Death and Immortality in the Light of Spiritual Science

GA 69d — 9 March 1913, Munich

14. How Can We Know About Supernatural Worlds?

Ladies and gentlemen!

The subject of today's lecture stems from a question that is understandably often asked by those who may have heard about spiritual science and spiritual research in a superficial way and who, due to the habits of thinking and ways of imagining that prevail in wide circles of contemporary society, cannot conceive of how it is possible to gain knowledge of the supersensible worlds. It has often been emphasized here that the point of view of such objections is most understandable to those who themselves stand on the ground of this spiritual research. And it is fair to say that if there were to be any surprise, it would be more surprising if the views represented by spiritual researchers were already finding acceptance in wider circles today than if they were provoking the greatest possible opposition in the widest circles – which is precisely what they must do. The entire height of contemporary culture and the entire development of external economic life in recent centuries make this understandable. It has also been emphasized many times that spiritual science fully recognizes what natural science and the natural scientific approach have achieved for the whole of human culture. But the very height of this scientific approach depended on the spirit of the times, if one may use this term, for a while, and a while in human development is a long time, lasting centuries — a while being taken away from devotion to the spiritual world. It is therefore understandable – because human beings are stimulated to think by the sensory world – that they adopt habits of thinking, ways of imagining, that are unfamiliar with the spiritual world. But it is not only this that leads to opposition to spiritual science; there are also deeper causes involved, so that today's topic “How can human beings know anything about supersensible worlds?” seems quite appropriate.

Well, the very first thing is that through self-knowledge, human beings recognize themselves as supersensible beings and come to understand their own supersensible nature. And there is much in the soul life of human beings that is connected with the cultural achievements of the present and also of humanity as a whole, which stands in the way of true self-knowledge. In their soul life, human beings are, in a sense, never truly alone with their soul, and they must manage to be completely alone with their soul if they want to recognize it in its deepest essence. Namely, knowing [they are] never completely alone. But there is a certain aloneness that occurs when the human being enters a state in which he does not use his outer limbs, but surrenders them to the gravity of the earth, commands the memory and the mind bound to the senses to stand still — this is the case every day when he enters the state of sleep. And the scientific assertion or insight that, in their physicality, when they have fallen asleep, humans offer nothing that can explain what ebbs and flows in the soul until they wake up, that the processes of the sleeping body do not make anything understandable of what goes on in the soul during sleep — this will be unreservedly admitted by scientific knowledge in a relatively short time, [and] that the contents of the soul submerge into the physical body upon awakening [and thus] — as with inhaling the air — become a part of one's own body. The same is true of falling asleep, since the content of the soul leaves the body, so that between falling asleep and waking up one is actually dealing with an entity that is separate from the physical body, which offers no tools for observing it. One can therefore say that the sleeping soul is alone in a certain sense, that is, it is not connected to the outside world through the intellect, the senses, and memory, as the awake person is. But in normal life, the sleeping person loses consciousness when falling asleep; and so it must be said that [where] the person is alone, they are not in a position to observe the soul dwelling in the body. This is also what makes true self-knowledge impossible for the ordinary person.

But now the question arises: Can the human being nevertheless attain this self-knowledge? It will help us if we consider another state of the soul, not in order to draw an analogy, but to visualize the reality of the state of the soul between sleeping and waking. So [the following] is not meant as an analogy, but as a means of communication [to] point to the actual fact: this is the “state of mind” of the current year. In spring, the uplifting, joyful natural world, the plant world, sprouts forth. We see it sprouting in spring, flourishing in summer, dying in autumn, with the exception of perennial plants; during the winter season, it is taken into its bosom, so that it remains imperceptible as plant growth. Let us now assume that human beings were such that, when spring arrives, they would be able to attain a different kind of consciousness, that their consciousness would be dampened and they would be more unconscious towards summer, only to awaken again when nature has withered and died; that on the side of the earth where it is summer, human consciousness would fall asleep, then they would never be able to have any knowledge of the sprouting and budding plant world. What covers the earth in summer would be an unknown world for humans or for a being endowed with their characteristics, a world that would have no effect on their senses — a supersensible world.

