The Rudolf Steiner Archive

13. Death and Immortality

[ 1 ] The subject of today's discussion is one that, without a doubt, touches the human heart in the deepest sense and raises questions whose answers just about everyone feels is a fundamental need in life.

[ 2 ] Certainly, many reasons could be cited that give rise, in one soul or another, to a need to answer the questions associated with the ideas of death and immortality. Among these psychological needs, one will certainly find some that do not stand up to scientific scrutiny. However, there are two fundamental feelings of the human soul [through] which—setting aside all fear of death, all longing for immortality arising from this or that selfish sentiment, and all effort— [through] which [the need] is aroused in the human heart to find an answer to the anxious question of death and immortality. We can characterize these two needs roughly as follows.

[ 3 ] We find in life that some people are placed in circumstances—let us say, such circumstances—that hardly allow for a caring hand or a caring soul to stand at their cradle to nurture them and prepare them for life, so that they may develop their abilities and become a useful member of human society. One might say that, often, such a person is destined for a harsh, bitter life. In the case of another person, one observes how the circumstances from the moment of birth predestine a life that one would call happy; one sees how caring hands and caring souls work to ensure that he can develop his strengths and become useful to himself and his fellow human beings. In short, this raises the profound question of human destiny, which seems so incomprehensible.

[ 4 ] Anyone accustomed to inquiring into the causes of phenomena in accordance with scientific worldviews—[into the causes] of the facts that surround us—will not only ask about the causes and reasons behind phenomena in the face of external, sensory mysteries, but will also seek the reasons behind the enigmatic, fateful fate of the individual human being. That is the one thing that, apart from all fear of death and all longing for immortality, raises the question that is the subject of today’s reflection.

[ 5 ] The other, however, is what we find when we reflect on the course of our lives—something we will always experience in a very peculiar way. We undertake this or that in life. We carry out this or that after we have performed the deeds, the actions. Then the thought springs up in our soul of how we could have done them better. Every person actually knows how they grow in maturity through their mistakes and errors, and how little it is possible, in the course of our lives, to apply the maturity we have acquired through our actions, our deeds, and our entire lives—because the very actions we have already performed, which have made us mature, do not recur. Thus we become more and more mature in life and ask: What is the purpose of this maturity, which naturally manifests most strongly, most deeply, and most fully toward the end of life, if it were to vanish into a void devoid of substance as we pass through the gate of death? That is the other longing: to know where the strengths we have acquired in life go.

[ 6 ] The physicist does not accept that any force he has observed here or there disappears into nothingness. Instead, he speaks of transformation and the conservation of force. He points out that even when we run a finger across a tabletop, the pressure—as a form of force—is not lost but reappears as heat. In this way, he emphasizes that what occurs is not a disappearance but a transformation of forces.

[ 7 ] What has been mentioned as the second important fact of life may not always loom so large before our soul that our mind, our intellect, raises the corresponding question about death and immortality in a very specific way. But the questions raised in this way by our mind are not always the most important ones. The most important questions are those that take place in the depths, in the hidden recesses of our inner life, and push their way to the surface as feelings and sensations that give our entire way of being its attitude and mood. Whether we are happy or unhappy, whether we can go through life courageously or suffer from depression—in short, how we lead our lives—is mostly an expression of the fact that the mind does not ask these questions, but that the soul feels the need for clarity and certainty regarding the answer that this question demands.

[ 8 ] If one now attempts to answer this question, as we are to do this evening, namely in the spirit of what is called spiritual science—or, as it has become customary to say in certain circles, in the spirit of theosophy— one encounters strong resistance within contemporary intellectual life, and many who first hear such reflections on this question will feel as if they are not facing a serious examination of life and science, but rather a flight of fancy and daydreaming—something entirely unscientific.

[ 9 ] Among those who can fully understand—and I say this right from the start—that, from the perspective of today’s spiritual life, everything that is to be said today will be met with the harshest opposition, and that people will find it dreamy and fanciful, I must certainly be one of them, for the spiritual scientist who engages in such reflections is well aware of how many apparent and thoroughly valid reasons can be found in contemporary spiritual life to assert opposition, rejection, perhaps irony, even scorn and ridicule against what is to be said here.

[ 10 ] The reason this is the case in our present time lies, in a certain sense, in the fact that when one speaks, in the spirit of spiritual science or theosophy, about the questions of life—and above all about the questions of “death and immortality”—one finds oneself in a situation similar to that of the proponents of modern natural science at the time when this new natural science first established itself. That was at the dawn of our modern spiritual life, some three to four hundred years ago. With regard to spiritual science, we are today going through the same stage that was experienced when Giordano Bruno, Kepler, and Galileo had to introduce a completely new scientific perspective into life. What, then, was the essential point that was asserted on behalf of natural science at that time? The very same objections that are raised today from the standpoint of modern intellectual culture against theosophy or spiritual science were also raised against the new insights and ideals of natural science.

