The Cycle of the Illogical– How illogical thinking leads to constriction in the soul

Originally posed in German on 22^nd May 2026

The “cycle of the illogical” describes an inner process, in which one-sided or egotistically influenced thinking leads to a constricting of the soul, self-delusion and a lack of development. Integral logic, on the other hand, forms the basis for insightful knowledge, relationships and soul development.

by Heinz Grill

What is illogical thinking?

Illogical¹⁾The term “illogical‘ is not used here in the sense of a formal logic, but rather describes a one-sided, non-integral form of understanding reality. thinking, that usually manifests as an inadequate more felt awareness, does indeed have an apparent form of human equanimity. It is not uncommon for some people to happily express absolutes even though they reveal a lack of coherent knowledge. Partial snippets of life are valued more highly than a genuinely integral logic. Whilst everything illogical is materialistic and one-sidedly fixated, logic forms a beautiful and coherent reality that can be comprehended with thought and creates a harmony in feeling.

How thinking influences feeling

How does a person think and how does the feeling and acting follow as a result? When one egotistical or materialistic view²⁾Here ‘materialistic‘ does not primarily mean scientific thinking but rather a human view point that is reduced to outer advantage and personal limitations. follows another, the sequence may appear to follow a logical pattern, yet it conveys only a limited truth. Actually, a person’s life that is egotistical and at the same time materialistic is illogical, and not only that but also limiting, restricting and, ultimately, even destructive. Logic is a part of world creation; it forms a core element of development, and the human soul secretly strives to elevate the incomplete parts of a limited statement to a truthful and valid reality. The detail wants to become a whole. The soul wants to increasingly immerse into a wholeness³⁾The understanding of wholeness is also of central importance to health. For example, in order to strengthen the immune system, human beings need the confrontation with evil and deceit in order to fulfil their need for wholeness. and not limit itself through restricting part realities.

Why excuses limit people inwardly.

A classic example can clearly illustrate this cycle, that arises from illogical thinking and feeling. A teacher encourages his students to study their subject thoroughly and to present it in the coming weeks. Once the preparation period has passed, the students come up with the excuse that they have not been able to understand the topics and therefore cannot present their initial expertise. Simultaneously the weather conditions had made it difficult to concentrate on the content of study. They had, however, tried very hard. The task was too difficult and only accessible to highly experienced experts in the field.

In these words, a lack of relationship is very clearly expressed and even a negation of interest, which carries a subtle undertone of accusation: it is all the teacher’s fault because the task he set was too difficult. The students do not want to realise the content and therefore remain in their current state of mind, they fail to develop, and if it is further thought through, it follows logically that no sensible presentation can be given. Antipathy towards the object aimed for prevails over sympathy, and a cycle of withdrawal – away from the topic and into the personal experience – dictates the further mood. They claim they did try but the whole thing was simply too much for them.

The connection between logic and soul development

Every activity that actually becomes initiated in will, in thought and in feeling in a real way is logical and genuine. On the first day of approaching a new topic, the thoughts and content to be learnt appear of a greater dimension, difficult, grey, without differentiation, strange, perhaps even unapproachable, and a feeling of powerlessness takes hold of many learning souls. Perhaps for some people these soul-feelings of being totally inadequate may persist on the second day. If students stay on the topic, and reorientate themselves towards the learning content, they will usually already experience on the third day a first ‘aurora’, a brightening of the heavy and oppressing layer of cloud in their thinking. Continuing the learning discipline over several days and weeks always leads to a success, and even when this gain enters to various degrees with different people, it is nevertheless always perceptible. Those who show no aptitude also still learn and gain a growing connection to the content of the topic. A healthy human common sense must come from this truth and logic of learning itself because when people do not acknowledge these prerequisites, they fall into their own personal emotional and mental part of the soul and readily seek for materialistic justifications as to why they cannot produce any results. A cycle of illogical interpretation with evasion of consequential learning steps can unfortunately lead the whole human consciousness and life into a growing negativity.

The cycle of illogicality must therefore be seen as a reality, because all illogical modes of explanation, attempts at interpretation, hasty conclusions, speculations and intellectually materialistic evaluations generate precisely those feelings that fixate people more into their bodies and ultimately cast a shadow over the sensitive region of their hearts. This over-shadowing, however, is not experienced as suffering but compensated for with a false feeling of self-worth. The cycle of the illogical ends in the constriction of the physical.

