The Rudolf Steiner Archive

15. Heaven

[ 1 ] I find myself today in a situation just as difficult as the last time I spoke to you about the concept of “hell,” as the various reflections and conclusions from the series of lectures I have given this winter are now to be summarized in a discussion of the foundations of the concept of “heaven.”

[ 2 ] We are, after all, faced with a concept whose true meaning has already been largely lost to the beliefs of various religious denominations today, even though they cling to the concept out of a thoroughly correct and apt spiritual instinct. At the same time, however, we are faced with a concept that is mocked and rejected in the most severe manner by those who not only seek to set the tone in today’s intellectual currents but are also regarded by wide circles as setting that tone. For an overwhelming number of people today, the concept of “heaven” still embodies the goal and the substance of their deepest heart’s longing; it constitutes the foundation of this concept—the substance of the devout faith of many souls—something that brings comfort to these many people in the most difficult circumstances of life, while at the same time this concept is viewed by a large number of people as an expression of the deepest superstition and as something associated with everything that, in a broad sense, is considered to constitute the objects of human superstition. We need only, especially in our own day, to turn our attention to the spiritual phenomena much discussed in certain circles, and we will very soon see what enormous obstacles stand in the way of people’s understanding today if they wish to arrive at a pure, unbiased view of what should occupy us today.

[ 3 ] No one should be surprised—least of all someone who speaks about these matters as I intend to speak today—if much of what is said today is regarded as the epitome of empty fantasy and wild mystical reverie. Nevertheless, today’s reflection will show us precisely how urgently necessary it is, especially in our time, to reemphasize the foundations of such concepts as strongly as possible.

[ 4 ] Many of you will know a man whose name some today associate with the concept of true Enlightenment—a man whose works have recently caused quite a stir within German intellectual life and beyond. Of course, it is far from my intention to in any way diminish the great and formidable achievements this man has made in his specific field of natural science. As you have seen from the other lectures, my sole aim has always been to present spiritual scientific research here in full harmony with the current findings of natural science. Now, August Forel’s lecture on “Life and Death” has been heard in various places, and anyone who wishes to learn even a little about how thoroughly one can misunderstand what spiritual science has to say on these matters would do well to study this lecture by Forel thoroughly. The perspectives adopted from the standpoint of spiritual science toward such phenomena are discussed in my journal *LuciferGnosis*, where you will also find much about the relationship between spiritual science and natural science. Precisely what reveals and sheds light on the relationship and harmony—where spiritual science builds upon the foundation of natural science and leads to higher insights—is the purpose of this thirty-fifth issue of the journal “Lucifer-Gnosis.” Forel’s entire lecture on “Life and Death” is permeated by rejection—a thorough rejection of this concept, which today defines the content of our lecture.

[ 5 ] Right at the outset, we are made aware of how someone who seeks to construct a worldview based solely on the facts of natural science may arrive at the following thoughts. It is said: What great and tremendous progress has this natural science brought to humankind; how is it capable of shedding light on the structure of the universe beyond even the stars closest to us in space? How has this natural science been enabled to peer into the realm—at least to a certain extent—of the smallest parts of the cells in the living body? How has natural science succeeded in overcoming space and time to a certain degree in the field of technology? How does it achieve the most incredible feats in wireless telegraphy and telephony, spanning nearly all continents? How has natural science succeeded in elucidating the constituents of the sun, the moon, the stars, and so on? How has it succeeded in liquefying air? How has it succeeded in showing how the individual parts of the brain work together when a person thinks, feels, and wills? All of this, of course, to a certain degree; but this degree is rightly described as admirable.

[ 6 ] But now the author of this lecture continues: Nowhere, however, has this natural science—despite its admirable results—discovered anything that might be called “Paradise”; nowhere has it discovered a spiritual world. Of all that humanity has imagined as “heaven” and “hell,” natural science has found nothing, despite its admirable results. — And so the bold conclusion is drawn, one that is echoed by many today: Since natural science has not found any of this, we must cast all these concepts overboard. We must accept the premise that nothing—absolutely nothing—of what was once dreamed of and raved about long ago could be true: that there is an immortal core within human beings that survives the decay which science observes in such a marvelous way. — And then, like an outpouring of emotion, the author adds the observation that it is, after all, much more beautiful, greater, and more awe-inspiring to know that, before entering this personal, individual existence, a person lived entirely within their physical ancestors, and that afterward they will live purely within their physical descendants. The entirety of existence is to be confined to the physical world. As a genuine outpouring of emotion, the author then goes on to say: Is it not much more beautiful that what a human being has created is connected to his physical ancestors and continues to have an effect in his physical descendants, rather than to assume—something one can only dream of—that there is a world in which all manner of beings superior to humans exist, a world in which choirs of angels can be heard, and so on? — It is implied that it is unworthy of a person who thinks scientifically to adhere to a worldview that has even the remotest connection to such concepts.

