A Road to Self-Knowledge
GA 16
Third Meditation
In which the Attempt is made to form an Idea of Clairvoyant Cognition of the Elemental World
[ 1 ] When we have perceptions by means of the elemental body and not through the physical senses, we experience a world that remains unknown to perception of the senses and to ordinary intellectual thinking. If we wish to compare this world with something belonging to ordinary life, we shall find nothing more appropriate than the world of memory. Just as recollections emerge from the innermost soul, so also do the supersensible experiences of the elemental body. In the case of a memory-picture the soul knows that it is related to an earlier experience in the world of the senses. In a similar way the supersensible conception implies a relation. Just as the recollection by its very nature presents itself as something which cannot be described as a mere picture of the imagination, so does also the supersensible conception. The latter wrests itself from the soul's experience, but manifests itself immediately as an inner experience that is related to something external. It is by means of recollection that a past experience becomes present to the soul. But it is by means of a supersensible conception that something, which at some time can be found somewhere in the supersensible world, becomes an inner experience of the soul. The very nature of Supersensible conceptions impresses upon our mind that they are to be looked upon as communications from a supersensible world manifesting within the soul.
[ 2 ] How far we get in this way with our experiences in the supersensible world depends upon the amount of energy we apply to the strengthening of the life of our soul.
The attainment of the conviction that a plant is not merely that which we perceive in the world of the senses as well as the attainment of such a conviction with regard to the whole earth belongs to the same sphere of supersensible experience. If any one who has acquired the faculty of perception when outside his physical body, looks at a plant, he will be able to perceive—besides what his senses are showing him—a delicate form which permeates the whole plant. This form presents itself as an entity of force; and he is brought to consider this entity as that which builds up the plant from the materials and forces of the physical world, and which brings about the circulation of the sap. He may say—employing an available, although not an altogether appropriate simile—that there is something in the plant which sets the sap in motion in the same way as that in which his own soul moves his arm. He looks upon something internal in the plant, and he must allow a certain independence to this inner principle of the plant in its relation to that part which is perceived by the senses. He must also admit that this inner principle existed before the physical plant existed. Then if he continues to observe how a plant grows, withers, and produces seeds, and how new plants grow out of these, he will find the supersensible form of energy especially powerful, when he observes these seeds. At this period the physical being is insignificant in a certain respect, whereas the supersensible entity is highly differentiated and contains everything that, from the supersensible world, contributes to the growth of the plant.
Now in the same way by supersensible observation of the whole earth, we discover an entity of force which we can know with absolute certainty existed before everything came into being which is perceptible by the senses upon and within the earth. In this way we arrive at an experience of the presence of those supersensible forces which co-operated in forming and developing the earth in the past. What is thus experienced we may just as well call the etheric or elemental basic entities or bodies of the plant and of the earth, as we call the body through which we gain perception when outside the body, our own elemental or etheric body.
[ 3 ] Even when we first begin to be able to observe in a supersensible way, we can assign elemental basic-entities of this kind to certain things and processes apart from their ordinary qualities, which are perceptible in the world of the senses. We are able to speak of an etheric body belonging to the plant or to the earth. However, the elemental beings observed in this way are not by any means the only ones which reveal themselves to supersensible experience. We characterise the elemental body of a plant by saying that it builds up a form from the materials and forces of the physical world and thereby manifests its life in a physical body. But we may also observe beings that lead an elemental existence without manifesting their life in a physical body. Thus entities that are purely elemental are revealed to supersensible observation. It is not merely that we experience an addition, as it were, to the physical world; we experience another world in which the world of the senses presents itself as something which may be compared to pieces of ice floating about in water. A man who could only see the ice and not the water might quite possibly ascribe reality to the ice only and not to the water. Similarly, if we take into account only that which manifests itself to the senses, we may deny the existence of the supersensible world, of which the world of the senses is in reality a part, just as the floating pieces of ice are part of the water in which they are floating.
[ 4 ] Now we shall find that those who are able to make supersensible observations describe what they behold by making use of expressions borrowed from the perceptions of sense. Thus we may find the elemental body of a being in the world of the senses, or that of a purely elemental being, described as manifesting itself as a self-contained body of light and having manifold colours. These colours flash forth, glow or shine, and it appears that these phenomena of light and colour are the manifestation of its life. But that of which the observer is really speaking is altogether invisible, and he is perfectly aware that the light or colour-picture which he gives, has no more to do with that which he actually perceives than, for instance, the writing in which a fact is communicated has to do with the fact itself. And yet the supersensible experience has not been expressed through arbitrarily chosen perceptions of the senses. The picture seen is actually before the observer, and is similar to an impression of the senses. This is so because, during supersensible experiences liberation from the physical body is not complete. The physical body is still connected with the elemental body, and brings the supersensible experience in a form drawn from the sense world. Thus the description given of an elemental being is given in the form of a visionary or fanciful combination of sense-impressions. But in spite of this, it is, when given in this manner, a true rendering of what has been experienced. For we have really seen what we are describing. The mistake that may be made is not in describing the vision as such, but in taking the vision for the reality, instead of that to which the vision points namely, the reality underlying it. [ 5 ] A man who has never seen colours—a man born blind—will not, when he attains to the corresponding faculty of perception, describe elemental beings in such a way as to speak of flashing colours. He will make use of expressions familiar to him. To people, however, who are able to see physically, it is quite appropriate when they, in their description, make use of some such expression as the flashing forth of a colour form. By its aid they can give an impression of what has been seen by the observer of the elemental world. And this holds good not only for communications made by a clairvoyant—that is to say, one who is able to perceive by the aid of his elemental body—to a non-clairvoyant, but also for the intercommunication between clairvoyants themselves. In the world of the senses man lives in his physical body, and this body clothes the supersensible observations in forms perceptible to the senses. Therefore the expression of supersensible observations by making use of the sense-pictures they produce is, in ordinary earth-life, a useful means of communication.
