4. The Eternal Forces of the Human Soul in the Light of Spiritual Science

And just as nature reveals itself wonderfully, one might say, and the unknown emerges to the surface of phenomena in a way that was previously unimagined, so too do the connections in the entire life of a person emerge through spiritual research. Gradually the connection of life reveals itself. If one keeps the spiritual view directed to the eternal forces of the human soul and their forms of transformation in life, one can say: Not the ordinary soul life, which is exhausted between birth and death and cannot pass through the gate of death, but a higher consciousness, which is an observer in us that can only be investigated by other forces, that passes through the gate of death; it is precisely the consciousness, not an indefinite soul life, but it is the consciousness that passes through the gate of death, and by entering the spiritual world, we enter with our consciousness-man. Just as we progress in our physical life from an imperfect physical form to a more and more perfect one and then back to a deterioration of it, so in the spiritual world we start from consciousness between death and a new birth, which incorporates the powers through which it is in turn able to descend again and to live out in a new earthly life. So it is not through the ordinary powers of the soul life, but through, as it were, clairvoyant powers, through powers of the spiritual eyes and spiritual ears, that one attains to the eternal powers of the human soul.