{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 59/1910-02-10/p044","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"We need not say much about the dangers which a premature devotion to mystical methods can incur. They involve a descent into the depths of the human soul before the mystic has prepared himself in such a way that his inner being can grow out into the external world. He will often then be inclined to shut himself off from the outer world, and fundamentally this is only a subtle, refined form of egotism. This often applies to mystics who turn away from the outer world and indulge in those feelings of rapture, exaltation and liberation which flood into their souls when this golden mood pervades their inner life. This egotism can be overcome if the ego is constrained to pass outside itself and make its activity flow into the external world by the creation of symbols. In this way an imaginative symbolism leads to an experience of truth which strips away egotism. The danger incurred by a mystic who strives after knowledge too early in his development is that he may become an eccentric or a refined egoist.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"III. What is Mysticism?","site_heading":null,"date":"1910-02-10","location":null,"word_count":179,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/59/1910-02-10/p044","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/p044","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/p035","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/59/1910-02-10/p035"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":396,"en_words":294,"ratio":0.74,"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/p035","passage_number":35,"text":"So dürfen wir sagen: In dem, was als berechtigte Mystik vorliegt, haben wir für die Geisteswissenschaft eine Etappe, um gerade dasjenige genau verstehen zu lernen, was das wirkliche Ziel und die Intention der geisteswissenschaftlichen Forschung ist. Kaum durch irgend etwas kann man so viel lernen über das Ziel und die Intentionen der geistigen Forschung als durch die hingebende Betrachtung der Mystiker. Man kann sich hinaufringen an den Mystikern zu den Erkenntnissen der geistigen Forschung. Man darf nur nicht glauben, daß der wahre Geistesforscher, wenn er etwas als berechtigt mit Mystik bezeichnet zu werden anerkennt, dann alle Entwickelung leugnet. Gerade so erscheint Mystik dem Geistesforscher als etwas Berechtigtes; es muß jedoch hinaufgestiegen werden bis zu einem gewissen Grade der Entwickelung, wenn ihre Methoden nicht zu subjektiven Ergebnissen, sondern zu solchen führen sollen, die nun als wirkliche Wahrheit über die geistige Welt gelten können. So kann man schließlich sagen, daß die Frage: Was ist Mystik? — damit beantwortet werden kann, daß Mystik ein Unternehmen der menschlichen Seele ist, das innerhalb der Entwickelung der menschlichen Seele oftmals zu früh vollführt wird. Dann braucht nicht viel gesagt zu werden über Gefahren, die eine verfrühte mystische Vertiefung im Menschen hervorrufen kann. Die verfrühte mystische Vertiefung ist ein Gang in die Tiefe der menschlichen Seele, bevor der Mensch Anstalt dazu gemacht hat, daß sein Inneres verwächst mit der Außenwelt. Damit schließt er sich oft unberechtigterweise von der Außenwelt ab. Das kann aber im Grunde genommen nur ein raffinierter und verfeinerter Egoismus sein. Das ist auch bei vielen Mystikern so, wenn sie die Aufmerksamkeit abwenden von der Außenwelt und sich ergehen in inneren Entzükkungen und Beseligungen, Erhebungen und Befreiungen, die sie in ihrem Innenleben haben in jener goldenen Stimmung, welche sich über die Seele ausgießen kann, wenn sie so recht in ihrem Inneren schwelgt. Dieser Egoismus aber kann überwunden werden, wenn das Ich gezwungen ist, zunächst aus sich herauszugehen, und seine Tätigkeit an der Bildung der Symbole in die Außenwelt fließen läßt. Daher wird eine Symbolik der imaginativen Erkenntnis zu einer Wahrheit führen, welche den egoistischen Charakter von sich abstreift. Daß der Mensch ein Sonderling oder ein verfeinerter Egoist auf einer höheren Stufe werden kann, das ist die Gefahr, die zuletzt den Mystiker treffen kann, die vorhanden sein kann, wenn auf einer zu wenig entwickelten Stufe ein mystisches Erkenntnisstreben unternommen wird. Mystik ist berechtigt, und wahr ist es, was Angelus Silesius gesagt hat:","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":396,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/59/1910-02-10/p035"}],"english":["GA 59/1910-02-10/p043","GA 59/1910-02-10/p044","GA 59/1910-02-10/p045"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":396,"en_words":294,"ratio":0.74,"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/p035"],"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."}}