{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p005-p013","extent":"range","passage_number":5,"through":13,"paragraph_count":9,"first_locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p005","last_locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p013","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"title":"56. Life Between Death and a New Birth","date":"1913-02-27","location":null,"alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19130227s01.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":"listeners_notes","scope":"volume","note":"Written from listeners' notes, summaries, or memory rather than a shorthand transcript. The wording is the note-taker's as much as Steiner's: weigh a single striking phrase here far more cautiously than the same phrase in a stenographic volume, and do not rest an argument on one word.","evidence":"Nach zum Teil bruchstückhaften Mitschriften","evidence_translation":"From transcripts that are in part fragmentary","evidence_source":"The publisher's description of the volume, as mirrored on AnthroWiki (GA 246), which also speaks of \"fragmentarischen Hörernotizen und Vortragszusammenfassungen\". The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one."},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.03,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5015,"original_word_count":4883,"may_be_abridged":false},"site_heading":null,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p005-p013","json_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p005-p013.json","lecture_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27#p005","word_count":1396,"quote_safe":true,"passages":[{"passage_number":5,"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p005","text":"When the shearer makes acquaintance with those human individuals who are just passing through life between death and a new birth, then he can experience the following: He can meet a personality that he may have known quite well in life, that he knew how it stood in earthly life before it passed through the gate of death. Now he gets to know them after they have passed through the gate of death. The following can then be experienced: The personality who was not able to think about the spiritual, about the realm of the spirit in today's sense - and whose friends and family members were equally unable to do so - this personality then complains to the shearer about the following: I have now lived for many years in the most intimate union with my wife; she was the comfort, the strength, the happiness of my life. I feel that we belong together. Now it is terrible for me that I can no longer find her in the world where she is. I know she is there, she is on earth, but I cannot find her; she has slipped away, she is dead to me.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":197,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p005","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19130227s01.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 246/1913-02-27/p005"],"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."}},{"passage_number":6,"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p006","text":"When the seer then sees why this is so, he can convince himself that there is indeed a great difference between the life between death and a new birth and the present life and that life in the human cycle before the Mystery of Golgotha. At that time, the whole life of the soul in embodiment was still different. For people, life in the physical body was not divided into day waking and night sleeping; there was an intermediate state between waking and sleeping. Then people looked into the starry worlds, and they saw not only stars but also spiritual beings connected with them. The fact that spiritual beings lived in the world was still accessible as a perception of the human soul. When a dead person looked down into the physical world, where the embodied souls lived, then he saw the content of their souls. He saw what they imagined about the spiritual world. And one could see from above - if I may say so - the embodied souls because they knew something about the spiritual world. When people carry ideas and concepts of spiritual worlds in their souls, then they are seen by the dead. If we carry ideas and concepts of spiritual worlds in our souls, then the dead see us. If we do not do this, if we do not carry such ideas and concepts in our souls, then we are only there for the dead in memory.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":243,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p006","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19130227s01.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 246/1913-02-27/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."}},{"passage_number":7,"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p007","text":"In Greek times, the saying was still true: “Better a beggar in the upper world than a king in the realm of shadows”. - It is precisely this saying that shows so clearly how humanity is evolving. In Greece the connection with the spiritual world disappeared. Now the human race is living in a time in which the souls here on earth, when they are embodied, for the most part only want to be filled with what the physical world provides in terms of stimulation. And the souls are empty in terms of spiritual images. This is not an accusation, but a description of the true state of affairs. These need not only be bad or uninstructed souls who do not want to know anything about spiritual worlds, because souls today can no longer see into spiritual worlds as they could in ancient times. But because it is so that the souls here are mostly empty of spiritual images, they also remain imperceptible to the souls who have passed through the gate of death.