Between Death and Rebirth
GA 141
7 January 1913, Berlin
Lecture VI
We have already considered certain aspects of man's life between death and rebirth, and a short time ago an account was given of the relationship between Christian Rosenkreutz and Buddha. This was done because since the time indicated then, the Buddha has been connected with the planetary sphere of Mars and because the human being, after experiencing the Christ Event in the Sun sphere between death and rebirth, passes into the Mars sphere and there undergoes an experience connected with Buddha in the form that is right for the present age, though not, of course, for the age when the individuality of whom we are now thinking lived on the Earth as Gautama Buddha. Genuine enlightenment about the being of man and his connection with the evolution of worlds is possible only if our understanding keeps abreast of that evolution.
We know that in the post-Atlantean era there have so far been five main consecutive epochs during which the human soul has undergone significant experiences. These epochs are: the ancient Indian, the ancient Persian, the Egypto-Chaldean, the Graeco-Latin, and our own. We also know that in each such epoch the next is prepared—as it were in germ. In our present epoch the sixth post-Atlantean period is already slowly being prepared in the souls of men. The preparation consists in human souls being helped to understand what is now spreading in the world in the form of occult teachings, of Spiritual Science. In this way not only will a knowledge of the being of man that is necessary for the future be promulgated but there will also be an ever deepening understanding of the Christ Impulse. Everything that contributes to this increasing understanding of the Christ Impulse is comprised for the West in what may be called the Mystery of the Holy Grail. This Mystery is also closely connected with matters such as the one spoken of recently, namely, the mission for Mars being delegated by Christian Rosenkreutz to Buddha. This Mystery of the Holy Grail can impart to men of the modern age knowledge that will help them to understand the life between death and rebirth in the way that is right for our time. This understanding depends upon resolute efforts to answer a question of vital importance, and unless we try to carry this question to greater depths than has hitherto been possible, we shall be unable to make further progress in our studies of man's life between death and the new birth. The question is this: Why was it that even in areas where Christianity was proclaimed in its deeper aspect, certain teachings were left in the background—teachings that must be introduced today into the presentation of Christianity in its more advanced form?
You are aware that everything connected with the subject of reincarnation and karma was left in the background not only in the outer, exoteric presentations of Christianity but also in the more esoteric expositions of past centuries. And many people who hear about the content of anthroposophical views, ask: How comes it that although Rosicrucianism must, we are told, be included in everything that occultism has to give—how comes it that hitherto, indeed until our own time, Rosicrucianism did not contain the teachings of reincarnation and karma? Why had these teachings now to be added to Rosicrucianism?
To understand this we must again consider man's relationship to the world. The prelude to the advanced study we hope to reach in these lectures is already to be found in the book Occult Science—an Outline But we must now consider closely how man is related to the world in our own main epoch, in the epoch that was preceded by the planetary stages of Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon.
We know that the human being on Earth consists of physical body, etheric body, astral body and the ‘I’ or Ego, together with everything that belongs to these members. We know, too, that when an individual passes through the gate of death he leaves behind him, first of all, his physical body; then, after a certain time, most of the etheric body dissolves into the cosmic ether and only a kind of extract of it remains with him. The astral body accompanies him for a considerable time but again a kind of sheath of that body is cast off when the Kamaloka period is over. After that the extracts of the etheric and astral bodies are subject to the further transformation undergone by the human being between death and rebirth. In the innermost sphere the human ‘I’ remains unchanged. Whether the human being is passing through the period between birth and death in the physical body, through the period of Kamaloka when he is still completely enveloped by the astral body, or through the period of Devachan which lasts for the greater part of the time between death and rebirth—it is the ‘I’ or Ego which, basically speaking, passes through all these periods. But this ‘I’, the real, true ‘I’, must not be confused with the ‘I’ which the human being on Earth recognises as his own. Philosophers have a good deal to say about this ‘I’ of man in the physical body, which they think they understand. They say, for instance, that the ‘I’ is the principle that remains intact although everything else in the human being changes. The true ‘I’ does indeed remain but whether this can be said of the ‘I’ of which the philosophers speak is another matter altogether. Anyone who insists on referring to the persistence of that ‘I’ of which the philosophers speak is refuted by the simple fact that during the night the human being sleeps, for then the ‘I’ of the philosophers is extinguished, is simply not there. And if during the whole period between death and rebirth conditions were the same as they are during sleep at night, to speak of the permanence of man’s soul during that period would be meaningless. Fundamentally speaking, there would be no difference between the ‘I’ not being there at all or merely continuing to live knowing nothing of itself, as if it were something external. In the question of immortality it cannot be a matter of the ‘I’ simply being there, but it must also have some knowledge of itself. Thus the immortality of the ‘I’ of which human consciousness is first aware is refuted by every sleep at night, for then this ‘I’ is simply extinguished. The real, true ‘I’ lies much deeper, much, much deeper! How can we form an idea of this real ‘I’, even if we cannot yet claim to have any knowledge of occultism?
We can form a valid idea if we say to ourselves: the ‘I’ must be present in the human being even when he cannot yet say ‘I’, when he is still crawling on the floor. The real ‘I’—not the ‘I’ of which the philosophers speak—is already present and manifests itself in a very striking way.
Our observation of the human being during the first months or even first years of his life will seem to external science to be quite without significance. But for one who is intent upon acquiring knowledge of the nature of man, this observation is of supreme importance.
To begin with, the human being crawls about on all fours and very special effort is required on his part to lift himself out of this crawling position, out of this subjection to gravity, into the vertical position and maintain this. That is one thing. The second is the following: We know that in the first period of his life the human being is not yet able to speak and has to learn how to do so. Try to remember how you first learnt to speak, how you learnt to utter the first word of which you were capable and to formulate the first sentence. Try to remember this, although without clairvoyance you will be as little able to remember it as you can remember how you made the first effort to lift yourself from the crawling into the vertical position. And a third capacity is thinking. Remembrance does indeed go back to the time when you were first able to think, but not before that time.
Who, then, is the actor in this process of learning to walk, to speak and to think? The actor is the real, true ‘I’! Now let us observe what this real ‘I’ does.