[ 6 ] The point is, that any one receiving communication experiences in his soul something bearing the right relation to the fact in question. Indeed, the pictures are only communicated in order to call forth an experience. Such as they really are, they cannot be found in the outer world. That is their characteristic and also the reason why they call forth experiences that have no relation to anything material.
[ 7 ] At the beginning of his clairvoyance, the pupil will find it difficult to become independent of the sense picture. When his faculty becomes more developed, however, a craving will arise for inventing more arbitrary means of communicating what has been seen. These will involve the necessity for explaining the signs which he uses. The more the exigencies of our time demand the general diffusion of supersensible knowledge, the greater will be the necessity for clothing such knowledge in the expressions used in everyday life on the physical plane.
[ 8 ] Now at certain times supersensible experiences may come upon the pupil of themselves. And he has then the opportunity of learning something about the supersensible world by personal experience according as he is more or less often favoured, as we may say, by that world through its shining into the ordinary life of his soul. A higher faculty however is that of calling forth at will clairvoyant perception from the soul-life. The path to the attainment of this faculty results ordinarily from energetic continuation of the inner strengthening of the soul-life, but much also depends upon establishing a certain keynote in the soul. A calm unruffled attitude of mind is necessary in regard to the supersensible world—an attitude which is as far removed on the one hand from the burning desire to experience the most possible in the clearest possible manner as it is from a personal lack of interest in that world. Burning desire has the effect of diffusing something like an invisible mist before the clairvoyant sight, whilst lack of interest acts in such a way that though the supersensible facts really do manifest themselves, they are simply not noticed. This lack of interest shows itself now and then in a very peculiar form. There are persons who honestly wish for supersensible experiences, but they form a priori a certain definite idea of what these experiences should be in order to be acknowledged as real. Then when the real experiences arrive, they flit by without being met by any interest, just because they are not such as one has imagined that they ought to be.
[ 9 ] In the case of voluntarily produced clairvoyance there comes a moment in the course of the soul's inner activity when we know: now my soul is experiencing something that it never experienced before. The experience is not a definite one, but a general feeling that we are not confronting the outer world of the senses, nor are we within it, nor yet are we within ourselves as in the ordinary life of the soul. The outer and inner experiences melt into one, into a feeling of life, hitherto unknown to the soul, concerning which, however, the soul knows that it could not be felt if it were only living within the outer world by means of the senses or by its ordinary feelings and recollections. We feel, moreover, that during this condition of the soul something is penetrating into it from a world hitherto unknown. We cannot, however, arrive at a conception of this unknown something. We have the experience but can form no idea of it. Now we shall find that when we have such an experience we get a feeling as if there were a hindrance in our physical bodies preventing us from forming a conception of that which is penetrating into the soul. If, however, we continue the inner efforts of our soul we shall, after a while, feel that we have overcome our own corporeal resistance. The physical apparatus of the intellect had hitherto only been able to form ideas in connection with experiences in the world of the senses. It is at the outset incapable of raising to a picture that which wants to manifest itself from out of the supersensible world. It must first be so prepared as to be able to do this. In the same way as a child is surrounded by the outer world, but has to have his intellectual apparatus prepared by experience in that world before he is able to form ideas of his surroundings, so is mankind in general unable to form an idea of the supersensible world. The clairvoyant who wishes to make progress prepares his own apparatus for forming ideas so that it will work on a higher level in exactly the same way as that of a child is prepared to work in the world of the senses. He makes his strengthened thoughts work upon this apparatus and as a consequence the latter is by degrees remodeled. He becomes capable of including the supersensible world in the realm of his ideas.
Thus we feel how through the activity of the soul we can influence and remodel our own body. In the beginning the body acts as a strong counterpoise to the life of the soul; we feel it as a foreign body within us. But presently we notice how it always adapts itself increasingly to the experiences of the soul; until, finally, we do not feel it any more at all, but find before us the supersensible world, just as we do not notice the existence of the eye with which we look upon the world of colours. The body then must become imperceptible before the soul can behold the supersensible world.
When we have in this way deliberately arrived at making the soul clairvoyant, we shall, as a rule, be able to reproduce this state at will if we concentrate upon some thought that we are able to experience within ourselves in a specially powerful manner. As a consequence of surrendering ourselves to such a thought we shall find that clairvoyance is brought about.
