Cosmology, Religion and Philosophy
GA 25
VIII. The Event of Death and Its Relationship with the Christ
[ 1 ] In the state of sleep, sense-experience ceases for the ordinary consciousness as does also the psychic activity of thinking, feeling and willing. Thus man loses what he terms as ‘himself’.
[ 2 ] Through the psychic exercises of the soul which have been described in the previous studies, thinking is the first to be seized by the higher consciousness. Without being lost first however, thinking cannot be thus seized. In successful meditation one experiences this loss of thinking. One does actually feel oneself as an independent inner being; there is actually some kind of an inner experience. But one cannot at once experience one's own entity so strongly as to comprehend it through active thought. This only becomes possible by degrees. The inner activity grows and the power of thinking is kindled from a quarter other than ordinary consciousness. In this ordinary consciousness can one only experience oneself in a momentary glimpse. But by the rekindling of thought through the psychic exercises, after passing through not-thinking and arriving at imagining, one experiences the content of the whole cycle of life from birth to the present moment as one's own proper Ego.
The memories of ordinary consciousness are also experiences of the moment, images realized in the present which point to the past only through their content.
[ 3] Such memories are at first lost when image-making begins. The past is then seen as if it was something present. As in sense-perception the senses are led to the things which are side by side in space, so the kindled activity of the soul is led to the different events of one's own life in image-making. The course of events in time is presented as happening at the same time. A process of growth becomes something present at the moment.
[ 4 ] But in higher consciousness there is something else than just the memories of the ordinary consciousness. There you have the activity of the etheric organism previously unknown to this consciousness. The memories of the ordinary consciousness are only images of man's experience through his physical organism of the outer world, whereas the ‘imaginative’ consciousness knows the activity which the etheric organism has effected in the physical organism.
[ 5 ] The rising-up of this experience happens in such a way that one has the feeling of something rising from the depths of the soul which before had indeed lain hidden in one's own nature, but had not surged up into the consciousness. All this must be experienced in full consciousness; and that is the case if the ordinary consciousness continues to be kept side by side with the ‘imaginative’.
The experiences gained in the active exchange between etheric and physical organism must always be capable of being brought into relationship with the corresponding memory-life of the ordinary consciousness. Whoever is not able to do this is not dealing with imagination but with an experience of a visionary kind.
[ 6 ] In visionary experience consciousness is not adding a new content to the old, as in imagination, but it is changed; the old content cannot be recalled at the same time as the new. The man who has ‘imagination’ has his ordinary self next to him, as it were; the visionary has been turned into quite a different being.
[ 7 ] Anybody criticizing Anthroposophy from the outside should take note of this. Imaginative knowledge has often been considered as leading to something visionary. This view has to be strictly rejected by the true researcher into the spirit. He does by no means replace the ordinary consciousness by a visionary one, but he incorporates an imaginative one into it. Ordinary thinking fully controls imaginative experience at every moment. The visionary picturing is a stronger entering of the ego into the physical organism than is the case in the ordinary consciousness. Imagining on the other hand is an actual ‘stepping-out’ from the physical organism, and the ordinary constitution of the soul remains by its side consciously held in the physical organism.
We grow conscious in a part of the soul which before was unconscious, but that part which before was conscious in the physical organism remains in the same psychic condition. The interchange between the experience of imagination and that of ordinary consciousness is just as real a happening to the soul as is the guiding to and fro of soul-activity from one thought to another in the course of ordinary consciousness. If this is kept in mind one cannot mistake imaginative knowledge for something of a visionary nature. It tends, on the contrary, to drive out all inclination to what is visionary. But he who uses ‘imaginative cognition’ is also in a position to realize that visions are not independent of the body but dependent on it in a far higher degree than sense-experiences. For he can compare the character of visions with that of imagination which is really independent of the body. The Visionary is more deeply immersed in his physical functions than the man who perceives the outer world by means of his senses in the ordinary way.
[ 8 ] When Imagination takes place ordinary thinking is recognized as something having no substantial content. Only what is introduced into consciousness by imagination is found to be the substantial content of this ordinary thinking. Ordinary thinking may indeed be compared to a mirrored picture. But while the mirrored picture rises in the ordinary consciousness the imagined picture is alive unconsciously.
We imagine also in our ordinary psychic life, but unconsciously. If we did not imagine we should not think. The conscious thoughts of ordinary psychic life are the reflections of unconscious imagining mirrored by the physical organism. And the substantial part of this imagining is the etheric organism which is manifest in the development of man's earthly life.