Man was ordained from the very beginning to walk upright, to speak and to think. But he is not at once capable of this. He is not immediately the being he is intended to become as a man of the Earth. He does not at once possess the capacities that enable him to participate in the evolving culture of mankind; he has to acquire these capacities gradually. In the earliest period of his life there is a conflict between the spirit living within him when he stands permanently upright and the spirit living within him while he is still under the sway of gravity and crawls on all fours, while his faculties of speaking and thinking are still undeveloped. When the human being reaches the level ordained for him, when he can stand upright, walk, speak and think, he is an expression of the form proper to mankind. There is, in fact, a natural correspondence between the true form of man and the faculties of standing and walking upright, speaking and thinking. It is impossible to conceive of any other being who can walk as man does, that is to say with a vertical spine, and who can speak and think. Even a parrot is able to talk only because its form is upright. The fact that it is able to talk is connected fundamentally with the vertical position. Animals with an intelligence much greater than that of a parrot will never learn to talk because their backbone is horizontal, not vertical. Other factors too, of course, play their part. The human being is not at once able to adopt the posture ultimately ordained for him. The reason for this is that after the exertions made by his real ‘I’ or Ego which have enabled him to think, to speak and adopt the upright posture, the human being is ultimately embedded, as it were, in the spheres of the Spirits of Form, the Exusiai. These Spirits of Form, known in the Bible as the Elohim, are the Beings from whom the human form actually stems; it is the form in which the human ‘I’ has its natural habitation and asserts itself during the first months and years of life.
But there is opposition from other Spirits who cast man down to a level below that of these Spirits of Form. To what category do these other Spirits belong?
The Spirits of Form are the Beings who enable man to learn to speak, to think and to walk upright. The Spirits who cast him down, causing him to move about on all fours and to be incapable in his earliest years of speaking and thinking in the real sense, are Spirits whom he has to overcome in the course of his life, who give him, to begin with, a perverted form. These Spirits ought really to have become Dynamis, Spirits of Movement, but fell behind in their evolution and have still not reached the level of the Spirits of Form. They are Luciferic Spirits who have come to a standstill in their evolution, who work upon man from outside, consigning him to the sway of gravity out of which he must lift himself with the help of the true Spirits of Form.
Observing how a human being comes into existence through birth, in the efforts he makes to acquire capacities which he will need later on in life, we can perceive the true Spirits of Form battling with those other Spirits who ought already to have become Spirits of Movement but have remained at an earlier stage. We see the Spirits of Form battling with Luciferic Spirits who in this sphere are so strong and forceful that they suppress the consciousness belonging to the Ego. Otherwise, if Luciferic Spirits did not suppress this consciousness, the human being at this stage of his life would realise: You are a warrior; you are aware of your horizontal position and consciously desire to stand upright, to learn to speak and to think! All this is beyond his power because he is enveloped by the Luciferic Spirits. There we have a dim inkling of what we shall gradually come to recognise as the true ‘I’, in contrast to an ‘I’ which merely appears in the field of our consciousness.
At the beginning of this series of lectures it was said that we should endeavour to vindicate to healthy human reason what occultism and seership have to say about the nature of man. But this healthy human reason must be willing to recognise how during the earliest periods of his life the human being is only gradually finding his bearings in the physical world. Which part of him is most completely formed? His stature as a whole is still not particularly noticeable because there is inconsistency between the human being himself and his outer form. By his own efforts he has to make his way into the form destined for him. Which part of him is most completely finished—not only after but also before birth? The head! The head is the most fully developed of all the physical organs, even in the embryo. Why is this? The reason is that the Beings of the higher Hierarchies, the Spirits of Form, pervade and weave through all the organs of the human being quite differently in each case—the head in one way, the trunk to which the legs and arms are attached, in another. There is an essential difference between the head and the rest of man's physical body. If we observe the human head with clairvoyance a remarkable difference is revealed between the head and, for example, the hand. When we move a hand, the physical hand and the etheric hand move together. But when a certain stage in the development of clairvoyance has been reached, the clairvoyant can hold the physical hands still and move the etheric hands only. To hold mobile parts of the body still and move only the corresponding etheric parts is a specially important exercise. If this is achieved, the clairvoyance of the future will develop to further and further stages, whereas to indulge in any way in unconscious, convulsive movements is a resurgence of Dervish practices which are already obsolete. Repose of the physical body is the requirement of modern clairvoyance; convulsive movements of every kind were characteristic of epochs now past. It would be a very noteworthy achievement if a clairvoyant were, for example, to hold his hands quite still in a certain position—perhaps crossed over the breast—and yet maintain complete mobility of the etheric hands. He would be keeping his physical hands still while engaging in all kinds of super-sensible activities with the etheric hands. This would be an indication of very marked development, coming to expression in conscious control of the hands.
Now there is one organ in man in which, even if he is not clairvoyant, the etheric part moves freely while the corresponding physical part remains immobile. This organ is the brain around which the cosmic Powers have placed the hard skull; the lobes of the brain would certainly like to move but they cannot. Thus the brain of an average human being is permanently in the condition of a clairvoyant who while he holds his physical hands still, moves the etheric hands only. The brain is seen by a clairvoyant to be something that comes out of the head like writhing snakes. Every head is, in fact, a Medusa head. This is a very real phenomenon. The essential difference between the human head and the rest of the body is that in respect of the rest of the body the human being will need to undergo a lengthy process of evolution to achieve what has already been achieved by the head in the way of ordinary thinking. In a certain respect the strength of thinking lies in the ability of the human being, while he is thinking, to bring the brain to rest even down to the finer, invisible movements of the nerves. The more thoroughly he can keep the brain at rest while he is thinking, including the more delicate movements of the nerves, the subtler, more deliberate and more logical his thoughts will be.
So we can say that when the human being passes into physical existence through birth, it is his head that is the most perfect because in the head there has already been achieved what in the case of the hands—the part of the human being which expresses itself through gestures—can be achieved only in the future. In the evolutionary period of Old Moon the brain was still at the stage of the hands at the present time. On the Old Moon the head was still exposed in several places and not yet enclosed by the skull. Whereas it is now fixed and static in a kind of prison, it could then expand outwards on all sides. All this applies, of course, to the conditions of existence in the Old Moon epoch, when man was still living in the fluid or watery element that had not yet condensed to the solid state.1See Occult Science—an Outline, pp. 137–161 in the Rudolf Steiner Press 1963 edition. The section on the Old Moon period of evolution is included in Chapter IV. Even in a certain period of the ancient Lemurian epoch, when man had reached the stage of evolution recapitulating the Old Moon period—even then it was still the case that at the top of the brain there appeared not only the organ we have often mentioned, but a kind of efflux of thoughts. A formation like a fiery cloud was still to be seen over the head of man even as late as the Atlantean epoch. Without super-normal clairvoyance, simply with the clairvoyant faculty possessed by every single human being at that time, an Atlantean could see whether a man was or was not a thinker in the sense of that ancient epoch. Over the head of a man who was a thinker there was a luminous, fiery cloud but no such phenomenon was present in the case of one who was not.
