Sense of movement

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The sense of movement or sense of self-movement and body position[1], also referred to as proprioception, kinaesthesia (or kinesthesia) and muscle sense[2], is one of the twelve physical senses that Rudolf Steiner spoke of in his theory of the senses and conveys the perception of one's own bodily movement.

Connection with the etheric body, life spirit and astral body

The activity of the sense of self-movement is essentially based on the fact that the etheric body is permeated by the life spirit. This creates a balance in the etheric body and then in the physical body, which also results in a balance in the astral body. With every movement of the physical body an astral current flows back in the opposite direction. In the inner experience of this process the sense of self-movement reveals itself.

„The second sense we have mentioned is the sense of self-movement. Here again something is at work in the etheric body of man which we do not yet possess consciously. And again we can use the parable of the sponge. Here, too, the etheric body is saturated and permeated like a sponge by water, and what now permeates and permeates it is the life-spirit or the Budhi, which it will one day develop out of itself. Today, of course, this is only given to us, as it were, provisionally from the spiritual world. The Budhi or life spirit works differently from the spirit man. It works in such a way that a balance occurs in the astral body, as in the water at rest in itself. The equilibrium in the etheric body and then in the physical body results in a balance in the astral body. If this equilibrium is disturbed from outside, it tries to balance itself again. When we make a movement, what has become unbalanced is rebalanced. For example, if we stretch out our hand, an astral current flows back in the opposite direction of the outstretched hand, and it is the same with all movements in our organism. Whenever a change occurs in a physical situation, an astral current moves in the organism in the opposite direction. So it is with the blinking of the eyes, so it is with the moving of the legs. In this inwardly experienced process of a balance in the astral body, the sense of self-movement reveals itself.“ (Lit.:GA 115, p. 36f)

Depth sensitivity

In German medical literature, this perception is now called depth sensitivity, which, together with the sense of balance, enables proprioception (from Latin: proprius "own" and recipere "to take up"), the perception of one's own body movement and position in space[3]. For this purpose, proprioceptors register muscle tension (Golgi tendon organ), the degree of stretch of the muscle or muscle length and its rate of change (muscle spindle) as well as joint position and movement (Ruffini corpuscles); the Vater-Pacini corpuscles (Pacinian corpuscles), which are mainly located in the subcutis, are particularly sensitive to vibration sensations.

The sense of movement, together with the sense of touch and/or the sense of sight, is decisively involved in the perception of external forms.

Depth sensitivity includes:

  • Position sense, which provides information about the position of the body in space and the position of the joints and head.
  • Force sense, which provides information about the state of tension of muscles and tendons.
  • Sense of movement (or kinaesthesia, from the ancient Greek: κινειν kinein "to move" and αίσθεσις aísthesis "perception"), through which a sensation of movement and recognition of the direction of movement is made possible.

The sensory task of the so-called motor nerves

According to Rudolf Steiner, the so-called motor nerves, which according to the established neuroscientific thesis serve to "control" bodily movements, have, like all other nerves, an exclusively sensory task and serve the more or less dull perception of one's own movements. Thus the "motor" nerves also fall into the realm of the sense of one's own movements.

„This materialistic scientific attitude believes that just as it requires the mediation of the nerves for sensation, for perception, it also requires the mediation of the nerves for the impulses of the will. But this is not the case. The impulse of the will proceeds from the spiritual-mental. There it begins, and it acts in the body, directly, not by the diversions of the nerve, directly on the limb-metabolic system. And the nerve that goes into the limb-metabolic system only mediates the perception of that which the spiritual-soul does in the whole human being in relation to his limb-metabolic system. We perceive that which is a consequence of soul-spiritual will processes in the blood circulation, in the rest of the metabolism and also in the mechanical movement of the limbs; we perceive that. The so-called motor nerves are not motor nerves, they are merely that which perceives the expressions, the impulse of the will. Until one understands this connection, one will not arrive at a transparent knowledge of man.“ (Lit.:GA 303, p. 209)

That the nerves must have different directions of conduction (efferent and afferent) is expressly emphasised by Rudolf Steiner - but this has nothing to do with the alleged difference between sensory and motor nerves.

„Reasonable naturalists have therefore already assumed that every nerve has a conduction not only from the periphery inwards or vice versa, but always also a conduction from the periphery to the centre, or from the centre to the periphery. In the same way, every motor nerve would then have two lines ...“ (Lit.:GA 312, p. 57f)

The reflex arc as a fundamental model of the nervous system is the basis here, but Rudolf Steiner interprets it in a completely different way than is usual in neuroscience. The interruption in the reflex arc in no way signifies the transition from the sensory to the motor nerve, but rather the spiritual-mental aspect of the human being is intervened here in the living organism and forms the transition from physical to spiritual experience. This is a fundamental insight of [spiritual science]].

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

  1. ↑ Tuthill JC, Azim E (March 2018). "Proprioception". Current Biology. 28 (5): R194–R203. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.01.064. PMID:29510103.
  2. ↑ According to a notebook entry by Rudolf Steiner; cf. GA 115, p. 315
  3. ↑ Buser K., e.a.: Kurzlehrbuch medizinische Psychologie- medizinische Soziologie, Urban&FischerVerlag, 2007, p.93, ISBN 3437432117, [1]
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