The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Third Lecture

[ 1 ] What is the state of human beings between death and rebirth?

[ 2 ] Death is rightly called the older brother of sleep, for there is a certain kinship between sleep and death. But there is also a great and tremendous difference between the two.

[ 3 ] Let us consider what happens to human beings from the moment they fall asleep to the moment they wake up. This time is a kind of unconscious state. Only sparse, sometimes confused, sometimes clearer memories of dream consciousness emerge. In order to understand sleep properly, we must remember the individual parts of the human being. We saw that the human being consists of seven members, four of which are fully developed, the fifth only partially, and that only germs and potentialities are present in the sixth and seventh:

1. the physical body, which we perceive with our senses
2. the etheric body, which is finely luminous and permeates the first
3. the astral body
4. the ego body or consciousness body.

[ 4 ] The ego body contains:

5. the spirit self or manas, partly developed, partly in seed form
6. the life spirit or budhi
7. the spirit man or atma, the latter two only in seed form.

[ 5 ] An awake person has the four lowest bodies in the space they occupy. The etheric body protrudes slightly from the physical body on all sides. The astral body protrudes about two and a half head lengths above the physical body, surrounding it like a cloud and fading away towards the bottom. When a person falls asleep, the physical body and the etheric body remain in bed; they remain connected to each other as they are during the day. In contrast, the astral body becomes loosened; the astral body and the ego body are lifted out of the physical body, as it were. Since all sensations, mental images, and so on are produced in the astral body, but this is now outside the physical body, the person is unconscious during sleep; for in this life, the person needs the physical brain as an instrument in order to become conscious. Without it, the person cannot become conscious.

[ 6 ] What does the detached astral body do during the night? The clairvoyant can observe how the astral body is busy with the sleeper at night; it has its specific task. It does not float, as is often taught by theosophists, inactive, sluggish, as an idle entity above the human being, but is constantly active on the physical body. And what does it do? The physical body becomes tired and worn out during the day, and the astral body makes up for this wear and tear, this fatigue, during the night. The astral body repairs the physical body at night and replaces the depleted energies. Hence the necessity of sleep and hence also the refreshing, invigorating, and healing qualities of sleep. We will discuss dreams later on.

[ 7 ] When a person dies, it is different. Then not only do the astral body and the ego body separate from the physical body, but also the etheric body. These three bodies lift themselves out and remain together for a while after the death of the physical body. The phenomenon of death occurs in such a way that at the moment of death, the connection between the etheric and astral bodies on the one hand and the physical body on the other, namely in the heart, is dissolved. A kind of illumination takes place in the heart, and then the etheric body, astral body, and ego rise above the head. At the moment of death, however, something remarkable happens to the human being: for a brief span of time, the person remembers all their experiences in the life that has just passed. Like a large tableau, their entire life stands before their soul in a single moment. Something similar happens to people during their lifetime only in very rare cases, namely when they are in mortal danger or experience a great shock; for example, a drowning person or someone falling from a height sees their life pass before their eyes at the moment of death.

[ 8 ] Another similar phenomenon is the peculiar, tingling sensation when a limb has fallen asleep. Where does this come from? It comes from a loosening of the etheric body. When a limb, for example a finger, falls asleep, the clairvoyant sees a fingerling protruding next to the finger; this is the etheric body, which has loosened at this point and protrudes. This is also where the great danger of hypnosis lies, because in this case the brain is subject to the same process as the fallen asleep finger. On both sides of the head, the clairvoyant sees the loosened etheric body hanging out like two flaps or sacs. If hypnotism is repeated frequently, the etheric body tends to loosen, which can entail great dangers. Those affected usually become unfree, dreamy, have dizzy spells, and so on. Such a loosening of the entire etheric body occurs in the face of mortal danger. This is related as follows: the etheric body is the carrier of memory; the finer the etheric body, the more developed it is, the better the memory. If the etheric body is stuck in the physical body, as is the case with ordinary people, then its vibrations cannot sufficiently affect the brain and come to the person's consciousness, because the physical body with its coarser vibrations covers them, as it were. In the face of death, however, when the etheric body loosens, it is relieved of its memories by the brain. The whole of the past life stands before the soul of the dying person for a moment. So at the moment when the etheric body loosens, everything that has ever been written into the etheric body comes to the fore. Hence the memory of the past life immediately after death. It then takes some time for the etheric body to separate from the astral body and the ego.

[ 9 ] In ordinary human beings, the etheric body gradually dissolves into the world ether. In uneducated, still low-level human beings, this dissolution of the etheric body proceeds slowly; in educated people, it proceeds rapidly; in chelas or disciples, it proceeds slowly again and becomes slower and slower the higher the person rises, until finally a stage of development is reached where it no longer dissolves at all.

