The Rudolf Steiner Archive

38. Religion, Science, and Theosophy

[ 1 ] What is today referred to as the Theosophical Movement or the Theosophical worldview did not enter modern culture in the same way as so many other movements. The Theosophical Movement does not spring from the whim of a single agitator. Sometimes a movement arises through an individual who is capable of influencing people and inspiring hearts through his speech. We must attribute a completely different foundation to the Theosophical Movement as such. It arose from the realization that humanity, as it progresses, needs such a movement; from the realization that those spiritual treasures of humanity—which have filled people with hope since time immemorial—must be presented to humanity in a new form.

[ 2 ] If we look into the soul of the child who is growing up, who is meant to develop in harmony with life and be equipped with the strengths that prepare him or her for a healthy life, then we will see how the deepest doubts must take root in his or her soul from the earliest age under the influence of today’s education. We see how the child is introduced to the insights of a supernatural world—a world in which answers are to be given to the questions about the mysteries of life, to the question of what death is all about, and to other serious questions—to all the great mysteries of existence that every human being must answer based on more than just a mere feeling.

[ 3 ] Faced with all these questions that point people toward the supernatural, human beings are plunged into anxious doubt and bitter disappointment—even as children—when they learn what modern science seemingly presents to them as so overwhelming. It is precisely those people who are endowed with the keenest sense of truth who, in their earliest youth, are plunged into the most bitter doubts by what confronts them in our time. Some are often overcome by great trepidation; they do not even want to touch upon what lies beyond the visible. Indifference toward these questions is one thing one finds in some people; the other is that bitter division of the soul between what science seemingly offers on the one hand and religious truths on the other.

[ 4 ] One might ask which is better: for a person to go through life in a daze, or to experience a tragic fate that could break them emotionally. One might say, after all, that there are always those who do not fall into such doubts. But anyone who understands the signs of the times knows that what is now becoming apparent is only the beginning of something that will continue to intensify. Something must be offered so that people who, due to the findings of natural science, feel they can no longer hold fast to a belief in the supernatural, may find a path back to it. A path must also be found for those who feel they must break with religious traditions. We see how even the finest minds of our time view religious creeds as something that, in their opinion, was appropriate for a childhood era; they need something that satisfies their consciousness. The theosophical worldview is here to open a path—even for the most modern consciousness—to the primordial sources of existence.

[ 5 ] Anyone seeking such a path might recall one of the great minds of modern times, who never uttered the word “theosophy,” but whose entire way of thinking, feeling, and perceiving expressed the spirit of theosophy. He said: “Whoever possesses science and art also possesses religion; whoever does not possess these two, let him have religion.” We may recall that moment when Goethe stood before the great works of art in Italy—the very works he had so longed for before coming to Italy. “There is necessity; there is God,” he said as he spoke of them. When he sought to explain why necessity—God—shone forth to him from the artistic form, he said: “I suspect that the Greeks acted according to the laws by which nature itself acts, and which I am seeking to trace.”

[ 6 ] Let us summarize how Goethe’s view of nature, his worldview, and his religious sensibility interplayed. Goethe possessed something of what we are seeking to recognize as a fundamental theosophical sensibility. He already possessed this sensibility as a child. He would collect all sorts of minerals and plants, place them on a music stand, and set a small incense candle on top; he would light it with a magnifying glass using the first rays of the sun. In this way, he believed he was drawing near to God—who appeared to him in all of nature’s works—through this offering he presented to Him. Should we be surprised that such a powerful religious feeling also emerged later in his scientific endeavors?

[ 7 ] Goethe sought to understand how the ancient artists revealed divine lawfulness in their works of art. In what the ancient artists created, he saw necessity—and God. For him, the true artist was one who captured the spiritual light of God in his soul, just as a magnifying glass captures physical light. When Goethe looked at colors and forms, they appeared to him as true art. Anyone who looks into nature yearns for its creative interpreter: art. Goethe recognized the close connection between nature and art, how the same laws govern both, and for him, science is true only if it leads to this insight. “Whoever possesses science and art also possesses religion,” he therefore says. For such a lofty spirit, this insight could only give rise to a sense of God in the laws that permeate all of nature.

[ 8 ] Human nature needs impulses through which this feeling can penetrate every soul. — Let us take a look back at the much-maligned Middle Ages, when scientific facts had not yet been instilled into even the simplest human soul through a thousand and thousands of channels. Let us put ourselves in the place of an aspiring, simple human heart as it faced its teachers, and let us immerse ourselves in the course of historical events—how everything gradually came to the fore at that time, how the new era began, and how the Copernican worldview brought about such a great transformation in human development. Let us clarify how what is now called theosophy was not at all necessary for people of earlier times, how the vast majority of humanity received their understanding back then through feelings that, for most, arose from religious convictions. It is precisely the development leading up to our own time that makes theosophy necessary. If it were not for modern science, with the doubts and reservations it itself generates, there would be no need for theosophy.

