Course for Young Doctors
Christmas Course
GA 316
Dornach, 7th January, 1924
Lecture VI
For reasons I will not now mention, I will postpone the more esoteric lecture I had intended to give today, to the end of this course, and speak to you now about something else.
A certain amount of astonishment may have been caused when it was said yesterday that if we want to get at the realities, we must think, for instance, of thought being behind solid, earthy phenomena, and courage behind all that is of the nature of air. There is a significance from the point of view of medical history in having our attention drawn to the fact that thought is to be connected with all that is solid, earthy, all that stands before us with definite contours. For this leads us to say to ourselves that thought—thought as a force—is not to be connected with the watery, with the circulation of fluids in the human organism. Neither is thought to be connected with the airy and the warmth nature in man. We have spoken of the conception we must have of the air and the warmth in the cosmos. Within the human being, too, all these things are present, but in a particular form. Within the human being it is like this—only that which has contours, including that which, although it may be soft and pliable, has, nevertheless, the character of solidity, only this may be thought of as corresponding to thought. We have said that behind the fluid, or the watery element which confronts us in the physical world, we have to think of something spiritual—namely, something that is of the nature of feeling.
This element of feeling within the human organism must be thought of in a special way. We usually think of subjective feeling in this connection; we think of feeling that is connected with the psychical and bodily constitution of the human being. But within the human being, feeling is not merely this direct experience; feeling has an up-building activity within the human being. The watery or fluid body, as a formation of the universal, cosmic fluidity, contains feeling as its very essence. This etheric activity that works within the fluid body must be understood, but it cannot be understood by the same kind of knowledge that we apply to something that is outside the human being, because the substances and processes within the human organism do not work in the same way as they do in the external environment. The moment we come to the fluid organism—when we have to do with a part of the human organization which is in fluid circulation, although there are vascular organs within it—in that moment the knowledge forces which can be applied to what is outside the human being in the physical world are no longer adequate.
That is why medicine lost its knowledge of the fluid man—that was the last of the higher members of which knowledge was lost. One may say that up to the middle forties of the nineteenth century, medicine still had an inkling of the existence of this fluid man. People spoke of the humors, of the circulation of the fluids, of the mixture and the separation of the fluids. Medicine was not confined to the physiology and pathology of cells but actually perceived the combinations and separation of fluids. In the nineteenth century, of course, it was all tradition, but this tradition led back to the time before the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when men had not only tradition but also actual knowledge—knowledge in the form in which we today wrestle for in Anthroposophy and should be able to reach in imagination. Knowledge in those days had, it is true, an illusionary character, but men had instinctive imaginations. It was known that the human organism cannot be understood by mere sense perception and cogitation; it was known that thinking and sense observation could only be applied to those parts of the organism which have firm contours, and that knowledge of the circulation of the fluids in the watery man must be gained through imagination. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that the perception of this fluid man was lost. Perception of the fluid man can only come again when we attain to imaginations in full consciousness.
Let us go over what has been said, once again. When the bony system is building itself up from out of the human organism taken as a totality, when the human being is, as it were, crystallizing into the skeleton—this is not a good way of expressing it, but you will understand what I mean—cosmic thoughts are weaving in him. The organs that have definite outlines have these outlines only because they are subject to the same forces to which the building of the bones is subject. It is only the bony structure in the physical sense that is of the nature of thought, and the other organs with definite outlines have been built up out of the etheric world by an activity of thought. Inasmuch as they have definite outlines and contours, an activity of the nature of thought has been working. The forms in the human organism of which physiology and pathology speak are the result of an activity that is of the nature of thought.
But this is only one member of the human organization, and it must fall out of the human organization if one does not rise to imagination. It is imagination that can lead us to the fluid man, to the way in which the muscles are formed out of the fluidity and how the being of man pours into the muscles. Muscles appear to be solid, but this is mere semblance.
Imagination is indispensable if one wants to comprehend the uniting of the solid nature of the bony structure with the fluid nature of the blood into what has the semblance of another solid structure—muscle.
We must therefore realize: Thought, which is of course, supported by physical perception, can in reality, only grasp the bony system, and apart from the bony system everything else that thought may say about the human being is fantasy.
We must ascend from thinking to imagination. With imagination we can grasp the nature of the fluid man and understand how this fluid man shoots into the muscular system. The fundamental nature of the muscles can only be grasped by imagination. Why is this? You see, if you apply thoughts, you cannot help applying, too, those laws which are discovered by thought, namely, mechanical laws. You apply the laws of statics and dynamics, and this is possible with the bony system. But just try to apply statics and dynamics to the muscular system and see how you get on! Try to calculate from the laws of statics how you can crush a cherry pit, or a peach pit, by biting it. Try to find out by an experiment how much weight of pressure is necessary to crush this cherry stone. Some—not all of us perhaps—try to bite them! But try to reckon out whether, according to the laws of mechanics, a muscle is capable of crushing a cherry pit. Thought alone will never help you to understand the muscular system. It is quite impossible. The moment we come to the muscles, the principles of mechanics become futile. We must be able to pass over to a form of knowledge that can leave the laws of mechanics behind and which grasps the whole picture of the muscles through imagination. Ordinary gravity is non-existent here. For the moment you come to the watery element you have to do with pure buoyancy.
In the things that you do with your etheric body, you have nothing to do with weight but with what overcomes weight to a great extent. Even this will make you realize that quite a different form of knowledge must be applied to the muscular system. This form of knowledge is imagination. The muscular system is comprehended through imagination—though there are transitions everywhere. It is not possible to understand the muscular system unless we conceive of it as a structure that has not arisen in the same way as the bony system. It has taken shape, as it were, through a coagulation of blood. This is just as inadequate an expression as when I say that the bony system crystallizes, but it is a comparatively correct picture. Suppose you take some bone—the radius or the ulna, or upper arm—and apply the laws of leverage to it. This is quite all right. But while you can understand by the laws of leverage and other laws of mechanics what goes on in the radius or upper arm, just think whether these laws help you to understand what is going on in a muscle. Your mental pictures here must all become mobile, must be transformed. The essential characteristic of imagination is that it can always yield and give way and so embrace the substance of things that have their being in the process of metamorphosis. And this is the characteristic of the muscle; the muscle has its life in its metamorphosis. In contrast to the bones to which the laws of mechanics can be applied, the muscle is just as mobile as the pictures of metamorphosis—say pictures, not thoughts—which we have in imagination.
In the bony system we have the solid, earthy man; in the muscular system we have the fluid man, the watery man.
At the stage of inspiration, above imagination, we come to the airy man, to what is aeriform within the human being. In inspiration we approach a mode of cognition that very much resembles the hearing of musical tones, melodies. Inspiration has nothing any longer to do with concepts but with something that is like the cognition, the realization of music. Music must not always be heard; inasmuch as it is spiritual, it can also be felt, experienced. All inspiration has, fundamentally, something musical about it. It is a strange fact that the form of the inner organs of man, of those organs which really provide for the growing organization during life in nourishment, breathing, etc., that none of these organ forms can be explained by any laws of mechanics. Not even by imaginative knowledge are they to be explained. It is just nonsense to try to explain the form of the lungs, of the liver, through their position, through the lie of the cells or through weight. Just try to discover if anyone has succeeded in explaining the form of the liver or the lung and you will find that there is nobody. For these organs, which look after the life that is coming into being during earthly life, are present, in germ, at a very early stage, although later on they are much metamorphosed. They are all of them the outcome of the formative forces of the air.
Modern science says: Air is composed of oxygen, nitrogen and a few other substances. The aeriform substance is more or less uniform, only differentiated through inner mechanical movement, such as can be observed in wind. But the air that is described by physics today does not exist, in reality. The air that surrounds our earth is permeated throughout with formative forces. We breathe in these formative forces together with the physical substantiality of the air. Once our organs are complete and we breathe in the air, these formative forces coincide, as it were, with the form of the lung and are not particularly significant except for the purposes of growth. But during the embryonic period, while there is a physical isolation from the external air—then these formative forces of the air work by way of the body of the mother. They build up the lungs and the other organs, with the exception of the muscles and bones. All the inner organs that are to receive life are built up out of the formative forces of the air.
What happens here can be compared—although the comparison is a crude one—to the Chladnic sound figures. Plates covered with fine dust are secured at some point, a violin bow is drawn across the edge of the plate, and then the dust forms itself into certain patterns according to how the violin bow is drawn across the plate. The figures in the dust are formed out of the formative forces produced in the air. So too, the inner organs of man are formed out of the universal formative forces of the air. The lung is formed out of the breathing forces, also the other organs, only the other organs are formed more or less indirectly, the lungs directly. This fact, that the organs are built out of the formative forces of the air, is only to be grasped through inspiration. What has been built out of the air, formed out of the air, has something of the nature of music about it, just as the musical element is at the basis of the Chladnic sound figures.
Much of what modern physiology says is so fundamentally false that one sometimes is embarrassed to say what is correct, so greatly does it differ from what is stated in the ordinary way. In acts of hearing, all the organs of the human being, not only the inner organs of hearing, vibrate together with the air. The whole man vibrates, if only slightly; and the ear is not the organ of hearing just because it vibrates but because it brings to consciousness what is present in the rest of the organism. There is a great but also a subtle, delicate distinction in saying that man hears through the ear, or through the ear is brought to consciousness what has been heard. The human being is built out of sound, although not from sound that is actually heard. Inspiration is required for comprehension of the inner organs. The organization of man's inner organs, of the aeriform man, must be understood by means of inspiration. It is really not to be wondered at that real understanding of the inner organs of man was already lost in days of antiquity, for inspiration was lost and inspiration is the only means whereby the inner organs can be understood. They can be taken from the corpse and diagrams can be made of them, but they cannot be understood by this means.
