Spiritual Science and the Future of Humanity

GA 69e — 4 March 1914, Stuttgart

XV. The Task and Goal of Spiritual Science and Spiritual Seeking in the Present Day

Answering questions: What is the position of spiritual science regarding Swedenborg?

Rudolf Steiner: Swedenborg is like a person who has a spot in his eye and therefore cannot see clearly. He shot at the defect of his eye. It is often said, and even more often believed, that spiritual insight precludes a scientific education. But Swedenborg only became a spiritual researcher after he had already had an outstanding scientific career. His spiritual vision is even more important to him, as he can make all the objections of others himself. This is a crux for scientists, that someone is first a great experimentalist, then deals with occultism. They then say that he was simply no longer scientific later on, so one must distinguish between a healthy-thinking morning crux and a crazy-thinking afternoon crux! Of course, we cannot rely on Swedenborg in every detail, but he did see into the spiritual world. At the same time, however, he is an example of how spiritual organs can show a person what is wrong. Both the saying “Man errs, as long as he strives” and the saying “A good person in his dark urges is well aware of the right path” apply here. For ultimately, the human being is designed for truth and not for untruth.

Question: What about freedom of will?

Rudolf Steiner: Please read my Philosophy of Freedom.

Question: How can consciousness be present when the human being is free of the body?

Rudolf Steiner: First of all, we need to be clear about what we mean by “consciousness”. It is only since Descartes that we have spoken of “consciousness” in the abstract; before that, we spoke more of the soul and soul forces. Today we even have a “philosophy of the unconscious”, but consciousness is nevertheless a property of the soul. During the night, the soul is present, even if not conscious. One cannot manage with Wundt's abstract definition: the soul is the unity of the phenomena of consciousness. Outside of the body, however, the processes also become conscious; through spiritual development one even attains a higher state of consciousness. This is carried into the ordinary consciousness like a memory, and in a sense only becomes conscious in thinking. Otherwise it would be like dreams that a person does not remember. Beginners often say: I do not experience anything in the spiritual worlds, even though I do exercises. They can still experience an enormous amount, but just do not remember it in their ordinary consciousness. This is also necessary for some things. It is good fate for people that the moral law flows down to them unconsciously.

Question: What about thinking horses and Rolf, the dog from Mannheim? The animal is said to be able to calculate a root of a seven-digit number in five minutes, which would take a mathematician two hours.

Rudolf Steiner: I have not seen the Elberfeld horses, so I cannot speak about them. I have only seen the horse of Mr. von Osten, Clever Hans, but that was enough to give me an idea of these complicated things. A private lecturer gave a very materialistic explanation, even though such explanations are considered idealistic. He says that it has to do with the subtle play of features on the face of the person setting the arithmetic problem. He only said that he had studied facial expressions for a decade, but that here it was about such fine movements in the human face that even he could not follow them, but the animal could. So it takes ten years to judge a person, and then there is a facial expression that only a horse can judge, not even a horse breeder.

The truth is that when you are out of the body, the body mathematizes; you leave the mathematics behind in the body, and then you watch it. The horse can do that too. It is connected with currents that go around the earth. This can lead to the development of latent abilities that would not otherwise be developed. We should not be too mocking of these things, otherwise the world could be somewhat astonished by them after all.