Human physical body

The human physical body is a purely spiritual body (form which is called the 'phantom'), but current Man has this physical body consisting of mineral substance as a result of Luciferic and Ahrimanic influences.

Whereas a purely spiritual body would be more spherical, Man receives a 'model' of the physical body required for life on Earth (with arms, legs, hands, feet) as part of the stream of heredity. This is related to the Fall and Original Sin.

As Man purifies his lower bodies through the forces of the I: first the astral body, then the etheric body and finally the physical body .. the transformation brought about first in the blood ultimately reaches the physical body so it becomes again a purely spiritual body.

This spiritual physical body is invisible, but when Man has reached that stage of purification, it can be materialized to any of the lower levels - see also the Cleansed phantom topic page. It is this 'higher' or spiritual structure of Man, see Man's higher triad, that is eternal (see resurrection) and through which Man connects to the Second Adam, or Christ group soul of humanity.

Aspects

Physical body: spiritual-physical (phantom) and mineral-physical body

• the human physical body could not exist if it were purely mineral and the laws of materialistic physical science, it's make-up is due to and proves the existence and influence of the higher bodily principles (1917-01-01-GA174B)
• the spiritual physical body, also called 'phantom'
  • the difference between the physical body and its mineral contents
    • "the mineral substance of the physical body is perpetually changing and filling the spiritual form; after about seven years, every particle has been renewed" (1907-05-29-GA099)
  • if Man spiritualizes his lower bodies including the physical body and achieves full elemental balance, Man can make himself invisible.
    • see cleansed phantom and the link with the resurrection
    • See also: Cleansed phantom#2.1 - adept mastery of the purified physical body
• zodiac man - forming of physical body through zodiac signs (Schema FMC00.257 and Schema FMC00.256)
  • clairvoyant perception of the physical body as made up of twelve imaginations (1913-03-29-GA145)

Evolutionary

Across planetary stages of evolution

• formation on Old Saturn, and adapted in many evolutionary stages to accomodate the other of Man's bodily principles (1911-10-10-GA131)

Inheritance and original sin

• origin and relationship with the Fall and luciferic infection (also called 'original sin') and its redemption
  • for more specific positioning in an evolutionary context, see also the 'sin of the mindless' on Lemurian epoch
• the hereditary 'model' for Man's earthly physical body, as related to the stream of heredity, see Embryo in the womb
  • the inherited physical body during the first seven years, and Man's own crafted second physical body during the next seven years

Current epoch

• the density of the physical body evolved in the Current Postatlantean epoch, eg between the ancient indian cultural age and today. Today it is more dense, and hence in the first three years the angel can 'mould' the lower three bodily principle less with the forces of the I. Hence this body requires Man to work and develop it's I-consciousness to the stages of clairvoyance to live in the spiritual worlds (1911-02-11-GA127)
• physiognomy (and link with karma and future evolution) is linked to the previous point

