The Rudolf Steiner Archive

23. Stages of Human Development

[ 1 ] When we look at human beings as we know them, their physical body is, as it were, merely a solid, crystallized mass. The physical body is surrounded by what is known as the aura, which takes on a sort of egg-like shape. This is always larger than the physical body itself. It is smallest in the undeveloped human being, and the more developed the person is, the larger it becomes, so that the aura of a highly developed person can exceed his or her height by a factor of six. You must imagine that you would only encompass the entire human being if you were to extend his or her height three times upward and three times downward.

[ 2 ] Within this aura, we must distinguish three elements: First, the so-called astral body. This is the body that, to the clairvoyant eye, objectively contains what a person otherwise only feels within themselves: their instincts, desires, and passions. The seer can distinguish precisely within this astral aura whether a person has pure or base passions, such as greed, compassion, benevolence, and the like. Then, somewhat larger, is the mental aura. It contains what we subjectively perceive as our intellect, as our power of reason, the lower mental faculty. These two auras dissolve after death, just as the physical body dissolves. The astral aura dissolves in Kamaloka, and the mental aura in the lower Devachan. They are still to be counted among the transitory parts of the human being. The enduring essence of the human being is objectively visible in the third aura. This is the aura of the causal body, that is, the body that passes through all incarnations. In undeveloped people, who understand little of what is enduring, the causal body is only hinted at. When one observes the auras of an undeveloped person, one finds very little of the causal body. Those people who pursue deeper truths develop this causal aura. The more a person develops, the more this causal aura develops. A kind of ray system then takes shape, so that the highly developed person emits rays that are noticeable in their causal aura. When we look at the aura of an adept, it is much larger than a house, so that the entire being appears infinitely larger than the physical person does to the physical eye. The causal aura that we can see in the highly developed is also present in the undeveloped, not as a small body, but also large, though it does not yet shine. In the undeveloped, it is a faintly glowing light and becomes ever brighter the more the person develops. Rays enter as the person gains more and more substance. The more a person develops within themselves that which is enduring, that which will reappear, the more luminosity they possess. It is the objectively visible aspect of what a person carries over from one incarnation to the next.

[ 3 ] First, I will consider the human being with his astral aura; we can observe him in three successive states. The first state is one in which the actual power of imagination is still very underdeveloped. This is the case with the third root race and at the beginning of the fourth, that is, from the middle of the Lemurian period to the first half of the Atlantean period. The Lemurians and the early Atlanteans did not think from imagination, but purely from memory. It was not until the fourth root race that the power of imagination gradually developed; the aura also changed at that time. In the third root race and in the first half of the fourth, the astral aura developed in such a way that it surrounded the human body. It was slightly larger than the skin, and it was much more misty than later on; it was as if permeated by dark masses of mist, and due to human passions, it was much more intense and stormy. Only the first beginnings of the mental aura were present at that time. Development continued into our present root race, so that a certain peak has been reached today. This is the second stage in which the mental aura is developed to a certain degree.

[ 4 ] The third stage is that of an advanced individual who has developed what is known as astral vision. He is able to see this aura as well. He can see not only what exists in the physical world, but also what exists in the astral world. In such people, the astral aura looks somewhat different. In Atlantean and post-Atlantean people, wheel-shaped figures appear within the astral aura. Such figures are present in the aura of every person today; in the Lemurians, they were barely noticeable. When these “wheels” are in motion in modern humans, astral vision occurs. When they are at rest, astral vision is suspended. These are the three states.

[ 5 ] The physical body is permeated by the nervous system. Each nerve center is connected to an astral center, so that, for example, the optic nerve is surrounded and enveloped by an astral optic nerve, by an astral substance that belongs to the optic nerve. Now, how does vision come about? Light enters the eye and travels through the nerve to the brain. But one still sees nothing there; it is still merely a physical process. Now the astral optic nerve begins to vibrate. These vibrations cause the image one sees to appear. Without the astral body being activated, it is impossible to see. The same applies to thinking. The astral body is what is actually active. If you now imagine how it is with the seer, then it is not impressions that come through the ear or the eye, but rather impressions that come through his astral organization itself, without the mediation of the physical brain and the nerve center. This occurs when the chakras, the lotus flowers, come into motion. This means that the astral body is an organism that possesses sensory organs.

[ 6 ] When a person is in the ordinary state of sleep, the astral body is generally outside the physical body. The more highly developed a person is, the farther the astral body can travel. Complete psychic development consists of leaving the body behind and wandering freely in the astral realm. There are further stages. While you sleep, the astral body can undertake the strangest journeys, though you do not remember these nocturnal wanderings. You may be aware of them during the night, but you cannot carry that awareness into the day. The highest stage is when you are conscious of your astral consciousness both while asleep and while in the physical body. You can visit familiar people during the night; however, you will not be able to have experiences of the same kind as in the physical realm. For example, you will not know what a person in Asia is doing right now—you cannot know that. But if you wish to learn something from them, you can do so if you fully bring that into your daytime consciousness. The chela could not know whether a Master in Asia is writing or not, or whether and what he eats and drinks. But he can be taught in the astral realm and consciously bring that knowledge over into his waking consciousness.

[ 7 ] When you look at such an astral body, you have, in one place, the physical body with its nerve centers, which appears to the physical eye just as it does during the day, and you have, somewhere else, the astral body with its sense organs, so that you can see: the optic nerve belongs to this center [of the astral body] and the auditory nerve to that one.