[ 11 ] People today will say: Everything you are telling us here contradicts the findings of rigorous science, which is based on experience and the precise investigation of external facts. Well, that is exactly what those who spoke out against the new natural sciences at the dawn of the modern era also said. Judgments were formed based on external facts back then, when people believed that the Earth stood still in the cosmos, that the entire starry sky revolved around it, and that space was bounded above, as they said at the time, by the eighth sphere, which was imagined as the blue vault of heaven that then led into spiritual life. That is what external sensory appearances offered; that is what external observation offered. Giordano Bruno and those who followed him regarded that which today constitutes the pride and grandeur of external natural science—and which it considers to be external sensory appearance—as inner comprehension, asserting that they were establishing a worldview based solely on the inner comprehension of things, a worldview that contradicted everything that external sensory appearance had to offer.

[ 12 ] That the Sun stands at the center of the universe for the Earth’s planetary system, that the Earth moves around the Sun along with the other planets, that where the gaze extends out into the universe, a boundary appears to exist only because of the limitations of human vision, while space extends into infinity; this foundation of the scientific worldview arose from the energy of spiritual life, from disregarding the appearance of the senses. One must imagine what this meant in those days: to picture Giordano Bruno gazing out into the vastness of the cosmos, declaring that there are no boundaries where sensory experience believes it sees them, that the existence of boundaries depends solely on the limitations of sensory perception—as when a person believes they perceive a hollow sphere as the eighth sphere. Through the infinity of space—as a premonition, or rather, as a scientific ideal—Giordano Bruno expanded the entire scope of human thought. What was initiated back then gave rise, as it progressed, to the great achievements of the natural sciences, which the humanities recognize, hold in high esteem, and defend—even if we lack the opportunity and time to do so today—just as no natural scientist could ever do.

[ 13 ] Similarly, the researcher of the spiritual realm is compelled to point out two mysteries of human life that are limits only because of the narrowness of human perception—limits that we must remove, just as Giordano Bruno did, in order to open up the universe. These boundaries are birth, the conception of the human being, and death; and just as, in the case of natural science, the view into the infinity of space had to be expanded through the inner energy of the spirit—by removing the boundaries that human perception itself imposes—so too must the boundaries of the spiritual firmament, namely birth and death, be removed, through the new spiritual science or theosophy, which—drawing upon the inner energy of spiritual life, just as natural science did in its time—must expand the human soul’s understanding of birth and, looking backward, beyond the gate of death into boundless space, or, in other words, into the infinity of time.

[ 14 ] Since the same prejudices prevail in today’s intellectual life regarding the soul’s perceptions as those that prevailed during the heyday of modern natural science in the realm of external sensory perception, it naturally follows—just as it did then in the form of the Inquisition—that what must now be clothed in irony, scorn, rejection, and opposition—all cloaked in talk of fantasy and daydreaming. But the question now arises: In what way are the means of inner spiritual life acquired to look beyond the boundaries of birth, conception, and death that human beings themselves have drawn? Just as external natural science does—and entirely in its spirit and using its methods—spiritual science proceeds in this field. It, too, relies in a certain sense on the results of orderly, methodical observation and on the spiritual experiment, even if this spiritual experiment looks different from how people still tend to imagine it today. For we shall see: this spiritual experiment is not similar to the experiments conducted for the purpose of gaining external knowledge of nature in laboratories, clinics, or other scientific institutions.

[ 15 ] But as with so many things, [so] here too it is necessary to first draw attention to that which gives rise in our soul to that limitation, that constriction, through which we tend to think of life between birth and death as confined within the bounds of ordinary experience; and here we must say: Do we not know that anger, hatred, and every kind of passion—which are the true enemies of human development—make it impossible to gain a proper, calm, and objective view of the events surrounding us? If we wish to form a sound and sound judgment about anything, then what we might call the fog of passions, sympathies, and antipathies must not spread before our soul.

[ 16 ] But who would not admit that, in the face of our fate, our lot in life, sympathy and antipathy are at work in every moment of our inner life? Are we ever truly able to observe what actually binds us to the fate described at the beginning of today’s reflection—which appears to some as a good, happy lot in life, and to others as a painful one? No, we are never in such a state of mind that we face our fate without passion, without sympathy or antipathy. What befalls us in life is such that we either consider ourselves fortunate because of it or reject it. Anyone accustomed to viewing life in a reasonably objective manner will be clear that nothing befalls people that they have not desired with the feeling: “You want this”—or rejected with the feeling: “This is repugnant to you.” Thus, we can say: Even ordinary observation of life teaches us that we cannot so easily arrive at an understanding—a true, discerning understanding—of our fate, since we never view it dispassionately.