Other

• the human physical body perishes materially after death. It dissolves in the uppermost layers of the Earth, but not the sum of force which holds the physical body in the form. The physical form remains for a while in the seventh layer, the so-called Earth mirror (which is a kind of reservoir for the forms that remain and are preserved even though matter perishes). Then it is fragmented in the eighth layer, the shatterer. (see: Earth's inner layers). This layer has great importance for the physical body of the human being. (1906-04-16-GA096)
• the form body and constitution of the physical body is karmically dependent on preceding events. Man also carries other human beings according to form in his center in the body. Example: influence which the fragmented bodily form of Pliny the Elder has had on the thinking of materialistic naturalists who have absorbed this fragmented form. (1906-04-16-GA096)
• contemporary mineral science and it's treatment of health and disease
  • focus on physical body only, disregarding the other Man's bodily principles
  • the effect of mineral substances as used in contemporary materialistic medicine and focusing in the mineral physical body only: the mineral substance becomes diffused and acquired the human form, a phantom or double consisting of the substance taken in. This prevents the physical body to obey the influences of the astral and etheric bodies, artificially disconnecting it, whereby the physial body becomes an hardened independent being subject to its own laws. (see Medicine#1908-12-08-GA107)
  • medicine will make a great advance in the materialistic sense .. and medicinal properties of certain substances and certain treatments .. will thereby do terrible harm .. but the harm will be called useful. A sick man will be called healthy, for it will be perceived that the particular treatment applied leads to something pleasing. People will actually like things that make the human being — in a certain direction — unhealthy (point 2 in the lecture: What takes place as we sleep#1918-10-09-GA182)
• see also: Human skeleton
• strong unbalanced focus on the physical body, such as strong focus sport or sex
  • in the Western world there is a general tendency today to .. care only for the physical body, and this causes the terrible materialism which is the truly harmful .. For materialism in thought is not the most harmful, the most harmful kind of materialism is the one where the whole human being descends to the animal level. (1923-05-30-GA350).
  • recreation in sport is a good thing .. however a strong focus on sport causes the physical body to separate completely from the ether body .. the individual comes completely out of the ether body and only follows the physical movements of the Earth. In contrast to sport who focuses solely on movements of the physical body, eurythmic movements take their orientation from the ether body. (1923-05-30-GA350).
  • for the effect of porn and sex addition and the effect of the asuric influences, see point [3] on Fall and redemption - original sin and grace#Note 1 - What is going on in the world today?
• influences tearing down the physical body
  • see: Model for hereditary physical body#Note 1 - Effects of substances

Inspirational quotes

1911-10-10-GA131

We must be quite clear that to understand the physical body is not an easy thing. ... in order to understand the physical body, we must go back to the ‘phantom’ of Man.

This phantom is the form-shape which as a spiritual texture works up the physical substances and forces so that they fill out the form which we encounter as the Man on the physical plane. It is a transparent body of force that cannot be seen with the physical eye.

What the physical eye sees are the [mineral] substances which a person eats and takes into himself, and they fill out the invisible phantom. If the physical eye looks upon a physical body, what it sees is the mineral part that fills the physical body, not the physical body itself.

1924-GA026

The physical body is made up of the physical and chemical processes in Man. These processes take place in the present human being within the human form. But this form itself is something that is altogether spiritual. It ought to fill us with solemn feelings when, on looking at the human form, we realise that with physical senses we are perceiving in the physical world something that is spiritual.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.257 shows how current threefold Man, that rises upright on Earth, gets form and life from three groups of zodiacal influences and three groups of planetary influences. Starting left, the embryo is formed in the womb, and the baby then rises upright (second drawing) as Man did in the Lemurian epoch, and starts Walking Speaking Talking (WST) through the powers of the human I. See more on Man as a threefold being

Schema FMC00.415 shows the physical body as a structure that embeds and hosts all other Man's bodily principles, and hence has a specific organization for each of them as part or subset of the physical body. If a new principle is added, as the human 'I' in the current Earth planetary stage of evolution, then this new principle has to be interwoven in a balanced and correct way. This is done over the various epochs and cultural ages, and because it is so complex offers many ways for this development to go wrong (see eg the sixteen paths of perdition), as explained in the lectures of 1917-01-01-GA174B and 1917-01-14-GA174B. See also Schemas FMC00.036 and FMC00.338 on I-organization.

Schema FMC00.127 illustrates the concept of 'zodiac Man', the fact that the various parts of the human body are an expression of the formative influences of the zodiac signs.

Schema FMC00.488 is an example of a schema that provides a synthesis to two major points from an important didactic lecture.

For lecture text, see Thinking Feeling Willing#1917-10-08-GA177

The first point (right, and left text boxes) is about the twofold nature of the human being as a result of the luciferic infection in the Lemurian epoch.

The second point (upper and lower text boxes in grey) is about the true nature of thinking: 'dead' thinking whereby our head takes in and processes living astral elementals, versus 'living' thinking whereby these thoughts are coming through the spiritual world and spiritual hierarchies, flowing through the lower part of the body and filled with feeling and willing.

