The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. The Essence of Anthroposophy

[ 1 ] Ladies and gentlemen! Even today, many people—who are only able to view anthroposophy from the outside—regard it as a more or less fanciful attempt to penetrate, through knowledge, into areas of the world with which a serious scientist should have nothing to do. And it is true that anthroposophy, through the development of special powers of insight, seeks to penetrate areas of life that are of paramount importance to human beings, and to which the natural sciences—with all their great triumphs, which are fully acknowledged by anthroposophy—have no access. Above all, it must be said that there are already scientists today who are to be taken quite seriously and who are concerned with all manner of abnormal human soul-body forces that point to how human beings can develop effects demonstrating that they are still rooted in the world in ways other than those that can be established by natural science alone. Yet it is precisely these serious scientists who find the path taken by anthroposophy to be nothing short of fantastical. They regard it as prone to fanciful speculation or perhaps even superstition. In any case, they do not consider it a path that can be taken seriously from a scientific standpoint.

[ 2 ] Now one really must say: Those people who are prone to fanciful enthusiasm and nebulous mysticism—and who are of the sort that, as is so common today, readily gravitate toward anything that is in any way labeled “occult” or the like—will by no means find any genuine satisfaction in anthroposophy in the long run. For this anthroposophy seeks to work with the seriousness, conscientiousness, and methodology that are entirely in line with recent developments in the natural sciences. And above all, healthy, harmonious, human thinking must be applied in this anthroposophy. And so it is precisely the dreamers and the superstitious who very quickly distance themselves from it. Of course, this does not prevent those people who are quick to dismiss anything that is initially unfamiliar to them from saying: “Only neurasthenics or hysterical individuals have an interest in anthroposophical research.”

[ 3 ] Well—my esteemed audience—given this, it is difficult to clearly outline the essence of anthroposophy in a short evening lecture. I will, however, attempt to show what the paths of this anthroposophy are, and at least hint at the results to which this anthroposophy can lead, in order thereby to characterize how this anthroposophy certainly cannot be for dreamers or superstitious people; but rather how it can be a spiritual asset for all those who engage in practical life with sound common sense, yet who, precisely because of this, need—in accordance with the spiritual development of our time—stability, security, and direction for their spiritual life—and indeed certain powers that can only be truly effective in external, practical, social life if they are drawn from a spiritual, a supersensible world and sustain the human soul from within such a world.

[ 4 ] However, no spiritual research today could, in the long run, make any kind of impression or have fruitful effects if it were to contradict what has emerged so significantly over the course of the last three to four centuries—and especially during the nineteenth century—through the natural sciences and their practical findings. But that is certainly not what anthroposophy intends. It seeks precisely to continue along the very paths that have led to significant results in the natural sciences, extending them into the spiritual worlds. Therefore, it must stand on the side of those natural scientists—the level-headed natural scientists—who, based on a thorough pursuit of the methods of the natural sciences, speak of the limits of those very sciences. These limits soon become apparent when one considers that natural science can only observe the external sensory world; it can only use the intellect and reason to synthesize the facts of the external sensory world that result from observation or experiment, and can then derive certain laws of nature from these observations and experiments; laws of nature in which, however, human beings, with their physical bodies, are also bound. But the attempts made to go beyond these limits set for us by the sensory world through mere reason—or, as one might say, through philosophical thinking—always leave the open-minded person unsatisfied. The open-minded person feels: As soon as scientific thinking, as we are accustomed to it today, departs from the paths of sensory experience, experimentation, and observation, thinking left to its own devices enters a realm of uncertainty. The conflict among philosophical systems indeed testifies to how deeply one enters into this realm of uncertainty when relying on thinking left to its own devices. It is precisely anthroposophical research that makes it clear how this thinking, which we employ in everyday life and in conventional, accepted science, is not merely bound to sensory experience—as is customary or arbitrary—in the case of the level-headed natural scientist, but how it is itself, step by step, dependent on this sensory experience, so that it has certainty only when this external experience, this sensory experience, guides it.

[ 5 ] In short—my esteemed audience—it is precisely when one is unable to think scientifically in a layman’s or amateurish way that one recognizes the inadequacy of this self-directed thinking, which somehow seeks to penetrate the supernatural through philosophy; one comes to understand the validity of this inadequacy. Many people of our time therefore do not think much of satisfying their spiritual needs—their longings for the eternal within the human soul—through such unguided thinking. And in our time, when the old traditions of religious life and faith are becoming increasingly unstable, people do need such new pillars of support. Consequently, there are many deeply inclined minds in our time who recognize that a worldview relying on thought left to its own devices cannot provide the soul with the necessary support and security. That is why such deeply inclined natures are turning today to certain mystical movements.

[ 6 ] Precisely when one speaks seriously about what anthroposophy can mean for people today, one must characterize these two pitfalls that its research must navigate. One pitfall is the purely intellectual worldview, which seeks to reach the supersensible through thought left to its own devices; the other consists of certain mystical movements. These seek, by having the human being, as it were, immerse themselves in their own inner being, to penetrate into the deeper recesses of human soul life. They seek to bring up from these deeper recesses that which is not present in ordinary life, and which connects the eternal in the soul with the eternal world powers that govern the world. Anthroposophy must draw attention to these two pitfalls because it must demonstrate how seriously it is committed to avoiding, on either side, the reckless tendency to settle for something that cannot provide a secure foundation for knowledge. For whoever is able to observe the inner life of their own human soul with an open mind—dear friends—can no more remain stuck in a more or less nebulous mysticism than they can go beyond the limits of natural science through thinking left to its own devices. People usually do not realize how what lives within the soul is connected to external sensory impressions. People usually do not know how peculiarly human memory and recollection function. Perhaps decades ago, someone received some impression from the external world—unconsciously or subconsciously, without fully realizing it. It sank down into the life of the soul, where it was transformed. It may have become connected with human emotional life; it may have become connected with human sympathies and antipathies, with impulses of the will. It has become something entirely different, yet it is still only a transformed external impression. And then, as one says, it is brought up from the soul through inner contemplation and is regarded as something that comes from eternal depths, something that did not originate from any external world through an external impression. Illusions upon illusions can arise in this way through nebulous mysticism. Therefore, anthroposophy certainly cannot stop at this mystical immersion into the human inner life. If this human inner life is taken as it appears in ordinary life, and as it is also used for research in ordinary science.

