Lecture II

The essential nature of sleep consists in a man going with his ego and his astral body out of the physical and etheric bodies, thus feeding upon his physical body and etheric body from outside—we might even say feeding upon and digesting them; whereas when he is within his physical and etheric bodies he lives with his consciousness in the external world. Note well what is actually said here. If with ego and astral body we are outside our physical and etheric bodies, we apply all our will, all our desires, to these physical and etheric bodies; we feed on and digest physical body and etheric body from outside; whereas when we are within these bodes the outside world makes its impressions upon us.