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in which case, too, it can happen that they fail to

cope with themselves. All kinds of dissatisfactions


arise in their soul. It is important to see this.

Just as the ego has its point of contact in the system


of ganglia, so does the astral body have its point of
contact in all those processes which are linked with
the nervous system of the spinal cord. Naturally, the
nerves run through the whole body, but in the ner-
vous system of the spinal cord we have a second
point of contact. Included in this, of course, are once
again all the processes connected with this spinal
nervous system. I am not speaking of the cerebral
nervous system. I mean the nervous system of the
spinal cord which has to do, for instance, with our
reflex actions and is a regulator for much that goes
on in the human body. In the present context we
must include all the processes regulated by this ner-
vous system. Again we have to see that the astral
body is either bound to everything connected with
this spinal system or that it can become free of it,
through illness or through partial somnolence
brought about by mesmerism or something similar.
The entity which is bound here received its luciferic
attributes, which are mingled a little with ahrimanic

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attributes, as long ago as the time of ancient Moon.
Therefore these are weaker than the luciferic attrib-
utes of the ego, but they are present in the astral
body, too. If you want to turn your soul to a contem-
plation of the process by which this luciferic infec-
tion crept into the astral body, you will have to study
what I said in my book Occult Science; about the
separation of the moon from evolution as a whole.
This infection made its appearance during the time
of ancient Moon. Here you will discover another rea-
son for certain characteristics in the human being,
characteristics of a hypnotic nature - higher hyp-
notic characteristics which are bound, in the main,
to the organs of the chest and which bring in higher
experiences than do the organs of the abdomen. At
the same time you will see that if something is not in
order, so that the astral body cannot be bound as it
should be, something can again come about which is
a psychological illness, a psychological disorder. Just
as the ego can be released, causing signs of madness,
so also can the astral body be released, which again
leads to signs of madness.

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the astral body is released, this leads to volatility of
ideas and lack of cohesive thought, manic states on
the one hand or, on the other, to withdrawal, depres-
sion, hypochondria. Again, these conditions could be
brought about by hypnotic or mesmeric interven-
tion, but in this case the organs are not ill, but have
had their normal physical function suppressed by
the intervention of a hypnotist or mesmerist.

There is much in our human nature which must be


held in check, for in a way we do belong to the devil.
We are at least partially decent human beings solely
because the devils in us are held in check by the di-
vine spiritual forces which have developed in the
proper way through the periods of ancient Saturn,
Sun and Moon. Because of the various temptations,
we do not possess all-that-great an aptitude for de-
cency. A good many bad dispositions and moods of
soul life are the result of meeting with the demon in
us. The appearance of the demonic element comes
about because what is bound can become unbound.

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agree that we owe a great debt of gratitude to the
cosmic order that here, between birth and death, we
possess our physical organism, for without it we
would have no prison for our higher components.
When these higher components are set free, after we
have laid aside our physical body, different condi-
tions come into operation, which we will discuss an-
other time. Suffice it to say that the higher compo-
nents still retain some fetters, even then.

Now, just as the astral body is bound in this way by


the system of the spinal cord and all the processes of
organic life connected with it, so is the etheric body
bound by the cerebral system and everything that
belongs to it. Therefore, the etheric body has its
point of contact by means of the cerebral system.
Similar things could be said here, too. In our head
there is a prison for our etheric body. Madness or
hypnotic conditions come into operation if the body
is not quite well and the etheric body is let loose. Left
to itself, i.e., not enclosed in the prison of the head,
the etheric body has the tendency to reproduce itself,
thus becoming a stranger to itself and spilling over
into the world, carrying its life into other things. This
is a description of the conditions that come about if

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the prison warder releases the etheric body.

So we have three possibilities for psychological ill-


ness, and also three possibilities of escaping from
the physical body. These three possibilities must def-
initely be taken into consideration - but of course in
quite a different way - when a person is to become
free of his physical body through Initiation. What we
have been speaking about is a freeing brought about
by illness, when the organs of the physical body do
not remain healthy and are then incapable of con-
taining the higher components. Somnolence of the
brain would result if brain activity were damped
down. The etheric body would be freed and a somno-
lent condition would take over. But when the brain is
defective, the prison can no longer hold the prisoner
- that is, the etheric body - which then embarks on
its own adventures, endeavoring to live and create
its own disordered, muddled life by opening out into
the world. So you see clearly that psychological ill-
nesses are, in the main, caused by a kind of freeing
from the physical basis to which the various higher
components of man belong during life between birth
and death.

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The etheric body, when it is freed, has mainly ahri-
manic characteristics. Envy, jealousy, avarice and
similar states will be pathologically exaggerated, al-
ways in connection with a kind of spreading into the
environment, a kind of letting oneself go. Try to un-
derstand it like this: the only point of attraction for
the ego is, more or less, the system of ganglia and
whatever is connected with it; the astral body's point
of contact is with the spinal system, but together
with the system of ganglia; and the etheric body is
linked with the cerebral system, but jointly, with
both the spinal system and the system of ganglia. So,
from this point of view, the system of ganglia also
has to do with the brain, for instance, in so far as it
serves all subconscious organic processes. If the sys-
tem of ganglia brings about a process of illness
which runs its course in the brain, then it could be
the etheric body which is freed, even though the root
cause lies in the system of ganglia. You see how very
complicated things are.

