The Rudolf Steiner Archive

13. How Can One Scientifically Understand the Supernatural Life and Nature of the Human Soul? Findings from Spiritual Reality Research

[ 1 ] Ladies and gentlemen! The matters I will be discussing with you today and the day after tomorrow are the subject of the knowledge and longing that fill every human soul; but on the other hand, it can be said of them that they are at the very same time the very subjects of a current debate in which the pros and cons are raised in the most forceful manner, and in which there prevails just as much misleading “scientific rigor” on one side as there is, on the other, insubstantial—though often well-intentioned—dilettantism. My task today is precisely to show you that scientific rigor is entirely possible in the method and approach to researching the spiritual or soul life of human beings, and at the same time to point out where dilettantism, layism, and the like inevitably come into play in this very field. We shall see, ladies and gentlemen, that in the field of genuine spiritual research, as understood here, the aim is to strive for an entirely new kind of knowledge—not merely a different field of knowledge, a kind of knowledge of which neither contemporary mainstream science nor laypeople have a proper conception— but a mode of knowledge that, on the other hand, is already prepared to the greatest extent in the instincts and unconscious impulses of the souls of our time, and of which one will certainly—like one who is imbued with this kind of spiritual science—have a completely different view in the not-too-distant future than one does at present.

[ 2 ] The subject I will be discussing today and the day after tomorrow is, however, often dismissed—based on certain prejudices—as dreamy, fanciful, or even worse. Anyone who wishes to work their way scientifically toward this kind of knowledge, which I intend to discuss, must, however, have experienced two prerequisites—and I am speaking of actual experiences. One cannot approach the scientific method I am referring to here—I would say, in a single leap—in the same way that a young person, after the usual preparation, might approach any other science. If one wishes to apply this science in practice, one must strive for the entirety of human knowledge using different methods. One must have fully lived through certain experiences and events.

[ 3 ] One must experience what is today rightly admired in the widest circles and by those who understand the subject, because—especially in the course of the nineteenth century and in the present—people have made infinite progress in this regard. This is scientific knowledge; and anyone who wishes to penetrate to the spiritual science referred to here must be familiar with what can be experienced in relation to the great mystery of humanity precisely through the scientific method of knowledge. One must have experienced, time and again through inner struggle, just how far one can go with this scientific method of knowledge in relation to the highest questions of spiritual and soul life. And one must not, as is the case with many people, have merely reached a certain limit in this field theoretically. Rather, one must have arrived at this limit through an inner spiritual practice. One must have reached that limit in a manner consistent with the very nature of scientific inquiry. In its approach and method, science has arrived at its results in the field where it has achieved such brilliant accomplishments precisely because it has proceeded in its method with such conscientiousness and precision, and in a manner so appropriate to the objects of study, as is always the case.

[ 4 ] A person must therefore have gone through all of this: how to conduct scientific research, how to penetrate the mysteries of the world through science, and how far one can go with this scientific research; but—as de Bois-Reymond, the [physiologist] who was famous in the 1870s and is unfortunately far too forgotten today, rightly emphasized— he cannot arrive at this purely theoretically in the study of the soul, for he must not only internally undergo the process of research in this field in a logical and scientifically precise manner, but he must also experience soulfully what penetrates human consciousness in this process—he must not merely work his way into the realm of this science from a purely scientific perspective.

[ 5 ] And this is where it becomes clear—I want to describe the matter today from the perspective of personal experience—that precisely when one remains firmly grounded in the scientific method, one is bound to arrive at certain concepts and ideas in the face of which one is compelled, time and again, to admit: One cannot go any further; one cannot get through it. That is where people’s courage fails; that is where one stands at the limits of experience. But it need not be so; rather, it becomes apparent that the concepts through which one comes to understand the forces of nature cannot be fully penetrated by the scientific method of knowledge, but remain intact and ultimately take shape as a spiritual reality; that this spiritual reality remains, that it does not dissolve within the human inner being, that it remains as a residue with which one cannot penetrate further into this human inner being.

[ 6 ] I merely wish to suggest that, in grappling with these concepts of boundaries, one should proceed as if—figuratively speaking—one were seeing, as in a mirror, what one oneself does and develops in the study of the natural sciences. It really is such a struggle when one develops one’s own concepts; but one develops them in relation to the external world just as a person standing before a mirror sees their own image taking shape through the mirror. And when one tries to go further, it is as if—I will stick with this image—one were to shatter the mirror. You can no longer see anything once the mirror is shattered, and likewise, nothing remains when you try to build upon these primary concepts in the same way.

