Reincarnation and Karma

Now I know that it is also necessary to get a little mental image of how this law works, and I would like to say a few words about that. Those who have heard other lectures of mine already know what I mean by this. When we look at human beings with spiritual insight, we do not see them as physical bodies, but we know that these physical bodies are only part of a greater being, that behind them there is something that Paul calls the spiritual body and spiritual scientists call the etheric body. The etheric body is like a reflection of the physical body, or rather, the physical body is a reflection of the etheric body. This is the second member of the human being, the etheric body. The third member is the astral body, that which the human being carries within himself as pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, instincts, drives, passions, and desires, everything that stands before us when a human being stands before us, but which we cannot see or perceive with our physical senses. What do we see when a human being stands before us? We see the skin, its color, and so on. The anatomist can use physical means to examine bones, muscles, nerves, and so on, but pleasure and pain, instincts, desires, and passions, which are also in the same space, cannot be perceived by the senses. This is called the astral body, and it is in this body that the spiritual essence of the human being resides, which we call our I, which we call the bearer of our self-consciousness. By having this, we in turn become the bearers of Atma, Buddhi, Manas, of what I have described as the spirit self, the life spirit, and the spirit man.