{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 68a/1907-12-19/p022","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"If we go back to the earliest times, we see that the leading personalities who have guided life have attached great importance to a person's judgment at a certain age; today, the very youngest can give their authoritative judgments. Above all, people today do not know that although one can achieve a great deal in terms of intellect, science and art at an early age, only someone who has reached the middle of their life is able to convey the experiences of the spiritual worlds to his fellow human beings in a truly correct way. That is why no secret school sends out anyone who has not passed the age of 35. As long as man still needs certain powers to build up his organism, he does not have them freely to put them into service. It is not permitted to communicate the occult teachings authoritatively to anyone before the powers are no longer needed for building up; only when the physical is in the process of declining in life is it permitted. Anyone who examines life will see the justification for this rule. Even a spirit such as Goethe: What he achieved before this point was a revival of what he had gathered from here and there; what would not have been there if Goethe had not been there, that only came about after the middle of his life. It means the greatest danger when we see how great truths are spoken of as mere phrases. For example, you can hear over and over again: You must be unselfish, you must sacrifice your personality to the All! — This is a profound truth if it is really understood; but it can be the most absurd phrase if this truth is presented without understanding. Egoism is not given to man by a wise world government for nothing; it is a means of education, it makes man richer and fuller; through it many a person is prevented from doing something that could harm him. It is a healthy force, it fills the personality with strength and energy, it is something wholesome! To say that one should discard it is a morbid phrase. Nevertheless, it is true that a sacrifice of the personality is necessary if we want to find the way up into the higher worlds.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"37. The Dangers of Initiation","site_heading":null,"date":"1907-12-19","location":null,"word_count":385,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/68a/1907-12-19/p022","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA068a/English/SOL2024/19071219p01.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":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/68a/1907-12-19/p022"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/68a/1907-12-19/p022","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":"1907-12-19","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 68a/1907-12-19/p022","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/68a/1907-12-19/p022"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","anchors","audit"],"length_check":{"de_words":372,"en_words":385,"ratio":1.03,"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 68a/1907-12-19/p022","passage_number":22,"text":"Wenn wir in die ältesten Zeiten zurückgehen, da sehen wir, wie von den führenden Persönlichkeiten, die das Leben geleitet haben, einem gewissen Alter eine große Bedeutung für die Urteilskraft des Menschen beigelegt wurde; heute können die Allerjüngsten ihre maßgebenden Urteile abgeben. Das vor allen Dingen wissen heute die Menschen nicht, dass man zwar in Bezug auf Intellekt, Wissenschaft und Kunst in früher Jugend manches leisten kann; aber die Erfahrungen der geistigen Welten in einer wirklich richtigen Weise seinen Mitmenschen zu überliefern, ist bloß der imstande, der in die Mitte seines Lebens gekommen ist. Daher wird von keiner Geheimschule einer hinausgesandt, der nicht das 35. Lebensjahr überschritten hat. Solange der Mensch noch gewisse Kräfte braucht, um seinen Organismus aufzubauen, so lange hat er sie nicht frei, um sie in den Dienst zu stellen. Autoritativ die okkulten Lehren jemand mitzuteilen, ist nicht erlaubt, bevor die Kräfte nicht mehr zum Aufbau gebraucht werden; erst wenn das Physische im Abstieg des Lebens ist, dann ist es erlaubt. Wer das Leben prüft, wird die Berechtigung dieser Regel einsehen. Selbst bei einem solchen Geist wie Goethe es war: Was er vor diesem Zeitpunkt geleistet hat, war ein Wiederauflebenlassen dessen, was er zusammengetragen hatte von da und dort; was wirklich nicht da wäre, wenn nicht Goethe dagewesen wäre, das ist erst nach der Mitte seines Lebens entstanden. Es bedeutet die größte Gefahr, wenn wir sehen, wie große Wahrheiten hingesprochen werden wie bloße Phrasen. Da kann man zum Beispiel immer und immer wieder hören: Du musst selbstlos sein, du musst deine Persönlichkeit opfern dem All! — Das ist eine tiefe Wahrheit, wenn es wirklich verstanden wird; es kann aber die absurdeste Phrase sein, wenn diese Wahrheit ohne Verständnis hingestellt wird. Der Egoismus ist von einer weisen Weltenlenkung nicht umsonst dem Menschen gegeben; er ist ein Erziehungsmittel, er macht den Menschen reicher und voller; durch ihn wird mancher Mensch abgehalten, etwas zu tun, was ihm schaden kann. Er ist eine gesunde Kraft, er füllt die Persönlichkeit an mit Kraft und Energie, er ist etwas Gesundes! Wenn man sagt, man solle ihn abstreifen, so ist es eine krankhafte Phrase. Trotzdem ist es aber wahr, dass ein Hinopfern der Persönlichkeit nötig ist, wenn wir den Weg finden wollen in die höheren Welten hinauf.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":372,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/68a/1907-12-19/p022"}],"english":["GA 68a/1907-12-19/p022"],"method":"identity","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":372,"en_words":385,"ratio":1.03,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","anchors","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.03,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":4964,"original_word_count":4825,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Christianity","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA068a/English/SOL2024/19071219p01.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 68a/1907-12-19/p022"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","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."}}