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":174,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p007","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19130227s01.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 246/1913-02-27/p007"],"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."}},{"passage_number":8,"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p008","text":"As an example I would like to cite a man who does a lot for human love and even for animal love, but who, despite his kind soul, is completely materialistic and works everywhere to spread the materialistic teaching. In a lecture he quoted a saying that is characteristic of the present day, as proof of how little souls today carry within themselves of the insight into the spiritual world. It is Forel who made the statement:","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":77,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p008","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19130227s01.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 246/1913-02-27/p008"],"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."}},{"passage_number":9,"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p009","text":"> Ah! If the Lord God would bestow me,  \n> Leaving me still free to choose,  \n> I would not seek [from myself vain high dignity, No!  \n> My heart would rejoice all at once:]  \n> Allow me to remain on earth,  \n> For this realm is good enough for me.  \n> I am not drawn to the heavenly gesture,  \n> Keep it for your angel brood.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":67,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p009","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19130227s01.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 246/1913-02-27/p009"],"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."}},{"passage_number":10,"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p010","text":"We do not want to practise theosophy, my dear friends, in order to know, we want to practise theosophy for the sake of a higher love of man. For people miss a great deal, in retrospect, of the spiritual world after death, if they only know souls here that are extinguished for them. When one experiences something like what I have just described, one is overcome by the thought of the necessity of a common language for the living and the dead. This common language, which not only makes the expression audible, so to speak, but the essence, this language is theosophy. And what are we actually doing when we practise Theosophy? We bring nothing absolutely new to human souls, because these souls have passed through previous earthly lives. Now they are empty, but what was once in the souls remains there. What the souls have absorbed in the past is just like forgotten mental images. Spiritual knowledge dives deep into the soul. When we practise Theosophy, we only remind the souls of what they have forgotten and thus redeem what is deeply rooted in the soul's subsoil. We carry back into the souls what once made the souls visible to the dead. This bridges the chasms that would otherwise have to open up between the living and the dead in a materialistic age. For this reason, the shearer has the duty to proclaim the truths of the spiritual world to the world around him.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":245,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p010","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19130227s01.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 246/1913-02-27/p010"],"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."}},{"passage_number":11,"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p011","text":"When you hear this, you can get an idea of the seriousness and dignity of Theosophy. Taken from the voices of the dead themselves, this is what spurs us on to Theosophy. This is connected with the fact that we can bridge the abyss between the living and the dead by being imbued with theosophical life and maintaining the connection through what I would like to call “reading to the dead”. We have already seen good results from this work with the dead.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":83,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p011","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19130227s01.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 246/1913-02-27/p011"],"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."}},{"passage_number":12,"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p012","text":"People have died who have lived alongside Theosophists. They were very averse to Theosophy, scolded it, got angry when people spoke of Theosophy. But in the depths of their souls were rooted quite different feelings than those that showed themselves in ordinary consciousness. The souls hated Theosophy because their friend loved it. While they were raging against Theosophy, an unconscious longing for Theosophy was awakening in them. It is like this: a person can rant and rave about Theosophy and want nothing more than to numb himself, to numb the longing that lives within him and which he does not want to allow to arise. But death makes all things real. Then the longing that man has numbed emerges. Then he has the strongest urge to hear something of Theosophy. And we can do him the greatest service if we sit down with the image of the dead man in front of us and read to him quietly, teach him. We can also tell him our own thoughts that we have absorbed, always vividly imagining the image of the dead person. We must not be stingy with this, as it bridges the chasm that separates us from our dead.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":199,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p012","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19130227s01.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 246/1913-02-27/p012"],"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."