The Rudolf Steiner Archive

5. Paths to Understanding the Eternal Powers of the Human Soul

Ladies and gentlemen!

[ 1 ] What I have to say to you today about ways to gain insight into the eternal forces of the human soul will by no means be capable, in our time, of immediately and from the outset inspiring conviction. Even those who speak from the perspective of spiritual science—as spiritual science is understood here—do not succumb to such an illusion. Rather, these can only be statements made to inspire—statements about a method of research that believes it can speak with the same certainty and confidence about the life of the soul, its meaning, and its significance in the universe as modern natural science speaks about the interrelationships of natural forces and the significance of this or that natural phenomenon within the overall context of the world. Precisely because spiritual science, as understood here, is, so to speak, a continuation for spiritual life of the achievements of natural science—of the mode of conception, or one might even say, of the research mindset—which has become integrated into human development through the natural-scientific worldview over the course of the last three to four centuries. However, since this spiritual science seeks its domain in the spiritual worlds, it is necessary that its scientific and research methods be entirely different from the research methods and approach characteristic of the natural-scientific worldview. Precisely so that this spiritual science can, in a sense, be the sister of natural science, it must—because its domain is so different—take different paths and employ different methods. And so the methods and approaches I am about to describe to you will, at first glance, differ entirely from those methods and approaches that seek to eavesdrop on nature’s secrets through external manipulation and external action. But the spirit behind them is the same.

[ 2 ] Spiritual science also seeks, in a sense, to uncover the secrets of the spiritual world through psychological experiments. In spiritual science, one is not concerned with the paths to knowledge of spiritual mysteries, nor is one concerned with any experiments that can be observed externally with the senses or whose factual sequences can be synthesized by the external powers of the intellect. When speaking from the perspective of spiritual science about the “paths to knowledge of the eternal forces of the human soul,” one is dealing with very intimate soul processes which, if one were to call them “experiments,” are very intimate, inner soul experiments—experiments that cannot be observed externally.

[ 3 ] The goal to which these inner soul experiments are intended to lead is an inner understanding of that core essence of the human being which is not accessible to the external senses, nor to the kind of intellect required for ordinary life and ordinary science, but which can be accessed only by forces that must first be awakened within the soul. Therefore—I would say—from the very beginning, the path of spiritual science differs in a certain respect from the paths of all other sciences and from the ways of thinking and acting in ordinary life.

[ 4 ] Even in everyday life and in ordinary science, we try to form concepts about the things of the world and the processes that occur within it. And once we have formed concepts through which we believe we can understand the lawful connections between individual facts and individual things, our efforts in ordinary science—and also in everyday life—are complete.

[ 5 ] Now, with regard to the spiritual sciences, one can say: What constitutes an end or conclusion in terms of research and thinking for conventional science and for everyday life is only the beginning. All those activities that lead us toward a desired goal in conventional science exist solely to prepare within the soul that which then awakens the powers through which insight into the spiritual worlds can be gained.

[ 6 ] And so, for contemporary thought—for the ways of thinking that are customary today—what the spiritual researcher has to say, esteemed audience, is in many respects much, much more different from traditional views than was what Copernicus, Kepler, and Giordano Bruno had to say about the structure of the universe, the motion of the Earth, the Sun, and so on—much more different than what people had thought about all these things immediately before.

[ 7 ] It is therefore not surprising that what the spiritual researcher has to say is not readily accepted today. One need only recall how long it took for what was said about the structure and workings of the universe and its celestial bodies—from the standpoint of the modern scientific worldview—to gain acceptance in wider circles over traditional views. And the fact that people do not believe everything from the outset is a matter that is just as comprehensible and understandable as it is, from a certain point of view, even commendable. Therefore, one need not be surprised if some of what the spiritual researcher has to say still sounds fantastical, like a dream, even today. And indeed, much of what must be said today will sound that way.

[ 8 ] When one first looks at the writings and publications issued into the world by spiritual science—as understood here—much of it must seem like a dream or a fantasy: the idea that one could recognize that beneath this physical human body—which we see with our eyes and which external science investigates with its admirable methods— that underlying this ordinary physical body is a finer body—whether one calls it the etheric body or something else is irrelevant—that a finer body underlies it, a body that is utterly invisible and imperceptible to ordinary perception and [to ordinary research methods]; and that one could know anything about this finer body—this certainly seems, at first glance and quite rightly, to be something unbelievable.

[ 9 ] And it seems even more incredible when the spiritual researcher must say: When a person has retired to rest after a day’s work and has now surrendered to sleep with regard to external events, something that constitutes the very essence of the human being has stepped out of the physical organization—out of the physical-bodily organization—something that represents a different kind of soul life than the ordinary daily soul life. And in this different kind of soul life—let us call it a consciousness different from waking consciousness, or whatever one wishes to call it; that is not the point—in this different kind of consciousness, in this different kind of soul life, the human being lives until waking up again. And upon waking up, this different kind of soul life once again merges into the outer physical body.

[ 10 ] And if the researcher of the spiritual world must now assert: In that which emerges from the physical body when one falls asleep—and re-enters it upon waking—there lives something of the eternal core of the human being. However, in ordinary life, a person cannot be aware of what they experience between falling asleep and waking up. Again, this is something that, for the ordinary habits of thought in today’s world, naturally still has a dreamlike quality.

[ 11 ] One certainly has the right, ladies and gentlemen, to speak about these things only when one can demonstrate, within a world of facts—even if that world of facts is an unfamiliar one—that one can truly arrive at something like a more subtle body and a different kind of soul life, a different kind of consciousness.

[ 12 ] Now, the processes through which one can explore this finer body—which underlies the [gross] physical body that the eyes see as an invisible human being—these methods are indeed intimate; but they are not methods based on any kind of magic, nor on any false mathematics or false mysticism; rather, they are methods that lie entirely in the continuation of what a person already does in their ordinary, everyday spiritual life—simply a continuation of that. What must occur here as an intimate process of the soul, what must be brought about as an intimate process of the soul, dear friends, is first and foremost something that can be described [as] a strengthening of the inner life of thought—[as] a strengthening of the inner life of thought, of which, however, one has no real conception in the ordinary course of soul life.

[ 13 ] In spiritual science, these inner activities, these inner exercises, are technically referred to as concentration and meditation in the life of the soul. What, then, is concentration, and what is meditation in the life of the soul? [Every] meditation is a form of imagination, a form of thinking—only a somewhat different kind of imagination, a somewhat different kind of thinking, than ordinary imagination and ordinary thinking. And since I do not wish to speak in vague generalities but rather to convey something very specific, I would like—at least in principle—to describe the process of meditation and concentration in thinking, this inner psychological experiment—in principle. You can find everything else in my books, specifically in my book *How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?* or in my *An Outline of Esoteric Science*.

