17. The Inner Nature of the Human Being and Life Between Death and Rebirth

Rudolf Steiner: In such a case, they long for an embodiment that does not last longer than that of the other. You will also not dispute that many a man and woman lives for a long time after the death of the other. I do not want to talk about Bluebeard, but there are people who quickly find comfort with another love. Inner connections exist between all people in a good and evil sense, in love and hate, in an understanding and unintelligent sense. Our aim should be to establish spiritual bonds in the physical body that are spiritual forces. Our strength increases, our power grows stronger when we connect with another person in our physical life through love, friendship or some other shared bond. If we strip away the forms that belong only to the earthly, what remains are the forces that live on here and in the spiritual world. Consciousness after death is much stronger, except for the period when consciousness, as it were, rejects the outside world; but the inner life is all the stronger. Also, the experience in the “midnight hour of existence” is much stronger, as consciousness can be in the body, even if it is an inner one. All fruits reveal themselves in eternity: what we experience in solitude and what we experience in community with others.