The Rudolf Steiner Archive

10. Imagination as a Prerequisite for Higher Spiritual Abilities

[ 1 ] During their wonderful friendship—one so significant for modern intellectual life—Goethe and Schiller exchanged the works they were writing, and when Schiller received parts of Wilhelm Meister from Goethe, he wrote to Goethe, overwhelmed by the impact of the chapter he had just received: “This much is certain, however: the poet is the only true human being, and even the best philosopher is merely a caricature in comparison.”

[ 2 ] At the time, this may have sounded strange, but for us today that is no longer the case. We can put ourselves in Schiller’s shoes and gain insight into the truth of his words when we measure them against the significant letter Schiller wrote to Goethe shortly after the beginning of their friendship. Both had expounded on their views of nature and worldview in their conversations. In the aforementioned letter, Schiller now expresses how Goethe does not arrive at his views through speculation, but rather seeks what is necessary in the totality of the world’s phenomena. Everything is contained within Goethe’s intuition, and he has little reason to borrow from philosophy, which can only learn from him.

[ 3 ] In Goethe’s way of looking at the world, in his inner attitude from which he created his works, Schiller thus sees something that introduces human beings particularly deeply into the mysteries of existence. When one examines the ideas and opinions shared between Goethe and Schiller, one sees Schiller absorbed in Goethe’s imagination, in the inner truth of Goethe’s imagination. At that time, Schiller wrote the “Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man,” in which he explains how human beings can, through development, attain full humanity, which is inherent in every person as the higher human being. In Goethe’s way of allowing his imagination to radiate, Schiller found something that makes a human being a fully realized human being; he saw in it a path to immersing oneself in that which can bring a human being into true communion with the primordial sources of things.

[ 4 ] When one hears great minds speak of imagination in this way, it strikes one differently than when people talk about imagination today. Now that it is set in opposition to objective observation, it is as if imagination were something arbitrary that leads people to put things together in any way they please. (Gap in the transcript.)

[ 5 ] When we consider that Goethe was, so to speak, an expert as a naturalist, his following statements take on double significance: Human beings strive to fathom the mysteries of nature and long for its worthy interpreter, art. Art and beauty are manifestations of secret laws of nature that could never be fathomed without them. When the imagination—which operates solely on the basis of feelings and impulses—blends with other achievements of the human soul, we must admit that it sometimes leads us away from the truth. It has no place in science and research. Yet, as a precursor to higher cognitive faculties, it points the way to hidden connections between things that would otherwise remain unseen. However, in certain areas of life, it is absolutely necessary that what the imagination combines be substantiated and verified through research based on rigorous external evidence.

[ 6 ] Accordingly, Goethe’s words or Schiller’s position seem to make it necessary for us to determine, in Goethe’s case, how he perceives in the imagination something that contains an element of truth, as opposed to an arbitrary, rule-less play that we might call a fantastical play of mental images. When we seek to fathom the laws of nature through scientific inquiry, our observations compel us to form our judgment. This is not the case with the imagination. Certain mental images or thoughts must nevertheless be linked by an inner necessity if they are to have any claim to truth. There must be something that guides them inwardly, from thought to thought, in a specific direction.

[ 7 ] When we hear great thinkers speak of such truths, we are certainly permitted to measure their insights against the methods employed by spiritual research, which lead to these often-discussed truths. These methods are the so-called clairvoyant ones, which enable communications about the facts and beings of the spiritual world. In our discussion of them, we will also touch upon the lower forms of clairvoyance, but only briefly, for they can never lead to true goals. Instead, we will focus our consideration on the method and scope of higher clairvoyance, achieved through proper training.

[ 8 ] Some people, who are familiar only with the lower forms of clairvoyance—such as somnambulism—consider it a disease. There are states in which a person’s inner life is filled with images from other worlds. It is a kind of sleep, perhaps so shallow that the layperson mistakes it for complete wakefulness. When such a “clairvoyant” perceives images in this sleep-like state, they sometimes present something strange and astonishing. They can be prophetic in nature. Such a person can make statements about medical conditions before they occur, or—what seems even more astonishing to the layperson—can specify exactly what will help treat them, and so on. In such states, the person in question has another world before them. Anyone who denies this has not done their research. However, what is gained through such lower forms of clairvoyance is not the subject of our consideration today, but rather what is acquired on the path of trained clairvoyance.

