The Rudolf Steiner Archive

[ 1 ] The number of people who admit that a recovery of state and economic conditions can only come about through stimuli from the spiritual life is currently growing. It is also obvious enough how little "statesmanlike" thinking, which continues along the old lines, is up to the tasks arising from the turmoil of recent years. We have experienced Versailles, Spa, St. Germain and so on. The "League of Nations" haunts many minds like an idea of salvation. None of this has given the peoples of the civilized world any promising idea of what they should do in their own territories or how they can relate to each other. In Eastern Europe, the superstition that an empire can be built on the basis of one-sided economic organization is working its evil. The statesmanlike impotence of the West, the destructive superstition of the East, which leads to economic militarism: They probably contribute their fair share to the fact that many a personality concerned about the future of mankind looks to the spiritual life for help.

[ 2 ] The nurturers of American worldviews are raising their voices. These voices can already be heard in neutral countries. Why shouldn't they soon reach the center of Europe? The meaning that can be heard from these voices is something like this: the "League of Nations" must come. Because it will be a blessing. But what comes out of the brains of the "statesmen" will not be able to give it a promising shape. It must have its roots in the hearts of men, not merely in external institutions. It can only become so if the moral and spiritual feelings of the people lead to an understanding of the civilized world. Therefore, the paralyzed religious feelings, the spiritual powers that have become lax, should be encouraged to a new life. - It cannot be denied that many a fine word is spoken and many a well-intentioned speech made today out of such sentiments. But anyone who can observe impartially must see that access to the hearts of men is closed to such words today. They do not have the power to arouse in the minds of men that which should come to the idea of the League of Nations in order to give it life, the power to exist. And if we want to recognize the reason why they do not have this power, we must consider how dependent questions of worldview have become in modern times on the state and the economy. By completely occupying the teaching and educational system, the states have adapted the spiritual life to their own organization in such a way that it is drawn into all their crises. Where should there be an intellectual life that serves a renewal of the state's essence, since the states have only allowed that which was appropriate to their now questioned form to flourish?

[ 3 ] In Central Europe, out of need and misery, people are calling for a gathering of confessions, for a revival and understanding in religious life. All this is well-intentioned. But here, too, there is no strength in words and speeches. The state forms want to be renewed; and what one wants to collect, what one wants to revive, was so connected with the essence of the old that it is drawn into its decline.

[ 4 ] Not a renewal of state and economic life by the old spiritual powers can be a promising goal, but only the renewal of spiritual life itself. We will have to summon up the courage to admit that new sources of spiritual life must be opened up.

[ 5 ] The view of the threefold structure of the social organism implies this courage. It would like to awaken an unbiased judgment that the prevailing intellectual scientific spirit of the present is a consequence of the nationalization of teaching and education and thus of the predominant part of public intellectual life. But it is this scientific spirit alone in which mankind of the present day believes so strongly that it ascribes to it a validity in the affairs of public life. Apart from this scientific spirit, the old views of life have no power for this life. Only people who are alien to life can delude themselves about it. Only they can believe that they can draw from old creeds speeches of power which have a determining influence on the state or the economy. Through such speeches a certain part of people's souls can be put in the right mood. But with the profit that these people gain from such influences, they will not have any effect in public life.

[ 6 ] Those who do not wish to indulge in illusions must not close their minds to the realization that modern mankind needs a view of life which does not preserve old creeds alongside the newer scientific spirit, but which grows out of this spirit itself. It is the endeavor of anthroposophically oriented spiritual science to form such a view of life. Modern science only cultivates an intellectual understanding of natural phenomena. This has no power to affect the human mind and will. It is therefore unsuitable for the social shaping of life. Anthroposophical spiritual science draws not only on the intellect, but on all the powers of the human soul. It therefore also works back on all these soul forces. It can give stimulating ideas to state and economic life.

[ 7 ] Today's states still have what they can give to their own and economic life from the old creeds and world views. It is just so watered down that it is no longer recognized as a legacy of the old. That is why this fact is not acknowledged. The newer, purely intellectualistic science can achieve great things in the knowledge of nature; in the social sphere it can only produce socialist theories that are alien to life or life-destroying social experiments. It is, however, capable of being developed into a spiritual view. If it is, then it can also generate ideas for viable social structures.

[ 8 ] The mere demand for intellectual stimulation for public life is not enough today. What is needed is the courage for a spiritual rebirth. The present lives in crises of states and economic life. They cannot be solved by the forces of the old spiritual life. They will only be solved if the crisis of spiritual life itself is seen through and a solution is sought in its own field of spirit.

The Coming Day: Public Limited Company for the Promotion of Economic and Spiritual Values

[ 1 ] The shortest route to the wastepaper basket today is probably the one taken by mailings of this kind. There are so many of them, and we have experienced so often how little they deliver on their promises, that no one can be denied the right to choose this route in order to ward off superfluous literary intrusiveness. Should this announcement of a new publisher for some reason not happen, then - the senders hope - their readers will see that this justification is intended to bring about something that the events of the time really demand.

[ 2 ] The "Kommende Tag Verlag" was not founded out of the need to add to the many books that arise out of the confusion of contemporary intellectual life. Its founders are actually of the opinion, already expressed by Lichtenberg, that ninety-nine percent of the books with which the world is "blessed" are too many.

[ 3 ] But these founders see the declining intellectual life of the present. They see the other disasters of the present, the state and the economy, emerging from the decline of spiritual life. And they must imagine an ascending spiritual life from which the state and the economy must draw in order to recover.

[ 4 ] They want to serve this spiritual life.

[ 5 ] They want to deliver literary works to the world, which provide the ideas and the laws of the humanities for the recovery of the sick social life.

[ 6 ] Unfortunately, all too few people have an adequate idea of the unhealthy state of our intellectual life. They have no idea what devastating consequences for world civilization must result from this state. They therefore have no heart for efforts that are directed towards recovery out of conviction and unbiased observation of life.

[ 7 ] The "Kommende Tag Verlag" would like that.

[ 8 ] It will not serve a fragmenting academicism that only proliferates in books, alienated from life, and which is increasingly severing its ties to reality. He wants to serve a scientific attitude that warms the blood and sheds light on the meaning of human and world existence.

[ 9 ] He will not serve an attitude towards art that is alienated from life, parlor-smelling, or burdened with idleness. It will promote an artistic perception of the world that makes man a co-creator of the mysteries and development of the world through the true shaping of life.

[ 10 ] He will not serve a socially destructive view of life that preaches only moral laws and has no power to penetrate reality. He wants to contribute to the discovery of that moral basis of life that generates powerful will in ideas and gives birth to the impulses for the health of the soul and enthusiasm for action from the knowledge of life.

[ 11 ] He will not serve social fantasies which are beneficial to man if he can dream of their realization, or if he stages social orders which are devoid of human nature and the basis of nature, and which therefore awaken to social misfortune those who dream of them or act under their influence. He wants to allow social views and impulses to appear which are possible, universally human, worthy of existence, but which are drawn from the real human nature, observation of the world and living experience.

[ 12 ] So the "Kommende Tag Verlag" wants to serve social life, the moral shaping of life, the artistic revelation of existence, the scientific understanding of the world.

[ 13 ] It will endeavor not to lapse into one-sided promotion of this or that "point of view", but to deliver the spiritually valuable products of all directions to the judgment of the readers of its books. It is not opinions about this or that that should be favored according to the tastes of the leaders of the "Kommenden Tag Verlag", but those works which these leaders feel can serve the spiritual life demanded by the times. A materialistic book written with spirit will today - against the will of its author - do more to promote the development of spiritual life than a spiritless collection of amateurish slogans about a "spiritual world order". A will determined by these guidelines should permeate all the activities of the "Kommenden Tag Verlag". The many who still believe today that something can be achieved by merely "popularizing" the traditional spiritual life, by founding popular education centres in which what has been cultivated in places alien to the people is popularized: they will find this publishing house highly superfluous. For its justification is based on the conviction that what has led out of the narrow circles, through educational illusions, into the declining phenomena of the present cannot have a fruitful effect in the broad circles of the population.

