The Rudolf Steiner Archive

46. Clairvoyance and Imagination

[ 1 ] [My esteemed audience!] During their beautiful friendship—one so significant for modern intellectual life—Goethe and Schiller exchanged the works they produced during the course of their friendship, and when Schiller received several sections of *Wilhelm Meister* from Goethe, he wrote him remarkable—one might even say, at first glance, peculiar—words. Overwhelmed by the impression made by the chapter he received at that time, he wrote:

The poet is the only true human being, and the best
philosopher is merely a caricature of him.

[ 2 ] These words may seem strange, but they will no longer seem so strange once one delves a little into Schiller’s soul and explores what he actually meant by this statement. One will gain insight into this by comparing these words with the content of that famous letter Schiller wrote to Goethe shortly after the two had become friends—the letter I have, in fact, mentioned many times before. In it, Schiller wrote:

For a long time now, [albeit from a considerable distance], I have been observing the course of your mind and noting the path you have charted for yourself with ever-renewed admiration. ...]

[ 3 ] And now he goes on to discuss the way Goethe views the world. He says that Goethe casts his gaze freely, openly, and objectively upon the things of the world, and that he seeks to gain insight not through speculation, but by searching for the essential within the totality of the world’s phenomena. Schiller calls it a “heroic” undertaking. And then, in his own way, he explains why he finds this undertaking so heroic, saying: All your powers, your mental faculties, work together harmoniously and ultimately align themselves with the unifier of all mental faculties in your soul—the imagination.

[ 4 ] So we see from this that Schiller recognizes in Goethe’s way of viewing the world—and indeed in the inner workings of Goethe’s soul, from which his artistic works sprang—something that can lead human beings particularly deeply into the mysteries of existence. Schiller thus sees something special in the unique way Goethe developed his imagination and his fantasy, and when one examines the actual exchange of thoughts and opinions between Goethe and Schiller, one finds that Schiller, in his conception of the highest spiritual realm, arrived at a significant concept of fantasy—namely, what one might call the “inner truth of fantasy.”

[ 5 ] Schiller sought—and this, too, can be seen in his letters—to understand how human beings could, through development, become fully human. In every human nature, he saw a higher human being, a representative human being, toward whom the ordinary, everyday person must continually strive to draw nearer. In Goethe’s way of allowing the spiritual powers to interact within the imagination, of letting the imagination radiate what assigns each other power of the soul its proper place—in this kind of soul activity, Schiller found something that makes a person a fully realized human being, something that best leads them to unite with the primordial sources of the world from which human beings and things have flowed.

[ 6 ] When one hears our great minds speak of imagination in this way, it strikes one as somewhat different from the way imagination is discussed—not only in everyday life, but also in many circles today that are close to or even devoted to science. Today, imagination is set in such stark contrast to the objective pursuit of truth that it seems as if it were directly opposed to those faculties of the soul that lead to the exploration of truth—as if its sole purpose were to combine things in any arbitrary way. If we bring ourselves to understand Goethe and are convinced that he was an expert in these matters, then perhaps a quote from Goethe may offer us some insight: “/p”

Humans strive to unravel the mysteries of nature, and they yearn for its most worthy interpreter: art.

[ 7 ] Yes, Goethe speaks of beauty—that is, the products of the imagination, the substance of artistic creation—in such a way that he says: Art and beauty, the children of the imagination, are a manifestation of secret laws of nature that could never be fathomed without their activity.

[ 8 ] Now, however, we must agree with common sense, which defines imagination as a capacity for combination that operates according to the whims of the soul—that is, out of pleasure and other impulses that, in an objective sense, have nothing to do with knowledge. We must admit that, in many respects, imagination leads people astray from the truth. Where would we end up if we were to admit that imagination plays a role in external scientific research? Admittedly, no one will deny that imagination may play a preliminary role in scientific research. Those who are able to work with a combinatory imagination are capable of recognizing hidden connections that others do not see—those who work in the laboratory or in the physics laboratory and systematically organize one experiment after another. But of course one must admit that in certain areas of research and of life, it is absolutely necessary that, when someone makes such combinations through his imagination, he substantiate what he has combined with strictly external evidence through experience. Thus, while the imagination can indeed serve as a guide to this or that connection, it must be verified by the means of external, objective research; we are willing to concede that.

[ 9 ] Nevertheless, a statement such as Goethe’s—or an attitude toward the matter such as Schiller’s—points out to us that Goethe sees in the works of the imagination, in the creative activity of the imagination, something that also offers a measure of truth, in contrast to the arbitrary, unrestrained play that we might better describe as a fantastical play of ideas. But anyone—as you will readily admit—who speaks of the imagination as containing something of the truth cannot claim to be compelled by the external world to acknowledge this element of truth.