Psychiatry today has, as yet, no means of distin-


guishing between these three forms of soul sickness.
Psychiatry will only achieve some degree of perfec-
tion when distinction is made between psychological

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Such things lead us deep into the mystery of the hu-
man being's soul nature. We then also understand
that the ego, or the etheric or the astral body, after
endeavoring to work with the help of their physical
tools, if they then become free, yet are still strong
and imbued with the forms they had within their
physical tools, can more easily unfold certain forces
than was possible for them within the diseased or-
gans. That is why people with periodic illnesses -
for there are cyclic, periodic abnormalities of the
soul - when they once again leave their organism,
often feel that they have capacities which they do not
otherwise possess. This gives them great satisfaction,
and when they then return to their physical body a
certain awareness of what they have experienced re-
mains with them, they can sometimes be very clear
about themselves and what has happened.

During the first half of the nineteenth century a well-


known physician, Willis,3 cured someone suffering
from madness; that is, he brought him to a point at
which he was once more capable of thinking sensibly
about himself. And this person, who was intelligent,
wrote a kind of review of his madness. If you take
into account what I have just said, you will well un-

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deavoured to induce the abnormal state. This cannot
actually be done, of course, but he was glad when it
came, for it brought him voluptuous enjoyment.

This is the main difficulty in the case of psychologi-


cal abnormalities for, subjectively, the patients have
to be led from a happy to an unhappy state of mind,
and so they are truly downcast about it. In their ordi-
nary consciousness this is different, of course, but in
their subconscious they are downcast if they are
cured. Of course they go to the doctor and say they
want to be cured, but subconsciously they do not, in
reality, want to be cured. This is the difficulty. The
freed component or components resist with all their
might being torn away from the bliss they enter
when they are freed. You see how, by looking at
things in this way, we do justice to the material foun-
dation of our physical existence, and yet we do not
become materialists.

Take a person who is stupid to a greater degree than


is apparent in external life. There are such people.
Well, stupidity is only one stage on the way to a cer-
tain abnormality of soul: namely, imbecility. The
cause is possibly that the otherwise bound etheric

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This is where those ideas and feelings are wrought
which bring us into a mutual relationship with our
immortal, our super-personal, part.

Everything we possess only for this life between


birth and death is given to us through the earthly,
solid element in our organism. On other occasions I
have pointed out that there is indeed very little of the
solid element in our make-up, of which ninety-five
per cent consists, in fact, of fluid, of a pillar of fluid.
The human being is a pillar of water containing only
five per cent of solid ingredients. Yet only this solid
element can be the bearer of our ordinary thoughts
in physical life, and only in so far as we are permeat-
ed by the fluid element with its pulsation can we
know about our super-personal part. And this fluid
element with its pulsation is linked with the spinal
system, which for the most part regulates this fluid
element and its pulsation.

How all this is related to certain things I have de-


scribed on other occasions, to the pulsating rise and
fall of fluid between the abdomen and the brain, I
shall discuss tomorrow, for at the moment it would
take us too far from today's theme. Now, because the

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human being bears the fluid element within him he
is linked with his super-personal part. But this fluid
element also establishes his specific personality. If
we had only heads, we would all think the same, feel
the same. But because we also have hearts, the fluid
element, blood and other juices in us, we are specific
in some degree, for through this element the hierar-
chy of the angeloi can have a part in our being. The
hierarchy of the angeloi can intervene in us via the
fluid element.

A third possibility for intervening in our being is giv-


en because even with the normal working together of
the higher components with the system of ganglia, it
is possible for the airy element and everything con-
nected with it to have an effect on us. This happens
in the process of breathing. It is very complicated,
and it varies depending on where we breathe, on
how much oxygen, how much humidity, how much
sun warmth is in the air and so on. It is the hierarchy
of the archangeloi, the archangels, who work on us
via the airy element. And everything that works in us
from the hierarchy of the archangeloi - both those
who have progressed normally and those who are
retarded - works via the system of ganglia. Also this

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is the route by which the folk spirits work, for they
belong to the hierarchy of the archangeloi. The work
done by the folk spirits in the human being takes its
effect through the organs which are connected with
the system of ganglia. This is why nationality is
something so far removed from consciousness,
something that works in such a demonic way. And
for the reasons I have pointed out it is linked so
strongly with everything to do with locality. For the
locality, the local climate, is far more closely con-
nected with the working of the hierarchy of the
archangeloi than one might imagine. Climate is
nothing other than what works on the human being
via the air.

So you see that by discussing the system of ganglia


one is indicating how the impulses of all that belongs
to the folk soul work in man's unconscious. You will
now also understand why, more than one might or-
dinarily think, belonging to a particular nation is
connected with certain characteristics which are
linked to the system of ganglia. More than one might
think, the problem of nationality has to be seen in
relation to the problem of sexuality. Belonging to a
nation has the same organic foundation - the sys-

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tem of ganglia - as the sexual element. Quite exter-
nally you can understand this when you remember
that you belong to a nation by birth, that is, your
body develops inside that of a mother who belongs
to a particular nation. This of itself creates a link. So
you see what subterranean soul foundations connect
the problem of nationality with the problem of sexu-
ality. That is why these two impulses in life manifest
in such related ways. If your eyes are open to life you
will see a tremendous amount of similarity between
the way people behave in an erotic sense and the way
they show their connection to their nationality. I am
not speaking either for or against either of these
things, but the facts are as I have described them.
Arousal of a nationalistic kind, which works particu-
larly strongly in the unconscious if it is not brought
up into ego-consciousness by making it a question of
karma as I described the other day, is very similar to
sexual arousal. It is no good glossing over these
things by making out that the emotional illusions
and longings of national feeling are noble, while sex-
ual feelings are rather less so. For the facts are as I
have described them to you.

From all this you will see that a good amount of

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