Donate books to help fund our work. Learn more→

The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

DONATE

Occult Science
GA 13

Translated by Steiner Online Library

Knowing the Higher Worlds (Initiation)

[ 1 ] Between birth and death, man experiences three states of soul in his present stage of development in ordinary life: waking, sleep and, between the two, the dream state. The latter will be briefly alluded to later in this book. Here, life may first be considered in its two alternating main states, waking and sleeping. - Man attains knowledge in higher worlds when he acquires a third state of soul in addition to sleeping and waking. During waking, the soul is devoted to the sensory impressions and the ideas which are stimulated by these sensory impressions. During sleep, the sensory impressions are silent; but the soul also loses consciousness. The experiences of the day sink down into the sea of unconsciousness. - Now think of it: the soul could become conscious during sleep, even though the impressions of the senses remain switched off, as otherwise in deep sleep. Yes, even the memory of the day's experiences would not be present. Would the soul now be in a void? Could it have no experiences at all? - An answer to this question is only possible if a state can really be created that is the same or similar to this one. If the soul can experience something, even if no sensory effects and no memories of such effects are present in it. Then the soul would be as if asleep in relation to the ordinary external world; and yet it would not be asleep, but would face a real world as if it were awake. - Now such a state of consciousness can be produced if man brings about those experiences of the soul which spiritual science makes possible for him. And everything that spiritual science communicates about those worlds that lie beyond the sensory is explored through such a state of consciousness. - In the preceding remarks some information has been given about higher worlds. In the following, the means by which the state of consciousness necessary for this research is created will also be discussed, insofar as this can be done in this book.

[ 2 ] Only in one direction does this state of consciousness resemble sleep, namely in that through it all external sensory effects cease; also all thoughts that are stimulated by these sensory effects are extinguished. But while in sleep the soul has no power to consciously experience anything, it should receive this power through this state of consciousness. Through it, therefore, the ability to experience is awakened in the soul, which in ordinary existence is only stimulated by the effects of the senses. The awakening of the soul to such a higher state of consciousness can be called initiation.

[ 3 ] The means of initiation lead the human being from the ordinary state of day-consciousness into such a soul activity through which he makes use of spiritual tools of observation. These tools are present in the soul beforehand like germs. These germs must be developed. - Now it can happen that a person at a certain point in his life makes the discovery in his soul without any special preparation that such higher tools have developed in him. A kind of involuntary self-awakening has then occurred. Such a person will find his whole being transformed as a result. An unlimited enrichment of his soul experiences will occur. And he will find that through no knowledge of the sense world can he feel such bliss, such a satisfying state of mind and inner warmth as through that which opens up to a knowledge that is not accessible to the physical eye. Strength and certainty of life will flow into his will from a spiritual world. - There are such cases of self-initiation. However, they should not lead one to believe that the only right thing to do is to wait for such a self-initiation and do nothing to bring about the initiation through proper training. There is no need to talk about self-initiation here, as it can occur without observing any rules. However, it will be shown how one can develop the organs of perception germinating in the soul through training. People who feel no particular impulse within themselves to do something for their own development will easily say that human life is under the guidance of spiritual powers and that we should not interfere with their guidance; we should wait quietly for the moment when those powers deem it right to open up another world for the soul. It is probably also felt by such people as a kind of presumption, or as an unjustified desire to interfere with the wisdom of spiritual guidance. Personalities who think in this way are only led to a different opinion when a certain idea makes a sufficiently strong impression on them. When they say to themselves: That wise guidance has given me certain abilities; it has not given them to me so that I may leave them unused, but so that I may use them. The wisdom of the guidance consists in the fact that it has planted the seeds in me for a higher state of consciousness. I only understand this guidance if I feel it is my duty to reveal everything to man that can be revealed through his spiritual powers. When such a thought has made a sufficiently strong impression on the soul, then the above objections to training for a higher state of consciousness will disappear.

[ 4 ] However, there may be another objection to such training. One can say to oneself: "The development of inner soul abilities intervenes in the most hidden sanctuary of the human being. It involves a certain transformation of the whole human being. Naturally, one cannot devise the means for such a transformation oneself. For only those who know the path to a higher world as their own experience can know how to reach it. If one turns to such a personality, one allows him to influence the most hidden sanctuary of the soul." - Those who think in this way could not be particularly reassured if the means to bring about a higher state of consciousness were presented to them in a book. For it does not matter whether one is told something orally or whether a personality who has the knowledge of these means presents them in a book and another person learns them from it. There are now such personalities who possess the knowledge of the rules for the development of the spiritual organs of perception and who hold the view that these rules should not be entrusted to a book. Such people usually also regard the communication of certain truths relating to the spiritual world as inadmissible. However, this view must in some respects be considered outdated in the present age of human development. It is true that one can only go so far in communicating the relevant rules. However, what has been communicated leads so far that the person who applies it to his soul reaches a point in the development of knowledge where he can then find the way forward. This path then leads on in a way that can only be correctly understood through what has been experienced beforehand. All these facts can give rise to reservations about the spiritual path of knowledge. These misgivings disappear when one considers the nature of the course of development which the training appropriate to our age outlines. We will speak of this path here and only briefly refer to other trainings.

[ 5 ] The training to be discussed here provides those who have the will for their higher development with the means to undertake the transformation of their soul. There would only be a questionable interference in the being of the pupil if the teacher were to carry out this transformation by means that are beyond the consciousness of the pupil. However, no proper instruction of spiritual development in our age makes use of such means. It does not turn the pupil into a blind tool. It gives him the rules of conduct, and the pupil carries them out. When it comes down to it, there is no concealment of why this or that rule of conduct is given. The acceptance of the rules and their application by a personality seeking spiritual development need not be based on blind faith. Such a belief should be completely excluded in this area. Anyone who observes the nature of the human soul, insofar as it is already apparent through ordinary self-observation without spiritual training, can ask himself after receiving the rules recommended by spiritual training: how can these rules work in the life of the soul? And this question can be answered sufficiently, before all training, with the unbiased application of common sense. One can form correct ideas about the effect of these rules before giving oneself over to them. However, one can only experience this mode of action during the training. But even then, the experience will always be accompanied by the understanding of this experience, if one accompanies every step to be taken with sound judgment. And at the present time a true spiritual science will only give such rules for the training against which such sound judgment can assert itself. Whoever is willing to devote himself only to such training, and whoever does not allow himself to be driven by any bias to a blind faith, all doubts will disappear. Objections against a proper training to a higher state of consciousness will not bother him.

[ 6 ] Even for such a personality, which has the inner maturity that can lead it in a shorter or longer time to the self-awakening of the spiritual organs of perception, a training is not superfluous, but on the contrary, it is particularly suitable for it. For there are only a few cases in which such a personality does not have to go through the most manifold crooked and futile side paths before self-initiation. The training spares him these side paths. It leads forward in a straight direction. If such a self-initiation occurs for this soul, it is because the soul has acquired the corresponding maturity in previous lives. It is very easy for such a soul to have a certain dark feeling about its maturity and to reject training because of this feeling. Such a feeling can create a certain arrogance, which hinders trust in genuine spiritual training. A certain stage of soul development can remain hidden until a certain age and only then emerge. But training can be just the right means to bring it to the fore. If a person then closes himself off to the training, it is possible that his ability remains hidden in the course of life in question and only emerges again in one of the next courses of life.

[ 7 ] With regard to the training for extrasensory cognition meant here, it is important not to allow certain obvious misunderstandings to arise. One can arise from the fact that one thinks that the training is intended to make man into a different being with regard to his whole way of life. But it is not a question of giving man general rules of life, but of speaking to him of soul activities which, when he carries them out, give him the possibility of observing the supersensible. These activities have no direct influence on that part of his life which lies outside the observation of the supersensible. In addition to these life activities, man acquires the gift of supersensible observation. The activity of this observation is as separate from the ordinary activities of life as the state of waking is from that of sleep. The one cannot disturb the other in the least. For example, anyone who wanted to enforce the ordinary course of life through impressions of supersensible vision would be like an unhealthy person whose sleep would be continually interrupted by harmful awakenings. It must be possible for the free will of the trained person to bring about the state of observing supersensible reality. Indirectly, however, the training is connected with the rules of life in so far as without a certain ethically attuned way of life an insight into the supersensible is impossible or harmful. And that is why many things that lead to an insight into the supersensible are at the same time a means of refining the conduct of life. On the other hand, through insight into the supersensible world one recognizes higher moral impulses that also apply to the sensual-physical world. Certain moral necessities are only recognized from this world. - A second misunderstanding would be to believe that any soul activity leading to supersensible cognition has anything to do with a change in the physical organization. On the contrary, such processes have not the slightest connection with anything into which physiology or any other branch of natural knowledge has any say. They are purely spiritual-soul processes that are as completely divorced from the physical as healthy thinking and perception itself. Nothing else happens in the soul through such an activity than what happens when it imagines or judges healthily. As much and as little as healthy thinking has to do with the body, as much and as little do the processes of genuine training for supersensible knowledge have to do with it. Everything that behaves differently towards man is not true spiritual training, but a distorted image of it. The following remarks are to be taken in the sense of what has been said here. Only because supersensible knowledge is something that emanates from the whole soul of man will it appear as if things are required for training that make something else out of man. In truth, it is a matter of information about activities that enable the soul to bring about such moments in its life in which it can observe the supersensible.

[ 8 ] The elevation to a supersensible state of consciousness can only start from the ordinary waking day consciousness. The soul lives in this consciousness before its elevation. It is given means through training that lead it out of this consciousness. Among the first means, the training under consideration here gives those which can still be characterized as activities of the ordinary day consciousness. The most important means are those that consist of quiet activities of the soul. It is a matter of the soul devoting itself to certain ideas. These ideas are those which, by their very nature, exert an awakening power on certain hidden faculties of the human soul. They differ from the imaginations of waking daily life, which have the task of depicting an external thing. The truer they do this, the truer they are. And it is part of their nature to be true in this sense. The imaginations to which the soul should devote itself for the purpose of spiritual training do not have such a task. They are designed in such a way that they do not depict an exterior, but have the intrinsic quality of having an awakening effect on the soul. The best ideas for this are allegorical or symbolic ones. However, other images can also be used. For it is not at all important what the ideas contain, but only that the soul directs all its forces towards having nothing else in consciousness than the idea in question. Whereas in the ordinary life of the soul its powers are distributed over many things and the ideas change rapidly, in the training of the spirit it is a matter of concentrating the whole life of the soul on one idea. And this idea must be brought to the center of consciousness through free will. Symbolic ideas are therefore better than those that depict external objects or processes, because the latter have their point of reference in the outside world and therefore the soul has less to rely on itself alone than in the case of symbolic ideas that are formed out of the soul's own energy. It is not what is imagined that is essential, but the fact that the imagined detaches the soul from any connection to the physical through the way it is imagined.

[ 9 ] One arrives at a grasp of this immersion in an imagination when one first calls the concept of memory before the soul. For example, if one has directed the eye towards a tree and then turns away from the tree so that one can no longer see it, one is able to reawaken the idea of the tree from memory in the soul. This image of the tree, which you have when it is not in front of your eyes, is a memory of the tree. Now think of keeping this memory in the soul; let the soul rest, as it were, on the memory-image; endeavor to exclude all other ideas. Then the soul is immersed in the memory of the tree. One then has to do with an immersion of the soul in an imagination; but this imagination is the image of a thing perceived by the senses. But if you do the same with an idea that has been brought into consciousness through free will, you will gradually be able to achieve the effect that matters.