[ 10 ] When we string facts together and seek to fathom the laws, the results of our observations compel us to reach a conclusion. When we give free rein to our imagination, however, no such external compulsion exists. That which underlies the imagination—that which gives rise to it—would therefore be something that permeates the imagination as truth. Consequently, an inner regularity must be at work in such a way that certain thoughts, brought together by the imagination, appear as real before a higher authority, and that certain conclusions of the imagination, through an inner necessity, present an expression of truth.

[ 11 ] So, if creative imagination is to have any true justification, there must be something at work—something that, like an inner guide, directs a person in their imaginative creation; something that does not allow them to let their thoughts run wild at will, but rather leads them to string thought upon thought with a sure inner direction, thereby producing something that, in a certain sense, is an expression of truth.

[ 12 ] When we hear such a true, great poet speak of the imagination as a key to inner truths, then it is surely permissible to measure this creative activity of the soul—this imagination—against that activity of the soul, that capacity of the soul, which is capable of leading us, in the sense of spiritual science or theosophy, into the depths of existence.

[ 13 ] Over the years, we have spoken at length about this spiritual world that underlies the sensory world. The methods that lead to the findings we have so often discussed—as frightening as the word may sound to some modern people—are the so-called clairvoyant methods. Spiritual science provides insights into the facts and beings of the spiritual world, and these facts and beings are discovered through clairvoyance. It will not be my task here to discuss certain lower forms of clairvoyance—they can at most be touched upon briefly—for these lower forms can never lead to any truly meaningful results in spiritual science. On the other hand, it will be my task, within the time allotted to us, to discuss the method and scope of so-called higher clairvoyance—that which is attained through genuine, truly proper training.

[ 14 ] Many people today are familiar with clairvoyance only in the form of so-called “lower clairvoyance”—where it appears to us as a chance gift or illness, in somnambulism, and in other forms. There are states in human nature in which a person does not relate to their environment in the usual way, but in which their inner life is filled, so to speak, with images from another world. To the outside world, the somnambulist is in a kind of sleep. This sleep may be present to such a slight degree that the layperson always responds: “Yes, but this is a fully awake person who simply perceives things differently in their waking state than the average person.” —And such a person, who perceives things so differently, is called a clairvoyant. When they perceive images in this more or less sleep-like state, the content of these images is partly strange and partly quite meaningful. He can communicate these images and, in a wide variety of ways, astonish those around him with the things he sees. In this somnambulistic state, he even knows through prophecy certain things that then come to pass despite all objections. Such a [somnambulist], who has subdued his outer daytime consciousness, can make statements about certain conditions that lie ahead for him, which seem astonishing. Such a patient can specify exactly what can help him and how he should be treated. In such states, the human soul does indeed penetrate through the shell of the external sensory world and finds another world before it. This cannot be denied at all, and anyone who denies it has simply not conducted any research in this field.

[ 15 ] But it is not all of these forms that actually interest us. What is gained through such lower forms of clairvoyance cannot be the subject of the spiritual science of which we are speaking here. The subject of this spiritual science is solely that which is gained through trained clairvoyance—the kind of clairvoyance that a person has acquired through the fully conscious application of the methods taught to them by the relevant schools. The aspiring clairvoyant takes every step with strict self-control, fully consciously, just as other people behave in relation to the external world they perceive with their senses. The question now is simply this: How are we to conceive of the development of such a clairvoyant?

[ 16 ] If we wish to define its nature, we can say: In terms of scientific methodology, it can be compared to what we call “external research” in the modern sense of the word. The researcher creates all kinds of instruments and tools through which he investigates what is to be explored within the sensory world. He devises scientific methods through which he can systematically perceive things in such a way that they, so to speak, reveal their secrets to him. Thus, the scientific researcher surrounds himself with instruments and equips himself with methods that enable him to arrange things in such a way that they reveal something to him. The spiritual researcher, too, works with his instrument—a very complex one, in fact—and he cannot investigate anything without this instrument. What is this instrument?

[ 17 ] That is himself. But it is not himself in the state in which the soul finds itself in everyday life. A person becomes this instrument only when, through the methods that can be provided to him, he has transformed his entire capacity for knowledge and the constitution of his soul to such an extent that he has acquired other—albeit now spiritual—organs. He must have experienced the moment when, based on his own experience, he can say to himself: “Certainly, every reasonable person tells themselves that it cannot be the case that what surrounds us is limited to what we perceive through the instruments of our five senses; for if someone lacks one of these senses, they lack the ability to see with seeing eyes, and so the world of light does not exist [for them]. It exists when the organ is present.” With every new organ comes a new aspect of the external world; therefore, we must not limit reality. There must therefore—or can—be hidden, invisible, supersensory worlds around us, and insofar as one expresses this in this cautious manner—“they may exist”—there is logically nothing to object to.

