The Rudolf Steiner Archive

2. The Secret of the Doppelganger: Geographical Medicine

[ 1 ] You will have noticed that something was said in yesterday’s public lecture that is very significant for the understanding of spiritual insights within human life. I hinted at how those people who, in the present, here on the physical plane, primarily take in only impressions that come from the sensory world, or are guided by an intellect bound to the sensory world—an intellect that wants to know nothing other than the sensory world—how such people, after their death, are, so to speak, bound to an environment that still extends deeply into the earthly, physical realm in which a human being exists during the time between birth and death. Thus, through such people—who, because of their lives within the physical body, continue to draw themselves into the earthly-physical world for a long time after death—destructive forces are created within this physical world. Such a matter touches upon deep, significant mysteries of human life—mysteries that, one might say, have been carefully guarded by certain occult societies for centuries, millennia—have been carefully guarded by certain occult societies, because they—we will not examine today on what grounds—have claimed that human beings are not yet ready to receive such truths, such mysteries, and that their disclosure would cause great confusion. We shall say little today about the right to withhold such profoundly far-reaching truths—which are so significant for life—from the general public and to cultivate them only within the narrow circle of occult schools. But it must be said that the time has come when humanity, in the wider world, cannot and must not exist without the disclosure of certain secrets about the supersensible world of the kind mentioned yesterday. Indeed, we will have to go further and further in the public disclosure of such things.

[ 2 ] Although it may have been justified, within certain limits, in earlier times when humanity lived under different conditions to withhold such secrets, this is no longer justified today, for humanity now stands—as we know, this is the fifth epoch of the post-Atlantean era— now stands in conditions of life in which he would inevitably pass through the gate of death as a destroyer if he did not, here in life, look more and more for concepts, notions, and ideas that deal with supersensible things. One cannot therefore say that those people are right who claim: “Well, we can just wait and see what comes after death.” No, between birth and death one must have knowledge of certain aspects of the spiritual world, as was indicated yesterday, in order to pass through the gate of death with these concepts and these ideas.

[ 3 ] In earlier stages of human development, things were different. You know that up until the 16th century, until the emergence of the Copernican worldview, people believed something entirely different about the structure of the universe. Now, it was, of course, necessary for human progress—and also for the emergence of human freedom within human development—that the Copernican worldview should come about, just as spiritual science must now come about. But with the physical worldview that people held before Copernicanism—which, for my part, one might call false today—with this view of the physical structure of the universe, in which the Earth stands still, the Sun moves around the Earth’s sky, the stars move around the Earth, and that beyond the starry sky there is a spiritual sphere inhabited by spiritual beings—with this view of the structure of the universe, people could still pass through the gate of death without being held back as the dead in the earthly sphere. This worldview did not yet cause people, when they passed through the gate of death, to become destroyers in the earthly sphere. It was only with the advent of Copernicanism—only with the idea that the entire world, spread out in space, is governed solely by the laws of space; only with this Copernican conception of the Earth orbiting the Sun—that human beings became bound to physical, sensory existence and were prevented from ascending accordingly into the spiritual world after death.

[ 4 ] Today, we must also come to understand this flip side of the Copernican worldview, after having been conditioned for centuries to repeatedly present its magnificent progressiveness to the human soul. One perspective is just as valid as the other. Even if one view is still considered wise today—though it has, of course, become a rather philistine form of wisdom to regard the Copernican worldview as the sole path to salvation— but even if that is still considered wisdom today, and the other view—that through this Copernican worldview, a person remains bound to the earth after death unless they form a spiritual conception of it, as can be done today through spiritual science—is still regarded by people today as folly, as nonsense: yet it is, in fact, a truth. You already know from the Bible that what is folly to humans is wisdom to the gods.

[ 5 ] For when a person passes through the gate of death, their consciousness changes. It would be a completely mistaken notion to believe that a person becomes unconscious after death. This strange notion is even widespread in some circles that call themselves “theosophical.” It is nonsense. On the contrary, consciousness becomes much more powerful, much more intense—but it is of a different nature. Even when compared to the ordinary perceptions of the physical world, it must be said that conscious perceptions after death are something else entirely.

[ 6 ] Above all, after death, a person is reunited with those with whom they are karmically connected throughout their life. So it may be that in the spiritual world, between death and a new birth, the deceased encounters many human souls through whom they pass—for there is permeability, not impenetrability—past whom they move, if I may use that expression; they are not there for them. There are those with whom they have some karmic connection. The fact that we are growing more and more into a universal context of the world, even after death, is something we must earn through our lives here on Earth. And the establishment of societies built purely on spiritual principles is already a task for the present and the future. Why do people seek to establish societies such as the anthroposophical one? Why do they seek, so to speak, to unite people under such ideas? Because this creates a karmic bond between people who are meant to find one another in the spiritual world—people who are also meant to belong together in the spiritual world—which they could not do if they were to wander around here in isolation. It is precisely through the opportunity to share spiritual insights and spiritual wisdom with one another that we contribute immensely to life in the spiritual world—a contribution that, in turn, has a reciprocal effect on the physical-sensory world, for the latter is constantly under the influence of the spiritual world. Here, after all, only the effects take place; over there in the spiritual world—and also as we live here on the physical plane—the causes occur. And we can say, if we focus purely on what is so frequently promoted today: associations are founded for all sorts of purposes, but even if they arise from the greatest enthusiasm, they are often devoted to spiritual matters only to a very limited extent. People think that through certain associations they can gradually transform the Earth into an earthly paradise; well, even before these three years of war, numerous such associations had already been founded on Earth, in which people worked to gradually transform Europe into a social paradise! What we see now does not particularly suggest that things are going the way people think they can direct them.

[ 7 ] On the other hand, however, the interaction between the physical world and the spiritual world is certainly more complex. And yet it must be said: When associations are founded in the light of spiritual science, people thereby contribute not only to the world of effects, but also to the world of causes that lie behind the sensory effects. — One must imbue oneself with this feeling if one wishes to truly understand the infinitely profound significance of what is being accomplished precisely through collaboration in spiritual work, both in the present and in the future of humanity.

[ 8 ] This is not something that can arise from mere club-like activities, but rather it is a sacred task that should be entrusted to the humanity of the present and the future by the divine-spiritual beings who guide the world. For people will inevitably have to take in certain concepts of the supersensible world, because fewer and fewer supersensible concepts will come from the sensory world. I would say that, precisely because of the progress of natural science, supersensible concepts will be driven out of the sensory world more and more. Consequently, human beings would gradually cut themselves off entirely from the spiritual world if they did not take in supersensible, spiritual concepts. They would condemn themselves to becoming completely bound after death to what is merely the physical earth—and also to what the physical earth will become.

[ 9 ] But the physical Earth will become a corpse in the future, and human beings would face the dreadful prospect of condemning themselves to inhabiting a corpse as souls in the future, unless they resolved to settle into the spiritual world and take root there. It is a serious, a significant task that has been set before the work of spiritual science. We must, so to speak, call this to mind every day as a sacred thought, so that we may never lose our zeal for this worthy cause of spiritual science.

[ 10 ] And such ideas, which can multiply and multiply if we engage with what has already entered our spiritual current from the spiritual world—the many concepts concerning that spiritual world— all the concepts that come to us in this way—enable us to free ourselves from our bondage to the earthly, to the destructive elements within the earthly, so that we may act from other directions. We therefore remain in connection with the souls we have left behind on Earth—and with whom we are karmically linked—as well as with the Earth itself, but from other places. Indeed, we are even more intensely connected to the souls we left behind on Earth when we are, so to speak, connected to them from higher spiritual regions—when we are not condemned by a purely materialistic life to, so to speak, haunt the Earth, where we cannot be connected in love to anything on Earth, but where we are, in fact, merely centers of destruction.

[ 11 ] You see, my dear friends, when we gradually develop our consciousness here, starting from childhood—well, we know how this consciousness grows and matures; we don’t need to describe that. After death, entirely different processes take place in order for us to gradually and truly attain the consciousness we must acquire for the life between death and a new birth. Just as we walk about on Earth, gaining experience and having adventures, so it is not after death; we do not, so to speak, need that. What we do need, however, is to detach ourselves, so to speak, from the immensely intense force that is connected to us once we have left the physical body. As we pass through the gate of death, we are connected to that spiritual world which we describe here through spiritual science. We describe it as the world of the higher hierarchies: Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai, Exusiai, Dynamis, Kyriotetes, and so on—as the world of the higher hierarchies and the deeds and experiences of these hierarchies. Here, the world lies outside of us; the world of the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom is within our sphere. Once we have passed through the gate of death, these spiritual beings—whom we list in the higher hierarchies—and indeed their very worlds are within us. We are connected to them; at first, we simply cannot distinguish ourselves from them; we live within them as they fill us. This is already a difficult concept, but one must come to terms with it: here we are outside the world; there we are within the world. Our being extends throughout the entire world; yet we cannot distinguish ourselves from it. After death, we are, so to speak, filled to the brim with the beings of the higher hierarchies and with what these hierarchies do. But the most important thing is that we be able to detach the nearest hierarchies—the hierarchy of the Angeloi, Archangeloi, and Archai, with which we are filled—from the higher hierarchies. Over there, we do not at all attain a proper sense of the “I”—I have already described this maturing of the “I”-consciousness from other perspectives in my lecture cycles and talks—but we do not attain a proper sense of the “I” unless we can find within ourselves the strength to distinguish over there: What is within us—Angelos? Elohim? What is a being from the hierarchy of the Angeloi, and what is a being from the hierarchy of the Exusiai, the Form Spirits? We must learn to distinguish over there; we must have the strength to detach from what is connected to us that which we wish to recognize; otherwise, it remains within us and does not stand outside of us. Here we must come together with what is outside, look at it; there we must detach it from ourselves so that we can be connected to it.

[ 12 ] Well, given the current state of the world in terms of human development, we can only awaken what we would otherwise carry within us as if in a state of slumber by assimilating spiritual concepts; these spiritual concepts, which are so uncomfortable for people here because they require a bit of effort—more effort than ordinary concepts do. When people assimilate them, they develop an immense power after death, through which we first gain the ability to perceive and penetrate the spiritual world. This is very important. People today find it inconvenient to familiarize themselves with spiritual concepts. They like to attend events where they are shown all sorts of slides or other such things, so that they need to think as little as possible about the supersensible and can simply look at everything; or at the very least, they like to attend events where they are told about things that are always before their eyes anyway. But people today shy away from the effort required to rise to such concepts, which are more difficult here because they have no external object—because their object is the facts to which they refer in the supersensible world. Yet over there, they are the forces that, in reality, give us the world in the first place.

[ 13 ] Thus, through spiritual ideas and concepts, we acquire the wisdom we need so that we may have light on the other side; otherwise, everything is dark. For what is acquired here as wisdom is light on the other side—spiritual light. Wisdom is spiritual light. Yes, we need wisdom so that it is not dark on the other side. And if we do not acquire spiritual concepts, that is precisely the surest way to have no light on the other side. But if one has no light, one moves away from the sphere one was meant to illuminate and returns to Earth, wandering about as a dead person—a destructive force on Earth—and can then, at most, be used from time to time by a black magician to provide the inspiration for very specific deeds and destructive works on Earth.

[ 14 ] Wisdom, then, is necessary so that one may have light after death. But one also needs something else after death; after death, one needs not only the ability to detach oneself from beings—so that one can even perceive them at all, the beings of the spiritual world—but one also needs the capacity for love; otherwise, one would not be able to develop the proper relationship with the beings one perceives through wisdom. One needs love. But the love that is developed here on Earth—and which is essentially dependent on the physical body as well—is a feeling; it is dependent on the rhythm of breathing here in the physical world. We cannot carry this love over into the spiritual world either. It would be a complete illusion to believe that the love one develops here—especially in the present age—could be carried over into the spiritual world. But one does carry over into the spiritual world all the power of love derived from what one acquires here in the physical world precisely through sensory perception, through life with the physical being. Love is already kindled by what develops here in the physical world in terms of understanding of this physical world. And it is precisely such experiences—such as the worldview experiences associated with modern natural science—that, when taken in as feelings, develop love for the world beyond. However—love is something that is either high or low, depending on the realm in which it unfolds. If you pass through the gate of death and must remain in the realm of the Earth as a destructive center, then you have indeed developed a great deal of love—for the fact that you must remain there is precisely a consequence of your connection to purely naturalistic concepts— but you direct this love toward the work of destruction; you then love the very work of destruction itself, and are condemned to watch yourself as you love that work of destruction.

[ 15 ] But love becomes something noble when a person can ascend to higher worlds and love that which he has attained through spiritual concepts. Let us not forget: Love is something base when it operates in a lower sphere, but it is noble, exalted, and spiritual when it operates in a higher, spiritual sphere. That is the essential point. If one is not aware of this, one certainly does not view things in the right way.

[ 16 ] These are the kinds of concepts regarding human life after death that people today must embrace. It is no longer enough for humanity today—and it will certainly not be enough for humanity in the near future—for preachers to tell them to believe this or that, or to prepare themselves for eternal life, if these preachers can never tell them what this world actually looks like—the world that a person enters after passing through the gate of death. In earlier times this was possible, precisely because scientific and naturalistic concepts did not yet exist, and because people had not yet been infected by the purely material interests that have gradually taken hold of everything since the sixteenth century; in earlier times, it was sufficient to speak to people about the supersensible world only in the manner still prescribed by religious creeds today. Today this is no longer possible; today people often lose themselves—out of deep compassion for humanity, one must unfortunately say this—precisely because they seek to promote their eternal bliss in a selfish manner through religious creeds: they thereby lose themselves all the more deeply in the physical-sensual, naturalistic world and block their own ascent after they have passed through the Gate of Death. This leads us to an entirely different point, one that compels us to emphasize quite strongly that spiritual science must be driven by humanity in the present and in the future, when we are forced to say: It is lamentable that there are people who, through no spiritual science, can form any concept of life after death. — Spiritual science is at the same time something that one must strive to spread out of compassion, out of deep sympathy for humanity, because it is lamentable when people resist—and in their ignorance continue to resist—the approach to spiritual scientific concepts.

[ 17 ] But we must be absolutely clear about one thing: the spiritual world is everywhere. Just consider this: the world in which the dead are with the dead, this supersensible world, the threads that connect the dead to the living they have left behind, the threads that connect the dead to the higher hierarchies—they all belong to the world in which we ourselves exist. Just as surely as the air surrounds us, so surely is this world always around us. We are not at all separated from this world; we are separated only by states of consciousness from the world we enter after “death.” This must be strongly emphasized; for even within our circles, not all friends are yet clear on the fact that the dead are fully reunited with the living, that we are separated only as long as one is here in the physical body and the other is without it, but that all these forces—which bring us together with the dead—must be acquired by detaching them from ourselves; otherwise, they live within us, and we cannot become aware of them. Furthermore, we must carry over into the proper sphere the power of love that develops here under naturalistic conceptions; otherwise, this power will become an evil force for us on the other side. Precisely the love that develops under naturalistic conceptions could otherwise become an evil force. A force is not in itself good or evil; it is one or the other, depending on whether it occurs in this or that sphere.

[ 18 ] But just as we are connected to this supersensible world, where the dead reside, so, too, does the supersensible world extend into this physical-sensory world in other ways. — Yes, the world is complex, and one must acquire an understanding of it slowly and gradually. But one must have the will to do so.

[ 19 ] The spiritual world extends into our world. Everything is permeated by the spiritual world. Within the sensory realm, there is also a supersensory aspect everywhere. Human beings should be particularly interested in that supersensory aspect which relates to their own sensory nature. Now I ask you to pay very close attention to what follows, for it is an exceptionally important concept.

[ 20 ] We humans are composed of body, soul, and spirit, but our essence is by no means limited to these. Our body, our soul, and our spirit are, in a sense, what first concerns us as our consciousness; but they are not everything that relates to our existence. Not at all! What I am saying now is connected with certain mysteries of human becoming and human nature, which are known today and must become increasingly known.