You see, therefore, that the whole human organism stands really towards the background of the physical world. After reading my book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, people always get the picture: Here is the physical world and behind it, the spiritual world, in stages or degrees. We reach the nearest spiritual world through imagination, a further spiritual world through inspiration and a further world through intuition. But people do not picture to themselves that of all that is within the human being, the bony system alone is built up by the elementary spirits, whereas the muscular system is built up by spiritual beings of a higher hierarchy. This must be known and understood. A man must be able to reach these beings through imagination if he is to understand the muscles.
To understand the inner organs, still higher spiritual beings must be reached through inspiration. The inner structure of a skeleton, too, can only be truly understood with inspiration. Just think of the following. A modern scientist investigates a plant by analyzing its substance by the methods current today. But this is by no means the plant in its reality. The plant is built up from out of the cosmos, as I said yesterday. It is only the root that is built up from earthly forces. The whole form of the plant is a spiritual reality, a super-sensible reality; this super-sensible reality is then filled with matter. And a man who merely examines this physical matter in the plant is like someone who has a document in front of him that is wet with ink, that he has covered with sand to dry and who then imagines that the sand is the essential thing of the document. The document is covered with this sand and then it is scratched away and the man says: I am examining the sand and I read what the document contains out of the sand. This, more or less, is the way in which people explain the root of a plant, whereas in reality the root is spiritual, filled with physical substance in its framework. So too, the human organs merely receive physical substance.
The reality is that only the bony system is physical; the muscles are etheric, the organs are astral.
If we can attain true intuition we get to the warmth man, the organization that is a space of warmth, inwardly differentiated. The human being actually experiences himself in warmth; his relationship to warmth is not the same as to carbon or nitrogen. Warmth is within him and the human being is within it when he experiences warmth.
The experience of warmth is intense and real and a modern man cannot deny that he has it, whereas he has no inkling of the fact that he experiences air, water, earth. He has no inkling of this because he has grown out of these experiences. Understanding of the warmth involves the application of intuition to the human organization, but it is the delicate differentiations of the warmth in the forms of the organs themselves which have to be perceived and experienced. When intuition can be applied to the warmth organism through the whole body, this form of cognition leads, not, in this case, to an understanding of the inner organs as such, but to the activity of these inner organs. The activity of the inner organs must be grasped by an understanding of the organization within the warmth ether. Every other kind of knowledge is incapable of bringing about understanding of the activity of the organs. The activity of the warmth ether, of the warmth man, must be cognized by intuition.
It will not do simply to think: There is the physical world and one must acquire imagination, inspiration and intuition in order to attain the other worlds. The other worlds are actually present; the etheric world is present in the muscular system, the astral world in the organs and the devachanic world, the spirit world, is present in the warmth man. The spiritual is always around us; it is actually present. Man is a spirit and this spirit is merely filled with physical substance. To say that man is a physical being is an illusion; man in himself is a spirit who actually reaches up into the higher world through his warmth organization.
That is why it is so odd that spiritualists should sit around a table and address themselves to spirits who are far, far inferior to those eight or ten people who are sitting around the table without knowing that they are spirits! This is a truth that must be taken very, very deeply to heart, and then progress can be made.
If through initiation we have grasped the nature of this wonderful activity from organ to organ which goes on in the warmth ether, we find that there are two kinds of warmth. The warmth ether is a quite special element. When any process calls forth a change in the warmth ether, there is always a counter-working. There is always action and reaction with streamings of warmth. The warmth ether is differentiated within itself. There is always a coarser etheric substance which runs counter to a more delicate one.
Suppose you are in a room that is comfortably warm. You make it warmer—so warm that you cannot stand it. That is not merely a physical condition but also a condition of the life of soul. The more delicate warmth is experienced by the soul. The experience of warmth is really always twofold; there is the warmth that we experience psychically and the warmth in which we live, the warmth that is outside the soul; there is the warmth that is within our warmth organism and the warmth that is external to us. Warmth is of the nature of the soul. We can therefore speak of a physical warmth and a soul warmth.
If we pass on to the inner organs, to the aeriform man, where inspiration is needed, here we have the airy element in its main form. Whereas the finer warmth works within warmth, in the aeriform there works light. Intuition reveals warmth within warmth; warmth remains warmth when it is differentiating itself within itself. But this is not the case with air. The real air is not the fantastic air of the physicists which surrounds our earth like another skin. The real air is inconceivable without some condition of light—for darkness is also a condition of light. Light and air belong together; light is an active, organizing force in the whole airy organism. Here we come still further into the realm of soul. There is not only external light but also metamorphosed inner light which permeates the whole human being, which lives in him. The light lives within him together with the air.
Equally, the chemical forces (chemism) are within the human being, together with the water, with the fluid element. Water conceived as physical water, the water of the physicists, is pure fantasy. To picture the fluid element within the human being without the chemical forces is just like picturing a human organism without a head. It can be drawn without a head and the life of soul can be entirely eliminated, but then there is no longer any reality. If you cut the head away from your body, the body cannot live, it is no longer an organism. In the same way, the fluid nature in man is not what the physicists fantastically describe as water. Just as the organism, with the head, forms one whole, so is the fluid organism bound up with the chemical forces. The solid or earthy in the human organism only exists in statu nascendi. Like the water in the human being, it is immediately transformed. Within the human being the earthy is bound up with life.
Earth |
Life |
Water |
Chemical Forces |
Air |
Light |
Warmth |
Warmth |
Physical Body |
Etheric Body |
The physical body and its corresponding etheric body form one whole; they are one unit, seen from two sides. We have the ether stages: warmth, light, chemical forces, life—and we have the physical stages: warmth, air, water, earth. When we give an abstract description of the ethers we give the first place to the warmth ether; when we start from the fluid or solid as the lowest ether, then the highest ether is the life ether. But when we describe the human being we say that the warmth man, the inner activity of the organs, is known by means of intuition. As we descend to the coarsest stage, from the warmth to the earthy in the physical organism, we ascend, in the etheric body, from warmth into life. What does this mean? Think of it. It means that the human being really reverses his own attributes, or qualities. He expends the warmth ether only upon the warmth organism, the light ether upon the airy organism, the chemical ether upon the fluid organism, the life ether upon his solid organization. If you really grasp this, then you cannot think as people ordinarily think. If you insist upon thinking along the ordinary lines, you can, in reality, grasp only the bony system, the earthy human being. It is necessary for you to pass over from ordinary thinking to an inner comprehension of the world, as I have said before.
The fact that medical science has a certain peculiarity is connected with these things. Medical knowledge was an outstanding part of the ancient mysteries where man had real insight into the treatment of a sick human being. The physicians were trained in the mysteries—they were not merely medical men, but they were also sages, wise men who looked after the religious cults. It is natural that the physician should have kept his knowledge secret, as was the case with all mystery knowledge. For you see, if a man wants to know something, he must clothe this knowledge in thoughts; otherwise he floats about in indefiniteness. The picture that comes in imagination, what is heard spiritually (inspiration) and also what is beheld in intuition must all be clothed in thoughts. In ancient times it was known that medical knowledge must be clothed in thoughts. But by clothing it in thoughts it is deprived of some of its efficacy. I am touching here upon deep matters. It cannot be denied that the knowledge of remedies in a sense takes away their power and a really serious physician must deny himself the use of these therapeutic measures which he uses for his patients; he must deny himself and use, for himself, other kinds of healing. Please think about this last sentence and you will realize, in a much deeper sense than before, that the physician must personally cultivate the mood of helping. He must deny himself the healing forces which he applies to his patients. If a man ascribes the efficacy of a remedy merely to the chemical forces, if he imagines that remedies work like steam in a locomotive, he is not submitting to these spiritual laws. But the moment it is realized that the human being reaches up into the spiritual, it will never be doubted that spiritual laws are at the basis of what is contained in the different remedies. In its real essence, medicine is the most wonderful means of education towards selflessness. To demand that therapy should be taught as mechanics or similar subjects are taught is a crude and coarse misunderstanding. The laws of mechanics can, of course, be applied to the human being, but that is valid then to humanity as a whole. And the physician's work is entirely individual. If a physician has a really profound knowledge of some remedy, it is necessary for him, to a certain extent, to deny healing himself by means of this remedy. This is the great education towards selflessness. I will indicate sometime how the physician can help himself. But you must understand in your hearts what underlies these facts. If you take seriously and earnestly what I have said, it will become a world necessity to introduce into medicine not egoism but altruism. Altruism, selflessness, is the basic principle of medicine. Medical morality is not something that has been invented but proceeds from heavenly laws, from laws which the cosmos itself has formed in order to create remedies which follow its own laws.
The more earnestly a communication like this is taken, the more it will be able to contribute to an understanding of the real basis of all remedies.
Thoughts |
– |
Bony System |
= |
Earthly Man |
Imagination |
– |
Muscles |
= |
Fluid Man |
Inspiration |
– |
Inner Organs |
= |
Aeriform Man |
Intuition |
– |
Activity of inner organs |
= |
Warmth Man |
Sechster Vortrag
Meine lieben Freunde!
