A Road to Self-Knowledge
GA 16
Eighth Meditation
In which the Attempt is made to form an Idea of the Way in which Man beholds his Repeated Earth-Lives
[ 1 ] We are not really entitled to speak of dangers during the pilgrimage of the soul through supersensible worlds, when this pilgrimage is undertaken in the right way. The method would not lead to its goal if amongst the psychic instructions given there were those which created dangers for the pupil. The goal is rather to make the soul strong, to concentrate its forces, so that man should become able to bear his soul's experiences, which he has to go through when he wants to see and understand other worlds than the physical. [ 2 ] Moreover, an essential difference between the physical world and the supersensible worlds is that beholding, perceiving, and understanding are related to one another in quite a different way in the two worlds. When we hear about some part of the physical world, we have a certain right to feel that we can only arrive at a complete understanding of it through beholding and perceiving it. We do not believe we have understood a landscape or a picture until we have seen it. But the supersensible worlds can be thoroughly understood when with unbiased judgment we accept a correct description of them. In order to understand and to experience all the forces for the strengthening and fulfilment of life which belong to spiritual worlds, we only need the descriptions of those who are able to see. Real knowledge of those worlds at first hand can only be obtained by those who are able to investigate when outside their physical body. Descriptions of the spiritual worlds must always originate with the seers. But such knowledge of these worlds as is necessary to the life of the soul may be obtained through the understanding. And it is perfectly possible to be unable to look into supersensible worlds oneself and yet be able to understand them and their peculiarities, with an understanding for which the soul has under certain circumstances a perfect right to ask, and indeed must ask.
[ 3 ] Therefore it is also possible that we should choose our means of meditation out of the store of conceptions which we have acquired concerning the spiritual worlds. Such a means of meditation is by far the best and the one which leads us most safely to the goal.
Although such a notion may seem very natural, it is, however, not correct to believe that knowledge of higher worlds obtained through the understanding before attaining to supersensible vision is an obstacle to the development of such vision. The contrary is in fact more correct, namely, that it is easier and safer to arrive at clairvoyance with some preliminary understanding than without. Whether we stop short at understanding only, or go on to strive after clairvoyance, depends upon the awakening or non-awakening of an inner craving for firsthand knowledge. If such a craving is there, we cannot but look for every opportunity to start on a real personal pilgrimage into supersensible worlds.
The wish for an understanding of the higher worlds will spread more and more amongst the people of our day; for close observation of human evolution shows that from now onward human souls are entering upon a stage of development in which they will be unable to find the right relation to life without an understanding of supersensible worlds.
[ 4 ] When we have come so far on our soul's pilgrimage that we carry within ourselves as a memory all that we call “ourself,” namely, our own being in physical life, and experience ourselves instead in another, newly-won superior ego, then we become capable of seeing our life stretching beyond the limits of earthly life. Before our spiritual sight appears the fact that we have shared in another life, in the spiritual world, prior to our present existence in the world of the senses; and in that spiritual life are to be found the real causes of the shaping of our physical existence. We become acquainted with the fact that before we received a physical body and entered upon this physical existence we lived a purely spiritual life. We see that that human being which we now are, with its faculties and inclinations, was prepared during a life that we spent in a purely spiritual world before birth. We look upon ourselves as upon beings who lived spiritually before their entrance into the world of the senses, and who are now striving to live as physical beings with those faculties and psychic characteristics which were originally attached to them and which have developed since their birth.
It would be a mistake to say: “How is it possible that in spiritual life I should have aspired to possess faculties and inclinations, which now, when I have got them, do not please me at all?” It does not matter whether something pleases the soul in the world of senses or not. That is not the point. The soul has quite different points of view for its aspirations in the spiritual world from those which it adopts in the life of the senses. The character of knowledge and will is quite different in the two worlds. In the spiritual life we know that for the sake of our total evolution we need a certain kind of life in the physical world, which when we get there may seem unsympathetic or depressing to the soul; and yet we strive for it, because in the spiritual existence we do not prefer what is sympathetic and agreeable, but what is necessary to the right development of our individual being.