[ 9 ] Anyone familiar with Theosophy knows that, in reality, there is no contradiction between religious beliefs and scientific truths. Ever since modern science began to influence the world, we have needed a means of understanding that goes deeper than science, which views the world only on the surface. Theosophy is entirely in harmony with science. If we delve deeper into theosophy, we will find that it is fully in harmony with science. It simply goes deeper. It deals with the supersensible, the superphysical world. The way it approaches this is exactly the same as the methods used in modern scientific research. The only difference is that it deals with the supersensible world. Because it deals with the world in which human beings themselves are supersensible beings, it becomes a form of religious knowledge. Theosophy does not doubt the truth of genuine religious insight. For those who are no longer able to maintain this religious conviction through traditional means, it seeks to provide new means by which to uphold this conviction.

[ 10 ] Now that we have seen that the theosophical worldview is not merely arbitrary, let us point out the areas where theosophy has an enlightening and illuminating effect. External science deals only with what can be derived from external experience. Who would not agree with this external science, given what has been bestowed upon humanity—from Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler to Kirchhoff and [Bunsen], and on to all those who, in our own day, shed light on the material world? We could name a long series of marvelous achievements of modern science. The theosophist has no reason to withhold his admiration for this world of facts. Yet modern science has reached its pinnacle precisely by limiting itself to the sphere of the external world.

[ 11 ] In his “Ignorabimus” speech at the naturalists’ conference in Leipzig in 1872, Du Bois-Reymond made a curious remark regarding human understanding. He said that the naturalist is actually only capable of understanding the sleeping human being, but not the waking one. He says that the natural scientist must investigate the material foundations of human beings—how the carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms in the human brain combine when any impulse or thought arises. He says that this still does not explain the actual nature of the soul. He quotes Leibniz, who says: Imagine for a moment that the brain were enlarged to such an extent that you could walk through it as if through a factory; yet you would still not know how the movements arise, or why they give rise to sensations: “I see red,” “I smell the scent of roses,” “I hear the sound of an organ.” Du Bois-Reymond refused to concede to the natural sciences that they had the ability to discover the bridge between the physical movements of atoms and mental sensations. He was quite right when he said: “When we have a sleeping person before us, we can recognize them, because what we call inner mental experiences are not present then. They have vanished down into an indefinite darkness while the person is asleep.”

[ 12 ] Yet another aspect vanishes when a person sleeps: what we might call a person’s sense of self—that which constitutes the center of their being. During sleep, a person does not feel within their “I” the experiences of the soul—pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, and so on. It would be the most absurd thing imaginable to claim that what says “I” to itself—what smells the scent of roses, hears the sounds of an organ, and sees colors—disappears completely each evening and is renewed every morning. No explanation based on external sensory facts is capable of providing a definitive answer here. That is why Du Bois-Reymond was also able to say: The natural scientist can recognize the sleeping human being, but not the waking one. — The true human being eludes scientific explanation when one falls asleep.

[ 13 ] Only spiritual science can shed light on the true process. In the evening, when going to bed, the sleeping person leaves his outer shell behind and re-enters this body in the morning. He himself disappears into another world in the evening. Exploring him is the task of theosophy or spiritual science. It is possible to follow this person, but it is not easy for people today to come to believe in this possibility. The theosophical worldview introduces people to another world. It speaks of supersensible and superphysical worlds, not in a magical or superstitious sense, but in a completely natural sense—in the sense that Johann Gottlieb Fichte spoke of them. In the fall of 1813, he said to his audience: “Imagine a world of people born blind, who therefore know only those things and their relationships that exist through the sense of touch. Go among them and speak to them of colors and the other qualities that exist only through light and for sight. Either you are speaking to them of nothing—and this is the better outcome, if they say so—for in this way you will soon realize your mistake and, if you are unable to open their eyes, cease your futile talk.”

[ 14 ] For someone born blind, this world of colors and light does not exist. Let us now imagine that a person born blind were to undergo surgery in this room; a whole new world would open up to him—one that was always there but which he could not perceive because he lacked the necessary organ. A world that did not exist for him before now becomes his own, simply because he has received a new organ. There are as many worlds for us as there are organs with which to perceive them.

[ 15 ] It is the height of illogicality for a person to want to limit existence to what is within their reach. — We cannot operate on every person born blind, but every human being has latent powers and abilities slumbering in their soul that can be awakened—what Goethe calls the “spiritual eye.” Then there comes a moment when a new world opens up for the individual. Such awakened or initiated individuals have existed in every age. When the spiritual faculties are awakened, the individual perceives a new world; what he then perceives is explained to him by the world of the supersensible. Just as light and color are always present around a person born blind, so too are spiritual worlds filled with spiritual beings all around human beings. Religions have always spoken of these worlds in a way that people could understand. Theosophy speaks of them in the way that is appropriate for the present age.

[ 16 ] Only those who have looked into these spiritual worlds—or who have learned about them from those who have looked into them—can speak of, share, or explore these spiritual worlds. To explore these worlds, one must look into them, but understanding requires ordinary, logical human reason. Much of what people are told about these spiritual worlds may seem fabulous or fantastical to them. But take it as a story. If you immerse yourself in it, you will see that common sense and ordinary human logic are sufficient for understanding it.

