The Rudolf Steiner Archive

7. Hypnotism and Spiritism in the Light of Theosophy

[ 1 ] Ladies and gentlemen! When we look around at our fellow human beings and consider their spiritual aspirations—through which they seek to satisfy their inner longing for something higher—we find that a great change has taken hold over the course of the past century. For a long time, the prevailing trend was one that sought what it considered valuable solely in the material, in what is perceptible to the senses. For its adherents, the spirit was merely an outflow of the sensory realm, just as the hand of a clock is an expression of what goes on inside the clock—namely, the gear mechanism. All forces were sought to be explained solely in terms of the material. Anyone who still spoke of the divine spirit or the soul was, in the view of those setting the tone, stuck in outdated beliefs. All life was supposed to arise from the material world.

[ 2 ] In recent years, a major change has taken place in this regard. A deep longing is sweeping the world for spiritual depth, for the unraveling of the mystery of what lives within form. Even today’s natural scientists no longer shy away from speaking of the soul and the spirit.

[ 3 ] Today’s humanity is attempting to penetrate the depths of existence from three directions. The most comprehensive inquiry is provided by the Theosophical worldview. It emerged thirty years ago as a synthesis of philosophy, science, religion, and morality. Theosophists are spiritual researchers who strive to explore spiritual life through the highest human faculties. Theosophical research, however, proceeds just as rigorously as science. It seeks to discover the truth and accepts only what is found through the strictest pursuit of truth. This is a difficult path, and our aim is to make this path accessible to the general public.

[ 4 ] The second area in which humans attempt to approach the spiritual and psychological realms is the realm of hypnotism and suggestion. For quite some time, people have observed abnormal phenomena that cannot be explained by the mechanisms of the brain. However, it is evident that there are many things in the world that our conventional wisdom could not have imagined as recently as thirty years ago. Scholars were literally compelled by many such inexplicable phenomena to take note of them.

[ 5 ] When Wilhelm Preyer, who wrote *The Life of Darwin*, pointed out that there were phenomena that could not be explained by conventional theories, his claim was met with a shrug by his colleagues. Yet the phenomena continued to multiply. The appearance of the Danish magnetizer Hansen caused quite a stir among the lay public, as many will still recall. He would seat a person on a chair and could then do whatever he wanted with him. He gave the person acetic acid solutions to drink and told him it was exquisite wine, whereupon the person drank it with relish; and only when the person awoke from the state into which Hansen had put him did he shake himself and spit out what he had consumed. Or he would give the person a potato and tell him it was a beautiful pear, which the person would then bite into with relish. Indeed, he even made him crawl on all fours and bark like a dog.

[ 6 ] Some naturalists shrugged their shoulders with a smile and remarked that these were simply abnormal phenomena; but they did not attempt to offer an explanation. However, there were a few researchers who wanted to see if, in this way, it might be possible to uncover something about the hidden aspects of human inner life.

[ 7 ] The third area in which his followers are so fond of engaging is spiritualism. Anyone who is not a spiritist or spiritualist cannot comprehend how otherwise reasonable people can come to believe that they can summon any deceased person they choose in order to learn all manner of secrets about the afterlife from them. The fact that some people strive to gain insight in other ways does not impress spiritists in the least. Whatever such a person says is regarded by them as fanciful. They believe that to reach the source, one need only die. They often turn to those who, while alive, possessed no particular insight into higher wisdom, and believe that these individuals, now that they are dead, can explain to them the most complex aspects of existence.

[ 8 ] These are the three areas in which people seek to gain insight into the supernatural world.

[ 9 ] The first, the theosophical realm, is nothing other than the popular proclamation of a wisdom of the mysteries that has always existed. The mysteries have always revealed the evolution of humankind, as well as that of the spiritual world.

[ 10 ] Here before me stands the perfect animal; could it really have been made from a lump of earth? No! It has evolved from the imperfect to the perfect. Honest theorists have also recognized this and traced this development from undeveloped marine animals all the way up to the ape. The same evolution that the physical form has undergone has also been experienced by the soul. The human soul, too, has evolved upward. We become aware of this when we contrast a “savage”—who blindly follows his instincts and desires and preys upon his fellow human beings—with a cultured European who submits to the commandment when it says, “You must not do that.” The latter has gradually learned to let duties take the place of desires. From an average person, we look up to Schiller. How far above the average person he stands! He has already cast off his desires. From there we come to the higher human being who has elevated himself through piety, such as Francis of Assisi; from there we look up to the initiates such as Plato and Pythagoras. The difference between them and the ordinary person is just as great as that between a cartilaginous fish and a lion.

[ 11 ] The theosophically minded person tells himself that this Schillerian soul—or even the Buddha soul—has likely also only just evolved to this level, that from time immemorial it has passed through the same primitive stage as today’s primitive man. Thus, he envisions ever higher stages of development. They envision the possibility for every soul to rise to ever higher levels of knowledge, toward an eternal goal in life. What the soul experienced before birth and what will continue to live on after death also lives within us today. Why can’t we see this soul? Because we lack the faculties to perceive it. Living and perceiving are two different things; there is a great difference between them. The blind person also lives, but he does not perceive. If a person does not perceive the soul within himself or the souls around him, it is because he lacks the organs of perception. But these faculties can be awakened in human beings. Just as a blind person regains sight when the cataract is removed, so too can the higher faculties of perception be awakened in human beings, and then they can perceive through their own direct experience, and then they can journey into the higher worlds.

[ 12 ] At first, this occurs during sleep, when the body rests after a day’s work. Gradually, the brain conveys to the intellect what the spirit has perceived during sleep, and the intellect learns to find its way even in the higher worlds. The sensory world envelops us in darkness. No reasonable person can say that the inner nature of the human being is dead; yet they do not perceive it. However, it is possible to make it perceptible. Just as a whole new world of light and colors opens up to someone born blind after surgery, so it is for the person whose spiritual eye and ear are opened through practice; the deep night that surrounds him gradually brightens, and he begins to perceive the spiritual things that surround him. Once a person’s inner life has been awakened in this way, the whole of nature comes alive for him. He discovers the soul of the forest, the soul of the plants; the whole world is animated for him.

[ 13 ] Some might say, “I don’t know anything about that.” That may be so; but anyone who tries to judge something they know nothing about is a poor critic. Only those who have seen it for themselves can judge it.

[ 14 ] What kind of world is this that a person enters? It is the same world that the average person enters upon death. The clairvoyant enters it consciously—the world that one otherwise enters only after death. For him, death is merely a change in life. For those who cannot see, life after death is a matter of faith; some deny its existence. For those who can see, all doubt vanishes; for them, death is merely the shedding of the physical body; for those who possess the organ of perception, the soul is just as present as before.

[ 15 ] What matters, then, is that we create organs for ourselves and elevate our own souls to the spiritual world, to the disembodied souls. Everything will come to pass; everyone will become a fellow traveler, a citizen of the spiritual world; but this process proceeds only slowly. That is why the call goes out to all: Develop your soul! Today, of course, there are only a few who have risen above the average human being and who bear witness to the higher worlds from their own experience. But today, through the Theosophical worldview, this message is to be brought to all people.

[ 16 ] Listening to the stories about the evolution of the soul is the first step toward developing one’s own spiritual life. Acquiring knowledge of theosophical teachings is quite different from scientific learning. There is a great difference between reading an ordinary book—once I have taken in its content, it has given me what it was meant to give—and reading a theosophical book, which provides me with spiritual nourishment in a special way; by awakening the powers of thought within me, it kindles a fire in my soul. And these powers of thought are life-giving, for they awaken the dormant forces within the soul. Thus, reading a theosophical book or listening to a theosophical lecture is the first step toward one’s own independent realization. And just as the first step on this initial path to the realization of higher worlds takes place in full daylight consciousness, so every step forward is taken in clear daylight consciousness.

[ 17 ] Although human beings initially have their experiences at night while asleep, they carry these perceptions into their clear daytime consciousness and remain awake from morning until evening. As they continue to develop into the higher worlds, they will also be able to see the spiritual light that constantly surrounds us, even during the day. In true, genuine clairvoyance, a person must remain firmly and confidently centered in their consciousness. Only a truly rational person can embark on this path; for only such a person can rationally grasp and logically think through every step forward. This is the clairvoyance to which Theosophy seeks to lead humanity.

