Where and How Does One Find the Spirit?

GA 57 — 18 February 1909, Berlin

The Invisible Elements of Human Nature and Practical Life

When discussing the practical significance of the invisible, especially the invisible in human nature, perhaps a comparison can illustrate what is meant. Practical people are those who direct their gaze and their perception toward the supersensible perception of existence, while impractical people are those who want to remain stuck with the merely external, the merely physical. Is the person who has before them a horseshoe-shaped piece of iron that has been made into a magnet, and who then uses this thing for whatever purpose it seems useful for based on its outward appearance, truly a practical person? Or is such a person not to be called impractical in the true sense of the word, and practical only the one who says to himself: In this piece of iron there is something that makes it possible for me to use it in a much higher, nobler way than mere sensory perception would suggest. — Of course, this is only a comparison, for we must not compare the higher powers we are discussing today with any natural force. But only those who seek out the inner powers of things and can use things according to their true values are practical. In contrast to those who are guided by a certain practical sense, one could cite J. G. Fichte's words on the practical significance of ideals. Fichte attempted to explain the destiny of humankind in terms of high ideals. In the introduction to his lectures on “The Vocation of the Scholar,” he refrains from the outset from speaking as if someone who speaks from such high idealistic standpoints did not know what objections could be raised against them, namely that ideals cannot be directly represented in practical life. Those who establish these ideals know this perhaps better than their opponents. "We only claim that reality must be judged according to them and modified by those who feel the strength to do so. Even if they cannot convince themselves of this, they lose very little in the process, since they are what they are; and humanity loses nothing in the process. It merely becomes clear that they alone are not counted on in the plan for the ennoblement of humanity. Humanity will undoubtedly continue on its path; may benevolent nature rule over them and grant them rain and sunshine at the right time, wholesome food and undisturbed circulation of juices, and at the same time – wise thoughts!"

This can be pointed out especially today. Let us briefly consider the invisible members of human nature. Spiritual Science speaks of these invisible members of human nature, but not as something that is an appendage to the visible, but rather as the spiritual, the creative force behind the visible. An almost obvious example is the following: Everyone, even those who cannot look into the workshop of spiritual life, should keep reminding themselves so that they learn to believe that the supersensible is the basis of the sensible, of feelings of shame and fear. What are they? Undoubtedly, for those who do not think in a complicated way, they are soul experiences. We must say that something is there that threatens us; the soul feels threatened. This is expressed in feelings of fear and dread. Certainly, we could cite various physical mediations. That would be easy, of course, and the modern researcher would hardly be able to cite anything that the spiritual scientist did not already know. But what matters is that the blood is pushed back from the surface of the body to the center.

So we have a physical process as a result of a psychological one. The same is true of the feeling of shame. Here again we have a redistribution of blood, a change in circulation under the influence of a spiritual factor. What we see here on a small scale and what we can observe on a larger scale when tears flow from the eyes as a result of a sad event shows that the soul can be the cause of physical processes. Of course, under the influence of our not obvious but secret materialistic way of thinking, there are people today who also assert materialistic views here. I have already quoted here the saying of a certain worldview: One does not cry because one is sad, but one is sad because one cries. This saying actually originated from someone who thought idealistically, but it has been misinterpreted. These are fully developed materialistic ways of thinking. Anyone who has preserved a degree of sound thinking from the materialistic basis of our time will see in such obvious connections between physical facts and spiritual-soul facts something that can gradually lead them to understand that Spiritual Science must say from its point of view: Everything, everything material has a spiritual origin.

Thus, what we see in human beings, what we can grasp with our hands, is based on something spiritual, something soul-like, in which we do not see an influence of the physical, but rather the very foundation of the physical. We call the physical body that part of the human being which he has in common with all the beings surrounding him, which he has in common with the mineral world. The physical body of the human being is based on the etheric or life body, which is the next, superphysical, supersensible member of human nature. It is that which, throughout the whole of life, prevents the physical body of the human being from being a corpse, prevents it from following the laws of the physical alone. Plants and animals also have such an etheric body, an etheric body that can be accessed through thinking by those who think purely philosophically, but which is as real as the physical body for those who are clairvoyant. Spiritual thinking tends to resist viewing the human body as a machine, but there is no need to resist this view if one is not an “inner wagon-pusher of thought.” It is perfectly possible to say that the human body is a complicated mechanism if one wants to include physical and chemical aspects in the mechanistic view. But just as there must be a builder and maintainer behind every machine, so too here, and that is the etheric or life body, which is a faithful fighter against decay. Only in death does it separate from the physical body, and then the physical body follows its physical laws as a corpse. But then it is just a corpse. The etheric body is a more certain reality than the mere physical body.