[ 17 ] Scientific reports, too, are largely accepted without people having followed in the researcher’s footsteps themselves and verified everything. How many of those who regard Haeckel’s “History of Creation” as gospel have convinced themselves of what it contains? It is extremely difficult to carry out such examinations; for example, observing the development of the human embryo step by step is so difficult that one very rarely has the opportunity to do so. It all looks different when one reads about it in a finished, popular work. But even if one cannot verify all of this for oneself, one can still say that one understands and believes it.

[ 18 ] Just as there are scientific methods for investigating the sensory world, there are also higher spiritual methods through which we can penetrate into a supersensory world. When we apply these methods, it becomes apparent that during sleep the true human being emerges from the person our eyes see. The physical human being cannot see this with his physical sense organs. But the awakened eye of the seer sees the “I,” sees the bearer of desires and passions. The human being is there, even in sleep; however, his consciousness can only spring forth within him when he plunges back into what his eyes perceive of physicality.

[ 19 ] The theosophical worldview shows us how the true human being leaves his outer shells during sleep, and how this being consists of two parts: the true self and the astral body, the bearer of desires and passions. Two parts of the human being are of a spiritual nature. From evening until morning, while we sleep, they are in another world. In the morning, they re-enter the physical body.

[ 20 ] Is the physical body itself really something so simple? Even when it comes to the physical body, we cannot get by with a mere ordinary explanation. The same being who, upon falling asleep in the evening, has sunk into unconsciousness, says to itself “I” again in the morning. The thoughtful observer of the world must find it understandable when the spiritual researcher tells him: When we consider the human being from birth to death, we see that his essence is by no means limited to the physical. Only if we succumb to the most short-sighted prejudice can we remain stuck at what truly appears to us from the sensory-physical world as the human being.

[ 21 ] If we observe a human being from birth onward, we see the unfolding qualities of the child as something that is not limited to the physical; we recognize how something spiritual is at work there. Even in the growing human being, we see how something from within works its way out—something that was there before the physical forms came into being. Over the course of 250 years, the Bach family included some 29 musicians of varying degrees of significance. One might say: Here we can see how the predisposition of the father and mother is inherited. But this is by no means in contradiction to the fact that a spiritual process is at work behind the physical process. The musical ear is merely a specific manifestation of the inner ear. One inherits the physical from one’s ancestors, but what the physical serves as an instrument for—the spiritual—is not inherited from one’s ancestors. Spiritual aptitudes are bound to the individual.

[ 22 ] When a person recognizes this, they see something similar in the developing human individuality as in a person waking up in the morning. They tell themselves that the spiritual human being is growing and unfolding within the developing human being. They see not merely a physical connection, but—just as they do not see merely a physical process in the person waking up in the morning—they also see something spiritual unfolding in the growing human being.

[ 23 ] This other spiritual aspect, which unfolds within the developing human being, remains with the sleeping physical human being. When lying in bed, the sleeping human retains the physical body, but it remains connected to a spiritual aspect as well. This spiritual aspect—which we see gradually unfolding from childhood onward, which was present before birth and before conception—is what we call the human etheric body. Just as we see the astral body as the bearer of feelings, passions, and desires, we call what we see growing within the human being the etheric or life body. No plant exists without the etheric or life body. In plants, it is still limited to regulating the forces of growth and reproduction. But in human beings, it is the bearer of all spiritual capacities, habits, and memory. In human beings, it increasingly becomes the bearer of a higher spirituality, increasingly becoming the spirit of life. Just as, when sleep sets in, the “I” leaves the human being together with the astral body, so too, at death, the etheric or life body leaves the physical body, and the physical body decays.

[ 24 ] Thus, theosophy leads us beyond the mysteries of existence; it reveals to us the reality that remains even after a person passes through the gate of death. The theosophical worldview gives us a glimpse of those realms that a person traverses when they pass through the gate of sleep, through the gate of death. Through knowledge and insight, we are introduced to those worlds that are also sought in the religions. Modern humanity needs this harmonization, this balance. That is why this worldview has been brought to the world. Humanity can now be moved by such impulses—as the young Goethe sought to feel before his altar, as they were alive in the older Goethe when he was inspired by works of art—only if, through the knowledge of the theosophical worldview, it is once again able to penetrate the higher, spiritual worlds. The theosophical worldview once again reveals to modern humanity its connection to the supersensible world. Without this connection, humanity cannot remain healthy.

[ 25 ] The Theosophist is well aware that human beings are surrounded not only by a world of the physical, but also by a world of the supersensible. For those who know this world only through the physical senses, their sense of this world fades away, and the hope that the physical world is meant to bring them vanishes.

[ 26 ] Theosophy seeks to restore to humanity a true and powerful understanding of the supersensible world—one that not only satisfies curious or weary minds, but also makes people capable of work, full of hope, and healthy right here in this world, because they know: The meaning of this physical world is eternal, and because they know: Everything I do in this context has eternal significance. This gives people joy in life, the ability to work effectively, and that is what keeps them healthy throughout their entire lives.