XII. Theosophy and Somnambulism

Within this etheric double body, even towering above it on various sides, is the third member of the human being, the so-called astral body. This astral body is a kind of reflection of our instincts, our desires, our passions, our feelings. In this astral body, the human being lives as if in a cloud, and for the clairvoyant, whose spiritual eye is open to such phenomena, it is clearly perceptible as a luminous cloud within which the physical body and the etheric double body are located. This astral body is different in a person who always follows their animalistic instincts and sensual inclinations; it shows completely different colors and cloud-like formations than in a person who has always lived a spiritual life. It is different in a person who indulges in selfishness than in a person who devotes themselves to their fellow human beings in selfless love. In short, the life of the soul is expressed in this astral body. But it is also the mediator of actual sensory perceptions. You can never seek sensory perceptions in the sensory organs themselves. What happens when the light from a flame hits my eye? This light consists of the following in external space: the so-called ether waves move from the light source into my eye, they penetrate my eye, they cause certain chemical processes in the back wall of my eyeball, they transform the so-called visual purple, and then these chemical processes propagate into my brain. My brain perceives the flame, it receives the impression of light. If someone else could see the processes taking place in my brain, what would they perceive? They would perceive nothing other than physical processes; they would perceive something taking place in space and time; but they would not be able to perceive my impression of light within the physical processes in my brain. This impression of light is something other than a physical impression underlying these processes. The impression of light, the image that I must first create in order to perceive the flame, is a process within my astral body. Those who have a visual organ capable of perceiving such an astral process can see exactly how the physical phenomena within the brain are transformed in the astral body into the image of the flame that we perceive.