[ 14 ] The point is that human beings—in order to continue their ordinary, everyday thought process and the thought process they engage in within conventional science—place very specific concepts that they can grasp at a glance at the center of their consciousness.

[ 15 ] It does not matter how these ideas relate to external reality; it does not matter what truth value these ideas initially have; therefore, it is actually better not to use ideas that one retains from memory, or ideas that represent anything external, but rather to use symbolic, figurative ideas. Let’s say one imagines—even if it has no truth content, that doesn’t matter; we will see shortly why it doesn’t matter—let one imagine, for example: light spreading throughout the room, and wisdom dwelling within that light. —As I said, how this relates to any truth is irrelevant.

[ 16 ] And now one should organize the entire scope of one’s inner life—one’s entire inner life—in such a way that one thinks of nothing, absolutely nothing else, but only this one idea: Wisdom flows in the light—so that the entire life of the soul, which is otherwise scattered across events of reality, impressions of reality, and shifting impressions, may hold fast to this single idea for a certain time.

[ 17 ] I said that what one brings into consciousness does not depend on its truth content. It does not matter, then, whether one brings into consciousness something external or represented; rather, what matters is the inner activity; what matters is that the soul carries out this activity with particular effort, lives in a heightened state of volitional exertion, and thereby performs the activity that is necessary to place a single idea at the center of consciousness and to hold it there for a longer period of time, even if only for a few minutes.

[ 18 ] By doing these exercises over and over again for months—it does not take a long time, although the duration naturally depends entirely on the disposition of the soul, on the soul of the individual performing these exercises— if, then, one practices with inner effort and pays particular attention to how one moves inwardly in a subtle way through an act of will in order to grasp this image—for that is what matters—then one gradually notices that one’s entire soul life changes. Of course, this change occurs only during the times when one is performing these soul exercises. One’s entire soul life gradually senses that it is detaching itself—this is an inner experience—that it is detaching itself from everything in which it otherwise lives. And the result is, at first, a very peculiar one.

[ 19 ] The success lies, first of all, in the fact that when one now tries—and one must try this for the exercise to be complete—when one now tries to suppress the image that one has brought to the center of one’s consciousness, that is to say: When one wants to emerge from meditation—or even earlier—one will see precisely how all manner of images rise up from the depths of consciousness. Indeed, one might say: Never has one had such an opportunity to see what vast numbers of images are constantly striving to rise above the threshold of consciousness and gain power over the soul as through this very exercise. If you continue this exercise, a certain change takes place: You gradually get the feeling that you are moving through a stream of life memories—all manner of memories of the life you have lived since you began to think and observe the world consciously. All manner of memories—whether they flooded over us more recently or long ago—surface; and one feels, for a certain time, as if one were—I would say—a slave to the inner reminiscences of the soul, the memories of the soul.

[ 20 ] Now one must acquire the ability—and it comes, so to speak, on its own if one continues the exercise further and further— one must acquire the ability to observe that now—even if these are memories from one’s life that arise—the way they enter consciousness is different from how memories usually appear in consciousness: the memory will arise in a dreamlike manner. And one thing in particular stands out, which is immensely important to notice: It does not now linger in the memory; it flows past like a dream image. One knows exactly: These are memories from life; they are now welling up, but they do not—by virtue of their mere presence—evoke further memories. They come, they go; they torment us, they make us, so to speak, their slaves; but they do not, as such, evoke new memories—they are like surging dreams; yet they form a coherent whole, a surging whole.

[ 21 ] In the face of all these inner experiences, one must now continue the meditation. One must repeatedly perform the exercises as they have been described. Through this, one gradually gains the ability to master—one might say—this mass of pure dream experiences that emerge. One gains mastery over them. One gains mastery over them in such a way that, through one’s own will, one can gradually cause them to fade and subside. And this will becomes so strong precisely through ceaseless meditation that one truly reaches the point of emptying the ideal, the mental space in which these images arise, making it like a clear field of vision.

[ 22 ] Yes, ladies and gentlemen, what I have just described, I had to describe in abstract terms at first; but it is not experienced in such an abstract way. The experience is an immensely profound one. And that is what is so distinctive about spiritual scientific research: the paths one must take are filled with meaningful, deeply moving inner experiences of the soul. For as one continues with such exercises, one eventually arrives at a certain point at which one has an experience that is truly profound; and when it occurs, one knows: One has now reached a certain point—the point one must reach in order to have any prospect at all of making further progress in spiritual research. What, then, is this point?

[ 23 ] And, ladies and gentlemen, spiritual science, as it is understood here, is truly only possible—I would say—after scientific thinking has been incorporated into three to four centuries of human development, into the spiritual development of humanity. Essentially, it can only emerge for reasons similar to those that allowed the achievements of Galileo, Giordano Bruno, and Kepler to emerge in their time. But what must be discovered in a certain way through this spiritual science for the present and for the future has always preoccupied the human soul. I cannot speak about this in detail now, because it would lead too far afield to explain how something similar to this spiritual science was driven forward in earlier epochs of human development. It took place much more unconsciously, much more instinctively, one might say, if I may choose a word that is imprecise but nonetheless apt. But through the forces that people possessed back then—which were not the forces that are, so to speak, now beginning to shape human development—people had already reached the point I am referring to, where one stands, as it were, at the gateway to the spiritual world. And they described the experience one now has—which one has at the point I have indicated, and which one still has and must have even today—they described this, dear friends, with a word that one truly understands when one has gone through the corresponding experiences, with a weighty word. They said: At a certain point in its development, before it can enter the spiritual world, the human soul arrives at the “Gate of Death.”

[ 24 ] As I said, one learns to understand what this means once one has reached the point I am now referring to: The moment one has reached the point of letting go of and toning down the dreamlike soul reminiscences I have described to you, one also comes to realize that it is precisely because one is capable of thinking as a human being—ever since one has taken on the powers of thought within oneself—that one must look, not only to the powers of thought, but precisely also in the powers of thought—that very power which, as it develops within the human being—gradually or, at times, suddenly—leads the human being into death.

[ 25 ] The forces of human nature—of physical human nature—the forces that are at work within this human nature and that serve, as it were, as the instrument, the tool for the most glorious thing we have in our outer, physical life: for thinking—these are not constructive forces, not constructive life forces; the fruitful life forces, on the other hand, tend to dull the human being, pressing his consciousness down into a dreamlike state. The fact that a human being’s consciousness can become clear enough for thinking is due to the presence within him of forces of death, forces of decay, and destructive forces. What acts within human nature as the life-destroying forces is intimately connected with that which serves as the physical instrument for our thinking.

