The Rudolf Steiner Archive

12. The Technique of Karma

[ 1 ] One can better understand the ways of karma by considering the destinies of the human soul between death and a new birth. Today, therefore, we shall consider various aspects of the path the soul must travel between death and a new birth. A picture of the soul’s destinies after death will be unfolded. And since one only gradually immerses oneself in and becomes accustomed to these realms through one’s thoughts, it can only be beneficial to allow such thoughts to pass through one’s soul more often.

[ 2 ] If we wish to consider the fate of the soul after death, we must first and foremost realize that a completely new relationship then arises between the inner human being and the surrounding worlds. It is always helpful to draw a parallel between death and sleep. Just as the human being stands before us, he is composed of various parts. First of all, we have the physical body before us. Underlying it, like an archetype, is the etheric body. In a certain sense, this etheric body is the creator of the physical body. It is relatively accurate to say that the etheric body resembles the physical body. Particularly in its head region—the upper part—the etheric body is a kind of double of the physical body. The etheric body is the bearer of temperament, but also the bearer of the ideas that become fixed in the soul. When an idea becomes a permanent part of a person’s being, so that it is always available, it has become imprinted on the etheric body. The etheric body is the bearer of memory, and the densest part of the etheric body is the bearer of conscience. The third member of the human being is the astral body, the bearer of desires and passions—the wishes that arise in the human being through their needs. There is no fixed boundary between the etheric and astral bodies. The fourth member of the human being is the “I.” Within it lies the potential for the immortal human being, the spiritual human or Atma, the life spirit or Buddhi, and the spiritual self or Manas.

[ 3 ] When a person lies asleep in bed, the etheric body and the physical body remain connected. The astral body is separated from them. At night, pain and joy—as well as all other sensations—fade away because the astral body is separated from the physical body, and therefore no perception of them can exist. The situation is different when a person passes through the gateway of death. Here we are dealing with the physical body that has just been left by the etheric body. While the etheric body does not leave the physical body during sleep, it does leave the physical body at death.

[ 4 ] After death, the physical body disintegrates through decomposition or cremation, and its parts are returned to the physical world. The astral body and etheric body then remain connected for a time. This is a crucial moment in the afterlife: at the very instant when the etheric body detaches itself from the physical body but is still connected to the astral body, the entire life unfolds before the person’s soul like a tableau of memories. This is because the etheric body is precisely the “bearer of memory.” As long as the etheric body remains connected to the physical body, memory is bound to the forces of the physical body. When, after death, the etheric body is lifted out of the physical body, all of this simultaneously appears in the soul as a tableau of memories.

[ 5 ] At first, it is difficult for the ordinary mind to imagine how the soul can take in such a long period of time in a single moment. But there is another essential aspect. In the physical world, every experience is linked for a person to pain and joy, to pleasure and displeasure. And when a person recalls what they have experienced in ordinary physical life, pleasure and displeasure resurface in the memory. After death, however, pain and suffering are extinguished. What remain are objective images that do not cause us pain—images that do not evoke any personal feelings within us. Such a tableau of memories can also occur exceptionally at other times in life, for example, in people who are close to drowning or are otherwise in mortal danger. The best evidence for such phenomena comes from witnesses who want nothing to do with actual spiritual research—for example, the testimony of the Viennese forensic anthropologist Benedikt. In his memoirs, he recounts that he once came close to death during a mountain hike and that, at that moment, his entire life flashed before his eyes. This phenomenon stems from the fact that something specific occurs with the etheric body when a person experiences a tremendous shock to life.

[ 6 ] We are familiar with the sensation of a numb hand. This occurs because the etheric body has become relaxed. The clairvoyant can then see how the fingers, which have gone numb, hang limply from the hand, like a glove. Something similar also occurs when a person is hypnotized. The clairvoyant then sees the etheric head hanging out to the right and left of the physical head. When a person experiences such a violent shock to life as occurs during drowning, their entire etheric body is lifted out of the physical body. This then causes such a tableau of memories to appear.

[ 7 ] After death, once the soul has lived for a time within this image of memory, a second death follows. The astral body, together with the “I,” detaches itself from the etheric body. Just as the physical body passes into the elements of the physical world, the etheric body passes into the world ether or into the world of universal life. When the etheric body detaches itself, it still retains the form of the physical body for a time. One can view the etheric body as a kind of apparition that lingers near the grave or elsewhere where the person in question has been. It tends to remain near the physical body.