[ 5 ] It is the same with regard to the events of life. We contemplate them and see how we have prepared in the spiritual world what is antipathetic as well as what is sympathetic, and how we ourselves have brought together the impulses which cause our painful as well as our joyful experiences in physical existence. But even then we may find it incomprehensible that we ourselves have brought about this or that situation in life, as long as we only experience ourselves in the physical world. In the spiritual world, however, we have had what may be called supersensible insight which caused us to say: “You must go through that uncongenial or painful experience, for only such an experience can bring you a step further in your total development.” From the standpoint of the physical world only, it is never possible to decide how far one particular life on earth brings a human being forward in his total evolution.
[ 6 ] Having realised the spiritual existence that precedes our earthly existence, we see the reasons why in our spiritual life we have aimed at a certain kind of destiny for the ensuing terrestrial life. These reasons lead back to an earlier terrestrial life lived in the past. Upon the character of that earlier life, upon the experiences made and the capacities attained in it, depends the wish during the succeeding spiritual existence to correct defective experiences and develop neglected capacities through a new life upon earth. In the spiritual world you feel a wrong done by you to another human being to be a disturbance of the harmony of the world, and you realise the necessity of meeting that human being again on earth in the next terrestrial life, in order to be able to get into such relationship to him as to be able to repair the wrong you have done. During the progressive development of the soul the range of vision is widened over a whole series of earlier terrestrial lives. In this way you arrive through observation at a knowledge of the true history of the life of your higher “Ego.” You see that man goes through his total existence in a succession of lives upon earth, and that between these repeated terrestrial lives he passes through purely spiritual states of existence which are connected with his terrestrial lives according to certain laws.
[ 7 ] Thus the knowledge of repeated existences upon earth is lifted into the sphere of observation. (In order to avoid a frequently repeated mistake, attention is called to the following fact, more fully treated in other writings of mine. The sum total of a man's existence does not unfold itself in an endless repetition of lives. A certain number of repetitions take place, but both before the beginning and after the close of these quite different kinds of existence are found, and all this shows itself in its totality as a development inspired by sublime wisdom.)
[ 8 ] The knowledge of repeated terrestrial lives may also be reached by reasonable observation of physical existence. In my books Theosophy and An Outline of Occult Science, as well as in lesser writings of mine, the attempt has been made to prove reincarnation along such lines of reasoning as are characteristic of the modern doctrine of evolution in natural science. It is there shown how logical thought and investigation that really follow up scientific research (and its results) to its full consequences are absolutely bound to accept the idea of evolution, presented to us by modern science, in such a sense as to consider the true being, the psychic individuality of man, as something which is evolving through a sequence of physical existences alternating with intermediate purely spiritual lives. The proofs attempted in those writings are naturally capable of much further development and completion. But the opinion does not seem unjustified that proofs in this matter have precisely the same scientific value as that which in general is called scientific proof. There is nothing in the science of spiritual things which cannot be confirmed by proofs of that kind. But of course we must admit the difficulty is greater for spiritually scientific proofs to be acknowledged than proofs of natural science.
This is not on account of their less stringent logic, but because in the face of such proofs one does not feel those underlying physical facts, which make the acceptance of the proofs of natural science so easy. This has nothing whatever to do with the conclusiveness of the reasoning itself. And if we are capable of comparing with an unbiased mind the proofs of natural science with those given on analogous lines by spiritual science, we shall easily be convinced of their equally conclusive power. Thus the force of such proofs may also be added to that which the investigator of the spiritual worlds has to give as a description of successive terrestrial lives resulting from his own vision. The one side can support the other in the formation of a conviction of the truth of human reincarnation based simply on reasonable comprehension. Here the attempt has been made to show the way that leads beyond mental comprehension to supersensible vision of this reincarnation.