Schema FMC00.392 shows the elements of the physical body that relate to the three subsystems in Man as a threefold being, and the three worlds from which they are built by the three main triads of the spiritual hierarchies. See also the Bull, Lion and Eagle influences, see Sphinx.

Lecture coverage and references

1906-04-16-GA096

machine translation

Something remarkable happened during the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which buried Herculanum and Pompeii in 79. As is known, the famous Roman writer Pliny the Elder perished. To follow his fate occultly is extraordinarily significant, but in our present context we shall not deal with his individual karma, but with something else. You all know what is meant by "Akashic Chronicle". It is known to you that one can put oneself back into certain points of time with the help of the Akasha Chronicle, so also into the time of the first Vesuvius eruption. Now there turns out something strange.

In the course of the lecture I have spoken about the peculiarity of the eighth layer, which is called the shatterer or number generator. This layer has also a great importance for the physical body of the human being.

What is usually called the human body perishes physically-materially after death. It dissolves in the uppermost layers of the earth, but not the force sum, which holds the physical body in the form. You can find this in the seventh layer, the so-called earth mirror. So if you record in the Akashic Chronicle the moment when a human being has just died on earth, and then trace the whereabouts of his individual being limbs, you will see how the physical corpse perishes, but how the physical form can be found as lasting in the earth mirror, in the seventh layer. That is where things are stored that can be explored in the Akashic Chronicle. In fact, this is a kind of reservoir for the forms that remain. The matter perishes, but the form remains preserved.

Now, if you follow such a preserved human form, you will see that it remains in this seventh layer for a while. Then it is indeed fragmented in the eighth layer, the fragmenter or number generator.

The very same thing really comes into being that I described to you earlier for mere contemplation for the flower. This form body of a human being will appear divided to you many times. It appears then again with the construction of later people.

So, mind you, the human being, as he lives among us, has not only his individuality, his innermost; he also carries other human beings according to form in himself, in his center in the body. And indeed it is possible to show the influence which the fragmented bodily form of Pliny has had on the thinking of materialistic naturalists who have absorbed this fragmented form.

So mysterious are the connections which arise to us when we penetrate into the constitution of the earth. You will now find it comprehensible that in a certain respect also the exterior, the constitution of our bodies, is karmically dependent on such preceding events. An event like the downfall of Pliny has an after-effect on the structure of later brains, does not have an after-effect on souls, but on bodily forms. These are particularly subtle processes, which are very important if one wants to understand the connections between man and earth.

1907-05-29-GA099

The substances of which the physical body is composed are perpetually changing; after about seven years, every particle has been renewed. The substance is exchanged but the form endures.

Between birth and death the substances of the physical body must continually be born anew; they are the ever-changing element. What we develop in such a way that death has no power over it, is preserved and builds up a new organism.

The Initiate performs consciously, between death and a new birth, what the average human being performs unconsciously between birth and death; the Initiate consciously builds up his new physical body. For him, therefore, birth amounts to no more than an outstanding event in his existence. He exchanges the substances only once, but then fundamentally. Hence there is considerable similarity of stature and form in such Individualities from one incarnation to another, whereas in those who are but little developed there is no similarity of form whatever in their successive incarnations. The higher the development of a man, the greater is the similarity in two successive incarnations; this is clearly perceptible to clairvoyant sight. There is a definite phrase for indicating this higher stage of development; it is said that such a man is not born in a different body, any more than it is said of the average human being that he receives a new body every seven years. Of a Master it is said: he is born in the same body; he uses it for hundreds, even thousands of years. This is the case with the vast majority of leading Individualities. An exception is formed by certain Masters who have their own special mission; with them the physical body remains, so that death does not occur for them at all. These are the Masters whose task it is to watch over and bring about the transition from one race to another.

1908-02-24-GA098

In reality, the physical body is an optical illusion. It is an amalgamation of spiritual efficacies, which intersect in it a thousand times and produce the most manifold effects.

