The Rudolf Steiner Archive

15. How Are the Eternal Forces of the Human Soul Studied?

Ladies and gentlemen!

[ 1 ] Whenever a particular worldview asserts itself—be it a more materialistic-intellectualist one or an idealistic-spiritual, spiritualist one—it can be said that such a worldview has an opponent on the corresponding opposite side—or even simply on a side that is more or less turned away from it—[and that it] is opposed by that side. However, regarding the spiritual-scientific worldview—which I have been able to develop here from this place for years now—it can be said that it is opposed, to a greater or lesser extent, by all of these worldviews—whether they lean today more toward the idealistic-spiritual direction or toward the materialistic-realistic direction. The fact that, fundamentally speaking, it faces opponents from all sides today is, for the most part, still due to the fact that the very most essential characteristics of this spiritual-scientific worldview are misunderstood and then judged or condemned before people have actually come to know them.

[ 2 ] This humanistic worldview is misunderstood not only because of what it asserts, but above all—from many quarters—because of certain fabrications made about it and certain false notions people form about it. I have, after all, emphasized this many times here, and I must ask you to allow me to repeat certain minor points today—things that have already been said but are necessary to provide context so that new perspectives can be developed.

[ 3 ] It is a widely held view that the humanities do not wish to adopt the standpoint of scientific knowledge—which is firmly grounded and has raced from triumph to triumph over the past few centuries. But this is, in fact, a complete misconception! In fact, when it is presented on the basis of its true foundations, the science of the spirit stands entirely on the position that states: Everything that scientific knowledge of the world has brought us must today be regarded as a starting point for any worldview—including the worldview of the science of the spirit itself.

[ 4 ] I have often said here that I would not utter a single word from the spiritual-scientific perspective referred to here if I were not aware that spiritual science does not contradict any truth that is scientifically valid.

[ 5 ] First of all, there are two things that must be emphasized when discussing the opposition of those who say: “We stand on the firm ground of the natural sciences, and we must combat this amateurish interference from an authoritative humanities perspective.” First and foremost, two points come into consideration: First, such people may stand on the ground from which they say: “Everything that can be the subject of scientific consideration and that may be taken into account when constructing a scientific worldview is scientific experience—that is, what natural science has produced.”

[ 6 ] Another school of thought, which emerges from its own standpoint and is opposed to this spiritual-scientific approach, is the one that says: Certainly, one can certainly admit that behind the facts established by natural scientific knowledge regarding the sensory world, there are other, spiritual facts or even spiritual beings to be sought; but the human faculty of cognition is simply not equipped to perceive anything of this world of existence hidden behind the sensory world.

[ 7 ] And from these two perspectives, spiritual science is then attacked, as if it were somehow taking an adversarial stance of its own accord—as if it were opposing these two views, insofar as these two views are positive. But that is not the case at all! That it does not do so in the least will become clear from various observations made this evening.

[ 8 ] On the other hand, however, spiritual science—as understood here—also has an opponent, an opponent who often does not present himself as such, but who in many respects may in fact be just as sincere an opponent as the one just mentioned. And this other opponent of the humanities, as understood here, is the body of ideas and fantasies that are put forth into the world by a large number of confused minds under all sorts of mystical names, and at times even through all sorts of mystical charlatanism. On this side, ladies and gentlemen, there are above all those people who can count on such listeners and adherents who, in blind faith, accept everything that is chattered about regarding the spiritual world, and who accept it all the more willingly when such chatter arises—usually, of course, in an amateurish manner—while condemning rigorous science, which often appears all the more haughty the less the person rejecting it has truly internalized that rigorous science into their own soul.

[ 9 ] Added to this are those who make all sorts of claims purporting to originate from the spiritual world, and who pursue entirely different goals by first seeking to confuse people with all sorts of claims from the spiritual world so that they can then use them as tools for whatever purposes they desire.

[ 10 ] Perhaps, if time permits, it will be possible to speak specifically about this kind of opposition to the humanities at the end of the lecture. For this opposition is not without danger, because people who are often quite, quite sincere in their scientific pursuits either lack the opportunity or the ability to engage with spiritual science, and therefore lump true spiritual science together with such nebulous, mystical ramblings, superstitious notions, and delusions of such ambiguous minds.

[ 11 ] One might also ask why the humanities are specifically targeted by a worldview that is more or less materialistic in nature, one that believes it stands on the solid ground of the natural sciences.

[ 12 ] This, ladies and gentlemen, is something that must indeed be seriously considered—and it must be considered for a very specific reason. From this perspective—the more or less materialistically colored worldview that believes it stands on the solid ground of natural science—it will be emphasized again and again that spiritual science asserts all sorts of things that cannot be understood; whereas the materialistically colored worldview, it is claimed, states only what can be observed everywhere, so to speak, and what everyone can understand.

[ 13 ] The humanities, however, have no intention of denying the latter; and that is why they find it so difficult to overcome this very objection. Materialistic worldviews—such as, for example, the one I cited yesterday as having been advocated by de La Mettrie in his *Man a Machine*—such materialistic worldviews can make themselves understood with remarkable ease. Everything about them is extremely plausible, tangible, and clear. That is why they find such willing adherents, especially in our time. And then such worldviews often spread the notion that their clear views are denied by spiritual science.

[ 14 ] Since de La Mettrie can virtually be called the father of modern materialistic positivism, how is the science of the mind supposed to do justice to what de La Mettrie says in his book *Man a Machine* to prove how everything mental depends on the material, how everything mental is conditioned by the material? De La Mettrie says:

“What power does a meal exert over us? Joy awakens in a sad heart; it spreads to the souls of those at the table and is expressed through those charming songs for which the French are so renowned.”

[ 15 ] No one who holds a humanistic worldview would ever think to doubt, in any way, such a self-evident truth as the one expressed here. And whether such a self-evident truth is expressed in a crude and blunt manner, as it is here, or in a somewhat more refined way, ultimately makes no difference!

[ 16 ] This same de La Mettrie says, for example: In his mental characteristics—in everything he reveals to the outside world through his mind—man is so dependent on the mechanics of his body that one can say: If just one tiny thing in the brain of Erasmus or Fontenelle—a tiny thing that cannot even be anatomically proven—had been different, Erasmus and Fontenelle might have become fools instead of geniuses!

[ 17 ] These things are always brought up—as if they could somehow be used to knock spiritual science out of the park! Spiritual science will readily admit this; only, of course, it will have to consider such a crude truth and the somewhat more subtle truth as lying on the same level—just as when one says, for example: It could have been much worse; let’s suppose that Erasmus—the one who was meant to become Erasmus—had been killed by a bandit as a five-year-old boy; then, of course, his soul would have been able to develop even less than if just one little cog in his brain hadn’t been working properly! Or suppose his mother had been killed by a bandit even before he was born!

