The Life of Man on Earth and the Essence of Christianity
GA 349
One can also call these lectures dialogues, because their content was always determined by the workers themselves, at Rudolf Steiner's request. They were allowed to choose their topics themselves; he encouraged them to ask questions and share their thoughts, and he encouraged them to express themselves and to voice their objections. Both the far-reaching and the obvious were touched upon. Particular interest was shown in the therapeutic and hygienic aspects of life; this showed how much these things are part of the daily concerns of the worker. But all phenomena of nature, of the mineral, plant and animal world were touched upon, and this led out into the cosmos again, to the origin of things and beings. Finally, the workers requested an introduction to spiritual science and the basic knowledge for understanding the mysteries of Christianity.
This spiritual work together had developed out of a few courses that Dr. Roman Boos had initially given for those interested in such questions after finishing work on the construction site; they were later continued by other members of the Anthroposophical Society. But now the workers asked Rudolf Steiner if he would take charge of them and quench their thirst for knowledge. They also asked if it would be possible to use one hour of the usual working hours for this purpose, when they were still fresh and receptive. This was done in the morning hour after the vesper break. Some employees of the construction office were also allowed to attend, along with two or three of Dr. Steiner's closest colleagues. Practical matters were also discussed, such as beekeeping, which interested beekeepers. The transcript of those lectures on bees was later published by the Agricultural Experimental Ring at the Goetheanum as a brochure for its members, when Dr. Steiner was no longer with us.
Now, more and more people wanted to get to know these lectures. However, they were intended for a special audience and were spoken off the cuff in a special situation, as suggested by the circumstances and the mood of the listening workers — and certainly not with a view to publication and printing. But it is precisely the way they were spoken that has a fresh and immediate quality that one would not want to be missed. One would rob them of the special atmosphere that is based on the interaction of what lived in the souls of the questioners and the answerer. One would not want to wipe away the color and atmosphere by pedantically rearranging the sentence structure. Therefore, the attempt is made to touch them as little as possible. Even if not everything in them corresponds to the conventions of literary style, they have the immediacy of life.
This collection consists of automated translations of lectures 4-13 out of 13.
| Dante's Conception of the World and the Dawn of the Scientific Age | March 14, 1923 | |
| Dante described the invisible world, the ethereal world or the world of the spheres with the earth at the center, Copernicus the physical world. Until the end of the 18th century, people still knew something about the ethereal world. The doctrine of phlogiston, the fire substance, and Lavoisier's views on oxygen. How materialism came into being. The first experience after death is the experience of complete memory. About Dante's concept of hell. | ||
| The Structure of the Human Being | March 17, 1923 | |
| Comparison of the development of the animal with the development of the human being. Walking, speaking and thinking and the activity of the etheric body, the astral body and the ego. People today no longer care much about language. Most people today do not think at all; they are not able to absorb thoughts about the supersensible. Du Bois-Reymonds Ignorabimus speech. To die means to withdraw the etheric body from the physical body. After death, the etheric body rapidly expands throughout the world. Perception of the etheric and astral bodies. Pre-existence and post-existence. The church as the custodian of dying. Prenatal and post-mortal life. You cannot get to know life after death if you do not get to know life before birth, that is, before conception. | ||
| Human Existence in Sleep and Death | March 21, 1923 | |
| On the importance of sleep and so-called insomnia. Man sleeps when he no longer likes his body, and he wakes up when he develops sympathy for his body again. After death, we must lose sympathy with our body; this loss of sympathy lasts for a third of our entire life. After death, a person lives one-third of their earthly life in the astral body, and only a few days in their etheric body. Etheric body: second teeth, astral body: sexual maturity. After discarding the astral body, a person only lives in their ego. The mind and thoughts are spread across the world; the mind is everywhere. All the clever things the human body does. How a human being comes into being. About the theory of evolution. When the egg is fertilized, chaos ensues. The human being must form his own shape. Everything in the world outside is reproduced inside the human being. What the I has to do in the time until the human being comes down to earth again. | ||
| The Organization of the Human Being | April 4, 1923 | |
| An example of today's scientific attitude. Philosophy without logic. The ego directs the body during life on earth. Fertilization. From a very fragmented protein substance, the soul, which comes from the spiritual world, actually builds the human body. About the similarity of the child with father and mother. Walking, speaking and thinking. Brain development in the first seven years of life. The etheric body ensures that the child develops a complete brain and thus becomes a thinking human being. The etheric body works in thinking. To learn to speak, we have the astral body, which works primarily in the chest, in breathing, which then transforms into speech. The I must reach the physical body and bring it into balance in the outer world. In this way, it learns to move its limbs and to adapt its metabolism to its movements. The future science must guide people to wake up now. | ||