These are matters of which we must have knowledge if we are to understand the transformation that takes place in man’s nature when, after living in a physical body, he dies and passes into the other period of existence between death and the new birth. All the forces that have been at work to enable a human being to come into existence disappear when he is already in the physical world; but they become all-important when he has laid aside his physical body. During his life between birth and death man is quite unaware of the forces which moulded the physical brain. But everything of which he is aware between birth and death vanishes and is of no significance when he passes through the gate of death. He lives then within the forces of which he is unconscious during his physical life on Earth. Whereas during this physical life he experiences his ‘I’ as pictured during the waking state, in the period between death and the new birth he experiences that higher ‘I’ of which we can have a dim inkling when we contemplate how a human being learns to walk, to speak and to think. While a man is on Earth he is unaware of this ‘I’; it does not penetrate into his consciousness. What thus remains entirely concealed we can follow back as far as birth and before birth, even still further back, when we contemplate the life that takes its course after death. That which is most completely hidden because it has built up the human being and vanishes while he is living on Earth is most fully in evidence when he is no longer on Earth, namely during the period of his existence after death. The forces of which we can have a faint inkling only, the forces which, working from within, enable the human being to walk, which launch the sounds of speech, which make him into a thinker and mould the brain into becoming the organ of thinking—these are the forces of supreme importance during man's existence between death and the new birth. It is then that his true ‘I’ comes to life. Of this we will speak in the next lecture.
Sechster Vortrag
Wir haben schon einiges über die Zeit zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt betrachtet und vor kurzer Zeit auch eine Betrachtung über das Verhältnis von Christian Rosenkreutz zu Buddha eingefügt, weil - wie gezeigt werden konnte - seit der Zeit, die damals angegeben worden ist, der Buddha einen Zusammenhang hat mit einer planetarischen Sphäre, mit der Mars-Sphäre, und weil der Mensch, nachdem er zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt das Ihnen geschilderte ChristusEreignis auf der Sonne durchgemacht hat, indem er weiter hinüberlebt in die Mars-Sphäre, das Buddha-Erlebnis durchmacht in der Weise, wie es für die gegenwärtige Zeit richtig und normal zu erleben ist. Dieses Buddha-Erlebnis müssen wir heute so verstehen, wie es für die heutige Zeit gilt, nicht so, wie es für die Zeit gilt, in welcher die Individualität, die hier in Betracht kommt, als Gautama Buddha auf der Erde gelebt hat. Das gibt einzig und allein wirkliche, echte Aufklärung über das Wesen des Menschen und seinen Zusammenhang mit der gesamten Weltenevolution, daß man sozusagen mit seinem Verständnisse mitgeht mit dieser Weltenevolution.
Wir wissen, daß in der nachatlantischen Zeit aufeinanderfolgend als wichtigste Zeitepochen, in denen die Menschenseele fortschreitend Wichtiges durchmachte, zu verzeichnen sind die fünf Perioden: die urindische, die urpersische, die ägyptisch-chaldäische, die griechisch-lateinische und unsere Kulturperiode. Wir wissen aber auch, daß in einem jeden Zeitalter von dieser Art, gewissermaßen wie im Keime schon das nächste Zeitalter vorbereitet wird. In unserer Zeit wird schon das sechste nachatlantische Zeitalter in den Seelen langsam vorbereitet, und diese Vorbereitung muß folgendermaßen sein. Vorbereitet wird dieses sechste nachatlantische Zeitalter, indem die Menschenseele gerade das verstehen lernt, was in unserer Zeit als okkulte Lehre, als Geisteswissenschaft sich in der Welt verbreitet. Dadurch wird nicht nur eine für die Zukunft notwendige Erkenntnis der Menschenwesenheit im allgemeinen verbreitet, sondern dadurch wird auch das verbreitet, was man nennen kann eine immer weitere Vertiefung im Verständnisse des Christus-Impulses. Alles, was zu dieser Verbreitung des Verständnisses des Christus-Impulses in unserer Zeit beitragen soll, das schließt sich für das Abendland zusammen in dem, was man nennen kann das Mysterium vom Heiligen Gral. Und innig hängt das Mysterium vom Heiligen Gral auch mit solchen Dingen zusammen, wie sie auseinandergesetzt worden sind: mit der Erteilung der Mission für den Mars an Buddha durch Christian Rosenkreutz. Und dieses Mysterium vom Heiligen Gral kann dem modernen Menschen das geben, was ihn einführt in ein gerade für unsere Zeit richtiges Verständnis des Lebens zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt. Dieses Verständnis macht vor allen Dingen notwendig, daß wir nunmehr darangehen, eine wichtige Frage zu beantworten. Und ohne daß wir diese Frage etwas mehr zu vertiefen versuchen, als wir es bisher konnten, werden wir in unseren Betrachtungen des Lebens zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt nicht weiterschreiten können. Es ist die Frage: Warum traten in der Verkündigung des Christentums bisher auch dort, wo das Christentum gewissermaßen seiner tieferen Wesenheit nach schon verkündet worden ist, warum traten dort gewisse Lehren zurück, die wir gerade heute in das einführen müssen, was wir die fortgeschrittene Lehre, die fortgeschrittene Verkündigung des Christentums nennen können?
Sie wissen, daß nicht nur in der äußeren, exoterischen Verkündigung des Christentums alles zurücktrat, was mit Reinkarnation und Karma zusammenhängt, sondern es trat dieses auch zurück in den mehr esoterischen Verkündigungen und Offenbarungen der verflossenen Jahrhunderte. Und gar mancher, der hört, was Inhalt der anthroposophischen Weltanschauung ist, fragt: Wie kommt es, daß — trotzdem durch unsere Verkündigungen das Rosenkreuzertum neben allem andern fließen soll, was der Okkultismus.zu geben hat -, wie kommt es, daß dieses Rosenkreuzertum bisher, sozusagen bis in unsere Zeit herein die Lehren von Reinkarnation und Karma nicht hatte? Wie kommt es, daß zu dem Rosenkreuzertum in unserer Zeit hinzugefügt werden mußte die Lehre von Reinkarnation und Karma?
Wenn man dies verstehen will, muß man von einem gewissen Gesichtspunkte aus noch einmal das ganze Verhältnis des Menschen zur Welt ins Auge fassen. Die Vorbedingungen zu der Betrachtung, zu der wir nunmehr in diesen Vorträgen schreiten wollen, liegen allerdings schon in der «Geheimwissenschaft im Umriß». Aber wir müssen uns vor Augen führen, wie das Verhältnis des Menschen zur Welt gerade in unserer Zeit ist, in der Zeit, die vorbereitet ist durch die Saturn-, Sonnen- und Mondenzeit.