[ 17 ] It will therefore go without saying that anyone who wishes to gain insight into the true essence and meaning of human destiny must demand of themselves: to overcome within themselves any sympathy for anything we call “happiness” within the course of our lives, and any antipathy toward painful events. Mind you, this is not to say that such an attitude is necessary for ordinary, everyday life. In that context, it is actually quite good and right to direct our sympathies and antipathies toward the outside world and our fate. But in order to come to know the essence of fate, it is necessary to create very special conditions—just as one can only come to know the forces of nature by creating very special conditions.

[ 18 ] Now, it is by no means easy to truly overcome what we call sympathy and antipathy toward our fate. It is among the most difficult things in life. When it comes to external, superficial blows of fate, we can, in a certain sense, easily come to terms with them; but when it comes to what befalls us every hour, [what befalls us] every day, from moment to moment, the very connection of our soul to our body—to everything we cannot control through our soul, to our body, to everything that works within us from the dull life of the unconscious, to all sympathies and antipathies—ensures that we are unable to overcome them completely.

[ 19 ] We can overcome sympathy and antipathy only when a person not only resolves to to become a serene person, and not merely demand—in deep self-reflection and self-centeredness—that one be serene, but when they repeatedly engage in appropriate exercises of their inner life through regular spiritual training, as you can find described in my book How Does One Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds?. Only when a person works on themselves again and again to cultivate such a balanced soul-state in their life—one in which there is complete freedom from sympathy and antipathy toward fate—does a realization come upon them that permeates their life, approaching us in such a way that we say: We transcend the outer appearances of life. To characterize the inner core of our spiritual and soul being, we need the experience that a person can gain through the necessary spiritual training by developing a very specific perspective on the course of their life.

[ 20 ] As long as one has not done the exercises described, one looks back on one’s life and recalls—albeit perhaps with gaps—what one experienced weeks, months, years, or even decades ago. But then there comes a moment in childhood beyond which one’s memory does not extend. We know that what lies before that moment can only be known to us if older siblings or parents have told us about it over the course of our lives. But normal consciousness only goes back to a certain point in childhood development. Yet we must realize: as inner experiences follow one another in our retrospective view of life, it goes without saying that the moment when our consciousness—our sense of self—emerges is not at the same time the birth of our “I,” that spiritual-psychic core which nuances our inner life and gives it its character. If we look back, an unbiased observation of life—which can only flow as it flows—teaches us that all the perceptions we have are possible only if we assume that the child’s spiritual-soul core itself is at work within its external organism.

[ 21 ] And how does this work manifest itself in the external organism? External natural science knows how malleable the human organism—and especially the brain—is during the first days, weeks, and years of life. If we trace the development of this brain as it adapts to the manifestations of life, we find that it is we ourselves who are at work on the external physical organization; and when we have overcome the described sympathies and antipathies through spiritual exercises, when we have attained a certain serenity, then we comprehend and learn [to] understand how what is at work—both in our physical organization before we have even formed it and in our destiny—is connected to the hidden “I” of our being, to the spiritual-soul core of our being; in other words, how we will. When we go back to a will, to a force within the spiritual-soul core of our being that does not enter our consciousness through sympathy and antipathy, then we realize that our “I,” our spiritual-soul core, not only helps shape the brain that it itself builds, but that it is the very core itself that places itself within life, that brings about its own destiny.

[ 22 ] One must first learn, through the psychological process described, to connect the will with destiny; then the will becomes capable of understanding: It is you yourself who have placed yourself into life. If we observe external life in this way, we arrive at a conclusion contrary to that of spiritual scientific research, which asserts that it stems solely from imprecise observation when we say that what occurs in human life—the abilities, talents, and moral qualities that well up from a human life—should be attributed to chance. If we observe the child from birth, as it becomes more skilled day by day, if we observe what emerges from within, we find that it, too, stems from inaccurate observation when we consider the connection to destiny—when we say that what occurs in life is inherited from parents or grandparents. Therefore, spiritual science must point out that it is due to imprecise observation when one believes that a human being is brought about solely by the inherited characteristics of parents or grandparents.