[ 14 ] The "Kommende Tag Verlag" is a member of the overall enterprise "Der Kommende Tag, Aktiengesellschaft zur Förderung wirtschaftlicher und geistiger Werte, Stuttgart". The other members of this company have the task of developing economic activities that can provide the people with healthy economic forces. They are to participate in the reconstruction of economic life in the spirit of a national economy demanded by the times. They should also support free schools, scientific and medical institutes and the like through economically fruitful activities.

[ 15 ] The affiliation with such enterprises is what characterizes the "Kommender Tag Verlag". Spiritual creation has to be part of the whole circle of human life if it is not to run the risk of becoming a luxury of civilization. The spiritual and the material must support each other if the one is not to be alienated from the other to the detriment of humanity. Rudolf Steiner's book "Die Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage in den Lebensnotwendigkeiten der Gegenwart und Zukunft" ("The Key Points of the Social Question in the Necessities of Life in the Present and Future") is to be one of the main pieces for the initial activities of the "Kommenden Tag Verlag". Over 40,000 copies of this book have already been sold in Germany and it has been translated into almost all cultural languages. From a practical observation of the spiritual, social and state conditions of human existence, it contains the justification of such a will as gives direction to the "Coming Day Publishing House" in a single area of life. In it, its author combines the anthroposophical direction he founded in spiritual science, in which he has published a large number of writings for 35 years, with the realistic observation of social life and will.

[ 16 ] The "Kommende Tag Verlag" thus places itself in the midst of the spiritual, ethical and economic tasks of the present; and it seeks to do justice to these tasks through its connection with the School of Spiritual Science, the Goetheanum in Dornach, in which the anthroposophically deepened way of research, newly fertilizing all branches of life, also erects an artistic building which, although still unfinished, already represents the nurturing place of this way of research and art. In another way, in the field of education, this way of research and life practice has a place of activity in the Stuttgart Waldorf School.

[ 17 ] Through this connection in the most diverse directions, the "Kommende Tag Verlag" presents itself as an enterprise that has its widely ramified roots in the circle of a spiritual, artistic and social movement, which, out of a firm will, makes the necessary reshaping of the collapsing civilization its most serious task.

In December 1920, Der Kommende Tag AG
Stuttgart, Champignystrasse 17, publishing house

Upper Silesians!

[ 1 ] Should discord, hidden and open internal struggle become a permanent state in Upper Silesia to the agony of its population, to the detriment of the economy, to the destruction of all cultural assets? Can Upper Silesia remain a constant threat to peace in Europe?

[ 2] No! But how can this be prevented?

[ 3 ] The Upper Silesian question is a European question. The whole of Europe is concerned about the economic prosperity of industry, especially the coal resources of Upper Silesia. Upper Silesia is of crucial importance for the European economic cycle. The spiritual-cultural problems and tasks of this region, as a middle ground between Eastern and Central Europe, weigh heavily in the balance. The spirituality of the Upper Silesian peoples can only have the right effect if a real solution to the nationality question is found here. This would also be a decisive step towards ushering in a new era of international relations in general.

[ 4 ] It is also imperative in the European interest that political and governmental conditions are restored to health if Upper Silesia is not to become a source of political unrest that permanently calls European peace into question.

[ 5 ] So the problem of the organization of Upper Silesia is a question of the economic, legal-political and cultural-spiritual recovery of the whole of Europe. All the measures taken by the powers to date have brought nothing less than a solution to European problems and social issues. But since the Upper Silesian question can only be solved in the context of a truly contemporary reorganization of European relations, no current solution to these questions that is grounded in reality can be anything other than a temporary state. It is therefore necessary to deliberately create such a transitional state in Upper Silesia. Neither Wilson's famous unworldly 14 points, whose application to real life, especially in the East, is an impossibility, nor the violent methods of a bygone era can lead to a reconstruction of European life. This reconstruction can only be achieved if we realize that we are basically dealing with three different areas:

economic life,
the legal-political life,
the spiritual-cultural life.

[ 6 ] In the previous state, these three areas were intertwined, and the chaotic conditions of the present have ultimately emerged from this confusion. The only realistic organization of social life can therefore only consist in the independence of these three areas. The way to this is shown by the threefold structure of the social organism. It demands that the state releases the economy on the one hand and intellectual life on the other from its sphere of power.

[ 7 ] Economic life then only includes the production, distribution and consumption of goods, which are to be managed by experts on an "associative basis" ¹. Unhindered by state and political power relations, the producers and consumers of the various countries will work together to regulate the satisfaction of all needs.

[ 8 ] The spiritual link in the threefold social organism comprises science, art, religion, the entire educational system and the administration of justice. All these spiritual and cultural factors can only fulfill their task and properly stimulate social life in complete freedom from state intervention. Spiritual life, culture, must develop out of the free cooperation of all spiritual-creative individual personalities and give itself its own administrative bodies.

[ 9 ] The middle link, the legal-political part of the social organism, then remains primarily the police and administrative activity on a legal basis; it is regulated by a democratically elected parliament. Since this parliament deals only with purely state-political questions, it can disturb neither economic nor intellectual life.

[ 10 ] (All details about the threefold structure of the social organism can be found in the book "Die Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage" by Dr. Rud. Steiner, "Der Kommende Tag" AG Verlag, Stuttgart, Champignystraße 17, as well as in the weekly newspaper "Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus" published by the same publisher and other relevant literature.)

[ 11 ] Only through such a structuring of the social organisms in Europe would the economic cycle be able to take place independently of political state borders, across them, according to its own laws. - Likewise, the intellectual exchange between parts of the people that are separated by political borders is possible across these borders in a free manner, uninhibited by state power politics.

[ 12 ] Until such a healthy tripartite organization of the social organism has been carried out in the various national territories throughout Europe, the Upper Silesian question cannot really be brought to a final solution.

[ 13 ] In Upper Silesia in particular, conditions are crying out for such a tripartite solution.

[ 14 ] Here, two cultures, two national individualities that permeate each other, fight for the opportunity to live out their lives. The school system and judicial jurisdiction are the most important points of friction. Only through the liberation of intellectual life can these burning issues be resolved, especially in Upper Silesia. The two cultures, the German and the Polish, will then be able to develop side by side in accordance with their respective life forces, without the one having to fear being raped by the other, and without the political state taking sides for one or the other. Each nationality will establish not only its own educational institutions, but also its own administrative bodies for cultural life, so that friction is excluded. - And if the economic cycle in Upper Silesia were also detached from the state-political, the economic issues in Upper Silesia could be integrated into the overall European economy and only solved by agreements between the economists of the countries involved.

[ 15 ] In the present, therefore, the following is the only realistic, viable option:

[ 16 ] The Upper Silesian region rejects annexation to a neighboring state for the time being, until an understanding of the tripartite structure is awakened there. It constitutes itself in such a way that its economic factors manage themselves - as do its spiritual factors. It creates a harmony between the two by means of a provisional legal-police organism extending only over its territory and remains in this state until the entire European situation has been clarified.

[ 17 ] Despite the fact that this state of affairs is a provisional one, it appears, if it is carried out, as a model for the measures which the whole of Europe must take for the recovery of its conditions.

[ 1 ] Only short-sightedness can understand this call as not being in the German spirit. True German sentiment has always thought this way.

[ 18 ] So, inhabitants of Upper Silesia, unite all branches of your economic life in free associations independent of the state! Declare your educational system independent of the state and place it under its own administration! Set up a provisional police-administrative-parliamentary state until European conditions assume a healthier basis! The only thing that will help you is what you can achieve from these demands at the Entente Commission. Everything else is worthless for you.

Bund für Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus
Wroclaw local group

Speaker on threefolding and Upper Silesia at the Wroclaw branch of the Bund für Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus, Wroclaw, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Straße 16, 2 Treppen, request.

• 1. Note in the leaflet: Details on the "associative economy" can be found in the publications listed below.