[ 26 ] Spiritual science is in complete harmony with natural science—specifically with that aspect of natural science, ladies and gentlemen, which, on the whole, will gain ground. Spiritual science does not take the position that thinking, as it is practiced in ordinary physical life, requires no bodily, no physical instrument. It does require a physical instrument. That is to say: this ordinary thinking, wherever it occurs, requires physical images that take shape. But these are images of decay. And the moment one has, through meditation, succeeded in bringing thinking to such an act, as I have described it—that one can detach thoughts, that one can, through thinking, develop thinking itself—at that very moment it becomes fully clear to one how ordinary physical thinking is bound to the physical instrument—that is, to the destructive force, the death-bringing force—of ordinary memory. One stands—this is an inner experience—one stands at the gate of death. One now knows what it means: there are forces within the soul that can separate themselves from the physical, but which, in separating themselves, must also look upon that which is deadly within the body.

[ 27 ] This is the shattering experience. This is what, for millennia, has been described in circles where such things were known as “knocking at the gate of death.” But by bringing it to this point—through the power that lives within thought—mind you, dear friends, not the thinking that occupies us in physical life, but the power that lives within it and which we have now separated from it—we have brought it to the point of truly facing ourselves. Thus we have stepped out of ourselves.

[ 28 ] However, we must not limit ourselves solely to the path I have just described. If we were to stick to this path alone, we would only come to know the realm in which our thinking exists once it has been separated from the physical body. For at the very moment one has reached the point I have described to you—that one lives and acts in a finer element than usual—one knows what it otherwise means to live with one’s ordinary consciousness, with one’s eyes, ears, and sensory perceptions of sight and hearing, to live in one’s ordinary thoughts; one knows what this means. But one also knows what it means to live outside of this.

[ 29 ] But maintaining this state is an extraordinarily difficult task. And because it is difficult, a person cannot initially reach this point without a strong—indeed, the strongest—exertion of inner will. However, this path must not remain one-sided. And it does not remain one-sided—[simply] because of what we do in meditation, it is already not one-sided. By not exerting our will in meditation to the extent that we move our limbs, walk, perform any kind of physical work, or even engage in mental work with the brain—by exerting our will in meditation, we simultaneously cultivate our will, an inner, spiritual cultivation of the will. And we gradually come to sense our will in a completely new way, to experience it inwardly.

[ 30 ] If we did not achieve this through meditation—and we do achieve it through meditation when we practice it as described, for example, in my book *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?* — would we not achieve that, would we not gain control of our will, as it were, from within, then we would reach the point described; but then something like a spiritual fainting spell or even a state of sleep would set in. We would slip into an unconscious state; we would not be able to carry our “I” over into the new state.

[ 31 ] But by strengthening our will at the same time—and we strengthen it, as I have said, through that inner effort which thus acts directly upon thought, as has been described — by strengthening our will, we carry our “I” into this new state; we carry it into that subtle physicality in which we [exist and live] at first, as I have described, after the dampening and dying away of the ideas—a process that takes place over a corresponding span of time—; we carry our “I,” we carry our will into it. And now a new, shattering experience, a shattering event of the soul, occurs, which must now be lived through once again.

[ 32 ] If the first was an experience that—as I said—introduced us to the experience of the dying soul—[death] that can be experienced theoretically on a spiritual level—and to what one might call “truly dying,” then the other, which we are now experiencing, is what one might call: One learns to recognize the foundation of what passes through the world as pain—as pain and suffering.

[ 33 ] Therefore, anyone who has walked the paths leading to the eternal powers of the human soul will always be able to speak of the underlying reasons why pain and suffering must flood and surge through the world. For this bringing of one’s own self, of one’s own will, into the new world is linked to a painful struggle—a total effort that is, moreover, accompanied by the deepest, deepest loneliness. The rest of the world seems, at first, to have sunk into oblivion. One finds oneself within a vast, vast emptiness, as if alone with oneself. At first, one has brought only one’s own will—and with it, one’s own “I”—into this world.

[ 34 ] One now comes to realize that everything that comes into being, everything that enters existence, must do so through the sphere of suffering—which is simply a law of the world. And one comes to realize that everything that pulses through the world as a wondrous realm—filled with beauty, wisdom, and all manner of useful and pleasurable things—can only exist in the same way as a flower that rises from a plant—yet beneath it, in the roots, lie suffering and pain.

[ 35 ] Anyone who would not acknowledge this as a reality would be taking the same stance as someone who refuses to acknowledge that the three angles of a triangle total 180 degrees. If something is to be a triangle, its three angles must total 180 degrees. Likewise, everything great, everything magnificent, everything beautiful—everything harmonious that develops in the world—can only develop out of the element of pain. And now, as we enter a primal element, we must once again come to know this pain of the soul.

[ 36 ] But now, however, at this point on the path to knowledge, my esteemed audience, something arises which, when described, yes, I can say, seems all the more like a fantasy, like a dream, because we are accustomed, according to what is generally accepted today, to accepting such things [as] if they were meant figuratively, [as] if they were representing something allegorically. But as I have described them here, they represent something—they represent real, actual inner soul experiences, realities in an even higher sense than the external realities of physical space and physical time.

[ 37 ] What we’re getting at now is this: One comes to recognize that all volition—and one has now extended volition into an entirely different realm, into the realm—well, let’s say it plainly; I don’t think we need to shy away from such expressions—into the realm of etheric experience.

[ 38 ] Now that one has carried over one’s will—one’s own will—one comes to recognize that this will, which reigns within the human being, is now grounded in something that can be called the actual spiritual-soul core of the human being—something that does not previously come to outward perception or even to inner perception—one might say outwardly in terms of its objectivity, inwardly in terms of ourselves—and which cannot come to perception in any other way than by [have accomplished the quieting of thoughts in the manner described]. Now one realizes that in all this will—which reigns through our hands, through our walking, through all our work, through all our longing—that within all this will there is a core, but a core that possesses consciousness, that is a being.

[ 39 ] This is incredible, ladies and gentlemen, but it is indeed true: One now discovers another consciousness within oneself, an inner observer—but as I said, one understands this only if one takes the matter not as a mental image but as a reality—one discovers within oneself an inner observer whom one carries within oneself at all times, who also acts, who has a consciousness of his own.

[ 40 ] And this observer—when one discovers him, in the light of what one has oneself first brought into being through meditation—who can appear only in this new element, in this new sphere—this inner observer is recognized as that which preceded our birth, or, shall we say, our conception, and [one recognizes] that we pass through the gate of death when we physically die.

[ 41 ] In this way, my dear friends, we have discovered the element—the spiritual world—in which our inner being can live, and we have discovered what this inner being itself is. It is something entirely, entirely new. And from now on, we learn to see into the spiritual world. And we must say: Everything is merely a preparation. Seeing can only come of its own accord. For what we have undertaken was all merely preparation. It was like what nature has done to give us an eye. And once the eye is there, it sees. We have formed the inner eye. We have the inner organ of sight, the spiritual eye; and also the spiritual hearing—to use Goethe’s expression. We have the world into which we have placed our inner observer, into the sphere that we ourselves have now created. We now live in the spiritual world, and this observer within humanity begins to see, perceiving whatever is always present in the spiritual world around us, yet which cannot be perceived by ordinary human consciousness; just as [even someone] who, [without] physical observation, has no inkling that air surrounds him, and may even believe that the space around us is empty—so the spiritual world surrounds us; so it lives all around us.

[ 42 ] But first, the organ—the spiritual eye, the spiritual ear—must be present. And in order to prepare and attune it, all our powers of thought—all those forces that we otherwise apply toward a specific goal in ordinary science and in everyday life—must be directed toward this preparation.

[ 43 ] Hence, distinguished guests, something peculiar occurs—as strange as it may sound: While, in the case of ordinary external phenomena, the eyes see and the ears hear—in short: sensory perception—the ordinary mind synthesizes; whereas one must first look at these phenomena and then understand them, reflecting on them and observing them further in thought, when it comes to what one experiences in the spiritual world, one must first understand it, first have the concept, and then, once one has understood it, once one has grasped it, one can gain the ability to see. Then one can look into the spiritual world.

[ 44 ] Ladies and gentlemen, having described to you in a positive light how a person can prepare their soul so that they may truly perceive the spiritual world with an expanded spiritual eye and spiritual ear, just as they see the physical world with their ordinary physical eyes, having described this to you, distinguished guests, I would also like to draw your attention to all the reservations that are rightly raised in response to what I have said. And there are reservations that are quite significant, not only logically but also practically.

[ 45 ] Let us just consider the fact that, through meditation and concentration, we must develop our thinking to a certain point, and that we then regard what we have developed within our soul as something essential for entering another world.

[ 46 ] As I said, spiritual science does not seek to contradict natural science in any way, provided it is correctly understood. However, the natural scientist who has not yet risen to a true understanding of spiritual science—namely, its world—will now rightly, quite rightly—and I emphasize this expressly—object: “Yes, you researcher of the spiritual sciences, what illusions are you indulging in? You believe that through your concentration and meditation you have developed your thinking in such a way that it can perceive something entirely new. But you simply do not know how much of the unconscious, how much darkness exists in the human soul. You take all of that with you on your journey of thought.” Just think for a moment about how the natural scientist knows—or can know—how, through the specific dispositions of the nervous system, through everything that is, as it were, innate in our nervous system due to our hereditary factors, how a person carries within themselves very specific dispositions—of which they are unaware—certain lines of thought and mental inclinations, and how they carry these along with them. Isn’t it then quite obvious that when one, so to speak, “trains”—or one might even say “maltreats”—one’s thinking, one then perceives something that appears to be new, but in truth is really only something that has long been waiting in the unconscious and subconscious life of the soul, and appears new only because it had not previously come into consciousness, had not previously crossed the threshold of consciousness? — And the spiritual researcher must explicitly acknowledge such factual objections raised by the natural scientist as justified. And they are indeed objectively justified; for those people who, in a casual manner—without the careful approach outlined, for example, in the spiritual-scientific meditation method described in my book *How Does One Gain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?*—and without the careful observation required by this method, wish to enter the spiritual world easily, very readily come to believe that they are seeing something entirely new. They then recount all sorts of things, but they have nothing before them but their illusions—that which they give birth to from within their own souls—for the simple reason that they do not know they already possessed these things in their souls before, and are only now bringing them to light through their own efforts.

[ 47 ] Such people, who wish to enter the spiritual world with ease, do not become researchers themselves, but rather those who are deluded. They throw themselves into every opportunity—which, of course, must appear to them as something new. Thus, what is needed is not merely a theoretical or logical approach, but a practical one. But what matters first and foremost is that the spiritual researcher be able to carefully examine his path of research step by step, and that this path lead him precisely to gradually survey what has entered his inner life over the course of his existence; and that he come to dampen and extinguish all the images that arise—that is what matters. For by truly learning to practice this act, to recognize it, and to master it inwardly, one not only dampens the conscious ideas that arise, but one knows quite precisely: one also dampens all unconscious ideas; one overcomes thinking within thinking.

[ 48 ] What is that? That, however, can only be experienced, only lived through. But it all depends on these very things being experienced and lived through—just as, in the external world, everything depends on one experiencing the truth.

[ 49 ] So then, ladies and gentlemen, the objections raised from this perspective by the natural sciences are, at first glance, entirely justified. But there is more to be said. The natural scientist will say: Yes, of course, we are quite familiar with those pathological states of mind in which a person believes they have a special vision. But we know the physical causes that lead to illusions and hallucinations; what you are presenting here are merely more subtle illusions, more subtle hallucinations. It must be said, ladies and gentlemen, that the researcher of the spiritual realm fully agrees with what the natural scientist says in this regard. For it is precisely through the paths he takes—which I have described to you, at least in principle—that all of this is overcome. One learns to recognize it and overcome it: what is called “clairvoyance” in the ordinary sense, in the superstitious or other common sense. And if one wishes to call the seeing with the spiritual eyes and spiritual ears, as I have described it, “clairvoyance,” then one must understand “clairvoyance” to mean something entirely different from what is so frequently understood in ordinary life—and what is so often lightly accepted as something that can lead into particularly spiritual worlds— all that which appears there as a hallucination or an illusion—and which also underlies ordinary clairvoyance—is not, dear friends, a stepping out of the body with the soul core, but rather a much more profound bondage to the body than is the case in the ordinary, everyday life of a healthy, normal person.

[ 50 ] And what is often called clairvoyance in everyday life does not lead to what, as we shall hear, this true clairvoyance—which I am speaking about today—leads to; rather, it leads one to learn—while using ordinary, sound thinking to recognize what is beneficial for human beings between birth and death— through this clairvoyance—which, due to a pathological constitution, binds the soul more closely to the body than it otherwise would be—one learns to recognize something of far lesser significance: one learns to recognize nothing eternal in the human soul, but rather, on the contrary, something far more temporal than what one learns to recognize through ordinary, everyday thinking. Therefore, these insights are of far less value than those gained through ordinary, everyday thinking. Just as one becomes dependent on the body when one experiences even the slightest pain anywhere, so too, when any pathological predisposition is present in the body, the inner life of the soul becomes focused precisely on that. And one lives—if I may put it bluntly—in a smaller part, in a smaller aspect of physicality; whereas with ordinary thinking, one lives within the entirety of physicality.