Wir wissen, daß dieser Erdenmensch aus dem physischen Leib, dem Ätherleib, Astralleib und Ich besteht mit allem, was dazu gehört. Nun wissen wir, daß der Mensch, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes schreitet, zunächst seinen physischen Leib zurückläßt, daß aber dann nach einiger Zeit auch der größte Teil des Ätherleibes aufgelöst wird im Weltenäther, und daß mit dem Menschen nur etwas mitgeht, was eine Art Extrakt des Ätherleibes ist. Dann geht mit dem Menschen noch lange der astralische Leib mit, von dem aber auch etwas wie eine Hülle abgeworfen wird, nachdem die Kamalokazeit um ist. Dann geht aber der Extrakt des Ätherleibes und derjenige des astralischen Leibes durch die weitere Gestaltung, die der Mensch durchzumachen hat zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt. Im Innersten bleibt das menschliche Ich unverändert. Ob der Mensch die Zeit hier im physischen Leibe zwischen Geburt und Tod durchmacht, ob er durchmacht die Zeit, da er noch voll umschlossen ist von dem astralischen Leib, die Kamalokazeit, oder ob er durchmacht die Devachanzeit, die den größten Teil der Laufbahn zwischen dem Tode und der neuen Geburt bildet: das Ich ist es, das im Grunde genommen durch alle diese Epochen durchgeht. Aber dieses Ich, das wahre, reale Ich, das darf nicht verwechselt werden mit dem, was der Mensch auf der Erde im physischen Leibe als sein Ich erkennt. Die Philosophen reden viel von diesem Ich des Menschen im physischen Erdenleibe, das sie zu erfassen glauben. So wird zum Beispiel gesagt, daß dieses Ich dasjenige sei, was erhalten bleibe, wenn auch alles andere am Menschen sich ändere. Das wahre Ich bleibt zwar erhalten; aber ob das Ich, von dem die Philosophen sprechen können, erhalten bleibt, das ist eine andere Frage. Und wer von der Erhaltung dieses Ich, von dem die Philosophen sprechen können, viel redet, wird dadurch widerlegt, daß der Mensch in der Nacht schläft; denn da ist das Ich, von dem die Philosophen sprechen können, ausgelöscht, ist nicht da. Und wenn es die ganze Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt so da wäre wie bei nachtschlafender Zeit, dann könnte man nicht viel von dem Bleibenden der Menschenseele für die Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt sprechen. Denn im Grunde genommen wäre es einerlei, ob das Ich gar nicht da wäre, oder nichts von sich wüßte und nur wie etwas Äußerliches fortlebt. Nicht darum kann es sich bei der Unsterblichkeitsfrage handeln, daß das Ich vorhanden ist, sondern daß es auch etwas von sich weiß. Also die Unsterblichkeit jenes Ich, das zunächst im menschlichen Bewußtsein lebt, die wird durch jeden Schlaf in der Nacht widerlegt; denn da wird dieses Ich doch einfach ausgelöscht. Aber das wahrhaftige Ich liegt viel tiefer, viel, viel tiefer! Und wie kann man eine Vorstellung von diesem wahrhaftigen Ich bekommen, auch wenn man noch nicht zu den Sphären des Okkultismus aufsteigen kann?
Um eine solche Vorstellung zu bekommen, kann man sich denken: Das Ich muß auch vorhanden sein in der menschlichen Wesenheit, wenn der Mensch noch nicht «Ich » sagen kann, wenn er noch auf dem Boden hinkriecht. - Da ist es schon vorhanden, das reale Ich — nicht das Ich, von dem die Philosophie spricht -, und da zeigt es sich auf eine ganz eigenartige Weise. Betrachten wir, wie es sich da zeigt.
Es wird der äußeren Wissenschaft höchst unbedeutend erscheinen, wie wir den Menschen in den ersten Lebensmonaten oder auch Lebensjahren beobachten. Aber für den, der die Menschennatur kennenlernen will, ist es am allerwichtigsten, dies zu beobachten. Zuerst kriecht der Mensch auf allen vieren, und es bedarf erst einer besonderen Anstrengung für den Menschen, um aus dieser Kriechstellung, aus diesem Hingegebensein an die Schwere, sich aufzurichten, die Vertikalstellung anzunehmen und in dieser sich zu halten. Das ist das eine. Das zweite ist folgendes: Wir wissen, daß der Mensch in der ersten Zeit auch noch nicht sprechen kann. Er lernt auch erst sprechen. Versuchen Sie sich zu erinnern, was Sie zuerst sprechen gelernt haben, wie Sie gelernt haben, zuerst das erste Wort zu sagen, das Sie haben aussprechen können, und wie Sie dann gelernt haben, den ersten Satz zu bilden. Versuchen Sie sich daran zu erinnern, aber ohne daß Sie hellseherische Mittel zu Hilfe nehmen - es wird vergeblich sein. Ohne hellseherische Mittel ist der Mensch dazu ebensowenig in der Lage, wie er sich nicht erinnern kann, in welcher Weise er die erste Anstrengung gemacht hat, um aus der kriechenden in die vertikale Stellung zu kommen. Und ein Drittes ist das Denken selber. Die Erinnerung geht zwar zurück bis in die Zeit, als man schon denken konnte, aber nicht hinter diese Zeit.
Wer ist der Akteur in diesem Gehen-, Sprechen- und Denkenlernen? Das ist das wirkliche, wahre Ich! Was tut denn dieses wahre Ich? Beobachten wir einmal, was es tut.
Von vornherein ist der Mensch dazu bestimmt, aufrecht zu gehen, zu sprechen und zu denken. Aber er hat das nicht gleich. Er ist nicht gleich dasjenige, wozu er sozusagen als Erdenmensch bestimmt ist. Er hat nicht gleich das, wodurch er innerhalb der menschlichen Kulturentwickelung lebt; er muß sich erst nach und nach dazu durchringen. Es kämpfen in seiner ersten Lebenszeit miteinander der Geist, der in ihm lebt, wenn er aufgerichtet ist, und der Geist, der in ihm ist, wenn er der Schwere hingegeben ist, wenn noch unentwickelt in ihm die Fähigkeit des Sprechens und Denkens ruht. So sehen wir, wie der Mensch, wenn er sozusagen seine Bestimmung erlangt hat, aufrecht stehen und gehen kann, sprechen kann und denken kann, ein Ausdruck dessen ist, was in seiner Menschheitsform gegeben ist. Es entspricht auf naturgemäße Weise das Aufrechtgehen, das Sprechen und das Denken der Form des Menschen. Unmöglich ist es, daß ein anderes Wesen gedacht wird, das so gehen kann wie der Mensch, also das Rückenmark in der vertikalen Linie hat, sprechen und denken kann, ohne daß es eben die Menschenform hat. Sogar der Papagei, wenn er sprechen soll, kann es nur dadurch, daß er eben aufgerichtet ist. Es hängt das mit der Vertikallinie innig zusammen. Tiere, die viel intelligenter sind, werden nicht sprechen lernen, weil ihr Rückenmark nicht in der vertikalen, sondern in der horizontalen Linie liegt. Es gehören allerdings noch andere Dinge dazu. Dennoch sehen wir den Menschen nicht gleich in die Lage versetzt, die seine Bestimmung ist. Das kommt daher, daß der Mensch zuletzt, nach den Anstrengungen, die sein wahres Ich gemacht hat, das ihm das Denken, Sprechen und die vertikale Linie gegeben hat, sozusagen eingebettet ist in die Sphäre, in welcher die Geister der Form leben, die Exusiai. Diese Geister der Form, die in der Bibel auch die Elohim genannt werden, sind die, von denen eben wirklich die menschliche Form abstammt, aber eben die Form, jene Form, in der das Ich des Menschen sozusagen natürlich drinnenlebt und sich eindrückt in den ersten Lebensmonaten und -jahren.
