The three worlds of the spirit (Translated) E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: David De Angelis
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

INDEX

PART ONE - ANTHROPOSOPHY - LECTURES IN BERLIN FROM OCTOBER 23 TO 27, 1909

LECTURE I - ANTHROPOSOPHY IN RELATION TO THEOSOPHY AND ANTHROPOLOGY - THE HUMAN SENSES

- II CONFERENCE - SUPERSENSITIVE ACTIVITIES IN HUMAN SENSORY PROCESSES

- III CONFERENCE - HIGHER SENSES, INNER ENERGY CURRENTS AND FORMATIVE LAWS IN THE HUMAN ORGANISM

- IV CONFERENCE - SUPERSENSIBLE CURRENTS IN HUMAN AND ANIMAL ORGANIZATION - COLLECTIVE SOUL AND EGO ACTIVITY

PART TWO - PSYCHOSOPHY

- I CONFERENCE - THE ELEMENTS OF THE LIFE OF THE SOUL

- II. CONFERENCE - ACTIONS AND REACTIONS OF THE FORCES OF HUMAN ANIMIC LIFE

- III CONFERENCE - AT THE DOORS OF THE SENSES - FEELINGS - AESTHETIC JUDGMENT

- IV CONFERENCE - CONSCIOUSNESS AND LIFE OF THE SOUL

PART THREE - PNEUMATOSOPHY

- CONFERENCE II - TRUTH AND ERROR IN THE LIGHT OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

- III CONFERENCE - IMAGINATION - FANTASY - INSPIRATION - FULLNESS OF BEING - INTUITION - CONSCIOUSNESS.

- IV. CONFERENCE - LAWS OF NATURE, EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND REPEATED EARTHLY LIVES

Leseprobe

Rudolf Steiner

THE THREE WORLDS OF THE SPIRIT

ANTHROPOSOPHY - PSYCHOSOPHY - PNEUMATOSOPHY

Translation and 2021 edition by ©David De Angelis

All rights reserved

INDEX

PART ONE - ANTHROPOSOPHY - LECTURES IN BERLIN FROM OCTOBER 23 TO 27, 1909

LECTURE I - ANTHROPOSOPHY IN RELATION TO THEOSOPHY AND ANTHROPOLOGY - THE HUMAN SENSES

- II CONFERENCE - SUPERSENSITIVE ACTIVITIES IN HUMAN SENSORY PROCESSES

- III CONFERENCE - HIGHER SENSES, INNER ENERGY CURRENTS AND FORMATIVE LAWS IN THE HUMAN ORGANISM

- IV CONFERENCE - SUPERSENSIBLE CURRENTS IN HUMAN AND ANIMAL ORGANIZATION - COLLECTIVE SOUL AND EGO ACTIVITY

PART TWO - PSYCHOSOPHY

- I CONFERENCE - THE ELEMENTS OF THE LIFE OF THE SOUL

- II. CONFERENCE - ACTIONS AND REACTIONS OF THE FORCES OF HUMAN ANIMIC LIFE

- III CONFERENCE - AT THE DOORS OF THE SENSES - FEELINGS - AESTHETIC JUDGMENT

- IV CONFERENCE - CONSCIOUSNESS AND LIFE OF THE SOUL

PART THREE - PNEUMATOSOPHY

- CONFERENCE II - TRUTH AND ERROR IN THE LIGHT OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD

- III CONFERENCE - IMAGINATION - FANTASY - INSPIRATION - FULLNESS OF BEING - INTUITION - CONSCIOUSNESS.

- IV. CONFERENCE - LAWS OF NATURE, EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND REPEATED EARTHLY LIVES

PART ONE - ANTHROPOSOPHY - LECTURES IN BERLIN FROM OCTOBER 23 TO 27, 1909

LECTURE I - ANTHROPOSOPHY IN RELATION TO THEOSOPHY AND ANTHROPOLOGY - THE HUMAN SENSES

Here in Berlin, and also in other cities where the branches of our society have extended, we have already heard many communications from the field of theosophy, which, as it were, would have been drawn from the lofty regions of clairvoyant consciousness, so that the necessity of basing our spiritual current on a serious and worthy foundation had to arise at last.

