III. Man's Consciousness, His Work Upon the Lower Members of His Being and His Destiny After Death

Now the astral body remains alone ... What is the difference between this condition, in which it is severed from the other members, from the physical body and the etheric body, and that of sleep, in which it also remains alone? The forces which it had to use during sleep in order to elaborate and improve the physical body, have now become emancipated, through the fact that the physical body has definitely been laid aside. The astral body now uses those forces for its own self and is conscious of this. In this state of self-consciousness the astral body now passes through a time which can be understood best of all if we consider the following:—