Aber andere Geister stehen noch dagegen, welche den Menschen hinwerfen, ihn wie unter den Stand dieser Geister der Form hinunterwerfen. Was sind das für Geister?
Die Geister der Form sind die, welche den Menschen dazu befähigen, sprechen, denken und aufrecht gehen zu lernen. Diejenigen Geister, die ihn gleichsam hinwerfen, daß er auf allen vieren sich bewegt, daß er nicht sprechen kann und sein Denken nicht entwickelt in der ersten Lebenszeit, das sind solche Geister, die er im Leben erst überwinden muß, die ihm eine unrichtige Form zunächst geben. Das sind Geister, die eigentlich schon Geister der Bewegung sein sollten, Dynamis, die aber in ihrer Evolution zurückgeblieben sind und noch nicht einmal auf dem Standpunkte der Geister der Form stehen. Das sind in ihrer Entwickelung stehen gebliebene luziferische Geister, die von außen auf den Menschen wirken und ihn sozusagen dem Element der Schwere übergeben, aus dem er sich erst nach und nach durch die wirklichen Geister der Form erheben muß.
Indem wir so den Menschen beobachten, wie er sich durch die Geburt ins physische Dasein hereinbegibt, sehen wir in diesen Anstrengungen, die er macht, um sich das zu geben, was er später im Leben haben soll, die wirklich fortschreitenden Geister der Form im Kampfe mit jenen Geistern, die schon Geister der Bewegung sein sollten, aber auf einer früheren Stufe stehen geblieben sind. Mit luziferischen Geistern sehen wir schon da die Geister der Form im Kampfe, und auf diesem Gebiete sind die luziferischen Geister so stark, so kräftig, daß sie nicht das Bewußtsein des Ich aufkommen lassen, das da waltet. Sonst, wenn nicht luziferische Geister dieses Bewußtsein niederhielten, würde der Mensch während dieser Zeit zeigen: Du bist ein Kämpfer; du fühlst dich in der horizontalen Lage und willst bewußt die vertikale Lage; du willst sprechen und denken lernen! — Das kann er alles nicht, weil er eingehüllt ist in die luziferischen Geister. Da sehen wir ahnend hin auf das, was wir allmählich erkennen werden als das wahre Ich gegenüber einem bloß dem Bewußtsein erscheinenden Ich.
Im Beginne dieser Reihe von Vorträgen ist gesagt worden, daß wir nach und nach versuchen, das, was der Okkultismus, was das Sehertum zu sagen hat über das Wesen des Menschen, vor dem gesunden Menschenverstande zu rechtfertigen. Dieser gesunde Menschenverstand muß aber wirklich beobachten wollen, wie der Mensch in den ersten Lebenszeiten sich hereinbegibt in die physische Welt, wie er da allmählich hereintritt. Was ist denn, wenn der Mensch ins Leben tritt, am meisten fertig? Die äußere Form ist eigentlich noch wenig hervortretend, denn der Mensch widerspricht seiner äußeren Form. Er muß sich erst selbst in die ihm bestimmte Form hineinbewegen. Was ist denn am meisten fertig am Menschen - nicht nur nach der Geburt, sondern auch vor der Geburt? Das ist das Haupt, das ist der Kopf. Das ist das, was im Grunde genommen überhaupt von den physischen Organen mit einiger Deutlichkeit wirklich ausgebildet wird, auch im Embryo. Warum ist das? Das ist aus dem Grunde, weil keineswegs alle Organe im Menschen in gleicher Weise von den Wesenheiten der höheren Hierarchien, von den Geistern der Form, sozusagen durchsponnen, durchwoben werden, sondern die verschiedenen Glieder in verschiedener Weise: anders der Kopf, anders der Teil des Menschen, an dem Arme und Beine sitzen. Wesentlich unterscheidet sich der Kopf von der übrigen, auch physischen Wesenheit des Menschen. Wenn wir den Menschenkopf hellseherisch betrachten, so zeigt sich, daß er sich zum Beispiel von der Hand in sehr merkwürdiger Weise unterscheidet. Wenn man die Hand bewegt, so bewegen sich die physische Hand und das, was als Ätherleib der Hand zugrunde liegt, in gleicher Weise. Wenn aber eine gewisse Ausbildung im Hellsehertum erlangt ist, so ist es möglich, daß der Hellseher die physische Hand festhalten kann und nur die Ätherhand in Bewegung bringt. Das ist eine besonders wichtige Übung: bewegliche Teile festhalten und nur die Ätherteile bewegen. Dadurch, daß dies erlangt wird, wird immer mehr und mehr das fortschreitende Hellsehertum der Zukunft sogar entwickelt, während alles Nachgeben den Bewegungen, die sich sozusagen unbewußt, von selber machen, ein Wiederaufleben des Derwischtumes ist, das heute schon. überwunden ist. Ruhen des physischen Leibes ist das Charakteristikon des heutigen Hellsehertums; alle möglichen zappelnden und dergleichen Bewegungen sind das Charakteristikum der alten Zeit gewesen. Es würde daher etwas ganz Besonderes sein, wenn der Hellseher zum Beispiel eine ganz bestimmte Lage seiner Hände - etwa über die Brust gekreuzte Hände festhalten würde und die größte Beweglichkeit seiner Ätherhände beibehielte; so daß er mit den letzteren alles Mögliche in der Übersinnlichkeit ausführte, während er die physischen Hände festhalten würde. Das würde eine ganz besondere Ausbildung sein, wo sich die Selbstkontrolle des Menschen in bezug auf die Hände ausdrückte.