[ 7 ] This lecture may remind one of what I once heard many years ago from one of the leaders of the modern Enlightenment movement during a lecture. This figure said something along the following lines: “People talk about some kind of supernatural heaven, about something that is supposed to exist up there,” he said, and then made it clear that our Earth is a sphere floating freely in outer space, and that the same is true of the other planets—that outer space is heaven, and that the soul need not be in some other heaven, for we are, after all, already in heaven.

[ 8 ] Such people do not understand much of the deep sentiment that inspired Schiller to make his all-too-justified statement in “To the Astronomers”:

Don’t go on and on to me about nebulae and suns!
Is nature great only because it gives you something to count?
Your subject is certainly the most sublime in space,
But, friends, the sublime does not dwell in space.

[ 9 ] From all these statements, it can become clear to anyone who has absorbed—with their whole soul—even just a little of what has been spoken here in the course of this series of winter lectures, what a profound misunderstanding underlies such things. It is a profound misunderstanding, and we can best express this profound misunderstanding by saying: If spiritual science were ever to speak of what these people call superstition, daydreaming, or fantasy, then all these people would be right. But the fact is that spiritual science, in its modern form, is young, and that its message has not yet reached a large part of humanity—above all, not those who speak in the manner indicated. These people form ideas about the supersensible worlds that are themselves merely the product of their own flights of fancy and daydreams, and they fight against these creations of their own imagination. Yet they know absolutely nothing of what true spiritual science has to say about these matters. Thus, the struggle waged today by a large portion of the enlightened is a battle against self-created windmills, a Don Quixote-like endeavor. And anyone who thoroughly understands this will find in much of what is said from this side words—nothing but words—that are apt, very apt, for combating the delusions that these people themselves have in mind. But this has nothing to do with what spiritual science understands by these terms. In the course of these lectures, we have been able to demonstrate a peculiar logic—namely, where people, seemingly standing on the ground of natural science, are dismissive of theosophy even though they know nothing of its content. I would like to share just a few points.

[ 10 ] You know how deeply I appreciate what Haeckel has established as the foundation of the natural sciences. However, the arguments he himself puts forward to reject the ideas about heaven and hell that he has formed for himself rest on weak logical grounds. It is easy to demonstrate this weakness. It sounds quite appealing to many people in our time who wish to be enlightened when Haeckel says: “Here comes a belief from ancient times, pointing upward, pointing toward heaven, and saying: ‘God dwells there! Anyone who speaks this way does not know that ‘up’ is somewhere else entirely when the Earth rotates, and once it has completed a full rotation, one would have to point down instead of up.” It certainly sounds quite apt. If, however, you wish to delve a little deeper into the logic of it, his conclusion rests on no other foundation than if someone were to claim that one walks with one’s head down rather than up once the Earth has completed a full rotation. These gentlemen proceed from the misconception that we are dealing with spatial matters, rather than with a reference to the spiritual in contrast to the physical. All of this must be stated again and again, because the very subject of our present considerations is, understandably, something of great significance.

[ 11 ] We may build on what was said in the last lecture: When we imbue ourselves with the attitude that flows from this spiritual science and turn our attention to what gradually takes shape and develops in the child growing up before us, then we have a feeling that intensifies more and more into a brighter, clearer, and more lucid insight: that in the growth, transformation, and metamorphosis of the child’s body, something comes to light that, emerging from the supersensible worlds, establishes its existence in this world. We arrive at the idea—which, as we have seen, can be raised to full certainty through spiritual science—that the core of the human being, which enters into existence through conception and birth, already existed before conception and before birth, and that what we see in the physical body is the outer garment of the supersensible, spiritual core of the being.

[ 12 ] This brings us to the question: Where, then, is that which enters physical existence only through conception and birth? — We have also explored this idea further, and this has led us to recognize that this physical existence of the human being is not the first, but that we must speak of repeated earthly lives—that the human being repeatedly enters into physical existence in the course of Earth’s evolution. And we have acknowledged the idea that what a human being experiences in life—what they go through in thinking, feeling, and enjoying, in love and desire, in willing and acting—has not perished, but that the fruit of these experiences remains and continues, and that the next earthly existence incorporates within itself the fruit of earlier earthly lives. When a child gradually reveals its innate dispositions, abilities, and deeds, this represents for us the result of previous earthly lives. Human beings have struggled their way upward through many stages of existence to reach this point, and what they have experienced in previous lives has been transformed into a seed and has become part of their being, so that their new life is more perfect and appears fuller than their previous life.

