13. Theosophy and Science

Among the many accusations that have been made against Theosophy is that it is unscientific. And since science, or rather what is called science today, has an immense amount of authority, such an accusation can do great harm to the aspiring Theosophical movement. The “scholarly world” does not want to deal with it at all, because it does not know how to deal with the facts claimed by Theosophy due to its education in scientific ideas. This can be understood if one has familiarized oneself with the ideas and experiences that are currently taught to lawyers, doctors, teachers, chemists, engineers, etc. during their training. How far removed is all this from the content of theosophical literature. What other way of thinking prevails in a chemical lecture than in the teachings of the leading exponents of Theosophy. It is not going too far to say that there is currently no greater obstacle to understanding theosophical claims than the possession of a doctorate.

This, however, is detrimental to the spread of Theosophy. For it is only too understandable that anyone who does not fully understand things will be taken aback by such a fact. And so it is not always out of malice that it is said: you theosophists only attract the uneducated classes; you are unable to win over people who are at the 'height of science'.

From this it can easily be concluded that Theosophy is on the wrong track and that it should adapt itself more to the way of thinking of the scientific circles. If one could only see that the teachings of reincarnation and karma could be scientifically substantiated just as easily as the other laws of nature, then the matter would be settled; the learned world would be won over and theosophy would prevail.

This is a well-meant belief; but it arises only from a fatal prejudice. This consists in the opinion that the scientific way of thinking, which is common today, could ever come to theosophy out of itself. But this is not the case at all; and only those who unconsciously carry the theosophical views they have received elsewhere into contemporary science can be deceived in this way. It is perfectly possible to carry all theosophical wisdom into science in this way, and one will not find the slightest contradiction between what is true in science and the assertions of the theosophists. But it is impossible to extract theosophy from what is officially taught as science today. One can be the greatest scholar in any field in the sense of the present; one does not become a theosophist through this scholarship.

Anyone who has given the matter a little thought must realize this. What the theosophists claim are not conclusions based on any ideas or concepts, but supersensory facts. And facts can never be found through mere logic and deduction, but only through experience. Now, our official science is concerned only with the facts of sensory experience. All its ideas and concepts are based solely on this experience. Therefore, as long as it proceeds from this premise, it can never say anything about non-sensory facts. Facts are never proved by logic, but only by demonstrating them in reality. Let us assume that the whale is still an unknown animal today. Will anyone be able to prove its existence by drawing conclusions? Even if he is an expert on all other animals, he will not be able to do so. But the most uneducated person will prove the existence of the whale if he discovers it in reality. And how ridiculous a scholar would appear if he were to confront such an uneducated person and say: according to science, such animals as whales are not possible, so there are none; the discoverer must have been mistaken.

No, mere scholarship is of no use against theosophy. Nothing can decide its facts except supersensible experience. People must be helped to this supersensible experience, not referred to barren scholarship.

Now, of course, one will immediately have an objection at the ready. He is as cheap as possible. But if people do not have any extrasensory experiences, how can you expect them to believe what a few people say who claim to be clairvoyants and to have such experiences? You should at least refrain from teaching theosophical experiences to a non-clairvoyant audience and only present them to those whom you have first made clairvoyant.

This sounds tolerable, but cannot be maintained in the face of the true facts. For, in the first place, those who speak thus would also have to find all popular scientific lectures and writings highly objectionable. Or do the numerous readers of Haeckel's “Natural History of Creation” or Carus Sterne's “Becoming and Passing Away” all have the opportunity to convince themselves of the reality of what is asserted there? No, here too, the faith of the public is appealed to, and it is assumed that they will trust those who are doing research in the laboratory or at the observatory. But secondly, the faith that is assumed for supersensory facts is quite different from that for sensory facts. When someone tells what he has seen through a microscope or telescope, he certainly presupposes that his listener can convince himself of the truth of what is told if he acquires the artifice that must be used in such research and if he procures the tools in question. But the mere telling of the story does not help at all to such verification. It is different with the supersensible facts. Whoever speaks of them does not relate anything that cannot be experienced in the human soul itself. And the narrative itself can be the stimulus to lure out the powers of one's own observation that are hidden in the soul. Speak to someone as many words as you like about small organisms that can be seen through a microscope: your words will never make the secrets of the microscope visible to him. He must procure the means for the verification from outside. But speak to him of that which can be found in the soul itself, and your word can as such make the beginning of conjuring up the slumbering powers of vision of his inner being. This is the great difference between the communication of supersensible and sensible facts, that in the former the means for confirmation lie in the soul of every human being himself, in the latter not. It is not the intention here to speak in favor of that superficial view of theosophy which always maintains that in order to fathom divine truth, each one need only sink into his own inner being, where he will find the “God-man,” who is the source of all wisdom. If a person delves into his soul at any stage of his existence and then imagines that the “higher self” is speaking within him, in most cases it will only be the ordinary “I” that brings forth what it has acquired from its environment, through education, etc. As true as it is that divine truth is enclosed in the soul itself, it is also true that it can best be brought out of it by having the paths shown to you by a more advanced person who has already found within himself what you yourself are seeking. What the healing teacher tells you that he has found within himself, you can find within yourself if you allow yourself to be guided by his instructions. The “higher self” is the same in all people, and it is found most surely when one does not shut oneself off in vanity, but allows this “higher self” to work on oneself from where it already speaks in a person. As in all other things, teachers are a necessity for the seeking soul.

But with this reservation it is true that everyone can find the truth of the supersensible facts within themselves. Anyone who has only impartiality, perseverance, patience and good will will soon see a feeling of intuitive agreement arise within him when such facts are recounted. And if he follows this feeling, then he is on the right path. For this feeling is the first of those powers that awaken the slumbering powers of the soul. When truth presents itself to us as it has been seen by the clairvoyant soul, then it speaks to us through its own power. Of course, this is only the very first step on the path to higher knowledge, and to progress further requires careful training; but this beginning has certainly been laid by listening to the word of truth with an open mind.