The present General Assembly, which brings our members together here seven years after the formation of our German section, may provide us with an opportunity to contribute to a more solid foundation of our spiritual current. This is what I will try to do in these days with these four conferences on Soulosophy.

Cassel's lectures on the Gospel of John, those of Dusseldorf on the Hierarchies, of Basel on the Gospel of Luke and of Munich on the teachings of oriental theosophy, offered us the opportunity to ascend to high regions of spiritual research in order to draw from them spiritual truths that are difficult to access. What occupied us then was Theosophy, was, in part at least, an ascent of it to high spiritual heights of human knowledge.

It seems to us, therefore, that a deeper meaning can be rightly discerned in what is usually called the cyclic unfolding of cosmic events, if gradually a feeling for these things is developed. It was at the time of our first General Assembly that we had to found the German section; I then delivered before an audience, consisting only in part of theosophists, lectures which might be designated as the historical chapter of Anthroposophy. After seven years it seems that the time has now come when, having completed a cycle, we are permitted to speak, in a wider sense, of what Anthroposophy really is.

First of all I would like to try to clarify, by means of a comparison, what is to be understood by the word Anthroposophy. When you want to contemplate an expanse of land, with all that it contains in terms of fields, meadows, forests, villages and roads, you can do so by going from village to village, from road to road, through meadows and forests; in this way a small part of the whole region will appear before your eyes each time. But we can also climb to the top of a mountain and look down from that height upon the whole region; we will not be able to see its details clearly with ordinary sight, but we will get a general view of the whole.

In a way one might compare the relation of what, in ordinary life, is called human knowledge, human science, with what Theosophy means.

While ordinary human knowledge moves in the world of facts from one detail to another, theosophy, on the contrary, ascends to a high summit; thus the horizon is enlarged, because it embraces it from above - but this possibility of seeing further would disappear at the same time, if theosophy did not make use of very special means for this purpose. In my book "How is the knowledge of the higher worlds attained?" it is described how man can ascend to these lofty heights without losing the possibility of seeing further.

There is, however, also a third intermediate possibility; one may not climb to the top, but stop in the middle, in the middle of the mountain. If you stand at the bottom, you have no view of the whole, you see only the details and look at the height from below; if you stand at the top, you have everything below you, and above you only the divine sky. If you stand in the middle, you have something above you and something below you, and you can compare these two aspects with each other.

Of course, no comparison fits perfectly, but I only intend to explain to you in what, first of all, Theosophy differs from Anthroposophy. Anthroposophy represents stopping in the middle, theosophy represents finding oneself at the top; the point at which they find themselves is different. Up to this point the comparison might have been useful, but it no longer serves to indicate what follows; if one devotes oneself to theosophy, it is necessary that one ascends beyond human vision, beyond the middle of the mountain, that one ascends from the Self to the higher Self, and that one is able to look with the organs of this higher Self. The summit to which theosophy ascends is situated above man. That which is ordinary human knowledge is situated below man, and that which lies precisely in the middle is man himself - between nature and the world of the spirit. That which is above penetrates him; he is pervaded by the spirit. Inasmuch as man contemplates the world only humanly, he does not take the summit itself as his starting point, but he can see this summit, he can see the Spirit above him. At the same time he sees below him that which is mere nature, rising up and penetrating into him. With theosophy there is a danger that if theosophy does not employ those means mentioned above, which enable it to see with its higher self instead of with its lower self, the human field will be overflown, so that man will lose the possibility of knowing anything useful, of seeing reality again at his feet. This danger vanishes as soon as theosophy makes use of those means - but then we can say: Theosophy is what is investigated when God speaks in man: "Let God speak in you, and what he says about the world is theosophy".

Place yourself halfway between God and nature and let man speak in you - about what is above you and what is below - then you have anthroposophy, that is: wisdom enunciated by man.

And this wisdom will serve us as an important point of support and key to the whole field of theosophy; if one has occupied oneself with theosophy for some time, the best one can do is to really seek that solid central point of anthroposophy.

