# The World of the Spirit and Its Impact on Physical Existence

## GA 150 — 13 April 1913, Erfurt

### IV. The Influence of the Dead on the Living World

*For the inauguration of the Johannes Raffael School.*

It is a great joy for us from the various places of our anthroposophical work to have been able to meet in this city, where some of our friends have been working together for a long time to try to develop anthroposophical life for spiritual development, sometimes under difficult circumstances. And the fruit of this work is this Johannes Raffael branch. When we come together with our friends from Erfurt and are able to dedicate this branch, we may direct our souls to the significance of anthroposophical work in the present for the development of humanity in general with a few introductory thoughts.

My dear friends, how do our anthroposophical branches come about? If you think about it, they actually arise in a wonderful way, as it were. For they flourish here and there, as it were, like spiritual natural products, and those who feel called by their enthusiasm for the cause to found such a branch stand there, for their feeling and through what stands as secret forces behind these feelings, like a spiritual power. They feel that they must do something. A branch is not founded by the external culture of our time, but from the hearts of those who feel called to do so. In our culture today, there is nothing that could approach people and suggest, so to speak, from the outside that they work with anthroposophy. For those who decide to work with anthroposophy have much more to expect from the promotion of our endeavors than comfort and recognition. There is no current or endeavor of the present time that seeks to win souls for anthroposophy, and anyone who looks at what our anthroposophical movement is will attest that it does not operate in an agitative way in the usual sense. Apart from the fact that external circumstances do not allow lecturers to go anywhere other than where they are called, we understand the essence of the movement to be that we try everything to offer people the opportunity to hear something; but they should approach anthroposophical work. When they see that propaganda is being done, they will see that it has nothing to do with the current we represent, and that is how any movement based on occultism should act. It should be left to the souls themselves to come. And then this movement sees that anthroposophical branches flourish here and there because what flows into the movement continues to work in the right karmic sequence. And as a rule it turns out that the existing movement is brought to the branches. It is important to emphasize that the branches arise despite all the prevailing prejudices. There must be enthusiastic souls who, of their own accord, take the initiative to establish such branches.

From the outset, we cannot count on a great deal of support, and those who are enthusiastic about our work should not fear ridicule and mockery. They have to be prepared for that and also for the fact that the work will initially be difficult and full of sacrifices. We have never had a different experience; disappointment upon disappointment is often experienced. Public lectures are held again and again, but we have actually only had failures where we allowed ourselves to be discouraged by initial failures. Where we calmly observed that the first lecture was attended by five people, the second remained completely empty, and yet continued the work, we have also ultimately had success to report. We should make ourselves independent of immediately visible successes, because it is easy to feel encouraged by successes, but it is difficult not to slacken. The latter presupposes that we have no external support. So it turns out that our branches have to work, often from an early age. Misunderstanding upon misunderstanding occurs, but one should educate oneself to find what is right.

Sometimes we found a different echo. I was invited to a city – I will not mention the name – two or three times to give lectures. When there was no success, the person in question said: Now it is enough, people should now come and ask us for lectures. – I told him that we would probably have to wait a long time for that – and we are still waiting for it today. I am well aware that it is appropriate here to speak of our friends with gratitude, after they have worked hard for years. Those who came here with them will feel the gratitude. The thoughts that are directed here by our friends will have a strengthening effect, and we will come further if we stay together faithfully. Supporting souls is the main thing for spiritual work; the more support they receive, the better the work will succeed. I would like to say that this Erfurt branch has expressed how deeply it feels connected to our way of working and our attitude through an external sign, and this feeling of connection will be an inner spiritual impulse for the success of the work.

In a way, it is somewhat daring to go into specific details of anthroposophical research, and in a way I may describe it as an achievement of our work that our friends' immersion in anthroposophy has led us to the realization that one cannot just develop theories, but that working leads to insights. It is precisely in these areas that the strangest discoveries are made. It is curious that people on the outside, who know nothing about anthroposophical work, are beginning to criticize the concrete research in such circles, without having any idea what spiritual work is needed to establish, for example, what is said in my book 'The Spiritual Guidance of the Human Being and Humanity'. They set about criticizing how research is conducted in this field. For example, the two Jesus children are criticized. If one adheres to general truths, it may be that people can have a say. But when it comes to the particular, there is nothing to be done but remain silent. Every person should say to themselves: It is indeed strange to me when such assertions are made, but they do not concern me.

