# Karma, Heredity, and the Evolution of Human Bodies

## GA 94 — 5 July 1906, Leipzig

### Lecture VIII

Today we want to continue our reflections on the effects of the law of karma. Let us repeat what has been said: the actions of the previous life are expressed in this life as external destinies. The inclinations, temperament, and so forth of the past life are transformed into the physical constitution and health in this life. Another connection becomes apparent when we consider the life of imagination. This life of imagination is the activity of our astral body. The nature of this life of imagination has an effect on the etheric body in the next life, that is, on the lasting moral disposition of the human being. Let us consider the mood of Schopenhauer, who was a pessimist. Viewing life pessimistically or optimistically is a characteristic of the etheric body, and in the case of pessimism, this attitude is caused by the fact that such a person had unsatisfactory or unhappy experiences in their previous life. (See appendix.) If someone makes many disparaging judgments about their fellow human beings, if they are a real critic, this tendency in one life is expressed in the next life in a certain condition of the physical body, namely in that the person in question will age early and show little youthfulness at all. This is a good prerequisite for the next life: to treat all people with love rather than repulsion.

How does heredity fit in with the fact of reincarnation and karma? Some will want to refute reincarnation with the objection that there are families in which several generations of relatives are musicians, and they will attribute everything to heredity. A witty theosophist once said: It is not true that children resemble their parents, but rather that parents resemble their children. Let us examine what this statement means. (See appendix.)

At the beginning of their development, humans have an astral body that their ego has not yet worked on. In the course of incarnations, the ego begins to work into the astral body. This makes it more perfect. The ability to distinguish between truth and error is only an achievement of later incarnations. Everything in life must first be learned through experience. Only through error does correct judgment develop. Even mathematical truths arise from the fact that the opposite is false. Human beings continually work on their astral bodies from their egos. For the clairvoyant, there is a great difference between looking at the astral body of a developed person and that of an undeveloped person. As a result of this working through of the astral body, there is a part in all human souls that is still filled with lower instincts and passions, and a part that has been spiritually reworked by the ego. Francis of Assisi, for example, had completely transformed and reworked his astral body. The occultist refers to that part of the astral body that has been reworked by the ego with the Eastern term “manas.”

It is much more difficult to work on the etheric body than on the astral body, because it is much more difficult to penetrate. This impenetrability is partly the work of the human being himself, insofar as it stems from previous deeds, but partly also the work of other, higher beings who were active in the formation of the etheric body. The more the human being works into the etheric body, the more he becomes what is called a religious and wise person.

An occultist must be familiar with the method not only of working through the astral body, but also of working into the etheric body. The secret student consciously transforms the etheric body so that he gains the ability to have a harmonizing influence on the forces of the etheric body. In the case of initiates, this influence on the etheric body manifests itself in such a way that, in certain phases of their lives, they can draw on powers that they would not otherwise have. What arises through the working of the I into the etheric body is called budhi, and a person who has reached this stage is called a chela. At a certain point in time, the chela becomes aware of his previous earthly lives. (See appendix.)

Finally, at a very high stage of development, the human being also gains control over his physical body. Such an initiate is called a master. The extent to which the human being gains control over his physical body is the extent to which Atma is present in him. This mystery of working into the physical body and the resulting illumination of Atma cannot be dealt with here.

In the present human being, the ego has little influence on the physical body, somewhat more on the etheric body, but still little, and the greatest influence on the astral body. Everything that has not yet been worked through by the human ego in the previous life continues to have an effect through ordinary heredity and confronts the individual in the new life as karma: in the case of people of our time, this means a smaller or larger part from the astral body, most of it from the etheric body, and usually everything from the physical body. If one could investigate, one would find the following in an initiate, in a master: when he is born, he only resembles his family outwardly; rather, he resembles his previous incarnation in his entire appearance, because he was already able to work into the physical body. Heredity is strongest where no pronounced individualities incarnate. Where personalities are strongly differentiated and pronounced, there are few similarities. Let us assume a human core being with certain abilities who was incarnated centuries ago and is now striving for a new embodiment. Due to his characteristics, he must feel drawn to parents whose physical characteristics most closely correspond to his capacities. It seeks out the family that, through its physical constitution and nature, can give it the most suitable physical body it needs to live out its abilities. A great musical spirit needs a line of ancestors who can give it a body in which it can best find an organ for its activity. This is the meaning of the initially paradoxical statement: Parents are similar to their children.

The question arises: Does the human being in Kamaloka and Devachan have nothing else to do but work for himself? On the contrary, he also works on the rest of the world. The fact that the human being repeatedly moves on to new incarnations is not meaningless and purposeless, for each time the earth has changed significantly. Only when they can learn something new do they return to Earth. What happens on the physical plane has its origin in the spiritual worlds. Who created the city of Leipzig with its culture, its houses, streets, and so on? The human spirit did. Who brought about the changes in the flora of Central Europe over the last thousand years? This originated from spiritual beings. The material world is simply the outer expression of purely spiritual processes. The threads spin down to us from the Devachan plane. The plant world does not develop on its own; it is guided from Devachan by Devachanic beings. And the animal kingdom? Just as the stones of houses do not lay themselves down, so the animal world does not change on its own. Everything that changes within the animal world is done from the astral plane, at least as far as warm-blooded animals are concerned. Natural science attributes the changes in the animal world to adaptation to external living conditions. But it is a makeshift solution to use the word adaptation, because it is the work of spiritual beings. Outer science can never discover the true causes of these changes; only spiritual science can do that. There are beings who are involved in the transformation of the plant and animal world on our earth. Human beings also work on this while they are in Kamaloka and Devachan. Nothing happens by “miracle”; everything is determined by lawful forces. Just as the human spirit has gradually shaped the physical plane from small tents and huts to communities and states, so too does it help shape the fauna and flora that surround us in Devachan. We have prepared the nest into which we are born. In Kamaloka, however, humans work on the various animal species.

Before incarnating, humans have a preview of their coming earthly life. If this life is difficult, they may experience a severe shock and, under certain circumstances, become idiots because their etheric body resists entering the physical body, causing its center of energy to shift outside the brain.