Our picture of man is still controversial. For--and that is ever again the salient point: Is man this physical body? But is it not striking that everyone, in speaking of this body, will say that he has a body. How naturally we separate this body from our ego, making it a possession, which is not identical with the ego. Therefore--as distinguished from the body--we speak also of a "soul". But what is this soul? What do we picture to ourselves by this catchword?

This missing dimension is discussed in this book. Only this enables us to recognise those hidden connections that lie behind the façade of outward appearances; a façade along which we--let us be honest--proceed rather unsuspectingly and helplessly. For--unfortunately--a mystery still surrounds the coming-into-being of man. Of course it hardly concerns the physical side of our existence, but rather all that actually determines our being man. And therefore it is necessary to consider this "being man" from the spiritual point of view.