Nun gibt es aber ein Organ am Menschen, wo das schon stattfindet, auch ohne daß er Hellseher ist, daß sich der Ätherteil frei bewegt, während der entsprechende physische Teil festgehalten wird: das ist das Gehirn, jenes Organ, wo die Weltordnung die feste Schale um die Gehirnlappen gefügt hat. Bewegen wollen sie sich schon, aber sie können nicht. Daher ist beim gewöhnlichen Menschen in bezug auf das Gehirn immer das vorhanden, was beim Hellseher vorhanden ist, wenn er zum Beispiel die physischen Hände festhält und nur die Ätherhände bewegt. Für das Hellsehertum ist aber ein Kopf etwas ganz anderes, als was er uns beim gewöhnlichen Menschen entgegentritt. Denn für den Hellseher ist das Gehirn etwas, was wie schlangenartig züngelnd aus dem Kopfe sich heraushebt. Jeder Kopf ist nämlich ein Medusenhaupt. Das ist etwas sehr Reales. Und das ist der Unterschied des menschlichen Hauptes gegenüber dem anderen Körper, daß der Mensch in bezug auf den anderen Körper erst durch eine weiterschreitende Evolution das erreichen wird, was beim Kopfe das gewöhnliche äußere Denken ist. Darin liegt sogar in gewisser Beziehung die Stärke des Denkens, daß der Mensch in die Lage kommt, möglichst bis in die feineren, unsichtbaren Bewegungen, die Nervenbewegungen, das Gehirn zur Ruhe bringen zu können, während er denkt. Dadurch, daß er das Gehirn ruhig haben kann, wenn er denkt, ruhig haben kann bis in die feineren Bewegungen, die sozusagen die Nervenbewegungen sind, werden die Gedanken feiner, ruhiger, logischer.
So können wir sagen: Wenn der Mensch durch die Geburt ins Dasein tritt, ist sein Kopf deshalb am meisten fertig, weil für ihn das schon eingetreten ist, was in bezug auf denjenigen Teil des Menschen, der sich durch Gesten ausdrückt, die Hände, erst in der Zukunft erreicht werden kann. In der alten Mondenzeit war das, was heute Gehirn ist, noch auf dem Standpunkt der heutigen Hände. Da war der Kopf nach vielen Seiten noch often, war noch nicht durch die Schädeldecke geschlossen. Während er jetzt wie in einem Gefängnisse sitzt, konnte er sich damals nach allen Seiten herausbewegen. Das war allerdings auf dem alten Monde, wo wir den Menschen noch durchaus im flüssigen, nicht im festen Elemente haben. Selbst in einer gewissen Epoche der alten lemurischen Zeit, wo der Mensch eben jene Entwickelungsstufe erreicht hatte, welche die alte Mondenzeit wiederholt, selbst da war es auch noch so, daß zum Beispiel da, wo ein Gehirnspalt oben war, nicht nur das ja öfter erwähnte Organ war, sondern etwas wie ein Emporsprudelndes der Gedanken im flüssigen Elemente. Und eine Art feuriger Dunst, der sich in dem Menschenelement entwickelte, war sogar noch beim alten Atlantier vorhanden. Ohne ein übernormales Hellsehen zu haben, sondern mit einem Hellsehen, das einfach jeder Mensch hatte, konnte man beim Atlantier sehen, ob ein Mensch ein Denker war im Sinne der alten atlantischen Zeit, oder ob er keiner war. Wer ein Denker war, hatte eben einen leuchtenden Feuerschein, eine Art leuchtenden Dunst über seinem Haupt; und wer nicht dachte, ging ohne einen solchen herum.
Das sind Dinge, die man zunächst wissen muß, wenn man die Verwandelung der menschlichen Natur von der Zeit an ins Auge fassen will, in welcher der Mensch hier im physischen Leibe lebt, durch den Tod durchgeht und in die andere Zeit zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt hineinkommt. Denn alles, was am Menschen arbeitet, so daß der Mensch überhaupt zustande kommt, das verschwindet gewissermaßen, wenn der Mensch schon in der physischen Welt drinnen ist; das hat aber ganz besondere Wichtigkeit, ist ganz besonders bedeutsam dann, wenn der Mensch seinen physischen Leib abgelegt hat. Die Kräfte, welche des Menschen physisches Gehirn gebildet haben, nimmt der Mensch ja nicht wahr in der Zeit zwischen Geburt und Tod. Alles aber, was er wahrnimmt in der Zeit zwischen Geburt und Tod, ist als unwichtig gewichen, wenn er durch den Tod gegangen ist. Dagegen lebt er dann in den Kräften, welche ihm unbewußt bleiben im physischen Erdenleben. Und während er im physischen Erdenleben sein «Vorstellungs-Ich» im Wachzustande erlebt, erlebt er zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt gerade jenes Ich, das uns im Gehen-, Sprechen- und Denkenlernen des Menschen erahnend vor die Seele tritt. Es bleibt für den Erdenmenschen unbewußt, reicht nicht herein in sein Bewußtsein. Was da unbewußt bleibt und dann ganz zugedeckt wird, das können wir nun zurückverfolgen in die Zeit bis zur Geburt und noch vor die Geburt, und können es auch noch weiter zurückverfolgen, wenn wir die Zeit nach dem Tode betrachten. Was sich am meisten verbirgt, weil es den Menschen aufgebaut hat, und was verschwindet, wenn der Mensch ein Erdenmensch ist, das ist am meisten vorhanden, wenn er kein Erdenmensch mehr ist, nämlich in der Zeit nach dem Tode. Die Kräfte, die man nur erahnen kann, die den Menschen von innen zu einem Gehenden machen, die den Sprachlaut hervortreiben, die ihn zum Denker machen, die das Gehirn zum Denkorgan bilden, das sind die allerwichtigsten Kräfte, wenn der Mensch im Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt ist. Da lebt erst sein wahres Ich auf. Wie es auflebt, davon werden wir das nächste Mal sprechen.
Sixth Lecture
We have already considered a number of things concerning the period between death and rebirth, and recently we also included a consideration of the relationship between Christian Rosenkreutz and Buddha, because, as could be shown, since the time indicated at that time, the Buddha has been connected with a planetary sphere, with the sphere of Mars, and because human beings, after passing through the Christ event on the sun between death and rebirth, as I have described to you, continue to live on in the sphere of Mars and undergo the Buddha experience in the way that is right and normal for the present time. We must understand this Buddha experience today as it applies to the present time, not as it applied to the time when the individuality in question lived on earth as Gautama Buddha. The only real, genuine enlightenment about the nature of human beings and their connection with the entire evolution of the world is to go along, so to speak, with this evolution of the world with one's understanding.