[ 7 ] So, from a scientific standpoint, if one does not proceed in the correct manner, it is impossible to arrive at anything other than a conclusion at which one must come to a halt. This occurs precisely when one does not proceed in the correct manner, for then you must shatter the mirror—that is to say: the researcher of the spirit must not stop at this conclusion. He must go further and ask himself: What, in fact, is inner experience? What is it that causes our scientific understanding to shatter—that it is as if we were trying to break the mirror when we press on? And when the spiritual researcher truly engages with this, examining these scientific concepts in relation to human soul life, and asks himself the hypothetical question: What would human beings be like if they were to press further here in scientific knowledge, if they were to succeed in achieving results in this field as brilliant as those they have attained in other areas, and if they were to cross over this boundary as well? — then one must say: Human beings would have to be organized differently, possessing different kinds of cognitive faculties.

[ 8 ] But what would that mean? This final question has no bearing on contemporary science. From the standpoint of its worldview, the question is not asked: What kind of people would be needed to penetrate these realms in a scientific manner—the realms into which human beings seek to penetrate in accordance with what they feel to be life’s serious purpose, its deepest longing? We will have to address this matter in detail later, but for now I am merely stating it from the standpoint of knowledge and speaking entirely hypothetically: If the boundary concepts of the natural sciences could be overcome by means that are incapable of overcoming them, then either things would be such that the scientific method could penetrate them, or human beings would be organized in such a way that they could immerse themselves in this world, and then human beings would not be capable of developing a certain power that is closely connected to human life as it exists on Earth. If human beings were organized in this way, they would not be capable of developing love for any being, not even for their fellow human beings. A human being who could fathom the world through the scientific method would be a loveless being in whom the power of love would never take root. Human beings would therefore have to be different; love, in its various stages up to the highest enthusiasm, would be absent at every stage of human existence if, scientifically speaking, these boundaries did not exist.

[ 9 ] One experiences this by being enabled, as a researcher of the spirit, to observe human beings so closely that one can say what a person would be like if they lacked one ability or another, if something were missing from the entire human constitution. That is why one can say that a human being who could advance in the natural sciences to the highest questions would be a loveless human being—in other words, a completely different being than the human being on Earth. Not many people today hold the view that this must be the case, for it is the result of many years of scientific research, but many people have an instinctive sense of it. I would like to say—if I may use a paradoxical expression—that many people possess an unconscious awareness of this. Many are already saying to themselves today: What is called science today cannot bring us fulfillment; that must be sought through other paths. And these other paths today often serve as a playground for the amateurish theoretical endeavors of people who tell themselves: “Science cannot give me what I am seriously seeking”; and they come to advance toward the solution of these highest human questions along the path of what is often called mysticism in life. But this common mysticism—and everything that lies hidden under various names such as occultism, transcendentalism, and so on—is just as ill-suited to penetrating the depths of human existence in true reality.

[ 10 ] Spiritual science must have behind it, on the one hand, experiences at the frontier of the natural sciences and, on the other hand, the realization of the inadequacy of conventional mysticism. And all the talk—such as: “What cannot be attained by ordinary means, in a scientific manner, must be attained by attempting to experience the spiritual, the all-encompassing nature of the world through inner deepening and concentration”—does nothing to change this. Anyone who approaches these matters without prejudice or a ridiculous layman’s attitude will soon realize through experience that this constant, repeated immersion into the mind—from which mysticism derives so much hope—contributes just as little to true reality as does today’s understanding of nature.

[ 11 ] For the one who has trained his mind in the natural sciences also knows how to live through what is called mystical contemplation, and knows how to view it in the proper sense. He must undergo all these self-experiments; he is able to do so and can also observe the process as he does it, knowing that this path leads no further than the form of the image of reality. But so much of human will is still mixed into this, along with so much of what cannot be excluded—what one has experienced thus far—and other things that the subconscious harbors in the depths of the soul—that mere immersion into the inner self can never provide certainty of knowledge, so that one must say to oneself: Through mysticism, one can delve within oneself to a certain degree, but not so far as to reach the core of one’s own human being, where one could grasp Being itself and no longer merely the image that one feels and lives.

[ 12 ] One must have gone through these two ways of experiencing; one must—with regard to the experience of nature and ordinary mystical contemplation—have stood at these two boundaries and be able to say to oneself: External reality never reveals itself completely, because otherwise we would shatter the mirror; reality does not flow into us; and with ordinary mysticism we cannot approach reality, we remain with the image, we remain with what appears in reality, but we do not plunge into it, and an abyss opens up between what is external knowledge of nature and [what] mysticism reveals. All that remains is an image, merely the vapor of a true reality of the soul that wells up from reality in the light of the soul; yet we cannot cross the abyss, and when we look across to reality, it remains completely alien to us. It is precisely in this realm that, in practical experience, the scientific method will never be able to grasp this knowledge and lead us across this abyss.

