The Four Bodies of Human Nature and Spiritual Development

GA 94 — 28 June 1906, Leipzig

Lecture I

The purpose of these lectures is to provide an introduction to the theosophical worldview in its context. We will address questions such as the cause of death, the cause of suffering, the origin of evil, and so on. Starting with human beings and their innermost nature, we will consider the great law of reincarnation and karma, as well as the origin of human beings, the Earth, and the solar system. Furthermore, we will examine how the great truths are expressed, especially in Christianity and in the individual religions. It is the truth about the nature of human beings as occultism has always understood it. Occultism, the wisdom of hidden beings, views human beings in such a way that the visible part of their being, the physical body, forms the first link, which is regarded as a material structure like other inanimate objects. The second link is the etheric body, which is invisible and finer than the physical body. It is the image of the physical body in the upper parts of the human being; in the lower parts it is differently formed. Just as a person born blind considers the statements of a sighted person to be fantasies, so it is with those who perceive the etheric body clairvoyantly. To date, there are about three to four hundred people among all human beings who have this ability. But the predisposition for it lies dormant in all human beings; therefore, in a hundred years, things will be somewhat different. Enormous progress is imminent in the near future, including in the technical field. Contemporary theosophy is only the elementary part of occultism; more cannot be taught today.

The development of spiritual vision is achieved through inner training. Those who already possess clairvoyance see the etheric body in the following way: to do so, they must turn their attention away from the physical body completely and, as it were, suggest it away. Suggestion, hypnotism, abnormal states of mind, dulled consciousness, positive and negative suggestion, which are harmful to those on whom they are practiced, have nothing to do with the theosophy referred to here. Those who have developed their higher soul powers are able to use their willpower to remove the entire sensory reality of a person or object in front of them from their field of vision. The physical body is then replaced by a human-like figure consisting of an inner luminous energy structure that is very similar to modern humans. Only this etheric body protrudes slightly above the head. In plants, animals, and children, it protrudes quite far beyond the physical body.

The third member is the astral body. First, we must consider this more from the inside, then from the outside. When a person stands before you, you touch the physical body with your hand. Let us leave the etheric body aside for the moment. Where you see muscles, bones, and nerves on the body, there is also a sum of desires, pains, joys, ideals, and passions. All of these are just as real as the former. This is the astral body viewed from within.

Seen from the outside, the astral body is not there at all for the ordinary person. But when a person trains their soul, they also learn to experience the astral body as a spiritual human being; this is called the aura. A wild passion permeates the astral body like a red, cloudy cloud, while a pure ideal has white-golden rays. The old painters, who were still closer to clairvoyance, painted this aura in a wide variety of rays. People with a great deal of sympathy and charity show a greenish aura. Pious feelings and religious fervor illuminate people with blue rays. This aura is only the outer expression of inner drives, desires, and so on. The outer form of the aura is quite different from that of the physical body; it envelops the human being like an egg shape. This light phenomenon radiates and surrounds the human body.

In a few decades, these truths will be of great value for human education and pedagogy. Once spiritual science has found its way into our education system, an infinite amount will have been gained. It is infinitely important for external life.

Let us consider the child in terms of these three bodies. They do not develop simultaneously in the child. From the first to the seventh year, the physical body develops, while the other two bodies are not yet free; they work internally on the physical body. Therefore, only the physical body can be influenced by education during this time; the other two parts of the being must first develop. An intelligent education will refrain from prematurely influencing these two other bodies. From the first to the seventh year, the child needs visible, perceptible images and role models. The child's visible environment should be pure, right down to its thoughts. For the environment has a much greater influence on the child's development than is usually assumed. The child even has a sense of good and evil thoughts. The child's senses must be sharpened. Trying to teach the child concepts beyond the impressions of the senses is of no use. The child's imagination should be stimulated. Therefore, the child should not be given completely finished things as toys. It should put something together itself, make a structure, and so on. This awakens the child and develops the powers of the physical body. So no elaborate toys!

In the seventh year, a special change takes place in the child: part of the etheric body is now freed, and therefore from now on the etheric body should be influenced. What affects the etheric body? Let us first observe what happens when a person dies. Only the physical body remains, while the etheric body and astral body separate from it and ascend. During sleep, it is different. In a sleeping person, the etheric body is connected to the physical body in bed, and only the astral body detaches itself. At the moment of death, something extremely strange happens to the human being: their entire past life is spread out before their memory and passes before their eyes. The same thing sometimes happens in situations of extreme danger, for example, to people who have drowned, fallen from a height, and so on, and who have been revived. In such moments, their entire past life also appears before their soul. What is happening here? The etheric body is loosening from the physical body. A similar process takes place when a limb “falls asleep” or when it is tied off. For example, when someone ties off their finger, the clairvoyant sees how the etheric body of the finger hangs down and is loosened. This state is very dangerous for a hypnotized person because their etheric brain hangs limply on both sides of their head. Why does a person's entire life appear before them at special moments? Because the etheric body is the carrier of memory. When it is freed from the physical body, it can follow its own movements at that moment, and memory is freer than usual. In its normal state, it fills the physical body like a condensed cloud of light. Until death, the physical body continuously interferes with the subtle forces of the etheric body.

From the age of seven, the child now has the powers of the etheric body at its disposal, and one should therefore influence the memory from the age of seven to fourteen. Since the etheric body presents everything to us in images, the child should be given images and comparisons and influenced with fairy tales and beautiful stories. During this time, the child accepts everything on the authority of its parents and educators.

The astral body only becomes free between the ages of fourteen and twenty-one. It begins to develop with sexual maturity, somewhat earlier in girls than in boys. The astral body is the bearer of the intellect, of conscious judgment. This is the time to influence the astral body by training the child's power of judgment. If one attempts to do this earlier, one sins against the child, for it causes him harm. The time will come when the science of the spirit will be applied pedagogically.

Human beings share their physical body with all minerals, their etheric body with all plants, and their astral body with all animals. But human beings tower above all these beings through their sense of self-awareness, through the little word “I,” which is unique in its kind. For “I” is the only name that anyone can say to themselves. This is a fact of the utmost importance. In the ancient Hebrew religion, “I,” this “occult word,” could only be uttered by the highest initiate, the high priest. It was a solemn ritual moment. The whole people waited for the word “Yahweh” (I) to be spoken, and a holy shiver ran through the devout crowd. Yahweh: the God who speaks within. The word Yahweh (Jehovah) was considered the unpronounceable name. It is the voice with which God begins to speak in human beings. This word never comes to us from outside. In the word “I,” the eternal touches the temporal. With this, we have learned about the four members of the human being: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the core of the human being, the I. At death, the etheric body, astral body, and I separate from the physical body. The etheric body and astral body then gradually dissolve until the I enters the Devachan, where it remains until a new earthly life.