[ 13 ] This is essentially the upward path of the human being. In spiritual science, we speak of the fact that the being who enters physical existence through conception and birth—and who leaves the physical body again at death—spends the intervening time, between death and a new birth, in a spiritual, supersensible world. In the last lecture, we discussed one part of the spiritual, supersensible world under the name “Hell.” Today we will discuss a large part of it under the concept of “Heaven.” Thus, in spiritual science, Heaven is not something dreamlike, otherworldly, or distant, but rather something that is present wherever we are. And we must now answer the question: How can what we call heaven—the supersensible realm—be present wherever we are, when human beings cannot perceive it with their physical eyes, and when it is true that physical science, with all its great and formidable achievements, has been unable to discover this paradise, this heaven, anywhere?

[ 14 ] But it has also been pointed out many times that every human being—truly every human being—can attain a full perception of the supersensible world and of heaven. In the essays “How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?” attention was drawn to the methods by which a person can ascend into the supersensible world. Today, I shall only briefly outline what is essential. You need only keep in mind, time and again, what it means to perceive this sensory-physical world around you. You have certainly read that what we call the fully developed human ear has evolved from an organ that, to use Goethe’s words, was “indifferent.” Look at the primitive organs in animals, and consider what the world of tones, physical harmonies, melodies, and other sounds and noises is like for these imperfect animals. Consider what was necessary for the subtle development of a human organ to its present level, so that human beings could immerse themselves in the realm of sounds in the world around them. You can apply this same perspective to the other organs as well.

[ 15 ] Look at the eye and how it has gradually evolved to the point where the wonderful world of light and color—which a large portion of humanity perceives—can be revealed. And so, there is as much in our environment as there are organs capable of perceiving it. If human organs were still at an imperfect stage—imagine the human organ of hearing at an imperfect stage—what would a world of sounds, harmonies, and melodies be like for such beings with undeveloped hearing? A world they could not perceive, a “world beyond”! Just as this world relates to the sensory human being, so does the spiritual world relate to what is commonly called the world. And just as imperfect beings with imperfect sensory organs have developed toward greater perfection, thereby gaining access to new realms of perception, so too is modern humanity capable of development, just as humanity of ancient times was. The methods by which the powers and abilities that human beings possess today can be raised to a higher level are described in full detail. It would never occur to anyone to call what Forel rejects “heaven.” Spiritual science simply states: If a person has the self-denial, the energy, and the perseverance to develop the capacity that lies dormant within them today, deep within their heart, then they will perceive the spiritual worlds. — By “spiritual world” is meant that which lies within every human being. When a person develops these faculties, the content of the spiritual world becomes just as much a part of their sensory perception as the world of sounds is. And this happens to an ever-greater extent the more the physical organ is perfected.

[ 16 ] However, no one should imagine that this development, which is being considered here, is anything like the current methods of developing a physical sense. That would be a misunderstanding. As a scholar of the spiritual sciences, one is often asked: How, then, does this sixth sense develop? — and people tend to imagine that it must grow out of the organism like an eye. But the higher, supersensory senses are not like that. They relate to our physical senses in an entirely different way. Let me briefly characterize how these higher senses—the word does not quite capture their essence, but that does not matter—relate to the other physical senses. The process of development through which a person ascends into the supersensible worlds is not an external, turbulent one; it is internal and intimate. And what a person must go through so that the spiritual world may shine into their present existence takes place in complete silence and subtlety. It is the three fundamental forces of the soul—the forces of thinking, feeling, and willing—that are capable of true development toward the higher. If we briefly ask ourselves what a person must do with thinking, feeling, and willing if they wish to become a citizen of the supersensible world—the heavenly world—even within this present existence, then we receive the answer that this is a delicate, subtle task. You can read in my journal, beginning with issue thirteen, how a person, by cultivating their world of thought, their world of feeling, and their world of will in a very specific way, grows into a supersensible world. Let us simply recall everything that, under today’s circumstances, flows through our soul from early morning, when we wake up, until evening, when our consciousness sinks into an indeterminate darkness, passes through our soul, and let us consider how very different things would look within our soul if, instead of living in our own age and in this part of Central Europe, we were living in an age a hundred years earlier and in another part of the world. Then we will come to realize how much of what floods the human soul from morning to evening is the pure result of the external world, which is constantly changing. Try, for a moment, to set aside everything that flows through the human soul—everything that is influenced by the era and the place—and try to remove from the soul all thoughts that are in any way connected to place and time, and ask yourself how much of such content would then remain. All thoughts, feelings, and acts of will that flow through the soul in this way and are determined by place and time—in other words, those that flow into a person from the outside through daily life—are unsuitable for higher spiritual development or for experiencing a supersensible world. Do not interpret these things as if something were being said against a person’s life in the sphere in which they are placed. However, they must find enough time to lift themselves completely, for certain periods, above what enters their soul in daily life. They must devote themselves, even if only for minutes, to such thoughts and feelings that are independent of place and time—that are eternal. Such thoughts and feelings are given. They are there; they are developed in those who have undergone the training for a higher spiritual life. When a person allows such thoughts of eternity to live and work in his soul again and again, they become active forces within his soul that truly awaken dormant abilities.

