Aspects of human behaviour

From Anthroposophy

This topic page complements the topic pages for Human 'I' and Human character - the I and threefold soul, and covers aspects of human soul experience and human behaviour.

Soul experience

The individual human constitution, the specific structural make up of our different bodily principles, partly defines our human character.

These bodies are used by the human 'I' to have a soul experience, as coined by the phrase "The I plays on the instrument of the soul and the different strings of human soul life", see Human character - the I and threefold soul. Hence the soul is a mediator between the outer physical world (including the human physical body) and the inner core (including the human astral body and human I)

This complex and rich soul experience consists of the whole human inner life, including a.o.:

Aspects

soul qualities

that differentiate people:

  • lazy or active thinker
  • life attitude: seriousness or light-hearted chatterbox
  • attentiveness
  • active interest
    • in others
    • in nature and the wonders of the world
  • nervousness (1912-01-11-GA143, 1906-08-28-GA095)
  • anger (1909-12-05-GA059, 1914-01-15-GA063)
  • laughter and weeping/sadness/tears (1911-02-26-GA127)
    • laughing and weeping can be a means whereby the I can educate itself and further strengthen its powers .. in human life there is a kind of pendulum which swings to and fro between laughter (to free one-self) and tears (to search for one-self). laughter and tears are revelations of the spirit .. in laughter Man seeks an outward expression of inner liberation, in tears Man experiences an inner strengthening after the I has suffered a loss in the external world. (1910-02-03-GA059)
  • conscience - see Virtues#Conscience and Schema FMC00.371
  • lying or truthfullness
    • A lie in the physical world becomes an agent of destruction, a murder in the astral world (and the origin of black magic). In the astral world, every feeling, every idea is a visible form, a living force. The astral lie brings about an impact between the false and true forms, resulting in death. (1906-06-02-GA094)
    • explanation: Whenever you relate something, you produce the corresponding thought-form, this also rays out a thought-form (in the astral world). If your thought-form corresponds (with the reality of it), then the two forms flow together upon the astral plane and strengthen each other. You thus strengthen the life of the being you are talking about. In the case of an untruth, the thought-form streaming out of your words does not correspond with that which goes out from the thing itself; the forms collide and destroy each other. Thus an untruth has a life-destroying, killing effect on them. (1906-06-29-GA094)
  • awe or wonder
  • humor or humour
    • A humorous attitude is an expansion of the soul and spirit, whereas a serious mood brings the spirit-soul aspect of human nature into closer contact with the physical body. (1920-04-29-GA301)
  • other and
    • Conscience and astonishment as indications of spiritual vision in past and future (1912-02-03-GA143)
    • previous incarnations - metamorphosis of soul qualities (See Schema FMC00.596 and 1924-02-24-GA235, 1924-03-15-GA235, 1924-03-30-GA239, 1924-05-10-GA236)

bodily expressions

reactions of the physical body as an expression of inner experiences:

  • laughing
    • Man laughs when he fancies himself to be above what he sees, Man feels superior to something or other in the environment, and the I brings this to expression by expanding the astral body. Typically it gives a short out-breath and a long in-breath.(1909-04-27-GA107)
  • weeping
    • In the phenomena of weeping the astral body is compressed by the I and this squeezes out the breath, the breathing of someone who is weeping, consists essentially of a short in-breath and a long out-breath. (1909-04-27-GA107)
    • the spiritual cause of weeping is sadness, the material consequence is the secretion of the lachrymatory glands (1907-06-22-GA100)
  • yawning
    • inclination to yawn when we see another person yawning .. is a remnant of the fact that in the Atlantean epoch there was a strong a subconscious reciprocal influence, invoking the collaboration of the other's soul ... a powerful effect was exercised on the other's soul the moment any image, any sensation, arose in the soul, and the will was directed upon the other. All influences were powerful, as was also the will to receive them (1909-06-29-GA112)
    • not just about fatigue
      • "Think of someone who does no work the whole day long, someone who has private wealth. He can go for walks, or he can move from one armchair to another—and from morning till night he's using up his forces just the same. I've noticed at workers' concerts that those who had been working all day were much less fatigued than the well-to-do people who had done nothing at all. The latter kept yawning, while the others were bright and lively." (1924-09-20-GA354)
  • sneezing
  • blushing (becoming red)
  • coughing

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.565: shows a simple schematic to the description the two main elements in soul life, and what takes place in the process of human sense perception and the creation of mental images, sensations and memory - as related to desire and judgement.

shows a simple schematic to the description the two main elements in soul life, and what takes place in the process of human sense perception and the creation of mental images, sensations and memory - as related to desire and judgement.