1909-04-18-GA110

What is called the physical body had its first foundations during the very earliest Old Saturn formation. That physical body was not as yet interpenetrated by an etheric body, or by an astral body; but was already so organised that after passing through all the transformations it experienced later, it could become the bearer of the spiritual earth-man of today.

Very slowly and gradually was this physical body organised during the Old Saturn evolution, and whilst ancient Saturn itself was being formed, the different signs of the Zodiac slowly revolved, and the human body member by member, took on its earliest form.

• When Saturn stood under the sign of the Lion the beginning of the heart was formed;
• the ribs or the thoracic cage were started while Saturn was under the sign of the Crab;
• the foundation of the symmetrical shape of man, that is the reason for his being symmetrically built on two sides, arose while Saturn was under the constellation of Gemini.
• Thus we follow piece by piece the formation of the human body, and when we look up to that part of the Zodiac, where Aries the Ram is, we can say: The upper part of our head originated when ancient Saturn stood under the sign of Aries;
• the foundation of our organ of speech, when Saturn stood under the sign of the Bull.

And when you think of man distributed thus, you can see in the Zodiacal circle the creative forces for each of the human organs.

1911-02-11-GA127

(longer extract on Human 'I')

Today, already at birth, we inherit such a dense and demanding physical body that only a small part of the work formerly accomplished by the I can now be carried out. Our physical body is no longer really suitable for what we ourselves are during the first three years of our life. What we inherit is a physical body that is suitable for the later years of life, and this body is not adapted for directing the eyes upwards into the spiritual worlds. The child himself has no knowledge of what is streaming down into him and those around him most certainly have none; for the physical body has altered, has become denser, drier.

We are born with a soul that in the first three years of our life still stretches up into the spiritual worlds; but we are born with a body that is called upon to develop, through the whole of the rest of our life, the consciousness in which the I lives. If we had not this dense physical body it would be possible for us in the conditions of the present cycle of human existence to remain childlike in the sense indicated; but because we have this dense physical body, communion with the spiritual world during the first three years of life cannot come to full consciousness.

1911-10-10-GA131

The Phantom belongs to the physical body as its enduring part, a more important part than the external substances. ... that which was developed during the Saturn, Sun, and Moon periods is not the physical body that is laid aside at death. It is the Phantom, the Form, of the physical body.

So we see that physical, etheric and astral bodies are laid aside, and that the physical body seems to drain away completely into materials and forces which, through decay or burning or some other form of dissolution, are returned to the elements. But the more clairvoyance is developed in our time, the clearer will it be that the physical forces and sub-stances laid aside are not the whole physical body, for its complete configuration could never derive from them alone. To these substances and forces there belongs something else, best called the ‘Phantom’ of Man. This Phantom is the form-shape which as a spiritual texture works up the physical substances and forces so that they fill out the form which we encounter as the man on the physical plane. The sculptor can bring no statue into existence if he merely takes marble or something else, and strikes away wildly so that single pieces spring off just as the substance permits. As the sculptor must have the ‘thought’ which he impresses on the substance, so is a ‘thought’ related to the human body: not in the same way as the thought of the artist, for the material of the human body is not marble or plaster, but as a real thought, the phantom, in the external world. Just as the thought of the plastic artist is stamped upon his material, so the phantom of the physical body is stamped upon the substances of the earth which we see given over after death to the grave or the fire. The phantom belongs to the physical body as its enduring part, a more important part than the external substances. The external substances are merely loaded into the network of the human form, as one might load apples into a cart. You can see how important the phantom is. The substances which fall asunder after death are essentially those we meet externally in nature. They are merely caught up by the human form.

If you think more deeply, can you believe that all the work of the great Divine Spirits though the Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon periods has merely created something which is handed over at death to the elements of the Earth? No, that which was developed during the Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon periods is not the physical body that is laid aside at death. It is the phantom, the form of the physical body. We must be quite clear that to understand the physical body is not an easy thing. Above all, this understanding must not be sought for in the world of illusion, the world of Maya.