What has been said so far can also be applied historically in various directions. We have, for example, a science, which is called anthropology; as it is now practiced, it embraces not only man, but also everything that belongs to man, everything that can be experienced in nature, what we need to understand man. This science, as a starting point, wanders among things, proceeds from one detail to another, examines man with the microscope. In short, this science, which is generally considered by men as the only one worthy of consideration, starts from below the faculties of man; it remains attached to the ground, it does not employ all that man possesses in the way of faculties. Therefore it cannot solve the enigmatic questions of existence. Compare it with what theosophy presents to you. Theosophy ascends to the highest regions in order to find therein the answer to the burning questions of existence. But men who are not in a position to accompany it step by step, and who adhere to the point of view of anthropology, feel that theosophy is an edifice in the air, lacking all foundations. They are unable to see how the soul can gradually ascend to that summit from which it can embrace everything with its gaze. They cannot ascend to the steps of Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition; they cannot rise to that summit which is the final goal of all human becoming. Therefore on the lower step there is Anthropology, on the top the Theosophist.

What happens, however, when Theosophy wants to climb to the top but is not in a position to push forward by the right means - one can see this in the historical example of the German Theosophist SOLGER, who lived from 1770 to 1819. His views, as concepts, conform to theosophy. But by what means does he seek to ascend to the summit? With the concepts of philosophy, with the bled-out and exploited concepts of human thought, as if one were to climb a mountain to enjoy the view and forget about the telescope, so that one would see nothing, absolutely nothing. In our case the telescope would be spiritual: it is imagination, inspiration and intuition. In the course of the centuries man's ability to ascend to this summit has diminished more and more. This fact was already clearly felt in the Middle Ages - and it was recognized. Even today it is felt, but people do not want to admit it. In ancient times there existed that ability to ascend, although on a lower step; it was based upon a condition of twilight clairvoyance of men. There existed an ancient theosophy of this kind. But that which was thus manifested on the summit had, at a certain time, to come to an end, and it was necessary to prevent it from being received by the ordinary means of knowledge. This ancient theosophy, which regards revelation as terminated, became theology. Next to anthropology there is therefore theology - it really wants to ascend to the heights, but it rests for this on something, which was once manifested, was participated in, but which has become rigid, which cannot always again manifest itself to the soul that aspires upwards. Anthropology and theology often faced each other throughout the Middle Ages, without repelling each other; but in modern times they find themselves bitterly opposed. The modern era allows theology to exist alongside anthropology, as something scientific, but finds no way to reconcile them. If we do not stop at the particulars, but ascend to the middle, we can, on ascending, place anthroposophy alongside theosophy.

Modern spiritual life has also made an attempt to practice anthroposophy - but, as with theosophy, by false and inadequate means; by the means, that is, of exploited philosophy. The meaning of philosophy can be understood by theosophists alone - no longer by philosophers. This understanding can be arrived at only by means of an observation of history; one can understand philosophy only when one examines it in its becoming. The following example will demonstrate this fact: In ancient times there were the so-called Mysteries, the cultural centers of the higher spiritual life, in which the disciples were guided by special methods to spiritual vision. Such a Mystery was the Mystery of Ephesus, in which the disciples, by virtue of their evolution, could investigate the secrets of the Diana of Ephesus; there the disciples thrust their gaze into the spiritual worlds. That which could be communicated openly of these things was communicated publicly and received by those outside. Not all who heard these communications from outside were aware that they had heard higher secrets. One man, for example, into whom communications of this kind from the Mysteries of Ephesus had penetrated, was Heraclitus. He then proclaimed these communications through his partial initiation so that they could be understood by all. Whoever reads the teachings of Heraclitus, the "Dark One," still sees here the direct experience, the knowledge of the higher worlds. Then came his followers - they no longer knew that these teachings were derived from immediate experience, they no longer understood them, and therefore began to develop them, to develop them further into concepts, they began to speculate upon them with the powers of their intellect; this method was passed down from generation to generation. And if we have anything of philosophy before us today, we have in it only the residue of a heritage of ancient teachings, from which life has been squeezed out, taken away, and of which only the conceptual skeleton remains. Philosophers, however, believe that that skeleton is real life, they believe it to be something conceived by human thought itself! But there are no philosophers capable themselves of conceiving something - for that access to the higher worlds is necessary. And the philosophers of the 19th century had only such a skeleton of philosophy at their disposal when they set out to consider what can be called anthroposophy. The term was indeed used: Robert Zimmermann wrote a so-called anthroposophy - but he drew it from dry concepts, exploited as, after all, everything that wanted to transcend anthropology (without the right means) remained a dry conceptual fabric that is no longer in touch with things. Anthroposophy must also be deepened by means of theosophy, because the latter provides the means for the recognition of reality in spiritual life. Anthroposophy is placed on the average human point of view, and not, like anthropology, on the subhuman one - at the meeting a theosophy, like the one practiced by SOLGER, is really placed on the spiritual point of view, but its ideas are mere bubbles - and when he reaches the top, he sees nothing; this is a weaving of concepts on the loom instead of a living spiritual vision! We, however, do not want to weave concepts. The reality of human life as a whole must be revealed to us in these considerations. The ancient objects of vision will appear to us again in them-but illuminated this time by another point of view-which embraces both the high and the low.