[ 17 ] And then let me describe to you the profound transformation that occurs when a person devotes himself to thoughts of eternity through strictly prescribed methods, when he knows how to live with such thoughts of eternity in a subtle way. Let this be described first in relation to our inner life. Who could deny that such thoughts exist? Human thoughts, as they are today—what is their particular nature? Their nature is that human beings live most intimately with them, for what dwells more intimately in our soul than our thoughts? With what are we more intimately connected than with our thoughts and ideas? But these thoughts and ideas, insofar as they relate to the external world, are the most ineffective and passive elements with regard to this “real” world of the small and trivial. Yet there is a profound wisdom in saying, for example, that no matter how much someone may cling to the numbers that express the idea of a bridge—and however correct that idea of a bridge may be in every detail—the idea is correct, but the bridge is not there. The thought is the most intimate thing that dwells in the soul. But in this world, where we spend our physical existence, thought is the most ineffective thing of all. It leads an entirely inner existence. Yet the moment a person begins—and they must begin with patience—to devote at least a very small part of their time to thoughts of eternity, they begin to experience something they could never have imagined before. They come to know a world that, in terms of thought, is different from our physical world. While in our physical world thought is the most intimate and yet at the same time the most ineffective and passive, through training in thoughts of eternity—which we undergo in physical life—we are introduced into a world in which thought itself is creative. That is the essential point. Then another world begins to take shape around the human being. And through experience, he comes to know: When we see in the physical world, we see light; it streams down from the sun; we see how plants, when we deprive them of light, grow pale and die; we see how light works creatively in relation to these plants. For those who, through training, penetrate into the supersensible world, thought becomes such a force that permeates the cosmos—a reality in the same way that a sensory object can be a reality. Thought, which leads an intimate, inactive existence in the darkness of the inner self, is recognized through training as something that creatively floods the cosmos—something far more real, far more actual than sunlight. Now, when this light of thought—which the person then speaks of as a real world spreading out around them—flows into the human soul, the person realizes that the soul is animated by creative forces just as a physical plant is permeated by sunlight. Through this, we learn how the space around us is permeated by a reality that human beings cannot perceive as long as they lack the necessary abilities—just as someone whose ear is not trained cannot perceive sounds.

[ 18 ] But there are also certain feelings that arise differently in the supersensible world, through supersensible training, than the feelings of everyday, ordinary life. How are the feelings of everyday life produced? A person directs their attention to an object. They find it pleasing. A feeling of pleasure arises within them. This feeling of pleasure arises through the external object. We find ourselves uplifted by the impression of a beautiful external world; we find ourselves filled with revulsion when confronted with something ugly in the external world. Thus, feelings ebb and flow in the human soul. Spiritual science must lead human beings deeper into what is true, genuine, and real.

[ 19 ] If a person wishes to awaken the inner faculties for the supersensible world, they must prepare themselves to experience feelings that are not stimulated from the outside. There is, in turn, a method by which a person can immerse themselves in a world of feelings where those feelings ebb and flow within them without the need for external sensations. Feelings stimulated from the outside can be aroused in a person through the perception of external things. When a person learns to develop very specific feelings within themselves, the arousal of such feelings acts as a force that reawakens dormant abilities. And the human being now knows from experience what the initiate can see: that the world of light is creative for both the spiritual and the physical, that it, too, is graded in the spiritual realm into manifold colors just as physical light is; he knows that there is a world in which spiritual color lives, a world we call the astral world. It manifests itself within this physical world for the person who thus awakens the abilities and powers lying dormant within them when—without any external impulse—purely through spiritual experience, they increasingly develop within themselves a feeling of a very special kind that is not stimulated by external factors within the sensory world. Whoever is able to awaken this feeling of love—a purely inner experience—has gained a connection with the spiritual world.

[ 20 ] Then another world is added to the element described. Another world is added to the colors. The love that is aroused by physical objects can never lead to the spiritual. That love which is satisfied even when the object of love exists solely in the spiritual realm—that love which remains in deep inner experience—is a creative force for a higher kind of element that pervades the spiritual realm. This love is true love. The preliminary stage of this is what the artist feels in the creative process. He possesses it only when he produces spiritual works from within his soul. That love transforms the previously silent spiritual space, flooded with light and color, into a world of tones, and a world speaks to us in spiritual tones.

