The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. Death and Immortality in the Light of Spiritual Science

[ 1 ] Ladies and gentlemen! The subject of today’s lecture is sure to be of interest to everyone. Not only is the question of what awaits a person after they have passed through the gates of death an interesting one, but every person also has a profound moral obligation to know something about the essence of human nature. Human beings feel an urge toward perfection—an urge that can be described as such in the noblest sense. This striving can never be complete. With this realization comes the desire to understand how a person can succeed in fulfilling this quest for perfection. This raises the question of death and immortality.

[ 2 ] Our age, with its established ways of thinking, is not conducive [to such questions]. That is why a new intellectual movement—spiritual science—is attempting to address this question. It must engage with contemporary life in a way that seems alienating. For this reason, some of those present here tonight may not be immediately convinced. Those who have never heard of it before may respond only with a shake of the head, irony, or perhaps even mockery. I fully acknowledge that I will encounter all manner of resistance. My aim is simply to offer a stimulus for logical thinking that is entirely in harmony with genuine scientific thought. If one wishes to penetrate to the very core of the human inner being, one must take note of a philosopher’s statement to the effect that the immortality of the soul—if such a thing exists—cannot begin only with death, but must already be interwoven into ordinary life.

[ 3 ] How does one come to understand a thing, a being, and the like? That is the question posed by the natural sciences. Combining hydrogen and oxygen to form water is something entirely different from [considering] each of these two substances on its own—that is, separating the oxygen, for example, and examining it in isolation.

[ 4 ] Just as we experience our soul in daily life, it lives within the body like oxygen in water. The soul perceives through the ear, the eye, and so on. All manifestations of the soul are possible only because the soul is connected to the organs—just as hydrogen is connected to oxygen in water. If there were no way to separate the soul, then one would have to despair of ever being able to recognize the fundamental nature of the soul.

[ 5 ] Is there any state in life where the spiritual-soul life separates from the physical being? One could certainly say that something different occurs during sleep; bodily functions take place differently [than when awake]. Should we not rather assume that the soul detaches itself and leaves the body alone? Can the content of our soul—our emotional experiences, such as joy and sorrow—be logically explained in a way that demonstrates this soul-being has an existence separate from the body?

[ 6 ] There is a form of logical thinking that cannot fail to recognize this. Let us suppose for a moment that a person were indeed to undergo a transformation such that only the body would remain active, while everything of a spiritual nature were extinguished. If lung function is maintained, we cannot discern the nature of oxygen—[that is,] what enters the lungs—from this, but the vital activity of the lungs persists on its own—it is something other than oxygen itself.

[ 7 ] Thus, we must [accordingly] seek to recognize the nature of the soul in and of itself as something distinct from the organization of our body. The independence of oxygen from the lungs is therefore [equivalent to] the independence of the soul from the lungs’ vital activity.

[ 8 ] The moment the soul leaves the body during sleep, consciousness becomes deeper and deeper, and the soul’s independent life thus begins.

[ 9 ] Today we want to focus in particular on dream life. A boy with a talent for drawing was given a particularly difficult drawing assignment, which he was unable to complete in time for the school exam. As a result, he had an anxiety-inducing fantasy. However, even though he had not finished the assignment, his grade was not affected negatively as a result.

[ 10 ] Periodically, a dream recurs in this person’s life as a state of anxiety, but much more intensely than before, so that he often awakens from it trembling. Then days pass, one after another, during which he does not have such dreams. Rhythmically, however, it becomes apparent that his ability to draw is increasing. At the end of such an interim period, the anxiety-inducing dream always returns. Before this greater ability poured into his hands, it churned in the subconscious; the states of anxiety manifested in the dream. And when the heightened abilities manifested, when they were present, the dream ceased. These abilities first work within the organism—to put it in materialistic terms, on the nerves and the organs. Before they enter consciousness, the soul prepares them within the physical organism; it works on the organs.

[ 11 ] Here we approach the soul; we catch the soul at work on the organization of the body. Thus the soul works on this organization from conception to death—or, to put it more precisely, [still] in a somewhat different way. We can, after all, recall events up to a certain point in our lives. In the years prior to our earliest memories, the soul is still working on our physical organization in an entirely different way—without our awareness. Even before we become conscious, the soul must already have been present, [and consequently also] before it became active in the body. Deep within the organism, these forces are at work preparing the physical organization, just as in the example mentioned earlier, where the artistic abilities—the work of the soul—manifested themselves in a dream. In this field, one absolutely cannot get by with materialistic views.