[ 18 ] The person who becomes a clairvoyant in the sense just described transforms himself in such a way that this hidden world becomes just as perceptible to him as the world of light and color is to ordinary eyes. And just as a new world—the world of light and color—opens up for someone born blind who has undergone surgery, so too does a new world pour in from the surroundings of the clairvoyant who has been awakened in this way; this then becomes his world of observation. But one must not believe that this is achieved through any means that could be described as superstitious or prejudiced. This is accomplished through a radical transformation of the human faculty of cognition into an instrument of higher perception. Of course, I can only hint at this in general terms. But let us also turn to such—so to speak—higher chapters, even in public lectures, and at least sketch out how this research is conducted.

[ 19 ] When a person perceives the surrounding world, he will be most faithful to that world if he allows it to tell him what it has to say, as far as possible without the interference of arbitrariness. That is why we rightly see the researcher striving—and striving diligently—to ensure that no subjective arbitrariness of any kind is introduced into the results he seeks, that everything is dictated by the things themselves, and that, through his methods, he merely gives nature the opportunity to express itself. The less arbitrariness we apply in this process, the better. But human beings cannot help but reflect on the things of the external world, and a moment’s consideration will show you that you derive your perceptions and sensory experiences from the external world—from observation—and that you allow the individual elements of external life to flow into you; yet you will also understand that what is called a concept does not flow into us from the external world. Even a single external fact can provide proof that, when a person explores the external world, they are actually bringing concepts from within themselves to meet it; and modern thinking, in particular, will have to admit this. If this thinking looks back a few millennia and considers the concepts regarding the structure of our solar system, it must say to itself: When the eye looked up, external perception saw the same thing that Copernicus and Galileo saw; but the laws governing it—the concepts and ideas about the structure of the world—were only arrived at in the course of time. How, for example, did Copernicus arrive at his view of the starry sky? By combining the same observational data that had also been available to his ancestors in a different way—by applying his mind, the conceptual world within him, in a different manner than his ancestors had. Through what he brought to the observation, he saw what was essential for our century.

[ 20 ] We could demonstrate this for all fields. Even the most orthodox Darwinian must admit: People observed the facts of the world even before Haeckel. The fact that they arrived at their theory does not depend on Haeckel having experienced the environment differently, but rather on his having approached things in a different way. So what a person brings to the table is essential.

[ 21 ] And through yet another example, we can make it clear that concepts and ideas are not something that flows into a person from the outside, but rather something that the person himself must bring into the world. Try thinking about this as you sail out to sea to a point where there is nothing but sea—sea upon which the vault of heaven seems to rest all around you. You will then say to yourself: The vault of heaven seems to rest in the form of a circle on the surface of the sea; but you will not understand the circle through such observations. You will only understand it when you look beyond external observation and are able to construct the circle in your own mind, independently of observation—when you are able to mentally draw the image in which all points are equidistant from the center. To have this image in your mind, to understand the [circle], you need no chalk, no external observation. You can construct this in your mind and clarify all the laws for yourself there. And when you step out into reality and see arrangements that are circular, then this must correspond to what you have conceived in your study as the laws of the circle. The great Kepler could never have discovered the laws governing the motion of the planets if the orbits [of the planets] had not first appeared to him in his mind, leading him to realize: When he looks out, the stars move along the lines he had first constructed in his mind.

[ 22 ] Thus, in the highest sense of the word, we carry within us the world of concepts and ideas. We bring them to bear on external things, and these things tell us: “What you have thought, we carry out.” The star says, as it were: “You have conceived a line in your soul; but I move in accordance with that line.” And so you come to realize that what lives in your soul—without your having to rely on external sensory observation—lies at the foundation of this sensory world as a spiritual basis and law; but you must draw confirmation from this sensory world itself. You can only say anything about this sensory world when it presents you with phenomena that correspond to what you have conceived.

[ 23 ] Now imagine that a person—and in this case I am referring to the simplest concepts of the so-called school of esoteric science—attempts to hold onto a thought that is constructed within their own soul, such as a circle, without taking that image from within the soul out into the observable world. If a person manages to refrain from all external observation for a while and is able to focus their attention inwardly on such an inner image—if they make themselves blind and deaf to their external surroundings and remain fixed on such an image, if they concentrate their soul on this image—then they are practicing the first elementary exercise on the path to clairvoyance: what is known as concentration.

[ 24 ] Everything is based on the assumption that the human soul initially clings to something that lives within it alone, for which it is, at first, irrelevant whether there is an external object corresponding to it or not. What matters is the soul’s activity—to maintain, in a strict inner direction, such activity that is directed toward a structure of the soul. That is what matters. Of course, a single instance of such activity is not enough; it must be repeated often. And even when it is repeated time and again, what is truly effective is not what a person can gain in the form of mental images when he or she is still entirely dependent on the stimuli of the external sensory world.

