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body. The physical heart is based upon an "etheric heart," the physical brain upon an "etheric brain,"
and so forth. The ether body is organized like the physical body, only with greater complexity.
Wherever in the physical body separated parts exist, in the ether body everything is in living,
interweaving motion.
The human being possesses this ether body in common with the plants, just as he possesses the
physical body in common with the mineral element. Everything living has its ether body.
Supersensible observation advances from the ether body to a further member of the human entity. In
order to aid the student in forming a visualization of this member, it points to the phenomenon of
sleep, just as it pointed to the phenomenon of death when it spoke of the ether body. All human
endeavor rests upon activity in the waking state, in so far as the manifest is concerned. This activity,
however, is only possible if man again and again gathers new strength for his exhausted forces from
sleep.
Action and thought disappear in sleep; all suffering, all pleasure are submerged for conscious life. As
though out of hidden, mysterious depths, conscious forces arise out of the unconsciousness of sleep as
man awakens. It is the same consciousness that sinks into shadowy depths when we go to sleep and
arises again when we awaken. The power that awakens life again and again out of a state of
unconsciousness is, according to supersensible cognition, the third member of the human entity, We
may call it the astral body. Just as the physical body is unable to retain its form by means of the
mineral substances and forces contained in it, but only by being interpenetrated by the ether body, so
likewise the forces of the ether body are unable, by themselves, to illuminate this body with the light
of consciousness. An ether body, left entirely to itself, would have to remain in a continuous state of
sleep.
We might also say: it could only maintain a plant-existence within the physical body. An awakened
ether body is illuminated by an astral body. For sense-observation, the activity of the astral body
disappears when man sinks into sleep. For supersensible observation, the astral body still exists, but it
appears to be separated or withdrawn from the ether body. Sense-observation is not concerned with
the astral body itself, but only with its effects within the manifest, and during sleep these effects are
not directly present. In the same sense that man has his physical body in common with the minerals,
his ether body with the plants, he is, in regard to his astral body, of the same nature as the animals.
Plants are in a continuous state of sleep.
A person who does not judge accurately in these things can easily fall into the error of ascribing a
kind of consciousness also to plants that is similar to that of animals and men in their waking state.
That, however, can happen only if he has an unclear idea of the nature of consciousness. It is then
stated that if an external stimulus is applied to the plant it makes certain movements like the animal.
One speaks of the "sensitivity" of some plants that, for example, contract their leaves if certain outer
stimuli act upon them.
Yet it is not the characteristic of consciousness that a being reacts to certain stimuli, but that the being
experiences something in its inner nature that adds something new to the mere reaction. Otherwise,
one could also speak of consciousness when a piece of iron expands under the influence of heat.
Consciousness is present only when, through the effect of heat, the being, for example, inwardly
experiences pain.
The fourth member of his being that supersensible cognition must ascribe to man has nothing in
common with the world of the manifest surrounding him. It is what distinguishes him from his fellow-
creatures and through which he is the crown of creation belonging to him. Supersensible cognition
forms a conception of this additional member of the human entity by calling attention to the essential
difference in the experiences of waking life.
This difference appears at once when man realizes that in the waking state he stands, on the one hand,
always in the midst of experiences that of necessity come and go, and that, on the other hand, he has
experiences in which this is not the case. This becomes especially clear when human and animal
experiences are compared. The animal experiences with great regularity the influences of the outer
world, and under the influence of heat and cold, pain and pleasure, under certain regularly recurring
processes of its body, it becomes conscious of hunger and thirst.
The life of man is not exhausted with such experiences. He can develop passions and desires that
transcend all this. In the case of the animal it would always be possible, were we able to go far
enough, to show where the cause for an action or sensation lies, outside of or within the body. With
man this is by no means the case. He can produce desires and passions for whose origin neither the
cause within nor without his body is sufficient.
We must ascribe a special source to everything that falls within this domain. In the light of
supersensible science this source can be seen in the human ego. The ego can, therefore, be called the
fourth member of the human entity. If the astral body were left to itself, pleasure and pain, feelings
of hunger and thirst would take place in it; but what would not occur Is the feeling that there is
something permanent in all this.
Not the permanent as such is here called the "ego," but what experiences this permanency. We must
formulate the concepts precisely in this realm, if misunderstandings are not to arise. With the
becoming aware of something enduring something permanent in the change of the inner experiences
the dawning of the "ego feeling" begins. The fact that a being feels hunger, for example, cannot give it
an ego feeling. Hunger arises when the renewed causes of it make themselves felt within the being in
question.
It pounces upon its food just because these renewed causes are present. The ego feeling appears when
not only these renewed impulses drive the human being to seek food, but when pleasure has arisen at
a previous appeasement of hunger and the consciousness of this pleasure has remained, thus making
not only the present experience of hunger, but the past experience of pleasure the driving force in the
human being's search for food. Without the presence of the ether body, the physical body would
decay.
Without the illumination by the astral body, the ether body would sink into unconsciousness. In like
manner the astral body would have to let the past sink, again and again, into oblivion, were it not for
the "ego" to carry this past over into the present. What death is for the physical body, and sleep for the
ether body, oblivion is for the astral body. One might also say that life belongs to the ether body,
consciousness to the astral body, and memory to the ego.
It is even easier to fall into the error of ascribing memory to animals than it is to ascribe consciousness
to plants. It is very natural to think of memory when a dog recognizes its master whom he has not
seen perhaps for a long time. Yet, in reality, this recognition does not rest upon memory, but upon
something quite different. The dog feels a certain attraction to its master. This attraction proceeds
from the master's personality.
This personality causes pleasure in the dog when the master is in its presence, and every time the
master's presence reoccurs, it causes a renewal of this pleasure. Memory, however, is only present
when a being not only feels with its experiences in the present, but when it retains also those of the
past. One might acknowledge this and still fall into the error of thinking that the dog has memory. For
it might be said that the dog mourns when its master leaves it, therefore it has retained a memory of
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