Now we have something in human life that actually behaves in this way. For those who delve deeper into it, it is not merely an analogy, but reality. And what confronts humans in this way is actually the whole nature of humans themselves. For what is this sleeping human being, as he is physically presented to our senses? Although outwardly and substantially different from a plant, inwardly he has the value of a plant, which only rises to life but not to consciousness, not even to animal consciousness — in other words, a plant under different living conditions. As a plant-like being, he appears to us in relation to certain forces that must act upon him [so], just as the earth appears to us in summertime, when the sun conjures up the plant cover in a certain way with its warmth and light forces. We also know that we sink into sleep when we have exhausted our strength after a day's work. And we also know that the purpose of sleep is to are conjured up from the depths of life, the same process that we have in the cosmos. And once we have abandoned our old habits of thinking, we will gradually see that bedtime is not merely an analogy, but in the real sense of the word, the summertime of the human soul. Human beings experience the summertime of their souls between falling asleep and waking up. [...] During the waking state, the work of the day and the exertion of the human mind and soul erase the fruits of the plants. Is not the waking state of human beings like the autumn and winter seasons, when what has been produced during the summer is erased from the surface of the earth? The waking state is the soul's winter season [for humans]. This is not merely an analogy. It is very easy to maintain the external analogy in such a way that one finds similarities; that is very easy to do. But that would be an external way of looking at it.

In fact, if a person wants to observe themselves, they cannot come to themselves in the same way [in their summertime] as they can during wintertime, but when they enter their summertime – if they could observe – they lose the forces that must be at work to bring forth a sprouting, budding life; [and] then the person actually enters into unconsciousness. They are actually unable to observe their soul, but [it is as if] they lost consciousness in spring and only regained it in autumn. So we can say that self-knowledge is only possible when the hidden side of one's existence can be revealed.

Now, of course, it is natural to consider a little the peculiarities of the soul's wintertime, that is, the waking state. This is such that the soul is filled with sensations, intentions, ideas, ideals, and so on. When we look at all this, we have to say that human beings actually only experience it halfway, only partially. For if we consider human thinking [outside] the overall outline of human soul life: how does the human being experience this soul winter, when he wants to fulfill his task in relation to life in the outer, physical world? As far as their world of thoughts is concerned, as far as everything their thinking gives them is concerned, they are only interested to the extent that they ask: What do thoughts represent of external realities? What value do thoughts have as images of realities? That is their main interest at first. And the whole of their soul life is permeated by the desire to develop this aspect of their soul life in particular. Another question is much less relevant to this so-called normal spiritual life. That is: Can thinking have any value other than merely depicting something, representing something as in a mirror? Those who would grant thoughts only [this] value — and most people do — are in the same position as an artist who looks at a work of art only in terms of what it depicts. But something quite different is going on here than [mere representation], [and that] happens in our soul. Art would not have such great significance for humanity if it did not constantly carry the soul forward, if it were not something that sinks into the soul like a seed, so that it has experiences that carry it to something completely different than it was before viewing the works of art. It is not a one-sided, pedagogical-pedantic contemplation of works of art [that is beneficial], but [something] like a law of human development in relation to art. Those who only want to accept thoughts in relation to what they depict are like people who only look at a work of art for what it depicts externally. But the soul is accustomed to taking thoughts as having the value of the image. The truth value is sought everywhere, whether the reality value is achieved through thoughts. Thoughts that do not aim at this have their value largely disputed. Philosophy, for example, has every right to do so; it must act in this way. But one must ask whether these concepts really correspond to reality, whether they really refer to something.

But there is another way of measuring the value of thoughts: as an inner means of self-education for the soul. It could be, for example, that they do not correspond to reality in their representation, but that they prove to advance the soul inwardly. Such thoughts, or those used in this way, come into consideration when the soul truly wants to educate itself to self-knowledge.

