The Evolution of Consciousness
GA 227
23 August 1923, Penmaenmawr
5. The Relation of Man to the Three Worlds
Dreams, of which I have already said something, pointing out that they should not be given too much importance in ordinary life on earth, are nevertheless of immeasurable significance to those wishing to gain knowledge of man's relation to the super-sensible world. They do indeed lead to that realm of experience where a man comes in contact with the super-sensible world, and the laws of nature cease to hold good. Thus the world of dream-pictures is really like a veil concealing the spiritual world, and we can say: Here we have a man, and there a dream-veil behind which lies the spiritual world. It makes a great difference, however, whether we enter the spiritual world unconsciously, as we do in dreams, or consciously through Imagination and Inspiration. For if we enter it consciously, everything there appears different from the physical world of nature. Behind the veil of the dream, behind what the Greeks called “chaos”, the moral world is found to be just as real as is the world of nature here in the sense-world, where the laws of nature rule. But the chaotic quality of the dream, its whirling confusion, show that its connection with the world lying behind the veil of chaos is a very special one.
It is really possible to speak of this world only when one's studies have reached the point to which these lectures have brought us. All that in his ordinary state of consciousness a man sees of the external world is merely its outward manifestation; in reality this is a great illusion. For behind it all is that spiritual reality which is active in it. When a man dreams, he actually sinks down into this spiritual reality, though without being properly prepared, so that what he meets appears to him in this whirling confusion. Thus, to begin with, our chief task is to learn why in dreams a man enters a world which, compared with that of nature, is so disorganised, so chaotic.
To help us on, therefore, in our study of dreams, I must now tell you something of what Imagination and Inspiration can perceive in the spiritual world.
We find above all that when through Imagination and Inspiration we enter the spiritual world in full consciousness, it immediately appears to us to be threefold. Hence we can speak of the world, and of our theme, the evolution of the world and of man, only when we have come to the point we have now reached. Only now can I speak of how a man, confronted by the external world, by all that manifests itself to the senses, is really facing the spiritual world in its threefold nature—facing actually three worlds. Once the veil has been lifted which creates the chaos, we no longer have one world only before us, but three worlds, and each of the three has its definite connection with the human being.
When we succeed in penetrating this veil of chaos—later I shall be showing how we can also describe this as crossing the threshold of the spiritual world—we perceive the three worlds. The first of the three is really the world we have just left, somewhat transformed but still there for spiritual existence. When the veil of chaos has been thrust aside, this world appears as though it were a memory. We have passed over into the spiritual world; and just as here we remember certain things, so in the spiritual world we remember what constitutes the physical world of the senses. Here, then, is the first of the three worlds.
The second world we encounter is the one I have called in my book, Theosophy, the soul-world.
And the third world, the highest of the three, is the true spiritual world, the world of the spirit.
To begin with, I shall give you only a schematic account of all this, but from the way these three worlds are related to man you will gather many things about them. To these three worlds as they appear in three ascending stages—the lowest, the middle one, and the highest—I will then relate man's three members—the head; then the breast-organisation embracing all that is rhythmical, the breathing system and blood circulation; thirdly, the metabolic-limb system, which includes nutrition, digestion and the distribution throughout the body of the products of digestion, all of which engender movement. All this has to do with the metabolic-limb system. If this scheme were drawn, there would have to be a closed circle for the breast; for the head a circle left open, and open also for the limb system. When perceived physically, man's head appears to be closed above and would have to be drawn so, but perceived spiritually, it is open. The part of a man which does not belong at all to the realm of the spirit is the bony system, which is entirely of a physical nature; and when spiritually you study the human head, its thick skull is not seen. Only the skin is visible where the hair grows.
When this is looked at spiritually, however, something else appears. Ordinary hair is not there at all, but purely spiritual hair; in other words, rays which penetrate into the human organism and are held back, to some extent, only by the physical hair. But it is just where there is bone in the organism that the spirit can enter most easily, and this it does in the form of rays. So, on first looking at a man with your physical eyes, you see his physical form with the head above, and on his head—if he is not already bald—there is hair. But then, where the dome of the skull comes, spiritually you see nothing of the physical man; you see rays, sun-like rays, pouring into him from the spiritual worlds.
Thus the reason for the circle not being closed for the head is that the surrounding bony vault of the skull enables the spirit to have continual access there.
Nothing in a man is without purpose. By deliberate intent of the ruling powers—one might say—he has been given a head thus closed above, for here the spirit has the easiest access to his inner being because of the very thickness of the bone.
When we are in a position to observe man spiritually, we are astonished to discover how empty his head is of anything drawn from his own inner being. As regards the spiritual, he has almost nothing in him to fill the hollow globe sitting on his shoulders. Everything spiritual has to enter it from outside.
It is not thus with the other members of the human organism; as we shall soon hear, these are by their very nature spiritual. We can distinguish in man three members—head, or nerves and senses system, rhythmic system, metabolic-limb system, and they have a quite definite relation to the three worlds: the physical world, the soul-world, and the spiritual world. I will now go further into this.
First of all, it will be well to distinguish, in each of the three worlds, substance from activity. In reality, substance and activity are one, but they work in different ways in the world. You gain a clear idea of this from the substance of your own being. You have substance in your arm, and when this substance is out of order you will feel pain of some kind; it is obvious that something within the substance of the arm has gone wrong. If the activity of the arm is not properly controlled, you may perhaps hit your neighbour and he feels pain. This shows that the activity is out of gear. Nevertheless, though manifesting outwardly in different ways, the substance and activity in your arm are one.
If now we turn to the human head, we find its substance derived entirely from the physical world. During the formation of the human embryo the substance of the head comes from the parents; and the subsequent development of the head, and of the whole head and nerve-senses system, depends for its substance entirely on the earthly-material world. On the other hand, all the activity that has to do with the plastic forming of a man's head, the activity by means of which its substance is given shape, comes entirely from the spiritual world. So that in respect of activity, the head is entirely a spiritual formation. Therefore the head has to be left open—in a spiritual sense—so that activity can play into it.
At any time of life you can thus say: The substance of my head comes entirely from the Earth, but it is put together and plastically formed in such a way that it cannot be the work of earthly forces. The forms of this human head are shaped entirely from the spiritual world; they might be called a heavenly creation. Anyone who contemplates spiritually the human head, in relation to the world, has to go far and deep.
Now in the same way he turns his gaze to a plant. He says to himself: The plant has a definite form. Its substance is drawn from the earth, but its form comes from the etheric world—hence still from the spatial world.
Then he looks at an animal. The animal—he will say to himself—derives the substance of its head entirely from the world of space, but something spiritual certainly flows into its activity.
When we come to the human head, however, we find for the first time that something of the highest spirituality, something that can be called heavenly, is playing in. We see that the human head could never arise from earthly forces, though its substance is taken from earthly materials. So in the human head, which is itself a kind of miniature Cosmos, the spiritual world builds up a form out of earthly substance.
It is precisely the reverse with the metabolic-limb system, which embraces the organs for external movement—legs, arms—and the extension of these within the body—the digestive system.
For the present I am leaving out the middle system—the rhythmical system which embraces breathing and the circulation of the blood. I will deal now with the system which brings together the processes of digestion and nourishment, and the inner combustion which enables a man to move.
Now the substance of this metabolic-limb system is not derived from the Earth. Improbable as it may sound, you bear within your metabolic-limb man something which is not of earthly origin but consists wholly of substance from the third world, the world of the spirit. You may say: But I can see my legs; they are physically perceptible, which they would not be if they consisted of spiritual substance. This objection is quite justified, but there is something more to be considered.
Your real legs are indeed spiritual throughout; your real arms too; but the material for them is provided by your head. The head is the organ which fills spirit arms, spirit hands, spirit legs, spirit feet, with substance; and this substance penetrates into the spirituality of the limbs and of the digestive organs. So that something which in reality belongs entirely to the spiritual world is permeated, flooded, with physical matter by the head. That is why it is so difficult to grasp with the ideas of physical science that a man consists of head-breast-limbs-digestive organs. People think of the head as being there at the top, and they assume that when a man is decapitated he has no head left. It is not so, however; a man is substantially head all over. Even right to the end of his big toe he is head, for his head sends down its substance there. It is only the substance of the head that is earthly in origin, and the head gives its earthly-material character to the other substances; while the substance of the metabolic-limb organs comes from the spiritual world.
If through vigorous auto-suggestion of a negative kind we can suggest away the head of a man, so that in appearance he is headless, and if we can do this not only in thought but so that we really see the man as headless, then the rest of his organism also disappears; with the head goes the whole of the man as a being perceptible to the senses. And if the head is then to be there for us at all, the rest of the man has to be perceived spiritually. For in reality we go about under the imprint of higher worlds, with spirit legs, spirit arms, and it is only the head that fills them with physical matter.
On the other hand the forces, the activity, for all that makes up the metabolic-limb man are drawn from the physical world. If you make a step forward or lift an arm, the mechanism involved, and even the chemical processes that take place in moving an arm or leg, or the chemical processes in the digestive organs—all this activity is earthly. So that in your limbs you bear invisible substance, but forces drawn from earthly life. Hence we are built up as regards our head and its substance out of the Earth, but this same head is permeated with heavenly forces. In our limbs we are built up entirely from heavenly substance; but the forces playing into this heavenly substance during our life on Earth are earthly forces—gravitation and other physical and chemical forces all belonging to the Earth.
You see, therefore, that head and limbs are opposites. The head consists of earthly matter and is given plastic form by heavenly activity. The limbs and the digestive system are formed wholly of heavenly substance, and would not be visible were they not saturated with earthly substance by the head. But when anyone walks, or grasps something, or digests food, the heavenly substance makes use of earthly forces in order that life on Earth, from birth to death, may be carried on.
In this complicated way does a man stand in relation to the three worlds. The spiritual world participates with its activity in the head; with its substance it participates in a man's third organisation, his metabolic-limb system. The lowest world, the world most dominated by the senses, participates through its activity in the metabolism and the movement of the limbs, and through its substance in the head; whereas the substance in a man's third system is wholly spiritual.
In the middle system, which embraces the breathing and the circulation of the blood, spiritual activity and material substance work into each other. The spiritual activity, flowing through the movement of our breathing and the beating of our heart, is always accompanied to some extent by substantiality. And, in the same way, the substantiality of earthly existence, inasmuch as oxygen streams into the breathing, is to some extent accompanied by earthly activity. So you see that in the middle man, in man's second system, everything flows together—heavenly substance and activity flow in here; earthly activity and substance flow in there. By this means we are made receptive both to the activity of the middle world and to its substantiality.
So in this middle man there is a great deal of intermingling and for this reason we need our wonderfully perfect rhythmical system—the rhythm of the heart, the rhythm of the lungs in breathing. All the intermingling of activity and substance is balanced, harmonised, melodised, through these rhythms, and this can happen because man is organised for it.
