The Rudolf Steiner Archive

8. Anthroposophy and the Mysteries of the Soul

[ 1 ] Ladies and gentlemen! The mysteries of [nature] first present themselves to human beings insofar as they are beings capable of cognition, and insofar as they must apply and realize their knowledge in practical life. The situation is different with the mysteries of the soul itself. If knowledge is necessary above all else for orientation in the world, if we find ourselves in a world that refuses to be illuminated by knowledge—spiritually, as it were, as if in a dark room—then one must say: The mysteries of the soul are those that are experienced directly, though in a way that very many people cannot adequately conceive of. Although there is much talk today about the unconscious and subconscious life of the soul, but since we have scarcely adequate means to arrive at a more precise understanding of this subconscious life of the soul—as this very evening is intended to demonstrate—it is also true that we cannot sufficiently appreciate the profound influence that the mysteries of the soul have on human beings from the perspective of our immediate present consciousness and from what is recognized as science in the present day. Doubts about those things that are intimately and deeply connected to the longings and hopes of human soul life, do not merely bring instability to the soul; they do not merely rob a person of the security of their spiritual life; they do not merely deprive them of the strength to find and maintain their place in life in moral and social terms—but they also interfere with the entire inner constitution of the human organism’s overall existence. One cannot fully comprehend what is at work here unless one knows that there are forces in the deeper recesses of the soul’s life that are initially unknown to the individual—and yet operate just as conscious forces do, but—one might say—delve deeper into the whole of human nature.

[ 2 ] At first glance, it seems like a minor matter when a person must give in to doubt regarding one question or another, for there is, after all, ample cause for doubt when it comes to the great mysteries of the universe, which can only be solved over the course of a long time. But doubt itself—when it takes root in the innermost life of the soul, when, so to speak, the soul must endure its existence constantly, not consciously but unconsciously—if I may use the expression—tormented by doubt—then this doubt eats so deeply into the organism that it gradually begins to undermine physical health as well. For what emanates from the soul does not immediately interfere with physical life. But what gnaws at the soul in this way over a long period of time—gradually, again and again, and especially in a way that does not fully rise to consciousness—ultimately undermines physical health as well, and with it, in fact, the whole of human existence. For this reason, the entire field of these mysteries of the soul—especially in recent times—has once again come to the attention of serious scientists as well.

[ 3 ] Anthroposophy, as understood here, is committed to working strictly on the basis of the most serious scientific rigor and methodology—such as could only have been developed over the course of the last four to five centuries, particularly during the nineteenth century, in the field of natural science research. However, since anthroposophy seeks to address the deepest longings, the most earnest hopes, and the strongest forces and sources of life within the human soul, it concerns every human being—and one might say—it is inherent in its very nature to address not only individual fields of science but all human beings. One can indeed see how simple, sound common sense, provided it is not clouded by one prejudice or another, can certainly find its way to an understanding of anthroposophical research methods. I spoke about this in the two lectures I recently gave here at the Philharmonie. Today, my presentation will focus specifically on the mysteries of the soul.

[ 4 ] These mysteries of the soul have also come to the forefront of scientific discourse in recent times. This natural science—which, where it is justified, is fully recognized by anthroposophy, and which rightly points again and again to its great triumphs for both knowledge and life in recent times—this natural science has, I would say, compelled serious thinkers, especially in the present, to confront the mysteries of the soul. Scientific research, after all, deals primarily with what is given to human beings through the senses, and with what can be traced back to its laws through observation, experimentation, and the reasoning mind. But what this scientific research has increasingly lost sight of in recent times is the human being itself. Human external nature—the physical organization of the human being—is, of course, repeatedly examined through scientific methods. In the application of these methods to the great questions of the life of the soul in particular, anthroposophy must conclude that these scientific methods do not actually remain true to themselves, even in the hands of great researchers. For this reason, I would like to begin by pointing out the way in which the mysteries of the soul are often approached today, particularly from the perspective of the natural sciences, and how anthroposophical research must nevertheless take a critical stance toward this approach because—as I have emphasized in previous lectures—it must proceed more rigorously and out of scientific rigor than is the case even within the natural sciences when questions of soul and spiritual life are to be considered.

[ 5 ] I would like to begin with an example to illustrate how the natural sciences believe they can approach the mysteries of the soul, and how anthroposophy must approach these mysteries in an entirely different way. I would like to draw attention to a work that has recently made a great impression in certain circles because it addresses the mystery of the soul all the way to the question of human immortality and is imbued with a thoroughly scientific spirit. It is the work in which Oliver Lodge wrote about what he allegedly learned about his son Raymond Lodge’s soul through mediumistic means after his son’s death. One may cite this attempt by Oliver Lodge—which is considered entirely misguided from the perspective of anthroposophy—to penetrate the life of the soul all the way to the question of immortality, because anyone familiar with the scientific rigor of natural science will see—on every page, I might say—of Oliver Lodge’s detailed book how strict scientific methods are upheld there, and how everything the natural scientist has become accustomed to applying in the laboratory or in the physics laboratory is here seemingly applied to the study of the soul. I would like to cite only the one experiment—there are many in the aforementioned book—that struck me the most, and which for many was nothing short of a sort of “experimentum crucis.”

[ 6 ] Oliver Lodge reportedly received messages from the soul of his son, Raymond Lodge, who had been killed in the war, with the help of a medium. Among these messages was one of particular significance. According to Oliver Lodge, his son’s spirit revealed to him through the medium that, fourteen days before his death, Raymond Lodge had been photographed with other comrades; that a group photo had been taken; that the photographer had taken two pictures in succession; and that the way Raymond Lodge was sitting differed slightly between the first and second pictures. No one knew anything about this particular photograph in question until the medium conveyed this message, which was supposedly coming from the soul of Raymond Lodge. Oliver Lodge’s assembled family knew nothing about it. The photograph had been taken in France and had not yet arrived in England at the time of the séance in question. Nevertheless, the medium had described the matter in complete detail. To the rigorous natural scientist Oliver Lodge, it seemed as though this experiment would establish beyond any doubt that the soul of his deceased son had spoken directly. For who else could have known anything about something that was completely unknown at the very location where the experiment was conducted? All sources of error, such as those commonly encountered in physical research, for example, were carefully ruled out. Consequently, the account of this experiment, as described in the detailed book, had an extraordinarily striking effect even on unbiased readers. And yet: Although a rigorous natural scientist speaks here with all the certainty of scientific observation, anthroposophy must point out that its method of research into the supersensible must be more critical than such a scientific method applied to the realm of the soul. For what has spoken here is, after all, nothing other than layman’s ignorance with regard to soul research.

[ 7 ] There are simply abnormal powers and abilities within the human organism, and modern science is, after all, very much concerned with such abnormal abilities in certain frontier areas. Anthroposophy, however, is not concerned with these abnormal abilities, but only with the further development of normal human cognitive faculties into the supersensible realm. One can understand how abnormal abilities may function, how it is in fact possible that through particular—and these are always, in reality, pathological predispositions in human beings, though mediumship presupposes them—how through such predispositions the conditions of sensory experience can be transcended in certain cases, how space can be transcended, and how time, too, can be transcended, and how it is a well-established fact that through such abnormal, pathological abilities, a person may, for example, foresee how he will fall from his horse during a ride scheduled to take place in fourteen days. If the prediction is correct, the event occurs despite all precautions taken to avert it. Such experiences are verified findings; however, they are not based on human beings’ normal cognitive abilities, but on abnormal abilities.

[ 8 ] But if Oliver Lodge believes that some supernatural world has spoken to him, then it must be pointed out that in this case, all that is required is that the medium possessed such foresight. After all, the two photographs did eventually arrive in England, and Oliver Lodge’s eyes fell upon them. The medium’s subsequent viewing of the photographs can be understood and described as the result of the medium’s abnormal abilities based on such foresight. In this case, therefore, we are dealing with nothing other than the development of abnormal abilities that do not peer into a supernatural realm, but rather perceive only what is taking place in the ordinary physical world. This is all these abilities can do: break through the constraints of space and time that are otherwise imposed on our sensory faculties.

[ 9 ] I cited this example at the outset only to point out how critical anthroposophy is, even though, in the strictest sense, it points the way that truly leads into the supersensible realm and shows us how the eternal core of the human being is connected to the Eternal in the cosmos, and how the individual, everyday event of the human soul can serve as a starting point for the great questions of birth and death, of immortality and pre-existence. Although anthroposophy, in the strictest sense, seeks out such paths to the supersensible, it must nevertheless critically reject that which, relying on abnormal human abilities, can deal only with what takes place solely within the realm of the senses. Anyone who understands the significance of such a critique of anthroposophy will, precisely when it comes to questions of the soul, not wish to view anthroposophy in the light of those misunderstandings in which it is still viewed today by many who engage with it only superficially. But anthroposophy, in all its research methods, is precisely dependent on applying scientific methodology to the most intimate inner life of the soul. It must awaken abilities slumbering within the soul, and it does so—not through any fantastical or mystical methods, but through systematic training, as I have described—at least tentatively—in the two lectures already mentioned. But humanity today would find it easier to form an unbiased judgment on such questions if people were willing to learn how differently people across the globe seek to ground their perception and even their faith in the innermost depths of their soul life. I would like to point out just two polar opposites, as it were, when it comes to characterizing the diverse abilities of people across the globe.

[ 10 ] Thus, the differences between the West and the East regarding the conception of the life of the soul are particularly striking. As a representative figure of the West, I would like to cite Herbert Spencer, who has exerted such an immense—albeit unwarranted—influence on the way of thinking characteristic of the modern view of nature. When Herbert Spencer speaks about the education system, he also addresses the goal of human education, and in doing so, he gives us an opportunity to truly gain insight into how he feels about the mysteries of the soul.

[ 11 ] He says there—and I’ll just briefly summarize what he’s getting at: Even if we educate people to be good citizens, capable members of human society, and capable professionals, the most important aspect of education is what enables people to, in turn, educate others. He argues that the role of parents is the highest calling in education. And in this context, it is particularly interesting to note the reasoning Herbert Spencer provides for this view. He states that the highest goal in human life is the production of the next generation—one’s offspring. Therefore, the upbringing of one’s offspring is also the highest goal of education. This is not intended as a critique of Herbert Spencer’s assertion. One can make this claim if one stands entirely on the ground of seeking to scientifically justify more or less everything that holds significance in human life solely on the basis of external sensory perception and external natural science.

[ 12 ] But the direct polar opposite of this view is presented to us by a thinker from the East who was particularly significant in his work during the second half of the nineteenth century: the Russian thinker Vladimir Solovyov. In a sense, he approaches the mysteries of the human soul from an entirely different angle. He says that human life has value only if, on the one hand, it sets itself the goal of perfection in truth; without this goal, human life would be worthless. But it would also be worthless if human beings did not share in immortality, for a striving for perfection that could somehow be subjected to annihilation would, in Soloviev’s view, be the greatest deception the universe could inflict upon a human being. Therefore, he insists that the highest mysteries of the soul require man’s striving for perfection in truth and participation in immortality, and on this occasion he speaks again in a very characteristic manner—as the polar opposite of Herbert Spencer—saying: How desolate and barren existence would be if it were to be exhausted only in the succession of generations brought forth one after another, if the wheel of existence were to turn in such a monotonous manner, endlessly.

[ 13 ] We can see, then, that in the West and in the East, two representative human thinkers express opposing views on the same subject. One might say: When Herbert Spencer addresses questions of the soul, he looks entirely to external nature and accepts as valid for the human soul only that which, in his opinion, can be accepted according to the pattern of recognized scientific conclusions and judgments. Soloviev, drawing from the depths of the human soul, demands precisely the opposite. He calls for something as the goal of human development that, while also building upon the succession of generations, goes far beyond what he believes would consist of a uniform cycle—a wheel that would simply keep turning endlessly throughout history.

[ 14 ] Now, to me, one seems just as imperfect as the other. In Herbert Spencer, we see how a thinker is unable to rise—I might say—from the depths of the natural sciences to the heights of the mysteries of the soul. In Soloviev, we see how, from mystical depths, the vague, very mystically sounding demand for immortality arises, yet how any path to genuine knowledge in this realm is entirely lacking here as well. And perhaps it may be stated, especially in the present time, that if one looks impartially at these two sides and is sincerely and honestly devoted to what has emerged as the highest flowering of Central European, German spiritual life, then the deeper understanding that is necessary here with regard to the mysteries of the soul must be found precisely within this German spiritual life.

[ 15 ] This—dear friends—is what I wanted to mention first, to show that one must indeed form an idea of the way in which people in the nineteenth century sought to approach the mysteries of the soul, just as questions of the soul are, in a sense, burning issues today, and how the peculiarities of spiritual life in various regions of the world present obstacles and hindrances to finding, in a completely unimpeded way, paths into the realms where the eternal aspect of the human soul is rooted. After all, human beings initially present themselves to us in such a way that they must appear to us as unified beings. This is entirely justified. But within this unified being, one must seek out the forms of reality that have taken shape within it. The way in which anthroposophy attempts to do this is frequently contested by those who, in an abstract sense, call themselves monists or the like. Anthroposophy in no way contradicts a legitimate monism. For one does not deny that there is a unified force in water when one demonstrates how oxygen and hydrogen are actively present in water. Nor does one deny what appears to us as a unified human nature when one conscientiously and scientifically investigates the forms of reality that converge within human nature. But these forms of reality converge in a mysterious way. When we devote ourselves to our external sensory observations and deepen our understanding of them through established science—through physiology, biology, and so on—we see the outer physical body of the human being. On the other hand, we see how the soul reveals itself from within this physical corporeality, how it permeates the physical corporeality, enlivens it, and allows the spirit to flow into it.

[ 16 ] But only when we objectively bring to light how these various forms of reality—the physical, the psychological, and the spiritual—interact within the unified human being can we hope to draw closer to a solution to the mysteries of the soul. Of course, I do not mean to say that anthroposophy can already present a definitive solution to the mysteries of the soul today, but we can hope to point the way toward a solution. And time and again, when the great mysteries of the soul come into view, we are reminded of the two ends of physical earthly existence that approach human beings in such a mysterious way. One is reminded of birth and death. Let us first consider these sensually physical ends of human life, so that we may then ascend into the supersensible realm.

[ 17 ] What constitutes the outer, physical aspect of the human being is, in essence, only truly present before us in its most fundamental form in the corpse. Therefore, what many natural scientists have said is actually quite correct: that the defining characteristic of death is, in fact, the presence of the corpse. The same is true of death itself. But if one looks impartially at what one actually encounters in the corpse, it is characteristic enough of the entire human being.

[ 18 ] Du Bois-Reymond believed—as he stated in his famous speech “On the Limits of Knowledge of Nature”—that human beings, as conscious, sentient beings, are not fully comprehensible to their own understanding, and that this understanding reaches certain limits when it comes to human consciousness. From the movements that matter undergoes in our nervous system, we cannot comprehend—so du Bois-Reymond argued—how we perceive: “I see red, I hear the sound of an organ, I smell the scent of roses.” But du Bois-Reymond believed that ordinary natural science could account for the sleeping human being, whose consciousness has faded—precisely that which, in his view, is unfathomable to ordinary scientific understanding. No! Rather, through what constitutes the greatness of natural science today, the sleeping human being can be understood no more than a plant. What resounds through a being as life can only be perceived through supersensible knowledge, through supersensible intuition, as I have characterized it, for example, in my writings *How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?* and *An Outline of Esoteric Science*, and in the two lectures already mentioned. What animates the human being as a sleeping being, just as it does the plant, cannot be recognized by ordinary natural science. Here, the human being as a physical being is accessible only after death. And when he has died and lies before us as a corpse, we see how he begins to follow laws entirely different from those he followed from birth or conception until death.