Achte Meditation
Der Meditierende versucht eine Vorstellung zu bilden von dem Schauen der wiederholten Erdenleben des Menschen
[ 1 ] Von Gefahren der Seelenwanderschaft in die übersinnlichen Welten zu sprechen, ist nicht eigentlich berechtigt, wenn diese Wanderschaft eine sachgemäße ist. Eine solche würde ihr Ziel nicht erreichen, wenn unter ihren seelischen Verhaltungsmaßregeln etwas wäre, welches darauf hinausliefe, für den Menschen Gefahren herbeizuführen. Das Ziel ist vielmehr immer, die Seele stark zu machen, ihre Kräfte zusammenzuziehen, so dass der Mensch fähig werde, die seelischen Erlebnisse zu ertragen, die er durchmachen muß, wenn er andre Welten als das Sinnensein schauen und begreifen will.
[ 2 ] Ein wesentlicher Unterschied der Sinnenwelt von den übersinnlichen Welten ergibt sich auch noch daraus, dass Schauen, Wahrnehmen und Begreifen bei den übersinnlichen Welten in einem andern Verhältnisse stehen als im Sinnensein. Wer von einem Teile der Sinnenwelt hört, wird mit einem gewissen Rechte das Gefühl haben, dass er zu einem völligen Begreifen doch nur durch die Anschauung, die Wahrnehmung gelangt. Eine Landschaft, ein Gemälde wird man erst verstanden glauben, wenn man sie gesehen hat. Die übersinnlichen Welten kann man vollkommen begreifen, wenn man durch die unbefangene Urteilskraft eine sachgemäße Beschreibung entgegennimmt. Zum Begreifen und zum Erleben aller lebenfördernden, lebenbefriedigenden Kräfte der geistigen Welten bedarf man bloß der Beschreibungen, welche von denjenigen gegeben werden, die schauen können. Wirkliche Erkenntnisse solcher Welten gewinnen können nur diejenigen, welche außerhalb des Sinnenleibes zu beobachten in der Lage sind. Beschreibungen der Geisteswelt müssen zuletzt immer ausgehen von Beobachtern derselben. Was aber zum Seelenleben an Erkenntnissen dieser Welten notwendig ist, das wird erreicht durch das Begreifen. Und es ist durchaus möglich, dass jemand gar keinen eigenen Einblick in die übersinnlichen Welten hat, und dennoch sie und ihre Eigentümlichkeiten vollkommen versteht; sie so versteht, wie die Seele dies unter gewissen Verhältnissen stets mit vollem Rechte verlangen wird und muß.
[ 3 ] Deshalb ist auch möglich, dass jemand die Mittel seiner inneren Versenkung aus dem Schatze der Vorstellungen nimmt, welche er sich über die Geisteswelten angeeignet hat. Ein solcher Versenkungsstoff ist der allerbeste. Ist derjenige, welcher am sichersten zum Ziele führt. Der Glaube entspricht nicht den Tatsachen, welcher nahe legt, dass es für das Aneignen des übersinnlichen Schauens hinderlich sei, vor dieser Aneignung durch Begreifen sich die Erkenntnisse dieser Welten erworben zu haben. Es ist vielmehr das Gegenteil richtig, nämlich, dass man sicherer und leichter zum Schauen mit dem vorangegangenen Begreifen kommt als ohne dasselbe. Ob es jemand beim Begreifen läßt, oder das Schauen anstrebt, das hängt davon ab, ob der Drang nach der eigenen Beobachtung bei ihm schon aufgetreten ist, oder nicht. Ist er eingetreten, dann kann er gar nicht anders, als die Gelegenheit suchen, die Wanderschaft in die übersinnlichen Welten wirklich anzutreten. - Nach dem Verstehen dieser Welten werden aber von unseren Zeiten an immer mehr und mehr Menschen verlangen, denn eine wahre Lebensbeobachtung zeigt, dass von der Gegenwart an die Menschenseelen in einen solchen Zustand eintreten, dass sie ohne das Begreifen der übersinnlichen Welten mit dem Leben in das notwendige Verhältnis nicht kommen können.