[ 1 ] The group of people who began to propagate the idea of the threefolding of the social organism in the spring of 1919 wanted to work honestly on the improvement of human living conditions. Out of this honesty, they could not bring the working population the old slogans and catchphrases that had been used for decades in socialist agitation. These phrases and slogans could be used to criticize the existing social order, to tell the leading classes what they had failed to do, but they could not be used to build anything. They could be used to dream up utopias, but they could not add forces to social reality that would serve life in such a way that every human being could find a dignified existence in it.

[ 2 ] The proponents of the threefold idea did not start from such phrases and slogans. They based their will on the solid teachings that life itself provides. They spoke from the standpoint of these life teachings to the leading classes as well as to the proletarians. They have not yet been understood by either side. But they know, precisely because they have drawn their thoughts from real life, that there can be no question of an improvement in conditions until these teachings of life are understood. They can do nothing but repeat these teachings until they find a sympathetic ear.

[ 3 ] Why have the bearers of the Threefold Thought not been understood? The proletariat thought they spoke too complicatedly. It could not immediately see how their thoughts really showed not only a goal, but also a way out of the spiritual, national and economic impossibilities. They wanted them to speak more simply. But they did not realize that life itself is complicated. The bearer of the threefold idea is in the same position as a doctor. He has to give his advice. He will only be able to do this if he knows the whole complicated human organism. Can he be expected to speak to every human being about this organism in a way that can be understood, if he does not get involved in what needs to be learned about the life of the organism? This cannot be demanded, because in complying with this demand he would have to resort to catchwords and phrases. But these bearers could not do that. For they only wanted to say what was imbued with honesty in every sentence. What they have to say can be understood. But you first have to bring yourself to this understanding.

[ 4 ] The proletarian will say: So you want to speak all kinds of learned things to us, but we want to hear the simple language of the people. To this we must reply: No, we don't want to speak scholarly stuff, but the language of real life. We only want to speak of capital and labor from the point of view of expertise, like a doctor or expert in nature speaks of the human organism, and not like a curing physician. But if you want to speak in this way, you will only be understood if the other person also wants to follow the right path of understanding. This path will only be found if he wants to go through heart and soul to the mind. The writer of these lines is imbued with the conviction that the bearers of the Threefold Thought speak in such a way that one can see their understanding of the true situation of the proletariat if one wants to judge them from the heart and soul. Up to now the proletariat has not sufficiently sought this path through heart and soul. It has judged according to the doctrines of the mind which it has imbibed through popular socialism. It has demanded that the bearers of the Threefold Thought should also speak as it has been accustomed to speak according to these intellectual doctrines. They could not do so because they know that these teachings contradict life and therefore lead to nothing.

[ 5 ] The writer of these lines does not want to speak of a wild fantasy. He is therefore not saying that the mind should be set aside and that a path can only be sought through the heart and soul. Certainly, the intellect must be the safe guide, but in social matters there is no other way to the right use of the intellect than through the heart and soul. My "Kernpunkte der sozialen Frage" and my book "In Ausführung der Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus" count on such a path. I do not believe that in these books anyone misses the assessment of life from the point of view of the intellect, but I was nevertheless pleased, in the interest of the cause, when I recently read in a review of the first book from another source that in it the social question is grasped by the powers of the heart as well as the intellect.

[ 6 ] No more than from the proletarian side has the idea of threefolding been understood by personalities in the leading circles. Their thoughts have been so caught up in the economic routines of the past that from the outset they do not get involved in anything that does not run along their usual lines. Some of them realize that something has to happen, but if you come out with specific thoughts about what should happen, they shy away from it because they believe that they have reality and that it should be disturbed by fantasy. Most of them say they have no time to deal with such ideas. And if you don't want to be unfair from the outset, you even have to admit - they really don't have time. They are busy from morning till night in order to continue working in the old sense, they come out of the office in the evening with a tired head that doesn't want to take anything in, even if they sit down once with good will - to look at the thing. So they limit themselves to gluing together the fractures that arise in the traditional. They will not have time until they have to realize that the time they have spent was wasted and that the time they thought they were not allowed to spend would have been much better spent. I'm talking about those who have at least some good will. The others - alas, they are so numerous - cannot seriously be counted on.

[ 7 ] Whoever wants to understand the threefold idea must take the trouble to follow how stimulating thoughts for legal and economic life can only come from a spiritual life that is set on itself. He must allow himself to be instructed by life as to how an educational and teaching system administered by the legal and economic system loses that responsiveness which is necessary for the maintenance of the social organism. From there he will also come to an understanding of an associatively organized economic life and a truly democratic legal life. The writer of these lines has tried to show this path of understanding as best he could in the above-mentioned books.

[ 8 ] If one wishes to point to such a path, one must start from the social forces at work in the present age. Modern technology has reshaped life; modern science has penetrated the souls of the widest circles as a view of life through the developed school system. This has created new ideas of a humane existence. The promoters of the threefold structure reckon with these two very real forces of the present. You will understand their ideas when you feel what these forces mean. Many reckon with technology, but not with the lives of the people who are involved in this technology. Others reckon with the spirit of science. They want it - and rightly so - to be cultivated in schools. But they do not reckon with the moods of the soul that it creates. The idea of threefolding reckons with what they leave out of the equation.

[ 9 ] The proletarian has lost confidence because he feels that so many do not reckon with his life or his soul. Things will only get better when he finds his way through heart and soul to the social ideas that reckon with both, and which for this very reason can no longer offer him his cherished slogans, because they want a real path and not intoxication with utopian thoughts.

[ 1 ] In my "Key Points of the Social Question", it was said of the politics to which modern civilization has brought itself that it had reached the nil point of its ability in 1914. It has not left this point since. The path from Versailles to London is the impossible attempt to stop at this point and yet at the same time to make progress. The terrible war proved that it was not possible to continue the policy pursued up to that point. We sailed into the decisions by force. The negotiations in London did not get beyond this way of bringing about decisions.

[ 2 ] We will not get out if we do not move in the direction of the insight that the future of modern civilization will be decided by ideas. What these ideas must be has often been said in this journal. Until what has been said here has been introduced into the realm of insightful will by a sufficiently large number of people, we will have to continue to live under the sign of violence.

[ 3 ] A union of states has won a victory. In America, before this victory was won, Woodrow Wilson said what the victors wanted to do with the victory. America had to convince itself through Versailles that what had been said were insubstantial words. You cannot create realities with insubstantial words. Lloyd George is reported to have said recently that you never know how far you will be led if you have to resort to force. In America, Harding has been seated in the chair where Woodrow Wilson previously spoke insubstantial, ineffective words. Harding has now also spoken. For all that is relevant to modern civilization, these new words are nothing more than a continuation of Wilson's.

[ 4 ] Victory will decide nothing for modern civilization. For ideas must decide. And these ideas will decide, regardless of whether they appear with the victor or the vanquished and gain recognition. The situation within modern peoples is such that the necessary ideas can override victory or defeat.

[ 5 ] It is sad when those who speak of ideas in this way today are answered: The victors have the power, and ideas cannot help the defeated. Without ideas, the victors will only be able to bring about a life of violence and through violence. With this life, they will lead the world and thus themselves into decline. The defeated could lead the world to uplifting forces through ideas. He could make much out of defeat with ideas, the victors will not be able to make anything out of victory without ideas. Seen from the center of Europe, it is truly tragic when the victor, Lloyd George, longs for a capable German statesman. From the London point of view, however, one should find it tragicomic, because one cannot find it comic, because the world situation is too serious for that.

[ 6 ] The negotiations in London, Harding's inaugural speech, are proof that the victors are helpless in everything except the use of force. Wherever one recognizes this, one will be at the beginning of the insight that only new ideas can help. For the helplessness is only a consequence of the fact that in London, as in Versailles, they want to build a new world with the old ideas and do not realize that among the dead that the war has brought are above all these old ideas. The war was characterized by these old ideas. It owed its existence to the fact that these ideas were already corpses in 1914.

[ 7 ] In London they were negotiating about economic matters. If the modern unitary state formations want to bring about economic decisions, they can only do so by force. The real decisions must be made by world economic life, which is detached from these entities. This is one of the points on which the threefold structure is based. It must do this because it wants to speak out of reality. In Versailles and London, people wanted to act out of unreality.