[ 18 ] All the points raised by that side are by no means to be refuted; in fact, they are characterized by the fact that they are entirely self-evident. Nevertheless, it remains a trivial matter to bring them up again and again and to give the impression that the spiritual scientist is so foolish that he cannot admit such “obvious” things.

[ 19 ] But the humanities scholar, ladies and gentlemen, knows that—[no matter] how true such claims may be, [no matter] how well-founded they may be—they are, on the other hand, just as easily refutable, of course! — Because what one can say about the external world, what one can piece together, what one can reason out, can, on the other hand, be completely wrong! I have often explained here what the unforgettable Vincenz Knauer said against materialism. He said: Let’s try an experiment and lock up a wolf, shut him away. Once you can be certain that everything [he had in terms of matter was pure wolf matter], feed [him] nothing but lamb meat. — You will see for yourself that, even though he will have rebuilt his body entirely from lamb meat, you will see for yourself that, even though he will have rebuilt his body entirely from lamb meat, the wolf has still not become a lamb!

[ 20 ] The point here is that what de La Mettrie says about the influence of a meal on the soul is certainly very true; that is quite correct. But claims that are supposed to underpin a worldview often gradually shift into other claims—even into their very opposites—and, viewed from the other side, their opposites can just as easily be asserted.

[ 21 ] I had to assume this, especially today, when the focus will be on examining—from a certain perspective—the path that research in the humanities is taking. This path is characterized, first of all, by the fact that, as it progresses, it essentially leads the researcher in the humanities to confirm certain scientific findings even more firmly than the natural scientist himself is able to do today.

[ 22 ] I have already discussed here on several occasions that the path spiritual research must take is an entirely inner one; that this spiritual science, while it aims to be scientific—as strictly scientific as any natural science—must nevertheless follow a path that is purely inner, because it does not deal with the sensory world but rather with the spiritual realm. I will not go into the precise characteristics of this inner path today; I have done so here on several occasions, and after all, not everything can be repeated over and over again. I must refer here to what is written in my book *How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?*, where it is described in greater detail what the soul must accomplish within itself if it wishes to walk the path that awakens certain powers slumbering within it—powers that can be called “spiritual eyes” and “spiritual ears,” to use Goethe’s terms. It describes the development the soul must undergo to acquire such spiritual eyes and spiritual ears, so that it may thereby look into the spiritual world just as the senses look into the physical world.

[ 23 ] But when all that is advised to the soul in order to find the path just indicated—when that comes to pass—then one will find that the essence of it lies in the fact that thinking, and specifically imagination, is approached in a different way than it is in ordinary life. In everyday life, people form mental images of the external world, and they are concerned—and must be concerned, for only in this way can they stand firmly within the external world and in practical life—they are concerned and must be concerned with having in their mental images reflections of what exists as reality outside, images aroused within.

[ 24 ] But something else is necessary as well. Not only must these ideas be formed within us, but these ideas—which human beings create as images of reality in their surroundings—must—if I may use the expression, which admittedly does not precisely capture the fact but through which we can communicate—these ideas must remain imprinted in the inner life of the human being: memory must be present. If the mental images did not remain, if what we imagine were to pass by in such a way that nothing remained [in the form of memories], then we would not have our continuous sense of self, which must accompany us from the time as far back as we can remember until death and which must remain undisturbed. We possess this sense of self—and can carry it with us—only if the ideas we form are not merely momentary, present-moment experiences, but if they remain embedded in our inner life and can be retrieved from that inner life.

[ 25 ] Now, the essence of the first inner resolution, the first inner activity that the spiritual researcher must undertake with his own soul, consists in the fact that this process of imagination—which is entirely appropriate for ordinary external life—must be transformed so that it occurs in the soul in a completely different way than it does in ordinary life. Thus, in order to truly recognize the spiritual, something must occur within the soul that reorganizes the life of imagination in a way entirely different from that of ordinary life.

[ 26 ] Now, I have often emphasized that what the spiritual researcher must set out to do in order to find his way into the spiritual world is to bring certain thoughts—whose external reality is not initially important; they may be, in particular, pictorial or symbolic thoughts—into the presence of his soul. This is called “meditation”; concentrating the entire activity of the soul on a thought content arbitrarily placed within the soul—one that can be fully grasped, in which, therefore, no subconscious or unconscious emotional driving forces can come into play—but rather a content that can be fully grasped, that is placed before the soul with crystal clarity, and which is placed at the center of consciousness, at the center of thought.

[ 27 ] And then thinking must—it is a long path of practice that must be undertaken, one that can often take years—thinking must return to this again and again, placing this content at the center of consciousness. In this way, the entire life of the soul is condensed—admittedly, it need only last a short time, perhaps a few minutes during the day—and in this way, the entire life of the soul is condensed onto this content. And through this, this soul life gradually—I am describing what spiritual research truly must go through—gradually comes to separate two things that are always linked in ordinary imagination: namely, to separate the inner activity of thinking and imagining from the content. One must separate, my dear friends, what one does when one thinks and imagines—this inner activity of thinking—and one must completely separate it from the content. So that, when one places such content at the center of one’s inner life, one gradually becomes aware: It is not this content that matters; I have merely introduced this content so that I can exercise the inner activity of thinking upon it.

[ 28 ] And then I experience inwardly—not a specific thought at this moment, not a specific content, but the inner activity of thinking. This is not so much what is usually called thinking, but rather what usually remains unconscious during thinking; it is a certain volitional activity honed through ordinary thinking and imagining—a subtle volitional activity. One doesn’t pay any attention to this at all in everyday life, in ordinary imagining, when one thinks. One doesn’t pay any attention to the fact that one actually always needs one’s will when thinking or imagining; one doesn’t notice that. But now one experiences that one is exercising a subtle inner volitional activity. The soul becomes aware of certain forces within itself that it otherwise exercises constantly in everyday life, but to which it does not direct its consciousness—forces that remain unconscious. So that the entire content of the meditation can fall away from the act of imagining, and only this inner movement within thinking and imagining is, so to speak, grasped inwardly. And that is what matters. For continued practice in this direction is now linked to very specific experiences that one has in the course of one’s search for the spiritual world. Certain experiences arise when one has reached the point of truly separating the content and being able to experience the mere inner activity—the activity in thinking and imagining. Then, at first, one has a kind of inner feeling as if one were now immersed in some entirely indeterminate experience. It is important—I would say—to take these subtle details fully into account if one wishes to know anything about true spiritual scientific research.

[ 29 ] What is normally the repose of thought in imagination can, under the influence of such exercises, initially cease if the goal is to be attained, and must in fact cease for certain experiences if the goal is to be attained. One enters into an inner experience, into an inner movement of the self. One no longer feels connected to the external world—it is only the act of comparison that links one to the external—but rather feels as if one’s soul were groping around in the darkness; one feels completely absorbed in the inner activity of imagination and thought that one has taken up. Through inner experience, one now has a certain realization; and this consists in saying to oneself: “So, you have now reached the point where you live solely in the activity of thinking and imagining.” One first experiences that, with regard to these inner experiences in the activity of thinking and imagining, that which is otherwise the power of recollection—that which is otherwise memory—is no longer present. It is no longer there. One notices that one has entered into an entirely different inner current, that what one now experiences as thinking activity is not experienced as if one were recalling something or thinking in reference to external objects or facts; rather, one notices that one is now developing thinking activity in the same way one develops volitional activity, I mean, out of habit—not a form of thinking, but an inner activity arising from a certain subtle habit; that is what one now experiences inwardly. And this inner experience has only one value, one meaning at that moment—this experience of inner activity has meaning at the very moment one experiences it. Admittedly, it is a crude comparison, but I can still use it: What one experiences in this way—having now separated the inner act of thinking from one’s thoughts—belongs to the experience of the moment, just like eating and drinking. It is a crude comparison, but it is one that illustrates everything I want to say. After all, if we ate yesterday, we cannot use yesterday’s food or drink again today to nourish the body; rather, we must eat and drink again today. Eating and drinking have only this momentary, this present significance. We cannot say: “We eat today; and tomorrow, when we perform this activity—which causes us to [...] recall our eating and drinking today—we will thereby nourish ourselves.” This is an activity—eating and drinking—that must always be repeated.

[ 30 ] And so this inner imaginative activity—this inner act of imagination—is something that has no value for a later time, but must always be brought forth anew from experience. One must acquire the inner capacity not to memorize what one has once experienced mentally in this way so that one can recall it, but rather so that one can experience it again and again out of what is now an inner, more subtle habit. So that one realizes that what one has now developed as an image truly flows by at first just like dreams. Just as dreams flit by, so does this real, spiritual-psychic sensing flit by—which, as I have indicated, is characterized by an unalterable fluidity.

[ 31 ] So what does one actually perceive at this very moment, distinguished audience? One realizes something that—like many things I have already mentioned in the course of the spiritual path of knowledge—can have a profound effect on the soul: One realizes what is actually the nature of what we call memory, of what we call the power of recollection. At first, we cannot use this power of recollection at all for spiritual knowledge. We must detach ourselves from this power of memory precisely when we wish to engage in spiritual cognition. And one now realizes clearly, very clearly, that the kind of thinking that can be recalled—and this is all everyday thinking and must be all everyday thinking; if it is no longer everyday thinking, then one is no longer spiritually healthy— one realizes that the kind of thinking that can pass into memory is directly bound to physicality; [one realizes] that the physical body truly functions like a machine—albeit a more subtle one—[contributing] to the fact that what is initially thought in everyday life can evoke memory.

[ 32 ] You see, esteemed audience, through an experience the spiritual researcher actually arrives at a confirmation of the trivial truth that materialism claims as its own: that the thinking developed in everyday life is entirely conditioned by physicality. The only thing that is not conditioned by physicality is what we have just set aside: inner activity. [It is not thinking—the act of thinking—that is conditioned by physicality, but rather the content of the thought that is entirely dependent on physicality.] The content of the thought is entirely dependent on physicality.

[ 33 ] And when some dilettantes in the humanities—even, let’s say, experts with a philosophical perspective—come along and say: “Yes, but a thought does have an inner quality from which one can recognize that it cannot be absorbed into physicality, that it is something other than physicality,” then one will respond—perhaps not with a science that exists today, but with the ideal of science that will one day be realized, namely spiritual science—by saying: There are certain materials that, when exposed to light, absorb the light, as it were, and then continue to radiate it on their own for a time. Should one now regard these radiations as something that is not grounded in matter? Similarly, when the external world—the physical, sensory external world—makes an impression on a person, [when the external world] gives rise to inner thoughts, and these thoughts are retained only for the duration of our lives—as it were, fluorescing out of our physicality—one should not regard them as something determined solely by the spiritual, as something that could have significance for the eternal forces of the human soul. These are phenomena that occur in the physical matter of the human being, just as electricity occurs in matter. It is not in the denial of this legitimate scientific view, but in its correct understanding, that the task of spiritual science lies.

[ 34 ] Thus, all philosophical discourse based on a consideration of thoughts as they are in and of themselves will never be able to say anything about the eternal powers of the human soul. For just as the fluorescence of matter—when matter itself is removed—naturally ceases, so too must anyone standing on the ground of the natural sciences assert, in accordance with the truth: When the body decays, so too does the foundation it provides for the emergence of thoughts from physicality.

[ 35 ] Only the immediate experience that arises when the otherwise unconscious activity of thought and imagination has separated itself from the thoughts themselves and has come to grasp itself inwardly—only this initially provides the higher awareness that one now lives in something that is truly outside of physicality. With everyday thoughts, one does not live outside of physicality. By grasping that activity which one has separated from the content of thoughts in the manner described, one knows—by experiencing it, one knows it—that one lives with something in a sphere that is now outside of physicality.

[ 36 ] Thus, ladies and gentlemen, one can never explore the eternal forces of the human soul based on what a person initially consciously practices in relation to the physical environment and to their outer life; rather, it is necessary to first separate from what a person experiences within themselves in ordinary physical life that which can be grasped inwardly in the manner described. But it is not enough for a person to follow the path just described; for in doing so, they would never arrive at anything other than a sense of being in a kind of eternal wandering, as if in spiritual darkness. So that is not enough.

[ 37 ] What, then, has humanity actually achieved in this way? It has, in essence, cast aside the content of thought—the thoughts and ideas themselves—and has recognized that these ideas and thoughts are bound to the physical, and that only the act of imagining, the act of thinking, is not bound to the physical.

[ 38 ] Therefore, these must proceed in parallel—the exercises, the inner exercises I have mentioned, intended to train the soul in the proper way, must not be practiced in isolation—but other exercises must proceed alongside them. The exercises I have just described are actually [intended] to train and develop the life of thought and the life of imagination. One separates the activity of the will in imagining from the content of the life of imagination. These exercises must be accompanied by other exercises that relate less to the life of thought than to the life of the will. And simply by practicing the meditations—and in most cases that is even sufficient; you can read more details, as I said, in my book *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds*—simply by practicing the meditations, by carrying out this daily concentration of thought, which is, after all, an inner act of will—a subtle act of will—one trains the will in a way that is not otherwise employed in ordinary life. After all, in ordinary life we do not simply make a spontaneous decision of will from within ourselves. So even there one is already exercising an act of will that, in a sense, does not develop as obscurely as the impulses that otherwise arise from our desires, from our wishes, and—if you will—from all sorts of ideals; rather, one exercises an act of will for which one must first prepare oneself directly, one that must arise from the most direct, inner resolution.

[ 39 ] But that is not what is important; rather, what is important is that this volitional activity is now actually practiced with a goal entirely different from that of the volitional activities of ordinary life. The acts of the will in ordinary life are performed in such a way that one brings about this or that external action, so that this or that happens. Isn’t it true that when one wants something, this or that is supposed to happen? But externally, nothing at all is supposed to happen when one merely wants to direct one’s thinking in the manner described—in a certain direction, toward a certain concentration. But something happens inwardly; something quite essential happens inwardly. What happens inwardly is that, through such a volitional decision, the human self itself—its innermost soul being—advances; that which otherwise is always, so to speak, the center of all willing, from which all willing proceeds—that self—is now itself made the object of willing. Otherwise, the “I” wills this or that; now one seeks, through the will, to transform the “I,” to make the “I” into something else: the “I” becomes the object, the goal of the will. And that is what matters.

[ 40 ] One can take these exercises even further and make them more effective if one starts directly from the objective just described—if one tells oneself: The will in ordinary life is directed toward satisfying one’s desires and perhaps also toward pursuing certain, very legitimate ideals of external life; but now, alongside all of that—of course, the spiritual researcher must not step outside all the legitimate demands and requirements of life, otherwise he becomes a contrarian and not a spiritual researcher; but I want, so to speak, to undertake things that do not pertain to the external world, not to the fulfillment of this or that desire or ideal, but which are aimed precisely at taking my own inner self into my own hands, at developing my own inner self in a way it would not otherwise develop if I did not take it into my own hands. For example, once I have realized that under certain circumstances I would desire this or that: I want to consider, for once, not acting on these desires, but rather restraining my ego and steering it precisely in a different direction of desire, and so on, and so on. In short: [It is a matter of] developing an inner will that does not originate from the self, but is directed precisely toward the self—toward the self’s development, its unfolding, and its progress.

[ 41 ] A will is developed there that moves in the opposite direction from the ordinary will—a will that moves toward the “I,” whereas the ordinary will moves from the “I.” If one continues the practice in this way, after a reasonable amount of time—which may be longer for some and shorter for others, lasting weeks for some depending on their disposition, and years for others— one will notice that just as one has discovered volitional activity in thinking through the aforementioned treatment of the life of thought, one now, strangely enough, discovers in the will a hidden consciousness—a real, genuine hidden consciousness. This is not merely a figure of speech, but a statement corresponding to reality: One discovers a hidden consciousness, a constant observer of what otherwise develops as volitional activity. One now truly discovers that a higher self lives within the self, a real higher self; not merely in the figurative sense in which one often speaks of a higher self, but a real being lives there within the will. One discovers this by coming into conflict with the “I” through the opposite direction of the will, and now the “I” essentially becomes as objective, as concrete, and as external to oneself as it is otherwise always within oneself.

[ 42 ] So the second thing—which must proceed in parallel with the development of intellectual life, and which must likewise lead consciousness to discover the more comprehensive thinking within the will—just as one has discovered the will within thinking through what has gone before—is precisely an inner exercise of the will.

[ 43 ] Both exercises must proceed in parallel. And when one speaks of this—of what arises in the soul—it appears to those who are unfamiliar with it, and who [wish] to remain entirely within the naturally plausible realm of a more materialistic worldview, as utter folly—yet what one might call an “inner observer” is indeed present. And what is described as an “inner observer”—which, after all, speaks from the will when treated in the appropriate manner—which you can read about in more detail in the book mentioned—is now capable of illuminating, truly illuminating, the darkness of which I spoke earlier, this darkness of the soul. And two inner experiences, as it were, strive together: The first is this groping experience within the moving world; and the other, through the higher consciousness that one has now developed within oneself, is the surveying of that which was initially dark. One illuminates for oneself that which was initially in the darkness.

[ 44 ] And now one realizes that the refutation of materialism lies in an entirely different realm than where one usually looks for it! What de La Mettrie says—that some tiny cog, which anatomy cannot even investigate, might have been just a little different in Erasmus, and Erasmus would have become a fool instead of a genius—is entirely correct, so correct that it goes without saying. But that is not the point; rather, the point is that the inner, finer structure of his organism—which made Erasmus who he was, made him a genius—had already come into being, had already been formed, under the influence of the soul and spirit!

[ 45 ] So that, however, we initially carry within our bodies something like a machine; but this machine has been created by the soul-spiritual, has been created under the influence of this soul-spiritual, which likewise emerges from the spiritual world and connects with what is inherited from father and mother, just as that which is inherited from father and mother is present. Those “cogs” within Erasmus that truly enabled him, out of his physicality, to produce precisely what his brilliant thoughts and creations were—the structure that existed within him, these cogs—were first fashioned by his soul-spiritual individuality, which had descended from the spiritual world into his physical being; they were first fashioned from there, first structured from there!

[ 46 ] If one seeks the spiritual—the truly deeper spiritual aspect of the human being—alongside the physical during our earthly life, one is completely mistaken! One is so very mistaken that even the spiritual researcher himself must object: Yes, what develops during your physical life—for example, as your world of thoughts—is entirely dependent on your physicality. And then, precisely as a spiritual researcher, one becomes very keenly aware of materialism, insofar as it is justified. But that which is our material body—that is created out of spiritual power!

[ 47 ] Ladies and gentlemen, it is through the path of spiritual research that we connect with what preceded our physical existence and what will exist after our physical existence has come to an end. And just as true as the fact that, at the moment when the heat I feed into the steam engine is transformed into motive power—and just as the heat that is transformed into motive power no longer exists as heat but exists precisely as motive power— it is equally true that the power we possess as soul-spiritual before we assume physical existence is transformed precisely by structuring the body, [by] becoming physical. And as long as we are physical, it is submerged in the physical, and can only be regained in such a way that spiritual inquiry reveals that the spiritual-soul aspect is separated from the physical in the manner described and, as such, knows itself to be alive alongside the physical. One can convince oneself that a spiritual-soul aspect existed within us before it was transformed into the physical—and that it will continue to exist as a spiritual-soul aspect once we have passed through the gate of death.

[ 48 ] But crude spiritualism—one-sided spiritualism—is the belief that, on the one hand, there is the material aspect of the body and, on the other, the spiritual aspect, and that the two walk side by side like two good friends between birth and death.

[ 49 ] The actual process is quite different; the actual process is that this marvelous structure of the human organism is in fact co-created from the spirit, structured from the spirit. And once it is structured, it can unfold as a body. For just as it then develops—I might say—through a higher form of illumination during ordinary external physical life, so too are the eternal forces of the human soul truly discovered only through spiritual research. One cannot approach the human being philosophically and say: We point to what has grown within the human being in terms of thoughts and so on, and demonstrate that these thoughts are imperishable. — Every sleep shows that they can be extinguished. And why should they not be able to be extinguished for everyone, just as in sleep, when a person passes through the gate of death? In this way, one can never develop proof of the eternal powers of the human soul. But if one wishes to develop proof, to gain it, then one must gain it through spiritual research by separating the will from the thoughts, and by connecting this will—separated from the thoughts—with the thoughts that spring forth from the development of the will like a higher consciousness. Therein lies that which passes through births and deaths.

[ 50 ] Now, dear friends, I know that there are countless objections to what I have just said, just as there are countless objections to spiritual research in general. And these objections are, deep down, so self-evident—indeed, so seemingly logical—that they must seem plausible. And so, for example, someone might raise the objection and hold the opinion: The spiritual researcher is once again saying something quite foolish; he claims that spiritual-soul elements must be at work when a human being enters physical existence. As if we did not already know from external science how a human being enters physical existence! This happens entirely of its own accord; no spiritual activity from the spiritual worlds is necessary for this—it happens entirely of its own accord; natural science demonstrates this quite precisely in the study of generations, in embryology, and so on!

[ 51 ] I will now use an analogy—one that, of course, can be refuted by obvious objections. But anyone who takes the time to reflect on this analogy will find that it has the power to dispel the purely materialistic objection alluded to here.

[ 52 ] Let’s suppose there were beings who could understand nothing—perhaps not even see anything—; of course, this is a hypothesis, but one that can at least be posited—beings who could see nothing of how watches are made. Let’s assume there were such beings walking around here in Stuttgart who could not perceive anything about how watches are made. All the activity involved in watchmaking goes right past them; they do not see it. But they do see the watches; those are visible to them. They walk into a watchmaker’s shop, where they do not see how the watches are made, but they do see the finished watches—they see the watches that have come into being. Since they cannot see the watches being made, they will form the idea that the watches come into being on their own! That they assemble themselves from the outside through an internal attraction of their individual parts, and so on. — These beings would speak in much the same way as humans do when they say: “What arises in human beings through the continuous succession of generations arises entirely of its own accord!” — For what is not seen is that, within the process unfolding here in the physical world, spiritual forces emanating from the spiritual world are at work. And within these spiritual forces lies what we discover within ourselves through the methods of spiritual research just discussed.

[ 53 ] This leads us to a spiritual insight: that the eternal spiritual-soul core of the human being stands before our soul—the core of which we know: It descends from a spiritual existence and, as a third element, unites with what the human being inherits materially from father and mother. And there one also knows what it is that passes through the gate of death to live once more in a spiritual world.

[ 54 ] And this now opens up possibilities for the spiritual researcher to speak of a structure of the human being, just as he is doing now. You see, ladies and gentlemen, when the spiritual researcher first comes along and says: This human being is not merely composed of the physical body that the eyes can see, the one described and explained by conventional science—everything that conventional science has to say is readily acknowledged by spiritual research—when, therefore, the spiritual researcher says: ‘This human being also possesses an etheric body’—the term itself is not important; one could call it something else; there is no need to take offense at the term ‘etheric body,’ since ‘etheric’ is meant quite differently from the ordinary ether in physics—if this is simply cited as an example—if one says: There is simply a finer body living inside the coarser body, and this gives rise to the idea: Well, the coarser body is indeed coarse, and there lives a somewhat finer body within it; a finer etheric body is thus woven into it, and this finer, interwoven body is precisely the etheric body—then one certainly has something about which one might say: That is nonsense. But the spiritual researcher does not take this standpoint; the spiritual researcher takes the standpoint that imagination and thinking can be transformed in various ways, that thinking can be developed in such a way that the power of memory is woven out of it; [that] thinking is developed in such a way [that] imagination becomes something that is not merely experienced momentarily, as is usually the case with coarse eating and drinking. And by living and weaving in this way within this thinking—which does not now lead directly to memory but must be constantly recreated—one lives in something other than the physical [body]; one lives in the etheric body. Here, the etheric body is pointed to as an experience. It points to what it is. And one does not discover spiritual scientific truths by simply presenting physical facts in a more refined form, as Spiritism seeks to do—thus corrupting true spiritual science—but rather by revealing what the spiritual world is through inner experiences, which, however, must also be experienced inwardly.

[ 55 ] And then, when the spiritual researcher goes on to say that, in addition to this etheric body, there is also a so-called “astral body”—well, then the objections, fueled by utter scorn, come flying in from all sides. At that point—as all those lovely sayings go—one might say: Spiritual research aims to help people “astralize” themselves—and so on and so forth.

[ 56 ] People who speak this way do not even realize that the spiritual researcher actually agrees with the most foolish kind of condemnation—[the kind] often directed at the astral body: But I must expressly point out that, as a person develops their will in the way I have explained, they then discover within themselves a more comprehensive consciousness—a consciousness capable of shedding light on what is initially experienced in the etheric body, which otherwise leaves us in spiritual darkness; and this consciousness, which is revealed as a reality—this is what is figuratively called the “astral body”; these are the inner realities, but realities that are attained through inner experience!

[ 57 ] The world, however, is complacent and would like to perceive the spiritual world in the same way it perceives the material world; it calls this “spiritual matter” so that it can be seen with physical eyes. One can then, of course, spare oneself the trouble of using one’s spiritual eyes! But these “spirits” are generally something quite different from real spirits, even if—as is the case in the vast majority of instances—they are not mere hoaxes. This is precisely why spiritual science must shake off whatever approaches it in a charlatan-like manner; for it is based on strictly inner experience. And in this strictly inner experience, what is first achieved is that the human being has the experience of lifting this soul-nature out of its ordinary physicality—into a different consciousness and a different experience within the world of facts—and of living in what are his eternal powers.

[ 58 ] When he then lives in what his eternal powers are, he will—by becoming aware of what actually builds up his body—or let us say “helps to build it up,” so that it cannot be misunderstood— he will also become aware that this entire life is divided into lives spent in the body between birth—or let us say conception—and death here on earth, and lives spent between death and a new birth [in a spiritual world].

[ 59 ] In what a person experiences when he feels this hinted-at consciousness emerging from his will, he experiences something quite special. If I am to characterize what he experiences there, I must indeed describe it as a consciousness. And that is essentially what matters—not that one points out that there is something nebulous, monadic—or whatever one wishes to call it—contained within the human being, but rather that it is a certain kind of consciousness. I have, after all, described it as consciousness; I can therefore characterize it.

[ 60 ] When we observe external material processes, there is—as you all know—the possibility within these material processes that, based on certain constellations of the sun and moon today, we can predict that a lunar eclipse or a solar eclipse will occur after a certain period of time. This means that the present event already contains the knowledge of the future event. Here we are dealing with external knowledge that exists in concepts—concepts that correspond to the laws of nature. Here, one sees the future within the present event.

