The So-Called Dangers of Initiation

And the matter goes much further. We see people who are no longer able to cope with our complicated culture; they are sickened by our complicated culture, and why? They can no longer find their way with their judgment! Theosophy or the secret science is the means of finding one's way in our culture, and it can have a healing effect on those whom our culture has made sick. But can't something else happen as well? We can also make this clear to ourselves by means of a comparison. A food may be healthy on the outside, but someone may have a totally spoiled stomach. Even if the food is quite healthy for the healthy person, the spoiled stomach may not be able to tolerate this healthy food under certain circumstances. And so it is in many cases when people with sick souls come out of our culture into the cheerful and blissful air of secret science. Then it can happen that with their sick souls they cannot tolerate the healthy food. However, these are exceptional cases.