Aus Gründen, die ich jetzt nicht erörtern will, werde ich die mehr esoterisch geartete Stunde, die ich heute halten wollte, Ihnen am Ende dieses Kursus halten.
Ich möchte heute zu Ihnen von etwas anderem reden. Wenn man sich erinnert an dasjenige, was gestern gesagt worden ist, wird man vielleicht etwas erstaunt sein können darüber, daß man zu sehen hat hinter den Erscheinungen des Festen, Erdigen Gedankenhaftes, daß man zum Beispiel hinter dem Luftartigen Mut zu sehen hat, wenn man an die Realitäten herankommen will. Nun ist es tatsächlich auch von einer gewissen, ich möchte sagen medizinisch-geschichtlichen Bedeutung, daß man in gehöriger Weise seine Aufmerksamkeit darauf hinrichtet, wie gerade mit dem Festen, Erdigen, also mit demjenigen, was in Konturen vor unserer Wahrnehmung steht, wie mit dem Festen, Erdigen der Gedanke zu verbinden ist, Gedankenhaftes zu verbinden ist, denn dadurch kommt man unmittelbar darauf, sich zu sagen: Mit dem Flüssigen, also auch mit dem, was als Säftezirkulation oder sonstige Zirkulation im menschlichen Organismus vorhanden ist, ist nicht der Gedanke zu verknüpfen, ist nicht der Gedanke als Kraft dahinter zu sehen, ebensowenig im Luftartigen, ebensowenig im Wärmeartigen. Wie man es mit dem Luft- und Wärmemäßigen zu halten hat im Kosmos, haben wir ja gesehen. Aber im Menschen ist alles, alles wiederum in einer speziellen Art vorhanden. Im Menschen ist es so, daß wirklich nur dasjenige, was in Konturen auftritt, was also auch, wenn es weich ist, sagen wir grob oder trivial, dennoch durch seine Konturiertheit den Charakter des Festen hat, daß nur das eigentlich eingehen kann in den Gedanken, und daß das Flüssige, von dem wir gesprochen haben so, daß man zunächst, wenn man einfach dem gewöhnlichen physischen Plan gegenübersteht und man Geistiges hinter ihm erfassen will, sich klarzuwerden hat, daß man zu sehen hat hinter dem Flüssigen Empfindungsgemäßes.
So muß man das Empfindungsgemäße im menschlichen Organismus noch besonders sehen, denn im Gewöhnlichen wirkt, wenn man von Empfindungsgemäßem spricht, die subjektive Empfindung, die der Mensch durch seine seelisch-leibliche Konstitution hat. Aber im Menschen ist ja die Empfindung nicht nur dasjenige, was man unmittelbar erlebt, sondern im Menschen ist die Empfindung aufbauend, und indem der Flüssigkeitsleib als Gestaltung des allgemeinen kosmischen Flüssigen schon als sein Wesen das Empfindungsgemäße enthält, muß man sich doch klar darüber sein, daß dieses, was im Flüssigkeitsleib wirksam ist, dieses ätherische Impulsive, auch erfaßt werden muß durch die Erkenntnis, daß es aber nicht so erfaßt werden kann durch die Erkenntnis, wie man irgend etwas außer dem Menschen erfaßt, weil im menschlichen Organismus eben alles, was uns als Substanzen oder Vorgänge entgegentritt, gegenüber der Umgebung des Menschen anders wird. Und so handelt es sich darum zu erkennen, daß in dem Augenblick, wo der Flüssigkeitsorganismus beginnt, wo man es mit einem Teil der menschlichen Organisation zu tun hat, die in flüssiger Zirkulation ist, wenn auch in den Weg dieser Zirkulation Gefäßorgane oder irgend etwas eingegliedert ist, alle Erkenntniskräfte, die für das gelten, was außer dem Menschen in der physischen Welt ist, nicht mehr taugen, um die Sache zu erkennen.
Deshalb, sehen Sie, ist es gekommen, daß als letztes Glied der menschlichen Organisation die Medizin den Flüssigkeitsmenschen verloren hat. Man kann geradezu sagen, bis in die Mitte der vierziger Jahre des 19. Jahrhunderts herein hatte man in der Medizin wenigstens noch eine Ahnung von dem Flüssigkeitsmenschen. Man redete von den Humores, von der Säftezirkulation, von der Säftemischung und -entmischung. Nicht nur hatte man eine Zellularphysiologie und -pathologie, sondern man hatte wirklich eine Anschauung über Säftemischung und -entmischung. Nur war im 19. Jahrhundert das alles natürlich Tradition. Aber diese Tradition führte noch zurück in Zeiten, die vor dem 16., dem 15. Jahrhundert liegen, in denen man nicht nur Tradition, sondern auch noch Erkenntnis hatte, Erkenntnis von der Art, wie wir sie heute in der Anthroposophie erringen, wiedererringen sollen in der Imagination. Die damalige Zeit hatte einen imaginativen Charakter, aber es waren instinktive Imaginationen. Und man wußte, man kann einfach den menschlichen Organismus nicht nur durch bloßes sinnliches Anschauen und Nachdenken erkennen. - Gedanken und sinnliches Anschauen ergeben nur die fest konturierten Partien des Organismus, alles was in Säftezirkulation, im flüssigen Menschen ist, das muß durch die Imagination erkannt werden. Es ist daher gar nicht zu verwundern, daß die Anschauung dieses flüssigen Menschen verlorengegangen ist, denn die alte instinktive Imagination ist verlorengegangen. Diese Anschauung wird erst wieder da sein, wenn wieder in vollbewußter Weise Imaginationen errungen sein werden. Umfassen wir das einmal, wovon wir gesprochen haben, und was da für die Erkenntnis in Aussicht stehen muß.
Sehen Sie, indem sich das Knochenskelett aufbaut aus der Gesamtheit des menschlichen Organismus heraus, ich möchte sagen, indem der Mensch in das Skelett hinein - es ist kein guter Ausdruck, den ich gebrauchen werde, aber Sie werden ihn verstehen -, indem der Mensch in das Skelett hineinkristallisierte, woben Weltgedanken an ihm. Und die streng begrenzten Organe sind auch nur streng begrenzt, indem sie — wir werden ihre eigentlichen Kräfte gleich kennenlernen - denselben Kräften unterworfen werden, denen der Knochenaufbau unterworfen wird, so daß man sagen kann: Nur der Knochenaufbau ist gedankenhaft im physischen Sinne, und die andern Organe, die feste Grenzen haben, sind gedankenhaft aufgebaut aus dem Ätherischen heraus. Aber sie sind, indem sie feste Konturen haben, gedankenhaft aufgebaut, und das, was Sie heute von der Physiologie und Pathologie haben in bezug auf das Gestaltmäßige des menschlichen Organismus, das ist dem Gedankenhaften unterworfen. Aber das ist ja nur ein Glied der menschlichen Organisation, und es muß herausfallen aus der menschlichen Organisation, wenn man nicht hinaufsteigt zur Imagination. Die Imagination leitet dann hinauf zum Flüssigkeitsmenschen und zu der Art, wie aus der Flüssigkeit der Muskel gebildet wird und der Mensch in den Muskel schießt. Diese eigentümliche Zusammenfügung des fest scheinenden Muskels, der nur fest scheint, und des Blutes, da schon kommt man von dem Knochenmäßigen in das Blutartige, da muß man, um den Menschen zu erkennen, die Imagination anwenden, so daß man also sagen kann: Der Gedanke, der natürlich unterstützt ist von der sinnlichen Anschauung, gelangt eigentlich nur an das Knochensystem heran, und alles übrige, was gesagt werden kann über den Menschen durch den Gedanken außer dem Knochensystem, ist Phantasie. Man muß aufsteigen vom Denken zur Imagination. Und wenn man zu der Imagination aufsteigt, kommt man zum Flüssigkeitsmenschen und dazu, wie der Flüssigkeitsmensch eigentlich schießt in das Muskelsystem. Und Muskeln zu begreifen in ihrer Wesenhaftigkeit ist nur möglich der Imagination. Warum?