[ 51 ] But—I would like to say—clairvoyance, which leads us into the spiritual world, leads us precisely out of the physical realm. That is why it exists only when this physical realm can be observed as an external thing—like other external things, beside us, outside of us—in the way I have described.

[ 52 ] Now, my dear friends, once you have reached the point where you truly experience—internally experience—this inner observer that I have described, this inner core of the soul, then you are living in a spiritual world. Above all, one lives in the spiritual world that is our world before our birth—or, let us say, before our conception and after our death.

[ 53 ] And now there is not what is commonly called proof of immortality, but rather, for the spiritual researcher, there is the experience of this immortality, and one comes to know this core of the soul.

[ 54 ] Yes, ladies and gentlemen, if one does come to know what corresponds to this core of the soul, one comes to know it in a very inappropriate way. For what, after all, is this core of the soul? Is it even present in human beings in any way?

[ 55 ] You see, that consciousness—which is not really consciousness at all—that a person has from the moment they fall asleep until they wake up, dwells within this soul core and within what is known as the inner observer. But this consciousness is so faint from the moment one falls asleep until one wakes up that it is, in fact, not consciousness at all; that is to say, the perception—everything a person experiences inwardly—is so dull that it is completely shrouded in unconsciousness. And through the efforts one has made, one is able—at will, not only in sleep but at will—to draw out of the body that which is otherwise experienced only in sleep [and where] one lives unconsciously as a spirit among spirits, among soul-spiritual beings, [and where one] now lives consciously within.

[ 56 ] Therefore, because the spiritual researcher can perceive his thinking in such a way that it lives within the finer physicality, as I have described, and because he lives by perceiving his will and coming to know the will within which the human being unconsciously lives during sleep and waking— therefore, the spiritual researcher may speak of the finer body, and he may also speak of the other body, which can be experienced as separate from physicality during sleep. But one comes to know it in sleep in such a way that one knows, so to speak—I must now express this figuratively, although all of this should be expressed in entirely scientific terms, but that would take us too far afield—that when this inner soul core —that which, in sleep, is outside the body, outside the physical body— comes into contact with the physical body, then what actually lives in the soul core [...] lives in the human soul core as dreaming, and it projects what are precisely dream phenomena, reminiscences of life, or the like.

[ 57 ] But that is not what actually lives within the core of the soul. When this core of the soul is experienced outside the body—as can happen through spiritual research in the manner described—then one knows what this core of the soul is.

[ 58 ] Yes, what is it, then? That which passes through the gate of death—that which is the fruit of our lives, that which we think, feel, and accomplish, and that which, in our thinking, feeling, and accomplishing between our birth and death, has been prepared as fruit, as seeds—that is what passes through the gate of death.

[ 59 ] And when one looks at it in the way it has been described, one realizes from all that which does not come to consciousness in ordinary life—but which develops within us just as the plant seed develops within the flower to become the next plant— just as surely as one knows that the nature of the plant seed is such that it can develop into a new plant, so one knows that what lives there as merely an observer, as this second being, as the other human being within you—what is there inside—is the seed of a new earthly life. We know that this need only undergo a period of development in the spiritual life between death and a new birth, and what develops into an individual earthly life does so just as truly as the individual plant seed develops into a new plant. The only difference is that in the outer physical world there may be obstacles to the plant seed’s development; whereas in the spiritual world there can be no obstacles or hindrances for the soul core—it will, under all circumstances, enter into another earthly life!

[ 60 ] [And while ordinary memory—which, as I said, one becomes aware of when these mental images of memory arise—can be subdued] —while this ordinary memory ceases, while one feels, as it were, hollowed out of all images of memory at the very moment one has subdued them, those images now arise that let you know: Before your birth, or rather your conception, you were in the spiritual world. You descended from this world; as a physical human being, you are not merely a product of the paternal and maternal elements, but a third element from the spiritual world has joined itself to this duality, and along with the paternal and maternal elements and the stream of heredity comes that which originates from your previous earthly existence. In this way, through inner research, repeated earthly lives become—as the spiritual researcher might say—a certainty, even if this certainty is perceived differently than that of the natural scientist. They become a scientific truth—these repeated earthly lives, which first blossomed again in modern spiritual life, particularly for Lessing, in such a brilliant way.

[ 61 ] This then yields results that complement the other findings of developmental science; these will be incorporated into the spiritual science of humanity’s spiritual development. But it is not merely by recognizing that human life proceeds through repeated earthly lives that one enters the spiritual world; rather, one truly gains the ability to explore the spiritual world.

[ 62 ] However, distinguished guests, you must understand that this exploration of the spiritual world is different from that of the physical world. This must be emphasized in particular. Anyone who first hears that true clairvoyance exists—the ability to look into the spiritual world—might believe that when a spiritual researcher shines light into the spiritual world, then, indeed, they have the spiritual world before them in the same way that a physical human being has the outer physical world before them.

[ 63 ] Yes, you see, that is out of the question, ladies and gentlemen! The spiritual world is more real than the physical world; but it is not like the physical world. Whereas in the physical world things extend outward and then enter our thoughts—that is, enter our field of consciousness through our sense organs—the spiritual beings, into whose sphere we enter through spiritual research, enter through our element of will—which, however, does not possess a power of the kind of arbitrariness that would arise if the spirit were merely what the external natural scientist knows. And since, as I have said, I do not wish to speak in vague generalities but always in concrete terms, esteemed audience, I do not wish to shy away from making some remarks about how such spiritual experiences actually take place, in contrast to ordinary clairvoyance.

[ 64 ] I am well aware that, by making such statements from the specific field of spiritual research, I must now—even more so than with what I have already said—expose myself completely to the risk that such things will be regarded as fantasies or dreams; yet they are not. They are not in the same sense that the ideas of Copernicus and Galileo were not mere fantasies, even though their contemporaries had to regard them as such. For just as Galileo—even if he did not actually say it—is reported to have said, “And yet it moves!” — so the spiritual researcher must say in the face of all the objections raised against looking into the spiritual world: “And it—the soul, the human soul—looks into the spiritual world nonetheless!” It learns to recognize that there is the spiritual in our surroundings just as there is the physical—only that it enters our consciousness in a different way, through a truly clairvoyant path.

[ 65 ] An example: It goes without saying, distinguished audience—and I say this not out of immodesty, but because it must be so—that one must draw on one’s own experience to provide such examples from the broad field we have been able to examine. [I would like to] share a simple fact.

[ 66 ] You see, esteemed audience, the person who initially has this or that to do in the physical world—a task requiring a certain spiritual power that he may think he can attain, even within a certain limited sphere—practices such an activity intensively, and is no longer aware of anything other than the fact that he is practicing it intensively. Such a feeling, however, ceases for the spiritual researcher. For example, it may happen that at a certain time one has to carry out a task to organize something artistic. If one now needs to organize this artistic endeavor, one must draw it forth from within one’s soul power, I would say, even if only to a limited and modest extent: inventive powers, powers that explore and bring forth something that does not yet exist. One must, in a certain sense, become productive.

[ 67 ] Since I myself once found myself in such a situation, it became vividly clear to me to whom I actually owe a debt of gratitude for this activity. Years ago, distinguished guests, a friend of mine passed away—someone who had been very close to me in life, a person whose entire spiritual development was thoroughly artistic. She passed through the gate of death. As spiritual science teaches, when one has been connected to a soul in life, one remains connected to it—whether unconsciously, as must be the case for those who do not study spiritual science, or consciously, as may be the case for those who do. Years later, when I was called upon to carry out a specific task in which precisely what this other person counted among the unique powers of her soul could find expression, I knew: In everything I was able to accomplish and carry out there, what flows down from that soul lives on! — However, to observe this, esteemed audience, one must be able to apply all the relevant criteria. Of course, I know that the natural scientist—or anyone who values a scientific worldview alone—might say: “Well, that passed into your soul; that then emerged from your soul.” — One can speak this way as long as the application remains nebulous. [But when one sees the forces emanating from the departed soul as an inflow into the heightened power of will, which then lifts it into consciousness—when one views it in this way], one regards it as one regards that which is before one’s eyes—as an experienced truth—then, esteemed audience, there can be no denial of the spiritual world and of the human soul’s connection to it, just as there is no possibility of denying the external physical world when one sees it with one’s eyes.

[ 68 ] And so that which now enters our consciousness not through external but through internal organs becomes the content of a concrete spiritual world — a spiritual world in which not only the dead, the so-called dead, exist, but in which there are also other spiritual beings who participate in the development of the world and live within it, descending into physical existence; one becomes, so to speak, their companion once the spiritual eyes and ears have been opened in the manner just described.

[ 69 ] It must be emphasized again and again: Certainly, to people of our time, this must seem far more fantastical and ridiculous than it did to those who once believed that the Earth stood still and the Sun moved around it, along with the entire starry sky, [and] who [later] heard Copernicus say: “It must be different.” But what is once a fantasy, a figment of the imagination—such is the way of the world—later becomes a matter of course, just as what had previously seemed paradoxical to humanity has become a matter of course. And those who are immersed in these new research findings know that this talk of the spiritual world will one day become a matter of course.

[ 70 ] One has no idea what a difference habits of thought make, or what a difference it makes that one is not accustomed to even considering such a thing. But intellectual inquiry then extends to other matters as well, and I would like to select one more example from this vast field.

[ 71 ] We see, dear friends, that it is not only people who have, so to speak, lived their lives to the fullest who pass through the gate of death; we see people passing through the gate of death in the prime of their youth; we see people passing through the gate of death—and in our time this strikes us as particularly painful—not because, as it were, inner, death-dealing forces send them to their deaths, but because they pass through the gate of death due to external causes, external force, a [gun] bullet, or the like.

[ 72 ] When the spiritual researcher turns his attention to these so-called early deaths that occur, he arrives at a perspective, at an insight, that allows even these early deaths to appear in the world in a meaningful way.

[ 73 ] After all, we do the same thing in the natural sciences: We observe separate facts; we seek to understand their essence and find a connection between them. The spiritual researcher does the same with what he now perceives spiritually. And when the spiritual researcher, guided by his inner path, has traveled a certain stretch of the spiritual path, then—if, I might say, the inner conditions are favorable, the inner state of the soul—one is led to certain inner connections between facts. If one concentrates on a specific interconnection of facts—just as one has generally learned to meditate—then other interconnections of facts appear before the soul, before the spiritual eye, and one recognizes the relationship between them.

[ 74 ] This is how the spiritual researcher can concentrate—but, as I said, only after having gone through the stages described today—he can concentrate on this: Through violent means, such as a gunshot or something similar, a human life is physically cut short in early youth. A soul passes through the gate of death in such a way that it is not the forces acting internally within the organism that have run their course and brought about death from within the organism, but rather through external violence—through an accident or the like—that such a human life comes to an end and passes through the gate of death. If one concentrates on this—but, as I said, using the powers one has acquired through spiritual research—then another fact presents itself to the soul, and one recognizes the connection between these two facts.

[ 75 ] And this other fact is that, even in ordinary human life, we encounter two different things in a certain area. We observe children as they grow up. For example, we are educators or teachers of these children. We know very well: We strive to cultivate this or that quality in the child. We will seek to impart this or that knowledge through this or that impulse that wells up from the child’s soul. But with some of the children we teach—those who have the potential to become more learned, more gifted, and more intelligent than we ourselves are as teachers or educators—we notice that something is rising up from indeterminate depths: something that may be modest in one child, but may be the seed of a genius in another. We see genius emerging from the human soul on both a small and a large scale. And now one perceives the connection between these seemingly disparate facts. That which takes effect at a later stage—often years later—and manifests itself in a particular child as especially brilliant powers has, in fact, passed through the spiritual development—the invisible spiritual development—and has its cause in the violent death that can be brought about by external acts of violence. This need not be the same soul; rather, any human being perishes. What that person experiences—when their soul is violently torn from the body in this way—is communicated to the purely spiritual world and becomes interwoven with a human soul—it can be interwoven with a completely different human soul—that is in the state between death and a new birth! And this soul brings this power, which comes precisely from such a death, with it into the new life. And these powers manifest as genius-like powers.

[ 76 ] It does not always have to be this way, ladies and gentlemen; it does not always have to have this cause! In the future of Earth’s evolution, things may be quite different if genius-like forces develop. But for the life that we can survey, this is for the time being merely a strangely mysterious connection, ladies and gentlemen—a connection that does, however, provide insights of such a nature that one can say: Spiritual science provides insights that give us perspectives on the meaning of life—including the meaning of life when that life must touch us in particular moments as especially difficult or especially painful. We can therefore also investigate pain and suffering as meaningful phenomena in life. And spiritual science leads to a certain higher perspective—although it is not there to turn people into shallow, superficial beings who are beyond pain and suffering. No, pain and suffering must indeed be felt; otherwise, they cannot become the cause that now arises from them. If one were to believe that spiritual science would dull pain and suffering—that it would eliminate pain from the world—then what is meant to arise from pain and suffering would not come into being. No—it does not dull them! But from a certain higher vantage point, spiritual science seeks to show how even pain and suffering fit into the meaning of life.

[ 77 ] In closing, ladies and gentlemen, I must draw your attention to one more point: It is an absolute misunderstanding to believe that spiritual science is in any way at odds with the natural sciences in its views! No, spiritual science fully acknowledges everything it itself achieves, and it also fully acknowledges the achievements of experimental research into the soul. Spiritual science is far more at peace with these other sciences than these other sciences are willing to be at peace with spiritual science. There is a science of the soul that seeks to discover through all manner of reflection—and many today, even in those circles that practice public psychoanalysis, the science of the soul, believe in this way that by observing thinking, feeling, and willing as they exist in human beings, one can discover what the immortal is, what the eternal forces of the human soul are.

[ 78 ] It is precisely spiritual science that shows that natural science, for its part, is fundamentally correct in the standpoint it is increasingly asserting today. Indeed, spiritual science perhaps takes this standpoint even more firmly than natural science itself is already justified in doing so today. To those who say that one can know something corresponding to immortality through ordinary thinking—which human beings develop here in the physical world—or through their willing or feeling, the natural scientist rightly objects: Yes, look at the human being, at his thinking, feeling, and willing: If, through some force, a part of the brain is paralyzed, an entire aspect of a person’s inner life may cease to function. We also see that thinking, feeling, and willing—just as the organism has developed from early childhood onward—also undergo changes. We see them as interconnected with the organism. Do we not see how this thinking, feeling, and willing are bound to the organism?

[ 79 ] Thus, from today’s perspective, the natural scientist can rightly object to anyone who seeks to prove immortality based on ordinary thinking, ordinary feeling, and ordinary volition.

[ 80 ] But this is precisely what spiritual science shows: that this ordinary thinking, feeling, and willing—this ordinary, this unique form of thinking, feeling, and willing that asserts itself in physical life through ordinary science—is bound to the instrument of the body. And here spiritual science leads to something else—[namely, to] developing what lies within this thinking, feeling, and willing within the human soul! It is always there; but it must first be made vivid: And that is the immortal core of our being. And it is that core of being that was there before birth—or, let us say, before our conception—and that will be there after our death. It is a different state of consciousness; it is a state that looks back on our earthly life—not an unconscious one, but a [higher state of consciousness]; for the spiritual researcher, too, develops through this into a higher consciousness, as I have shown you. And this is what we carry through the gate of death.

[ 81 ] One must not believe that the spiritual researcher is discovering something new by carefully working his way upward; this eternal core of being is contained within every soul; the spiritual researcher merely beholds it—it is present in every human soul just as naturally as an object is there even when one is not looking at it. It is this act of beholding alone that spiritual science brings. But spiritual science shows that alongside thinking, feeling, and willing—which are contained within the physical body and bound to it—there exists something else that is not bound to the body and that can be recognized as such. The fact that the spiritual world must be perceived differently from the physical world is what constitutes the essence of spiritual science. And so spiritual science leads to the eternal forces of the human soul—which, when developed, are already contained within the thinking, feeling, and willing that are bound to the body—and which can be found when that which lives within the human being as an eternal core of being is unfolded; this core simply cannot be perceived by ordinary thinking, feeling, and willing within ordinary consciousness. This spiritual science must reveal to the human soul something new, distinct from the ordinary power of consciousness of the human soul!

[ 82 ] As I said, it is quite understandable, esteemed attendees, that many things will still have to happen before a larger group of people will even see anything worth discussing in earnest in what has been hinted at today as a small suggestion—but which already exists today as a well-established spiritual science, just as a well-established natural science exists.

[ 83 ] But, distinguished guests, everything must—I would say—come into the world as if in a germinal state. And yet there is a certain need within humanity; this is known very well by anyone who is able to gain even a little insight into the—I might say—more intimate forces at work in the human soul. In their conscious minds, many people today still resist accepting what has been suggested here; but in the subconscious and unconscious forces of the soul, a great many people—without realizing it today or being willing to admit it—harbor longings for such an understanding of soul life as has been hinted at here, and as it must come—just as surely as modern natural science has replaced medieval natural science.

[ 84 ] And as an outward sign that such views are no longer entirely based on an unreal foundation, it may be noted in conclusion—as I said, this may serve as an outward sign—that it has indeed already been possible, through the constant willingness to make sacrifices on the part of a large circle of friends of this spiritual-scientific worldview, right here in Switzerland, in Dornach, near Basel, to erect a building for this spiritual science—a building serving as a vessel for this spiritual science. As I said, I wish to mention this only as an outward sign; as an outward sign of reality, of the solid ground on which one can stand when speaking of this spiritual science.

[ 85 ] There simply has to be a certain level of understanding among a broader circle when sacrifices are made in order to give this school of thought a tangible form even today.

[ 86 ] Today, the main focus could only be directed toward the essentially spiritual-scientific aspects of this building. Those of you, esteemed audience, who will one day turn your attention to this building in Dornach, near Basel, will see that even in its external forms and in its entire design, one encounters something that—I would say—relates to old architectural styles and old building designs in the same way that spiritual science relates to people’s old habits of thought.

[ 87 ] Many errors and misunderstandings have spread, particularly regarding this Dornach building. Misunderstandings and errors that sometimes lead one to believe that even people who have seen these things act as if their eyes had not seen what is actually there! For example, I have heard it said that this is a building whose interior is completely filled with all manner of mysterious symbols and all manner of magical figures. As I said: If you ever turn your attention to this building and observe it, you will not find a single one of the commonly believed magical symbols and figures, none of that at all—only a new way of building, a way of building such that the building is, as it were, a shell for what is to live within it in the form of thoughts and ideas. And just as earlier buildings served as a shell for what came before, so too must this building take on different forms, for it provides the setting for something else. Just as in ancient Greece a shell was created for Greek thought out of the materials available to the Greeks, so too has something been created here with our building—and not in an unartistic way—for every allegory, symbolism, and the like is unartistic—not in an unartistic way, but in an artistic way, an attempt was made to create a building in a style appropriate to this spiritual science. For this spiritual science can take shape in forms, can express itself, without thereby seeking to speculate. Without resorting to symbols or allegories, it can be translated into forms in every respect. With artistic sensibility, [one can translate what lives in spiritual science into the external forms of all the arts—architecture, language, sculpture.]

