{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p015-p020","extent":"range","passage_number":15,"through":20,"paragraph_count":6,"first_locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p015","last_locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p020","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"title":"Twelfth Lecture","date":"1918-02-23","location":null,"alignment_confidence":"medium","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/SOL2024/19180223p01.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"]},"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},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.04,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":8606,"original_word_count":8238,"may_be_abridged":false},"site_heading":"The Dead Within Us: Reversing Consciousness for Spiritual Communication","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 Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote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.","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p015-p020","json_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p015-p020.json","lecture_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1918-02-23#p015","word_count":1690,"quote_safe":true,"passages":[{"passage_number":15,"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p015","text":"What is important for the relationship between a person embodied in the physical world and the dead, however, is what can be experienced and is actually experienced in the moments of falling asleep and waking up. Such things can, of course, only be observed with the seeing consciousness. But when the seeing consciousness has brought about a state in which it can establish such relationships with certain dead people, relationships that can only be established through the complete transformation and readjustment of the soul's state that I have mentioned, then it can also judge what the real, but unconscious, relationships of the so-called living to the so-called dead are like. The most favorable moment to bring to the dead all kinds of relationships we ourselves have developed in our souls to certain dead people is when we fall asleep. And the most favorable moment to receive answers, messages from the dead into physical life on earth is when we wake up.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":161,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p015","german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1918-02-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p016","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p016"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","length_check":{"de_words":144,"en_words":161,"ratio":1.12,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. 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Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 174b/1918-02-23/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."}},{"passage_number":16,"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p016","text":"You do not have to be put off by the fact that what I have just said requires the person to address a question to the dead person when falling asleep, to send a message to the dead, and only to receive an answer or a return message at the moment of waking up. With regard to the supersensible world, the time conditions are quite different. What is separated by hours here for the physical world does not necessarily have to be separated in real supersensible life. One can definitely say: While here in physical life, when one asks someone, one expects an answer immediately, there one perceives the relationship in such a way that when one addresses questions to the dead while falling asleep, one receives the answer upon waking up. This relationship really always exists between the living and the dead. In fact, every person who has lost their loved ones to the physical plane by crossing the threshold of death has such relationships, which experience their most important development when falling asleep and waking up. They are not brought up into consciousness only because these favorable moments flit by quickly and man is not accustomed to taking into consciousness what approaches his soul in these quickly fleeting moments. To hold on to what approaches us in such fleeting moments, there is nothing more suitable than to occupy oneself with the finer, more subtle thoughts of spiritual science. If someone appropriates spiritual science in such a way that it is not mere head knowledge, but an inner substance of the soul itself, something that is grasped not only with cleverness but with love, so that it passes completely into the soul, if someone does not just cling to the thoughts of spiritual science with scientific curiosity or curiosity, but pursues them with love, to such a person this love sinks into the soul with such power that, with a little attention, he gradually becomes aware of the great significance of the moments of falling asleep and waking up. And the more spiritual science will sink into the souls of men, the more men will take up into real life not only what they experience when awake, but also what comes to them from a supersensible world when they fall asleep, but especially when they wake up. We must only be clear about the fact that we can only establish such real relationships, as I mean them now, with those dead with whom we are somehow connected karmically. But we are connected karmically with many more souls than we realize. For the conscious or unconscious communication between the living and the dead, however, the karmic connection is as necessary as it is necessary to direct the eye to a sense object in order to perceive it. Just as the sense relationship must be established, so it is a prerequisite for communication between the living and the dead that certain karmic relationships exist between them, or at least be established.