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Man
Spirit – Soul – Body
Man… is capable of asking questions about his existence. Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and questioned whether the person you see is actually you?
We speak of “our” body, “our” brain, “our” intellect and “our” soul. Does this not indicate that consciousness exists separately from the body?
This may seem like an unusual thought at first, but somehow it makes sense to me. I’m not 60 years old, like the man looking back at me in the mirror. I feel like I’m in my mid-30s, full of drive, with plans, goals and dreams. Taking the uphill slopes slower than I used to is not my own fault, it’s due to my aging body.
When I look at pictures of my youth, they are familiar to me, but nothing more. They simply represent my younger body.
Conversations with friends revealed that I am not alone in my assessment, as many feel similarly.
Research in scientific literature confirmed this point of view. The separation between intellect and body is called interactionist dualism in the scientific field of “philosophy of intellect”. By definition, what makes it special is that ” … it is in accord with the everyday experience of human beings as they experience themselves as spiritual beings, separate from the physical world.”
There is so much to be said for a world beyond our physical perception, beyond the world of physical measurement.
Thoughts, for example. Neuroscience recognizes thoughts as measurable brain waves. However, these are only the effects that thoughts cause in our brain.
A thought is something you send out that can be received by a dog, for example. Often, they can feel my thoughts, my internal state. Plants also demonstrably react differently whether I think of them lovingly and caringly or with disdain.
A lot of extraordinary inventions can be traced back to intuitions, also known as flashes of inspiration, not to the work of the intellect. That is why many findings of science are based on the support from the unconscious, the beyond.
While my body is asleep, brain activity is turned down, no environmental influences are perceived, then suddenly I begin to dream. Isn’t this experience independent of my body to a certain extent?
Reports of near-death experiences are being increasingly recognized as reputable and point to the existence of a consciousness outside the body from a different angle.
These phenomena all confirm the existence of an otherworldly world, mostly unexplained by science.
Lets go back to the everyday experience of recognizing ourselves as spiritual beings. This raises the question:
What is our spirit?
Spirit is not wit, and not intellect! Nor is spirit acquired knowledge. It is erroneous, therefore, to call a person “rich in spirit” because he has studied, read and observed much and knows how to converse well about it, or because his brilliance expresses itself through original ideas and intellectual wit.
Spirit is something entirely different. It is an independent consistency, coming from the world of its homogeneous species, which is different from the part to which the earth and thus the physical body belong. The spiritual world lies higher, it forms the upper and lightest part of Creation. Owing to its consistency, this spiritual part in man bears within it the task of returning to the Spiritual Realm, as soon as all the material coverings have been severed from it. The urge to do so is set free at a very definite degree of maturity, and then leads the spirit upwards to its homogeneous species, through whose power of attraction it is raised.
Spirit has nothing to do with the earthly intellect, only with the quality which is described as “deep inner feeling”. To be rich in spirit, therefore, is the same as “having deep inner feelings”, but not the same as being highly intellectual.
From the work:
“In the Light of Truth”
Lecture: Once upon a time … !
Many religions recognize the spirit, for example, the ego-consciousness of man, as being created by God and existing eternally. The outer appearance of the spirit depends on the cover it wears. These are necessary so that it can adapt itself to the respective level on which it is at the moment.
Let’s start our considerations with the very outermost cover.
People in cold regions of the world are seen in thick physical covers, such as fur coats.
In normal temperatures, these covers are thinner, just like mine now, for example, in front of the camera.
People are usually least covered in the water.
These covers are necessary to keep our bodies at a fairly constant 36-37 degrees Celsius, among other things. And this brings us to the world of heat rays.
Our body constantly radiates heat, which can be measured even at a great distance.
If a body no longer radiates heat, it is no longer alive.
Is it only our body that radiates something or is it also our inner life?
In order to take a concrete look at this, we now leave the physical measurable and displayable realm.
This is, for example, the level of my thoughts. There, you could see what kind of thoughts I am sending out and the ones I am receiving from others. With this, like I´ve already mentioned, I don’t mean the brain waves that neurologists can measure. Again, this would be something materially measurable. What I am referring to, for example, is the stream of thoughts that hits me when someone thinks very strongly about me.
Now let’s look at the non-material, inner structure of a human being. Let us start from the inside out:
The core and origin of man is the eternal, but at first subconscious spirit. It has left the home in the spiritual sphere, the paradise, with the urge to develop and initially entered the ethereal world, or also called the beyond. In order to live there, it needed a soul cover,adapted to this level. Surroundedby it, the spirit is called soul. This is similar to a person needing a special diving suit for diving at great depths. Therefore, a soul has no independent consciousness, but is an enveloped spirit adapted to the ethereal environment.
Our development also includes periods of stay on earth. For this purpose, the spirit needs, in addition to the soul cover, a cover specially adapted to earth, namely the body. It is provided by our mother at birth. She births a soul in the body of a child.
The external appearance of a spirit with a soul cover and a body on earth could be called earth man. Over time, the intellect is created, which is limited only to this life on earth and is not to be confused with the spirit. The brain together with the intellect are only short-term tools of the spirit.
This describes the rough structure of man. The essence is the spirit, appearing as soul or body, depending on the place of residence. On earth it gains experiences, forms its soul and develops its character.
In death, the spirit, together with its soul cover, leaves the body, which rejoins the earthly cycle. Thus the soul crosses over to where it came from, to the ethereal world or also called the beyond. This shedding of the body is consistently described in accounts of near-death experiences as a liberating detachment of the soul from the body. The return of the soul into the body, on the other hand, is described as a strong confinement. This process can also be compared to a diver freeing himself from a tight diving suit after a long dive.
These processes of “bringing a child into the world at birth and crossing over again at death” are expressed very precisely in general language. Among others, my video: “Birth and Death, Border points of the body” addresses this.
Having been shaped by many important impressions and experiences on earth, the soul continues its development in the ethereal world after death.
Depending on the development, it requires several of these stays on earth. If the spirit is able to ultimately fit into the harmony of creation through noble will, it automatically ascends into the spiritual realm through its purity. By discarding the soul cover, it then returns to its home as an evolved human spirit.
This discarding of the soul cover is also going to be liberating for the spirit, since it has been constricted by its not yet noble qualities. We also experience this kind of liberation on earth, for example, when we can detach ourselves from dark thoughts, fear or worries.
By discarding its soul cover, the cycle of development is completed and the spirit begins the joyful existence of an evolved human spirit.
This is a very rough explanation of the internal structure of man.
With the recognition of this structure and the associated development of a person, our conception of values is going to change. Material goals like money, power, appearance of the body, as well as the so overemphasized intellect will lose importance.
Pursuit of inner purity, love for one’s neighbor and integration into the harmony of creation will come to the foreground. Death will completely lose its fright, because it is nothing more than the discarding of a cover, which at the end of a life is often already compromised by illness anyway.
In a nutshell, the essence of man is his spirit, which, depending on where he is, appears as a soul or as an earthly man.
You too, O man, are always just the same, whether you appear young or old! You remain what you are! Have you not already sensed this yourself? Do you not clearly notice a difference between the form and your “ego”? Between the body that is subject to change and yourself, the spirit, which is eternal?
From the work:
“In the Light of Truth”
Lecture: Awake!