Ja, sehen Sie, wenn Sie Gedanken anwenden, so müssen Sie auch die Gesetzmäfßigkeiten anwenden, auf die der Gedanke kommt, das ist die mechanische Gesetzmäßigkeit. Sie müssen Statik und Dynamik anwenden. Das können Sie nur beim Knochensystem. Aber wenden Sie einmal an Statik und Dynamik beim Muskelsystem, versuchen Sie aus irgendeiner Statik heraus zu rechnen, warum Sie einen Kirschkern zu zerbeißen vermögen oder gar einen Pfirsichkern. Versuchen Sie das zu errechnen. Versuchen Sie einmal das Experiment anzustellen, wieviel Gewichtsdruck dazu notwendig ist — einfach, indem man ein Gewicht auf einen Kirschenstein aufstellt -, diesen Kirschenstein zu zerdrücken. Sie zerbeißen ihn, vielleicht nicht alle von uns, aber es gibt manche, die auch Pfirsichkerne zerbeißen können. Rechnen Sie aus, ob nach mechanischen Gesetzen herauskommt, daß ein Muskel das leisten kann, Kirschkerne zu zerdrücken. Sie kommen mit dem, was der Gedanke gibt, niemals an das Muskelsystem heran. Sie können nicht. Mechanik wird in dem Augenblick, wo man an den Muskel herankommt, zum Unsinn, und man muß zu einer Erkenntnis jetzt übergehen können, welche auch hinter sich läßt die mechanischen Gesetze, welche also auffaßt das ganze Muskelbild durch Imagination, worin die gewöhnliche Schwere gar nicht ist. Denn in dem Augenblicke, wo Sie ins Flüssige hineinkommen, haben Sie es ja mit lauter Auftrieben zu tun, und Sie verrichten die Dinge, die Sie verrichten mit Ihrem Ätherleib, gar nicht mit den Gewichtsverhältnissen, sondern mit dem, was die Gewichtsverhältnisse zum großen Teil überwindet, so daß Sie schon aus diesem begreifen werden: In dem Augenblicke, wo man an das Muskelsystem herankommt, muß man eine ganz andere Erkenntnisart anwenden, das ist die Imagination, so daß man also sagen kann — nur repräsentativ, es sind überall Übergänge -, daß durch die Imagination begriffen wird das Muskelsystem. Und niemand begreift überhaupt das Muskelsystem, der es nicht gewissermaßen auffaßt als das nun nicht auf demselben Wege wie das Knochensystem entstandene Bild, das gewissermaßen durch Gerinnung des Blutes sich gebildet hat. Es ist natürlich ein ebensowenig geschickter Ausdruck, als wenn ich sage ins Knochensystem kristallisiert, aber vergleichsweise ist es doch richtig. Nun bedenken Sie, wenn Sie irgendeinen Knochen haben, etwa die Elle oder Speiche oder den Oberarm, und Sie wenden darauf die Hebelgesetze an: ja, die Knochen lassen sich das in aller Geduld gefallen. Aber betrachten Sie, währenddem Sie ganz gut mit den Hebel- und andern mechanischen Gesetzen dasjenige verstehen können, was mit der Speiche oder dem Oberarm vor sich geht, bedenken Sie, ob Sie auch werden verstehen können, was mit irgendeinem Muskel vor sich geht. Da müssen die Bilder eine weiche Struktur annehmen, müssen sich verwandeln. Das ist gerade das Wesen der Imagination, daß sie überall nachgeben kann und daß sie das umfaßt, was durch seine Metamorphose seine Substanz bedeutet. Das hat der Muskel, der Muskel lebt in seiner Metamorphose. Der Knochen läßt sich geduldig die mechanischen Gesetze gefallen, der Muskel nicht. Er ist ebenso beweglich wie die metamorphosischen Bilder — Bilder, nicht Gedanken -, die wir in der Imagination haben, um ihnen zu folgen im innerlich Beweglichen. Und sehen Sie, damit stehen wir beim festen Menschen im Knochensystem, beim festen, erdigen Menschen. Wir stehen beim Muskelsystem beim flüssigen Menschen, wäßrigen Menschen.
Wenn wir nun aufsteigen von der Imagination zur Inspiration, dann kommen wir nun schon an den luftförmigen Menschen, an dasjenige, was im Menschen luftförmig ist. Und wir kommen, indem wir an die Inspiration herankommen, an eine Auffassungsweise, die sehr ähnlich ist dem Hören musikalischer Töne, Harmonien, Melodien, sehr ähnlich ist dem musikalischen Hören. Die Inspiration hat nichts mehr mit etwas Begriffsmäßigem zu tun, sondern mit etwas, was auch in der Auffassung eine Art Musikalisches ist. Das Musikalische muß nicht immer gehört werden, es kann auch, indem es geistig ist, empfunden werden. Aber im Grunde genommen hat alle Inspiration etwas Musikalisches. Nun ist das Eigentümliche hier vorhanden, daß die Form der menschlichen inneren Organe, derjenigen Organe, die eigentlich die werdende Organisation während des Lebens besorgen in der Ernährung, in der Atmung und so weiter, also die Organe, die dem zugrunde liegen, daß alle diese Organformen nicht erklärbar sind etwa aus irgendwelchen mechanischen Gesetzen. Aber nicht einmal imaginativ sind sie zu erklären. Es ist einfach ein Unding, ein Nonsens, wenn man die Form des Lungenorganes, des Leberorganes etwa nur erklären wollte aus Lageverhältnissen, wie da die Zellen liegen, oder aus Gewichtsverhältnissen. Versuchen Sie darüber nachzuforschen, ob das schon irgend jemandem gelungen ist, die Leber- oder Lungenform als Form zu erklären. Es ist niemandem gelungen. Denn diese Organe, die das werdende Leben während des Erdendaseins versorgen, die sind in ihren Anlagen trotzdem sehr früh vorhanden, wenn auch sehr stark metamorphosiert. Alle kommen sie heraus aus den Gestaltungskräften des Luftförmigen. Der heutige wissenschaftliche Mensch sagt: Luft ist Sauerstoff, Stickstoff, einiges andere ist darin, und das ist so eine mehr oder weniger gleichmäßige, nur durch innere mechanische Bewegung, die im Winde sich darstellt, differenzierte luftförmige Substanz. Aber solche Luft, wie sie heute der Physiker beschreibt, die gibt es nicht, sondern es gibt nur die konkrete Luft, die unsere Erde umgibt. Aber, meine lieben Freunde, die Luft, die unsere Erde umgibt, die ist überall durchdrungen von lauter Gestaltungskräften. Diese Gestaltungskräfte atmen wir mit der physischen Substanz der Luft ein. Wenn unsere Organe fertig sind, wenn wir eine fertige Lunge haben, dann geschieht das, daß die Gestaltungskräfte, die wir da einatmen mit der Substanz der Luft, sozusagen zusammenfallen mit der Form der Lunge, daß sie dann, wenn wir geboren sind, keine große Bedeutung mehr haben, nur zum Wachstum. Aber während der Embryonalzeit, während der physischen Absonderung von der Außenluft, da wirken zuerst durch den mütterlichen Leib die Gestaltungskräfte der Luft. Die bauen die Lunge auf, wie alle Organe des Menschen daraus auferbaut werden, mit Ausnahme der Muskeln und der Knochen. Alle inneren Organe, die das werdende Leben erhalten, sind auferbaut aus den gestaltenden Kräften der Luft. Was da geschieht, kann man vergleichen, aber es ist ein grober Vergleich, mit der Entstehung der Chladnischen Klangfiguren. Also Platten, die mit Staub belegt sind, werden an einem Punkt befestigt, mit dem Violinbogen in bestimmter Weise gestrichen, dann gestaltet sich dieser Staub in gewisse Formen, je nachdem man den Bogen ansetzt. Da werden aus den Gestaltungskräften, die man in der Luft hervorruft, die Staubfiguren gebildet. So werden aus den allgemeinen Gestaltungskräften der Luft die inneren Organe des Menschen gebildet. Die sind herausgebildet aus den Gestaltungskräften der Luft. Die Lunge ist tatsächlich aus den Atmungskräften gebildet, aber ebenso die andern Organe. Nur sind es die andern Organe mehr oder weniger auf Umwegen, während die Lunge direkt gebildet ist. Aber dies, was da vorliegt, daß die Organe des Menschen herausgebildet werden aus den sich gestaltenden Schwingungen der Luft, das ist nur durch Inspiration zu begreifen. Das, was sich herausgestaltet aus dem Luftförmigen, eben Geformtes, das ist in der Auffassung gleich dem Musikalischen, wie den Klangfiguren auch ein Musikalisches zugrunde liegt.
Es ist so vieles grundfalsch, was in unserer heutigen Physiologie vorhanden ist, daß man sich manchmal geniert, das Richtige zu sagen, wenn es sich so grotesk unterscheidet von dem, was man behauptet. Wenn der Mensch hört, so sind alle seine Organe in Mitschwingung mit den Schwingungen der Luft, nicht etwa nur die inneren Hörorgane. Der ganze Mensch schwingt mit, wenn auch leise, und das Ohr ist nicht deshalb Hörorgan, weil es schwingt, sondern weil es das, was im übrigen Organismus ist, durch seine innere Organisation zum Bewußtsein bringt. Es ist das ein großer, aber auch ein feiner Unterschied, ob man sagt, der Mensch hört durch das Ohr, oder der Mensch bringt sich durch das Ohr das Gehörte zum Bewußtsein. Denn der Mensch ist aus dem Ton heraus, wenn auch nicht aus dem gehörten 'Ione, auferbaut, so daß man sagen muß: die Inspiration ergreift die menschlichen Innenorgane. Die Organisation der menschlichen Innenorgane, des luftförmigen Menschen, muß durch Inspiration erkannt werden. Sehen Sie, es ist gar kein Wunder, daß schon im grauen Altertum das eigentliche Begreifen der menschlichen Organe verlorengegangen ist, weil die Inspiration verlorengegangen ist, weil die Inspiration der einzige Weg ist, durch den man die inneren Organe verstehen kann; sonst kann man diese nur von der Leiche abzeichnen, aber verstehen kann man sie nicht.