[ 61 ] As the soul develops that consciousness out of the will I have spoken of, it indeed experiences within its present physical body that which must necessarily lead to a subsequent earthly life. What must lead to the next earthly life is experienced just as truly as the future can be foreseen in the present constellation of the sun and moon. [Just as the future can be foreseen], so is what must lead to the next earthly life lived in advance. And thus is experienced that which passes through the gate of death, then lives for a time in the spiritual world, and must then return to a new earthly life. This is what is experienced.

[ 62 ] And this must be stated as a defining characteristic: The insights of spiritual science are not merely insights as implied, but insights experienced inwardly. Mere conceptual inner activity is transformed into an experience. And things are experienced.

[ 63 ] There is something important here, dear attendees: when we emphasize that the life of the imagination—which is, in a sense, detached from memory—has meaning only for the moment, and that it must be experienced again and again if it is to truly exist.

[ 64 ] That is how it is with the spiritual world in general. The spiritual world must always be experienced anew. And when someone wants to speak from the spiritual world, to describe the realities of the spiritual world, they cannot, in essence, simply recall it from memory and recite it; rather, if what they have to say is to truly resound directly from the spiritual world, they must, in that very moment, express it again and again as their own experience—they must draw it forth from the depths of their being in that very moment.

[ 65 ] Therefore, what is to be said about the spiritual world must have a somewhat different character than what is stated in external science based solely on memory. What is spoken of from the spiritual world will be directly connected to the present-day insight into the spiritual world, so that it can be described from within the spiritual world itself. But in this way, esteemed audience, one is also protected from falling into a kind of aberration in spiritual scientific research—namely, clinging merely to what has just been said.

[ 66 ] Anyone who stands on materialistic ground—the self-evident materialistic ground, as I must emphasize again and again—will say: Well, what the spiritual researcher claims to have developed within himself through his special development of thought—what is that, if not what we all know in psychology as hallucinations, visions, and so on and so forth? What else could it be? What is presented as the spiritual researcher’s path is nothing more than a descent into an unhealthy inner life!

[ 67 ] This, too, is an objection that is as foolish as it is self-evident and plausible—plausible to anyone who adheres to a materialistic interpretation of psychiatric phenomena, and self-evident. For it is only by experiencing it again and again anew that one actually knows one is in contact with the spiritual world; for there is nothing to prove. It is not possible to prove that anything is a reality. Those people who believe that one can prove that anything is a reality—I have also drawn attention to this here on several occasions—understand nothing at all of the concept of reality. One cannot prove that a whale is a reality if one cannot point to its existence in the external world. Reality can only be experienced, not proven. But in direct communion with reality, what we need to recognize something as reality emerges vividly. And so, in direct communion with the spiritual world, what the spiritual world is must always be experienced anew; otherwise, one can, of course, indulge in all manner of fantasies.

[ 68 ] This relationship between logic and reality even played a trick on Kant, leading to a heated debate. Kant sought to do away with the so-called proof of God by agreeing that, conceptually, one hundred ordinary talers and one hundred merely imagined talers contain exactly as much as one hundred real talers—and not a penny less. Of course, conceptually, one hundred imagined talers contain just as much as one hundred real talers. But in terms of reality—which is accessed not through concepts but through experience—one hundred real talers are, after all, exactly one hundred talers more than one hundred merely imagined ones! Everyone can see this for themselves through their own lives!

[ 69 ] Now, a misunderstanding can very easily arise when one says: Yes, but does this ordinary consciousness—which is bound to our physical body, as today’s discussion has amply shown—have absolutely no connection to the spiritual world? — One can indeed have such a connection—and must even have it, and it is important to have it. It is a very important matter that, as a person develops this higher consciousness, they always have their very ordinary, rational self alongside them, so that they know: just as they otherwise look upon external objects that are before them—which they can neither imagine nor conjure up—so they look upon their very ordinary self as it stands within the physical-sensory world; and while one dwells in the spiritual world, one must never, even for a moment, lose sight of the entirely ordinary physical self with its memory-forming thought and its will, which springs from desires, ideals, and so on. That is the defining characteristic. And whoever understands this will immediately grasp the true folly of the materialistic psychiatric objections that speak of an “unhealthy mental life” in reference to the pursuit of spiritual research.

[ 70 ] What happens, then, when one enters into an unhealthy mental life, an abnormal mental life, a pathological state of consciousness? Then, out of what may previously have been a healthy—I say “perhaps” healthy—consciousness—if it has not only an unhealthy state but perhaps certain predispositions that give rise precisely to the pathological, abnormal consciousness—these become pathological and can no longer develop a healthy inner life, nor can they develop one from the other. For, to put it simply: One cannot be both a fool and healthy at the same time; otherwise, one would no longer be a fool! But what is truly necessary for proper spiritual research is this: that the human being, in a sense, truly recognizes himself as a duality, and that they have integrated their fully rational, healthy human nature—endowed with an understanding of physical reality—into all aspects of practical life as it has always been, so that when they enter into the other consciousness capable of perceiving the spiritual world, these two states of consciousness do not develop apart from one another, but rather one must stand alongside the other. And this is the essential point that must be emphasized more and more whenever one attempts, in an amateurish way, to equate what the researcher of the spiritual world lives into with any form of unhealthy consciousness: It is precisely the healthiest state of consciousness, because the spiritual researcher not only lives as his ordinary, healthy self, but also surveys him, looks down upon him, or looks into him, if you will.

[ 71 ] Now, of course, my dear friends, it follows of its own accord that when one begins to be a researcher of the spirit, one is not previously a contrarian or anything of the sort. For otherwise, one can only look at the contrarian, and one must not expect that any starting point for spiritual research is more appropriate than that of people who are fully engaged in real life—people who possess sound judgment regarding all matters of immediate, practical life and who also possess the corresponding sense of truth regarding all matters of practical life. Nothing is more unhealthy than even the slightest tendency toward untruthfulness, deceitfulness, or the like when it comes to the development of spiritual insight.

[ 72 ] One must even say: What is attained through the two paths that have been indicated is attained precisely by seeking that which is independent of physicality, that which is not attained through physicality. One frees oneself precisely from physicality. Therefore, all those things that are bound to physicality—and these are visions and hallucinations that do not originate from the spirit, as they are understood in the ordinary, trivial, superstitious, mystical sense—have nothing whatsoever to do with true spiritual research, for they depend on physicality. And they do not lie in a more spiritual realm than the one in which we find ourselves when we are within the physical world; rather, they lie in a more material realm than the one in which we find ourselves when we are within the physical world. One can be a visionary because one works on one’s physicality with fewer tools than one uses in ordinary, external physical life. There, one works with the entire healthy body and looks into ordinary reality.

