The Invisible Elements of Human Nature and Practical Life

These are the four lower members of human nature, only one of which is visible. The other three are something real, actual, indeed, the fundamental reasons for the real. Each member is the fundamental being and cause in its entire essence for the next lower body; the I-bearer for the astral body, the astral body for the etheric body, the etheric body for the physical body. Everything that is the actual I-experience, everything that human beings experience through being self-conscious beings, is expressed in the astral body. All ego experiences are imprinted here. This gives rise to everything that is temporary mental image, judgment, and feeling in human beings. What lives in the astral body is expressed and imprinted in the etheric or life body, and thus becomes something lasting, something that is not temporary but is preserved in a certain sense. Let us suppose we make a temporary judgment; we form a mental image of this or that. If we form a mental image again and again, it becomes a habitual mental image. By becoming a habitual mental image, it is imprinted in the etheric body. What lives in our memory, what we remember from day to day, lives in our etheric or life body. The fact that we play a piece of music on the piano lies in our astral body; the fact that we acquire the ability, the habit of playing, lies in the etheric body. All habits are in the etheric body or life body. When we make a moral judgment, this is again an act of the astral body. When a certain direction of judgment becomes ingrained in us through repeated judgment, the moral judgment becomes permanent, the conscience. Moral judgment is an experience of the astral body; conscience is an experience of the etheric or life body. Thus we see how, through the interaction of the higher members with the lower members, the whole of human life is built up from the inside out.