The Rudolf Steiner Archive

50. Clairvoyance: The Subconscious and the Superconscious

[ 1 ] Goethe spoke these words from the depths of a soul striving for an understanding of the world:

Mysterious in broad daylight
Nature cannot be stripped of its veil.
And what it chooses not to reveal to your mind,
You cannot force it out with levers and screws.

[ 2 ] And many things that took place in the field of science after his time would have led him to say: ... you can’t force that out of her with microscopes and telescopes. — This statement did not spring from a lack of confidence in knowledge; it arose from a mindset that refused to accept only the material world. From his youth to his old age, he held fast to what he says in *Faust*:

The spirit world is not closed off;
Your mind is closed, your heart is dead!
Arise! Bathe, disciple, undaunted
Your earthly breast in the morning glow!

[ 3 ] And so, here—as in the sentence mentioned earlier—he did not mean to say that human beings cannot penetrate the mystery of existence, but rather to point out that the human spirit itself, in its development, is capable of what instruments cannot do; that the human spirit is capable of ascending from one level to the next.

[ 4 ] The question of how the human spirit is capable of this can only be answered through an understanding of the mysteries of our consciousness. Consciousness, as humans experience it today, relates to those other forms of consciousness that exist and that stand in such a relationship to today’s normal consciousness that they, so to speak, cast and lead people into dark depths, while at the same time raising them up to the summit of knowledge.

[ 5 ] Let us ponder this question today: Is there only “normal” consciousness, or are there other forms of consciousness—and thus the possibility of delving into the causes of our existence? Today we will examine the relationship between these forms of consciousness from a particular perspective. What the term “clairvoyance” encompasses is something that is unpopular and contested in our present age. People who are willing to accept only “normal” consciousness will regard everything that is said on this subject as folly and fantasy.

[ 6 ] This is based on nothing other than a lack of understanding of the nature of human consciousness; one must say that it is the common, deep-seated ignorance of the facts that speaks in this way. And it must not go unmentioned that one would wish for what is called “clairvoyance” in the spiritual-scientific sense to become known to those who speak of it, who know very little about it, and who eagerly strive for it. They have a completely false conception of clairvoyance. Therefore, we must speak of that clairvoyance which lies beneath our normal consciousness and which also draws the human being out from beneath normal consciousness. And by way of comparison, we must discuss what clairvoyance is in the spiritual-scientific sense and [how] it leads beyond normal consciousness. One can understand this only by bringing to mind what has often been said about human nature, about the visible and invisible aspects of the human being.

[ 7 ] Spiritual science does not have it as easy in understanding human beings as the external science that is bound to sensory matter. The latter regards the human being only as the outer, physical part; it speaks of the physical human body. Within this physical human body, the consciousness we will discuss shortly perceives the invisible, supersensible human bodies. [Is it] not [the case] that ordinary human reason could find sufficient grounds for the existence of these bodies if it would only say to itself the following: I wake up every morning; during the night, my normal consciousness is plunged into darkness and gloom. In the morning, beings from the most diverse realms of nature enter the field of vision of consciousness; everything that was there yesterday rises back into consciousness.

[ 8 ] Now everyone should tell themselves: If it weren’t so absurd, whatever fills the field of consciousness would have to disappear in the evening and reappear in the morning. One would have to say to oneself: Existence must have vanished during the night. — Spiritual science tells us that human beings also have an astral body, which is the carrier of pleasure and joy, of instincts and desires, and so on. To the clairvoyant consciousness, the astral body leaves the physical body when we fall asleep. Why do we have no impressions at night? Because it is in the spiritual world and because we have no organs for perceiving that world. Just imagine if the following were to happen in the physical body: The eyes would disappear; the ears would cease to hear; you would have no sound, no color around you. Similarly, you could imagine the other senses gradually fading away. This is the state of the astral body at night, because it has not developed any organs in the course of human evolution; in the morning, it makes use of the organs of the physical body. Thus we recognize in it one of the invisible members.