Materialism and constriction of the soul

Illogical thinking, feeling and action creates this actually transparent cycle of self-illusion and false feeling of self, often even of arrogance and dogmatism. A person even once said, that they have been specially chosen by God because during the war, through providence and premonition, they had not boarded the passenger ship ‘Wilhelm Gustloff’, which sunk in the tragic catastrophe in the Baltic Sea in winter with 10,000 passengers on board who were fleeing. Instead of empathy, this person developed a spiritually exaggerated interpretation of themselves, revealing a narcissistic and, to a certain extent, delusional inflatedness of their own chosen status.⁴⁾ The terms ‘narcissistic’ and ‘delusional inflatedness’ are not used here in the sense of a clinical diagnosis but rather describe psychologically-phenomenologically observable tendencies of self-inflation and interpretation of reality. They said, “Thanks to the providence we, my family and I, were so strongly inspired by God that we chose to flee over land and therefore do not belong to the other ‘ungodly’ people.”

These and similar feelings seem particularly at odds with the heart centre, and the empathetic and edifying human potential – which would constitute a relational, orientation to the centre, closeness and inner connectedness to truths – is overshadowed. From the perspective of the soul the human consciousness actually becomes impoverished and constantly compensates with further materialism and forms of egotistical desire. The treasure in the inner, the reality and logic, the content of the soul are missing and therefore people then constantly require very physically orientated forms of behaviour. The logical conclusion, however, would be: if the divine incarnation had indeed boarded the ship, according to the logic, the ship would have had to have been saved, since such a high person never makes false decisions and always belongs to the reprieved.

Equanimity in yoga and according to Rudolf Steiner

Logic corresponds to a way of thinking that is to a large extent integral and directed towards content, while illogicality only takes partial areas into account and disguises itself behind materialistic explanations and one-sided perceptions. When Rudolf Steiner names equanimity⁵⁾Rudolf Steiner describes equanimity within the framework of the ‘six basic exercises’ as the ability to inwardly balance sympathy and antipathy in order to develop a freer, non-reactive consciousness. The term appears also in the book ‘The knowledge of higher worlds and its attainment’ as one of the six basic qualities of the heart centre. as the sixth point for the heart centre and required his students to freely approach sympathy and antipathy in the same way, it also seems important to note that the consciousness must actually be founded in integral thinking and not, in contrast, slip into personal one-sidedness with preferences for sympathies or antipathies of emotions. In yoga, equanimity means forming a kind of distinction between vidya and avidya.⁶⁾ In yoga philosophy (particularly in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as well as in Vedanta) vidya is described as knowledgeable wisdom in the sense of penetrating reality, while avidya means a lack of wisdom or false perception of reality., knowledge and lack of knowledge. Giving materialistic reasons to excuse a situation or to explain one’s personal failure is an expression of avidya, of lack of knowledge, and in the strict context of yoga is considered a cheap excuse in the face of meaningful development.

The logic of egotistical and materialistic attitudes largely dominates the whole world. For example, are people healthy and successful as a result of their real and true activity, ability and intelligence or do they take advantage of others that sacrifice their energy in the wrong way? Subservience and power, lies and wanting to be lied to, finesse and naivety, often work together logically and seemingly form an integral whole. The teachings of yoga, if taken seriously – and this applies not only to yoga, it would also be valid for Anthroposophy and furthermore for every spiritual experience – name this attitude a non-being, as a poverty of the heart and an illusion that only has an apparent, and really only apparent, existence during one’s lifetime. The cycle of illogical interpretation of various situations, however, does not want to release people from its spell, because it is an access to power by the tempter who takes hold of the human soul.

Hegel’s thought on wholeness

Logic was very important to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and he wrote the “Science of Logic”. A key statement from this great and very thoughtful philosophy is the following,

“Truth is an integral whole—a whole whose essential nature is brought to completion only by undergoing development.”⁷⁾ In the ‘Science of Logic’ and the ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’ Hegel develops the idea that truth is not to be understood in isolated statements but in the context of the whole and its development. (W. F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, Forward, para. 23)