The Rudolf Steiner Archive

The Splitting of the Personality during Initiation

[ 1 ] During sleep, the human soul does not receive information from the physical sense organs. Perceptions of the ordinary external world do not reach it in this state. In truth, it is, in a certain sense, outside that part of the human being—the so-called physical body—which, during wakefulness, mediates sensory perceptions and thought. It is then connected only to the finer bodies (the etheric body and the astral body), which elude the observation of the physical senses. But the activity of these finer bodies does not cease during sleep. Just as the physical body is connected to the things and beings of the physical world—receiving influences from them and exerting influences upon them—so the soul lives in a higher world. And this life continues during sleep. In fact, the soul is fully active during sleep. However, a person cannot be aware of this activity of his own as long as he lacks spiritual organs of perception through which he can observe, during sleep, what is happening around him and what he himself is doing—just as he can do with his ordinary senses in daily life with regard to his physical surroundings. Esoteric training consists (as has been shown in the preceding chapters) in the development of such spiritual sensory instruments.

[ 2 ] If, through the secret training, a person’s dream life transforms in the sense described in the previous chapter, then he can consciously follow everything that takes place around him in this state; he can orient himself at will within his surroundings, just as he does with his experiences during waking daily life through the ordinary senses. It should be noted, however, that the perception of the ordinary sensory environment already presupposes a higher degree of clairvoyance. (This was already indicated in the previous chapter.) At the beginning of their development, the initiate perceives only things that belong to another world, without being able to discern their connection to the objects of their everyday sensory environment.

[ 3 ] What becomes clear from such characteristic examples of dream and sleep life is constantly taking place within human beings. The soul lives without interruption in higher worlds and is active within them. From these higher worlds, it draws the impulses through which it constantly acts upon the physical body. However, for human beings, this higher life of theirs remains unconscious. The initiate, however, brings it into consciousness. As a result, his life becomes entirely different. As long as the soul is not sighted in the higher sense, it is guided by higher world beings. And just as the life of a blind person who has regained sight through surgery becomes different from what it was before—since he previously had to rely on guidance—so too does the life of a human being change through esoteric training. He outgrows the need for guidance and must henceforth take charge of his own path. As soon as this occurs, he is, understandably, subject to errors of which ordinary consciousness has no inkling. He now acts from within a world from which higher powers—unbeknownst to him—previously influenced him. These higher powers are ordered by the general harmony of the world. The secret student steps out of this world harmony. He now has to do things himself that were previously accomplished for him without his intervention.

[ 4 ] Since the latter is the case, the writings that deal with such matters speak at length about the dangers associated with ascending to the higher worlds. The descriptions of such dangers that are sometimes given are certainly likely to make anxious minds look upon this higher life with nothing but dread. Yet it must be said that these dangers exist only when the necessary precautions are disregarded. If, on the other hand, everything that true esoteric training offers as advice is actually followed, then the ascent does indeed take place through experiences whose intensity and magnitude surpass everything that the boldest imagination of the sensory-oriented person can conceive; but there can be no question of any harm to health or life. One comes to know terrifying forces that threaten life at every turn. One becomes able to make use of certain powers and beings that are beyond sensory perception. And the temptation is great to appropriate these powers for one’s own improper interests or, due to a lack of knowledge of the higher worlds, to use such powers in a mistaken manner. Some of these particularly significant experiences (such as the encounter with the “Keeper of the Threshold”) will be described in these essays. — But one must bear in mind that the forces hostile to life are present even when one is unaware of them. It is true, however, that their relationship to human beings is then determined by higher forces, and that this relationship also changes when a person consciously enters this world that was previously hidden from them. But in return, their very existence is enhanced, and the scope of their life is enriched by an immense realm. A real danger exists only when the occult student, out of impatience or presumption, assumes a certain independence too early in relation to the experiences of the higher world—when he cannot wait until he has truly been granted sufficient insight into the supersensible laws. In this realm, humility and modesty are even less empty words than in ordinary life. But if these qualities are inherent in the student in the very best sense, he can be certain that his ascent into the higher life will take place without endangering what is commonly called health and life. – Above all, no disharmony must arise between the higher experiences and the events and demands of everyday life. A person’s task is to be found entirely on this earth. And whoever seeks to evade the tasks on this earth and flee into another world may be certain that he will not reach his goal. – But what the senses perceive is only a part of the world. And in the spiritual realm lie the entities that express themselves in the realities of the sensory world. One must become a partaker of the Spirit so that one may carry its revelations into the sensory world. Humanity transforms the Earth by implanting into it what it has discovered from the spiritual realm. Therein lies its task. Precisely because the sensory Earth depends on the spiritual world—because one can truly act on Earth only if one is a participant in those worlds in which the creative forces are hidden—one should strive to ascend to these latter realms. If one approaches the secret training with this attitude and does not deviate for a single moment from the path it sets out, then one has not the slightest danger to fear. No one should allow the prospect of danger to deter them from the initiatory training; for everyone, however, this prospect should serve as a stern call to thoroughly acquire the qualities that a true initiate must possess.