[ 9 ] Between the astral body and the physical body lies a second link: the etheric body. During the period between birth and death, it fights against the decay of the physical body. And then, when the human physical body has become a corpse, it is governed solely by physical and chemical forces, because the etheric body departs at death along with the astral body. Sleep is a separation from the astral body; the physical body and the etheric body remain in bed at night.

[ 10 ] Then we distinguish a fourth component: the “I,” through which a human being can attain self-awareness. Thus, we view the human being as a composite of the physical body and three invisible components: the etheric body, the astral body, and the I.

[ 11 ] Only when we consider the human being as a whole can we form a conception of the levels of consciousness. There is just one thing we must be clear about: How are we to view the different members? Once upon a time, the physical body was of a spiritual nature; it separated itself, just as ice separates from water. And the etheric body is, so to speak, a slightly denser spirit; the astral body is even less dense; and the I-bearer is an even less dense spirit. That is why we also call the “I” that which is the “divine spark” or “drop.” Through the human being’s gradual development, he has only now become an “I-bearer” and has awakened to self-consciousness.

[ 12 ] If we were to go back, we would find the first rudiment of the physical body. Then, as it were, as the physical body became denser, the etheric body emerged. Later still came the astral body, and even later, the “I.” It is only through this process that human beings have attained their normal consciousness, through which we perceive external objects.

[ 13 ] This consciousness was not always present; it is a product of evolution. If we were to go back in time, we would find that human beings were beings consisting of a physical body, an etheric body, and an astral body. In that distant past, human beings did not possess the consciousness we have today; they had a completely different kind of consciousness, one that lies one level lower. We can call this consciousness, in relation to today’s, an “imagery consciousness.” We can study this consciousness only by restoring it to a higher degree. At that time, human beings could not perceive objects in the external world. Imagine, for instance, that an object is nearby that has a certain taste. Today, a person must use the sense of taste—through the tongue—to gain knowledge of it; they perceive from the outside what the object is. Image consciousness cannot perceive such an external object; an image arises, and this image is a symbol of the taste that the external object possesses. Or one approaches an object that would glow to modern consciousness; image consciousness does not see this; but through a mysterious bond between the soul and the body, an image arises once more.

[ 14 ] And so we may say that such a consciousness consists of images that ebb and flow—images that are closely connected to our present-day conceptions, except that they are symbols; our present-day conceptions are merely photographic representations. What the astral body experiences is a consciousness of images. In fact, if modern human beings could erase their “sense of self,” they would plunge into the sea of astral images. They would experience these ebbing and flowing images in the astral body. We can thus characterize our present-day consciousness through a comparison. Imagine a being that lives in the sea for a certain time, remaining only at specific depths. It knows the animals and plants embedded in the sea, but it never looks up at the sky. This is roughly how we must imagine human consciousness. Human beings emerge from a sea of astral images, and self-consciousness is kindled by the external world. This self-consciousness could never have developed had they remained in the sea of the astral; but it is only through the presence of objects in the external world that self-consciousness is kindled.

[ 15 ] In this way, we have pointed to a certain level of consciousness that lies below our present-day, ordinary sense of self—a level from which humanity has evolved. If we were to go even further back, we would find a human being who did not yet possess an astral body. And so we could say that image consciousness evolved out of an “etheric image consciousness.” If one were to descend that far, one would perceive a consciousness that differs fundamentally from what modern humans know as consciousness; but you can form an idea from what has been said today: in what remains behind when we lie in bed at night, there lies the etheric consciousness. And our astral consciousness is submerged in the sea of the astral.

[ 16 ] Now, we shouldn’t imagine extreme opposites here, but rather differences in degree. We shouldn’t think that sleep consciousness is the opposite of our present-day consciousness; imagine that you are familiar with something similar even within our waking consciousness. When you walk down a street, it may happen that you say to yourself: Didn’t I just see something? — You didn’t pay any attention to it. That is a lower level of consciousness. There is only a more dulled consciousness present in what remains while you are in bed. Plants have this sleep consciousness continuously—they are sleeping beings.