In the head system and the limb system, activity and substantiality come from quite different sources, but in the middle system they come from all three worlds and in a variety of ways—at one place activity accompanied by substance, in another place substance accompanied by activity; here pure activity, there pure substance—all these variations flow through the middle man. If as a doctor you take a man's pulse, you can really feel there the balancing of the heavenly nature of the soul against earthly activity and substantiality. Again, if you observe the breathing, you can feel a man's inner striving for balance between the various agencies which relate him to the middle world.
All this is very complicated, you will say. It is true that a lecture-course is generally easy to understand up to a certain stage, but when it comes to the point where man's relation to the world has to be grasped, people often say: “This is becoming very difficult—we can't keep up with it.”
But look—with really flexible thinking, free from prejudice, you will be able to keep up. And for anyone who thinks in this way, with healthy human understanding, there is a certain consolation. As I said before, the actual thrusting aside of the veil of chaos and the entry into the threefold world, which sends its activity and substance into the physical world in so vastly complicated a way—this experience is so bewildering that full warning of it is given before the threshold is crossed. I will put it pictorially, but in full accord with the facts. The warning is: “If you are not willing to forgo what you have regarded as ordinary naturalistic logic and as the customary connections between things, if you are reluctant to leave behind this physical cloak, it is better that you should not enter the spiritual world, for there you will be obliged to make use of other associations of ideas, other orderings, and a completely different logic. If you want to take anything of your physical logic with you into the spiritual world, you will quite certainly get confused.” And among the matters that have to do with preparing ourselves for meditation and concentration, we have to remember the warning never to carry over the logic of the sense-world into the logic of the spiritual world.
This is the important warning given by that power we may call the Guardian of the Threshold—of whom we shall hear more in later lectures—to those who wish to pierce behind the veil.
But when we wish to return to the physical world, we receive from the Guardian another warning, clear and forcible. So long as we are men of Earth we return, or we should never get away from happenings in the spiritual world, and our deserted physical body would die. We must always return. In accordance with naturalistic logic we have to eat, drink, and adapt ourselves every day to customary activities. We are obliged to re-enter the world where things follow a naturalistic course—where, for example, we are called to meals at the usual hours. So, when we are returning from the spiritual world to the physical world, we must—to avoid an impossible situation—pay heed to the second warning given by the Guardian who stands where the veil of chaos separates the physical sense-world from the spiritual world. This, then, is the warning: “During your life on Earth, never for a moment forget that you have been in the spiritual world; then and only then, during the times you have to spend in the physical world, will you be able to guide your steps with certainty.”
Thus at the threshold of this threefold spiritual world, to which a man is related through his three members in the way described, he is warned to lay aside all naturalistic logic, to leave behind this cloak of the senses and to go forward prepared to adapt himself to a spiritual logic, spiritual thinking and the spiritual association of ideas. On his return he is given a second warning, just as stern, even sterner than the first: never for a moment to forget his experience in the spiritual world—in other words, not to confine himself in ordinary consciousness merely to the impulses of the sense-world, and so on, but always to be conscious that to his physical world he has to be a bearer of the spiritual.
You will see that the two warnings differ considerably from one another. At the entrance to the spiritual world the Guardian of the Threshold says: Forget the physical world of the senses while here you are acquiring knowledge of the spiritual. But on your return to the physical world the Guardian's warning is: Never forget, even in the physical world on Earth, your experiences in the heavenly world of the spirit; keep your memory of them alive.
With reference to what I said last time, there is another considerable difference between the men of an older evolutionary epoch and those of the present time. In the case of those I pictured coming to the Mystery centres as inspired pupils, or just as ordinary folk, the transition from sleeping to waking and from waking to sleeping was not made without their being instinctively aware of the Guardian of the Threshold. Three or four thousand years ago, as men were entering sleep, there arose in their souls like a dream a picture of the Guardian. They passed him by. And as they were returning from sleep to ordinary life, once again this picture appeared. The warnings they received on entering and leaving the spiritual world were not so clear as the warnings which I have said are given to those entering the spiritual world through Inspiration and Imagination. But as they fell asleep, and again as they awoke, they had a dreamlike experience of passing the Guardian of the Threshold, not unlike their other instinctive perceptions of the spiritual world. Further progress in the evolution of humanity—as we shall see in later lectures—required that man should gain his freedom by losing his spiritual vision, and he had to forfeit that half-sleeping, half-waking state during which he was able to behold, at least in a kind of dream, the majestic figure of the Guardian of the Threshold.
Nowadays, between going to sleep and waking, a man passes the Guardian but does not know it. He is blind and deaf to the Guardian, and that is why he finds himself in a dream-world which is so completely disorganised.
Now consider quite impartially the different way in which the people of older epochs knew how to speak of their dreams. Because of ignoring the Guardian every morning, every evening, and twice every time he takes an afternoon nap, a man to-day experiences this utter disorder and chaos in his dream-world. This can be seen in the form taken by any dream.
Only think: when we cross the Threshold—and we do so each time we go to sleep—there stands the majestic Guardian. He cannot be ignored without everything we meet in the spiritual world becoming disordered. How this happens is best seen in the metamorphosis undergone by the orderly thinking proper to the physical, naturalistic world when this passes into the imagery of dreams. Individual dreams can show this very clearly.
In the physical, naturalistic world people behave as they learn to do in accordance with its conditions. We will take a case in point. Someone goes for a walk. Now in a town to-day, you will agree, certain walks are taken particularly for the experiences they offer. For example, during a walk people meet friends; they can show off their clothes if so inclined, both to those they know and to strangers. All this can be experienced during a walk and the point of it is that it gives occasion for us to have thoughts, ideas, so that we are able—only our head-organisation is here concerned—to say: “I think.” By virtue of this “I think” it is possible to experience in the outside world the kind of thing I have just been describing. One meets other people, and it is an experience for them too. One displays one's clothes, perhaps a pretty face into the bargain. What matters is the experience. In this seeing other people, however, in this exhibiting to them our outward appearance, feeling also plays its part. One thing pleases us, another does not. Sympathies and antipathies are aroused. We like it when the people we meet say what is agreeable to us, and we don't like it when they say the opposite. Hence what is experienced on such walks is closely connected with what the head conceives by means of this “I think.” It is connected through the “I feel” of the rhythmical man—that is, with feelings of sympathy and antipathy. Because with this second member of our being we can say “I feel”, we are able to enlarge the experiences that come to us in thought during a walk.
But the third member of man also plays a part on this walk, if we are fully awake. Here we must turn to certain intimate details of human experience. There is a general feeling that civilised people to-day do not show themselves in public without clothes, do not go for walks without them; there is a general antipathy towards nudity and sympathy towards being properly clad. This goes right into our impulses of will. We clothe ourselves—even doing so in a specified way. Here the will comes into its own, the third member of the human organisation. Clothing ourselves is thus connected with the part of us that enables us to say “I will”.
I think
I feel
I will
So, through being able to say “I will,” we go for our walks clothed. When we are awake in the physical world, all this is regulated by the logic of this world. Either we are brought up to it, or we learn to conform to the outer conditions prescribed by the physical world and its logic. If we do not conform, but go for a walk without our clothes, then something within us is out of order. The ordering of the physical world, the logic of the physical world, go together in all this. It never occurs to us on a walk to wish to meet people without clothes. Here, our soul-experience is determined by the ordering of the world. And this shows how the three—I think, I feel, I will—are all connected with one another. It is the world that does this; the external world leads us to form this connection between thinking, feeling and willing.
When, ignoring the Guardian, we cross the Threshold, we confront three worlds, and we can make nothing of them because we partly carry over into the world of spirit the outlook we are familiar with in the waking world. The spiritual world, however, asserts its own order to a certain extent. Then the following may come about. Imagine you are asleep in bed. At first with your feeling, with the middle part of your being, you are entirely under the influence of sleep. Then the coverlet slips; part of your body gets chilled, and it enters your dream consciousness that some part of you is unclothed. Now, because you are all at sea in the spiritual world and do not connect the sensation with any particular part of yourself, this feeling spreads, and you fancy you are without any clothes at all. It may be only a bit of your body that is exposed, but that bit becoming cold makes you feel bare all over.
Now in your dream you are still concerned with an impulse of will holding good when you are awake—which is to put on clothes when bare. In your sleep, however, you feel: I cannot put them on, something is preventing me. You are unable to move your limbs and you become conscious of this in your dream.
You see how it is. These two things, I feel I've nothing on, and I cannot put on my clothes—the physical world being no longer there to combine the two, one of which belongs to world II, the other to world I—are wrongly combined in your dream. And because in that same night you had thought about going for a walk, this also enters the course of the dream. Three separate conditions arise: I am going for a walk; I am horrified to find I have nothing on; I cannot put my clothes on.
Now just think. These three things, which in our ordinary materialistic life can be logically combined, fall asunder when, in passing by, you ignore the Guardian of the Threshold.
In world I: the walk
In world II: being without clothes
In world III: the experience of not being able to put on clothes. In this situation you feel yourself in three parts, among strangers, exposed to view on all sides without clothes and without power to put them on. That is your dream experience. What is connected for you in ordinary life through natural logic is separated in your dream and connected, chaotically, in conformity with the custom you take with you across the Threshold. You connect it as if in the spiritual world, too, one has to concern oneself with garments. Because of ignoring the Guardian of the Threshold, you carry over into the spiritual world a custom suited to the physical world. You connect the three worlds chaotically, according to the laws of the physical world, and you feel yourself to be in this situation.
In countless dreams the essential thing is that when we pass the Threshold without heeding the Guardian's warning, what we perceive here in the physical, naturalistic world as a harmonious unity falls apart, and we are confronted by three different worlds. By faithfully observing the warning given by the Guardian of the Threshold, we must find the way to unite these three worlds. To-day, a man in his dreams finds himself faced by these three worlds—it was not so to the same extent for anyone in older epochs, as can be seen from the dreams recorded in the Old Testament—and he then tries to connect the three worlds in accordance with laws valid in physical life. That is the reason for the chaotic connections in the three worlds, as they are experienced by a man of to-day.
You will see, therefore, that dreams can show us this serious fact—that when we cross the Threshold to the spiritual world we are at once faced with three worlds, and that we have both to enter them and to leave them in the right way. Dreams can teach us a very great deal about the physical world of the senses, as it is to-day, and also about that other world—the world of soul and spirit.

Des Menschen Beziehungen zu den drei Welten
Der Traum, von dem wir einiges gesprochen haben, und der, wie ich schon sagte, mit Recht nicht als etwas allzu Wichtiges in das gewöhnliche Erdenleben hereingesetzt werden soll, ist aber von unermeßlicher Wichtigkeit, wenn man die Beziehungen des Menschen zur übersinnlichen Welt kennenlernen will. Und er führt uns ja eigentlich zunächst an dasjenige Gebiet des Erlebens heran, in dem der Mensch die übersinnliche Welt so berührt, daß da aufhören die äußeren Naturgesetze. So daß die Traumbilderwelt in der Tat dasteht wie ein Schleier, der die geistige Welt verhüllt. Man kann sagen: Hier ist der Mensch, hier der Schleier des Traumes. Dahinter ist die geistige Welt. Aber es ist nun der große Unterschied, ob man, wie es beim träumenden Bewußtsein geschieht, unbewußt in die geistige Welt hineingeht, oder ob man durch Imagination und Inspiration bewußt in diese geistige Welt hineingeht. Und geht man bewußt durch Imagination und Inspiration in diese geistige Welt hinein, dann nimmt sich alles anders aus als in der physisch-natürlichen Welt. Dann erweist sich vor allen Dingen hinter dem Schleier des Traumes, hinter dem also, was die Griechen das Chaos genannt haben, die sittlich-moralische Welt als eine ebenso wirkliche, wie hier in der Sinnenwelt die natürliche Welt, die Welt, die beherrscht ist von den Naturgesetzen. Aber das Chaotische des Traumes, das Durcheinanderwirbeln des Traumes, das macht uns ja schon aufmerksam darauf, daß es mit dieser Welt, die da hinter dem Chaosschleier liegt, seine ganz besondere Bewandtnis habe.