[ 5 ] Having established these prerequisites, which should eliminate any cause for alarm, we shall now proceed to describe some so-called “dangers.” However, major changes do take place in the initiate in connection with the finer bodies mentioned above. Such changes are related to certain developmental processes of the three fundamental forces of the soul: will, feeling , and thinking. Before a person undergoes initiatory training, these three forces exist in a very specific relationship governed by higher cosmic laws. Human beings do not will, feel , or think in just any way. If, for example, a certain idea arises in consciousness, a certain feeling follows it according to natural laws, or a decision of the will that is lawfully connected to it follows. One enters a room, finds it stuffy, and opens the windows. One hears one’s name being called and follows the call. One is asked a question and gives an answer. One sees something that smells bad and feels a sense of aversion. These are simple connections between thinking, feeling, and willing. But if one surveys human life, one will find that everything in this life is built upon such connections. Indeed, one describes a person’s life as “normal” only when one observes in that life a connection between thinking, feeling, and willing that is grounded in the laws of human nature. One would consider it contrary to these laws if, for example, a person were to feel pleasure at the sight of a foul-smelling object or if they failed to answer questions. The successes one expects from proper upbringing or appropriate instruction are based on the assumption that one can establish, in the pupil, a connection between thinking, feeling, and willing that corresponds to human nature. When one teaches the pupil certain concepts, one does so on the assumption that they will later form lawful connections with the pupil’s feelings and volitional decisions. – All of this stems from the fact that, in the finer soul bodies of human beings, the centers of the three powers—thinking, feeling, and willing—are connected with one another in a lawful manner. And this connection within the finer soul organism also has its counterpart in the gross physical body. In the physical body, too, the organs of the will are connected in a certain lawful way to those of thinking and feeling. A particular thought therefore regularly evokes a feeling or an act of the will. – As a person develops spiritually, the threads connecting the three fundamental forces are severed. At first, this severance occurs only within the aforementioned finer soul organism; with even higher spiritual ascent, however, the separation extends to the physical body as well. (In fact, during a person’s higher spiritual development, their brain, for example, breaks down into three separate parts. The separation is, however, such that it is imperceptible to ordinary sensory perception and cannot be detected even by the most sophisticated sensory instruments. Yet it does occur, and the clairvoyant has the means to observe it. The brain of the higher clairvoyant divides into three independently functioning entities: the brain of thought, the brain of feeling, and the brain of will.)

[ 6 ] The faculties of thought, feeling, and will then stand entirely on their own. And their connection is no longer established by any laws implanted within them, but must be brought about by the awakened higher consciousness of the human being himself. – For this is precisely the change that the initiate observes within himself: that no connection arises between a thought and a feeling, or between a feeling and a volitional decision, and so on, unless he himself creates such a connection. No impulse leads him from a thought to an action unless he freely brings about this impulse within himself. He can now stand completely unmoved before a fact that, before his training, would have inspired in him burning love or the most intense hatred; he can remain inactive in the face of a thought that previously inspired him to act as if of its own accord. And he can perform acts arising from acts of will for which a person who has not undergone the secret training would have not the slightest motivation. The great achievement bestowed upon the secret student is that he attains complete mastery over the interplay of the three soul forces; but in return, this interplay is placed entirely under his own responsibility.

[ 7 ] Only through this transformation of his being can a human being enter into a conscious connection with certain supersensible forces and beings. For his own soul forces have a kinship corresponding to certain fundamental forces of the world. The power of the will, for example, can act upon certain things and beings in the higher world and also perceive them. But it can do so only when it has become free from its connection with feeling and thinking within the soul. As soon as this connection is severed, the effect of the will manifests outwardly. And the same is true of the powers of thinking and feeling. When a person sends me a feeling of hatred, this is visible to the clairvoyant as a fine cloud of light of a certain color. And such a clairvoyant can ward off this feeling of hatred just as a person relying on the senses wards off a physical blow directed against them. Hatred becomes a visible phenomenon in the supersensible world. But the clairvoyant can perceive it only by being able to project outward the power that lies within his own feelings, just as a sensory person directs the receptivity of his eye outward. And just as it is with hatred, so it is with far more significant phenomena of the sensory world. Human beings can enter into conscious communion with them by unveiling the fundamental forces of their soul.