[ 21 ] When a human being enters earthly existence through birth, then—by having a physical body—he not only has the possibility of giving his own soul its existence—I ask you to bear this in mind—but this physical body, which the human being does not fully understand at all: what kinds of things are going on in the physical body of which the human being knows nothing! They only gradually come to understand—and even then in a rather crude way—through anatomy and physiology what is happening within this body. If one had to wait to eat until one had understood the process of digestion, one could not even say that people would starve; for it is simply inconceivable that one could know anything about what the organs must do to prepare food for the organism. So human beings enter this world quite fully with the organism they are clothed in, without their soul reaching down into this organism. However, there is also an opportunity for another spiritual being—in addition to our soul—to take possession of our body, specifically the subconscious part of our body, shortly before we are born—not very long before we are born. This is indeed the case: shortly before we are born, another being permeates us—one we would call, using our current terminology, an Ahrimanic spiritual being. It is just as much a part of us as our own soul. These beings, who sustain their existence precisely by using human beings themselves as a means to be present in the sphere where they wish to be, possess an extraordinarily high intelligence and a highly developed will, but no soul—not what is called the human soul. — And we go through life in such a way that we have our soul and such a doppelgänger, who is much smarter, far smarter than we are, very intelligent, but possesses a Mephistophelean intelligence, an Ahrimanic intelligence, and, in addition, an Ahrimanic will—a very strong will, a will that is much closer to the forces of nature than our human will, which is regulated by the emotions.

[ 22 ] In the 19th century, natural science discovered that the nervous system is permeated by electrical forces. Natural science was right. But if it believed—if natural scientists believe—that the nervous energy that belongs to us, which forms the basis of our imaginative life, has anything to do with the electric currents that flow through our nerves, then they are simply wrong. For the electric currents—those forces that are instilled into our being by the entity I have just described—do not belong to our being at all: we do indeed carry electric currents within us, but they are of a purely Ahrimanic nature.

[ 23 ] These beings, possessing a high degree of intelligence—though purely Mephistophelean in nature—and a will more closely aligned with nature than can be said of the human will, once decided of their own accord not to live in the world in which they were destined to live by the wise gods of the higher hierarchy. They wanted to conquer the Earth; they need bodies; they do not have bodies of their own: they make use of as many human bodies as they can, because the human soul cannot quite fill the human body.

[ 24 ] These entities, then, as the human body develops, can—at a certain point before a person is born—enter, as it were, into this human body, and accompany us from below the threshold of our consciousness. There is only one thing in human life that they absolutely cannot tolerate: namely, they cannot tolerate death. Therefore, they must always leave the human body in which they have taken up residence before it is overtaken by death. This is a very bitter disappointment time and again, for that is precisely what they seek to achieve: to remain in human bodies beyond death. That would be a great achievement in the realm of these entities; they have not yet attained it.

[ 25 ] If the Mystery of Golgotha had not taken place, if Christ had not gone through the Mystery of Golgotha, conditions on Earth would long since have been such that these beings would have gained the ability to remain within a human being even when that person’s death is karmically predestined. Then they would have won a complete victory over human evolution on Earth, and they would have become the masters of human evolution on Earth.

[ 26 ] This is something of immense and profound significance: to recognize these connections between Christ’s passage through the Mystery of Golgotha and those beings who wish to conquer death within human nature but are still unable to bear it today; who must always guard against experiencing, within the human body, the hour when a person is destined to die; they must guard against allowing the body to perish beyond that hour of death, and must prolong the life of the body beyond that hour of death.

[ 27 ] Certain occult brotherhoods have also long been aware of this matter I am now discussing; they know these things very well and have—again, let us not question their right to do so—withheld them from humanity. Today, the situation is such that it is impossible not to gradually equip people with the concepts they will need once they have passed through the gate of death. For everything that a person experiences here—including what they experience below the threshold of consciousness—they will need after death, because they must look back on this life, and this life must be fully comprehensible to them in retrospect; and because the worst thing is if they are unable to do so. But one does not have a sufficient concept to understand this life in retrospect if one cannot shed light on a being that plays such a significant role in our lives as this Ahrimanic being—which takes possession of us before our birth and is always there, always looming in the subconscious—unless one can continually shed light upon it. For wisdom becomes light after death.

[ 28 ] These beings, however, are of great importance to human life, and knowledge of them must gradually take hold of people—and will take hold of them. It must simply take hold of people in the right way; it must not be disseminated among humanity solely by occult brotherhoods that turn it into a matter of power and seek thereby to increase their own power, and above all, it must no longer be kept secret for the sake of increasing the power of certain brotherhoods that act out of self-interest. Humanity strives for universal knowledge, and that knowledge must be disseminated. For it can no longer be for the good of the world in the future if occult brotherhoods are able to use such things to expand their power. Knowledge of these entities will have to take hold of people more and more in the coming centuries. In the coming centuries, human beings will have to realize more and more that they carry such a double within themselves—an Ahrimanic, Mephistophelean double. Human beings must know this. Today, however, human beings are already developing a whole range of concepts, but these are essentially blind because people still do not know what to do with them properly. I say that human beings are developing concepts today that can only be placed on a proper foundation when they are brought into alignment with the facts upon which they are based.

[ 29 ] And here lies something that must truly be pursued in the future, if the human race is not to actually experience something infinitely inhibiting and infinitely terrible. For this “double,” of whom I have spoken, is nothing more and nothing less than the source of all physical illnesses that arise spontaneously from within, and to know him fully is organic medicine. The illnesses that arise spontaneously in human beings—not as a result of external injuries, but spontaneously from within—do not originate in the human soul; they come from this being. He is the source of all illnesses that arise spontaneously from within; he is the source of all organic illnesses. And a brother of his—who, however, is not of an Ahrimanic but of a Luciferic nature—is the source of all neurasthenic and neurotic illnesses, all illnesses that are not really illnesses at all, but are merely, as one says, nervous disorders, hysterical illnesses, and so on. Thus, medicine must become spiritual in two respects. That this is required is evident today—I spoke about this in Zurich—through the emergence of such approaches as psychoanalysis and the like, where one is already dealing with spiritual entities, but with inadequate means of knowledge, so that one cannot make sense of the phenomena that will increasingly intrude into human life. For certain things must necessarily happen, and even that which is harmful in one respect must happen, because human beings must be exposed to this harmfulness in order to overcome it and thereby gain strength.

[ 30 ] To fully understand the things I have just mentioned—namely, that this “double” is actually the source of all diseases that have an organic basis and are not merely functional—one must know much more. For example, one must know that our entire Earth is not a lifeless product, as mineralogy or geology assumes today, but rather a living being. Mineralogy and geology know as much about the Earth as one would know about a human being if one were familiar only with the skeletal system. Just imagine for a moment: you would never be able to see people through any of your senses, but there would only be X-rays of people, and of everyone you know, you would know only their skeletal system—then you would know as much about human beings as geologists and science in general know about the Earth. Imagine you were to walk in here and see nothing but the bones of all the distinguished guests you find here; then you would have as much awareness of everyone present here as science has of the Earth today. The Earth, which is thus known only as a skeletal system, is a living organism, and as a living organism it influences the beings who walk upon it—namely, human beings themselves. And just as the human being is differentiated in terms of the distribution of his organs throughout the body, so too is the Earth differentiated in terms of what it develops from within itself as a living force and through which it influences the human beings who walk upon it. I think you are aware of this: when you think, you do not exactly strain your right index finger or your left big toe, but rather your head; you know very well that you do not think with your right big toe—you think with your head. So things are distributed within the living organism; it is differentiated. In the same way, our Earth is also differentiated. Our Earth is by no means a being that radiates the same thing everywhere to its inhabitants; rather, very different things are radiated in the various regions of the Earth. And there are various forces at work: magnetic and electrical forces, but also many more forces that rise up into the realm of the living, emanating from the Earth, and influencing human beings in the most diverse ways at various points on Earth—that is, influencing them in different ways depending on the geographical configuration.

[ 31 ] This is a very important fact. For what a human being initially is—in body, soul, and spirit—actually has little direct connection to these forces rising up from the earth. But the double of whom I have spoken is primarily related to these forces rising from the Earth. And indirectly, through his body, soul, and spirit, the human being is connected to the Earth and to what it radiates at various points, precisely because his double maintains the most intimate relationship with that which rises from there. These beings—who, as Ahrimanic-Mephistophelean entities, take possession of a human being for a short period of time before he is born—have their own very particular tastes. There are such entities who are particularly drawn to the Eastern Hemisphere—Europe, Asia, and Africa; they choose people who are born there to use their bodies. Others choose bodies born in the Western Hemisphere, in America. What we humans have as a faint reflection in the form of geography is, for these beings, a living principle of their own experience; they establish their dwelling places accordingly.

[ 32 ] And from this you can further see that one of the most important tasks of the future will be to revive what has been lost: geographical medicine, medical geography. In Paracelsus’s time, it was severed from the ancient, atavistic wisdom; since then, it has been largely neglected due to materialistic views. It will have to regain its place; and certain things will only be recognized again once we come to understand the connection between the disease-causing nature within human beings and the geography of the Earth—with all the interactions and all the radiations that emanate from the Earth depending on its various regions. It is therefore indeed important that human beings become acquainted with these things, for their lives depend on it. Through this “double,” they are placed in earthly existence in a very specific way, and this “double” has its dwelling within them, within the human being.

[ 33 ] Well, all of this actually only became so infinitely important in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, and it will become particularly important for humanity in the very near future. That is why spiritual science must now be disseminated. And it is especially important now because the present age calls upon people to consciously engage with these matters and to consciously establish a relationship with them. Human beings must become strong in our present epoch in order to organize their existence in relation to these entities.

[ 34 ] This epoch began in the 15th century, since our current period begins in 1413; the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, the Greco-Latin epoch, begins in 747 before the Mystery of Golgotha and lasts until 1413: this is the time when a slight turning point occurs, in 1413. Since that time, we have been in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, in which we are now living, and which is only now gradually bringing its characteristic features fully to the fore in our time, though they have been developing since the 15th century. In the fourth post-Atlantean epoch, it was primarily the intellectual and emotional soul that developed; now it is the consciousness soul that is developing within the overall evolution of humanity. When humanity entered this epoch, it was its particular weakness that the guiding spiritual beings had to take into account in relation to this doppelgänger. Had human beings taken much into their consciousness of all that is connected with this double entity, well, then things would have gone very badly, indeed, for them. As early as the centuries preceding the 14th century, people had to be protected in preparation for this, so that they would take in very little that in any way reminded them of this double. That is also why the knowledge of this doppelgänger—which certainly existed in earlier times—has been lost. People had to be protected from absorbing anything at all; that is, not only were they to avoid absorbing the theory of this doppelgänger, but they were also to come into contact as little as possible with things that had anything to do with it.