Man is the most important object of our observation. When we look at the physical body we can already see how complicated the human form is. In order to gain an understanding of what anthroposophy stands for, let us first consider the following: What presents itself to us today as a complicated physical body is the product of a very long evolution. The disposition of its first germ was born on the ancient Saturn; it then evolved further on the ancient Sun, the ancient Moon and the Earth. On the Sun there was added the etheric body and on the ancient Moon the astral body. Now these limbs of the human entity have been modified during the course of evolution. What we see today in the complicated human physical body, with its heart, kidneys, eyes and ears, etc., is the product of long evolution. All this was born of a form, which was born as a germ on Saturn with a very simple figure. It has been constantly modifying and transforming itself over millions and millions of years, so that it could rise to its present perfection. And if today we consider a limb, an organ of this physical body, e.g. the heart, or the lung, we can only understand it if based on that evolution. Of that which presents itself to us today in the form of the heart nothing yet existed on the ancient Saturn. These organs assumed their present form only gradually. One was formed earlier, another was added later. We can precisely indicate one organ as a solar organ, because it first appeared during solar evolution, and another as a lunar organ, and so on. If we wish to understand the present physical body of man, we must draw concepts from the entire Universe-this is the method of theosophical observation! How, on the other hand, does anthropology work? Theosophy ascends to the loftiest heights and, looking down from the spirit, contemplates individual phenomena. Anthropology keeps itself entirely at the bottom; it starts from the individual details and even now contemplates the individual cells in their adjacency. We take the individual organs and consider them in themselves in part - we mechanically place them side by side - we do not consider which is the youngest and which is the oldest; we study the individual cell in itself, in part; nevertheless it is not at all indifferent, indeed there is a great difference according to whether a complex of cells evolved in the solar or in the lunar epoch. And these complicated relationships extend far beyond this. Let us consider the human heart: as it is now, it undoubtedly did not evolve until very late-but as the arrangement of its first germ it belongs to the most ancient organs of man. At the time of the ancient sun the heart depended upon the forces which ruled over the ancient sun. The heart was further formed in the epoch of the ancient moon. Then the sun, which until then had been united with the moon, departed from the moon, and its forces then acted upon the heart from without. Thus the heart underwent a new evolution, so that in its disposition one could distinguish, from then on, a solar part and a lunar part. Then again the earth, the sun and the moon were united and elaborated the heart. After a Pralaya the earthly evolution took place, in which the sun again became detached. Then, after the detachment of the sun, the solar action intensified from the outer. Then the moon also came out and acted from without upon the heart. Since the heart is one of the most ancient organs of man, we find in the heart, in accordance with cosmic evolution, a solar part and a lunar part, then a second solar participation during earthly evolution, and a second lunar participation during earthly evolution, and finally after the separation of the Earth-an earthly participation. If these parts in the heart agree, as in the Cosmos, in its harmony-then the heart is healthy-but if one of these parts is preponderant, it is sick. Each disease of man depends upon the fact that the individual parts of his organs have fallen into disharmony-while the corresponding parts of the Cosmos are in harmony. Each healing is based upon the fact that the deficient part is being strengthened and the exuberant part cushioned, so that the parts become harmonized. But it is not enough to speak of this harmony, for in order to attain it one must penetrate into the wisdom of the world. This gives us a glimpse of the true physiology or occult anatomy, which from the entire Cosmos leads to the understanding of the whole man, and from the spirit explains the individual peculiarities.

