{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 140/1913-10-10/p014","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"The question frequently asked in this connection is: “How can we know that the dead really hear us?” Well, of course it is difficult to know this unless we have clairvoyant vision, but if we regularly think about the dead and work for them, we may suddenly come to feel: “They are listening.” This feeling is only lacking if we are inattentive and do not notice the peculiar feeling of warmth which is often present when we are thus reading. We really can acquire this feeling, but even if we fail to do so, my dear friends, there is a law which must often be applied to our relation to the spiritual world. It is the following: If we read to the dead and they hear us, we most certainly help them, but even if they do not hear us we are fulfilling our duty, and perhaps eventually we may succeed in making them hear. In any case, we are certainly doing good, for we are filling ourselves with thoughts and ideas which will most certainly serve as nourishment for the dead in the first-mentioned way. So that nothing is lost, and the practice of this custom has proved that the longing on the part of the dead for what is thus read to them is certainly widespread, and that we can render immense service to those to whom we read the spiritual wisdom which has now been brought to light.","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 Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote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":241,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/140/1913-10-10/p014","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/p014"},{"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/p014","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/p016","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/140/1913-10-10/p016"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":246,"en_words":241,"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/p016","passage_number":16,"text":"Eine Frage, die im Zusammenhang mit alledem sehr häufig sich ergibt, ist diese: Ja, wie kann man wissen, ob der Tote wirklich zuhören kann? Nun, ohne den hellsichtigen Blick ist es schwierig, das zu wissen, obwohl man sich allmählich, wenn man sich mit dem Andenken an die Toten beschäftigt, von einem Gefühl wird überrascht finden: der Tote hört zu. Man wird dieses Gefühl nur dann nicht haben, wenn man unaufmerksam ist und auf jene eigentümliche Wärme nicht achtet, die sich oft beim Vorlesen verbreitet. Man kann sich wirklich ein solches Gefühl aneignen. Kann man das aber nicht tun, meine lieben Freunde, so muß gesagt werden, daß in dem Verhalten zur geistigen Welt ja auch in diesem Falle eine Regel zur Anwendung kommen muß, die oftmals berücksichtigt werden muß. Das ist die Regel: Ja, wenn wir vorlesen dem Toten, so nützen wir ihm unter allen Umständen, wenn er uns hört! Hört er uns nicht, so erfüllen wir erstens unsere Pflicht, bringen es vielleicht dazu, daß er uns doch hört, sonst aber gewinnen wir wenigstens etwas, erfüllen uns mit Gedanken und Ideen, die ja ganz gewiß Nahrung sein werden für die Toten in der zuerst angedeuteten Weise. Also verloren ist unter allen Umständen nichts. Aber die Praxis hat gezeigt, daß tatsächlich dieses Vernehmen dessen, was vorgelesen wird, von seiten der Toten etwas außerordentlich Verbreitetes ist, daß ein ungeheurer Dienst geleistet werden kann denjenigen, denen wir in dieser Weise das, was heute an geistiger Weisheit herangezogen werden kann, vorlesen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":246,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/140/1913-10-10/p016"}],"english":["GA 140/1913-10-10/p014"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":246,"en_words":241,"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/p016"],"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."}}