74. The Riddle of Death as a Riddle of Life

It is the perception of those souls, which have gone up before us through the gate of death into the spiritual world, which we meet there, much more inwardly, let us say, than when we perceive these souls here, where they are separated from us through the body. Nevertheless, it is much more inward - but precisely because it is much more inward - the mental images that we form of the dead, of those whom we encounter there as dead people who have died before us, must basically be created by ourselves. So think: someone goes through the gate of death, and someone is there whom he knew here in life: He comes into their region. (He always enters their region.) He senses that someone is there. He also knows from an immediate feeling who it is; but he cannot imagine him unless he mentally scans, as it were, what he only knows is there. You can form an approximate idea of the way in which you have to work on the mental image of the souls that you get to know after death, if you think to yourself: We would be here in the dark, and one would not see the other with physical eyes, but only recognize them by touch, so we have to create the image ourselves. Thus all mental images of souls that have passed through the gate of death before us must first be formed through spiritual scanning. So to be active - as a rule we do not really imagine this - we must not give ourselves over to the impressions of the spiritual world as passively as we give ourselves over to the impressions of the physical-sensual world. In order for me to see one of you physically-sensually, he only needs to walk in the door: There he appears to my eye - I need do nothing about it. It is not like that after death. You know that, but you have to form the mental image first. I am active in that I have to form the mental image of the soul out of my own imagination.