Last time, I spoke about the threefolding of the human being into body, soul, and spirit. In 1917, which is many years later, when the book Theosophy appeared, Rudolf Steiner published a writing in 1917 with the title Von Seelenrätseln. And in it, he comes with a, yes, actually more or less groundbreaking insight. It all seems very self-evident once one knows it. But one must imagine that at that time, in the period in which Rudolf Steiner lived, this was not at all something that was known. And actually, even now, it is still not, except that the anthroposophists now know it because Rudolf Steiner brought this insight. And so one might feel that it is something self-evident.

That this is not the case, not even for Rudolf Steiner, becomes clear at the Christmas Conference in 1923/1924, when Rudolf Steiner re-founded the Anthroposophical Society and then gave lectures. And there, he says that he, this human threefolding, that he only fully understood it in relation to body, soul, and spirit after approximately 30 years of research. So from this, it already becomes clear that it is not something self-evident.

And we must always keep in mind in the spiritual science of Rudolf Steiner that Rudolf Steiner was a seer, that he was an initiate, that he had a different way of knowing than other human beings.

In ordinary knowledge, one must always speculate more or less. One cannot directly know from perception how the connections are. In the clairvoyant consciousness, as Rudolf Steiner had, this is indeed the case. So, for example, in philosophy or in psychology, one can think a lot and investigate and also argue about how the soul is structured. And if one then reads in Rudolf Steiner how the structure of the soul actually is, one might think that he also found this through thinking and logical combination. And then one is completely mistaken because that is absolutely not the case.

One must imagine with him that he directly beheld the connections. It is something like when we go into nature and see a tree and then immediately know that it is a tree and do not need to think about it, that it is a tree. That is an immediate perception. And one must imagine spiritual perception in the same way, that the insights do not come about through combination and analysis, not through logic, but truly through direct vision.

And then, of course, one can say, yes, fine, but then I must actually believe everything that Rudolf Steiner put forward because he beheld it and in direct perception always knew for sure what he beheld. So yes, the one who takes this in must then actually also immediately believe what he says. Yes, that could be a degeneration if that happens.

That is certainly not what Rudolf Steiner had hoped for, because what he had hoped for is that we, as readers, with our normal pure intellect, would still be able to see through the connections with a kind of spiritual logic. And by seeing through this, we ourselves could say: yes, that must indeed be so, even though I cannot perceive it. I can perceive that which he has brought. And that really should not be believed. It must be understood. And the human intellect can do that very well.

And what is helpful in this is that when one takes in more and more of Rudolf Steiner, one discovers that the different statements he made regarding the same subject always align. That it is therefore not the case that one reads one thing here and something completely different there, which cannot be connected. That is actually never the case.

And because that is not the case, one knows: I do not need to believe this. Because the connections are logically consistent within themselves. And if the moment ever comes that I read something and say: Well, I actually cannot understand this now, I believe that he sometimes said something completely different or even something completely opposite—how should I understand this then? Well, maybe as a reader, one can reach the point where one takes a pause and says: I cannot reconcile this with the rest at the moment, but that could very well be due to me, that my development is not yet far enough along to see that both one thing and the other can be true and how then the one must be connected to the other.

Of course, I know that many people are bothered when one says something like this. Because that is, of course, a very difficult issue. And then, once again, that snake rises up, saying: yes, listen, you don’t have to believe anyone. And this is still a bit of believing, isn’t it? If one cannot understand it, then one must believe it. No, I am only saying that one can perhaps convince oneself that some more time is needed before one can bring these apparent contradictions into connection with each other.

And so Rudolf Steiner then revealed his insights in 1917 regarding the connection between the threefold division of the soul and the body.

For me, as a doctor, it was indeed a certain sensation to take this in, even though, once one has read it, one actually has to say: yes, this is so self-evident. Why does not every person know this? But people do not know it.