[ 8 ] People keep coming and saying to the promoters of the ideas of threefolding: Why don't you make us practical suggestions? They don't realize that the necessary ones have already been made. We can only make progress with the threefold structure. Without it, you can go to Versailles, to London, to Italy, to America; it will help nothing.

[ 9 ] This has often been said here. Today it only needs to be pointed out that the events in London and their consequences speak the same language.

[ 10 ] And the East? One looks longingly towards it; one longs for Lenin's and Trotsky's fall. One assumes that these fanatics for destructive forces will disappear from the scene tomorrow. After all, it will only help modern civilization if ideas of construction flow over that on which they have worked with forces of decline.

[ 11 ] There is talk of the need to seek economic links with the East. They must certainly be established. But above all, the East is seeking intellectual understanding with Central Europe. This has not yet been offered to it. If it first brings it the stimulating ideas, then the economic connection will come as a consequence. To talk about the latter without wanting the former is to place oneself outside the conditions of real life.

[ 1 ] The circumstances of the times and the opposition of wide circles interested in economic life force the "Coming Day" to dispense with a further socio-economic program for the immediate present and to keep its activities within narrower limits. In the near future, it will be the association of some economic enterprises with spiritual enterprises that support each other. The spiritual enterprises: Waldorf School, Clinical Therapeutic Institute, Biological and Physical Research Institute are to serve scientific-spiritual and moral-social progress in the sense that corresponds to the demands of the present and the near future. The purely economic undertakings should provide the material basis for the overall enterprise. They should initially carry those undertakings that can only bear economic fruit and financial returns in some time, because the spiritual seed to be poured into them now can only sprout after some time.

[ 2 ] The shareholders will continue to receive the dividend promised in the program from this closely held company. An expansion of the activity can also take place as far as possible in this transformed program. Although the program originally developed for the further development of economic life in connection with the cultivation of spiritual values is a necessity of our time, its comprehensive realization is currently hopeless due to the limited willingness of the contemporary community involved in economic life. Thus, what is initially possible must take precedence over what is necessary. Those personalities who are sympathetic to the idea of the "Coming Day" will be all the better able to unite their interests in it. Serving them will be the duty of its leadership.

Since the earliest times, it has been felt that the study of the human being is the most worthy pursuit of human research. Anyone who allows themselves to be influenced by what has come to light over time as knowledge of the human being can easily become discouraged. A wealth of opinions presents itself as answers to the question: what is the human being, and what is his relationship to the universe? The most diverse differences between these opinions arise in contemplation. This can lead to the feeling that man is not called to such research and that he must refrain from achieving anything that can give satisfaction to the feeling mentioned.

Is such a feeling justified? It could only be so if the perception of different views on a subject were a testimony to man's inability to recognize anything true about the subject. Anyone who wanted to accept such a testimony would have to believe that the whole essence of a thing should suddenly reveal itself to man, if knowledge could be spoken of at all. But it is not the case with human knowledge that the essence of things can suddenly reveal itself to it. It is rather the case with it, as with the picture that one paints, for example, of a tree from a certain side or photographs. This picture gives the appearance of the tree, from a certain point of view, in full truth. If one chooses a different point of view, the picture will be quite different. And only a series of pictures, from the most diverse points of view, can give an overall idea of the tree through their interaction.

In this way, however, man can also only look at the things and entities of the world. Everything he can say about them, he must say as views that apply from different points of view. It is not only so with the sensory observation of things, it is also so in the spiritual. With regard to the latter, one should not be misled by the above comparison and imagine that the diversity of points of view has something to do with space. Each view can be a true one if it faithfully reflects what is observed. And it is only refuted when it is shown that it can legitimately be contradicted by another view given from the same point of view. A difference between one view and another given from a different point of view, on the other hand, is as a rule meaningless. Anyone who views the matter in this way is protected against the obvious objection that every opinion must appear justified when viewed in this way. Just as the image of a tree must have a very specific shape from one point of view, so must a mental view from one point of view. But it is clear that one can only prove an error in the view if one is clear about the point of view from which it is given.

We should get along much better in the world of human opinions than we often do if we always kept this in mind. One would then realize how the differences of opinion in many cases arise only from the diversity of points of view. And only through different true views can one approach the essence of things. The mistakes that are made in this direction do not arise from the fact that people form different views, but rather from the fact that each person wants to see his view as the only legitimate one.

An objection to all this presents itself easily. One could say that if man wants to present the truth, he should not give an opinion, but rise above possible opinions to an overall view of a corresponding thing. This demand may sound acceptable. But it is not realizable. For what a thing is must be characterized from different points of view. The chosen image of the tree being painted from different points of view seems appropriate. Anyone who wants to avoid looking at the different images in order to gain an overall picture might end up painting something very blurry and foggy; but there would be no truth in such a blurry picture. Nor can truth be gained by a knowledge that wants to encompass the object with a single glance, but only by combining the true views that are given from different points of view. This may not correspond to human impatience; but it corresponds to the facts that one learns to recognize when one develops a meaningful striving for knowledge.

Few things can lead so strongly to a genuine appreciation of truth as such a striving for knowledge. And this appreciation may be called genuine because it cannot be followed by faintheartedness. It does not lead to despair in the striving for truth, because it recognizes truth as such in limitation; but it protects against the empty arrogance that, in its possession of truth, believes it can encompass the comprehensive essence of things.

Those who take this sufficiently into account will find it understandable that, in particular, knowledge of man should be sought in such a way that one tries to approach his nature from different points of view. One such point of view shall be chosen for the following remarks. It shall be characterized as one that lies between two others, as it were, in the middle. And it is not to be asserted that there are not many other points of view besides the three considered here. But the three shall be chosen here as particularly characteristic.

The first aspect to be considered in this regard is anthropology. This science collects everything that can be observed about humans and seeks to gain insights into their nature from the results of its observations. For example, it considers the structure of the sensory organs, the shape of the bone structure, the conditions of the nervous system, the processes of muscle movement, etc. With her methods, she penetrates into the finer structure of the organs and seeks to learn about the conditions of feeling, of imagining, etc. She also investigates the similarity of the human being to the animal and seeks to gain an idea of the relationship between humans and other living beings. She goes further and examines the living conditions of primitive peoples, who appear to be lagging behind in their development compared to civilized peoples. From what she observes in such peoples, she forms ideas about what the more developed peoples were once like, which have progressed beyond the level of education at which those remained. She studies the remains of prehistoric people in the layers of the earth and forms concepts about how cultural development has progressed. She examines the influence of climate, the seas, and other geographical conditions on human life. It seeks to gain an understanding of the conditions of racial development, of the life of nations, of legal conditions, the development of writing, of languages, etc. The name anthropology is used here for the entire physical study of man; it includes not only what is often counted in the narrower sense, but also the morphology, biology, etc. of man.

At present, anthropology generally keeps within the limits that are now considered to be those of scientific methods. It has compiled an enormous amount of factual material. Despite the different types of representations in which this material is summarized, it contains something that can have the most beneficial effect on the knowledge of human nature. And this material is constantly growing. It corresponds to the views of the present time to place great hopes in what can be gained from this side in elucidating the human riddle. And it is quite natural that many consider the point of view of anthropology to be as certain as they must regard the next one to be characterized here as doubtful.

