The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Third Lecture

[ 1 ] Today we will consider human beings in their waking state here in the physical world, in the state of sleep, and in the state known as death. Everyone is familiar with the waking state from their own experience.

[ 2 ] When a person falls asleep, everything—the astral body, the “I,” and what the “I” has worked on within the astral body—withdraws, as it were, from the physical and etheric bodies. If you observe a sleeping person through clairvoyance, you will see the physical and etheric bodies lying in bed. These two bodies remain connected as they normally are, while the astral body draws out everything that is of a higher order, so that through clairvoyance one can observe how, as sleep sets in, the astral body withdraws from the first two bodies in a certain light. To describe this state in even greater detail, one must say that in modern human beings the astral body appears structured by manifold currents and flashes of light, and when viewed as a whole, the entire phenomenon resembles two intertwined spirals—much like two intertwined 6s—one of which disappears into the physical body, while the other extends far out into the cosmos like a comet’s tail. However, these two tails of the astral body very soon become invisible as they extend further out, so that the appearance can then be compared to the shape of an egg. When the person awakens again, the tail extending out into the cosmos disappears, and the whole withdraws back into the etheric and physical bodies.

[ 3 ] Dreaming is, after all, an intermediate state between waking and sleeping. Dream-filled sleep occurs when the astral body has already completely severed its connection with the physical body—as it were, withdrawn its sensory threads from the physical body—but is still connected to the etheric body. At that point, the person’s field of vision is filled with those images we call dreams. Objectively speaking, this is an intermediate state because the astral body has completely severed its connection with the physical body, while it is still connected to the etheric body in a certain way.

[ 4 ] So this is the sleeping human being, who lives in his astral body, outside his physical and etheric bodies. There is a profound reason throughout all of nature why the human being must sink into such sleep. You must not imagine that the astral body, when it is outside the physical and etheric bodies during sleep at night, is inactive and has no work to do. When the astral body is within the physical and etheric bodies during the day, it is affected by the influences of the external world—influences that a person receives through the astral body’s own activity, through sensory impressions, and through activity in the physical world. Everything a person receives in the way of feelings and sensations—everything that affects them from the outside—extends all the way to the astral body. This is the part of the human being that actually feels and thinks, and the physical body—as well as what is in the etheric body—are merely its mediators, its instruments. Everything that thinks and wills is in the astral body. While a person is active in the external world during the day, the astral body thus continually receives impressions from the external world. On the other hand, however, we note that the astral body is the actual builder of the etheric and physical bodies. Just as the physical body, in all its organs, is solidified and hardened from the etheric body, so everything that flows and is active within the etheric body is born from the astral body.

[ 5 ] From what, then, is the astral body itself born? It is born from the general astral organism that permeates our entire cosmos, which belongs to us. If you wish to visualize this relationship—the relationship between the small portion of astral substance in your body and the entire vast astral sea in which all humans, animals, plants, minerals, and even planets vibrate and from which they are born—if you wish to visualize this relationship between the astral body and the astral organism, then imagine a drop of liquid in a vessel. Just as the drop derives its entire existence from the liquid in the vessel, so too was what is contained in an astral body once part of the entire astral ocean of the cosmos. It separated from it, and by being drawn into the etheric and physical bodies, it became distinct, just as the drop is distinct from the vessel.

[ 6 ] As long as the astral body rested within the bosom of the universal astral body, it derived its laws and impressions from this entire cosmic astral body. It lived its life within this cosmic astral body. Since this separation, during waking hours it has been dependent on the impressions it receives from the physical world, so that it must divide its nature between the impressions it still carries over from the cosmic astral body and those it now receives from the outside through the activity assigned to it by the physical world. These two aspects will come into harmony when the human being reaches the goal of his earthly development. Today this is not the case; these two influences do not resonate with one another.

[ 7 ] Now, the astral body is the builder of the etheric body and, through this—since the etheric body in turn builds the physical body—it is also indirectly the builder of the physical body. Everything that the astral body has built up bit by bit over the course of time has been born out of the great cosmic astral sea. Because only harmony and healthy regularity have emerged from this astral sea, the astral body’s construction of the etheric and physical bodies is originally healthy and harmonious; but through those influences that the astral body receives from outside, from the physical world, and which impair its original harmony, all the disturbances of the physical body that are present in modern human beings arise.

