Rudolf Steiner on the Ego

The ego (ego, Greek ἐγώ , phonetically related to ἠχώ echo ), egoism, is the lower ego hardened in egoism, the lower self of the human being , which acts as the echo of the actual, higher self in the luciferic influence. The astral body, filled with predominantly selfish antipathy powers, presents as a distorted echo. The ego corresponds to the Kama-Manas after Indian- theosophical designation.

With reference to Solomon , according to Rudolf Steiner , the ego is also called Itiel (Hebrew יתיאל, power owner ) ( Ref : GA 116, p. 83 ).

In his Bologna lecture, held in 1911, Rudolf Steiner showed that the ego experienced in regular day-consciousness is a mere reflection of the real ego, which is only misplaced into the physical inner world. Man thus feels isolated from the world and sees himself confronted with apparently insurmountable limits of knowledge. A future epistemology will have to acknowledge that the ego in truth is always already in the external world. Rudolf Steiner had already shown in his "Philosophy of Freedom" that the real ego - not its mere reflection - is experienced in pure thinking independently of the body organization. The true I can only be experienced through appropriate spiritual training in the supersensible world.

"Our ego is still a very sleeping organ for the vast majority of people today. If you think the ego is very strong, you are actually mistaken. For in the will - as I have already explained to you - man actually actually sleeps, and as the ego deliberately activates itself, we have nothing to do with something that stands before us as an ego, but rather with something like that in front of us is how the night is actually before us. 

"Although the night is dark, we expect the night in our lives. If you really look back on your life, it's not just the daylight, it's the nights as well. But in a sense they are always crossed out of the course of time. It is similar with our ego. Our ego is actually noticeable to the ordinary consciousness in that it is not there for the consciousness; it is already there, but it is not there for consciousness. Something is missing in the place, and therefore one sees the ego. It's really like having a white wall and not painting a spot with white; then you see the black. And so, we actually see our ego in ordinary consciousness as the extinguished. And so it is during waking: the ego is initially always asleep; but it seems to be sleeping through thoughts, ideas, and feelings, and therefore the ego is also perceived in ordinary consciousness, that is, it is thought to be perceived. So we can say that our ego is initially not perceived directly.

"Now, a prejudiced psychology, believes that this ego actually sits inside man; where his muscles are, his flesh is, his bones are and so on, there is also the ego inside. If you were only a little over the life, you would very soon realize that it is not so. But it is hard to bring such a reflection before people today. I tried it in 1911 in my lecture at the Philosophers' Congress in Bologna. But nobody has understood this lecture until today. 

"I tried to show how it is with the ego. This self actually lies in every perception, that is actually in everything that makes an impression on us. Not in my flesh and bones lies the ego, but in what I can perceive through my eyes. If you see a red flower anywhere: in your ego, in all your experience, which you have, by giving yourself to the red, you can not separate the red from the flower. With all this you have at the same time given the ego; the ego is connected with your soul content. But your soul content, that's not in your bones! Your soul content, you spread out in the whole room. So this 'I', that is even less than the air in you that you are breathing in, even less than the air that was previously in you. This ego is connected with every perception and with everything that is basically apart from you. It works only inside because it sends the forces into it from perception. And further, the ego is still connected with something else: you only need to move, that is, to develop your will. However, since your ego goes with you or the ego participates in the movement- whether you are slowly sneaking, whether you are walking, whether you are moving in the lap-step or somehow turning and the like, whether you dance or jump, that's what I do with the ego. 

"Everything that comes from activity on your part is what the ego does. But that's not in you either. You think it takes you with you. When you dance a dance - do you think the dance is in you? It would not have room in you! What would be that place? But the ego is there, the ego is doing the rounds. So in your perceptions and in your activity, there sits the ego. But that's actually never in you in the fullest sense of the word - much like your stomach is in you - but it's actually always something, this "me", which is basically outside of me. It is just as out of the head as it is outside the legs, except that walking is very much involved in the movements that make the legs. The ego is really very much involved in the movement that makes the legs. The head, however, is less involved in the ego."

(Ref . GA 205, p. 218ff )