But it is all the more valuable when our Erfurt friends feel connected to these special things. For no other things are communicated than those which can be verified by the means at our disposal. It is one of these truths that John the Baptist is the same soul as Raphael. It is therefore a beautiful spiritual deed for me to call this branch the Johannes-Raffael-Branch, in order to express the intimate perception of a spiritually researched truth. That is why this consecration is also an intimate consecration. By leaning on such an occult truth with a name, we proclaim that we stand together in loyalty with regard to things that are most intimate to us. And then the words become something profound, spoken by the bearer of the name as Novalis, which sounded at the beginning of our celebration today.

We must seek the most important thing in the feelings and emotions that unite us. They cannot arise otherwise than on the basis of our knowledge. But we must not be comfortable. Our knowledge must be kindled into a feeling of togetherness, and if it corresponds to the intentions of our friends, if I commit the consecration with a few words, then I may say calmly: to utter these words is extremely satisfying, it is a consecration that corresponds to the heart. Therefore, I may say: let what I say to you be an impulse for what we have begun. You will work under the protection of the powers and authorities, of which we know that they invisibly rule among us: the Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings, when we carry out our work in love and loyalty. What ruled you when you tried to give your branch a name out of an intimate impulse, I may express at this moment: The protective powers that watch over us and give us impulses for our work, which we know are called the Masters of Wisdom and of the Harmony of Feelings, I call upon the protectors of the work so that the branch may flourish and be a center in this city for what we long for as spiritual progress. —- And with that, the opportunity is given for you to tie in with something I said for the friends gathered in Weimar, to tie in in a certain way, without it being necessary for each of us to have heard it.

It concerns the life between death and a new birth. It has been said that after leaving the physical plane, a person can, in a sense, have difficulty in connecting with those who have remained behind on earth. It may be possible that the one who has passed through the gate of death knows of someone he has left behind, knows that I had such experiences with him until I passed through the gate of death. What is experienced together on earth lives on in the consciousness of the dead. But often such a connection cannot be made if the person left behind develops thoughts that are not spiritual in nature.

If someone is left behind on earth and only very rarely fills his soul with spiritual thoughts, then the soul is one to which the deceased soul has no access. This refers to the way in which the living can make contact with the dead.

A certain line of research gave me strange insights into communication with the dead. At first it might seem surprising that John the Baptist brought into the world the prophetic activity, which was imbued with the impulses of the will, and then appeared again in such a wonderfully unified way in the soul of Raphael, completely surrendered to a deep devotion to the world. Much in spiritual research seems surprising to us. Much of it seems dangerous to us because it is so obvious. And when we then go deeper into the matter, it has a shattering effect on the soul when we see that many things are different from what we had thought. For the one who has recognized as true such a fact as the identity of John and Raphael, as elucidated here, it is important that he maintains a sense of wonder. I can assure those who are not able to research such facts that something does not come to light when it is sought; such things come unsought. Thinking about such things a lot helps very little. What helps most is being able to wait calmly until inspiration comes. And then it is good if you can be somewhat amazed at what arises.

The straight path of the intellect is not suitable for occult research. Being amazed leads to gradually recognizing that what was amazing becomes understandable. So it showed me one day that with Raphael, who painted in an amazing way, something else was having an effect in his soul, and I was able to discover that what was having an effect there was nothing other than what came from his father. He died when Raphael was only ten years old. This father might have lived a little longer, I mean, of course, hypothetically. He could have had the strength to live longer, but he carried these powers over into the spiritual world, and from there these powers can have a powerful effect. The father was not a great painter, but he was inwardly a painter; he lived in pictorial ideas that he could not realize while he was still in the physical body. From the spiritual world he sent the forces to his son, and this young Raphael was therefore able to become such a great painter. He acquired the pictorial ability through what the father sent him from the spiritual world. This does not belittle Raphael, of course, but it should only be shown how forces from the spiritual world work down into the physical world. Lessing made a remarkable statement. He said that Raphael would have become a great painter even if he had been born without hands. The forces that were in the Baptist John were transformed into the painter Raphael.

