{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 178/1917-11-18/p006","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"It is exceptionally important to know this—particularly for the task of spiritual science in our time—basically because the knowledge of a spiritual world that lies on the other side of the threshold and the knowledge of truly self-conscious individualities is not merely an achievement of today's spiritual science but is actually an ancient knowledge. In earlier times it was only known through an ancient, atavistic clairvoyance. Today one knows it through other methods; one learns to know it gradually. The knowledge of actual spirits to be found outside of human consciousness—spirits living under different conditions from human beings but standing in continuous relationship to human beings, spirits that can take hold of the human being in his thinking, feeling, and willing—this knowledge was always there. This knowledge was always considered the secret treasure of particular brotherhoods, who treated this knowledge within their circles as strictly esoteric. Why did they treat it in this way? To enlarge on this question would lead at this moment too far afield. It should be said, however, that individual brotherhoods were permeated with the earnest conviction that the majority of humanity was not sufficiently mature for this knowledge. Indeed, this was the case to a large extent. Many other brotherhoods, however, which are called brotherhoods of the left, were striving to retain this knowledge, because such knowledge, when taken possession of by a small group, would give this group power over others who did not possess such knowledge. There have always been endeavors whose aim was to secure power for certain groups over others. This could be achieved by considering a particular kind of knowledge as an esoteric possession but using it in such a way that the power over something quite different was expanded.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"10. Individual Spirit Beings and the Undivided Foundation of the World: Part 1","site_heading":null,"date":"1917-11-18","location":null,"word_count":290,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/178/1917-11-18/p006","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Gilbert Church and Alice Wulsin","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/ReapChrist/19171118p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"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/178/1917-11-18/p006"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/178/1917-11-18/p006","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},"other_renderings":{"loci":[{"locus":"GA 178/1917-11-18_02","ga":"178","lecture":"1917-11-18_02","kind":"renderings","relation":"another translation or transcription of the same lecture"}],"note":"The same lecture is also served at the loci listed, each with how it relates to this one. They are ONE witness, not independent attestations: quote the rendering you fetched, and do not cite another as corroborating it. Wording differs between translations, so a quotation found in one need not occur in the other."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 178/1917-11-18/p006","passage_number":6,"text":"Dies ist — gerade für die Aufgabe der Geisteswissenschaft in unserer Zeit — außerordentlich wichtig zu wissen, aus dem Grunde, weil das Wissen von dem jenseits der Schwelle gelegenen Geistgebiet, das Wissen von wirklichen, ihrer selbst bewußten Individualitäten nicht bloß eine Errungenschaft etwa der heutigen Geisteswissenschaft ist, sondern weil dies tatsächlich ein uraltes Wissen ist. Früher hat man es eben gewußt im Sinne der alten atavistischen Hellseherkunst. Heute weiß man es mit andern Mitteln, lernt es allmählich wissen. Aber das Wissen von wirklichen, außerhalb des menschlichen Bewußtseins befindlichen Geistern, die unter andern Bedingungen leben als die Menschen, die aber in fortwährendem Verhältnisse stehen zu den Menschen, von denen auch der Mensch ergriffen werden kann in seinem Denken, Fühlen und Wollen, dieses Wissen war immer da. Und dieses Wissen, das wurde immer betrachtet als ein Geheimgut bestimmter Brüderschaften, die dieses Wissen in ihrem Kreise als ein streng Esoterisches behandelten. Warum behandelten sie es als streng esoterisch ? Diese Frage zu erörtern, das würde in diesem Augenblick etwas zu weit führen; aber das soll gesagt werden, daß einzelne Brüderschaften von der ehrlichen Überzeugung immer durchdrungen waren, daß eben die Mehrzahl der Menschen nicht reif sei für dieses Wissen. Nun, das war ja auch bis zu einem hohen Grade der Fall. Aber viele andere Brüderschaften, die man Brüderschaften der Linken nennt, waren bestrebt, dieses Wissen für sich auch aus dem Grunde zu behalten, weil solches Wissen, von einer kleinen Gruppe in Besitz genommen, eine Macht gibt über die andern, die dieses Wissen nicht haben. Und immer hat es Bestrebungen gegeben, die darauf ausgingen, gewissen Gruppen Macht zu sichern über andere. Das konnte man dadurch herbeiführen, daß man ein gewisses Wissen betrachtete als ein esoterisches Gut, aber es ausnutzte, um die Macht über irgend etwas anderes auszudehnen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":293,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/178/1917-11-18/p006"}],"english":["GA 178/1917-11-18/p006"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":293,"en_words":290,"ratio":0.99,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.01,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":7784,"original_word_count":7738,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Gilbert Church and Alice Wulsin","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/ReapChrist/19171118p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 178/1917-11-18/p006"],"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."}}