This other point of view is that of theosophy. Whether this term is fortunate or unfortunate is not to be examined here. It is only a second point of view in relation to the anthropological view of man that is to be characterized. Theosophy assumes that man is above all a spiritual being. And it seeks to recognize him as such. It bears in mind that the human soul not only reflects and processes things and events perceived by the senses, but that it is capable of leading a life of its own, which receives its stimuli and content from a source that can be called spiritual. It relies on the fact that man can penetrate into a spiritual realm just as he penetrates into a sensory one. In the latter, man's knowledge expands as he focuses his senses on more and more things and processes, and forms his ideas on the basis of these. In the spiritual realm, however, knowledge advances differently. The observations are made in inner experience. A sensual object presents itself to man; a spiritual experience arises within, as if rising from the center of the human being itself. As long as a person cherishes the belief that such an ascent can only be an inner matter of the soul, so long must Theosophy be highly doubtful to him. For such a belief is not far from the other, which assumes that such experiences are only further inner workings of what has been observed by the senses. It is only possible to persist in such a belief as long as one has not yet obtained the conviction through compelling reasons that from a certain point on, the inner experiences, like the sensory facts, are determined by something that is an external world to the human personality. Once one has obtained this conviction, then one must recognize a spiritual external world just as one recognizes a physical one. And then it will be clear to everyone that man is connected with a spiritual world in relation to his spiritual nature, just as he is rooted in a physical world through his physical nature. It will then also be understood that materials for the knowledge of man can be taken from this spiritual world, just as anthropology takes materials for the physical man from physical observation. Then the possibility of research in the spiritual world will no longer be doubted. The spiritual researcher transforms his soul experience in such a way that the spiritual world enters into his soul experiences. He shapes certain soul experiences in such a way that this spiritual world reveals itself in them. (How this happens is described by the writer of this sketch in his book: “How to Know Higher Worlds?” Berlin, Philosophisch-theosophischer Verlag.) This kind of inner life can be called “clairvoyant consciousness.” But one must keep far from this concept all the nonsense that is done in the present with the word “clairvoyance”.

To arrive at inner experience in such a way that these or those facts of the spiritual world reveal themselves directly to the soul requires long, arduous, and self-denying soul-searching. But it would be a fatal mistake to believe that only those who experience spiritual realities directly through such soul-searching can reap the fruits of their soul-searching. The case is quite different. When spiritual facts have been revealed through the appropriate soul-searching exercises, they are, as it were, conquered for the human soul. When the spiritual researcher communicates them after having found them, they can be understood by every person who listens to them with a healthy sense of truth and unprejudiced logic. One should not believe that only a clairvoyant consciousness can have a well-founded conviction of the facts of the spiritual world. Every soul is tuned to recognize the truth of what the spiritual researcher has found. If the spiritual researcher wants to assert something that is untrue, this will always be ascertainable through the rejection of the healthy sense of truth and unbiased logic.

The direct experience of spiritual knowledge requires complicated soul paths and soul activities; possession of such knowledge is necessary for every soul that wants to have a full consciousness of its humanity. And without such consciousness, a human life is no longer possible from a certain point of existence.

Even if Theosophy is able to provide knowledge that satisfies the most important needs of the human soul, and that can be recognized by the natural sense of truth and by sound logic, there will always be a certain gap between it and anthropology. It will always be possible to show the results of Theosophy regarding the spiritual essence of man and then be able to point out how anthropology confirms everything that Theosophy says. But there will be a long way from one field of knowledge to the other.

But it is possible to fill the gap. In a certain respect, this is done here by sketching an anthroposophy. If anthropology can be compared to the observations of a wanderer who walks from place to place and from house to house in the plain in order to gain an idea of the nature of a region; if theosophy resembles the overview that can be gained from the summit of a hill over the the same district: then anthroposophy is to be compared with the view that one can have from the slope of the hill, where the individual is still in front of one's eyes, but the manifold is already beginning to merge into a whole.

Anthroposophy will observe the human being as he presents himself to physical observation. But it will cultivate observation in such a way that the physical fact is used to seek out the reference to a spiritual background. In this way, anthroposophy can lead from anthropology to theosophy.

It should be noted that only a very brief sketch of anthroposophy is intended here. A detailed presentation would require a great deal. The sketch is intended to take into account only the physical body of man, insofar as this is a revelation of the spiritual. And within these limits, anthroposophy is meant in the narrower sense. It must then be followed by a psychosophy, which considers the soul, and a pneumatosophy, which deals with the spirit. In this way, anthroposophy leads into theosophy itself.

The beginning of anthroposophy is to be made with a consideration of the human senses. Through the senses, the human being enters into a relationship with an external world. When speaking of the senses, two things should be considered. First, one should disregard how the human being enters into another world, namely the spiritual world, through a different path, as described above. And then one should initially disregard whether there is anything spiritual behind what the senses observe. When speaking of the senses, one should approach the spiritual in such a way that one waits to see to what extent the hint of the spiritual arises naturally from the observation of the senses. The spiritual must not be rejected nor presupposed; its manifestation must be awaited.

It is not the objects of sensory observation, but the senses themselves, as human organs, that are considered here. On the basis of what his senses convey to him, man forms ideas about an external world. This is how knowledge of this external world comes about. In relation to knowledge, one can speak of truth and error. Does error now arise in the realm of the senses, or only where judgment, memory, etc. are used to form ideas about the statements of the senses? We have a right to speak of illusions. If, through some irregularity in the ear or the eye, a sound or a light appears differently than it would with the normal formation of the organs concerned, then, for example, there is an illusion. Does this mean that Goethe was wrong when he said, “You may trust your senses implicitly; they will not let you see anything false if your intellect keeps you alert”? Goethe's statement proves to be immediately justified when we consider the following. An error that is caused by reason or memory is different from a sensory deception. The latter can be corrected by common sense. If, through an error of the eye, a tree standing before him appears to someone as a human being, he will only fall into error if he does not correct the eye defect and sees in the pretended human being an enemy against whom he defends himself. It is not so with an error of the intellect, for there it is this intellect itself that errs, and which therefore cannot at the same time correct its own mistakes. The illusions of the senses only become real errors through the mind. This distinction is not pedantry, but a necessity.

Many people are accustomed to listing five types of sensory perception when speaking of sensory perception: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching (or feeling). But we cannot stop here, because there are other ways in which a person enters into a relationship with the outside world that differ from those of hearing or seeing, for example. Even anthropological science currently speaks of senses other than those included in the above list. It is not necessary here to go into the list given by anthropology. It should only be noted that here lies one of the very gratifying points where science, based on mere sensory-physical facts, is pushed by its own observations to views that partly coincide with what the spiritual researcher must establish. Such points of contact will arise more and more in the course of time; and if goodwill prevails on both sides, a time will soon come when natural science and spiritual research will be mutually accepted.

In anthroposophical terms, everything that causes a person to recognize the existence of an object, being or process in such a way that it is justified to place this existence in the physical world can be called a human sense that leads man to recognize the existence of an object, being or process in such a way that he is justified in placing this existence in the physical world.

Seen in this light, the most indeterminate and general sense appears to be that which can be called the sense of life. Man only really notices the existence of this sense when something is perceived through it that breaks through the order in the body. Man feels weariness and fatigue in himself. He does not hear the fatigue, the weariness; he does not smell it; but he perceives it in the same sense as he perceives a smell, a sound. This kind of perception, which relates to one's own corporeality, is ascribed to the sense of life. It is basically always present in an alert person, even if it only becomes quite noticeable when there is a disturbance. Through it, the person perceives themselves as a corporeal self filling the space.

This sense is different from the one by which a person perceives a movement they have performed, for example. You move a leg, and you perceive this movement. The sense by which this happens is called the sense of self-motion. The difference between this sense and the first arises when you consider that through the sense of life you only perceive something that is present in the inner body without you doing anything about it. The sense of one's own movement perceives such things that require activity or mobility.

The third sense arises when one notices how the human being is able to maintain a certain position in relation to above and below, right and left, etc. It can be called the sense of equilibrium or the sense of static. Its peculiarity arises from the fact that one must have a perception of one's position if one is to maintain oneself in it as a conscious being. If the sense of equilibrium does not function, then dizziness will overtake the person; he will fall over. An unconscious object is maintained in its position without being aware of it. Such an object cannot be affected by dizziness. When speaking of this sense, anthropology points to a small organ in the human ear. There are three semicircular canals in the so-called labyrinth of the ear. If these are injured, dizziness occurs.

If you survey the peculiarities of the three senses listed, you will find that humans perceive something through each of them that relates to their own physical existence. Through the sense of life, he acquires general sensations about his corporeality; through the sense of self-movement, he perceives changes in this corporeality of his; through the sense of equilibrium, he perceives his relationship to the spatial outside world. However, he receives this perception in such a way that it reveals itself to him as a state of his own corporeality, as his own sensation of position. — Through these three senses, the human being acquires the sensation of his own corporeality as a whole, which is the basis for his self-awareness as a physical being. One can say that through the senses of life, of self-movement and of balance, the soul opens its gates to one's own corporeality and senses this as the physical external world that is closest to it.

