Published in Anthroposophical News Sheet, 1938

The Activity and Co-Activity of the Senses

By Dr. Hermann Poppelbaum.

The more we approach the "lower" senses when we descend from the day-senses, such as the eye
and the ear, the less we experience that we go out into the world - in so far as we experience
anything at all. The sense of touch is still clearly connected with an "exteriorization", as shown in
my preceding article. But something else takes place in the case of the sense, of balance, and this
will be described below. The observation is rendered difficult by the dullness of the experience
connected with it. The sense of movement standing below the sense of balance, is half sub merged in
darkness, and perceptions of the so-called life-senses are drowned in the indefinite perception of
health conditions. For this reason, it is justified to speak of twilight-senses and night-senses.
As a rule, we only notice that the sense of balance is active when it begins to fail us. Its activity
rests upon the supporting members of the body. The perception itself is "not definitely localized", as
psychologists would say. It is, however, possible to ascertain that it is not pushed out into the
surrounding world as in the case of the sense of touch. The soul-activity diving into, indeed, diving
through the bodily instrument of the members, appears to collide with the joints, as though it
encountered a wall. Only in a dreamy way we feel that we are standing on the ground, and we feel a
faint organic consternation if this ground suddenly gives way; for instance, in a lift, or also in an
airplane when it meets an "air pocket". After a slight shock we can then follow our own half-
conscious efforts to push active perception again forward into the bones and joints. That part of our
own being which reaches forward in perception through the members, withdraws towards the
interior of the body when the support begins to fail but there it loses its sureness because it cannot
fin, a firm support; thus there is an excess of conscious: ness in the lower organism, and nausea
arises.
Why does this result? Sea voyages can, in this case, give us good, though hardly welcome
opportunities for observation. When nausea is caused by the rolling and pitching of the ship and by
an unexpected combination of these movements, this is distinctly connected with a decreased
sensation in the joints. It is a slight weakness of the will, which fails to push out the activity of the
soul so as to reach the supporting members of the body. Our own being, therefore, no longer reaches
the natural supports supplied by the skeleton, but becomes entangled in the intestines. Through a
certain effort of the will it can then grope forward again and obtain a foothold, whereupon the
giddiness immediately disappears. Dr. Steiner once half jokingly advised that one should stand upon
a rolling ship "as admirals stand", that is, with legs apart and consciously using them as supports. If
we omit to do this, that part of the soul which normally goes to meet the experiences of the senses
will, instead of reaching the joints, busy itself in the sphere of the life-processes, and especially of
the entrails. Our normal consciousness, however, cannot bear the "higher mathematics" working in
the entrails. Nausea means that there is too much consciousness in the processes of digestion, and
too little in the members.
 As in the case of the ear (see the preceding article), morphology again supplies remarkable
indications in regard to the connection which has just been described. Along the body of the fish
runs the "lateral' line" concealing most delicate organs of perception which come into contact
with the surrounding water. These organs are "served" by a branch of the vagus, the tenth nerve
of the brain. In the case of man the vagus does not go to the brain from the surface of the body,
but from the region of the entrails. In other words: If the human being becomes aware of the
condition of his bodily liquids permeated by metabolic processes (and. if he becomes aware of
this too strongly he will be seized by nausea), he uses the same sensory nerves used by the fish
for its orientation in the surrounding water. The difference between man and fish is, therefore,
contained in the fact that a world has been turned inside out: what is in one case within the body
is in the other case outside. The bony bridge in some of the higher fishes (carp and loach)
extends backwards from the skull, the other end being supported by the air bladder. The fish
"listens in", as it were, to that which takes place in its air bladder. In the human being the air
bladder is not a continuous organ, but it is split, reversed, and drawn across the tympanic cavity
of the ear, where it forms the tympanum. *) The human being listens through the tympanum and
in listening he goes out into the air; the fish listens through the walls of its air-bladder, and in so
doing penetrates into its inner air. On the other hand, in the case of man, the vagus opens the
path leading to his inner being, whereas it enables the fish to extend its sensation to the sur-
rounding water.
Sea-sickness renders possible still other remarkable observations, particularly in connection
with the co-activity of certain senses. If we are threatened by a feeling of giddiness we can help
ourselves by fixing our gaze upon the firm land: we shall then literally obtain a foothold. The
activity which goes out through the gaze will then stand fully within our consciousness, whereas
the dully-conscious perceptive activity which descends into the members will not intrude itself
unnecessarily. Both capacities supplement each other and the human being can experience
himself in between them. Through his eyes, he stretches out two "arms of vision", and in what
he sees he will find a conscious foothold, whereas in his members he will experience a half-
conscious, dreamy "back-support". The consciousness of standing between these two, the
foothold and the "back-support", clearly does not arise through the physiological activity of the
opposite senses, but through the fact that it is the human being himself who uses his senses.
The less consciousness there is in the activity of balancing the mobile bodily system, the
easier will the normal day-consciousness be preserved. For this reason, and according to recent
observations, seasickness can be avoided through dancing, although this may seem strange. The
movements of dancing are so dreamlike that the slight correction in the balance required from
the dancing person by the rolling ship, takes place simultaneously with the dancing and without
any effort. A professor (Liebermann of Budapest) has shown that this is even possible without
dancing: He practiced counteracting every pitching and rolling of the ship with a corresponding
balancing movement, and he found that these compensatory movements had only to be begun in
order to maintain the desired feeling of well-being; very soon he had practiced them to such an
extent that he could' continue them unawares.
In many other ways it is possible to test through experience that in the use of his senses man
either goes out into the external world, or holds fast to his organism, or is occupied with it. The
day-consciousness, or object-consciousness, is based upon the polarity of the upper and the
lower senses. But we should not forget the principal thing: namely, man, who inserts himself
actively between the two sense activities.

*) Rudolf Steiner indicated this wonderful connection in Berlin as early as 1905.