[ 10 ] An example of inner immersion with a symbolic imagination will now be illustrated. First of all, such an image must be built up in the soul. This can be done in the following way: Imagine a plant as it takes root in the ground, as it sprouts leaf after leaf, as it unfolds into a flower. And now imagine a person standing next to this plant. Bring to life the thought in his soul of how man has qualities and abilities that can be called more perfect than those of the plant. Consider how he can move here and there according to his feelings and his will, while the plant is bound to the ground. But now also say to yourself: yes, man is certainly more perfect than the plant; but in return I also notice qualities in him which I do not perceive in the plant, and because of their absence it can appear to me in certain respects more perfect than man. Man is filled with desires and passions; he follows these in his behavior. In his case I can speak of aberrations caused by his instincts and passions. With the plant I see how it follows the pure laws of growth from leaf to leaf, how it opens its blossom dispassionately to the chaste rays of the sun. I can say to myself: man has a certain perfection before the plant; but he has bought this perfection by adding instincts, desires and passions to the forces of the plant that seem pure to me. I now imagine that the green colored sap flows through the plant and that this is the expression of the pure, passionless laws of growth. And then I imagine how the red blood flows through the veins of the human being and how this is the expression of the drives, desires and passions. I let all this arise as a vivid thought in my soul. Then I further imagine how man is capable of development; how he can purify and cleanse his drives and passions through his higher soul faculties. I imagine how this destroys a base in these drives and passions and how they are reborn on a higher level. Then the blood can be presented as the expression of the purified and cleansed instincts and passions. For example, I now look at the rose in my mind and say to myself: in the red rose leaf I see the color of the green sap transformed into red; and the red rose, like the green leaf, follows the pure, passionless laws of growth. May the red of the rose now become for me the symbol of such a blood, which is the expression of purified drives and passions that have cast off the baseness and in their purity resemble the forces at work in the red rose. I now try not only to process such thoughts in my mind, but to bring them to life in my feelings. I can have a blissful sensation when I imagine the purity and passionlessness of the growing plant; I can create the feeling in me of how certain higher perfections must be purchased through the acquisition of instincts and desires. This can transform the bliss I felt before into a serious feeling; and then a feeling of liberating happiness can stir within me when I surrender to the thought of the red blood, which can become the bearer of pure inner experiences, like the red juice of the rose. It is important that one does not numbly confront the thoughts that serve to build up a symbolic image. After having indulged in such thoughts and feelings, transform them into the following symbolic image. Imagine a black cross. Let this be the symbol of the destroyed baseness of the impulses and passions; and where the beams of the cross intersect, imagine seven red, radiant roses arranged in a circle. These roses are the symbol for a blood that is the expression of purified, cleansed passions and instincts.1It does not matter to what extent this or that scientific conception finds the above thoughts justified or not. For it is a question of the development of such thoughts about plants and man, which, without any theory, can be gained by simple, direct observation. After all, such thoughts also have their significance alongside the theoretical ideas about the things of the outside world, which are no less important in other respects. And here the thoughts are not there to scientifically represent a fact, but to build up a symbolic image that proves to be effective in the soul, regardless of what objections this or that personality may come up with when building up this symbolic image. Such a symbolic image should now be called before the soul in the way that is illustrated above with a memory image. Such an image has a soul-awakening power if one surrenders to it in inner contemplation. One must try to exclude any other imagination during contemplation. Only the characterized symbol should hover in the mind before the soul, as vividly as this is possible. - It is not insignificant that this symbol has not simply been mentioned here as an awakening idea, but that it has only been built up through certain ideas about plants and man. For the effect of such a symbol depends on the fact that one has put it together in the way described before using it for inner contemplation. If one imagines it without having gone through such a construction in one's own soul, it remains cold and much less effective than if it has received its soul-illuminating power through preparation. During contemplation, however, you should not call all the preparatory thoughts into your soul, but merely have the image floating vividly before you in your mind, allowing the sensation that has arisen as a result of the preparatory thoughts to resonate. In this way, the symbol becomes a sign alongside the sensory experience. And it is in the lingering of the soul in this experience that it is effective. The longer one can dwell without any other disturbing idea interfering, the more effective the whole process is. However, it is good if, in addition to the time you devote to the actual immersion, you often repeat the structure of the image through thoughts and feelings of the kind described above, so that the sensation does not fade. The more patience one has for such a renewal, the more significant the image is for the soul. (In the discussions of my book: "How does one attain knowledge of the higher worlds?" other examples of means for inner contemplation are given. Particularly effective are the meditations characterized there on the growth and decay of a plant, on the forces of development slumbering in a plant seed, on the forms of crystals, etc. Here in this book, the essence of meditation should be shown by means of an example.)

[ 11 ] A symbol such as the one described here does not depict an external thing or being produced by nature. But this is precisely why it has its power to awaken certain purely spiritual abilities. However, someone could raise an objection. He could say: Certainly, the "whole", as a symbol, is not present through nature; but all the details are borrowed from this nature: the black color, the roses and so on. All this is perceived through the senses. Whoever is disturbed by such an objection should consider that it is not the images of the sensory perceptions that lead to the awakening of the higher faculties of the soul, but that this effect is merely caused by the kind of combination of these details. And this combination does not represent something that is present in the sensory world.

[ 12 ] The process of effective immersion of the soul should be illustrated using a symbol as an example. In spiritual training, the most diverse images of this kind can be used and these can be constructed in the most diverse ways. Certain sentences, formulas and individual words can also be given to immerse oneself in. In any case, these means of inner contemplation will have the aim of tearing the soul away from sensory perception and stimulating it to such an activity in which the impression on the physical senses is meaningless and the unfolding of inner dormant soul abilities becomes the essential thing. It can also be a matter of immersion in feelings, sensations, etc. This proves to be particularly effective. Take for example the feeling of joy. In the normal course of life the soul may experience joy if an external stimulus to joy is present. If a healthy soul perceives how a person performs an action which gives him the goodness of his heart, this soul will be pleased, will take pleasure in such an action. But this soul can now reflect on an action of this kind. It can say to itself: An action that is performed out of the goodness of the heart is one in which the performer does not follow his own interests, but the interests of his fellow human being. And such an act can be called a morally good one. Now, however, the contemplating soul can free itself entirely from the idea of the individual case in the external world which has given it joy or pleasure, and it can form the comprehensive idea of the goodness of the heart. It can imagine how goodness of heart arises when one soul absorbs the interest of another, as it were, and makes it its own. And the soul can now feel the joy of this moral idea of goodness of heart. This is not joy in this or that process of the sensory world, but joy in an idea as such. If one tries to keep such joy alive in the soul for a longer period of time, then this is immersion in a feeling, in a sensation. It is then not the idea that is effective in awakening the soul's inner faculties, but rather the long-lasting activity of the feeling within the soul that is not stimulated by a single external impression. - Since supersensible knowledge is able to penetrate deeper into the essence of things than ordinary imagination, sensations can be indicated from its experiences which have a much greater effect on the development of the soul's faculties when they are used for inner contemplation. As necessary as the latter is for higher degrees of training, it should be borne in mind that energetic immersion in such feelings and sensations, such as those characterized by the contemplation of the goodness of the heart, can already lead very far. - Since people's natures are different, different means of training are effective for different people. - As far as the length of time for contemplation is concerned, it should be borne in mind that the more serene and prudent this contemplation can be, the greater the effect. However, any exaggeration in this direction should be avoided. A certain inner rhythm, which results from the exercises themselves, can teach the student what he has to adhere to in this respect.

[ 13 ] As a rule, one will have to perform such exercises of inner contemplation for a long time before one can perceive their results oneself. Patience and perseverance are essential for training the mind. Those who do not awaken these two in themselves and do not do their exercises so calmly and continuously that patience and perseverance always form the basic mood of their soul cannot achieve much.

[ 14 ] It is evident from the foregoing description that inner contemplation (meditation) is a means of attaining knowledge of higher worlds, but also that not just any imaginative content leads to this, but only one that is directed in the manner described.

[ 15 ] The path referred to here first leads to what can be called imaginative cognition. It is the first higher level of cognition. Cognition that is based on sensory perception and on the processing of sensory perceptions by the mind bound to the senses can - in the sense of spiritual science - be called "objective cognition". Beyond this lie the higher levels of cognition, the first of which is imaginative cognition. The term "imaginative" could raise doubts in someone who thinks of "imagination" as merely an "imaginary" conception that corresponds to nothing real. In spiritual science, however, "imaginative" cognition should be understood as that which comes about through a supersensible state of consciousness of the soul. What is perceived in this state of consciousness are spiritual facts and entities to which the senses have no access. Because this state is awakened in the soul through immersion in symbolic images or "imaginations", the world of this higher state of consciousness can also be called the "imaginative" and the knowledge relating to it the "imaginative". "Imaginative" thus means something that is "real" in a different sense than the facts and entities of physical sense perception. Nothing depends on the content of the ideas that fulfill the imaginative experience; on the other hand, everything depends on the capacity of the soul that is formed by this experience.

[ 16 ] A very obvious objection to the use of the characterized symbolic ideas is that their formation springs from dreamy thinking and an arbitrary imagination and that they can therefore only be of dubious success. The misgivings expressed in this way are unjustified with regard to the allegories on which the proper training of the mind is based. For the symbolic images are chosen in such a way that their relationship to an external sensory reality can be completely disregarded and their value can only be sought in the power with which they act on the soul when it withdraws all attention from the external world, when it suppresses all impressions of the senses and also eliminates all thoughts that it can harbor in response to external stimulation. The process of meditation is most clearly illustrated by comparing it with the state of sleep. On the one hand it is similar to sleep, on the other it is completely opposite. It is a sleep that represents a higher awakening compared to daytime consciousness. The point is that by concentrating on the corresponding imagination or image, the soul is compelled to draw much stronger forces from its own depths than it uses in ordinary life or ordinary cognition. This increases its inner agility. It detaches itself from corporeality as it detaches itself in sleep; but it does not pass into unconsciousness as it does in sleep, but experiences a vastness which it has not experienced before. Its state, although it can be compared to sleep in terms of detachment from the body, is such that it can be characterized as an elevated wakefulness compared to ordinary daytime consciousness. In this way the soul experiences itself in its true inner, independent essence, whereas in ordinary daytime waking it only brings itself to consciousness with the help of the body through the weaker development of its powers present in it, thus not experiencing itself, but only becoming aware of itself in the image that - like a kind of mirror image - the body (actually its processes) creates before it.

[ 17 ] Those symbolic images that are constructed in the manner described above do not yet naturally refer to something real in the spiritual world. They serve to tear the human soul away from sensory perception and from the brain instrument to which the mind is initially bound. This detachment cannot take place before the human being feels: now I imagine something through powers in which my senses and the brain do not serve me as tools. The first thing a person experiences on this path is such a liberation from the physical organs. He can then say to himself: my consciousness is not extinguished when I leave sense perceptions and ordinary intellectual thinking out of consideration; I can lift myself out of this and then feel myself as a being next to what I was before. This is the first purely spiritual experience: the observation of a soul-spiritual I-entity. This has emerged as a new self from the self that is only bound to the physical senses and the physical mind. If one had detached oneself from the sensory and intellectual world without immersion, one would have sunk into the "nothingness" of unconsciousness. Of course, one already had the soul-spiritual entity before immersion. However, it did not yet have any tools for observing the spiritual world. It was like a physical body that has no eyes to see or ears to hear. The power expended in contemplation first created the soul-spiritual organs out of the previously disorganized soul-spiritual entity. What one has created in this way is what one first perceives. The first experience is therefore in a certain sense self-perception. It is part of the essence of spiritual training that the soul, through the self-education practiced on itself at this point in its development, has a full awareness of the fact that it first perceives itself in the pictorial worlds (imaginations) that arise as a result of the exercises described. Although these images appear as living in a new world, the soul must recognize that they are initially nothing other than the reflection of its own being, which has been strengthened by the exercises. And it must not only recognize this in the right judgment, but also have come to such a training of the will that it can remove the images from consciousness again at any time, erase them. The soul must be able to act completely freely and prudently within these images. This is part of the correct training of the spirit in this point. If it could not do this, it would be in the same situation in the realm of spiritual experiences as a soul would be in the physical world, which, if it turned its eye towards an object, would be bound by it so that it could no longer look away from it. The only exception to this possibility of erasure is a group of inner pictorial experiences that cannot be erased at the level of spiritual training attained. This corresponds to the soul's own core of being; and in these images the student of the spirit recognizes that in himself which runs through the repeated lives on earth as his basic being. At this point the feeling of repeated earth lives becomes a real experience. With regard to everything else, the aforementioned freedom of experience must prevail. And only after one has attained the ability of extinction does one approach the real spiritual outer world. In place of that which has been extinguished comes another in which one recognizes the spiritual reality. One feels how one grows mentally out of an indeterminate as a determinate. From this self-perception, one must then proceed to the observation of a soul-spiritual outer world. This occurs when one establishes one's inner experience in the sense that will be further indicated here.

[ 18 ] At first, the soul of the spiritual disciple is weak in relation to everything that can be perceived in the soul-spiritual world. He will have to expend a great deal of inner energy in order to hold on to the symbols or other ideas which he has built up from the stimuli of the sensory world in inner contemplation. But if he also wants to arrive at real observation in a higher world, he must not only be able to hold on to these ideas. After he has done this, he must also be able to remain in a state in which no stimuli from the sensory external world act on the soul, but in which the characterized imagined concepts themselves are also eradicated from consciousness. Only now can that which has been formed through immersion emerge in consciousness. It is a matter of there now being enough inner soul power so that what has thus been formed can really be seen spiritually, so that it does not escape attention. However, this is certainly the case when the inner energy is still weakly developed. What first emerges as a soul-spiritual organism and what is to be grasped in self-perception is delicate and fleeting. And the disturbances of the sensual outer world and their memory after-effects are great, no matter how hard one tries to keep them at bay. It is not only those disturbances that one pays attention to, but even more so those that one does not pay attention to at all in ordinary life. - But it is precisely the nature of the human being that makes a transitional state possible in this respect. What the soul cannot do in the waking state because of the disturbances of the physical world, it can do in the sleeping state. Anyone who surrenders to inner contemplation will become aware of something in his sleep if he pays proper attention. He will feel that he is "not completely asleep" during sleep, but that his soul has times in which it is active in a certain way while asleep. In such states, the natural processes keep out the influences of the outside world, which the soul cannot yet keep out by its own power when awake. If, however, the exercises of contemplation have already worked, then during sleep the soul releases itself from unconsciousness and feels the spiritual world. This can occur in two ways. It can be clear to the person during sleep: I am now in another world, or he can have the memory in himself after awakening: I was in another world. The former, however, requires a greater inner energy than the latter. Therefore, the latter will be the more common for the beginner in the training of the spirit. Gradually this can go so far that after awakening the pupil will think: I was in another world all the time I was asleep, from which I emerged when I woke up. And his memory of the beings and facts of this other world will become more and more definite. Then, in one form or another, the disciple of the spirit has entered into what can be called the continuity of consciousness. (The continuity of consciousness during sleep.) This does not mean, however, that a person is always conscious during sleep. Much has already been achieved in the continuity of consciousness if the human being, who otherwise sleeps like another, has certain times during sleep in which he can look at a spiritual world as if consciously, or if he can look at such short-lasting states of consciousness again in waking. However, it should not be forgotten that what is described here is only to be understood as a transitional state. It is good to go through this transitional state for the purpose of training; but one should certainly not believe that a conclusive view of the spiritual-soul world is to be drawn from this transitional state. In this state the soul is uncertain and cannot yet rely on what it perceives. But it gathers more and more strength through such experiences in order to then, also during waking, to keep the disturbing influences of the physical outer and inner world away from itself and thus to arrive at spiritual-soul observation when no impressions come through the senses, when the mind bound to the physical brain is silent and when also the ideas of contemplation are removed from consciousness, through which one has only prepared oneself for spiritual seeing. - What is published by spiritual science in this or that form should never originate from a spiritual observation other than one made in a fully awake state.

