The relationship between science and spirituality

How can science and spirituality relate to each other?

A short essay by the author on the relationship between science and spirituality

Having been interested in both fields for some time, I was intrigued by a certain curiosity to pose the following question to the recent emerged “artificial intelligence” (AI):

“What is the relationship between science and spirituality?”

I received the following answer from the AI in four aspects:

The relationship between science and spirituality is an exciting and often debated topic. Both have different methods and goals, but they do not necessarily have to contradict each other - they can even complement each other.

The relationship between science and spirituality

1) Differences between science and spirituality according to method, goal, foundations and change:

  • Method: Empirical, based on observation, experiments and evidence - Subjective, experience-based, often introspective.
  • Goal: Explanation of the physical world through natural laws - Knowledge of the self, consciousness and higher reality.
  • Basis: Reason, logic, measurability - Intuition, faith, personal experience
  • Change: Progress through new discoveries and corrections - Personal transformation and expansion of consciousness.

2) Contrasts and conflicts:

  • Materialism vs. Transcendence: Science often looks at the world materialistically, while spirituality seeks a higher, often non-material reality.
  • Proof vs. Faith: Science requires evidence and repeatability, while spirituality is often based on individual experiences that are not always measurable.

3) Common intersections:

  • Consciousness: Neuroscience explores consciousness, similar to how spiritual traditions have been reflecting on meditation and self-awareness for thousands of years.
  • Quantum physics and mysticism: Concepts such as non-locality or consciousness as a fundamental reality find parallels in spiritual teachings.
  • Holistic worldview: While science is often analytical, holistic approaches to science (e.g., systems theory) see similarities with spiritual ideas of unity.

4) Can science and spirituality work together?

Yes, if they respect each other:

  • Science can enrich spirituality by questioning superstition and providing empirical insights into meditation, consciousness, and healing methods.
  • Spirituality can complement science by raising ethical questions and creating awareness of the deeper meaning of life.

🔹 Conclusion: Science and spirituality are not opposites, but two paths to knowledge – one external, one internal. Their interaction could lead to a deeper truth about the universe and our existence.

 

This inspired me to think about the points raised by the AI, to supplement them or even to contradict them, as the following explanations are intended to show without claiming to be exhaustive. Because many questions arose.

First of all: I fully agree with the conclusion that science and spirituality are not opposites and that their interaction could lead to a "deeper truth about the universe and our existence". Strictly speaking, the consideration of both areas also depends on what is understood by spirituality. Are they traditional tenets of traditional religious systems? Or about personal, often subjective experiences or beliefs? Or is it something numinous, something "shapelessly divine" that cannot be explained further?
In the following intellectual discussion, I essentially refer to the descriptions of the two spiritual researchers Heinz Grill and Rudolf Steiner. This means that I also understand spirituality "scientifically". What exactly this means will perhaps be evident from the following remarks.
However, the reader is free to bring in the views of different religious or philosophical systems or so-called "esoteric" ideas in a later discussion.

1) On differences between science and spirituality. Does the difference between the two really consist in the relationship between objectivity and subjectivity?

Science: empirical, objective as opposed to subjective - what does that mean? How far does the ability to experience bound to certain senses extend into reality? And is spirituality not based on any laws and logic?

Empirical in the usual scientific sense means that one makes observations through the bodily senses and through devices that may strengthen or expand them, and interprets the observations according to different theories. The theories themselves, as any ordinary scientist will admit, stem from brain-bound thinking.
But who says or guarantees that gross material sensory perception, even if it is expanded by technical devices and thinking bound to the brain, sufficiently grasps all the processes that exist in the world? Even in ordinary science it is known that man has no sense organs for certain radiations or even for the direct perception of electricity. He can only make these accessible via measuring devices or secondary phenomena. And only by interpreting what these measuring instruments indicate or what the phenomena point to with corresponding theories, which in turn are dependent on thinking bound to the brain, whereby the construction of measuring instruments already presupposes certain experiences, theories and ideas retroactively.

  Electrical discharge at the spherical electrode of a Tesla transformer. Only through secondary phenomena such as light and heat can electricity become sensually visible to man, in its immediate essence it is not perceptible to him. (Image: Author)

 

If we replace the term "spirituality" with "spiritual science," we can say that this is also empirical, for it does not make use of the sense organs in the ordinary, but it makes use of developed organs in the soul organism and makes perceptions about these organs that concern the life of the soul. Accordingly, it is in the same situation as ordinary science, which must also create terms for its perceptions and grasp the laws existing between the contents of these terms1. In this sense of principle, the so-called ordinary science and spiritual science do not differ from each other at all in the extended sense of spirituality.

1) Compare Rudolf Steiner, Book "Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?", Eighth Edition 1918, TB 600, ISBN: 3-7274-0100-1 ("How to Gain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?").

  Partial view of a particle accelerator with the Schrödinger equation of the hydrogen atom superimposed. How many people are there who really understand both the technology and the processes within such a plant? And how many are there who penetrate the mathematical and physical content of such a formula? (Image: Pixabay)

 

Nor can the distinction often made from ordinary science, that perceptions in the soul realm are accessible to only a few people, be accepted as a difference. After all, how many people are there who would really be familiar with, for example, the observations and theoretical interpretations of quantum theory or the theory of relativity or even more advanced theories2? So here, too, the conditions are currently the same for both areas.

2) Compare, for example, Florian Scheck, "Theoretische Physik", in five volumes, Springer Verlag ("Theoretical Physics").

What has helped ordinary science to its triumphal march in culture in recent centuries is its implementation in technology, i.e. in the mastery of the outer earthly world, but not necessarily in the mastery of the soul world. Many people who use technology are also often unaware of the procedures and processes in technology.

  Train station with ICE train. Both the construction of the train and the railway facilities, including the power supply, represent a masterpiece of engineering and material processing that is often not known in everyday life. (Image: Pixabay)

 

In conclusion, it must be said that both forms or forms of knowledge are in any case subjective and objective. Both could be considered subjective because they are bound to a certain kind of observation and a certain way of thinking, they are objective in the sense that they have an inner law and logic. So here, too, there is actually no fundamental difference.

Now I refer to the distinction made by AI between the two areas: explanation of the physical world by natural laws - knowledge of the self, consciousness and higher reality.

Here, on the side of spirituality, one can add directly analogously: explanation of the spiritual world by spiritual laws.