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":500,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p016","german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1918-02-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p017","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p017"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","length_check":{"de_words":469,"en_words":500,"ratio":1.07,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. 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Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 174b/1918-02-23/p017"],"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."}},{"passage_number":17,"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p017","text":"If we now consider the moment of falling asleep, it is the moment that is particularly favorable for us to bring up the relationships we have developed with someone who has passed away and who was dear and precious to us, who was otherwise karmically connected to us. The moment of falling asleep is particularly good for this. We naturally develop our relationships with the dead, with whom we are karmically connected, in the waking day life from waking up to falling asleep. We commemorate the dead. Everything we think in relation to the dead, that we would like to bring to them, that we would like to tell them, is then compressed in the moment of falling asleep and, even if it remains unconscious to us, reaches the dead for the ordinary consciousness. Only a certain state of mind is particularly favorable for these communications, another state of mind unfavorable.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":151,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p017","german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1918-02-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p018","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p018"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","length_check":{"de_words":154,"en_words":151,"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. 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Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 174b/1918-02-23/p018"],"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."}},{"passage_number":18,"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p018","text":"You see, mere dry, cold thinking about the dead is not very suitable for really reaching the dead, for getting a message through to them. If we want the moment of falling asleep to become, as it were, a gateway through which our own experiences of soul that are related to the dead can reach the dead, then we must occupy ourselves with the dead in a different way while we are awake than by thinking cold, dry thoughts. We must try to stir up thoughts that connected us with the dead person while he was still living among the so-called living. But we must then put particular thought into what can establish a connection through the heart. Thinking of the dead person indifferently does not help much. But everything that keeps us connected to him through our hearts is good to call to mind: how one was with the dead person here or there, how one just talked with him, by developing an active interest in something that particularly interested him, out of one's own feelings; or to recall a situation in which one was once dead man here in life and something that touched him also touched you, or vice versa; how you were tempted to share something you had experienced with the other person because you liked him, to experience it together with him. Not dry thoughts, but thoughts permeated with love, with feeling! These thoughts then remain in our soul until the moment we fall asleep. And that is when we find the gate through which they can safely reach the dead person as a message.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":270,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p018","german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1918-02-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p019","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p019"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","length_check":{"de_words":265,"en_words":270,"ratio":1.02,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. 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Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 174b/1918-02-23/p019"],"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."