With the following senses, the human being encounters the external world that does not belong to him in this way. The first sense to be considered here is that through which man comes into closest contact with what is called matter. Only gaseous or airy bodies allow close contact with the material. And this is conveyed through the sense of smell. Without a substance being divided into the finest particles and thus spreading like air, it cannot be perceived by the sense of smell.

The next stage of sensory perception is that by which not only the substance as such, but also the effects (deeds) of the substance are perceived. This happens through the sense of taste. This sense can only perceive a watery body, or one that is dissolved in the fluid of the mouth in order to be tasted. Through the sense of taste, man penetrates one degree deeper into the external materiality than through the sense of smell. With the latter, it is the substance itself that approaches the person and manifests itself in its own way; with the sense of taste, what is felt is the effect of the substance on the person. This difference can best be felt by considering how, in the sense of smell, the gaseous nature of the substance must be ready to approach the person so that he can perceive it as it is; in the sense of taste, the person, through his own liquid, dissolves the substance, thus making a change with it, in order to penetrate into those peculiarities of that substance which it does not reveal to him by itself. The sense of smell is suited to perceive the outer side of material things; the sense of taste penetrates more into the inner side of material things. And this inner aspect of material things man must first induce to reveal itself by changing the outer aspect.

Man penetrates even deeper into the inner aspect of the physical external world through the next sense. It is sight. Whether man sees a body as red or blue reveals more about the inner aspect of this body than is contained in the effect conveyed by the sense of taste. It depends on the nature of a body whether it behaves towards the colorless sunlight in such a way that it appears red or blue under its influence. Color manifests itself as the surface of a body. But one can say how the body reveals itself on its surface; this is an appearance of its inner essence through the medium of light.

The sense of warmth penetrates even deeper, as it were, below the surface of the bodies. If you feel a piece of ice or a warm object, you are aware that cold or warmth is something that does not just appear on the surface like color, but that permeates the body completely. You will notice how the sequence of senses characterized here is such that with each successive one, the human being delves deeper into the interior of the bodies of the external world.

A further advance in this immersion is given with the sense of hearing. It leads to the interior of the bodies to a far greater degree than the sense of warmth. Sound causes the interior of the bodies to tremble. It is more than a mere image when one speaks of the soul of a body being revealed through sound. Through the warmth that a body carries within itself, one experiences something of its difference from its surroundings; through sound, the intrinsic nature, the individuality of the body emerges and communicates itself to perception.

If, as is appropriate, one speaks of meaning where knowledge comes about without the participation of understanding, memory, etc., then one must recognize other senses than those listed. If we apply this distinction, it is easy to see that in everyday life the word “sense” is often used in a non-literal way. For example, when we speak of a sense of imitation, a sense of concealment, etc. In what appears as imitation, concealment, etc., the intellect and judgment are already involved. Here we are not dealing with mere sensory activity.

But the situation is quite different when we perceive in language what is revealed by the sound. It is certainly self-evident that a complicated act of judgment is involved in the perception of something spoken, that comprehensive soul processes come into play that cannot be described by the word “sense”. But there is also something simple and direct in this area that represents a sensation before all judgment, just as a color or a degree of warmth is. A sound is not felt only in terms of its pitch, but something much more inward is grasped with it than the tone itself. If we say that the soul of a body lives in the tone, we may also say that in the sound this soul-life reveals itself in such a way that it is released and freed from the physical, and enters into manifestation with a certain independence. Because the sensation of sound precedes judgment, the child learns to sense the sound-meanings of words before it can use judgment. It is through speech that the child learns to judge. It is entirely justified to speak of a special sense of sound or sense of language. The reason that recognizing this sense is difficult is because the most diverse exercise of judgment usually occurs in addition to the direct sensation of what is revealed in the sound. But a careful examination of oneself shows that all hearing of what is given in sounds is based on an equally direct, judgment-free relationship to the being from which the sound emanates, as is the case when a color impression is perceived. It is easier to grasp this fact if we visualize how a sound of pain allows us to directly experience the pain of a being, without any kind of reflection or the like interfering with our perception. It is important to consider that the audible sound is not the only thing through which such inwardness is revealed to a person, as is the case with the sound of speech. Gesture, facial expression, and physiognomy ultimately lead to something simple and direct, which must be counted as much a part of the meaning of speech as the content of the audible sound.

To an even greater degree, the sensory character is hidden in the next sense to be characterized. When we understand a person who communicates through speech, gestures, etc., it is true that judgment, memory, etc. play a predominant role in this understanding. But here too, right self-contemplation leads us to recognize that there is a direct grasping and understanding that can precede all thinking and judging. The best way to develop a feeling for this fact is to realize how one can understand something even before one has developed the ability to judge it. There is, in fact, a very direct perception of that which reveals itself in the concept, so that one must speak of a sense of concept. What a person can experience as a concept in his own soul, he can also receive as a revelation from another being. Through the perception of the concept, one delves even deeper into the inner being of another person than through the perception of sounds. It is not possible to delve even further into another person than to the sensation of what lives in him as a concept. The sense of concept appears as that which penetrates into the innermost being of an external being. With the concept that lives in another person, the human being perceives what lives in him or her in a soul-like way. The sensory character of what is usually called the sense of touch does not appear in the same way as with the ten senses mentioned. This sense conveys external pressure, resistance, hardness, softness. One must visualize the essence of what is meant by “pressure”. The process is by no means a simple one. In reality, we do not perceive the pressing body directly, but rather the fact that it causes us to recoil at this or that point on the skin, or that we have to make a greater or lesser effort to make an impression on the body. There is a remarkable difference between this perception and that of, for example, a degree of warmth that is revealed on a body. Even if it is absolutely true that a cold bath will appear in a different state of warmth to a person who is hot from exercise than to a person who is freezing, that is, that in the perception of warmth, the subjective state is also perceived, it remains true that essentially the nature of the external object is revealed in the warmth. This results in a direct relationship between the feeling person and the object. It is not the same as saying to oneself that one must exert oneself more or less to make an impression on a body or to overcome the resistance it offers through its hardness or softness. What one says to oneself is the reproduction of an experience that one has within oneself in the body. And even if the fact is hidden, it is still true that in such a perception the judgment plays along, as it were secretly: “I find strong resistance, therefore the body is hard.” Just as it is true that, for example, in the sense of language, perception can be a completely direct one without any judgment, it is also true that, in the sense of touch, there is always an underlying judgment, however hidden. What is directly sensed by the sense of touch can always be found within the realms of the first three senses listed here. A body that presses on me, for example, causes a shift in the position of my body, which is sensed by the sense of life, or the sense of self-movement, or the sense of balance.

It is necessary to clearly define the differences between the individual sensory areas. With each sense, the relationship that a person has with an external object is different than with the other senses. Through the sense of life, the sense of self-movement, and the sense of balance, a person is immersed in his or her own physicality and perceives him or herself as a being of the external world. Through the sense of smell, the sense of taste, and the sense of sight, the physical reveals itself insofar as it manifests itself outwardly. Through the sense of warmth, it reveals inwardness, but still in an external way. With the help of the sense of hearing, the sense of speech, the sense of thought, the human being perceives an alien inwardness that is external to him. If one pays attention to these differences between the sensory areas, then one will not be tempted to speak too much in general terms about what a sense, sensory perception, etc. is. Rather, one will pay attention to the particular relationship through which the human being enters into the external world through each sense. It does not say much to characterize sensory perception, for example, as an impression that is directly caused by a stimulus of the sensory nerve in the soul. Through such definitions, it is all too easy to lose the characteristic of each individual sense in blurred generalizations. But it is important to note that the impression we experience from the warmth of a body is quite different in nature from that caused by a light impression. If we do not take this into account, we are easily led, for example, to place far too much value on judgments such as: “Man perceives the external world through the senses and forms ideas and concepts on the basis of sensory perceptions.” Here sense perception is simply set against conceptual thought. Such a judgment obscures the necessary free view of the fact that, for example, the sensation of smell is very far removed from the conceptual experience, but that the sense of hearing as a sense perception already approximates to what is present within the soul as such an experience.

