5. Ways of Knowing the Eternal Powers of the Human Soul

When I myself was once in such a situation, it came so vividly to my mind to whom something specific in this activity is actually due. Years ago, dear audience, a friend of mine died who had been close to me in life, a personality who was fully artistic in her entire soul development. She passed through the gate of death. With a soul with which one has been connected in life – so spiritual science teaches – one remains connected with it, whether it is unconscious, as it must be for the non-spiritual researcher, or conscious, as it can become for the spiritual researcher. Years later, when I was called upon to perform a certain task that involved what this other personality counted among the special powers of his soul, I knew that everything I was able to accomplish in doing so was imbued with that soul! However, in order to observe this, dear ones present, it is necessary to be able to apply all criteria. Of course I know that the natural scientist or the person who values a scientific world view alone can say: Well, that went into your soul; that then came out of your soul. One can talk like that as long as all application remains nebulous. But when one sees the forces of the deceased soul striking like an influx into the increased willpower and then raising it into consciousness, when one looks at it like that, as one looks at what is before one's eyes as an experienced , then, dear attendees, there is no denying the spiritual world and the connection of the human soul with it, just as there is no possibility of denying the external physical world when you see it with your eyes.