}},{"passage_number":19,"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p019","text":"We should not deceive ourselves about these things. We dream of the dead. When we dream of the dead, in a great many cases – not all, of course – it is because of a real relationship with the dead person. But what we dream, in so far as it follows the moment of falling asleep, is actually only a dream-like, pictorial transformation of what we want to communicate to the dead person. We do not experience the moment of falling asleep as the moment when thoughts, as just characterized, really go over to the dead, because this moment of falling asleep passes by so quickly. But this moment of falling asleep actually resonates in the following sleep, resonates in the dream. If we understand the matter correctly, we will not interpret dreams of the dead as messages from the dead. They could be, but usually are not. They are half-remembered impulses that tell us the following. If we dream of a dead person, it means that on a previous day we addressed such a thought to the dead person, either voluntarily or involuntarily, as I have characterized it. This thought has found its way to the dead person, and the dream indicates to us that we were actually speaking to the dead person. What the dead person then answers us, what the dead person communicates to us, these messages from the dead come in particularly easily at the moment of waking up. And they would come much more easily to the so-called living if they only had time in our present time, if they had the inclination to pay a little attention to what comes up between the lines of life from deep within their consciousness.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":287,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p019","german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1918-02-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p020","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p020"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","length_check":{"de_words":272,"en_words":287,"ratio":1.06,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. 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Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 174b/1918-02-23/p020"],"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."}},{"passage_number":20,"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p020","text":"Yes, today's man is vain and selfish, and when something arises in his soul, he is usually clear about the fact that it is his genius that has caused it to arise. Being modest is an admonition put into life; being modest in the depths of one's being is not so easy for a person. Being modest also means that one really learns to distinguish between what arises from one's own soul and what arises from one's own soul from foreign, supersensible impulses. Just as the one who has the seeing consciousness feels and perceives the dead person's answer rising up from his or her own soul, so these answers from the dead, these messages from the dead in the waking period, from waking to falling asleep, come up from the depths of the soul. However, one can say: Just as a person does not see the stars during the day – although they are constantly in the sky – because sunlight drowns them out, a person is just as unaware of what is constantly coming up from the depths of his soul in his ordinary consciousness because the external life, which is caused by the impressions of the senses, drowns it out. When we become familiar, I would say, with our own soul, when we learn to distinguish between that which originates from ourselves and that which sounds from our own soul as something foreign, then, little by little, we also learn to recognize messages from the dead in our waking daily life. But then one connects something extraordinarily important with this knowledge. Then one says to oneself: We are actually not separated from the dead, the dead live among us. They do not announce themselves in the same way as other sensual beings, who send their impulses to us from outside, but they announce themselves from within, they speak to us through our own inner being, they carry us.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":321,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p020","german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1918-02-23","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p021","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p021"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","length_check":{"de_words":308,"en_words":321,"ratio":1.04,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. 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Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 174b/1918-02-23/p021"],"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. 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Wenn aber das schauende Bewußtsein es dahin gebracht hat, solche Beziehungen zu gewissen Toten herzustellen, die nur hergestellt werden können durch die angeführte vollständige Umwandlung, Umgewöhnung der Seelenverfassung, dann kann es auch beurteilen, wie die wirklichen, aber unbewußten Verhältnisse der sogenannten Lebenden zu den sogenannten Toten sind. Am günstigsten, um allerlei, was wir selber in der Seele an Beziehungen zu bestimmten Toten entwickelt haben, an die Toten heranzubringen, ist der Moment des Einschlafens. Und am günstigsten, um Antworten, um Mitteilungen von den Toten ins physische Erdenleben hereinzubekommen, ist der Moment des Aufwachens.