The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Fourth Lecture

[ 1 ] The subject to be discussed this evening is a very broad one and requires a very thorough foundation. It is, of course, extremely difficult to begin at any one point; therefore, please allow me, at least by way of introduction, to say a few words about how anthroposophy relates to the problems of knowledge and to the entire psychological constitution of modern human beings.

[ 2 ] It was particularly during the 19th century that what had essentially been in the making since the 15th, 16th centuries, and which has become decisive in relation to the development of epistemological problems and what follows from them in practice: precise, refined observation and experimentation, and, on the other hand, the intellect and the reasoning that follows from them. It is indeed the case today that anyone who has undergone scientific training in any field has no doubt that, in order to arrive at a scientific result, one must experiment and think—indeed, that the very notion that it could be any other way does not even enter their field of vision. Such views are particularly absent from specialized fields. In this regard, people are reluctant to speak to those who are trained in a particular field about the implications of anthroposophical research for those fields. While on the one hand one might have to say: “Only those who have mastered scientific methodology should venture into the kind of anthroposophical research I am referring to”—on the other hand, one must nevertheless say that, with regard to the specialized fields, the research yields results so paradoxical that, when it comes to these specialized fields, one would rather remain silent today than speak of them. And when I speak of this, I do so in the conviction that you have all come here not to hear something that will convince you, but at least something that can be taken seriously from a scientific standpoint.

[ 3 ] Anthroposophy aims to be a form of scientific research, but it does not wish to remain confined to that state of mind that is nourished by external experimentation and the intellect; rather, it seeks to gain its insights by by developing the human soul forces in the confidence that, just as a small child has undeveloped powers that develop into those of a fully developed human being, it is equally possible—once one has entered today’s scientific education—to make further progress through a special development of the soul forces. The most important force is the power of memory, the power of recollection.

[ 4 ] The power of memory, after all, is something that even some unbiased contemporary philosophers say points to the spiritual aspect of the human being. Now, in the development of the soul’s powers, it is essential to present the soul with a result that is no longer present. One thus calls up from the depths of the soul something that no longer relates to anything immediately present, yet which, in its entire inner constitution, has not an indeterminate but a very definite relation to a reality. The question arises: Is it possible to further develop what is at work in memory, just as the brain’s structure develops during the first years of a person’s life, so that it not only creates inner soul formations which, by their very structure, point to something that has already existed, but which point to something that represents not only the human past but also the extra-human earthly past? Is it possible to shape the power of cognition through an inner strengthening so that what is created in a more powerful way than the images of memory points to something that would otherwise not fall within the realm of human consciousness?

[ 5 ] If one starts from this trust, takes it as a postulate, and approaches the inner exercises in a precise manner—carefully following each step with the same deliberation as in mathematics—then these exercises, which are by no means a violation of the soul, lead to new experiences. Here, in these exercises, the point is to take the steps in such a way that one’s own development arises from them. This is not a matter of mathematics or anything of that sort. If, in this way, one forms certain mental images—which must be easily comprehensible so that no past memories interfere (this is easiest for mathematicians, who are accustomed from the outset to placing comprehensible contents of consciousness at the center of their inner life)— and if one does not grow weary, but rather, starting from this standpoint, strengthens those soul capacities that are expressed in memory through a more passive behavior of the soul, then one comes to realize that one can draw from the depths of the soul life a potentiated power of memory that preserves the true, organically active forces of earthly life, so that one can indeed survey, within a temporal tableau—in which one can even speak of temporal perspectives, of an inner regularity and structure—that which has worked within one over time since one entered earthly life.

[ 6 ] First comes the perception of one’s own self. From this arises the perception that within the physical body there is an etheric body, which, in its inner laws, has nothing physical but rather a temporal nature; yet it can appear in the form of an image, so that this insight can be called “imaginative.” And one comes to realize that, whereas one otherwise lives only in the present, one can transport oneself back to any moment in time, so that one experiences it as if it were immediately present. One actually enters into the possibility of speaking of a temporal perspective—just as one can walk from one place here to another—and can thus inwardly make one’s way to a point in time that one has lived through. Thus, this finer physical existence, unfolding continuously in time, emerges as the first stage of supersensible knowledge.