[ 4 ] Wenn der Mensch auf der Seelenwanderschaft soweit gelangt ist, dass er alles, was er «sich», was er seine Wesenheit in dem Sinnensein nennt, als Erinnerung in sich trägt, und sich in einem nunmehr errungenen übergeordneten «Ich» erlebt, dann wird er fähig, auch zum Schauen des Lebensverlaufes über das sinnliche Erdensein hinaus zu gelangen. Vor seinen geistigen Blick tritt die Tatsache, dass diesem Sinnensein ein andres Dasein seiner selbst in der Geisteswelt vorangegangen ist. Und dass in diesem geistigen Sein die wahren Ursachen liegen für die Gestaltung des Sinnenseins. Man lernt die Tatsache kennen, dass man vor diesem Sinnenleben, in das man eingetreten ist, als man einen sinnlichen Leib erhalten hat, schon rein geistig gelebt hat. - Wie man als Mensch jetzt ist, mit diesen oder jenen Fähigkeiten, diesen oder jenen Trieben, das sieht man vorbereitet in einem Dasein, welches man vorher in einer rein geistigen Welt verlebt hat. Man schaut sich an, als ein, seinem Eintritt in die Sinnenwelt vorangegangenes geistig lebendes Wesen, das angestrebt hat, mit den Fähigkeiten und Seeleneigentümlichkeiten als Sinnenwesenzu leben, die man an sich trägt und entwickelt hat seit der Geburt. Derjenige wäre im Irrtum befangen, der etwa sagen wollte, wie sollte ich Fähigkeiten und Triebe im Geistessein angestrebt haben, welche mir nun, da ich sie an mir trage, doch gar nicht gefallen. Es kommt nicht darauf an, ob der Seele im Sinnensein etwas gefällt oder nicht; sie hat für das Anstreben im Geistessein ganz andre Gesichtspunkte als nachher im Sinnensein. Die Art des Wissens und Wollens ist in beiden Welten eine durchaus verschiedene. Man weiß im Geistessein, dass man zu seiner Gesamtentwickelung ein Sinnesleben nötig hat, das der Seele dann vielleicht im Sinnensein unsympathisch oder bedrückend verläuft; und man strebt es doch an, weil man im Geistessein nicht auf das Sympathische und Angenehme, sondern auf dasjenige sieht, was zur rechten Entfaltung des Eigenseins notwendig ist.
[ 5 ] In ähnlicher Art verhält es sich mit den Geschicken des Lebens. Man sieht dieselben und schaut, wie man sich das Sympathische und auch das Unsympathische im Geistessein zubereitet hat, wie man selbst die Mittel herbeigeführt hat, die verursachen, dass man dieses oder jenes Glückliche oder auch Schmerzvolle im Sinnensein durchmacht. Auch da kann der Mensch, solange er sich bloß im Sinnensein erlebt, es unbegreiflich finden, diese oder jene Lebenslage selbst herbeigeführt zu haben; im Geistessein hat er aber das gehabt, was man eine übersinnliche Einsicht nennen kann, dahingehend, dass er sich sagte, du mußt das Schmerzvolle oder Unsympathische durchmachen, denn nur solches Erleben bringt dich in deiner Gesamtentwickelung um eine Stufe weiter. Aus der bloßen Beurteilung aus dem Sinnensein heraus kann man nie erkennen, inwiefern ein Erdenleben den Menschen in seiner Gesamtentwickelung vorwärts bringt.