It has often been said here that when one practices in this way, it is called meditation, concentration, or contemplation. What does all this mean? Nothing other than bringing about a state of the soul that is similar to the state of sleep, in which the soul does not make use of its external limbs, does not receive stimuli through the senses, but through strong willpower – through negative attention, one might say – rejects what everyday life offers.

However, this state differs radically from the state of sleep in that the soul remains fully conscious of itself and yet brings a thought into consciousness; then the soul is concentrated on this thought, then the soul is in concentration or contemplation. This state is not easy to bring about. Long, careful, systematic exercises are necessary to bring about this state. But it causes a whole new life to shine forth in the soul. When it has borne fruit, the soul feels that powers have now awakened that were previously dormant. Therefore, it does not matter what the meditator focuses on; in principle, what matters is that this concentration on the content is undertaken with all one's effort. It is now as if a person exercises their muscles externally through activity; they become stronger as a result. These exercises do not concern the ordinary powers of the soul. But because it is a matter of bringing out other forces from the soul, which aim, for example, to make the soul more energetic and lively, the part of the soul that, for example, only resonates weakly in waking daily life — so it is not the content of the thought that matters, but that the soul does something and, through this activity, awakens something within itself that is also present elsewhere, but lies dormant within it. Through this training, the soul shows that it can also be alone, independent of its physicality — similar to the state of sleep, but again radically different.

Why is the state of sleep unconscious in ordinary life? Because the inner life is so weak, so “timid,” that the power of the soul cannot perceive this inner life. But when forces are awakened, the soul feels itself, even when it disregards its physicality. And now one experiences that the soul can indeed consciously face its summertime, for now one experiences the content of thoughts in a completely different way. In everyday life, they are like grains of wheat that the farmer harvests in the field in the familiar way. They only develop to a certain degree when they serve as food. When they are harvested, they are no different from those used for sowing.

Such are the ordinary thoughts that human beings experience in their winter time: People use these thoughts to give the soul spiritual content, to fill the soul – just as wheat grains are used to provide food. But the thoughts that are used for meditation and concentration are like the wheat grains that are sown, from which dormant powers are brought out, which are made to sprout and grow. Human beings have only come to know the partial effectiveness of their thoughts. Through meditation and concentration, we cause thoughts to sink into our soul life, giving them a completely different essence; they sprout and blossom, and human beings then consciously experience what they otherwise experience unconsciously during their soul summer: a new world, the so-called imaginative world. The fruit of their efforts does indeed appear before their soul. Although they have not raised the soul's summertime to consciousness in quite the same way as in normal life, they have brought what descends into the unconscious during the soul's summertime to sprout and blossom, as if humans were to bring forth vegetation from individual grains of wheat in wintertime. But it is necessary for human beings to get to know the other side of their being, in which the soul appears in its fertility, in its sprouting, budding life. Otherwise, thoughts only function as images; now they germinate and sprout when we treat them not merely as images, but scatter them and really bring them to germination. Then, through self-knowledge, one truly brings about the summertime of the soul. And just as we hypothetically assumed earlier that consciousness disappeared in spring and now an unknown world is experienced in summer, so now the soul surveys a world unknown to it. In fact, the essence of our soul has the ability to bring forth what would otherwise remain unknown, if it does not stop halfway, but uses thoughts as seeds, so to speak. Meditation, concentration, and contemplation are nothing other than bringing forth what otherwise remains unknown, using thoughts and feelings—these can also be used—to unfold a new world.

Now, many things always work against man when he strives to bring this world into production in everyday life. It is inherent in his nature that when he enters the summertime of the soul, if he wants to be a capable being in life and in ordinary science, that is, in the wintertime, he has a certain state of mind, especially in his thinking. This must not be lacking in outer life, otherwise they would prove to be incompetent. And we must have confidence in thinking. We really cannot get by in the world if we do not have confidence, that is, faith, as our starting point, that our thinking can guide us, that is, that we can entrust ourselves to thinking. If there really were worlds in which this were possible – please imagine such a state – it would be so shocking that it would take away all competence. Human beings depend on this trust, this faith, wherever their thinking may lead them. But everything has its light and dark sides. Where we need the light, however, the dark side does not come into consideration.

