VII. The Questions of Life and the Riddle of Death I

In the soul are forces that one only has to strengthen if complete consciousness should replace the unconsciousness of sleep. One attains this in such a way that the human being suppresses the movement of the limbs arbitrarily, makes them as quiet as the body is in sleep, then he excludes all outer impressions which divert his thoughts. He must artificially cause this state towards the outside world, and then he must exclude the thoughts of the usual life. If this empty consciousness occurs in the usual life, then the human being falls asleep. However, long, patient exercises enable the person concerned to keep [the consciousness] alive, and then it concerns that he moves any mental picture in the centre of his consciousness arbitrarily and fulfils his consciousness with it. The things of the outside world are not suitable for that; symbolic images are much better which we ourselves produce. Everybody may say, to have such mental pictures is a crazy thing. However, it matters what they cause in the soul.