Loosening the Etheric Body: Meditation and Spiritual Development

GA 266II — 20 December 1910, Berlin

Esoteric Lesson

The average person's physical body and etheric body are closely connected. When they use their physical body—whether it's raising their hand or thinking—they simultaneously set the corresponding part of their etheric body in motion. For esotericists, this should be different; the connection should be looser.

Human beings have a spine that is connected to the brain and the sense organs. When they meditate, they create a kind of “pre-spine” in their etheric body, which is the series of lotus flowers located behind the breastbone. (Human beings in the seventh post-Atlantean epoch will no longer have a breastbone.)

Through the above-mentioned loosening of the physical and etheric bodies, human beings are now able, on the one hand, to heal [their own] wounds more quickly and so on; on the other hand, infirmities of the physical body, which initially remained hidden due to the close connection, can now come to light. Without exaggerating, one should not pay particular attention to all these minor pains and sufferings; they will all pass. During the transition period of this loosening, one may feel very uncomfortable. Even the simple study of theosophy brings about this loosening, while scientific development strengthens the connection between the physical body and the etheric body even more.

Through meditation, the etheric body thus gains the tendency to detach itself from the physical body. This can be reinforced by a suitable diet. Conversely, the diet causes the physical body to tend to expel the etheric body from itself. It is an aid, but without additional esoteric exercises it has precisely the wrong effect. The physical body then expels the etheric body without it having developed any sense organs. It is then like a blind person and sees only its own fantasies.

As the human being's sheaths undergo this change, his connection with the macrocosm is also altered. This connection must be restored in the right way, otherwise disaster will ensue — not only for the individual, but for the entire universe. For example, anyone who utters the sacred, inexpressible name in an unsuitable company would summon up something worse than earthquakes and volcanic eruptions upon the area. There is therefore an enormous difference between how the Rosicrucian formula is pronounced, whether with the name, which is merely a pseudonym for the highest spiritual being, or without it. Only the latter way of pronouncing the formula is esoteric.