Another aspect now becomes part of the sensory life of the human being. Here too we can distinguish a number of areas. First of all, there is the process by which the inner life of the body is sustained from the outside: breathing. In this process, the life of the body touches the outer world; it confronts the outer world, as it were, in a form in which it cannot continue to exist, in order to receive from it the strength to continue. These words express approximately what is revealed to man in the breathing process, without going into the results of sensory science. The latter belong to anthropology. But what is characterized here is experienced by man directly in life, in his desire for air, in the observation of the inhibition of life when there is a lack of air, etc. A further process in this area is that which can be described as warming. For the maintenance of bodily life, man depends on the development of a quite definite degree of warmth within his body, which does not depend on the processes that determine the warmth of his surroundings, but on those that take place within him, and which maintain the intrinsic warmth within definite limits, however the external warmth may be constituted. A third process of this kind is nutrition. Through it, the life of the body enters into a relationship with the external world in such a way that the substances consumed by it are replaced. A fourth process must be added to nutrition if it is to take place. In the mouth, the food consumed must interact with the saliva secreted by the body; similarly, such a process takes place during the further digestive process. This can be described as the fourth process in this area: secretion. Physical self-observation now shows that this process is followed by another. In the secretion that aids digestion, what is secreted is merely able to transform the food in such a way that it can be absorbed into the body. But man must also secrete that which can enter into this bodily life. He must transform the nutrients in such a way that they can serve to build up his body. This is based on a process that goes beyond what is given in the secretion just characterized. This process shall be called the process of preservation. Another process arises when we turn our attention to human growth. This goes beyond mere maintenance. In addition to the maintenance process, which would leave the body as it is at a particular point in time, there is another process that can be described as a growth process. The growth process and the maintenance process reach their conclusion when the finished body presents itself to the human being in a very specific form. This shaping of the human being from the inside out into a very specific form is called production. Reproduction then presents itself as a repetition of this production. That which belongs to one's own body is brought forth in such a way that it remains united with the human being; in reproduction, the brought forth comes out. Since here, for the time being, we are only speaking of the human being as a self-contained physical individuality, the process of reproduction is not taken into account.

The processes that are referred to here as aspiration, warming, nutrition, secretion, maintenance process, growth process and production are now followed by inner experiences for humans in a similar way to how inner experiences follow the processes of sensory perception in the ego. Emotional experiences follow breathing, warming and nourishment. These experiences are less noticed in their middle states, but they immediately stand out when this state is disturbed in one direction or the other. If breathing cannot take place in the appropriate way, anxiety and the like occur. A disturbance of the warmth state manifests itself in the feeling of frost or heating. Disturbance of nutrition manifests itself in hunger and thirst. It can be said that breathing, warmth and nutrition are linked to inner experiences, which reveal themselves as a kind of well-being, comfort, etc. These experiences are always there; they underlie what manifests itself as malaise, discomfort, hunger, etc. when there is a disturbance. Real introspection now shows that such emotional experiences are also related to secretion, the process of preservation, the process of growth and the process of creation. Think of how states of fear and anxiety manifest themselves in excessive perspiration; and you will be able to admit that secretion of this kind, within certain limits, is connected with a feeling that manifests itself in a general sense of comfort, just as one can see that all secretion is accompanied by an emotional state that escapes the attention of consciousness as long as it is normal. And further, self-reflection shows that such emotional experiences are also connected with the processes of preservation, growth and production. One can feel, for example, that the feeling of strength of youth is the expression of what inner experiences follow growth.

These inner emotional experiences are now something that stands in a similar way in the human being to the processes of breathing, warming, growing, etc., as the inner experiences that follow sensory perceptions stand in the “I” to the processes of these perceptions. It is therefore possible to speak of the fact that, for example, breathing is connected with an experience in the human being in a similar way to how hearing is connected with the experience that is designated as sound. The only difference is that the degree of clarity with which external sense perceptions are inwardly relived is much greater than that which is accorded to the inner experiences characterized here. Hidden beneath or within the 'ego-person' is another person who is built up out of inner experiences, just as the ego-person is built up out of the results of external sense perceptions. But this human being who lies beneath the 'I-human' is only really noticed in life when he announces himself to the 'I-human' in the disturbances of his experiences. But just as little as one may throw together the process of sensory perception with the process in the ego that is linked to it, so little may one do so, for example, in relation to the breathing process and the inner experiences (of an emotional nature) that combine with this process. It would be easy to be tempted to completely misunderstand the nature of these inner experiences and to say that there is no essential difference between them and those that develop under the influence of sense perceptions. It must be admitted that the difference between the two types of inner experiences, for example, between the sense of life and the inner emotional experience during the breathing or warming process, is not particularly clear. But it can easily be determined by more exact observation, if one bears the following in mind. It belongs to a sense experience that a judgment can only be attached to it through the “I”. Everything that a person accomplishes under the influence of a judgment must, if it relates to sense perceptions, be such that the judgment is made within the “I”. For example, one perceives a flower and passes judgment on it: this flower is beautiful. What is now evoked by the processes of breathing, warming, nourishment, etc., as inner experiences, points, without the intervention of the “I”, to something similar to judgment. In the experience of hunger there is an immediate indication of something corresponding to hunger and connected with it in the same way that, after making a judgment in response to a sense perception, the human being connects with that sense perception. Just as the activity of the 'I' connects with the sense perception when making a judgment, so with hunger something external is connected without the 'I' establishing this connection. This union may therefore be called an instinctive manifestation. And this applies to all inner experiences that are connected with breathing, nourishment and growth processes. We must therefore distinguish between the instinctive inner experiences of breathing comfort and warmth and well-being, and the corresponding perceptions of the meaning of life. The wave of instinct must, as it were, first beat against the 'I-human being' in order to reach the realm of the meaning of life. The structure of the inner experiences that take place through the processes described behind the 'I-human being' are now to be ascribed to the 'astral human being'. Again, the name 'astral human being' should initially be associated with nothing other than what is described here. Just as the “I-person” draws his experiences from the “sense world” through the sense organs, so the “astral person” draws his from the world that is given to him through the processes of breathing, growing, etc. For the time being, let this world be called the “world of life”.

In order for a “life world” to exist, the organs of life must be built out of a world that lies beyond all life in a similar way to the forces for building the sense organs lying beyond the world of sense perceptions. This world reveals itself again in its effects, in the structure of the organs of life. The individual areas of the life processes: breathing, warming, nourishment, etc., can be interpreted as references to just as many areas of this world. One can now see that the areas of the life processes are less strictly separated from each other than the areas of sensory perception. The sense of taste, for example, is strictly separated from the sense of sight, whereas the areas of life processes are closer; they merge more. Breathing leads to warming, which in turn leads to nutrition. - Anthropology therefore shows essentially separate sensory organs for sensory perception; for the life processes, it shows organs that flow into one another. Thus the lungs, the most exquisite respiratory organ, are connected with the organs of blood circulation, which serve for warming; these in turn flow together with the digestive organs, which correspond to nutrition, etc. — This is an indication that the corresponding areas of the world in which their constructive forces lie also relate to each other in a different way than the forces for building the sense organs. The latter must, as it were, be more mobile in relation to one another than the organs of sense. The experiences of the sense of taste, for example, can only meet with those of the sense of hearing in the common 'I' to which they belong. The feeling of growth, on the other hand, meets with itself through that which is revealed in the breathing process. The feeling of the power of growth is revealed in the ease of breathing, in warming, etc., through increased inner life. Each feeling-like experience of this kind can coincide with another of the same kind. The areas of sensory perception could be depicted as a kind of circumference, with the individual areas resting on it while the “I” moves across them. The life processes can be depicted in a different way. They can all be imagined as being mobile and capable of moving across each other.