It speaks of the solar and lunar parts of the heart, of the larynx, of the brain, etc., but as all these parts act in man himself, so we have before us today something in which all these parts are arrested. But as all these parts act in man himself, so we have before us today in man something, in which all these parts are arrested. If one looks within man and understands these parts, one then understands the etheric body, the astral body, etc., the sentient soul, the rational soul and the conscious soul, as man is today. This is anthroposophy. And with anthroposophy, too, we must begin with what is lowest in order to be able to ascend gradually to what is highest.

The lowest in man is the physical body, which he has in common with the physical sensible world; that which is given by means of the senses and the physical sensible intelligence. The theosophical way of considering man is that which, starting from the whole Universe considers him in his cosmic relations. Anthroposophy, with regard to the physical-sensible world, must start from man. It must start from man, inasmuch as he is a sensitive being. Then we must first consider the etheric body, then the astral body, the ego, etc., and what is found in them.

What, then, must first of all interest us in man, when we consider him anthroposophically in this sense? We must be interested in his senses. For it is these senses through which he acquires knowledge of the physical sensory world. Starting therefore from the physical plane, it is of the senses that anthroposophy must first speak. This will be our first chapter: The Observation of the Human Senses. We shall then proceed to a consideration of the individual spiritual fields of human nature.

Let us begin, therefore, with the examination of man's senses. Here anthroposophy immediately finds itself in contrast to external anthropology, because anthroposophy must always start from what is sensibly true; but it must clearly realize, that the spiritual acts, from above, within man. In this sense it is true anthropology. In ordinary anthropology everything that concerns the human senses has been mixed up in bulk. It deals only with what it investigates below, and goes groping from one single detail to another. It neglects important things, because men have no guiding thread, which can lead them into the light, through the labyrinth of facts. It cannot get out of this labyrinth, and must fall a victim to the Minotaur of error - for only the spiritual quest can weave that thread.

Anthroposophy also has something different to say about man's senses from what ordinary external examination says about them. But it is also interesting to see how nowadays external science is already compelled by external facts to proceed with greater depth, seriousness and care in its work. The enumeration of the five senses, for example, is the most superficial; the senses of touch, smell, taste, hearing, and sight. We may see how truly, in this list, everything is mixed up in bulk. To these senses, however, science has now added three others, of which, however, it is not able to make a distinction. To-day we shall enumerate the senses of man, in so far as they have real significance. We would like to try to lay the first foundations for an anthroposophical teaching of the senses in what follows.

The first sense we must consider is that, which in the science of the Spirit may be called the sense of life. This is a true sense - just as we speak of a visual sense, we must also speak of a vital sense. What is the vital sense? It is something in man, which ordinarily, when it is regular, man does not feel, but he feels it only when it is in disorder. Man feels weariness, or hunger, or thirst, or a sense of strength in the organism; he perceives them, as he perceives a colour, or a sound. He perceives them as an inner experience. One usually perceives this feeling when something is not in order, otherwise one is not aware of it. By means of the sense of life the first human perception of himself is conferred upon man. It is the sense, by means of which man's entire interiority becomes aware of his corporeality. This is the first true sense, which is to be enumerated on a par with the other senses, the sense of hearing, the sense of smell, etc., and the sense of life. And no one can understand man and the senses, if he does not have an inkling of that sense, which gives man the possibility of feeling himself as a complete interiority.

The second sense is found, when you move a member, e.g., if you raise your arm. You are not a human being if you cannot perceive your own movements. A machine does not perceive its own movements - only a living being can perceive them by means of a true sense. And the sense that enables us to perceive when we ourselves move, whether in blinking, walking or running, is called by us the sense of self-movement.

We become aware of a third sense by the fact that man distinguishes within himself between above and below. If he no longer perceives this difference, it is dangerous for him, in which case he can no longer support himself, he collapses. A certain very subtle organ in the human body has to do with this sense: namely, the three semi-circular canals of the ear; if these are damaged, man loses his sense of direction. (Something analogous is found in the animal kingdom, the so-called otoliths (corpuscles of carbonate limestone, which must be situated in a certain way, in order for the animal to be in a state of equilibrium). This third sense is the static or equilibrium sense.