Nun, so sehen Sie, daß eigentlich der ganze menschliche Organismus im Hintergrunde der physischen Welt lebt. Wenn wir reden in der Form, wie ich es getan habe in meinem Buche «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?», dann haben die Menschen immer die Vorstellung: hier ist die physische Welt, und dahinter ist die geistige Welt stufenweise. In die nächste geistige Welt kommt man durch Imagination, in eine weitere geistige Welt durch Inspiration, in eine weitere durch Intuition. Aber davon machen sich die Leute keine Vorstellung, daß von all dem, was im Menschen ist, nur das Knochensystem von den Elementargeistern aufgebaut wird, während das Muskelsystem aufgebaut wird von geistigen Wesenheiten einer höheren Hierarchie. Das muß man jetzt erkennen. Man muß mit der Imagination zu diesen Wesenheiten gehen können, wenn man das Muskelsystem ergreifen will. Ebenso muß man mit der Inspiration zu noch höheren geistigen Wesenheiten gehen, wenn man die inneren Organe begreifen will. Dadurch, daß Sie ein Skelett aufrichten, schauen Sie nur so aus, als wenn Sie den Formen angepaßt wären. Ein Skelett aber, seiner inneren Bildung nach, ist durchaus nur auf inspirativem Wege zu erforschen.
Das, was ich sagen will, das müssen Sie so ansehen: Nicht wahr, eine Pflanze untersucht der heutige Naturdenker, Naturforscher, indem er dasjenige, was sich ihm darbietet, was er erreichen kann als Substantielles, analysiert, überhaupt nach den gewöhnlichen Methoden untersucht, die man heute hat. Aber sehen Sie, das ist ja gar nicht die Pflanze. Die Pflanze ist so aufgebaut, wie ich es gestern gesagt habe. Sie ist aus dem Kosmos heraus gebaut, und nur die Wurzel ist aus irdischen Kräften aufgebaut. Die ganze Form der Pflanze ist geistige Wirklichkeit, ist übersinnliche Wirklichkeit; nur ist das Übersinnliche ausgefüllt mit Materie. Und derjenige, der bloß diese physische Materie untersucht bei der Pflanze — ja, der gleicht einem Menschen, der eine Schrift vor sich hat, die naß ist, die er mit Streusand bedeckt hat, und dann glaubt, daß der Streusand das Wesentliche an der Schrift sei. Man geht heute so vor, indem man die Pflanze untersucht, wie der vorgeht, der eine Schrift vor sich hat, sie als noch zu feucht mit Streusand bedeckt. Der Streusand ist überall drauf, den kratzt er ab und sagt: Ich untersuche den Streusand, ich lese das, was geschrieben steht, aus dem Streusand ab. - So ungefähr will man eine Pflanze erklären, während sie in Wirklichkeit ein geistiges Wesen ist, das nur ausgefüllt ist innerhalb seines Raumes mit physischer Substanz. Und so ist es, daß auch die menschlichen Organsysteme nur mit physischen Substanzen ausgefüllt sind. In Wirklichkeit ist physisch nur das Knochensystem, ätherisch das Muskelsystem, astralisch das Organsystem. Und steigen wir auf zur wahren Intuition, dann kommen wir zum Wärmemenschen, zu der Organisation, die innerlich differenzierter Wärmeraum ist. Ich habe nun das gesagt, daf® man in der Wärme ja wirklich drinnen sich erlebt, daß man nicht ebenso wie dem Kohlenstoff, dem Stickstoff der Wärme gegenübersteht, sondern die Wärme ist da, die Wärme ist in einem, und man ist in der Wärme, indem man Wärme erlebt. Sie ist gerade dasjenige, was am intensivsten erlebt wird. Deshalb kann der heutige Mensch nicht leugnen, daß er Wärme erlebt, während er keine Ahnung davon hat, daß er Luft, Wasser, Erde erlebt. Er hat keine Ahnung davon, weil er da herausgewachsen ist. Aber das Erleben der Wärme ist eben unmittelbar die Anwendung der Intuition auf den menschlichen Organismus, nur muß man jetzt nicht bloß im Groben, wie man das für den 'Tagesgebrauch nötig hat, sondern in Differenzierung die Wärme erleben, die sehr fein ausdifferenziert ist in den Formen der Organe selber. Wenn man durch Intuition diesen Wärmeorganismus durch den ganzen Körper betrachten kann, kommt man durch diese Erkenntnisart zum Verstehen nun nicht der inneren Organe, sondern der Tätigkeit der inneren Organe. Die ganze Tätigkeit der inneren Organe muß begriffen werden durch Verstehen der Organisation im Wärmeäther. Alles übrige ist durchaus ungeeignet, ein Verständnis der Tätigkeit der Organe zu bringen. Die Anschauung, die intuitive Anschauung der Tätigkeit des Wärmeäthers, also der Wärmemensch, der ist es, der durch Intuition erkannt werden muß. Das heißt mit andern Worten, es genügt nicht, daß man bloß die Meinung habe, da ist physische Welt, man eignet sich Imagination, Inspiration, Intui tion an, um in andere Welten zu kommen. Die andern Welten sind da. Die ätherische Welt ist dadurch da, daß der Mensch ein Muskelsystem hat, die astralische Welt ist dadurch da, daß der Mensch ein Organsystem hat, und die devachanische Welt, die Geisteswelt ist dadurch da, daß der Wärmemensch da ist. Das Geistige geht fortwährend unter uns herum. Es ist da. Der Mensch ist ja ein Geist, er ist nur angefüllt mit physischer Substanz, dieser Geist. Daher geben wir uns der Illusion hin, daß der Mensch ein physisches Wesen ist. Der Mensch ist sogar Geist in sich, der durch seine Wärmeorganisation sogar hinaufreicht in die höchste Welt, die noch erreicht werden kann. Daher ist es so komisch, wenn Spiritisten zu acht bis zehn um einen Tisch sitzen und Geister anrufen, die viel, viel untergeordneter sind als die acht bis zehn, die um den Tisch herumsitzen, die nur nichts wissen davon, daß sie Geist sind. Das ist dasjenige, was man sich tief, tief, meine lieben Freunde, ins Gemüt führen muß, dann kann man aufsteigen.
Gedanke: Knochensystem = fester erdig Mensch
Imagination: Muskelsystem = flüssiger wäßrig Mensch
Inspiration: Innenorgane = luftförmiger Mensch
Intuition: Tätigkeit der Innenorgane = Wärme-Mensch
Sehen Sie, hat man durch Intuition die Tätigkeit, diese wunderbare Tätigkeit innerhalb der gesamten menschlichen Organisation von Organ zu Organ ergriffen, was sich alles abspielt im Wärmeäther, so kommt man eigentlich zu zwei Wärmearten. Nämlich der Wärmeäther ist ein ganz besonderes Element. Wenn Sie irgendeinen Vorgang haben, der im Wärmeäther eine Veränderung hervorruft, so entsteht immer eine Gegenwirkung. Wärmeströmungen sind eigentlich immer so, daß sie einander entgegenströmen, Aktion und Reaktion. Der Wärmeäther ist in sich selber differenziert. Es ist immer eine gröbere Äthersubstanz da, der eine feinere Äthersubstanz entgegensteht. Dadurch aber nur ist es möglich, daß solche Erscheinungen auftreten, die wir uns zunächst an einer groben Erscheinung klarmachen können. Denken Sie sich, Sie seien zunächst in einem wohltemperierten Zimmer, das schön warm ist; es ist angenehm. Sie machen es heißer, so sehr, daß Sie es nicht mehr aushalten können. Das ist nicht bloß ein physischer Zustand, das ist auch ein seelischer Zustand. Die eine Wärme, die feinere Wärme, die erlebt insbesondere die Seele. Wir erleben eigentlich die Wärme immer zweifach: die Wärme, die wir seelisch erleben, und die Wärme, in der wir leben, die außerhalb unserer Seele ist; die Wärme, die in unserem Wärmeorganismus ist, und die Wärme, die draußen ist. Wir können sagen, es gibt eine physische Wärme und eine seelische Wärme.
Gehen wir aber zu den inneren Organen, zum luftförmigen Menschen, der durch Inspiration erkannt wird, da haben wir das Luftförmige in seiner Hauptgestalt zunächst. Aber in diesem Luftförmigen wirkt — nicht wie die feinere Wärme in der Wärme selber noch wirkt -, in der Luftgestaltung wirkt das Licht, so daß Sie sagen können: Für die Intuition wird Wärme in Wärme klar, es bleibt Wärme noch Wärme, indem sie in ihrem eigenen Element sich differenziert. Aber so ist es nicht bei der Luft. Die wirkliche Luft ist nicht die phantastische Luft der Physiker, die unsere Erde umgibt wie eine andere Haut; die gibt es nicht. Die wirkliche Luft ist ohne irgendeinen Lichtzustand — denn Finsternis ist auch ein Lichtzustand — nicht denkbar, so daß Luft und Licht eine zusammengehörige Differenzierung sind, daß also in allem Luftorganismus Licht mitorganisierend ist. Jetzt kommen Sie noch mehr ins Seelische hinein. Es gibt nicht nur äußeres Licht, sondern auch metamorphosiertes inneres Licht, das den ganzen Menschen durchdringt, das in ihm lebt. Mit der Luft lebt das Licht in ihm.
