The Essence of Christianity

GA 68a — 23 October 1903, Weimar

4. The Essence of Man or The Spiritual Chemistry

I. Report in the “Weimarische Zeitung” of October 25, 1903

In the large hall of the “Erholung” last night, Dr. Steiner gave the first of the lectures announced for the winter semester on “The Nature of Man or Spiritual Chemistry”.

In the past, people were unable to exploit the forces of nature as comprehensively as we can today with our machines. Today, electrical power allows us to communicate with people across the earth, and in a short time we will probably be able to traverse the air as birds fly. But science has also been able to paint a bleak picture of the future of our material earthly life. It can calculate how long it will take for all life on our planet to have disappeared. Then all material culture will have passed away. Will everything that lives in our soul also disappear from the universe? What will become of the inner treasures we acquire? Will they also be buried in the general grave? The answer to these questions will come from the theosophical movement. The theosophical movement aims to bring about the brotherhood of man. And it will prove that what people have striven for in the field of spiritual life over thousands of years is not delusion and error. The theosophical movement is taking a path that corresponds to our time; but the theosophical works still contradict the thought habits of the present. And man allows himself to be ruled by his habits of thought. These habits have led us to a state where we trust only our senses. If our senses do not perceive it, it is not real. Theosophy, however, aims to offer the fruits of our material culture the nourishment of the spirit and soul, which our modern view of nature can only offer to a limited extent. The highest questions of the human soul are to be answered by theosophy. We must believe that we can penetrate into the essence of the soul just as the physicist and chemist penetrate into matter; the soul is a manifold being whose composition we must study more closely. There is a spiritual chemistry, just as there is a material chemistry. Through spiritual chemistry we get to know and solve the essence of the human being and his spiritual task. Truth and science are the two things we must combine in the realm of the inner human nature. The physical human being is not the whole human being. When the soul's abilities have left the physical body, it is impossible and disintegrates. The physical forces and substances of our body are constantly changing. Don't we have to ask ourselves: What is permanent about us? The universe is permeated by the power of life. The hypothesis that all life originated from a dead primeval nebula has been abandoned. This primeval nebula was a great organism, a living being. And from this great living being, the inanimate and the animate nature branched off in two directions.

Redner points out in the course of development the four basic parts that are mortal: The human body is mortal; the life force is mortal: it flows into the general world life force to be used again; our instincts are mortal; our astral body is mortal: it dissolves into a world of purely spiritual forces. What, the speaker asks, can we regard as immortal in the face of this? The causal body is immortal; it connects us with previous substances of existence. It is our true higher self and lies in turn in the bosom of a unified fundamental being. We reach this unified spiritual fundamental being when we seek out the still deeper forces in our soul life. And the seven fundamental parts mentioned — four mortal, three immortal — are the fundamental substances of the human being.

II. Report in «Germany» from October 25, 1903

Yesterday evening, Dr. Rudolf Steiner of Berlin opened the cycle of Theosophical lectures planned for this winter in the recreation hall with the topic: “The Essence of Man or Spiritual Chemistry”. The speaker based his introductory remarks on the following train of thought: the past century has allowed us to scale lofty heights in external culture, and our mastery of the forces of nature outside ourselves is so significant that earlier times would not have dreamt of it. At the same time, however, natural science presents us with a bleak picture for the future of our material life, a future that does not satisfy our inner selves. But it is a fact that for centuries and millennia people have been striving to solve the great mystery of the world, that the various religions intended to do so for their times. Based on the findings of modern science, theosophy now wants to strive to give humanity this innate satisfaction. Above all, we must delve into our own inner selves without prejudice and discard previous habits of thought. These are by no means decisive for the truth of our views, are often dependent on chance, change with the ages, and therefore it is not surprising if Theosophy encounters difficulties in this direction. Only gradually will the theosophical truths break new ground and then add themselves as glorious fruits to material culture. Just as present-day natural science demands full devotion and observation of nature, so it is necessary to delve into our inner nature and to explore our inner powers. Of course, one must believe that such an intimate science of the soul exists. Western science has only examined the physical human being, the physical entities, but has left the inner soul elements out of consideration. Our organism is in a state of constant change. Years ago, we consisted of completely different elements than we do today, and yet we are the same. The corpse is composed of the same atoms as the living body was an hour ago. Therefore, we are forced to assume that man, if he is merely physical, proves to be an impossible physical body. This would force us to the conclusion that we possess higher spiritual substances, for which the physical body is the carrier. This power is called “prana” in Sanskrit, the life force that flows through all living things and that we humans have in common with plants and animals. For a long time now, people have no longer held on to the Kant-Laplacean world theory, according to which life developed from a mere primeval nebula, and it is becoming increasingly clear that this primeval nebula must have been a living organism. This prana holds our inanimate substances together and, after death, returns to the general life of the world just as the physical components return to matter. The plant differs from animals and humans in that it lacks the great area that we call pleasure and pain. Why do we not observe passions in plants? It is because they lack the power. To trigger these feelings, we need a basic force of desire, of craving, which theosophy calls “kama”. It is illogical to see effects and not assume causes. Man differs from the animal in the power that allows him to control his instincts. The animal unconsciously follows its instincts, but man, by virtue of an inner power, is able to act according to his own judgment, and the power that makes this possible is called the lower soul intellect, the lower “Manas”. The kama-manasic powers are bound to our physical body, to the brain, and die with the brain for us. The next higher power is the higher “Manas”, that element within our spiritual and mental being that extends beyond all that is transitory. It lives in us from birth to death and beyond, in order to form new bodies again. Not once does a person live, but countless times. These changing durations, which make up our higher self, are called the causal or causative body in theosophy. When we consider this causal body, it provides the permanent element in the various incarnations. But even higher forces are included in the life of the soul, which can be recognized in the great cosmic love that flows through the whole world. Those who are imbued with these feelings cease to see themselves as individual beings and feel themselves to be a fundamental tone of the universe. The great founders of religions spoke from this element. The power that emanated from these men was able to continue to work, not because it took hold of the transitory, but because it flowed from the highest power of the soul. This is what Theosophy calls “Budhi”. When this power of the soul drives us, we feel what is laid down in the Indian books of wisdom. Every single being is only a drop in the eternal Atma, the basic substance of the human being, similar to the chemical substance of the elements. Just as we get to know a body when we break it down into its parts, so we can explain a person when we have recognized them in their parts. This is the doctrine of the basic components of the human being.

The rather large gathering received the lecture with approval.