With these three senses man perceives, as it were, something in himself - he feels something in himself.

Now we come out of man: he begins to enter into mutual action with the external world. This first reciprocal relation of action consists in the fact that man unites with himself a substance of the world and thereby perceives it. A substance can only be perceived if it is really united with the body. Solid and liquid bodies cannot do this; only bodies of gaseous form can do it. In that case they penetrate into substantiality. Unless any body emits substances of gaseous form and these substances penetrate into the organs of the nasal mucosa, there can be no olfactory perception. Thus the fourth sense is the olfactory sense. It is the first sense, by means of which man enters into a reciprocal relation with the external world.

The fifth sense arises when man no longer perceives only substantiality, but penetrates one step further into substantiality itself: he enters into a deeper relationship with this substance. The substance must then do something; it is necessary that the substance should then exercise some action in him. This occurs, when an aqueous or dissolved body rests on the tongue, and unites with that which the tongue itself secretes. The relation of mutual reciprocation between man and nature has become more intimate; things tell man not only what they are, as substances, but what they can effect. This is the fifth sense, the sense of taste.

Now we come to the sixth sense. The intimacy in mutual action becomes even greater - man penetrates even more deeply into the substance, things communicate their inwardness to him more. This, however, can only happen by virtue of special preparations. The olfactory sense is the most primitive of this second kind of senses. With the olfactory sense the human body makes no effort to penetrate into the substance, receiving it as it is. The sense of taste is more complicated than that of smell. Man and the substance are already more intimately connected, so the substance gives even more. At the next step there is the possibility of penetrating even more deeply into the world. This happens when an external substance lets light shine through or does not let it shine through, when it is transparent or non-transparent, or according to the way it lets light shine through, that is, how it is coloured. A thing which radiates green light, is internally such, that it can precisely reflect green light. The outermost surface of things manifests itself to us in the olfactory sense, something of its inner nature, in the sense of taste, something of the depth of things, in the sense of sight. Hence the complicated arrangement of the eye, which leads us much deeper into the essence of things, than the nose and tongue. This is the sixth sense, the sense of sight.

Let us now penetrate still further into things. If, for example, we see with the eye that a rose is red, its inwardness is communicated to us through its surface-this alone we see, and since it is determined by inwardness, we learn to know through it this inwardness of its own up to a given point.

Now, however, we grasp a piece of ice or a hot steel; then not only the surface and through it the interiority are manifested to us, but the very penetrals of the interiority are revealed to us; that which is outwardly cold or hot, is entirely interpenetrated with cold or heat. The sense of warmth leads us still more intimately into the substrata of things. the seventh sense.

Can man penetrate still more deeply into things than he can penetrate by the seventh sense? - Yes! He can penetrate into things when things reveal to him, not only, as with the sense of warmth, what they are filled with, but they also reveal to him what they are in their interiority. And this they reveal to him, when they begin to resound.

Heat is equally distributed in things. Sound causes things to throb; through it we perceive the inner mobility of things. If we strike a thing, it reveals to us in sound its interiority. And we distinguish things according to their inner nature, how they can vibrate and throb inwardly, when we let their sound act upon us. the soul of things speaking to our own soul in their sounds. This is the eighth sense, the sense of hearing.

Besides these are there perhaps other higher senses? If we wish to investigate this question, we must proceed with greater circumspection. We must not exchange what is really a sense, with other things and with other expressions. In ordinary life, for example, where one remains down and usually confuses everything - one usually speaks of an imitative sense, of a concealed sense and the like. This is incorrect. A sense comes into activity, when we form an opinion without our intelligence having yet come into action. We speak here of a sense only when our ability to judge has not yet come into action. To perceive a colour, you need a sense; to judge between two colours, you need no sense.

Thus we come to a ninth sense. We find, if we reflect, that there is undoubtedly in man a perceptive capacity, which is of very special importance for the foundation of anthroposophy; a perceptive capacity which does not rest on judgment, but nevertheless exists in it. This is what we perceive when we communicate with our fellow human beings through speech. At the basis of the perception of what is transmitted by speech there is a true sense: the sense of language. This is the ninth sense.