Now, however, there are also clear relationships between the sense perceptions and the life processes. Take the breathing process and relate it to the auditory perception. In both cases, the corresponding bodily organ is directed towards the outside world. This is an indication that in the outer world that which has a relationship to both the one and the other organ reveals itself. It is only that, for instance, two things reveal themselves in the air; in relation to one, the respiratory organ is formed and places it at the service of the body; in relation to the other, the structure of the organ of hearing is related. It may be recognized that the forces that shape the organ of hearing must, so to speak, be more original than those that form the respiratory organ. For in the developed human body, everything is interdependent. A human organ of hearing can only unfold from the inside out if the respiratory system is predisposed in just the way it is. From out of the organism, the respiratory system grows towards the outer world, as does the organ of hearing. Now the respiratory organ serves only the inner life of the body; the organ of hearing, however, must be adapted to the outer world - to the realm of sound. In the outgrowth of the respiratory organ from the body, therefore, only the nature of the body itself needs to be taken into account; the organ of hearing must outgrow itself in such a way that it is appropriate for the outer world of sound. No other organ needs to lie in front of the respiratory organ; it grows in accordance with the inner formative forces. The organ of hearing, however, must grow towards an already existing structure. Its adaptation to the outer world must precede its emergence from the inner life of the body. This shows that the forces that form the organ of hearing as a sensory tool belong to a world that is the more original or higher than the other, in which lie the forces that reveal themselves as such, which form both the organ of hearing and the organ of respiration from the body. A similar thing can be shown for other sensory perceptions and life processes. One's attention is drawn to the sense of taste. The secretions can be related to it in a similar way to the respiratory process to the sense of hearing. The saliva of the mouth contains what the food dissolves and thus makes it possible to taste. A similar reflection to the one just made can show that the forces from which the secretory organs are formed are the less original ones compared to those through which the sense of taste arises.

In the light of such considerations, one can therefore assume a higher supersensible entity in man, whose powers reveal themselves in the structure of the human sense organs. Likewise, there is another whose effects reveal themselves in the structure of the human organs of life. The latter world is felt by the 'astral man' as his instinctive inner experiences; the former manifests itself to the 'I-man' as a sensory reality (sensual world). However, neither the first world through the senses nor the second can come directly to manifestation in the astral man.

It has been said that the supersensible world reveals itself in the “I”, as it were shrunk to a point, in its own nature; in the same sense, it can be recognized that the second of the worlds mentioned shows itself in the emotional experiences of the “astral man”, which can be described as life instincts. In these experiences something is expressed with which the other instinctive experiences of the “astral man” merge into one and are an image of a supersensible world in the sense that the “I-man” is an image of such a world.

The “I-person” and the “astral person” represent two human parts that express themselves in inner processes. In order to make the “I-person” possible, the forces of a supersensible world build up the sense organs. In so far as the human body is the carrier of the sense organs, it shows itself to be built out of a supersensible world. Let us now call this carrier of the sense organs the physical human body. The 'I-human' permeates it in order to live with its help in the sense world. We must therefore see in the physical human body an entity that is built out of forces that are related in their nature to the 'I' itself. Within the sense world, the physical human body can only reveal itself in its sensory manifestation. According to its inner reality, it is a being of a supersensible nature. — In order to make the “astral human being” possible, another world, which is added to the characterized supersensible world as a “life world”, builds the organs of life. The forces of this world have proved to be akin to those of the experiences that the “astral human being” has in the instincts of life. What builds up the physical human being reveals itself in the sense world in the sense described above. The forces that build the organs of life can only reveal themselves in the physical world in the processes of life. This is because they generate the organs of life, and only through such organs can a life process manifest itself. The organs of life themselves are not organs of perception. Therefore, not only the forces that build up the organs of life remain imperceptible to the senses, but the manifestation of these forces in the human being cannot become manifest to the senses either, but can only be an intuitive, instinctive experience. This revelation will now be called the 'etheric human body'. (The word 'etheric' should be understood to mean only what is meant here, and in no way what bears the name 'ether' in physics.) Just as the physical human body relates to the 'I-human', so the 'etheric human body' relates to the 'astral human'. The physical body is, in its essence, such that it provides the I with sense experiences; the “etheric body” can only be experienced directly by the “astral human being” in terms of feeling. The relationship between the I and the physical human body is the same as that between the “astral human being” and the “etheric human body”. Thus the organs of life presuppose forces to which they adapt themselves, in that they shape sense organs, such as the organ of hearing, out of the body in the sense of experiences to which they themselves do not serve; and the sense organs in turn presuppose the organs of life in that they are maintained by their processes.

Thus we can distinguish: 1. A supersensible world in which lie the forces for building up the sense organs. 2. A supersensible world in which lie the forces for building up the organs of life. The former presupposes the latter; therefore the former can be called the higher spiritual world and the latter the lower spiritual world. 3. A world in which the astral human being is related to the life processes in such a way that these reveal themselves in him as life instincts. This presupposes the life processes, and thus the second world. It may be called the astral world. 4. A world in which sense experiences reveal themselves to the human being through the sense organs. This, however, is the physical-sensual world.

The physical human body is formed from the higher spiritual world, in so far as it is the carrier of the sense organs. The etheric human body is formed from the lower spiritual world, in so far as it builds up the life organs. In the astral world, the astral human being enters into a relationship with the processes of life, in so far as these reveal themselves in the life instincts. In the physical world, the human ego enters into a relationship with the sense experiences (sound, tone, warmth, light, etc.) that present themselves as the external world, insofar as these reveal themselves as the sense world.

If we now assume, as we have done above, that the formative forces for the organs of life and the predispositions for the sense organs lie in the lower spiritual world, then a distinction arises for the formative forces of the organs of life prevailing in this world between those that presuppose an internalized substance and those that shape their organs for the absorption of the substance from outside. It is easy to see that the latter are a prerequisite for the former. For if matter itself did not possess the potential to become internalized, it could not become active within itself. Thus, forces must prevail in matter that enable it to evoke counter-effects from what is external to it. The above description has shown that matter can produce such counter-effects in itself. The reversed senses of life, of self-movement and of equilibrium carry within them the hidden possibility of acting in such a way that, in order to produce internal formations, they are active as substance itself, without using the internal formative principles as such. They act, after all, not only within, but also outside their measure. If we now imagine these three inverted sensory activities as being so effective that they do not encounter any internally formed organ, but remain in the character of their effectiveness, then they reach a boundary where they must return into themselves. At this boundary, therefore, the material would throw itself back into itself; it would be inhibited in itself. At this boundary, what could be called materiality in materiality would be given. And this points to the possibility of how the organs that need inner substance arise out of a world in which the material-outer becomes material-inner. In this world, the first rudiments would have to lie both for those organs of the life process that are supplied by internalized substance and for those that need external substance. And the forces that bring the external substance to the interior should already have the potential for this internalization. Just as the forces in the organs of life themselves point to a world of other forces, from which the organs of life are first formed, so the internal flow of matter in the organs of life points to potentialities from an even higher world, from which they are formed. We are led to point to an outer world which, through the contrast between the sense of life, the sense of self-movement and the sense of equilibrium, can spark an inner world within itself. This world, however, can be called the “higher spiritual world”. What would be sought in it? Not forces that shape organs of life in the first place, but those that implant in their structures the potential to become organs of life. These forces, however, are to be thought of as the opposites of the sense of equilibrium, the sense of self-movement and the sense of life. If these forces are stopped before they reach the limit of their effectiveness, through inner formative processes in organs that are already being formed, then they shape the sense organs of hearing, of sound and of concept out of such organ predispositions. What happens when they reach the limit of that activity which lies in their own character? If the sense of life that is turned inwards did not encounter something in the organ of concepts that it only has to reshape, then it would obviously lead the conceptual experience back into itself. And in its reflection, it would immediately encounter itself. It would be the same as in a sensory experience, but it would have an independent existence without an underlying sensory organ. The same could be said for the sense of balance and equilibrium when reversed. In the higher spiritual world, we would thus find sense experiences that are at rest in themselves and which prove to be related to those sense experiences to which the human being in the physical world is closest with his ego, the experiences of the sense of concept, sound and hearing. But those experiences are as if there were not, as it were, a human ego standing before them and taking them in, but as if there were a being behind them that creates them in its own activity.