We know that the foundation, the germ, of this phantom of the physical body was laid down by the Thrones during the Old Saturn stage; during the Old Sun stage the Spirits of Wisdom worked further upon it, the Spirits of Movement during the Old Moon stage, and the Spirits of Form during the Earth stage of evolution. And it is only in this period that the physical body received the phantom. We call these Spirits the Spirits of Form, because they really live in the phantom of the physical body.

So in order to understand the physical body, we must go back to the Phantom.

If we look back to the beginning of our Earth-existence, we can say that the hosts from the ranks of the higher Hierarchies who had prepared the physical human body in its own proper Form during the Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon stages, up to the Earth stage, had from the outset placed this phantom within the Earth evolution. In fact the phantom, which cannot be seen with the physical eye, was what was first there of the physical body of Man. It is a transparent body of force.

What the physical eye sees are the physical substances which a person eats and takes into himself, and they fill out the invisible Phantom. If the physical eye looks upon a physical body, what it sees is the mineral part that fills the physical body, not the physical body itself.

But how has this mineral part found its way into the Phantom of man's physical body?

To answer this question, let us picture once more the genesis, the first ‘becoming’, of Man on Earth.

From Old Saturn, Old Sun and Old Moon there came over that network of forces which in its true form meets us as the invisible phantom of the physical body. For a higher clairvoyance it appears as Phantom only when we look away from all the external substance that fills it out. This is the Phantom which stands at the starting-point of man's Earth existence, when he was invisible as a physical body.

Let us suppose that to this Phantom of the physical body the etheric body is added; will the Phantom then become visible?

Certainly not; for the etheric body is invisible for ordinary sight. Thus the physical body as phantom, plus etheric body, is still invisible to external physical sense. And the astral body even more so; hence the combination of physical body as phantom with the etheric and astral bodies is still invisible. And when the I is added it would certainly become perceptible inwardly, but not externally visible. Thus, as Man came over out of the Old Saturn, Old Sun, and Old Moon stages of evolution, he was still visible only to a clairvoyant.

How did he become visible? But for the occurrence described in the Bible symbolically, and factually in occult science, as the entry of the Lucifer influence, he would not have become visible. What happened through that influence?

Read what is said in Outline of Esoteric Science. Out of that path of evolution in which his physical, etheric and astral bodies were still invisible, man was thrown down into denser matter, and was compelled under the influence of Lucifer to take this denser matter into himself. If the Lucifer force had not been introduced into our astral body and I, this dense materiality would not have become as visible as it has become. Hence we have to represent man as an invisible being, made visible in matter only through forces which entered into him under the influence of Lucifer. Through this influence external substances and forces are drawn into the domain of the Phantom and permeate it. As when we pour a coloured fluid into a transparent glass, so that the glass looks coloured, so we can imagine that the Lucifer influence poured forces into the human Phantom, with the result that man was adapted for taking in on Earth the requisite substances and forces which make his Form visible. Otherwise his physical body would have remained always invisible.

The alchemists always insisted that the human body really consists of the same substance that constitutes the perfectly transparent, crystal-clear ‘Philosopher's Stone’. The physical body is itself entirely transparent, and it is the Lucifer forces in man which have brought him to a non-transparent state and placed him before us so that he is opaque and tangible. Hence you will understand that Man has become a being who takes up external substances and forces of the Earth, which are given off again at death, only because Lucifer tempted him, and certain forces were poured into his astral body. It follows that because the I entered into connection with the physical, etheric and astral bodies under the influence of Lucifer, Man became what he is on Earth and otherwise would not have been: the bearer of a visible, earthly organism.