At first we shall not be able to see anything definite which we especially wish to see. Supersensible things or happenings for which we are in no way prepared, or desire to call forth, will play into the life of the soul. Yet, by continuing our inner efforts, we shall also attain to the faculty of directing the spiritual eye to such things as we wish to investigate. When we have forgotten an experience we try to bring it back to our memory by recalling to the mind something connected with the experience; and in the same way we may, as clairvoyants, start from an experience which we may rightly think is connected with what we want to find. In surrendering ourselves with intensity to the known experience, we shall often after a longer or shorter lapse of time find added to it that experience which it was our object to attain. In general, however, it is to be noted that it is of the very greatest importance for the clairvoyant quietly to wait for the propitious moment. We should not desire to attract anything. If a desired experience does not arrive, it is best to give up the search for a while and to try to get an opportunity another time. The human apparatus of cognition needs to develop calmly up to the level of certain experiences. If we have not the patience to await such development, we shall make incorrect or inaccurate observations.
Dritte Meditation
Der Meditierende versucht sich Vorstellungen zu bilden über die hellsichtige Erkenntnis der elementarischen Welt
[ 1 ] Man erlebt eine Welt, welche der Sinneswahrnehmung und dem gewöhnlichen Verstandesdenken unbekannt bleibt, wenn man nicht durch den sinnlichen Leib, sondern außerhalb desselben durch den elementarischen Leib wahrnimmt. Will man diese Welt mit etwas vergleichen, das dem gewöhnlichen Erleben angehört, so bietet sich die Welt der Erinnerungen, der Gedächtnisvorstellungen dar. Wie diese aus dem Innern der Seele aufsteigen, so geschieht es auch mit den übersinnlichen Erlebnissen des elementarischen Leibes. Nur weiß die Seele bei einer Erinnerungsvorstellung, dass sich diese auf ein früheres Erlebnis innerhalb der Sinnenwelt bezieht. Die übersinnliche Vorstellung trägt ebenso eine Beziehung in sich. Wie sich die Erinnerungsvorstellung durch sich selbst als etwas ankündigt, was man nicht als bloßes Phantasiegebilde bezeichnen kann, so auch die übersinnliche Vorstellung. Sie ringt sich aus dem seelischen Erleben heraus, aber sie offenbart sich sogleich als ein inneres Erlebnis, welches sich auf etwas Äußeres bezieht. Durch die Erinnerungsvorstellung wird etwas in der Seele gegenwärtig, was man erlebt hat. Durch die übersinnliche Vorstellung wird inneres Seelenerlebnis, was irgendwann oder irgendwo in der übersinnlichen Welt vorhanden ist. Es offenbart sich also durch die Wesenheit der übersinnlichen Vorstellungen selbst, dass man sie so ansehen kann wie sich innerlich erschließende Mitteilungen aus einer übersinnlichen Welt.
[ 2 ] Wie weit man kommt mit den Erlebnissen in der übersinnlichen Welt auf diese Art, das hängt davon ab, wie energisch man die Verstärkung des Seelenlebens betreibt. Ob man bloß einen Begriff davon erhält, dass eine Pflanze nicht bloß dasjenige ist, was man innerhalb der Sinnenwelt wahrnimmt, oder ob man einen ähnlichen Begriff von der ganzen Erde erhält, das gehört beides dem gleichen Gebiete des übersinnlichen Erlebens an. Betrachtet derjenige, welcher sich die Fähigkeit erworben hat, außerhalb seines sinnlichen Leibes wahrzunehmen, eine Pflanze, so kann er außer dem, was die Sinne an ihr zeigen, eine feine Gestalt wahrnehmen, welche die ganze Pflanze durchdringt. Diese Gestalt bietet sich ihm als eine Kraftwesenheit dar; und er kommt dazu, diese Kraftwesenheit als dasjenige anzusehen, was aus den Stoffen und Kräften der Sinnenwelt die Pflanze gestaltet, was den Umlauf ihrer Säfte bewirkt. Er kann sagen, wenn er einen brauchbaren, wenn auch nicht ganz zutreffenden Ausdruck anwenden wili: in der Pflanze ist etwas, was die Säfte so in Umlauf bringt, wie meine eigene Seele meinen Arm hebt. Er blickt auf ein Inneres in der Pflanze. Und er muß diesem Inneren des Pflanzenwesens eine Selbständigkeit zugestehen gegenüber dem, was die Sinne an der Pflanze sehen. Er muß ihm auch zugestehen, dass es vor der sinnlichen Pflanze vorhanden ist. Er gelangt dazu, zu beobachten, wie eine Pflanze wächst, verwelkt, Keime treibt, und wie aus den letztern eine neue Pflanze entsteht. Die übersinnliche Kraftgestalt ist besonders dann am mächtigsten, wenn die Beobachtung dem Pflanzenkeim gegenüber geschieht. Da ist die sinnliche Wesenheit unscheinbar in einer gewissen Beziehung; die übersinnliche dagegen ist vielgliedrig. Sie enthält alles, was an dem Aufbau und Wachstum der Pflanze aus der übersinnlichen Welt heraus mitarbeitet. - Bei der übersinnlichen Beobachtung der ganzen Erde ergibt sich eine Kraftwesenheit, von welcher man ganz sicher wissen kann, sie war vorhanden, bevor alles dasjenige entstanden ist, was auf der Erde und innerhalb derselben sinnlich wahrnehmbar ist. Man kommt auf diesem Wege dazu, die übersinnlichen Kräfte vor sich zu erleben, welche in der Vorzeit der Erde an derselben mitgearbeitet haben. Was man so erlebt, kann man ebenso die ätherischen oder elementarischen Grundwesenheiten oder Leiber der Pflanze und der Erde nennen, wie man den Leib, durch welchen man außerhalb des physischen Leibes wahrnimmt, den eigenen elementarischen oder ätherischen Leib nennt.