[ 8 ] This raises the question: What is the connection between the astral body and the physical body? What links the astral ear to the physical ear? And why does the astral body—[which is separated from the physical body during sleep]—return? These are interesting questions to consider. Let us suppose, for example, that a person feels terribly unhappy. Now, during the night, he is in his astral body. The suffering has its origin in the physical realm. He could now resolve [with his astral body] not to return, and this would constitute what one might call astral suicide.

[ 9 ] So, what connects the astral body to the physical body and its organs, and what brings it back? There is a kind of bond, a connection, which is an intermediate substance between physical and astral matter. And this is called the Kundalini fire. If you have a sleeping person, you can always trace the astral body in the astral realm. You see a luminous trail leading to where the astral body is. It is always possible to locate it. As the astral body moves away, the Kundalini fire becomes thinner and thinner to the same degree. It is an ever-thinner and thinner trail; it becomes more and more like a thin mist. If you now look closely at this Kundalini fire, it is not uniform. Certain spots within it will be brighter and denser, and these are the spots that lead the astral back to the physical. The optic nerve is thus connected to an astral nerve through a denser Kundalini fire.

[ 10 ] Leadbeater did not wish [in his book *The Astral Plane*] to address the question of whether such astral suicide is possible. The Kundalini fire cannot be completely lifted out of the physical body along with the astral body. If it were to happen that a person resolved never to return, the Kundalini fire would continually pull him down; it is as if he still belonged to the physical body. It is the trail of the Kundalini fire that he follows. If the life force has not yet been exhausted, it is very difficult to lift the astral body out of the physical body. It is very difficult when someone is attached to the physical body that they can no longer use. In this respect, the fate of the suicide and that of the accident victim do not differ significantly from one another.

[ 11 ] Now, in the more highly developed human being, in whom the chakras are active, another process takes place. They have the ability to voluntarily withdraw the Kundalini fire from the organism; at the same time, opposing currents open up from within: what previously flowed in only from the outside, the individual can now voluntarily regulate from within; the entire process can now be voluntarily brought about.

[ 12 ] Now, human beings have attained complete control over the astral body. Please note that this state is becoming increasingly prevalent in human evolution. Today it is the psychically developed who possess such an astral body, but humanity as a whole is rapidly moving toward this state. Humanity will have the ability to use its astral body in the sixth race. It will have a physical body and, within it, an astral body that it can use in this way. In the next round, however, human beings will no longer have a physical body, but only an astral body, which they will then be able to use freely, just as we humans use the physical body today. The physical body will then no longer exist; the lowest body will then be the astral body.

[ 13 ] Something similar to the astral centers can be found in the mental body. The astral body has individual sensory centers: there is an astral center corresponding to the optic nerve, as well as to the auditory nerve, the olfactory nerve, and so on. The mental body no longer has such individual senses. It has only a single sense; it is permeated by mental perception, so that with its single sense it is capable of mental perception. Therefore, it is able to relate everything to one another.

[ 14 ] The shadow of the mental sense is the intellect. When you hear a bell ringing, you turn around to perceive it through your eyes as well. The astral senses are also connected to the mental sense through a kind of Kundalini fire. The Kundalini fire is thus the intermediary substance that connects the individual states.

[ 15 ] Now I would like to lay the groundwork for some ideas regarding the evolution of the cycles. If one wishes to follow the evolution of the cycles, one must realize that the human being essentially consists of three aspects: body, soul, and spirit. To understand the cycles, it is important to refer to these aspects by different names. We can call the body: the human species; the soul: the human personality; the spirit: the human individuality. Once you realize this, you will see that, in terms of the species, people differ very little from one another; there is a consistent similarity. However, people differ greatly from one another in terms of personality. The personal is regarded as the distinguishing factor. The individual, however, is regarded as the universal, as the general human spirit. Species: essentially the physical; personality: essentially the soul; individuality: essentially the spirit.

[ 16 ] Let us first examine the first two: species and personality. Personality was prepared during the Lunar Epoch. What carries over from the Lunar Epoch is personality. What we carry within us as species, the way we look now—our physical form—is essentially an earthly imprint, an earthly configuration. The entire development of the Earth since the Pralaya has been there to gradually bring the human body form to the point where, on the one hand, the personality can connect with this form, and these two together can become the seat of the spirit, of individuality.

[ 17 ] It is now particularly useful to examine each of these separately, and one would therefore do well to examine genus, personality, and individuality separately.

[ 18 ] First, the genus. Imagine a Pralaya, a twilight state. From this, a sphere first emerges, though it is not yet a true sphere, but merely contains the potential to become one. Within it lie the forces of form—archetypes, not yet figures, a mist. From this, the first sphere emerges. Within this sphere, the human species live in archetypes in the Arupa state. This sphere now becomes denser; and now, within this sphere, thoughts of the human species take shape. Now the thoughts move about within this sphere. This is the second state, [the Rupa state]. The third state is that it transforms into an astral sphere.

[ 19 ] What were once merely thought-forms in archetypes become astral forms. Thus, the astral human forms live on the third sphere. The fourth sphere is already physical. For the first time we have human species, [admittedly still] without the capacity for growth, but with physical density and hardness, as if one were to touch them. While this has been taking place, other kingdoms of nature have developed in the same way as species: 'animal species, plant species, mineral species exist as forms; but they cannot yet live. Imagine a plaster cast taken of yourself and filled in; that is roughly how it was. On the fifth sphere, everything will again become astral in a transformed form; on the sixth, everything will again become thought; and on the seventh sphere, everything will again be transformed into a formless, monadic state. And then comes a Pralaya.