Von dieser Welt kann eigentlich erst gesprochen werden, wenn man in der Betrachtung so weit gekommen ist, wie wir Jetzt hier in diesen Vorträgen gekommen sind. Dasjenige, was der Mensch für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein von der äußeren Welt sieht, das ist ja nur die äußere Offenbarung. Das ist eigentlich eine große Illusion. Denn hinter alledem steckt erst die geistige Wirklichkeit, die darinnen tätig ist. Und im Grunde genommen taucht der Mensch, indem er träumt, in diese geistige Wirklichkeit ein, aber noch nicht voll vorbereitet dazu, so daß ihm dasjenige, was ihm in der geistigen Welt entgegenkommt, durcheinanderwirbelt, daß es ihm ungeordnet erscheint. Und wir haben zunächst vorzugsweise die Aufgabe, zu erkennen, warum der Mensch mit dem Traume in eine gegenüber der natürlichen Welt so ungeordnete, so chaotische Welt hineinkommt.
Ich werde also gerade heute, um in der Betrachtung über den Traum weiterschreiten zu können, genötigt sein, Ihnen über dasjenige etwas zu berichten, was Imagination und Inspiration in der geistigen Welt schauen können, wahrnehmen können.
Da zeigt sich vor allen Dingen: Sobald man mit vollem Bewußtsein durch Imagination und Inspiration in diese geistige Welt eintritt, erscheint sie sofort als eine Dreiheit. Und so können wir von der Welt überhaupt erst sprechen und von unserem Thema: Entwiickelung der Welt und des Menschen, wenn wir es bis zu dieser Stelle der Betrachtung gebracht haben, an der wir jetzt stehen. Denn da erst kann ich davon sprechen, daß der Mensch vor der äußeren Welt, vor der also sinnlich sich offenbarenden, in Wirklichkeit geistigen Welt als vor einer Dreiheit steht, eigentlich vor drei Welten steht. In dem Augenblicke, wo man den Schleier durchdrungen hat, der das Chaos ist, steht man nicht vor einer Welt, steht man vor drei Welten. Und diese drei Welten haben ihre ganz bestimmten Beziehungen, ihre ganz bestimmten Verhältnisse zum Menschen.
Machen wir uns zunächst dasjenige, was hier vorliegt, durch eine Art schematischer Zeichnung klar: Wenn wir also hinauskommen durch den Schleier des Chaos hindurch - ich werde später zeigen, wie man dieses Hinauskommen auch beschreiben kann als ein Überschreiten der Schwelle in die geistige Welt hinein -, wenn man da hinauskommt, schaut man drei Welten. Diese drei Welten sind erstens diejenige, die man eben erst verlassen hat, die sich etwas verwandelt zeigt, die aber dennoch auch für das geistige Dasein da ist. Sie erscheint einem, wenn man den Schleier des Chaos durchstoßen hat, wie in einer Erinnerung. Man ist hinübergetreten in die geistige Welt, und so, wie man sich hier an etwas erinnert, so erinnert man sich an dasjenige in der geistigen Welt, was überhaupt physisch-sinnliche Welt ist. Es ist das also die erste Welt. Die zweite Welt, die einem entgegentritt, ist diejenige Welt, die ich in meinem Buche «Theosophie» die Seelenwelt genannt habe, die Welt der Seelen. Und die dritte Welt, die höchste der Welten, die einem da entgegentreten, das ist die eigentliche geistige Welt. Die dritte Welt ist also die Welt des Geistes.
Ich werde die Sache zunächst nur schematisch erklären, aber durch die Beziehungen, in denen diese drei Welten zum Menschen stehen, wird Ihnen manches über diese drei Welten zum Bewußtsein kommen. Ich will also zu diesen drei Welten, die Ihnen, gewissermaßen in drei Etagen aufsteigend, als die unterste, die mittlere, die höchste Welt erscheinen -, ich will den Menschen zu diesen drei Welten in Beziehung setzen: [zur ersten Welt] den Kopf; [zur zweiten] die Brustorganisation, alles das, was Rhythmus umfaßt, Atmungsorganisation, Blutzirkulationssystem; und zur dritten das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem, alles dasjenige, was den Stoffwechsel umfaßt: daß der Mensch sich ernährt, daß der Mensch verdaut, das Verdaute im Körper verbreitet, dadurch die Bewegungen erzeugt. Dadurch hat man es hier mit dem StoffwechselGliedmaßensystem zu tun.

Ich zeichne absichtlich hier [für die Brust] einen geschlossenen Kreis, für den Kopf einen offenen Kreis, und auch für das Gliedmaßensystem einen nicht geschlossenen Kreis. Ich mache das absichtlich, weil der Kopf des Menschen für die sinnliche Anschauung nach oben erst recht geschlossen erscheint. Ich müßte also, wenn ich für die sinnliche Anschauung zeichnete, den Kopf oben geschlossen zeichnen. Das ist er aber nicht, der Menschenkopf, für die geistige Anschauung. Für die geistige Anschauung ist der Menschenkopf nach oben offen. Denn dasjenige, was gar nicht dem Geisterland angehört vom Menschen, das ist die Knochenmasse. Die Knochenmasse ist ganz physischer Natur. Die gehört gar nicht dem Geisterland an. Wenn Sie geistig ein menschliches Haupt betrachten, hier die dicke Schädeldecke (weiß), so ist diese überhaupt für die geistige Betrachtung nicht da. Nur dasjenige, was darüber ist als Haut, das erscheint der geistigen Betrachtung noch etwas (rot). Da sind dann die Haare darauf.

Aber für die geistige Betrachtung tritt etwas anderes auf. Sehen Sie, da ist dasjenige, was ich hier weiß gezeichnet habe, nicht vorhanden, dagegen lauter «Geisthaare», das heißt Strahlen, die da in den Menschen eindringen, die nur etwas gehindert werden, abgehalten werden durch die physische Haut (gelbe Strahlen). Aber da, wo Knochen ist im Menschen, da kann der äußere Geist am leichtesten eindringen. Und er dringt strahlenförmig ein. So daß Sie, wenn Sie den Menschen zunächst mit physischem Auge betrachten, die physische Menschengestalt vor sich haben; da sehen Sie also oben am Kopf, wenn der Mensch noch nicht einen Kahlkopf bekommen hat, seine Haare (rot). Dann aber sehen Sie da, wo die Knochenwölbung oben ist, geistig nichts vom physischen Menschen, dagegen ganz strahlig, sonnig strahlig ziehen da die geistigen Welten in ihn ein (blau). So daß ich also dasjenige, was da ineinander sich schiebt bei der Menschenbetrachtung, eben so zeichnen müßte:

Da ist der Mensch als physisches Wesen (Zeichnung links); und da ist der Mensch als geistiges Wesen [von sich aus] nichts - aber viele einziehende Strahlen (Zeichnung rechts).
So daß ich aus diesem Grunde den Kopf hier oben nicht als einen geschlossenen Kreis, sondern ungeschlossen gezeichnet habe, weil in der Tat in das Menschenhaupt das Geistige fortwährend eindringen kann dadurch, daß hier ein peripherisches Knochengewölbe ist.
Nichts am Menschen ist unzweckmäßig. Der Mensch hat, ich möchte sagen, aus der vollen Bedachtheit der Weltregierung heraus, diesen oben abgeschlossenen Kopf. Denn da dringt durch dasjenige, was den Geist am leichtesten in den Menschen einläßt, durch die äußere Knochenmasse, das Geistige in das Innere.
Wenn man in der Lage ist, den Menschen geistig zu betrachten, so kommt man darauf, das größte Erstaunen darüber zu haben, wie leer eigentlich der Menschenkopf durch das eigene Innere des Menschen ist. Dem Kopf gibt nämlich das eigene Innere des Menschen am allerwenigsten. Der Mensch hat eigentlich in bezug auf das Geistige von sich aus eine ganz leere hohle Kugel da oben sitzen. Und alles Geistige muß in den Kopf hineinkommen von außen.
Das ist nicht so mit den anderen Gliedern des menschlichen Organismus. Die sind, wie wir gleich nachher hören werden, von sich aus geistig. Nun unterscheiden wir danach also auch im Menschen drei Glieder: den Kopf, das rhythmische System, das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem. Diese drei Glieder der menschlichen Natur stehen nun in einer ganz bestimmten Beziehung zu den drei Welten.
Von dieser Beziehung des Menschen, von dem, was im menschlichen Haupte oder dem Nerven-Sinnessystem, von dem menschlichen Brustsystem oder dem Atmungs-Zirkulationssystem, oder dem dritten System, dem Bewegungs-Stoffwechselsystem, was vom Menschen zu diesen drei Welten in Beziehung steht, das werde ich dann weiter besprechen.
Wenn wir von dieser Charakteristik der Dreigeteiltheit des Menschen und der Dreigeteiltheit der Welt nun zu den Beziehungen zwischen beiden übergehen, dann ist es gut, wenn man in Jeder der drei Welten das Substantielle und die Aktivität unterscheidet. Ich werde also sowohl bei der geistigen Welt, wie bei der Seelenwelt, wie bei der stofflichen, sinnlich physischen Welt das Substantielle und die Tätigkeit, die Aktivität unterscheiden. In Wirklichkeit sind Substanz und Aktivität eines; aber sie wirken nach der Welt hin in verschiedener Weise. Sie können sich das an der Substantialität Ihres eigenen menschlichen Wesens klarmachen.
Sie haben in Ihrem Arm Ihre Substanz. Wenn diese Substanz nicht in Ordnung ist, dann werden Sie irgendeinen Schmerz im Arme empfinden. Da zeigt sich, da offenbart sich dasjenige, was in der Substanz nicht in Ordnung ist, nach innen. Wenn die Tätigkeit des Armes nicht in Ordnung ist, so geben Sie vielleicht dem Mitmenschen einen Schlag. Das tut dem andern weh. Da ist die Tätigkeit nicht in Ordnung. Dennoch aber, dieses Substantielle und die Tätigkeit sind in Ihrem Arme eins; aber sie äußern sich, sie offenbaren sich in verschiedener Weise nach außen.