[ 7 ] I need only briefly mention that there is a further stage of soul development, which is attained by mentally suppressing the image of one’s own inner forces, so that not merely an empty consciousness arises—which is equal to zero—but one that corresponds to the negativity of the current level of consciousness. This other state of consciousness results in complete inner stillness, inner peace. Now one can create a mental image: When all external impressions cease, that peace is zero; but the stillness one enters into there is like a negative in relation to the former. Then, instead of imagination, one arrives at inspiration. Through this, one comes to behold the pre-earthly existence of the human being. This is not a realization attained through speculation, but a vision of the eternal within the human being. In this way, one advances to explore the reality of the spiritual-soul aspect just as one otherwise explores, in physical life, what the senses provide. But one comes to see the whole human being as a composite. There is no need to get involved in all the verbal sparring between monistic and dualistic views; that is just as foolish as if one were to say: the chemist is a dualist because he explains water as consisting of hydrogen and oxygen. One recognizes that the human being has a physical part and a spiritual-psychic part. One can already perceive the plastic, formative nature of the brain—which is a reality—even in embryonic development. Let me use an analogy: if there is soft ground here with footprints on it, a being who had never been on Earth might perhaps attribute these footprints to some kind of force. But just as real as the footprints are the result of a human being who walked across the ground, so too are the brain’s imprints shaped by the soul and spirit.

[ 8 ] This is how it is possible to recognize the human being: the human physical body, then the body of formative forces, which is recognized through imaginative insight—the finer human being within the human being, who, despite all the exchange of physical substances, is a unified being that continues through time, a self-contained reality from one point in time to another.

[ 9 ] Once one moves from there into the specialized realms, matters become serious, so to speak. The form-body is not yet a spiritual existence; at most, it could develop the capacity to grow, but not to feel. One then arrives at the astral body, the actual soul, and the “I” organization. Over the last three to four centuries, knowledge has developed in such a way that people have increasingly turned away from the spiritual, higher aspects of the human constitution. As a result, one has had to limit oneself more and more to what can be deduced from the physical structure of the human organism. I always shy away from explaining such things, for as a scientist I can understand that people get worked up about them.

[ 10 ] First, we have the human organism. We examine the centripetal and centrifugal nerves—the so-called sensory and motor nerves. Yes, this is indeed the case. I can fully appreciate these reasons, and I can also appreciate how the dual nature of the nervous system is supported by tabes dorsalis and so on.

[ 11 ] But when one understands the higher levels of being, the nerves begin to appear as a unified whole; one perceives the unity of the nervous system. The sensory nerves are designed to convey sensory impressions; the motor nerves have nothing to do with the will, but rather have the task of conveying the sensations that occur in the periphery—the chemical-physiological processes in the legs and so on. The motor nerves are sensitive to the internal processes of the organism, whereas—as paradoxical as it may sound to modern science—one actually comes to perceive the will directly within the soul and to assume a direct, immediate influence of the spiritual-soul aspect upon the physical in the origin of movement and the effects of the will.

[ 12 ] I would like to point out the path that can lead to this perspective. For today’s anatomist, the soul-spiritual realm presents itself as something that can give rise to all manner of hypotheses; yet it is that which is today conceived of in terms of an abstract content image. Ziehen speaks only of the “emotional emphasis” of mental images. What is conceived as the soul has become so abstract and insubstantial that one fails to understand the soul’s intervention in the physical realm.

[ 13 ] The moment one realizes that the physical body ascends from the solid to the liquid, to the gaseous, and finally to heat, one comes closer to the spiritual. It is, of course, impossible to create a mental image of the spiritual realm intervening in the organism as conceived by modern science. But as soon as one accepts the concept of a thermal organism, it is not so difficult to imagine that the inner forces of the formative body intervene in the thermal differentiations of the human organism. In one respect, we will have much to go through before we can breathe life into what has become frozen in today’s understanding. We will find the transition from the physical realm, which has become more refined, to the soul realm, which has become more powerful. And we will be able to say to ourselves: that which is a being of will intervenes directly in the thermal processes, from there into the air organism, and from there into the watery organism. And there is something entirely different at work here than what modern science believes regarding the motor nerves; there is a spiritual-soul-physical activity that is brought to consciousness through the motor nerves.