II. Esoteric Christianity

However, in all that has been said today there is in fact a certain contradiction. We have stated that the human being, in the night while asleep, is entirely different from the creature we see during the day when he is awake. By day he is quite comprehensible to us; we have him there before us as a four-fold being. But now let us approach him in sleep and observe his physical nature. Here we have the physical body and the ether body lying in bed—the astral body and ego outside. Thus arises the contradictory condition of having before us a being deserted by its astral body and ego. The stone does not sleep. Its ether and astral bodies and ego do not penetrate it, but remain constantly in the same relationship with it. With the human being, on the contrary, the astral body and ego depart each night and he does not concern himself about his physical and ether bodies, but leaves them to themselves. This fact is not always fully considered. Every night the human being, in his truly spiritual part, takes leave of his physical and ether bodies which he himself deserts. However, these bodies would not be able to exist by themselves, because no physical body, and for that matter no ether body, can exist by itself. Even the stone must be permeated by its higher members. Therefore you can easily comprehend that it is wholly impossible for your physical body and ether body to remain in bed at night without an astral body and ego. What occurs then during the night? Your own astral body and ego are indeed not within the physical and ether bodies, but present in their place there is another ego and another astral body. At this point, occultism calls your attention to a divine-spiritual existence and to higher spiritual powers. During the night, while your own ego and astral body are outside your physical and ether bodies, the astral body and ego of higher, divine-spiritual powers are actually active within them. And the reason for this is the following: