The Rudolf Steiner Archive

98. The Supernatural Worlds and Research on Immortality

[ 1 ] “The Supersensible Worlds and Research into Immortality” was the topic that Theosophist Dr. Rudolf Steiner addressed on Wednesday before a large audience in the Chamber Music Hall of the Municipal Saalbau. Dr. Steiner envisions (somewhat fantastically) the following way to find a new path to inner spiritual knowledge:

[ 2 ] The Anthroposophical Society, he explained, is still unduly misunderstood. According to Schopenhauer, the truth always appears paradoxical at first because it cannot take its place on the throne of widespread error. The entire field of the spiritual sciences culminates in two great questions of life: The first is fate, which seems to be determined for each person in a completely different way right from the cradle. Whether or not one will master life—that is the great question. And the soul asks in despair: Why? Science cannot answer this question. The “humanities,” the “search for the supernatural world,” answer this question, just as they answer the other one concerning immortality. Many thinkers say it is more selfless to renounce the clinging to continued existence and to let go. But the best thing we have between birth and death is our most personal life, which we can never, ever surrender to the collective. Yet nature never destroys such forces; that would contradict the entire rest of the world’s order. In every soul, there gnaws a longing for an answer to the question of the meaning of life. With the microscope and the telescope, natural science has heightened the senses. Thus, the “humanities” must heighten the supernatural in human beings. After all, the supersensible can reveal itself only through supersensible means, whereas from morning to night, human beings are absorbed in the impressions of their senses. The human soul is, in fact, never alone. Waking up is an inhalation of soul life; falling asleep is an exhalation of soul life. In sleep, therefore, a person is outside their soul. In the state of sleep, the soul is alone. It is simply too weak to recognize itself. Its powers must then be enhanced, just as the eye is through a telescope. These are contemplation and meditation; through them, supersensible worlds can be explored. We must put ourselves into a sleep-like state, voluntarily shutting down all sensory activity. You will find more details on this in my books. No ideas derived from the outside world should serve as the impetus for this inner exploration. For example, the soul can constantly concentrate on the inner idea of love. One must repeat this exercise in concentration 1,000 times to become an explorer of the supersensible life. In this way, one strengthens the soul’s capacity for supersensible knowledge. In this way, the soul comes to know itself as a supersensible being. To achieve this, all sorrows, joys, and experiences must be eradicated (similar, then, to Indian nirvana—Ed.). If, for example, someone has experienced a severe blow of fate, the memory of it resurfaces again and again—so one must strive to practice equanimity, as if this experience were of no concern to them. Through such an absolutely objective contemplation of the terrible experience, the person then develops a sense of longing for this misfortune. We discover inner capacities of the soul; a sense of powerlessness within the soul drove it toward this misfortune so that it might grow strong by overcoming it. When we have pursued these exercises to a certain point, we experience them imaginatively—not through images of external impressions, but through inner visions. But the sound-minded researcher of the spirit, unlike the mentally ill person, knows that this is not the external world but only an inner perception of a supersensible world, and that—unlike the mentally ill person—he can free himself from these visions through his own will. Based on this contemplation of the soul, Dr. Steiner—who, as is well known, has reestablished Theosophical Societies in many cities—seeks to prove, in a scientific manner, the distinct existence and continued existence of the soul.