{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 140/1913-10-10/p004","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"We are gathered here for the first time, and what I want to say to you will have to be of an aphoristic character. I should like to speak a little concerning that which belongs to the domain of the spiritual world, and this is more easily and better said by word of mouth than in writing, not only because, on account of the prejudices existing in the world today, it is difficult to confide to the written word what I am glad to entrust to the hearts of Anthroposophists, but it is also difficult to do so because spiritual truths really can be better given out in words than in writing or in print. This applies more particularly to the more intimate spiritual truths. Although it has been necessary for me to allow intimate spiritual truths to be written down and printed, I always feel it bitterly. For the very reason that the spiritual beings spoken of in such writings cannot read them, it is a question of much difficulty, for books cannot be read in the spiritual worlds. For a short time after our death they can still be read in our memory, but the beings of the higher Hierarchies cannot read our books. When I am asked whether they do not wish to acquire this art of reading, I am obliged to say that according to my experience they show no desire to do so at present, for they do not consider that the reading of what is produced on earth is needful or useful to them. The reading of the spiritual beings first begins when men on earth read what is written in books, and the content becomes their thoughts, the living thoughts of men. The spirits can then read that content in the thought of man. But what is written or printed is, as it were, darkness to the beings of the spiritual world; therefore one feels that in confiding something to writing or print one is communicating something behind the back of the spiritual beings, which yet is for these spiritual beings themselves. This is a genuine feeling, my dear friends, and one which, if I may venture to say so, even a cultured citizen of the present age cannot quite share, though every true occultist must have this feeling of reluctance to write or to put into print.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture I","site_heading":"Living Intercourse with the Dead Through Spiritual Science","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1913-10-10","location":null,"word_count":395,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/140/1913-10-10/p004","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":"APC1928","book_title":"Descriptive Sketches of the Spiritual World","publisher":"Anthroposophical Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA140/English/APC1928/19131010p02.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","note":"rsarchive's lecture list spells the credit 'Harry Collison'; the lecture pages of this edition print 'Henry Collison', which is served.","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/140/1913-10-10/p004"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/140/1913-10-10/p004","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"other_renderings":{"loci":[{"locus":"GA 140/1913-10-10_02","ga":"140","lecture":"1913-10-10_02","kind":"renderings","relation":"another translation or transcription of the same lecture"}],"note":"The same lecture is also served at the loci listed, each with how it relates to this one. They are ONE witness, not independent attestations: quote the rendering you fetched, and do not cite another as corroborating it. Wording differs between translations, so a quotation found in one need not occur in the other."},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1913-10-10","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 140/1913-10-10/p005","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/140/1913-10-10/p005"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":405,"en_words":395,"ratio":0.98,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 140/1913-10-10/p005","passage_number":5,"text":"Dasjenige, was ich, da wir ja gewissermaßen zum ersten Male hier zusammen sind, besprechen möchte, wird eine Art aphoristischen Charakter tragen. Ich möchte aus dem Gebiete der geistigen Welt einiges von dem besprechen, was leichter und besser mündlich gesagt werden kann, als es in unserer Schrift aufgezeichnet werden kann. Leichter mündlich gesagt werden kann es nicht nur aus dem Grunde, weil es heute gegenüber den Vorurteilen der Welt nicht bloß in vieler Beziehung noch schwierig ist, alles sozusagen der Schrift anzuvertrauen, was man gerne anthroposophischen hingebungsvollen Herzen anvertraut, sondern auch schwierig aus dem Grunde, weil wirklich sich die geistigen Wahrheiten besser mündlich sagen lassen, als daß sie der Schrift und dem Druck anvertraut werden. Insbesondere muß das gelten von den intimeren geistigen Wahrheiten. Man hat immer ein etwas bitteres Gefühl, trotzdem in unserer Zeit es ja sein muß, daß diese Dinge auch aufgeschrieben und gedruckt werden; es ist immer mißlich, die intimeren geistigen Wahrheiten, die sich auf die höheren geistigen Welten selber beziehen, aufzuschreiben und sie drucken zu lassen. Schon aus dem Grunde ist das mißlich, weil ja die Schrift und der Druck zu den Dingen gehören, welche die Wesen, von denen man da spricht, die geistigen Wesen, nicht lesen können. Bücher können in der geistigen Welt nicht gelesen werden. Bücher können zwar von uns eine kurze Zeit nach unserem Tode aus der Erinnerung heraus noch gelesen werden, aber die Wesen der höheren Hierarchien können unsere Bücher nicht lesen. Und wenn Sie fragen, ob sie sich denn diese Kunst des Lesens nicht aneignen wollen, so muß ich nach meiner Erfahrung gestehen, daß sie vorläufig keine Lust dazu zeigen, weil sie das Lesen desjenigen, was auf der Erde hervorgebracht wird, für sich selber nicht nötig und nicht nützlich finden. Das Lesen der geistigen Wesenheiten beginnt erst dann, wenn Menschen auf der Erde in den Büchern lesen, das heißt: wenn das, was in den Büchern steht, lebendiger Gedanke der Menschen wird, dann lesen die Geister in den Gedanken der Menschen. Aber dasjenige, was geschrieben oder gedruckt ist, das ist wie die Finsternis für die Wesen der geistigen Welt; so daß man gegenüber diesen geistigen Wesenheiten selber das Gefühl hat, daß wenn man der Schrift oder dem Druck etwas anvertraut, man Mitteilungen macht hinter dem Rücken der geistigen Wesenheiten. Das ist ein reales Gefühl, das ein Kulturbürger der Gegenwart vielleicht nicht ganz teilen wird; aber jeder wahre Okkultist wird dieses Gefühl des Widerstrebens gegen Schrift und Druck haben.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":405,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/140/1913-10-10/p005"}],"english":["GA 140/1913-10-10/p004"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":405,"en_words":395,"ratio":0.98,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.94,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6352,"original_word_count":6736,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":"APC1928","book_title":"Descriptive Sketches of the Spiritual World","publisher":"Anthroposophical Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA140/English/APC1928/19131010p02.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","note":"rsarchive's lecture list spells the credit 'Harry Collison'; the lecture pages of this edition print 'Henry Collison', which is served.","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 140/1913-10-10/p005"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}