The Connection Between Humans and the Spiritual World

Forgive me if I insert something very personal at this point—you know I don't like to do this and therefore do so very rarely. Anyone who tries to look at what I began writing decades ago will see that I completely disregarded what I had to say as my own opinion. I did not write my opinion about Goethe, but tried to express the thoughts that could come from Goethe; I wrote an “epistemology of Goethe's worldview,” not my epistemology. In this way, one can consciously connect with those who have long since passed away and work from their spirit. That is also what gives one, in a sense, the certificate to be allowed to influence the living. For it is a poor certificate, which people insist on, especially in our time, that as soon as someone has formed an opinion, they immediately want to pass it on to as many followers as possible. Those who know the conditions of existence from the spiritual world, the fundamental laws of existence, know that, strange and paradoxical as it may be, human beings can only influence the depths of their fellow human beings' souls after they have died, and only after they have gone through a spiritual year, that is, thirty years. It would be a tremendous gain if this selflessness were to spread a little further in the world, so that those who live longer would join the deceased and try to consciously maintain continuity in evolution. Whether it is a pure elective affinity or some other kind of kinship brought about by karma, if we live it consciously, drawing on those who strive to send the rays of their activity from the spiritual world is something tremendously significant.