If we can gain knowledge of the influence of the spiritual world on the physical world, then life will be greatly advanced.

For a long time I had to carry out an educational activity. It was my task to teach children who had lost their father. If you educate in a conscientious way, you have to take all circumstances into account. You have to ask what the abilities are, how the environment affects the children, and so on. I had tried to take into account everything that could be taken into account externally, but there was still a difficulty. Then I said to myself, the father has died and he had certain intentions with his children. When I then took into account the father's will, it worked. The father's willpower was present. So you can see how the dead continue to have an effect on the living.

Nevertheless, it should be maintained that the dead cannot know what their survivors are doing on earth, as stated this morning. When someone has passed through the gate of death and knows that his impulses have an effect on the physical world, it can be a pain for him that he cannot perceive anything of his survivors. The dead person can feel an inner uneasiness when he cannot know what is happening down there. But this feeling can be removed if we send him nourishment. We, the living, must ourselves bring about the opportunity for the dead to perceive us. Now consider that we can easily, so to speak, ignite spiritual life in our soul through a thought. It is an important positive thought when we know that the dead person is there, within reach for us, when he has passed through the gate of death, because that is a thought that can never be brought about by dealing with the sensual-physical world. In our soul life, we should clearly carry the conviction that the dead person lives.

You see, in the times when there was nothing to confuse the mind, it was not exactly necessary for anthroposophy to exist, but times change during the development of humanity. Not so long ago, every soul, even if it occupied itself with the sciences that were common at the time, could be convinced of the life of the deceased. Not only are those who doubt that the dead exist confused, but the other souls are also confused, and that is also the reason why anthroposophy had to come into the world. We know that the dead live. What we hold in the depths of our souls is what matters and we often have no idea about it. We are all in the midst of the mechanical age, which has given us railways, ships, telegraphs and other inventions. What does it mean, for example, to travel in an electric train, in contrast to the fact that not so long ago it was not possible to travel in an electric train? It means that one is surrounded by a purely mechanical structure. This produces an image, which may remain unconscious, but it is there and has an effect on the soul and is likely to rob us of our belief in the life of the soul after death. This life is uprooted. Belief arose in the face of the old stagecoaches, but not in the face of today's means of transport; greater and stronger forces are needed for that.

I would now like to start from something I have said before. Some people want to stop the anthroposophical movement. When the first railroad was to be built, the Medical College was asked what it thought about the project in terms of the health of travelers. The doctors expressed serious concerns about the operation of the railroad and strongly advised against it. But if the railroad was to be built anyway, then it was absolutely necessary that high wooden walls be erected along the line, otherwise the passengers would undoubtedly suffer concussions from the rapidly changing images. But this expert opinion could not stop progress, and just as little will the anthroposophical movement be stopped by the opposing efforts. I did not mean to make fun of the Medical Council, I just wanted to say that progress cannot be stopped by such an expert opinion; it takes its course despite its opponents. Indeed, the railways have made people more nervous, and humanity has changed because of them. The whole structure of the soul life has changed; people would have remained more inwardly focused without the railways. The report had indeed made a recommendation, but it had been right.

The course of evolution on Earth is such that it had to happen as it did. Anthroposophy will not want to scale back anything, but it will be clear that faith could arise against the old stagecoaches, but not against the railways.

Anthroposophy works in the subconscious and belief in the spiritual world will be an important factor in the further development of people. In the broadest circles, belief is no longer sincere. Therefore, the reasons must be presented that flow from anthroposophy. If we pay attention to this, we find that in older times people had a spiritual inclination towards the dead, they could give them sufficient strength. Today spiritual knowledge is necessary and there we see that the spiritual thought of the survival of the soul must be encouraged by knowledge. We can say: because our time has taken on a certain form, it was necessary to let Anthroposophy flow into this time and this current will make it possible again for the living to feel connected to the dead. Man need not be disconsolate because he remains behind here, for he can become a helper to the deceased.

