Self-Knowledge and God-Knowledge I

GA 90a — 16 February 1904, Berlin

XVI. The Development of Beings

Seven stages and states. In the fourth round arupa, rupa, astral, physical.

The inner life of human beings develops completely different states of consciousness. The waking consciousness is the best known state. Below this is first the state of dreaming people - it is now that of most animals, varying slightly, despite the waking sensory activity.

The next lowest is the consciousness that our body has while we sleep, which is completely absorbed in physical functions – it is that of the plant, identical to ours while we sleep. The lowest is that of the trance - that of the whole mineral nature; it lives with all nature, therefore extends to the whole environment; therefore perception of things that are cognitions of the world building; the universe is a descending and screwing down. When we descend very deeply, we become omniscient at the expense of our higher consciousness. Above waking consciousness, there are states similar to the previous ones, in which we move freely on the astral plane, the psychic plane, initially in full consciousness. On the devachan plane, where the spiritual archetypes work in us and the physical becomes a cavity, the physical disappears if we want it to.

The astral world is a duplicate, the spirit world builds in from the outside. - The spiritual consciousness, where one begins to have a cosmic vision, is the highest within our earthly development. —Each round has the task of developing a state to normal. In the third round: highly developed dream state of consciousness. The effect originated from the Mahat through rapport. Before that, they had plant consciousness, and the spiritual beings took care of them. During the first, everyone was in the deepest trance. So the consciousnesses have gradually developed from the lowest to the highest.

[ Gap in the transcript]

The deeper the human consciousness, the more real are the powers that surround people. The more independent a person becomes, the more they withdraw. In the next three rounds, the next three states are developed; Jonas in the shark and the swimming turtle: physically conceived devachanic experiences.

In the second round, there is no clear boundary between humans, animals and plants – beings that are everything in one. In the third, the plant is isolated, but humans and animals are not yet separated. During the fourth, the full differentiation occurs.