[ 19 ] As the human corpse approaches its decomposition, however, it follows the same laws that we observe in the natural kingdoms and that we substantiate through conventional science. Thus, in what takes place with the human corpse, we have before us what a human being would be if, as a physical being, he were not permeated by a spiritual-soul element that must, at every moment of life, snatch him away from death and decay. For the laws of nature that we explore through conventional natural science cause the human organism to disintegrate, and what holds it together must therefore follow different laws.

[ 20 ] Thus, we come to know a human being—when he is detached from his spiritual and soul aspects—through his physical body. The laws that are at work there must be at work in the human being throughout his entire earthly life, for they are the laws of physical and chemical existence, of the substances and forces contained within the human physical body. These laws are now overcome in the opposite direction by what else exists within the human being besides these substances and physical forces. But if one wishes—and I might say this in a paradoxical way—to get to know the human physical-bodily aspect in its purest form, then one must seek it out in the corpse. There, the human being is completely surrendered to external physical nature; there one can see how he always carries this physical organization within himself.

[ 21 ] Now, in the books and lectures mentioned, I have pointed out that there are dormant powers in the human soul that can be awakened, just as powers are gradually awakened in the soul of a child immersed in a dreamlike inner life. Does a person possess the intellectual humility to say to themselves one day: “You were once a very small child with a dreamlike inner life that poured into your physical being; upbringing and life have drawn from the depths of your human nature what you now possess in terms of thinking, feeling, and willing—for orienting yourself in the world and for self-knowledge—and what, above all, has brought about the triumphs of recognized science, especially the natural sciences. But can we not assume—if one possesses everything that life, upbringing, and inherited traits can provide—that at some point in one’s mature life, one already possesses spiritual capacities—to put it in scientific terms—as “latent” within the soul?

[ 22 ] Can’t one say: One could, at any moment in one’s life, take one’s inner life into one’s own hands in order to continue it from the point it has reached? Only practice can prove that this is possible. But the practice of anthroposophical research also demonstrates this. I would like to mention, merely by way of suggestion, that it is through inner spiritual exercises that such dormant abilities in human beings are awakened. Such spiritual exercises, which relate primarily to the life of imagination and thought, consist of meditation—a systematically regulated concentration on very specific complexes of images. What is achieved when we strengthen and energize our souls in this way, as described in the books mentioned?

[ 23 ] Just as a muscle grows stronger through use when it is exercised, so too are our spiritual faculties strengthened and invigorated in a very specific way when a person persistently engages in such spiritual exercises over a long period of time. And if I were to describe how people come to possess such abilities—which can be attained through normal means—I would say: When we, as honest human beings, observe our inner life of thought as it develops in response to external perception and the phenomena of life, we can only conclude: It unfolds within us in such a way that we must admit, “It thinks within us.” For the fact that I think is revealed precisely through an unbiased self-observation: We notice how “it” thinks within us. And as we see thinking reveal itself through our body, we relate this thinking back to ourselves and say, “I think,” whereas for ordinary consciousness and for ordinary science we should actually only say: “It thinks within us.” But when we strengthen our soul life through appropriate meditation and concentration exercises, we truly arrive at the inner consciousness that is permitted to say, “I think.”

[ 24 ] For then thinking breaks free from what constitutes the physical organization. I know how much of a paradox such a statement represents for today’s consciousness. Yet here, too, anthroposophy, with its intuitive research, proceeds with the utmost caution and critical rigor. Anthroposophy is fully aware of how ordinary thinking is bound to the human physical organism. It does not present its findings in a layman’s or amateurish manner. It agrees with those who study the central organ of the nervous system—the brain—and show us how this or that aspect of human soul faculties is affected when this or that part of the brain is removed. Anthroposophy also investigates how memory and the capacity to recall are bound up with the constitution of the physical organism. And it therefore ultimately arrives at the conclusion—which some may even misinterpret as a kind of materialism—that physical corporeality is the absolute foundation for the entire ordinary soul life. But when appropriate meditation and concentration exercises are performed and when thinking has been strengthened, then thinking, as a soul life, breaks away from the physical organization; only then does the soul being emerge as an entity independent in itself. Then the person knows: “I think,” and in this “I think,” he knows that thinking now proceeds as an independent process, purely soul-spiritual, no longer conditioned, no longer dependent on the physical body.

[ 25 ] And these mental exercises are then supplemented by exercises of the will. Once again, I would like to characterize, in principle, how these exercises of the will are directed toward a very specific goal. One might say: Just as it is unjustified to say of ordinary thinking, “I think,” so it should be equally clear, on the other hand, that a person faces their own volition—insofar as it flows into action, into deed—as if it were something quite unknown. Take even the simplest act of volition, for example, raising an arm or a hand: First, you have the thought of raising the arm or hand. This thought is, of course, clear in your consciousness. But then comes the entirely indeterminate—how that which is experienced in consciousness as the goal of the action flows down into the physical organism and asserts itself there as a volitional impulse. For in the end, you see only the result of this impulse of will: the raised hand, the raised arm. We see the beginning and the end of the entire process; the middle, however, is shrouded in complete darkness.