[ 7 ] Precisely because anthroposophy fully recognizes that one cannot penetrate to anything that is not already present in some form in this ordinary life—neither by breaking through outward sensory appearances with ordinary human cognition, nor through inner contemplation—anthroposophy must seek out powers of cognition that have yet to be developed, that lie dormant in the human soul — one could also say, if one wishes to use a scientific term —, lie latent within it and can be brought to the surface.

[ 8 ] That there are such powers lying dormant in the human soul—powers that can be awakened and that can become higher powers of cognition than those of ordinary life and ordinary science—can, of course, only be proven by the practice I wish to speak to you about this evening. But in order to even begin seeking such powers of insight through one’s own spiritual development, one needs what I would like to call intellectual humility. At some point in life, this intellectual humility must prompt one to say: You were once a child with dreamlike soul powers—powers that were completely disoriented in relation to the outer world, with a state of mind that was dull compared to the one you carry within you today. External education and life have drawn out of the soul what lay dormant within it. They have cultivated those powers of insight that are generally recognized today in a person who has received an appropriate upbringing or other education. Now, at some point in life, one must say to oneself—out of intellectual humility—that even from the standpoint one has attained in this way through ordinary education and ordinary life, one can now take one’s self-development into one’s own hands and advance beyond where one was before; one can draw forth further powers that lie dormant in the soul. And it is with such powers—which lie dormant in the soul of every human being and whose development is nothing other than a continuation of the normal human soul powers—that anthroposophy seeks to explore. To investigate what lies beyond the sensory world, to investigate what is hidden in the human soul as the eternal, and what is connected to the most vital longings and mysteries of life within this human soul—I will certainly not have to speak to you of external measures that might need to be taken to develop these powers that lie dormant within the soul. I will first have to speak to you about intimate exercises of the human soul if I am to characterize the paths that anthroposophy takes into the supersensible world.

[ 9 ] In my book *How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?*, in the second part of my *Secret Science*, and in other books, I have pointed out in detail everything that must be undergone through vigorous and persistent spiritual exercises so that a person may attain such supersensible knowledge. Today I will outline the fundamental principles of what is described there in detail.

[ 10 ] The first thing at issue here is a development of the soul toward [the powers of imagination], toward the powers of thought. Just as one can strengthen and build up a muscle by using it in work, so too can one indeed strengthen and build up the powers of thought in the human soul by using them in a certain way—and using them again and again, indeed, using them repeatedly in rhythmic succession—so that they become something entirely different from what they were at first. To achieve this, it is necessary to place a readily comprehensible image or a readily comprehensible complex of images at the center of one’s consciousness, and then—by withdrawing one’s attention from everything else through strong inner willpower—to concentrate the entire life of the human soul on this single image or this single complex of images. However, in order to achieve what needs to be achieved, this complex of ideas must not be drawn from our ordinary life of memory. As I have already indicated, what we draw up from our ordinary life of memory can lead us into illusions; it brings up reminiscences that lie dormant in the unconscious. One cannot possibly know what might all rise up from the soul if one were to place an idea or a complex of ideas from one’s ordinary life of memory at the center of one’s soul life and then concentrate on it. So take, for example—and this is just an example—something you find in some book by another author: a saying, a sentence. The content doesn’t matter; what matters is that you exercise your thinking—in the very act of thinking—and that you take as your subject matter something that was previously unknown to you, something new entering your inner life. We will see why in a moment. Or, one could ask someone experienced in this field to provide such a saying. For what matters is that whatever enters the center of one’s inner life—and upon which one then concentrates one’s entire inner life, devoting all one’s attention—approaches the person in the same way that any external sensory impression otherwise does, such as a color, a sound, or any other external sensory impression. What anthroposophy strives for in this path of research is, in fact, external sensory perception. This external sensory perception presents itself in such a way that it approaches us from the outside, compelling us to accept its content. Just as a person faces external perception as something foreign—and thereby directs their attention to it with particular vividness—so too should that which I have spoken of here, once it has been brought into the center of experience, stand before the life of the soul. For a person should exert their thinking with the same liveliness with which they otherwise behave only when faced with an external sensory impression.

[ 11 ] In this way, I would like to point out—my esteemed audience—that what anthroposophy strives for as a path of knowledge must not be confused, as unfortunately still often happens today, with everything that leans toward the pathological, the diseased aspect of soul life. For anyone who can view human soul life with an open mind, it is clear that even ordinary memory—admittedly, it lies within the realm of health, of course—but that even ordinary memory is bound to the human physical organism, and that when the normal connection of the human soul to the physical organism in the act of remembering develops in an abnormal direction, when the life of the soul becomes more closely bound, more intimately bound to the physical organism, those pathological states arise that manifest themselves in hallucinations, visions, illusions, easy suggestibility, and so on—and which lie precisely at the opposite pole from that toward which anthroposophical paths of knowledge lead. Everything that confronts us pathologically draws the life of the soul deeper down into the bodily functions, deeper than the capacity for memory lies. That which is developed through the strengthening of thinking described above makes human thinking more and more like the behavior of the human soul when it takes in an external sensory impression. Just as a person is much more vividly absorbed in this sensory impression than in ordinary, more passive thinking, so too must thinking be strengthened so that it becomes as vivid and as intense as the experience of an external sensory impression. It is precisely in this coming to life of the world of thought that one increasingly realizes that one is entering a soul life that is not the ordinary one. You know, my esteemed audience, how pale—and rightly so—ordinary thought life is compared to life in sensory impressions and, in general, in external events. Just as one normally lives in sensory impressions and external events, so should one’s entire thought life become during those times when one wishes to devote oneself to supersensible knowledge.

[ 12 ] Now, so as not to be misunderstood, I must point out yet another difference from the abnormal states of mind I have just mentioned, namely: As the person seeking anthroposophical research develops this capacity for thinking, the ordinary personality continues to exist in its full, healthy state of mind. In a sense, a second personality develops. And the first—the personality with common sense and sound critical judgment—remains in control alongside the developed personality, the personality with the higher capacity for insight. When someone succumbs to hallucinations, visions, or illusions; when they become a medium; or when they are exposed to suggestion, their entire ordinary, healthy personality shifts into a state of hallucination, illusion, and so on. This is the fundamental difference of the thoroughly healthy anthroposophical path: that the ordinary personality always remains as healthy as it is in everyday life—exercising control and critical judgment—and coexists alongside the developed, alternative personality. Only on this basis can it be said that—it takes years for some, depending on their disposition, only months for others, and some can achieve this in a few weeks through meditation and concentration on a specific thought content, as I call it—it can be said that through this, a person can come to feel in a manner similar to that of ordinary thinking. In ordinary thinking, the person needs the physical organism. In this regard—one might say—anthroposophical spiritual science fully acknowledges the validity of materialism.

[ 13 ] In order to develop their soul faculties at all in everyday life and in ordinary science, human beings need the physical body. And they become free from the physical body only by strengthening their thinking and making it more intense and more alive. Thinking becomes free from the physical body to the same extent that external sensory phenomena are free from the physical body. Consider how independent the physical apparatus of the eye is from the rest of the human organism. I cannot elaborate further on this now; I merely wish to hint at it. What takes place in the eye under the influence of the external world is what, in a certain sense, means that the human being is immersed in the sensory perceptions of an objective world through the eye. By linking his thinking to this objective world, thinking itself is also introduced into an objective world. Through sensory perception, the human being, in a certain sense, steps outside of himself.

[ 14 ] This is not the place to engage in deep epistemological reflections, but what I am saying is something any ordinary person can understand. A person steps outside of themselves when they engage in the exercises in meditation and concentration that I have described. But then the person realizes how, in fact, they are only now gradually learning to develop their spiritual life as such, independently of the body. As grotesque and paradoxical as it may still sound to people today: one comes to know through experience, through the practice of life, what it means to have thoughts outside the human physical organism. These thoughts, however, are different from ordinary, pale thoughts, and even from those that deal with the laws of nature. These developed, energized thoughts are as vivid as the external sensory impressions themselves. That which, in turn, is fully clear to the anthroposophical researcher must not be lacking precisely at this stage of cognition. In the aforementioned writings and elsewhere, I have called this stage of cognition the imaginative stage. Imaginative not because one imagines something, but because thinking transitions from the abstract form into the pictorial, the living, and the intensified form. But what the person who embarks on anthroposophical paths of research is fully aware of within this imaginative thinking—and what is necessary—is that they know: You are now carrying within your thought-images only that which lives within your own human being.

[ 15 ] You can see how carefully the anthroposophical path of knowledge must be described. One must point out that, while this first stage does allow one to experience a more intense, inner aspect of the human being, the individual must realize that, at first, they are not yet experiencing the external world, but only this inner human realm. But one already achieves a first result when one strengthens this inner life through such an intensified, pictorial, imaginative visualization. For one gradually comes to have before one’s soul, as in a comprehensive tableau of life, everything that has shaped one, everything that has been formed within one’s inner soul from birth up to the present moment. We carry within our souls—and otherwise only within ourselves—what we have in the form of ordinary memory. The stream from which memories of this or that experience arise, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, essentially flows through the subconscious. We know, after all, how abstract this stream is, how these images of memory are overshadowed compared to the actual experiences when we are in the midst of them. What now appears before imaginative insight must not be confused with these images of memory. It is not mere memories that appear, but rather that which suggests to us how we have become who we are. Yes, even back into the earliest years of childhood, one sees the inner forces that have developed one’s ordinary life abilities. One sees how the moral and intellectual faculties have developed, how they have become integrated into the forces of growth and nutrition. One truly looks into the human inner being.

[ 16 ] One learns to recognize what I have called the human being’s “body of formative forces.” One truly learns to recognize a second body. But if one wants to characterize it precisely, one must say: It is a body of time. It is something that is constantly evolving and in motion. One cannot draw it without becoming aware that one is drawing or painting it in the same way one paints a flash of lightning. That which is in motion within time can only be captured in a single moment—and so it is with this human formative body. In truth, it is a unified organization unfolding in time, and one must understand it in this way. There have, of course, always been older intuitions regarding such higher insights, and what I call the “body of formative forces” has also been called the “etheric body” or the “life body.” If one learns to recognize it in the manner described—not through logical conclusions or otherwise, but through direct inner perception with the imaginative insight thus developed—then one knows once and for all: What constitutes the human organism does not occur merely through the presence of a sum of chemical and physical forces that constitute the human physical body, but through the fact that a spiritual-soul element is drawn into the physical organism at birth or conception, and that a second, a spiritual-soul body—a supersensible body that is not merely spatial but temporal, and is always in motion—is at work within us. And one learns to recognize the inner relationship that exists between thinking, imagining, and the forces of growth. As long as one considers the human being solely from a physiological and biological perspective, one finds, on the one hand, the forces of growth, and on the other hand—for example, through inner observation—the abstract powers of thought. Through the imaginative contemplation I have just spoken of, one learns to recognize how a gradual transition takes place between the ordinary forces of growth and the powers of thought, how imagination itself, as it gains strength, leads into that which simultaneously brings about growth—the development of the inner organic power, step by step, in the growing human being. Thus, imaginative insight becomes a first result of anthroposophical inner research.

[ 17 ] It is not enough, however, to simply focus one’s inner life on a single idea or a complex of ideas; in addition to such exercises, others must also be pursued in a different direction. Although everything I have described, and what is explained in the books mentioned, aims to enable a person to perform such exercises with complete freedom of will and with the same inner composure as one experiences in ordinary life, and also to achieve such concentration and such focusing of attention on a certain idea, the fact remains that one gradually feels oneself becoming attached to such ideas—too strongly attached—unless other spiritual exercises are undertaken in a different direction. One must therefore, just as faithfully as one concentrates on certain ideas, perform exercises to ensure that these ideas can be extinguished from consciousness at any time, if one so desires, and removed from consciousness once again. Then one is able to achieve what can be called “empty consciousness.” Otherwise, empty consciousness is present in human beings only during the time between falling asleep and waking up. And if one has not undergone any training in this practice, there is a great temptation that, at the moment when consciousness becomes empty of external impressions—or even when it is so strongly overwhelmed by external impressions that it can no longer distinguish them—when consciousness becomes empty in this way, a kind of sleep state sets in. This is precisely what is essential for the further progress of anthroposophical research: that empty consciousness can be established without the person entering any state of sleep or dreaming, but rather that they can remain fully conscious—without imagining anything through their own inner power—just as they otherwise are in the presence of external impressions or in the case of a highly developed life of thought, feeling, or will. And then, once the life of thought has been strengthened in the manner described—strengthened to such an extent that one is, so to speak, inwardly absorbed in the immediate experience of this tableau of memories I have spoken of, when one’s entire earthly life to date stands before one’s eyes like a vast tableau, when one has strengthened the life of imagination to that degree—then one is also able to while fully awake, to dampen the individual image—which one has brought into the center of consciousness in this way, or which has placed itself there—and to cast it out of consciousness, thereby creating a state of empty consciousness. Once one has practiced this for some time—and again, this varies depending on the individual’s disposition, whether it takes a longer or shorter time— I can only say this: Anthroposophical research is no easier than research at an observatory, in a laboratory, or in a clinic; one must persistently and diligently undergo such exercises as I am now describing for a long time.

[ 18 ] Once one has managed to expel individual ideas from consciousness after they have entered it, and to create an empty consciousness, then one can also remove from consciousness that which has presented itself to the soul as a tableau of memories—that which has appeared as a body of formative forces, as a temporal organism. This requires a strong inner spiritual power. One must first acquire it by dampening other ideas until consciousness is emptied. But one ultimately attains this power to subdue the entire body of formative forces, so that it sinks, as it were, into the deeper layers of consciousness. Then the moment may arrive when imaginative knowledge first enters the second stage of supersensible knowledge—the second level of knowledge, inspired knowledge—for the comprehension of human inner life.

[ 19 ] Don’t take offense at the expression; after all, expressions are necessary everywhere. In this case, it does not refer to anything traditional or superstitious, but only to what I am describing here. So once one has first strengthened one’s thinking, and once one has then strengthened the soul to the point where empty consciousness can be established, the objective spiritual world can penetrate this empty consciousness—just as the air we breathe enters the lungs as something objective.

[ 20 ] And now what a person has experienced soul-spiritually before uniting, as a soul-spiritual being, with the physical human body truly becomes a vision. In this moment of inner soul-exploration, the great and mighty reality emerges: the spiritual-soul aspect itself, in its own essence, appears before the soul’s gaze; that one beholds the soul as it was in a purely spiritual-soul world before it became united, through birth or conception, with the physical-bodily substances and forces bestowed upon it through the hereditary forces of parents and ancestors.

[ 21 ] This is the essence of anthroposophical research: that it advances toward a direct perception of the true spiritual-soul realm not through mere thinking, not through mystical contemplation, but through the development of soul powers that otherwise lie dormant within human beings. Of course, when one hears something like this, it would be easy to say: Well, then, only those who have advanced to such insights can speak of such a conviction regarding the immortality of the human soul—or rather, when I speak of what I have been discussing so far—of the pre-existence of the human soul. Well, first of all, it is the case that through books such as those I have mentioned, it becomes possible for every human being to take the first steps toward the kind of supersensible knowledge I have described. And even if these are still unfamiliar paths of the soul today, those who have ventured onto them know that they will increasingly become the paths of human development. Because they must first make their way into the spiritual development of humanity today, they seem paradoxical to many. But just as one need not be a painter to be enchanted by a good painting with one’s whole inner being, to perceive its essence and what the painter intended, so too does one need not be an anthroposophical researcher to recognize as true what the anthroposophical researcher asserts. Common sense is quite sufficient, just as ordinary sensibility is sufficient to appreciate a work of art. For there is an innate capacity in the human soul for perceiving the truth. Therefore, one cannot say that only those who are spiritual researchers in the manner described can acknowledge the results of spiritual research. It is simply that, over many centuries of human development, people have become accustomed to rejecting such things outright; this has gradually given rise to prejudices in the mind and intellect that still prevent what characterizes anthroposophical research—its methods and findings—from appearing reasonable to common sense today.

[ 22 ] I have now outlined for you how human beings first come to their immortal nature by developing in one direction, looking beyond birth or conception through imaginative and inspired knowledge. But the paths of anthroposophical research must go further. It is not merely a matter of developing what constitutes the power of imagination and the power of thought; rather, the power of human will must also be developed to a higher level. I would like to outline the fundamental principles of this as well. Admittedly, what lies at the very core of the human soul—human feeling, the content of the human emotions—is situated right in the middle between thinking and willing. But that which rests at the very center of the soul as our emotional and inner life develops along with us into the higher worlds when, on the one hand, we develop the life of imagination, as indicated, and, on the other hand, we develop the life of the will.

[ 23 ] If, on the one hand, a kind of ideal for anthroposophy—I would say—is the soul’s experience of external perception, then, on the other hand, what takes place in the human soul in moral life—above all in a life of self-sacrificing love—becomes an ideal for the unfolding of the will powers slumbering within the soul. I know—my esteemed audience—that when we speak of self-sacrificing love, we are referring to something that many people wish to distance from all true powers of knowledge. Yet there is no suggestion here that love, as it exists and is justified in ordinary life, is itself supposed to be some kind of power of knowledge. But just as thinking is developed on one side, so too is the capacity for self-sacrificing love developed on the other side, in order thereby to free the will from the physical organism just as the life of thought can be freed from the physical organism in the manner indicated. On the surface, these do not appear to be spiritual exercises in the capacity for love at all. Nevertheless, they lead to a capacity for love heightened to the level of cognitive clarity. Here, too, I wish to indicate the underlying principle. One such exercise—one such capacity that develops the will in particular—is the following: One imagines something that one is accustomed to conceiving only in a certain way—from the earlier to the later, from the beginning to the end—but now in reverse order. For example, one imagines a drama starting from the final event of the fifth act and working backward to the first event of the first act. Or one imagines a melody in reverse. Or one simply imagines one’s ordinary daily life in reverse order in the evening. But one must go into as much detail as possible, imagining it in reverse in small segments.

[ 24 ] What is the point of this? Ladies and gentlemen, in everyday life we base our thinking on the sequence of external events. Thinking is passively devoted to the external sequence of events. In this way, it also makes itself dependent on the laws of the physical human organism. The physical human organism, through the physical senses, is devoted to the external sequence of events. Thinking is dependent on this sequence of events. And by recalling experiences in a pictorial way through memory, it nevertheless remains dependent on the external sequence of events. Certainly, one might object: Through logical thinking, human beings free themselves from this sequence of events. But what, after all, is their primary aim when they seek independence? Precisely to recognize the external sequence of events all the more clearly. We think logically so that we can understand the spatial and temporal sequence of events all the more clearly. We are lifted out of this dependence on the external world of facts—and also out of the dependence of thought itself—by developing our thinking in this way: by thinking backward from the end to the beginning, that is, in the opposite direction of the external sequence of events. Through this, however, we now develop the will. In the life of the soul, thoughts, feelings, and the will are indeed intertwined. In abstract thinking, we can separate the three; in the life of the soul, the will is contained within every thought, connecting and separating the thoughts; and within the will, thoughts are at work, even if the connection between thoughts is initially as unclear to ordinary consciousness as, for example, the state of consciousness during sleep at night. But it is precisely the will, which is devoted to thinking, that develops freely and independently of the world of facts and also of human physicality through such reverse thinking.

[ 25 ] If one adds to these exercises others that I would like to describe as heightened human self-observation—all of which must be accomplished with absolute inner composure and with absolute free will—one carries out such self-observation in such a way that one observes what one does, what one thinks and feels, the entire manner in which one is and acts as a human being, as if one were standing beside oneself as another person, as a second human being; one becomes deliberate in regard to the will, and then the will gradually detaches itself from physicality—provided the exercises are performed for a long time and with vigor, especially if one also actively intervenes in one’s own development. Just consider how a person is shaped in ordinary life by what life itself provides. Certainly, everyone is different today than they were ten or twenty years ago with regard to certain finer nuances of the soul life. Life has brought about that change. But if one takes one’s own self-development into one’s own hands, if one resolves: “You shall incorporate this or that quality into yourself”; if one works toward incorporating such qualities, if one works particularly energetically to rid oneself of certain habits, then one cultivates that which tears the will away from physical corporeality. And one now reaches the point where the will, so to speak, lives in the soul only to the extent that it is entirely permeated by thought throughout; it is torn away from physicality; it has become transparent. Consider how little transparency there is in the act of willing when we form the thought—say, of raising our arm or raising our hand. The thought, the intention, is clear, and afterward, when the hand is raised, we see from the sensory impression what has happened. What lies in between—the unfolding of the will—is as hidden from human consciousness as the processes of sleep itself. But now we experience a will in which we are fully immersed, just as we are otherwise only immersed in thought—a body-free will that harmonizes with the body-free imaginative and inspired perceptions we have received previously.

[ 26 ] And now—my esteemed audience—as we experience how our will can become free of the body, as we can, so to speak, step out of our bodies with our will, we now experience the essence of human immortality from the other side. For this stepping out of the body is nothing other than a symbolic representation of what occurs when a human being passes through the gate of death. As a human being becomes aware of what they experience through this strengthened will, through this will that has become contemplative—which I call the stage of intuitive knowledge—and as they are outside the body, this is immediately evident through its characteristics as an image of what enters the spiritual-soul world as the spiritual-soul aspect -soul world when a human being leaves their physical body behind in its physical form. In this intuitive insight, one learns to recognize the other side of human eternity, that which extends beyond death.

[ 27 ] You see—my esteemed audience—the eternal aspect of the human soul does not present itself to anthroposophical research as a mere idea, but rather it is composed of the pre-birth and, if I may say so, post-death existence—of pre-birth and immortality. And by coming to know in this way that which is eternal, that which is immortal in the human soul, one also learns to recognize those worlds that surround this human soul when it is in its purely spiritual-soul nature, by looking at that which the soul was before birth or, respectively, before conception. Of course, another objection is possible: “Yes, but how do we know that what we are observing in our consciousness actually predates birth or conception?” Well, just as with ordinary memory—when you recall an experience you had ten years ago, the memory itself contains the time—just as you cannot believe you have something in your consciousness that exists only in the present—just as the content of consciousness itself points to the time in which the experience took place—so what we experience as spiritual-soul life carries within it the time before birth or before conception. But we also become aware of worlds that are not the sensory ones, for we perceive those only between birth and death through the human senses. But those worlds that we perceive through the soul senses—if I may use that expression—before birth and after death, are now open to us. We come to know them as concrete, essential worlds. And as we get to know these worlds, we also come to know the spiritual-suprasensory world that always surrounds us—a world we cannot penetrate through mere philosophical speculation. We enter into it by developing more and more imaginative, inspired, and intuitive insight.

[ 28 ] This intuitive insight, which in a certain sense represents the highest level of knowledge for perceiving the outer spiritual world, already presents itself to us in everyday life, albeit in a different form. And as early as the beginning of the 1890s—if I may make this personal remark—I was already able, through my own spiritual development, to draw attention to this in my *Philosophy of Freedom*—how human moral and ethical impulses—and it is, after all, moral and ethical life that gives human beings their true value and dignity—are drawn from a world that I also called at the time an “intuitive world,” a world of spiritual essences. And I already stated in this *Philosophy of Freedom*: True moral impulses are drawn from a spiritual, supersensible world through pure, senseless thinking. I grounded freedom in human life by pointing out that the question is usually posed incorrectly. People ask: Is the human being free or unfree? The human being is just as much free as he is unfree. Unfree with regard to all the ordinary actions of life that are bound to the physical organism, where they are driven by instincts and drives. But human beings develop more and more toward freedom by coming to draw—even in ordinary life, albeit more or less unconsciously—their impulses for ethical and moral life from a spiritual world through pure thinking. And to the extent that a person’s moral impulses come from a spiritual world, to that extent is the person free. Therefore, what a person grasps as moral intuitions becomes the model for what must now be recognized in anthroposophical research as the highest level of knowledge—the intuitive level.