[ 88 ] And when such things come up—for example, when someone says: “Yes, there are certainly things I like about this building, but you have, for instance, seven columns on one side and seven columns on the other as well; why did you do that?”—that is not meant to be a symbol. Anyone who studies the matter more closely will indeed confirm—because the uniformity of the columns has been abandoned, because the capitals progress and have been made unequal—that the motif first introduced on a column capital actually comes to an end at the last column. Just as the tones unfold in a seven-note scale and the octave is a repetition of the fundamental tone—and just as this has nothing to do with any kind of fanciful symbolism or magical symbolism—so it is here as well. And if someone seeks particularly subtle, inner reasons—reasons that are then supposed to be spiritual science—one can always say: Look for reasons similar to those explaining why, for example, a violin has four distinct strings, when someone says there could just as well be five strings or three! It simply cannot be any other way than that there are four strings; just as there cannot be eight or six columns in our case, but there must be exactly seven! This is a matter of an inner, organic structure of the motifs, and the motifs themselves yield this number seven—not some superstitious attachment to the number seven or anything of the sort.

[ 89 ] Everything should be conceived in artistic terms! I wanted to mention this in particular, not—dear friends—truly not—to promote the Dornach building, but to point out how spiritual science is indeed capable of influencing human life. Just as it finds expression in artistic forms, so too will it be able to find expression in other forms of life, albeit perhaps more slowly than in artistic forms. In this way, it will seek to permeate all of life, all conceptions of life. And many souls are already yearning today for such a view of life—one that reveals the soul in a living connection with the spiritual world to which it belongs—even if they may not yet be aware of it. That is why spiritual science may already speak today to humanity about what it has to say.

[ 90 ] I know, distinguished guests: That which—I would say—emerges from the depths of spiritual existence—just as, in fact, the findings of natural science have emerged over the course of time and have then been communicated to human development—often faces a difficult path. But those who are connected to the inner meaning and the inner essence of the matter know that truth finds its way in the world—no matter how little faith is placed in it. And even if it must pass through the thinnest cracks in the spiritual cliffs that stand in its way, it finds its way!

[ 91 ] That is why the one who must uphold these spiritual-scientific truths—even if they are still regarded by wide circles today as fantasy, as daydreaming, or perhaps as something even worse— is deeply convinced that—even if they could not yet enter the consciousness of humanity today, even if they were completely suppressed—they would emerge anew, because they must emerge, because they are deeply rooted in the nature of the human soul!

[ 92 ] Therefore, let me—I would like to say—conclude by expressing the awareness that arises in the soul from this spiritual research when it is truly immersed in it. But first, let me point out that one need not be a spiritual researcher at all to acknowledge the truths of spiritual science. Just as not everyone can become a chemist—that is, not everyone can conduct experiments in a laboratory—and not everyone can become a biologist to verify these things, and yet the biological, chemical, physiological, and astrological truths are communicated to the general consciousness of humanity, so too does not everyone need to be a spiritual researcher; although—as you can see from my book *How Does One Gain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?*—one can always become one to a certain degree; everyone, at least to a certain degree, can acknowledge the truth and the validity of what spiritual science has to say; but in principle, one does not need to become a spiritual researcher oneself. What the spiritual researcher brings forth from the spiritual world—when it is expressed, when it is clothed in words—[then even the non-spiritual researcher can succeed in recognizing, within what has been conveyed, that which could be reflected upon]; and there is a healthy sense of truth through which one can perceive the truth of spiritual scientific experiences. Therefore, one who is, from the outset, subject to the authority of all manner of contemporary scientific truths—even though he cannot investigate them himself, and claims to be a very intelligent person precisely because he believes in these scientific truths—must not object that those who, though not spiritual researchers but followers of spiritual science, are superstitious, and blind to authority! They are so to a lesser degree than the very person who simply labels them as blind followers of authority. For what is drawn from the spiritual world does not appeal to our lack of understanding, but rather to our understanding. And that is precisely what I said at the very beginning: that one must first understand the spiritual world; one must be able to perceive it. And this understanding can first be acquired through the message. It is, so to speak, the first step toward entering the spiritual world.

[ 93 ] One must not, therefore, say: “I will only acknowledge the spiritual world in its individual manifestations once I have investigated it.” For one must first understand. Even the spiritual researcher himself must first understand—even if this seems paradoxical—just as, incidentally, one also gains some understanding of certain mathematical laws before they occur, and then knows that, once one has attained this understanding, events that have not yet taken place must unfold—just as one can calculate future solar eclipses in advance. Because one has first understood the nature of the whole, for example, one first understands the spiritual connections; and then, through what this understanding brings about in the external world, the external world illuminates for one that which one must first have as a concept.

[ 94 ] This, in itself, is certainly something that still contradicts the way many researchers think today; but it, too, will be something that will take root in people’s minds over time. And having explained this, ladies and gentlemen, how the consciousness of those who truly understand the essence of spiritual science is strengthened—understand how it must emerge in our time within the spiritual development of humanity, just as the newer scientific worldview once emerged in the Copernican era— then the spiritual researcher, having attained this awareness that arises from the very nature of spiritual science, thinks to himself: Yes, one can be an opponent of the truth—that is understandable; one can, for example, misunderstand the truth, completely misunderstand it, when it contradicts old habits of thought. But those who misunderstand, who misjudge the truth, will always be followed by others who can recognize it! For the truth is something that is alive within. And while it may well be misjudged, it always knows how to find its own way to recognition through an inner power and intensity! One can also hate the truth, dear friends. But the one who hates the truth will experience that the truth possesses such a life force that the hatred will ultimately rebound upon himself. And truth stands in opposition to hatred; and whoever knows how to live in it—indeed, by recognizing the intrinsic value of truth—knows this: One can also revile the truth; but even more so than with hatred, the words of revilement directed at the truth will rebound upon the reviler himself.

[ 95 ] You can suppress the truth, but you cannot destroy it. You cannot destroy it!

[ 96 ] This awareness is attained, in particular, through spiritual science. For—even if I express it figuratively, it is not meant figuratively, but literally: the human soul and truth are sisters. And even if the human soul may occasionally come into conflict with the truth here and there, or fall out of harmony with it—even if it may itself prove unloving—there must always be places and times when the human soul unites lovingly with the truth. For they become inwardly aware—the human soul and its sister, Truth—that they belong together, that they must belong together in love, that as two sisters of worldly existence they have a common origin in the one, World Spirit that illuminates and permeates the entire world—a Spirit to be sought and recognized by spiritual science—which manifests itself in the individual creatures and beings of the world and which can be recognized when one finds the paths to the eternal forces of the human soul.