[ 25 ] There is millennia-old experience regarding clairvoyance—experiences of people who know and offer advice on how to develop inner spiritual powers. Above all, I simply want to point out that there are certain truths, core principles. Now, one need not be convinced of the truth of such principles, which, in a certain sense, are the domain of researchers in this field. Suppose someone says: “I cannot be convinced from the outset of the truth of such principles, which may pertain to the eternal.” — Nor does he need to be; that is not part of the beginning. The greater the open-mindedness, the better. When the teacher gives the student something and says, “Fill your soul in such a way that, while it lives within your soul, you perceive nothing around you and devote yourself solely and entirely to this inner content”—then you certainly do not need to believe in this inner content. The teacher may even say, “Do not believe in it, but let it work within you.” That is what matters. Concentrate on it, and you will see that such a resting of the soul on this content produces an effect. It is not that you gain a conviction, but that this content works within your soul—that is what matters. — If someone says that the teacher gives his student something that is not true at all, one can calmly reply: It may be that it is not true, that external truth does not apply to such a statement; but that is not what matters. What matters is that it becomes a working force within the soul, that hidden things—of which the soul was previously unaware—emerge from the soul. You will see that, with constant repetition of such an instruction, you can have inner experiences.

[ 26 ] Certain symbols and symbolic images are particularly effective in bringing these hidden soul abilities to the surface. Let us use one symbol in particular to illustrate how this actually works. I would like to speak of that symbol to which I have already referred frequently—the black cross surrounded by red roses. Let us first consider its abstract meaning, which is of little significance for clairvoyant training. It will be best to recall Goethe’s words:

Whoever lacks this,
this dying and becoming,
is but a gloomy guest
on this dark earth.

[ 27 ] Die and be reborn—what does that mean? It means nothing other than that, in the development of our soul, we must rise above the things of our sensory world; that these things must first, so to speak, disappear from around us, so that we find ourselves, as it were, in a state of unconsciousness with regard to the sensory world—a state that can be compared to struggle and death. The sensory world must first die away. But whoever is then left without substance—whose soul remains empty when that substance dies—is a dreary guest. This is roughly what Goethe means: If you succeed in diverting your attention from all that is external, if you are certain that nothing from the external world is seeping in, if you can then draw forth from the hidden depths of the soul something that fills the field of vision of your soul—something different from the external—then you have been reborn into another world; then you have “become.” Die and be reborn—the dying off of the lower nature, of external sensory perception, is symbolized by the black cross. The dawning of a new world out of this death of the sensory world is symbolized by the red roses on it. And when we interpret this Rosicrucian symbol in a comprehensive, cosmic sense, we must say: In the mineral kingdom, in the plant kingdom, and in what is called unconscious nature, a spiritual element lives. This underlies everything. Human beings direct their gaze toward the environment; they perceive it. To those who have a sense of the spiritual, this environment appears merely as an outward expression of the spiritual that underlies it. They say to themselves quite literally: The entire unconscious nature is grounded in a divine-spiritual reality; but it lies within as if in a tomb; it is as if it were dead. The human soul is like steel against a flint; as it strikes it with insight, what lies hidden within shines forth. The divine-spiritual contents arise within the human soul; they come to life. Thus, the spirit must first pass through the death of the unconscious world in order to come to life anew.

[ 28 ] And I could speak about all sorts of areas of spiritual life. I could cite what might serve as an initial rational explanation of this symbol. But that is not the point at all. The point is simply that we must not entertain the idea that it was invented arbitrarily. For the aspiring clairvoyant, the question is not what it might mean. Someone might say: Well, you may talk all you like about the Rose Cross, but to the researcher—the objective one—it is of no consequence, for he gains nothing about the mysteries of nature by imagining a black cross; it tells him nothing. When we conduct experiments with the free-fall apparatus or other devices, we discover a law. This law, expressed in words, tells us something; it corresponds to an objective truth; a Rose Cross tells me nothing. - That is what the person in question might say. The one who is grounded in clairvoyant training may reply: That doesn’t matter; that’s not the point. The mental images in question are not meant to represent anything in external reality; they are therefore most effective when they are symbols that are open to multiple interpretations. What matters is not that one seeks to express through such a symbol that the things of the external world are this way or that way, but rather that one forms such a symbol through purely inner activity of the soul—initially drawing on external expressions—and then contemplates this symbol in the soul in a concentrated manner that excludes external things as much as possible. What this symbol brings about in the soul—that is what matters.