[ 13 ] I want to prove the validity of my claim using an example I have taken from the literature. The example shows how helpless a naturalist feels when approaching the inner life of human beings. This example is described in a collection that addresses these two borderline questions—the so-called Wiesbaden Collection, by Waldstein—and it clearly illustrates the helpless position in which a contemporary natural scientist finds himself when he attempts to penetrate the depths of the soul using this method. The author of this treatise on the unconscious self recounts: He was once standing in front of a bookstore; he is a natural scientist, and there are many books in the store, when his gaze falls on a book titled On Mollusks. This might interest the natural scientist, since in this case it falls within his field of expertise, and as he looks at the title of the book, On Mollusks, Waldstein suddenly feels compelled to smile.

[ 14 ] Now he himself is puzzled as to why he has to smile, for it would never occur to a serious naturalist to smile, and looking at something as serious as the book On Mollusks is certainly no reason to smile. He wants to figure out why this book on mollusks seems to be making him smile, and he goes about it very cleverly by closing his eyes and trying to listen only. And then he hears, from far away, a barrel organ that he hadn’t heard while he was focusing his attention on the book about mollusks. And the organ was playing a melody to which he had learned to dance ten years ago. Back then, when he was learning to dance, he hadn’t paid particular attention to the melody either, for he says he was much more focused on his steps and his partner at the time, but not on the melody; so back then he hadn’t paid attention to the melody; now his attention was completely distracted, and only faintly does that which sounded just as faint ten years ago resonate in his soul—and yet—this faint, lingering sensation gave him the impression that he was beginning to smile as he sat before the serious book on mollusks.

[ 15 ] One can see what anyone facing this serious matter must say to himself: all that he draws up and brings forth from his soul—things about which one cannot gain any clarity at all. The naturalist Waldstein only noticed this by closing his eyes and investigating it, and one must say: Anyone who reflects on this must realize that the human capacity for memory is something quite remarkable. We have an overview of our ordinary memory, and we usually know how to specify what our memories refer to—for our power of imagination is based on this—but we can never guarantee that unconscious, foreign elements do not intrude upon it. Nevertheless, what is entrusted to memory constitutes the finest part of our inner life. ... [gap]

[ 16 ] When the spiritual researcher encounters an observation such as Waldstein’s, he is led to look once more into his inner experience and ask himself: How is it that ordinary mysticism—this immersion in one’s own mind—cannot possibly approach reality? Anyone who has become acquainted with scientific rigor in contemporary natural science repeatedly asks themselves such questions in an intense way and will, in numerous cases, be able to point out how people who believe they are summoning a powerful, mighty being through mystical immersion in their soul are doing nothing more than unconsciously hearing the sounds of a barrel organ they once heard. It is said that he has immersed himself in the divine being, but that is not true; what has surfaced within him is an impression from his youth that is reflected in him.

[ 17 ] True scientific rigor must be as critical as possible; but when one brings oneself to engage in genuine and true self-observation, one comes to understand why one cannot reach the place where our being is rooted through the path of ordinary mysticism. And one comes to realize: In ordinary human life, one cannot strive to reach the point where the human soul immerses itself in reality, for one would lack, in this earthly life, that which is necessary to be human. If one seeks to penetrate the depths of reality with one’s ordinary life of imagination, one is doing something other than advancing toward one’s own being; namely, one either elaborates perception and what one experiences—whether as self-experience or as fate—or one engages in mysticism and transforms in the depths that which becomes memory. We would have no memory if we could penetrate down to the sources of our being. And so the work we intended to do on the path into the depths of our soul is held back, so that what we experience spiritually can later be brought back up through memory. We must not penetrate into our very selves; otherwise, we would know nothing. We cannot penetrate into what our being is, because we must stop short.

[ 18 ] It is therefore no surprise that we do not immerse ourselves spiritually, but are held back by our memories; and so one comes to the conclusion that we stand before the abyss of knowledge for two reasons: Because human beings would have to be entirely different beings if they could penetrate the knowledge of nature—they would be beings devoid of love; and the other reason is this: If a human being, in a state of ordinary consciousness, were to sink into his own inner being, to submerge himself in his own reality, then he would have no recollection and no memory, and you know what it would mean for a healthy human life if a person had no recollection. For millennia, the health of our soul life has consisted in our ability to remember.

