5. The Systems of Supersensible Forces

It should not be difficult for anyone to believe that forces not visible to the senses can traverse space. We would not get very far, in our day, without the constant application of the invisible forces of electricity and magnetism. They immediately illustrate the point of the reality of invisible forces. Otherwise, one should not for a moment put them in the same category with the creative forces Steiner speaks of in this cycle. Electricity and magnetism are not supersensible forces but are rather subsensible. Electricity, for instance, is the manifestation of the activity of Lucifer (the Devil) while magnetism reflects Ahriman (Satan) (see I-22). That these forces are helpful to us in daily life is not disputed, but so are our arms and legs, which materialized as a result of the Fall of the human being.

A more apt example is fire. The fire that is hot to our touch is the only one of the four elements that comes in contact with the etheric world (force), but in doing so it represents the descending, i.e., materializing, aspect of the duality. Fire was one of humanity's wonderfully helpful discoveries, but it is helpful because it destroys. As one descends further into the subsensible world and comes to electricity, which humanity did not discover until much later, its dual beneficial and malignant aspects become more pronounced. And the same is true of magnetism, which might be seen as the stronger creator of electricity, as in the electromagnetic motor. The modern "observation" of the so-called "black hole" in the universe gives one some concept of the terrifying destructibility of this Satanic principle if it is not indeed "Asuric."²⁹ Today's wonderful magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines nevertheless tend to accomplish Ahrimanically what the human spiritual ear will one day be able to perceive as "the music of the spheres" (Is 6,9-13). Steiner was able to penetrate to this level and beyond to bring back to humanity his gifts of insight such as those in this cycle. Let us, then, use electricity and magnetism only as illustrating the power of the invisible, but attempt to conceive of their supersensible counterparts from the higher etheric and astral worlds, remembering that while there are different levels of etheric force, as I-22 shows, so also are there different levels in the astral force.

In the first paragraph under Lect. 4 above, we discussed the creative triangle of form, force and matter. Steiner points out that the relation between a supersensible system of forces of this sort (e.g., the spleen) and what we see as a physical-sensible organ is such that physical matter, belonging to the physical world fits itself in and, attracted by the force centers, deposits itself within the lines of force. Through the inclusion of physical matter in the supersensible system of forces the organ becomes a physical thing. We may say, therefore, that the reason why, for instance, a physical-sensible organ is visible at the place where the spleen is located is that, at this point, space is filled in a certain definite manner by systems of forces that attract the material substance in such a way that it deposits itself in the form in which we see it in the external organ of the spleen when we study it anatomically.³⁰

We should think of the entire human organism as being first planned as supersensible organs, and then, through the most varied sorts of supersensible systems of forces, as being filled with physical matter. The human body is a supersensible organism highly differentiated within itself. We then see not only the assembly of matter in highly varied organ systems, but in regard to the preparation of nutritive substances how each such organism attracts to itself what it needs in the most comprehensive system of nutrition whereby the nutritive substances are absorbed in the greatest variety of ways.

Each of the human being's three bodies is thus supersensibly active as a system of forces in first developing and then filling with matter its form so that it becomes sensibly perceptible as we know it. The physical body is directly associated with the assembly of matter. Next to it is the etheric and above that the astral. But it doesn't stop there, for once the three bodies are fully and adequately prepared, the highest of the four forces enters, namely, the Ego forces.

The evolutionary allegiance of any given organ to these different formative forces varies. There are certain organs we have to recognize as being determined principally through the system of forces of the etheric body. Others are determined through the currents or forces coming from the astral body, while others again are to a greater degree determined through the currents of the Ego.

As a result of all that has thus far been presented, one may say that especially that system of organs conveying our blood is essentially dependent upon the radiations going forth from our Ego, and that the human blood, therefore, is connected essentially with the currents and radiations of the human Ego. The other organ systems, with what they contain, are determined in the greatest variety of ways by the supersensible members of the human being's nature.

While all the higher forces work upon the lower ones in regard to virtually every component of the physical body, the process also works in reverse. In other words, the physical organism with its physical system of forces works back upon the etheric, astral and Ego systems. Thus, some of our organic systems are specially requisitioned by the physical system of forces, in which cases it is the physical system of forces that prevails. These are more especially the organ systems that serve in a very comprehensive sense as organs of secretion and excretion. Secretion and excretion are processes that have their essential significance purely in the physical world. When this type of organ is diseased or is removed, the organism can no longer continue its normal development or function, as it can when the spleen, for instance, is removed. By way of example, in contrast to the spleen, the thyroid gland performs a physical function absolutely essential to the general economy of the human organism, so its removal (or affliction by disease) may have a very injurious physical effect.

Other organs, such as the liver and kidneys are highly dependent upon the higher supersensible forces, but are nonetheless closely bound to the physical organism and are induced through its forces to secrete physical matter. It is thus of far greater importance for them to be in a healthy condition as physical organs than, for example, the spleen, which is a very spiritual organ in which the physical part is its least significant part.

Having arrived at the concept of the complete human organ, we must now address the question of the full significance of the excretory process in the human being. Immediately after posing this, Steiner insists that without such concepts it will be impossible for us to get any further with our study of the human organism.

To arrive at an answer we must first consider another concept, namely, the becoming aware of our Self. Steiner illustrates this by the example of walking through a room and stumbling against some external object. The impact becomes an inner occurrence through the consciousness of pain—a process (the feeling of pain) that occurs entirely within yourself. The inner process is called forth by the fact that you come into contact with a foreign object which constitutes a hindrance. It is the becoming aware of this hindrance that calls forth the inner process that, in the moment of collision, makes itself known as pain. The inner experience is the effect of the outer object.

Steiner couldn't speak meaningfully of automobiles in 1911. But let us also picture ourselves sitting in a car on a calm and balmy day, windless and seventy degrees Fahrenheit. If we stick our hand out the window, we hardly gain any sensual consciousness that our hand is in any way distinct or differentiated from the ocean of atmosphere surrounding it. If we then commence to drive at a high rate of speed and again stick our hand out the window, we immediately become conscious of it by reason of the hindrance of the air, all the more so to the extent that the temperature varies from its prior comfort zone.

From this you can see that we become aware of our inner being in the sensing of resistance. This is the concept we must have—of becoming aware of the consciousness of inner life, being filled with real inner experiences, through the sensing of a resistance. We can then make the transition to another concept—that of the excretions in the human organism. Let us suppose that the human organism takes into itself in some way or other, into one of its organ systems, a certain kind of physical substance, and that this organ system is so regulated that through its own activity it eliminates something from the substance taken in, separates it from the substance as a whole, so that through the activity of this organ system the original complete substance falls apart into a finer, filtered portion and a coarser portion, which is excreted. Thus a differentiating of the substance taken in begins, into a substance that is further useful, which can be received by other organs, and another that is first separated and then excreted. The unusable portions of the physical substance are thrust away in contrast with the usable portions, and we have a collision like that of one's running into some outer object.