And what is missing in the contribution of AI on the side of spirituality is that spirituality in the sense of a spiritual science also knows a logic (see above) according to which (spiritual) things are connected. But this is probably a consequence of the fact that AI did not assume the existence of general spiritual laws comparable to the laws of science.

In my opinion, the last paragraph in the chapter "Difference Science - Spirituality" completely overlooks the fact that the so-called progress, which is attributed to natural science, has its origin in man himself. And thus in the mental capacity of the human being. Of course, one will perhaps again counter from some quarters that the mental capacity of man is only an exhalation of his brain and thus also scientifically explainable. With this materialistic starting point, external progress would also fall into the realm of natural science as a point of opposition (see also the phenomenon of artificial intelligence).

 

2) On Opposites and Conflicts. Does the opposition between science and spirituality really consist in the controversy of proof - faith?

From a purely historical point of view, both areas formed a unity for a long time in human history. Even in the Middle Ages, for example, it was the Christian monks in Europe who also cultivated science. It was not until the 16th century, i.e. for about 400 years, that the two areas drifted further and further apart.

According to AI, science requires evidence and repeatability, while spirituality is often based on individual experiences that are not always measurable (or verifiable). In my view, there is not such a great contrast here either, as a closer look at the sciences shows.
Strictly speaking, many statements of science that concern the so-called modern world view cannot really be proven or do not exist in their evidence in the way that is always represented to the outside world. Here are some examples:

Let's take modern astrophysics and astronomy: there are many statements here, for example about star size and the interior of the stars or even that planets have been observed around other stars. How do such statements come about? Because no one can go there and verify the accuracy of these statements, just as one checks a statement here on earth where someone claims that there is a cup of coffee on the table and anyone who is nearby can go and look and check whether the statement is correct. Something like this is completely impossible in this area. How do such statements actually come about?

 

An image of an alien planetary system designed by the AI. Many such representations can be found in the media and on the Internet. However, one forgets that these are purely artistic interpretations. Never has a person really seen a foreign star or a planet like this, with every astronomical telescope and in every light range only point-like objects can be seen.

 

If you examine the matter more closely, you will find that even in the most modern and largest observation equipment, nothing else is visible from a fixed star than a point of light. Only once is an array of four optically coupled large telescopes, the Very Large Telescope Interferometer of the ESO (European Southern Observatory), said to have resolved a fixed star into a disk-shaped object with structures.

  An image of the main star Antares in the constellation Scorpio. In astrophysics, Antares is considered a so-called "supergiant" with a 700-fold (!) diameter of the sun. The image is intended to show that structures can also be seen on the luminous, disc-shaped formation. (Image: Very Large Telescope Interferometer, ESO)

 

Otherwise, it has never been possible to really see a fixed star or its "planets" as a flat or physical object with structures, as is the case with the planets of the solar system. Everything that is observed from the fixed star is therefore a point of light whose spectrum can be analyzed and also whose change in brightness can be analyzed.
The statement that the fixed stars are also gaseous, spherical objects, for example in in the way our sun is thought of in the solar system, is based purely on observations that have been made on terrestrial bodies or near-Earth objects, such as glowing, luminous bodies on Earth. These terrestrial observations led, for example, to Planck's law of radiation. Or the evaluations are based on theoretical models, mathematical-physical models. But they are models of the star's interior from an assumed materiality, including modern theories such as the theory of relativity or quantum theory. And even if it were possible to depict further fixed stars as disc-shaped structures with a great deal of technology, this would not change the hypothetical nature of the conclusions.

  An image of the star system TYC-8998-760-1 with "planets" in the constellation Musca (Fly), taken in the infrared. The dots marked with the arrows are said to be so-called "gas giants", with 14 and 6 times the mass of the planet Jupiter. The bright light of the main star was blocked out by technical means. (Image: Very Large Telescope, ESO)

 

Similarly, no man has observed a planet orbiting a fixed star, but only fluctuations in the light curves of certain stars, which are interpreted as a smaller spherical non-luminous body orbiting a larger luminous body and temporarily covering it. Or with the help of very powerful telescopes, one observes other points of light in the vicinity of fixed stars in the infrared range or in visible light and interprets them as planets, although they remain only points of light in the various spectral ranges.

  Another image of a star taken in the infrared. It is the "brown dwarf" 2M1207 (bluish) with its companion 2M1207b (reddish). This is said to be a Jupiter-like planet with 5 times the mass of Jupiter. The flat appearance of the stars is not a real resolution, but a consequence of the light diffraction effects at the edge of the telescope's lens. (Image: Very Large Telescope, ESO)

 

Actually, they are very simple images that were taken with a great deal of technology and were given a lot of interpretation by astrophysicists. It is always assumed that the recorded stellar spectra have their origins in material objects with certain masses and temperatures, whose movements can be described according to the law of gravity, since they are subject to gravity1. You can also put it this way: "An astronomer observes a star and its motion. He analyzes its light as a spectrum and finds that this spectrum resembles the spectrum of a hot glowing material body on Earth. From this he concludes that a star must be a hot, glowing material body that also follows the laws of gravity." The movements of both the stars themselves and their hypothetical planetary companions can only be seen from the analysis of light by shifting spectral lines. According to the theory, these assumed movements are much too slow to be determined by direct observations within a few years. They are therefore pure conclusions or hypotheses for which it has not yet been decided whether they are right or wrong. After all, is it really certain that similar phenomena all over the world must have similar causes? To put it simply, the descriptions made for the above pictures do not come about in any other way.

1) Compare, for example, H. Scheffler, H. Elsässer, "Physik der Sterne und der Sonne", BI Wissenschaftsverlag, ISBN: 978-3411141722 ("Physics of the Stars and the Sun").

This example shows how it is assumed that ideas and laws of nature found purely in the terrestrial realm are valid at "arbitrary distances and for all times" and how one further refers to purely theoretical model-like conclusions without being able to test them directly, as is possible on Earth in experiments or in direct observation. The question is, are the common ideas in science about space and time correct at all, even if they are modified by the theory of relativity and quantum theory?

See also: Rudolf Steiner, "Esoterische Betrachtungen Karmischer Zusammenhänge", GA 236, Fourteenth Lecture, 04.06.1924, pages 237 and following (“Esoteric Reflections on Karmic Connections”).

One can also move from macrophysics to microphysics, to the realm of atoms and elementary particles. The fact that matter or light can be broken down into individual particle-like individual events is based on the following observation: A beam, such as a "light or electron beam", can be attenuated or throttled to such an extent that only individual events can actually be observed in a corresponding counting apparatus, such as a photomultiplier.