So müssen wir in jeder der drei Welten ein Substantielles und eine Aktivität unterscheiden. Ich will dieses so unterscheiden, daß ich das Substantielle überall als das Rote, die Tätigkeit überall als das Gelbe bezeichne. So daß wir also haben in der spirituellen Welt Aktivität (gelb), Substanz (rot); in der Seelenwelt Aktivität (gelb), Substanz (rot); in der physisch-sinnlichen Welt Aktivität (gelb), Substanz (rot).

Wenn wir nun den menschlichen Kopf betrachten, so ist dieser menschliche Kopf seiner Substanz nach ganz aus der physischen Welt heraus gebildet. Die Substanz des Kopfes ist zunächst während der menschlichen Embryonalbildung aus der Substanz, die von den Eltern herrührt, genommen; und die weitere Ausbildung des Kopfes erfolgt auch dadurch, daß dem ganzen menschlichen Kopf und Sinnes- und Nervensystem die Substanz dieser irdisch-stofflichen Welt zugrunde liegt. So daß ich sagen muß: Der Kopf ist aus der Substanz der physisch-sinnlichen Welt gebildet. Dagegen ist alle Tätigkeit, welche diese Formen des menschlichen Kopfes plastisch ausbildet, all dasjenige, was dem menschlichen Kopfe aus der Substanz heraus durch Aktivität Form gibt, das ist ganz und gar aus der geistigen Welt heraus gebildet. So daß der Kopf in bezug auf die Aktivität ganz und gar aus der geistigen Welt heraus gebildet ist. Deshalb muß der Kopf auch nach oben offen sein - in geistiger Beziehung -, damit die geistige Tätigkeit hereinkommen kann.
So daß Sie also in jedem Augenblicke Ihres Lebens sich sagen können: In meinem Haupte habe ich etwas, was der Substanz, dem Stoffe nach, ganz aus der Erde genommen ist, was aber so zusammengesetzt ist, so plastisch gebildet ist, daß niemals irdische Kräfte dieses menschliche Haupt bilden können. Die Formen dieses Menschenhauptes sind ganz und gar aus der geistigen Welt heraus gebildet, sind sozusagen Himmelsschöpfung. Es ist gerade sehr tiefgehend für den geistigen Betrachter, dieses menschliche Haupt in bezug auf die Welt zu betrachten.
Der Mensch richtet, wenn er geistig betrachtet, seinen Blick auf irgendeine Pflanze. Er sagt sich: Die Pflanze hat eine bestimmte Form. Ihre Substanz hat sie aus der Erde genommen. Aber die Form ist aus der ätherischen Welt, also noch aus der Raumeswelt.
Betrachtet der Mensch ein Tier, so sagt er sich: Dieses Tier hat die Substanz seines Kopfes ganz und gar aus der Raumeswelt. Aber in seine Tätigkeit fiel schon etwas Geistiges herein. Das höchste Geistige, dasjenige, was man eigentlich himmlisch nennen kann, spielt aber erst in den Bau des menschlichen Kopfes herein. Dieser menschliche Kopf könnte niemals durch irgendwelche irdischen Kräfte entstehen, obwohl seine Substanz aus den Erdenstoffen genommen ist. So baut im menschlichen Haupte, das selber eine Art kleiner Kosmos ist, aus Erdenstoffen die Geisteswelt ein Gebilde auf.
Gerade das Umgekehrte ist der Fall bei dem Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenmenschen, bei demjenigen Menschen, der also die Organe für die äußere Bewegung enthält, Beine, Arme, dasjenige, was sich von Beinen und Armen nach innen fortsetzt, die Verdauungsorgane.
Ich lasse in der Mitte aus zunächst die rhythmische Organisation, Atmungs- und Blutzirkulations-Organisation, und ich nehme jetzt dasjenige, was sich aus all dem zusammensetzt, was verdaut, was ernährt, und demjenigen, was aus der Verdauung, der Ernährung, also aus der inneren Verbrennung des Menschen hervorgeht als Bewegungen des Menschen.
Das ist nun seiner Substanz nach gar nicht aus der Erde aufgebaut. So unwahrscheinlich Ihnen das zunächst klingt, so tragen Sie gerade in Ihrem Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenmenschen etwas in sich, was seiner Substanz nach gar nicht aus der Erde aufgebaut ist, sondern das seiner Substanz nach ganz und gar besteht aus der Substanz der dritten Welt, aus der Substanz, die in der geistigen, in der spirituellen Welt vorhanden ist. Sie werden sagen: Aber ich sehe doch die Beine, sie sind doch physisch-sinnlich sichtbar. Wenn sie aus geistiger Substanz bestünden, so wären sie doch nicht sinnlich-physisch sichtbar! - Es ist ein ganz berechtigter Einwand, aber da kommt folgendes in Betracht.
Ihre wahren Beine sind nämlich durchaus geistig, Ihre wahren Arme auch durchaus geistig, und der Stoff wird nur vom Kopf hineingeschickt. Der Kopf ist dasjenige Organ, das nun die Geistarme und Geisthände, Geistbeine und Geistfüße ausfüllt mit dem Stoffe. Der dringt nur ein in das Geistige der Gliedmaßen und der Verdauungsorgane. So daß dasjenige, was eigentlich ganz und gar aus der geistigen Welt heraus ist in der Substanz, durchsetzt wird, durchtränkt wird mit physischem Stoff, aber vom Kopfe aus. Deshalb ist es so, daß man zunächst mit physischer Wissenschaft so schwer begreifen kann, daß der Mensch aus Kopf-, Brust- und Gliedmaßen-, Verdauungsorganen besteht. Da stellen sich die Leute vor: Der Kopf ist oben, und der Mensch hat eigentlich nur da den Kopf, wo ihn der Enthauptete nicht mehr hat. Das ist aber nicht der Fall, sondern der Kopf des Menschen ist stofflich überall. Der Mensch ist auch in der großen Zehe Kopf, weil der Kopf da die Substanz hineinschickt. Aber ursprünglich, primär, ist nur Kopfsubstanz irdisch. Der Kopf gibt dann die Erdenstofflichkeit an die übrigen Substanzen ab; während die eigene Substanz der Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenorgane aus der geistigen Welt genommen ist.
Bringt man es durch eine starke negative Autosuggestion dahin, sich den Kopf von einem Menschen wegzusuggerieren, so daß man imstande ist, nicht nur in Gedanken, sondern durch eine starke negative Autosuggestion den Menschen kopflos erscheinen zu lassen, dann verschwindet auch die übrige Organisation, und mit dem Kopf ist das weg, was der ganze Mensch ist als sinnlich anschaubares Wesen. Man muß dann das übrige seelisch-geistig anschauen, wenn es überhaupt noch für einen da sein soll, weil wir in Wirklichkeit herumgehen, bestimmt von den höheren Welten aus, mit Geistbeinen, mit Geistarmen, und nur der Kopf gewissermaßen das durchtränkt, ausfüllt mit physischen Stoffen.
Dagegen sind die Kräfte, die Aktivität für alles das, was Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßenmensch ist, von der physischen Welt her genommen. So daß, wenn Sie das eine Bein vorsetzen, oder den Arm bewegen mit Hebekräften nach mechanischer Ordnung, diese mechanische Ordnung, ja auch die chemischen Vorgänge, die in den Armen und in den Beinen vor sich gehen, wenn man sich bewegt, oder die chemischen Vorgänge, die in den Verdauungsorganen vor sich gehen, daß die irdischer Aktivität sind. So daß Sie also in Ihren Gliedmaßen an sich tragen unsichtbare Substanz, aber solche Kräfte, die dem Erdendasein entnommen sind. Wir sind also aufgebaut als Mensch in bezug auf unser Haupt für dasjenige, was dieses Haupt an Substanz enthält, von der Erde aus; wir sind durchsetzt von Kräften in bezug auf unser Haupt vom Himmel aus. Wir sind in bezug auf unsere Gliedmaßen aufgebaut ganz und gar aus einer Substanz, die vom Himmel herunter ist. Aber die Kräfte, die in dieser Himmelssubstanz während unseres Erdenlebens von der Geburt bis zum Tode spielen, das sind die Kräfte der Erde, Gravitation, das sind die anderen physischen Kräfte der Erde, das sind die chemischen Kräfte der Erde.
Sie sehen also, das Entgegengesetzte ist bei Kopf und Gliedmaßen der Fall. Der Kopf besteht aus Erdenstoff und wird seinen plastischen Formen nach aus der Himmelsaktivität gebildet. Die Gliedmaßen des Menschen und damit zusammen die Verdauungsorganisation sind ganz und gar aus Himmelssubstanz gebildet. Man würde sie nicht sehen, wenn sie nicht vom Kopf durchtränkt würden mit irdischer Substanz. Aber indem der Mensch geht, indem der Mensch greift, indem der Mensch verdaut, bedient sich die Himmelssubstanz der irdischen Kräfte, um dieses Leben auf Erden von der Geburt bis zum Tode zu führen.
In dieser komplizierteren Weise steht der Mensch in Relation, in Beziehung zu den drei Welten. Es hat also die geistige Welt ihrer Aktivität nach Anteil an seinem Kopfe, ihrer Substanz nach Anteil an dem dritten Örganisationssystem des Menschen, an dem Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem. Es hat die unterste, die am meisten sinnliche Welt durch ihre Aktivität Anteil an dem Stoffwechsel und den Gliedmaßenbewegungen. Durch ihre Substanz hat sie Anteil am Kopfe; dagegen ist das Substantielle des dritten menschlichen Systemes ganz und gar ein Geistiges.
Im mittleren System, das die Atmung und die Blutzirkulation umfaßt, in dem gehen eben durcheinander geistige Aktivität, stoffliche Substantialität. Aber die geistige Aktivität, die durch unsere Atmungsbewegungen, durch unsere Herzbewegungen strömt, die ist wieder etwas begleitet von Substantialität. Und ebenso ist die Substantialität des irdischen Wesens, insofern sie durch den Sauerstoff in die Atmung einströmt, etwas begleitet von irdischer Tätigkeit. Sie sehen also, in dem mittleren Menschen, in dem zweiten System des Menschen, da strömt alles zusammen. Da strömt himmlische Substantialität und Aktivität ein, da strömt irdische Aktivität und Substantialität ein. Dadurch wird der Mensch empfänglich, nun auch hier entgegenzunehmen die Aktivität der mittleren Welt und die Substantialität der mittleren Welt.
Es kommt also im mittleren Menschen viel durcheinander. Deshalb müssen wir im mittleren Menschen dieses wunderbar vollkommene rhythmische System haben, den Herzrhythmus, den Lungenrhythmus im Atmen, weil alles dasjenige, was da an Aktivität und Substantialität durcheinanderkommt, im Rhythmus sich ausgleichen, sich harmonisieren, sich melodisieren will und es auch kann, weil der Mensch so veranlagt ist.