[ 18 ] One can also attain a certain degree of clairvoyance by lowering one’s level of consciousness. Souls are constantly around us; for the clairvoyant in the sense described above, the light of the spirit is not extinguished by lamplight or daylight. For another degree of clairvoyance, it is necessary to dim the lamplight so that the fainter light becomes visible. Let us be clear about this. If we want to perceive a small light that is overshadowed by the bright lamplight, we can achieve our purpose in two ways. First, we can dim the lamp light so that the fainter light shines in the darkness, or we can stoke the small light—or fire—so that it outshines the flame of the lamp. The latter is what the theosophically trained clairvoyant does. While fully conscious, he can make the light shine, whether he is surrounded by daylight, lamplight, or darkness. The situation is different with mediums, who experience a different kind of clairvoyance—not in full waking consciousness, but in a trance. That is, in a state where waking consciousness is suspended; there, the soul is given the opportunity to see the “intermediate light” because the waking sensory consciousness is plunged into darkness. For the clairvoyant, the world—which is otherwise darkness—becomes bright. For the medium, this world begins to glow when the visible has become invisible to them. The other two realms, however, have nothing to do with waking daytime consciousness; they appeal to trance consciousness.

[ 19 ] We now come to hypnosis. Something causes a person’s consciousness to be subdued to such an extent that he can no longer control his actions; to varying degrees, his clear waking consciousness is subdued. Suggestion has this kind of effect on a person. The man who is told, “Here is a pear,” while a potato is placed in his hand, has not lost his ability to perceive; he can hear and see, but he has lost the ability to control the impressions received through his ears and eyes. His consciousness is so subdued that he is now only receptive to what you tell him. As long as he is awake, he can say and do whatever he wants; he can control his actions. Now that waking daytime consciousness has subsided, the psychological consciousness is still present. A person can be brought into such a state by various means, for example, by looking at a shiny object. Once consciousness has been subdued to a certain degree, the person becomes a suitable subject for suggestion. They then do things they would not do if they were awake—for example, crawling on all fours like a dog and barking. They hear what is being said but cannot make sense of it. Yet suggestion can be induced even without such means. This is called verbal suggestion or suggestive hypnosis, and many contemporary researchers believe that everything stems from such verbal suggestions. What seemed marvelous to us—the barking of the hypnotized person—no longer seems marvelous to us, since we have seen that when physical-sensory consciousness is extinguished or subdued, a psychological-spiritual rapport is established from soul to soul.

[ 20 ] If one goes through life with a clear mind, one can observe this soul-to-soul connection in many ways in daily life. It is not only what we hear and see that affects us; souls influence one another directly; this also explains the otherwise inexplicable feelings of sympathy and antipathy. Much of this, however, is based on suggestion. Anyone who observes the workings of the soul will also be able to explain the powerful influence that some speakers exert on the masses, even though they offer nothing less than logical reasons for their convictions. These are such subtle effects of suggestion. One can make interesting observations in this area. The well-known theater director Laube exerted such a subtle influence through suggestion on the audience. He brought the great actor Sonnenthal and Wolter to the height of their fame. At first, the audience wanted nothing to do with them; but Laube was certain of his cause. He said: “Not today, but they’ll be eating them up!” — The Viennese first laughed, then jeered, but eventually they, too, recognized the greatness of these outstanding actors. Through continued exposure, the audience’s resistance was lulled, and they became receptive to the impression the great actors made on them.

[ 21 ] So how does science view these phenomena of suggestion? Wilhelm Wundt, who is revered by some scientists almost as a god, could not deny the facts, but he neither sought nor found a satisfactory explanation for them. He recognized that a part of the brain was shut down during hypnosis, but he could not provide a scientific explanation for it and shrugged his shoulders because he did not believe in the existence of the soul. His students sought to uncover the existence of the soul and its effects.

[ 22 ] The effects of suggestion were well known in the past. [Kircher] demonstrated them to his contemporaries as early as 1646 through a simple experiment. He took a chicken, placed it on the table, tapped its head against the tabletop a few times, then drew a straight line with chalk on the table, and the chicken obediently walked along this line without even thinking of flying away. — It is also well known that farmers draw a thick circle of chalk around geese to keep them from running away; none of them dares to step outside it.

[ 23 ] Knowledge of the effects of suggestion had long been buried under the rubble until that half-charlatan Hansen unearthed it again. Scholars generally react with skepticism toward phenomena that are new to them. Yet there were also open-minded individuals—especially physicians—who examined the matter more closely and soon realized that a whole new field was opening up for them. Whereas it had previously been believed that the soul had nothing to do with the body, people gradually came to the conviction that the errors of the soul actually have a harmful effect on the body. Sick bodies are built up by the errors of the soul; healthy bodies are built up by healthy souls.