  Sketch of a multiplier for registering individual events such as single electrons. The electron is multiplied step by step by acceleration, so that finally a measurable current pulse is generated. (Image: Author)

 

Through these extreme conditions, which are used for observation, such as the conditions in a photomultiplier or even in a particle accelerator, i.e. conditions that do not occur in nature at all, one concludes that the entire matter, indeed the entire world, is built up of an almost infinite number of such individual events, and these individual events are then called photons, Electrons, atoms, protons, neutrons, elementary particles, quarks, muons ... and so on.

But this whole procedure could also be described as follows: Almost everyone knows that you can turn a faucet so far that only a few drops come out of it. She or He also knows that there are raindrops and she or he also knows, if she or he is a medical practitioner, that you can reduce a liquid in an infusion apparatus, for example, to such an extent that individual drops go through the apparatus. If one were to follow the same way of thinking here, then one could say that all water, i.e. all rivers, all lakes and seas are made up of individual droplets, just like matter is made up of atoms et cetera, and then one could even set up mathematical models that describe the flow behavior of a river with the help of these individual droplets and could even come to observable correct statements, for example, how the river as a whole behaves in the flow.

  Drops of water over a water surface. Are they the "elementary events" or "elementary particles" of the medium water? Is it possible to say that all water volumes, i.e. rivers, lakes and seas, are composed of individual water droplets? Does the behavior of a quantity of water emerge from the behavior of individual water droplets? (Image: Pixabay)

 

But there is a catch: there are no droplets in the river, but the river is a continuum, a flowing continuum. There are no more droplets here. This example also shows that mathematical or theoretical models can lead to correct and logically comprehensible statements that can also be verified from observation, but may not correctly reflect the essence of the matter. In this sense, one can certainly assume that matter, for example in a simple object such as a stone or a piece of wood, or even the light in the light beam, forms a continuum that has structure, but is not "built" from atoms or other particles, just as one thinks that a wall is made of bricks.

  Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988), American physicist and Nobel Prize winner in physics in 1965. He was the author of the book "QED - The Strange Theory of Light and Matter". As a top-class scientist, Feynman had the rare ability to present difficult model ideas in a simple and vivid way. He also held the view that the myriad of complex processes in the world can be traced back to the relatively easy to describe interactions of the particles "photon" and "electron"2. It should be noted, however, that particles such as photons and electrons are also only models of reality. (Drawing: B. L.)

 

2) Richard P. Feynman, "QED - Die seltsame Theorie des Lichts und der Materie", 1988, Piper Publishers, ISBN: 349203103X ("QED - The Strange Theory of Light and Matter").

In conclusion, it can be said, to repeat this once again, that many statements from science, which lead to today's common world views, are based purely on assumptions or theoretical models, but of which one often believes that they reflect an absolute truth. Ultimately, this is also a kind of faith.

Conversely, on the part of spirituality, if it is understood in the sense of a spiritual science, there are also statements by spiritual researchers of the following kind: if two human beings have developed the same degree of psychic perception, then they will also observe the same events, occurrences and laws in the spiritual-soul world, similar to a scientist in natural science who has the same qualifications as another or the same mathematical abilities will also come to the same results within the logic and observation of these sciences. Here, too, the two seem to be much more similar than that it is a contrast between natural science and spiritual science. For even within this "scientific" spirituality it is a matter of the fact that, according to reason, experiences must be repeatable and comparable.

  Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), spiritual researcher, author and scholar. He was one of the great pioneers of the combination of spiritual science, philosophy, life and external science. In contrast to the cultural workers of his time, with whom he was in intensive exchange, Rudolf Steiner experienced another side of reality, the spiritual world, which was as accessible to him with the means of consciousness research as the visible world was to natural scientists with the instruments of external research. (Image: Rudolf Steiner Archive)

 

Here is a quote from the spiritual researcher Rudolf Steiner:

"A blooming flower conjures up a very specific line in front of his soul (meaning the soul of the viewer), as well as an animal in the process of growing or a tree in the process of dying. The soul world (the astral plane) slowly spreads out before him (the viewer). There is nothing arbitrary in these lines and figures. Two occult students who are at the appropriate stage of training will always see the same lines and figures in the same process. Just as surely two rightly seeing people see a round table round, and not one round and the other square, so surely the same spiritual form presents itself in front of two souls at the sight of a blooming flower3."

Or:

"As there is only one view of a mathematical theorem, so also of the things of the higher worlds. But you have to prepare yourself first to be able to come to such a view4."

3) Rudolf Steiner, "Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?", Eighth Edition 1918, TB 600, ISBN: 3-7274-0100-1, page 46 ("How to Gain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?").

4) Rudolf Steiner, "Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?", Eighth edition 1918, TB 600, ISBN: 3-7274-0100-1, page 95 ("How to Gain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?").

Note: On the term "occult student" one should not be bothered. One could also say "student of the soul-spiritual world" or speak of someone who has developed the organs of perception in his soul organism to a certain degree or still wants to develop them.

 

3) To Common Intersections, Holistic Worldview - Thoughts on the Terms Life and Death:

When referring AI to neurology and consciousness research in the sense of the commonalities between science and spirituality, attention must be drawn to the following:
The consciousness described by neurology is, in the sense of spiritual science, only a part of the consciousness that belongs to man. It is bound to the material nervous system and thus, like the latter, transient or mortal. In addition, the "Science of the Spirit" sees an expanded consciousness that is not bound to the World of Matter, outlasts it and continues to exist as an individual soul in the spiritual world after death, or was already present before conception. It even sees in this the actual, essential part of being human1.

1) Rudolf Steiner, "Inneres Wesen des Menschen und Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt" GA 153, six lectures, Vienna 1914, ISBN 3-7274-1530-4 ("Inner Being of Man and Life between Death and New Birth") or Heinz Grill, "Meditationen" 2022, ISBN: 978-3-948803-07-0 ("Meditations").

  Einstein's famous formula of equivalence between mass and energy, which he found to be a law of nature in 1905 as part of the special theory of relativity. Does it prove "that everything is energy"? So does it prove the spiritual origin of the world? (Image: Pixabay)

 

I also see it rather critically when the spiritual side, such as today's "mysticism" or "esotericism", prematurely resorts to modern scientific theories to confirm their world views.