[ 9 ] A new element enters the consciousness with inspiration. In order to attain inspiration the individual human life must be abstracted, as has been described in the previous studies. But the power of activity which the soul has won for itself by imagining still remains. Possessing this power the soul can attain pictures of that which in the universe underlies the etheric organism just as this underlies the physical.
[ 10 ] And thus the soul is faced with its own eternal nature. In the ordinary consciousness it happens that the soul can only give its activity a conceptual form by grasping the physical organism. It dives into it and there finds the pictured reflections of that which it experiences with its etheric organism. This latter, however, the soul does not experience in its activity. This etheric organism is itself experienced in imaginative consciousness. But this happens through the soul having gone further back with its experience to the astral organism. As long as the soul merely ‘imagines’ it lives unconsciously in the astral organism, and both the physical and etheric organisms are contemplated; as soon as the soul attains ‘inspired’ knowledge the astral organism is also brought into contemplation; for the soul now lives in the eternal centre of its being, and can contemplate this by means of the continuation of ‘intuitive’ cognition. Through this it lives in the spiritual world, as in ordinary existence it lives in its physical organism.
[ 11 ] The soul learns in this way how the physical, etheric and astral organisms grow out of the spiritual world. But it can also observe the continued activity of the spiritual in the organization of the earthly being—man. It sees how the spiritual centre of man's nature sinks into the physical, etheric and astral organism. This sinking is not really a merging of something spiritual into something physical, so that the former dwells in the latter. But it is a transformation of part of the human soul into the physical and etheric organization. This part of the soul disappears during earthly life by being transformed into the physical and etheric organism. It is this part of the soul which is experienced through thought by the ordinary consciousness in its reflection. But the soul emerges again elsewhere.
This is the case with that part of it which in earthly existence is experienced as volition, which has a different character from thought. Volition even during wakefulness contains a section which is asleep. The soul receives a thought clearly. Actually man when he thinks is fully awake, which is not the case with volition. The will is stimulated by thought. Consciousness extends as far as thought. But then the act of volition sinks into the human organism. If I deliberately raise my hand I have the causal thought in my ordinary consciousness to start with, and the sight of my raised hand with all the accompanying sensations is the result of my act of will. What is between remains unconscious. What happens in the depths of the organism when a man puts his will into action escapes the ordinary consciousness just as do the events of sleep. Man has always a part of himself asleep even when he is awake.
[ 12 ] This is the part in which continues to live during earthly existence as much of the Spirit-Soul as had not been transformed into the physical organism. One perceives this when true intuition has been achieved by the exercises of the will previously described. Then we recognize behind the will the eternal part of the human soul, which is transformed into the head-organization; and disappears in its form-life during earthly existence, rises again on the other side to pass through death and to become ready once more to help in a future physical body and earthly life.
This brings this study to the event of death which is to be further touched upon in the next. For by the views I have put before you to-day we are led only to the continuity of the Will and to a knowledge of that part of the soul from the past, which is transformed into human head-organization. We have not reached the destiny of the ego-consciousness, which can only be treated in conjunction with the Christ-problem. Therefore that study will again lead us back to a consideration of the mysteries of Christianity.
[ 13 ] The customary Philosophy of Ideas consists of thoughts; but they have no life, no substance. The substance comes by leaving behind the physical organism in ‘Imagination’. As I have shown, formerly the ideas of Philosophy were only mirrored pictures. If these are built up into a Philosophy, and if one studies them without prejudice, one must feel their unreality. One feels vaguely the moment here described as the one in which all remembered thought entirely disappears.
Augustine and Descartes have felt this, but have inefficiently explained it to themselves as ‘doubt’. But Philosophy acquires life when the unity of life is substantiated in the soul.
Bergson perceived this, and has expressed it in his idea of ‘Duration’. But he did not proceed beyond this point.
Starting with this as a basis, we shall proceed to consider its bearing upon Cosmology and Religious cognition.
VIII. Das gewöhnliche und das höhere Bewusstsein
[ 1 ] Im Schlafzustande hört für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein das Sinnes-Erleben auf, und auch die seelische Betätigung in Denken, Fühlen und Wollen. Damit entfällt dem Menschen dasjenige, was er als sein «Selbst» zusammenfaßt.