[ 35 ] This required a very special event. You must try to grasp what is unfolding here: In the centuries preceding the 14th century, people had to be protected from the doppelgänger; it had to gradually fade from people’s field of vision and was only allowed to gradually re-enter it now that humans must regulate their relationship with it. This truly required a very significant development, which could only be achieved in the following way: Gradually, beginning in the 9th and 10th centuries, conditions in Europe were arranged in such a way that Europeans lost a certain connection they had previously possessed—a connection that was important for earlier generations, even for people of the 7th and 6th centuries A.D. For, beginning in the 9th century—and particularly pronounced from the 12th century onward—all maritime traffic to America, as it existed at that time with the types of ships available, was discontinued. That may sound strange to you! You might say: We’ve never heard of anything like that in history. — Yes, history is, in many respects, really just a fable convenue, a legend; for in the earlier centuries of European development, ships sailed from Norway—from what was then Norway—constantly across to America. Of course, it wasn’t called America; it had other names back then. In America, people knew the specific region where those magnetic forces arise that connect human beings to this double. For the clearest connections to the double originate from that part of the Earth covered by the American continent; and in earlier centuries, people sailed across to America in Norwegian ships and studied diseases there. From Europe, one might say, the diseases caused by the influence of the Earth’s magnetism were studied in America. And the mysterious origin of early European medicine is to be found there. There, one could observe a course of events that could not have been observed in Europe, where people were more sensitive to the influences of the double. Gradually—and the Roman Catholic Church played a major role in this through its edicts—the connection with America had to be consigned to oblivion. And it was only after the fifth post-Atlantean epoch had begun that America was rediscovered in a physical-sensory sense. But this is merely a rediscovery, one that is, however, so significant precisely because the forces at work actually succeeded in ensuring that the historical records contain very little mention of Europe’s ancient connections to America. And where such mention does exist, it goes unrecognized; people do not realize that these references pertain to the connection between Europe and America in ancient times. The visits, however, were more than just visits. The fact that the Europeans themselves then became an American people—as one says today, when the term “people” is mistakenly conflated with “nation”—that they became an American people, was only possible after the physical discovery of America, the physical rediscovery of America. Previously, these were more like visits undertaken to study the very special role played by the “double” in the distinct Native American race.

[ 36 ] For a time, before the beginning of the development of the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, Europe had to be protected from the influence of the Western world. And this is the significant historical arrangement, the significant historical measure, that was implemented by the wise world powers: Europe had to be protected for a time from all these influences, and it could not have been protected if the European world had not been shut off—completely cut off from the American world—in the centuries prior to the 15th century.

[ 37 ] Well, one simply had to make an effort, for a time during the preparatory centuries, to introduce something into European humanity that took this finer sensitivity into account. I would like to say: the intellect, which was to take center stage in this fifth post-Atlantean epoch, had to be treated with particular care when it first emerged. What was to be revealed to it had to be presented to it in a particularly subtle way. Sometimes, of course, this delicacy was similar to the delicacy of education, where effective disciplinary measures are naturally also employed. But everything I am referring to pertains, of course, to larger historical impulses.

[ 38 ] And so it came to pass that it was Irish monks in particular, under the influence of the pure Christian-esoteric doctrine developing there, who brought about a situation in which Rome recognized the necessity of isolating Europe from the Western Hemisphere. For this movement sought to spread Christianity from Ireland across Europe in the centuries preceding the fifth post-Atlantean epoch in such a way that it would not be disturbed by all that was rising from the Earth’s underworld in the Western Hemisphere. Europe was to be kept in ignorance of all the influences emanating from the Western Hemisphere.

[ 39 ] And it seems only natural to discuss these circumstances here. For Columban and his disciple Gallus were pivotal figures in that great and significant missionary endeavor, which sought to ensure the success of the Christianization of Europe by effectively surrounding Europe at that time with spiritual walls and preventing any influence from entering from the direction I have indicated. And such figures as Columban and his disciple Gallus—from whom this place derives its foundation and its name—are the ones who, above all, recognized that the delicate plant of Christianization can only take root in Europe if one, so to speak, surrounds Europe with a fence in a spiritual sense. Indeed, behind the events of world history lie deep, significant mysteries. And the history that is taught and learned in schools is often nothing more than a fable convenue; for among the most important facts in understanding modern European history is this: that from the centuries on, from... Christianization spread from Ireland throughout Europe—specifically until the 12th century—efforts were simultaneously underway to ensure that papal edicts gradually discouraged and eventually abolished maritime travel between Europe and America, so that Europe’s connection with America was completely forgotten. This forgetting was necessary so that the early stages—during which the fifth post-Atlantean epoch was to be prepared in Europe—could unfold in the proper manner. And only then, when the materialistic era finally began, was America rediscovered, just as the story goes today: from west to east; America was discovered under the influence of greed for gold, under the influence of the purely materialistic culture with which humanity must now reckon in the fifth post-Atlantean epoch, and with which it must establish the appropriate relationship.

[ 40 ] These things are real history. And I also believe that these things shed light on what is truly real. The Earth is truly something that must be called a living being. According to geographical distinctions, the most diverse forces flow upward from the most diverse territories. Therefore, people need not be divided by territories, but must accept from one another that which, in each territory, can be created as the good and the great—and precisely only there. That is why a spiritual-scientific worldview is dedicated to creating something that can truly be embraced by all nations and all regions. For people must move forward through the mutual exchange of their spiritual assets. That is what matters.