For example, I often encountered the view that the formula E = m * c2 from the special theory of relativity would prove that everything is "energy" and therefore also "spiritual". Unfortunately, this overlooks the fact that this is only a matter of algebra. You can also change the formula, m = E / c2 and say everything is "mass".
Quantum theory is also often used to reinforce spiritual views. For example, the "non-locality" or spatial impulse uncertainty or the uncertainty between energy and time. The "wave packets" or complex probability functions used for quantum theoretical description are then supposed to confirm that "everything in the world is oscillation", if you put it simply. However, in my opinion, whether content that really corresponds to the concepts of quantum theory can be found in the spiritual science would first have to be shown2.

2) Compare, for example, Lisa Jane Klotz, "Quantenphysik und Esoterik", 2017, Science Studies, ISBN: 978-3-8376-3896-7 ("Quantum Physics and Esotericism").

Life and death - an excursion into systems theory: Systems theory is a theory of systems far from equilibrium. In the simplest case, these already exist in the mechanics, such as a balanced ball on an inverted bowl or another stone balanced on a stone. I would therefore count this theory entirely among the natural sciences and not as a spiritual science.

  A smaller stone balanced on a larger stone. Both together form a simple system "far from balance". Even a small impact can cause the system to change to a more stable state: the smaller stone falls down. The system is not autopoietic, so it cannot restore itself. (Image: Pixabay)

 

The concept of entropy plays an important role in the scientific description of systems. It is, vividly speaking, a measure of the disorder in a system. According to the scientific idea, all organisms are biological systems far from (thermodynamic) equilibrium with a low entropy, i.e. a high degree of order.

  Rudolf Julius Emanuel Clausius (1822 - 1888), German physicist. Clausius, studied in detail the ability of heat to transform itself into work. For the first time, he grasped the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that heat does not pass from a cold to a warmer body without other changes. Subsequently, Clausius introduced the concept of entropy, which was later supplemented and expanded by other researchers, such as Ludwig Boltzmann (1844 - 1906). (Image: Theo Schafgans (1859–1907))

 

These biological systems can regulate their degree of organization, i.e. their low entropy, themselves, and are therefore autopoietic. However, this is only due to the fact that they constantly increase the entropy (i.e. their disorganization) of their environment through an exchange of substances and energy with their environment. Biological death occurs when the organism is no longer capable of such an exchange and then begins to dismantle its high organization, i.e. to increase its entropy (or disorder). This happens until the organism system is in (thermodynamic) equilibrium with its environment, i.e. in a state of maximum entropy. Here, no more substances and energies are exchanged.

  Drawing of an ant. In the scientific view, her small body also represents a complex biological system far from equilibrium, which follows the laws of entropy in the sense of structure and decay. (Drawing: Author)

 

Clearly spoken, this means for a human being the transition of his living body to a decaying corpse. A decaying corpse is a system that, by increasing its "disorder", i.e. its entropy, finally strives towards the final state or state of equilibrium of being completely dissolved in its environment.

The concept of entropy is also of great importance in the scientific consideration of the world as a whole. In the totality of all processes in the world, entropy (i.e. the degree of "disorder") can only remain the same or increase, but never decrease. In the scientific understanding, this also gives time a direction of progress: All natural processes can only take place in such a way that the entropy increases overall or, at best, remains the same, i.e. they are irreversible as a whole (Second Law of Thermodynamics). One can say that entropy is the abstract concept of everything that man also subjectively experience as decay, passing time and transience.

  The universe on the verge of "heat death", an image generated by AI. The lower part of the image is intended to depict the boundless void or the last remaining radiation pattern through an artistic effect, a kind of visual interpretation of the residual energy in the universe, similar to the cosmic background radiation that spreads out like a kind of "oceanic surface". Note: The ultimate heat death would be a space homogeneously filled purely with thermal radiation, without any structures.

 

Overall, natural science postulates in the concept of entropy a slowly but surely decaying world, which finally ends in a kind of "heat death" or "world death", i.e. a completely formless and structureless state.

What is the situation in spirituality or spiritual science? In the view of spiritual science, the bodies of living beings are also complex organic systems whose organizational ability, however, does not result from their matter itself, but is traced back to a finer, gross-material-sensually invisible working of forces, to the so-called formative or etheric forces. In relation to the pure world of matter, therefore, in the spiritual-scientific view, no living system is autopoetic, i.e. self-organizing, but the actual organizational power comes from the finer wisdom of these forces, which is not visible to the senses.

  A simplified representation of the sensually invisible etheric activity on a plant. The formation of the form of the visible plant follows the invisible, sprouting and condensing forces. (Sketch: Author)

 

What are formative forces or etheric forces, how do they arise? They are not to be confused with the ether medium, which was discussed at the beginning of the 20th century as a medium for the propagation of physical light. For further explanation of the origin of these etheric forces, I would like to quote the spiritual researcher Heinz Grill from his book "Meditations"3:

"On the one hand, energy is a physical quantity that can be measured by corresponding combustion processes in the form of joules or calories, and on the other hand, it is a dimension with an indescribable character, which, as Teilhard de Chardin states, represents the love of the cosmos or universe. It is the energy to for living that towers over matter. It can resolve, it can edify, it can move, it can consolidate. It can awaken, it can decide, it can collect, it can disperse. At its center is the spirit or thought that does not come from the earth (or matter in general), but which animates the earth but works free of it."

3) Heinz Grill, "Meditationen" 2022, ISBN: 978-3-948803-07-0, page 51, paragraphs I and II ("Meditations").

These etheric forces, as already mentioned, are not directly perceptible to the organic eyes, but they are just as perceptible to him or her whose organs of perception in his or her soul organism is correspondingly developed, just as, for example, physical phenomena of light are perceptible to one who can see with his organic eyes4.

4) Compare Heinz Grill, "Kosmos und Mensch" 2015, ISBN: 978-3-9815855-6-8, pages 25-29 ("Cosmos and Man").

In this context, it is also interesting what Heinz Grill states about the physiological energies that affect the organism:3

"The dead is in the truest sense of the word the body and all those forces that are stored up in it or passively accumulated in it. The word of the Gospel that the dead should be allowed to bury the dead refers to all genetics and to all stored up belongings in the physical body, while life represents the great range of development that is possible through thought."

3) Heinz Grill, "Meditationen" 2022, ISBN: 978-3-948803-07-0, page 51, paragraphs I and II ("Meditations").

This statement about the dead can be extended to matter in general and all forms of energy that can be obtained from matter, be it wood, coal, natural gas or nuclear energy and so on. So everything that is perceptible and measurable by the senses is meant.