[ 19 ] Two experiences of the soul are important in the progress of spiritual training. One is that through which the human being can say to himself: even if I now disregard everything that the physical outer world can give me in the way of impressions, I do not look into my inner self as if at a being to which all activity is extinguished, but I look at a being that is conscious of itself in a world of which I know nothing, as long as I allow myself to be stimulated only by those sensual and ordinary impressions of the intellect. At this moment the soul has the sensation that it has given birth to a new being within itself as its soul essence in the manner described above. And this being is one with completely different characteristics to those that were previously in the soul. - The other experience consists in the fact that one can now have one's previous being next to oneself like a second being. That in which one knew oneself to be enclosed becomes something to which one finds oneself confronted in a certain way. One feels temporarily outside of what one has otherwise addressed as one's own being, as one's "I". It is as if one were now living in full contemplation in two "I's". One is the one you have known up to now. The other stands above it like a newborn being. And one feels how the former acquires a certain independence from the latter, just as the human body has a certain independence from the first self. - This experience is of great significance. For through it man knows what it means to live in that world which he strives to attain through training.

[ 20 ] The second - the newborn - I can now be led to perceive the spiritual world. It can develop what has the meaning for this spiritual world that the sense organs have for the sensory-physical world. When this development has progressed to the necessary degree, the human being will not only perceive himself as a newborn ego, but he will now perceive spiritual facts and spiritual beings around him, just as he perceives the physical world through the physical senses. And this is a third significant experience. In order to fully come to terms with this level of spiritual training, the human being must reckon with the fact that with the strengthening of the soul forces, self-love and self-awareness arise to a degree that is unknown to the ordinary life of the soul. It would be a misunderstanding if anyone were to believe that at this point we only have to speak of ordinary self-love. At this stage of development it intensifies in such a way that it takes on the appearance of a natural force within one's own soul, and it takes a strong training of the will to conquer this strong sense of self. This sense of self is not produced by the training of the spirit; it is always present; it only comes to consciousness through the experience of the spirit. The training of the will must certainly go side by side with the other training of the spirit. There is a strong urge to feel blessed in the world that one has created for oneself. And to a certain extent one must be able to extinguish, in the manner mentioned above, that which one has striven for with all one's effort. In the imaginative world we have reached, we must extinguish ourselves. But the strongest instincts of the sense of self fight against this. - It is easy to believe that the exercises of spiritual training are something external and detached from the moral development of the soul. On the contrary, it must be said that the moral strength necessary for the marked conquest of the sense of self cannot be attained without bringing the moral constitution of the soul to a corresponding level. Progress in the training of the spirit is inconceivable without moral progress at the same time. Without moral strength, the aforementioned conquest of the sense of self is not possible. All talk about true spiritual training not being moral training at the same time is inappropriate. Only those who do not know such an experience can raise the objection: how can one know that if one believes to have spiritual perceptions, one is dealing with realities and not with mere imaginations (visions, hallucinations, etc.)? - The point is that a person who has reached the stage described above through proper training can distinguish his own imagination from a spiritual reality in the same way that a person of sound mind can distinguish the imagination of a hot piece of iron from the actual presence of one that he touches with his hand. The difference is made by healthy experience and nothing else. And in the spiritual world, too, the touchstone is life itself. Just as one knows that in the world of the senses an imaginary piece of iron, however hot it is thought to be, does not burn the fingers, so the trained student of the spirit knows whether he is only experiencing a spiritual fact in his imagination or whether real facts or entities are making an impression on his awakened spiritual organs of perception. The measures to be observed during the training of the mind, so that one does not fall victim to deception in this respect, will be discussed in the following presentation.

[ 21 ] It is now of the greatest importance that the student of the spirit has attained a very specific state of soul when the consciousness of a newborn ego enters him. For it is through his ego that man is the leader of his sensations, feelings, ideas, instincts, desires and passions. Perceptions and ideas cannot be left to themselves in the soul. They must be regulated by thinking prudence. And it is the ego that handles these laws of thought and brings order to the life of imagination and thought through them. It is similar with desires, drives, inclinations and passions. The ethical principles become the guides of these powers of the soul. And through moral judgment the ego becomes the soul's guide in this area. If man now draws a higher ego out of his ordinary ego, the former becomes independent in a certain respect. As much living power is taken away from it as is given to the higher ego. Suppose, however, that man has not yet developed within himself a certain ability and consolidation in the laws of thought and in the power of judgment, and that he wanted to give birth to his higher ego at such a stage. He will only be able to leave so much thinking ability behind in his ordinary self as he has previously developed. If the degree of orderly thinking is too small, then disorderly, confused, fantastic thinking and judgment will appear in the ordinary ego that has become independent. And because the newborn ego can only be weak in such a personality, the confused lower ego will gain supremacy for the supersensible vision and the person will not show the balance of his power of judgment for the observation of the supersensible. If he had developed sufficient capacity for logical thinking, he could calmly leave his ordinary ego to its own devices. - And it is the same in the ethical sphere. If man has not attained firmness in moral judgment, if he has not become sufficiently master of inclinations, impulses and passions, then he will make his ordinary ego independent in a state in which the soul forces mentioned are at work. It can happen that a person does not allow the same high sense of truth to prevail in the ascertainment of the supersensible knowledge he experiences as in what he brings to his consciousness through the physical outer world. With such a loosened sense of truth, he could take anything for spiritual reality, which is only his fantasy. Into this sense of truth must enter firmness of ethical judgment, certainty of character, thoroughness of certainty, which are developed in the ego left behind before the higher ego becomes active for the purpose of supersensible knowledge. - This must by no means become a deterrent to training; but it must be taken quite seriously.

[ 22 ] Whoever has the strong will to do everything that brings the first ego to inner security in the performance of its tasks does not need to shy away from the detachment of a second ego brought about by spiritual training for the purpose of supersensible knowledge. But he must be aware that self-deception has great power over man when it is a question of his being "ripe" for something. In the mental training described here, man attains such an education of his thought life that he cannot be in danger of making the mistakes that are often suspected. This thought training ensures that all inner experiences that are necessary occur, but that they take place as they must be experienced by the soul, without being accompanied by harmful fantasy aberrations. Without appropriate thought training, the experiences can cause a strong insecurity in the soul. The way emphasized here causes the experiences to occur in such a way that one gets to know them completely, just as one gets to know the perceptions of the physical world in a healthy state of soul. Through the development of the mental life, one becomes more of an observer of what one experiences in oneself, while without the mental life one stands in the experience without thinking.

[ 23 ] Certain qualities are mentioned of proper training, which those who wish to find their way into the higher worlds should acquire through practice. Above all, these are: control of the soul over its thoughts, will and feelings. The way in which this mastery is to be brought about through practice has a twofold aim. On the one hand, it is intended to instill firmness, security and balance in the soul to such an extent that it retains these qualities even when a second self is born from it. On the other hand, this second self should be given strength and inner stability along the way.

[ 24 ] What man's thinking needs above all for the training of the spirit is objectivity. In the physical-sensual world, life is the great teacher of objectivity for the human ego. If the soul wanted to let its thoughts wander to and fro at will, it would soon have to allow itself to be corrected by life if it did not want to come into conflict with it. The soul must think according to the course of the facts of life. If man now diverts his attention from the physical-sensual world, he lacks the compulsory correction of the latter. If his thinking is then incapable of being its own corrector, it must become misleading. Therefore, the thinking of the student of the spirit must be practiced in such a way that it can give itself direction and purpose. Inner firmness and the ability to remain strictly with an object is what thinking must draw from within itself. For this reason, corresponding "mental exercises" should not be carried out on distant and complicated objects, but on simple and obvious ones. Whoever overcomes himself to turn his thoughts to an everyday object (for example, a pin, a pencil, etc.) for at least five minutes a day for months on end and during this time to exclude all thoughts that are not related to this object has done a great deal in this direction. (You can think about a new object every day or hold on to one for several days). Even those who feel themselves to be "thinkers" through scientific training should not disdain to "mature" themselves in this way for the training of the mind. For if one fixes one's thoughts for a while on something that is quite familiar to one, one can be sure that one is thinking appropriately. If you ask yourself: What components make up a pencil? How are the materials prepared to make the pencil? How are they assembled afterwards? When were pencils invented? and so on, and so on: such a person will certainly adapt their ideas more to reality than someone who thinks about the origins of man or what life is. One learns more through simple mental exercises for a proper conception of the world of Saturn's, the sun's and the moon's development than through complicated and learned ideas. For initially it is not a question of thinking about this or that, but of thinking appropriately through inner strength. If one has learned to think appropriately through an easily comprehensible sensory-physical process, then thinking becomes accustomed to wanting to be appropriate when it does not feel dominated by the physical-sensory world and its laws. And you get used to letting your thoughts rave improperly.

[ 25 ] As a ruler in the world of thoughts, so should the soul become in the realm of will. In the physical-sensual world it is also here that life appears as ruler. It asserts these or those needs for the human being; and the will feels stimulated to satisfy these needs. For higher training, man must become accustomed to strictly obeying his own commands. Whoever becomes accustomed to this will find it less and less pleasant to desire insubstantial things. However, the unsatisfactory, unsustainable aspect of the life of the will stems from the desire for such things, the realization of which is not clearly understood. Such unsatisfactoriness can disorder the whole emotional life if a higher self wants to emerge from the soul. A good exercise is to give yourself the command at a certain time of day for months on end: Today "at this particular time" you will perform "this". You then gradually come to command yourself the time of execution and the nature of the thing to be done in such a way that the execution is possible quite precisely. Thus one rises above the pernicious: "I want this; I want that", whereby one does not even think of the feasibility. A great personality has a seer say: "I love the one who desires the impossible". (Goethe, Faust II) And this personality (Goethe) himself says: "To live in the idea means to treat the impossible as if it were possible". (Goethe, Proverbs in Prose.) Such sayings should not, however, be used as objections to what is presented here. For the demand made by Goethe and his seer (Manko) can only be fulfilled by those who have first trained themselves in the desire for what is possible, in order to then be able to treat the "impossible" through their strong will in such a way that it is transformed into a possible through their will.

[ 26 ] With regard to the emotional world, the soul should be brought to a certain serenity for the training of the spirit. To this end, it is necessary for this soul to become master of the expression of pleasure and suffering, joy and pain. Many a prejudice can arise against the acquisition of this quality. One might think that one becomes dull and apathetic towards one's fellow human beings if one "should not rejoice over the pleasurable and feel pain over the painful". But that is not the point. A pleasant thing should delight the soul, a sad thing should hurt it. It should only come to master the expression of joy and pain, of pleasure and displeasure. If you strive for this, you will soon notice that you do not become duller but, on the contrary, more receptive to everything pleasant and painful in your surroundings than you used to be. However, if you want to acquire the quality we are talking about here, you need to pay close attention to yourself over a longer period of time. You have to make sure that you can fully experience pleasure and pain without losing yourself so much that you give involuntary expression to what you feel. It is not justified pain that should be suppressed, but involuntary weeping; not disgust at a bad action, but the blind raging of anger; not paying attention to danger, but the fruitless "being afraid" and so on. - Only through such practice does the student of the spirit attain that calmness in his mind which is necessary to prevent the soul from leading a second unhealthy life like a kind of double next to this higher self when it is born and especially when the higher self is active. It is precisely with regard to these things that one should not indulge in self-deception. It may seem to some that they already have a certain equanimity in ordinary life and that they therefore do not need this exercise. Such a person needs it twice over. For one can be quite serene when facing the things of ordinary life; and then, when ascending to a higher world, the lack of equilibrium, which was only repressed, can assert itself all the more. It must be recognized that the training of the spirit depends less on what one seems to have beforehand than on practicing what one needs in a lawful manner. As contradictory as this sentence may seem, it is correct. Even if life has taught you this or that: the qualities which you have taught yourself serve to train your mind. If life has taught you excitement, you should train yourself out of excitement; but if life has taught you equanimity, you should shake yourself up through self-education so that the expression of your soul corresponds to the impression you have received. He who cannot laugh at anything controls his life just as little as he who, without controlling himself, is continually provoked to laughter.

[ 27 ] For thinking and feeling, another means of education is the acquisition of the quality that can be called positivity. There is a beautiful legend that tells of Christ Jesus walking past a dead dog with some other people. The others turn away from the ugly sight. Christ Jesus speaks admiringly of the animal's beautiful teeth. One can practise maintaining a state of mind towards the world that is in the spirit of this legend. The erroneous, bad and ugly should not prevent the soul from finding the true, good and beautiful wherever it exists. This positivity should not be confused with a lack of criticism, with arbitrarily closing one's eyes to the bad, the false and the inferior. Anyone who admires the "beautiful teeth" of a dead animal also sees the decaying corpse. But this corpse does not prevent him from seeing the beautiful teeth. One cannot find the bad good, the error not true; but one can make it so that one is not prevented by the bad from seeing the good, by the error from seeing the true.

[ 28 ] Thinking in connection with the will undergoes a certain maturation if one tries never to allow anything that one has experienced or learned to rob one's unbiased receptivity to new experiences. For the spiritual disciple, the thought should completely lose its meaning: "I have never heard that before, I don't believe that." For a certain period of time, he should be prepared to be told new things and beings at every opportunity. One can learn from every breath of air, from every leaf of a tree, from every babble of a child, if one is prepared to apply a point of view that one has not yet applied. However, it will be easy to go too far with regard to such an ability. One should not disregard the experiences one has had about things at a certain age. One should judge what one experiences in the present according to the experiences of the past. That goes on one side of the scales; on the other, however, the student of the spirit must be inclined to constantly learn new things. And, above all, the belief in the possibility that new experiences can contradict the old ones.