Schema FMC00.596: provides an overview and selection of statements related to the metamorphosis of the human being between two incarnations in the spirit world during the process between death and a new birth. This provides a synthetic summary for reference, the lectures on the right should be read to get context and full description.

Note: see also more in 1906-03-14-GA097.

provides an overview and selection of statements related to the metamorphosis of the human being between two incarnations in the spirit world during the process between death and a new birth. This provides a synthetic summary for reference, the lectures on the right should be read to get context and full description. Note: see also more in 1906-03-14-GA097.


Lecture coverage and references

Coverage overview

Reference extracts

Nervousness
1906-08-28-GA095

Today a disease is widespread which was hardly known a hundred years ago; not that it would not have been known, but it was really not very common: that is nervousness. This peculiar form of disease is the result of the materialistic worldview of the 18th century. Without the preceding of the materialistic worldview, it would never have come about.

The spiritual teacher knows that if materialism continued for decades, it would have a destructive effect on public health.

Were these materialistic habits of thought not to be adjusted, people would not only just be nervous, but children would be born trembling and experiencing not only the environment, but to every environment a sense of grief. Above all, mental illnesses would spread awfully fast: epidemics of madness would occur in the coming decades. That was also the danger, which humanity was heading for: epidemic mental illnesses.

And this worldview of the future was the true reason, why the occult leaders of humanity, the masters of wisdom, saw the necessity of letting spiritual wisdom flow into general humanity. Only such a spiritual worldview can restore good health to the coming generations.

1912-01-11-GA143

(or translation V2)

is on overcoming nervousness

Yawning
1909-06-29-GA112

Yesterday we mentioned the period in which a distinct sense of the I emerged, adding that the etheric body came to coincide with the physical body as the last third of the Atlantean age approached. You can imagine that previously the nature of leadership as well was quite different, for at that time there existed nothing like a mutual understanding among men resting on an appeal to reason. In those days of dim clairvoyance mutual understanding was based upon a subconscious influence passing from one to the other. Especially was there still present to a high degree something we know today only in its last misinterpreted and misunderstood survival, namely, a kind of suggestion, a subconscious reciprocal influence, invoking but little the collaboration of the other's soul.

Looking back to early Atlantean times we see that a powerful effect was exercized on the other's soul the moment any image, any sensation, arose in the soul, and the will was directed upon the other. All influences were powerful, as was also the will to receive them. Only scraps of all this have survived.

Picture to yourself a Man of that time passing another while executing certain gestures. If the observer were even slightly the weaker of the two he would have felt impelled to imitate and mimic all the gestures. The only surviving remnant of this sort of thing is our inclination to yawn when we see another person yawning. Formerly a far closer tie prevailed between human beings, based on the fact that they lived in an atmosphere totally different from that of today.

Laughing and weeping
1907-06-22-GA100

We have an analogous example in weeping. Its spiritual cause is sadness, but its material one is the secretion of the lachrymatory glands. It hardly seems possible that a famous modern scientist should have come to the same foolish conclusion mentioned above, but he actually made the monstrous statement that the human being does not weep because he feels sad, but that he feels sad because he weeps!

1909-04-27-GA107

Why does a person laugh?

Someone invariably laughs when he fancies himself to be above what he sees. You can always find this statement verified. Whether you are laughing at yourself or at someone else your I is always feeling superior to something. And out of this feeling of superiority it expands the forces of its astral body, broadens and puffs them up. Strictly speaking this is what is really at the root of laughter.

And this is why laughter can be such a healthy thing. And this pluming oneself should not be condemned in the abstract as egoistic, for laughter can be very healthy when it strengthens Man's feeling of selfhood, especially if it is warranted and leads him beyond himself. If you see something in your surroundings or in yourself or others that is absurd, a feeling of being above such absurdity is sparked off and makes you laugh. It is bound to happen that Man feels superior to something or other in the environment, and the I brings this to expression by expanding the astral body.

quote B

Now we shall see much more in the phenomena of laughing and weeping if we observe the breathing process when people laugh or cry. This enables us to see deeply into what is happening.

If you watch the breathing of someone who is weeping, you will notice that it consists essentially of a long out-breath and a short in-breath. It is the opposite with laughing: a short out-breath and a long in-breath.

Thus the breathing process changes when the human being is under the influence of the phenomena we have been describing. And you only need a little imagination to find the reasons why this must be so.

In the phenomena of weeping the astral body is compressed by the I. This is like a squeezing out of the breath: a long out-breath.