[ 19 ] Ladies and gentlemen, I had to begin with what I have just explained because those who wish to become true spiritual researchers must have gone through these experiences. One can begin with spiritual science, but not with spiritual research, without building upon the great disappointments—the disappointments of life—which consist in recognizing that one cannot unravel the mystery of life through the methods of natural science, and that one cannot cross the inner boundary through ordinary mysticism... [gap] but on the spiritual side, it—spiritual science—can only be built up in the same way that natural science is built up in the outer physical realm. Spiritual science must transform consciousness if it is to penetrate to the depths of human existence. Just as one does not leave water as it is when conducting chemical experiments, but must alter it—decomposing it into hydrogen and oxygen using special apparatus—in order to uncover what can be investigated through natural science, so too must one, in genuine spiritual research, effect changes within the human inner being; one must make a ruthless confession about life—the sincere admission that one cannot penetrate the mysteries of humanity with the cognitive faculties one possesses in life, but rather that one must shape and form them until, through them, one can penetrate the depths into which ordinary consciousness does not penetrate.

[ 20 ] And because this is so—not because one really needs to cultivate scientific knowledge on the one hand and mystical knowledge on the other in order to penetrate the human mystery through experimentation, but because one must strive for a different kind of knowledge and transform our soul in a way that differs from its usual state—this path is still widely shunned, as is the very goal that this science seeks to achieve. It is shunned just as Copernicanism was shunned in its day, when people still had different ways of thinking. And just as the ways of thinking of that time were overcome in the course of time—just as even the resistant communities eventually had to resolve to accept Copernicanism—so too will the time come when all resistance will accept what is sought here as spiritual research, which, however, can only be achieved through the transformation of the soul’s life.

[ 21 ] This transformation of human life is described in detail in my books, in which it is characterized in principle by certain aspects—aspects with which those who have heard my earlier lectures in Vienna are more thoroughly acquainted. There I also said that it is not a matter of somehow transforming people’s ordinary everyday lives and making them unhealthy, but rather of making progress in the realm of the inner experience of human existence, and that through this, the soul—through inner exercises and activities—must, in a very specific direction, become something other than what it reveals itself to be in ordinary consciousness. This can only happen during the time one wishes to be a spiritual researcher.

[ 22 ] Many people believe that this method, as described here, can transform the whole person into something else. But that is not possible; one cannot be a spiritual researcher from the moment one wakes up until the moment one falls asleep, for otherwise one would fill one’s entire being with whatever can lead us into the spiritual realm of existence at that moment. On the one hand, the person would be shaped in such a way that their memory would not function properly, and on the other hand, in such a way that their capacity for love would be diverted into the wrong direction. But if what is now to be discussed in principle is practiced correctly within the soul, then what I have described as a danger will not occur; rather, a strengthening of the human being will take place, for it must be emphasized again and again that everything spiritual science has to offer can be gained only through the path of spiritual science, yet one need not be a spiritual scientist to possess the ability to understand what has been discovered.

[ 23 ] So, just as not everyone can be a chemist, and yet chemical knowledge prevails in life, so not everyone needs to be a spiritual researcher who, through common sense, recognizes how the findings of spiritual research are based on truth—because it is also possible for everyone to become a spiritual researcher to a certain degree and to test for themselves whether everything that spiritual research claims is indeed possible.

[ 24 ] The essential point is that the life of the soul is transformed in such a way that it accomplishes inner acts that would otherwise be impossible. How to do this is explained in the books I have cited, but I wanted to discuss the principle here. One can awaken the ability to detach oneself from all impressions of everyday life—an ability that must be learned just as one must learn to conduct physical experiments—and one must also be able to prepare the mind and soul to block out all impressions from the external world. Through inner experiments, one must be able to bring about a state of soul that is otherwise achieved when a person sleeps without dreaming.

[ 25 ] But when we put ourselves in a position to sleep in this way, we must not completely relinquish our consciousness; rather, our inner spiritual life is strengthened to such an extent that, when we return to ordinary life, full waking awareness can be maintained, even though we are not dependent on external impressions to awaken this consciousness. Supersensible consciousness is a full awareness of inner soul life, which we attain by developing an inner activity that is purely soul-spiritual and does not interfere with everyday life. These activities must be of a spiritual and psychological nature, and we see that the inner life of the soul—which is otherwise used to take in external impressions—conserves energy that would otherwise be expended on perceptions. As a result, thinking and imagination come alive; thinking and imagination flow together.

[ 26 ] It is an encounter within a lifetime in which one becomes aware of one’s inner self through the presence of an image formed by the arbitrary combination of shapes—an image that cannot be interpreted in a pseudo-mystical sense. But one must also be clear that the inner life of the soul will be strengthened in this way, that it will become more intense, and that a different sense of self-awareness is brought about by imagining things just as vividly as one perceives them oneself. One achieves this by training one’s soul, by fully comprehending what is new and processing its image within the soul—an image that makes no claim to represent itself in energetic thought and the life of the soul. At first, one senses only an inner strengthening of self-awareness; this is one aspect of the feeling that the human soul must unite with itself. But one also recognizes what one previously unfolded more or less unconsciously in the depths of the soul; however, this does not lead to making anything lasting.

[ 27 ] If nothing else were to happen, such an inner spiritual life would be completely forgotten; it would be merely an experience in the immediate present, for it does not cling to the power of memory. Those who object to the methods of genuine spiritual research and spiritual science—claiming that even these can only unconsciously call upon the power of memory—should admit to themselves that it is precisely the power of memory that is shut out and does not participate. Everything that is newly experienced and that has thus strengthened consciousness does not descend into the realm of the powers of memory. It is something that forms within, but is not suited to being retained internally by the human being. What is experienced through spiritual research is not suited to waking recollection and lives only in that inner realm which is awakened by the distant sounds of the barrel organ.

[ 28 ] What I have described thus leads, first and foremost, to a deepening of one’s inner spiritual life and a strengthening of self-confidence. Those who practice this come to say to themselves: “I can do it this way, and I now know where that comes from.” I have the profound sense that, once I have transformed my soul, I can recognize the sources of life and the physical foundations for it. I believe that those who regard ordinary spiritual life as bound to the body are correct; I know that if one wishes to attain this self-awareness—which recognizes itself in this way—one must say to oneself: “I do not perceive through my body.” — But one must first have gone through what I have described.

[ 29 ] But one must go one step further. Anyone who practices the exercise I have spoken of for years of his life will notice that he enters into a peculiar way of continuing to explore this self-transformation. They arrive at a mode of experience in which these images overwhelm them to a certain degree; they acquire within their soul a certain capacity for pictorial imagination. This is heightened imagination; this is an intensified imaginative experience. One attains this imaginative experience, but one must continue to shape the soul through ever-increasing, voluntary self-education. Through the ever-increasing strengthening of the inner will, one must learn to master these inner images when they begin to seek to master one. For otherwise, one would always see only one’s own images. But if one succeeds in mastering them, one also learns not only to shape these images but also to dispel them.

[ 30 ] One must also possess this power, and one attains it through the exercises I have described, through which one gains mastery over one’s inner creative activity. But then the soul feels differently once one has truly gone through these inner processes, heightened one’s self-awareness through the formation of images, and is now able to erase these images again. Then—once these images have been erased—one finds oneself in a world that is different from the world of ordinary reality; one is now, through the transformed life of the soul, in a spiritual reality.

[ 31 ] One can compare this to the natural development of the senses; one must regard what one has developed as an inner, spiritual eye. But at first, this is like a physical eye whose cornea is still clouded. Since the image has been erased, one must first heal the eye before it is able to see the image. Whereas one could previously strengthen self-awareness, the power of imagination may now look into another world that cannot be revealed in any other way than this.

[ 32 ] But one must have the courage to pass through such a spiritual experience if one wishes to penetrate into the reality of the spiritual world. And then it happens: one feels as if one has awakened into a new world. This awakening into a new world is an experience akin to waking from a dream into ordinary life, and one now knows: In the dream, there was no reality before one’s eyes, but in waking life, the events of reality are before one’s eyes. In this way, one can awaken from the world of physical reality into spiritual reality.

[ 33 ] But there must also be something present on the other side. In our everyday life, there are not only ideas and perceptions, but also feeling forces, which have a certain direction in every human being. These involve the ideas and perceptions that must be transformed, and the powers of feeling must also be withdrawn from the external world. The human being must be able, through the inner concentration of life, to bring about a state of calm toward the external world for all feelings and the life of the will. The life of the soul must not be stirred by anything that stimulates it from the external world. The will must not be directed toward anything external. Nor must any change be caused by anything external. The spirit must be detached from the external world at the moment it approaches spiritual research.

[ 34 ] Then a remarkable transformation takes place in the soul of the human being; one discovers that, in ordinary consciousness, all perceptions and ideas were previously bounded by our feelings. Now that memory is set aside—and because one is outwardly calm—the feeling and willing of life can penetrate the soul, reaching what one has cultivated; and as the soul awakens, that which takes shape within the inner soul through the restrained feelings still slumbering within flows into it. Now an inner integration of thinking, feeling, and willing takes place, which are no longer the same as they are in ordinary consciousness. One is not merely awakened, for in the awakening of the soul life, the outer spirit also lives, revealing itself just as it reveals itself through the senses in ordinary reality.

[ 35 ] Through the transformation of the soul’s inner forces—through feeling and will—one gains access to the things of the spiritual world. This reveals new abilities that would otherwise lie dormant in the soul. What I have described to you gives the soul—only for the time during which it is engaged in spiritual exploration—the opportunity to develop such powers with which it can penetrate the spiritual world.

[ 36 ] But these powers are different from the powers of ordinary consciousness, and misunderstandings arise because people do not distinguish between the soul’s attitude when it engages in spiritual inquiry and ordinary consciousness. To explore the realities of the spirit, the soul must apply what has been described to itself. And people resist this only because they avoid seriously acquiring the powers that can only be accessed when applied in the proper way. Then they would also see how different these abilities are from those we possess in ordinary life and which we need for a healthy life. What the soul experiences there, it experiences through these supersensory soul powers, not through the ordinary ones, as is the case with external sensory impressions or mental concepts, which come about in no other way than through memory. What is experienced in the spirit is not a mere process of imagination, not mere fantasy, and what the spirit experiences in this way does not transform into memory. One does not simply recall it afterward, but must approach the experience anew; and in this way this process differs from imaginative concepts, and in this way one recognizes it as the expression of genuine spiritual activity.

[ 37 ] Please allow me to touch on a personal note; but in this field, there is much that must be addressed on a personal level, for spiritual research is bound up with the individual. I want to tell you: I look back with complete clarity on that moment in my life—many years ago—when I was able for the first time to perceive the fact that, just as in the observation of the clouds, the sky, in short, the external world, forces are at work that do not originate from this life or from what we have inherited from our father and mother, but rather forces of which one can say, they originate from a life in a spiritual world that preceded our earthly existence, before we became connected to the forces generated by our father and mother. In this soul life, forces are perceived, and other forces—which stem from earlier lives—are at work in the act of perception. One arrives at such direct insight, but the most important thing is that one experiences this insight and knows that the spiritual world is at work in ordinary consciousness, in volition, and in all true perceptions. But it would be in vain to strive to bring such an experience back into memory—to relive it—later on, unless one has acted quickly enough to be able to bring it back into memory at a later time. What one must do must take place with completely clear consciousness, for recollection is impossible. For the soul’s spiritual experience, recollection is impossible, and one remembers only something else once one is back in ordinary soul life. And one can only perceive the experience through a reversed capacity for recollection and say to oneself: How did I come to have such a spiritual experience? What did I do? What did the soul think and feel beforehand that brought it about? How did this experience come about? One can remember that—not the experience itself, but how one came to it. One must remember this; one must approach this experience of the spiritual world by reconstructing not the experience itself, but the conditions under which it occurred.

[ 38 ] And when I speak to you about the structure of a lecture like today’s, which deals with spiritual matters, I must also say: You cannot approach it the same way you would an ordinary lecture. I often give such lectures, but I must say that I find it extraordinarily difficult to retain such a lecture through ordinary memory alone. One can only prepare for this by recreating the conditions under which one originally came to this state, and that is what I wish to convey to the audience. One wants to speak with the spiritual world, and to do so, one must create the conditions for it. But since this is the case, it becomes clear that one can never count on retaining a spiritual experience in one’s mere memory. One can, however, look into the spiritual world, and then what one must say emerges. Anyone who wants to look into the spiritual world must renounce the memory of the spiritual world.

[ 39 ] Admittedly, this may be a disappointment for some. Through the practice of spiritual exercises, one can train oneself to gain insight into the experiences and processes of the spiritual world, but one does not remember them afterward and is disappointed because these spiritual experiences do not dissolve into nothingness—and that is precisely the disappointment faced by all beginners. But by recreating the conditions, one also awakens the memory in an artificial way that is not imagination, and what was seen spiritually then remains, just as a dream remains in memory, and one sees what one has seen in spiritual life. One comes to behold it; one sees how that which seems to be extinguishing itself and passing away remains; one looks back on the past, but in a certain sense, one cannot remember it.

