The Rudolf Steiner Archive

66. The Origin of Man

[ 1 ] The Secretary-General of the Theosophical Society in Germany, writer Dr. Rudolf Steiner of Berlin, delivered two more theosophical lectures to a select audience in the Prinzensaal of Café Luitpold. This time, he sought to expound on the theosophical teachings concerning the human race. In the first lecture, he addressed the topic “The Origin of Man.” He began by emphasizing that, in this regard as well, Theosophy in no way seeks to oppose scientific research. As far as the physical development of humankind is concerned, it fully accepts the findings of scientific progress. However, it endorses the latest school of thought that is working on a further development of the Darwinian theory of evolution. Accordingly, we find in theosophical literature the view that, alongside the physical course of development, a psychological and spiritual one must also be taken into account, along with the effort to gain a deeper understanding of this. Already in Blavatsky’s major work, The Secret Doctrine, an attempt was made to shed more light on the views of Indian philosophers and mystics regarding anthropogenesis—views that, admittedly, are still often met with skeptical reserve. According to these views—the basic tenets of which the speaker sought to outline—the evolutionary history of the human being leads us back to the universal divine Being. In its bosom, in the bosom of the World Spirit, humanity has its origin as an individual spiritual reality, initially slumbering, as it were, unconsciously (of its individual existence), then gradually progressing there through the process of psychological development, advancing ever further toward full, clear consciousness as an individual being in the external world, in accordance with the possibility of organizing a suitable physical body within the densest aggregate states of matter. Redner believes he can discern an image of this psychological development in the state of the human soul during sleep; dream sleep corresponds to imperfect consciousness, while dreamless deep sleep corresponds to the original state of being, unaware of individual existence. The “Esoteric Teaching,” as Redner also mentioned in his discussions, aims to shed light on the fact that the evolutionary process of the human race took place long ago on vanished continents—first the so-called Lemurian continent, then the Atlantean continent.