[ 8 ] We must now trace the fate of the astral body in relation to human self-consciousness. A certain kind of consciousness arises shortly after the etheric body has separated from the astral body. This consciousness is much stronger than a vivid dream. It experiences the reality of the astral world. This state is called Kamaloka, which literally means “place of desires.” However, it does not refer to a place beyond the physical world. The astral world exists within our physical world. The worlds differ only in that one world is perceivable through a different kind of organ than the other. In the astral world, the human being now lives surrounded by his astral body. It is a peculiar life that he is now experiencing. We can best understand this by recalling how the human being has lived up to that point.

[ 9 ] Let us suppose that an average person today has a favorite food and derives pleasure from it. This pleasure in the food does not reside in the physical body. He merely consumes the food; these are physical processes. These physical processes may take the form of a chemical reaction. But that is not the enjoyment of the food. The enjoyment resides in the gourmet’s soul. This is true of all the joys and sorrows that the soul experiences. To derive enjoyment from a meal, a person naturally needs the physical means to take in that food. When the soul is refreshed by beautiful colors or other things, a physical eye is necessary so that the joy of the color can enter the soul. That which demands to be satisfied through the senses is Kama. In Kamaloka, the soul still yearns for pleasure, but after death it lacks the organs to satisfy those desires. Then a sensation of a special kind arises in the soul. It can be compared to what happens in the soul when one walks through a desert where there is no spring, while suffering from a burning thirst. The state after death is thus caused by the absence of the organs needed to satisfy desires. There, the person experiences a burning thirst, and this continues until all desire has vanished. The more one has freed oneself in this life from being satisfied through the senses, the more one has appropriated the beautiful, the good, the pure, and the non-physical ideas of the world, the more quickly the Kamaloka period passes. If they have even become attuned to the spiritual world, if they have imbued their soul with the concepts and thoughts that lie behind the sensory world, then their time in Kamaloka is short.

[ 10 ] On the astral plane, everything runs in reverse, and things appear inverted—that is, as a mirror image; for example, the number 641 must be read there as 146. A passion that one generates comes to a person in the form of an image, such as a wild animal. In truth, however, such an image originates from the person themselves.

[ 11 ] In this way, a person relives the physical life that lies behind them, in reverse. They relive the events that took place before death. This experience of reliving the past takes them all the way back to childhood. Through this, they are finally freed from everything that bound them to physical existence. The words are fulfilled: “Unless you become like little children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” He has reached the point where he was before he incarnated. He becomes once again as he was as a child. With that, he is ready to return to Devachan.

[ 12 ] There are two concepts we must grasp. We must consider a sensation that arises with great intensity at the moment of death. Simultaneously with the image of memory, the person feels that he is growing larger and larger. The images surrounding them—which are images from their past life—also grow larger. While the person is still in the etheric body, they grow, so to speak, into their surroundings. If a person in the etheric body has experienced an event that took place fifty miles away, it is as if they were expanding all the way to the scene of the event. If they have ever been to America, they feel themselves expanding all the way to America. In the etheric body, the person experiences this constant growth. In the astral body, on the other hand, they feel fragmented into various individual parts. They do not perceive the astral body as a spatial unity at all. There are, for example, gall wasps whose thorax and abdomen are connected only by a very thin stalk. This is an example of how, even in the physical world, two parts that belong together are held together only by a connection of very small extent. In the astral world, it can happen that there is no connection at all between two parts, and yet one part belongs to the other, and this connection is distinctly felt. In the astral body, a person can be in a wide variety of places at the same time. If a person passing through the Kamaloka once inflicted physical or emotional pain on another during their earthly life and, in the process of reliving past events, reaches that moment, they will feel themselves inside the other person and experience that person’s pain in their own astral body. All experiences and deeds from the previous earthly life are encountered a second time in this “mirror of sensations.” This, too, is part of life in the Kamaloka.

[ 13 ] Let us once again summarize what has been said about post-death experiences. The first point is that everything experienced during earthly life passes by without the person feeling pleasure or suffering. Second, in a reverse course of life, the person goes through the sufferings that he or she has caused. There are two things that remain with the human being. The substance of the etheric body departs from them, but the forces of the etheric body remain; the essence of all experiences remains, as it were, as a residue. This essence becomes imbued with the deeds they have committed. They take the experiences from Kamaloka with them and carry them up into Devachan. The substance that a person must rid themselves of before entering the higher life now detaches itself. The astral plane all around is, as it were, permeated with astral corpses. This is what a person cannot take with them into Devachan. The astral corpse dissolves in the astral world.

