43. Consciousness – Life – Form

If we consider that through training in esoteric science the last two states of consciousness are attained by the initiate as a higher stage of development of humanity, it will readily be apparent that the waking consciousness also represents a higher stage of the two subordinate states of consciousness, and thus has developed out of them. This is what is presented by esoteric science. It explains that in the distant past man passed through a stage of development in which he had only a dull consciousness of sleep, interspersed with no dream images; then he rose to a dull dream consciousness, to finally arrive at the waking day consciousness of today. The person to be initiated continues this line of development. He develops the two higher forms of consciousness. But now an even higher kind of consciousness is attainable for this initiate. It can be seen from the above that even in sound consciousness the soul is still connected with the human body. This connection can cease altogether. The soul can leave the body completely. This is what the initiate learns. And then he must have developed organs of an even higher kind than before if he still wants to perceive anything. If this is the case, then the meaning of the world is expressed directly in his surroundings, without the mediation of sound. This is called the highest level of consciousness, the spiritual or purely spiritual consciousness. In the sense of the preceding list of levels of consciousness, this would have to correspond to a state in the present-day human being that represents an even duller consciousness than the dreamless consciousness of sleep. In terms of meaning, this is certainly the case. But the present human being cannot live this state in reality. His soul would then have to be completely outside the body; the dreamless sleep would have to be interrupted by a completely soulless state. This would in fact be tantamount to the physical body being temporarily abandoned to itself, that is, to a temporary killing. The physical body must not be exposed to this if it is not to run the risk of no longer being receptive to the soul.