[ 2 ] Durch die in den vorangehenden Betrachtungen charakterisierten Seelenübungen wird von einem höheren Bewußtsein zunächst das Denken erfaßt. Man kann dieses Erfassen nicht bewirken, ohne das Denken zuerst verloren zu haben. Im Erfolg bewirkenden Meditieren erlebt man diesen Verlust des Denkens. Man fühlt sich zwar innerlich als wesenhaft; es tritt ein unbestimmtes inneres Erleben ein; aber man kann sich zunächst nicht selbst mit einem so starken Sein erleben, daß man dieses Innensein in denkender Tätigkeit erfassen könnte. Diese Möglichkeit tritt erst nach und nach ein. Die innere Aktivität wächst; und die Kraft des Denkens wird von einer andern Seite entzündet als im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein. Man erlebt sich in diesem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein immer nur in einem gegenwartigen Augenblicke. Indem durch die Seelenübungen das Denken wieder entzündet wird, nachdem man durch das Nicht-Denken hindurchgegangen und dadurch zum Imaginieren gekommen ist, erlebt man den Inhalt des ganzen Lebenslaufes von der Geburt bis zum jeweilig gegenwärtigen Augenblicke als das eigene «Ich». Auch die Erinnerungen des gewöhnlichen Bewußt-seins sind Erlebnisse des gegenwärtigen Augenblickes. Sie sind Bilder, die gegenwärtig erlebt werden, und die durch ihren Inhalt auf Vergangenes nur hinweisen.
[ 3 ] Solche Erinnerung entfällt zuerst beim Eintritte des Imaginierens. Das Vergangene wird dann angeschaut, wie wenn es ein Gegenwärtiges wäre. Wie man in der Sinneswahrnehmung den Sinn nach den Dingen hinlenkt, die im Raume nebeneinander sind, so lenkt man die erwachte Aktivität der Seele im Imaginieren nach den verschiedenen Geschehnissen des eigenen Lebenslaufes hin. Man hat den zeitlichen Verlauf als Einheit vor sich. Der Inhalt des Werdens tritt als ein augenblicklich Gegenwärtiges auf.
[ 4 ] Aber man hat im höheren Bewußtsein etwas anderes als die Erinnerungen des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins. Man hat die Tätigkeit des vorher diesem Bewußtsein unbekannten ätherischen Örganismus vor sich. Die Erinnerungen des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins sind nur Bilder dessen, was der Mensch durch seinen physischen Organismus mit der Aussenwelt erlebt hat. Das imaginative Bewußtsein aber erlebt die Tätigkeit, welche der ätherische Organismus am physischen Organismus vollbracht hat.
[ 5 ] Das Auftauchen dieses Erlebens geschieht so, daß man das Gefühl hat, es steigt aus den Seelentiefen etwas herauf, das vorher in der eigenen Wesenheit zwar gesteckt hat, das aber nicht in das Bewußtsein herauf seine Wellen getrieben hat. Alles dieses muß in voller Besonnenheit erlebt werden. Das ist der Fall, wenn das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein neben dem imaginativen vollkommen erhalten bleibt. Man muß die Erlebnisse, die man an der Wechselwirkung zwischen ätherischem und physischem Organismus m#ht, stets in Beziehung bringen können zu dem entspr enden Erinnerungsleben des gewöhnlichen Bewußt seins. Wer das nicht kann, hat es nicht mit einer Imagination zu tun, sondern mit einem visionären Erleben.
[ 6 ] In dem visionären Erleben ist das Bewußtsein nicht wie bei der Imagination mit einem neuen Inhalt erfüllt, der zu dem alten hinzukommt, sondern es ist verwandelt; der alte Inhalt kann neben dem neuen nicht gegenwärtig gemacht werden. Der Imaginierende hat seinen gewöhnlichen Menschen neben sich; der Visionär hat sich ganz in einen andern Menschen verwandelt.