[ 29 ] This mentions five qualities of the soul that the student of the spirit must acquire through proper training: mastery of thought, mastery of the impulses of the will, serenity towards pleasure and suffering, positivity in judging the world, impartiality in the perception of life. Whoever has used certain periods of time in succession to practise the acquisition of these qualities will then still need to bring these qualities into harmonious tune in the soul. In a sense, he will have to practice them two and two, three and one and so on at the same time in order to achieve harmony.

[ 30 ] The characterized exercises are indicated by the methods of spiritual training because, if performed thoroughly, they not only bring about in the spiritual disciple what has been mentioned above as a direct result, but also have many other indirect results that are needed on the path to the spiritual worlds. Whoever does these exercises to a sufficient degree will, during them, come across many deficiencies and faults in his soul life; and he will find the means he needs to strengthen and secure his intellectual, emotional and character life. He will certainly have need of many other exercises, according to his abilities, temperament and character; but these will arise if the above-mentioned are practiced extensively. Indeed, you will notice that the exercises described will also gradually give you what does not seem to be there at first. For example, if someone has too little self-confidence, they will notice after a certain amount of time that the exercises will give them the necessary self-confidence. And it is the same with other qualities of the soul. (Special, more detailed exercises can be found in my book: "How does one attain knowledge of the higher worlds?") - It is significant that the student of the spirit is able to increase the indicated abilities to ever higher degrees. He must master his thoughts and feelings to such an extent that the soul acquires the power to create times of perfect inner peace, in which man keeps away from his mind and heart everything that everyday, external life brings in the way of happiness and suffering, of satisfactions and worries, indeed of tasks and demands. At such times, only that which the soul itself wants to admit in a state of contemplation should be admitted into the soul. A prejudice can easily arise against this. The opinion could arise that one becomes alienated from life and its tasks if one withdraws from it with heart and mind for certain times of the day. In reality, however, this is not the case at all. Those who devote themselves to periods of inner stillness and peace in the manner described above will gain so much and such strong strength for the tasks of outer life that they will not only fulfill the duties of life no worse, but certainly better. - It is of great value if, during such periods, a person can completely free himself from thoughts of his personal affairs, if he is able to rise to what concerns not only him but man in general. If he is able to fill his soul with the messages from the higher spiritual world, if these are able to captivate his interest to such a high degree as a personal concern or matter, then his soul will reap special fruits from this. - Whoever endeavors to intervene in his soul life in this regulating way will also come to the possibility of self-observation, which looks at his own affairs with the calmness as if they were foreign ones. Being able to look at one's own experiences, one's own joys and sufferings as if they were those of another is a good preparation for training the spirit. You will gradually reach the necessary level in this respect if you allow the images of your daily experiences to pass before your mind every day after you have completed your daily work. One should see oneself in the picture within one's experiences; in other words, one should look at oneself in one's daily life as if from the outside. One achieves a certain practice in such self-observation when one begins by imagining individual small parts of this daily life. You will then become more and more skillful and adept at such retrospection, so that after a long period of practice you will be able to complete it in a short period of time. This looking backwards at experiences has a special value for the training of the spirit because it leads the soul to break away from the habit of only following the course of sensory events with the mind. In backward thinking one imagines correctly, but is not held by the sensory process. You need this to settle into the supersensible world. Imagining in a healthy way is based on this. Therefore it is also good to imagine other things backwards besides one's daily life, for example, the course of a drama, a story, a sequence of notes, etc. - The ideal for the student of the spirit will become more and more to behave towards the life events that approach him in such a way that he lets them approach him with inner security and peace of mind and does not judge them according to the state of his soul, but according to their inner meaning and their inner value. It is precisely by focusing on this ideal that he will create the spiritual foundation to be able to devote himself to the immersion in symbolic and other thoughts and feelings described above.

[ 31 ] The conditions described here must be fulfilled, because the supersensible experience is built on the ground on which one stands in the ordinary life of the soul before one enters the supersensible world. In two ways, all supersensible experience is dependent on the starting point of the soul on which one stands before entering. Anyone who is not careful to make sound judgment the basis of his spiritual training from the outset will develop supersensible abilities that perceive the spiritual world inaccurately and incorrectly. His spiritual organs of perception will, so to speak, develop incorrectly. And just as one cannot see correctly in the sensory world with a defective or diseased eye, so one cannot perceive correctly with spiritual organs that have not been developed on the basis of a healthy capacity for judgment. - He who takes an immoral state of mind as his starting point will rise up into the spiritual worlds in such a way that his spiritual vision will be numb, fogged over. He is to the supersensible worlds as someone is to the sensuous world who observes in a daze. But he will not come to any significant conclusions, whereas the spiritual observer in his stupor is at least more alert than a person in ordinary consciousness. His statements therefore become errors in relation to the spiritual world.

[ 32 ] The inner solidity of the imaginative level of cognition is achieved by the fact that the mental immersions (meditations) described are supported by what can be called the habituation to "sensuality-free thinking". If a thought is formed on the basis of observation in the physical-sensual world, then this thought is not free of sensuality. But it is not the case that man can only form such thoughts. Human thought need not become empty and devoid of content if it does not allow itself to be filled with sensory observations. The safest and most obvious way for the student of the spirit to arrive at such sensory-free thinking is to make the facts of the higher world communicated to him by spiritual science the property of his thinking. These facts cannot be observed by the physical senses. Nevertheless, man will realize that he can comprehend them if he has enough patience and perseverance. Without training one cannot investigate the higher world, one cannot make observations in it oneself; but without higher training one can understand everything that the researchers communicate from it. And if someone says: How can I accept in good faith what the spiritual researchers say, since I cannot see it myself? this is completely unfounded. For it is quite possible to obtain the certain conviction from mere reflection that what has been communicated is true. And if someone cannot form this conviction through reflection, this is not because it is impossible to "believe" in something that one does not see, but merely because one has not yet applied one's reflection unprejudicedly, comprehensively and thoroughly enough. In order to have clarity on this point, one must consider that human thinking, if it energetically pulls itself together, can comprehend more than it usually thinks. For in the thought itself there is already an inner entity which is connected with the supersensible world. The soul is usually unaware of this connection because it is accustomed to using the faculty of thought only on the world of the senses. It therefore considers what is communicated to it from the supersensible world to be incomprehensible. However, this is not only understandable for a mind that has been educated through spiritual training, but for any mind that is aware of its full power and wants to make use of it. - By constantly making what spiritual research says one's own, one becomes accustomed to a way of thinking that does not draw on sensory observations. One learns to recognize how, within the soul, thought weaves itself into thought, how thought seeks thought, even if the thought connections are not brought about by the power of sensory observation. The essential thing here is that one becomes aware of how the world of thought has inner life, how, by really thinking, one is already in the realm of a supersensible living world.

[ 33 ] You say to yourself: There is something in me that forms an organism of thought; but I am one with this "something". In devoting oneself to sensory-free thinking, one experiences that something essential exists which flows into our inner life, just as the qualities of sensory things flow into us through our physical organs when we observe sensually. Out there in space - the observer of the sensory world says to himself - there is a rose; it is not strange to me, for it announces itself to me through its color and its smell. One only needs to be sufficiently unprejudiced to say to oneself, when the sensuality-free thinking is at work in one, quite accordingly: an entity announces itself to me, which binds thought to thought in me, which forms a thought organism. There is, however, a difference in the sensations between what the observer of the outer sense world has in mind and that which announces itself essentially in the sensuality-free thinking. The first observer feels himself to be outside the rose, the one who is devoted to sensuality-free thinking feels the essence that announces itself in him as in himself, he feels at one with it. He who more or less consciously only wants to accept as essential that which confronts him like an external object will not, however, be able to maintain the feeling that what is essential in itself can also announce itself to me through the fact that I am united with it as if in one. In order to see correctly in this respect, one must be able to have the following inner experience. One must learn to distinguish between the thought connections that one creates through one's own arbitrariness and those that one experiences within oneself when one allows such arbitrariness to remain silent within oneself. In the latter case, one can then say: I remain completely silent within myself; I do not bring about any thought connections; I surrender to that which "thinks within me". Then it is fully justified to say: something essential works in me, just as it is justified to say: the rose works on me when I see a certain red, perceive a certain smell. - It is not a contradiction that one draws the content of one's thoughts from the communications of spiritual researchers. The thoughts are already there when you give yourself over to them, but you cannot think them if you do not recreate them in your soul. What matters is that the spiritual researcher evokes such thoughts in his listener and reader, which they must first draw from themselves, while the one who describes the sensual-real points to something that can be observed by the listener and reader in the sensory world.

[ 34 ] (The path that leads through the communications of spiritual science into sensuality-free thinking is an absolutely certain one. But there is another one, which is safer and, above all, more precise, but also more difficult for many people. It is described in my books "Erkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen Weltanschauung" and "Philosophie der Freiheit". These writings reflect what human thought can achieve when thinking does not surrender to the impressions of the physical-sensual outside world, but only to itself. Pure thinking then works in the human being, not the thinking that is merely lost in memories of the sensual, like an entity that is alive in itself. At the same time, nothing is included in these writings from the communications of spiritual science itself. And yet it is shown that pure thinking, working only within itself, can gain insights into the world, life and man. These writings stand on a very important intermediate stage between the cognition of the sense world and that of the spiritual world. They offer what thinking can gain when it rises above sensual observation but still avoids entering spiritual research. He who allows these writings to affect his whole soul is already in the spiritual world, except that it presents itself to him as a world of thought. Whoever feels able to allow such an intermediate stage to have an effect on him is walking a safe path; and he can thereby gain a feeling towards the higher world that will bear him the most beautiful fruits for all subsequent times.

[ 35 ] The goal of immersion (meditation) in the symbolic ideas and sensations described above is, to be precise, the development of the higher organs of perception within the astral body of the human being. They are initially created out of the substance of this astral body. These new organs of observation convey a new world, and in this new world the human being gets to know himself as a new ego. These new organs of observation differ from the organs of observation of the sensory-physical world in that they are active organs. While the eye and ear are passive and allow light and sound to affect them, it can be said of the spiritual-mental organs of perception that they are in constant activity while they perceive, and that they grasp their objects and facts in full consciousness, so to speak. This gives rise to the feeling that spiritual-soul cognition is a unification with the corresponding facts, a "living in them". - The individual spiritual-soul organs that form can be called "lotus flowers" in comparison, corresponding to the form that the supersensible consciousness must (imaginatively) make of them. (Of course, one must be aware that such a designation has no more to do with the matter than the term "wings" when one speaks of "lung wings"). Through very specific types of inner contemplation, the astral body is influenced in such a way that one or the other spiritual-soul organ, one or the other "lotus flower" is formed. After all that has been said in this book, it should be superfluous to emphasize that these "organs of observation" should not be imagined as something that is an imprint of its reality in the imagination of its sensory image. These "organs" are precisely supersensible and consist in a certain kind of soul activity; and they only exist insofar and as long as this soul activity is practiced. Something that can be seen as sensual is as little in man with these organs as any "haze" is around him when he thinks. Anyone who wants to imagine the supersensible in a sensual way will fall into misunderstandings. In spite of the superfluous nature of this remark, it may be included here because there are always confessors of the supersensible who only want to have a sensuality in their conceptions; and because there are always opponents of supersensible knowledge who believe that the spiritual researcher speaks of "lotus flowers" as if they were finer, sensuous formations. Every regular meditation made with a view to imaginative cognition has its effect on one organ or the other. (In my book "How does one attain knowledge of the higher worlds?" some of the methods of meditation and practice are given which have an effect on one organ or another). Proper training arranges the individual exercises of the student of the spirit in such a way and lets them follow each other in such a way that the organs can train themselves individually or successively. This training requires a great deal of patience and perseverance on the part of the spiritual disciple. Anyone who only has the level of patience that normal living conditions usually give a person will not be able to achieve this. For it takes a long time, often a very, very long time, until the organs are so far advanced that the spiritual disciple can use them for perceptions in the higher world. At this moment, what is called enlightenment occurs for him, in contrast to the preparation or purification that consists of the exercises for the training of the organs. (The term "purification" is used because through the corresponding exercises the disciple purifies himself of all that comes from the sensory world of observation for a certain area of inner life). It is quite possible that even before actual enlightenment, a person will repeatedly receive "flashes of light" from a higher world. He should gratefully accept such flashes. They alone can make him a witness of the spiritual world. But he should also not waver if this is not the case during his preparation time, which may seem too long to him. Whoever can fall into impatience "because he does not yet see anything" has not yet gained the right relationship to a higher world. The latter has only been grasped by those for whom the exercises they do through training can be something of an end in themselves. This practice is in truth work on a spiritual-soul, namely on one's own astral body. And one can "feel", even if "one sees nothing": "I am working spiritually and emotionally". Only if you form a certain opinion from the outset about what you actually want to "see", then you will not have this feeling. Then you won't think of anything that is actually something immeasurably meaningful. But you should pay subtle attention to everything you experience while practising, which is so fundamentally different from all experiences in the sensory world. You will then notice that you are not working into your astral body as into an indifferent substance, but that a completely different world lives in it, of which you know nothing through your sensory life. Higher beings work on the astral body, just as the physical-sensual outer world works on the physical body. And one "encounters" the higher life in one's own astral body, if only one does not close oneself off from it. If someone says to himself again and again: "I perceive nothing", then it is usually because he has imagined that this perception must look like this or that; and because he then does not see what he imagines he must see, he says: "I see nothing."

[ 36 ] But he who acquires the right attitude towards the practice of training will increasingly have something in this practice that he loves for its own sake. But then he knows that through practicing he himself is in a spiritual-soul world, and he waits in patience and surrender to see what further results. This attitude in the spiritual disciple can best be expressed in the following words: "I want to do everything that is appropriate for me as exercises, and I know that in the appropriate time I will receive as much as is important to me. I do not demand this impatiently; but always make myself ready to receive it." There is also no objection to this: "The spiritual disciple should therefore grope in the dark, perhaps for an immeasurably long time; for it can only become clear to him that he is on the right path with his practice when success is achieved." However, it is not the case that only success can bring the realization of the correctness of the practice. If the student is doing the exercises correctly, then the satisfaction he gets from practicing will give him the clarity that he is doing the right thing, not just the success. Practicing correctly in the field of spiritual training is associated with a satisfaction that is not mere satisfaction, but realization. Namely the realization that I am doing something that I can see is moving me forward in the right direction. Every student of the mind can have this realization at any moment, if only he is subtly attentive to his experiences. If he does not apply this attention, then he simply passes by the experiences, like a pedestrian lost in thought who does not see the trees on either side of the path, although he would see them if he looked at them attentively. - It is not at all desirable to hasten the occurrence of any other success than that which always results from practicing. For this could easily be only the smallest part of what should actually occur. With regard to spiritual development, partial success is often the cause of a great delay in full success. Movement under such forms of spiritual life as correspond to partial success blunts the influences of the forces which lead to higher points of development. And the gain that one achieves by having "looked into the spiritual world" is only an apparent one; for this looking in cannot provide the truth, but only illusions.

[ 37 ] The spiritual-soul organs, the lotus flowers, are formed in such a way that they appear to the supersensible consciousness of the person undergoing training as if they were close to certain physical body organs. Of the series of these soul organs, the following should be mentioned here: the one that is felt near the center of the eyebrow (the so-called two-petaled lotus flower), the one in the region of the larynx (the sixteen-petaled lotus flower), the third in the region of the heart (the twelve-petaled lotus flower), the fourth in the region of the pit of the stomach. Other such organs appear near other physical parts of the body. (The names "two-petaled" or "sixteen-petaled" can be used because the organs in question can be compared to flowers with the corresponding number of petals.

[ 38 ] The lotus flowers become conscious in the astral body. At the time when you have developed one or the other, you also know that you have them. One feels that one can make use of them and that one really enters a higher world through their use. The impressions one receives from this world are in some respects still similar to those of the physical-sensory world. Those who perceive imaginatively will be able to speak of the new higher world in such a way that they describe the impressions as sensations of warmth or cold, perceptions of sound or words, effects of light or color. For he experiences them as such. However, he is aware that these perceptions express something different in the imaginative world than in the sensual-real world. He recognizes that behind them are not physical-material causes, but mental-spiritual ones. If he has something like an impression of warmth, he does not attribute it to a hot piece of iron, for example, but regards it as the outflow of a mental process that he has only known in his inner mental life. He knows that behind the imaginative perceptions there are mental and spiritual things and processes, just as behind the physical perceptions there are material-physical beings and facts. - In addition to this similarity between the imaginative and the physical world, however, there is a significant difference. There is something in the physical world that appears quite differently in the imaginative world. In the latter we can observe a continuous coming into being and passing away of things, an alternation of birth and death. In the imaginative world, this phenomenon is replaced by a continuous transformation of one thing into another. In the physical world, for example, we see a plant decay. In the imaginative world, to the same extent that the plant withers away, the emergence of another entity appears, which is not physically perceptible and into which the decaying plant gradually transforms. When the plant has passed away, this entity is fully developed in its place. Birth and death are concepts that lose their meaning in the imaginative world. In their place comes the concept of the transformation of one into the other. - Because this is so, those truths about the essence of man, which have been communicated in this book in the chapter "Essence of Humanity", become accessible to imaginative cognition. Only the processes of the physical body are perceptible to physical-sensory perception. They take place in the "realm of birth and death". The other members of human nature: the vital body, the sensory body and the ego are subject to the law of transformation, and their perception opens up to imaginative cognition. Those who have progressed to this point perceive how that which lives on in a different mode of existence after death is, as it were, detached from the physical body.

[ 39 ] The development, however, does not stand still within the imaginative world. The human being who wanted to remain within it would indeed perceive the entities undergoing transformation; but he would not be able to interpret the processes of transformation, he would not be able to orient himself in the newly acquired world. The imaginative world is a restless area. There is only movement and transformation everywhere in it; nowhere are there points of rest. - Man only reaches such points of rest when he develops beyond the imaginative level of cognition to what can be called "cognition through inspiration". - It is not necessary for those who seek knowledge of the supersensible world to develop in such a way that they first fully acquire imaginative cognition and only then progress to "inspiration". His exercises can be arranged in such a way that what leads to imagination and what leads to inspiration go side by side. After a suitable period of time, he will then enter a higher world in which he not only perceives, but in which he can also orientate himself and which he knows how to interpret. As a rule, however, progress will be made in such a way that first the student of the spirit is presented with some phenomena of the imaginative world and after some time he receives the sensation within himself: Now I am also beginning to get my bearings. - Nevertheless, the world of inspiration is something quite new compared to that of mere imagination. Through the latter one perceives the transformation of one process into another, through the latter one learns about the inner qualities of beings that transform themselves. Through imagination one recognizes the spiritual expression of beings; through inspiration one penetrates into their spiritual interior. Above all, one recognizes a multiplicity of spiritual beings and the relationship of one to another. In the physical world we also have to deal with a multiplicity of different beings; in the world of inspiration, however, this multiplicity is of a different character. There each being is in quite definite relations to others, not as in the physical world through external influence on it, but through its inner constitution. When one perceives a being in the inspired world, there is not an external influence on another that could be compared with the effect of one physical being on another, but there is a relationship of one to the other through the inner nature of the two beings. This relationship can be compared with such a relationship in the physical world if one chooses the relationship between the individual sounds or letters of a word. If you have the word "human" in front of you, it is brought about by the harmony of the sounds: human. There is no impulse or other external influence, for example, from the M to the E, but both sounds work together within a whole through their inner nature. Therefore, observing in the world of inspiration can only be compared to reading; and the beings in this world have an effect on the observer like characters which he must get to know and whose relationships must reveal themselves to him like a supersensible writing. Spiritual science can therefore also call knowledge through inspiration comparatively the "reading of the hidden script".

[ 40 ] How this "hidden scripture" is read and how what has been read can be communicated will now be made clear in the preceding chapters of this book. First the essence of man was described, how it is made up of different parts. Then it was shown how the world being, on which the human being develops, passes through the various states, the Saturnian, solar, lunar and earthly states. The perceptions through which one can recognize the limbs of man on the one hand, and the successive states of the earth and its previous transformations on the other, are revealed by imaginative cognition. Now, however, it is further necessary to recognize what relationships exist between the Saturnian state and the physical human body, the solar state and the etheric body, and so on. It must be shown that the germ of the physical human body was already formed during the Saturnian state, that it then developed further to its present form during the solar, lunar and earthly states. It also had to be pointed out, for example, what changes took place in the human being when the sun separated from the earth and what happened to the moon. Furthermore, it had to be communicated what interacted so that such changes could take place with humanity, as they expressed themselves in the transformations during the Atlantean period, as they did in the successive periods, the Indian, the Urperian, the Egyptian, etc. The description of these connections does not result from imaginative perception, but from knowledge through inspiration, from the reading of the hidden Scriptures. For this "reading", the imaginative perceptions are like letters or sounds. However, this "reading" is not only necessary for enlightenments such as those just described. Even the course of life of the whole human being could not be understood if one were to view it only through imaginative cognition. One would indeed perceive how, with death, the soul-spiritual members detach themselves from what remains in the physical world; but one would not understand the relationship of what happens to the human being after death to the preceding and subsequent states if one could not orient oneself within the imaginatively perceived. Without knowledge through inspiration, the imaginative world would remain like a script that one stares at but is unable to read.

[ 41 ] When the student of the spirit progresses from imagination to inspiration, it very soon becomes apparent to him how wrong it would be to renounce the understanding of the great phenomena of the world and to limit himself only to those facts which, so to speak, touch the nearest human interest. He who is not initiated into these things might well say the following: "It only seems important to me to know the fate of the human soul after death; if someone tells me about it, that is enough for me: why does spiritual science show me remote things, such as the state of Saturn, the sun, the separation of the sun and moon, and so on." But he who is properly introduced to these things learns to recognize that a real knowledge of what he wants to experience can never be attained without a knowledge of what seems so unnecessary to him. A description of the human condition after death remains completely incomprehensible and worthless if the human being cannot connect it with concepts taken from those remote things. Even the simplest observation of the supersensible cognizer makes his acquaintance with such things necessary. For example, when a plant passes from the flowering state to the fruiting state, the supersensible observer sees a transformation taking place in an astral entity, which covered and enveloped the plant from above like a cloud during the flowering. If fertilization had not occurred, this astral entity would have changed into a completely different form than the one it assumed as a result of fertilization. Now one understands the whole process perceived through supersensible observation when one has learned to understand its essence from that great world process which took place with the earth and all its inhabitants at the time of the separation of the sun. Before fertilization the plant is in the same position as the whole earth was before the separation of the sun. After fertilization, the blossom of the plant shows itself as the earth was when the sun had separated and the lunar forces were still in it. If one has adopted the ideas that can be gained from the separation of the sun, then one will perceive the interpretation of the plant fertilization process appropriately in such a way that one says: The plant is in a solar state before fertilization and in a lunar state after fertilization. It is indeed the case that even the smallest process in the world can only be understood if it is recognized as a reflection of larger world processes. Otherwise it remains as incomprehensible in its essence as Raphael's Madonna remains for those who can only see a small blue spot while everything else is covered up. - Everything that happens to man is a reflection of all the great world processes that have to do with his existence. If one wants to understand the observations of the supersensible consciousness about the phenomena between birth and death and again from death to a new birth, one can do so if one has acquired the ability to decipher the imaginative observations through that which one has acquired in terms of ideas through the contemplation of the great world processes. - This contemplation provides the key to understanding human life. Therefore, in the sense of spiritual science, observing Saturn, the sun, the moon etc. is at the same time observing the human being.

[ 42 ] Through inspiration one comes to recognize the relationships between the beings of the higher world. Through a further level of knowledge, it becomes possible to recognize these entities within themselves. This level of cognition can be called intuitive cognition. (Intuition is a word that is misused in ordinary life for an unclear, indeterminate insight into a matter, for a kind of idea that sometimes coincides with the truth, but whose justification cannot initially be proven. What is meant here has nothing to do with this kind of "intuition". Of course, what is meant here has nothing to do with it. Intuition here refers to an insight of the highest, most luminous clarity, the justification of which, if one has it, one is fully aware of). - To recognize a sensory being means to stand outside it and judge it according to external impressions. To recognize a spiritual being through intuition means to have become completely one with it, to have united with its inner being. The student of the spirit gradually ascends to such knowledge. Imagination leads him to no longer perceive perceptions as external qualities of beings, but to recognize in them emanations of the soul-spiritual; inspiration leads him further into the inner being: Through it he learns to understand what these entities are to each other; in intuition he penetrates into the beings themselves. - Again, the importance of intuition can be seen in this book itself. In the preceding chapters we have not only spoken of the progress of the evolution of Saturn, the sun, the moon, etc., but we have also been told that beings take part in this progress in the most varied ways. Thrones or spirits of will, spirits of wisdom, of movement, etc. were mentioned. The spirits of Lucifer and Ahriman were spoken of in the development of the earth. The construction of the world was traced back to the entities that participate in it. What can be learned about these entities is gained through intuitive knowledge. This is also necessary if one wants to recognize the course of a person's life. That which separates itself from the physical body of the human being after death goes through various states in the following period. The next states after death could still be described to some extent by imaginative cognition. But what happens when the human being moves on in the time between death and a new birth would remain completely incomprehensible to the imagination if it were not for inspiration. Only inspiration can explore what can be said of man's life after purification in "spirit land". But then comes something for which inspiration is no longer sufficient, where it loses the thread of understanding, so to speak. There is a time in human development between death and a new birth when the human being is only accessible to intuition. - But this part of the human being is always within the human being; and if one wants to understand it according to its true inwardness, one must also seek it out through intuition in the time between birth and death. Anyone who wanted to recognize the human being only by means of imagination and inspiration would be deprived of the very processes of his innermost being, which take place from embodiment to embodiment. Only intuitive cognition therefore makes a proper investigation of repeated earth lives and karma possible. Everything that is to be communicated as truth about these processes must come from research through intuitive knowledge. - And if man wants to recognize himself according to his inner nature, he can only do so through intuition. Through it he perceives what moves within him from earthly life to earthly life.