[ 17 ] And we can descend even further; we can enter the physical body and reach the mineral level of consciousness. This is the level of consciousness in which the entire mineral world lives. Thus, we have listed four levels: the mineral, the plant, the animal, and the human levels of consciousness. There are thus three levels of consciousness that lie beneath our everyday, normal consciousness. Human beings passed through these three levels in ancient times.

[ 18 ] Today, indeed, human beings are sometimes able to rekindle within themselves the last remnants of ancient stages of consciousness. There are also such vestiges in the physical world—for example, the auricles are an atavistic remnant; likewise, certain states of consciousness, commonly referred to as clairvoyant states, are vestiges of ancient stages of development, but they are not the true ones in the sense of spiritual science; they are merely ancient vestiges that sometimes find their way into our present-day consciousness.

[ 19 ] Human beings possess two very different kinds of such inherited traits, which manifest themselves in entirely different ways. One is that which encompasses the world of dreams. What a person experiences in a dream is not perception as it is experienced by waking consciousness. They are images of external events. You need only imagine characteristic dreams. Let us take one such dream as an example: A young man dreams that the vault of heaven opened before him, and a number of radiant beings emerged—he wakes up and sees that the morning sun has shone through the window onto the wall. And this radiance of the morning sun was symbolically expressed by the dream, which allowed the experience to rise up in the soul as an image. Here you have an imagery experience. That is why the dream is a legacy from that time when human beings had inner soul experiences whose form was bound to external objects. If, for example, one sees a symbol with an ugly color in astral consciousness, one knows that a harmful object is nearby. The consciousness of objects, which has not yet been awakened, does not see the object itself but only an image, so that one could adjust one’s actions accordingly.

[ 20 ] Dream images are merely a remnant, but since they vary in their degree of accuracy, a dream may sometimes “shine with the realization that it actually corresponds to a real event that appears symbolically.” Let’s take the case of a person who dreams of the Kiau-tschau colony, sitting in a gathering where the name Kiau-tschau keeps coming up. He wakes up and sees that a cat has sneaked into his room, meowing. In fact, the dream is just such a random fantasy.

[ 21 ] If one studies the dream in this way, one will see that the dream consists of lines of life that have been preserved, but that it mixes these lines with the utmost arbitrariness, interweaving certain interests of the day into them. An example of such an intermingling of interests is when a prominent philosopher dreams the following. The poem lived in his soul:

Do you want to wander far away,
When the good things are so close at hand,
Just learn to seize happiness,
For happiness is always there.

[ 22 ] And he dreams:

Do you want to wander far away?
Look, the money is right there.
Just learn to grab the money,
Because the money is always there.

[ 23 ] You can see how the dream, springing from the wellspring of inner imagination, deals arbitrarily with what it has experienced—the structure of Goethe’s poem, for example.

[ 24 ] If we were to pursue this, we would experience a descent into an earlier state of consciousness. All of our ideas can be symbolized in this way. Imagine you are lying in bed; you push your feet against the lower edge of the bed and then let them go. The dream symbolizes this: the feet are set free, and flight ensues. What causes the dream? It is caused by the fact that what happens when a person sinks into dreamless sleep does not occur completely.

[ 25 ] It is possible that the astral body has already left the physical body but has not yet left the etheric body; this is particularly the case when waking up and falling asleep. Then the astral experiences are reflected, and dream experiences arise. The dream stands on its own; it is truly a last remnant of old, overcome states of consciousness.

[ 26 ] The situation is different with other states of “abnormal consciousness” that can develop in humans in a certain sense. Because the person becomes immersed in the astral realm—thereby, in a certain sense, relinquishing their full self-awareness—this gives rise to states of the subconscious that are entirely different from those in a normal dream. What a person calls their “I”—their healthy thinking—must be attuned downward in order to distinguish itself clearly from what is in the external world. Every time a person’s true “I” is subdued—when the person no longer feels: “Here I stand”—it is as if the person were diving beneath the surface of the astral sea. Then what might be called the subconscious approaches them.