[ 7 ] Wer die anthroposophische Forschung von außen kritisiert, muß das beachten. Es kommt immer wieder vor, daß die imaginative Erkenntnis so beurteilt wird, als ob sie zu einem Visionären führte. Ein solches muß gerade der wahre Geistesforscher im strengsten Sinne von sich weisen. Er setzt nicht an die Stelle des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins ein visionäres; sondern er gliedert dem gewöhnlichen das imaginative ein. Bei ihm waltet in jedem Augenblicke die volle Kontrolle des imaginativ Erlebten durch das gewöhnliche Denken. Das visionäre Vorstellen ist ein stärkeres Hineinlehen des «Ich» in den physischen Organismus, als das beim gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein der Fall ist. Das Imaginieren ist ein wirkliches Heraustreten aus dem physischen Organismus; und es bleibt daneben der gewöhnliche Bestand der Seele in dem physischen Organismus bewußt erhalten. Man wird bewußt in einem Teile der Seele, der vorher unbewußt war; aber der Seelenteil, der vorher im physischen Organismus bewußt war, bleibt in dem gleichen seelischen Erleben. Das Wechselverhältnis zwischen dem Erleben des Imaginierten unddemjenigen des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins ist ein ebenso besonnenes Erfahren der Seele wie das Hin- und Herlenken der Seelentätigkeit von einer Vorstellung zur andern im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein. Berücksichtigt man dieses, so wird man die imaginative Erkenntnis nicht so beurteilen, als ob sie etwas Visionäres wäre. Sie ist, im Gegenteil, dazu geeignet, alle Neigungen zum Visionären zu vertreiben. Aber der imaginativ Erkennende ist auch in der Lage, einzusehen, daß in den Visionen nicht körperfreie Erlebnisse gegeben sind, sondern solche, die in einem viel höheren Grade vom Körper abhängig sind als die Sinneserlebnisse. Denn er kann den Charakter der Visionen mit dem der wirklich körperfreien Imaginationen vergleichen. Der Visionär steckt tiefer in seinen physischen Körperfunktionen darinnen als derjenige, der auf gewöhnliche Art seine Sinneswahrnehmungen erlebt.
[ 8 ] Tritt die Imagination ein, dann wird das gewöhnliche Denken als etwas erkannt, das keinen substantiellen Bestand in sich hat. Als der substantielle Inhalt dieses gewöhnlichen Denkens ergibt sich dasjenige, was man mit der Imagination in das Bewußtsein einführt. Das gewöhnliche Denken läßt sich in der Tat vergleichen mit einem Spiegelbild. Aber während im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein das Spiegelbild entsteht, ist das auf unbewußte Art lebendig, was in der Imagination auftritt. Man imaginiert auch im gewöhnlichen Seelenleben; aber unbewußt. Imaginierte man nicht, so dächte man nicht. Die bewußten Gedanken des gewöhnlichen Seelenlebens sind die von dem physischen Organismus reflektierten Spiegelbilder des unbewußten Imaginierens. Und das Substantielle dieses Imaginierens ist der ätherische Organismus, der in der irdischen Lebensentwickelung des Menschen sich offenbart.
[ 9 ] Mit der Inspiration tritt ein neues Element in das Bewußtsein ein. Von dem eigenen menschlichen Lebenslauf muß, um zur Inspiration zu kommen, so abstrahiert werden, wie das in den vorigen Betrachtungen dargestellt worden ist. Aber die Kraft der Aktivität, welche sich die Seele durch das Imaginieren errungen hat, bleibt dabei erhalten. Im Besitze dieser Kraft kann die Seele zu Vorstellungen von demjenigen gelangen, was im Weltall dem ätherischen Organismus ebenso zugrunde liegt, wie dieser dem physischen.
[ 10 ] Und damit wird die Seele vor ihre eigene ewige Wesenheit gestellt. Im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein ist es so, daß die Seele, wenn sie vorstellend aktiv werden will, dies nur kann, indem sie den physischen Organismus ergreift. Sie taucht in denselben unter, und er reflektiert ihr in den Vorstellungsbildern dasjenige, was sie mit ihrem ätherischen Organismus erlebt. Diesen selbst erlebt sie aber in seiner Tätigkeit nicht. Im imaginativen Bewußtsein wird dann dieser ätherische Organismus selbst erlebt. Aber es geschieht dies dadurch, daß die Seele mit ihrem Erleben zu dem astralen Organismus weiter zurückgegangen ist. Solange die Seele bloß imaginiert, lebt sie im astralischen Organismus unbewußt, und der physische und ätherische werden angeschaut; sobald die Seele in inspirierter Erkenntnis ist, wird auch der astralische Organismus an-geschaut. Denn die Seele lebt jetzt in ihrem ewigen We-senskerne. Diesen anzuschauen, vermag die Seele durch das Fortschreiten zur intuitiven Erkenntnis. Durch diese lebt sie in der geistigen Welt, wie sie im gewöhnlichen Dasein in ihrem physischen Organismus lebt.