Human beings educate their thinking through the sensory world; it is their teacher. As a result, they do not have confidence in thinking as such, but rather in thinking that is anchored in the external sensory world. From the outset, human beings do not become accustomed to having such an instrument in their thinking that can guide them through all areas of their lives. As a result, they lose their security; they become uncertain when they encounter something that does not come to them in everyday life. And this makes them opposed to spiritual science. That is understandable; as I said, there is nothing to be said about it. On the contrary, our contemporaries cannot make anything of it. But that is because their thinking is trained in the sensory world. It is as if people wanted to enter a world that is not the sensory world. Now, people are trained in the sensory world, which trains their external thinking. This is understandable when areas arise that lie in a different field than what is experienced in external thinking. The one thing they feel confident about, their thinking, becomes shaky in the face of the supersensible world.

And another factor comes into play, which also characterizes the winter of the soul, ordinary waking life. We know that the thinking habits of the last centuries have produced materialism, or, to put it more nobly, but misusing the word, monism. This worldview has value only in the life that can be observed externally. Spiritual science shows that behind all this, the spirit lives, and [that] one only has to delve deeply enough into things to find the spirit behind it all. If the soul seriously educates itself in the way just described, it reaches a point that represents extraordinary soul experiences and shows why human beings come to materialism, monism, and so on. Then, as I wrote in my book How to Know Higher Worlds — when it feels a new world sprouting up, then a certain moment comes when the soul must feel something similar toward this new world as it feels toward this sensory world. In contrast, it is necessary that when humans observe things, they can develop the ability, in complete freedom of will, to direct their gaze and also to divert it again. Just consider what it would be like if a person were unable to arbitrarily divert their gaze away, but were fascinated and compelled to keep looking at the things of the sensory world. A soul would be in the same situation if it simply had to leave what appears before it through its exercises. For this is not [merely] like turning one's gaze away in the sensory world — that is not enough. It must be taken into account that the spiritual researcher is able to erase, to wipe away, everything that has been brought about in terms of new soul content. This corresponds to turning one's gaze away in the sensory world.

This makes the spiritual researcher radically different from those who experience hallucinations, visions, and delusions, which they stubbornly want to take as objective things. The spiritual researcher must not allow this to happen. He must know that he has only conjured up shadow images, that he must make them disappear again from his spiritual gaze. It is part of a certain stage to have the ability to erase the [images] again. Yes, erasing them – one can see how greedily the soul clings to its delusions – this erasing is one of the most difficult things of all. Why? Because not only do the forces we have spoken of grow, but also others that are otherwise only weakly present. For one force is strengthened by the strengthening of the other force, which is self-will, self-love, self-love in ordinary life, which grows like a force of nature. In ordinary life, self-love is overcome by moral strength; but lightning and thunder are not. But just like natural elements and forces, the intensified self-love, the self-will, appears in our soul. Therefore, the development of the soul that leads to spiritual research must also bring with it the ability for humans to overcome the intensified self-will within themselves, which is now like a force of nature in humans, [so] that the soul feels helpless. Ordinary strength is not enough for this.

And here [occurs] an event [that has] a shocking [effect] because it is one of the first. It can [occur in a modified form], but it has always been [rightly called]: approaching the gates of death. The person feels as if what he has hitherto called his self, his soul, were struck by lightning, as if it were being taken away from him. Everything with which he felt connected, everything he was, has now been detached from him. His individuality becomes like a being outside himself; he stands opposite himself as he has hitherto stood opposite only a thing outside himself. This is easy to describe, but to experience it is one of the most harrowing things that can be experienced, for it is as if the ground were disappearing. Everything they have thought, felt, and sensed up to now is taken away [the person] takes away with them. This brings them – if the person has acquired the ability to remain upright, if they feel detached from everything – as if over an abyss, which intensifies a feeling that they had only to a small extent before [and] which they now have to get to know: the fear of the unknown.