[ 6 ] Nach Erkenntnis des dem sinnlichen Erdensein vorangegangenen Geistessein ergibt sich dann das Anschauen der Gründe, warum man im Geistessein eine gewisse Art und ein gewisses Schicksal für das Sinnensein angestrebt hat. Diese Gründe führen hin zu einem früheren Erdenleben, das man in der Vergangenheit durchlebt hat. Je nachdem dieses verlaufen ist, je nachdem man da gewisse Erfahrungen gemacht oder sich Fähigkeiten angeeignet hat, strebte man im darauffolgenden Geistessein darnach, mangelhaft gemachte Erfahrungen in einem neuen Erdenleben besser zu machen, unausgebildet gebliebene Fähigkeiten auszubilden. Man empfindet im Geistessein ein Unrechtes, das man zum Beispiel einem Menschen zugefügt hat so, dass man dadurch die Weltenordnung gestört hat, und dass es notwendig ist, in einem weiteren Lebenslauf mit dem entsprechenden Menschen zugleich auf Erden zu sein, um in den entsprechenden Beziehungen zu ihm das Unrecht gutzumachen. - Bei weiter fortschreitender Seelenentwickelung erweitert sich der Blick auf eine Reihe vorangegangener Erdenleben. Man gelangt auf solche Art zur beobachtenden Erkenntnis des wahren Lebenslaufes des übergeordneten «Ich». Man erschaut, dass der Mensch in wiederholten Erdenieben sein Gesamtdasein auf der Erde durchläuft, und dass zwischen den wiederholten Erdenieben rein geistige Lebensläufe liegen, welche mit den Erdenleben in gesetzmäßigem Zusammenhange stehen.
[ 7 ] Auf diese Art wird die Erkenntnis von den wiederholten Erdenleben zur wirklichen Beobachtung gebracht. (Nur um immer wieder vorkommenden Mißverständnissen vorzubeugen, sei erwähnt, was in andern meiner Schriften genauer dargestellt ist. Das Gesamtdasein des Menschen verläuft nicht etwa so, dass sich das Leben ewig wiederholt. Es findet eine gewisse Zahl von Wiederholungen statt, daran schließen sich vorher und nachher ganz andre Daseinsarten; und alles dieses zeigt sich in seinem Gesamtverlaufe als weisheitsvolle Entwickelung.)
[ 8 ] Die Erkenntnis, dass der Mensch in wiederholten Leben seine Entwickelung durchmacht, kann auch durch vernunftgemäße Beobachtung des Sinnenseins gewonnen werden. In meinem Buche «Theosophie», in meinem «Umriß der Geheimwissenschaft» sowie in kleineren Schriften von mir sind Beweise für die wiederholten Erdenleben und ihren Zusammenhang versucht worden, die in solcher Form gehalten sind, welche den wissenschaftlichen Erwägungen der gegenwärtigen naturwissenschaftlichen Entwickelungslehre eigen ist. Es sollte da gezeigt werden, wie ein folgerechtes Denken und Forschen, das wirklich die naturwissenschaftlichen Forschungen zu Ende führt, gar nicht anders kann, als den Entwickelungsgedanken, wie ihn die letzten Zeiten gebracht haben, für den Menschen so zu gestalten, dass die wahre Wesenheit, die Seelenindividualität des Menschen als etwas angesehen wird, das sich durch wiederholte Sinnenleben mit dazwischenliegenden rein geistigen Lebensläufen hindurch entwickelt. Was da als Beweise versucht wurde, kann naturgemäß viel weiter ausgebaut, vervollkommnet werden. Aber es kann die Meinung nicht unberechtigt erscheinen, dass Beweise auf diesem Gebiete genau denselben wissenschaftlichen Erkennmiswert haben, wie das, was man sonst naturwissenschaftliche Beweise nennt. Es gibt nichts in der Wissenschaft des Geistigen, was sich nicht durch so gehaltene Beweise stützen ließe. Man muß ja allerdings sagen, dass die geisteswissenschaftlichen Beweise ganz selbstverständlich sich viel schwerer Anerkennung verschaffen können als die naturwissenschaftlichen. Das rührt aber nicht davon her, weil sie weniger strenge sind, sondern weil der Mensch, wenn er sie vor sich hat, den sinnlichen Tatsachenboden nicht empfindet, der ihm in der Naturwissenschaft die Zustimmung zu den Beweisen leicht macht. Mit der Beweiskraft als solcher hat das aber gar nichts zu tun. Und wer imstande ist, unbefangen die naturwissenschaftlichen Beweise mit den in derselben Art gegebenen geisteswissenschaftlichen Beweisen zu vergleichen, der wird sich von dem gleichen Wert in bezug auf die Beweiskraft wohl überzeugen können. So kann zu dem, was der Beobachter der geistigen Welten aus seinem Schauen als Beschreibung über die wiederholten Erdenleben geben kann, noch hinzukommen, was durch solche Beweise darüber zu bekräftigen ist. Das eine kann dem andern helfen, eine Überzeugung von der Wiederholung des gesamten menschlichen Lebenslaufes zu gewinnen durch bloßes Begreifen. - Hier wurde versucht, den Weg zu zeigen, welcher über das Begreifen hinaus zum übersinnlichen Schauen dieser Wiederholung führt.