If we continue to follow the human being, we come to another part of his essence, which every human being could already realize if he said to himself: Before me stands a human being, a physical body and an etheric body. Would there be nothing else in this human being than what can be seen from the outside, what physiology and so on reveal to us? Oh, there is something else, something quite different: the sum of feelings, sensations, desires and wishes, pains and sufferings, drives and passions. All this makes up the astral body. Now one might say: one cannot imagine that these things form a complete reality. But the spiritual scientist can ascertain this through the gift of clairvoyance. The astral body is there just as the physical body is there. But common sense could also tell us that something like an astral body must exist. Why might we say that? I will give you an example where you can, so to speak, grasp with your hands how the astral body actually works. There are people who say that when a human being enters the physical world, they are not yet as developed as they will be later. External science can determine that although the senses and the associated nerve organs are present in the brain, everything that connects the individual sense organs in the brain develops relatively late. One can literally follow how the connecting strands from the auditory to the visual sphere first develop, the nerve pathways that make humans thinkers. So, the materialist concludes, we see how the inner parts gradually develop and only then do they allow the world of sensations, mental images, sufferings, joys, thought complexes, and so on to flash into human consciousness. Let us consider this course of development of the human brain. The complicated trains of thought that solve the riddles of the world are gradually formed. Let us consider this. Are we able to call what is developing here a mere mechanism that builds itself? One can admire the miraculous construction just as one admires a clock. But it would be foolish to believe that the clock came into being by itself. Those who can do something can only develop what they are capable of doing. Someone who had the seconds, minutes, and laws of the clock within them first put them together; someone thought ahead what we ultimately think about. Is there nothing that connects these threads in the brain in such a way that you ultimately become a thinker? I believe that healthy thinking must recognize that for what is developing there must be a builder who connects the threads so that you can then become a thinker. We are only true to ourselves and our common sense when we say that an astral body must have built the physical brain. In the first weeks, months, and years of a child's life, the astral body first builds the tool that will later be able to solve the riddles of the world. Those who do not believe this are acting like someone who wants to use a machine but denies that there was a designer who built it. The time will come when sound judgment will prevail again in people, when they will say to themselves that the spiritual builder must be there first if something is to come into being. This builder is already there before the human being is born. The third member of the human being is this astral body, which again underlies the material.

The fourth member of the human being is the I, that which makes him the crown of creation. The human being shares the physical body with all minerals, the etheric body with all plants, and the astral body with animals. Through the I, he rises above the three natural kingdoms. That is why all religions have focused their attention on the fact that in languages, in the German language for example, there is only one name that differs from all others. There is one thing that can never be named from outside: that is what is within us as our innermost being. No name can reach us from outside if it means us ourselves. That is why in the ancient Hebrew religion the “I” was the unpronounceable name that was unpronounceable for all others.

These are the four lower members of human nature, only one of which is visible. The other three are something real, actual, indeed, the fundamental reasons for the real. Each member is the fundamental being and cause in its entire essence for the next lower body; the I-bearer for the astral body, the astral body for the etheric body, the etheric body for the physical body. Everything that is the actual I-experience, everything that human beings experience through being self-conscious beings, is expressed in the astral body. All ego experiences are imprinted here. This gives rise to everything that is temporary mental image, judgment, and feeling in human beings. What lives in the astral body is expressed and imprinted in the etheric or life body, and thus becomes something lasting, something that is not temporary but is preserved in a certain sense. Let us suppose we make a temporary judgment; we form a mental image of this or that. If we form a mental image again and again, it becomes a habitual mental image. By becoming a habitual mental image, it is imprinted in the etheric body. What lives in our memory, what we remember from day to day, lives in our etheric or life body. The fact that we play a piece of music on the piano lies in our astral body; the fact that we acquire the ability, the habit of playing, lies in the etheric body. All habits are in the etheric body or life body. When we make a moral judgment, this is again an act of the astral body. When a certain direction of judgment becomes ingrained in us through repeated judgment, the moral judgment becomes permanent, the conscience. Moral judgment is an experience of the astral body; conscience is an experience of the etheric or life body. Thus we see how, through the interaction of the higher members with the lower members, the whole of human life is built up from the inside out.