1912-06-07-GA137

maps the members of Man to the zodiac signs

1913-03-29-GA145

The physical body of a person undergoing occult development manifests more and more as a number of imaginations, of pictures which are in a sense inwardly alive and active, and are, or rather become, more and more interesting; for they are not just anything we please. When the person is beginning his development the pictures are not specially significant; and they are least so when the clairvoyant vision observes the body of a person who has not yet developed in occultism. In this latter case a number of pictures, a number of imaginations are perceived. To clairvoyant vision the physical substance disappears, and in its place appear imaginations: but these are so pressed together that instead of the pleasing inwardly shining aspect of a person engaged in occult development, they manifest as in an opaque substance. Even, however, in the case of a person who is not yet developed they are to be seen, and indeed as parts and each part signifies something in the macrocosm. Essentially one can distinguish twelve parts, each of which is really a picture — a painting of one part of the great cosmos. When all twelve are assembled together, the impression is given that some unknown painter has produced miniature pictures of the macrocosm, twelve in number, and from these has formed the physical human body. Now, when the individual is engaged in occult development, this picture grows larger and larger, and also appears inwardly more and more pleasing, radiant from within. This is because, in the case of an individual not engaged in occult development, the macrocosm is only reflected in its physical aspect; but in the case of one undergoing an occult development the spiritual content more and more manifests itself; the pictures of the spiritual essence of the macrocosm are to be seen. Thus occult development also shows us that a person engaged in an occult development, from being merely a physical microcosm, becomes more and more a spiritual one, that is, he manifests within himself more and more, not merely the pictures of planets and suns, but of entities belonging to the Higher Hierarchies. That is the difference between persons engaged and others not engaged in occult development. The more a person presses forward in occult development the more exalted are the Hierarchies manifesting within him. And thus we learn the structure of the world, as it were, by clairvoyantly observing the physical human body.

1917-01-01-GA174B

[The physical body]

Looking at the human physical body, we have to admit that if it were not filled with those higher components of existence, the etheric body, the astral body and the I, it could not be the physical body as we know it. The moment man steps through the portal of death, leaving behind his physical body — that is, the moment the higher components withdraw from the physical body — it begins to obey laws other than those which governed it while those components were present there. The physical body disintegrates; after death it obeys the physical and chemical forces and laws of the earth.

The physical body of man as we know it cannot be constructed in accordance with earthly laws, for it is these very laws which destroy it. The body can only be what it is because there work within it those parts of man that are not of the earth: his higher components of soul and Spirit. There is nothing in the whole realm of physical and chemical laws which could justify the presence of such a thing as the human physical body on the earth.

Measured by the physical laws of the earth, the human body is an impossible creation. It is prevented from disintegrating by the higher components of man's being. lt follows, therefore, that the moment these higher components — the I, the astral body and the etheric body — desert the human body, it becomes a corpse.

You know from earlier lectures that the diagram of the human being we have often given is quite correct as such, but that in reality it is not as simple as some would like. To begin with, we divide the human being into physical body, etheric body, astral body and I.

I have pointed out on other occasions that this in itself implies a further complication ..

• the etheric body is something supersensible, something invisible that lives in the human being and cannot be perceived by the senses. But it has, in a sense, its physical counterpart because it imprints itself on the physical body. The physical body contains not only the physical body itself, but also an imprint of the etheric body. The etheric body projects itself onto the physical body; so we can speak of an etheric projection onto the physical body.
• lt is the same in the case of the astral body. We can speak of the astral projection onto the physical body.
• You know that the I projection onto the physical body may be sought in certain features of the blood circulation, where the I projects itself onto the blood. In a similar way the other higher components project themselves onto the physical body.

So the physical body in its physical aspect is in itself a complicated system, for it is fourfold. And just as the most important aspect cannot exist in the physical body if the I and the astral body are not in it — for it then becomes a corpse — so is it also in the case of these projections, for they are all present in the physical substance. Without the I there can be no human blood, without the astral body there can be no human nervous system as a whole. These things exist in us as a counterpart of man's higher components.

see further extracts and lecture continuation on Development of the I and I-organization

1921-10-28-GA208

discusses the forming of Man through twelve zodiacal cosmic influences

1921-10-29-GA208

describes how Man breathes in images through these influences, not just Man's outer form but also the form of the organs.

