The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Man's Organization of Sense and Thought in Relation to the World

[ 1 ] When man, contemplating his own human being, first applies imaginative cognition to himself, he casts off his sense system in contemplation. For his self-perception, he becomes a being without this system. He does not cease to have images before his soul which were previously carried by the sense organs; but he ceases to feel himself connected with the physical outer world through these organs. The images he has of the physical outer world before his soul are now not borne by the sense organs: they are proof for the immediate perception that the human being, through the sense connection, is still in a changed connection with the natural environment that is not borne by the senses. It is the connection with the spirit that is embodied in the natural external world.

[ 2 ] In such a view, the physical world falls away from the human being. It is the earthly that falls away. The human being no longer feels this earthly in himself.

[ 3 ] One could believe that his self-consciousness thus disappears. This seems to follow from the previous observations, which have shown self-consciousness to be a result of man's connection with the earthly being. But it is not so. What man has acquired through the earthly remains with him, even if after the acquisition he strips the earthly from himself in experiencing cognition.

[ 4 ] Through the spiritual-imaginative view described above, it becomes apparent that the human being has basically not intensively connected his sensory system with himself. It is not actually he who lives in this sensory system, but the environment. This has built itself into the sensory organization with its essence.

[ 5 ] And the imaginative-seeing human being therefore also regards the sensory organization as a piece of the external world. A piece of the outside world that is closer to him than the natural environment, but which is still the outside world. It differs from the rest of the external world only in that man cannot immerse himself in it other than through sensory perception. But he immerses himself in his sensory organization through experience. The sensory organization is the outer world, but man stretches into this outer world his spiritual-soul being, which he brings with him from the spirit world when he enters earthly existence.

[ 6 ] With the exception of the fact that man fills his sense organization with his spiritual-soul being, this organization is the outer world, as is the plant world that spreads out around him. The eye ultimately belongs to the world, not to man, just as the rose that man perceives belongs not to him but to the world.

[ 7 ] In the age that man has just passed through in the cosmic development, cognizers appeared who said that color, sound and warmth impressions are not actually in the world, but in man. The "red color", they say, is nothing out there in the human world environment, but only the effect of something unknown on the human being. - But the truth is the exact opposite of this view. It is not the color that belongs to the human being with the eye, but the eye belongs to the world with the color. During his life on earth, man does not allow the earthly environment to flow into him, but he grows between birth and death into this outer world.

[ 8 ] It is significant that at the end of the dark ages, in which man stares into the world without even suspecting the light of the spirit, the true view of man's relationship to the environment is virtually transformed into the antithesis of the true.

[ 9 ] Once the imaginative cognizer has stripped off the environment in which he lives with his sensory organization, an organization enters into experience by which thinking is supported in the same way as sensory image-perception is supported by sensory organization.

[ 10 ] And now, through this organization of thought, man knows himself to be in connection with the cosmic stellar environment in the same way as he previously knew himself to be in connection with the earthly environment through the organization of the senses. He recognizes himself as a cosmic being. The thoughts are no longer shadow images; they are imbued with reality like the sensory images in sensory perception.

[ 11 ] When the cognizer ascends to inspiration, he becomes aware that he can strip off this world, which is based on the organization of thought, just as he can strip off the earthly world. He sees through how, even with this mental organization, he does not belong to his own being but to the world. He sees through how the thoughts of the world rule in him through his own mental organization. He becomes aware again of how he thinks by not taking images of the world into himself, but how he grows out with the organization of thought into the thinking of the world.

[ 12 ] Both in relation to the organization of the senses and to the system of thought, man is world. The world builds itself into him. As a result, he is not himself in sensory perception and thinking, but he is the content of the world.

[ 13 ] Into the organization of thought man now stretches the spiritual-soulful of his being, which belongs neither to the earth-world nor to the star-world, which is of a completely spiritual kind and from earth-life to earth-life in man west. This spiritual-mental is only accessible to inspiration.

[ 14 ] So man steps out of his earthly-cosmic organization in order to stand before himself as a purely spiritual-soul being through his inspiration.

[ 15 ] In this purely spiritual-soul entity, man encounters the workings of his destiny.

[ 16 ] With the sense-organization man lives in his physical body, with the thinking-organization in his etheric body. After stripping off both organizations through the experiencing cognition, he is in his astral body.

[ 17 ] Every time man strips off something from his assumed being, his soul content becomes poorer on one side; but it becomes richer on the other side at the same time. If, after the shedding of the physical body, the beauty of the sensuous plant world is only pale before him, then the whole world of elemental beings that live in the plant kingdom appears before his soul.

[ 18 ] Because it is so, however, the truly spiritually cognizing person does not have an ascetic mood towards what the senses perceive. In spiritual experience the need to perceive what is spiritually experienced through the senses remains fully alive. And just as sensory perception awakens the longing for the opposite pole, for the world of elemental beings, in the full human being who strives to experience the whole of reality, so looking at the elemental beings again awakens the longing for the content of sensory perception.

[ 19 ] In human life as a whole, the spirit longs for the senses, and the senses for the spirit. - In spiritual existence there would be emptiness if the experiences of sense-experience were not in it as memory; in sense-experience there would be darkness if the power of the spiritual did not shine in, although at first subconsciously.

[ 20 ] When the human being has matured to experience the activity of Michael, there will therefore not be an impoverishment of the souls in natural experiences, but on the contrary an enrichment. And also the emotional life will not tend to withdraw from the sensory experience, but there will be a joyful inclination to fully absorb the wonders of the sensory world into the soul.

Goetheanum, February 1925.
Guiding Principles No. 171 to 173
(March 15, 1925)

---

Further guiding principles issued by the Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum (with reference to the previous consideration: The human sensory and thinking organization in relation to the world)

[ 21 ] 171. The human sensory organization does not belong to the human being, but is built into it by the environment during life on earth. The perceiving eye is spatially in man, essentially it is in the world. And man stretches his spiritual-soul being into that which the world experiences in him through his senses. The human being does not absorb the physical environment during his life on earth, but he grows into this environment with his spiritual-soul being.

[ 22 ] 172. It is similar with the mental organization. Through it, the human being grows into star existence. He recognizes himself as a starry world. Man weaves and lives in the world thoughts when he has stripped off the sense organization in experiencing cognition.

[ 23 ] 173. After stripping off both, the earth far and the starry world, man stands before himself as a spiritual-soul being. There he is no longer world, there he is man in the true sense. And becoming aware of what he experiences there is called knowing himself, just as becoming aware in the sensory and mental organization is called knowing the world.