Insofar as human beings are merely natural beings, they initially share the etheric or life body with plants. What causes the sap to rise and fall in plants, what causes them to nourish themselves and reproduce, has the same effect in human beings. But this etheric or life body is imprinted from above with what we call habit, practice, or conscience. Thus, what is soul-spiritual is imprinted on human beings from above. The experiences of the higher members are transferred more and more to the lower members. Here we see how important it is for human beings to have an inkling that the higher members must work into the denser members. It is thus placed in human hands to work into the lower members in a healthy, practical way.

Human beings can spoil what nature has given them. Just as a plant could only become deformed if the etheric or life body did not regulate what is going on, so human beings develop an inner deformity if they work incorrectly from within, from the ego, on the lower members. The astral body must be permeated in a healthy way by the experiences of the ego. Those who do not want to admit that an astral body is at work in the development of the child's brain will also not realize how important it is for the ego to act correctly on the astral body. But those who understand this will say to themselves: You can continue where nature has left off. If you allow the whole range of sensations to run their course in a healthy way, this will continue to affect your physical body, your brain, and in this way you will build up your physical body throughout your whole life.

How many people today walk around with what is called writer's cramp! The whole marvelous structure of the human body is constructed in a wonderful way. Through everything he does, man adapts his hand to the outside world. This interaction of the hand with the outside world detaches itself from him in a certain way if he is unable to permeate his hand with his inner life. It is a similar process to having artificial teeth fitted. The essential thing is that we have infused and energized everything we can preserve as our own with our ego. You only get shaky hands when, to a certain extent, your hands detach themselves from the rest of your body. These are things that will be taken into account again in the not-too-distant future, and then people will understand what it means to grasp the human being in his spirit again.

I will illustrate this with an example. Let's stay in our field! It will become apparent how what takes place in the spirit actually seizes people and makes them suitable or unsuitable for life, practical or impractical. Let us take a person who is impractical for life because he suffers from certain feelings of fear, which cause nervousness. This word already suggests the whole sum of impracticality. Anyone who is not completely in control of themselves in any way is characterized as nervous, or the catchphrase “hereditary burden” is used when something is missing or present that makes a person impractical for practical life. All these things do not stem from careful observation of the real facts, but because, under the influence of materialistic thinking, one has no sense of pursuing the spiritual, the finer things. It is important to observe whether, in the early stages of life, when the invisible works so intensively on the visible, everything is proceeding correctly and is not being disturbed. What is neglected here cannot be made up for later. If anything is not finely chiseled out, the most diverse inconsistencies arise throughout life. The person who is unable to allow harmonizing experiences to rise and fall in the astral body will always render themselves unfit for life in a certain way. Instead of searching for hereditary predispositions in feelings of fear and anxiety, we should rather look for how this or that experience has formed something that has a hardening, woody effect on the physical body. It could be, for example, but this is not always the case, that a good part of what is called agoraphobia has been instilled in people by a very specific type of childhood upbringing. And they cannot escape this affliction because they later lack the means to turn it around. Let us imagine children who, throughout the year, only recognize all the festivities by being showered with gifts! They receive more than they can destroy. This undeserved influx of gifts paralyzes certain aspirations that would generate a healthy sense of self. Such a thing can lie dormant in people during the period when they are preoccupied with their external education or when a new profession takes up all their time; but it eventually emerges in the form of fear of failure.

Or we may find that when a person experiences certain states of incapacity, there is something in their soul that weighs heavily on them. They cannot express it, cannot admit it, and feel they must keep it secret. Because the person cannot find the words to express it, it takes hold of their lower limbs and continues to have an effect. How beneficial it is for a person to be able to confess something like this! Then they feel that it no longer weighs on their soul like a stone, and this feeling of relief has a healing effect. In this respect, confession is an important remedy. Religious communities have known this. Here we see how the invisible inner life of human beings affects the visible, so to speak, and even certain sensible physicians now recognize that incapacities for practical life cannot be cured by cold water cures, but that a kind of confession must be initiated, something must be released from the person if healing is to occur.

