The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Lecture III

[ 1 ] There are three things in evolution that must be distinguished: form, life, and consciousness. Today we want to talk about forms of consciousness.

[ 2 ] We can view plants and lower animals as if higher beings were extending their senses into the world through them in order to observe the world through them. Let us begin by considering the sensory organs of plants. When speaking of the sensory organs of plants, one must be clear that one is dealing not only with the sensory organs of individual plants, but with beings in higher worlds. Plants are, as it were, merely the antennae that the higher beings extend. The higher beings gather information through the plants.

[ 3 ] All plants have cells containing starch granules, particularly at the root tips but also in other locations. Even in plants that do not otherwise contain starch, these starch granules are found at the root tip. The lily family, for example, which otherwise contains no starch, has these starch grains in the cells at the root tip. These starch grains are loose and mobile, and it depends on whether the grains are located in one place or another.

[ 4 ] As soon as the plant tilts slightly, one starch grain falls to the other side. The plant cannot tolerate this. It then tilts back so that the starch grains end up in the correct position. Specifically, these starch grains are arranged symmetrically relative to the Earth’s line of gravity. The plant grows upright because it senses the direction of gravity. The starch grains sense gravity. By observing the starch grains at the root tips, we discover a kind of sensory organ. For the plant, it is the sense of gravity. This sense belongs not only to the plant but to the soul of the entire Earth, which, through this sense, causes the whole plant to grow.

[ 5 ] This has, first of all, a fundamental significance. The plant aligns itself with gravity. If one now takes a wheel—for example, a waterwheel—into which plants can be placed, and turns the wheel along with the plants, another force is added to gravity: the force of rotation. This force is then present at every point on the plants, and the plant’s roots and stems grow in the direction of the wheel’s tangent—that is, in the direction of the tangential force—rather than in the direction of gravity. The starch grains also align themselves accordingly.

[ 6 ] Let’s now take a look at the human ear. First, we have the external auditory canal, then the eardrum, and in the inner ear, the ossicles: the malleus, incus, and stapes—tiny little bones. Hearing works because these tiny bones cause the other structures to vibrate. Further inside, we find three semicircular, membranous canals arranged in the three dimensions. These are filled with fluid. Then, deeper inside the ear, we find the labyrinth, a spiral-shaped structure filled with very fine hair cells. Each one is tuned to a specific pitch, much like a piano string. The labyrinth is connected to the auditory nerve, which leads to the brain.

[ 7 ] We are primarily interested in the three semicircular canals. They are oriented relative to one another in the three directions of space. They are filled with structures similar to the starch grains in plants—the otoliths. If these are destroyed, a person cannot maintain an upright posture or walk upright. When a person faints, the rush of blood to the head can disrupt the organism within these three canals. The human sense of orientation is based on the three semicircular canals. This is the same sense that, in plants, functions as the sense of balance at the tip of the root. What is located there at the tip of the root is developed at the top of the head in humans.

[ 8 ] When one surveys the entire course of evolution—plants, animals, and humans—one finds certain relationships between them. The plant is the human in reverse. The animal stands right in the middle. The plant has sunk its roots into the ground and directs its sexual organs upward toward the sun. If you turn the plant halfway over, you have the animal. If you turn it completely over, you have the human. This is the original meaning of the sign of the cross: the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom. The plant sinks its roots into the ground. The animal is the plant turned halfway upside down. The human is the plant turned completely upside down. That is why Plato says: The world soul is stretched across the cross of the world body.

[ 9 ] In plants, the organ of direction is located at the tip of the root; in humans, it is in the head. What the head is to humans, the root is to plants. The reason why, in humans, the sense of direction is connected to the sense of hearing is that the sense of hearing is the sense that elevates humans into a higher realm. The final ability that humans have attained is the ability to speak. Speaking, in turn, is connected to upright walking, which would not be possible without the sense of direction or balance. The sound that humans produce through speech is the active complement to passive hearing. What is merely a sense of orientation in plants has become the sense of hearing in humans, which carries within it the ancient sense of orientation in the three semicircular canals that are oriented according to the three spatial dimensions.

[ 10 ] Every being has a consciousness. Even plants have such a consciousness; but this consciousness exists on the Devachan plane, on the mental plane. If one were to depict the consciousness of a plant, one would have to draw it as follows:

[ 11 ] The plant can also answer our questions; we just have to learn to observe it on the mental plane. There, the plant tells us its own name.

[ 12 ] In human beings, consciousness extends down to the physical plane. Human consciousness here is connected to the same organ by which a plant is anchored in the earth. We only truly come to know a human being when we see how he produces speech and utters the word “I” within it. This “I” is rooted on the mental plane. Without the ability to speak the little word “I,” we might well mistake the human form for that of an animal.

[ 13 ] The plant is rooted in the mental plane, and it is precisely through the organ of hearing that human beings become inhabitants of the mental plane. That is why we associate the notion “it thinks” with language. The ear is a higher development of the sense of direction. Because human beings turned away from the plant and then turned toward the spirit, they retain in the organ of hearing the ancient remnant of the sense of direction. They set their own course. There are thus two opposing types of consciousness: the consciousness of the plant on the mental plane and the consciousness of human beings here, who carry their being down from the mental world into the physical world. This earthly consciousness of human beings is called the kama-manasic consciousness.