[ 29 ] When, in ever-increasing inner concentration, a person allows something like this—and many other things as well—to live as a symbol within their soul, these are the means to awaken the powers that lie dormant within them. Something very special happens to the person at that moment. There he can experience—and these are genuine experiences—that the proofs, the true assurances of this matter, reveal themselves to him. Ultimately, the person will arrive at the following feelings, which I ask you to observe closely. He will say to himself: What I had imagined was really just a kind of bridge; this Rose Cross is a bridge. Now I have received something that is unrelated to that—something to which the Rose Cross merely served as a means—something that rises within my soul and is, at first, an experience that cannot be obtained through external stimulation. At first, the student does not know whether what is rising within him is a bubble of soap, a mirage, a fantastical construct, or whether it corresponds to some kind of reality. He does not know this, but what matters is that he acquires the ability to first experience and perceive such things within himself. For this, too, is still a detour toward higher clairvoyance. What first appears are images.

[ 30 ] But now, as the student continues to do such exercises, a further feeling arises within him—one that can be substantiated by nothing other than experience—a feeling that tells him: What matters now is not the images themselves, but what is expressed through them. And now he knows that these images, which he experiences in his innermost being, are something like this: If you press on your eye or pass an electric current through it, any light impulse can pass through the eye, causing a glimmer of light to shine within you. In this case, you have a sensation of light that is caused by the structure of the eye. It is the same when the images first appear—images brought about by following the corresponding advice—and then things flicker through the soul like spiritual flashes; these are indeed new, but they truly resemble the light you produce in your eye through a blow or an electric current. But you know quite precisely, when you face an external object, that although the nature of the eye enables you to perceive light, you can nevertheless tell yourself—through experience, through a certainty gained from lived experience—that what has been produced solely by my eyes is nothing; the actual reality is the object. I stand before the object; it reveals itself to me through my eye as an object.

[ 31 ] This moment occurs for the clairvoyant. These images ultimately become something through which a new reality expresses itself. Just as surely as a person who looks at an external object with his eyes knows that the object reveals itself, so the clairvoyant knows that, although the emergence of such images depends on his nature, he also knows quite precisely: in the way these images are now experienced by him, objective entities and facts of the spiritual world reveal themselves.

[ 32 ] This, then, is to be attained in a completely natural way through rigorous inner training. Just as one can distinguish between fantasy and reality in the experiences themselves in the external realm, so too is it necessary for the student to maintain sound judgment and common sense in this realm, for here it is much easier than in external life to confuse illusion with reality. Therefore, in such training toward true higher clairvoyance, something else must proceed in parallel.

[ 33 ] If the student were to allow only what has been described to enter his consciousness, he would be at risk of becoming, in a certain sense, a madman as a clairvoyant—namely, because in this realm of shifting images of the higher spiritual life, he could, through his subjective feelings and his personality, conjure up illusions as reality. This training must be accompanied by certain instructions given to the individual, through which he learns to renounce everything in this higher spiritual world that is connected to his desires or his personality.

[ 34 ] This brings us to a topic that is very difficult to understand. For what do all contemporary psychologists say? They are unfamiliar with what has just been described and what is experienced as reality by hundreds of people. They therefore say: When a person faces the external world, the sensory world corrects them in such a way that it provides them with reality; but when a person thus surrenders to their inner activity, then of course feeling and subjective inclination come into play, and then that feeling takes shape as such images; this can never lay claim to objectivity. — In this regard, gentlemen, you are correct, for you have no concept of what must take place in terms of the actual eradication and elimination of subjectivity, of subjective opinions and inclinations. These must be completely eliminated. One must learn to renounce any preference or sympathy.

[ 35 ] There are, once again, very specific exercises for this, so that what our conventional psychologists rightly describe as characteristic of ordinary human life—namely, the intrusion of the arbitrary—does not occur. A person must have cast out everything that might conjure up an illusion of reality. Only then can they retain the objective spiritual in its true form.

[ 36 ] There is still something that needs to be said. Wherever clairvoyance is prepared for on this path of training, wherever expertise prevails in this field rather than amateurism—the latter of which is all too prevalent in the world—great importance is placed on ensuring that the path is not embarked upon without certain prerequisites. For there is a great difference between embarking on this difficult path as an uninformed person, equipped only with the ordinary concepts of the world, and having first absorbed within oneself higher concepts regarding certain mysteries of existence—concepts that can be explored and tested, and which we can obtain through the communications of researchers. There is a great difference between proceeding in one way or the other. One can also traverse this path with only a small amount of external experience. But then the soul’s content is poor, and everything one can perceive is crammed into a few ideas; and this is how the improperly trained clairvoyants come into being—those you will encounter time and again, who describe in their writings: “I have now reached the point where, through concentration and the shaping of my soul, I have united myself with God”; and then they describe God as a diamond illuminated by light, or something of that sort. This is a mistaken conception—one that, when you get right down to it, differs from the ordinary description of an external sensory object in nothing other than the fact that the person in question calls it “God.”

