10. Between Death and Rebirth of the Human Being

Today's topic is certainly the most daring in this series of lectures, and yet I would like to make a few remarks about this very special subject of spiritual scientific research, which is to be discussed here today. I may assume that this esteemed audience, some of whom have been attending these lectures for many years, will accept such a special subject of spiritual scientific research, since I have so often endeavored to present here, in a more general way, the possible evidence and proof for the validity of this spiritual research. Of course, we must refrain from presenting all this evidence and proof today. For what is to be said about human life between death and rebirth will essentially be that the corresponding spiritual scientific findings, as they present themselves to the researcher, will be given in narrative form, so to speak. Nevertheless, although what is to be said will cause certain conceptual difficulties for the present consciousness, and although it is clear that today's consciousness must still be rejecting in the most comprehensive sense such “alleged” spiritual scientific research results, I would nevertheless like to make the following introductory remark. I am well aware that I am speaking in an age that has seen more than sixty years since Julius Robert Mayer's great discovery of the transformation of natural forces, more than half a century since the great discoveries made by Darwin, and the great successes of natural science, for example through spectral analysis, the achievements of astrophysics, and, more recently, those of experimental biology. Standing firmly on the ground of recognition of these scientific results, I would nevertheless like to speak about the subject of today's topic, despite the contradiction it must provoke in those who believe that they can only stand on the firm ground of science by rejecting spiritual scientific research and spiritual scientific convictions. And I would like to make a second introductory remark. If I did not know clearly that, within the strictest spiritual scientific methodology and the strictest scientific requirements, what is to be said about life between death and rebirth is just as tenable as the findings of the aforementioned scientific chapters, I would consider it, in a certain sense, reckless, not to say frivolous, to speak to this assembly about the results of spiritual scientific research. For I am fully aware of the responsibility involved in speaking about these areas in today's scientific sense. However, even the very attitude that the soul must have toward the truth and authenticity of research if it is to accept spiritual scientific research without prejudice, even this attitude of the soul is still unpopular today. I would like to briefly address this state of mind, this disposition of the soul, which must be present in the spiritual researcher and, in a certain sense, also in those who should and want to recognize the truth of spiritual scientific research results.