[ 43 ] Man can only attain knowledge through inspiration and intuition through spiritual exercises. They are similar to those which have been described as "inner contemplation" (meditation) to achieve the imagination. However, while in those exercises that lead to imagination there is a connection to the impressions of the sensory-physical world, in those for inspiration this connection must increasingly fall away. To illustrate what has to happen, think again of the symbol of the rose cross. If you immerse yourself in it, you have before you an image whose parts are taken from impressions of the sensual world: the black color of the cross, the roses, etc. But the combination of these parts to form the rose cross is not taken from the sensual-physical world. If the spiritual disciple now tries to let the black cross and the red roses disappear completely from his consciousness as images of sensual-real things and to retain only in his soul that spiritual activity which has composed these parts, then he has a means of such meditation which will gradually lead him to inspiration. Ask yourself in your soul something like this: What have I done inwardly to put the cross and the rose together to form the symbol? I want to hold on to what I have done (my own soul process), but let the image itself disappear from my consciousness. Then I want to feel everything within me that my soul has done to create the image, but I don't want to imagine the image itself. I now want to live completely inwardly in my own activity that created the image. So I don't want to immerse myself in an image, but in my own image-creating soul activity. Such immersion must be undertaken in relation to many symbolic images. This then leads to realization through inspiration. Another example would be this: One immerses oneself in the image of a growing and decaying plant. One allows the image of a gradually developing plant to arise in the soul, how it sprouts from the seed, how it unfolds leaf by leaf until it blossoms and bears fruit. Then again, how it begins to wither away until it completely dissolves. By immersing oneself in such an image, one gradually arrives at a feeling of emergence and decay, for which the plant is only an image. From this feeling, if the exercise is continued persistently, the imagination of the transformation that underlies the physical arising and passing away can develop. But if you want to achieve the corresponding inspiration, you have to do the exercise in a different way. One must reflect on one's own soul activity, which has gained the idea of coming into being and passing away from the image of the plant. You must now let the plant disappear completely from your consciousness and only immerse yourself in what you have done inwardly. Only through such exercises is it possible to ascend to inspiration. At first it will not be easy for the student of the spirit to fully understand how to approach such an exercise. This is due to the fact that a person who is accustomed to allowing his inner life to be determined by external impressions immediately becomes uncertain and completely unstable if he is still to develop a soul life that has thrown off all ties to external impressions. To an even greater degree than with regard to the acquisition of imagination, the student of the spirit must be clear about these exercises for inspiration that he should only undertake them if he allows all the precautions to go alongside which can lead to the securing and consolidation of the faculty of judgment, the emotional life and the character. If he takes these precautions, his success will be twofold. Firstly, he will not be able to lose the balance of his personality in the supersensible vision through the exercises; secondly, he will at the same time acquire the ability to really carry out what is demanded in these exercises. These exercises will only be said to be difficult as long as one has not yet acquired a certain state of mind, certain feelings and sensations. He will soon gain understanding and also ability for the exercises who, through patience and perseverance, cultivates such inner qualities in his soul which are favorable to the germination of supersensible knowledge. Those who become accustomed to frequently contemplating their inner self in such a way that they are less concerned with brooding about themselves than with quietly organizing and processing the experiences they have had in life will gain much. They will see that their ideas and feelings are enriched when they relate one life experience to another. He will become aware of the extent to which he not only experiences new things by having new impressions and new experiences, but also by allowing the old ones to work within him. And if you go about it in such a way that you allow your experiences, even the opinions you have gained, to play against each other as if you were not even there with your sympathies and antipathies, with your personal interests and feelings, you will prepare particularly good ground for the supersensible powers of knowledge. In truth, he will develop what can be called a rich inner life. What matters above all, however, is the balance and equilibrium of the soul's qualities. Man is only too easily inclined to fall into one-sidedness when he indulges in a certain activity of the soul. Thus, when he becomes aware of the advantage of inner contemplation and of dwelling in his own imaginary world, he can become so inclined to do so that he closes himself off more and more from the impressions of the outside world. This, however, leads to the drying up and desolation of the inner life. The person who goes furthest is the one who, in addition to the ability to withdraw into his inner self, also retains an open receptivity to all impressions from the outside world. And it is not necessary to think only of the so-called significant impressions of life, but every person can experience enough in every situation - even in the poorest four walls - if he only keeps his mind receptive to them. There is no need to look for experiences; they are everywhere. - How experiences are processed in the human soul is also of particular importance. For example, someone may experience that a personality they or others admire has this or that quality, which they must describe as a character flaw. Such an experience can cause a person to reflect in two ways. He can simply say to himself: Now that I have recognized this, I can no longer worship that personality in the same way as before. Or he can ask himself the question: How is it possible that the revered personality is afflicted with that defect? How must I imagine that the fault is not just a fault, but something caused by the life of the personality, perhaps precisely by its great qualities? A person who asks himself these questions will perhaps come to the conclusion that his veneration cannot be diminished in the least by noticing the flaw. One will always have learned something from such a result, one will have added something to one's understanding of life. Now it would certainly be a bad thing for someone who could be tempted by the goodness of such a view of life to excuse all sorts of things or people who have his inclination, or even to get into the habit of ignoring everything that is reprehensible, because this would benefit his inner development. The latter is not the case when one receives the impulse to not only reprove mistakes but to understand them; but only when such behavior is demanded by the case in question, regardless of what the judge gains or loses in the process. It is quite true that one cannot learn by condemning a mistake, but only by understanding it. However, anyone who wanted to rule out disapproval on the basis of understanding would not get very far either. Here, too, it is not a question of one-sidedness in one direction or the other, but of balance and equilibrium of the soul's forces. - And this is particularly true of a characteristic of the soul that is of outstanding importance for human development: the feeling of devotion. Anyone who develops this feeling in himself or possesses it from the outset through a fortunate natural gift has a good basis for the supersensible powers of knowledge. Those who in their childhood and youth were able to look up with devoted admiration to persons and high ideals have something in the depths of their soul in which supersensible knowledge can flourish particularly well. And he who, in mature judgment, looks up to the starry heavens in later life and admires the revelation of high powers with complete devotion, thereby makes himself ripe for the recognition of the supersensible worlds. The same is the case with those who are able to marvel at the forces at work in human life. And it is of no small importance if, even as a mature person, one can still have reverence to the highest degree for other people whose value one suspects or believes to recognize. Only where such reverence exists can the prospect of the higher worlds open up. Those who are unable to worship will not make much progress in their knowledge. He who does not want to recognize anything in the world is closed to the essence of things. - However, those who allow themselves to be seduced by the feeling of worship and devotion into completely killing their healthy self-awareness and self-confidence are sinning against the law of balance and equilibrium. The student of the spirit will continue to work on himself in order to make himself more and more mature; but then he may also have confidence in his own personality and believe that its powers are growing more and more. Anyone who comes to the right feelings in this direction says to himself: "There are powers hidden within me and I can draw them out of my inner self. Therefore, where I see something that I must venerate because it is above me, I need not merely venerate it, but I may trust myself to develop everything within me that makes me equal to this or that venerated person.

[ 44 ] The greater a person's ability to pay attention to certain processes in life that are not familiar to his personal judgment from the outset, the greater the possibility for him to create a basis for development in spiritual worlds. An example may illustrate this. A person comes to a situation in life where he can do or refrain from a certain action. His judgment tells him: Do this. But there is a certain inexplicable something in his feelings that prevents him from doing so. It may be that the person pays no attention to this inexplicable something, but simply performs the action in a way that is appropriate to his judgment. But it can also be the case that the person gives in to the urge of that inexplicable something and refrains from the action. If he then pursues the matter further, it may turn out that disaster would have followed if he had followed his judgment, but that blessing has resulted from the omission. Such an experience can lead a person's thinking in a very specific direction. He can say to himself: Something lives in me that guides me more correctly than the degree of judgment I have in the present. I have to keep my mind open to this "something in me" that I have not yet matured to with my ability to judge. It has a highly beneficial effect on the soul when it focuses its attention on such cases in life. It then shows itself, as if in a healthy intuition, that there is more to man than he can overlook with his power of judgment. Such attention works towards an expansion of the soul's life. But here too, one-sidedness can arise, which is questionable. Anyone who wants to get into the habit of always turning off his judgment because "hunches" drive him to do this or that could become a plaything of all kinds of indeterminate urges. And it is not far from such a habit to lack of judgment and superstition. - Any kind of superstition is disastrous for the spiritual disciple. One only acquires the possibility of penetrating the realms of spiritual life in a true way by carefully guarding against superstition, fantasy and reverie. He does not enter the spiritual world in the right way who is happy if he can experience a process somewhere that "cannot be grasped by human imagination". A preference for the "inexplicable" certainly does not make anyone a student of the spirit. The latter must completely get rid of the prejudice that a "mystic is one who presupposes the inexplicable, the inscrutable" in the world wherever it seems appropriate to him. The right feeling for the student of the spirit is to recognize hidden powers and entities everywhere; but also to presuppose that the unexplored can be explored if the powers to do so are present.

[ 45 ] There is a certain state of mind which is important to the spiritual disciple at every stage of his development. It consists in not placing one's cognitive drive in such a way that it always focuses on: How can one answer this or that question? Rather: How can I develop this or that ability within myself? Once this or that ability has been developed through patient inner work, the answer to certain questions will come to the person. Students of the spirit will always cultivate this state of mind within themselves. This will lead them to work on themselves, to make themselves more and more mature and to deny themselves the desire to force answers to certain questions. They will wait until such answers come to them. - But those who become accustomed to one-sidedness will not make any real progress. The spiritual disciple can also have the feeling that at a certain point in time he can answer the highest questions for himself to the extent of his powers. So here too, balance and equilibrium in the constitution of the soul play an important role.

[ 46 ] Many more qualities of the soul could be discussed, the cultivation and development of which is beneficial if the student of the spirit wants to strive for inspiration through exercises. It should be emphasized that balance and equilibrium are the qualities of the soul that are important. They prepare the understanding and the ability for the characterized exercises that are to be done in order to attain inspiration.

[ 47 ] The exercises for intuition require that the student of the mind not only lets disappear from his consciousness the images to which he has devoted himself for the attainment of the imagination, but also the life in his own soul activity in which he has immersed himself for the acquisition of inspiration. He should then literally have nothing of previously known outer or inner experience in his soul. If, however, after this casting off of outer and inner experiences there were nothing in his consciousness, that is, if his consciousness were to disappear altogether and he were to sink into unconsciousness, he could recognize from this that he has not yet made himself ripe to undertake exercises for intuition; and he would then have to continue the exercises for imagination and inspiration. There comes a time when the consciousness is not empty, when the soul has thrown off the inner and outer experiences, but when after this throwing off something remains in the consciousness as an effect, to which one can then devote oneself in contemplation just as one has previously devoted oneself to that which owes its existence to outer or inner impressions. However, this "something" is of a very special kind. It is something truly new compared to all previous experiences. When you experience it, you know: I did not know this before. This is a perception, just as the real sound is a perception that the ear hears; but this something can only enter my consciousness through intuition, just as the sound can only enter consciousness through the ear. Through intuition, the last remnant of the sensual-physical is stripped away from man's impressions; the spiritual world begins to lie open to cognition in a form that no longer has anything in common with the characteristics of the physical-sensual world.

[ 48 ] Imaginative cognition is achieved through the formation of the lotus flowers out of the astral body. Through those exercises which are undertaken for the attainment of inspiration and intuition, special movements, formations and currents appear in the human etheric or vital body which were not there before. They are precisely the organs through which the human being absorbs the "reading of the hidden script" and that which lies beyond it into the realm of his abilities. For supersensible cognition, the changes in the etheric body of a person who has attained inspiration and intuition present themselves in the following way. As in the region near the physical heart, a new center becomes conscious in the etheric body, which develops into an etheric organ. From this, movements and currents run to the various limbs of the human body in the most varied ways. The most important of these currents go to the lotus flowers, run through them and their individual leaves and then go outwards, where they pour out like rays into the outer space. The more developed a person is, the larger the circle around him in which these currents are perceptible. However, the center in the region of the heart is not formed right from the start with proper training. It is first prepared. First, a provisional center is formed in the head; this then moves down into the larynx region and finally shifts to the vicinity of the physical heart. If the development were irregular, the organ in question could be formed immediately in the region of the heart. Then there would be the danger that the human being, instead of coming to a calm, proper supersensible formation, would become a 'raver and fantasist'. In his further development, the student of the spirit comes to make the developed currents and structures of his etheric body independent of the physical body and to use them independently. The lotus flowers serve him as tools through which he moves the etheric body. Before this happens, however, special currents and radiations must have formed in the entire circumference of the etheric body, which close it off as if through a fine network and make it a self-contained entity. When this has happened, the movements and currents taking place in the etheric body can touch and connect with the outer spiritual world without hindrance, so that outer spiritual events and inner events (those in the human etheric body) flow into one another. When this happens, the time has come when the human being consciously perceives the world of inspiration. This cognition occurs in a different way than cognition in relation to the sensory-physical world. In the latter, one receives perceptions through the senses and then forms ideas and concepts about these perceptions. This is not the case with knowledge through inspiration. What one recognizes is there immediately, in one act; there is no reflection after perception. In the case of sensory-physical cognition, what is only gained afterwards in the concept is given in inspiration at the same time as the perception. One would therefore merge into one with the soul-spiritual environment, would not be able to distinguish oneself from it at all, if one had not developed the network characterized above in the etheric body.

[ 49 ] When the exercises for intuition are done, they not only affect the etheric body, but also the supersensible powers of the physical body. However, one should not imagine that in this way effects take place in the physical body which are accessible to ordinary sensory observation. These are effects that can only be judged by supersensible cognition. They have nothing to do with all external cognition. They arise as a result of the maturity of consciousness when it can have experiences in intuition, even though it has separated all previously known outer and inner experiences from itself. - Now the experiences of intuition are delicate, intimate and subtle; and the physical human body at the present stage of its development is coarse in relation to them. It is therefore a powerful obstacle to the success of the exercises of intuition. If these are continued with energy and perseverance and with the necessary inner calm, they will ultimately overcome the formidable obstacles of the physical body. The student of the spirit notices this by the fact that he gradually takes control of certain manifestations of the physical body that previously took place entirely without his consciousness. He also notices it in the fact that for a short time he feels the need, for example, to arrange his breathing (or the like) in such a way that it comes into a kind of unison or harmony with what the soul does in the exercises or otherwise in inner contemplation. The ideal of development is that the physical body itself would not do any exercises at all, not even such breathing exercises, but that everything that has to happen with it would only occur as a consequence of pure intuition exercises.