[ 10 ] Now, in the ordinary human being, we already have two corpses, that of the physical body and that of the etheric body; what remains are the astral body and the I.

[ 11 ] We must now realize that the entire consciousness of the human being in earthly life depends on his senses. We can create a mental image of how different the state of consciousness must now be. Let us imagine all the senses gradually fading away: darkness sets in after the loss of the eyes, soundlessness after the loss of the ears, neither cold nor heat exist after the loss of the corresponding sense. What remains of what animates the soul, what fills our daily consciousness, what we owe to the body from morning till night, now that all physical organs are gone? The soul's content; and it is precisely when we realize this that we will understand what the state of life is like after death, when the human being has shed these two corpses.

[ 12 ] This state is called Kamaloka, which means desire realm. But this is not a place somewhere outside; no, where we are is also Kamaloka, and the spirits of the deceased constantly hover around us and live among us. But their presence escapes the physical human being. How does a dead person feel? A simple case will make this clear to us: A person eats with desire and real enjoyment. The clairvoyant sees the satisfaction of enjoyment in the upper part of his astral body as a brownish-red thought form. Now this person dies; what remains with him is the desire and capacity for enjoyment. Only the physical, the material of enjoyment, clings to the physical; we must have a palate and so on in order to be able to eat. But enjoyment and desire are something spiritual; therefore, the capacity for enjoyment and desire remain even after death. Only then the person no longer has the opportunity to satisfy their desire, because the organs for satisfaction are missing. This is the case with all pleasures and desires: there is a desire for beautiful color combinations—but the eyes are missing; for harmonious music—but the ears are missing.

[ 13 ] How does the soul become aware of this after death? Like a desert wanderer tormented by burning thirst, wandering around and searching for a spring to quench his thirst, the soul suffers from burning thirst because it no longer has any organs or tools to satisfy it. It must do without everything, which is why “burning thirst” is a very apt description, and this is precisely what expresses the state of Kamaloka. It is not a torment from outside, but the torment of the unfulfillability of the still existing capacity for enjoyment.

[ 14 ] Why must the soul suffer this torment? So that the human being gradually weans himself off these sensual desires and wishes, so that the soul detaches itself from the earth, purifies and cleanses itself. When this happens, the Kamaloka period comes to an end and the human being ascends to Devachan.

[ 15 ] How does the soul experience life in Kamaloka? In Kamaloka, the human being relives his entire life, but he relives it backwards. He goes through his entire lifetime from the hour of death back to birth, day by day, with all his experiences, events, and deeds. And what is the purpose of this? The purpose is that they pause, so to speak, at each event in order to wean themselves from their attachment to the physical and material. They relive all their pleasures, but in such a way that they must do without them, that they cannot satisfy them. In this way, they wean themselves from physical life. And when he has lived through his life in this way until birth, then he can, in the words of the Bible, enter the “Kingdom of Heaven,” as Christ says: “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” All the words of the Gospels are very profound, and one comes to know their depth when one gradually penetrates into divine wisdom.

[ 16 ] We must still highlight individual moments from this Kamaloka life that are particularly important and instructive.

[ 17 ] Among the various feelings that cling to human beings in life is, in particular, the actual feeling of existence, the feeling of life, the joy of life in general, of being inside the physical body. That is why it is a major deprivation to no longer have a physical body. We will now understand the terrible fate and the appalling torments of those unfortunate people who take their own lives. In natural death, the separation of the three bodies is relatively easy. Even in the case of a stroke or other rapid natural death, the separation of these higher members from each other has in reality long been prepared; they separate easily, and the deprivation of the physical body is then only very slight. But in the case of such a violent and sudden separation from the body as in the case of a suicide, where everything is still healthy and still firmly held together, immediately after death there is a strong deprivation of the physical body, which causes terrible suffering. It is a terrible fate. The suicide feels hollowed out and begins a gruesome search for the physical body that has been so suddenly taken away. Nothing can be compared to this.

[ 18 ] Some will now say: Those who are weary of life are no longer attached to life, otherwise they would not have taken it. — That is a delusion, for it is precisely the suicide who is too attached to life; but because it no longer offers him the satisfaction of familiar pleasures, because it perhaps denies him many things due to changed circumstances, he goes to his death, and that is why the deprivation of the physical body is now unspeakably great for him.