The life of circulation is in touch with the life of metabolism, with the result that the images are given physical substance and physical organs develop.

1923-05-30-GA350

... Western people like the earth so much, terribly much. It is not that they admit this to themselves, but they'd really like to stay on Earth for ever. And here I must tell you something. The ether body wants to move towards the heavens. The planets move in orbits, and so the Earth, too, moves in an orbit. The ether body wants to be in orbit, the physical body wants to get out of this orbit. It does get out of it when it has much work to do; but let us consider how it is for people of the upper classes in the West who do not have to do any work. It feels a bit strange to them, for the ether body is always tormenting them. When such a steak-eating individual moves around in the world his ether body is teasing and tormenting him all the time, and he wants to go round in circles. This steak-eater then wants to follow the circular movements of the ether body. Wow! This is extremely uncomfortable! The ether body always wants to dance, to make nice round movements, and the steak-eater cannot keep up.

He therefore wants to get his physical body in a condition where it is strong enough not to let itself be pulled into circular motion by the ether body all the time. The individual therefore takes up sport — not just physical exercise but sport. And the result is that the individual comes completely out of the ether body and only follows the physical movements of the earth. He makes friends with the Earth more and more and leaves the world of the spirit aside.

You must not think that we merely leave the world of the spirit aside by not thinking about it. We do it also by such means as being so active in sport that we separate the physical body completely from the ether body.

This is a terrible thing for the human being; I'd say it is a matter for serious concern.

The more they get involved in sport the more do people forget about things of the spirit.

After their death they will then come back immediately from the world of the spirit, within a very short time. If it were not the case that everything in the West does receive a little of the spirit, the Earth would gradually be populated only by people who do not at all want to go back to the world of the spirit. And you would then have nothing but people on earth who gradually bring the Earth to utter ruin. We are beginning to do this a little bit even now. This little bit is already quite serious for present-day humanity. But once people start to give no more consideration to their ether body but only their physical body, this will bring about horrific conditions on Earth.

And so one must once again intervene by means of the science of the spirit. The only possible way is to oppose movements that are entirely designed to drive Man into his physical body, making him wholly Earth-man, using other movements that are in opposition.

People's minds are already turned towards becoming earthly human beings. You'll understand, now that I have given you so many talks, that without being a philistine, such things do make one's heart ache.

...

Because of this, other movements have to be made to oppose the movements that are now being made all over the world, spreading more and more. These are the eurythmic movements. They take their orientation from the ether body.

When you see eurythmy being done, you'll see all the movements which the etheric body makes. When you see sport being done, you'll see all the movements which the physical body makes.

Yes, gentlemen, this is extraordinarily important, for it also means a longing for sport. I do not want to say anything against sport in general. Sport is of course quite a good thing if it is done by people who also work, for one has to get used to more unnatural movements at work; if one then does natural movements in sport, movements that are more adapted to the physical body, then recreation in sport is a good thing.

But the way people are active in sports today, with many of them having no need for recreation, what is this, really? You see there are sports people today who may perhaps — not all of them, of course, but there are certainly some — quickly go to church in the morning, where they pray: 'I believe in a god in heaven,' and so on. Then they go to the sports field. Now they are not putting it in words, but if we put what they do in words it is this: 'I do not believe in a god in heaven, of course. I believe in flesh and bones, for this alone makes life worth living.' You see, that is the inevitable, unconscious consequence of the things people do today. You are a materialist not only if you say you do not want to know about things of the spirit but also with things like these, where the whole human being is torn away from the spiritual element.

Concerning your question one is therefore able to say this. When someone walks in the woods and there's a mist and he loses his way, it'll happen on occasion that he runs after his ether body. That is not so bad, for he'll come back to the same place again. When you turn around yourself — that is not so bad, it means a lot of swinging to and fro like a pendulum, now to the ether body and now to the physical body. This is because human beings have both of them and should also develop both. That is the way the situation is. But in the Western world there is a general tendency today to leave the ether body out completely and care only for the physical body, and this causes the terrible materialism which is the truly harmful materialism.

