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.When once we understand how to make the transition from what underlies the illness to what ought to be done, we shall find our way, in any particular case, to the right measures.But it is essential first of all to know what underlies the illness, to know how it has come about.Modern psychiatry cannot help us here, for the reason that the men of our time have no notion that there is such a thing as a real ego organisation or a real astral body.The existence even of the etheric body is still widely denied — although science is in fact pressing forward today from the physical to recognition and knowledge of the organic and etheric.I will not stress names but when some people advance theories like those of Driesch [Hans Driesch, 1869 - 1914, Zoologist and Philosopher — Neovitalist.] they show that they have no knowledge of the ether body because they are afraid of it.But the very thing that is of first importance for us to know, when we set out to understand these illnesses, simply cannot be known, if we know nothing of the astral body and of the ego organisation.For we have to proceed with our investigation in the following way.Take, first, the connection between physical body and etheric body.This connection is maintained throughout life, from conception, from the embryonic state, right until death; for it continues also through all the periods of sleep.On the other hand, the connection of these two with astral body and ego organisation is broken every time we fall asleep.Now it is essential for us to have a correct picture of how it is with ego organisation and astral body in the waking state, when they are within the physical and etheric bodies.An accurate perception of the particular way in which astral body and ego are membered into the physical and etheric bodies is indispensable if we are to be able to think intelligently about those who are suffering from so-called mental disease.It is commonly believed even among Anthroposophists — not that Anthroposophy, which is very precise in its statements, gives occasion for such a belief, but because it is so easy to cling to old and accustomed habits of thought — it is, I say, commonly believed that when the human being wakes up, his astral body and ego organisation go straight over into his physical body and etheric body, combining with them in very much the same way as hydrogen and oxygen combine in water.It is not like that.Seen clairvoyantly, it is like this [A drawing was made.] If we have here the physical body, and here the etheric body, then, at the time of awaking, the astral body does certainly come in, the ego organisation also comes in; yes, they come in, and one can perceive how astral body and ego organisation, entering in, proceed to lay hold of the physical and the ether body.But this is not all.For here we meet with a fact of human life that is of great importance.Take first the ego organisation.When, at the moment of awaking, the ego organisation returns, it does not lay hold merely of the etheric body and physical body; within these, it lays hold of the external world, of the forces of the external world.What does this mean? Imagine we have here the force of gravity.It works in this direction.When we are awake, we stand up in the direction of the force of gravity.[An arrow pointing upward was drawn.] Picture to yourself gravity simply as a force working in this direction — the direction of the forces of weight.Now there are two ways of looking at the matter.Let us be quite clear about these two ways.The first is as follows.The ego, we could say, lays hold of the physical body (for the moment, we will leave the etheric body out of the picture), and the physical body adapts itself to gravity.We place ourselves, do we not, into the forces of gravity when we walk; we have to find our equilibrium, and so on.This is one possible way of looking at what happens: on awaking we lay hold of the physical body with our ego, and the physical body being heavy, being subject to the gravity of the earth, we are now subject with our physical body to the gravity of the earth, we are connected — indirectly, through the physical body — with the physical force of gravity.Seen from this point of view, it is something like what happens when I take up a book: the weight of the book connects me indirectly with the force of gravity.That, then, is one possible picture of the situation.It is however false, it is incorrect.Let us now consider the other.Here we have to see what takes place, in the following way.The ego slips into the physical body, lays hold of the physical body — slips in so far that it makes the physical body light.Through the ego's gliding into it, the physical body loses its weight.And so when I, as an awake human being, stand upright, then for my consciousness — for my ego, for my ego organisation which has also its physical expression in the warmth organism — gravity is overcome.There is no question here of the ego entering into indirect connection with gravity.The ego, the I, enters into direct connection, places itself as ego right into gravity, shutting the physical body completely out of the process.And that is how the matter really stands.When you walk, you place yourself, with your ego organisation, right into the actual gravity of the earth; and you do not do this via the physical body, you yourself enter into direct connection with the earthly.It is the same with the etheric body.The etheric body too is inserted into forces.Take one of these forces.I have often drawn attention to the fact that we human beings, as we go about on the earth, are subject to a strong force of buoyancy.We have a brain which weighs, on the average, 1,500 grammes.If the whole weight of the brain were to press on its base, the delicate blood vessels of the latter would be crushed at once.The brain does not do this, but swims in the cerebral fluid and becomes thereby subject to a force of buoyancy.It loses as much of its weight as the weight of the fluid displaced.The fluid displaced weighs about 20 grammes less than the brain itself; therefore, the brain presses on its base with a weight only of 20 grammes.So we have a heavy brain that is however not borne down with its weight, but has buoyancy.In this buoyancy we live.Our ether body lives in the buoyancy.But when we with our ego organisation slip into our ether body, then our ego is within the buoyancy, not merely indirectly, but directly.We are in the buoyancy with our ego.Our human organisation stands, in fact, in connection with all the forces of the earth, with the whole physical world, and not indirectly, but directly.Let us follow this out in more detail.Our ego organisation is connected, firstly, with gravity — that is, with the element of “earth”.For there is no such thing as what the physicists call matter [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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