[ 27 ] There are three forms of the subconscious: what is called a hunch, what is called a vision, and then second sight. These are three different forms of the subconscious. It is natural that when a person subdues their ego, they enter into a more intimate connection—in a certain sense—with all the threads that bind nature together than they would otherwise. When we elevate our ordinary sense of self, we must content ourselves with seeing only a part of the realm; we are always confined to such a limited sphere, and what an effort it takes to trace the connecting threads of nature. In a limited state of consciousness—which is the work of our “I” itself when we subdue it, when we curb our faculties, when we allow our reason to fall silent—we descend into our astral body, and this body is bound by many intimate threads to that which lives in the astral realm. There, the usual connections of space and time cease. There, we suppress all these concepts.

[ 28 ] Due to the entirely different concepts of space and time, it can happen—as it does in a premonition—that time is transcended. At the slightest descent, what one might call “dark feeling” first arises; this stems from the currents flowing beneath the surface, which one gently senses when descending into the astral world. If one descends deeper, then—just as was the case with astral consciousness—the experiences take shape as very specific images, and a vision appears. We are then in the world of causes, in the world of primordial sources. Beings that are invisible to the physical eye then appear. We come to know such beings, and the visions are often the sensory expression of beings that lie beyond the sensory world.

[ 29 ] In this way, we can indeed encounter those beings—who may also be human souls—that are present. This enters our consciousness when we dive down into the depths. And we experience the actions of these spiritual beings—what they do, unbound by space and time—through second sight. When we see distant things in the second sight, it is a descent into the depths of consciousness.

[ 30 ] Modern humans cannot plunge into the sea of consciousness without taking with them what they have experienced here on earth. Humans have acquired the habit of viewing animals, plants, and so on in a very specific way. He carries this way of seeing with him and, as it were, superimposes it onto the beings he encounters. The beings he encounters are real, but the images he sees of them are false. What happens is that when he dives in, he sees a being that does not appear in its true form, and he superimposes the images he is accustomed to onto that being. For example, someone enters a trance and believes they are seeing Christ himself. Yet this is a real being from the spiritual world, but he himself has endowed it with the image of Christ. And so what he sees is a mirage of a real being. And because, in fact, people who are not trained clairvoyants cannot know whether they are seeing what they bring with them or what is truth, such people can be quite certain that they are succumbing to the greatest deceptions. Diving down is therefore always accompanied by deception upon deception.

[ 31 ] One can dive even deeper, into the sea of ether, and in doing so, one also takes with one the ability to see things with absolute certainty. One can thus perceive forces, but they will be obscured. If one were to see them clearly, one would see what one might call all-encompassing life. One would, for example, see our Earth as a comprehensive living being. But as it is, people perceive the images to which they have become accustomed in this world, and see all sorts of things that have likely been brought about by spiritual beings; yet the forms perceived by the lower clairvoyant are deceptive. These clairvoyants are what are called “dreamwalkers,” for example, when a person performs actions in a dream with the physical body while the etheric body is in a state of dullness.

[ 32 ] Likewise, what is called “magnetic sleep consciousness” is to be found in this sphere, because it is usually caused by underlying illnesses; Suppose you have a diseased organ; you do not need to be aware of it. There is something abnormal in the person that draws them toward it—especially if another person accelerates the process through stroking, etc.—causing them to become partially conscious in the etheric body. All sorts of events in the spiritual world appear to them in all sorts of illusions. Thus we see that one can descend into various states of consciousness. In esoteric science, these are called the “subconscious.”

[ 33 ] None of the states of consciousness mentioned here are relevant to what is said in the secret science. Some people are eager to shut out their ordinary daily consciousness and descend into other realms. What do they care if these are illusions? They simply want to experience something out of the ordinary; they want to experience spirits. The fact that human beings are spirits is not proof enough for them; they want spirits without any physical manifestation. This is not meant to cast doubt on the truth and reality of these spheres; however, whatever might arise from such states could never be considered authoritative for spiritual science.

