Shadow

We discussed individualism and individualistic identity-formation as a modern perversion of the sacred individuality, and we associated this advanced form of egoism with the other aspects of evil like materialism, sensualism and intellectualism, and saw how this was connected with the evil powers of Lucifer and Ahriman. But still this is all a rather abstract and general understanding of evil. Now, in order to render our whole exposition of evil more personally and existentially relevant and comprehensible to the reader, we shall point to the phenomenon of the “Doubleganger” described by Steiner, and show in some detail how evil actually operates on the individual energy-level. Because, what was only indicated in the special case of Adam’s initial opening is in fact a common shadow-reality within every human being! We all partake in evil in the most intimate manner, and Steiner characterizes the doubleganger as an inherent part of the human make-up. Immediately prior to our birth this Ahrimanic and Luciferic entity takes possession of a part of our physical body, because we are not able to permeate the body completely with our own being. From that point on it dwells in the body’s shadowy and unconscious interior, rooted in etheric and lower-astral energy-levels. It has a highly developed intelligence and will-power, but no temperament, as it is related much closer to the forces of nature than our soul. Today we know that the body functions in connection with both electric and magnetic processes, producing rather weak, but measurable impulses and fields, which are affected by the many natural and artificial electromagnetic phenomena in our surroundings. Steiner explicitly claims that the electromagnetic structure of our body must be attributed solely to the doubleganger. It is not a human quality per se.

Nevertheless, it is generally accepted that the electromagnetic processes of the body in their balance with the environment are intimately related to our life function and health-condition. In this way the doubleganger is actually furnishing our physical existence or at least conditioning it on the cellular and neural level and in functional aspects such as sex, instinct and intellect. Steiner attests to this situation by describing how the doubleganger is responsible for all intrinsic and endogenous illness – organic illness being caused by Ahrimanic forces and nervous/psychic illness by Luciferic powers. This pathogenic effect is intimately connected with the magnetic conditions of a specific location on earth. Steiner therefore discusses the necessity of a geographical medicine taking this factor into account. He also explains why people are earth- or homebound, since their doubleganger prefers certain types of radiation and magnetic environment. This health-aspect of the doubleganger and its influencing and disruption of physical life has to be examined in a broader context. Healers and people working with esoteric physiology describe a universal life-force [prana, chi] being radiated from the sun and assimilated through special centres of subtle energy in the etheric body of man. Subsequently the absorbed prana is distributed to the nervous system, then to the hormone producing glands, and finally transported into the bloodstream vitalizing our whole organism. Not only is life sustained by, but it is also organised from the pre-existent formative patterns of the etheric, which is upheld and nourished by this life-force. Thus we must suspect some interaction between these subtle levels of life-energy and the electromagnetic structure of the body, which is also affirmed by the natural polarity of the etheric energy and the guidelines for healing by touch. But there is indeed some confusion and a lack of precision with regard to the real dynamics and economy of these transactions, though certain parameters indicate that the necessary electromagnetic processes upholding specific body-functions as for example brain activity are simultaneously wearing down the etheric vitality and fabric of the body, much in the same manner that environmentally caused electro-magnetic pollution is producing a much more rapid destruction of human health due to the break-down of the “etheric form-principles”, which shows up in a reduced immune response, cancer and the like. In the widest sense evil determines and takes away our life. We pay for our evil with death! We can only live with evil for so long and then we have to die from it.

More evidence points in the same direction of a conflict between our parasitic Ahrimanic-Luciferic attendant and the human life-impulse, which is of relevance to our discussion of evil. According to Steiner, our electromagnetic counterpart is not by itself able to create the necessary vehicles and formative principles for physical life as we know it. Therefore it uses a human incarnation and body to manifest itself. The doubleganger most desperately tries to accompany the phenomenon of man through his discarnation in order to take over the cast-off etheric body and manage an independent existence, but hitherto with no success. The same overtaking is attempted “from the other side” through the demonic possession of not fully discarnate humans, existing as ghosts. But the doubleganger cannot endure the transition of dying and has to leave man shortly before our death. If this precondition could be overruled, a very dangerous situation would arise. The Ahrimanic and Luciferic powers could then control “human” incarnation and evolution and shape their own new life form. This problem is closely related to the practice in some esoteric traditions, primarily in the East, of consciously mastering the process of death and rebirth. Somehow we must understand this procedure as an integral part of the whole Ahrimanic-Luciferic scheme and operation, taking advantage of human weakness in order to step up their own level of manifestation, and we shall discuss this dire aspect later. Anyway, there seems to be a strange motive influencing the evil powers and our doubleganger. They are very much concerned with some kind of transformation of the physical-etheric of humans, trying to copy and utilize the vital processes of life itself, while at the same time they are contributing to it in certain aspects. There are numerous complications and special cases associated with this strange death-defying emancipation of evil. Sometimes a soul has not completely released the astral body of its former life and drags it into the next life, thus augmenting the evil work load. The old astral body is then easily dissociated from the individual make-up and rapidly crystallizes the phenomenon of an aggravated doubleganger. Karmic patterns and goals or other actions and events of a lifetime may invite an invasion from “external” demons, doing the same job. Also if there are obsessive character traits completely out of conscious control creating an extensively split personality or alter-ego-behaviour, Ahriman could take possession of these parts and shape an independent doubleganger in the etheric. In some of these extreme situations we might speak of a released or fully operational doubleganger, directing the life of a person. People suffering from mental disorders and psychopaths are obvious examples, but perhaps we should also consider magicians, necromancers, shamans and even gurus and lamas under the same phenomenology. The ultimate ideal of evil is the undead or living corpse so vividly depicted in the legends of vampires.

