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their will. They consciously directed the other men. They received their mission from the world of
spirits and acted accordingly.
When the time came in which the sexes separated, these beings considered it their task to act upon the
new life in accordance with their mission. The regulation of sexual life emanated from them.
Everything which relates to the reproduction of mankind originated with them. In this they acted quite
consciously, but the other men could only feel this influence as an instinct implanted in them. Sexual
love was implanted in man by immediate transference of thought. At first all its manifestations were
of the noblest character. Everything in this area which has taken on an ugly character comes from later
times, when men became more independent and when they corrupted an originally pure impulse. In
these older times there was no satisfaction of the sexual impulse for its own sake. Then, everything
was a sacrificial service for the continuation of human existence. Reproduction was regarded as a
sacred matter, as a service which man owes to the world. Sacrificial priests were the directors and
regulators in this field.
Of a different kind were the influences of the half superhuman beings (cf. page 96/97). The latter were
not developed to the point of being able to receive the revelations of the spiritual world in an entirely
pure form. Along with these impressions of the spiritual world, the effects of the sensible earth also
arose among the images of their souls. The truly superhuman beings received no impressions of joy
and pain through the external world. They were wholly given over to the revelations of the spiritual
powers.
Wisdom flowed to them as light does to sensory beings; their will was directed toward nothing but
acting in accordance with this wisdom. In this acting lay their highest joy. Wisdom, will, and activity
constituted their nature. This was different among the half superhuman entities. They felt the impulse
to receive impressions from the outside, and with the satisfaction of this impulse they connected joy,
with its frustration, displeasure. Through this they differed from the superhuman entities. To these
entities, external impressions were nothing but confirmations of spiritual revelations They could look
out into the world without receiving anything more than a reflection of what they had already received
from the spirit. The half-superhuman beings learned something new, and therefore they could become
leaders of men when in human souls mere images changed into likenesses and conceptions of external
objects.
This happened when a portion of the previous reproductive energy of man turned inward, at the time
when entities with brains were developed. With the brain man also received the capacity to transform
external sensory impressions into conceptions.
It must therefore be said that by half-superhuman beings man was brought to the point of directing his
inner nature toward the sensuous external world. He was not permitted to open the images of his soul
directly to pure spiritual influences. The capacity of perpetuating the existence of his kind was
implanted in him as an instinctive impulse by superhuman beings. Spiritually, he would at first have
had to continue a sort of dream existence if the half-superhuman beings had not intervened.
Through their influence the images of his soul were directed toward the sensuous, external world. He
became a being which was conscious of itself in the world of the senses. Thereby it came about that
man could consciously direct his actions in accordance with his perceptions of the world of the senses.
Before this he had acted from a kind of instinct. He had been under the spell of his external
environment and of the powers of higher individualities, which acted on him. Now he began to follow
the impulses and enticements of his conceptions. Therewith free choice became possible for man. This
was the beginning of "good and evil."
Before we continue in this direction, something will be said concerning the environment of man on
earth. In addition to man there existed animals, which, for their kind, were at the same stage of
development as he. According to current ideas one would include them among the reptiles. Apart
from them, lower forms of animal life existed. Between man and the animals there was an essential
difference. Because of his still malleable body, man could live only in those regions of the earth
which had not yet passed over into the most solid material form. And in these regions animal
organisms which had a similarly plastic body lived with him. But in other regions lived animals which
already had dense bodies and also had developed separate sexedness and the senses.
Where they had come from, will be explained later. These animals could not develop further because
their bodies had taken on this denser materiality too soon. Some species of these became extinct,
others have perpetuated their kind to the point of contemporary forms. Man could attain higher forms
because he remained in the regions which corresponded to his state at that time. Thereby his body
remained so pliant and soft that he could develop the organs which were to be fructified by the spirit.
With this development his external body had reached the point where it could pass over into denser
materiality and become a protective envelope for the more delicate spiritual organs.
Not all human bodies, however, had reached this point. There were few advanced ones. These were
first animated by spirit. Others were not animated. If the spirit had penetrated into them it could have
developed only in a defective manner because of the as yet incomplete inner organs. Therefore, at first
these human beings were compelled to develop further without spirit. A third kind had reached the
point where weak spiritual impulses could act in them. They stood between the two other kinds. Their
mental activity remained dull.
They had to be led by higher spiritual powers. All possible transitions existed between these three
kinds. Further development was now possible only in that a portion of the human beings attained
higher forms at the expense of the others. First, the completely mindless ones had to be abandoned. A
mingling with them for the purpose of reproduction would have pulled the more highly developed
down to their level. Everything which had been given a mind was therefore separated from them.
Thereby the latter descended more and more to the level of animalism. Thus, alongside man there
developed manlike animals. Man left a portion of his brothers behind on his road in order that he
himself might ascend higher. This process had by no means come to an end.
Among the men with a dull mental life those who stood somewhat higher could advance only if they
were raised to an association with higher ones, and separated themselves from those less endowed
with spirit. Only thus could they develop bodies which would be fit to receive the full human spirit.
After a certain time the physical development had come to a kind of stopping-point, in that everything
which lay above a certain boundary remained human. Meanwhile, the conditions of life on earth had
changed in such a way that a further thrusting down would no longer produce animal-like creatures,
but such as were no longer capable of living. That which had been thrust down into the animal world
has either become extinct or survives in the different higher animals.
Therefore, one must consider these animals as beings which had to stop at an earlier stage of human
development. They have not retained the form which they had at the time of their separation,
however, but have gone from a higher to a lower level. Thus the apes are men of a past epoch who [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]