[ 11 ] Die Seele erkennt auf diese Art, wie physischer, ätherischer und astralischer Organismus aus der geistigen Welt sich herausbilden. Aber sie kann auch das Fortwirken des Geistigen an der Organisation des Erdenwesens «Mensch» beobachten. Sie sieht, wie der geistige Wesenskern des Menschen in den physischen, ätherischen und astralischen Organismus untertaucht. Dieses Untertauchen ist nicht etwa ein Hineinschlüpfen eines Geistigen in ein Physisches, so daß das erstere dann das letztere bewohnte. Nein, es ist ein Verwandeln eines Teiles der Menschenseele in die physische und ätherische Organisation. Dieser Teil der Menschenseele verschwindet während des Erdenlebens, indem er sich in den physischen und ätherischen Organismus verwandelt. Es ist derjenige Teil der Seele, von dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein in seinem Abglanz durch das Denken erlebt wird. Aber die Seele taucht auf einer andern Seite wieder auf. Es ist das der Fall mit demjenigen ihrer Teile, der im Erdendasein als Wollen erlebt wird. Das Wollen hat einen andern Charakter als das Denken. Im Wollen trägt der Mensch auch während des gewöhnlichen Wachlebens einen schlafenden Teil in sich. Das Gedachte steht klar vor der Seele. Der Mensch ist denkend wirklich ein vollerwachter. Das ist beim Wollen nicht der Fall. Der Wille wird durch den Gedanken angeregt. Soweit der Gedanke reicht, reicht auch das wache Bewußtsein. Aber dann taucht der Willensakt unter in den menschlichen Organismus. Bewege ich durch den Willen meine Hand, so habe ich im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein den veranlassenden Gedanken als Anfang und die Anschauung der Hand-Erhebung mit allen begleitenden gefühlsmäßigen Seelenerlebnissen als Ende der Willenswirkung. Die Mitte bleibt unbewußt. Was aber in den Tiefen des Organismus vor sich geht, wenn ein Wollen im Menschen abläuft, das entzieht sich dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins geradeso wie die Erlebnisse des Schlafes. Der Mensch hat immerfort auch im- Wachen einen schlafenden Teil in sich.
[ 12 ] Dieser Teil ist dasjenige, in dem vom Geist-Seelischen während des Erdendaseins das weiterlebt, was sich nicht in den physischen Organismus verwandelt. Man erschaut diese Verhältnisse, wenn durch die in den vorigen Betrachtungen geschilderten Willensübungen die wahre Intuition herbeigeführt worden ist. Dann erkennt man hinter dem Wollen den ewigen Teil der Menschenseele. Dieser verwandelt sich in die Kopforganisation; er verschwindet in deren Form und Leben während des Erdenlebens, und taucht auf der andern Seite wieder auf, um durch den Tod hindurchzugehen und wieder zur Mitarbeit an einem zukünftigen physischen Erdenkörper und Erdenleben reif zu werden. Damit dringt diese Betrachtung an das Ereignis des Todes im Menschenleben heran, das in der nächsten Betrachtung weiter geschildert werden soll. Denn man kommt durch die Anschauung, die ich heute entwickelt habe, nur zu dem Fortleben des Wollens und zu einer Erkenntnis eines Seelenteiles aus der Vergangenheit, der sich in die menschliche Kopforganisation verwandelt. Man kommt aber nicht zu dem Schicksal des Ich-Bewußtseins. Dieses kann nur im Zusammen-hange mit dem Christusproblem behandelt werden. Daher wird die entsprechende Betrachtung wieder zu einer Anschauung der Geheimnisse des Christentums zurückführen.
[ 13 ] Die gewöhnliche Ideen-Philosophie verläuft in Gedanken; aber man hat in diesen Gedanken kein Leben, keine Substanz. Man erhält die Substanz, wenn einem in der Imagination der physische Organismus entfällt. Vorher waren eben die Gedanken der Philosophie nur Spiegelbilder in der geschilderten Art. Gestaltet man diese zur Philosophie aus, so muß man deren Unwirkliches empfinden, wenn man sich unbefangen in sie einlebt. Man empfindet dann ahnend den Moment, der hier charakterisiert worden ist als der, in dem das erinnerte Denken ganz verschwindet. Augustinus und Descartes haben das empfunden, aber es sich ungenügend als «Zweifeln» gedeutet. Es erhält aber die Philosophie Leben, wenn die Einheit des Lebenslaufes substantiiert in der Seele auftaucht. Das hat Bergson empfunden und in seiner Idee der «Dauer» zum Ausdrucke gebracht. Aber er ist von diesem Punkte aus nicht weitergegangen. Wie es, aus diesen Verhältnissen heraus, mit der Kosmologie und Religionserkenntnis steht, soll im weiteren betrachtet werden.