Während also Aktivität und Substantialität aus ganz verschiedenen Quellen im Kopfsystem, im Gliedmaßensystem kommen, strömt im mittleren System aus allen drei Welten, und noch dazu in verschiedenartiger Weise ein, hier die Aktivität von Substantialität begleitet, hier die Substantialität von Aktivität begleitet, hier reine Aktivität, hier reine Substantialität (siehe Zeichnung 5. 134); das strömt im mittleren Menschen ein. Und wenn Sie eines Menschen Pulsschlag beobachten als Arzt, so fühlen Sie eigentlich im Pulsschlag den Ausgleich zwischen Himmelsseele und irdischer Aktivität und Substantialität. Und wenn Sie die Atemzüge beobachten, so fühlen Sie wiederum dieses Streben des Menschen in seinem Innern nach der Ausgleichung dieser verschiedenen Agenzien, die aus der mittleren Welt in Beziehung zu ihm stehen. Sehen Sie, das ist die Beziehung des Menschen zu den drei Welten.
Sie werden sagen: Das ist eine sehr komplizierte Sache. Und in der Tat, wenn man einen Vortragszyklus bis zu diesem Momente führt, dann erscheint er in der Regel leicht verständlich; wenn man ankommt an diesem Punkte, wo man nun die Beziehung des Menschen zur Welt ins Auge fassen muß, da sagen sich oftmals die Zuhörer: Da wird die Geschichte schwer verständlich. Da geht es nicht mehr recht mit.
Aber sehen Sie, ein vorurteilsfreies, wirklich subtiles Denken kommt schon mit. Und es gibt für dieses Denken des gesunden Menschenverstandes ja eigentlich einen Trost. Das ist der, daß man beim wirklichen Durchstoßen des Chaosschleiers, wie ich vorhin sagte, und beim Eintreten in diese Welt, die eine dreifache ist, die in einer ungeheuer komplizierten Art ihre Tätigkeit und ihre Substanz in die physische Welt hereinschickt, wo in der Tat die Dinge so verwirrend sind, daß man, indem man durch den Schleier hindurch aus der physisch-sinnlichen Welt in sie eintritt, in vollem Sinne des Wortes gewarnt wird, gewarnt wird, indem einem etwa - ich sage das scheinbar im Bilde, aber dieses Bild entspricht tatsächlich einer wirklichen Erfahrung — beim Eintritt in die geistige Welt gesagt wird: Willst du nicht alles zurücklassen, was du in der physischen Welt als deine gewöhnliche naturalistische Logik betrachtet hast, was du da als den Zusammenhang der Dinge betrachtet hast, willst du nicht dieses ganze physische Kleid zurücklassen, so tritt lieber nicht ein in die geistige Welt, denn da wirst du dich ganz anderer Ideenverbindungen, ganz anderer Ordnungen, einer ganz anderen Logik bedienen müssen. Und wenn du noch etwas hineintragen willst von deiner physischen Logik in diese geistige Welt, so wirst du darinnen unweigerlich in Verwirrung kommen. Und man muß unter denjenigen Dingen, die zur Vorbereitung gehören für Meditation und Konzentration, die ich schon erwähnt habe, auch das haben, daß man diese Warnung voll beobachtet, wirklich nicht die sinnliche Logik hineintragen will in die Logik der geistigen Welt.
Ich möchte sagen, das ist die bedeutsame Warnung, die diejenige Macht - wir werden sie noch genauer kennenlernen in den folgenden Vorträgen -, die man den Hüter der Schwelle nennen kann, einem zunächst zuteil werden läßt, wenn man den Vorhang durchschreiten will.
Aber auch wenn man wiederum zurückkehren will in die physisch-sinnliche Welt, dann erhält man von diesem Hüter eine mächtige, deutliche Warnung. Man muß ja wieder zurückkehren, wenn man Erdenmensch ist, sonst würde man niemals aus den Ereignissen der geistigen Welt herauskommen. Man würde seinen physischen Erdenleib allmählich tot zurücklassen. Man muß immer wieder zurückkommen. Man muß in der physischen Welt essen und trinken nach der naturalistischen Logik. Man muß sich sogar den anderen Gewohnheiten des Tages fügen nach naturalistischer Logik. Man muß also wieder eintreten in eine Welt, wo wirklich die Dinge so vor sich gehen, daß ganz naturalistisch-materialistische Logik drinnen ist, daß zum Beispiel zum Frühstück, zum Mittag und zum Abend immer geklingelt wird. Man muß also immer wiederum in diese naturalistische Welt zurückkehren. Dazu ist notwendig, daß man wiederum, wenn man eingedrungen ist in die geistige Welt und zurückkehrt in die physisch-sinnliche, damit man nun nicht als Mensch in eine unmögliche Lage kommt, die zweite Warnung des Hüters der Schwelle berücksichtigt, der an dem Orte steht, wo der Schleier des Chaos physisch-sinnliche Welt und geistig-himmlische Welt trennt. Und die besteht darinnen, daß er einem sagt: Vergiß in keinem Moment deines physischen Erdenlebens, daß du in der geistigen Welt drinnen warst. Dann allein wirst du dich auch wiederum in der physischen Erdenwelt für diejenigen Zeiten, in denen du dich drinnen aufhalten mußt, mit Sicherheit bewegen können.
So erhält man gegenüber dieser Welt, mit der der Mensch in der Art, wie ich es Ihnen schematisch dargestellt habe, durch seine drei Glieder in Beziehung steht, beim Eintritt die Warnung, alles abzulegen, was naturalistische Logik ist, zurückzulassen dieses sinnliche Gewand an der Schwelle, und hinüberzutreten mit der Voraussetzung, eine wirklich geistige Logik sich anzueignen, ein geistiges Denken, geistige Ideenzusammenhänge. Und wenn man wieder zurückgeht, erhält man die ebenso strenge, ja viel strengere Warnung, nun nicht zu vergessen, in keinem Augenblicke, dasjenige, was man da erlebt hat in der geistigen Welt; das heißt, sich: nicht wiederum bloß durch das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein den sinnlichen Trieben und so weiter zu überlassen, sondern in allem sich bewußt zu sein, daß man das Geistige hereinzutragen hat in diese physische Welt.
Sie sehen, die zwei Warnungen sind sehr voneinander verschieden. Beim Eintritt in die geistige Welt spricht der Hüter der Schwelle: Vergiß für die Momente deines geistigen Erkennens die physisch-sinnliche Welt. Für den Austritt aus der geistigen in die physisch-sinnliche Welt spricht der Hüter der Schwelle: Vergiß niemals, erinnere dich stets auch wiederum in der physisch-irdischen Welt deiner Erfahrungen in der geistig-himmlischen Welt.
In bezug auf dasjenige, was ich zuletzt gesagt habe, ist wiederum ein beträchtlicher Unterschied zwischen den Menschen einer älteren Epoche der Menschheitsentwickelung und den gegenwärtigen Menschen. Bei jenen Menschen, von denen ich geschildert habe, daß sie in einer gewissen Weise zu den alten Mysterienlehrern, sei es als inspirierte Schüler, sei es als allgemeine Menschheit, kamen, bei denen war es durchaus so, daß sie schon durch ihre psychisch-spirituellen Instinkte den Übergang vom Schlafen ins Wachen oder vom Wachen ins Schlafen nicht ohne das Berücksichtigen des Hüters der Schwelle machten. Wie traumhaft stieg bei den Menschen vor drei bis viertausend Jahren herauf aus der Seele das Bild des Hüters der Schwelle, wenn sie in den Schlaf eintraten. Sie gingen an ihm vorüber. Und wiederum erschien dieses Bild, wenn sie aus dem Schlaf in das gewöhnliche Leben zurückkehrten. Sie hatten nicht eine so deutliche Warnung beim Eintritt in die geistige Welt und beim Austritte aus der geistigen Welt, wie ich es von demjenigen, der durch Inspiration und Imagination in diese geistige Welt eingezogen ist, gesagt habe; aber sie hatten ebenso etwa, wie ihre übrigen instinktiven Wahrnehmungen der geistigen Welt waren, ein traumhaftes Erleben des Vorübergehens vor dem Hüter der Schwelle beim Einschlafen und Aufwachen. Darin besteht eben gerade die Fortentwikkelung in der Menschheit, wie wir in den Vorträgen, die ich noch zu halten habe, sehen werden, die allein den Menschen zur Freiheit führen konnte, ihm aber auch nehmen mußte sein psychischspirituelles Anschauen: daß der Mensch verloren hat jenes schlafende, träumende Wachsein, jenen Zwischenzustand zwischen Schlafen und Wachen, durch den er sowohl beim Einschlafen wie beim Aufwachen den majestätischen Hüter der Schwelle wenigstens traumhaft schauen konnte. Heute geht der Mensch vorüber an diesem Hüter der Schwelle beim Einschlafen und Aufwachen. Er ignoriert ihn; er berücksichtigt ihn nicht. Und dadurch kommt er, dieser Mensch, in eine ganz ungeordnete Traumwelt hinein.
Sehen Sie nur einmal nach mit voller Unbefangenheit, wie anderes die Menschen älterer Zeitepochen über ihre Träume zu sagen wußten, als das in der heutigen Zeitepoche der Fall ist. Der Mensch erlebt, weil er den Hüter jeden Abend und jeden Morgen und bei jedem Nachmittagsschläfchen zweimal ignoriert, die Ungeordnetheit, das Chaotische seiner Traumeswelt. Das zeigt sich durchaus in der einzelnen Gestaltung der Träume.
Bedenken Sie nur, wenn wir die Schwelle überschreiten — und das tun wir bei jedem Einschlafen -, dann steht einmal an dieser Schwelle der majestätische Hüter der Schwelle. Er darf nicht ignoriert werden, ohne daß dasjenige, was einem entgegentritt in der geistigen Welt, in Unordnung kommt. Und wie es in Unordnung kommt, das sieht man am besten an der Metamorphose, die es durchmacht, wenn eben das geordnete Denken der physisch-naturalistischen Welt übergeht in die Gebilde des Traumes. Man kann sich das an einzelnen Träumen klarmachen.
In der physisch-naturalistischen Welt benimmt man sich ja so, wie man es eben aus den Zusammenhängen innerhalb der physisch-sinnlichen Welt lernt. Nehmen wir einen einzelnen Fall: man gehe spazieren. Warum geht man spazieren? Nun, nicht wahr, heute gehen ja zu gewissen Spaziergängen die Menschen in den Städten namentlich deshalb, weil sie da dies oder jenes erleben. Sie treffen auf den Spaziergängen ihre Bekannten. Sie können ihre Kleidung sehen lassen, wenn sie gerade danach geartet sind, vor anderen, unbekannten Menschen, oder auch vor den bekannten Menschen. Das alles sind die Erlebnisse, die auf einem Spaziergange erlebt werden.