[ 29 ] One might say: Through moral life, one can learn what the life of knowledge must ultimately lead to. However, in our ordinary consciousness, we are already endowed with such intuitions for moral life. They are embedded in what our conscience presents to us. With regard to the knowledge of the supersensible world—to which the human soul, with its supersensible aspect, belongs—intuitive knowledge must first be sought only after one has passed through imaginative and inspired knowledge. Inspired knowledge first offers the objective, the entry into a foreign world. Intuitive knowledge is the complete surrender to the objective spiritual world. One comes to know this latter objectivity sufficiently only when one first acknowledges that imaginative knowledge leads one only into the human being’s own subjective realm. And when one comes to know a spiritual world in this way, then everything that exists as the sensory world also reveals itself in the form of the spiritual. This means that, in the realm of nature, one remains entirely grounded in the natural sciences. One does not speak or fantasize about all manner of spiritual things, about all manner of nebulous essences in nature. Through genuine insight, one ascends to that which is perceived as spiritual beings when the sensually perceived things and essences, viewed objectively, metamorphose before the spiritual gaze in the manner that I can only hint at to you today in a few instances.

[ 30 ] You see, in sensory perception and in conventional science, the sun is presented with sensory contours. This is how we see it in ordinary consciousness. It is perceived with sensory contours in the cosmos. Conventional science calculates its accurate, indisputable properties through astronomy and astrophysics with regard to this sun. In the spiritual perception I have described to you, the Sun transforms. That is to say, it naturally remains as the individual perceives it, fully preserved. Otherwise, one would become a hallucinationist rather than a spiritual researcher. But that which remains so fully preserved reveals itself at the same time in its supersensible essence. One comes to recognize that the Sun is not merely the entity that stands out there in outer space, but that a solar quality—which is, so to speak, merely consolidated and concentrated within the physical space of the Sun—fills the entire universe accessible to us, permeates all beings of the natural kingdoms, and permeates human beings themselves as well. One comes to know the spiritual, supersensible power of the solar essence.

[ 31 ] And just as one comes to realize in ordinary consciousness that external facts continue to live within the human being as sensations, as thoughts, and as triggers of impulses of will, so one learns to recognize that, in the depths of human nature, the external, spiritual-supersensible, sun-like quality finds its continuation. One comes to know the solar aspect within one’s own human nature. One is tempted to say: Everything is transformed from something sensually and sharply defined into a process of becoming, into a continuous life. And a person’s own inner organs undergo a metamorphosis before the supersensible gaze in such a way that they appear as a process of becoming. While the heart, lungs, brain, and other human organs appear sharply defined to the ordinary sensory gaze—as objects, so to speak—to the supersensible gaze we can speak only of a heart process, a stomach process, a brain process, and a lung process. Everything passes into life; it becomes alive. And as the solar force pours into this life, we perceive—on a higher level—all that which is ascending life, all that which is connected to what makes us young and keeps us young, all that which are the growing, sprouting, and budding forces within the human being, but also the sprouting and budding forces out there in the realms of nature—in the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, and also the mineral kingdom. One now learns to perceive the realms of nature and one’s own inner being spiritually and psychologically. What is remarkable is that, otherwise, one faces the human being as a whole; its individual organs are separate parts. Now one learns to recognize how the individual organs are assigned to the various realms, to the various active forces of the cosmos. For example, one learns to recognize how the powers of the brain are assigned first and foremost to the solar forces—since they are in a state of ascending development during the first half of life—just as other organs, notably the heart, are assigned to the solar forces.

[ 32 ] But just as one comes to know the solar aspect on one side, one also comes to know the lunar aspect, for example, on the other side. Again, when viewed solely through the senses, the moon is merely a clearly defined celestial body. A lunar quality permeates the entire cosmos, all the outer realms of nature, and human beings themselves. This encompasses within itself all the forces of decline, all the forces of regressive development, all the forces through which we age, through which our organs weaken, wither away, and in some way undergo a downward course of development. One now comes to understand this inner workings of the human organism and the outer workings of nature from a new perspective by being able to view the solar and the lunar aspects together.

[ 33 ] And in the same way, one comes to know—with regard to other celestial bodies, and indeed with regard to the cosmos as a whole—the forces that act, that sustain, that maintain processes, and that bring about becoming. One learns to recognize these forces in their continuing influence within the human being and in their effects out in nature. In doing so, however, one enters a realm where it can be demonstrated how anthroposophy can be thoroughly enriching for other sciences—sciences with which it is not in opposition, but which it seeks to further develop by fully acknowledging what they themselves can achieve, and how spiritual science can have a enriching effect on other areas of life.

[ 34 ] By learning to perceive in this way the development and the processual nature of the human inner organism, one comes to understand in a more intimate way what it means for a person to be healthy and what it means for a person to be ill. One comes to understand the breakdown of certain organic processes as it occurs in the course of disease. One also learns to recognize how one can contribute to healing through opposing processes. Above all, one comes to understand the connection between the external natural world and the human inner being. One learns, for example, to recognize how certain degenerative, destructive forces in one organ or another can be balanced by the sun-like, constructive forces found, say, in the plant or mineral kingdoms. Through such an exploration of the supersensible in nature and in human beings, one comes to know the healing forces. And from anthroposophy can emerge precisely what has already emerged in relation to medicine.

[ 35 ] Physicians have taken up the insights that can arise from this type of anthroposophical research, and medical-therapeutic institutes have been established in Dornach near Basel and in Stuttgart, which are currently working to develop, in a thoroughly scientific manner, the remedies and therapeutic methods that arise from the insights of anthroposophy. This is an example of the enrichment that anthroposophical research is intended to provide for the individual sciences and practical areas of life. What can otherwise only be tested empirically—and about which one can only say, after testing, how it affects the human organism in one direction or another—is now understood, because the natural processes related to the solar and lunar forces and other cosmic processes, as well as the inner human natural processes, soul processes, and spiritual processes, can be understood. A rational medicine—a medicine based on an inner understanding of pathological and healing processes—can replace mere trial-and-error medicine. Likewise, a physical and a biological institute are being established in Stuttgart. That is all I wish to mention. The individual sciences can certainly be enriched by anthroposophy.

[ 36 ] But what anthroposophy offers in this way—by pointing people toward their own immortality in connection with the supersensible realm of the universe as it becomes spiritual—can also have a stimulating effect on life in other ways. This can be illustrated by a specific example: the building in Dornach, the Goetheanum, the School of Spiritual Science in Dornach near Basel. Anthroposophy has, after all, been practiced for a long time now, and the time came when a number of friends of anthroposophy took the initiative to have a home built specifically for anthroposophy. Circumstances—which I need not describe here—brought this home of anthroposophy, the Goetheanum, to the vicinity of Basel.

[ 37 ] If, in any other field, one had felt the need to build a home for a spiritual movement, one would simply have contacted this or that architect. Perhaps a Romanesque, Gothic, or Renaissance building—or something of that sort—would have been constructed. Anthroposophy could not do that. One may criticize what has been created from an artistic standpoint as much as one likes—it is certainly not what some claim it to be. But when one is truly imbued with what anthroposophy can offer as a disposition of the soul, then one is oneself the strictest critic and describes what one has to describe, at first, only as a beginning. From this perspective, let the Goetheanum also be described. Since anthroposophy does not strive toward one-sidedness but rather springs from the whole, full humanity and, in turn, seeks to place the whole, full human being into the world, it could not be a matter of erecting an arbitrarily stylized building as a home.

[ 38 ] I would like to use a trivial comparison: Just as the nut shell, in its various forms, is structured according to exactly the same laws as the nut kernel—as you can see, the same forces are at work in the nut shell, in their arrangement and mutual relationship, as they are within the nut kernel itself— so, if anthroposophy is to be understood not as a theory, not as a collection of abstract ideas, but as real life manifesting itself in ideas, then that which serves as its framework—its structural shell, so to speak—must spring from precisely the same spirit from which the ideas are drawn that represent the supersensible life. Therefore, everything that was created in Dornach—whether in architecture, painting, sculpture, or any other artistic form—had to spring from the same spirit as that which is spoken as words on the podium. Just as the kernel of a nut relates to its shell, so too must that which appears in ideas and thought-forms relate to that which speaks through forms that are not mere straw-like allegories or symbols; there, everything has flowed into true artistry. And yet, even if the whole is only a beginning, one may still, with a certain degree of confidence, refer to Goethe—and specifically to Goethe’s view of art. One need only recall how Goethe put it: “To whom nature reveals her manifest secret, there arises a deep longing for her most worthy interpreter, art.” — In another saying, Goethe expresses the same sentiment: “Art is a manifestation of secret laws of nature that would never be revealed without it.”

[ 39 ] Because anthroposophy seeks, in the manner described, to truly penetrate the deepest laws of nature—the laws of the supersensible-spiritual world—it also feels inspired by the artistic and knows how to infuse the material with vitality, rather than mere symbolism. It develops just the right sense of materiality so that it does not feel at home in some artistic, symbolic cloud-cuckoo-land, but rather, in the most eminent sense, allows that which is its spiritual life to reveal itself through the artistic form. In this way, without any didacticism, that which transcends all theory—the knowledge of the supersensible—can simultaneously become a source of inspiration for the artistic realm.

[ 40 ] I can cite only a few examples of this practical impact of anthroposophy. Third, I would like to mention the Free Waldorf School in Stuttgart, which has already found a certain following even here. This Free Waldorf School was founded by Emil Molt; I serve as its director. It is led in such a way that it does not seek to oppose the great achievements of pedagogy and didactics of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We are mindful of the great pedagogical principles that exist. However, precisely what often appears today in the field of education as a yearning for reform shows that something is needed to put the well-intentioned principles of the great educators into practice in specific ways. Anthroposophy does not seek to replace the old theoretical principles with new ones in this field, but rather to serve their practical implementation. For this reason, the Free Waldorf School in Stuttgart is by no means a school where anthroposophy is to be forced upon the children—that is the furthest thing from our minds. We have therefore confidently entrusted Catholic religious instruction to the Catholic chaplain and Protestant religious instruction to the Protestant chaplain. Only for those children who would otherwise be considered “dissidents” have we provided independent religious instruction. What constitutes a worldview in the religious sphere is not what gives the Waldorf School its specific character. What it seeks to achieve is that anthroposophical insight teaches us to recognize the human being in body, soul, and spirit—and to recognize this even in the child; that, based on an understanding of human nature, one can derive the curriculum for each school year, each month, and each week directly from the child; that, based on a true understanding of human nature, one can truly establish the art of pedagogy and the art of didactics—the art of education and instruction. What anthroposophy has to offer should influence the practice of education and teaching—the “how,” or the way in which these tasks are carried out. And if people were not so hostile toward this anthroposophy—purely out of misunderstanding, as is the case—then events such as those that occurred this summer during the anthroposophical congress in Stuttgart would be given far greater consideration.

[ 41 ] For example, a teacher at this Waldorf school has shown just how one-sided all those recent developments in experimental pedagogy and experimental psychology are that are currently being applied to classroom instruction. Anthroposophy does not oppose such experimental approaches, but it can show that what is learned in this external way about the human child can only bear fruit in the right way if one also enters into the soul through inner contemplation; when teaching is based not merely on experimental findings regarding memory, the development of the powers of intellect and will, fatigue, and so on—findings that have been obtained externally and through which one may remain distant from the human soul. Rather, what one can gain through this process itself only bears fruit when one also attains the ability to look intimately into the human soul—into this wondrous, enigmatic human soul that develops from the very first days of childhood, week by week, month by month. Only when one possesses the right sense of insight for this is one truly capable of educating. And because anthroposophy does not focus merely on the external, but learns to recognize the whole, complete human being—body, soul, and spirit—it can create such a higher, soul-infused, spirit-infused art of education.

[ 42 ] The art of education is what anthroposophy seeks to practice at the Waldorf School. It is not a matter of imposing just any worldview on the children. Now, a Waldorf school teacher has discussed—in a particularly intimate manner—the significance of experimental psychology and what it could become through further development; this lecture has now also been published as a brochure. In my view, Dr. von Heydebrand has thereby presented something extraordinarily significant with regard to the appreciation of a one-sided trend in development in the present day. It would undoubtedly have been discussed much more widely in educational circles had it not arisen precisely on the ground of anthroposophy, which is so widely disliked.