[ 3 ] Schon im Beginne der übersinnlichen Beobachtungsfähigkeit wird man gewissen Dingen und Vorgängen der Sinnenwelt außer ihren sinnlichen Eigenschaften noch solche elementarische Grundwesenheiten zuschreiben können. Man wird von einem ätherischen Leib der Pflanze oder der Erde sprechen. Doch sind die auf solche Art beobachteten elementarischen Wesenheiten durchaus nicht die einzigen, welche sich dem übersinnlichen Erleben darbieten. Von dem elementarischen Leibe einer Pflanze wird man sagen, er gestaltet die Stoffe und Kräfte der Sinnenwelt und lebt sich dadurch in einem sinnlichen Leib aus. Doch kann man auch Wesenheiten beobachten, welche ein elementarisches Dasein führen, ohne sich in einem Sinnenleib auszuleben. Es gibt also für die übersinnliche Beobachtung auch rein elementarische Wesenheiten. Man erlebt nicht etwa bloß zu der Sinnenwelt etwas hinzu; man erlebt eine Welt, innerhalb welcher die Sinnenwelt sich darstellt, wie etwa Eisstücke im Wasser schwimmend. Wer nur das Eis sehen könnte und nicht das Wasser, dem wäre es möglich, nur dem Eise Wirklichkeit zuzugestehen, und nicht dem Wasser. Wer sich nur an das halten will, was sich durch die Sinne offenbart, der leugnet die übersinnliche Welt, innerhalb welcher die Sinnenwelt ein Teil ist wie die im Wasser befindlichen Eisstücke ein Teil der ganzen Wassermasse.
[ 4 ] Man wird nun finden, dass diejenigen Menschen, welche übersinnliche Beobachtungen machen können, dasjenige, was sie schauen, so beschreiben, dass sie sich der Ausdrücke bedienen, welche den sinnlichen Empfindungen entlehnt sind. So kann man den elementarischen Leib eines Wesens der Sinnenwelt, oder ein rein elementarisches Wesen so beschrieben finden, dass gesagt wird, es offenbare sich als in sich geschlossener, mannigfaltig gefärbter Lichtleib. Es blitze in Farben auf, glimmere oder leuchte und lasse bemerken, dass diese Farben- oder Lichterscheinung seine Lebensäußerung sei. Wovon der Beobachter da eigentlich spricht, ist durchaus unsichtbar, und er ist sich dessen bewußt, dass mit dem, was er wahrnimmt, das Licht- oder Farbenbild nichts anderes zu tun hat, als etwa die Schrift, in welcher eine Tatsache mitgeteilt wird, mit dieser Tatsache selbst. Dennoch hat man nicht etwa bloß ein Übersinnliches in willkürlicher Art durch sinnliche Empfindungsvorstellungen ausgedrückt; sondern man hat während der Beobachtung das Erlebnis wirklich gemacht, das einem Sinneseindruck ähnlich ist. Es kommt dies davon her, dass im übersinnlichen Erleben die Befreiung von dem sinnlichen Leibe keine vollkommene ist. Dieser lebt mit dem elementarischen Leibe doch noch mit und bringt das übersinnliche Erlebnis in eine sinnliche Form. Die Beschreibung, die man so gibt von einer elementarischen Wesenheit, ist dann tatsächlich so gehalten, dass sie sich wie eine visionäre, oder phantastische Zusammenstellung von Sinneseindrücken zeigt. Wenn die Beschreibung so gegeben wird, dann ist sie trotzdem die wahre Wiedergabe des Erlebten. Denn man hat geschaut, was man schildert. Der Fehler, der gemacht werden kann, liegt nicht darin, dass man das Bild als solches schildert. Es liegt ein Fehler erst dann vor, wenn man das Bild für die Wirklichkeit hält, und nicht dasjenige, auf was das Bild, als auf die ihm entsprechende Wirklichkeit, hindeutet.