Diese Erlebnisse, die werden dadurch erlebt, daß wir mit unserem Menschenwesen denken, vorstellen können, dadurch, daß wir in der Lage sind, mit unserem Kopf, ausschließlich mit unserer Kopforganisation zu sagen: ich denke. In dieser Kraft des «ich denke» liegt eben die Möglichkeit, so etwas zu erleben an der Außenwelt, wie ich es soeben geschildert habe. Man begegnet anderen Menschen; das wird für andere ein Erleben. Man zeigt seine Kleider oder meinetwillen auch sein schönes Gesicht. Es kommt auf dasjenige an, was man da gerade erlebt. Aber man hat bei diesem Sehen der anderen Menschen, bei diesem Zeigen dessen, was an einem ist, gegenüber den anderen Menschen auch Gefühle. Es gefällt einem das eine, oder es gefällt einem das andere nicht. Man entwickelt Sympathien oder Antipathien dabei. Es gefällt einem, wenn einem die anderen Menschen auf den Spaziergängen etwas sagen, was einem gerade paßt. Es gefällt einem nicht, man begleitet es mit Antipathie, wenn sie einem etwas sagen, was einem nicht paßt. So ist also dasjenige, was man da erlebt bei den Spaziergängen, durchaus mit Anschauungen verbunden, was durch den Kopf bewirkt wird durch das «ich denke», es ist verbunden durch dasjenige, was der rhythmische Mensch entwickelt: ich fühle, also mit dem Gefühl der Sympathie und Antipathie. Dadurch, daß wir gleichzeitig in einem zweiten Gliede unseres Wesens sagen können: ich fühle -, dadurch begleiten wir dasjenige, was wir im Anschauen auf einem Spaziergange erleben.
Aber auch das Dritte im Menschen ist beteiligt an diesem Spaziergange, wenn wir wach den Spaziergang machen. Nicht wahr, man muß da schon auf gewisse Intimitäten des menschlichen Erlebens kommen. Man hat nun wiederum das Gefühl, daß es in der modernen Zivilisation nicht sein kann, daß man unbekleidet sich den Menschen zeigt, unbekleidet auf einen Spaziergang geht. Dieses Gefühl hat man. Die Unbekleidetheit ist einem antipathisch, die Bekleidetheit sympathisch. Das aber geht in die Willensimpulse über. Man zieht sich an. Man zieht sich sogar in einer gewissen Weise an. Das beschäftigt den Willen, das dritte Glied der menschlichen Organisation. Dieses, daß wir uns anziehen, das hängt also wiederum von dem Dritten im Menschen ab, von dem, daß wir sagen können: ich will. In der Willensimpulsivität liegt das Anziehen.
I think Ich denke
I feel Ich fühle
I will Ich will
Indem wir sagen können: Ich will -, treten wir angezogen den Spaziergang an, mit dem Erfolge des «Ich will». Das alles ordnet sich für die physische Welt, in der wir wachend sind, eben durch die Logik in der physischen Welt an. Es ist uns entweder anerzogen, oder wir fügen uns den Lebensverhältnissen, die äußerlich in der Logik in der physischen Welt gegeben sind. Und wenn wir das nicht tun, so ist etwas in uns nicht in Ordnung. Wenn wir unbekleidet auf einen Spaziergang gehen, so ist etwas nicht in Ordnung in uns. Die Ordnung in der physischen Welt, dasjenige, was in der physischen Welt Logik ist, formt das zusammen. Es fällt uns gar nicht ein, auf einem Spaziergang die anderen Menschen in einem unbekleideten Zustande sehen zu wollen. Da kommt Zusammenhang in unsere Seelenerlebnisse, aber nicht durch uns, sondern durch den Zusammenhang der Welt. Das ergibt sich uns, daß nun alle dreie: ich denke, ich fühle, ich will - in Zusammenhang stehen. Das macht die Welt. Wir werden durch die Außenwelt veranlaßt, diesen Zusammenhang von Denken, Fühlen und Wollen zu bilden.
Wenn wir nun mit Ignorierung des Hüters der Schwelle über die Schwelle treten, so stehen wir drei Welten gegenüber und kennen uns zunächst nicht aus, weil wir dasjenige zum Teil hinübertragen in die andere, geistige Welt, an das wir hier gewöhnt sind; zum Teil aber macht die geistige Welt ihre Ordnung geltend. Und nun passiert folgendes: Denken Sie sich, Sie liegen schlafend im Bette. Sie sind zunächst mit Ihrem Gefühl, mit dem mittleren Teil des Menschen, an diesem schlafenden Zustand beteiligt. Die Decke löst sich von Ihnen los, ein Stück ihres Körpers friert. Es kommt Ihnen dadurch zum Traumbewußtsein, daß Sie an dieser Stelle unbekleidet sind. Und das dehnt sich aus, weil Sie sich nun nicht auskennen in der geistigen Welt, weil Sie das nicht bloß auf einen Teil beziehen, sondern auf die ganze Welt beziehen, das dehnt sich aus zu dem Gefühl: ich bin unbekleidet. Vielleicht ist Ihnen nur die Decke von einem Teil des Körpers abgefallen, aber Sie frieren da ein bißchen, und Sie fühlen: ich bin unbekleidet.
Nun aber, soeben waren Sie noch beschäftigt in Ihren Träumen damit, daß Sie dem Willensimpulse als wachender Mensch sich hingeben: Wenn ich unbekleidet bin, ziehe ich mich an. Jetzt aber fühlen Sie durch den Schlaf: ich kann mich nicht anziehen, ich bin behindert — weil Sie Ihre Glieder nicht bewegen können. Das kommt ins Traumbewußtsein herein.
Sehen Sie, diese zwei Dinge: ich fühle mich unbekleidet, ich kann mich nicht anziehen -, das bewirkt in Ihnen, weil jetzt die physische Welt fehlt, um die zwei Dinge zusammenzubringen, weil das eine der Welt II, das andere der Welt I angehört, daß Sie es in einer falschen Weise zusammenbringen. Und nun bringen Sie noch, indem Sie in derselben Nacht erlebt haben, daß Sie auf einen Spaziergang gegangen waren, dieses dazu; das kommt nun wieder in Ihren Traumzusammenhang herein. Das tritt für sich auf. Drei Bedingungen treten getrennt für sich auf: ich bin auf einem Spaziergang; ich bin unbekleidet, das ist mir schrecklich antipathisch; und: ich kann mich nicht anziehen.
Nun denken Sie sich: diese drei Dinge, die Sie im gewöhnlichen materialistisch-physischen Leben durch die Logik des Lebens zusammenbringen, die zerfallen Ihnen, indem Sie an dem Hüter der Schwelle, ihn ignorierend, vorbeigehen,
in der ersten Welt: das Spazierengehen,
in der zweiten Welt: das Unbekleidetsein,
in der dritten Welt erleben Sie, daß Sie sich nicht anziehen können, daß das ganz unmöglich ist. Und nun fühlen Sie sich in dieser Situation dreigeteilt, unter fremden Leuten, überall ausge‚setzt den Blicken unbekleidet, ohnmächtig sich anzukleiden. Das machen Sie im Traume durch. Das, was sich Ihnen im gewöhnlichen Leben durch die naturhafte Logik zusammenbindet, das trennt Ihnen der Traum, und Sie verbinden es chaotisch nach der Gewohnheit, die Sie hineingetragen haben über die Schwelle, Sie verbinden das, als ob es auch in der geistigen Welt so wäre, wenn man unbekleidet ist und so weiter. Sie tragen, indem Sie diesen Hüter der Schwelle ignorieren, die Gewohnheiten, die der physischen Welt entsprechen, in die geistige Welt hinein, Sie verbinden in chaotischer Weise die drei Welten nach den Gesetzen der physischen Welt, und Sie fühlen sich in dieser Situation.
Das ist das Wesentliche unzähliger Träume, daß in dem Augenblicke, wo man die Schwelle überschreitet und die Warnungen des Hüters nicht beachtet, dasjenige, was man hier in der Welt des Physisch-Naturalistischen als eine Einheit im Harmonischen, als eine harmonische Einheit empfindet, daß einem das auseinandertritt und man drei Welten gegenübersteht. Dieses aber muß man durch die getreuliche Beobachtung der Warnungen des Hüters der Schwelle zusammenbringen können; diese drei Welten muß man zusammenbringen können. Und der Traum des Menschen der Gegenwart, nicht so sehr des Menschen einer älteren Zeitepoche das können Sie insbesondere bei den Träumen des Alten Testamentes sehen, daß das nicht so der Fall war -, aber der Traum des modernen Menschen, der stellt den Menschen vor drei Welten, die er als moderner Mensch verbinden will nach den Gesetzen des physisch-naturalistischen Daseins. Dadurch entstehen die ungeordneten Zusammenhänge in diesen drei Welten, in denen der Mensch jetzt ist.
So sehen Sie: Schon der Traum zeigt uns diese ernste Tatsache, daß in dem Augenblicke, wo wir die Schwelle zur geistigen Welt überschreiten, wir zunächst drei Welten gegenüberstehen, und daß man in der richtigen Weise in diese drei Welten eintreten, aus diesen drei Welten wieder austreten muß. Der Traum ist dasjenige, woran der moderne Mensch ungeheuer viel für die Charakteristik der hiesigen, physisch-sinnlichen Welt, wie der anderen, geistig-seelischen Welt lernen kann. Wir wollen über diese Angelegenheit morgen weitersprechen.

Man's relationship to the three worlds
The dream, of which we have spoken a little, and which, as I have already said, should rightly not be regarded as something all too important in ordinary earthly life, is however of immeasurable importance if one wants to get to know the relationship of man to the supersensible world. And it actually leads us first of all to that area of experience in which man touches the supersensible world in such a way that the outer laws of nature cease. So that the world of dream images actually stands there like a veil that covers the spiritual world. One can say: Here is the human being, here is the veil of the dream. Behind it is the spiritual world. But there is a great difference between entering the spiritual world unconsciously, as happens with dreaming consciousness, and consciously entering this spiritual world through imagination and inspiration. And if one consciously enters this spiritual world through imagination and inspiration, then everything appears differently than in the physical-natural world. Then, above all, behind the veil of the dream, behind what the Greeks called chaos, the moral and ethical world proves to be just as real as the natural world here in the sense world, the world that is governed by the laws of nature. But the chaotic nature of the dream, the confusion of the dream, already draws our attention to the fact that this world, which lies behind the veil of chaos, has a very special character.
We can actually only speak of this world when we have come as far in our contemplation as we have now come here in these lectures. That which man sees for the ordinary consciousness of the outer world is only the outer revelation. That is actually a great illusion. For behind it all is the spiritual reality that is active within it. And basically, by dreaming, man plunges into this spiritual reality, but he is not yet fully prepared for it, so that what he encounters in the spiritual world whirls around and appears disordered to him. And we have first of all the task of recognizing why the human being enters with the dream into a world that is so disorderly, so chaotic compared to the natural world.
I will therefore be compelled today, in order to be able to proceed further in the consideration of the dream, to tell you something about what imagination and inspiration can see and perceive in the spiritual world.
There, above all, it becomes apparent: As soon as one enters this spiritual world with full consciousness through imagination and inspiration, it immediately appears as a trinity. And so we can only speak of the world at all and of our subject: the development of the world and of man, when we have reached the point of contemplation at which we now stand. For only then can I speak of the fact that man stands before the outer world, before the world that reveals itself to the senses and is in reality spiritual, as before a trinity, actually before three worlds. The moment one has penetrated the veil, which is chaos, one does not stand before one world, one stands before three worlds. And these three worlds have their very specific relationships, their very specific relations to man.