For materialism in thought is not the most harmful. The most harmful kind of materialism is the one where the whole human being descends to the animal level. This is what we have to consider.

It happens only too easily that people say: 'Oh, he's a philistine, for he rants and raves against sport. Sport is something extremely useful!' But I do not rant and rave against sport. People are free to indulge in sport, they are free human beings. But they will completely ruin themselves as human beings if they devote themselves only to things to do with sport.

...

But of course, giving thought to things is something people who do sports do not like at all. For when someone is very active in sport this will get him out of the way of thinking things over. For we can only think with the ether body. You may try as hard as you like — you can't think with your physical body. And when someone asks if they should eat meat or only vegetables in order to be able to think better, all one can say is: 'You can't cultivate your thinking by eating; you have to do it with the ether body. You have to enter into the ether body there.'

So you see, the ether body reveals its presence in the human being in the circular movements which people want to make, in the longing to dance, or in people losing their way and walking in a circle.

1924-GA026

In order really to understand what the whole choir of the Hierarchy of the Archai accomplished when they created the human form, we must remember that there is a very great difference between this form [editor: the 'phantom'] and the physical body of man.

The physical body is made up of the physical and chemical processes in Man. These processes take place in the present human being within the human form. But this form itself is something that is altogether spiritual. It ought to fill us with solemn feelings when, on looking at the human form, we realise that with physical senses we are perceiving in the physical world something that is spiritual.

For one who is able to see spiritually it is really the case that in the human form he sees a true Imagination which has descended into the physical world. If we wish to see Imaginations we must pass from the physical world to the neighbouring spiritual world, and then we realise how the human form is related to these Imaginations.

Spiritual-physical body (phantom)

1911-10-01-GA131

So, we see that physical, etheric and astral bodies are laid aside, and that the physical body seems to drain away completely into materials and forces which, through decay or burning or some other form of dissolution, are returned to the elements. But the more clairvoyance is developed in our time, the clearer will it be that the physical forces and substances laid aside are not the whole physical body, for its complete configuration could never derive from them alone. To these substances and forces there belongs something else, best called the ‘phantom’ of Man.

This phantom is the form-shape which as a spiritual texture works up the physical substances and forces so that they fill out the form which we encounter as the Man on the physical plane.

The sculptor can bring no statue into existence if he merely takes marble or something else and strikes away wildly so that single pieces spring off just as the substance permits. As the sculptor must have the ‘thought’ which he impresses on the substance, so is a ‘thought’ related to the human body: not in the same way as the thought of the artist, for the material of the human body is not marble or plaster, but as a real thought, the phantom, in the external world. Just as the thought of the plastic artist is stamped upon his material, so the phantom of the physical body is stamped upon the substances of the Earth which we see given over after death to the grave or the fire.

The phantom belongs to the physical body as its enduring part, a more important part than the external substances. The external substances are merely loaded into the network of the human form, as one might load apples into a cart.

You can see how important the Phantom is. The substances which fall asunder after death are essentially those we meet externally in nature. They are merely caught up by the human form.

1920-04-03-GA312

If you try to visualize this influence over the physical body, you will not need to go much further in order to picture in your minds as the work of the I an intricate framework extending throughout the bodily organism; a delicate, weblike scaffolding.

This scaffolding in the physical body, like a kind of phantom of Man, is always present. We human beings carry with us through life, a framework imprinted into us through our I-organization; its structure is most delicate, and indeed it is the forces of the etheric body that insert it into the physical.

But in the course of our lives, we gradually forfeit the power of consciously contributing to this structure. Only in people with creative imagination we find a half-conscious, dreamlike remnant of such power.

Related pages

• Man - the human being
• Man's bodily principles
• Human skeleton
• Embryo in the womb
• Cleansed phantom
• Christ Module 8 - Resurrection
• Zodiac man
• Man as a threefold being