[ 21 ] Thus you can see how human beings gradually evolve upward into another world, how there is nothing here but a genuine continuation of what is also present in human natural existence and in natural processes. Just as the ears emerged from insignificant auditory vesicles, and through this the world of physical sounds emerged from the indeterminate, soundless void, so too does the world just described emerge from what was previously indeterminate. Those who fight against windmills, as mentioned at the beginning of this lecture, do not speak of these worlds that can be experienced. Anyone who says that the heavens have not been found anywhere does not realize that he need not look for them elsewhere; for the heavens are where we are. The point is simply not to cling to the assertion: “What I cannot perceive does not exist,” and if someone else claims that there is something I cannot perceive, then he is a fool, a dreamer, or a charlatan. — This statement is the most logically flawed statement there is, for no one may claim that the limit of their perception is also the limit of existence. Otherwise, a deaf person could dismiss the entire world of sounds, harmonies, and melodies as mere fantasy and delusion.

[ 22 ] When one speaks of heaven in spiritual science, one speaks of it in the way that has just been described to you. This is how one speaks of this heaven in true spiritual science, and it was spoken of in no other way in the original sources of religious creeds, as they were still understood at that time. In this visible world, there exists a non-sensory world, just as there is a world of sounds for the deaf.

[ 23 ] And now we ask ourselves: Why does the human being, at this stage of his present development, not perceive this supersensible world? He does not perceive it because sensory perception—which has, after all, become a necessity in human development—spreads out like a blanket, like a veil, over the supersensible world. This is precisely what we meant when we described what a person who strives for the supersensible world must go through. They must rise above the sensory world; they must silence the sensory world for a while. Then they come to what lies beyond this sensory world, and then they perceive how the sensory world spreads out like a blanket over the supersensible world. Whoever, in the true sense, rises in his body above his body can perceive what lies beyond this veil.

[ 24 ] We must understand how these forces are used in ordinary, everyday human life—forces that can thus become abilities to enter the supersensible world. This cannot be understood except by considering the true facts: What, in fact, is the physical world? What is the most imperfect physical body, and what is the perfect physical body that appears before us as the human body? All physical entities are creations—creations of the spirit. The spiritual underlies all that is physical. We have emphasized this time and again in the most varied ways throughout these lectures. Just as ice hardens from water, so does everything physical harden from the spiritual. It is, as it were, a condensation of the spirit. Let us consider the physical structure of the ear of modern humans. What underlies this physical structure of the ear? Spiritual creative power underlies it! The sound that exists as physical sound in our environment belongs to the physical world, but behind it lies the spiritual sound. In the very same world that flows toward our physical ear, we hear the physical sound, and in that same world also lives the supersensible, spiritual sound. What is the spiritual sound? This spiritual sound is the creator of our ear, just as that which, in physical light, is spiritual, hidden light, is the creator of our eye. That is why Goethe, who articulated so many profound spiritual truths, said: “The eye is formed by light for light.” The force that flows to us from the sun and enables our eye to see objects within their boundaries in a space filled with light also contains those beings who have shaped the marvelous structure of the eye. Thus, what the physical eye sees and the physical ear hears would amount to a penetration into what lies behind them, an ascent to the spiritual forces. In one particular case, we already do this when we turn our gaze toward the young human child, who is gradually shaping its faculties into the physical human body. We see these faculties emerging from a world hidden behind the sensory world; we see how they shoot into matter, creating an aspect of existence within matter.

[ 25 ] Let us return to spiritual science and ask ourselves: Where was this being before it took on a physical existence through conception and birth? Where was it between its last death and its last birth? It was not in some imagined spiritual world, but in the very same world in which we, too, exist. The entire difference between this being before it entered material existence through conception and birth, and what it is afterward, lies in the following. Before birth, this being consists of elements that can only be perceived when the faculties described above as spiritual have been developed. It is invisible as long as this supersensory ability is not developed. Just as water is invisible to someone as long as it is liquid but becomes visible as soon as it freezes, so too does the human being become invisible when he becomes like water—and visible when he “freezes,” that is, when he becomes physical.

[ 26 ] Thus we speak of two states of the human being: a state between death and a new birth, visible only to the spiritual senses; and a state in which the human being has woven a garment around himself, so that he appears visible to the physical senses. Thus we see that, in the interval between death and a new birth, the human being is connected to the creative forces that permeate space—forces that those who develop their supersensory abilities come to know even here as the heavenly forces. It is the human being who is connected to these creative forces. Here in the physical world, the human being lives with the physical forces, with physical sounds, with physical light; in the spiritual world, he lives in that which, beyond sound and beyond light, is spiritually creative. He lives in a world that is simply different from the physical world. Here in the physical world, the eye sees through light. In the spiritual world, human beings perceive what the eye has created. They live in spiritual light; they live in the spiritual world of sound; they live in that which, through birth and conception, builds up their physical body; they live with the productive, creative, cosmic essence in the very place where our world—this outer world, which spreads out like a veil over the spiritual world—is being built up. Thus this blanket flows into the spiritual world itself. Human consciousness shines forth in a different state. The entire difference between the disembodied and the embodied human being is that the disembodied human being lives in a different state of consciousness and perceives the creative forces. And so we will understand what it means when it is said that, upon death, a human being is received into a supersensible world. It is not a dream world, nor a world of lesser reality than our own; it is a world of denser and more intense reality, for within it dwell the creative beings who shape our physical world. And now we understand what is at work between death and a new birth.

