Anthroposophical view of the human being
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The anthroposophical view of the human being includes:
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[edit] Threefold view
Steiner often described the human being as consisting of an eternal spirit, an evolving soul and a temporal body, giving a detailed analysis of each of these three realms:
Spirit: though anthroposophical teachings describe the human spirit as eternal, it is becoming progressively more individualized and consciously experienced. Steiner believed that the human being passes between stages of existence, incarnating into an earthly body, living a life, leaving the body behind and entering into the spiritual worlds before returning to be born again into a new life on earth. In earthly life, the individuality or ego awakens to self-consciousness through its experience of its reflection in the deeds and suffering of a physical body.
Soul: We also have a framework of consciousness that includes our set feelings, concepts and intentions. As each human soul evolves through its experiences, the earth itself and civilization as a whole also evolve; thus, new types of experience are available at each successive incarnation.
Body: Steiner uses the term body to describe the aspects of human existence that endure for a single lifetime. The physical body is the most obvious of these. Permeating our physical existence are forces of life, growth and metamorphosis that maintain and develop the physical body; as it is an aspect of a lifetime that falls away after death, Steiner called this the life or etheric body. Steiner called that which receives sensory impressions the body of consciousness or sentient body.
A fourfold articulation of the human body often applied to contexts such as medicine and education includes:[1][2]
- the physical body as physical-material structure, held in common with the mineral world;
- the life or etheric body, the source of life and growth, held in common with the plant world;
- the consciousness or astral body, held in common with the animal world;
- the ego or "I" of the human being, the faculty of self-awareness unique to humanity
[edit] Physical body
The physical body is the carrier of the human form, from which all animal forms may be considered to be one-sided derivations.[3] Steiner emphasized three primary functional areas, each supporting a particular psychological activity:[4]
- the nerve/sense system, primarily centered in the nervous system, supporting thinking and perception
- the rhythmic system, including the breathing and the circulatory system, supporting feeling
- the digestive system, including the organs below the diaphragm, supporting willing
In his mature work, Steiner identified twelve senses: balance, or equilibrioception; movement, or proprioception; pain/well-being, or nociception, also called life sense; touch, or tactition; taste, or gustation; smell, or olfaction; warmth, or thermoception; sight, or vision; hearing, or audition; word / speech; thought / concept; ego / self.[4]
[edit] Life or etheric body
All that lives has, in addition to a physical body, a permeating life organization. Steiner cites as proof of this the physical identity of a dead and living organism; what is lacking in the former is the element of life itself.[4]
[edit] Organization of consciousness, or astral body
Animal life adds an element of sentience to the living world of plants. Steiner points to sleep life, when the physical body and life organization are identical with waking life, yet sentience is withdrawn, as proof that sentience is not purely a function of the physical and life bodies. Our concepts (and prejudices), emotions and will (and willfulness) reside here; these are relatively fixed, in contrast with our more fluid and active soul life.[5]
[edit] Ego
Human existence includes an element distinct from animal consciousness, the ego. This supports self-awareness and self-reflection; Steiner points to the lack of a true biography, more particularly of autobiography in animal existence as an indication that the ego is particular to humans. The capacity for self-direction and full responsibility are connected to the ego, which anthroposophical researchers describe as only becoming independent around twenty-one years after conception.[6]
[edit] Sevenfold view
In his sevenfold view, the human being is composed of physical-body, life-body, sentient-soul-body, intellectual-soul, spirit-consciousness-soul, life-spirit, and spirit-man.[1]
- the physical body,
- the life body, life processes,
- the sentient-soul body, interprets sensory information,
- the intellectual soul, reason and perception,
- the spirit-consciousness-soul, intuition and self,
- the life-spirit, home for the spirit-man,
- the spirit-man, the individual spirit separate from the spirit-world.
[edit] Humanity and earthly evolution
Anthroposophy suggests that, in a spiritual form, human beings have inhabited earth since its creation. This spiritual form then evolved through a number of stages (the higher animals ultimately deriving from this) before the first physically incarnate humans appeared on earth.
In addition, the earth itself is described as evolving from earlier planetary stages.[7]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Rudolf Steiner, Theosophy
- ^ Steiner, Extending Practical Medicine - Fundamental Principles based on the Science of the Spirit, ISBN 1-85584-080-4
- ^ Verhulst, Jos, Developmental Dynamics in Humans and Other Primates, ISBN 0-932776-29-9
- ^ a b c Rudolf Steiner The Riddle of Humanity
- ^ Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy (A Fragment) - New Foundation for the Study of Human Nature, ISBN 0-88010-401-5
- ^ Bernard Lievegoed, Phases: The Spiritual Rhythms of Adult Life, ISBN 1855840561
- ^ Rudolf Steiner, Outline of Occult Science