Eighth meditation
The meditator tries to form an idea of the vision of the repeated earthly lives of man
[ 1 ] To speak of the dangers of the wandering of the soul into the supersensible worlds is not really justified if this wandering is a proper one. Such a journey would not achieve its goal if its spiritual behavioral measures included something that would lead to danger for the human being. Rather, the aim is always to make the soul strong, to draw together its powers so that the human being becomes capable of enduring the spiritual experiences he has to go through if he wants to see and understand worlds other than the senses.
[ 2 ] An essential difference between the sense world and the supersensible worlds also results from the fact that seeing, perceiving and comprehending are in a different relationship in the supersensible worlds than in the sense world. Whoever hears about a part of the sensory world will have the feeling, with a certain right, that he can only reach a complete understanding through seeing, through perception. A landscape or a painting will only be understood when you have seen it. The supersensible worlds can be fully understood when one receives a proper description through unbiased judgment. To comprehend and experience all the life-enhancing, life-satisfying powers of the spiritual worlds, one needs only the descriptions given by those who can see. Real knowledge of such worlds can only be gained by those who are able to observe outside the sensory body. Descriptions of the spiritual world must ultimately always come from observers of it. However, the knowledge of these worlds that is necessary for the life of the soul is achieved through comprehension. And it is quite possible that someone has no personal insight into the supersensible worlds and yet understands them and their peculiarities perfectly; understands them in such a way as the soul will and must always demand this with full right under certain circumstances.
[ 3 ] Therefore it is also possible that someone takes the means of his inner contemplation from the treasure of ideas which he has acquired about the spiritual worlds. Such immersion material is the very best. It is the one that leads most surely to the goal. The belief does not correspond to the facts which suggest that it is a hindrance to the acquisition of supersensible vision to have acquired the knowledge of these worlds before this acquisition through comprehension. On the contrary, the opposite is true, namely that it is safer and easier to see with prior apprehension than without it. Whether someone leaves it at grasping or strives for seeing depends on whether the urge to observe has already arisen in him or not. If it has arisen, then he cannot help but seek the opportunity to really embark on the journey into the supersensible worlds. - From our times onwards, however, more and more people will demand an understanding of these worlds, for a true observation of life shows that from the present time onwards, human souls enter into such a state that they cannot enter into the necessary relationship with life without understanding the supersensible worlds.
[ 4 ] When the human being has reached the stage of transmigration of the soul where he carries within himself as a memory everything that he calls "himself", what he calls his being in the senses, and experiences himself in a now acquired superior "I", then he becomes capable of seeing the course of life beyond the sensual earthly existence. Before his spiritual gaze comes the fact that this sensual existence was preceded by another existence of himself in the spiritual world. And that in this spiritual being lie the true causes for the shaping of the sense being. One learns the fact that before this sense life, into which one has entered when one has received a sensual body, one has already lived purely spiritually. - How one is now as a human being, with these or those abilities, these or those instincts, that is what one sees prepared in an existence which one has previously lived in a purely spiritual world. One sees oneself as a spiritually living being that has preceded one's entry into the sense world and that has striven to live as a sense being with the abilities and soul characteristics that one has carried and developed since birth. He would be mistaken who would say, for example, how could I have striven for abilities and instincts in my spiritual being which I do not like at all now that I have them in me. It does not matter whether the soul likes something in the senses or not; it has quite different points of view for striving in the spirit than afterwards in the senses. The nature of knowledge and volition is quite different in the two worlds. In the spiritual being one knows that one needs a sensual life for one's overall development, which may be unpleasant or oppressive for the soul in the sensual being; and yet one strives for it, because in the spiritual being one does not look at what is pleasant and agreeable, but at what is necessary for the right development of one's own being.