 

Heinz Grill (*1960), spiritual researcher and teacher, founder of a contemporary spiritual training path. His concern is to help people to bring up a developed thinking and a free consciousness in order to become more independent from inner attachments and external manipulations. Due to his knowledge that a human being develops less through external means and methods, but through the power of the higher self inherent in every human being in the innermost part of his or her soul, the question arose for him as to how the relationship between a person striving for spiritual truths and the teacher should be in a favorable way. An important basis for this relationship is the common goal orientation.  (Image: Hans-Peter Fritsche)

 

How is the term "thought" used here in the spiritual science sense to be understood? In this regard, I would like to refer once again to a statement by the spiritual researcher Heinz Grill5:

"All thoughts that exist in the creation of the world are not products that would emanate from the human brain, but rather the thoughts are the very own realities of the spirit. They do not belong to the physical world, but they are addressed to it. The human brain can receive thoughts and move them forward in analytical processes, but it cannot generate thoughts. The existences of being lie in those worlds which Indian philosophy designates as brahman and which Rudolf Steiner translates again as the so-called spirit-land, the spirit-land of thoughts. Just as there is a forest landscape with trees, in the same measure there is a spiritual world and its characteristic is thoughts or, as Plato said, ideas. A forest would not be a forest if there were no trees, and in comparison to this, the spiritual world would not be spiritual if there were no thoughts in it."

5) Heinz Grill,  "Meditationen" 2022, ISBN: 978-3-948803-07-0, page 24, paragraph VI, continued ("Meditations").

Note: Here, too, spiritual science moves in different paths than ordinary neurology, which assumes that all thoughts and all forms of consciousness in general are directly generated in the brain and nervous system.

Spiritual science sees the "pure thought" existing as reality as the primordial element of the spiritual world and as the starting point of all processes of the origin and development of the world6. "The thought forms the beginning, the soul or the deeper sensation reveals the middle and only last does matter appear."

6) Heinz Grill, "Kosmos und Mensch" 2015, ISBN: 978-3-9815855-6-8, page 23, end of second paragraph ("Cosmos and Man").

 

View into the ossuary of an old church. Even the hardest parts of the gross material physical substance of the human body, such as bones and teeth, will one day pass into a state of equilibrium with their natural environment, i.e. they will completely dissolve into their environment. (Image: Pixabay)

 

In the statements of the spirit researchers one finds the representation that there is no death in the spiritual world, but only transformation. Now one might think that this is the same in the earthly world or the gross material world, only substances and energies are transformed. However, the concept of entropy already shows in natural science that the material-sensory processes are irreversible, that in them there is always an increase in structurelessness or disorder, i.e. an increase in entropy. So that one can actually speak of a process of disintegration or death in the gross material sensory phenomena. If there is a concept in natural science that depicts what is also meant metaphysically by death, then I would say it is the concept of entropy.

  Autumn mood. The plant world is in a seemingly constant alternation of emergence and passing away. Do these rhythmically recurring sequences of the seasons already show the deeper meaning of life and death that exists especially for the individual human being? (Image: Pixabay)

 

Or more philosophically:

Death, as it is already expressed in the abstract term "entropy" of natural science, really refers to irreversible processes, i.e. not simply a constant rhythmic repetition of transformations, the ever constant, as one feels in the emergence and passing away of the plant world in the change of the seasons. With death in its deeper meaning, something irreversible is actually expressed, at least for the gross material and sensual nature of the world: one can no longer return to the old. Life is a "river of no return", or as it is expressed in a US-film from 1954 in the title and title song: "River of No Return".

  Scene from the US-American film "River of no Return" starring Robert Mitchum and Marilyn Monroe. The river symbolizes the "stream of life" with all its imponderables. In the end, nothing is the same as it was, relationships and living conditions have changed irretrievably. (Image: Allstar Picture Library Limited. / Alamy Stock Photo)

 

If, for example, someone believes in repeated earthly lives, it is nevertheless the case that a certain course of life and, for example, a certain physical appearance, a certain personality will never again be repeated, and thus the individual earthly life still represents something unique. If death existed only in the sense of an eternally recurring rhythmic transformation, one would only have a repetition of always the same, there would be no "development".

Someone once expressed the transience or irreversibility of processes in earthly life somewhat poetically or emotionally as follows:

"Every morning you receive a gift called "New Day".
Use it... It will not be repeated."

Note: The above description applies to purely earthly experience. In spiritual or after-death experience, it is different because, according to spiritual science, the experience of time is different there.

Death is also one of the most important topics in the spiritual science. The spiritual researcher Rudolf Steiner, for example, even speaks of a kind of world death in a lecture from 19117:

"And the more we use this force (meaning the forces of nature), the sooner the earth will become a corpse, so that what is the spiritual of the earth can work over to Jupiter. The forces (meaning electricity, magnetism and nuclear power) must be used to destroy the earth, so that man becomes free from the earth and so that the earthly body can fall away. (...) As strange as this sounds at the moment, it must be expressed gradually. We have to understand the development process, people will learn to evaluate our culture in the right way. We will learn that it is necessary to destroy the earth, otherwise the spirit will not be free. But one will also learn to appreciate the positive: the penetration of spiritual forces into our earthly existence."

7) Rudolf Steiner, "Die Ätherisation des Blutes - Das Eingreifen des ätherischen Christus in die Erdenentwicklung", lecture in Basel, October 1, 1911, TB 750, ISBN: 3-7274-7500-5, page 95 ("The Etherization of the Blood - The Intervention of the Etheric Christ in the Development of the Earth").

Note: "Jupiter" does not mean the present planet of our solar system, but a future world complex which, according to spiritual science, will succeed the present-day earth or our present-day solar system.

Rudolf Steiner's statement, which is probably very provocative for some emotions, can be supplemented by another statement, in which a kind of general death of the earth or a world death is also pointed out8:

"We are standing on an earth that is approaching dissolution. Gradually, lakes and rivers will dry up. Such rearrangements change the image of the Earth. Geology already indicates how we are already in a decaying epoch. The renowned geologist Sueß confirms that instead of increasing, invigorating processes in the earth, decay processes take place. This is already going through the great last evolutionary period of the earth."

8) Rudolf Steiner, Notizen aus dem Vortrag, Köln, 29 January 1911, TB 750, ISBN: N 3-7274-7500-5, page 327 (Notes from the lecture, Cologne).