But the dead can also help us. Some people are well aware of what they owe to the dead. In terms of spiritual knowledge, much can be owed to the dead. For example, the experience that the dead, especially those who died young, were helpers was always extremely important to me. It is not always necessary for someone who has passed through the gate of death to have been intellectually outstanding here on earth if he wants to help the living. Young children often die, and yet they are often advanced souls in the spiritual world and can tell us a lot. Those who look at things only intellectually will not be able to penetrate such secrets.

I said earlier that the dead can show us this and that. How does that come about? I will give an example here. I have said before how it is with Raphael's painting 'The School of Athens'. Usually, the two central figures are interpreted as Plato and Aristotle. This is a false representation, and anyone who, like the Baedeckers, deals with the picture and says that the individual figures represent these or those personalities will not be able to read much into this important picture. One of the figures is Paul, who appears among the philosophers in Athens. I could understand many things if I traced back through the Akasha Chronicle to see what had led Raphael to paint this picture. Through other research I had gained the conviction that the way the Gospels came about had nothing to do with the “School of Athens”. The writers of the Gospels had occasionally established their data according to the stars, and so had practised astrology. That is a fact in itself and initially has no connection at all with the painting by Raphael. Now I had the luck or the mercy: a soul who had died relatively young drew my attention to the connection between the right and left sides of the painting and I was told that the words from the Gospel of Luke that had been in the painting had been painted over later and words from the Pythagorean school were written on them. Now one also understands the gesture that over there is pointed to astronomy with the compass, and I could determine that on the right side of Raphael should be shown stellar research. And what was recognized there was written on the other side. So from astronomy gospels were written. Now, you see, it was important to me to draw your attention to the connection between the living and the dead. The one who undertakes something like this, when he has passed through the gate of death, can face spiritual events in the same way that a child faces nature. It looks at nature but does not understand it. But nevertheless, out of intuition, it can communicate wonderful things.

What is developed with intellectual thoughts does not come to the dead. The living must be available to the dead. The dead must be able to turn to the thoughts of the living, and what he experiences must be able to be seen in the mirror of the thoughts of the living within him.

Anthroposophy would never exist in the spiritual world if people had not acquired it on earth. It is therefore true that initiates who work on earth have the thoughts in their souls in this roundabout way, and that the dead can accept these thoughts. It cannot be said that we want to read to the dead, since the dead live in the world of which we are thinking. Children also live in the world we are talking about. Children do not have what science brings on earth, but they can absorb anthroposophy in the spiritual world. However, this anthroposophy can only reach the dead from the earth.

I hope we understand each other on this point. It is indeed the case that when someone comes to you from the beyond, they experience something like a longing. However, they do not know what this longing is leading to. You can work with the dead in all kinds of ways, depending on how you are led to relate to them. If you have spiritual wisdom, it is illuminated, and the dead perceive the light. But if the soul does not absorb spiritual wisdom, it remains dark and the dead cannot perceive the soul. The fact that the dead can live with us depends on what we can offer them.

This is the other side of what we discussed this morning. We bring about what gives the dead inner satisfaction, and that will indeed be the most beautiful fruit of anthroposophical life and work: not just having faith in the life of the dead, but increasingly becoming a work, a soulful work that attracts the dead. And that will become more and more necessary for the development of culture. The less a person is imbued with spiritual wisdom, the less they will remain connected to what remains of the life between death and a new birth. In the physical world, souls will become increasingly impoverished and cold if they do not turn to the spiritual life. They can only be inwardly strengthened through contact with the spiritual world.

One thought will strengthen our soul: that our work need not be concluded when we pass through the gate of death, not for the progress of civilization, but that we can work down if our work is accepted below. If the spiritual world were accessible to us without man having to do anything, he would become careless. Man must do something himself. This is precisely a proof for us of the fundamental truth that flows from anthroposophy.