Lecture I

I have been asked, “What is the best time for this,” but it is quite independent of time. The thing that matters is that you should think the thoughts through to their end and not think superficially. The subject must be gone through word by word, as if spoken inwardly If this is done, the dead read it with us. Such reading is not only helpful to Anthroposophists—far from it! A short time ago one of our friends was disturbed every night, as was his wife also. They felt a disquietude; and, as the man's father had recently died, he came to the conclusion that the soul of his father was present, wanting something of him. Our friend then came to consult me; and it appeared that his father, who in his lifetime would never hear a word of Spiritual Science, now felt a very strong need to learn something of it. The son and his wife then read to his father the Course on St. John's Gospel which I once gave in Cassel, and this soul was very greatly helped, and felt himself lifted above many disharmonies which he had been feeling after his death.