Und ebenso lebt mit dem Wasser, mit dem flüssigen Element der Chemismus in Ihnen. Da leben die chemischen Kräfte. Wasser als physisches Wasser vorgestellt, also das Wasser der Physiker, ist Phantasterei. In dem Augenblick, wo Wasser irgendwo organisierend auftritt, tritt es nicht auf ohne den Chemismus. Das Flüssige im Menschen sich ohne den Chemismus vorstellen, heißt ebenso viel wie einen menschlichen Organismus ohne Kopf sich vorstellen. Man kann es sogar zeichnen, kann sogar alles Seelische eliminieren, aber es ist keine Realität mehr da. Schneiden Sie von Ihrem Körper den Kopf ab, so kann er nicht mehr leben; er bleibt kein Organismus. Ebenso ist das Flüssige im Menschen nicht dasjenige, was der Physiker phantastisch als Wasser schildert, sondern wie der menschliche Organismus mit dem Kopfe durch und durch ein Ganzes bildet, so ist an dieses Flüssige der Chemismus, ist überall der Chemismus gebunden. Tafel 7
Und das Feste oder Erdige im menschlichen Organismus, das ist überhaupt nur im Status nascendi vorhanden, wie auch Wasser im Menschen nur so vorhanden ist; es verwandelt sich gleich. Das Erdige ist im Menschen nur vorhanden, indem es zu gleicher Zeit gebunden ist an das Leben.
Erdige: Leben
Wasser: Chemismus
Luft: Licht
Wärme in WärmePhysischer Leib: Ätherischer Leib
Und jetzt sehen Sie, machen Sie hier einen - senkrechten - Strich, so haben Sie hier den physischen Leib, und hier den dazugehörigen Ätherleib. Aber die sind nun ein Ganzes, sind gewissermaßen nur eines, von zwei Seiten aus gesehen. Sie haben die Ätherzustände Wärme, Licht, Chemismus, Leben und haben die physischen Zustände Wärme, Luft, Wasser, Erde. Nun, wenn wir abstrakt die Ätherzustände schilderten, sähen wir zunächst hin auf den Wärmeäther, wenn wir vom Flüssigen, Festen und so weiter ausgingen, als auf den niedersten Äther; der höchste Äther wäre der Lebensäther. Wenn wir aber den Menschen schildern, müssen wir so vorgehen, daß die Intuition den Wärmemenschen kennenlernt, die innere Tätigkeit der Organe. Indem wir zum Gröbsten hinuntersteigen, von der Wärme zum Erdigen im physischen Organismus, so steigen wir im Ätherleib von der Wärme in das Leben hinauf. Was heißt das? Denken Sie nur, was darin liegt: der Mensch kehrt eigentlich die Qualitäten des Menschen um. Er wendet den Wärmeäther nur auf den Wärmeorganismus, den Lichtäther auf den Luftorganismus, den chemischen Äther auf den flüssigen Organismus, den Lebensäther auf seine feste Organisation an. Wenn Sie nun so etwas wirklich erfassen, dann können Sie nicht so denken, wie man gewöhnlich denkt. Wenn Sie dabei stehenbleiben wollen, so zu denken, wie man gewöhnlich denkt, können Sie eigentlich nur den Knochenmenschen erfassen, den Erdenmenschen. Sie haben nötig, von dem gewöhnlichen Denken zu einem solchen Erfassen der Welt überzugehen, das Sie innerlich wirklich ergreift, wie ich schon einmal gesagt habe.
Und sehen Sie, damit hängt es dann zusammen, meine lieben Freunde, daß letzten Endes das Arztwissen schon eine gewisse Eigentümlichkeit hat. Nicht wahr, in den alten Mysterien, wo man überhaupt gewisse Einsichten hatte über die Behandlung des Menschen, war das Arztwissen ein hervorragendes Glied des Mysterienwesens. Überhaupt, die Ärzte sind in den Mysterien ausgebildet worden und waren nicht bloß Ärzte, sondern auch zu gleicher Zeit Weise, die die religiösen Kulte versorgt haben. Da war es verhältnismäßig selbstverständlich, daß der Arzt sein Wissen, wie überhaupt das Mysterienwissen, in einem gewissen Sinne sekretiert hat, geheimgehalten hat. Denn sehen Sie, wenn man etwas wissen will, so muß man ja dieses Wissen in Gedanken kleiden, sonst würde man im Unbestimmten schweben. Man muß also auch das Bildwissen in der Imagination, das geistig gehörte wie das intuitiv geschaute Wissen, in Gedanken kleiden. Nun, die Gedanken, sie sind wie die Gedanken der heutigen Anthroposophie so, daß die Leute sagen, man spreche sich in schlechtem Stil aus. — Das war den Leuten klar, man muß das medizinische Wissen in Gedanken verwandeln. Dadurch, daß man das medizinische Wissen in Gedanken verwandelt, dadurch nimmt man ihm, wenn es therapeutisches Wissen wird, etwas von seiner Wirksamkeit. Damit berühre ich etwas, was mit tiefen Dingen zusammenhängt. Es ist nicht zu leugnen, daß das Wissen um Heilmittel den Heilmitteln in einem gewissen Sinne ihre Kraft nimmt und daß es notwendig ist für den ernst zu nehmenden Arzt, eigentlich für sich selber auf diejenigen therapeutischen Mittel, die er bei seinen Patienten anwendet, in ihrer Wirksamkeit mehr oder weniger zu verzichten und für sich selber andere Arten der Heilung zu beobachten. Bitte, überlegen Sie sich, was mit diesem Satz gesagt ist, so werden Sie darauf kommen, daß in noch viel tieferem Sinne, als das bisher gesagt worden ist, der Arzt die persönliche Stimmung der Hilfeleistung entwickeln muß. Für diejenigen Dinge, die er bei seinen Patienten anwendet, muß er eigentlich verzichten auf die Heilkräfte bei sich selber. Wenn man nur grob den chemischen Kräften zuschreibt die Wirksamkeit der Heilmittel, wenn man glaubt, die Heilmittel wirken so wie der Dampf in der Lokomotive, dann ist man solchen geistigen Gesetzen nicht unterworfen. Wenn man aber sieht, wie der Mensch in das Geistige hineinragt, wird man keinen Moment zweifeln, daß geistige Gesetze dem zugrunde liegen, was in den verschiedenen Arzneien speziell für den Menschen zugrunde liegt. Medizin ist im höchsten Grade, wenn sie in ihrer eigentlichen Eigenart erfaßt wird, das wunderbarste Mittel der Erziehung zur Selbstlosigkeit. Daher ist es schon in einem gewissen Sinne ein grobes, ein kolossal grobes Mißverständnis, wenn man heute immer verlangt, die gesamte Therapie solle so gelehrt werden wie die Mechanik oder so etwas. Es ist ja schließlich bei der Mechanik auch so, daß wir sie anwenden können auf den Menschen, aber das gilt dann für die ganze Menschheit. Beim Arzt ist alles individuell, und wenn ein wirklich durchdringendes Wissen von irgendeinem Heilmittel vorliegt, so liegt bis zu einem hohen Grade für den Arzt die Notwendigkeit vor, bei sich selbst auf die Heilung durch dieses Mittel zu verzichten. Das ist die große Erziehung zur Selbstlosigkeit. Ich werde noch Andeutungen machen, wie der Arzt sich dennoch helfen kann. Aber was solchen Tatsachen zugrunde liegt, das sollte in Ihrem Herzen aufgehen. Wenn Sie solche Dinge ernst nehmen, wie diejenigen sind, die ich heute zuletzt gesagt habe, dann stellt sich einfach durch Weltgesetze die Notwendigkeit ein, in der Medizin nicht den Egoismus, sondern den Altruismus einzuführen. Er liegt schon im Duktus; und Altruismus, Selbstlosigkeit ist das Grundelement der Medizin. Medizinische Moral ist nicht etwas bloß Erfundenes, sondern folgt aus den ureigensten Gesetzen des Himmels, aus Gesetzen, die der Kosmos gebildet hat, um aus seiner Gesetzmäßigkeit heraus Heilmittel zu formen.
Je ernster eine solche Mitteilung stimmt, desto mehr wird sie beitragen können zur Erfassung des eigentlichen Grundnerves der Heilmittel überhaupt.
Sixth Lecture
My dear friends!
For reasons I do not wish to discuss now, I will give the more esoteric lecture I had planned for today at the end of this course.
Today I would like to talk to you about something else. If you remember what was said yesterday, you may be somewhat surprised to learn that, in order to approach reality, one must see beyond the appearances of the solid, earthly, and mental, and see, for example, beyond the airy courage. Now it is indeed of a certain, I would say, medical-historical significance that one should properly direct one's attention to how the solid, the earthly, that is, what stands in contours before our perception, how the solid, the earthly is to be connected with thought, with the thought-like, for this leads one directly to say: Thought should not be linked to the fluid, that is, to what is present in the human organism as the circulation of juices or other circulation; thought should not be seen as the force behind it, any more than in the airy or the warm. We have seen how to deal with the airy and the warm in the cosmos. But in human beings, everything, everything is present in a special way. In human beings, it is the case that only that which appears in contours, that which, even if it is soft, let us say coarse or trivial, nevertheless has the character of the solid through its contouring, that only that can actually enter into the mind, and that the fluid, of which we have spoken, so that when one is simply confronted with the ordinary physical plane and wants to grasp the spiritual behind it, one must realize that one must see behind the fluid what corresponds to feeling.
Thus, one must still see the sensuous in the human organism in a special way, for in the ordinary sense, when one speaks of the sensuous, the subjective sensation that the human being has through his or her soul-body constitution is at work. But in human beings, sensation is not only what is experienced directly; in human beings, sensation is constructive, and since the fluid body, as a formation of the general cosmic fluid, already contains the sensory as its essence, one must be clear that what is effective in the fluid body, this etheric impulse, must also be grasped through knowledge, but that it cannot be grasped in the same way as one grasps anything outside of the human being, because in the human organism everything that we encounter as substances or processes becomes different in relation to the human environment. And so it is a matter of recognizing that at the moment when the fluid organism begins, when one is dealing with a part of the human organization that is in fluid circulation, even if vascular organs or something else is incorporated into the path of this circulation, all the powers of cognition that apply to what is outside of man in the physical world are no longer suitable for recognizing the matter.