  The Vysoká, with 2547m one of the highest peaks of the High Tatras, Slovakia. The fissured granite formations show how originally compact granite rocks are gradually blasted into individual slabs and fragments by thermal influences and frost fracture. Although more durable than a human body, the mountain will eventually be eroded into an inconspicuous mountain range. (Image: Author)

 

This point, then, is what science and the spiritual view of spiritual science have in common, that they both speak of an external world that is approaching its dissolution or disintegration. The time scale within which this happens and the phenomena that accompany this disintegration remain unclear at this time.

On the forces of nature, see also Günther Pauli, "Geist und Materie", ISBN: 978-3-8495-6780-4, Part 1, pages 12-50 ("Spirit and Matter").

But in what decisive point do the two views differ with regard to the development of the world?

Here we can take another look at the human body: In the spiritual-scientific view, the actual physical body of the human being consists of an invisible spiritual complex of forces that encloses the most diverse hollow forms that make up the human visible organism9. When a human being is conceived, these hollow forms are gradually filled with matter and result in the usually visible body. It is the etheric forces described above which organize this materiality into the hollow forms and keep it in motion. Once their forces are exhausted, they can no longer hold this matter in the forms, the substances fall out of them again, death has occurred. We then have in front of us what physiology also describes as a decayed corpse. However, the original spiritual power complex is preserved.

9) See, for example, Rudolf Steiner, "Von Jesus zu Christus", GA 131 (1988), ISBN: 3-7274-1310-7, page 148 ("From Jesus to Christ").

They are therefore forces invisible to the senses which make possible the high organization of the visible human body and maintain the world of matter in a high degree of organization or in a state of low entropy. As soon as these forces are no longer active, the world of matter, as also described by natural science, again follows the transition into a state of equilibrium, i.e., into a dissolution into the surrounding world of matter. But from the point of view of spiritual science, the filling of the hollow forms with gross material-sensual matter at the beginning of earthly life is already an expression of death.

  The formation of a "hollow form", a so-called "cavity ellipse" from projective geometry. The ellipse does not arise here as a line, but from a myriad of tangents which, when arranged in a lawful manner, produce the form of the ellipse. It is therefore not constructed in the way that is usually the case, with the help of two points, of which all points of the elliptical edge have the same sum of distances, but it is formed, so to speak, "out of infinity" by suitably arranged tangents. (Image: Author)

 

One can thus already establish here an essential difference between natural science and the spiritual science: natural science explains the diversity of the forms of the world from the materiality itself, while spiritual science describes this diversity from the action of higher invisible forces. From their point of view, the material substances alone would not be able to organize themselves into these forms. From the point of view of spiritual science, the world of matter as such is therefore not autopoietic (self-organizing), at least to a higher degree.

In spiritual science this view goes much further: that which is the spiritual complex of forces of the physical body of man described above was the first to be created as a germ in the whole development of the world. This germ is that which existed in the very beginning as a cosmos, and it was only in the subsequent development of the world that the various parts which we experience today as nature, that is, the mineral, plant, animal world and individual human beings, were separated from this, one must say, cosmic being, while the spiritual complex of forces itself was changed again and again until we finally come to the present manifestations of the world. So that in this sense one can turn around the often used sentence "man is part of nature": "nature is part of man". From the perspective of spiritual science, the entire genesis of man and the world is to be understood in this way.

  The "Big Bang". According to modern theories of natural science, the cosmos and thus also "space and time" arose from a singularity with a point-like, unimaginably high-energy flash of radiation, from which the first elementary particles formed through "expansion and cooling". The extremely hot matter thus formed the beginning of the world, even if this initial state of matter is nothing like what is found today in the ordinary environment. (Image: Pixabay)

 

From the spiritual-scientific presentation of the origin of the world, it logically follows that the conception of spiritual science of man and spirit is completely different from that of the current natural science. In this natural science, the human being is simply a small part of a material world and the "spirit" of the human being is a kind of "exhalation" of this material world. In the experimental exploration of already dead matter, the matter once again is subjected to special "forms of death": the simple experiment or the highly complicated particle accelerator are so-called "laboratory conditions" that do not occur in nature at all. And then the approach is made to derive the phenomenon of life from this dead matter.

The purely energetic-material world or the "universe" will one day exhaust itself, even in a very distant time, in a state of "maximum disorder" or maximum uniformity. The philosophical foundations for the reduction of the world and man to the purely material were created, among others, by Immanuel Kant (1724 -1804) with his statement: A higher (spiritual) world order can only be believed but not known. For it is only an "object in the idea and not in reality".

In spiritual science, all material processes are the results and manifestations of (former) thoughts, thought itself is not an "exhalation" of the nervous system, but a purely spiritual, independent entity of the spiritual world within a higher world order. This "pure thought" or "world thought", as Rudolf Steiner also calls it, is a germ that carries both the thought itself as a potential, as well as the desire for sensation and the will to realize it in the outer or in the sensually manifested world6 (see also the above quote from Heinz Grill). It is not to be confused with intellectuality, which is rather a kind of shadow image of it in the nervous system, which man can then also express in words of his language.

6) Heinz Grill, "Kosmos und Mensch" 2015, ISBN: 978-3-9815855-6-8, page 23, end of second paragraph ("Cosmos and Man").

In both, the spiritual and the scientific presentation, it is first and foremost a matter of interpretations of the relationship between man and the cosmos on different levels of reality. The relationship between these levels can be assumed to be theoretical-believing or hypothetical. But in order to develop a real sense of the relationship between the material and the soul-spiritual level, one will probably have to explore and fathom it oneself.

  Casa artistica di Barbara in Naone – An ecological project with art, nature and spirituality. It is located in a forest clearing above the mountain village of Lundo at 1000 meters above sea level in Trentino, Italy. Here, thoughts on architecture, landscape design, yoga practice, art and philosophy are put into concrete forms of exterior and life. (Image: Naone, Barbara Holzer)

 

In the context of the world of thoughts described above, the human being as a spiritual being is not only part of a transience, but also part of a process towards what will become in the future. For according to the spiritual-scientific view, "pure thoughts" are accessible to man, at least in principle, namely when he has developed a far-reaching freedom from bound forms of consciousness10. In the confrontation with these thoughts and their implementation, man increasingly participates in the construction of a future world in the course of his further development.

10) See, for example, Heinz Grill, "Meditationen" 2022, ISBN: 978-3-948803-07-0, page 53, paragraph V ("Meditations").