VIII. The ordinary and the higher consciousness
[ 1 ] In the state of sleep, the ordinary consciousness ceases to experience the senses, and also the activity of the soul in thinking, feeling and willing. Thus, the human being loses that which he summarizes as his "self".
[ 2 ] Thinking is first grasped by a higher consciousness through the soul exercises characterized in the preceding observations. One cannot bring about this grasping without first having lost thinking. In successful meditation one experiences this loss of thinking. Although one feels oneself inwardly as a being; an indeterminate inner experience occurs, one cannot at first experience oneself with such a strong being that one could grasp this inner being in thinking activity. This possibility only arises gradually. The inner activity grows; and the power of thinking is kindled from another side than in ordinary consciousness. In this ordinary consciousness one only ever experiences oneself in a present moment. By re-igniting thinking through the exercises of the soul, after one has passed through non-thinking and thereby come to imagining, one experiences the content of the whole course of life from birth to the present moment as one's own "I". The memories of ordinary consciousness are also experiences of the present moment. They are images that are experienced in the present and that only refer to the past through their content.
[ 3 ] Such memories first cease to exist when the imagining occurs. The past is then viewed as if it were present. Just as in sensory perception one directs the sense towards the things that are next to each other in space, so one directs the awakened activity of the soul in imagining towards the various events of one's own life course. One has the temporal course before one as a unity. The content of becoming appears as an instantaneous present.
[ 4 ] But one has something different in the higher consciousness than the memories of the ordinary consciousness. We have before us the activity of the etheric organism previously unknown to this consciousness. The memories of the ordinary consciousness are only images of what the human being has experienced through his physical organism with the outside world. The imaginative consciousness, however, experiences the activity that the etheric organism has performed on the physical organism.
[ 5 ] The emergence of this experience happens in such a way that one has the feeling that something is rising up from the depths of the soul that was previously in one's own being, but which has not made its waves up into the consciousness. All this must be experienced in full awareness. This is the case when the ordinary consciousness is completely preserved alongside the imaginative consciousness. One must always be able to relate the experiences one has of the interaction between the etheric and physical organism to the corresponding memory life of the ordinary consciousness. Anyone who cannot do this is not dealing with an imagination, but with a visionary experience.
[ 6 ] In the visionary experience, the consciousness is not filled with a new content that is added to the old one, as in the imagination, but it is transformed; the old content cannot be made present alongside the new one. The imaginer has his ordinary human being beside him; the visionary has completely transformed himself into another human being.
[ 7 ] Whoever criticizes anthroposophical research from the outside must bear this in mind. It happens again and again that imaginative insight is judged as if it led to a visionary. The true spiritual researcher must reject this in the strictest sense. He does not substitute a visionary consciousness for the ordinary one; rather, he incorporates the imaginative into the ordinary one. With him, the imaginative experience is fully controlled at every moment by ordinary thinking. The visionary imagination is a stronger leaning of the "I" into the physical organism than is the case with ordinary consciousness. Imagining is a real stepping out of the physical organism; and besides this, the ordinary existence of the soul in the physical organism remains consciously preserved. One becomes conscious in a part of the soul that was previously unconscious; but the part of the soul that was previously conscious in the physical organism remains in the same soul experience. The reciprocal relationship between the experience of the imagined and that of the ordinary consciousness is just as much a prudent experience of the soul as the to and fro of the soul's activity from one imagination to another in the ordinary consciousness. If this is taken into account, imaginative cognition will not be judged as if it were something visionary. On the contrary, it is capable of dispelling all tendencies towards the visionary. But the imaginative cognizer is also in a position to recognize that visions are not bodiless experiences, but experiences that are much more dependent on the body than sense experiences. For he can compare the character of the visions with that of the really bodiless imaginations. The visionary is more deeply involved in his physical bodily functions than the one who experiences his sensory perceptions in an ordinary way.