[ 5 ] Ein Mensch, welcher niemals Farben wahrgenommen hat - ein Blindgeborener - wird, wenn er sich die entsprechende Fähigkeit erwirbt, elementarische Wesenheiten nicht so beschreiben, dass er sagt, sie blitzen als Farbenerscheinungen auf. Er wird sich derjenigen Empfindungsvorstellungen zum Ausdrucke bedienen, welche ihm gewohnt sind. Für die Menschen aber, welche sinnlich sehen können, ist eine Schilderung durchaus geeignet, welche sich etwa des Ausdruckes bedient, es blitzte eine Farbengestalt au£ Sie können dadurch sich die Empfindung von dem bilden, was der Beobachter der elementarischen Welt geschaut hat. Und das gilt nicht etwa nur für Mitteilungen, welche ein Hellsichtiger - es sei ein Mensch so genannt, der durch seinen elementarischen Leib beobachten kann - einem Nicht-Hellsichtigen macht, sondern auch für die Verständigung der Hellsichtigen untereinander. In der Sinnenwelt lebt der Mensch eben in seinem sinnlichen Leib, und dieser kleidet ihm die übersinnlichen Beobachtungen in Sinnesformen ein; daher ist innerhalb des menschlichen Erdenlebens der Ausdruck der übersinnlichen Beobachtungen durch die von ihnen erzeugten Sinnesbilder denn doch zunächst eine brauchbare Art der Mitteilung.
[ 6 ] Es kommt darauf an, dass derjenige, welcher eine solche Mitteilung empfängt, in seiner Seele ein Erlebnis hat, welches zu der in Betracht kommenden Tatsache in dem richtigen Verhältnisse steht. Die sinnlichen Bilder werden nur mitgeteilt, damit durch sie etwas erlebt wird. So wie sie sich darbieten, können sie nicht in der Sinnenwelt vorkommen. Das ist eben ihre Eigentümlichkeit. Und deswegen rufen sie auch Erlebnisse hervor, die sich auf nichts Sinnliches beziehen.
[ 7 ] Im Beginne seiner Hellsichtigkeit wird sich der Mensch nur schwer von dem Ausdruck des Sinnenbildes frei machen. Bei weiter dringender Fähigkeit wird aber allerdings das Bedürfnis entstehen, mehr willkürliche Darstellungsmittel zur Mitteilung für das Geschaute zu ersinnen. Bei diesen ergibt sich dann immer die Notwendigkeit, erst die gewissen Zeichen, deren man sich bedient, zu erklären. Je mehr die Zeitkultur erfordert, dass die übersinnlichen Erkenntnisse allgemein bekanntgemacht werden, desto mehr wird sich das Bedürfnis herausstellen, diese Erkenntnisse durch die Ausdrucksmittel des alltäglichen Lebens in der Sinnenwelt zu geben.
[ 8 ] Die übersinnlichen Erlebnisse können so auftreten, dass sie sich zu gewissen Zeiten einstellen. Sie überkommen dann den Menschen. Und dieser hat dann Gelegenheit, durch eigenes Erleben über die übersinnliche Welt etwas zu erfahren, in dem Maße, als er gewissermaßen von dieser mehr oder weniger oft dadurch begnadet wird, dass sie in sein gewöhnliches Seelenleben hineinleuchtet. Eine höhere Fähigkeit besteht aber darinnen, willkürlich hellseherische Beobachtung aus dem gewöhnlichen Seelenleben heraus herbeizuführen. Der Weg zur Erlangung dieser Fähigkeit ergibt sich im allgemeinen durch eine energische Fortsetzung der inneren Verstärkung des Seelenlebens. Doch hängt auch viel von der Erlangung einer gewissen Seelenstimmung ab. Ein ruhiges, gelassenes Verhalten gegenüber der übersinnlichen Welt ist notwendig. Ein Verhalten, welches ebenso weit entfernt ist von dem brennenden Wunsch, möglichst viel und möglichst Deutliches zu erfahren, wie andrerseits auch von der persönlichen Uninteressiertheit gegenüber dieser Welt. Der brennende Wunsch wirkt so, dass er vor das leibfreie Schauen etwas wie einen unsichtbaren Nebel breitet. Die Uninteressiertheit verhält sich so, dass die übersinnlichen Dinge wirklich sich offenbaren, aber einfach nicht bemerkt werden. Diese Uninteressiertheit kommt zuweilen in einer ganz besonderen Form zum Ausdrucke. Es gibt Menschen, welche in der ehrlichsten Art Erlebnisse des Heilsehens haben möchten. Aber sie machen sich von vornherein eine ganz bestimmte Vorstellung, wie diese sein müssen, wenn sie sie als echte anerkennen sollen. Und dann kommen wirkliche Erlebnisse; diese huschen jedoch vorbei, ohne dass ihnen Interesse entgegengebracht wird, weil sie eben nicht so sind, wie man sich vorgestellt hat, dass sie sein sollten.
