2. Human beings as Spiritual and Soul Beings

Today, from the great wealth of what the soul must do to strengthen its life so that imagination can become spiritual vision, I would like to highlight just a few things. I would like to refer to what I have recently emphasized in my latest book, “Von Seelenrätseln” (The Riddle of the Soul), the sequel to my book “Vom Menschenrätsel” (The Riddle of Man): that when human beings engage in their ordinary soul life in science, they come to certain so-called limits of knowledge. These limits of knowledge can confront us precisely when we become acquainted with the worldview of profound minds. If I may mention something personal here, I must say that thirty to thirty-five years ago, what led me to the particular direction of spiritual science that I pursue here was, in particular, the experiences I had with the worldviews of people for whom knowledge is not an external profession, not something learned, but something that constitutes the innermost part of their soul life, their entire longing and feeling. For example, when one encounters the words of Friedrich Theodor Vischer, a thinker who is no longer sufficiently appreciated today—but I could also cite many others—words that he draws from deep mysteries of knowledge that came to him as he pondered the connection between the body and soul of human beings, words such as: The soul of man cannot be in the body, but neither can it be outside the body — then, in lively connection with an original, elementary thinker, one encounters such limits as the human soul must reach if it wants to engage in cognitive activity.