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Why do We Have Twelve Senses?

When we speak of the twelve human senses, we do not mean anything physical. Physically, there are hundreds of sense organs divided into many different functions. It is their stimuli that the twelve senses receive and absorb. With each of the twelve senses we look into a different layer of our being.

Upper senses

  • sense of I
  • sense of thoughts
  • sense of sounds and words
  • sense of hearing

Middle senses

  • sense of warmth
  • sense of sight
  • sense of taste
  • sense of smell

Lower senses

  • sense of balance
  • sense of movement
  • sense of life
  • sense of touch

Each of the twelve senses has its connection to sense organs. Some only to very specific ones, others to a multitude of similar ones. Experience shows that it's similar to how we function ourselves. If my car breaks down, I can ask the neighbour if he'll lend me his (provided, of course, that we get along well). That is why I can experience a tone as light or dark, for example. Or, if my hearing fails due to a defect, I can 'hear' the vibration of a tuning fork placed on my knee through my bones.


With our sensory organization we take in something that is outside of us, outside of the nervous system that pervades our body. What comes after the sensory process is no longer a material impression, but experiences, sensations, feelings, thoughts. Accordingly, before or beyond what makes an impression on us is something that is not material only, and to this we react inwardly, we try to think it, recognize it, feel it etc.

This is where blood comes into play. It carries our lives, our desires, our breath and inspires us. And even feeds the nerves! As the carrier of the I, the blood nourishes and warms our soul. The twelve senses are the I's tool. We feed on them. They bring us closer to the world and make us hope to even penetrate it. But what is the world?

And why are there twelve senses? And why four upper, four middle, four lower? Does that have something to do with how the body is built, with the evolutionary stages of the earth, with the four elements, with earth, water, air and warmth? Are not the substance-forming forces of the elemental beings, the hands and fingers of the spiritual world, active in those elements? If the senses are so important to us, what do we actually want to perceive? Why are we all "high sensation seekers" in one way or another?

This course does not answer these questions theoretically. It addresses the four elements and the lower senses in many ways. Let yourself be surprised. And experience that your vitality, your self-perception and your health react very positively to this attempt.

2021-04 Twelve Senses and zodiac  - Eurythmy4you