}},{"passage_number":13,"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p013","text":"Not only in the most extreme cases, but in every case we can do good to the dead. Three to five years after death, the dead can usually still have an understanding of the language that was spoken when they lived on earth. Then comes the time when you can only send spiritual thoughts; then the dead only understand the thoughts. Then you can even read to the dead in a foreign language if you understand it yourself. This is a comforting feeling that can ease the pain of the passing of someone you love. Souls have been known to have a longing for what we are spreading here as Theosophy.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":111,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/246/1913-02-27/p013","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2025","book_title":"Supplements to Member Lectures","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA246/English/SOL2025/19130227s01.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 246/1913-02-27/p013"],"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. 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Nun lernt er sie kennen, nachdem sie durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Da kann dann Folgendes erfahren werden: Jene Persönlichkeit, die hier nicht in der Lage war, im heutigen Sinne sich Gedanken über das Spirituelle, über das Reich des Geistes zu machen - und deren Freunde und Familienangehörige das ebenso wenig konnten -, diese Persönlichkeit klagt dann dem Scher etwa Folgendes: Da habe ich nun mit meiner Gattin viele Jahre aufs Innigste verbunden gelebt; sie war der Trost, die Stärke, das Beglückende meines Lebens. Ich fühle, dass wir zusammengehören. Nun ist es mir schrecklich, dass ich sie nicht mehr finden kann in der Welt, in der sie sich aufhält. Ich weiß, sie ist da, sie ist auf der Erde, aber ich kann sie nicht finden; sie ist mir entschwunden, ist für mich tot.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":195,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/246/1913-02-27/p005"},{"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p006","passage_number":6,"text":"Wenn dann der Seher sieht, warum das so ist, dann kann er sich überzeugen, dass in der Tat ein großer Unterschied herrscht zwischen dem Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt und dem gegenwärtigen Leben und jenem Leben in dem Menschheitszyklus vor dem Mysterium von Golgatha. Damals war ja das ganze Leben der Seele in der Verkörperung noch anders. Für die Menschen verlief nicht das Leben im physischen Leibe in Tagwachen und Nachtschlafen; es gab einen Zwischenzustand zwischen Wachen und Schlafen. Da sahen die Menschen in die Sternenwelten, und sie sahen nicht nur Sterne, sondern damit verbundene geistige Wesenheiten. Dass Geistiges in der Welt lebt, das war noch zugänglich als Wahrnehmung der Menschenseele. Wenn dann ein Toter herunterschaute in die physische Welt, wo die verkörperten Seelen lebten, dann sah er den Inhalt ihrer Seelen. Er sah, was sie sich vorstellten über die geistige Welt. Und man konnte eben von oben - wenn ich so sagen darf - die verkörperten Seelen deshalb sehen, weil sie etwas wussten von der geistigen Welt. Wenn die Menschen in ihren Seelen Ideen und Begriffe tragen von geistigen Welten, dann werden sie gesehen von den Toten. Wenn wir in unserer Seele Ideen und Begriffe tragen von geistigen Welten, dann sehen uns die Toten. Wenn wir dies nicht tun, wenn wir solche Ideen und Begriffe nicht in unserer Seele tragen, dann sind wir für die Toten nur noch da in der Erinnerung.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":236,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/246/1913-02-27/p006"},{"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p007","passage_number":7,"text":"Im Griechentum galt noch der Spruch: «Lieber ein Bettler in der Oberwelt als ein König im Reich der Schatten». - Gerade in diesem Ausspruch zeigt sich so klar, wie die Menschheit in der Fortentwicklung begriffen ist. Im Griechentum versank ja der Zusammenhang mit der geistigen Welt. Jetzt lebt sich das Menschengeschlecht in eine Zeit hinein, in welcher die Seelen hier auf Erden, wenn sie verkörpert sind, zum größten Teil nur angefüllt sein wollen mit dem, was die physische Welt an Anregung gibt. Und leer sind die Seelen in Bezug auf spirituelle Vorstellungen. Das soll kein Vorwurf sein, sondern eine Schilderung des wahren Tatbestandes. Das brauchen nicht nur schlechte oder unbelehrte Seelen zu sein, die nichts wissen wollen von geistigen Welten, weil ja doch heute die Seelen eben nicht mehr hineinschauen können in geistige Welten wie in alten Zeiten. Aber weil das so ist, dass die Seelen hier meistens leer sind an geistigen Vorstellungen, so bleiben sie auch unwahrnehmbar den Seelen, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":168,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/246/1913-02-27/p007"},{"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p008","passage_number":8,"text":"Als Beispiel möchte ich anführen einen Mann, der für Menschenliebe und sogar für Tierliebe sehr viel tut, der aber trotz seiner gütigen Seele ganz materialistisch gesinnt ist und überall für Verbreitung der materialistischen Lehre arbeitet. Er hat zitiert in einem Vortrag einen Ausspruch, der charakteristisch ist für die heutige Zeit, als Beweis dafür, wie wenig die Seelen heute in sich selbst etwas tragen von dem Hineinblicken in die geistige Welt. Es ist Forel, der den Ausspruch tat:","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":77,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/246/1913-02-27/p008"},{"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p009","passage_number":9,"text":"> Ach! Wenn der Herrgott mich bescheren würde,  \n> Mir lassend noch hiezu die freie Wahl,  \n> Nicht sucht’ ich [aus mir eitle hohe Würde, Nein!  \n> Jauchzen tät mein Herz mit einem Mal:]  \n> Gestatte mir zu bleiben auf der Erde,  \n> Denn dieses Reich ist mir genügend gut.  \n> Mich zieht nicht an die himmlische Gebärde,  \n> Behalte sie für Deine Engelbrut.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":64,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/246/1913-02-27/p009"},{"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p010","passage_number":10,"text":"Wir wollen nicht Theosophie treiben, meine lieben Freunde, um zu wissen, wir wollen Theosophie treiben um einer höheren Menschenliebe willen. Denn die Menschen entbehren gar vieles, rückblickend von der geistigen Welt nach dem Tode, wenn sie hier nur Seelen wissen, die für sie ausgelöscht sind. Wenn man so etwas erfährt, wie ich es eben geschildert habe, da überkommt einen der Gedanke von der Notwendigkeit einer gemeinschaftlichen Sprache für Lebende und Tote. Diese gemeinschaftliche Sprache, die nicht nur sozusagen den Ausdruck vernehmlich macht, sondern das Wesen, diese Sprache ist die Theosophie. Und was tun wir eigentlich, wenn wir Theosophie treiben? Nichts absolut Neues bringen wir an die Menschenseelen heran, denn diese Seelen sind ja durch frühere Erdenleben hindurchgegangen. Jetzt sind sie leer, aber das, was einmal in den Seelen war, das bleibt doch darin. Es ist mit dem, was die Seelen früher aufgenommen haben nur so wie mit vergessenen Vorstellungen. Die spirituelle Erkenntnis taucht tief unter in die Seele. Wenn wir Theosophie treiben, dann erinnern wir nur die Seelen an das, was sie vergessen haben, und erlösen so, was tief in dem Untergrund der Seele wurzelt. Wir tragen wieder in die Seelen hinein, was auch einstmals die Seelen sichtbar gemacht hat für die Toten. Dadurch werden die Abgründe überbrückt, die sich sonst für ein materialistisches Zeitalter auftun müssten zwischen den Lebenden und den Toten. Aus diesem Grunde erwächst dem Scher die Pflicht, die Wahrheiten der geistigen Welt der Mitwelt zu verkünden.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":240,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/246/1913-02-27/p010"},{"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p011","passage_number":11,"text":"Wenn man dies hört, kann man einen Begriff bekommen von dem Ernst und der Würde der Theosophie. Hergenommen aus den Stimmen der Toten selbst ist das, was uns zur Theosophic anspornt. Damit hängt zusammen, dass wir den Abgrund zwischen den Lebenden und den Toten auch noch dadurch überbrücken können, dass wir durch das Durchdrungensein mit theosophischem Leben die Verbindung aufrechterhalten können durch das, was ich nennen möchte «das Vorlesen den Toten». Wir haben gute Früchte schon sehen können bei dieser Arbeit an den Toten.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":84,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/246/1913-02-27/p011"},{"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p012","passage_number":12,"text":"Da sind Leute hingestorben, die an der Seite von Theosophen gelebt haben. Sie waren der Theosophie sehr abgeneigt, schimpften darüber, gerieten in Zorn, wenn man von Theosophie sprach. Aber in den Tiefen ihrer Seele wurzelten ganz andere Empfindungen als sich zeigten im gewöhnlichen Bewusstsein. Die Seelen hassten die Theosophie, weil der Freund sie liebte. Während sie wüteten über die Theosophie, erwachte gerade in ihnen eine unbewusste Sehnsucht nach Theosophie. Es ist so: Ein Mensch kann schimpfen und losziehen über die Theosophie und nichts anderes damit wollen, als sich betäuben, betäuben die Sehnsucht, die in ihm lebt, und die er nicht aufkommen lassen will. Der Tod aber macht alle Dinge wahr. Da taucht dann auf die Sehnsucht, die der Mensch betäubt hat. Da hat er dann den stärksten Trieb, von Theosophie etwas zu vernehmen. Und wir können ihm den größten Dienst erweisen, wenn wir uns hinsetzen, das Bild des Toten vor uns, und ihm leise vorlesen, ihn unterrichten. Man kann ihm auch seine eigenen Gedanken, die man in sich aufgenommen hat, zutragen, immer sich das Bild des Toten recht lebhaft vorstellend. Wir dürfen nicht geizen mit dieser Sache, dadurch überbrücken wir den Abgrund, der uns von unseren Toten trennt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":198,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/246/1913-02-27/p012"},{"locus":"GA 246/1913-02-27/p013","passage_number":13,"text":"Nicht nur in den extremsten Fällen, sondern in jedem Falle können wir den Toten Gutes tun. Drei bis fünf Jahre nach dem Tode können die Toten zumeist noch ein Verständnis haben für die Sprache, die gesprochen wurde, als sie lebten auf Erden. Dann kommt die Zeit, wo man nur noch spirituelle Gedanken schicken kann; dann verstehen die Toten nur noch die Gedanken. Dann kann man eben Toten sogar in einer fremden Sprache vorlesen, wenn man sie nur selbst versteht. Das ist ein tröstliches Gefühl, das den Schmerz lindern kann über das Ableben eines Menschen, den man liebt. Es sind Seelen bekannt geworden, die geradezu Verlangen haben nach dem, was wir hier als Theosophie verbreiten.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":114,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/246/1913-02-27/p013"}],"beads":[{"from":[5],"to":[5],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[6],"to":[6],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[7],"to":[7],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[8],"to":[8],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[9],"to":[9],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[10],"to":[10],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[11],"to":[11],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[12],"to":[12],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[13],"to":[13],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"}],"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)."}}