Sensual world

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The sensual world comprises for man all that which he can in principle perceive through their physical sense organs. These are, in the broadest sense, the objects of the physical world. The terms sensual world and physical world are often used synonymously, but they differ for a more detailed consideration in that physical refers to everything that is subject to physical laws, while sensual refers to everything that can be perceived through the senses. In the first case, the accent is on a conceptual factor, namely physical regularity, in the second case, however, on direct perception.

In his theory of the senses, Rudolf Steiner pointed out that one cannot stop at the five sense organs usually mentioned, but that the human being has a total of 12 physical senses. Accordingly, the sensual world encompasses everything that can be perceived through these 12 senses.

However, the fact that the human being has corresponding physical sense organs is not yet sufficient to be able to consciously perceive the sensual world. He must also have developed a corresponding awareness of objects, which only gradually develops as the human being grows up. The sensory organs of a newborn child are already largely formed, but not its object consciousness; it is therefore initially hardly able to perceive anything of the sensual world. Its sensory horizon expands only gradually and reaches quite different degrees of alertness in different people.

The sensual world appears like a narrow band or a plane that separates the super-sensible world from the sub-sensible world. The super-sensible and the sub-sensible world are fundamentally of the same origin and nature, in both of which astral and actually spiritual realms can be distinguished, only the sub-sensible world is in a certain sense corrupted by the fact that it is under the influence of the adversary powers.

„When you look out into the vastness of the cosmos and you see, I would say, the ensemble of stars; what is this sight? Why do we have this sight? - We have this special sight, the sight of the Milky Way, the sight of the otherwise starry sky, for the reason that it is the revelation of the Luciferic nature of the world. What surrounds us in a certain luminous, radiant way is the revelation of the Luciferic essence of the world; it is that which is now as it is because it has remained behind on an earlier stage of its existence. And when we go over the Earth, the rigid Earth, then this rigid Earth has its rigidity, its hardness, for the reason that in it, as it were, are clustered together the Ahrimanic entities, those entities which should actually only have that stage, which they now artificially acquire, at a later time of their development.“ (Lit.:GA 203, p. 133)

The fact that man's senses were opened outwards is a consequence of the Luciferic influence and the associated Fall of man. Previously man perceived only the supersensible astral world and even earlier the spiritual world. What we experience today as sense qualities originally came from one of the lower regions of the astral world, namely the region of mobile sensitivity. Through Lucifer, parts of this region of the world were permeated by desires, by antipathy forces that repel much and egoistically want to keep only a few things for themselves. In order for these experiences to be consciously experienced, a dark veil had to spread over the supersensible worlds, obscuring our view into these worlds and at the same time reflecting the Luciferically permeated astral forces back into our consciousness. This dark veil, which is nothing other than matter, the material world, was woven by Ahriman and the Spirits of Darkness. Since then, the sensual world appears to us as a reflection of the sub-sensuous astral world, which is permeated by Lucifer, on the dark sub-sensuous Ahrimanic world. The sensual and the material world are therefore to be clearly distinguished from each other and both are also by no means identical with the actual physical world, in which the physical laws of form prevail, and which in truth can only be perceived supersensually.

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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