond the spiritual man on the other; only for the means of spiritual observation these continuations are "spiritually invisible", just as the colors beyond red and violet are invisible to the physical eye. This remark had to be made because the opinion so easily arises that the supersensible view does not take scientific thinking seriously, that it is dilettantish in relation to it. But anyone who observes correctly what is meant by what is said can find that this is in truth nowhere in contradiction with genuine natural science; neither when scientific facts are used for illustration, nor even when the statements made here point to a direct relationship to natural science.