Finally there is ample reason to speculate, whether today’s technical and cultural developments are in fact producing collective structures in our etheric-astral bodies enhancing the doubleganger-phenomenon of modern man. According to Steiner, the etheric bodies of Westerners even in his time were deformed and much less flexible than in earlier times. He commented that we could never try to perceive how fresh and alive the world appeared to the open senses of the Greek people a few thousand years before. In this case we might only guess at the bio-physical effect of the electromagnetic gridding of this earth on every wavelength since then. Most likely the disfigured and demolished etheric body does no longer permeate the physical body sufficiently and leaves plenty of space for Ahrimanic invasion. Surely all the electromagnetic innovations are inspired by Ahriman with the clear purpose of affecting our energy-make-up besides contributing to our self-importance and triteness. They are globally applied and eagerly assimilated everywhere as our indispensable play toys. And if you take a closer look at present-day development and cultural change, there seems to be one common trend which eludes most people, since they do not have the necessary perspective on it. On every level natural form is destroyed and artificial design is taking over together with the mechanization of rhythm and a charging of primitive energies and the nervous-system. The urbanite is on the hectic beat with a high-pitched mind and his body attuned to impulses which are readily expressed in electronic music and the frenzied de-cadence of sexual emancipation. Could that be a general and deliberate Ahrimanic remodelling of the human form on subtle levels besides a gross manifestation of egomania and human debasement?

If it is true, that art expresses the collective intuition and projects the deeper context of human existence, then once civilisation was inspired and moved by the natural beauty of form and higher principles as in the classical Greek culture, but now it is undergoing installation and wiring from underground agencies. Take a look at modern art and see for yourself! What happens then, if some unexpected effect is released in the etheric doubleganger-structure after having been transmitted worldwide through the natural magnetism of the earth by Ahriman? Perhaps this procedure sounds fantastic and unrealistic now, but actually Steiner predicted this epoch‑making event. He said that at a point in the future the most material forces of the earth, the magnetism in the north-south direction, were going to be utilized with a “spiritual” intent. A unified impulse sent through this field from American soil would make its entrance in every human being through the doubleganger and work at the individual level in a fashion that unites Ahrimanic and Luciferic tendencies in the most astonishing and directive way, creating false clairvoyance and advanced thinking. This would only be the first manipulative and seducing step in a development that will later misuse etheric bodies in machines and produce cyborg-technology. We shall have a lot more to say on this topic from Adam’s experience later.         

As man goes through life and struggles with his lower nature and egoism, the doubleganger gains strength and structure at his expense, perhaps because wrong actions, heavy emotions and bad mentality contributes to its build-up in the etheric and astral bodies. In the same process there is often simultaneously a growing clarification, separation and control in our mind and soul vis‑à‑vis the perpetrator. This is probably a natural process in most people, experiencing on one hand the increased physical weakness of old age, when élan vital has been spent for the benefit of the doubleganger, and on the other an enhanced wisdom and self‑knowledge. But if there is a deliberate spiritual development taking place, then the direct confrontation with the doubleganger is inevitable, because this phenomenon is the total shadow of our instinctual ego with all its imperfection, passion, ambition, pride, and so forth. If we perceive and express the spiritual dimension through this dark perspective, there is severe distortion and illusion and a great risk of malpractice and unethical conduct. Therefore the initial experience of a spiritual opening is linked with the apparition of the doubleganger as a built-in safety-measure, if the opening is a result of a balanced progression and a pure motive. This intermediary structure is very similar to and perhaps identical with the aforementioned “Guardian at the threshold”. Otherwise, if the opening results from unethical power-motives or magical [Luciferic-Ahrimanic inspired] techniques, there will only be an incomplete, misunderstood or totally absent confrontation and no correction of attitude or perception. This brief description can perhaps shed some temporary light on the previously discussed figure of the magician in connection with the initial opening and explain why Adam was afterwards confronted in his life with a vast experience of and exposure to evil structures.

We can fully understand if this idea of a tangible and effective evil transacting purposefully on a real level of subtle energy within every human being seems provocative and incredible at first sight. And of course the discomfort is increased when we consider the collective ramifications in the same concrete and realistic manner. But honestly, can we escape alarm when considering the progression of modern culture and society? Can we avoid seeing the underlying pattern of evil and the threatening matrix of dehumanization? Anyhow, we have presented the reader with a coherent explanation of personal evil down to the most minute details of energy-working, and we shall corroborate and substantiate it further throughout this book, starting with a discussion of some additional dream-visions, Adam has had in recent years, reflecting the problem of the doubleganger on a specific background we shall discuss later.