The Connection Between Humans and the Spiritual World

However, we are not only members of the physical world, but we are just as much members of spiritual worlds. The next spiritual world, which in a sense borders on our physical world, is the one we have become accustomed to calling—whether the expression is appropriate or not is of little importance—the etheric world, or the elemental world. This elemental world is initially unknown to human beings as they live in the physical world. It is the first supersensible world. But because it is the first supersensible world, it is no less significant for human beings than the physical world, the sensory world. As soon as human beings become aware of this elemental world, which happens when they are able to perceive imaginatively, it becomes clear to them that this elemental world is just as richly populated by beings as the physical world. Human beings themselves, insofar as they have an etheric body, belong to this elemental world. As etheric beings, they are citizens of this elemental world. However, the conditions in this elemental world are somewhat different from those in the physical world.