Mental body

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According to Indian theosophy, the mental body is the carrier of the powers of understanding (lower mental body) and reason (higher mental body). It is woven from thoughts and can therefore also be called the thought body (see also → Mayavi-rupa body). Rudolf Steiner also refers to it as the I-bearer or I-body. To clairvoyant perception it appears as an egg-shaped structure that encloses the astral aura. The mental body is a higher part of the etheric body transformed by thought formation. In later writings and lectures Rudolf Steiner hardly ever used the term "mental body". The lower mental body corresponds approximately to what Rudolf Steiner later called the intellectual soul. The lower mental body is mortal and dissolves soon after death. Only the higher mental body is immortal, which essentially comprises that part of the consciousness soul that is already oriented directly towards the spiritual world and is closely related to the spirit self (manas).

„The etheric body consists of two members: the part of human nature that came over from the Moon at that time, and its opposite pole. At first they were not yet connected with each other, later they approached each other and connected. One is the pole of the animal, the other the pole of the spiritual. The pole of the animal is called the etheric body, the pole of the spiritual is called the mental body. The mental body is material ether.

In between is the astral body, which is also the result of a combination of two. Basically, it is also a double structure. In it one has to distinguish between a lower and a higher nature. The higher nature is originally connected with the mental body.“ (Lit.:GA 93a, p. 143f)

„What we see is the physical body, it belongs to the mineral kingdom, but through Prana, the life principle, it lives also in the etheric sphere of the plant world, it has its etheric body; and further it lives also through sensation in the astral world, in its astral body, and through rational conception in the mental world, through the Kama-Manas principle. Man has four bodies in the lower world with the principles. But he is also connected with the higher world, because he has his origin there. He can develop his mental body and advance from the idea of the individual and the many to the idea of the archetype, he can develop the causal body and rise to the higher world of the trinity Manas-Budhi-Atma. In the Budhi sphere he will be able to form his thoughts out of astral matter, to create the Mayavi-rupa body, will live and work out of his causal soul, will himself be a creator and again become one with the totality. But this upper trinity, to which man must ascend, is in truth present hidden deep within him, it underlies his being, he must liberate it one after the other - 'As above, so below'.“ (Lit.:GA 88, p. 173)

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.
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