The spiritual world is always there, but it is so unknown to man that at that moment he faces it as if it were nothingness. That creates fear. However, no one should believe that they will be harmed if they proceed in the manner described; it is part of self-education that they are simultaneously strengthened and empowered to endure it, and at the same time they are fortified to endure it. Usually they are protected from it. We speak of a “guardian of the threshold.” But what is not present in consciousness is not therefore absent from the soul. The soul is a dual entity. In its depths, there is often something quite different from what it knows. For example, we may consciously hate a human being, and that hatred may be a cover for love. Because we do not live out our love, we numb ourselves. Not only are there two souls in Faust's nature, but every human soul is actually one that has two. Now, the following emerges for the soul connoisseur: when a person is in ordinary life, they seek to achieve stability and certainty by suppressing the subconscious, namely fear. For the spiritual researcher, nothing else arises but what is always in the background. It is always there. When this is overcome, the person enters the spiritual world. But when it rises up and yet does not become conscious, when it only knocks, as it were, but the person bridges it over —.

How can they do this? By denying the spiritual world; in this way they push the spiritual world down, so that materialists and monists have a fear of the spiritual world in the depths of their souls and thereby numb themselves in their materialism. [It is] a very strange phenomenon, but it is true that materialism is based on unrecognized, unnamed fear. Certainly, it is uncomfortable when the soul expert claims, when such statements are made in a monist gathering, as is currently the case, that this is [therefore] because the professed believers are tormented by fear and anxiety. Materialism and fear-mongering present themselves in this way to real observation.

And so it is, basically: what makes people strong for the outer physical world is that they train their thinking on the outer world, thereby gaining confidence in their thinking and thus overcoming fear — but this prevents them from entering the supersensible world. Therefore, if they want to enter the supersensible world, it is so necessary that they can freely develop a duality in their soul, on the one hand rising to states that are in the supersensible world, and on the other hand being able to forget them again or push them back — that which constitutes their field of observation in the supersensible world — when they return to the physical world. Otherwise, he will become a dreamer, a false mystic, or anything else but a spiritual researcher if he mixes this in. He must keep this separate with a strong soul and, on the other hand, relate it back to the supersensible, because the reasons for everything sensual lie in the supersensible. That is what makes a spiritual researcher. And that is why it is so necessary that summertime and wintertime bring him to consciousness what sleep veils. If he did not do this, he would always give rise to the fear that has just been indicated.

When a person enters the spiritual world in this way, they see not only a spiritual-soul realm in general, but things, facts, and beings that are as distinct and separate from one another as the things and facts in the physical world. However, it is precisely this fact that is least forgiven, it is not forgiven that the spiritual researcher sees a reality of manifold spiritual beings.

An important spiritual personality such as Charles Eliot of Harvard University emphasizes that he finds a spiritual reality behind the physical and sensory, that human beings are always distinct from their bodies. But when the spiritual researcher says that, after the self-education described, one comes to see individual spiritual beings that make up a cosmos, just as physical things make up a physical cosmos, this is rejected. If one were to say to Charles Eliot, when observing the plant world, with every plant or every substance in the laboratory: That is nature, that is nature, that is nature – nothing would be achieved by this. At most, spiritual science is forgiven for admitting spirit in general, but not individual beings and things of the spiritual world. But just as the world is specified by the sensory organs of human beings, so there are beings in the spiritual world who do not have physical bodies, and the spiritual world stands before human beings once they have recognized it.

As I said, what is necessary for observing, recognizing, even just admitting the spiritual world, acknowledging it, is self-experience of the spiritual world. And when [human beings], through a shattering experience, bring about what has just been described, that everything that was once their ego is separated what was once his ego, then what was once silent, mute, and dormant becomes active and alive within him. What is spiritual-soul essence and builds up the body, connects with the line of inheritance, with what comes from father and mother, what one works for, one sees detached, and that is what is shocking, what is significant. But when one awakens in a new being, then that is the one that passes through birth and death, not what one otherwise considered to be one's self. What one now experiences is what spiritual science speaks of when it speaks of what passes through repeated earthly lives.