[ 73 ] Ordinary visions are merely a kind of afterimage—afterimages of what one can also see with the eyes—except that they are forced out of the physical body. They arise because certain parts of our organism do not come into play, while others can come into play only under these conditions; so that in this case we are driven toward sub-sensory perception, not toward supersensory perception, in that we perceive less reality than we do with our ordinary, healthy senses.

[ 74 ] When understood in its true essence, spiritual science is not suited to reinforce any form of superstition. On the contrary, it is precisely what will eliminate every kind of superstition and stubborn mysticism, because it seeks to develop a different inner life—not from a sick person, but from a healthy one— and because it seeks to reject everything connected with pathological visions and hallucinations—which must, in fact, be eradicated root and branch so that true clairvoyance may emerge, leading into the spiritual worlds upon which spiritual science alone can feel supported!

[ 75 ] In this way, esteemed audience, as has been described, a person discovers the eternal forces of the human soul; discovers that which passes through births and deaths; and arrives at a certainty of the eternal significance of the human being.

[ 76 ] And it is the task of spiritual science to incorporate, in a scientific manner, what science has so magnificently produced regarding external nature into the spiritual world of humanity’s spiritual development. That is the task of spiritual science.

[ 77 ] For—I would say—several centuries, the natural sciences have had to educate humanity in a sense of reality that did not exist before. Then the time could come—and it has now come—when, with the same rigor applied to the development of inner spiritual powers, human beings can also speak about the spiritual world. And even if all the arguments against spiritual science that have already been mentioned are still raised today—this spiritual science will become just as much a part of humanity’s spiritual development as natural science has become. What is taken for granted in natural science today was, until relatively recently, still being fought against—and fought against in the worst possible way. What is being contested in spiritual science today will become as self-evident as certain achievements of natural science. But then a time will also come when people will realize that just as not everyone needs to be an astronomer to convey to the world what astronomy has to offer in terms of general education—so, too, not everyone needs to be a spiritual researcher in the strict sense. To a certain extent, anyone can become one today; this can be gleaned precisely from my book *How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?*. But it is not even necessary. It is just as unnecessary as it is unnecessary, in order to understand a book, to have the gift of writing that book oneself. If the truths about the spiritual world have been brought forth from that world by one spiritual researcher or another, then ordinary human understanding is sufficient to grasp what the spiritual researcher says—not merely to believe it, but to truly take it in and make it a part of one’s soul. Thus, even in a time as difficult as the present one, when hundreds upon hundreds of deaths surround us daily, we can all the more develop an awareness of the eternal significance of the human soul and the imperishable, eternal forces that underlie it.

[ 78 ] I do not mean to say, esteemed audience, that our time—this time, which is so fateful—is more suited than any other time to grasping precisely these truths about the immortal powers of the human soul; but what is happening around us—and what we spoke about yesterday—can surely serve as a sign to point out to people that they must reflect on the myriad events unfolding around us every day, especially in our own time. Our fateful era can serve at least as a sign—if not exactly as a broadening of understanding—for these spiritual-scientific truths.

[ 79 ] The spiritual researcher must speak—when, as I have indicated, he looks into the spiritual world—of a real, concrete spiritual world; not of that nebulous spiritual world already alluded to yesterday, of which pantheism speaks, saying: Spirit, Spirit is behind everything! Spirit, spirit, and spirit again and again. — Abstract philosophy speaks of this. It is just as if one were to say nothing but “nature, nature, nature!” and not “lilies,” “tulips,” and so on. The spiritual researcher speaks of concrete spiritual facts and entities with which spiritual life is related in the same way that our body is related to the external sensory world through its senses.

[ 80 ] However, when one enters this field, all those who, in our time, have become so clever—to the point of folly—that they have lost sight of the self-evident truths that the spiritual researcher by no means denies, will rise up. But the time will also come when people will realize that, just as there may still be people today who have not learned that there is air in the [gap in the transcript]—if the space is empty, the air is not there—just as it is self-evident to anyone who has learned anything about these matters that the air is there, that it is even indispensable for life, so people will come to realize that it is indispensable for soul-spiritual life—that what constantly flows in, just as air flows into our lungs—flows in from the soul-spiritual world that surrounds us and in which we live, just as the body lives in the physical-sensory world. A time will come when people will speak of this world, in which we are spiritually and mentally rooted, just as the senses speak of the sensory world. However, there is still much room for improvement—including with regard to the practice of spiritual science itself. It is still quite understandable today that rigorous scientists—and anyone who is deeply involved in science and who values and respects it will certainly agree with them—that rigorous scientists might say: “Well, let’s take a look at the people who talk about a spiritual world!” We need only observe them a little to see that some kind of fanaticism, a pathological state of mind, is behind all of this. And when one sees how spiritual science sometimes behaves outwardly—well, then we’ve had enough!

[ 81 ] One can certainly agree with those who arrive at such a judgment based on an appreciation of—and a commitment to—the truly admirable, strictly scientific method; for, as I have already indicated, it is particularly harmful to spiritual science that it can still so easily be lumped together today with all sorts of dilettantish and fanciful daydreams and ramblings—all that fanciful nonsense—with this fraudulent stuff. Just as it is true, on the one hand, that there is a path into the spiritual world to understand and to become convinced of the eternal nature of the human soul and of its eternal life, it is equally true, on the other hand, that this very spiritual science—which by no means produces pathological clairvoyance—must reject any association with everything that, in a charlatan-like, distorted, mystical manner, seeks to present itself as a revelation of the spiritual world!

[ 82 ] In these serious times, it may be particularly necessary, ladies and gentlemen, to draw attention to such matters more specifically at the end, so that people in wider circles do not come to believe that, simply because spiritual science does not defend itself, it can be casually lumped together with all sorts of confused nonsense—or even with things worse than confused nonsense. And so, since this has already been discussed once before in the circles of materialist thinkers, let me conclude by citing a fact—which I wish to present solely as a fact—for a reason that will become apparent immediately.

[ 83 ] In 1912, in a yearbook published for 1913—edited by a figure widely revered as a special prophetess who, as some believe, has much to say from the spiritual world—one could read in a yearbook published in 1912 for 1913, one could read there—note the exact timing—one could read there, with reference to Austria: “He who still believes today that he can rule will not rule. Instead, a young man who is not yet meant to rule will rule.” And the same assertion, in similar terms, then appeared again in 1913 in the same yearbook for 1914, having been repeated. And then, as we know, in June 1914, the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand took place. I merely wish to present the facts. It goes without saying that any right-thinking person would conclude something other than that the individual in question—who, for various other reasons, is a highly dubious figure—had prophetically foreseen this!