[ 8 ] If the astral body were constantly present within the human being, the powerful influence of the physical world would soon have destroyed all the harmony that the astral body brought with it from the cosmic ocean. Very soon, the human being would wear himself out through illness and fatigue. During sleep, the astral body withdraws from the impressions of the physical world—which no longer contains anything that provides harmony—and merges into the universal harmony of the cosmos from which it was born. And so, in the morning, it brings with it the echoes of the renewal it has experienced during the night. Every night, the astral body renews its harmony with the great cosmic astral sea, and so even to the clairvoyant, this astral body does not appear to be idle at all; the clairvoyant perceives a connection between the astral sea and the astral body’s comet-like tail and can see how this part works to dispel the lethargy produced by the disharmonious world. This activity of the astral body is expressed in the fact that one feels refreshed in the morning. However, the astral body, which has lived in great harmony during the night, must first reacclimate itself to the physical world. Therefore, the greatest sense of refreshment does not appear until a few hours later, after the astral body has re-entered the physical body.

[ 9 ] Now let us turn to the brother of sleep—death—and clarify for ourselves what the condition of human beings is after death. The dead person differs from the merely sleeping person in that, in the case of the dead person, the etheric body departs along with the astral body, leaving only the physical body behind here in the physical world. This emergence of the etheric body from the physical body never occurs in a person from birth to death unless they undergo certain states of initiation.

[ 10 ] An important moment for the person who has died is the moment immediately following death. It lasts quite a long time—hours, even days. In this state, the entire life of the deceased’s last incarnation passes before their soul like a vast tableau of memories. This occurs for every person after death. The peculiarity of this tableau lies in the fact that, as long as it appears in the form it takes immediately after death, all the experiences that the person subjectively went through during their journey through the world are, as it were, erased from it. In our various experiences, we have always also felt pleasure and pain, elation or sadness. Our external perception was always linked to an inner life. All the joys and sorrows attached to the images of life are absent from this retrospective recollection. One stands before this tableau of memories just as objectively as before a painting. If it depicts a person who is sad or filled with pain, we view them objectively. We may well empathize with their sadness, yet we do not directly feel the pain that the person experienced. So it is with the images of this tableau immediately after death: it unfolds, and one sees, in periods of time that are astonishing because they are so brief, all the details that took place in life.

[ 11 ] The separation of the physical body from the etheric body during life normally occurs only in an initiate; however, there are certain moments when, as if with a jolt, the etheric body detaches itself from the physical body. This happens when a person experiences particularly terrifying events, such as a fall or the danger of drowning. Then, as a result of this powerful shock, a kind of detachment of the etheric body from the physical body takes place. The result is that, at such a moment, the person’s entire life up to that point stands before their soul like a memory. Here we have an analogy for the experience after death.

[ 12 ] Partial separations of the etheric body also occur when a limb has fallen asleep. For example, when a hand has fallen asleep, the seer can observe how the part of the etheric body corresponding to the hand hangs out like a glove. Similarly, parts of the etheric brain hang out when a person is in a hypnotic state. Because the etheric body is woven into the physical body through very small, point-like structures, this gives rise to the familiar, peculiar tingling sensation experienced when a limb has fallen asleep.

[ 13 ] Once the period during which the etheric body, in conjunction with the astral body, has separated from the physical body has elapsed, the moment arrives when the astral body, together with all the higher members, in turn separates from the etheric body. The astral body separates; the tableau of memories fades away. But something of it remains with the human being; it is not entirely lost. Although what one might call the etheric or life substance disperses into the entire world ether, a kind of essence remains of it that can never be lost to the human being again on the further journey of his life. He takes it with him—like a kind of extract from the tableau of life—into all his future incarnations, even if he cannot remember it. What takes shape from this “extract of memory” is concretely and realistically called the causal body. After each life, a new page is added to the book of life. This increases the life essence and, if past lives were fruitful, causes the next one to unfold accordingly. This is the reason why one life may be rich or poor in talents, aptitudes, and so on.

[ 14 ] To understand the life of the astral body after its separation from the etheric body, we must consider physical conditions. In physical life, it is the astral body that rejoices, that suffers, and that satisfies its desires, instincts, and wishes through the organs of the physical body. After death, it lacks these physical instruments. The gourmet can no longer satisfy his pleasure in fine things, for he lacks a tongue; it has departed with the physical body. But desire remains with the person, since it is connected to the astral body, and this results in the burning thirst of the Kamaloka period. Kama means desire, wish; loka would be “place,” yet in reality it is not a place but a state.

[ 15 ] Whoever outgrows the physical body during physical life shortens their time in Kamaloka. It is a true process of outgrowing when we delight in objects of beauty and harmony. They lead us out of the sensory world even while we are still here. Sensual, materialistic art makes the Kamaloka state more difficult, while spiritual art makes it easier. Every noble, spiritually inspired pleasure shortens the time spent in Kamaloka. That is why we must already here wean ourselves from those pleasures and desires that can be satisfied only through the sensual instrument. Time spent in Kamaloka is precisely a time of weaning oneself from sensual pleasures and drives. This period lasts about one-third of an ordinary human life. There is something peculiar about living through this time in Kamaloka. It unfolds in such a way that the person begins to truly relive his entire life. Whereas immediately after death it was a memory devoid of pleasure and suffering, he now truly relives all pleasure and all suffering once more—and in reverse—so that he must experience within himself all the pleasure and suffering he has inflicted upon others. This has nothing to do with the law of karma.