[ 34 ] Just as there is a subconscious, there is also a superconscious. This can only be attained through training in the esoteric sciences. This involves the individual learning to manage their ordinary consciousness in the most precise manner. That is why it is always emphasized that what spiritual science perceives from the spheres can be understood only through ordinary human reason. It cannot be emphasized strongly enough that theosophy can be understood through ordinary human reason. Only a trained clairvoyant can see the true form of the spiritual world. But when it is then described—after the clairvoyant has seen it—those who take in these facts, if they are presented in a sensible and thoroughly comprehensive manner, can understand everything, and they can say to themselves: If I do this, I can then test whether all of this can be applied to life. One must preserve common sense as a personal asset. One must repeatedly tell the people who come: First approach the physical world; apply your intellect to these facts and try to grasp them.

[ 35 ] But whose mind is unclouded by the suggestion of so-called scientific facts! One must realize that this is no easy task! Never has the human mind been so limited as it is today. Everyone is content to construct an entire worldview from a few fixed concepts, and when someone comes along who wants to build that structure from the sum of spiritual truths, they say it is folly, fantasy, or something even worse.

[ 36 ] This must be taken into account. Judgment clouded by all manner of suggestions cannot approach the physical world; only unbiased thinking can. Today, people talk a great deal about the “independence of judgment”; they want to be free from authority. They refuse to accept anything they have not examined for themselves; yet they do not ask themselves whether they are even capable of examining everything. What matters is that they want to be independent of any authority and yet remain dependent on a great authority: “They say.” This intangible authority has a tyrannical effect on people. Humanity languishes under it, believing itself to be free from all authority. Thus, everything that constitutes a contemporary judgment takes root; people believe everything that science has established—and no one cares.

[ 37 ] Anyone who is confronted with the realities of the spiritual world must free themselves from this. There, in their ordinary, sound judgment, they have what they need to progress toward the superconscious. Some people come and say: “I used to see all sorts of things, and now everything has disappeared.” — Those who understand will say: “That is good. You are meant to ascend into superconsciousness; the best way to do this is to pass through a sphere of spiritual darkness.” — One can expose oneself to danger if one does not want to. If [a person] delves into the subconscious and all the confusing impressions of the astral world come flooding in, then he may, in a certain sense, experience premonitions, visions, and so on; under certain circumstances, he may even see countless black poodles that are merely deceiving him. That is not what it is about—to see such things. Anyone who is not yet mature enough to have no fear of these fragments of the spiritual world is also not mature enough to ascend into the superconscious. To do so, it is necessary for them to undergo catharsis, or purification. A person must be purified of all subconscious influences if they wish to ascend into the first sphere of the superconscious. There, too, they experience a visual consciousness; but in the same way they live in everyday life. To achieve this, it is necessary to strengthen one’s consciousness and cast out everything from the subconscious. And that is a great deal! You can see this if you recall that in early childhood, many things make their way into you; you have forgotten them in your ego-consciousness, but they are inscribed in your etheric and astral bodies. Certain childhood impressions would resurface every time a person attempts to penetrate a higher state of consciousness and disturb them. In a certain sense, delving down into the spheres of the subconscious is a process of overlaying real facts with images from the real world. Try to take note of the images of such “clairvoyants”; trace them back to a time when there were no railroads or telegraphs yet; wait, and you will not be surprised to find that railroads and telegraphs will play major roles in the “spirit realm.” This is only because the seer carries with them what has become imprinted in the etheric body. Therefore, if one wishes to penetrate unimpeded, it is necessary to cast everything out of the subconscious. One can only achieve this by undergoing, with complete consciousness, what the spiritual-scientific method offers us. This is what the student must practice, what he must experience while immersed in imagination: pictorial visualization that follows the rule:

Everything that is fleeting is merely a parable.

[ 38 ] You will find that in every training program, symbols are presented, such as the Rose Cross, the Caduceus of Hermes, and so on. They take on tremendous significance when a person is led to experience certain facts of the outer world within themselves. One forms a symbol that is not used in the same way as a photographic image of the external world.

[ 39 ] Let me mention this once more in the form of a dialogue between the teacher and the student—this dialogue did not actually take place, but the facts unfold in this way—: Look at a plant; it takes root in the ground and sends up stems, leaves, and flowers. Now compare the human being to the plant. You call him a higher being. You know that the red blood, which makes the human being a higher being, also enables him to develop passions, instincts, and desires, but also the soul world, the higher consciousness. The plant has no desires or instincts; it stands there in pure, lofty chastity. You see, however, that human beings possess a higher consciousness; yet they pay for what is connected to the red blood with passion and desire. And then imagine the lofty ideal that human beings will become like plants; they will have subdued their desires and purified their red blood.

