The Rudolf Steiner Archive

From the Preface of Knowledge of Higher Worlds and Its Attainment

[ 1 ] When I wrote the essays of which this book is composed, many things had to be spoken about differently than they are now, because I had to point out the content of what I have published in the last ten years about facts of the knowledge of spiritual worlds differently then than I have to do now, after publication. In my "GeheimWissenschaft", in "Führung des Menschen und der Menschheit", in "Ein Weg zur Selbsterkenntnis" and especially in "Die Schwelle der geistigen Welt", also in other of my writings, spiritual processes are described, the existence of which this book must have already indicated more than ten years ago, but in different words than seems correct at present. At that time I had to say of much that was not yet described in the book that it could be learned through "oral communication". At present, much of what was meant by such references has been published. However, it was these references that perhaps did not completely rule out erroneous opinions among readers. One could see something much more essential in the personal relationship to this or that teacher in those striving for spiritual training than should be seen. I hope that in this new edition I have succeeded in emphasizing more clearly, through the way in which some details are presented, how, for those who seek spiritual training in the sense of the present spiritual conditions, it depends much more on a completely immediate relationship to the objective spiritual world than on a relationship to the personality of a teacher. In the training of the spirit, too, the teacher will more and more assume the position of merely such an assistant as the teacher, according to the newer views, holds in some other branch of knowledge. I believe I have sufficiently pointed out that the teacher's authority and faith in him should play no other part in the training of the mind than is the case in any other branch of knowledge and life. It seems to me that it is very important that this relationship of the spiritual researcher to people who develop an interest in the results of his research should be judged more and more correctly. Thus I believe I have improved the book where I was able to find the need for improvement after ten years.

[ 2 ] This first part will be followed by a second. This is intended to provide further explanations about the constitution of the soul, which leads man to experience the higher worlds.

Berlin, September 7, 1914