4. The Human Soul and the Human Spirit

The other difficulty is that, when it comes to the results of natural science, people accept much more than they realize, and what is presented to them, if they find it plausible according to their common sense, even if they do not apply the methods themselves and cannot carry out the experiments in the laboratory or in the clinic. There is no desire to seek everything out directly, but to accept with common sense what the researcher has to give, who has familiarized himself with the methods. In relation to spiritual science, the researcher has no choice but to follow the same procedure as in natural science. He gives of himself in the same way, out of the same line of thought, that which he now researches so objectively through intimate inner soul processes, as the secrets of nature are researched through experiments. And he also counts on the fact that approval will come through common sense, which speaks for what the inner experiment, as I expressed myself eight days ago, has to give. Now, however, in the face of the results of spiritual science, in the face of the secrets of the course of development, of the destinies of the human soul, there exists in all men the desire not only to accept the results of research, but also to more or less investigate for themselves that which they are supposed to consider correct in this field. The paths that the soul can take in every human being, and which are indicated, for example, in my book “How to Know Higher Worlds”, do indeed offer every human soul the opportunity to convince itself and to verify within itself what the spiritual researcher has to say, by experiencing these intimate, inner processes in the soul. But these paths must be taken. And although many people repeatedly take this path, the subjective difficulty arises for the human soul that these paths are not easy, but are found to be difficult by the human soul, so that it loses patience after the first steps, or at least does not have the inclination to take them with the same conscientiousness with which the natural scientist prepares an experiment. And in all this a certain faith speaks in the human soul, a faith that is a prejudice compared to real spiritual research; but in human life it is prejudices that decide in most cases. Faith arises that the human soul, just as it is, if it only reflects a little, if it only develops a little those habits of thought, experiences and lives out those mental processes that are so immediately given in life, then it must come to realize what the secrets of inner human nature are. One has the feeling that it should not be difficult to recognize the most mysterious thing in the world, in the outer world, the human being himself, in his essence. One has this feeling that it should not be difficult. In order to recognize the inner workings of a piece of clockwork, one allows oneself to study the things. In the face of the most complicated, the most mysterious thing in the world of the senses that surrounds us, human nature, one would really like to believe that everyone can recognize the full truth about the nature of man without first preparing for a certain point of view, without first going through an inner journey of the soul in order to recognize one's own nature. One might think that it would be quite good, comfortable, perhaps even beautiful, if it were so, if one needed no preparation at all to explore the human being. But in contrast to this, one can only say: It is just not so, but to explore the human being in his innermost nature, the paths of spiritual research are needed. That is a truth. And whether or how the human being comes to terms with it is not considered in the face of this truth. Man must first acquire the means through a preparatory path, through which he can reveal his own secret.