We know that in the post-Atlantean era, the five periods that followed one another as the most important epochs in which the human soul underwent progressive developments were the Indian, the Persian, the Egyptian-Chaldean, the Greek-Latin, and our own cultural period. But we also know that in each of these epochs, the next epoch is already being prepared, as it were in embryo. In our time, the sixth post-Atlantean epoch is already slowly being prepared in the souls, and this preparation must be as follows. This sixth post-Atlantean epoch is being prepared by the human soul learning to understand precisely what is spreading throughout the world in our time as occult teaching, as spiritual science. This not only spreads the knowledge of human nature in general that is necessary for the future, but also spreads what can be called an ever deeper understanding of the Christ impulse. Everything that is to contribute to this spread of understanding of the Christ impulse in our time comes together for the West in what can be called the mystery of the Holy Grail. And the mystery of the Holy Grail is also intimately connected with such things as have been discussed: with the assignment of the mission for Mars to Buddha by Christian Rosenkreutz. And this mystery of the Holy Grail can give modern human beings what will introduce them to a understanding of life between death and new birth that is right for our time. This understanding makes it necessary above all that we now set about answering an important question. And without trying to delve a little deeper into this question than we have been able to do so far, we will not be able to proceed further in our considerations of life between death and the new birth. The question is: Why, in the proclamation of Christianity, even where Christianity had already been proclaimed in its deeper essence, did certain teachings recede that we must introduce today into what we can call the advanced teaching, the advanced proclamation of Christianity?
You know that not only in the outer, exoteric proclamation of Christianity did everything connected with reincarnation and karma recede, but this also receded in the more esoteric proclamations and revelations of past centuries. And many who hear what the anthroposophical worldview is all about ask: How is it that — even though our teachings say that Rosicrucianism should flow alongside everything else that occultism has to offer — how is it that Rosicrucianism has not had the teachings of reincarnation and karma until now, so to speak, right up to our time? How is it that the teachings of reincarnation and karma had to be added to Rosicrucianism in our time?
If we want to understand this, we must once again consider the whole relationship of the human being to the world from a certain point of view. The prerequisites for the consideration we now wish to proceed with in these lectures are already laid down in “An Outline of the Secret Science.” But we must keep in mind what the relationship of the human being to the world is like in our time, the time that has been prepared by the Saturn, Sun, and Moon epochs.
We know that the human being on Earth consists of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I with everything that belongs to it. Now we know that when a human being passes through the gate of death, he first leaves behind his physical body, but that after some time the greater part of the etheric body is also dissolved in the world ether, and that only something that is a kind of extract of the etheric body goes with the human being. Then the astral body accompanies the human being for a long time, but something like a shell is shed after the Kamaloka period is over. Then, however, the extract of the etheric body and that of the astral body undergo further formation, which the human being has to go through between death and new birth. In its innermost being, the human I remains unchanged. Whether the human being goes through the time here in the physical body between birth and death, whether he goes through the time when he is still completely enclosed by the astral body, the Kamaloka period, or whether he goes through the Devachan period, which forms the greater part of the career between death and new birth: it is the I that basically goes through all these epochs. But this I, the true, real I, must not be confused with what man recognizes as his I on earth in the physical body. Philosophers talk a lot about this I of man in the physical earthly body, which they believe they can grasp. For example, it is said that this I is what remains when everything else about man changes. The true I does indeed remain; but whether the I of which philosophers can speak remains is another question. And anyone who talks a lot about the preservation of this I of which philosophers can speak is refuted by the fact that human beings sleep at night; for then the I of which philosophers can speak is extinguished, is not there. And if it were there all the time between death and rebirth as it is during the night when we sleep, then one could not say much about the permanence of the human soul for the time between death and rebirth. For, basically, it would be the same whether the self were not there at all or knew nothing of itself and only lived on as something external. The question of immortality cannot be about the existence of the self, but about its awareness of itself. The immortality of the self that initially lives in human consciousness is refuted by every night's sleep, for then this self is simply extinguished. But the true self lies much deeper, much, much deeper! And how can one get an idea of this true self, even if one cannot yet ascend to the spheres of occultism?
To get such an idea, one can think: The self must also exist in human beings when they cannot yet say “I,” when they are still crawling on the ground. There it is already present, the real self—not the self that philosophy speaks of—and there it reveals itself in a very peculiar way. Let us consider how it reveals itself.
It will seem highly insignificant to external science how we observe human beings in the first months or even years of life. But for those who want to get to know human nature, it is most important to observe this. At first, humans crawl on all fours, and it takes a special effort for them to rise up from this crawling position, from this surrender to gravity, to assume an upright position and maintain it. That is one thing. The second is this: We know that in the beginning, humans cannot yet speak. They first have to learn to speak. Try to remember what you first learned to say, how you learned to say the first word you were able to utter, and how you then learned to form your first sentence. Try to remember, but without resorting to clairvoyance—it will be in vain. Without clairvoyant means, humans are just as incapable of doing this as they are of remembering how they made their first effort to move from a crawling position to an upright position. And a third thing is thinking itself. Memories go back to the time when we were already able to think, but not beyond that time.
Who is the actor in this learning to walk, speak, and think? It is the real, true self! What does this true self do? Let us observe what it does.
From the outset, human beings are destined to walk upright, to speak, and to think. But they do not have these abilities right away. They are not immediately what they are destined to be as human beings on Earth, so to speak. They do not immediately possess that which enables them to live within the context of human cultural development; they must first gradually work their way towards it. During their early life, the spirit that lives within them when they are upright and the spirit that is within them when they are subject to gravity, when the ability to speak and think is still undeveloped within them, struggle with each other. Thus we see how the human being, when he has attained his destiny, so to speak, can stand upright and walk, can speak and think, and is an expression of what is given in his human form. Standing upright, speaking, and thinking correspond in a natural way to the form of the human being. It is impossible to conceive of another being that can walk like a human being, that is, that has the spinal cord in a vertical line, and can speak and think without having the human form. Even the parrot, when it is supposed to speak, can only do so because it is upright. This is closely related to the vertical line. Animals that are much more intelligent will not learn to speak because their spinal cord is not in a vertical line but in a horizontal line. There are, of course, other factors involved. Nevertheless, we do not see humans immediately in the position that is their destiny. This is because, after the efforts made by their true self, which gave them thinking, speaking, and the vertical line, humans are, so to speak, embedded in the sphere in which the spirits of form live, the Exusiai. These spirits of form, also called the Elohim in the Bible, are those from whom the human form actually descends, but precisely the form in which the human ego lives naturally, so to speak, and imprints itself in the first months and years of life.