[ 14 ] Each of our sense organs also has its own consciousness. These various forms of consciousness—the consciousness of what is visible, audible, odorous, and so on—are brought together in the soul. Consciousness becomes “manasic” only when the individual forms of consciousness are synthesized in the center of the soul. Without this unification, human beings would disintegrate into the consciousnesses of their individual organs. These were originally developed by the solar plexus, through the sympathetic nervous system. When human beings themselves were still a kind of plant, they did not yet possess consciousness on the physical plane. It was the higher consciousness that first formed the organs.

[ 15 ] In a deep trance, the central consciousness falls silent. Then the individual organs become conscious, and the person begins to see with the pit of the stomach, with the solar plexus. The seeress of Prevorst possessed such a consciousness. She describes actual figures of light, which, however, are observed only by the organ consciousness. The lowest level of consciousness is that of the mineral. A somewhat more centered consciousness, somewhat more similar to the consciousness of modern humans, is the astral consciousness. The fact that consciousness has developed throughout the entire astral body finds its expression in the spinal cord. There, the human being perceives the world in a manner analogous to dream images. Only people whose physical brain is not active possess such a consciousness. Idiots, for example, see the world in images; their inner life is analogous to the life of dreams. They can only say that they know nothing of what is happening around them. Other beings in the world also possess a similar consciousness.

[ 16 ] When a person develops astral consciousness to the point where they experience dreams consciously, they can do the following: Let us assume we are able to cultivate this consciousness and then place ourselves in front of the Venus flytrap. If we look at it long enough and let it work on us entirely on its own, then at a certain moment we get the feeling that the center of our consciousness is sinking down from the head and creeping into the plant. One is then consciously within the plant and sees the world through the plant. One must transfer one’s consciousness into the plant. Then one becomes aware of what the soul life within this being is like. One then experiences this soul. In a sensitive plant, consciousness is very similar to that of an idiot; it is not merely mental consciousness. It has brought consciousness down to the astral plane. There are therefore two kinds of plants: those that are conscious only on the mental plane, and those that are also conscious on the astral plane.

[ 17 ] Certain animal species also possess consciousness on the astral plane, which is also the plane of idiotic consciousness. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky specifically points to Indian nocturnal insects, such as moths. For example, spiders also possess astral consciousness; the delicate spiderwebs are actually spun from the astral plane. Spiders are merely the instruments of astral activity. The threads are spun from the astral plane. Ants, too, much like spiders, possess consciousness on the astral plane. That is where the anthill has its soul. This is why the ants’ actions are so orderly.

[ 18 ] Minerals also possess consciousness. This exists on the higher mental plane, at levels higher than that of plants. Blavatsky calls it kama-pranic consciousness. Humans can later attain this consciousness as well while maintaining their current state of consciousness. He will then no longer need to enter a physical body or be reincarnated. The stones are down on the physical plane, and their consciousness is in the upper regions of the mental plane. From above, it directs the crystals. Once a human being is able to raise his consciousness up there, he will form his own physical body from the minerals of the world.

[ 19 ] The three parts of the brain must later be completely separated (thinking, feeling, willing). Human consciousness must rule over the brain, just as higher consciousness rules over an anthill. Just as one can distinguish between workers, males, and females in an ant colony, so too will a precise division into three parts later take place within the brain. Then, human beings will be planetary spirits, creators who bring things into being themselves. Just as the Earth spirit builds the Earth’s crust, so too will human beings build a planet. To do this, they must possess a kama-pranic consciousness. Today, humans possess only a kama-manasic consciousness. This consists of the organ consciousness being permeated and interwoven with the mind (manas). As Blavatsky says, consciousness is rationalized. The process of rationalization takes place from the animal to the human. Mere organ consciousness can recognize the goals but does not know the means to achieve them. Rationalized consciousness can direct the means. Blavatsky says quite correctly: “For example, a dog locked in a room has the instinct to get out, but it cannot because its instinct has not become sufficiently rational to employ the necessary means, whereas a human being immediately grasps the situation and frees himself.”

[ 20 ] We therefore follow Blavatsky in distinguishing:

1. The organ consciousness possessed by our organs.
2. The astral consciousness of animals, certain plants, and also of the mentally disabled.
3. The kama-pranic consciousness of stones, which humans also acquire later in life.
4. The kama-manasic consciousness, the mental aspect.

[ 21 ] This is how one must analyze the cross of existence in this world.

[ 22 ] The true meaning of the cross lies at an infinite depth. Even the ancient legends are images drawn from such depths. The legends rendered a great service to the human soul as long as people in the past were able to understand the truths of the legends intuitively. For example, there is the ancient legend of the Sphinx. The Sphinx posed the riddle: In the morning it walks on four, at noon on two, and in the evening on three? What is it? — It is man! At first, in the dawn of the Earth, man walked on four, in his animal state. At that time, the front limbs were still organs of movement. Then he stood upright. The limbs diverged into two types, and the organs divided into the physical-sensory and the spiritual organs. He then walked on two. In the distant future, the lower limbs and the right hand will fall away. Only the left hand and the two-petaled lotus flower will remain. Then he will walk on three. That is why the volcano limps. His legs are in the process of atrophy; they are ceasing to be anything. At the end of evolution, in the volcanic metamorphosis of the Earth, humanity will be the threefold being that legend points to as the ideal.