The child, before it learns to judge, learns language. The whole people possess language - judging is for the individual, but that which speaks to the sense is not subject to the animic activity of the individual. The perception that an articulated sound means this or that is not a mere hearing - this only palpates to us the inner vibrating of a thing - but rather must give a special meaning to what is expressed in language. Therefore the child learns to speak, or at least to understand what is spoken, before he begins to judge. Only through language does he learn to judge. The sense of language is an educator, as are the senses of hearing and sight in early childhood. What the sense perceives cannot be altered, nothing can be spoiled; we perceive a color, but by judgment nothing can be altered or spoiled; and likewise by the sense of language, when we perceive the interiority of the enunciated sound. It is necessary to indicate the sense of language as the ninth sense.

We come now finally to the tenth sense, the highest for ordinary life, the sense of concept. By it man becomes capable of understanding, as if he perceived it, the concept, which is not clothed in the sound of language. In order to be able to judge we must have concepts. If the soul is to move, it must first be able to perceive the concept. For this it needs the sense of the concept, which is precisely a sense in itself, as are the sense of smell and the sense of taste.

I have now enumerated to you ten senses and have not mentioned the sense of touch. But what about the sense of touch? - someone may ask. A way of considering things, which does not possess the spiritual threads, confuses everything. The sense of touch is ordinarily understood with our seventh sense, the sense of warmth. But only in this respect, as a sense of warmth, does it have any significance. Certainly, the skin can be referred to as the organ of this sense of warmth - the skin, which also exists as an organ for this sense of touch. But we do not only feel when we touch an object superficially, we also feel when we look for something with our eyes, we feel when we taste something with our tongue, we feel when we smell something with our nose. Touching is a common quality of the senses and from the fourth to the seventh sense", they are all "senses of touch". Up to the sense of heat we can speak of feeling. With the sense of hearing the possibility of feeling ends, the possibility of speaking of it as a sense of the key ends, it exists there only to a minimum degree, it does not exist at all in the sense of language and in the sense of the concept. Let us therefore designate these three senses as senses of understanding and understanding. The first three senses inform us of human interiority; when we come to the boundary between the inner and outer worlds, the fourth sense leads us first into this outer world, into which we penetrate more and more; with the key-senses we perceive the outer world at its surface; with the senses of understanding we learn to know things, we arrive at the soul of them. Are these ten senses the only ones - or are there still others above or below? Of these higher senses we shall speak later.

Below the sense of smell, therefore, there are three other senses, which draw their communications from the very interiority of man. Then first the sense of smell leads us into the outer world. Thus we penetrate deeper and deeper into the outer world. But those which I have so far described to you are not yet all the senses; there is still something below and above them. What I have indicated to you is but a part from the whole, there is still something below and above. From the sense of the concept we can ascend to a first astral sense rc" and we would arrive at the senses that penetrate into spirituality; we would thus find an eleventh, a twelfth and a thirteenth sense. These three astral senses will lead us still deeper into the substrata of outer things; they lead us where the concept does not reach. The concept stops before the external; the sense of smell stops before the internal.

This serves as a basis for the knowledge of men; it is absolutely necessary. For, because it was forgotten in the tenth century, everything has been swept into indescribable confusion as much in philosophy as in the theory of knowledge. It is said in general, What can man know with the individual senses? and one cannot even point out the difference between the sense of hearing and the sense of sight. We speak of light waves as we speak of sound waves, without taking into account that the sense of sight does not penetrate as deeply as the sense of hearing. We ascend into the animic nature of things through the sense of hearing. And we shall see that by means of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth sense we penetrate also into the spirit of things, into the spirit of, nature. Each sense has a different nature and entity.

A great number of considerations, therefore, which are nowadays made about the nature of the sense of sight and its relation to the surrounding world, especially by physicists, may be regarded a priori as statements which have not taken into account the nature of the senses. Innumerable errors have been built up on this erroneous appreciation of the nature of the senses. It is necessary to insist on this, because what has been said here cannot possibly accord with popular knowledge. You can read there things written by people who have not even an inkling of the inner nature of the entity of the senses. We must understand, that science, from its point of view, must speak differently, that it must express error, because evolution has taken place in such a way, that the true nature of the senses has been forgotten.

