The Rudolf Steiner Archive

23. The Mysteries of Life

[ 1 ] [Beginning missing] The soul must be separated from the body through a kind of mental-spiritual chemistry, like hydrogen and oxygen from water. This is the power of thought, which, however, can only be difficultly detached from the physical body through concentration on images. A person then finally becomes fully attentive, without an object of attention. “It is easy, yet the easy is difficult.” Then one lives in the power of thought, in that which forms the indefinite traits yet constitutes the human physicality. What one then experiences is coming before oneself. The spiritual researcher lives in the activity that the brain creates, even though the brain is necessary for thinking. One feels as if one were circling the brain in currents, outside the brain; one creeps around one’s own brain. One dreams these things, fantasizes about them—or perhaps they are true. Then one experiences a feeling as if one were afraid. Then one is beside the brain. At first one feels a sense of timidity there, because one comes to know what is at work there between birth and death. There one observes the destructive process of ordinary thinking; then one feels the brain as a burden. But one does not allow the ordinary destructive process to take hold. Artificially, one achieves the same state as in sleep. Then one experiences an inner resistance from the organs—from the blood, breathing, and glandular activity. This is achieved through emotional concentration. The feeling when the heart grows warm and joyful, as if on mountains or in fields. Then we circle the body, existing outside the body. Then one looks at one’s body from the outside. It is a shattering moment, like a flash of lightning—the detachment from physicality, like death. Then one knows what the divine-spiritual core of one’s being is. Thirdly, one also detaches the will from external activity, specifically in the realm of speech. It is an inner experience of the act of speaking, of the ability to form language. Then one looks back on previous earthly lives. This means engaging in the act of speaking without actually uttering words. In this way, one comes to realize that one forges one’s own pain so that the soul may move forward by overcoming that pain. The question of fate becomes a question of perfection.

[ 2 ] First, we look behind the veil of death to learn something about the meaning of life; second, we look beyond fate. How can we discover the spiritual and soul aspects? How do we come to contemplate the spiritual and soul aspects? A plant does not reveal its essence to us when we simply look at it. But when we watch it grow, it is different. The seed is both the end of growth and the beginning of a new plant. End and beginning are united in the seed. We apply spiritual science to death; just as with the seed, we must bring this end and this beginning together when a human being enters life through birth. Spiritual science brings together the end of life with its beginning. When a person grows old, their hair turns gray, they develop wrinkles, and so on—it is as if life were condensing into the seed, but now invisibly, into the spiritual-soul core of their being. This core passes through the gate of death and, at birth, re-enters a new body. The life we are now experiencing is the starting point for a subsequent life and the consequence of a previous one.

[ 3 ] How can one observe the process from birth to death? Nor can we describe our youth through mere speculation or hypothesis; rather, by putting ourselves in that situation. To do this, one must draw upon the powers of the soul. One can bring forth an awareness of birth and death. This involves spiritual and soul-related experiments and exercises that a person can perform with their own human soul. Every person already possesses this ability within their soul, but it must be developed. [End missing]