What is Spiritual Science?

Spiritual science and what distinguishes it from 'natural science’ (referred to nowadays as 'science’) can be appreciated by observing human nature and the physical body. The forces operative in the physical body are apparent when contemplating the mystery of death. When someone dies the cells in the body revert to the normal state of the mineral kingdom and gradually decay into constituent elements.

This change in cellular function is a sign that hidden life forces are active in our body, and that they are continually overcoming mineral substances subject to the impetus of death. The reason why the forces of death are held at bay during the course of a person’s life is explained by spiritual science. While seership is required to perceive this hidden activity it can be understood in terms of formative forces infused into the organic matter of the physical body. This spiritual ‘form’ known as the etheric body or life body gradually disappears in the days after someone has died. This independent body gives form to and organizes otherwise chaotic physical substances and forces, constituting a ‘double’ that confers life to resist the disintegrating power of death.

Life as an etheric force

The etheric body completely permeates the physical body and functions as the organizer or architect. The etheric body is differentiated into various parts like the physical, but the former is far more complex. The physical organs are nourished and maintained by the life-giving currents and rhythms in the etheric body, with the physical heart mirrored by the etheric heart, the physical brain having an etheric counterpart, and so on. Just as we have the physical body in common with the mineral kingdom, so we have the etheric body in common with plants. The vitalizing nature of the etheric is evident because many species of plant possess healing properties. In Eastern philosophy the etheric forces are known as prana, which denotes energies that vitalize the physical body.

At this juncture spiritual science differs radically from biomedical science that envisages the forces in a living body as essentially the same as those in a corpse, except that the former are far more complex. It is a remarkable fact that currently there is no definition of ‘life’ in biomedicine and biology even though it is the central focus of these disciplines. According to the materialistic paradigm, the etheric forces of life are treated as a property of matter. There is no point in arguing against such a limited concept, but by characterizing the hidden reality accurately those sensitive to the spirit can recognize the truth of the distinction drawn.

Consciousness is not physical

The third aspect of our nature can be appreciated by drawing attention to the phenomenon of sleep. We are active and creative in daily life because every night we fall asleep so that the depleted forces producing fatigue can be reinvigorated. During sleep activities related to thinking, feeling and willing disappear as well as sensations of pleasure and pain. Consciousness is extinguished and on awakening these forces emerge from the unconscious state. Spiritual science explains this in connection with the third aspect of human nature that is known as the astral body, the vehicle of consciousness.

Just as the physical body needs the etheric to maintain life forces, so the etheric body requires the astral body in order to be illuminated with the light of consciousness. Without the astral body the etheric body would remain in a state of sleep comparable to a vegetative state. Those with spiritual perception can observe the astral body departing from the etheric body when sleep occurs, with the extinguishing of consciousness as the observable result.

Again there is a sharp distinction between this spiritual view and the limited perspective of natural science because practitioners are convinced that consciousness is physical, related to neurological processes happening in the brain. Sometimes in a waking dream a person can view the physical body lying in bed from the vantage point of the astral body, known as an out-of-the-body experience. This is evidence that consciousness is not physical.

We share our physical body with the mineral kingdom and the etheric body with the plant kingdom, and similarly we have the astral body in common with animals. Some people think that plants have consciousness because they react to various kinds of stimuli, but this indicates sensitivity rather than consciousness. Consciousness can be defined as the inner experience of pleasure and pain present in an animal that has a more advanced nature than plants.

The uniquely human 'I' and the cosmos

The fourth aspect of a human being is not shared by other kingdoms in the natural world and this sets us apart as the crowning glory of creation. For an animal the natural world and the seasons are experienced with great regularity. Heat and cold give rise to pleasure and pain, while thirst and hunger are rooted in physiological processes. The outward cause of an action or sensation in an animal can always be pinpointed. In contrast we have the capacity to express desires, thoughts and wilfulness with an inner source, evidence of the ‘I’ or spiritual self. This has to do with something permanent related to identity, namely, memory. The inner sense or feeling of selfhood emerges through memory arising from the ever-changing flow of inner experiences, enabling us to draw on a reservoir of personal memories that shape the course of our destiny. The ‘I’ preserves the past and carries it into the present. Many of course would argue that animals have memory when, for instance, a dog recognizes its master. This needs to be viewed differently. The presence of the owner gives pleasure to the dog and this causes it to respond with affection, rather than stemming from memory in the form of a stored mental image.

The seminal role of memory in human identity is disclosed in cases of dementia. When an elderly person has lost their memory they live in the flow of sensual impressions and feelings, but cannot remember what happened ten minutes ago. In such circumstances we feel that a parent or relative has become a mere shell of their former self because memory informs who we are, gives continuity to experience, and enables us to pursue a conscious life path.

Spiritual science lifts the veil and discloses higher worlds as causal realms that generate

the natural world that we perceive through the senses.

Teachings around the globe infused by the truth of myth convey a web of meanings that connect the cosmos with human nature. This is evident in the Bible in the remarkable statement that ‘Elohim/god created Adam in his own image (Gen. 1:27). The Hebrew word 'bara’ ‘created’ signifies the act of conceiving a new thought and tselem ‘image’ denotes a mental picture. The human being is represented as an archetypal idea brought to life by a cosmic being. Another instance of this world-human nexus is attested in Hermeticism born from the union of the Egyptian mysteries with Greek philosophy. The Hermetic axiom states that ‘As it is above, so it is below.’

We have seen that human beings have a physical body, an etheric double, an astral body of consciousness, and an ‘I’ that confers a sense of identity through memory. Given the macrocosm-microcosm equivalence, then, the physical world like the human body is informed by the three higher spheres of the etheric, astral and mental worlds. This metaphysic lies at the heart of spiritual science which I also call ‘theological science.’ The maps of the human being and the world can be correlated in a table.

The next post discusses the beginnings of spiritual science in the work of Aristotle (384-322 BCE), how it differs from natural science invented by Galileo (1564-1642), and the need to return to a holistic science that accommodates metaphysical knowledge.

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