This true nature of the senses is the first chapter of Anthroposophy.

- II CONFERENCE - SUPERSENSITIVE ACTIVITIES IN HUMAN SENSORY PROCESSES

In the First Lecture on Anthroposophy we only enumerated the human senses as they result from the human entity itself. We did not confuse them, as inevitably happens in external physiology, because it does not know the relationships between them. Rather, we have enumerated them in a complete series that corresponds to the human entity.

Today it is incumbent upon us to examine with greater exactitude the field of the human senses, for it will be of capital importance to us for the further study of the human entity.

We began with the sense we call the sense of life, the feeling of life, the vital sense. On what, in the true spiritual meaning of the term, is this sense of life based? It will be necessary to descend very deeply into the subconsciousness, into the innermost substrata of the human organism, if we want to form an idea of that from which the sense of life springs. In this respect, through scientific spiritual investigation, a special cooperation of the physical and etheric bodies is revealed to us. The lowest limb of the human being, the physical body, and the second limb, the etheric body, enter into a certain reciprocal relationship, by virtue of which something new arises in the etheric body, which in a certain way settles in the etheric body and permeates it. The etheric body is permeated, pervaded by something which man does not at present know consciously at all. That which thus permeates the etheric body, pervades it, as water permeates the sponge. Occult Science is able to tell what really acts in this way in the etheric body: that which acts already corresponds to what man will develop in the very distant future as Spirit-Man or Atma. Man does not yet possess this Atma of his own; it has yet to be, as it were, lent to him by the external spiritual world without his own participation in it. Later, in the distant future, man will have developed it within himself. t is therefore the Man-Spirit, or the Atma, that which permeates the etheric body; in the present state of man's evolution it is, in a certain sense, a superhuman entity which pervades him.

How is this Atma expressed? This superhumanity is expressed in the fact, that this Atma, or Spirit-Man, concentrates the etheric body, contracts it in a certain way. If we wish to make use of some image of the outer world of the senses we may compare this process to the icy action of cold, which contracts the physical body. This process will once have been very beneficial to man; but at present he is not yet ripe for it, and is therefore in a certain sense annihilated. The result is that the astrality in man is pushed out, squeezed out. Inasmuch as the etheric body is compressed, the physical body also enters into a state of tension. By means of this the astral body is pushed out. One can represent this process in a way as if a sponge were being squeezed out. The processes in the astral body are now all experiences of feeling (pleasure, sorrow, joy, pain). This process of being squeezed out is now manifested to the feeling as the meaning of life. This is the process in the astral body. It manifests itself as feeling of freedom, feeling of strength, or as exhaustion.

Now let us go up one step further. As a second sense we have mentioned the sense of self-movement. In this case another principle acts in turn in the etheric body of man, which, however, man himself, in a certain sense, does not yet have. It is not yet consciously processed today, but flows into man from the spiritual world. The etheric body is also impregnated here like a sponge with water. But what pervades him now is the Vital Spirit (Buddhi), which will fill him in the future, but which now, in a certain way, is given to him temporarily by the Vital Spirit of the world. It acts differently from the Atma; just as a state of equilibrium arises in still water, so it brings about an equilibrium, a state of equilibrium in the etheric body and the physical body, and consequently also in the astral body. The effect of this state consists in the fact, that if this equilibrium is disturbed, it can reestablish itself. If, for example, we extend an arm and by means of this change of position disturb the equilibrium, it happens that, since the astral body is in equilibrium, it is

immediately restores the disturbed equilibrium. As we extend our arm, the astral current flows in the direction opposite to that in which the arm is extended, and restores the balance. Whenever a physical change of position occurs, for example, if we squint, the astral current moves in the opposite direction through the organism. In this inwardly experienced process of an equilibrium in the astral body the sense of self-motion is manifested.

We come now to a third element which may pervade the etheric body of man. Even of this third element man, nowadays, is aware of only a very small part, that is, of the Manas or spiritual self. But since it is now the duty of man, because it is his earthly mission, to develop the Manas, it acts on the etheric body differently from the Atma and Buddhi, which will be developed only in the distant future. Manas acts in such a way that it stretches the etheric body. The result is that the opposite happens to that which in the vital sense has been designated as icy.