The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Preface to the English Edition, 1922

This book has been carefully revised by me from edition to edition. The factual content of the first edition has remained unchanged, but in some parts I have attempted to adapt the wording more precisely to the content of the spiritual view. This has been attempted in particular in the chapter on repeated earthly lives and destiny (karma).

Descriptions of the supersensible world must be different from those of the sensible world. They address the reader in a different way. They require the reader to cooperate much more closely with the author in thought while reading. The author needs this cooperation to a much greater degree than the portrayer of areas of the sensory world. Perhaps some critics will reproach me for having attempted to obey this requirement of the characterization of the supersensible world to a very special degree. But the spiritual world does not have such definite contours as the physical world, and anyone who, through their description, gives the impression that this is the case is describing something incorrect. The style must follow the characteristics of the mobile, flowing spiritual world of facts.

Only that which is expressed in moving, flowing mental images can have inner truth for descriptions of the spiritual world. The special character of the spiritual world must also be transferred to these mental images. If one applies the standard one is accustomed to from the characteristics of the sensory world, one will find it difficult to find one's way into this other way of describing.

The supersensible world must be reached by human beings through inner soul work. It would have no value if it were laid out ready-made before the consciousness. It would then be no different from the sensory world. Its recognition must be preceded by a longing to find that which is hidden deeper in existence than the forces of the sensory world. This longing is one of the preparatory experiences for the recognition of the supersensible world. Just as a flower cannot exist without roots, so supersensible knowledge has no true life without this longing.

But it would be a mistake to believe that this longing gives rise to mental images of the supersensible world. Just as the lungs do not produce the air they long for, so the human soul does not produce mental images of the supersensible world out of its longing. But it has this longing because it is organized toward the supersensible world, just as the lungs are organized toward the air.

There may be people who say that this supernatural world can only have meaning for those who already have the ability to perceive it. But this is not so. You don't have to be a painter to appreciate the beauty of a painting. But you can only paint it if you are a painter. Nor do you need to be a researcher in the supernatural to judge the truth of supernatural findings. One only needs to be a researcher to discover them. This is correct in principle; however, in the last chapter of this book — and in other books of mine in great detail — the method is described by which one can become a researcher and thereby also be enabled to verify what has been researched.

Rudolf Steiner