[ 26 ] As anthroposophy develops its insight, it is able to discern a similarity between what continually arises in waking daily life through volition and what thinking reveals as characteristic of the state between falling asleep and waking up. That which lies in between the thought of the goal and the thought that then confirms the attainment of the goal in the act of willing—that is something that stands before the soul just as the soul life that unfolds between falling asleep and waking up does. Anyone who, with that heightened awareness that can be attained through meditation and concentration, observes how sleep approaches a person and how waking occurs again, knows that there is certainly something positive in the onset of sleep—not merely that the human physical body enters a different state, but that, in fact, a soul-spiritual force performs a positive function in falling asleep and waking up; that positive, albeit unconscious, experiences take place during sleep, which are, however, absolutely identical to those experiences that lie between the goal-oriented thought of an action and the thought that confirms the accomplishment of that action. So, in fact, we are tracing the accomplishment of an action into waking daily life when we trace the will of consciousness in ordinary daily life. It is into this darkness, where the will takes place in ordinary soul life, that the exercises of the anthroposophical researcher are intended to work, when one performs the exercises that I like to suggest on such occasions. There are many exercises, but I will now mention only those that are characteristic because they represent something fundamental.

[ 27 ] Whereas one would normally, for example, imagine the sequence of external events as they follow one another, one now begins, as part of the exercise, by imagining this sequence in reverse, so that one, for example, perceives a melody in reverse or imagines a five-act drama in small sections in reverse, starting with the fifth act and working backward to the first act, or—as can be particularly beneficial for everyone—by visualizing the course of one’s daily life in reverse in the evening, in a pictorial way, so that, for example, after walking down a flight of stairs, one walks up the stairs from the bottom to the top, from the lowest step to the highest. This causes the will, which lives in thought, to break free from the external world of facts and also from one’s own physical inner being.

[ 28 ] Thus, just as, on the one hand, through meditation and concentration, thought becomes independent and free, unfolding independently of the body through these exercises of the will, so now the will becomes something that is independent of the organism. While the ordinary human will—insofar as it is dependent on instincts, drives, desires, and emotions that have their basis in physicality, and while this will itself is also grounded in physicality—is made independent of physicality through such exercises of the will.

[ 29 ] And just as human beings, by freeing their thinking from physical embodiment, are enabled to truly look beyond birth and conception into prenatal existence—and to perceive the soul-spiritual-eternal aspect of that existence as it was in the soul- -spiritual world before descending into physical existence to unite with a physical body—just as, through the strengthening of the life of thought, the soul’s existence before birth or conception can be perceived—so, through the training of the will, the image of what a human being will become after passing through the gate of death also emerges. As a person creates certain aids for the will—which can thus be detached from physicality—this will becomes increasingly capable of penetrating outer, objective existence without the body.

[ 30 ] A good way to train one’s will, for example, is to have a sort of second personality that critically accompanies oneself—as it were—in regard to one’s actions, deeds, and moral motives, so that, just as one would otherwise view another person objectively, one can view one’s own actions with objective self-reflection. In this way, one internally strengthens the powers of the will so that they become independent of all physical influences.

[ 31 ] This insight is particularly valuable: I need only describe how a person is always different after a certain period of time. We all know how, in our entire state of mind and life, we have become different after a decade than we were before. But what has made us different is life itself. Life has taken us into its great school, has given us different or altered spiritual experiences, has taken away certain habits, given us others, and so on. We are more or less passively at the mercy of life when it comes to the transformation—the metamorphosis—of our own spiritual or physical constitution. But when we take matters into our own hands regarding what is at work in our moral habits and motives—for example, by telling ourselves: “You have a habit; you want to change it and turn it into something entirely different,” or something similar—and if one practices this sufficiently, especially by setting goals that extend over time—then one increasingly attains what is the independence of the will from the physical body. Through this, however, something is developed into a power of cognition of which one can rightly say that, as it exists in ordinary life, it should not become a power of cognition—and I know very well what speaks against the use of this power, as it exists in ordinary life, as a power of cognition. But even in anthroposophy, it should not be used in this way; rather, it must be transformed. It must undergo a metamorphosis on the supersensible level.

[ 32 ] It is love—the human capacity for love. In ordinary life, this capacity for love is, of course, also bound to the physical organism. By performing the exercises of the will that I have described, and by freeing the will inwardly from the physical body, a person becomes capable of devoting themselves completely to an external objective reality. But this is no longer a sensory object; it is now a spiritual object. I can characterize what has come about for the human being through such exercises roughly as follows. But I ask that you not misunderstand what I am presenting as a characterization. It is meant in the very literal sense, but it is intended for the further development of the human being’s normal abilities, not for ordinary consciousness.

[ 33 ] Let’s take the human eye. It is relatively independent; as a kind of autonomous organism, it is integrated to a certain degree into the human organism as a whole. We can make proper use of the eye in the service of our entire humanity because it is completely transparent in itself. I would like to say, in a figurative sense: The eye serves us because it is selflessly integrated into our organism. If the eye becomes clouded—for example, if its vitreous body becomes clouded, if cataracts develop in some way, that is, if it becomes permeated with its own matter—then the possibility of looking out into the physical sensory world through the eye also ceases. Now, it is by no means intended to be claimed that, in ordinary life, our physical organism is comparable to a diseased eye filled with its own substances. But for higher knowledge, it is. Precisely what makes it a healthy organism in ordinary physical life is also what renders it incapable of serving the human being in gaining insight into higher, supersensible worlds in ordinary life. If, on the other hand, we engage in the kinds of exercises of the will that I have indicated—in order to penetrate what would otherwise remain obscure in the will—then we also, in a spiritual-psychic sense, make the entire human organism transparent through this process, transforming it, as it were, into a sense organ, into a comprehensive sense, into a total sense. And by thus succeeding in making the entire human organism, in a certain sense, as selfless as the eye is within the human organism for external vision, we enable the human organism to look into the supersensible spiritual world and to place itself within it. For these exercises I have spoken of bring about a making transparent of the human organism.

