V. Plant, Animal, Man

We cannot therefore speak of any merely vegetative action of the organism in sleeping man. Even in sleep, the astral and ego-organizations work on in the substance that has been formed under their influence. The difference between sleeping and waking is not to be represented as an alternation of human and animal with physical and vegetative modes of action. The reality is altogether different. In waking life the sentient substance, and that which can act as a bearer of the self-conscious spirit, are lifted out of the organism as a whole and placed at the disposal of the astral body and ego-organization. The physical and the etheric organism must then work in such a way that the forces raying outward from the earth and in toward it, alone are active in them. True, they are also taken hold of by the astral body and ego-organization yet only from outside. In sleep, they are taken hold of inwardly by the substances that come into existence under the influence of astral body and ego-organization; while man is sleeping, from the universe as a whole only the forces radiating out of the earth and in toward it work upon him, there are working on him from within, the substance-forces which the astral body and ego-organization have prepared.