XVI. What is seen on looking back into Man's repeated Earth-lives

From the forces of earth, Man has that alone which lends him the consciousness of Self. The physical, bodily basis, too, of this Self-consciousness is an effect of the earth's action. Everything else in the human being is extraterrestrial and cosmic in its origin. The astral body as conveyer of sensation and thought, together with its etheric and physical basis—all the life-stir of the ether-body, and even all that is working physically and chemically in the physical body—all this has its origin beyond the earth. Strange as it may seem, the physical and chemical action which takes place within Man is not derived from the earth.