How is it that in our time so many people do not feel this way about the communication of supersensible facts? This is simply because the man of the present, and especially the scientifically trained man, has become accustomed to believing only in the testimony of the senses. And such a belief has a paralyzing effect on the unbiased feeling. One must first free oneself from it if one wants to understand the clairvoyant researcher. One must become free of the thought habits created by “science” and its common prejudices. That is, one cannot find the higher truths from this science, but independently of it on the inner paths of the soul. Once you have found access to higher knowledge in this way, you will find that it is confirmed by every true science. And our present-day science in particular will then prove to be the most wonderful proof of higher truth. Just as little as this science is suited to giving the supernatural to those who have not yet found it in any other way, so much can it offer to those who have.

Therefore, the task of the theosophical movement can only be to break the authority and blind following of “scientific” prejudices. This is not to say anything against the achievements of contemporary science, but merely to emphasize the necessity of not blindly following those who interpret this science in the sense of denying supersensible facts.

A scholar educated in the current zeitgeist will only be able to find the expression of the supersensible in his science if he has prepared himself for it through theosophical immersion. No chemistry, no zoology, geology or physiology, as they are now developed, can lead to theosophy in themselves; but they will all be able to serve as proof of supersensible knowledge once this has been gained through the theosophical view. Only when man has received the theosophical sense will he also apply it in science. The theosophical view of the world does not need present-day science to confirm its truth; but this science needs the theosophical deepening.

The objections that can be raised against all this are, of course, numerous. For example, it can be pointed out how contemporary psychology, through the study of the facts of hypnotism, suggestion, etc., endeavors to approach the supersensible. In truth, however, the way in which these things are investigated does not bring one closer to higher knowledge, but only removes one from it. For one seeks to follow misleading paths also in relation to the supersensible. They endeavor to find the supersensible through the external senses. But it is not a matter of dragging the supersensible down to the external senses, but of developing the inner faculties of perception. He who wants to prove the supersensible by external means is like a man who wants to prove to me by all kinds of means in the room that it is nice weather outside, instead of simply opening the window and letting me see the nice weather. No matter how beautiful the experiments, they can only prove that man has more in his soul than what everyday consciousness knows: one will not be able to find more than an external reflection of what reveals itself in its full extent and in its own truth when one follows the inner paths of the soul. — Photograph spirits yourself: for those who do not find the spirit within themselves, you will not prove anything with it. For he will try to prove to you that your photograph was taken in a completely material way. But for the one who has found the spirit within himself, every flower, every stone will be an embodied spirit being, and that is all that you can achieve with the means of science, which is attached to the material. It would be a weakness to accommodate the materialistic consciousness of the time to such an extent that one would try to prove the supersensible to it with its means. Rather, one must make it clear to it that nothing truthful can be achieved with these means.

The attempts at the supernatural undertaken by contemporary scholars are not a beginning of something new, but rather represent the last convulsions of materialism, which cannot rise above the sensual and therefore seeks to satisfy its supernatural needs from the sensual.

One should not lull the higher powers of cognition by nourishing the belief that proof of the supernatural is possible even without their awakening. The theosophist cannot stand on the ground of current scientific prejudices; rather, he must first fertilize science through his higher insights. Once theosophy has found its way into the soul, it will automatically open the doors of science. Theosophy does not need to be made scientific, for it is much more scientific than current science; but science must be made theosophical.

First, one must be led to the supersensible facts, then one can incorporate them into the edifice of science; but one cannot extract them from a science that does not recognize these facts, through logical or other conclusions. Until the sense for the superphysical is developed, no science can do anything with it. Those who repeatedly accuse Theosophy of being unscientific should understand this.

Those who have grown up in the scientific way of thinking of our time may find it difficult to accept what has been said with an open mind. For the suggestion that emanates from this science is great. Its achievements, with their consequence, the present material culture, are overwhelming. But one does not have to be an enemy of this science to turn to theosophy. On the contrary, one becomes its true friend through it. The gold of this science can only be won through theosophy. In what glorious light do Haeckel's discoveries then shine, indeed what a sight do the results of our physiologists, anthropologists, cultural historians, etc. present when seen in the theosophical light, and not with the materialistically biased sense of their present bearers. No one should be reproached for this, not even the slightest. As it is said that great personalities often have the defects of their virtues, so it is also with the currents of the times. In order to make the wonderful discoveries in the field of the world of sense, the researchers had to put aside the paths of the soul for a time. And what one does not practise for a time, one gradually loses the sense of. Just as certain animals with keen eyesight lose their sight if they move into dark caves and continue to live there, or as the muscles of the hand become weak if they are not used to any hard work for a while, so the pathfinders lost their vision of the supersensible in the sensual. They must be appreciated for their positive achievements and there is no need to underestimate them for what they have sacrificed for the sake of these achievements. But what is real is not decided by those who have not seen it, but by those to whom it has revealed itself. Therefore, all the protest of natural scientists cannot be taken into consideration against those who have acquired the ability to see supersensory things. But one cannot gain information about the supersensible from the natural scientists of the present day either. That would be like asking the blind about color. The blind man has an intimate feeling for certain subtleties of the sense of touch; much can be learned from him about them. But to learn about colors, one must direct one's own eye to them. Natural science is important for the sense of touch in the sensual world; but it has nothing to offer for the sight in the supersensible world. The blind man must learn about light from the seeing person; in the same way, it is the task of natural science to learn about the spirit from the theosophist. And those who want to get evidence for the bright light of the spiritual world from the groping natural scientist are on a disastrous path.