[ 12 ] It is a given that humans develop their permanent teeth; the ability to speak, however, is not so self-evident. Without other people, a person would never learn to speak. Thus, the ability to speak cannot be attributed solely to the speech organs; rather, the life and interplay of language within us is what shapes this ability.

[ 13 ] Since human beings are coherent beings, it must be assumed that the soul exists from the very beginning—even before physical activity begins.

[ 14 ] [Here is another comparison:] How can one assume that a person who has been troubled all day will be in a different state of mind in the evening? This is how the soul always works. One’s state of mind can be compared quite well to what the person has experienced previously. [Thus, one must assume:] It is not from supersensible worlds, but solely from life among human beings that the state of mind with which a person enters life through birth can arise. Such lines of thought are entirely in keeping with the way of thinking of modern natural science. Thus, the idea of repeated earthly lives is something that follows logically.

[ 15 ] As recently as two hundred years ago, it was believed that animals—worms, for example—could develop from inanimate mud. Francesco Redi, however, formulated the principle that is now irrefutable: “Life can only come from life.” Because of this principle, he barely escaped the fate of Giordano Bruno. Similarly, the principle “The spiritual and psychological can only arise from the spiritual and psychological” will, of course, initially be mocked and ridiculed, but will soon be gradually accepted and eventually taken for granted.

[ 16 ] What happens in this life has an impact on future lives; these are merely logical conclusions—but experiments [in this field] are also important and possible. Ludwig Deinhard has written a book on this subject.

[ 17 ] But each person can use only his or her own soul as a tool to investigate the nature of the soul. Not everyone can become a spiritual researcher, but just as one can acquire a general understanding of astronomy, chemistry, and so on, so too here—as will now be briefly explained. Human beings make themselves into tools for exploring the spiritual world.

[ 18 ] [Let’s take another example:] Nostradamus. – Kemmerich’s book on prophecies contains an entire chapter on Nostradamus. Nostradamus was a physician; he was a physician through and through and did an immeasurable amount of good, especially during the time of the plague in Provence. It was [however] said that he was a Calvinist, which undermined his reputation. These powers, which he otherwise gave to humanity with all his soul, were transformed into prophetic gifts—the gift of clairvoyance, just as mental power transforms into heat, heat into motion, and so on. – The gift of clairvoyance could only manifest under certain conditions. Nostradamus created a laboratory for himself—that is, a room with a glass roof—where he would spend time at night. Once his soul had become completely calm, he would gaze at the stars, and this would trigger prophecies that Nostradamus recorded. All troubles and worries ceased. This state of mind was inherited from his forefathers. Today’s seer must artificially create this state of mind. He must bring specific impulses to the forefront of his soul. Symbols are best for this—those that stimulate our soul and stir it from within. The powers lie dormant within them—these dormant powers are thereby awakened. Then the person is as if asleep, but not unconscious. We then perceive nothing more through the [sense] organs. Our soul is like oxygen extracted from water. We then say to ourselves: You are experiencing another world. At first, the experience is such that one cannot immediately put what one has experienced into concepts or words. However, spiritual science could never be taught if it were to remain at this stage. The spiritual researcher must go ever further, especially when he has experienced something he cannot put into words. One knows: one experiences something, but one cannot think it. If one continues the practice, one also learns to speak about it. One experiences what one experienced as a child when learning language. We learn to use our brain. We can only experience this, so to speak, through pain.

[ 19 ] If one has triumphed over one's own body, then one has also conducted experimental research on it.

[ 20 ] Once our culture has been permeated by the spiritual sciences, it will be possible to approach the education of young people in a completely different way. People will then be able to have different, inner spiritual experiences than those offered by today’s spiritual culture.

[ 21 ] In the second half of life, when the soul no longer exerts a constructive influence on the physical body, these soul-spiritual forces—which are acquired through the training of life—accumulate and reach their greatest potency at the moment of death. The energies needed to act upon the [physical] body once again must be sought in the soul-spiritual life.

[ 22 ] Beyond decay and emergence lie these spiritual and psychological forces that build up the body. It is precisely because of death that these forces arise. This realization gives us courage and strength.