[ 16 ] One begins the process of reliving experiences with the last experience before death and moves backward at three times the normal speed until reaching birth. The moment the person reaches their birth in this retrospective journey, the part of the astral body that has been worked on and transformed by the ego joins the causal body, while that which the person has not yet worked on falls away like a shadow and a phantom. These are the astral corpses of human beings. The human being has now shed the physical body, the etheric body, and now also the astral corpse. He is now experiencing new states, those of Devachan. Devachan surrounds us just as much as the astral world does.

[ 17 ] When a person has relived his life all the way back to childhood—that is, when he has shed the three physical bodies—he has attained the state that the Bible mysteriously alludes to in the words: “Unless you become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” — Devachan, the spiritual world, is the Kingdom of Heaven in the Christian sense.

[ 18 ] We must now describe the world of Devachan itself. It is just as diverse and structured as our physical world. Just as we distinguish solid formations in our physical world—continents—and just as we have a body of water surrounding the solid land, then the air, and beyond that finer states, so too do we have such a structure in Devachan, in the spiritual realm. By analogy with the conditions on Earth, the things found in Devachan have been given similar names.

[ 19 ] First, we have a realm that can be compared to the solid physical realms. This is the continental realm in Devachan. There, everything that is physical here on Earth is found in the form of spiritual beings. Consider, for example, a physical human being. Viewed through the Devachanic gaze, he appears as follows: what the physical senses perceive disappears, whereas it begins to glow where there is nothing in the physical human being. All around the person, it begins to glisten and glow. In the center, where the physical body is, there is an empty space, like a kind of hollowed-out negative, like a shadow figure. Animals and humans, viewed in this way, appear as negative images. Blood appears greenish in the complementary color. All forms that are physical here are somehow present up there in the archetypes.

[ 20 ] A second realm—though not distinct like a second level—is the marine, or oceanic, realm of Devachan. It is not water; it is a peculiar substance that truly permeates the realm of Devachan in regular currents, in a color that can be compared to young peach blossoms in spring. This is liquid life, which permeates the entire Devachan. What is distributed here below among individual humans and animals exists up there as a kind of watery element. We can picture this when we think of the circulation of blood in the human body.

[ 21 ] The third realm can best be characterized by saying that it contains, in an external form, everything that exists internally within beings in the form of sensations, feelings, pleasure and suffering, joy and pain. For example, a battle is being fought here. Cannons, rifles, and so on—all of that is on the physical plane. But within the beings here on the physical plane, there are mutual feelings of vengeance, pain, and passions. The two armies face each other with a profusion of polar passions. If one imagines the whole scene translated into external phenomena, one has a picture of how it appears on the Devachan plane. Just as a terrible thunderstorm rages here, there one sees what is taking place here on a battlefield. That is the atmosphere, the air sphere of Devachan. Just as an atmosphere surrounds our Earth, so too is everything that is unleashed here on the physical plane in the form of emotions spread out there like an atmosphere—whether or not it takes physical form here.

[ 22 ] The fourth realm of Devachan contains the archetypes, the primordial foundations of everything that has been originally accomplished here on Earth. When we look around, when we examine the events of the physical world, we find that by far the majority of inner processes are initiated from the outside. A flower or an animal brings us joy; without the flower or the animal, we would not experience this joy. But there are also processes that are not triggered from the outside. A new thought, a work of art, or a new machine brings something into the world that was not there before. Original creations take place in all these areas. Humanity would not progress if nothing new were brought into the world. Particularly original things—such as those produced by the world’s great artists and inventors—are only gradually higher than any other original act, even the most insignificant. What matters is that something original arises from within. Even for the most insignificant original acts, models already exist in Devachan. All of this has already been outlined above. Whatever is accomplished by human beings in a more original way is already laid out there before the person’s birth.

[ 23 ] Thus, in Devachan we find four realms whose counterparts on the physical plane are earth, water, air, and fire: the continental realm as the solid crust of Devachan—in a spiritual sense, of course—then the marine realm, which corresponds to our water realm; the air realm, which corresponds to the currents of the passions; and so on — There we find both beauty and turbulence —, and finally that which permeates everything: the world of archetypes. Everything that is later accomplished in the physical world by beings who return to it—in the form of impulses of will and original ideas—the soul must experience and weave through all of this in order to gather new strength there for the new life.