But other spirits stand against them, throwing the human being down, casting him down as if beneath the level of these spirits of form. What are these spirits?
The spirits of form are those that enable humans to learn to speak, think, and walk upright. Those spirits that cast him down, as it were, so that he moves on all fours, cannot speak, and does not develop his thinking in the first period of life, are spirits that he must first overcome in life, spirits that initially give him an incorrect form. These are spirits that should actually already be spirits of movement, dynamis, but which have remained behind in their evolution and are not even at the stage of spirits of form. These are Luciferic spirits that have remained stuck in their development, which act on humans from outside and, so to speak, hand them over to the element of heaviness, from which they must gradually rise through the real spirits of form.
As we observe human beings entering physical existence through birth, we see in their efforts to acquire what they will need later in life the truly progressive spirits of form in battle with those spirits that should already be spirits of movement but have remained at an earlier stage. We already see the spirits of form in battle with the spirits of Lucifer, and in this realm the spirits of Lucifer are so strong, so powerful, that they do not allow the consciousness of the I to arise and reign. Otherwise, if the spirits of Lucifer did not hold down this consciousness, human beings would show during this period that You are a fighter; you feel yourself in the horizontal position and consciously want the vertical position; you want to learn to speak and think! — He cannot do any of this because he is enveloped in the Luciferic spirits. Here we see a glimpse of what we will gradually recognize as the true I in contrast to an I that appears only to consciousness.
At the beginning of this series of lectures, it was said that we would gradually try to justify to common sense what occultism and clairvoyance have to say about the nature of the human being. But this common sense must really want to observe how the human being enters the physical world in the first stages of life, how he gradually enters it. What is most complete when a human being enters life? The outer form is actually not very prominent, because the human being contradicts his outer form. He must first move himself into the form that is destined for him. What is most complete in the human being — not only after birth, but also before birth? It is the head. That is what is actually formed with some clarity from the physical organs, even in the embryo. Why is that? It is because by no means are all organs in the human being woven in the same way by the beings of the higher hierarchies, by the spirits of form, so to speak, but rather the different limbs are woven in different ways: the head differently, the part of the human being where the arms and legs are located differently. The head differs essentially from the rest of the physical being of the human being. When we look at the human head clairvoyantly, we see that it differs from the hand, for example, in a very remarkable way. When you move your hand, the physical hand and what underlies it as the etheric body of the hand move in the same way. But when a certain level of clairvoyance has been attained, it is possible for the clairvoyant to hold the physical hand steady and move only the etheric hand. This is a particularly important exercise: holding fast to moving parts and moving only the etheric parts. By achieving this, the progressive clairvoyance of the future will be developed more and more, while any yielding to movements that occur unconsciously, of their own accord, is a revival of dervishism, which has already been overcome today. Resting of the physical body is the characteristic feature of present-day clairvoyance; all kinds of fidgeting and similar movements were characteristic of the old days. It would therefore be something very special if, for example, the clairvoyant were to hold his hands in a very specific position—perhaps crossed over his chest—and maintain the greatest possible mobility of his etheric hands, so that he could perform all kinds of supernatural acts with the latter while holding his physical hands still. This would be a very special training in which the self-control of the human being would be expressed in relation to the hands.
Now, however, there is an organ in the human being where this already takes place, even without the person being clairvoyant, where the etheric part moves freely while the corresponding physical part is held in place: this is the brain, that organ where the world order has formed the solid shell around the cerebral lobes. They want to move, but they cannot. Therefore, in relation to the brain, what is present in clairvoyants is always present in ordinary people, for example when they hold their physical hands still and move only their etheric hands. For clairvoyance, however, the head is something completely different from what we encounter in ordinary people. For the clairvoyant, the brain is something that protrudes from the head like a snake's tongue. Every head is a Medusa head. This is something very real. And this is the difference between the human head and the rest of the body: in relation to the rest of the body, it is only through further evolution that the human being will achieve what is ordinary external thinking in the head. In a certain sense, this is where the strength of thinking lies, in that human beings are able to calm the brain as much as possible, down to the finest, invisible movements, the nerve movements, while they think. Because he can keep his brain calm when he thinks, calm down to the finer movements, which are, so to speak, the nerve movements, his thoughts become finer, calmer, more logical.
So we can say that when a human being comes into existence through birth, his head is most complete because what can only be achieved in the future in relation to the part of the human being that expresses itself through gestures, the hands, has already been achieved. In the ancient lunar period, what is now the brain was still at the level of today's hands. The head was still open on many sides and was not yet closed by the skull. Whereas now it sits as if in a prison, at that time it could move out in all directions. However, this was on the old moon, where we still find human beings entirely in a liquid, not a solid element. Even in a certain epoch of the old Lemurian time, when man had reached the stage of development that repeats the old lunar time, even then it was still the case that, for example, where there was a brain fissure at the top, there was not only the organ that has been mentioned so often, but something like a bubbling up of thoughts in the liquid element. And a kind of fiery mist that developed in the human element was even still present in the ancient Atlanteans. Without having supernormal clairvoyance, but with a clairvoyance that every human being simply had, one could see in the Atlanteans whether a person was a thinker in the sense of the ancient Atlantean time, or whether he was not. Those who were thinkers had a glowing fiery glow, a kind of luminous haze above their heads; and those who did not think went around without it.
These are things that must first be known if one wants to understand the transformation of human nature from the time when man lives here in the physical body, passes through death, and enters the other time between death and new birth. For everything that works in the human being so that the human being comes into being at all disappears, so to speak, when the human being is already in the physical world; but this has a very special importance, is very significant when the human being has laid down his physical body. The forces that formed the human physical brain are not perceived by the human being in the time between birth and death. But everything that he perceives in the time between birth and death has receded as unimportant when he has passed through death. On the other hand, he then lives in the forces that remain unconscious to him in physical earthly life. And while they experience their “imaginary I” in the waking state during their physical life on earth, between death and new birth they experience precisely that I which we intuitively perceive in the soul as we learn to walk, speak, and think. It remains unconscious to the earthly human being and does not reach into their consciousness. What remains unconscious and is then completely covered up, we can now trace back to the time before birth and even before birth, and we can trace it back even further if we consider the time after death. What is most hidden because it has built up the human being, and what disappears when the human being is an earthly human being, is most present when he is no longer an earthly human being, namely in the time after death. The forces that can only be guessed at, which make a person a walking being from within, which bring forth the sound of speech, which make him a thinker, which form the brain into a thinking organ, are the most important forces when a person is in the life between death and new birth. It is then that his true self comes to life. How it comes to life is what we will talk about next time.