[ 5 ] The fate of life is similar. One sees them and sees how one has prepared the pleasant and also the unpleasant in one's spiritual being, how one has brought about the means that cause one to experience this or that happiness or pain in one's senses. Here too, as long as a person experiences himself merely in his senses, he may find it incomprehensible that he has brought about this or that situation in life himself; but in his spiritual being he has had what can be called a supersensible insight, in the sense that he has said to himself that you must go through the painful or unpleasant, for only such an experience will take you one step further in your overall development. One can never recognize the extent to which an earthly life brings a person forward in his overall development from the mere assessment of his sensuality.
[ 6 ] After recognizing the spiritual being that preceded the sensual being on earth, it is then possible to see the reasons why one has striven for a certain kind and a certain destiny for the sensual being in the spiritual being. These reasons lead to a previous earthly life that one has lived through in the past. Depending on how this life went, depending on whether one had certain experiences or acquired certain abilities, one strives in the subsequent spiritual being to improve on poorly gained experiences in a new life on earth, to develop abilities that have remained undeveloped. In one's spiritual being one feels an injustice that one has inflicted on a person, for example, in such a way that one has thereby disturbed the world order, and that it is necessary to be on earth at the same time as the person in question in a further life in order to make up for the injustice in the corresponding relationships with him. - As the soul's development progresses, the view of a series of previous earth lives expands. In this way one arrives at an observing realization of the true course of life of the superior "I". One sees that man passes through his entire existence on earth in repeated earthly sevens, and that between the repeated earthly sevens lie purely spiritual life courses which are lawfully connected with the earthly lives.
[ 7 ] In this way, the knowledge of the repeated earth lives is brought to real observation. (Just to prevent misunderstandings that occur again and again, I would like to mention what is described in more detail in other of my writings. The total existence of man does not proceed in such a way that life repeats itself eternally. A certain number of repetitions take place, followed before and after by quite different kinds of existence; and all this shows itself in its overall course as a wisdom-filled development).
[ 8 ] The realization that man undergoes his development in repeated lives can also be gained through rational observation of the senses. In my book "Theosophy", in my "Outline of the Secret Science" as well as in smaller writings of mine, proofs have been attempted for the repeated earth lives and their connection, which are held in such a form, which is peculiar to the scientific considerations of the current natural scientific development theory. The aim was to show how a logical way of thinking and research, which really takes scientific research to its logical conclusion, cannot help but shape the idea of development, as it has been presented in recent times, in such a way that the true essence, the soul-individuality of man is seen as something that develops through repeated sense lives with purely spiritual life courses in between. What has been attempted as evidence can naturally be developed and perfected much further. But the opinion cannot appear unjustified that evidence in this field has exactly the same scientific value as what is otherwise called scientific evidence. There is nothing in the science of the spiritual that cannot be supported by such evidence. It must be said, however, that the proofs of the spiritual sciences naturally find it much more difficult to gain recognition than those of the natural sciences. But this is not because they are less rigorous, but because, when man has them before him, he does not feel the sensuous ground of fact which in the natural sciences makes it easy for him to assent to the proofs. But this has nothing to do with the power of proof as such. And anyone who is able to compare the evidence of the natural sciences with the evidence of the humanities given in the same way without bias will be able to convince himself of the equal value of the evidence. Thus, in addition to what the observer of the spiritual worlds can give as a description of the repeated earth lives from his vision, there can also be added what can be confirmed by such evidence. The one can help the other to gain a conviction of the repetition of the entire course of human life through mere comprehension. - An attempt has been made here to show the path that leads beyond comprehension to the supersensible vision of this repetition.