[ 23 ] This is just as inaccurate an observation as those made before the scientific era, when—as late as the seventeenth century—it was believed that not only very low-level animals but even earthworms and fish developed from river mud, which was dead, lifeless matter, without any seeds of life having been introduced into it. It was Francesco Redi who, because he had [disputed this and asserted the opposite], narrowly escaped the fate of Giordano Bruno. It is therefore an inaccurate observation to believe that life springs forth from lifeless matter. Francesco Redi demonstrated that living beings come into being only when life draws matter to itself and shapes it in accordance with the laws of nature.

[ 24 ] What the natural sciences did back then, the spiritual sciences are doing today by showing that it is based on imprecise observation when what emerges as the spiritual-psychic core of the human being—as intellectuality, as moral qualities, as the workings of fate—is traced back to the characteristics of parents or grandparents. Spiritual science shows, rather, that this spiritual core can be traced back to another spiritual core. Just as Francesco Redi demonstrated that life arises from life, so theosophy must show that the spiritual-psychic arises from the spiritual-psychic—that is, that the spiritual-psychic was previously connected to the spiritual-psychic. Therefore, one cannot speak of a “generic germ,” but must speak of a “personal life core” that refers not to just one but to many previous lives, so that spiritual science must trace the present life back to the other earthly lives in which the human being, through spiritual life, has already absorbed the qualities and developed the talents and powers through which he or she has shaped his or her own destiny.

[ 25 ] Here we come to the question of repeated earthly lives, that is, to the fact—which can be explored through spiritual science—that what lives within us as a spiritual-soul core has already been on Earth many times and will return to Earth many more times, and that this spiritual-soul core gathers around itself and unites with the qualities inherited from parents and grandparents in the same way that the germs described by Francesco Redi do. Just as modern natural science has incorporated this view and shaped itself accordingly, so too does spiritual science have a perspective that is entirely in line with natural science, except that it works not with matter but with the content corresponding to the spiritual-soul aspect.

[ 26 ] Just as we look back on past lives, so too do we look toward future ones, recognizing that we ourselves shape them, and that the way in which we can shape our lives, in turn, appears as our destiny. Just as our subjective sympathies and antipathies precede our destiny, so too do all feelings and selfish impulses—all the feelings of what has become attached to our temporal personality in our past—precede it. They come to the fore as what has been described becomes ever more mature. If we truly wish to examine our own core self, we need only consider the many “I’s” that show us how that which is our own spiritual core—as it exists in ordinary consciousness—springs forth at a certain time and passes away again with death. This is what presents itself to him when he observes the external world, and ordinary life consists almost entirely of such observations of the external world.

[ 27 ] Let us suppose, to take a striking example, that we are observing a magnificent sunrise. We are wholly absorbed—with our whole being, with our feelings, with our sense of self—in this magnificent spectacle, and in our consciousness we blend what meets us there with what we ourselves are and possess within us. The same applies to external life; however, for spiritual and psychological research, we must isolate the spiritual and psychological essence from life. When we isolate moral experiences—empathizing with another’s pain and suffering—we will develop our compassion most fully if we do not separate ourselves from external circumstances. Thus, what we are coincides with what constitutes a soul experience, and if we do not detach ourselves in the face of new experiences, we encounter an obstacle to recognizing this spiritual-soul core.

[ 28 ] There is one instance that everyone is familiar with in which a person becomes detached from external experiences. But this instance cannot be objectively examined in detail by ordinary consciousness. This is the instance—the fact—that a person experiences every day when transitioning from a waking state to a sleeping state. No one should actually believe—for it goes without saying that no one does—that during waking daytime consciousness, everything that constitutes our ideas, our drives, desires, and passions, as well as what makes up our ideals—in short, everything that fills our consciousness—disappears as we fall asleep and reappears when we wake up. That would simply be a logical error committed by anyone who believes it. Rather, every person must admit that what takes place in the life of the soul remains present even during sleep; it is present from the moment we fall asleep until we wake up. But it is present in the way it must be present when the conditions of sleep set in. What, then, are these conditions?

[ 29 ] These are the conditions under which a person, due to the state of sleep—which need not be described in further detail—loses control over his senses, the ability to perceive the experiences of the outside world through his sensory organs, the ability to control his muscles, and so on. The connection with one’s own body—and also with the external world through the senses—is lost. From the moment of falling asleep until waking, the night of unconsciousness spreads within the person. Thus, every day there is a state in which a person’s spiritual-soul core lives independently of the material external world and independently of one’s own body. But a person cannot observe this, because their consciousness fades the very moment this inner life withdraws from its connection with physicality. Of course, the objection—which is somewhat simplistic—can be raised that the phenomena of consciousness, that which ebbs and flows as passion, impulse, and desire, has its own very special significance, and that the return of this inner life in the morning could in some way serve as proof to us that it was present even during sleep, while the body performs an activity that does not escalate to the point of complete unconsciousness.