[ 34 ] For ordinary consciousness, the ordinary human organism is indeed an obstacle to higher knowledge. It is the tool for ordinary life, for placing oneself within the ordinary world. But a person can only place themselves within the physical world by descending with their spiritual and soul aspects into this physical body. In a sense, this physical body is opaque. When it becomes transparent in the manner described, we look out into the spiritual world. But by detaching the will from the physical body in this way, an image of death—as it truly is for the whole human being—enters our understanding. By learning to recognize how we, as human beings, can remain in consciousness—independent of the physical body—even with the will that is directed toward the future, we gain a picture of what happens to the human being’s spiritual-soul aspect when the physical body is absorbed by the outer forces and laws of nature. We gain a picture of the spiritual-soul aspect that frees itself from the body when the human physical body succumbs to death,

[ 35 ] As you can see from this—dear friends here today—anthroposophy cannot engage in frivolous philosophical speculation or mystical fantasizing about human immortality. It must demonstrate, step by step, how the human being, through systematic inner development, ascends to a state of vision that enables him, for example, to truly recognize what, as the spiritual-soul, eternal core of the human being, passes through birth and death, untouched by physical corporeality. And now we can describe the relationship between that which, as a corpse after death, is subject to the external laws of nature—separated from the physical body—and that which can be attained as a spiritual-soul aspect through meditative or volitional development. Anthroposophical knowledge and anthroposophical life take precisely the opposite path from the one the human being takes as a physical personality when passing through death. Death unites the human being with physical-sensory reality, as we can perceive it through our intellectual understanding. What is undergone as a practice in the anthroposophical method of research unites the soul with the spiritual by tearing it away from the physical-bodily realm, both in thought and in will. And as the will and thought are torn away from the physical-bodily realm, the mind—that is, sensation and feeling, which lie at the very center of soul life and constitute its most intimate aspect—is likewise torn away from the physical-bodily realm. One learns to recognize what can free itself from death, and one learns to recognize this by simultaneously coming to understand what significance death actually has in human life under such conditions.

[ 36 ] I have pointed out that the forces we find at work in the physical body are always present in the human being between birth and death, or more precisely, between conception and death. The other forces I have spoken of—those required in supersensible knowledge for the immediate spiritual-soul life that extends into eternity—are always present as counterforces to those forces that become visible in the physical body at death, so that life is a constant struggle between these two kinds of forces. And the human being, with his or her soul—which stands midway between thinking and willing—thus participates in this struggle and sees how the forces active in the physical body are continually, in a certain sense, subject to decay. Why is that? Well, it is precisely the thinking of ordinary consciousness that turns toward those forces active in the physical body, since they are present between birth and death. You need only recall the following—I could draw upon much evidence from the depths of anthroposophy, but it will suffice today for me to simply draw your attention to this point.

[ 37 ] Whenever the sprouting, budding organic life—which thrives on nutrition—gains the upper hand and develops particularly strongly, especially when a person remains in sleep; whenever the constructive life—which we develop particularly in childhood, when we must shape our organism in a malleable way—predominates, then conscious thought life recedes. For the conscious life of thought in the physical organism does not turn to the constructive forces, but rather to the destructive ones—the forces of death—those forces that appear only briefly, in a single moment, heightened to the utmost, at the moment of human death. One might say: What appears in death in its highest intensity lives on within us, and if it did not live within us, ordinary human thinking could not develop. This ordinary thinking is directed toward the forces that are constantly dying within us—the destructive forces that cause us to age in the second half of life by gaining the upper hand over the rejuvenating forces that are also always present within us. These rejuvenating forces are at work in the will and in the subconscious of thought. But while ordinary cognition deals with the forces of decay, supersensible knowledge—as sought by anthroposophy—directs cognition precisely toward the opposite pole.

[ 38 ] By transforming the human organism into a sensory organ in a higher sense, as already indicated, human beings can make transparent that which otherwise lies dormant and asleep within the will; thereby they can look into the spiritual world and now come to know those volitional impulses that they cannot perceive while asleep, because our own organism is opaque. This volition in the spiritual world becomes transparent, and we then look upon the thinking of ordinary consciousness by learning to recognize the life-giving thinking that builds up the human being and works upon them from a spiritual world, taking over what the human being receives through hereditary forces at birth. What the human being receives in this way as forces of growth can be applied as perceptive forces in observation and experimentation, whereas physical experimentation must turn to the forces of death. Thus we see birth and death continually at work in human nature. And by viewing death not merely as limited to that one moment of human life, but by seeing it spread out in its individual [fundamental elements] spread out over the entire earthly existence, we set against it that which constantly combats this death and which, when we penetrate it, reveals how the human being lives in an eternal existence that passes through birth and death unaltered, incorruptible—one might say.