[ 9 ] The aspiring clairvoyant takes every step consciously, exercising strict self-control. The only question is this: What mental image should we have of the development of such a clairvoyant? If we wish to define the essential aspects, we can certainly compare it to the methods of external research. In science, the researcher seeks to fathom the mysteries of nature with the aid of instruments. The trained clairvoyant, too, works with an instrument—indeed, a very complex one—without which he cannot explore anything. His instrument is none other than himself—not in his everyday state, but only once he has transformed his capacity for insight into a different soul constellation through methods of Spiritual Science and has created new spiritual organs for himself; that is, once he is able to draw conclusions from his own experiences. It cannot be that the external senses alone exhaust all knowledge. With each new organ, a new aspect of the environment takes shape. These may be worlds hidden from us. For the trained clairvoyant, the otherwise hidden world becomes just as real as the external one. Just as a person born blind sees a whole new world after surgery, so too does a whole world flow toward the clairvoyant—a world that is his own experience.

[ 10 ] One must not believe that this can be achieved through external means. Of course, I can only hint at how this happens. Later, I hope to be able to tell you more about how such research is conducted. A person observes most faithfully when they take in what the sensory world tells them without being influenced by subjective factors. What matters is that a person simply gives nature the opportunity to express itself. The less subjective interpretation is involved, the better. A person cannot help but reflect on the external world from which they derive their perceptions, but it is by no means the case that all their concepts, ideas, and mental images flow into them from the external world. After all, he draws the essential from within himself. This is evident, for example, in the way modern thought arrived at the structure of the solar system. Copernicus and Galileo certainly saw the same things that have always been visible to the naked eye. But the laws were first formulated by them. Copernicus introduced new combinations to the old observational data and thereby accomplished the essential task. The same applies to orthodox Darwinism. Similar observations were made before Darwin and Haeckel, but they approached these matters with a new mindset. We must realize that concepts and ideas are not something that flows into us from the outside, but rather something that human beings themselves must bring forth. When you sail out to sea, where you see no land, the vault of the sky appears to rest in the form of a circle on the surface of the sea. You will only understand why this is so when you are able, in your mind, to construct the circle around the point at its center. In this way, you can grasp all laws, and reality must then correspond to them. Kepler could never have discovered the orbits of the planets if elliptical orbits had not first emerged in his mind.

[ 11 ] In this way, we bring our ideas to the external things, which tell us: “What you have thought, we will accomplish.” —And so you come to realize that the very same thing that lives in your soul underlies this external sensory world as a law. Now imagine that a person tries to hold onto a thought that has been formed within their own soul. If the person manages to set aside all external observation and direct their entire inner attention to the thought, a psychological process takes place that is called concentration. The human soul must first hold onto something that lives only within the soul and cling to it with the utmost inner rigor. Of course, this alone is not enough; it must be repeated over and over again. However, what a person holds onto in the form of mental images that come from outside is not effective.

[ 12 ] We now have experience in this area, and advice is available on how to best develop the soul’s powers through concentration. There are certain key principles. You do not need to be convinced of their reality from the outset. The more open-minded you are, the better. One instruction, for example, says: Fill your soul with a specific content; devote yourself solely to this inner content. You do not need to believe in it, but you must allow it to take effect within you, concentrate on it, and you will find that you achieve an effect in your soul through this content. It may be that the external truth does not apply to the statement; that is irrelevant—what matters is the active force within the soul. You will see that, with constant repetition, inner experiences will arise.

[ 13 ] Symbolic images are particularly effective. I would especially like to recall one: the deeply meaningful symbol of the black cross with roses. Let us bring to mind the abstract meaning of the Rose Cross—Goethe’s “Die and Become”—namely, the demand that, as we develop our soul, we must rise above the things of the sensory world so that they fade away around us, die off. Whose soul remains empty is merely a “gloomy guest on the dark earth.” If you succeed and are absolutely certain that something higher is emerging from the hidden depths of your soul, then you have been reborn in higher worlds. Dying in the cross, rising in the roses—that is the meaning of the symbol of the Rose Cross. In the mineral and plant worlds, a spiritual element lives everywhere, and intuition allows us to sense that the underlying spiritual is the origin of the physical. The outer world is, in the final analysis, merely the physiognomy of a spiritual world. The human soul is like steel or flint; it conjures up divine-spiritual content from within itself in the life of the human soul. The task is to find the right symbol. Someone might say: You may speculate all you like about what the Rose Cross is supposed to mean. The researcher is indifferent to that. When we establish a law of nature in physics, it tells us something; science explains it. The Rose Cross tells us nothing. — But that is not the point. Symbols are most effective when they are open to multiple interpretations. One enters into a pure, inner activity of the soul, and by taking the symbol as a point of departure—simply to have a starting point—one concentrates one’s soul on this symbol.