[ 14 ] If one wants to understand what a person does in Devachan, one must first consider how life unfolds here on Earth. The way in which experiences here on Earth are processed is such that only the very smallest part is drawn from these experiences; much more could be drawn from every event. This becomes clearest when we look at the matter from the opposite perspective. Recall, for example, how you learned to write. That was connected to a wide variety of experiences. All these experiences coalesce into a single one: the ability to write. What initially took place externally in the world is transformed into an ability. Every experience contains such a possibility, such an opportunity: they can later be transformed into abilities. After death, such a transformation takes place. When a person is reborn, much of this appears as an ability, as an innate talent. They return with ever richer innate talents. This is the fundamental sensation in Devachan: that all experiences are transformed into abilities. This gives rise to the feeling of bliss. A stream of bliss then flows through the person. One can compare this sensation to the one that flows through a hen’s soul when she is hatching an egg. Every act of creation is experienced by a being as bliss. The greater the production, the greater the bliss that is experienced. This Devachan sensation is no illusion. The relationships that have developed in this world are much more intense in Devachan than they are here. The barriers of space and time fall away. In this world, one can truly become one with another person. The relationship between mother and child evolves from an animalistic feeling into a moral relationship. Everything that is animalistic falls away like scales during the Kamaloka period, and everything spiritual permeates both beings in Devachan. All relationships formed here are transformed with greater intensity in Devachan. When a person has developed everything necessary in Devachan, they are ready for a new birth.

[ 15 ] A wide variety of entities exist in the astral world. One comes to know the most diverse inhabitants of the astral plane. For example, there are entities that race through astral space at tremendous speed; like bell-shaped forms, they whiz through the astral world. These are human beings returning to be reborn. Once a person has transformed all their experiences into abilities in Devachan, they descend once more into the astral world. Just as a magnet attracts iron filings, so too, upon returning to the astral space, the person attaches the etheric body necessary for their new earthly life. This occurs with the help of other spiritual beings. Then the human being is simultaneously guided to the pair of parents who are most suitable for their new incarnation. Only the best possible body can be attached to them. Now, the incorporation into the physical body does not occur solely according to this one criterion; rather, the location and environment from which the human being will develop are also determined. All of this is determined by the actions that people have performed in their previous lives. What is incorporated from astral substance consists of the abilities they have acquired. The ideas that have become an integral part of their soul influence the formation of the etheric body. The etheric body, in turn, determines the nature of the physical body.

[ 16 ] How is it, then, that a person finds themselves precisely in the situation into which they are led upon their new incarnation? Here we must speak of mysterious forces at work around the human being. When a person harbors a thought, a desire, or a feeling, these are initially experiences in the astral body. Their feelings and thoughts, which are expressed in the aura, simultaneously take on forms on the astral plane. What a person experiences in the soul during physical life has a corresponding form in astral space. Physical experiences do not exist solely on the physical plane; they continue onto the astral plane. Everything a person experiences in the depths of their soul has a reflection on the astral plane. But whatever is a quality of the etheric body continues onto the Devachan plane. Just as every thought creates a form on the astral plane, so every quality of the etheric body evokes its counterpart on the Devachan plane. Actions, too, have their counterpart in the higher worlds, specifically on the buddhi plane. Thus, thoughts have a counterpart on the astral plane, habits on the Devachan plane, and actions on the buddhi plane.

Thoughts: Astral Plane
Inclines: Devachan Plane
Actions: Budhi Plane

[ 17 ] Human beings constantly populate the astral plane with thought-forms, the Devachan plane with forms of their inclinations, and the budhi plane with imprints of their actions. All of this constantly surrounds us on the higher planes. That is one side of the matter. Now there is another side to it as well. Imagine that you have done something to another person—committed an act that has harmed them. During the Kamaloka period, you experience this in yourself. What you then carry with you—the pain you experienced in the other person—becomes a force that is inscribed on the Budhi plane. The unfolding of this force is prepared by the fact that it is recorded on the Budhi plane. Human beings are guided toward everything that is inscribed on the Budhi-plane. Through the experiences they have undergone in Kamaloka, they reconnect with the consequences of their actions on the Budhi-plane. Because human beings cannot yet live on the Budhi-plane, they are unable to do this on their own. They must have guides. These are the Lipikas, the gods of destiny. They guide the human being into his destiny, because he himself is not yet capable of embracing it.