[ 43 ] Anthroposophy can also have a vibrant impact on external social life. Here, too, is an example, even if it is only a tentative beginning. Emil Leinhas also gave a lecture at the Stuttgart Anthroposophical Congress—which has likewise already been published—and in it offered a witty critique of contemporary political economy. The title is “The Bankruptcy of National Economics.” Emil Leinhas shows how this national economics must remain fruitless for real social life unless that which is conceived solely according to the model of external, scientific thinking is supplemented by an understanding of the spiritual, supersensible forces at work, particularly in human life.

[ 44 ] It is precisely in the social sphere that we see the devastating effects of a way of thinking that seeks to impose a one-sided, scientific approach on social life as well. Let us look at the terrible devastation, which is growing ever greater and greater, and which ultimately poses a threat to all of Europe—indeed, to the entire civilized Western world. Let us look at what is happening in Eastern Europe in social terms, and let us realize that the underlying reasons for the emergence of these destructive forces are, after all, that people have failed to imbue social life with that which springs from a spiritually perceptive consciousness. If one views human beings solely as the economists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries did—devoid of spiritual insight—then ultimately those destructive social forces must emerge, just as they have in Eastern Europe, and they are bound to become a threat to the entire civilized world in a much broader sense unless a spiritual element is incorporated into our social order.

[ 45 ] Well—my esteemed audience—I have thus highlighted only a few areas in which anthroposophy can have a fruitful impact, both in the scientific realm and in other areas of practical life. In closing, I would like to hint at what must now be mentioned last, even though it is not the last thing: Since anthroposophical knowledge leads to a true contemplation of the eternal in the human soul, since it leads to a true recognition of that which lies beyond birth and death—the unborn, the immortal within the human being— by leading into those worlds in which the human soul lives when it does not bear an outer physical body—by becoming acquainted with these two worlds—it also comes to know that which still exists within human nature, deeper than physical human nature, even more comprehensive, even more intense than what the soul experiences when it is in the spiritual world before birth or after death. What is found within the human soul is not limited to the perception of the natural or the supersensible world.

[ 46 ] Once one has become acquainted with these two worlds—which, of course, are only seemingly two worlds, but which, in truth, according to the entire meaning of this exposition, interact with one another, so that one cannot speak of dualism as opposed to monism in anthroposophy— one comes to recognize within the human being something that reveals itself as a synthesis of these two worlds—namely, the innermost, human, eternal core of being that passes through repeated earthly lives, so that human life is composed of such segments that lie between birth and death and between death and a new birth. And as one learns to perceive the outer cosmos in terms of its spiritual significance, one also learns to look with insight in a different way at times when human beings were still more closely connected to outer cosmic existence. At that time, there were no repeated earthly lives. And one day, when human beings have once again found a deeper union with the cosmos, repeated earthly lives will also cease. But for a long time to come, through the very forces I have described, we must observe what might be called the vision of repeated earthly lives. Through this, we are guided in a way that leads to knowledge of the spiritual world.

[ 47 ] Human feelings and sensibilities, as I have already indicated, are shaped by the development of the powers of thought and will. This human feeling, insofar as it finds expression in religious devotion and seeks to do so, can only be deepened by presenting to the human soul—also in a cognitive sense—that which is eternal in the soul and that which is spiritual and supersensible in the cosmos. Anthroposophy certainly does not seek to establish any kind of sectarian movement in the world. It does not seek to found a new religion. Consider the full meaning of what I have attempted to explain today: it is a scientific endeavor that, due to its particular nature, can never become a mere specialty, because it concerns every human being. Therefore, one cannot say: Anthroposophy is something like botany or zoology or geometry, whose higher aspects can be understood only by individual specialists. Anthroposophy is something that concerns every human being. And spiritual development will naturally ensure that it will concern more and more people. And every human being, through what lies within them—body, soul, and spirit—can, provided they are open-minded, understand and receive what anthroposophy, albeit as the result of arduous research, has to offer the world. Yet the fact that the supersensible world emerges as a result of this research does not truly take away from a person’s religious life; rather, it deepens it. Religions have every reason to view anthroposophy as something that can offer them support—something that can give people precisely what they need to return to religious devotion, after other aspects of life, particularly modern intellectual life, have taken much away from that devotion. It is therefore a complete misunderstanding to believe that true, genuine religious devotion—true, genuine religious experience—could in any way be endangered by anthroposophy. Thus, this is also an area where anthroposophy can have a thoroughly enriching effect.

[ 48 ] Those who see through to what really matters may tell themselves that anthroposophy, in particular, meets the deepest human longings of the more active minds of modern humanity.

[ 49 ] And if I am to briefly summarize at the end, in just a few words, what I have attempted—though, in a short lecture, this can only be done inadequately—to describe as the essence of anthroposophy, I would like to say: The human being stands before us with his physical form. We look at him. His soul-spiritual nature speaks from his innermost being. It speaks from his face, from his every movement. We do not have the whole human being before us unless we see this soul-spiritual aspect within the natural, physical body. Natural science has brought it to a high degree of perfection over the course of the last three to four centuries, especially in the nineteenth century. Anthroposophy does not wish to rely on amateurism or dilettantism, even though it is intended for everyone. The anthroposophical researcher seeks to exclude all amateurism and dilettantism from the field of natural science. He wishes to see genuine scientific rigor and genuine methodology developed precisely in the field of natural science. Yet he is fully aware that external natural science—which has rightly celebrated such triumphs and has had such a significant impact on practical life from the outside—represents something external that can be compared to the physical-bodily aspect of the human being.

[ 50 ] Wherever one looks with true impartiality as a whole, complete human being, equipped with the insights of natural science, something comes to meet one—just as the spiritual-psychic aspect comes to meet one in human physiognomy and human movements; there, something comes to meet one as science, as an understanding of the spiritual-psychic in the study of nature. I would like to say: The study of nature can, through its physiognomy—through the way it develops—point to this spiritual-psychic realm as the object of a special kind of knowledge. Just as the natural human being reveals the spirit and the soul in the form of the body, so true scientific knowledge reveals a higher, supersensory knowledge that reaches into the spiritual-psychic realm. What the human soul and the human spirit are within the human body—that is, my esteemed audience, the soul and spirit in knowledge—should be the anthroposophical paths and the anthroposophical findings for a true natural science.