[ 39 ] Anthroposophy certainly seeks to examine the individual, everyday events of soul life—ordinary thinking, which it feels is connected to the forces of death, and ordinary willing, which it feels is connected to the forces of building and growth—in such a way that, in this examination, paths may be found toward solving the great mystery of the human soul’s immortality. I would like to say: The soul being is internally illuminated by knowledge when we can add supersensible knowledge in this way to what we have in ordinary soul life only as a reflection of sensory perception. Although we carry the immortal soul within us in ordinary life, this immortal soul is, after all, filled only with what it receives from external impressions. Even our memories are, in the end, merely reminiscences of external impressions, even if these external impressions have been taken up and transformed by the will and the mind. And even what ordinary mysticism often regards as a revelation proves, to an unbiased insight, to be nothing more than a reflection of external physical-sensory existence. Human beings carry the immortal within themselves, but they must first become aware of the deeper foundations of their own being through supersensory vision by transforming their entire capacity for knowledge.

[ 40 ] Then he enters through the gates that point the way to the true great mysteries of the soul. In this regard, one can identify precisely three levels of consciousness. And in these three levels of consciousness—all three of which can exist within a human being—the path that a person must ultimately take if they wish to solve the mysteries of the soul becomes truly apparent. Let us now set aside the state of deep, dull sleep, which represents a kind of unconscious consciousness. But from this unconscious state of sleep emerge, as from the depths of the sea, dreams, which are no less remarkable in their symbolism—even when viewed entirely without prejudice—as they sometimes appear before us—to mention just one example—as the visualized conscience. One need only recall how, in a dream—for example, when one has been guilty of a sin of omission toward a friend—this sin of omission emerges as a visualized conscience. One could point to many examples in this regard.

[ 41 ] But if one looks with an unbiased eye at what is present in this dream life, one must say: This dream life mocks everything that provides human beings with a sense of orientation in waking daily life—the very life through which they alone can fruitfully engage with the world between birth and death. Where does this come from? Precisely those who recognize that the human being exists in sleep as a spiritual-soul being—and that their consciousness is merely subdued—will, when studying the dream life, be able to view these sporadic flashes of consciousness in dreams in such a way that the human being, with his spiritual-soul aspect, approaches the periphery of the physical body, as it were, only from a distance; that he has not yet fully entered the physical sphere upon waking, or—if dreams accompany his falling asleep—has not yet stepped out of it.

[ 42 ] When a person lives with their spiritual-soul aspect on the periphery of the physical body, and this physical body stands before them like a dark form, then dreams burdened with arbitrariness arise. And when a person’s physical constitution proves too weak to — I might say — fully incorporate the spiritual-soul aspects into their own organism, to permeate themselves with them and to let them permeate them, then the spiritual-soul dream experience continues into the physical organism, where it becomes hallucinatory, visionary, mediumistic, and the kind of life that is easily suggestible, and so on. Indeed, the very formations that arise when what should remain merely on the periphery of the physical body—as dream formations or dreamlike soul experiences—penetrate too deeply into the physical organism appear as pathological manifestations of soul life. This leads to a resolution of those mysteries of soul life that are connected to hallucinatory, visionary, or mediumistic life. Anthroposophy must take a negative stance toward precisely these phenomena if they are to be regarded as a means by which something of the spiritual world might truly be known. But when a human being, with his spiritual-soul life, does not merely hover at the periphery of the physical body, but is completely immersed in his physical body, so that the two become one—that is, when the arbitrary life of the dream undergoes a transformation whereby the dream images are permeated by the forces of the orienting lines formed by the laws governing the full physical body in relation to external physical nature—then healthy, waking daytime life begins. Then what constitutes the physical human organism, in its dying and regenerative forces, has become one with the spiritual-soul; then they work together as one.

[ 43 ] But the human being, who lives in his spiritual-soul life, acts through the instrument of the physical body, which provides him with orientation in the physical-sensory world. When, through the exercises described, a person not only becomes completely one with the physical body in their spiritual-soul life, but goes beyond this so that the entire physical organism becomes a sense organ, then the third state of consciousness sets in—supersensible consciousness. Then ordinary, waking daytime consciousness relates to supersensible consciousness just as a dream relates to waking daytime life. In this way, when approaching the mysteries of the soul, one can distinguish between the darker dream consciousness, the brighter, waking daytime consciousness, and supersensible consciousness. It is the latter that then leads us into the eternal depths of the human soul, into the questions of pre-existence and immortality. Even those mysteries that pertain to the pathological aspects of soul life are resolved precisely because one can compare their manifestations in an appropriate way with what can develop in a healthy manner as supersensible knowledge.

[ 44 ] I have attempted to describe what supersensible knowledge can achieve with regard to solving the mysteries of the soul. The possibility of developing such supersensible knowledge, as I have described it, has only become available today, after humanity has passed through the age of natural science and, during that age, has been able to obtain the corresponding insights through conscientiously developed, serious scientific methods. Therefore, the person who will navigate the realm of supersensible knowledge most securely is not a layman or a dilettante in the field of natural science, but one who has learned how to conduct genuine research in this field, and who leaves to natural science what belongs to it, and then leaves to the spiritual what belongs to it.