[ 50 ] When the student of the spirit ascends to the higher worlds of knowledge, he notices at a certain stage that the cohesion of the forces of his personality takes on a different form than it has in the physical-sensual world. In the latter, the ego brings about a unified interaction of the soul forces, first of all of thinking, feeling and volition. These three powers of the soul are always in certain relationships in the ordinary situations of human life. For example, you see a certain thing in the outside world. It pleases or displeases the soul. That is to say, a feeling of pleasure or displeasure follows with a certain necessity from the perception of the thing. One also desires the thing or receives the impulse to change it in this or that direction. In other words, desire and will are added to an idea and a feeling.

[ 51 ] This joining together is brought about by the fact that the ego unifies imagination (thinking), feeling and volition and in this way brings order to the forces of the personality. This healthy order would be interrupted if the ego proved to be powerless in this direction, for example if desire wanted to go a different way from feeling or imagination. A person would not be in a healthy state of mind if he thought that this or that was right, but now wanted something that he did not believe to be right. It would be the same if someone did not want what he liked, but what he disliked. Now man notices that on the way to higher knowledge, thinking, feeling and willing do indeed become independent of each other and each assumes a certain independence, for example, that a certain way of thinking no longer pushes, as if by itself, towards a certain way of feeling and willing. The situation is such that one can perceive something correctly in thinking, but in order to arrive at a feeling or a decision of will at all, one needs an independent impulse from within oneself. Thinking, feeling and willing do not remain three forces during the supersensible contemplation, which radiate from the common ego center of the personality, but they become like independent entities, as it were three personalities; and one must now make one's own ego all the stronger, because it should not merely bring order into three forces, but direct and lead three entities. But this division may only exist during supersensible contemplation. And here again it becomes clear how important it is to accompany the exercises for higher training with those that give security and stability to the ability to judge and to the emotional and volitional life. For if you do not bring these with you into the higher world, you will soon see how the ego proves to be weak and cannot be a proper controller of thinking, feeling and willing. If this weakness were present, the soul would be pulled in different directions as if by three personalities, and its inner unity would have to cease. If, however, the development of the spiritual disciple proceeds in the right way, the marked transformation of forces signifies true progress; the ego remains the ruler over the independent entities which now form his soul. - In the further course of development the development indicated then progresses. Thinking, which has become independent, stimulates the appearance of a special fourth soul-spiritual entity, which can be described as a direct flow of currents into the human being that are similar to thoughts. The whole world appears as a structure of thoughts that stands before you, like the plant or animal world in the physical-sensual realm. In the same way, feeling and volition, which have become independent, stimulate two forces in the soul, which work in it like independent beings. And a seventh power and entity is added, which is similar to the self itself.

[ 52 ] This whole experience is combined with another. Before entering the supersensible world, man knew thinking, feeling and willing only as inner experiences of the soul. As soon as he enters the supersensible world, he perceives things that do not express the sensory-physical, but the soul-spiritual. Behind the qualities he perceives in the new world are now soul-spiritual entities. And these now present themselves to him as an external world in the same way as stones, plants and animals have presented themselves to his senses in the physical-sensual realm. The spiritual disciple can now perceive a significant difference between the soul-spiritual world that opens up to him and that which he was used to perceiving through his physical senses. A plant in the sensory world remains as it is, whatever the human soul feels or thinks about it. This is not initially the case with the images of the soul-spiritual world. They change depending on what a person feels or thinks about them. In this way, man gives them a character that depends on his own nature. Imagine a certain image appearing before a person in the imaginative world. If he is at first indifferent to it in his mind, it shows itself in a certain form. But the moment he feels pleasure or displeasure towards the image, it changes its form. The images thus not only express something that is independently outside the human being, but they also reflect what the human being himself is. They are completely permeated by man's own essence. This covers the entities like a veil. Even if a real entity stands opposite him, man does not see it, but his own product. Thus he can indeed have true things before him and yet see false things. Indeed, this is not only the case with regard to what man notices in himself as his own being; but everything about him has an effect on this world. For example, a person can have hidden inclinations that do not come to light in life through education and character; they have an effect on the spiritual world, and this gets its peculiar coloring through the whole being of man, no matter how much he knows or does not know about this being itself. - In order to be able to progress further from this stage of development, it is necessary for the human being to learn to distinguish between himself and the spiritual outer world. It becomes necessary for him to learn to eliminate all effects of his own self on the soul-spiritual world around him. There is no other way to do this than by acquiring a knowledge of what you yourself carry into the new world. It is therefore a matter of first having true, thorough self-knowledge in order to then be able to perceive the surrounding spiritual-mental world purely. Now certain facts of human development mean that such self-knowledge must naturally take place on entering the higher world. The human being develops his ego, his self-consciousness, in the ordinary physical-sensual world. This ego now acts like a center of attraction on everything that belongs to the human being. All his inclinations, sympathies, antipathies, passions, opinions etc. are grouped around this ego, as it were. And this ego is also the center of attraction for what is called a person's karma. If one were to see this ego unveiled, one would also notice in it that certain destinies must still befall it in this and the following embodiments, depending on whether it has lived in this or that way in the previous embodiments, whether it has acquired this or that. With all that clings to the ego, it must now appear as the first image before the human soul when it ascends into the soul-spiritual world. This double of the human being must, according to a law of the spiritual world, appear before all others as its first impression in that world. The underlying law can be easily understood by considering the following. In physical-sensory life man only perceives himself in so far as he experiences himself inwardly in his thinking, feeling and willing. But this perception is an inner one; it does not place itself in front of man as stones, plants and animals place themselves in front of him. Through inner perception, man also only partially gets to know himself. There is something within him that prevents him from a deeper self-knowledge. This is an impulse to rework a characteristic as soon as he has to admit it to himself through self-knowledge and does not want to indulge in any deception about himself.

[ 53 ] If he does not give in to this urge, if he simply diverts his attention from his own self and remains as he is, he naturally also denies himself the opportunity to recognize himself in the point in question. If, however, a person penetrates himself and without deception holds this or that of his qualities against himself, he will either be able to improve them in himself or he will not be able to do so in the present situation of his life. In the latter case, a feeling will creep over his soul which must be called a feeling of shame. This is indeed how man's healthy nature works: through self-knowledge it feels various kinds of shame. Now this feeling already has a very definite effect in ordinary life. The healthy-minded person will ensure that what fills him with this feeling in himself does not assert itself in outward effects, that it does not express itself in outward deeds. Shame is therefore a force that drives people to close something inside themselves and not allow it to become outwardly perceptible. If you consider this properly, you will understand that spiritual research ascribes much more far-reaching effects to an inner experience of the soul, which is very closely related to the feeling of shame. It finds that in the hidden depths of the soul there is a kind of hidden shame of which the human being is not aware in physical-sensory life. This hidden feeling, however, works in a similar way to the marked manifest feeling of ordinary life: it prevents man's innermost being from appearing before him in a perceptible image. If this feeling were not there, man would perceive before himself what he really is; he would not only experience his ideas, feelings and will inwardly, but would perceive them as he perceives stones, animals and plants. Thus this feeling is man's concealer from himself. And thus it is also the concealer of the entire spiritual world. For since man's own inner being is veiled from him, he cannot perceive that in which he should develop the tools to recognize the soul-spiritual world; he cannot transform his being so that it would receive spiritual organs of perception - but if man now works through proper training to receive these organs of perception, that which he himself is appears before him as the first impression. He perceives his double. This self-perception cannot be separated from the perception of the rest of the spiritual-soul world. In the ordinary life of the physical-sensory world, the characterized feeling works in such a way that it continually closes the gate to the spiritual-soul world in front of man. If a person wanted to take just one step to penetrate this world, the feeling of shame that immediately arises but does not come to consciousness hides the part of the spiritual world that wants to come to light. The exercises described, however, open up this world. Now the thing is that this hidden feeling acts as a great benefactor of man. For through all that one acquires in the power of judgment, emotional life and character without spiritual-scientific training, one is not able to bear the perception of one's own being in its true form without further ado. One would lose all sense of self, self-confidence and self-awareness through this perception. That this does not happen must again be ensured by the precautions which, in addition to the exercises for higher knowledge, one undertakes to cultivate one's healthy power of judgment, one's feelings and character. Through his regular training, man learns so much from spiritual science, as if unintentionally, and he also becomes aware of as many means of self-knowledge and self-observation as are necessary to powerfully confront his double. It is then the case for the student of the spirit that he only sees as an image of the imaginative world in a different form what he has already familiarized himself with in the physical world. He who has first grasped the law of karma in the right way in the physical world through his intellect will not be able to tremble particularly when he now sees the seeds of his destiny marked in the image of his double. He who through his power of judgment has acquainted himself with the development of the world and of mankind, and knows how at a certain point in this development the powers of Lucifer have penetrated into the human soul, will easily bear it when he becomes aware that in the image of his own being these Luciferic entities with all their effects are contained. - From this, however, one can see how necessary it is that man should not demand his own entry into the spiritual world before he has understood certain truths about the spiritual world through his ordinary power of judgment developed in the physical-sensual world. What is communicated in this book before the discussion of the "knowledge of the higher worlds", the spiritual disciple should have acquired in the regular course of development through his ordinary power of judgment before he has the desire to enter the supersensible worlds himself.

[ 54 ] If the training does not focus on the security and stability of the power of judgment, the emotional and character life, it can happen that the student encounters the higher world before he has the necessary inner abilities. Then the encounter with his double would depress him and lead to errors. If, however - which would also be possible - the encounter were completely avoided and the person were nevertheless introduced to the supersensible world, then he would be just as incapable of recognizing this world in its true form. For it would be quite impossible for him to distinguish between what he sees in things and what they really are. This distinction is only possible if one perceives one's own being as an image for oneself and thereby detaches everything that flows from one's own inner being from its surroundings. - The doppelganger has such an effect on a person's life in the physical-sensual world that it immediately makes itself invisible through the characteristic feeling of shame when a person approaches the soul-spiritual world. In doing so, however, it also conceals this entire world itself. Like a "guardian", he stands before this world to deny entry to those who are not yet fit to enter. He can therefore be called the "Guardian of the Threshold, which is before the spiritual-soul world".-Except by entering the supersensible world as described, man still encounters this "Guardian of the Threshold" when passing through physical death. And he gradually reveals himself in the course of life in the soul-spiritual development between death and a new birth. But the encounter cannot oppress the human being because he knows of other worlds than in the life between birth and death.

[ 55 ] If man were to enter the spiritual-mental world without the encounter with the "Guardian of the Threshold", he could fall prey to deception after deception. For he would never be able to distinguish between what he himself carries into this world and what really belongs to it. But a proper training must only lead the spiritual disciple into the realm of truth, not into that of illusion. Such a training will in itself be such that the encounter must necessarily take place once. For it is one of the precautions against the possibility of deception and fantasy that are indispensable for the observation of supersensible worlds. - It is one of the most indispensable precautions that every student of the spirit must take to work carefully on himself in order not to become a fantasist, a person who can fall prey to possible deception, self-deception (suggestion and self-suggestion). Where the instructions for training the mind are followed correctly, the sources that can bring deception are destroyed at the same time. Of course, it is not possible here to go into all the numerous details that are involved in such precautions. We can only hint at what is important. The deceptions under consideration here arise from two sources. They stem in part from the fact that one colors reality through one's own spiritual being. In the ordinary life of the physical-sensual world, this source of deception is of relatively little danger; for here the external world will always impose itself sharply on observation in its own form, just as the observer will want to color it according to his wishes and interests. However, as soon as one enters the imaginative world, its images are changed by such wishes and interests, and one has before one like a reality what one has first formed or at least helped to form oneself. This source of deception is eliminated by the fact that through the encounter with the "Guardian of the Threshold" the spiritual disciple gets to know everything that is in him, that he can carry into the soul-spiritual world. And the preparation that the spiritual disciple undergoes before entering the soul-spiritual world has the effect that he becomes accustomed to switching himself off when observing the sensual-physical world and allowing things and processes to speak to him purely through their own essence. Anyone who has gone through this preparation sufficiently can calmly await the encounter with the "Guardian of the Threshold". Through it, he will finally test himself as to whether he now really feels able to switch off his own essence even when he is confronted with the soul-spiritual world.

[ 56 ] In addition to this source of deception, there is another one. It comes to light when we misinterpret an impression that we receive. In physical-sensory life, a simple example of such an illusion is that which arises when one sits in a train and believes that the trees are moving in the opposite direction of the train, when in fact one is moving with the train. Although there are numerous cases where such deceptions are more difficult to correct in the sensory-physical world than in the simple one mentioned above, it is easy to see that within this world man also finds the means to dispel such deceptions if he considers with sound judgment everything that can serve the corresponding enlightenment. The situation is different, however, as soon as one enters the supersensible realms. In the sensory world, the facts are not altered by human deception; it is therefore possible to correct the deception of the facts through unbiased observation. In the supersensible world, however, this is not readily possible. If one wishes to observe a supersensible process and approaches it with an incorrect judgment, one carries this incorrect judgment into it; and it becomes so interwoven with the fact that it cannot be immediately distinguished from it. The error is then not in the man and the correct fact outside him, but the error itself is made a part of the external fact. It cannot therefore be corrected simply by an impartial observation of the fact. This points to what can be an abundant source of deception and fantasy for those who approach the supersensible world without the right preparation. - Just as the student of the spirit acquires the ability to exclude those deceptions that arise through the coloring of the supersensible world phenomena with his own being, he must also acquire the other gift: to make the second characterized source of deception ineffective. He can eliminate what comes from himself when he has first recognized the image of his own double; and he will be able to eliminate what is a second source of deception in the direction indicated if he acquires the ability to recognize from the nature of a fact of the supersensible world whether it is reality or deception. If the illusions looked exactly like the realities, then it would not be possible to distinguish between them. But this is not the case. Illusions of the supersensible worlds have properties in themselves that distinguish them from realities. And it is important that the student of the spirit knows by which characteristics he can recognize the realities. Nothing seems more self-evident than for a person who is not familiar with spiritual training to say: Where is there any possibility at all of protecting oneself against deception, since the sources for it are so numerous? And when he goes on to say: Is any student of the spirit safe from the fact that not all his supposed higher insights are based only on deception and self-deception (suggestion and auto-suggestion)? Those who speak in this way do not take into account that in every true spiritual training the sources of deception are blocked by the whole way in which it proceeds. Firstly, the true student of the spirit will, through his preparation, acquire sufficient knowledge of everything that can bring about deception and self-deception, and thus put himself in a position to guard against them. In this respect, he really has the opportunity like no other person to make himself sober and capable of judgment for the course of life. Everything he experiences causes him to think nothing of vague premonitions, intuitions, etc. The training makes him as cautious as possible. In addition, every true training first leads to concepts about the great events of the world, i.e. to things which make it necessary to strain the power of judgment, but which at the same time refine and sharpen it. Only those who refuse to go into such remote areas and only want to stick to closer "revelations" could lose the sharpening of that healthy power of judgment that gives them certainty in distinguishing between deception and reality. But all this is not the most important thing. The most important thing lies in the exercises themselves, which are used in a proper training of the mind. These must be set up in such a way that the consciousness of the spiritual disciple can see exactly what is going on in the soul during inner contemplation. First, a symbol is formed to induce the imagination. This still contains ideas of external perceptions. The human being is not solely involved in their content; he does not create them himself. He can therefore delude himself as to how it comes about; he can misinterpret its origin. But the student of the spirit removes this content from his consciousness when he ascends to the exercises for inspiration. There he immerses himself only in his own soul activity, which has formed the symbol. Here, too, error is still possible. Man has acquired the nature of his soul activity through education, learning and so on. He cannot know everything about its origin. But now the student of the spirit also removes his own soul activity from his consciousness. If something now remains, nothing adheres to it that cannot be surveyed. Nothing can interfere with it that cannot be judged in relation to its entire content. In his intuition, therefore, the student of the spirit has something that shows him how a very clear reality of the spiritual-soul world is constituted. If he now applies the thus recognized characteristics of spiritual-mental reality to everything that approaches his observation, then he can distinguish appearance from reality. And he can be sure that by applying this law he will be protected from deception in the supersensible world, just as he cannot be deceived in the physical-sensible world into mistaking an imaginary hot piece of iron for one that is really burning. It is self-evident that one will only behave in this way towards those insights which one regards as one's own experiences in the supersensible worlds, and not towards those which one receives as communications from others and which one comprehends with one's physical intellect and one's healthy sense of truth. The student of the spirit will endeavor to draw a precise boundary between what he has acquired in one way and what in another. On the one hand, he will willingly accept the messages about the higher worlds and seek to comprehend them through his faculty of judgment. But if he describes something as self-experience, as an observation made by himself, he will have checked whether it has confronted him exactly with the qualities which he has learned to perceive in his unerring intuition.

[ 57 ] Once the spiritual disciple has had the encounter with the designated "Guardian of the Threshold", further experiences await him on his ascent into the supernatural worlds. First of all, he will notice that there is an inner relationship between this "Guardian of the Threshold" and that soul power which, in the above description, has emerged as the seventh and has formed itself into an independent entity. Indeed, this seventh entity is in a certain respect nothing other than the double, the "Guardian of the Threshold" itself. And it presents the spiritual disciple with a special task. He has to guide and lead what he is in his ordinary self and what appears to him in the image through the newborn self. There will be a kind of struggle against the double. It will continually strive for the upper hand. However, placing oneself in the right relationship to it, not allowing it to do anything that does not happen under the influence of the newborn "I", also strengthens and consolidates man's powers. - Now in the higher world, self-knowledge in a certain direction is different from that in the physical-sensual world. Whereas in the latter, self-knowledge only occurs as an inner experience, the newborn self immediately presents itself as a soul-outward appearance. You see your newborn self before you like another being. But you cannot perceive it completely. For whatever stage one may have climbed on the way up into the supersensible worlds, there are still higher stages. On such levels you will always perceive more of your "higher self". It can therefore only partially reveal itself to the spiritual disciple at any one stage. But now the temptation is tremendously great, which befalls man when he first becomes aware of something of his "higher self", to view this "higher self" as it were from the standpoint which one has gained in the physical-sensory world. This temptation is even good, and it must occur if development is to proceed correctly. One must look at what appears as the double, the "guardian of the threshold", and place it in front of the "higher self" so that one can notice the distance between what one is and what one is to become. In this contemplation, however, the "Guardian of the Threshold" begins to take on a completely different form. It presents itself as an image of all the obstacles that stand in the way of the development of the "higher self". You will realize the burden you are carrying on your ordinary self. And if you are not strong enough through your preparations to say to yourself: I will not stop here, but will continue to develop towards the "higher self", then you will weaken and shrink back from what lies ahead. You are then immersed in the soul-spiritual world, but give up working further. You become a prisoner of the figure that now stands before your soul through the "Guardian of the Threshold". The significant thing is that in this experience you do not have the feeling of being a prisoner. Rather, you will believe you are experiencing something completely different. The figure that the "Guardian of the Threshold" evokes can be such that it creates the impression in the soul of the observer that he now has the entire scope of all possible worlds before him in the images that appear at this stage of development; he has arrived at the summit of knowledge and needs to strive no further. Instead of being a prisoner, you can feel like the immeasurably rich owner of all the secrets of the world. The fact that one can have such an experience, which represents the opposite of the true facts, will not surprise anyone who considers that when one experiences this, one is already standing in the soul-spiritual world, and that it is a peculiarity of this world that events in it can present themselves in reverse. In this book, this fact has been pointed out in the consideration of life after death.

[ 58 ] The form which one perceives at this stage of development shows the spiritual disciple something else than that in which the "Guardian of the Threshold" first presented himself to him. In this double were to be perceived all those qualities which the ordinary self of man has as a result of the influence of the powers of Lucifer. But now, in the course of human development, another power has entered the human soul through the influence of Lucifer. It is that which is described as the power of Ahriman in earlier sections of this book. It is the power which prevents man in his physical-sensual existence from perceiving the spiritual-soul entities of the outer world which lie behind the surface of the sensual. What has become of the human soul under the influence of this force is shown in the picture by the form that appears in the characterized experience. - Whoever approaches this experience suitably prepared will give it its true interpretation; and then another form will soon show itself, the one that can be called the "great guardian of the threshold" in contrast to the characterized "small guardian". This one informs the spiritual disciple that he must not stop at this stage, but must continue to work energetically. He evokes in the observer the awareness that the world that has been conquered will only become a truth and will not turn into an illusion if the work is continued in the appropriate manner. - But whoever would approach this experience unprepared by an incorrect training of the spirit, would then, when he comes to the "great guardian of the threshold", have something poured into his soul which can only be compared to the "feeling of an immeasurable terror", a "boundless fear".

[ 59 ] Just as the encounter with the "small guardian of the threshold" gives the spiritual disciple the opportunity to test whether he is protected against illusions which can arise by carrying his being into the supersensible world, so he can test himself by the experiences which finally lead to the "great guardian of the threshold" whether he is equal to those illusions which were traced back to the second marked source above. If he is able to offer resistance to the powerful illusion that makes him believe that the world of images he has attained is a rich possession, while he is still only a prisoner, he is also protected from taking appearance for reality in the further course of his development.

[ 60 ] The "Guardian of the Threshold" will take on an individual form for each person to a certain degree. The encounter with him corresponds precisely to that experience through which the personal character of supersensible observations is overcome and the possibility is given to enter a region of experience that is free of personal coloring and valid for every human being.

[ 61 ] When the student of the spirit has had the experiences described, then he is able to distinguish in the soul-spiritual environment that which he himself is from that which is outside him. He will then recognize how the understanding of the world process described in this book is necessary in order to understand man and his life itself. One can only understand the physical body if one recognizes how it has developed through the evolution of Saturn, the sun, the moon and the earth. One understands the etheric body when one follows its formation through the development of the sun, moon and earth, etc. But one also understands that which is currently connected with the earth's development when one recognizes how everything has gradually unfolded. Through the training of the spirit one is put in a position to recognize the relationship of everything that is in man to the corresponding facts and entities of the world outside man. For this is how it is: every part of man stands in a relationship to the rest of the world. In this book we have only been able to give a sketchy outline of this. It must be remembered, however, that the physical human body, for example, was only present in the first stage of Saturn's development. Its organs: the heart, the lungs and the brain developed later, during the solar, lunar and terrestrial periods, from the first anlage. Thus the heart, lungs, etc. are related to the development of the sun, moon and earth. It is quite corresponding with the members of the etheric body, the sensory body, the sensory soul, etc. The human being is formed out of the whole world that lies before him; and every detail that is in him corresponds to a process, a being of the outer world. At the appropriate stage of his development, the student of the spirit comes to recognize this relationship of his own being to the great world. And this stage of cognition can be called the realization of the correspondence between the "small world", the microcosm, which is man himself, and the "great world", the macrocosm. When the spiritual disciple has come to this realization, a new experience can occur for him. He begins to feel as if he has grown together with the whole structure of the world, even though he feels fully independent. This feeling is an absorption into the whole world, a becoming one with it, but without losing its own essence. This stage of development can be described as "becoming one with the macrocosm". It is significant that this becoming one should not be thought of as if the special consciousness would cease and the human being would flow out into the universe. Such a thought would only be the expression of an opinion flowing from untrained judgment. The individual stages of higher knowledge in the sense of the initiation process described here can now be described in the following way:

  1. The study of spiritual science, whereby one first makes use of the power of judgment which one has gained in the physical-sensual world.
  2. The acquisition of imaginative knowledge
  3. Reading the hidden Scriptures (corresponding to inspiration).
  4. Living in the spiritual environment (according to intuition).
  5. The realization of the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm.
  6. Becoming one with the macrocosm.
  7. The overall experience of the previous experiences as a basic mood of the soul.

[ 62 ] However, these stages need not be thought of as being experienced one after the other. Rather, the training can proceed in such a way that, depending on the individuality of the spiritual disciple, a previous stage is only passed through to a certain degree when he begins to do exercises that correspond to the following stage. For example, it can be quite good that one has only gained a few imaginations in a safe way and yet is already doing exercises that draw inspiration, intuition or the realization of the connection between the microcosm and macrocosm into the realm of one's own experience.

[ 63 ] When the student of the spirit has gained an experience of intuition, he not only knows the images of the soul-spiritual world, he can not only read their relationships in the "hidden script": he comes to the realization of the beings themselves, through whose interaction the world to which the human being belongs comes into being. And he thereby learns to know himself in the form he has as a spiritual being in the soul-spiritual world. He has come to a realization of his higher self, and he has noticed how he must continue to work in order to master his double, the "guardian of the threshold". However, he has also had an encounter with the "great guardian of the threshold", who stands before him like a constant encouragement to continue working. This "great guardian of the threshold" now becomes his role model, whom he wants to follow. When this feeling arises in the spiritual disciple, then he has gained the opportunity to recognize who actually stands before him as the "great guardian of the threshold". This guardian is now transformed in the disciple's perception into the figure of Christ, whose nature and intervention in earthly development can be seen in the previous chapters of this book. The spiritual disciple is thereby initiated into the sublime mystery itself, which is linked to the name of Christ. The Christ shows himself to him as the "great human earthly model". - If the Christ is recognized in the spiritual world in this way through intuition, then it also becomes understandable what took place on earth historically in the fourth post-Atlantean period of the earth's development (in the Greco-Latin period). How the high solar being, the Christ-being, intervened in the earth's development at this time, and how it now continues to work within this earth's development, becomes a self-experienced realization for the student of the spirit. It is therefore an insight into the meaning and significance of earthly development, which the spiritual disciple receives through intuition.

[ 64 ] The path to knowledge of the supersensible worlds described here is one that every human being can take, regardless of the situation in which he finds himself within the present conditions of life. When speaking of such a path, one must bear in mind that the goal of knowledge and truth is the same at all times of earthly development, but that man's starting points were different at different times. At present, man cannot start from the same point of departure if he wants to enter the supersensible realms, as for example the ancient Egyptian initiate did. Therefore, the exercises that were imposed on the spiritual disciple in ancient Egypt cannot easily be carried out by the man of today. Since that time human souls have passed through various embodiments; and this progression from embodiment to embodiment is not without meaning and significance. The abilities and characteristics of souls change from embodiment to embodiment. Anyone who takes even a superficial look at human historical life can see that since the twelfth and thirteenth centuries after Christ, all living conditions have changed in comparison with the past, and that people's opinions, feelings and abilities have become different from what they were before. The path to higher knowledge described here is one that is suitable for souls who embody themselves in the immediate present. It is such that it sets the starting point of spiritual development at the point where man stands in the present, when he finds himself in any of the living conditions given to him by this present. - Progressive development leads mankind from period to period to ever different forms with regard to the paths to higher knowledge, just as outer life changes its forms. And there must always be perfect harmony between the outer life and the initiation.

© 2021-2026 Steiner Online Library dba Rudolf Steiner Archive, a nonprofit research and education service. Not affiliated with the Anthroposophical Society or the Rudolf Steiner Archiv in Dornach.

This material is made available through the Rudolf Steiner Archive, rsarchive.org, a project of the community-funded nonprofit, Steiner Online Library. Please consider making a tax deductible donation to support this work. This service is not affiliated with the Anthroposophical Society or the Rudolf Steiner Archiv in Dornach.

Terms of Service | Privacy Policy