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":144,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p016"},{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p017","passage_number":17,"text":"Sie müssen sich nicht daran stoßen, daß dasjenige, was ich jetzt gesagt habe, ja bedingt, daß der Mensch im Einschlafen irgendeine Frage an den T'oten richtet, eine Mitteilung an den Toten gelangen läßt, und erst im Moment des Aufwachens eine Antwort oder eine Rückmitteilung bekommt. Mit Bezug auf die übersinnliche Welt sind die Zeitverhältnisse ganz anders. Was durch Stunden auseinandergerückt ist hier für die physische Welt, braucht nicht auch auseinandergerückt zu sein im wirklichen übersinnlichen Leben. Man kann durchaus sagen: Während man hier im physischen Leben, wenn man jemand fragt, sogleich eine Antwort erwartet, empfindet man dort das Verhältnis gerade so, daß, wenn man mit dem Einschlafen Fragen an den Toten richtet, man die Antwort mit dem Aufwachen erhält. Diese Beziehung ist wirklich zwischen Lebenden und Toten immer vorhanden. Eigentlich hat jeder Mensch, der ihm zugehörige andere Menschen für den physischen Plan dadurch verloren hat, daß sie durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind, solche Beziehungen, die ihre wichtigste Entfaltung im Einschlafen und Aufwachen erleben. Sie werden nur aus dem Grunde nicht in das Bewußtsein heraufgebracht, weil eben diese günstigen Momente schnell vorüberhuschen und der Mensch nicht gewöhnt ist, das ins Bewußtsein aufzunehmen, was in diesen schnell vorüberhuschenden Momenten an seine Seele herantritt. Um das, was in solchen vorüberhuschenden Momenten an uns herankommt, festzuhalten, ist ja nichts geeigneter als die Beschäftigung mit den feineren, subtileren Gedanken der Geisteswissenschaft. Wer Geisteswissenschaft sich so aneignet, daß sie nicht ein bloßes Kopfwissen, sondern eine innere Substanz der Seele selbst ist, etwas, das nicht nur mit Klugheit, sondern mit Liebe ergriffen wird, so daß es ganz in die Seele übergeht, wer nicht nur mit wissenschaftlicher Neugierde oder mit Wißbegierde an den Gedanken der Geisteswissenschaft hängt, sondern mit Liebe ihnen nachgeht, dem senkt gerade diese Liebe in die Seele solche Kraft, daß er bei einiger Aufmerksamkeit schon nach und nach der hier angeführten großen Bedeutung der Momente des Einschlafens und des Aufwachens gewahr wird. Und je mehr Geisteswissenschaft in die Seelen der Menschen sich senken wird, desto mehr werden die Menschen in das reale Leben nicht nur das aufnehmen, was sie im Wachen erleben, sondern auch dasjenige, was ihnen aus einer übersinnlichen Welt zukommt im Einschlafen, namentlich aber im Aufwachen. Wir müssen uns nur klar sein, daß wir solche realen Beziehungen, wie ich sie jetzt meine, eigentlich nur immer zu solchen Toten herstellen können, mit denen wir irgendwie karmisch verbunden sind. Aber wir sind mit viel mehr Seelen karmisch verbunden, als wir glauben. Für den bewußten oder unbewußten Verkehr zwischen Lebenden und Toten ist allerdings die karmische Verbindung etwas so Notwendiges, wie es notwendig ist, das Auge auf ein Sinnesobjekt zu richten, um es wahrzunehmen. Wie da die Sinnesbeziehung hergestellt werden muß, so ist eine Voraussetzung für einen Verkehr zwischen Lebenden und Toten, daß gewisse karmische Beziehungen zwischen ihnen herrschen oder wenigstens hergestellt werden.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":469,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p017"},{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p018","passage_number":18,"text":"Wenn wir nun den Moment des Einschlafens zunächst ins Auge fassen, so ist das derjenige Augenblick, der besonders günstig ist, um an irgendeinen, der hinweggegangen ist, und der uns lieb und wert war, der mit uns sonst karmisch verbunden war, dasjenige heranzubringen, was wir zu ihm an Beziehungen entwickelt haben. Der Augenblick des Einschlafens ist dafür besonders gut. Wir entwickeln natürlich unsere Beziehungen zu den Toten, mit denen wir karmisch verbunden sind, in dem wachen Tagesleben vom Aufwachen bis zum Einschlafen. Wir gedenken der Toten. Alles dasjenige, was wir in der Weise im Verhältnis zu den Toten denken, daß wir es etwa gerne an sie heranbringen möchten, daß wir es ihnen gerne sagen möchten, das drängt sich dann im Moment des Einschlafens zusammen und gelangt, wenn es uns auch unbewußt bleibt, für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein, zu den Toten hin. Nur ist eine gewisse Seelenverfassung für diese Mitteilungen ganz besonders günstig, eine andere Seelenverfassung ungünstig.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":154,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p018"},{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p019","passage_number":19,"text":"Sehen Sie, ein bloß trockenes, kaltes Denken an die Toten, das ist wenig geeignet, zu den Toten wirklich hinzugelangen, als Mitteilung an sie heranzukommen. Wollen wir, daß gewissermaßen der Moment des Einschlafens wirklich ein Tor wird, durch das unsere eigenen Seelenerlebnisse, die zu den Toten Beziehungen haben, zu den Toten hindringen, dann müssen wir uns mit den Toten in anderer Weise wachend beschäftigen als durch kalte, trockene Gedanken. Wir müssen versuchen, Gedanken rege zu machen, welche uns mit dem Toten, während er noch selbst hier unter den sogenannten Lebenden weilte, verbunden haben. Aber wir müssen in die Gedanken dann besonders dasjenige hineinlegen, was eine gemüthafte Verbindung herstellen kann. In gleichgültiger Weise an den Toten denken hilft nicht viel. Alles dasjenige aber, was einen gemüthaft mit ihm verbunden hält, das ist gut, sich vor die Seele zu rufen: Wie man mit dem Toten da oder