[ 45 ] But in earlier times, people always had a kind of intuition about how to penetrate the hidden depths of the soul’s life, which can be reached again today through a revitalization of the soul’s life. People spoke of a threshold that must be crossed if one wishes to penetrate into the true life of the soul, and they spoke of how one can speak of crossing this threshold through an intuitive awareness. But they also spoke in a very characteristic way of how this insight into the supersensible is a healing process. The human striving for health has been found to be in intimate communion with this permeation by supersensible knowledge. Now, with regard to the life of the soul and its mysteries, we will learn once again that imbuing oneself with supersensible knowledge does indeed constitute a healing process. To understand this, one need not be a researcher of the soul oneself, just as one need not be a painter oneself to appreciate a painting. Rather, just as one can appreciate a painting if one has simply been raised with sound judgment, so too will the person who has been properly educated in the use of sound judgment be able to understand what the anthroposophist says and judge whether it is healthy or unhealthy for a human being. One can use sound judgment to verify what the anthroposophist asserts, and in doing so—by taking it in—one will perceive nothing other than something that connects in a healing way with the whole being of the human soul, something that above all provides the human being with those forces that give him stability in moral and social terms and lead him toward what can provide moral impulses from the spiritual world.

[ 46 ] For this reason, I was compelled to speak of supersensible forces as early as the beginning of the 1890s in my *Philosophy of Freedom*, where I described as “moral intuition” those forces under whose influence human beings first become morally free beings, so that what is to be attained through anthroposophical knowledge is already present, in a sense of foreboding, in moral life and in ordinary consciousness. And by making the forces that live within it inwardly accessible to our cognition, we equip ourselves with healing currents that provide stability for our lives. Through this, the human being gains from anthroposophical knowledge not theoretical views, but something that flows into their entire being, through which the reality of external nature is united with the inner moral world, so that these two no longer fall apart into two separate realms. And anyone who has ever stood before the full scope of the questions of the soul that open up here will also understand how one can strive for the knowledge of the soul of which we speak here.

[ 47 ] If anyone today stands honestly on the ground of natural science, they will see a beginning of the Earth—even if the Kant-Laplace theory has been modified today—from which physical existence emerged from a pure physical ball of nebular gas, and from this later arose what constitutes the higher kingdoms of nature and also human beings. And modern physics shows how the end of the Earth will one day be sealed by the heat death, how what humanity perceives as the essence of its human dignity, human worth, and moral value will be buried beneath a vast corpse. Through these scientific ideas, people today gain an insight into the arbitrariness of the sensory-physical world, for the sensory forces necessitate forms of appearance in relation to which the moral world would nevertheless be left to decay if the forces assumed by natural science were to hold exclusive sway.

[ 48 ] But when we view the world in such a way that we do not turn to the ordinary powers of thought—the mortal powers—to which intellectual cognition is directed, since it is bound to these mortal powers and, through them, can perceive only the dead, inanimate aspects of nature—but rather point to the immortal, living nature of world existence by rising from ordinary knowledge of the soul to that knowledge of the soul which is granted to supersensible perception—then our soul is thereby anchored in an immortal world existence, and only then is a prospect opened up for a true solution to the mysteries of the soul. If, for example, someone were to say: “But this anthroposophy lacks the secure foundation of knowledge of external facts, for it seeks to build only upon what has first been developed from within the inner life of the soul.” Thus, anyone who now sees through everything I have been able to present only in outline today will nevertheless say to themselves: Such an objection is akin to another that might be raised by someone who said, “Every object must stand on solid ground so that it does not fall.” This is, of course, true for objects that stand on the earth. If, on the other hand, we look out into the cosmos, it would be foolish to ask: On what does the Earth rest, on what does the Moon rest, on what do the other bodies of the cosmos rest? They find their support precisely in their mutually interacting forces; they sustain one another.

[ 49 ] And one must recognize how what anthroposophy sets out to achieve in fact characterizes the world from a wide variety of perspectives and thereby supports itself. Until one grasps the cosmic aspect of anthroposophical knowledge in this way, one will always think it is unfounded, just as one might—foolishly—conclude that the Earth itself is unfounded because it does not rest on a solid foundation in the cosmos, as every other body does. Sensory knowledge and intellectual knowledge must rest on a foundation. But that which is developed from the soul in the manner described here sustains itself by seeking to penetrate the supersensible realm of existence from the most diverse angles, thereby also paving the way for a truly life-affirming solution to the mysteries of the soul.

[ 50 ] Thus we can say: Just as the mysteries of the soul are connected to the processes of healing and illness in the whole human being, so too must processes of healing lie in the interpenetration with the knowledge of the supersensible aspect of human nature, with the knowledge of the true immortality of the human being. In its own way, the present age should once again confirm the instinctive insight of earlier times.

[ 51 ] Such words of truth do indeed rise up from the depths of humanity’s earlier striving, but the modern era cannot seek knowledge in the same way as earlier times. Natural science has taught us to seek knowledge in a different way with regard to human existence and the existence of nature. And just as knowledge is sought in the realm of nature, so too must we strive toward the eternal in the supersensible realm—not through nebulous mysticism, but through the clear development of our powers of cognition. But when this happens, then modern humanity, having found a foothold in life in the face of the mysteries of the soul, may once again speak as the ancient Greeks once did: “When you, leaving the body behind, ascend into the free ether, you will be an immortal god, having escaped death!”