[ 19 ] But not everyone finds life in Kamaloka so difficult. For those who were less attached to material pleasures, weaning themselves off these pleasures and the deprivation they entail is naturally not so difficult. But even they must leave their physical life behind completely, because life in Kamaloka has another purpose.

[ 20 ] During their life, human beings not only do things that give them pleasure, but they also live here together with other human beings and creatures; consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally, they cause joy and suffering, pleasure and pain to humans and animals. This, too, is encountered again during the Kamaloka period. One returns to the place and moment where one caused pain to other beings. At that time, one made others feel pain; now one must suffer the same pain in one's own soul. All the torments I have ever caused another being, I must now go through in my own soul. I am, as it were, inside the human being or animal and learn what the other being suffered through me, and now I must suffer all these torments and pains myself. There is no escape from this. However, this is not the effect of karma, but only the detachment from the earthly. This makes the kamaloka of the vivisector particularly terrible. Theosophists should not criticize what the world offers, but they can understand how modern man could have come to such things. In the Middle Ages, no one would have thought of it, and in ancient times, every physician would have considered it utter nonsense to destroy life in order to learn about life, for it is true that even in the Middle Ages, a large part of humanity was clairvoyant, and physicians could see through people and see what was damaged and what was lacking in them. Paracelsus, for example, could see through the physical body. But the age of material culture had to come, and clairvoyance was lost. We see this especially in today's doctors and natural scientists, and vivisection was a consequence of this. Thus, it can be understood, but never excused or justified. The consequences of such a life of causing torment are inevitable: After death, the vivisector himself must go through all the torments he inflicted on the animals; his soul is, as it were, trapped inside every pain he caused. His lack of intent, the pretext of science, “the good cause,” are no excuses. The law of spiritual life is unyielding.

[ 21 ] How long does a person remain in Kamaloka? One third of their lifetime. If a person lived to be seventy-five years old, their stay in Kamaloka will last about twenty-five years.

[ 22 ] What happens then? People's astral bodies vary greatly in color and shape. The astral body of a low-minded person is permeated with all kinds of formations, with base instincts; it has a reddish-gray base color with reddish-gray emanations and does not differ in shape from certain animals. The situation is quite different with an educated person or even an idealist like Schiller, or a saint like Francis of Assisi; they denied themselves many things, refined their instincts, and so on. But the more a person works on themselves from their ego, the more rays emanate from the bluish sphere, the ego center; these radiations represent forces through which the human being gains control over the astral body. Therefore, one can say that the human being has two astral bodies, one part that has remained with the animal desires, and another part that the human being has worked into it himself.

[ 23 ] When a person has gone through their Kamaloka period, they are ready to lift the refined part of their astral body out of the lower part. This lower part remains behind, and what it has made of itself, it pulls out. In the case of savage and uncultivated people, a large part remains behind as a lower astral body; in the case of educated people, less. When, for example, Francis of Assisi dies, very little remains behind, and a powerful, high astral body is drawn out, because he has worked hard on himself. What remains is the third corpse of the human being: the lower drives and instincts that the human being has not yet refined. From then on, this corpse floats around everywhere in the astral space, and many harmful influences emanate from it.

[ 24 ] This is also a second thing that can appear in spiritualist séances. This astral corpse often remains for a long time and can make itself known through a medium, and people often believe that it is the deceased person himself; but it is only his astral corpse. Like a shell, it contains the deceased's base instincts and habits; it can also answer questions, provide information, and speak and behave as rationally as the base human being was rational. This leads to many misunderstandings. A striking example is provided by the brochure by the spiritualist Langsdorff, in which he claims to have had a meeting with A.P.B. For Langsdorff, the idea of reincarnation is like a red rag to a bull; he wants to do everything in his power to refute this teaching. He hates H.P.B. because she taught and spread this doctrine. Now, in this pamphlet, he reports that he quoted H.P.B. and that she told him not only that the doctrine of reincarnation was false, but also how much she regretted having taught it. All of this may be true, except that Langsdorff did not quote and question H.P.B., but rather her lower astral corpse. And that this lower astral corpse of H.P.B. answered in this way is now quite understandable when one knows that in the early stages of her development in “Isis Unveiled” she really rejected and fought against the doctrine of reincarnation. She herself rose in her knowledge, but her error remained with the astral shell.

[ 25 ] This third corpse, the astral shell, gradually dissolves, and it is important that it be completely dissolved when the human being returns to a new incarnation. In most cases, this is what happens. But there are exceptions where a person reincarnates quickly before their astral corpse has dissolved. This creates difficult situations for this person when, upon reincarnation, they still find their own astral corpse, which still contains everything that was imperfect in their previous life.