The Supernatural Man and the Questions of Free Will and Immortality Based on the Results of Spiritual Science

Now, Ludwig Waldstein gives a remarkable self-observation – but this example could be multiplied by hundreds and thousands – he says of himself: He once stood in front of a bookshop, looking in. His eye fell on a book about molluscs. It was natural for the naturalist to let his gaze rest on the title page of this book. But as he looked over this title page, he couldn't help but smile. He cannot explain how it is that he, who is a naturalist, must surely find this book a serious matter, that he must begin to laugh. He wants to find out why a book title makes him laugh. He tries to find out by closing his eyes. And lo and behold, by closing them, he hears the melody of a barrel organ in the distance, playing exactly the same thing that was played to him decades ago when he danced his first quadrille as a very young man; when he looked at the mollusc book by title, he had no idea why he had to laugh, because the sound of the organ was quite fading away. He would not have noticed it if he had not closed his eyes.