CARL WELKISCH (1888 - 1984) - Man between Spirit and World, The Human Trinity - foto album
Carl Welkisch
healer and mystic - 1888-1984
Carl Welkisch
from "Der Mensch zwischen Geist und Welt" ("Man between Spirit and World")
The Human Trinity
What I have to say here about the nature of man is unusual in that it is based on direct perception that I have had in conscious experience. I am therefore not presenting a series of logical deductions as does the philosopher, the theologian, or the psychologist when they explain their observations on the nature of man. I am speaking as a mystic. But I think it necessary that I support the complaint of all other mystics that human language is poorly suited for communicating such experiences to people who are not themselves mystically inclined. Nevertheless, when the mystic tries to formulate his insights in words, he derives the courage and authority for this from his knowledge of human nature, which is composed of several levels and which is identical in all men.
I portray man as I experience him, as a trinity consisting of body, soul and spirit, thus confirming the ancient knowledge which was repressed for ages. The difference between soul and spirit was no longer noticed and people were satisfied to contrast the inner man with the physical man, the soul with the body, the subconscious with the waking conscious. Thus, the thought of a mutual conplementarity among the three levels of human nature to the unity man could not find expression.
The body has for the most part become accessible to scientific research and has already been thoroughly investigated. Every educated person today knows that he is considered to be the result of a development that repeats itself whenever a new individual being comes into existance, a development which has its beginning in the fertilized egg and which, through continuous cell division, finally leads to the formation of the human body. The body consists of many trillions of microscopically small cells which highest wisdom has organized into an ordered whole.
The soul, with which everyone is familiar by name, is in its essence and appearance still a topic of great discussion, since it is not immediately perceptible by the bodily senses. To my capacity for spiritual perception, it is a tangible being of the same form as the body to which it belongs and similar to this body in every way. In the newborn baby, it is as small as the babys body and grows and develops along with this body. During life, it remains connected to the body by means of a subtle force field (often called the bioplasmatic field) in which a constant exchange of emanation takes place. Nevertheless, the soul maintains its own existence and a certain amount of independence, so that it occasionally appears as the so-called double of the body. The soul demonstrates its independent existence after the death of the body by separating from it completely and continuing to exist without it.
The mind, which has its roots solely in the experience of the bodily senses, is not really prepared to accept the departed soul as a reality. Thus, science has not yet been able to bring itself to recognize that the soul continues to exist as a conscious being in the same form as the body which it has laid aside. However, in the popular belief of all religions, the soul is taken for granted and is simply called the spirit of the deceased. I, too, must assume popular usage in calling the soul a spirit being. However, when I speak of the spirit of man, I am referring to something entirely different.
The individual spirit of man had nothing to do with this world before its earthly existence, but comes down to the earth from spiritual realms. The unearthly origin of the spirit presents itself most clearly to me in the newborn child.
Unlike the soul, which is as small and imperfect as the body of the child, the spirit is a full-grown spiritual person. No matter what a persons age, his spirit becomes perceptible to me not only as an unmistakable individual emanation, but also as an actual form whose darker or lighter appearance is determined soleley by the degree of the spirits communion with God. Its independence from soul and body is expressed in the fact that the spirit form often appears to me and attracts my attention when the person involved has to concentrate his thoughts completely on something he happens to be doing or when he is asleep.
Thus, I perceive the three different beings within each other, the body, the soul and the spirit, to be bound together in living community. The meaning and goal of their existence is to become completey one. They are still infinitely far from becoming one in most human beings, approaching this state only in individual mystics and saints. But the connection of these three so different levels is given from birth. If we ask as to the purpose this serves, we may describe this purpose with the word spiritualization. By that I understand the continuously progressing fusion of these elements of being, which for a long time to come will continue to be rather independent, until the merging of soul and body into the reborn spirit enabling union with God has finally been achieved.
Unfortunately, none of Carl Welkischs books is available in English so far. His book "Man between Spirit and World" ("Der Mensch zwischen Geist und Welt") does exist in English, but no publisher has been found yet.
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