[ 27 ] Last time, when we discussed the retarding forces, we saw that when a person passes through the gate of death, a tableau of memories from their entire last life appears before them; we saw that this tableau is absorbed like an essence and remains united with the person for all time to come; we saw how they pass through the Kamaloka period, where they must undergo a kind of purification. Once they have undergone this purification, what they have brought with them from their last life becomes something special, something new. We know that when a person passes through the gate of death, they enter the spiritual, the supersensible world. Think of it as a field, as fertile soil, and think of what a person brings from their past life—the fruit of their thinking, feeling, and willing, which can be summed up as the fruit of the past life—as a plant seed that is sown in the soil and sprouts. Thus the fruit of life from the previous life sprouts in the spiritual soil, and human consciousness perceives and takes note of this sprouting, this unfolding, this development of the seed of life brought over from the previous life. Everything that people have taken with them from the life of their time becomes imbued in this final fruit of life, and whatever has approached the human being from the outside expands and blossoms like a seed. This becomes the world of perception and consciousness between “death” and a new birth. What permeates the soul can only be made clear to those who lack the ability to perceive the supersensible through a comparison. Upon deeper reflection, you will understand the comparison. What a person feels as the final seed of life unfolds is rightly called bliss, for it is indeed bliss. It is the opposite feeling of what a person can perceive when sensing objects. Now they feel them unfold; before, they flowed out; but now the being flows out, and as the seed of life takes shape, the person is permeated by a feeling comparable to that which—on a lower level, and upon deeper reflection this will seem significant to you—a hen experiences when she hatches an egg: the bliss of bringing forth a life, the bliss of the seed sprouting. This bliss leads the human being to mentally envision what binds him to physical birth, what brings him into physical existence. Because he has gathered new experiences, which he imprints upon the fundamental core, every life—with the exception of the ups and downs that are also inevitable—becomes more perfect.

[ 28 ] As we saw last time, throughout the whole of life there is an ascent toward ever greater and greater perfection. We see how that which has become so deeply rooted in the physical world manifests itself anew in a creative way through its activity in the physical world and through the feeling of bliss.

[ 29 ] We must therefore be clear that it is only the human state of consciousness that differs from that in the supersensible world. By drawing a comparison, we can further clarify how the state of consciousness differs between the physical world and the supersensible world. Imagine a person listening to a symphony. He allows the sounds to flow in from the outside. He enjoys them. Now imagine that it were possible for a person to construct this symphony creatively, in his mind—without touching a score, without playing an instrument—so that he creatively strings together note after note from within himself. Just as the perception of the former relates to that in which the symphony took root, so does the physical world relate to perception in the supersensible. Therefore, we must say: In order to perceive the heavenly world, a person must have renounced the idea that anything in the physical world might meet them spiritually. As long as they have not made this renunciation, they cannot see.

[ 30 ] However, the spiritual world does not appear to us as a world beyond the reach of logical thinking. The objection people usually raise is simply that they cannot perceive it.

[ 31 ] This is how the concept of “heaven” will regain its meaning for the people of the future. It is not a concept of a dreamlike world in which we find ourselves. Consciousness in the creative realm is much brighter and more intense than that in the physical world. Therefore, we must also conceive of human life and consciousness in the creative world as being more intense than in the physical world.

[ 32 ] What is the relationship between the physical world and the supersensible world? It is only natural that people should be interested in this relationship first and foremost. I would therefore like to express this with a counter-question: In the supersensible world, will a person know about those who are dear and precious to them in this world? Will what has taken place here continue in any way? It will! And you will understand this correctly if you think through with complete clarity what has just been said, in which it was made clear that there is an intimate connection between this physical world and the supersensible world. What is sown here as a seed blossoms there and bears fruit. Nothing in the world exists without a spiritual background. In the physical world, human beings are already working for the supersensible world. Here is an example: Let us suppose a mother is lovingly attached to her child. At first, one might say, this love is developed through the natural foundation. But then, with every passing moment, this love transforms from a purely natural love—conditioned by physical circumstances—into a spiritual love. To the extent that the love rooted in nature is transformed into spiritual maternal love, the human being grows into spiritual love. This love becomes truer in the spiritual realm. Just as only the earthly shell falls away from the human being, so too does only the physical-earthly aspect fall away from the spiritual being. The entire network that is woven from human soul to human soul—that which lives from heart to heart, from spirit to spirit—already exists in an invisible way in the supersensible world. The spiritual, the core of the human being’s being, lives itself into the supersensible world, and everything that the human being has established here in this physical world finds its continuation as something spiritual in the spiritual world. Everything that is connected here in a spiritual way is found again in the spiritual world in full consciousness—indeed, in a clearer consciousness. Depending on how it is found, a bond is formed once more in a new life course, so that those who come together in often remarkable sympathy must explain this to themselves through what they themselves have woven in earlier lives.