[ 41 ] In contrast, individual territories are very prone to striving to increase power, power, and more power. And the great danger that the development of modern humanity is proceeding in a one-sided manner can only be assessed on the basis of concrete, truly concrete circumstances—if one understands that the Earth is an organism, if one understands what is actually happening from the various points on the Earth. In Eastern Europe, there is relatively little inclination stemming purely from what radiates from the Earth; for example, the Russian people are indeed intimately connected to the soil, but they draw very special forces from the soil—forces that do not come from the Earth. The secret of Russian geography lies in the fact that what the Russian absorbs from the Earth is, first and foremost, the light imparted to the Earth, which is then reflected back from it. Thus, the Russian actually absorbs from the Earth that which first flows toward the Earth from the outer regions; the Russian loves his Earth, but he loves it precisely because it serves as a mirror of the heavens. Consequently, however, no matter how territorially minded the Russian may be, there is something—even if it remains at a childlike stage today—extraordinarily cosmopolitan in this territorial mindset: because the Earth, as it moves through space, comes into relation with all possible parts of the Earth’s orbit. And if one does not take into one’s soul that which flows from below to above within the earth, but rather that which flows from above to below and back up again, then it is something different from taking in that which—flowing directly from the earth—is placed in a certain kinship with human nature. But what the Russian loves about his land, what he imbibes, gives him certain weaknesses, yet above all a certain ability to overcome that “double” nature of which I spoke to you earlier. Therefore, he will be called upon to provide the most important impulses in the age in which this “double-natured” quality must finally be combated—in the sixth post-Atlantean cultural epoch.

[ 42 ] But a certain part of the earth’s surface shows the greatest affinity with those forces. When a person goes there, they enter its sphere of influence; as soon as they leave, this is no longer the case, for these are geographical, not ethnographic or national, but purely geographical phenomena. The region where what flows up from below has the greatest influence on the double, and where, because the double enters into the greatest affinity with what flows out—thus also communicating with the Earth once more—that is the region of the Earth where most mountains do not run from west to east, in a transverse direction, but where the mountains run mainly from north to south—for this, too, is connected with these forces—where the magnetic North Pole is nearby. This is the region where, above all, an affinity with the Mephistophelean-Ahrimanic nature develops through external conditions. And through this affinity, much is brought about in the ongoing development of the Earth. Human beings today must not proceed blindly through the Earth’s development; they must see through such conditions. Europe will only be able to establish a proper relationship with America if such circumstances can be understood, if one knows which geographical conditions stem from there. Otherwise, however, if Europe continues to be blind to these matters, then this poor Europe will fare as Greece did in relation to Rome. That must not happen; the world must not be geographically “Americanized.” But this must first be understood. These matters must not be taken as lightly as they often are today. For you see, these matters have deep roots, and today we need insights—not merely sympathies and antipathies—in order to find our place within the context in which humanity today finds itself in such a tragic situation. These are the matters we can discuss in greater detail here; in public lectures, they can only be touched upon. Yesterday I drew attention to how necessary it is for what is called spiritual science to truly penetrate social and political concepts as well. For America’s endeavor is aimed at mechanizing everything, driving everything into the realm of pure naturalism, and gradually wiping European culture off the face of the earth. It cannot be otherwise.

[ 43 ] Of course, these are geographical concepts, not ethnic ones. One need only think of Emerson to know that nothing here is meant other than the characteristics of a people. But Emerson was, after all, a man educated thoroughly in the European tradition. Isn’t that right? These are, in fact, two opposing poles that are developing. It is precisely under influences such as those characterized today that people like Emerson develop—people who, through these influences, come to contrast full humanity with the doppelgänger—or that people like Woodrow Wilson develop, who are merely a shell for the doppelgänger, through which the doppelgänger itself exerts a particularly strong influence, and who are essentially embodiments of what American geographical nature is.

[ 44 ] These matters have nothing to do with any kind of sympathy or antipathy, nor with any kind of partisanship; they are related solely to insights into the deeper reasons behind what people experience in life. But it will be of very little benefit to humanity if it is unwilling to seek enlightenment about what is actually at work in these matters. And today it is very necessary to reconnect with many things that had to be severed precisely at the turn of the century, when the path to America was blocked. And I would like to present what you can experience and feel here so often—and people like Gallus—as a symbol. They had to create a foundation for their work through the fence they erected. Such things must be understood.

[ 45 ] Spiritual science alone will bring about a true understanding of history. But as you can see, prejudice upon prejudice will naturally arise. For how could one think otherwise than that insights, too, would begin to become biased! But that was one of the reasons—which actually falls under the category of cowardice—why certain occult brotherhoods have held back on these matters. They held back for the simple reason that this knowledge is often uncomfortable for people; they do not wish for it to become part of general human consciousness, and especially not for those who have a predisposition to connect with geographical emanations.

[ 46 ] The issues of public life are already gradually becoming matters of insight, being lifted out of the atmosphere into which they have been forced today by the overwhelming majority of humanity: the mere sphere of sympathies and antipathies. When it comes to what is effective, however, majorities will not be the deciding factor. But these effective forces will only be able to take effect if people do not shy away from bringing important matters into their consciousness.

[ 47 ] Just as I have spoken here today—because, I would say, the genius loci of this place demands it of me—a specific example has shown you that it is no longer enough for people today to pick up standard school textbooks to learn about history, for there one encounters that “fable convenue” which is called history today. What, then, do we learn there about the important trade routes—particularly those rooted in the obscure origins of medicine—that still led from Europe to America in the early Christian centuries? But what is there does not cease to be real simply because people later blind their consciousness to it, like the ostrich that buries its head in the sand so as not to see, and then believes that what it does not see does not exist. — Many other things are simply veiled from people by the conventional fable called “history,” things that are quite close to the present-day human being in their effectiveness. And many other things will yet come to light through spiritual science regarding the historical course of humanity. For people wish to be enlightened about their own destiny, about the connection between their soul and their spiritual development.