The spiritual researcher and scholar Rudolf Steiner expresses this in a similar way11:

"Death is nothing more than the expression of the fact that the once the higher spiritual world had reached a point from which it could not go any further through itself. A general death would have been necessary for it if it had not received a new life impact. And so this new life has become a struggle against universal death. From the remnants of a dying, frozen world, the germs of a new one blossom. That's why we have dying and living in the world."

11) Rudolf Steiner, "Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?" "How do you gain knowledge of the higher worlds?", Eighth edition 1918, TB 600, ISBN: 3-7274-0100-1, pages 172-173 ("How do you gain knowledge of the higher worlds?").

  The "Phoenix from the Ashes". It is a mythological symbol for the emergence of the new from the old, the destroyed. Ashes are solid residues that remain during the combustion of organic material, i.e. the cremating of the bodies of living beings such as plants, animals and humans. They are formed from the inorganic part of the burned substance and thus consist of minerals. They are therefore an expression of the dead, the transient. Out of these ashes, the new then rises rejuvenated and rises into a new, higher world. (Image: Pixabay)

 

The metaphysical ideal of the effect of man in the entire world context, which in turn extends into the physical and cultural world, can also be represented by the following scheme:

  The Lawfulness of Spirituality. This scheme, which describes the lawfulness of the activity of an ideally spiritually oriented person, was developed by the spiritual researcher Heinz Grill during study days at the spiritual college in Lundo, Trentino, Italy in April 2025 and supplemented by the author from his further remarks. It explains the processes which take place between the pure spirit-thought or Brahman world and the earthly-sensual world through the spiritually oriented human being. The basic idea is that the values developed and implemented by man in earthly life continue to exist in the after-death world and have an effect from it on the earthly world. (Image: Author)

 

The law or nature of spirituality is that thoughts or the contents of ideas of the spiritual world are worked out by human beings and implemented in the earthly world, so that what has been implemented is available after death with the soul as an enriching potential in the spiritual world for the entire further development of the world.

The human being in earthly life goes towards the thought, individualizes it in its implementation or design. However, the developed content remains so free that it re-enters the world as a universal good. In the person himself, a centre is established with a "new man" or with an "expanded humanity", which after death enters into the totality (Brahman: expression for the spiritual world in Indian philosophy). However, the "new man" already has a developmental effect on his environment in earthly existence, since the thought and the developed content also become available to his environment through his activity. In other words, from the spiritual point of view, man is not only a creature, but also a decisive participant in the further development of the world.

The Indian sage Sai Baba expressed the reality of death in a simple comparison12: "Man comes from the spiritual plane to his earthly incarnation as to a river. There he gets into a boat, his earthly life, to cross his material existence (the river). On the other shore he lays it down and continues his walk (through the spiritual world)."

12) From the book by Ludwig Meindl, "Das Phänomen der Zeit" 2021, ISBN978-3-948803-02-5, page 138 ("The Phenomenon of Time").

  "Looking Back", a drawing by the author, based on the above metaphor by Sai Baba. The man on the right is still in earthly life, he sits "in the boat and rows his way through life". The woman on the left has already died, her "boat", her earthly life lies abandoned on the shore, while her soul continues in the after-death world. However, the eyes of the two are turned towards each other, which means that the deceased and those who are still living on earth are in a relationship with each other.

 

In this context, it is interesting that of course the forms produced by people in the outer world in this implementation are just as transient as these, but something is created in the spiritual world that is carried on into the following and future world. "The appearance of matter is the expression of death. ... The spirit remains in the creation of the world, while the earthly appearance, the point (the visible matter), is only a revelation of the death that has already occurred."13

For the present time, one can formulate this in such a way that one says that what the human being implements in the world in terms of ideas and ideals from the spiritual has a meaning not only for him or for a circle limited in space and time, but for the world as a whole and also for humanity as a whole.

13) Heinz Grill, "Kosmos und Mensch" 2015, ISBN: 978-3-9815855-6-8, page 37 ("Cosmos and Man").

 

4) Can science and spirituality work together?

Regarding the question posed and answered by the AI, "Can science and spirituality work together?", the answer is far too meager. I see mutual respect as a minimum requirement, without which dialogue or cooperation would not be possible at all!

In the case of the "questioning of superstition", it would have to be clarified according to which criteria something is recognized as superstition. This cannot be the usual measurability and quantifiability, because many contents and concepts of spirituality or spiritual science cannot be proven by direct scientific measurements.

Conversely, one would have to ask, how do you gain an awareness of the deeper meaning of life? Is it enough, for example, to simply adhere to the traditional statements of the various religions and simply assume such a meaning by faith? What is the deeper meaning of life anyway, what can you imagine by it?

Here I can add that sometimes prejudices do indeed have to be overcome:

Rudolf Steiner already indicated that the materialist only excludes himself from the discourse of the general search for truth if he holds on to his materialistic faith, places it higher than the search for truth and is not prepared to really "search for the forces that underlie all phenomena"1. What such a belief can look like in the sciences I have already indicated in point 2).

1) Rudolf Steiner, Lecture "Zur Einweihung des Christian Rosenkreuz Zweiges", Hamburg, 17 June 1912, TB 750 ("On the Inauguration of the Christian Rosicrucian Branch").

On the other hand, I consider the often very frivolous statement in many spiritual circles that the material world is only a "maya", i.e. a "deception", to be misleading and not necessarily related to reality. The so-called physical or gross material world itself is not an illusion, but it is a kind of level of reality with definite laws. Rather, the deception or maya consists in how man deals with this level of reality in consciousness, or how he binds himself to it. In the spiritual realm, one can assume that in addition to this physically sensual level of reality, there are other levels of reality that are hierarchically related to each other in a certain relationship.

However, a cooperation between science and spirituality, if spirituality is really understood as spiritual science, is possible in a much broader sense, as the following example on the subject of breathing and the physiology of the kidneys of the human being shows:

First of all, from the point of view of spiritual science, it can be shown that the physiological breathing process is based on spiritual processes. In doing so, one can start from the following idea of wholeness, which is already evident in ordinary physiology when one takes together the assimilating human being and the photosynthesis-producing plant world. To put it simply, the plant converts carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates and oxygen with the help of sunlight. Humans breathe in oxygen and consume carbohydrates and convert them into carbon dioxide and water for energy production, as they say physiologically.

