The Connection Between Humans and the Spiritual World

Then comes a later time when man has become completely free from the astral body, has cast off the astral, and some time after that, man can then work down from the spiritual world into the physical in an even more intense way because it is more internal. In the past, external life was often organized according to such instinctively known truths, even if what arose in external life was often derived from ordinary external reasons. But underlying this external aspect — often known only through instinct — is an inner aspect. I have said that after passing through the gate of death, the dead stand in such a direct connection with the people they have left behind here, and to whom they are especially attached in love, that they influence their habits. Therefore, in times when such things were still felt quite instinctively, care was taken to ensure that the son left the circle of his parental connection as little as possible. Access was easier there. Learning the same trade, working in the same profession, and in general the whole real-conservative adherence to the same current were instinctive expressions of a facilitation of the influence of those who had passed through the gates of death on those they had left behind here. If they were in similar situations to the deceased themselves, it was also easier for the deceased to find their way to them. And one will one day be able to trace such subtle impulses and reasons in the historical development of human beings.