And now the human being has the prospect of solving the question of the infinity of his being in concrete terms; otherwise, he has only the unmanageable line of infinity before him. [He recognizes] how he builds up ever new lives; infinity is composed of the individual earthly lives. Insight and knowledge of these worlds can only be gained in the manner described. And anyone who believes they can attain truly satisfying knowledge by other means is mistaken, is searching in the wrong way. This then very easily leads to a desire to avoid the harrowing soul experiences that have been described. Many people want [such] supersensible insights, which actually belong to the sensory realm. As a result, they do not arrive at a real understanding of the truth. And we can see how difficult it is for people of the present to arrive at the truth, even for the very best of our time. One can only take Schopenhauer's point of view, where he says that truth initially appears paradoxical, that this has always been its fate. Today, people take a similar stance toward spiritual science as they once did toward Galileo, Giordano Bruno, and Copernicus; it must be understood that spiritual science today necessarily encounters the same resistance. Giordano Bruno said that the blue vault of heaven was not a boundary, as had previously been assumed. Through this realization, natural science took a tremendous step forward at that time. Spiritual science is now in the same position: [There is] no more boundary of birth or, for that matter, conception and death [than there once was] the blue boundary of the sky. Just as Giordano Bruno showed that when one becomes aware of the limitations of human knowledge, one looks out into infinity and into infinite worlds embedded in this infinite firmament, so must the spiritual researcher now do. This is how one gains knowledge of the supersensible worlds. But it is difficult for our contemporaries. They understand that these repeated earthly lives actually explain the strokes of fate that befall human beings, and at the same time our contemporaries realize how this view gives us courage, strength, and confidence, because we are not extinguished, but find ourselves again in future earthly lives. Some of the best minds of our time recognize this. But because they expect the evidence to be provided in a different way than described, they fail to recognize what is happening in this field.

A spirit of the present who has actually shown how he tries to penetrate the supersensible everywhere, and who has also shown in some of his writings how serious he is about this, has recently been concerned, among other things, with what has been described here as the doctrine of repeated earthly lives: Maurice Maeterlinck – a passage that I would like to quote verbatim. He has no idea where the evidence lies, so he calls it mere belief. Spiritual science has nothing to do with belief, but, like the worldview of Copernicus, it has everything to do with belief because it is science, like Copernicanism; it does not interfere with belief. But Maeterlinck considers it a belief, and the doctrine of repeated earthly lives, which is the same as what is known in certain religious doctrines as the transmigration of souls — which, however, is not what is meant here, but rather the doctrine of repeated earthly lives — is alive. In his book “On Death,” Maeterlinck writes:

For there has never been a belief more beautiful, more just, more pure, more moral, more fruitful, more comforting, and in a certain sense more probable than theirs. With its doctrine of gradual atonement and purification, it alone gives meaning to all physical and mental inequalities, all social injustices, all the outrageous injustices of fate. But the goodness of a belief is no proof of its truth, even though six hundred million people worship this religion, even though it is closest to its origins shrouded in darkness, even though it is the only one that is not hateful and the least distasteful of all, it would have had to do what the others did not do: bring us irrefutable evidence. For what it has given us so far is only the first shadow of the beginning of a proof.

It should be said that, first of all, spiritual science has nothing to do with religion, but is, like Copernicanism, a worldview. No religion that understands itself correctly will be shaken by spiritual science. But in his new book, in which he takes this modern spiritual research into account among many other things, Maeterlinck shows that he does not understand how it arrives at its conclusions in a way that is completely different from external cognition. Therefore, he finds that no evidence has been provided. What should this evidence consist of? Precisely in those measures that must be replaced when man enters the worlds described. Therefore, Maeterlinck faces these facts as one faced the squaring of the circle until recently. Until recently, almost every year, the attempt to actually transform a circle into an equilateral square proved to be invalid. The Paris Academy has concluded that this can lead nowhere: everything must be thrown into the wastebasket! There is not enough time to calculate everything, and if the truth is ever found, it will reveal itself. Today, anyone who still concerns themselves with squaring the circle would be called a dilettante, because it has been proven by mathematical means that it is impossible to master. And so it must be said that today it is absolutely nonsensical to seek to square the circle. Spiritual science, however, will be able to prove much more quickly that one wants nothing more than to seek the squaring of the circle in another field.