In the phenomenon of laughing there is a slackening of the astral body. That is just as though you were to pump the air out of a certain space, rarefy the air, and the air whistles in. It is like this with the long in-breath when you laugh. Here, so to say, in the change in the breathing process we see the I at work within the astral body.

1910-02-03-GA059

In other lectures we have seen that the I not only works on the sentient soul, the intellectual soul and the consciousness soul, but through this work is itself made stronger and brought nearer fulfilment. Hence we can readily understand that laughing and weeping can be a means whereby the I can educate itself and further strengthen its powers. No wonder, then, that among the great sources of education for human development we rank those dramatic creations which stimulate the soul-forces that find expression in laughter and tears.

… Hence we can see how closely connected with human development are tragedy and comedy, when through artistic creations they come before our souls.

Anyone who can observe human nature in its smallest details will find that everyday experiences can lead to an understanding of the greatest facts. Artistic productions, for example, can make us see that in human life there is a kind of pendulum which swings to and fro between laughter and tears. The I can progress only by being in motion. If the pendulum were at rest, the I would not be able to expand or develop; it would succumb to inward death. It is right for human development that the I should be able to free itself through laughter and on the other hand to search for itself through tears. Certainly a balance between the two poles must be found: the I will find completion only in the balance, never in swinging to and fro between exaltation and despair. It will find itself only at the point of rest, which can swing over as easily to one extreme as to the other.

The human being must gradually become the guide and leader of his own development. If we understand laughter and tears, we can see them as revelations of the spirit, for a human being becomes transparent, as it were, if we know how in laughter he seeks an outward expression of inner liberation, while in tears he experiences an inner strengthening after the I has suffered a loss in the external world.

1911-02-26-GA127

The relationship of the I to the environment through sadness and laughter.

Anger
1909-12-05-GA059

is on the mission of anger

1914-01-15-GA063

It has to go deep into the secrets of human being, if you can ask yourself: What makes a person angry?

Because he uses the powers bestowed upon him for his perfection in the wrong places!

What causes evil, is evil in the world?

Because of the fact that Man does not use the powers bestowed on him in a world suitable for these powers.

Humour
1920-04-29-GA301

The spirit-soul is more closely connected with the physical body than it is when we are in a neutral mood. A humorous attitude is an expansion of the soul and spirit, whereas a serious mood brings the spirit-soul aspect of human nature into closer contact with the physical body.

Lying
1906-06-02-GA094

The dim, dreamy life of many mediums is an analogous phenomenon. The medium invariably loses his orientation between these different worlds and is unable to distinguish the true from the false.

A lie in the physical world becomes an agent of destruction in the astral world. A lie is a murder in the astral world. This phenomenon is the origin of black magic.

The earthly commandment, Thou shalt not kill, may therefore be translated into Thou shalt not lie, in reference to the astral world.

The lie is nothing but a word, an illusion. It may do untold harm, but nothing is actually destroyed. In the astral world, every feeling, every idea is a visible form, a living force. The astral lie brings about an impact between the false and true forms, resulting in death.

1906-06-29-GA094

In occultism we say: Upon the physical plane a lie is a lie, but upon the astral plane it is a murder.

Matters namely stand as follows: Whenever you relate something, you produced the corresponding thought-form; but also the fact which you relate rays out a thought-form. If your thought-form corresponds with it and agrees with it, then the two forms flow together upon the astral plane and strengthen each other. You thus strengthen the life of the being you are talking about.

But in the case of an untruth the thought-form streaming out of your words does not correspond with that which goes out from the thing itself; the forms collide and destroy each other. An untruth, a lie, does have a life-destroying, killing effect on them.

To speak of morality in the occult meaning, does not mean to preach morality, but to establish it by facts pertaining to the higher worlds. Schopenhauer rightly said: It is easy to preach morals, but is difficult to establish morals.

1906-08-23-GA095

In occultism there is a saying which can now be made known: In the astral world, every lie is a murder.

The full significance of this saying can be appreciated only by someone who has knowledge of the higher worlds. How readily people say: “Oh, that is only a thought or a feeling; it exists only in the soul. To box someone's ears is wrong, but a bad thought does no harm.”

No proverb is more untrue than the one which says: “You don't have to pay for your thoughts.” Every thought and every feeling is a reality, and if I let myself think that someone is a bad man or that I don't like him, then for anyone who can see into the astral world the thought is like an arrow or thunderbolt hurled against the other's astral body and injuring it as a gunshot would.

I repeat: every thought and every feeling is a reality, and for anyone with astral vision it is often much worse to see someone harbouring bad thoughts about another than to see him inflicting physical harm. When we make this truth known we are not preaching morality but laying a solid foundation for it.