[ 84 ] But this becomes even clearer when one makes the following discovery—as I said, these matters have also been discussed in a sound manner in the realm of materialism, and spiritual science has every reason to show which side it takes with regard to such matters—the matter becomes even clearer when one considers that as early as 1913, in a Paris newspaper—*Paris-Midi* — the desire to carry out the Sarajevo assassination had already been expressed; that in this very same newspaper, on the occasion of the introduction of three-year military service in France, it was also stated that if mobilization were to occur in France for any reason, Jaurès would be killed in the first days of mobilization!

[ 85 ] Put these facts together with the fact that they are—apparently—presented to people in a prophetic manner—presented to people, seemingly from spiritual realms, in a prophetic manner— then you have the choice: either to think of something I do not wish to imply at all—some sort of underhanded connection between this apparent prophecy and what subsequently took place—or to believe that what actually took place was indeed foreseen!

[ 86 ] However, spiritual science emphasizes that what is needed here is particularly clear, realistic, and sound thinking, and that it does not wish to be conflated with what certain people—especially in our time—are all too willing to accept, namely, those who seek to have the spiritual realm “proven” through some kind of external evidence.

[ 87 ] Just as little as any materialist would, the true researcher of the spiritual sciences will not think of the “prophecy” of that dubious figure, but of something else! And there is every reason, esteemed audience, now that these matters are being discussed publicly, to point out once and for all that spiritual science must shake off everything that is so eager to cling to its coattails: All that is charlatan-like, fraudulent, and everything that speculates on humanity’s credulity in order to achieve certain ends, which may sometimes even be reprehensible. [And in no field do charlatanism, fraud, nonsense, and speculation exploiting people’s folly and superstition flourish more than in the field of striving for the truth about the spiritual worlds through the spiritual scientific approach and worldview.]

[ 88 ] This solemn statement is particularly necessary when one wishes to shed the proper light on the sense of truth—which is inseparable from spiritual scientific research—and when one wishes to draw attention to how everything in spiritual science must be an inner process, must be based on the internalization of human nature, and how it strictly distinguishes itself—even when spiritual science speaks of things that can only be known from within the spiritual world, and even with regard to such things it will not adopt a dismissive attitude—but it will strictly distinguish itself from everything that has just been characterized. This is particularly necessary in our serious times, because, on the other hand, it is necessary for spiritual science to become integrated into the course of development—the spiritual course of development—just as natural science once became integrated into the spiritual development of humanity.

[ 89 ] This will only be possible if people come to understand how the pursuit of spiritual science is truly sought—in the sense indicated today, however paradoxical it may seem—outside the body and not through physical strength. If it is pointed out that these eccentric spiritual scientists are, for example, vegetarians, that is a matter of personal taste that has absolutely nothing to do with spiritual science as such, and the two should not be conflated—just as one should not conflate it with the fact that some who identify with the spiritual scientific worldview, if they are women, have short hair if they are women, long hair if they are men, and that they wear this or that kind of clothing and the like; nor can the spiritual world be “eaten” through false asceticism, through any kind of mortification of the body—even if it is, of course, necessary to lead a healthy life—nor can it be “eaten” through unhealthy mortification of the body! One cannot enter the spiritual world by eating or by doing this or that, can one? Rather, one enters through spiritual and soul forces!

[ 90 ] I wanted to emphasize this in particular, distinguished guests: what true spiritual research is, and the difficulties true spiritual research often faces today—in contrast to what merely pretends to be such—in asserting its position in the world.

[ 91 ] One can only ever act or speak from this or that perspective. Of course, much more could be said to reinforce what has been presented today; I merely wanted to hint at a few specific points of view—points of view that are intended to show, once again, how well-grounded the spiritual scientific approach is in human experience, and specifically in healthy human experience.

[ 92 ] And while this branch of spiritual research, esteemed audience, is still opposed today by some on grounds that seem self-evident—the time will come when a sufficient number of people will have developed within themselves that inner activity which makes the spiritual world accessible to direct perception, and when spiritual knowledge will be incorporated into human knowledge, just as the Copernican worldview has been incorporated into human knowledge.

[ 93 ] Yesterday we saw how deeply rooted the path of spiritual research is in Central European intellectual life, and how a certain—albeit forgotten—note in German intellectual life strives toward a true understanding of the spiritual world. Therefore, we may confidently point to precisely that which was described yesterday as a faded note of German intellectual life—confidently point to that which is, after all, a living force, even if it is not recognized today, and which will be the seed and root of blossoms and fruits that must yet develop. What must rise to prominence is that which, like a preparation in Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, and the others mentioned yesterday, serves as a preparation for truly stepping into the spiritual world.

[ 94 ] But this penetration will come to pass just as surely as the plant—if it cannot be hindered—will develop not only shoots and roots but also leaves, blossoms, and fruit. And the spiritual, if it is well-founded, cannot encounter obstacles in the physical. Therefore, we can look with confidence toward the further development of what is inherent in German spiritual life, and we are well within our rights to do so—as a special act of self-reflection on the German national character—in this present, grave moment in world history. And on the other hand, we may say to ourselves: Even if all the prejudices were to pile up sky-high and even higher—all the prejudices against true spiritual-scientific knowledge—even if the power of those who exclude this spiritual-scientific worldview or, for whatever reason, do not wish to allow it to emerge were to become as great as it could be: Looking into the very essence of spiritual science, one can say: If spiritual science is truth, then it will find the paths that truth has always found. Through crevices, just as through rocky crevices, it will develop, just as it has always developed—spiritual truth, too, just as truth has always developed. Even if a great many prejudices and opposing forces were to pile up, anyone who, out of a genuine human, a truly human feeling, is capable of examining the relationship between truth and the human soul must tell himself again and again: It seems to him as though the human soul and truth were connected like sisters.

[ 95 ] The truth, my esteemed audience, can be fought as an enemy; even if it seems to be extinguished at any given time by opposing prejudice, it will always find ways and means—and in times to come, it will always find ways and means to prevail!

[ 96 ] To those who mock and ridicule spiritual science, anyone who must think about truth and life as indicated may say: Whatever forces may still seek to suppress spiritual science today, spiritual science can rely on its own strength. It will find the strength to resist all oppression within itself; for while the truth can be suppressed, it cannot be eradicated from the world.

[ 97 ] Truth and the human soul are siblings and belong together as siblings—siblings in spirit. And even if human souls that are prone to error rather than to truth should drift apart to a greater or lesser extent at one time or another: It will happen again and again that they will find one another in brotherly love, and that—let me say this as the concluding remark of today’s lecture—that these siblings, Truth and the human soul, must find one another more and more in that spiritual love which refers them both back to their common origin, in which their sibling bond is rooted. And this origin is the Light of the World from which they both come, the spiritual world, the world of origin, the spiritual world that is the fatherly-motherly principle for Truth and the soul, and toward which Truth and the soul will strive again and again, embracing one another as siblings, mindful of their common origin in the all-encompassing Spiritual of the world that permeates and interweaves the world, in which this world has its true, its only true origin.