[ 40 ] There is another factor that also leads to certain disappointments for the beginner. It is the contrast to ordinary, healthy earthly life, where one can develop abilities—such as dexterity and habit—that are enhanced through certain recurring activities, and where, in ordinary sensory life, one can strengthen these abilities through repetition. This is how it is in ordinary sensory life, but in spiritual experience it is the opposite. As paradoxical and counterintuitive as it may sound, the fact remains that the more often one has a spiritual experience, the more difficult it is to bring that experience about again. And whoever wishes to have the spiritual experience again and again must make ever greater efforts to have it once more. You thus experience it in a manner opposite to sensory experience and come to realize that, in order to ultimately experience it, you must observe such experiences as quickly as possible. For spiritual experiences have the peculiarity of passing as quickly as possible, so that for those who have done only a few exercises and who lack the necessary presence of mind to hold onto such experiences, they pass unnoticed.

[ 41 ] Many more people would have spiritual experiences if they had the necessary presence of mind. For we are in the midst of spiritual life. But people lack the presence of mind to truly grasp it; and by the time they decide to turn their attention to it, the experience is already over. Therefore, thorough practice is necessary, and in my books you will find how to prepare yourself for this mental alertness, so that you are able to make quick decisions in ordinary situations of life—to make these decisions swiftly. One must get into the habit of making the first decision final, and those people who unnecessarily turn every matter in every direction and keep changing their minds—these loners of life who dither, even in everyday life—can never make such swift decisions or observe spiritual experiences. They refrain from applying the intended exercises to such experiences. Yet these exercises must be part of the process, for only then do the faculties emerge in the soul that make it capable of observing such processes. And then it will be able to provide itself with the answer as to why one cannot approach this mystery through the path of natural science or ordinary mysticism—because this inner life of the soul, between birth and death, is bound to the living body, and one must look to something else that is not bound to ordinary life.

[ 42 ] The moment one has acquired the ability to observe the mental events that are not retained in memory—for memory is bound to the body—the controversial question that permeates human life and constitutes the mystery of humanity is also answered. The first question is a philosophical conundrum, but one cannot get to the bottom of it because one experiences it only as an ordinary phenomenon; yes—even when the sounds of a barrel organ suddenly intrude into our ordinary inner life and, in this ebb and flow, we can never be certain what drives them upward—there is one thing that arises in ordinary inner life, and toward which we must adopt a different attitude than toward everything else that exists in this inner life in terms of perceptions and thought. It is the … [gap] logical and, so to speak, pure thinking, apart from such impressions as the sounds of the barrel organ; we can tell ourselves what is right and what is wrong. Logic has often been written solely for schools. But these questions cannot be answered with this “school logic.” If, however, we approach these matters with true logic, then we will also be able, in a certain sense, to tell what is right and what is wrong, quite apart from what is conscious and what is unconscious, what is sympathetic and what is antipathetic.

[ 43 ] So when one delves into the life of the soul in this way and asks why this is so, one only finds the answer by observing with the transformed soul life described above; and only then does one realize that forces are at work in our soul that drive us to these reflections, forces that reach into our lives from the life we led before, even before the physical bodies of our father and mother had formed us—forces we acquired from the spiritual life before birth or before conception. But those who cannot look into the activity of thought cannot think correctly about the eternal Spirit that manifests itself within them. Hence one can also say, as some have already said: The transformation of the soul’s life occurs in such a way that, in a sense, the entire soul’s life is mystically transformed—but in a higher sense. For what would a musical melody be if memory did not actively interplay with the sound we hear?

[ 44 ] However, memory does not play a role in this soul life; rather, it is past reality itself that does, and what has already passed lives again in the present of our soul life; and so, within us, in our pure thinking—mingled with ordinary soul life—lives the spiritual-soul aspect that was already there before we became connected to the physical world. And when we are then able to take these perceptions in and make them transparent, and look toward the Spirit through the powers of the soul, we find, looking back, the earlier earthly life that can be perceived and experienced. We reflect on human experiences that were previously limited to themselves; we see that we can look back to the eternal Spirits through spiritual research.

[ 45 ] These are fundamental principles; these are the sources of human knowledge, which open up this kind of knowledge to those who seek it, and therein lies the freedom of the human soul. The spiritual researcher who wishes to speak about freedom has made the question of human freedom his central theme for decades. Decades ago, I wrote a book about human freedom; in that book, I showed that one must ascend from physical power to pure spiritual power. This is the second question, which, like the first, is linked to thinking—the question of freedom, which is an experience for everyone but cannot be investigated through the natural sciences. What is bound by the natural sciences will never be able to manifest itself in freedom.

