The Rudolf Steiner Archive

93. The Human Journey Through the Worlds of the Senses, the Soul, and the Spirit

[ 1 ] On Friday evening, in the packed small hall of the Gewerbehaus, the well-known scientist Dr. Rudolf Steiner—one of the most ardent advocates in the debate between theosophy and the modern worldview—spoke on the topic: “The Human Cycle Through the Worlds of the Senses, the Soul, and the Spirit.” The speaker briefly summarized the content of his last lecture, as it was necessary for a proper understanding of this new and profoundly significant topic. Theosophy has now been an established part of our time for well over a decade. Even if spiritual researchers today are still to be regarded as martyrs for their convictions—just like the greatest scientists of antiquity and the Middle Ages—this is by no means proof that theosophy must simply be dismissed as fantasy. If humanity has evolved to its present stage, why should it stop here? Spiritual research demonstrates the possibility of reviving all those waning spiritual powers to new life. The true spiritual researcher must possess a strong will and be able to shield himself from external influences. Then he would constantly experience something new: he would learn to see with his soul. Today’s lecture was intended merely to present a small chapter from the world of the seer—from research into the spiritual realm—in the form of a simple narrative. The subject matter was too vast to be covered in a single evening. He now wished to elaborate on the four significant concepts: “waking, sleeping, life, and death.” Sleep is rightly called the brother of death: while the forces of physical life are suspended except for a small portion, the astral or spiritual body draws new strength from the spiritual realm. To the seer’s eye, the individual consists of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I.” The interaction between waking and sleeping can also be explained in terms of these four aspects: The physical and etheric bodies sleep, while the “I,” together with its astral body, emerges from them, only to re-enter the physical body upon awakening in the morning. Spiritual science explains the problems of death and life in a similar way. In death, something different occurs than in sleep: the physical body remains behind alone, while the etheric body, the astral body, and the “I” remain together. Immediately after death, two facts can be observed: the person feels as if their soul-being were growing out of them, and they plunge into a world previously only imagined. The second fact is that immediately after death, a powerful flashback occurs, and the entire life passes before the spiritual eye like a kaleidoscope. After death, the etheric body remains behind in the spirit world as a corpse, while the astral body and the “I,” as it were its essence, pass over into the soul world. The next life is different from the previous one: thus, only the astral body and the “I,” along with the final impressions of the etheric body, come into play. This is followed by the so-called Kamaloka, or period of suffering; for the astral body, too, possesses the same desires—once again, earthly ones. It lacks only the physical instruments for their satisfaction. After overcoming these desires—which, of course, manifest differently from person to person—it passes into the spiritual world. One has freed oneself from the desires and pleasures of the physical body. In the physical world we are the recipients; in the spiritual world, however, we are the creators. Later, the need to return to the physical world once again arises within the “I,” and this return—along with the realization of the fruits of the previous life—is absorbed into another human organism in the process of formation. Theosophy calls this process the law of reincarnation, of repeated earthly life. If one asks why the memory of past lifetimes has disappeared, one must answer that humanity is not yet ready for this task: for the spiritual researcher, the seer, the memory lies there like an open book. – A question-and-answer session followed the lecture.