Death and Immortality in the Light of Spiritual Science

GA 69d — 3 December 1910, Kassel

21. Human Souls and Animal Souls

[Beginning missing] Life depends on the brain, lungs, and heart, says Huxley. Sensibly, outwardly, he is right. He believes that the brain can be switched off and that the lungs and heart alone are sufficient for life. What a wonderful life! I believe that each of you would be grateful for such a life without a brain here in the physical world.

This is the case with many, many ideas that prevail in science today. Intelligent life is seen in animals, even in the lowest forms. From this, it has been concluded that humans are merely a continuation of the animal kingdom. But what does spiritual science say? One only has to look properly. One must also look at and point out the disadvantage in the soul life of humans compared to animals. From the beginning, animals have what they need for the continuation of their individual and species existence, while humans must first acquire it: beavers – dike building; wasps – paper. So one could well speak of the inferiority of humans compared to animals. It is contradictory to speak only of the spiritual life of humans. They must form ideas about everything that surrounds them and process these spiritually. It does not suit humans today that spirit is present in everything else, not just in them.

Animals are taught by their organs, as are humans; but humans also teach their organs, says Goethe meaningfully – Letter to W. v. Humboldt, March 17, 1832.

Zell has written a small, very good book: “Are animals irrational?” In it, he shows that dogs are afraid of water, not only when it is poured over them, but of water in general, and the purer it is, the more they fear it. Why? They are organized according to smell. Pure water has no smell; for dogs, it is the same as for a child who has to go into a completely dark room where their organs can no longer perceive anything. The animal is completely built into its organs with its organization. In humans, something very significant remains open. The intermaxillary bone, which is the small piece of bone in which the upper incisors are located, is found in higher animals. Humans do not have this intermaxillary bone; their incisors are located in the upper jaw, or so it was said in the eighteenth century, thus creating a divide between animals and humans. Goethe bridged this divide. Through diligent study, he discovered that humans have this intermaxillary bone before birth, which then fuses after birth. It was not a flash of inspiration that led him to this discovery. He was delighted by it.

The difference between humans and animals cannot be found in individual details. It can only be found by those who can rise from the visible to the invisible. Do not look for the difference between humans and animals in something material – that is what Goethe wanted to say.

What people think depends on fashion. Today, in theosophy, many still think materialistically, for example, when they say that the etheric body is only a finer physical body. When one speaks of soul vibrations, for example, one speaks of vibrating matter, not of vibrating spirit. It was important to Goethe that there should be nothing material in what he described as the difference between humans and animals.

If a child were to arrive on a desert island, it would not learn to speak and think, it would not feel itself to be human. Animals are organized for a certain state of equilibrium, but humans must first bring themselves into a state of equilibrium; they must first gain self-awareness. Humans only acquire equilibrium after birth. The organ of imagination, of visualization, is not yet fully developed immediately after birth; it must first develop in relation to the environment. There is something left open in humans. Humans build their organization out of their spirit.

The idea that hornets arise from horse carcasses and wasps from donkey carcasses was scientifically and systematically explained and presented until well into the seventeenth century. Francesco Redi then said: Living things can only come from living things. — That was considered heresy in the seventeenth century: Galileo, Giordano Bruno, Francesco Redi — people at that time were unable to accept their ideas. Spiritual science is in the same position today as Redi was then. There is a spiritual-soul core within human beings, and this core does not lead us back to the physical world, but rather to previous lives. This brings us to the statement: Spiritual-soul things can only come from spiritual-soul things. It is an inaccurate observation to think that everything can be explained by the environment, both in children and in adults. In their infinite cleverness, people smile at the statement: Spiritual-soul things can only come from spiritual-soul things. And this statement will fare just as well as Francesco Redis' statement: Living things can only come from living things. Today, those who advocate such principles are still considered heretics.

That which first worked in humans to achieve balance later produces gestures. That which first works in one's own movements later manifests itself in facial expressions, in what the soul expresses.

The development of the skull in animals is very instructive to observe. It speaks a special language. But in humans, each individual skull is different. Phrenology can only discover what is general. A separate phrenology would have to be developed for each person. What has worked in the skull is what works in the human being from their previous life. The human skull is actually proof of reincarnation. This is annoying to hear for people today, but [that] doesn't matter, it's just the way it is. Phrenology must not generalize; only an artist can find out the right thing about each individual skull.

A special kind of gesture is human language; through language we are placed in the realm of the folk. A croaky voice is much more unpleasant in a man than in a woman, because what is expressed in the voice is much more intimately connected with the soul life in a man than in a woman.

Looking back on past events is memory in humans, not thinking from one action to the next. If one wanted to say: If humans had really had several earth lives, they would have to remember them — this would be like taking a four-year-old child and saying: This child cannot count, therefore humans cannot count. — The same applies to the memory of previous earth lives. One will remember them later, one just has to learn how to do so, just as one has to learn how to count.

From the moment the child grasps the concept of the ego, memory also enters the picture.

If we want to gain insight into the spiritual world, we must be able to remain silent with absolute equanimity and serenity about everything that the stream of the future brings us, and we must be able to find everything justified in spiritual providence. If the soul can remain calm in the face of fear and pain, even physical pain, and in the face of external events—loud hammer blows, for example, and so on—if the soul is so equanimous toward the future, then a view into the spiritual worlds gradually opens up to it.

The only way to know whether something is right is to immerse oneself in it — this is true in mathematics, and it is also true of spiritual facts.

In humans, the spirit is only loosely connected to the organs, while in animals, the spirit pours into the organs. Humans stand in the middle with their self-awareness; that is the fundamental difference.

When little Karl cuts up an earthworm, it is sincere [?], but the governess says he should not do so because “it feels pain just like you do.” However, some animals happily regenerate themselves immediately, so cutting up an earthworm, for example, does not harm it. Therefore, one cannot say, “Because it feels pain like you do.” That is not true. And one must be truthful, especially in education. Higher animals feel pain much more intensely than humans, and even small children feel physical pain much more strongly.

It presses itself into the human mind (into the human soul)
From the depths of the world, mysterious
The rich abundance of matter.
It flows into the depths of the soul
From the heights of the world, meaningful
The clarifying light of the spirit.
They meet in the inner being of man
To form a wise reality.