[ 30 ] One need only apply logic, and one will soon see how little merit the objection has. What we experience in the morning when we wake up is something we become acquainted with in a different way than with any other observation. If we have observed a table as we fall asleep and observe it again upon waking, we see it and know that it has persisted throughout the night. There is no difference between the table in the evening and the recognition of the table within our own being. Now, upon falling asleep and waking up, this spiritual-soul core either withdraws from—or, respectively, unites with—consciousness. Only sometimes does it, so to speak, surge up into the otherwise dark realm of nocturnal consciousness, and we all know that this surging up constitutes the world of dreams. We do not wish to delve too extensively into the characteristics of the dream world, for as soon as this topic is broached, everyone immediately recalls—and this is understandable when one considers how mystically enthusiastic people become when they speak of dreams, and what superstitions and unscientific behavior have been observed wherever dreams have been discussed— but if one observes the dream—setting aside all superstition and all daydreaming—and observes it in relation to human life, especially when it manifests in a characteristic way, then it is, in a certain sense, something that enables us to observe the core of our spiritual and soul nature, which does not cease to exist in sleep, which proves to be enduring, and which we can confront.

[ 31 ] However, there is one condition that must be met if a person wishes, without conducting any special experiment into the life of the soul, to gain some insight into the world—by moving into it during sleep [illegible]—simply by observing the moments of falling asleep [and] waking up; this world is entirely different from the waking world. This world is the one to which the core of our spiritual-soul being belongs and which is subject to special forces […] [illegible passage] and in which it lives for a long time between death and rebirth. However, very specific conditions are required to observe falling asleep and waking up in dreamlike states in such a way that it yields scientifically valid results. Just as one must make science an instrument, one must induce a state that can be characterized as follows: Fatigue must not exceed a certain level. Fatigue must be such that the person is [sufficiently] drowsy [to] find rest in sleep, yet is still able, with that remnant of consciousness left over from fatigue, to catch a glimpse of what, as a real soul-being, slips out of life and now remains in a spiritual world until awakening.

[ 32 ] This is not a figment of the imagination, but a mental experiment that can be conducted at any time, provided one creates the necessary conditions—namely, allowing oneself to experience the degree of fatigue described; then, for the one who [prepares himself] through the gradual weariness of the senses and the rest of the body’s limbs, a spiritual world and a wealth of experiences [present themselves to the soul], [which] appear objectively before him; but then he also knows that he is now moving within a world that he must grasp through feeling. The one who must grasp this state knows that he enters, with his soul, into an experience that unfolds with a clarity and distinctness of imagination that has no external form, and that specifically extends to all that a person possesses in his soul in terms of moral virtues and faults. (And) anyone who makes this observation in the state described knows that he is living there, drawn out of the body into a purely spiritual-soul experience, and that he has the feeling—not out of caprice, but because of what he is experiencing there—that “Oh, if only this moment would last!” For this moment is not something connected to any external life.

[ 33 ] For when something occurs that one will perceive as [illegible], it is this that shows us that we are rising out of the physical body with the spiritual-soul core of our being, and that (then) our soul simply does not have enough energy to perceive this, [to] observe this process while falling asleep and waking up. A person can achieve [this] only by preparing themselves through spiritual training, so that they develop an inner inclination, a devotion to the spiritual experience [illegible]. If one can say that a person has not an intellectual but a heartfelt relationship to spiritual and soul experiences, then the moment of waking may be such that—as is usually the case upon waking—we are overwhelmed by an image of the external world and have no time upon waking to observe the spiritual world. But if we observe the conditions mentioned, it may be that between sleep and the recollection of external life—the recognition of one’s own being—the opposite state sets in; then there arises the perception of desire, the perception of the feeling: “Your physical life is drawing you in; you must enter it.”

[ 34 ] This, however, is only the beginning of an understanding of the spiritual-soul core of our being. If we wish to observe further, we must engage in spiritual-soul experimentation. The only thing that can serve as an instrument for this is the human soul itself. We penetrate the ([illegible]) depths of the spiritual-soul realm through nothing other than [the] human soul itself, and for it to become an instrument for spiritual-soul perception does not depend on ([illegible]) processes [illegible passage] take place; rather, in the case of soul-based investigation, it depends on experiencing soul processes—spiritual processes—within the soul, in order to transform the soul into something other than what physical, ordinary consciousness is. These spiritual processes can only be briefly characterized here. But the senses point to where the spiritual processes lead. You will find a description of this in the book How Does One Gain Insight into the Higher Worlds?, which explains how a person can transform their soul into an instrument of spiritual observation—a process that is primarily achieved through what is called concentration, meditation, and also contemplation of the inner life of the soul.