[ 37 ] When such “clairvoyants” discuss their higher world over and over again, expressing all the glories of that higher world through nothing but such trivial descriptions, it is because they did not approach this training properly prepared. But when someone approaches these matters with an experienced teacher, what they attain—what flows into the images they have prepared—is a manifold content of the world; and everything that the external natural world around them can offer, with all its beauties, glories, and mysteries, is only a small fragment of the entire world surrounding them. Far greater and more magnificent is what lies as an unknown world beyond the known, and what shines forth as the very foundations of all that is visible. But it is also true that the person who experiences this knows that they are not deceiving themselves, that they are not, for example, projecting external impressions into this realm; they know full well: what they experience there, they can never experience in the external sensory world.

[ 38 ] This is the path of quiet development through which a person comes to truly look into the spiritual worlds. This is trained clairvoyance.

[ 39 ] Now, what objectively happens to a person when they apply such methods? We recall that, for spiritual science, the human being is not confined to what the senses can perceive, but that this outer aspect—this physical body—is merely one component of the entire human nature. For spiritual science, this physical body is permeated by supersensory components, first and foremost the etheric body, and integrated into the physical and etheric bodies is the astral body. In the astral body we find the bearer of pleasure and suffering, joy and pain, of drives, instincts, and desires—of all inner experiences. Integrated into it is the fourth component of the human being, the bearer of self-consciousness.

[ 40 ] Now, even before you arrived, it has already been described here what sleep actually is in the sense of spiritual science. What happens, then, when in the evening—from the perspective of human subjective perception—pleasure and suffering, all the “I” impressions of the day, sink into the sea of oblivion, when, so to speak, forgetfulness or unconsciousness spreads around the human being? What has happened to this person? The physical body and the etheric body have remained lying in bed; but the astral body, together with the “I,” has moved out and now acts from the outside upon the physical and etheric bodies. Our inner worlds sink down into oblivion because, at night, the astral body does not make use of the external sense organs. In the morning, the astral body, together with the “I,” re-enters the physical and etheric bodies; it makes use of the senses again, and the sensory world reappears in the person’s consciousness. How is a person able to perceive the external sensory world? Through the fact that they have eyes, ears, and the other sense organs. If these organs were not present, the external world would be silent and devoid of light for the person. At night, when it is lifted out of the body, the astral body is also in a world—a spiritual world. But it has no organs with which to perceive it. In its fine substance, it has no organs such as human beings have today in their coarse physical substance. It is only through organs that the world around a person can be perceived. If the astral body had organs, it would be able to perceive its surroundings just as well when outside the physical and etheric bodies as the physical senses enable us to perceive what surrounds us in the physical world.

[ 41 ] The point is this: If a person is to perceive the spiritual world, his astral body must be endowed with organs—spiritual ears and spiritual eyes. How does this happen? It happens precisely through the methods that have been described: through concentration and through living within certain ideas and images. When the astral body of such a person leaves the physical body at night, that astral body is entirely different. Anyone who has attained clairvoyant consciousness knows this. It is as if you were to imagine that, within the physical body, the organs begin to differentiate and perceive the environment. What was once a formless mass organizes itself into organs. It takes a long time for the organs to form in the astral body, until what was previously like an undifferentiated mist begins to emerge as beautifully formed organs. But then what enables a person to have these images in their soul—which were described earlier—begins to take place. This world of images arises as a result of the person integrating such organs into themselves.

[ 42 ] Since ancient times, the process that occurs within a person has been called purification, refinement, or catharsis, and this is because through it the human being learns not merely to sense the spiritual world through the veil of external sensuality, but because he then looks into this spiritual world in such a way that his vision is purified of the external sensory world, so that the external sensory world fades away without, however, leading to a loss of consciousness. Catharsis, purification, and refinement have always been correctly described as the first stage of trained clairvoyance.

[ 43 ] Then a later stage begins for the clairvoyant. At first, when a person returns to the physical and etheric bodies in the morning, the external organs begin to function again and have greater power. He cannot, so to speak, control the inner organs, which are still subtle and agile; the external impressions received by the eyes and ears drown out what the inner astral organs are capable of perceiving. It is always present, of course, for the spiritual world lies within the sensory world—but as long as a person’s astral organs are still underdeveloped, as long as they remain within the astral body, they are drowned out by the sensory organs and the forces of the etheric body. As the human being now continues to work diligently in this way, he reaches a point where he has such firm control over these inner organs that even in the morning, when he enters the physical and etheric bodies, he can perceive the spiritual realm through these organs alongside his sensory perceptions. At that moment, the person has attained what has always been called “enlightenment” or “photism” within the schools active in this field.