[ 9 ] Bei der willkürlich herbeigeführten Hellsichtigkeit kommt im Verlaufe der inneren Seelenbetätigung einmal der Augenblick, in dem man weiß: jetzt erlebt die Seele etwas, was sie vorher nicht erlebt hat. Das Erlebnis ist kein bestimmtes, sondern das allgemeine Gefühl, man stehe nicht der sinnlichen Außenwelt gegenüber, man sei nicht in ihr, jedoch man sei auch nicht in sich, wie man es im gewöhnlichen Seelenleben ist. Das äußere und das innere Erleben fließen in eins, in ein Lebensgefühl zusammen, das bisher der Seele unbekannt war, und von dem sie weiß, sie könnte es nicht haben, wenn sie nur durch die Sinne mit der Außenwelt lebte, oder wenn sie in ihren gewöhnlichen Empfindungen und Erinnerungsvorstellungen lebte. Man empfindet dann weiter, dass sich in diesen Seelenzustand etwas aus einer bisher unbekannten Welt hereinschiebt. Aber man kann nicht zu einer Vorstellung von diesem Unbekannten kommen. Man erlebt, aber man kann nicht vorstellen. Dagegen überkommt denjenigen, der solches erlebt, das Gefühl, als ob er an seinem physisch-sinnlichen Leibe ein Hindernis hätte, das vorzustellen, was sich in die Seele hereindrängt. Setzt man nun die innere Seelenanstrengung immer wieder fort, so wird man sich nach einiger Zeit wie den Überwinder seines Leibeswiderstandes fühlen. Der physische Verstandesapparat war bisher nur geeignet Vorstellungen zu bilden, welche sich an Erlebnisse in der Sinnenwelt anschließen. Er ist zunächst unfähig, das zur Vorstellung zu erheben, was aus der übersinnlichen Welt sich offenbaren will. Er muß erst so bearbeitet werden, dass er dies vermag. So wie das Kind die Außenwelt um sich hat, sein Verstandesapparat aber erst im Erleben an der Außenwelt zubereitet werden muß, um sich auch Vorstellungen über die Umgebung zu machen, so ist der Mensch im allgemeinen unfähig, die übersinnliche Welt vorzustellen. Der angehende Hellseher vollzieht an seinem Vorstellungsapparat dasselbe auf höherer Stufe, was sich im Kinde vollzieht. Er läßt seine verstärkten Gedanken auf diesen Apparat wirken. Dadurch wird dieser allmählich umgebildet. Er wird imstande, die übersinnliche Welt in das Vorstellungsleben aufzunehmen. Man fühlt, wie man durch die Seelentätigkeit formend wirkt auf den eigenen Leib. Erst macht sich dieser als schwerer Gegendruck gegen das Seelenleben geltend; man fühlt ihn wie einen Fremdkörper in sich. Dann bemerkt man, wie er immer mehr sich anpaßt an das Seelen-Erleben; zuletzt fühlt man den Leib nicht mehr, aber man hat dafür vor sich die übersinnliche Welt, wie man das Auge nicht wahrnimmt, durch das man die Farbenwelt sieht. Der Leib muß unwahrnehmbar werden, bevor die Seele die übersinnliche Welt erschauen kann. Hat man auf diese Art es dahin gebracht, die Seele willkürlich hellseherisch zu machen, dann wird man in der Regel diesen Zustand immer wieder herbeiführen können, wenn man sich auf einen Gedanken konzentriert, den man besonders kraftvoll in sich erleben kann. Als Folge der Hingabe an diesen Gedanken wird man dann die Hellsichtigkeit herbeigeführt finden. Zunächst wird man noch nicht in der Lage sein, etwas ganz bestimmtes zu sehen, was man sehen will. Es werden in das Seelenleben übersinnliche Dinge oder Vorgänge hereinspielen, auf die man in keiner Art vorbereitet ist, und die man als solche nicht herbeiführen wollte. Doch gelangt man im weiteren Verfolg der inneren Anstrengung dazu, auch den geistigen Blick auf solche Dinge zu lenken, die man zu erkennen beabsichtigt. Wie man ein vergessenes Erlebnis ins Gedächtnis zu bringen sucht dadurch, dass man ein verwandtes sich in die Seele ruft, so kann man als Hellseher von einem Erlebnis ausgehen, von dem man mit Recht glauben darf, dass es mit dem gesuchten in einem Verhältnis stehe. Wenn man sich an das Bekannte intensiv hingibt, so kommt oft nach längerer oder kürzerer Zeit dasjenige hinzu, das man zu erleben beabsichtigt. Im allgemeinen ist aber zu beachten, dass für den Hellseher ein ruhiges Abwarten der günstigen Augenblicke von dem allergrößten Wert ist. Man soll nichts herbeiziehen wollen. Ergibt sich ein angestrebtes Erleben nicht, so ist es gut, vorläufig darauf zu verzichten und die Gelegenheit ein andres Mal wieder herbeizuführen. Der menschliche Erkenntnisapparat bedarf des ruhigen Heranreifens zu bestimmten Erlebnissen. Wer nicht die Geduld hat, ein solches Reifen abzuwarten, der wird unrichtige oder ungenaue Beobachtungen machen.
