Rudolf Steiner Audio CW 205 The Human Being as Body and Soul: Lecture 3 (Dornach, 24 June 1921) by Rudolf Steiner
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Jan 1, 2026 A lively tour of humans as spirit, soul and body and how those layers relate to Earthly and cosmic laws. Discussion of gravity, brain buoyancy, and how physical bodies follow terrestrial physics. Exploration of cosmic influences on plants, weather and inner rhythms like breathing and heartbeat. A challenge to materialist science and a call to recover elemental, non-spatial ways of understanding living processes.
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Threefold Orientation Of Human Being
- Human nature is threefold: spirit, soul, and body each relate differently to the world.
- Steiner contrasts spiritual independence, soul rhythmic embedding, and bodily physical incorporation with gravity and place.
Dreams Reveal Soul Body Rhythm Link
- A dream example links soul states to bodily rhythms when awakening reveals breathing irregularities.
- Steiner uses this to show soul life is woven into cosmic and bodily rhythms rather than fully independent.
Brain Floats To Resist Gravity
- The brain's effective weight is reduced by flotation in cerebral fluid, so a heavy organ behaves as if it 'weighs' far less.
- Steiner uses the Archimedean principle to argue the brain reaches upward and resists gravity, symbolizing spiritual orientation.