dort war, wie man gerade sich mit ihm unterhalten hat, dadurch daß man für etwas, was ihn besonders interessierte, aus dem Gefühl heraus selber ein reges Interesse entwickelte; oder eine Situation in sich wachzurufen, wie man einmal mit dem Toten zusammen war hier im Leben und etwas, was ihm nahegegangen ist, einem auch naheging, oder umgekehrt; wie man versucht war, etwas, was man erlebt hat, weil man den anderen gerne hatte, dem anderen mitzuteilen, um es mit ihm gemeinsam zu erleben. Nicht trockene Gedanken, sondern von Liebe, von Gemüthaftigkeit durchsetzte Gedanken! Diese Gedanken, die bleiben dann in unserer Seele bis zum Moment des Einschlafens. Und da findet sich dann das Tor, durch das sie als Mitteilung sicher zu dem Toten kommen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":265,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p019"},{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p020","passage_number":20,"text":"Wir sollten uns über diese Dinge eigentlich nicht täuschen. Wir träumen von einem Toten. Wenn wir von einem Toten träumen, so ist das schon in sehr vielen Fällen — natürlich nicht in allen Fällen — herrührend von einer realen Beziehung zu dem Toten. Aber das, was wir träumen, insofern es dem Moment des Einschlafens folgt, ist eigentlich nur eine traumartige, bildhafte Umgestaltung desjenigen, was wir dem Toten mitteilen. Wir erleben nicht den Moment des Einschlafens, wo wirklich solche Gedanken, wie eben charakterisiert, zu dem Toten hinübergehen, weil dieser Moment des Einschlafens so schnell vorüberhuscht. Aber dieser Moment des Einschlafens klingt eigentlich nach in dem folgenden Schlafe, klingt in dem Traume aus. Wenn wir die Sache richtig verstehen, so werden wir Träume von Toten nicht auslegen als Botschaften von den Toten. Sie könnten es sein, werden es aber in der Regel nicht sein. Es sind halb uns zum Bewußtsein kommende Impulse, die uns das Folgende besagen. Träumen wir von einem Toten, so bedeutet das: Wir haben an einem vorhergehenden Tage einen solchen Gedanken an den Toten willkürlich oder unwillkürlich gerichtet, wie ich ihn charakterisiert habe. Dieser Gedanke hat den Weg zu dem Toten gefunden, und der Traum zeigt uns an, daß wir eigentlich zu dem Toten gesprochen haben. Das, was der Tote uns dann antwortet, was der Tote uns mitteilt, diese Botschaften vom Toten, die kommen besonders leicht herein im Moment des Aufwachens. Und sie würden sich viel leichter einstellen für die sogenannten Lebenden, wenn diese in unserer gegenwärtigen Zeit nur überhaupt Zeit hätten, Neigung hätten, ein wenig achtzugeben auf dasjenige, was zwischen den Zeilen des Lebens aus tiefen Untergründen des Bewußtseins heraufkommt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":272,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p020"},{"locus":"GA 174b/1918-02-23/p021","passage_number":21,"text":"Ja, der heutige Mensch ist eitel und selbstsüchtig, und wenn irgend etwas in seiner Seele aufsteigt, dann ist er sich zumeist klar darüber, daß es seine Genialität ist, die das hat aufsteigen lassen. Bescheiden sein, das ist ja eine ins Leben hineingestellte Ermahnung; im Inneren seines Wesens bescheiden zu sein ist für den Menschen nicht so ganz leicht. Bescheiden zu sein bedeutet auch, daß man wirklich unterscheiden lernt zwischen dem, was aus der eigenen Kraft der Seele heraufkommt, und dem, was von fremden, übersinnlichen Impulsen aus der eigenen Seele heraufkommt. Wie derjenige, der das schauende Bewußtsein hat, die Antwort des Toten von der eigenen Seele aus aufsteigend empfindet und wahrnimmt, so kommen diese Antworten der Toten, diese Botschaften von den Toten in der Zeit des Wachens vom Aufwachen bis zum Einschlafen aus den Tiefen der Seele herauf. Allein, man kann sagen: Ebensowenig wie der Mensch während des Tages die Sterne sieht — trotzdem sie fortwährend am Himmel stehen -, weil das Sonnenlicht sie übertönt, ebensowenig nimmt der Mensch im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein wahr, was da von dem Grunde seiner Seele fortwährend heraufkommt, weil das äußere Leben, das durch die Eindrücke der Sinne veranlaßt wird, das eben übertönt. Wird man intim, möchte ich sagen, mit seiner eigenen Seele bekannt, lernt man unterscheiden dasjenige, von dem wir selbst der Ursprung sind, von dem, was als Fremdes herauftönt aus der eigenen Seele, dann lernt man nach und nach auch im wachen Tagesleben Botschaften der Toten erkennen. Dann aber verbindet man mit dieser Erkenntnis etwas außerordentlich Wichtiges. Dann sagt man sich: Wir sind ja eigentlich nicht von den Toten getrennt, die Toten leben unter uns. Sie kündigen sich eben nicht an so wie andere sinnliche Wesen, die uns von außen her ihre Impulse senden, sondern sie kündigen sich von innen heraus an, sie sprechen durch unser eigenes Innere zu uns, sie tragen uns.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":308,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/174b/1918-02-23/p021"}],"beads":[{"from":[15],"to":[16],"confidence":"medium"},{"from":[16],"to":[17],"confidence":"medium"},{"from":[17],"to":[18],"confidence":"medium"},{"from":[18],"to":[19],"confidence":"medium"},{"from":[19],"to":[20],"confidence":"medium"},{"from":[20],"to":[21],"confidence":"medium"}],"note":"Paired by the paragraph aligner; each language numbers its own paragraphs. A bead at either end of the span can carry text beyond it (the `from` numbers show what each bead covers)."}}