[ 24 ] All of you gathered here will neither be able nor willing to dispute spiritualism, the third area we intend to address. Therefore, we need not dwell on evidence of its actual existence. When we consider spiritualists, something will strike us. Most are quite gullible when it comes to the spirits they hope to see, yet skeptical when it comes to the spirit that lives within human beings.

[ 25 ] You spiritualists claim to have proven the existence of spirits! Why not enrich yourselves by getting to know your own spirits instead? In your everyday lives, you often do much wiser things than sitting down at a table to converse with departed spirits!

[ 26 ] When nine people sit around a table, nine spirits are present, and it seems to me much more useful for these nine spirits to converse with one another than for them to summon foreign spirits to converse with them. Since spiritualism is well known, it is understood that a great deal of fraud takes place in connection with it; but it is also known that many interesting phenomena occur.

[ 27 ] For the theosophist, the question now arises as to whether it is appropriate to approach the spiritual world in this way. For the clairvoyant, the disembodied souls are, of course, companions, and he advises people to develop their own souls so that they, too, may become clairvoyant. The spiritualist says: Why should I become anything other than what I am? I can spare myself that; I have no desire to develop my spirit. — The spiritualist seeks for the spirit to manifest itself to him. The theosophist seeks to evolve upward toward the spirit so that he may experience the spirit through his own soul.

[ 28 ] Spiritists are materialists. They say: What do the spiritual worlds have to do with me? I want to see! — Spiritism arose as a reaction against materialism. People believed in the material world, yet they longed for the spiritual. And so they also wanted to make the spirit materially visible. This did not prove beneficial for human culture. What was needed was this: to descend even deeper in order to learn to comprehend the world from within oneself. By attempting to draw the spirit down to themselves, spiritualists lose all control over the spiritual world. One thing is clear: only those who retain their rational mind can judge correctly.

[ 29 ] Spiritualist séances stir up curiosity, and curiosity is selfishness. It should not be overlooked that many are driven by noble motives and mean well. But on the whole, the practice cannot be viewed in a moral light, since it leads to the most blatant materialism—even to the point of attempting to materialize spirits. Fortunately, a large number of spiritualists have found refuge in the Theosophical Movement.

[ 30 ] In this science, every step forward is guided by logical reasoning. What, then, can happen during spiritualist séances? When a person dies, they shed their physical body; the corpse decays; the etheric body also leaves it, and this dissolves shortly after death. The person is then left with the astral body; much, much later, he sheds this as well when he enters Devachan. He then leaves behind an astral corpse in Kamaloka. This corpse possesses no intelligence, but it can still respond to questions in an automaton-like manner. It is these shadows that manifest very frequently. It is pointless to address astral corpses. The phenomenon may be genuine, but a person cannot judge it. In other cases, one is not dealing with human beings at all. Confusions have also frequently occurred. It can be compared in some ways to the telephone; there, one hears a voice but does not see the person speaking. There, too, a confusion of voices can occur. You end up speaking to a different person than you think. Things are like that—and even much worse—in the spiritual world. Everything there is uncertain; nothing offers us sufficient assurance. Everything is beyond the reach of clear daytime consciousness.

[ 31 ] This is how theosophy relates to the other two fields. The early materialists claimed that no stone could fall from the sky. And yet today we find meteorites in every natural history museum.

[ 32 ] When we consider hypnosis, we see that the academic world initially reacted with outright rejection—even ridicule and hostility—toward it. Gradually, however, hypnosis has persuaded scholars to take note of its phenomena, and hypnotism has managed to earn respect.

[ 33 ] Spiritualists, who long so much for certainty, often become fanatics; but materialistic spiritualism has, at least to a small extent, served to unveil the mysteries of the invisible world.

Mysterious in Broad Daylight
Nature cannot be stripped of its veil,

[ 34 ] says Goethe, and Goethe was a theosophist.

[ 35 ] Scholars limit themselves to what they can record; for them, only numerical series and percentages matter. They achieve very little, and many researchers deviate from this approach anyway. They examine phenomena for their authenticity with the utmost precision. Whether they can trace the spirit in this way remains to be seen: For the time being, their scientific pursuits may be quite good, until they learn to take the only true path to knowledge.

[ 36 ] The theosophical worldview truly lifts people up to higher realms. It seeks to guide people with bright, clear insight and to prove to them that all their longing for clarity can be satisfied, as Goethe said from his own spiritual insight:

The spirit world is not closed off, Your mind is closed; your heart is dead. Come, bathe, disciple, undaunted

Your earthly breast in the morning glow!