12. Spiritual Science as a Life's Work

Above all, it must be pointed out that sleep can only compensate for what is damaged or depleted in the physical body, i.e., it can only draw on forces from the spiritual worlds to the extent that the limits of the spiritual faculties that a person brings into existence through birth allow. Spiritual science draws its forces from the world with which the human being is spiritually connected. It can therefore be said that sleep is a remedy insofar as it can compensate for depleted, exhausted forces. Spiritual science, either through what it is in itself or what it is able to give, provides human beings with forces that they do not already have within themselves, that are not already present in their predispositions; it opens up a higher source of healing for human beings than ordinary, normal life can provide, even with the best sleep. And what can radiate from the soul in a healing way, as it were, through a living immersion in spiritual science, can be compared to what ordinary medical science can do, by saying: Even conventional medicine can basically only call upon those healing powers for human recovery that are already within the human being, but are suppressed by opposing forces. Spiritual science, on the other hand, brings new forces into effect in the human being, forces that are only just developing, that are not yet predisposed; it appeals not only to the human being as a microcosm, but to the connection of the human being as a microcosm with the great spiritual world.