I. Inner Evolution and Outer Possibilities for Development

What are these abilities? Under the influence of the Kali Yuga, those powers of man became stronger and stronger that make man an inventor, a discoverer, a processor of the physical forces of the physical plane. This is, of course, continuing, because the abilities that have once been acquired are, of course, not lost again. So one should not say that the ability to work with natural forces now ceases. But other abilities are added. In addition to what the human being acquired during the Kali Yuga, there is a special ability to see naturally in the etheric plane. This means that the age is now beginning when certain clairvoyant abilities will awaken as normal abilities in human souls, first in a few, then in more and more human souls. We must therefore distinguish these from those acquired by those who apply the methods of spiritual training to themselves, although these are much higher abilities. In every age, their abilities will go beyond what is intended as normal for humanity. But now an age is beginning in which the ability to see not only the physical, but also that which underlies the physical as the etheric, will be awakened as a normal one. That is to say, there will come souls with such abilities, and in a time that is already here, that has already begun, only they will come more and more frequently. Now, for the time being, they are still quite rare on earth. But these abilities will begin to spread more and more among people. They will be clearly evident in the years 1930 to 1940. This will be an important epoch, for then people's new abilities will be seen to emerge. Whereas today a person only sees the physical body, then he will also gain the ability to see some essential parts of the etheric body at first, but then more and more of it. This will happen. The way humanity is developing in the near future is such that there will be people, and more and more of them, finally a large number of people – actually it is intended for all of humanity – who will not only see the physical body of the human being, but this physical body as if enclosed in an etheric, as if with etheric rays and an etheric aura. That is one thing they will see. The other thing is that it will be quite strange to them: there will be images in front of them, and all kinds of things will show up in these images. At first people will not notice what it is all about, then they will think it is pathological, but then more and more people will notice that such an image is an event that takes place in two to four days and that is reflected ethereally beforehand. These abilities will already develop in the first half of our century.