First of all, let us make clear what we have here by means of a kind of schematic drawing: when we come out through the veil of chaos - I will show later how this coming out can also be described as a crossing of the threshold into the spiritual world - when we come out, we see three worlds. These three worlds are, firstly, the one you have just left, which appears somewhat transformed, but which is nevertheless also there for spiritual existence. It appears to you, once you have pierced the veil of chaos, as if in a memory. One has stepped over into the spiritual world, and just as one remembers something here, so one remembers that in the spiritual world which is the physical-sensual world in general. So this is the first world. The second world that confronts you is the world that I called the world of souls in my book “Theosophy”, the world of souls. And the third world, the highest of the worlds that confront you, is the actual spiritual world. The third world is therefore the world of the spirit.
I will first explain the matter only schematically, but through the relationships in which these three worlds stand to man, you will become aware of many things about these three worlds. I will therefore relate man to these three worlds, which appear to you as the lowest, the middle and the highest world, ascending, as it were, in three stages: [to the first world] the head; [to the second] the chest organization, all that which comprises rhythm, respiratory organization, blood circulation system; and to the third the metabolic-limb system, all that which comprises metabolism: that man nourishes himself, that man digests, spreads the digested in the body, thereby produces the movements. Thus we are dealing here with the metabolic-limb system.

I am deliberately drawing a closed circle here [for the chest], an open circle for the head, and also a non-closed circle for the limb system. I do this on purpose because the human head appears even more closed to the sensory perception. So if I were drawing for the sensory perception, I would have to draw the head closed at the top. But this is not the case, the human head, for the spiritual view. For the spiritual view, the human head is open at the top. For that which does not belong to the spirit land of man is the bone mass. Bone mass is entirely physical in nature. It does not belong to the spirit land. If you look at a human head spiritually, in this case the thick skullcap (white), it is not there for spiritual observation at all. Only that which is above it as skin still appears somewhat (red) to spiritual observation. There are then the hairs on it.

But for spiritual observation something else appears. You see, what I have drawn here in white is not there, but there are only “spiritual hairs”, that is, rays that penetrate the human being, which are only somewhat hindered, held back by the physical skin (yellow rays). But where there is bone in the human being, that is where the outer spirit can penetrate most easily. And it penetrates in the form of rays. So that when you first look at the human being with the physical eye, you have the physical human form before you; there you see the top of the head, if the human being has not yet become bald, his hair (red). But then, where the bone arch is at the top, you see nothing of the physical human being spiritually, whereas the spiritual worlds enter him in a very radiant, sunny way (blue). So that I would have to draw that which pushes into each other when looking at the human being like this:

There is the human being as a physical being (drawing on the left); and there is the human being as a spiritual being [by itself] nothing - but many incoming rays (drawing on the right).
So that for this reason I have not drawn the head here above as a closed circle, but unclosed, because in fact the spiritual can continually penetrate the human head through the fact that there is a peripheral bone vault here.
Nothing about man is inappropriate. Man has, I would say, out of the full deliberation of the world government, this head which is closed at the top. For there, through that which most easily admits the spirit into the human being, through the outer bone mass, the spiritual penetrates into the interior.
If you are able to look at the human being spiritually, you will be astonished at how empty the human head actually is due to the human being's own inner being. For man's own inner being gives the head the very least. As far as the spiritual is concerned, man actually has a completely empty, hollow sphere sitting up there. And everything spiritual must enter the head from the outside.
This is not the case with the other parts of the human organism. As we will hear later, they are spiritual in themselves. Now we distinguish three members in man: the head, the rhythmic system and the metabolic-limb system. These three members of human nature now stand in a very specific relationship to the three worlds.
I will then go on to discuss this relationship of the human being, of what is in the human head or the nervous-sensory system, of the human thoracic system or the respiratory-circulatory system, or the third system, the locomotor-metabolic system, which relates from the human being to these three worlds.
If we now move on from these characteristics of the threefold nature of the human being and the threefold nature of the world to the relationships between the two, then it is good to distinguish between the substantial and the active in each of the three worlds. I will therefore distinguish between substance and activity in the spiritual world, in the world of the soul and in the material, sensuous physical world. In reality, substance and activity are one; but they work in different ways towards the world. You can see this in the substantiality of your own human being.
You have your substance in your arm. If this substance is not in order, then you will feel some kind of pain in your arm. That is where what is not in order in the substance reveals itself inwardly. If the activity of the arm is not in order, you may give your fellow human being a blow. That hurts the other person. The activity is not in order. Nevertheless, this substantiality and the activity are one in your arm; but they express themselves, they manifest themselves outwardly in different ways.
So we must distinguish a substantial and an activity in each of the three worlds. I will distinguish this in such a way that I designate the substantial everywhere as the red, the activity everywhere as the yellow. So that in the spiritual world we have activity (yellow), substance (red); in the soul world activity (yellow), substance (red); in the physical-sensual world activity (yellow), substance (red).

If we now consider the human head, this human head is formed entirely out of the physical world in terms of its substance. The substance of the head is first taken during the human embryonic formation from the substance that comes from the parents; and the further formation of the head also takes place through the fact that the substance of this earthly-material world underlies the entire human head and sensory and nervous system. So that I must say: The head is formed from the substance of the physical-sensual world. On the other hand, all activity that gives plastic form to these forms of the human head, all that which gives form to the human head out of the substance through activity, is formed entirely out of the spiritual world. So that in terms of activity the head is formed entirely out of the spiritual world. Therefore the head must also be open upwards - in spiritual relation - so that the spiritual activity can come in.
So that you can say to yourself in every moment of your life: In my head I have something which, in substance, is taken entirely from the earth, but which is so composed, so plastically formed, that earthly forces can never form this human head. The forms of this human head are formed entirely out of the spiritual world, are, so to speak, heavenly creations. It is very profound for the spiritual observer to look at this human head in relation to the world.
When man looks at something spiritually, he looks at some plant. He says to himself: The plant has a certain form. It has taken its substance from the earth. But the form is from the etheric world, i.e. still from the world of space.
When man looks at an animal, he says to himself: This animal has the substance of its head entirely from the world of space. But something spiritual has already entered into its activity. But the highest spiritual, that which can actually be called heavenly, only enters into the construction of the human head. This human head could never be created by any earthly forces, although its substance is taken from earthly materials. Thus in the human head, which is itself a kind of small cosmos, the spiritual world builds a structure out of earthly substances.
The reverse is precisely the case with the metabolic limb man, with the human being who thus contains the organs for external movement, legs, arms, that which continues inwards from the legs and arms, the digestive organs.
I leave in the middle first the rhythmic organization, respiratory and blood circulation organization, and I now take that which is composed of all that which digests, which nourishes, and that which emerges from digestion, nourishment, i.e. from the inner combustion of the human being as movements of the human being.
This is not built up from the earth in terms of its substance. As improbable as this may sound to you at first, in your metabolic limb-man you carry something within you that is not built up from the earth at all, but that consists entirely of the substance of the third world, of the substance that is present in the mental, in the spiritual world. You will say: But I can see the legs, they are physically and sensually visible. If they were made of spiritual substance, they would not be visible to the physical senses! - It is a completely justified objection, but the following comes into consideration.
Your true legs are indeed spiritual, your true arms also entirely spiritual, and the substance is only sent into them from the head. The head is the organ that fills the spirit arms and spirit hands, spirit legs and spirit feet with the substance. It only penetrates into the spirit of the limbs and the digestive organs. So that what is actually completely out of the spiritual world in the substance is permeated, is saturated with physical matter, but from the head. That is why it is so difficult at first to understand with physical science that the human being consists of head, chest, limbs and digestive organs. People imagine this: The head is at the top, and the human being actually only has a head where the decapitated person no longer has it. But that is not the case; the human head is materially everywhere. The human being is also head in the big toe, because the head sends the substance into it. But originally, primarily, only head substance is earthly. The head then passes on the earthly materiality to the other substances, while the substance of the metabolic limb organs is taken from the spiritual world.
If through a strong negative autosuggestion one manages to suggest the head away from a person, so that one is able to make the person appear headless not only in thought, but through a strong negative autosuggestion, then the rest of the organization also disappears, and with the head is gone what the whole person is as a sensually perceptible being. One must then look at the rest of the soul-spiritual, if it is to be there for one at all, because in reality we walk around, determined from the higher worlds, with spiritual legs, with spiritual arms, and only the head, so to speak, saturates this, fills it with physical substances.
In contrast, the forces, the activity for everything that is metabolic limb-man, are taken from the physical world. So that when you put one leg forward, or move the arm with lifting forces according to mechanical order, this mechanical order, indeed also the chemical processes that take place in the arms and legs when you move, or the chemical processes that take place in the digestive organs, are of earthly activity. So that you carry invisible substance in your limbs, but forces that are taken from earthly existence. We are thus built up as human beings in relation to our head for that which this head contains in substance from the earth; we are permeated by forces in relation to our head from heaven. In relation to our limbs we are built up entirely from a substance that comes down from heaven. But the forces that play in this heavenly substance during our earthly life from birth to death are the forces of the earth, gravitation, these are the other physical forces of the earth, these are the chemical forces of the earth.
So you see, the opposite is the case with the head and limbs. The head is made of earthly matter and its plastic forms are created by the activity of the heavens. The limbs of man and, together with them, the digestive organization are formed entirely of celestial substance. They would not be visible if they were not imbued with earthly substance from the head. But in that man walks, in that man grasps, in that man digests, the heavenly substance makes use of the earthly forces to lead this life on earth from birth to death.
In this more complicated way man stands in relation, in relationship to the three worlds. Thus the spiritual world has a share in his head according to its activity, and a share in the third organizational system of man, the metabolic-limb system, according to its substance. The lowest, the most sensual world participates through its activity in the metabolism and the movements of the limbs. Through its substance it participates in the head; in contrast, the substantial of the third human system is entirely spiritual.
In the middle system, which comprises respiration and blood circulation, spiritual activity and material substantiality go hand in hand. But the spiritual activity that flows through our respiratory movements, through our cardiac movements, is again somewhat accompanied by substantiality. And in the same way, the substantiality of the earthly being, insofar as it flows into the respiration through oxygen, is accompanied by earthly activity. So you see, in the middle human being, in the second system of the human being, everything flows together. Heavenly substantiality and activity flows in, earthly activity and substantiality flows in. This makes the human being receptive to receiving the activity of the middle world and the substantiality of the middle world here too.
So there is a lot of confusion in the middle human being. That is why we must have this wonderfully perfect rhythmic system in the middle human being, the heart rhythm, the lung rhythm in breathing, because everything that gets mixed up in activity and substantiality wants to balance itself out in rhythm, harmonize itself, melodize itself, and can do so because the human being is so predisposed.
While activity and substantiality come from completely different sources in the head system, in the limb system, in the middle system they flow in from all three worlds, and in different ways, here activity accompanied by substantiality, here substantiality accompanied by activity, here pure activity, here pure substantiality (see drawing 5. 134); this flows into the middle man. And when you observe a person's pulse beat as a doctor, you actually feel in the pulse beat the balance between heavenly soul and earthly activity and substantiality. And when you observe the breaths, you again feel this striving of the human being within himself for the balancing of these various agents that are related to him from the middle world. You see, this is man's relationship to the three worlds.
