117. Anthroposophy and Science I

1. Anthroposophy aims to provide an understanding of the human being; it begins with its results where science ends, which alone is accepted as such in the broadest circles today - but it also begins with its research methods where this science ends.

2. Nevertheless, it is not opposed to this science. It must, however, see how it is fought by it. But it believes that this science is becoming quite unscientific in this very struggle.

3. This science is based on observation, experiment and rational consideration. In its pursuit, limits are reached in relation to the external world and to human beings. Natural science does not penetrate behind the sensory world. Here, speculation with the mind takes place. But one speculates in the void. Self-knowledge does not penetrate beyond memory. There one mystifies into the soul nebula. - False mysticism.

4. Science would have to have the courage to phenomenalism in nature and materialism in relation to man.

5. If one wants to recognize something different, one must become aware of other forces in the human being, and also consciously apply them.

6. You have to start at the end of science. With the ability to remember. Forming images – strengthening the power of imagination – manageable images. – You know that you are still working from the physical. But you only stick to what the body can form, not to what it forms through external impressions.

7. One must completely free oneself from the body. This is achieved by suppressing the images with willpower. The power of meditation now proves to be a real power - and consciousness takes on a spiritual content: the creative aspect of the individual being comes into consciousness. - The etheric body as the shaper of the physical. Because one sees how the soul and spirit are formed. One must come to shape one's organs. The brain, so to speak, remains elastic.

8. But you can also suppress this individuality. Then you experience yourself in the existence before birth - in a spiritual-soul world. You have to learn to regulate your emotions - this is how you learn to see how the soul is placed into the organism from the spiritual-soul world. The strength that one develops intervenes in the rhythm of the soul organism. One comes to distinguish the soul rhythm from the bodily rhythm. Like the breath, so the interplay of the prenatal and the experiences of life. One sees that which passes through death. One only comes to shape the soul.

9. Complete self-education. This makes a person an unbiased observer of themselves. You become the judge of yourself. You do not change your life – otherwise it would be pathological – but you recognize the results of previous lives in this one. Freedom is completely compatible with this. Just as you do not feel limited in your freedom by yesterday, even though you depend on it. Free action comes from thought.

10. One sees the dependence of the metabolism on the will. A decision – pulling oneself together – action: strength is drawn from the organization – physical strength is transformed into spiritual strength; but now, through this counteraction, one shapes one's subsequent life. One sees the creative aspect in the doing.

11. Through imagination, the organic interior is revealed. This is the stimulus for medicine. - The relationship to the environment. And on the other hand for art.

12. Through inspiration, stimulus for social life.

13. For religious life.

14. [breaks off]