[ 35 ] I ask you not to associate any other concepts with this than those that are currently being used, for otherwise the new spiritual science may be completely misunderstood. If one does not examine it closely and observe how it [seemingly] draws on an obvious source—even when it describes repeated earthly lives—one might come to believe that it is merely rehashing Buddhist or other religious truths. That is not the case. Just as someone who studies mathematics today does not need Euclid or any other mathematician as a representative [of mathematical truth], so too do we not need any form of Buddhism or any other ancient religious tradition today. What we have here is not a rehash of religious creeds that are foreign to us, but a direct experience of what spiritual science has to offer. Therefore, one must not confuse what is now being said about true clairvoyance—which must not be confused with an entirely different, delusional form of clairvoyance—with mysticism. What a person must bring about in their soul is to allow something [illegible] to take place within it—a state that, on the one hand, is similar to the state of sleep and, on the other hand, is radically different from it. Similar to sleep is that which, as spiritual scientific training—as training in true clairvoyance—must occur; likewise [illegible] [is] the way a person [in sleep] shuts off their senses from the outside world, except that what they do involuntarily there, they bring about voluntarily in spiritual training. Through a strong act of will, the state must be brought about in which we no longer perceive through any of the senses, yet the state of consciousness must be maintained. This consciousness must not be lost; it must not sink into the unconsciousness of sleep. Then, once we have succeeded through such a strong act of will (which can be learned, as the aforementioned book shows), we must allow very specific mental images to enter—images that are not given to us from the outside but are evoked by ourselves (which we create ourselves). The most suitable for this purpose are those images that do not correspond to any external reality at all; in other words, the most suitable are symbolic images, allegories.

[ 36 ] Of course, someone might object here: If you live in symbols, then you are not expressing external truths. Nor is that the point, for we want to come to know the spiritual-soul essence. This is how it [works]: We form a symbol in our minds. It is not enough for a symbol to be repeated a few times; it must be repeated hundreds and hundreds of times in faithful meditation before an effect occurs. Such an image of the soul can arise in the following way. Let us imagine we have two glasses, one full, the other containing a little water. We pour the water from one glass into the other. From this, we must form the idea that the full glass becomes emptier and emptier as we pour it out. But now we must form yet another idea—one that is not true in the ordinary sense, but rather allegorical and symbolic. We imagine [something] that, in a transparent, clear mental image, depicts the essence of a process [which] can never be fully grasped by our own soul in our own inner life. We imagine the essence of that love which works from soul to soul. That [love] gives; and we imagine the essence of love in such a way that we think: We pour even more into the full glass and pour more and more into it. It becomes more and more, so that it is increasingly overflowing; this does not correspond to any reality, but it does correspond to the essence of love, for a person does not become poorer through what they give in love, but rather becomes ever fuller and richer. We have something with a rich, comprehensive content that is brought before the same [inner eye] through a conception that is untrue in an external sense [on the intellectual level], but is a symbolic conception—one that corresponds to the process or a characteristic of the process we have in mind. Thus, we have [a] symbolic representation of water being poured out, just as the glass becomes fuller and fuller—a representation that does not correspond to sensory perception but is nonetheless very accurate.

[ 37 ] Those who do not engage in such spiritual and psychological experiments will not attain a spiritual and psychological understanding of the essence of being. But whoever engages in this experiment with such ideas—contemplating them and allowing them to permeate their inner being to the point of concentrating all their soul forces upon them—will notice that something changes entirely. Only [illegible] [gap].

[ 38 ] When someone observes a shining point, [when] one focuses solely on that shining point, one’s entire soul-being is drawn together toward that point, and one enters [a] very specific state. Spiritual science, however, rules this out. There, the soul’s power is concentrated too arbitrarily. But when we concentrate ourselves on such contents through the purely spiritual ideas formed within us, we find that something radiates from them and fills our entire soul more and more richly, and that we now begin to notice—in a completely different sense than [was the case] when observing falling asleep and waking up [as was the case]—to be led [toward] what it means to exist independently of one’s physicality.

[ 39 ] It is not intended to claim that only those who conduct this experiment themselves can understand it. The situation is the same as with scientific experiments, namely that [it] can be examined afterward using ordinary intellectual faculties, [just] as scientific knowledge can be examined [illegible] through natural science to understand what [gap]. The experiments of spiritual science are not conducted out of mere curiosity, but to gain insight into [the] spiritual world; when such insights are gained [illegible], they can be organized on the level of concepts and reason.