[ 44 ] These are all very real processes that can be experienced, and they do not arise simply because this or that happens to a person over which they have no control. Step by step, a person applies the methods taught in the appropriate schools to transform himself into the instrument through which he can perceive the spiritual world. So what is the basis for a person becoming clairvoyant? It is based on the fact that he organizes his inner, invisible self—that he transforms the chaotic structure of this inner self, which otherwise experiences only when the external world acts upon it—into an organization as regular as the outer physical body has become through external nature.

[ 45 ] The very same path of development that nature has taken with humankind—to transform it from a lower stage into the being we are today, with perfect organs—is taken up by humankind itself and continued by it. Where nature leaves off, humankind continues the work on its own. Anyone who reflects on this will find not the slightest illogicality in the fact that those who set out on this path can achieve genuine experiences.

[ 46 ] When a person gains insight into the spiritual worlds in this way, it is because he has made his inner self so strong that it has become an independent entity distinct from his external organs. The human being has become his own master. This is a principle that is expressed in all such schools as an abstract characteristic of this matter. When a person has reached this stage, he owes it first and foremost to his mastery over his etheric body. In the undeveloped human being, the life body is, so to speak, something inflexible that merely follows the forces of nature. In the clairvoyant, it is something that the astral body adapts to its own forms. It has become flexible because a stronger force is at work within it.

[ 47 ] If we now touch upon that form of clairvoyance brought about by lower states—which we generally characterize, in layman’s terms, as states of human weakness—we must say: This stems from something entirely different and is never controllable, yet it is based on the same laws. Whenever a person spontaneously becomes somnambulistic, or when external forces act upon them through unauthorized means, or when a person is suffering from this or that illness, it can happen that their etheric body becomes detached from the physical body, so that the compact connection between the physical body and the etheric body no longer exists, as it does in the normal state. This can indeed occur as a result of disease processes, and, fundamentally speaking, most phenomena in the realm of lower clairvoyance can be attributed to pathological conditions. In such cases, a person’s etheric body is not as firmly bound. While in the case of the trained clairvoyant this loosening occurs because the astral body becomes strong and takes control of the etheric body, in the case of lower clairvoyance it occurs because an organ becomes diseased. Through the disease, it detaches itself from the etheric body in a certain way; the etheric body becomes free for such people.

[ 48 ] As long as the physical brain remains in a completely normal, intimate connection with the etheric body, the astral body cannot interact with the etheric body; the physical brain holds the etheric body in place. If an abnormality occurs, a larger or smaller portion of the etheric body will break away from its connection with the physical body; it can be manipulated more easily, and it is manipulated by the astral body in such a way that a kind of natural enlightenment occurs—but one that, in its content, cannot reveal any higher world nor lead to higher results, because all control, all certainty, and all conscious pursuit of things are precisely excluded. People who have become clairvoyant in this way—because their state is based on the same principle as that of the trained clairvoyant, namely, the control of the etheric body by the astral body—can gain disordered glimpses into the higher worlds; what they describe may be factual, but it will never yield a genuine result of spiritual science. What is said here is not a denial of the reality of what such people see, but rather a reminder that the rigorous findings of spiritual science can be attained only through the path of trained clairvoyance.

[ 49 ] I would like to briefly address an objection that might be raised. Someone might say: So lower clairvoyance is always based on pathological conditions; how can a disease process produce true insight? — That is a short-sighted view. Health and insight do not follow parallel paths. A person can become ill, and it is precisely through this process of illness that the supersensible world can become open to the inflow from the higher world; there is no contradiction in this. Nor does this imply a recommendation that one should make a person ill in order to turn them into a clairvoyant.

[ 50 ] Thus we see what this is based on and how it is constituted—what brings the facts and entities of a higher world into the field of human consciousness just as sensory observation brings the world around us into that consciousness. It is exactly the same process, only in a different field of vision. And just as we perceive plants and minerals in the sensory world, so too do we have in the spiritual world that which makes this sensory world understandable to us in the first place, because it has emerged from the spiritual world. And when the clairvoyant reports on what he has seen, he does so in order to recount it. He does not seek to prove anything; he wishes to recount what he has experienced by applying rigorous methods to his own spiritual development. And by recounting it, he conveys a world that can be understood logically, one that can also be grasped by the ordinary mind.

[ 51 ] If we describe the clairvoyant’s experiences in a different way, we must acknowledge that our inner world—our spiritual world—is shaped in everyday life by what is happening outside. For example, the fact that I imagine a green stem with leaves on it—that I hold onto this image—stems from the fact that I am organized in a certain way. The rose out there influences me, pouring its forces into me by conveying to me the image of its outer being.