Now let us consider the other side of the coin. Today there are sensible doctors who say that one must turn to the soul of the human being if one wants to know how a person becomes unsuitable in a certain respect. These doctors know that joy and pleasure are remedies, that they have a healing effect, that they soften what has become rigid and ossified, bringing it back under our control. But that is not enough, just as it is not enough for someone to say that the hidden secret must be detached from the human soul. They do not know that everything that is an inner experience has its great significance, even if it appears distorted. Should we abolish everything mysterious in human nature because it has a distorted effect on some people? Should we, as is demanded here and there, turn doctors into confessors? It can also be infinitely healing for the soul when it is able to draw the veil of mystery over certain things. A Persian proverb says: The time spent in silent reflection before saying something saves you the time of regretting what you have said thoughtlessly! It was not for nothing that Goethe spoke of the “revealed mystery.” In everything sensory that surrounds us, we can see something mysterious, something that lies so deep within things that it cannot be expressed, but which also flows from soul to soul. And health spreads when people can feel the mystery of life in this way.

This mystery of life is cultivated especially through Spiritual Science. However, it does not make it easy for people to approach things. It is not so convenient to approach them. Spiritual Science can only stimulate, only say that this and that is there. Then people must approach themselves and must cooperate. It may be uncomfortable, but it is infinitely healthy. This stimulates the innermost member of the human being; Spiritual Science has a direct effect on the ego. When we hear about planetary evolution, when we are told what the invisible members of human nature are, what goes with human beings from life to life – all this appeals directly to the ego. All these great ideas, all these world-encompassing ideas do not remain dry ideas and abstractions. Warmth and bliss radiate from them, warmth and bliss permeate and surge through the astral body of the human being. Contentment and bliss emanate from what Spiritual Science offers. And what permeates and glows through the human being as warmth, as fire, continues into their life body. Everything that is the forces of the etheric body is permeated by the forces of Spiritual Science itself, and the etheric body in turn transmits these forces to the physical body, transmits them as dexterity, so that, for example, the hand becomes dexterous and practical when the great, sublime ideas of Spiritual Science pour into the physical body.

Spiritual Science makes the brain a supple, flexible tool, so that it can break free from prejudices. Spiritual Science has a powerful effect that reaches down into the physical body of the human being. People can be immersed in spiritual science right down to the practical tasks they perform. Let me give you an example. It is certainly useful to give children the opportunity to do gymnastics today. It is an extremely healthy exercise when done correctly. In my lecture on education, I already pointed out that it is important to remain aware that human beings are not just physical beings, but are also imbued with higher spiritual elements. One should be able to empathize completely with those who are exercising, in order to feel every movement of the etheric and astral bodies. I knew a gymnastics teacher who was a great theorist. He knew the physical body of the human being very well. He also had to give theoretical gymnastics lessons. What matters is not that one knows the physical body well, but that one experiences an increase in inner well-being with each exercise. One should experience purposefully what the individual exercise is supposed to be. Those who have a living feeling, not just an abstract mental image of the physical body, know that one can have a living feeling for everything the child experiences, for example when climbing a ladder. It is conceivable to have gymnastics that works so harmoniously in the interaction of the etheric and physical bodies that the best foundation is laid for a good memory in later life. Even what is visible can only be properly understood when it is understood from the perspective of Spiritual Science. Gymnastics would be the best remedy for declining memory in old age if gymnastics lessons were taught from the perspective of Spiritual Science.

Spiritual Science is not a theory, nor is it dogmatic, but rather something that imparts vitality to life. One day it will be recognized that only through Spiritual Science can human beings become true practitioners of life. Only those who can handle this life, who are not its slaves, are practitioners of life. Through their invisible limbs, human beings should always remain masters of their outer nature. Only by always being the leader of the physical can human beings become practitioners down to the last limb of their lives. The person who can understand what Fichte said, which is so often misunderstood, out of a true understanding of their limbs, is a practitioner of life. This will be the ideal of the human being when they again direct the visible from their invisible: “The human being can do what they should; and when they say, ‘I cannot,’ they do not want to.”