Third meditation
The meditator tries to form ideas about the clairvoyant knowledge of the elementary world
[ 1 ] One experiences a world that remains unknown to sensory perception and ordinary intellectual thinking when one does not perceive through the sensory body, but outside of it through the elementary body. If we want to compare this world with something that belongs to ordinary experience, we are presented with the world of memories, of ideas of memory. Just as these arise from within the soul, so it is with the supersensible experiences of the elementary body. The only difference is that the soul knows in the case of a memory that it relates to an earlier experience within the world of the senses. The supersensible imagination also carries a relationship within it. Just as the memory-image announces itself as something that cannot be described as a mere figment of the imagination, so does the supersensible image. It emerges from the experience of the soul, but it immediately reveals itself as an inner experience that relates to something external. Through the memory-imagination something becomes present in the soul that one has experienced. Through the supersensible imagination, an inner experience of the soul becomes what is present at some time or somewhere in the supersensible world. It is thus revealed by the nature of the supersensible ideas themselves that they can be seen as inwardly revealing messages from a supersensible world.
[ 2 ] How far one gets with the experiences in the supersensible world in this way depends on how energetically one pursues the strengthening of the soul life. Whether one merely obtains a concept that a plant is not merely that which one perceives within the sense world, or whether one obtains a similar concept of the whole earth, both belong to the same area of supersensible experience. If a person who has acquired the ability to perceive outside his sensory body looks at a plant, he can perceive a subtle form that permeates the whole plant in addition to what the senses show about it. This form presents itself to him as an entity of force; and he comes to regard this entity of force as that which forms the plant out of the substances and forces of the sense world, that which brings about the circulation of its juices. He can say, if he wants to use a useful, if not quite accurate, expression: there is something in the plant that brings the juices into circulation in the same way that my own soul lifts my arm. He is looking at an inner being in the plant. And he must allow this inner being of the plant to be independent of what the senses see in the plant. He must also concede to it that it exists before the sensual plant. He comes to observe how a plant grows, withers, sprouts and how a new plant emerges from the latter. The supersensible form of power is at its most powerful when the observation is made of the plant germ. There the sensual entity is inconspicuous in a certain respect; the supersensible, on the other hand, is multi-layered. It contains everything that contributes to the development and growth of the plant from the supersensible world. - The supersensible observation of the whole earth reveals a power entity of which one can be quite certain that it was present before everything that is sensually perceptible on and within the earth came into being. In this way we come to experience the supersensible forces that worked on the earth in prehistoric times. What one experiences in this way can also be called the etheric or elemental basic beings or bodies of the plant and the earth, just as one calls the body through which one perceives outside the physical body one's own elemental or etheric body.
[ 3 ] Even at the beginning of the supersensible faculty of observation, one will be able to ascribe such elementary basic entities to certain things and processes of the sensory world in addition to their sensory properties. One will speak of an etheric body of the plant or the earth. But the elementary entities observed in this way are by no means the only ones that present themselves to the supersensible experience. The elemental body of a plant is said to shape the substances and forces of the sensory world and thus lives itself out in a sensory body. But we can also observe beings that lead an elemental existence without living out their existence in a sensory body. So there are also purely elemental beings for supersensible observation. One does not merely experience something in addition to the sense world; one experiences a world within which the sense world presents itself, such as pieces of ice floating in water. He who could only see the ice and not the water would be able to concede reality only to the ice and not to the water. Whoever wants to stick only to what is revealed through the senses denies the supersensible world, within which the sensory world is a part, just as the pieces of ice in the water are a part of the whole mass of water.
[ 4 ] It will now be found that those people who can make supersensible observations describe what they see in such a way that they make use of expressions borrowed from sensory perceptions. Thus one can find the elementary body of a being of the sense world, or a purely elementary being, described in such a way that it is said to reveal itself as a self-contained, variously colored body of light. It flashes in colors, glows or shines and lets us know that this appearance of color or light is its expression of life. What the observer is actually talking about is quite invisible, and he is aware that the light or color image has nothing to do with what he perceives other than, for example, the writing in which a fact is communicated has to do with this fact itself. Nevertheless, one has not merely expressed something supersensible in an arbitrary way through sensory perceptions; rather, during the observation one has actually had an experience that is similar to a sensory impression. This is due to the fact that in supersensible experience the liberation from the sensory body is not complete. It still lives together with the elementary body and brings the supersensible experience into a sensible form. The description that is given of an elementary entity is then actually such that it appears as a visionary or fantastic compilation of sensory impressions. If the description is given in this way, then it is nevertheless the true representation of the experience. Because you have seen what you are describing. The mistake that can be made does not lie in describing the image as such. A mistake is only made when the image is taken for reality and not what the image indicates as the reality corresponding to it.
[ 5 ] A person who has never perceived colors - a person born blind - will not, if he acquires the corresponding ability, describe elementary entities in such a way that he says they flash as color phenomena. He will use the sensory concepts he is used to expressing. For people who can see with their senses, however, a description that makes use of the expression, for example, that a figure of color flashed out, is quite suitable They can thereby form the perception of what the observer of the elementary world has seen. And this applies not only to communications which a clairvoyant - let it be called a person who can observe through his elementary body - makes to a non- clairvoyant, but also to the communication between clairvoyants. In the world of the senses, man lives in his sensory body, and this body clothes his supersensible observations in sensory forms; therefore, within human earthly life, the expression of supersensible observations through the sensory images they produce is initially a useful form of communication.