[ 33 ] Thus we see how our entire sensory world is embedded in this supersensory, invisible world. And just as a human being is a citizen of the sensory world between birth and death, so too is he a citizen of the supersensory world after death; it is just that, in our time, he is unaware of this between birth and death.

[ 34 ] In our last discussion, we explored the concept of “hell,” and today we are examining the concept of “heaven,” which encompass all spiritual influences on human beings. Last time we discussed the forces that lead to hardening, whereas what we have described today appears to be the opposite of that: the principle of development. Life progresses from one existence to the next, and to the extent that creative forces are put into practice from the previous life, the next existence rises all the higher. By seeking not merely to enjoy what they take in, but by penetrating through what they enjoy to that which is transformed into spiritual forces, human beings are continually present in the heavenly world. Everything that can advance human beings is the content of the heavenly elements; everything that hinders progress is the content of the hellish worlds.

[ 35 ] Anyone who wishes to reconcile such a concept of heaven with the achievements of natural science will find it easy to do so. They will be able to do so in complete harmony. It is just that there is not much inclination among our contemporaries to engage in immersing themselves in these higher worlds. Our age is weary of contemplating the supersensible world, and therefore this age is all too credulous toward those who assert: “What I cannot perceive is not true, and if anyone claims it is true, then he is a fool or a simpleton.” — Far too many in this age have come to hold such a view. Even as we clearly see the great and tremendous progress our age is making in the field of physical science, we also see, on the other hand, how little inclined the vast majority of our contemporaries are to penetrate the supersensible world. It is believed that penetrating the supersensible world makes a person weak and alienated from the sensory world. That is a prejudice. If someone has a piece of iron in front of them and says, “There is magnetic force in this iron; rub it with another piece of iron and you have a magnet”—then another person might come along and say, “Oh, come on, that piece of iron is good for hammering in nails.”—These are the true fantasists, who take the sensory and the practical only in the same way as someone who uses a magnet solely for hammering in nails. The realists, the monists, the utilitarians, and so on are the true dreamers. They know only the forces of the physical world and triumph when tremendous progress is made through the uncovering of the forces of the physical world. Spiritual science has no objection whatsoever to this physical world. But it also knows that it is high time for people to learn once again that the spiritual is hidden within the physical, and that people become dreamy precisely when they close their spiritual eyes to the spiritual world. True realists, apostles of reality, are those today who point to the spiritual forces! What do these true realists want? They want the real forces that lie dormant behind the sensory to be introduced into this world, for them to become an integral part of our entire development, so that we introduce not only the telegraph, the telephone, and the railroad—that is, the ordinary forces—but also the spiritual forces.

[ 36 ] Even if those who address these matters are still ridiculed today, they pay no heed to such ridicule. He knows that just as the great figures of physical science once found followers only within a small circle, so too must those who have something to say about the spiritual worlds inevitably find their way into the wider world. Even if only a few can create telegraphs, telephones, and locomotives, the others can still use them. But the spiritual world is something each person must attain for themselves.

[ 37 ] The great physicists Thomson, Clausius, and so on have successors who are capable of recognizing the laws of physics. One of the greatest laws of physics is, at the same time, the one that draws people toward the spiritual world. For those who have studied physics even a little, I am not revealing anything new when I point out that there is a law of entropy, which originates from Carnot, the uncle of the French president. What does it state? It articulates one of the most certain principles we have in the physical world, namely, how the forces of the world transform in relation to the physical realm. It describes how physical forces transform, how one force is converted into another. Strike the table with your hand and measure the effect on the surface with a sensitive thermometer. You will find that the spot where the blow landed has become warm. You can see how the heat of the locomotive is converted into motion, and that motion, in turn, back into heat. Underlying all of this is a great law: the law of entropy. Observing the world makes it clear that this transformation of energy does indeed follow a certain direction, a certain purpose. The law of entropy shows us that ultimately all energy must be transformed into heat, and this heat disperses into the vastness of space. Thus, it has been proven today by the laws of physics that the Earth, our physical world, will one day suffer heat death. This law exists. Anyone who takes the position that only physical forces exist in our world must deny this law; for if such a person were to acknowledge the law, he would have to say: “Then everything is over.” — That is why Haeckel, too, takes the position that this law of entropy is nonsense, because it contradicts his law of substance. That things are constantly transforming is a law of nature. A Russian physicist has demonstrated in a treatise just how firmly grounded this very law is, which shows us the physical end of our present state of the world. It was precisely in this treatise by Professor Chwolson that the “12th Commandment.” There you can see how competent a physicist can be in the physical realm, just as you can see from what he says about Hegel how ignorant such scholars can be with regard to spiritual realms. The “12th Commandment” is, in fact: “Thou shalt never write about anything you do not understand.” Chwolson follows it in his own field, when he speaks about physics, but he does not follow it in the realm of the spirit. Everything he says regarding physics is excellent; but what he says regarding spiritual matters is of little value and a great sin against the law: “You shall never write about anything you do not understand.”