[ 14 ] Let us consider what the soul is consciously doing here; that is what matters. What is at work within a person are forces capable of awakening what lies dormant—experiences that provide the assurance that this is an inner reality only when the person comes to feel: Actually, the cross was just a kind of bridge. Now I have received something in my inner life, something entirely different that rises within my soul—an experience I cannot obtain through external means. —At first, the student does not know whether what lies before them is a mirage or reality. It is essential to develop further abilities, for even what has just been described is still a detour for the clairvoyant—they are merely images. As the practice continues, the following realization sets in: What matters is what is expressed in the images. — If you press on your eye or pass an electric current through it, a glimmer of light may flare up, caused by the eye’s internal structure. It is roughly like this when the images appear; they flicker through the soul like spiritual flashes of lightning. When you encounter an object, you know that it is not produced by your eye, but rather reveals itself to your eye. The same occurs in the spiritual realm. The seer now knows just as surely that he has not created the object, but that the object reveals itself to him through his inner organs. In fact—as the images are now experienced—objective facts reveal themselves. Just as one distinguishes externally between imagination and perception, so it is necessary that the beholder remain in possession of his sound faculties, for in hardly any other realm are confusions so easily possible as in that of inner experience. That is why something else must proceed in parallel with it.

[ 15 ] If the observer were to practice only what has just been described, he might become a madman who believes he can use his personality to conjure up an illusion of reality. It is necessary for a person to learn, in experiencing the higher spiritual world, to renounce everything connected with his desires and inclinations. Psychologically, modern people behave differently. They may correct their external sensory impressions, but in doing so, emotion and subjective inclination all too easily come into play. The experience of spiritual reality must be preceded by the renunciation of any desire that something might be one way or another. Only when every form of sympathy has been set aside can one experience the objective spiritual realm.

[ 16 ] There is one more essential point. For those who are guided along the path to clairvoyance by experts—not amateurs—and who learn to see in a way that corresponds to the truth, it is of great value that they do not set out on this path without certain prerequisites. It is a difficult path. One must therefore have previously absorbed truths—insights from those who have already explored this path. One can also embark on the path with less knowledge, but then the soul’s world remains impoverished, and its contents are crammed together like fixed mental images. This is how those clairvoyants come into being who, for example, believe they have united with God, describe Him, and so on. When such clairvoyants describe the higher worlds, their accounts seem trivial. But to those who approach the higher worlds with the proven experience of a spiritual researcher, a manifold content of the worlds appears, and everything else proves to be, by comparison, only a small fragment of the great world. The person who makes this experience their own knows that what they are experiencing there is not deceiving them. They can perceive spiritually with the same certainty as in the external sensory world. This is trained clairvoyance.

[ 17 ] What, then, must happen for these higher senses to be developed? From the perspective of Spiritual Science, a human being is not merely an outer physical body; for higher perception, they also possess the otherwise invisible etheric body and the astral body, the vehicle of pleasure and suffering. You know what sleep represents for spiritual research. There, the physical and etheric bodies remain in bed, while the astral body and the “I” act upon the physical body from the outside. Upon awakening, the astral body returns to the physical and etheric bodies, and the sensory world reappears. Thus, sleep is a stepping out of the physical body by the astral body and the “I.” How, then, can a person hear and see the sensory world? Through the eyes and ears; otherwise, the world would be colorless, lightless, and soundless. When the astral body steps out of the physical body, it is indeed in the spiritual world, but it possesses no organs. If it had such organs, it could perceive the spiritual environment just as it perceives its surroundings in the physical world. If a person is to perceive the spiritual world, therefore, spiritual senses must develop within them. This occurs through the methodical training of the soul life. When the astral body emerges from a person who has been trained in this way, using spiritual methods, it finds itself in a situation entirely different from that under ordinary circumstances. It is as if what was previously a chaotic mass within the astral body were to organize itself and form organs. What was once a misty, smoky mass takes on a beautiful form. This process takes a long time. Since ancient times, this process has been called catharsis, purification, or refinement. The inner being is then cleansed of drives, desires, and passions. This is the first stage.