[ 48 ] Well, much of what has been lost to history can only be recovered through spiritual science. Otherwise, humanity will have to resign itself to remaining ignorant of things that are very, very obvious. And as for the present—even though people today are taught about everything, but in what a way they are taught—as for the present, humanity will only be able to form a judgment from the standpoint of spiritual science. For although humanity today is informed about all matters by—well, to put it respectfully, as one always says when speaking of indecent things: to put it respectfully, isn’t that right?—although humanity today is informed about all matters by, to put it respectfully, the press; but it is informed by the press in such a way that precisely the essential, the true, the real—that which really matters—is concealed from it.

[ 49 ] And people must reach this level of understanding of reality. Again, this is by no means something directed against the press, whether personally or impersonally; rather, it is meant to be understood as being connected to the active forces of the present and cannot be otherwise. Things cannot be any other way, but people must be aware of this. That is precisely the great mistake—believing that one must criticize things, when in fact one must characterize them. That is what matters.

[ 50 ] Well, today I tried to give you a picture of various active forces at work within the individual human being and within humanity as a whole. Apart from the individual aspects I have discussed, my aim in touching upon these impulses was, above all, to evoke a sense of how human beings should be mindful that they are embedded with their entire being in a concrete spiritual world with concrete spiritual beings and concrete spiritual forces. Not only do we grow upward into the world into which we ourselves enter after death and in which we live between death and a new birth, but also, while we are here in the physical world, we can understand this physical world only if we simultaneously understand the spiritual world as well.

[ 51 ] Medicine can only exist if it is a spiritual science. For illnesses arise from a spiritual being that merely uses the human body to achieve its ends—ends it cannot achieve in the place assigned to it by the wise governance of the world, against which it has rebelled, as I have shown you; a being that is in fact an Ahrimanic-Mephistophelean entity within human nature, which enters the human body as its dwelling place before birth, and which leaves this human body only because it cannot endure death under its present circumstances—circumstances in which it cannot conquer death either. Illnesses arise because this being is at work within the human being. And when remedies are used, the purpose is to provide this being, from the outer world, with what it would otherwise seek through the human being. If I administer a remedy to the human body while this Ahrimanic-Mephistophelean being is at work, I am giving it something else; I am, so to speak, soothing this being, appeasing it, so that it may let go of the human being and be satisfied with what I throw into its mouth as a remedy.

[ 52 ] But all these things are just beginning. Medicine will become a spiritual science. And just as medicine was known as a spiritual science in ancient times, so it will be recognized as a spiritual science once again.

[ 53 ] Well, I suppose I have also stirred up these feelings in you—that it is necessary not only to acquire a few concepts from spiritual science, but to empathize with it; for in doing so, one truly feels oneself drawn into the human being at the same time. And today the time has come when many things will fall away like scales from one’s eyes, including, for example, with regard to external history, about which I demonstrated in Zurich a few days ago—or at least showed—that it is not viewed by people from the outside, but is in reality dreamed; that one can only understand it if one grasps it from within the dream of humanity, not as something that takes place externally.

[ 54 ] So these things, hopefully, will also be carried forward by that force which has so far taken hold of only a very small part—an all too small part—of humanity in what we call the anthroposophical movement. But this anthroposophical movement will, after all, be connected to what humanity will have to address as its most important concerns in the future. And we may well recall that parable I have used many times before. The very clever people out there who think: “Well, these anthroposophists and theosophists—they’re just some kind of sect with all sorts of fantastical nonsense, with all sorts of follies in their heads, with which the enlightened part of humanity simply must not associate!” — Oh, this “enlightened segment of humanity”—it thinks today, albeit in a form modified by the passage of time, much the same way about these underground sectarian gatherings among anthroposophists and theosophists as the Romans—the distinguished Romans—did when Christianity was spreading. Back then, only the Christians actually had to be physically down in the catacombs, and up above, the things that the distinguished Romans regarded as the only proper way of life were taking place, while the fanciful Christians were down below. — After a few centuries, things were different. Roman civilization had been swept away, and what had been down in the catacombs had risen to the surface. What had once dominated culture had been uprooted.

[ 55 ] Such comparisons must strengthen our resolve; such comparisons must take root in our souls so that we may draw strength from them, for we ourselves must still work within small circles. But the movement characterized by this anthroposophical current must develop the kind of strength that can truly rise upward. Up there, however, it finds little understanding for its spiritual foundation.

[ 56 ] But even so, we must time and again reflect on something like the Roman catacombs of the early Christians, which—even though they were, to a far greater extent, something more subterranean than what the anthroposophical movement is today—nevertheless found their way to the surface. And some of those within this anthroposophical movement who are engaged with spiritual concepts have already found a way to rely on this light in the sphere where these spiritual concepts—which here constitute wisdom—unfold as light. And we may say it again and again: among the members who participate in the anthroposophical movement, those who are here in the physical world and those who are already over in the supersensible world—who have already passed through the gate of death and are already guardians of what is acquired here as spiritual wisdom—are always equal to us. In this regard, we already have to think of various—I would say—super-sensibly dwelling souls among our members. At this moment, I am thinking—because the anniversary of her physical death, which is the super-sensible birthday for her spiritual life, falls once again in these days—of our faithful colleague at the Dornach building, Miss Sophie Stinde. The point is, my dear friends, that if we truly wish to be at the heart of the positive anthroposophical movement, we must deepen our sense of how, through that which is truly connected to us, we can grasp a concrete understanding of the spiritual world.

[ 57 ] Well, my dear friends, these are difficult times. We know how hard it will be to get through the times ahead. Whatever the circumstances may be for our time together on the physical plane, however long or short it may be until we meet again here in this way, let me tell you that we nevertheless—as must be the case to test and strengthen our spiritual-scientific striving—want to feel united and think together, even when we are physically apart. As spiritual seekers, let us always be together.