One will therefore not only have to understand the questions dealt with in “How does one attain knowledge of the higher worlds?”, but also have to understand the “how” of the proof in the proper manner. Otherwise, it is like trying to square the circle. One may already find the doctrine of repeated earthly lives “more comforting, more just, and more probable,” but still not be able to bring oneself to accept it. However, one will be able to bring oneself to accept it when one realizes that one cannot speak this way only to spiritual researchers. These things must indeed be researched by spiritual researchers, but once they have been researched, they are such that the physical mind can understand them; it is not evidence by its means that counts here, but evidence in the same way that one can understand a picture without being a painter oneself. It is the case with the spiritual world that one can compare its nature with the physical mind: underground, the mines and ores could not form on the surface of the earth, where the sun directly touches the ores. Thus, the results of spiritual research cannot be found through ordinary thinking and ordinary science. This requires the soul forces that have been described. But when it is researched and then described, what would happen if sunlight shone down into the depths of the earth onto the ore, which would only then be able to appear in its splendor and beauty, can occur. In this way, the physical mind can truly understand what spiritual science brings. But it must be researched by the soul that has been educated as described. What has been understood in this way forms a power in the soul, not just knowledge, for this knowledge is immediately transformed into a very definite certainty of the soul, which gives it inner stability. It thus bears fruit in a very definite way of thinking, a very definite way of feeling, a very definite way of willing towards oneself and the world.

Today we have seen abundantly what the soul has to overcome in order to enter the realms where the spiritual world is guaranteed. But even through darkness, it gives what can be expressed in the words of feeling with which today's lecture can conclude:

If the soul struggles through
through spiritual darkness,
it ultimately arrives at serious clarity,
at bright truth.

Question and answer session

Question: Is the term “Maya” related to the Indian goddess or Buddha's mother?

Rudolf Steiner: One can indeed find this connection, but only maintain it by being clear about how the method described in my book “Christianity as Mystical Fact” has always been followed in the narration of such things. Those who view the world materialistically see the ordinary course of events as a succession of cause and effect; they regard the things that follow one another as equivalent. Those who delve into realities notice that at certain points in the development of the world something special happens, while at other points it continues in such a way that it appears without “deeper points” [impacts]. In such an individuality as Buddha, a very significant being, we see not only the ordinary meaning, but also a completely different one in the context of the world. In the scriptures that know what is important, that is, that do not proceed in the same way as contemporary science, reference is actually made to the deeper forces with which the deeper soul being is connected, so that in the deeper sense — without, of course, denying his earthly mother — [it is so] that he emerged from Maya, the great deception, from a fatherly soul impulse, as it were. The fatherly origin: the active part of his being; Maja: what serves to illuminate his being. Question: Could the speaker perhaps describe some higher experiences that one can attain from natural science, perhaps about Halley's Comet?

Rudolf Steiner: One cannot say everything in a lecture. And what has been described is not sensory knowledge, but a shattering experience. Anyone who engages in spiritual science will find that there are concrete descriptions of facts and beings of the spiritual world. One need only open my “Secret Science,” which contains abundant answers to this very question.

Question: The next question is one [a wish] that more lectures should be given on this question: Is clairvoyance and clairsentience anomalous or proof of the further development of our organs?