[ 6 ] It is important that the person who receives such a communication has an experience in his soul which is in the right relationship to the fact under consideration. The sensory images are only communicated so that something can be experienced through them. They cannot occur in the world of the senses as they present themselves. That is precisely their peculiarity. And that is why they also evoke experiences that do not relate to anything sensual.
[ 7 ] In the beginning of his clairvoyance, it is difficult for a person to free himself from the expression of the sensory image. However, as the ability develops further, the need will arise to devise more arbitrary means of representation to communicate what is seen. With these, there is always a need to first explain the certain signs that are used. The more the culture of the time demands that supersensible knowledge be made generally known, the more the need will arise to give this knowledge through the means of expression of everyday life in the world of the senses.
[ 8 ] The supersensible experiences can occur in such a way that they arise at certain times. They then overtake the person. And he then has the opportunity to learn something about the supersensible world through his own experience, to the extent that he is more or less often graced by it to the extent that it shines into his ordinary soul life. A higher faculty, however, consists in bringing about clairvoyant observation at will out of the ordinary life of the soul. The way to attain this ability is generally through a vigorous continuation of the inner strengthening of the soul life. But much also depends on the attainment of a certain mood of soul. A calm, serene attitude towards the supersensible world is necessary. An attitude that is just as far removed from the burning desire to experience as much and as clearly as possible as it is from a personal lack of interest in this world. The burning desire acts in such a way that it spreads something like an invisible fog in front of the bodiless seeing. The disinterest behaves in such a way that the supersensible things really reveal themselves, but are simply not noticed. This lack of interest is sometimes expressed in a very special form. There are people who would like to have the most honest experiences of clairvoyance. But from the outset they form a very specific idea of what they must be like if they are to recognize them as genuine. And then real experiences come; but these flit by without any interest being shown in them because they are not as they were imagined to be.
[ 9 ] When clairvoyance is induced arbitrarily, the moment comes in the course of the inner activity of the soul when one knows that the soul is now experiencing something that it has not experienced before. The experience is not a specific one, but the general feeling that one is not facing the sensual outer world, that one is not in it, but that one is also not in oneself, as one is in the ordinary life of the soul. The outer and the inner experience merge into one, into a feeling of life which was hitherto unknown to the soul, and which it knows it could not have if it lived with the outer world only through the senses, or if it lived in its ordinary sensations and memories. One then continues to feel that something from a hitherto unknown world pushes its way into this state of the soul. But one cannot come to an idea of this unknown. One experiences, but cannot imagine. On the other hand, those who experience such things are overcome by the feeling that their physical-sensory body is an obstacle to imagining what is pushing its way into the soul. If one now continues the inner effort of the soul again and again, then after some time one will feel like the conqueror of one's physical resistance. The physical mental apparatus has so far only been capable of forming ideas that are connected to experiences in the sensory world. At first it is incapable of elevating to a concept what wants to reveal itself from the supersensible world. It must first be processed in such a way that it is able to do so. Just as the child has the outer world around him, but his intellectual apparatus must first be prepared by experiencing the outer world in order to form ideas about the surroundings, so man is generally incapable of imagining the supersensible world. The budding clairvoyant accomplishes the same thing on a higher level in his imaginative apparatus that takes place in the child. He allows his intensified thoughts to act on this apparatus. This gradually transforms it. It becomes capable of absorbing the supersensible world into the life of the imagination. One feels how one has a formative effect on one's own body through the activity of the soul. At first it asserts itself as a heavy counter-pressure against the life of the soul; one feels it like a foreign body within oneself. Then one notices how it adapts itself more and more to the soul experience; finally one no longer feels the body, but instead one has the supersensible world before one, just as one does not perceive the eye through which one sees the world of colors. The body must become imperceptible before the soul can behold the supersensible world. Once you have succeeded in this way in making the soul clairvoyant at will, you will generally be able to bring about this state again and again if you concentrate on a thought that you can experience particularly powerfully within yourself. As a result of devotion to this thought, clairvoyance will then be induced. At first, you will not yet be able to see something specific that you want to see. Supersensible things or processes will play into the life of the soul for which one is not prepared in any way and which one did not want to bring about as such. But in the further course of the inner effort one comes to direct the spiritual gaze to such things that one intends to recognize. Just as one tries to bring a forgotten experience to mind by recalling a related one to the soul, so as a clairvoyant one can start from an experience which one may rightly believe to be related to the one sought. If one devotes oneself intensively to the known, then often after a longer or shorter time the one one intends to experience is added. In general, however, it should be noted that it is of the greatest value for the clairvoyant to wait calmly for favorable moments. You should not try to bring anything about. If a desired experience does not materialize, it is good to refrain from it for the time being and bring the opportunity back another time. The human cognitive apparatus requires the calm maturation of certain experiences. Those who do not have the patience to wait for such maturation will make incorrect or inaccurate observations.