That is why, you see, medicine, as the last link in the human organism, has lost sight of the fluid human being. It can be said that until the mid-1840s, medicine still had at least some idea of the fluid human being. People talked about humors, about the circulation of fluids, about the mixing and separation of fluids. Not only did they have cellular physiology and pathology, but they also had a real understanding of the mixing and separation of fluids. Of course, in the 19th century, all of this was tradition. But this tradition went back to times before the 16th and 15th centuries, when people not only had tradition, but also knowledge, knowledge of the kind that we in anthroposophy today should attain, or rather re-attain, in our imagination. That era had an imaginative character, but it was instinctive imagination. And people knew that the human organism could not be understood simply through sensory observation and reflection. Thoughts and sensory observation reveal only the clearly contoured parts of the organism; everything that is in the circulation of fluids, in the liquid human being, must be understood through imagination. It is therefore not surprising that the perception of this fluid human being has been lost, because the old instinctive imagination has been lost. This perception will only return when imaginations are regained in a fully conscious way. Let us summarize what we have been talking about and what must be in prospect for knowledge.
You see, as the bone skeleton builds itself up out of the whole human organism, I would like to say, as the human being crystallizes into the skeleton — it is not a good expression that I am using, but you will understand it — as the human being crystallizes into the skeleton, world thoughts wove themselves into it. And the strictly limited organs are also strictly limited in that they — we will learn about their actual powers in a moment — are subject to the same forces as the bone structure, so that one can say: Only the bone structure is thought-like in the physical sense, and the other organs, which have fixed boundaries, are thought-like structures arising out of the etheric. But in having fixed contours, they are thoughtfully constructed, and what you have today from physiology and pathology in relation to the form of the human organism is subject to the thoughtful. But that is only one link in the human organization, and it must fall out of the human organization if one does not ascend to imagination. Imagination then leads up to the fluidic human being and to the way in which muscle is formed from fluid and the human being shoots into the muscle. This peculiar combination of the seemingly solid muscle, which only appears to be solid, and the blood, where one already moves from the bony to the blood-like, requires the use of imagination in order to recognize the human being, so that one can say: The thought, which is naturally supported by sensory perception, actually only reaches the skeletal system, and everything else that can be said about the human being through thought, apart from the skeletal system, is fantasy. One must ascend from thinking to imagination. And when one ascends to imagination, one comes to the fluid human being and to how the fluid human being actually shoots into the muscular system. And understanding muscles in their essence is only possible through imagination. Why?
Yes, you see, when you apply thought, you must also apply the laws to which the thought applies, that is, the mechanical laws. You must apply statics and dynamics. You can only do that with the skeletal system. But try applying statics and dynamics to the muscular system, try to calculate from some kind of statics why you are able to bite into a cherry pit or even a peach pit. Try to calculate that. Try to conduct an experiment to determine how much weight is necessary to crush a cherry pit—simply by placing a weight on it. You bite it, perhaps not all of us, but there are some who can also bite peach pits. Calculate whether, according to the laws of mechanics, a muscle can achieve this, crushing cherry pits. You will never come close to the muscular system with what the mind provides. You cannot. Mechanics becomes nonsense the moment you approach the muscle, and you must now be able to move on to a realization that also leaves behind the laws of mechanics, which thus comprehends the whole image of the muscle through imagination, in which ordinary gravity does not exist at all. For the moment you enter the fluid, you are dealing with nothing but buoyancy, and you do the things you do with your etheric body, not at all with the weight ratios, but with what largely overcomes the weight ratios, so that you will already understand from this: The moment you approach the muscular system, you have to apply a completely different kind of knowledge, namely imagination, so that you can say — only representatively, there are transitions everywhere — that the muscular system is understood through imagination. And no one understands the muscular system at all who does not, in a sense, conceive of it as an image that did not arise in the same way as the skeletal system, but was formed, as it were, by the coagulation of blood. Of course, this is just as clumsy an expression as if I said crystallized into the skeletal system, but comparatively speaking, it is still correct. Now consider, if you have any bone, such as the ulna or radius or upper arm, and you apply the laws of leverage to it: yes, the bones will patiently tolerate this. But consider that while you can understand quite well with the laws of leverage and other mechanical laws what is happening with the radius or the upper arm, consider whether you will also be able to understand what is happening with any muscle. There, the images must take on a soft structure, they must transform. That is precisely the essence of imagination, that it can yield everywhere and that it encompasses what its metamorphosis means in terms of substance. The muscle has this; the muscle lives in its metamorphosis. The bone patiently accepts the mechanical laws, but the muscle does not. It is as mobile as the metamorphic images — images, not thoughts — that we have in our imagination in order to follow them in our inner mobility. And you see, with this we are standing with the solid human being in the bone system, with the solid, earthy human being. We are standing with the muscular system, with the fluid human being, the watery human being.
When we now ascend from imagination to inspiration, we arrive at the airy human being, at that which is airy in the human being. And as we approach inspiration, we arrive at a way of perceiving that is very similar to hearing musical tones, harmonies, melodies, very similar to musical hearing. Inspiration no longer has anything to do with something conceptual, but with something that is also musical in its conception. The musical does not always have to be heard; it can also be felt, because it is spiritual. But basically, all inspiration has something musical about it. Now, what is peculiar here is that the form of the human internal organs, the organs that actually take care of the developing organization during life in terms of nutrition, respiration, and so on, that is, the organs that underlie all this, cannot be explained by any mechanical laws. But they cannot even be explained imaginatively. It is simply absurd, nonsense, to try to explain the form of the lung organ or the liver organ, for example, solely on the basis of the position of the cells or the weight ratios. Try to find out whether anyone has ever succeeded in explaining the shape of the liver or lungs as a form. No one has succeeded. For these organs, which nourish the developing life during its earthly existence, are nevertheless present in their rudiments at a very early stage, even if they are very strongly metamorphosed. They all emerge from the formative forces of the airy. Today's scientific man says: Air is oxygen, nitrogen, and a few other things, and it is a more or less uniform, only differentiated by internal mechanical movement, which manifests itself in the wind, air-like substance. But such air, as physicists describe it today, does not exist; there is only the concrete air that surrounds our earth. But, my dear friends, the air that surrounds our earth is permeated everywhere by pure formative forces. We breathe in these formative forces with the physical substance of the air. When our organs are fully developed, when we have fully developed lungs, the formative forces that we inhale with the substance of the air coincide, so to speak, with the form of the lungs, so that after we are born they no longer have any great significance, except for growth. But during the embryonic period, during physical separation from the outside air, the formative forces of the air first work through the mother's body. They build up the lungs, just as all human organs are built up from them, with the exception of the muscles and bones. All the internal organs that sustain the developing life are built up from the formative forces of the air. What happens there can be compared, but it is a rough comparison, to the formation of Chladni's sound figures. Plates covered with dust are attached at one point and stroked in a certain way with a violin bow, then this dust forms certain shapes depending on how the bow is applied. The dust figures are formed from the formative forces that are evoked in the air. In the same way, the internal organs of the human being are formed from the general formative forces of the air. They are formed from the formative forces of the air. The lungs are indeed formed from the forces of respiration, but so are the other organs. Only the other organs are formed more or less indirectly, while the lungs are formed directly. But this fact, that the organs of the human being are formed from the shaping vibrations of the air, can only be understood through inspiration. What is formed from the air, what is shaped, is similar in concept to music, just as musical figures are also based on music.
So much of what is present in our current physiology is fundamentally wrong that one is sometimes embarrassed to say what is correct when it differs so grotesquely from what is claimed. When a human being hears, all of their organs resonate with the vibrations of the air, not just the internal hearing organs. The whole person resonates, albeit quietly, and the ear is not an organ of hearing because it vibrates, but because its internal organization brings to consciousness what is in the rest of the organism. There is a big but also a subtle difference between saying that humans hear through their ears and saying that humans bring what they hear to consciousness through their ears. For humans are built from sound, even if not from the heard 'Ione, so that one must say: inspiration seizes the human internal organs. The organization of the human internal organs, of the air-like human being, must be recognized through inspiration. You see, it is no wonder that even in ancient times the actual understanding of the human organs was lost, because inspiration was lost, because inspiration is the only way through which one can understand the internal organs; otherwise, one can only copy them from a corpse, but one cannot understand them.
Now, you see that the entire human organism actually lives in the background of the physical world. When we speak in the way I have done in my book “How to Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds,” people always have the idea that here is the physical world, and behind it is the spiritual world in stages. One enters the next spiritual world through imagination, another spiritual world through inspiration, and yet another through intuition. But people have no idea that of all that is in the human being, only the skeletal system is built by elemental spirits, while the muscular system is built by spiritual beings of a higher hierarchy. This must now be recognized. One must be able to go to these beings with the imagination if one wants to grasp the muscular system. Likewise, one must go to even higher spiritual beings with inspiration if one wants to understand the inner organs. By erecting a skeleton, you only appear to be adapted to the forms. But a skeleton, according to its inner formation, can only be explored through inspiration.