[ 52 ] The same is true in the spiritual realm. It is the spiritual beings that reveal themselves to the evolved human being, reflecting in his inner soul life just as external sensory objects are reflected in ordinary perception. Thus, the clairvoyant experiences the spiritual outer world in his inner life and says to himself: When I look into the sensory world, I know that this sensory world is created, ordered, and determined by the beings whose activity and governance reveal themselves to me when I direct my clairvoyant gaze upon the sensory world. — He says to himself: The fact that the sensory world appears to me in an ordered way stems from the fact that it has been shaped in this way by the beings I see. The flower before me, a crystal, a mountain—it is all fashioned out of the spirit. I perceive the spiritual foundations; I see them. I would not be able to see anything of them if I were to surrender to my own whims. I must, so to speak, sacrifice my inner life and allow the world of the higher spiritual self to flow into my soul; it must act upon me—it is the determining factor.

[ 53 ] And now imagine this: Imagine that this world exists, that it exerts an influence, that it always affects human beings, even if not their consciousness. Imagine a person standing in the world; surrounding him is the world that the clairvoyant sees; it affects every human being. It affects the purely sensory observer by presenting an outward appearance; it affects the clairvoyant in such a way that, at first, he does not see this spiritual world, but it acts as a determining force—though he cannot look up to a world of spiritual forces, the forces of these beings flow into him in a way that is unconscious to him. He does not see them, but they send forth forces, organize his life of imagination, and determine what his soul experiences. A person sees another person; if he saw nothing more than that, he would receive only an image of the outer world. Now the spiritual world acts by sending its forces to him. Now he is no longer satisfied with the images of the outer, sensory world. He transforms himself in order to gradually become the sublime image that, for example, the Greeks depicted in the statue of Zeus. The very same force and being that the clairvoyant sees acts, as it were, upon the person endowed with true imagination in such a way that it stands by his side, guiding and leading him, combining his ideas.

[ 54 ] And so the imagination acts like a power of the soul that is nourished by the worlds into which the clairvoyant gazes—a power of the soul into which the higher worlds send down their laws—so that the person gifted with imagination transforms external things so that the truths of the spiritual worlds may live within them. Therein lies the true basis of imagination, and there we come to understand why Schiller could say of Goethe that in him intellect, reason, feeling, and all the soul’s powers work together harmoniously and are nourished by the imagination. We understand that he could say: What is created in this way characterizes the human being as the only true human being, for he does not act through a single power of the soul alone, but takes everything together, and everything acts through the imagination—which need not correspond to external truth—toward the realm of the imagination. And so we can also understand that Goethe could hold the view: There is a fantasy that need not correspond to external truth, but which possesses its own distinct character. We have seen this. There is a fantasy that, while not yet attaining clairvoyance, is nonetheless nourished by the forces that the clairvoyant perceives. Thus it becomes clear to us why Schiller regards all other human activities as one-sided, yet in Goethe’s conception it dawns on him: The artist who brings together the individual powers of the soul in order to allow what he perceives as an external reshaping in the sensory world to be enriched by the spiritual worlds—such an artist is the only true human being.

[ 55 ] Admittedly, Schiller knew nothing about the science of the spirit, but he sensed what it was all about. Likewise, what Goethe says about the imagination is entirely correct. It is true, as Goethe says, that genuine art—that is, art created from the imagination—is the revelation of secret laws of nature that could never be discovered without the imagination. While external observation may provide us with purely external sensory facts and truths, inner truth is something to which the imagination, inspired from above, is much closer than the powers of reason.

[ 56 ] And so we see how things in the world are, so to speak, distributed. Human beings are predisposed to ascend into the higher worlds. The higher abilities lie dormant in every soul. Those who have the patience and perseverance—perhaps over the course of many lifetimes—may hope to glimpse the worlds that alone make the outer sensory world comprehensible. But until then, until a person reaches that point, they are given something like a forerunner, a substitute for insight into the higher worlds. They can allow themselves to be inspired by these higher worlds and then transform the outer world—in the artist’s creative work, for example—in such a way that it offers a reflection of the spiritual worlds.

[ 57 ] And so, in art, we do not merely view the sensory world as nature creates it, but in the great works of art we behold the creative God Himself, who has worked through the medium of the human spirit and the human imagination. In the realm of works of art, we see an outward reflection of that which, while not immediate sensory reality, is nonetheless an expression of spiritual worlds—insofar as spiritual worlds can find expression through the sensory and material. And so we see that in the spiritual life of humanity, the imagination points the way toward the great goal of clairvoyance—of looking into the spiritual worlds. Individual people have already attained this goal by applying the methods mentioned. This spiritual world appears to us as the ruler of all lower forms of existence, and clairvoyance as the means by which human beings gain a share in the spiritual world; it calls human beings upward into the spheres of a higher world. And the representative of this clairvoyance in the sensory world—so that human beings can already have a reflection of the spiritual world, for example through art—is the imagination. And the deeper we look into this connection, the more we recognize: Clairvoyance is the ruler of the human spiritual powers in the most comprehensive sense of world knowledge and understanding; and the imagination is the representative of clairvoyance within the sensory world.