[ 8 ] When imagination occurs, ordinary thinking is recognized as something that has no substantial content in itself. The substantial content of this ordinary thinking is that which is introduced into consciousness through the imagination. Ordinary thinking can indeed be compared to a mirror image. But while the mirror image arises in ordinary consciousness, that which arises in the imagination is alive in an unconscious way. One also imagines in the ordinary life of the soul, but unconsciously. If one did not imagine, one would not think. The conscious thoughts of the ordinary life of the soul are the mirror images of unconscious imagining reflected by the physical organism. And the substance of this imagination is the etheric organism that reveals itself in the earthly development of human life.
[ 9 ] With inspiration, a new element enters the consciousness. In order to arrive at inspiration, we must abstract from our own human course of life in the way described in the previous observations. But the power of activity, which the soul has acquired through imagining, remains intact. In possession of this power, the soul can arrive at ideas of that which in the universe underlies the etheric organism just as much as the latter underlies the physical organism.
[ 10 ] And thus the soul is placed before its own eternal essence. In ordinary consciousness, if the soul wants to become active in imagination, it can only do so by taking hold of the physical organism. It immerses itself in it, and it reflects to it in the images of imagination that which it experiences with its etheric organism. But she does not experience it in its activity. This etheric organism itself is then experienced in the imaginative consciousness. But this happens because the soul has gone further back with its experience to the astral organism. As long as the soul merely imagines, it lives in the astral organism unconsciously, and the physical and etheric are looked at; as soon as the soul is in inspired cognition, the astral organism is also looked at. For the soul now lives in its eternal core of being. The soul is able to look at this through the progression to intuitive knowledge. Through this it lives in the spiritual world, as it lives in its physical organism in ordinary existence.
[ 11 ] In this way, the soul recognizes how the physical, etheric and astral organisms develop out of the spiritual world. But it can also observe the continued working of the spiritual in the organization of the earthly being "man". It sees how the spiritual essence of the human being submerges into the physical, etheric and astral organism. This submersion is not a slipping of a spiritual into a physical, so that the former then inhabits the latter. No, it is a transformation of a part of the human soul into the physical and etheric organization. This part of the human soul disappears during life on earth by transforming into the physical and etheric organism. It is that part of the soul which is experienced by the ordinary consciousness in its reflection through thinking. But the soul reappears on another side. This is the case with that part of it which is experienced in earthly existence as volition. Volition has a different character from thinking. In volition man carries a sleeping part within himself even during ordinary waking life. The thought stands clearly before the soul. When thinking, man is really fully awake. This is not the case with volition. The will is stimulated by thought. As far as the thought reaches, the awake consciousness also reaches. But then the act of will is submerged in the human organism. If I move my hand through the will, then in ordinary consciousness I have the prompting thought as the beginning and the sight of the raising of the hand with all the accompanying emotional experiences of the soul as the end of the effect of the will. The center remains unconscious. But what goes on in the depths of the organism, when a volition takes place in man, eludes ordinary consciousness just as much as the experiences of sleep. The human being always has a sleeping part within him even when he is awake.
[ 12 ] This part is that in which that part of the spirit-soul lives on during earthly existence which does not transform into the physical organism. You can see these relationships when true intuition has been brought about through the exercises of the will described in the previous observations. Then one recognizes the eternal part of the human soul behind the will. This transforms itself into the head organization; it disappears into its form and life during earthly life, and reappears on the other side to pass through death and again become ripe for cooperation in a future physical earthly body and earthly life. This contemplation thus approaches the event of death in human life, which will be described further in the next contemplation. For the view I have developed today only leads to the survival of the will and to a realization of a part of the soul from the past that transforms itself into the human head organization. But one does not arrive at the destiny of the I-consciousness. This can only be dealt with in connection with the problem of Christ. Therefore, the corresponding consideration will lead back to a view of the mysteries of Christianity.
[ 13 ] The usual philosophy of ideas proceeds in thoughts; but there is no life, no substance in these thoughts. Substance is obtained when the physical organism ceases to exist in the imagination. Previously, the thoughts of philosophy were only mirror images of the kind described. If one develops them into philosophy, one must feel their unreal nature if one lives into them impartially. One then senses the moment that has been characterized here as the one in which remembered thinking disappears completely. Augustine and Descartes felt this, but interpreted it inadequately as "doubt". However, philosophy is given life when the unity of the course of life emerges in the soul in a substantiated form. Bergson felt this and expressed it in his idea of "duration". But he did not go any further from this point. What the situation is with regard to cosmology and religious knowledge based on these relationships will be considered below.