[ 40 ] A highly characteristic peculiarity then also comes to the fore, namely that a person associates a certain meaning with [the fact that he] knows exactly what it means [illegible] to live in a spiritual-soul [being], independent of physicality; he knows this now—it is no longer theory, no longer philosophy. It is not [only] what confronts us—what confronts us in such a peculiar way that we perceive our ordinary life, as we otherwise experience it—[but also what confronts us] like a resistance, so that we feel we do indeed live in [the] spiritual world, but are unable to express what we experience in the ideas and concepts we usually have, because we express those ideas and concepts through the instrument [illegible] of the brain. Now, however, we experience our brain and [our] body clairvoyantly. We now have spiritual life. But we must wait, faithfully continuing our exercises and waiting. And if we continue them, we will come to actually feel how our own brain opposes us. We will feel our brain just as a child would feel it in the stages when its consciousness has not yet awakened, when it is still shaping the brain malleably. But the child does not yet have consciousness. Therefore, it does not feel the matter that hinders it. The clairvoyantly trained person, however, feels this. And there he feels how new, malleable formation works its way in.

[ 41 ] However, if you were to approach these [events] with external research—it would find nothing. You are too [biased]. But [these processes] certainly exist for those who work on a spiritual and soul level through concentration and meditation. Such a person feels in such a way that they know how the core of the being works its way into the physical body; they know that it is not the physical body that is the cause, but rather the work of the spirit and soul. Then comes the moment when the brain is ready enough to express what has been experienced. And only now does the external expression of spiritual science emerge. It appears in such a way that it is articulated in ideas similar to those in external life. When these ideas are expressed, we work in concepts.

[ 42 ] We now know that our entire physicality is built up from the spiritual. We recognize the relationship between the spiritual and the physical; we recognize the work of the spiritual-soul aspect within the physical; we recognize that what we strive to achieve encounters resistance throughout the rest of the body. Now something even arises that manifests as the heaviest resistance in life: namely, that which, so to speak, provides a blissful, pleasant state for those who do not approach clairvoyance with the right feelings and sensations—but which the true spiritual researcher must reject as it first appears.

[ 43 ] While we, as ordinary people, experience the spiritual world in the form of sensations and thoughts with which we [illegible], once we have entered into spiritual and soul life, this world appears to us in the form of visions, hallucinations, and all manner of apparitions. The ordinary clairvoyant, who does not wish to advance into spiritual research, stops there; but the one who wishes to be a spiritual researcher must realize that these lower phenomena are nothing more than reflections of the outer personality, as it otherwise appears in temporal phenomena, and that these visions must first be penetrated, and the spiritual-soul core must be penetrated through inner clairvoyance.

[ 44 ] Thus, one can say that true clairvoyance encounters resistance precisely in ordinary clairvoyance; that ordinary clairvoyance must first be overcome; and that, therefore, genuine spiritual science should not be confused with every kind of superstition and all kinds of visionary states that are achieved when a person, through various exercises, becomes objectively aware of their own states. Rather, the clairvoyant knows that the visions are solely of a spiritual-psychic nature, and it is only later that he comes to penetrate the spiritual-psychic core of being.

[ 45 ] With this, I have described to you everything that can be described in such a short time—a path through which he—[the human being]—can advance toward a spiritual-soul core, through which one can understand how he exists in a body [illegible]. Then there is no escaping the realization that it is not the external material processes—which are separate from the spiritual processes—but rather that, from the very first moment, the spiritual works from within the spiritual world to place this body into the external world. And that, once this spiritual-soul core has been at work throughout this entire life, what confronts us when we reach the threshold of death must be linked to the beginning of life—just as we do in the natural sciences. We understand plant life when we regard what emerges in the fruit as a seed as the beginning once again. So too, when spiritual life becomes ever richer and richer, ever more mature and mature.

[ 46 ] When we view this as it truly is, we find it enriched, endowed with forces of tension that do not disappear but are transformed when the body falls away. Just as the seed of a plant begins to rot in the earth, just as the tree’s outer leaves wither and fall, sprouts and grows again in the spring—so too, that which lives within the human being as the spiritual-soul core is not lost, but enters the world known to clairvoyant consciousness, which becomes our surroundings when we enter it with clairvoyant consciousness.

[ 47 ] Therefore, clairvoyant consciousness can also speak of the spiritual world in which we find ourselves between death and a new birth. And it speaks [of the fact] that that life does not cease to exist, but rather that we encounter resistance in our physical existence; as long as we are connected to [the] physical body, we experience this resistance. However, we do not experience resistance from physicality when we are separated from the physical body. This is why spiritual science [focuses on this] when it looks toward the threshold of death, when the forces of tension are at work preparing to rebuild a new body, a new destiny, and a new life.