You will say: this is a very complicated thing. And indeed, if you lead a lecture cycle up to this moment, then it usually seems easy to understand; when you get to this point, where you now have to consider man's relationship to the world, the listeners often say to themselves: "Then the story becomes difficult to understand. It doesn't really work anymore.
But you see, an unprejudiced, really subtle way of thinking does come along. And there is actually one consolation for this common sense thinking. That is that when you really pierce the veil of chaos, as I said earlier, and enter this world, which is a threefold world that sends its activity and its substance into the physical world in a tremendously complicated way, where things are in fact so confusing that you can, by piercing through the veil, see what happens, that by entering it through the veil from the physical-sensual world, one is warned in the full sense of the word, warned in that one is told, for example - I say this apparently in the image, but this image actually corresponds to a real experience - on entering the spiritual world: If you do not want to leave behind everything that you have regarded in the physical world as your usual naturalistic logic, what you have regarded there as the connection of things, if you do not want to leave this whole physical garment behind, then you had better not enter the spiritual world, for there you will have to make use of quite different connections of ideas, quite different orders, quite different logic. And if you still want to carry something of your physical logic into this spiritual world, you will inevitably become confused. And among those things that belong to the preparation for meditation and concentration that I have already mentioned, you must also have that you fully observe this warning, that you really do not want to carry sensual logic into the logic of the spiritual world.
I would like to say that this is the important warning that the power - we will get to know it in more detail in the following lectures - which we can call the Guardian of the Threshold, first gives you when you want to pass through the curtain.
But even if you want to return to the physical-sensual world, you will receive a powerful, clear warning from this guardian. After all, you have to return if you are an earthling, otherwise you would never get out of the events of the spiritual world. You would gradually leave your physical body on earth dead. You have to come back again and again. One must eat and drink in the physical world according to naturalistic logic. One must even submit to the other habits of the day according to naturalistic logic. One must therefore re-enter a world where things really happen in such a way that there is a completely naturalistic-materialistic logic in it, for example that the bell is always rung at breakfast, at noon and in the evening. So you always have to return to this naturalistic world. For this it is necessary that, when one has penetrated into the spiritual world and returns to the physical-sensual world, so that one does not now get into an impossible situation as a human being, one takes into account the second warning of the Guardian of the Threshold, who stands at the place where the veil of chaos separates the physical-sensual world and the spiritual-heavenly world. And it consists in the fact that he tells you: Do not forget at any moment of your physical life on earth that you were in the spiritual world. Then alone will you be able to move safely in the physical world on earth for those times when you have to stay there.
So when you enter this world, with which man is related through his three limbs in the way I have schematically presented to you, you receive the warning to discard everything that is naturalistic logic, to leave behind this sensual garment at the threshold, and to cross over with the prerequisite of acquiring a truly spiritual logic, a spiritual thinking, spiritual connections of ideas. And when one goes back again, one receives the equally strict, indeed much stricter warning not to forget now, at any moment, what one has experienced there in the spiritual world; that is, not to abandon oneself again merely through the ordinary consciousness to the sensual drives and so on, but to be aware in everything that one has to carry the spiritual into this physical world.
You see, the two warnings are very different from each other. When entering the spiritual world, the Guardian of the Threshold says: Forget the physical-sensual world for the moments of your spiritual cognition. For the exit from the spiritual into the physical-sensual world, the Guardian of the Threshold says: Never forget, always remember again in the physical-earthly world your experiences in the spiritual-heavenly world.
With regard to what I said last, there is again a considerable difference between the people of an older epoch of human development and the present people. In the case of those people of whom I have described that they came in a certain way to the old Mystery Teachers, whether as inspired disciples or as general humanity, it was certainly the case that their psychic-spiritual instincts did not allow them to make the transition from sleeping to waking or from waking to sleeping without taking into account the Guardian of the Threshold. Three to four thousand years ago, the image of the Guardian of the Threshold rose up from the souls of people as if in a dream when they entered sleep. They walked past him. And again this image appeared when they returned from sleep to ordinary life. They did not have such a clear warning when entering and leaving the spiritual world as I have said of those who have entered this spiritual world through inspiration and imagination; but they had a dreamlike experience of passing before the guardian of the threshold when falling asleep and waking up, just as their other instinctive perceptions of the spiritual world were. This is precisely the development in humanity, as we shall see in the lectures I have yet to give, which alone could lead man to freedom, but which also had to deprive him of his psychic-spiritual vision: that man has lost that sleeping, dreaming wakefulness, that intermediate state between sleeping and waking, through which he could at least see the majestic Guardian of the Threshold in a dreamlike way both when falling asleep and when waking up. Today, man passes by this guardian of the threshold when falling asleep and waking up. He ignores it; he does not take it into account. And as a result, this person enters a completely disordered dream world.
Just take a look with complete impartiality at how differently people in older eras knew what to say about their dreams than is the case today. Because he ignores the guardian every evening and every morning and twice during every afternoon nap, man experiences the disorder, the chaos of his dream world. This is definitely reflected in the individual design of the dreams.
Just remember, when we cross the threshold - and we do so every time we fall asleep - the majestic guardian of the threshold stands at this threshold. He must not be ignored without that which confronts us in the spiritual world becoming disordered. And how it becomes disordered is best seen in the metamorphosis it undergoes when the orderly thinking of the physical-naturalistic world passes over into the formations of the dream. This can be seen in individual dreams.
In the physical-naturalistic world one behaves in the same way as one learns from the connections within the physical-sensual world. Let's take a single case: you go for a walk. Why do we go for a walk? Well, isn't it true that today people in cities go on certain walks specifically because they experience this or that. They meet their friends on these walks. They can show off their clothes, if they feel like it, in front of other, unknown people, or in front of people they know. These are all experiences that are experienced on a walk.
These experiences are experienced through the fact that we can think, imagine with our human being, through the fact that we are able to say with our head, exclusively with our head organization: I think. In this power of “I think” lies the possibility of experiencing something of the outside world, as I have just described. You meet other people; that becomes an experience for others. You show your clothes or, for my sake, your beautiful face. It depends on what you are experiencing. But when you see other people, when you show them what you have, you also have feelings towards them. You either like one thing or you don't like another. You develop sympathies or antipathies. You like it when other people say something that suits you on your walks. You don't like it, you feel antipathy when they say something that doesn't suit you. So that which one experiences during the walks is definitely connected with views, which is brought about by the head through the “I think”, it is connected through that which the rhythmic person develops: I feel, that is, with the feeling of sympathy and antipathy. By being able to say at the same time in a second member of our being: I feel, we accompany that which we experience when we look at something on a walk.
But the third part of the human being is also involved in this walk when we take the walk awake. Not true, you have to come to certain intimacies of human experience. Again, one has the feeling that in modern civilization it is not possible to show oneself to people unclothed, to go for a walk unclothed. You have this feeling. Being unclothed is antipathetic, being clothed is sympathetic. But this is transferred into the impulses of will. You get dressed. One even dresses in a certain way. This engages the will, the third member of the human organization. This, that we attract ourselves, depends again on the third in man, on the fact that we can say: I want. Attraction lies in the impulsiveness of the will.
I think I think
I feel I feel
I will I want
Because we can say: I want -, we start our walk attracted by the success of “I want”. All this is arranged for the physical world in which we are awake by the logic of the physical world. We are either taught it or we submit to the conditions of life that are given externally in the logic of the physical world. And if we don't do this, there is something wrong inside us. If we go for a walk without clothes, there is something wrong with us. The order in the physical world, that which is logical in the physical world, forms this together. It does not occur to us to want to see other people on a walk in an undressed state. Here a connection comes into our soul experiences, but not through us, but through the connection of the world. The result is that now all three - I think, I feel, I want - are connected. That is what the world does. We are prompted by the outside world to form this connection between thinking, feeling and wanting.
When we now step over the threshold, ignoring the guardian of the threshold, we are faced with three worlds and at first do not know our way around, because we partly carry over into the other, spiritual world that to which we are accustomed here; but partly the spiritual world asserts its order. And now the following happens: Imagine you are lying asleep in bed. You are initially involved in this sleeping state with your feelings, with the middle part of the human being. The blanket detaches itself from you, a part of your body freezes. You become aware in your dreams that you are unclothed at this point. And this expands, because you are now unfamiliar with the spiritual world, because you do not just relate this to one part, but to the whole world, it expands to the feeling: I am unclothed. Perhaps the blanket has only fallen off one part of your body, but you are a little cold and you feel: I am unclothed.
Now, however, you have just been busy in your dreams surrendering to the impulse of will as an awake person: If I am unclothed, I will dress myself. But now you feel through sleep: I cannot dress myself, I am handicapped - because you cannot move your limbs. This comes into the dream consciousness.
You see, these two things: I feel undressed, I cannot dress - that causes you, because the physical world is now missing to bring the two things together, because one belongs to world II, the other to world I, that you bring them together in a wrong way. And now, because you experienced in the same night that you had gone for a walk, you bring this into it; this now comes back into your dream context. This occurs separately. Three conditions occur separately: I am on a walk; I am undressed, which is terribly antipathetic to me; and: I cannot get dressed.
Now think to yourself: these three things, which you bring together in ordinary materialistic-physical life through the logic of life, fall apart for you as you walk past the guardian of the threshold, ignoring him,
In the third world you experience that you cannot get dressed, that it is quite impossible. And now in this situation you feel divided into three parts, among strangers, exposed to the gaze everywhere, undressed, powerless to dress. You go through this in your dreams. That which is bound together for you in ordinary life by natural logic is separated for you in the dream, and you bind it chaotically according to the habit you have carried in over the threshold, you bind it as if it were the same in the spiritual world when you are unclothed and so on. You carry, by ignoring this guardian of the threshold, the habits corresponding to the physical world into the spiritual world, you chaotically connect the three worlds according to the laws of the physical world, and you feel yourself in this situation.in the first world: walking,
in the second world: being unclothed,
This is the essence of countless dreams, that the moment you cross the threshold and do not heed the warnings of the guardian, that which you perceive here in the world of the physical-naturalistic as a unity in harmony, as a harmonious unity, that this breaks apart and you are confronted with three worlds. But one must be able to bring this together by faithfully observing the warnings of the Guardian of the Threshold; one must be able to bring these three worlds together. And the dream of the man of the present, not so much of the man of an older epoch - you can see especially in the dreams of the Old Testament that this was not the case - but the dream of modern man, that confronts man with three worlds, which he as a modern man wants to connect according to the laws of physical-naturalistic existence. This gives rise to the disordered connections in these three worlds in which man now finds himself.
So you see: the dream already shows us this serious fact, that the moment we cross the threshold to the spiritual world, we are initially confronted with three worlds, and that one must enter these three worlds in the right way, and leave these three worlds again. The dream is that from which modern man can learn a tremendous amount for the characteristics of the physical-sensual world here, as well as the other, spiritual-soul world. We will discuss this matter further tomorrow.