[ 38 ] What follows is a passage that the stenographer apparently did not record, in which Rudolf Steiner likely explained that Hegel was not understood by Chwolson. Rudolf Steiner, however, agrees with Chwolson regarding his comments on an essay by Kossuth in a scholarly journal, in which it is claimed that the law of conservation of mass is nothing more than the statement: “The whole is equal to the sum of its parts,” and that the law of conservation of energy is nothing other than the statement: “The cause is equal to the effect.” — Referring to Lavoisier’s discoveries, Rudolf Steiner continues:

[ 39 ] Anyone who is even slightly familiar with spiritual research knows what it means when it has been shown that, when substances combine chemically, the weight is equal to the sum of the parts. And if one were to add: “This law contains nothing other than the old mathematical law: the whole is equal to the sum of its parts”—then one would have to be clear that this refers only to the weight of the whole, which is equal to the sum of the weights of its parts. Kossuth simply forgets that, when one moves into the spiritual realm, this law no longer applies at all. That is how limited his thinking is. Chwolson says: Let Mr. Kossuth simply take his pocket watch and crush it in a mortar; then he can see for himself whether the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. Goethe has already expressed this idea, and it is often repeated:

Whoever wishes to recognize and describe something living,
Must first seek to extract its spirit,
Then he has the parts in his hand,
But, alas, the spiritual bond is missing.

[ 40 ] Very few of those who believe they are standing on the ground of certain facts realize that the natural sciences are often nothing more than a disregard for the spiritual connection. On the one hand, when we survey this entire situation and relate it to what I have been able to present in our reflections on the supersensible world, we see that a longing to penetrate the supersensible world lives within many human souls. Yet people doubt those very specific details that must be addressed by one who truly knows something about these matters. We see the longing for the supersensible world stirring; but we do not see the strength and energy to penetrate these supersensible worlds according to the guidance of spiritual science. On the other hand, we have the facts of our time. We have a robust physical science in our time: Thomson, Clausius, and Carnot have found worthy successors. If development in spiritual science proceeds in the same spirit, then researchers in the spiritual realm will find successors just as capable as Thomson, Clausius, and Carnot. The result will be that humanity—which today has almost cut itself off from the heavenly world, from the supersensible world—will give rise to a humanity that draws the power of the stars from the supersensible world into the sensible world. Spiritual science is not meant to alienate people from the world, but rather to make them strong, energetic, and active in life by enriching reality. Rather than becoming alienated from reality, people’s outlook becomes richer in reality through the transmission of knowledge about the spiritual world.

[ 41 ] We need only bring two things together, and they will come together: In the same rigorous way as is now the case in the physical sciences, a large portion of humanity will have the opportunity to satisfy the needs of the heart through the spiritual world. Bringing together these two spiritual currents—the satisfaction of sensory needs through natural science and the fulfillment of the heart’s longing through the spiritual—is the task of spiritual science as a cultural movement.

[ 42 ] These lectures will continue in the same vein next winter. We will further explore some of the topics that have remained only in outline form and delve deeper into them. Thus, the most comprehensive and significant concept should form the subject of the final lecture. Truly, it will come to pass that there will be a wisdom that can once again be a religion, one that can satisfy all the deepest religious needs of the heart. A spiritual current will arise that will satisfy all the needs of logical thinking just as much as the longing for the supersensible life. It is to this longing that spiritual science directs its words. When the path is found to what is present in this ancestral legacy, then the wisdom that leads into this supersensible world will flow over the human soul in such a way that culture—and this is not meant as a cliché—will experience a spiritual rebirth that draws upon the fire that lives within many and seeks to penetrate the supersensible worlds. Out of this fire, the wisdom of spiritual science will penetrate into the supersensible world, for that is its true ideal.

[ 43 ] We owe a debt of gratitude to the great ideal that seeks to kindle the wisdom of the supernatural through the fire of enthusiasm for the supernatural; for this will always be the path of spiritual culture: that the light of wisdom develops from the fire of love and enthusiasm.