[ 46 ] Nevertheless, everyone knows what actions are free. I have already said which actions in human life can be called free. Only certain kinds of actions are free: for example, when we have a being beside us whom we love, for what is love in the true reality of the soul? Love has various forms; it can be selfish—a form of egoism—because it is pleasant to love that which is pleasant to love; but even this love can change; it can become spiritualized; it can turn its attention to other beings, and this completely excludes selfishness toward the beloved.

[ 47 ] Yes, I was right a quarter of a century ago when I disagreed with the commonly accepted saying, “Love is blind.” That is completely wrong, because in reality it should be: “Love gives sight.” Of course, only the one who is able to set himself aside, who merges with the being he loves, who is capable of following the various phases of love up to their highest intensity—only he can grasp what free actions are. We do many things in life out of selfishness, but it happens that even here actions arise that we stand by just as we stand by the beloved being who is dear to us. We will not want to perform actions that we regard as wrong in the light of pure thought and devotion; these actions must be done out of love. We ourselves will act rightly only when we love the Spirit.

[ 48 ] Freedom and the love of action are concepts that cannot be separated from one another, and one cannot ask: Is man free or unfree? No, for human beings are unfree in their will when acting out of necessity, out of instincts, or out of the subconscious aspects of their inner life; but they become free by being able to hate and love that which they deem necessary to do for themselves and for the world. If, through the transformed powers of the soul, one correctly uncovers what is required of human beings—in love and true freedom—as the motive for their will, then one can penetrate this reality not through mysticism, but through this transformation of the soul’s powers into spiritual reality, and one discovers that a mysterious power dwells within the human being, like the seed in the plant that gives rise to the next plant.

[ 49 ] This seed also lives in the human soul; however, it is concealed, and human beings are unable to see it; yet they have acquired the ability to look back on their will and their duties. Then one also sees what is going on within a person as they perform actions out of love. In the life of the soul, free actions conditioned by spiritual and soul forces are at work. Just as a person is rooted within themselves in this present life and can perceive what they think correctly and incorrectly, so too will we see in the future that earthly life becomes something like what it was in the past, as we pass through the gate of death and the seed planted for the future remains within us—a seed that was concealed by our life of feeling and willing. We see … [gap], how the seed we planted in past earthly lives must come to life when we lay down our lives; and we will also glimpse life before birth. We perceive life in the spirit before birth and after death by directing our gaze, through feeling and willing, toward that which is not bound to the physical organism. We also see that spiritual research is not something mystical, not something that can be conveniently introduced, but rather it strives in those realms that are the realms of longing for all people who wish to awaken to life.

[ 50 ] There is an unbridgeable chasm between what we call the life of memory and what natural phenomena first presented to us. By summoning such forces to destroy the imagination and preserve the powers of memory, we plunge into that which must not be entered in ordinary life; but through this we gain the ability to plunge into that world which is not intended for ordinary life. This leads us to true spiritual research; it will one day be a science, just as Copernicanism became a science when it broke with the old conception of the soul.

[ 51 ] It is, of course, understandable that this research is misunderstood by various parties and that opposition to it arises. To the mystic, it does not seem suitable because spiritual research is not mystical enough; and others believe they must adhere solely to the natural sciences. But the time will come when they will see that spiritual research is a pure science. There is also a fear that superstition will resurface and that dilettantism will creep into serious research. But that, too, is not the case.

[ 52 ] I was only able to identify the principles, to point out the beginning of these things. However, everyone has the opportunity to discover the areas that are important in practical life, as well as certain human experiences—especially as they relate to the present—that confirm my remarks. I simply wanted to explain what spiritual research must do to open up such areas. It will be misunderstood by both the left and the right, for this spiritual research does not require venturing into new areas, but rather approaching these areas in a new way—developing new concepts for the new reality that are unfamiliar to most people today. Yet they are not entirely foreign to them, because this spiritual research draws upon forces that lie dormant in the human soul today—forces that are now awakening in real human life during these difficult times. When these forces are associated with certain things that seem to stem from ancient times, when old experiences are stirred within us from time to time today, then those concerned know that they must yearn for something other than what people have put forward so far.

[ 53 ] Humanity’s development must continue. The need for it exists; we have made progress toward a new science, but people are not yet aware of it. Yet they do exist, and even those broader circles that still deny them today dream of them and strive with constant longing for this spiritual science, which is neither a program nor an arbitrary construct, for spiritual science is nothing other than what people actually want, what they long for, what lies dormant deep in the subconscious, and I am convinced that what spiritual science seeks to offer is nothing other than the fulfillment of what people truly desire. And neither the people of the present nor the people of the future can do without this.