| Dreaming, Death and Rebirth | April 9, 1923 | |
| Awakening to real knowledge. Rooms for falling asleep and waking up. The so-called 'Alpdrücken'. What dreams are based on. We have our body to thank for seeing things clearly. The human being in his first three years. How the dream changes in the course of life on earth. Dreams of small children. The loss of the ability to build our bodies properly. How dreams increasingly distance us from the spiritual world. About the statements of mediums. Between death and a new birth, one must get to know the inside of the human body. During his life on earth, man moves further and further away from the spiritual world. In one Platonic year, man undergoes about twelve earth lives. Dissolution of the earth and liberation of man from the earth. | ||
| A Symptomatic Examination of the Astral Body | April 14, 1923 | |
| Why humans and higher animals need their heads. In higher animals, life is in the head; in lower animals, it is in all the individual limbs of the body. Whooping cough: headless astral body. Cat asthma and asthma caused by buckwheat. Recovery from whooping cough. Where something is injured, the astral body is left to its own devices; it comes out of the physical body. The astral body unites easily with heat and with cold with difficulty; it is attracted to warmth. With our astral body, we are not yet human on earth. Rabindranath Tagore's memoirs; he has always been beaten by everyone. Spanking education. Slave natures and free natures. We go through death with the moral impression of our life, into the world from which we form the next life on earth. Each organ is supplied from two sides with the nerves; but what intervenes is the astral body. Everything that goes on inside the human being in terms of movement is guided by the astral body. Laying aside the astral form that man has taken on during his life. How to bring into the new human life what one has had in the previous life. People are different because they bring with them from their previous life on earth different abilities and destinies. | ||
| Why Don't We Remember Our Past Lives? | April 18, 1923 | |
| About Mehring's book “The Legend of Lessing”. Lessing's “Education of the Human Race”. About Crookes and Newton. Primitive people all believed in repeated lives on earth. Effects of opium: with light opium use, the etheric body is influenced, the invigorating principle; with heavy opium use, the astral body is influenced, and the habitual opium eater destroys his ego. About learning to read and write. Conscious thinking and remembering. If one has absorbed correct thoughts in the present life, then one remembers correctly in a later life on earth the present life on earth. “Apparitions of spirits”. Spiritualistic seances. | ||
| Sleeping and Waking – Life After Death – The Christ Being – The Two Jesus Children | April 21, 1923 | |
| Über die «Venusfliegenfalle». Über den Begriff der Begierde. Welcher seelische Umstand dem Aufwachen zugrunde liegt: der Mensch wacht auf, weil er Begierde hat nach seinem physischen Körper. Nach dem Tode möchte die Seele immer wieder in den Körper hinein — das muß sie sich erst abgewöhnen. Nach dem Tode bleiben die Begierden nach dem physischen Leib und dem Leben überhaupt und man hat namentlich noch die Begierde, dies alles zu sehen, was man während des Lebens gesehen hat. Erst wenn der Mensch sich die Begierde nach der physischen Welt abgewöhnt hat, wächst er auch hinein in die geistige Welt und kann dann auf geistige Art wahrnehmen. Auf- und Untertauchen Englands. Die Sternkonstellation am Himmel sender Kräfte aus, welche ein Land an einer bestimmten Stelle festhalten. Was Plato über Solon mitteilt. Julians Lehre von den drei Sonnen. Die Johannestaufe im Jordan. Widersprüche in den Stammbäumen des Lukas- und Matthäus-Evangeliums. Einzelheiten über die beiden Jesusknaben. Absonderlichkeiten des Privatdozenten Hauer. Durch das Christus-Ereignis hat die Weltgeschichte eine andere Wendung genommen. | ||
| Christ, Ahriman and Lucifer | May 7, 1923 | |
| Man is not a thoroughly homogeneous being; he is constantly dying and resurrecting. Nervous system and blood system as opposing principles. Sclerosis. Growing old and growing young. Pleurisy or pneumonia: growing young becomes too strong in us. If only Ahrimanic forces were present, we would constantly harden, constantly become a corpse, we would become pedantic, philistine, constantly waking up. The forces that enervate us, that rejuvenate us, that bring us to fantasy, to enthusiasm, that make us fall asleep all the time, are the luciferic forces. These two opposing forces must be in man, but they must be balanced. Today's education is entirely ahrimanic. From about 8000 BC to the beginning of the Christian era was a Luciferic age, and then came an Ahrimanic age. To be a Christian means to seek a balance between the Ahrimanic and the Luciferic. Treatment of pleurisy with birch charcoal. Preventive treatment of stroke with flower juices. Luciferic and Ahrimanic diseases. The wooden sculpture in the making. On the contradictions in the four Gospels. | ||
| Christ's Death, Resurrection and Ascension | May 9, 1923 | |
| The first messages about the Christians. The two Jesus boys. The twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple. Kekule's enlightenment. The thirty-year-old Jesus of Nazareth and his enlightenment by the Christ. The most important content of the old mysteries: the knowledge of the sun. About death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The appearances of the Risen One. The Damascus event of Paul. Ascension of Christ. The idea of Pentecost; the fiery tongues, the universal religion for all people. Earthly religions and solar Christianity. | ||