[ 18 ] This first stage is followed by a second. When a person returns to their physical-etheric body in the morning, the outer organs possess stronger forces; they drown out the subtle new tones in the inner organs. Although these tones are always present, they remain weak as long as they are drowned out by the forces of the etheric body in the sense organs. Later, a person learns to use the inner organs so that, in addition to sensory perceptions, they also perceive spiritual perceptions. This process is called enlightenment, or Photismos. These are entirely real processes that have been experienced.

[ 19 ] Step by step, in every detail, a person applies the prescribed method to train themselves to become an instrument of perception. The training is thus intended to enable them to endow their inner being with organs. Just as nature has perfected the outer human being, so the path of development continues, and what nature has begun is carried forward by the human being himself. When a person gains insight into the spiritual realm in this way, he owes it to the fact that his inner being has become the ruler of the physical and etheric bodies. Human beings have become their own masters. First, they attain mastery over their etheric body. In the case of a trained clairvoyant, this occurs in such a way that the etheric body adapts its forces to those of the astral body; it becomes elastic. If clairvoyance occurs spontaneously in pathological states, this stems from other causes. Although it is subject to the same laws, it is uncontrollable. When a certain influence is exerted on a person, or when he is ill, the etheric body can become partially or completely detached from the physical body; it can become loosened. This is not normal. In such cases, the person has an etheric body that is not as tightly bound to the physical body as is the case in normal connection, and is therefore easy to manipulate. In contrast, the spiritual student strengthens the astral body and thereby helps it to gain control over the etheric body. In the event of illness, a part of the etheric body may become free, which is then controlled by the astral body. Because this state is based on the same principles, such people can sometimes gain genuine insights into the spiritual world, but these insights are not reliable. The rigorous results of spiritual research are not achieved in this way.

[ 20 ] One sometimes hears the question: How can a disease process give rise to extrasensory perceptions? — Health and knowledge need not follow the same paths; there is no contradiction in this, but neither is there any recommendation. In any case, we can see what underlies the process that brings facts of the higher world into a person’s field of vision. Just as we take delight in the world around us, so too do we find in the spiritual world that which first makes the sensory world comprehensible to us. The communications of the spiritual researcher are based on experiences he has had. By recounting these, he conveys facts about a world that can also be understood by the ordinary mind, whereas our inner world is otherwise determined by what takes place in the physical realm. For example, the fact that the image of a rose can have an effect on me is possible because the rose’s forces flow into me. The same is true in the spiritual realm. The trained clairvoyant experiences the outer spiritual world in his inner life. He says to himself: The sensory world is governed by laws set forth by spiritual beings whose actions and influence are revealed to me. I see that a flower appears to me in this way—shaped from the spiritual realm, from spiritual depths. I must make sacrifices in my inner life in order to allow the world of higher spiritual beings to flow into me. — Imagine that this world exists and is at work, that a person could enter it. This world, which the clairvoyant sees, surrounds the person. It acts upon the person as a determining force—one that the person does not see, but which flows into him in a way that is subconscious to him. The clairvoyant is not content merely to see the person as he is outwardly shaped.

[ 21 ] Imagination, too, can function as a power of the soul that is inspired by the spiritual worlds. Therein lies the true source of imagination, and we come to understand Schiller’s statement, which characterizes what is created in this way. Thus we can understand why Goethe says: There is a kind of imagination that possesses an inner certainty. - There is a form of fantasy that combines, and there is imagination that is inspired by the forces perceived by the clairvoyant. Given the circumstances of his life at the time, Schiller could not have had any inkling of Spiritual Science, but he sensed and felt that Goethe was justified in attributing to the imagination the ability to fathom certain mysteries. |

[ 22 ] No matter how many external facts our intellect may provide, true imagination can be far more real. Human beings are predisposed to ascend into the spiritual realms, for the corresponding abilities lie dormant within every person. Every human being, even if it takes many lifetimes, will attain this. Until then, they can be inspired by art, in which not only the sensory world is expressed, but the creative spirit itself, which has passed through the medium of imagination. Imagination is the outward reflection of that spirit. Thus we may say that imagination and clairvoyance are set before human beings as a part of spiritual life, as a great goal—something that some have already attained, and which takes precedence over all other forms of existence. Trained clairvoyance leads human beings into the higher worlds. Its representative in the sensory world is the imagination. That is why it holds a preeminent significance among the powers of the human soul. Imagination is the representative of clairvoyance in the sensory world.