{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 174b/1917-05-11/p014","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"My book “How to Know Higher Worlds” is widely read over time, not only within those who belong to the various circles of the Anthroposophical Society, but it is also widely read outside the Society at the present time. When reading this book in particular, an experience can be made again and again that is extraordinarily characteristic. Someone reads the book “How to Know Higher Worlds” and writes me a letter about it. And of course, I am always pleased when someone writes me an intelligent letter about any book or about anything else, but especially about the book “How to Know Higher Worlds”. But the usual thing is that the letter that is written is the clearest proof, the clearest proof that the person concerned has not understood the book at all and has translated the most important things of the book into the most materialistic attitude of the present. Because what people usually go for when they come across this book is the following. But let us send something in advance: a whole host of doubts can arise in the mind of someone reading the book “How to Know Higher Worlds”, and there are already many people who can testify that I am always ready to discuss these doubts with people, and so I certainly do not want what I am saying now to appear as if it should deter anyone from writing the letter I just mentioned. No one should be deterred from writing this letter, but the letter is very often written with people getting stuck on one particular thing, where the thing immediately turns into materialism for them. Much is said in the book 'How to Know Higher Worlds', which, when properly observed, leads people to find their own way into the spiritual world, from within themselves, from their soul. This book is designed to make people as independent as possible, not to impose anything on them in any subjective way, but only to remove the obstacles so that they can find the truth themselves. The best way to begin to take in this book would be to appropriate its content in inner deed. But then people get stuck on the sentence: The one who has attained the necessary maturity will find his spiritual teacher if only he searches for him correctly. — So, there we have it! I write a letter to the one who wrote the book, and he becomes my spiritual teacher; that's the simplest thing! There we have the materialistic explanation. The fact that this passage could be the most sacred incentive for a person seeking independence to continue searching in order to find the path, which might consist of something completely different than writing a letter to someone: You, give me instructions - that is very uncomfortable for many readers of the book. They do not search enough in the book. And so this book, How to Know Higher Worlds, is one of the most widely read books in the German-speaking world today, and has been translated into many foreign languages, despite the fact that it is one of the most misunderstood books. And yet it is child's play to understand if you just let it sink in without prejudice. And don't translate it into materialistic comfort.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Ninth Lecture","site_heading":"Soul's Independence and Spiritual Science's Defense Against Slander","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":"1917-05-11","location":null,"word_count":547,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1917-05-11/p014","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Spiritual Background of Human History","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA174b/English/SOL2024/19170511p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","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/174b/1917-05-11/p014"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1917-05-11/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},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 174b/1917-05-11/p014","passage_number":14,"text":"Mein Buch «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» wird im Laufe der Zeit viel gelesen, nicht nur innerhalb derjenigen, die den verschiedenen Kreisen der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft angehören, sondern es wird in der Gegenwart auch draußen viel gelesen. Beim Lesen gerade dieses Buches kann immer wieder und wiederum eine Erfahrung gemacht werden, die außerordentlich charakteristisch ist. Es liest da oder dort jemand das Buch «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» und schreibt mir einen Brief darüber. Und selbstverständlich, ich bin jedesmal erfreut darüber, wenn mir jemand einen verständigen Brief schreibt über irgendein Buch oder über irgend etwas anderes, insbesondere aber über das Buch «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?». Aber das gewöhnliche ist, daß der Brief, der geschrieben wird, der klarste Beleg dafür ist, der allerklarste Beleg, daß der Betreffende das Buch nicht verstanden hat, überhaupt die allerwichtigsten Dinge des Buches sich in die materialistischste Gesinnung der Gegenwart umgesetzt hat. Denn dasjenige, worauf die Menschen zumeist anbeißen, wenn sie an dieses Buch kommen, das ist das Folgende. Aber schicken wir noch etwas voraus: Es kann eine ganze Summe von Zweifeln demjenigen aufstoßen, der das Buch «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» liest, und es wird schon viele Menschen geben, welche Zeugnis davon ablegen können, daß ich immer bereit bin, über diese Zweifel mit den Menschen mich zu unterhalten, und daher möchte ich durchaus nicht, daß, was ich jetzt sage, so erscheint, als ob es irgend jemand abschrecken sollte, den Brief, von dem ich eben sprach, zu schreiben. Es soll nicht abgeschreckt werden von dem Schreiben dieses Briefes, aber der Brief wird sehr häufig geschrieben, indem die Menschen an eine besondere Sache anbeißen, wo ihnen unmittelbar das Ding sich ins Materialistische umsetzt. Es ist vieles gesagt in dem Buche «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?», das bei richtiger Beobachtung den Menschen gerade dazu führt, von sich aus, von seiner Seele aus den Weg in die geistige Welt hinein zu finden. Gerade dieses Buch ist daraufhin angelegt, den Menschen so selbständig wie möglich zu machen, ihm gar nicht irgend etwas aufzudringen auf irgendeinem subjektiven Weg, sondern ihm nur die Hindernisse hinwegzuräumen, damit er selber die Wahrheit finden kann. Das beste Mittel zunächst, dieses Buch aufzunehmen, das wäre: seinen Inhalt sich in innerer Tat anzueignen. Aber da haken die Menschen ein bei dem Satz: Derjenige, bei dem die nötige Reife eingetreten ist, der findet schon, wenn er nur richtig sucht, seinen geistigen Lehrer. — Also, da haben wir es! Da schreibe ich einen Brief an denjenigen, der das Buch geschrieben hat, da wird er mein geistiger Lehrer; das ist das einfachste! — Da haben wir die Übersetzung ins Materialistische. Daß diese Stelle gerade für einen nach Selbständigkeit suchenden Menschen der heiligste Antrieb sein könnte, weiter zu suchen, um den Weg zu finden, der vielleicht in etwas ganz anderem bestehen könnte, als einen Brief an jemand zu schreiben: Du, gib mir Anweisungen -, das ist sehr vielen Lesern des Buches eben unbequem. Sie suchen nicht genügend in dem Buche. Und so gehört denn dieses Buch «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?», trotzdem es unter den so geschriebenen Büchern heute vielleicht zu den gelesensten gehört innerhalb der deutschen Welt und sogar vielfach in fremde Sprachen übersetzt ist, es gehört zu den Büchern, die am meisten mißverstanden werden. Und es ist doch kinderleicht zu verstehen, wenn man es nur vorurteilslos auf sich wirken läßt. und nicht es sich ins materialistisch Bequeme übersetzt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":571,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1917-05-11/p014"}],"english":["GA 174b/1917-05-11/p014"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":571,"en_words":547,"ratio":0.96,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.02,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":9678,"original_word_count":9444,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Spiritual Background of Human History","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA174b/English/SOL2024/19170511p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","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 174b/1917-05-11/p014"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","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."}}