[ 48 ] But this brings us to the truths of spiritual science, which are not merely theoretical or philosophical in nature, nor do they merely shed light on the meaning and value of life; through spiritual science, we receive truths that work within us like elixirs of life—working in such a way that they can give us the courage to face life and the strength to live. For we see that as we familiarize ourselves with what spiritual science gives us—as we are introduced, through concepts, to the mysteries of the spiritual-soul core of our being—we see that what passes through death has nothing to do with coming into being and passing away, but rather [that through this] very process, coming into being and passing away were brought about, so that one [thereby] attain immortality.

[ 49 ] It is not through speculation, but through recognizing the essence of being—through the workings of the soul—that one attains knowledge of life, death, and immortality. In doing so, one also becomes aware of one’s own essence, and when spiritual science has penetrated human life as natural science has, then this spiritual science will not only provide theories for life, as natural science has done, but through spiritual science, our life will be transformed in accordance with what must be grasped through spiritual knowledge and the life after death [in order to reshape our life toward its full understanding and happiness].

[ 50 ] If it should come to pass that, just as the natural sciences have begun their triumphant advance, the humanities—despite fear and [illegible]—also embark on this path, then humanity will move toward a time when people are made aware from their earliest youth, when they are made aware even in [their] youth to the eternal within them—so that where the skin wrinkles, the hair turns gray, and the body withers, in those times a person learns to feel outwardly this life that they have built up from a previous life; that must fall away from them, whereas what holds the promise of later lives and passes into all eternity will grow ever stronger and stronger. And he will transform this into a sensation, a feeling, and a mood of the soul.

[ 51 ] Old age will unfold differently—the consciousness, as the hair turns gray, the body grows weak, and the skin wrinkles—such that what sheds the body becomes ever more powerful and stronger spiritually, the more it causes the outer body to wither. And as a person nears death, as he passes through the gate of death, he will feel more and more spiritual—not merely possessing the knowledge of his immortality. This will be an achievement guided by spiritual science. In the wakefulness of life, we perceive and feel something like an elixir of life, not like [mere] theory, [which] pours through our soul life and inspires us, like a driving force that will enable us to carry out our actions, so that it will set us forth into life with courage, a zest for work, and strength. This will be the moral effect of spiritual science, once we come to know, through the findings of clairvoyant research, the spiritual-soul core of our being—a core with which one cannot become acquainted without renouncing one’s own nature. Then human beings will realize that they are not merely connected to their own lives—to [the] outer life—but are connected in spirit to the spiritual-soul aspect. And the objection that human beings cannot remember their past lives becomes no more valid; the objection is null and void. For then we must [always] remember where we placed [or set down] an object—[for example] a chalice—on the table in the evening; we know this [only] if we have directed our attention to it. We are not aware of it if we have not been paying attention to it. When people become aware of the spiritual-soul core of their being and direct their attention toward it, then the time will come when people will also remember their past lives.

[ 52 ] This memory must be evoked—I dare say this openly, because anyone familiar with these matters will naturally agree, just as today everyone who was [illegible] in a previous life directs their attention to spiritual science, regarding the knowledge of past lives not as a theory but as an inwardly experienced truth, as a truth of memory, as something they truly possess. Reflection on past earthly lives is already possible today, and consciousness—which will be grounded in the spiritual—will be a consequence of our entering into spiritual science. Then we will find ourselves saying: You are born in the Spirit, and what your soul experiences and […] [illegible passage] You come from God and return to the Spirit. – The soul does not merely feel itself in space; the soul will feel itself in the infinity of time. And just as natural science made space infinite in the time of [Giordano] Bruno, so will [illegible] those paths be, when the beyond of temporal life—the endpoints of life, birth and death—[will be penetrated]. Humanity will have acquired knowledge of the infinite world of space, the infinite world of time, perceiving it as the elixir of life—as that which gives it positive strength and a zest for work; the soul will feel this in such a way that we can summarize what we have presented today into a fundamental sentiment, expressed [in the words], [which I] have expressed in my Mystery Drama. There I have shown, as far as possible, how to fill this soul with warmth and confidence. I have summarized this in spiritual science—that which spiritual science has to say about our work.

In your thinking,

[ 53 ] —this is what the soul might say to itself when it recalls this in its mind and soul,

World thoughts live within you,
World forces live within your feelings,
Forces of will work within your will.
Recognize yourself in world thoughts,
Feel yourself in world forces,
Create yourself from beings of will,
Do not end in the distance of the worlds
Through the dreamlike play of thought,
Begin in the worlds of the spirit,
And end in the depths of your own soul.
You will find your own goals
By recognizing yourself within yourself.