And there is so much understanding for both the soul aspect and the bodily aspect, and for those forces that are active when the soul aspect is connected with the bodily aspect. There are so many possibilities to understand things that one did not understand before, that a great gratitude comes over one. I can remember that, as a doctor, I had a small drawing on my desk in which this threefold division of the body was drawn along with the threefold division of the soul, in order to experience again and again, almost joyfully, that we humans are like this.

Of course, I could retell this, but I would rather read aloud what Rudolf Steiner published about this for the first time in his book Von Seelenrätseln.

He then says: One must, in such a consideration, start from the division into imagination, feeling, and willing—not as it was done in his time, for example by Franz von Brentano, into imagination, judgment, and phenomena of loving and hating—no, not like that, but rather imagination/thinking, feeling, and willing. When one now summarizes everything that belongs to the soul aspect and is experienced as imagination, and one searches for the bodily processes with which this soul aspect can be connected, one finds the corresponding relationship, whereby one can to a large extent align with the results of present-day physiological psychology.

So here there is no great discrepancy between what Rudolf Steiner finds with his spiritual perception and what science finds. Namely: the bodily counterparts of the soul aspect of imagination must be seen in the processes of the nervous system, with their extensions into the sensory organs on one side and into the inner bodily organization on the other side. However much one may have to think differently from an anthroposophical point of view than present-day science does, there is an excellent foundation in this science. (This with regard to thinking.)

But this is not the case when one wants to determine the bodily counterparts of feeling and willing. With regard to this, one must first find the right path within the results of present-day physiology. Once one has found this path, one discovers that, just as imagination is related to nervous activity, so feeling must be connected to the life rhythm that has its center in breathing activity and is related to it.  …

And with regard to willing, one finds that this, in a similar way, is based on metabolic processes. Here, once again, one must take into account everything concerning the branches and extensions of metabolic processes in breathing and nervous activity.

So, what is Rudolf Steiner saying here? Imagination and thinking are indeed related to the nerve-sense system. But feeling, which in today’s science is still seen in connection with the nervous system, should not be connected to the nervous system but rather to the rhythm of breathing. And he then also gives an example: when one, for example, listens to music and experiences feelings, then the breathing participates to some extent and changes. So, breathing is connected to feeling.

And if one pays attention to this, then one can actually confirm it outwardly, for example, by noticing that when one is afraid, one breathes much faster. And when one is calm, the breathing also becomes very calm. So there are also outward ways to confirm what Rudolf Steiner presents here.

It is, of course, much more difficult to confirm that willing is based on metabolic processes. That is not so easy to grasp inwardly or outwardly if one does not have the behelding consciousness. But we do get a wonderful picture when we visualize the human form and imagine the sensory-nervous system with its extensions, and then we know: this is the bodily part that is connected with imagination, perception, and thinking.

And then we consider the chest. Here Rudolf Steiner speaks about breathing, but of course, there is also the heart. And everyone knows that the heart is connected to feeling in a different way than breathing is.

So the middle, our chest, is the bodily part that is connected to feeling. And when we then descend to the abdomen and also include the limbs, then we have the bodily part on which willing is based. The body thus has a threefold structure that fully corresponds to the threefold structure of the soul, whereby Rudolf Steiner always emphasizes that one should not separate these things in a black-and-white manner, because, of course, metabolic processes are also active up to the nervous system. Metabolic processes also extend into breathing, nerve processes extend into breathing and metabolism, and breathing is, of course, active throughout the whole body.

So this works in a wonderfully harmonious way. When one is healthy, it interweaves, it plays into each other, like a symphony, I think. And in this way, we can now imagine the human being as threefold: body, soul, spirit – sense-nervous system and breathing, heart and metabolism, limbs.

And this threefold structure can be traced back even further when we deepen our understanding that the soul itself is a threefold entity, as I said: thinking, feeling, and willing. And we can try to get to know this threefoldness of the soul as three separate spiritual-soul realms, which we might explore further next time.