If we speak the truth about our neighbour, we are creating a thought which the seer can recognise by its colour and form, and it will be a thought which gives strength to our neighbour. Any thought containing truth finds its way to the being whom it concerns and lends him strength and vigour. If I speak lies about him, I pour out a hostile force which destroys and may even kill him. In this way every lie is an act of murder. Every spoken truth creates a life-promoting element; every lie, an element hostile to life. Anyone who knows this will take much greater care to speak the truth and avoid lies than if he is merely preached at and told he must be nice and truthful.

other translation

Every lie is murder in the astral world! - This is a very significant sentence, the importance of which can only be understood by those who have knowledge of the higher worlds. How lightly people speak: Oh, it is only a thought, a feeling, it remains in the soul; I must not give a slap in the face, but a bad thought does no harm. - There is no more untrue proverb than: Thoughts are duty-free, - for every thought, every feeling is a reality, and if I think someone is a bad person, or I do not love him, it is like an arrow, like a bolt of lightning, for him who can see into the astral world, which moves like a shotgun pellet against the astral body of the other and harms him. Every feeling, every thought is an entity, a form in the astral world, and for those who have insight into this world, it is often much worse to see when someone has a bad thought about his fellow human being than when he physically harms him. To make this truth known is to justify morality, not to preach it. If one speaks the truth about a person, a thought-form is formed which the seer can recognize by shape and color and which strengthens the life of his neighbour. The thought that contains a truth goes towards the entity to which it refers and promotes and enlivens it. So if I think a truth about my fellow human being, I strengthen his life; if I say a lie about him, I pour a hostile force onto him that has a destructive, even killing effect. Therefore, every lie is murder. Every truth forms a life-enhancing element, every lie a life-inhibiting element. He who knows this will be more careful with regard to truth and lies than he who is only preached to that he should always tell the truth nicely.

1906-09-04-GA095 - Q&A

   “Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters, it must have lost the power to wound.”

   From Light on the Path, by Mabel Collins.

When we send forth a loving thought, it creates a wonderfully beautiful thought-form, like a flower which gently opens and then surrounds the person to whom the thought applies. Anyone who thinks a thought full of hate creates a sharp-pointed angular form, closed at its apex, designed to wound. That which is here called “the Masters” is the divine voice which speaks in us. It speaks constantly, but we do not always allow it to emerge. The thought-form of love is open; hence the voice of the Masters can sound through it. But the closed thought-form of hate leaves the divine thought-form no way out, so that it has to remain unheard.

In the astral, a lie is a murder

Suppose I think the following thought: I met a man. A quite definite thought-form will be engendered by that. Now to someone else I say it again: I met a man. The same thought-form is again engendered. The two thought-forms meet and strengthen each other. But if I tell a lie and say: I did not meet a man—this engenders a thought-form opposed to the first. The result is an explosion in the astral body of the liar.

GA125

When we succumb to lying, Ahriman is at work in our ether body

GA338

p242; however quote not found back in GA338

There is a certain gradation when it comes to lying. The churches come first, the press second and the politicians third. This is presented quite objectively and not out of emotion.

The enthusiasm to lie is caused by things that can only be obtained through education within the church (and similar hierarchies). The enthusiasm for lying in the press is caused by social conditions, and in politics lying is really only, I would say, a continuation in civilian life of what is quite natural in militarism - with which politics is closely connected: if you want to defeat an opponent, you have to deceive him.

But there it is method, whereas with the other two classes, with the press and the representatives of the creeds, it is the enthusiasm of lying.

These things are not radicalism when they are presented in this way; it is simply an objective fact. The bad thing lies in the fact that, because of people's prejudices, a large proportion of them do not yet realize that it is impossible to stand within the confessions and tell the truth.

Various
1912-02-03-GA143

Conscience and Astonishment (As Indications of Spiritual Vision in Past and Future)

Discussion

Related pages

References and further reading

  • Robert J. Sardello:
    • 'Facing the world with soul - The Reimagination of Modern Life' (1974 in EN, also in NL as 'De ziel in de wereld : Een andere, spirituele benadering van het dagelijks leven')
    • The Power of Soul: Living the Twelve Virtues (2002)

Nervousness

  • Michael Rogers: 'How to overcome nervousness' (1973)
  • Jaap van de Weg: 'Nervositeit' (1990)
  • Olaf Koob: 'Das verletzte Gemüt : Ursachen und Behandlung von Nervosität, Hyperaktivität und Aufmerksamkeitsstörungen ; Salutogenetische Aspekte zur Situation der Gegenwart' (2003)
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