 

The "wholeness of life" is presented in a simple scheme. Fueled by the sun, the human, animal and plant worlds complement each other to form a community of life. The circular process that already exists in the material world gives an idea that the individual members of life do not stand alone, but form a unity through a greater unifying wisdom. The bearer of this wisdom-filled totality, however, is the light of the sun. (Image: Author)

 

From the point of view of spiritual science, what is connected with the sun is not simply light in the physical sense, but it is a being of light as the bearer of world thoughts, thoughts that are universally connected with the cosmos. The formed oxygen carries away the essential of the light and the human being absorbs it in his breathing and carries out an inner light metabolism with this light being, from which he brings forth a spiritual product or being with the exhalation. This product then shows up in the human consciousness as a feeling or sensations.

 

The plant world is spread over the entire earth in all life, which shows itself in the green color, the color of photosynthesis, whether it is the algae in the sea, or the mighty tree in the field, or the forests, or cacti in the desert. It is part of the human respiratory system. The animal world has a different relationship to humans. It is also part of the human being, but it is in a different relationship than the plant world. (Picture from the book by Heinz Grill: "Kosmos und Mensch" ("Cosmos and Man")).

 

With the plant world, man as a larger whole actually encompasses the entire planet and seizes it for his incarnation. So that it can really be said that nature is an expression of a greater whole of man. The breathing process is an expression of being incarnated, of wanting to grasp the earth. It is a typical phenomenon of earthly life, because a corpse does not breathe. Thus, the color green of plants as a physiological expression of photosynthesis is a metaphysical expression of man's will to incarnate2.

2) See: Heinz Grill, Buch "Kosmos und Mensch", edition 2015, ISBN 978-3-9815855-6-8, pp. 186 - 189 ("Cosmos and Man").

The spiritual processes underlying human breathing can be symbolized by geometric constructions (drawings: author):

 

The circular arc (left) with its radial rays indicates a superordinate sphere that is oriented towards a center.

The parabola (middle) can then be constructed from the radial rays. It follows the centering in its shape, but without reaching the center, the center of the circular arc.

The conchoid (right) can be developed from the parabola. In its form, it moves further away from the centre and tends towards the superordinate sphere.

If you combine the three pictures into one picture, you get a symbol of the spiritual in the inhalation and exhalation:

  The arc represents the superordinate sphere that is aligned to a center. The inhalation, symbolized by the parabola, glides downwards, but does not quite touch the lowest point of earthly life. The product that now arises from this inhalation is represented by the conchoid formed from the parabola. This product moves away from the center again in the course of exhalation. The lowest point, which is not quite reached by the inhalation, is again the center of the circle3. (Drawing: Author)

 

3) See: Heinz Grill, book "Das Wesensgeheimnis der Seele" 2014, ISBN: 978-3-9815855-5-1, page 249 ("The Essential Secret of the Soul").

The transformation of the external light being (symbolically the circular arc) into a spiritual product of the human being (symbolically the conchoid) is referred to as internal light metabolism and takes place in the spatial depth of the kidney region. In the view described here, the spiritual product is what the human being experiences as sensations or feelings. However, this process itself should not be equated with the physiological-material processes in the kidney region, rather it is the case that from a spiritual point of view the "light process" forms the basis for the physiological substance conversions in the kidneys4.

4) See also: Heinz Grill, Book "Das Wesensgeheimnis der Seele" 2014, ISBN: 978-3-9815855-5-1, p. 240 - p. 252 ("The Essential Secret of the Soul").

As a feeling, the product or being produced can tend more towards condensation and attachment to the material, or as a sensation it can have a freer effect on the future, depending on the orientation of the human being's consciousness. What the human being releases into the (spiritual-soul) outer world as sensations or feelings by exhaling therefore depends very much on his orientation of consciousness. It's not for nothing that people say: "there's something in the air here" or "there's thick air here" when you enter a room with people gathered, for example.

The ideas described here were used as a basis for an online medical symposium with doctors and other people working in the medical field. Dr. med. Jens Edrich first gave a lecture on the physiological process of blood pressure regulation by the kidneys and presented this in the following scheme: (Image: Dr. med. Jens Edrich / Author)

 

The sensation in the kidney organ of too low a tension in the blood (too low blood pressure) leads to the release of the hormone renin. Renin is converted into AT1 (angiotensin 1) in the liver. The lungs convert the AT1 into AT2 (angiotensin 2) under the influence of the respiratory process. Under the influence of the nerve-sensory area, or more precisely, through the exposure to light in the eye and the subsequent impulses in the nervous system/brain, AT2 stimulates the pituitary gland to release the hormone ADH (antidiuretic hormone). ADH, in turn, causes the kidneys to withdraw water from the blood. The result is an increase in the tension in the blood, i.e. the measurable blood pressure, but also an overall change in the composition of the blood.

 

The term "death zone" was chosen for the area of the renal medulla because this is where the conversion of living protein into dead, mineral urea takes place.

A kind of key point here is the influence of the nerve-sensory area via perception. With regard to the explanations of kidney physiology, an essential aspect was that the kidneys, in their function of regulating blood pressure via hormones, not only perceive the pressure of the blood in the kidneys themselves very precisely, but also create a perception of the environment, of the outside space, via these hormones.
That which comes from the outer world to the human being in breathing and in the sensory life and what the relationship of the human being is to this external space, that is perceived, and in the renal tubules the exact coordination of the content of water, minerals and proteins takes place, according to what is needed and necessary. A newly tuned relationship of the "tension of the blood" and expanded also of the tension of the consciousness references arises.

However, man's relationship to the outside world is again decisively established by his feelings (see above), which are of a spiritual nature. In addition, this relationship is also dependent on the sensations and feelings that other people have given off to the outside world. Because what a person perceives through his sensory organs (see in the diagram above "Eye/Light") and how he perceives it, i.e. where he directs his attention, depends very much on his sensations or feelings. Likewise, one's own sensations and feelings are in turn influenced by the mental products of other people (see "Air" in the diagram above).

It is therefore very well recognizable how physiological processes depend on the consciousness of the human being and his interrelation to the environment, how these mental quantities also have an effect on them in turn, and how it is also decisive how the consciousness itself is aligned in terms of its contents. For consciousness determines to a large extent the quality of the sensations produced. Thus, this example shows how physiological processes and processes of the soul interact and there are corresponding possibilities for implementation in a therapy that also takes processes of the soul and consciousness processes into account.

So a wide field opens up here to fruitfully bring together soul-spiritual laws and therapeutic work in the professional field of medicine, and a cooperation between science and spirituality can take place in a much more comprehensive way than has been the case so far.