Rudolf Steiner: [It has] not been clearly defined what is meant today, and also in earlier lectures, when speaking of clairvoyance. [It is] not so much [a] state, but [the] goal of self-education of the soul. Above all, spiritual science aims to carry out self-education in such a way that the human being is able to do what is necessary, for example, the eradication of imagination — so that the spiritual world only appears later. This extinguishing cannot be accomplished through anomalous reflections of inner qualities, hallucinations, visions, or delusions. The content of spiritual science can only be that which is achieved in the manner described, whereby the soul always controls itself and is able to control itself. Then, of course, one can just as well speak of clairvoyance and clairsentience, because these terms no longer apply here. Strictly speaking, it is then not clairvoyance, not seeing, but a different soul process. But because imagination [works] like [a] concept for recognizing the physical, imaginative seeing can still be sufficiently described as clairvoyance. And [thus] one can still speak of clairvoyance. Clairvoyance [is] more accurate than ordinary feeling.

Question: Can the deceased make themselves known by knocking, sighing, crashing furniture, and so on?

Rudolf Steiner: [This] can certainly occur, but without being truly at home in genuine spiritual research, one can expose oneself to the most serious errors. Only the right methods, as described today, lead to what progresses from incarnation to incarnation, what is conscious and alive, not what peels away, as it were, from spiritual nature; that can produce such things; so that, if one bases oneself on this, [some things] appear to be entirely justified, [such as] what Deinhard reports [in his] “Mystery of Man.” This leads one to believe that one has proof that behind the sensory there is a spiritual realm. But only true spiritual research proves what dissolves. This is where Maeterlinck failed, because he is not familiar with this, easily mistaking what is withering and dying for what is active and becoming. [This is] very easily possible. Here one eliminates the false, [which] is not so easily possible in the spiritual world, where it is quite possible to mistake something for something else; therein lie most errors, not in dealing with hallucinations and delusions.

Questions: When praying a mantra, must one mention the name? Are the dead always around us when we remember them?

Rudolf Steiner: [Answers not recorded.]

Question: If one does something harmful to a dead person, does he feel the pain?

Rudolf Steiner: [This is] possible in many cases.

Question: What percentage of theosophists, or now anthroposophists, really come to know the supersensible worlds? What do average theosophists achieve?

Rudolf Steiner: If we want to answer this question, we must first say that there must be some people who are willing to research the supersensible world. Just as there must be painters if pictures are to be painted. But just as the understanding of pictures is not limited to painters, so the fruits of spiritual research are not limited to spiritual researchers. I emphasize this almost every time I speak, saying that through unprejudiced thinking, if one does not put obstacles in one's way, one can reap the fruits of it through reflection. Thus, the percentage of spiritual researchers and those who enjoy the fruits cannot be calculated, just as it cannot be calculated how many people make boots and how many wear boots and know whether they fit them. So there are many souls who know what they have in spiritual research. In a certain sense, anyone can become a spiritual researcher if they proceed as described in “How to Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds.”

What theosophists achieve depends on each individual; and spiritual research is not there to establish average points of view, but to give what each individual can find. Reaching an average viewpoint is not very fruitful in ordinary life, and in spiritual research it is impossible to speak of it at all, but everyone can achieve certainty and strength through it. It would be very surprising if, as mentioned at the beginning, there were no doubts. But someone comes along with a few found, fixed concepts and believes that this contradicts spiritual research: only a precise examination of the matter can help here. Most objections come from those who do not know the matter. Those who know something about it do not raise these objections, for example [about] what happens [as] the effect of previous earthly lives. One could prove that heredity exists, and science has proven this. Paungarten [writes about this in his book]: “Werdende Wissenschaft” (Emerging Science). Incidentally, the cause of heredity lies in the spiritual realm. Why does the person standing in front of me live? Because he has lungs inside and air outside. [The same applies to] characteristics [that one] inherits [from one's father]. Someone else might say: [There was a man] who hanged himself two weeks ago; I cut him down, and that is why he is alive. That is also correct. Both are right. [I have given lectures on the topic] “How can spiritual science be refuted?” The spiritual researcher already knows the possible points of view. Perhaps it is precisely by familiarizing oneself with the different points of view that one arrives at the truth.