Anthroposophy and the Riddle of the Soul

And what do we now see in relation to what I have indicated? My dear audience, we see how external impressions stretch for miles through the senses, how the whole process continues, and how, in fact, what I have described as the formative, plastic element of the thought life, of the intensified thought life, how that works in the ordinary process of perception as a continuation. I perceive outwardly, but it is not only the abstract thoughts that I have in ordinary consciousness that work in me, but also that which is merely fathomed by spiritual science, that works continually. This plasticity in these representations has an effect down into the depths of the human soul and body. And then, when this has happened, when the thought has had a formative effect in the depths of the soul and body, then the person moves on to something else. A volitional decision is at work, the will is at play, but the spiritualized will is present. In that part of the human being that is connected to the outer brain, this will unfolds. It breaks down what is there for the ordinary consciousness by dissolving the plasticity of the brain, it breaks down what the impression has built up, so that we have an outer brain surface – if I may express myself crudely – spread over substrates, but where the plasticity continues to have an effect.