Spiritual Geography, Michael's Work, and Clairvoyant Development
Even with regard to the most external things, it is not even particularly easy. I have a book here that has coincidentally – in what one calls a coincidence – karmically come into my hands again these days: the book of a contemporary philosopher who was a professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna: “Analysis of Sensations.” The person who wrote the book makes very interesting self-revelations. On page 3, he says: As a young man, I once saw my face in profile in a mirror while walking across the street, but I did not recognize it as my own face. I thought: What a repulsive, unappealing face! — So you see, even to this extent, self-knowledge of the purely external form is not even that widespread. The good man openly admits: he encounters a highly unappealing face with a repulsive character, and then he discovers that it is his own. He knew himself so little in terms of his external appearance. You see, it is not easy to acquire even external self-knowledge. You can be a university professor and still not know yourself, as this example testifies. Ernst Mach, that is the professor's name, makes a similar confession. He is completely honest. He says: “I once came back from a journey quite tired and got into an omnibus. At the same time, someone else got into the omnibus. I thought: what a run-down schoolmaster is getting in there!” — And lo and behold, it was me. — He had seen himself in the mirror. The good man knew what a rundown schoolmaster looks like, so he saw one getting on, but he couldn't identify with it, he didn't know that he looked like that. He adds to his story: So I knew the class habitus better than my own!
Cite:
GA 174b/1915-02-14/p020 · edition English