[ 40 ] For human beings, the plant serves as a model; they envision a time when everything that degrades them will have died away, and their blood will be as pure as the sap in a red rose. Imagine this as a symbol in the red rose, and apply Goethe’s words to it:

Until you have that,
This: Die and be reborn!
You are but a gloomy guest
On this dark earth!

[ 41 ] And let us feel the sprouting and budding in the soul, just as we feel the crimson sap in the red rose; let us feel this and allow the image to take effect within us through inner meditation! And this image has a specific effect: it drives out everything that fills the subconscious, and we have taken the first step toward the superconscious.

[ 42 ] Just as I have described the Rosicrucian symbol to you, there are countless other symbols. The student must immerse himself in these and then piece them together in the “occult script,” and through this process he attains, purified and cleansed, an etheric consciousness. Through what we attain via the occult script, we receive what is called inspired consciousness in that which is not bound to space and time; yet we do not see it clouded by the images of everyday life.

[ 43 ] And then there is an even higher level of the superconscious: intuition. — In all these spheres of the superconscious, the human being brings along his full “I-consciousness.” If someone were to say, “You are describing a consciousness that serves no purpose; it does not represent a real world,” someone who understands these matters would reply: “These things exist so that the forces within us may develop—forces that liberate the astral body and the etheric body from the physical body—and as this happens, we learn to gaze into the spiritual world while remaining fully conscious of our ‘I.’”

[ 44 ] There is no danger whatsoever associated with this path; nothing can happen to us along the way; it is safe if we follow it with patience and perseverance. If one goes into hiding, if one suppresses the ego, there is a danger; we fall prey to the passions that reside in the astral realm, and ultimately, one can lose one’s mind, whereas one becomes increasingly intelligent as one ascends into the superconscious. Hence the strong emphasis that the path to the superconscious leads through daytime self-awareness. Anyone who finds it too tedious or too inconvenient to proceed through the study of the physical realm will often pay for what they have sought through their greed with the loss of their sanity.

[ 45 ] Thus we see that there are steps that lead upward and steps that lead downward. The former lead into true clairvoyant states; they lead to where the “I” finds itself amidst the actions of spiritual beings [in inspiration] and, ultimately, where it is spirit among spirits [in intuition]. Nothing less is achieved than the liberation of the purified part of the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body. One must certainly accept certain things in this process; for example, when a person liberates their etheric body, they may find their memory fading for a time, because memory is attached to the etheric body. If a person draws it out in part so that they can use it, their memory fades. However, it is later amply restored—albeit in a different form. And the qualities and faculties of consciousness are lost for a time; even self-awareness takes on a different form. Like a wanderer who feels lonely, the person goes on their way. As they ascend further, ordinary memory fades and a certain insight into past events arises.

[ 46 ] Those who embark on the proper training must possess composure and perseverance. They must set out on this path with courage and boldness; in return, they will be rewarded with the great blessing of gaining insight into the spiritual world, where the powers lie that enable one to master the physical world. A time will come when only those who can recognize the spiritual forces lying behind the physical world and put them to good use will be regarded as practical people. This leads us into the spiritual world while fully maintaining our self-awareness. It is not instruments, telescopes, and microscopes—which merely explain the veil of nature—but the spirit alone that leads us into nature.

Mysterious in broad daylight

Nature cannot be stripped of its veil.

And what it chooses not to reveal to your mind,

You cannot force from it with levers and screws.

[ 47 ] If nature is to meet us halfway, we must meet it halfway by developing our consciousness into superconsciousness. Then human beings will live out what Goethe described in the words he puts into the mouth of the sage:

[ 48 ] The spirit world is not closed off; your mind is closed, your heart is dead! Arise! Bathe, disciple, undaunted

[ 49 ] The earthly breast in the morning glow!