{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 59/1910-02-10/p042","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Now we can give an answer to the question—What is mysticism? It is an endeavour by the human soul to find the divine-spiritual source of existence through immersing itself in its own inner being. Fundamentally, spiritual-scientific cognition also must take this mystical path, but it is well aware that it must first prepare itself and not set out prematurely. Mysticism is thus an enterprise which springs from a justified urge in the human soul, thoroughly justified in principle, but undertaken too early if the soul has not first sought to make progress in imaginative cognition. If we try to deepen our ordinary life through mysticism, there is a danger that we may not have made ourselves sufficiently free and independent of ourselves, so that we are unable to form a picture of the world not coloured by our personality. If we rise to the stage of Inspiration, we have poured out our inner being into something drawn from the outer world; and then we have gained the right to be a mystic. All mysticism should therefore be undertaken at the proper stage of human development. Harm is done if we try to achieve mystical knowledge before we are ready for it.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"III. What is Mysticism?","site_heading":null,"date":"1910-02-10","location":null,"word_count":201,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/59/1910-02-10/p042","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"C. Davy and C. von Arnim","identified_edition":"RSP1983","book_title":"Metamorphoses of the Soul II","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA059/English/RSP1983/19100210p01.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"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/59/1910-02-10/p042","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},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1910-02-10","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 59/1910-02-10/p034","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/59/1910-02-10/p034"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":232,"en_words":201,"ratio":0.87,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 59/1910-02-10/p034","passage_number":34,"text":"Und jetzt können wir uns auf die Frage: Was ist Mystik? — eine Antwort geben. Es ist ein Unternehmen der menschlichen Seele, durch Vertiefung in das eigene Innere den göttlich-geistigen Quell des Daseins zu finden. Im Grunde genommen muß auch geisteswissenschaftliche Erkenntnis diesen mystischen Weg machen. Klar ist sie sich aber, daß sie ihn nicht zu früh machen darf, daß sie erst die Vorbereitungen treffen muß, um ihn in der Seele machen zu dürfen. So können wiir sagen: Mystik ist ein solches Unternehmen, das einem berechtigten Impuls und Drang der menschlichen Seele entspringt, etwas formal durchaus Richtiges; das nur dann von der menschlichen Seele zu früh unternommen wird, wenn diese menschliche Seele nicht zuerst Fortschritte zu machen versucht hat in der imaginativen Erkenntnis. Wenn man das gewöhnliche menschliche Leben vertiefen will in der Mystik, so liegt die Gefahr vor, daß man sich nicht tief genug von sich frei und unabhängig gemacht hat, um etwas anderes als ein individuell gefärbtes Bild der Welt zu liefern. Wenn man aber zur imaginativen Erkenntnis aufgestiegen ist, dann hat man sein Inneres ausgegossen in etwas, was man der Außenwelt entnommen hat; da hat man sich das Recht erworben, auch ein Mystiker sein zu dürfen. Alle Mystik sollte daher auf der richtigen Entwickelungsstufe des Menschen unternommen werden. Die Schäden der Mystik treten dann hervor, wenn der Mensch zu früh dasjenige tun will, was der mystischen Erkenntnis zugrunde liegt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":232,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/59/1910-02-10/p034"}],"english":["GA 59/1910-02-10/p042"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":232,"en_words":201,"ratio":0.87,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.79,"band":"watch","note":"This witness is somewhat shorter than the original. Minor omissions or condensation are possible.","word_count":6705,"original_word_count":8463,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"C. Davy and C. von Arnim","identified_edition":"RSP1983","book_title":"Metamorphoses of the Soul II","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA059/English/RSP1983/19100210p01.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 59/1910-02-10/p034"],"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."}}