[ 8 ] Due to the described separation of the powers of thought, feeling, and will, a threefold deviation in the course of human development is now possible, if the prescriptions of esoteric science are disregarded. Such a deviation can occur if the connecting pathways are destroyed before the higher consciousness, with its insight, has advanced far enough to properly guide the reins that establish a free, harmonious interaction among the separate forces. – For as a rule, not all three of a person’s fundamental forces have progressed equally far in their development during a particular stage of life. In one person, thinking may have advanced further than feeling and willing; in another, a different force may have the upper hand over its counterparts. As long as the interconnection of forces established by the higher laws of the universe is maintained, the predominance of one force or another cannot give rise to any irregularity that is disruptive in the higher sense. In the case of the will-oriented individual, for example, thought and feeling still exert a balancing influence through those laws, preventing the dominant will from degenerating into particular aberrations. However, when such a will-oriented individual enters into esoteric training, the lawful influence of feeling and thought on the will—which is constantly driving toward immense feats of power—ceases entirely. If the individual has not yet attained such a degree of mastery over the higher consciousness that he can himself bring about harmony, then the will follows its own unbridled course. It continually overwhelms its bearer. Feeling and thought fall prey to complete powerlessness; the individual is lashed by the power of the will that slavishly dominates him. A violent nature, which proceeds from one unbridled action to the next, has arisen. – A second deviation arises when emotion frees itself from lawful restraints in an excessive manner. A person inclined to revere others may then sink into boundless dependence, to the point of losing all will and thought of their own. Instead of higher insight, the most pitiable hollowed-out state and powerlessness then become the lot of such a personality. – Or, with such an overwhelming emotional life, a nature inclined toward piety and religious exaltation may fall into a religious revelry that completely carries it away. – The third evil arises when thinking prevails. Then a contemplative state emerges that is hostile to life and closed in on itself. For such people, the world seems to have meaning only to the extent that it provides them with objects to satisfy their insatiable thirst for wisdom, which has been heightened to boundless proportions. No thought can stir them to action or emotion. They appear everywhere as indifferent, cold individuals. They flee any contact with the realities of everyday life as if it were something that disgusts them or has, at the very least, lost all meaning for them.

[ 9 ] These are the three wrong paths onto which the initiate may stray: a life dominated by violence, an indulgence in emotions, and a cold, loveless pursuit of wisdom. From an external perspective—including the materialistic view of conventional medicine—the picture of such a person who has strayed from the path does not differ much, especially in degree, from that of a madman or at least a person suffering from a severe “nervous disorder.” The secret student must, of course, not resemble such a person. What matters for him is that thinking, feeling, and willing—the three fundamental forces of the soul—have undergone a harmonious development before they can be released from the connection in which they were implanted and subordinated to the awakened higher consciousness. —For once the mistake has been made, once a fundamental force has fallen prey to unbridledness, the higher soul initially manifests as a stillbirth. The unbridled force then fills the person’s entire personality; and for a long time, there is no hope that everything will return to balance. What appears to be a harmless character trait as long as a person has not undergone secret training—namely, whether they are a willful, emotional, or intellectual type—intensifies in the secret student to such an extent that the universal human qualities necessary for life are completely lost in comparison. – This, however, only becomes a truly serious danger at the moment when the student acquires the ability to experience events in the waking state just as they occur in the state of sleep-consciousness. As long as it remains merely a matter of illuminating the intervals of sleep, the sensory life—governed by the general laws of the world—continually exerts a balancing effect on the disturbed equilibrium of the soul during the waking state. That is why it is so essential that the secret student’s waking life be regular and healthy in every respect. The more he meets the demands that the external world places on a healthy, vigorous development of body, soul, and spirit, the better it is for him. On the other hand, things can turn out badly for him if his everyday waking life has an exciting or exhausting effect on him—that is, if the major changes taking place within him are compounded by any destructive or inhibiting influences from external life. He should seek out everything that is in keeping with his strengths and that leads him into an undisturbed, harmonious coexistence with his surroundings. And he should avoid everything that disrupts this harmony, that brings restlessness and haste into his life. In this regard, it is less a matter of offloading this restlessness and haste in an external sense than of ensuring that one’s mood, intentions, thoughts, and physical health are not subjected to constant fluctuations as a result. — All of this is not as easy for a person during their secret training as it was before. For the higher experiences that now come into play in his life have a continuous effect on his entire being. If something within these higher experiences is out of order, the irregularity lurks constantly and can throw him off course at any opportunity. Therefore, the initiate must not neglect anything that ensures his constant mastery over his entire being. He should never lack presence of mind or a calm overview of all the situations in life that may arise. But genuine esoteric training essentially generates all these qualities on its own. And during such training, one comes to know the dangers only by simultaneously attaining, at the right moments, the full power to ward them off.