What I want to say must be understood in this way: Isn't it true that today's natural thinkers and natural scientists examine a plant by analyzing what is presented to them, what they can reach as substance, examining it according to the usual methods available today? But you see, that is not the plant at all. The plant is structured as I said yesterday. It is built from the cosmos, and only the root is built from earthly forces. The entire form of the plant is spiritual reality, is supersensible reality; only the supersensible is filled with matter. And those who merely examine this physical matter in the plant are like people who have a piece of writing in front of them that is wet, which they have covered with sand, and then believe that the sand is the essential part of the writing. Today, people examine plants in the same way as someone who has a piece of writing in front of them and covers it with sand because it is still too wet. The sand is everywhere, so they scrape it off and say: I am examining the sand, I am reading what is written from the sand. This is roughly how one wants to explain a plant, when in reality it is a spiritual being that is only filled with physical substance within its space. And so it is that the human organ systems are also only filled with physical substances. In reality, only the bone system is physical, the muscle system is etheric, and the organ system is astral. And if we ascend to true intuition, we come to the warm human being, to the organization that is an internally differentiated space of warmth. I have said this because in warmth one really experiences oneself inside, that one does not stand opposite warmth like carbon or nitrogen, but warmth is there, warmth is within one, and one is in warmth by experiencing warmth. It is precisely what is experienced most intensely. That is why people today cannot deny that they experience warmth, while they have no idea that they experience air, water, and earth. They have no idea because they have outgrown it. But the experience of warmth is precisely the direct application of intuition to the human organism, only now one must experience warmth not merely in a rough way, as is necessary for ‘everyday use’, but in a differentiated way, which is very finely differentiated in the forms of the organs themselves. If one can observe this warmth organism throughout the entire body through intuition, this type of knowledge leads to an understanding not of the internal organs, but of the activity of the internal organs. The entire activity of the internal organs must be grasped through an understanding of the organization in the warmth ether. Everything else is completely unsuitable for bringing about an understanding of the activity of the organs. The intuition, the intuitive perception of the activity of the warmth ether, that is, the warmth human being, is what must be recognized through intuition. In other words, it is not enough to merely believe that there is a physical world; one must acquire imagination, inspiration, and intuition in order to enter other worlds. The other worlds are there. The etheric world is there because human beings have a muscular system, the astral world is there because human beings have an organ system, and the devachanic world, the spiritual world, is there because the heat man is there. The spiritual constantly moves among us. It is there. Human beings are spirits, they are only filled with physical substance, this spirit. That is why we succumb to the illusion that human beings are physical beings. Human beings are even spirits in themselves, who, through their warmth organization, even reach up into the highest world that can still be reached. That is why it is so strange when spiritualists sit around a table in groups of eight to ten and call upon spirits who are much, much lower than the eight to ten sitting around the table, who are simply unaware that they are spirits. That is what you must take deep, deep into your hearts, my dear friends, then you can ascend.
Thought: Skeletal system = solid, earthy human being
Imagination: Muscular system = fluid, watery human being
Inspiration: Internal organs = airy human being
Intuition: Activity of the internal organs = warm human being
You see, if you use your intuition to grasp this wonderful activity within the entire human organization, from organ to organ, everything that takes place in the heat ether, you actually arrive at two types of heat. Namely, the heat ether is a very special element. If you have any process that causes a change in the heat ether, there is always a counteraction. Heat currents always flow towards each other, action and reaction. The heat ether is differentiated within itself. There is always a coarser ether substance, which is opposed by a finer ether substance. Only in this way is it possible for such phenomena to occur, which we can initially understand from a coarse phenomenon. Imagine that you are initially in a well-tempered room that is nice and warm; it is pleasant. You make it hotter, so much so that you can no longer bear it. This is not just a physical state, it is also a mental state. The one warmth, the finer warmth, is experienced in particular by the soul. We actually always experience warmth in two ways: the warmth we experience spiritually and the warmth in which we live, which is outside our soul; the warmth that is in our warmth organism and the warmth that is outside. We can say that there is physical warmth and spiritual warmth.
But if we turn to the inner organs, to the air-like human being, who is recognized through inspiration, we first have the air-like in its main form. But in this airy form — not like the finer warmth still works in warmth itself — light works in the airy form, so that you can say: for intuition, warmth becomes clear in warmth; warmth remains warmth by differentiating itself in its own element. But this is not the case with air. Real air is not the fantastical air of physicists, which surrounds our earth like a second skin; that does not exist. Real air is inconceivable without some kind of light state — for darkness is also a light state — so that air and light are a related differentiation, so that light is co-organizing in all air organisms. Now you are getting even more into the spiritual realm. There is not only external light, but also metamorphosed inner light that permeates the whole human being, that lives within him. With the air, the light lives within him.
And likewise, with water, with the liquid element, chemistry lives within you. That is where the chemical forces live. Water as physical water, i.e., the water of physicists, is fantasy. The moment water appears somewhere in an organizing capacity, it does not appear without chemistry. To imagine the liquid in human beings without chemistry is like imagining a human organism without a head. You can even draw it, you can even eliminate everything spiritual, but there is no longer any reality. If you cut off the head of your body, it can no longer live; it ceases to be an organism. Similarly, the liquid in humans is not what physicists fantastically describe as water, but just as the human organism forms a whole with the head, so too is this liquid bound to chemistry, chemistry is bound everywhere.
And the solid or earthy element in the human organism is only present in the status nascendi, just as water is only present in humans in this way; it transforms immediately. The earthy element is only present in humans insofar as it is simultaneously bound to life.
Earthy: Life
Water: Chemistry
Air: Light
Heat in heatPhysical body: Etheric body
And now you see, if you draw a vertical line here, you have the physical body here and the corresponding etheric body here. But they are now a whole, they are, in a sense, only one, seen from two sides. They have the etheric states of warmth, light, chemistry, life, and they have the physical states of warmth, air, water, earth. Now, if we were to describe the etheric states abstractly, we would first look at the warmth ether, if we started from the liquid, solid, and so on, as the lowest ether; the highest ether would be the life ether. But when we describe the human being, we must proceed in such a way that intuition gets to know the heat human being, the inner activity of the organs. As we descend to the coarsest, from heat to earthiness in the physical organism, we ascend in the etheric body from heat to life. What does that mean? Just think what this implies: the human being actually reverses the qualities of the human being. He applies the warmth ether only to the warmth organism, the light ether to the air organism, the chemical ether to the fluid organism, and the life ether to his solid organization. If you really grasp something like this, then you cannot think as people usually think. If you want to remain stuck in ordinary thinking, you can really only grasp the bone man, the earth man. You need to move from ordinary thinking to a way of grasping the world that truly moves you inwardly, as I have said before.
And you see, my dear friends, this is connected with the fact that, in the final analysis, medical knowledge has a certain peculiarity. Isn't it true that in the ancient mysteries, where people had certain insights into the treatment of human beings, medical knowledge was an outstanding part of the mystery system? In general, doctors were trained in the mysteries and were not only doctors, but also sages who took care of the religious cults. So it was relatively natural that the doctor kept his knowledge, like the knowledge of the mysteries in general, secret in a certain sense. For you see, if you want to know something, you have to clothe this knowledge in thoughts, otherwise you would float in uncertainty. So you also have to clothe the image knowledge in your imagination, which belongs to the spirit, like intuitively seen knowledge, in thoughts. Now, thoughts are like the thoughts of today's anthroposophy, in that people say you express yourself in poor style. — It was clear to people that medical knowledge must be transformed into thoughts. By transforming medical knowledge into thoughts, when it becomes therapeutic knowledge, it loses some of its effectiveness. This touches on something that is deeply connected. It cannot be denied that knowledge of remedies takes away their power in a certain sense and that it is necessary for the serious physician to more or less renounce the therapeutic remedies he uses on his patients and to observe other types of healing for himself. Please consider what is being said in this sentence, and you will come to realize that, in a much deeper sense than has been said so far, the physician must develop a personal attitude of helpfulness. For those things he uses on his patients, he must actually renounce the healing powers within himself. If one attributes the effectiveness of remedies solely to chemical forces, if one believes that remedies work like steam in a locomotive, then one is not subject to such spiritual laws. But when one sees how human beings reach into the spiritual realm, one will not doubt for a moment that spiritual laws underlie what is specific to human beings in the various medicines. When understood in its true nature, medicine is, in the highest degree, the most wonderful means of educating people in selflessness. Therefore, it is, in a certain sense, a gross, a colossally gross misunderstanding when people today always demand that the entire therapy should be taught like mechanics or something similar. After all, in mechanics, too, so that we can apply it to human beings, but that then applies to the whole of humanity. With the doctor, everything is individual, and if there is truly penetrating knowledge of any remedy, then to a high degree the doctor has the necessity of refraining from healing himself with this remedy. That is the great education in selflessness. I will make further suggestions as to how the doctor can nevertheless help himself. But what underlies such facts should sink into your heart. If you take such things seriously, as those I have just mentioned today, then the laws of the world simply dictate the necessity of introducing altruism rather than egoism into medicine. It is already inherent in the nature of the profession; and altruism, selflessness, is the fundamental element of medicine. Medical morality is not merely something invented, but follows from the most fundamental laws of heaven, from laws that the cosmos has formed in order to create remedies from its own laws.
The more serious such a message is, the more it will contribute to grasping the very essence of remedies in general.