Exact Clairvoyance and Ideal Magic
GA 218
17 November 1922, London
Translator Unknown
There is no doubt that in the present time a great number of people is longing to know something about the spiritual, supersensible worlds and even scientific men have recently made the attempt to discover paths enabling them to gain knowledge of the supersensible world. But a modern person is continually hampered in all these attempts to penetrate into the supersensible world by the obstacle of judgments based upon modern science, by the authority of modern science. But when one confronts sources out of which it might be possible to draw facts concerning the supersensible world, the following view is generally advanced; It is not possible to obtain exact knowledge of the supersensible worlds, the kind of knowledge which we are accustomed to have in modern science, for all these facts concerning the supersensible worlds do not stand the test.
But the spiritual science of Anthroposophy, which I shall take the liberty to explain to you now and in the following days, strives to reach an exact, a really exact knowledge of the supersensible world. This Knowledge is not “exact” in the meaning that experiments have to be made as is the case in modern science which deals with the external world, but exact spiritual knowledge consists in the fact that inner soul capacities of the human being which in ordinary life and in ordinary science only exist in a dormant state are developed in such a way that in the course, of this development the cle.ar conscious faculties remain throughout in full activity, as they do in exact modern science. Whereas in exact modern science we maintain the state of consciousness which we have in ordinary life and strictly observe the scientific methods while we investigate the external world, the spiritual science of Anthroposophy adopts a different attitude, for we submit to what p might designate as intellectual modesty and say to ourselves; Once upon a time we were children and we then had capacities which did not in the least approach those which we now possess as adults, faculties which we gained through education or through life itself. Even as from childhood onwards we developed certain capacities which we did not have before, so in a grown-up person there are certain dormant capacities which slumber within him in the same way in which his present capacities slumbered within his soul during childhood. These slumbering capacities may be drawn out of the soul with the aid of certain methods.
The spiritual science of Anthroposophy, in the meaning of these lectures, must draw these slumbering capacities out of the human soul in such a way that the methods applied to our development before we attain to supersensible knowledge, manifest every stage of our development, so that it follows a definite course. We therefore prepare ourselves for the perception of the higher worlds by applying first of all these preparatory measures to our own development, measures which in themselves constitute an exact method. As already explained to you in this same hall during my last lectures, an exact clairvoyance can therefore be reached along this path. Clairvoyance is gained in an exact way, whereas in ordinary science, with the aid of the ordinary powers of cognition, we can investigate Nature in an exact way.
To-day I shall not explain in detail how this exact clairvoyance can be acquired, but I shall speak of this more fully in due course. In my last lectures, however, I already spoke to you of the methods by which it is possible to gain exact clairvoyance. Further information on these methods may be obtained above all from the book that is now translated into English: “THE WAY OF INITIATION.”
I wish to point out to you to-day why it is not possible in ordinary life to penetrate into the higher worlds. This is denied to modern people chiefly because they are able to perceive the world only in the present moment. Through our eyes we can only perceive the world and its phenomena in the present moment/. Through our ears we can only hear tones in the present moment. This apples to each sensory organ. To begin with, everything which constitutes our past earthly existence can only be gathered by memory, that is to say, in the form of shadowy thoughts. Compare how living and real were your experiences ten years ago, and how pale and shadowy are the thoughts by which you remember them to-day.
To our ordinary consciousness, everything which transcends the present moment appears in such a form that it can only live in shadowy memories. But these shadowy memories can be stimulated to a higher life. This is possible by methods which, as already stated, will not be explained in detail to-day, by methods which consist of meditation in thought, of concentration upon thoughts, of self-training, and so forth.
Those who apply these methods and thus learn to live in thought just as intensively as they ordinarily live in their sense-impressions, acquire a certain faculty which consists in the fact that they are able to survey the world in a way which transcends the present moment. Such exercises which lead to the result that the world can be observed beyond the present moment, must however be made for a long time, and the time will be in accordance with the individual predisposition of each person, and they must consist of a careful system, that is to say, of exact meditation and concentration. Particularly in our days some people bring with them when they are born capacities which can be developed in this way. That is to say, such capacities are not evident immediately after birth in the form which they may take on afterwards, but at a certain moment of life they emerge from man's inner being and then we know that they could not have been acquired in the ordinary course of existence unless they had been brought into life through birth. These capacities reveal themselves in the fact that we can live in the world of thoughts in the same way in which we ordinarily live in the physical world through our physical body.
Do not take such a statement too lightly. Consider that the existence which we ascribe to ourselves is due to the fact that we are able to take part in the existence of the physical world through our own experience. If we reach the stage in which we are able to unfold an inner life independently of the impressions which we obtain through our eyes, our ears, and our other sense-organs, if we unfold this life which is inwardly just as intensive as the ordinary life of the senses and which does not only weave in shadowy thoughts but in inner living thoughts, so that these are experienced just as livingly as we ordinarily experience sense-impressions we gain the certainty of a second form of existence, we experience a new kind of self-consciousness.
We experience what I might designate as an awakening not outside the body, but within our inner self. A new life awakens within us, although our physical body is just as quiet and inert as when we are asleep in ordinary life, with the senses closed to the impressions which come from outside.
If we cast a glance into our inner self, we find that in ordinary life we are only aware of what we take in through our senses. Through direct perception we know nothing whatever of our own inner being. Our ordinary state of consciousness does not enable us to look into our inner organisation, but when we acquire the new kind or self-consciousness which lives in the sphere of pure thinking, we learn to look into our inner being in the same way in which we ordinarily look out into the physical world.
We then have more or less the following experience: In ordinary life, when we look out info our world, there must be the light of the sun or some other light shedding its rays upon the objects in our environment. This light, which is outside, enables us to perceive the external objects. When we gain consciousness of our inner being in this second state of existence within the activity of pure thought, which is however objectively real with the same intensity, and wealth of colour as the ordinary sense-perceptions, we then feel as it were (not only “as it were,” but in a real sense, meant spiritually of course), we feel an inner light, the existence of a light which sheds its rays upon our own inner being, in the same way in which external lights ordinarily illumine the objects in our environment.
For this reason, the state of human consciousness and experience which we thus acquire, may be designated as a form of clairvoyance. This clairvoyance which exists within the awakened spiritual self-consciousness at first gives rise to a new capacity; We are able to enter again, to live through again, every moment experienced during our earthly existence.
For example, it is quite possible to have the following experience: We were once eighteen years old. When we were eighteen, we experienced this or that thing. Now we do not only remember these experiences, but we live through them again, in a more or less strong and intensive way. We are once more what we were a “Time-body,” in contrast to the spatial physical body, which contains the sense-organs.
This Time-body appears all at once. We do not experience it in successive moments, but it is there all at once. It is there before us, in its inner mobility. We survey our own being within our whole past existence on earth, we survey our whole life, which we ordinarily review in memory, which we can ordinarily survey only in the form of pale thoughts, light falls upon our whole earthly life, but so that we stand within it and can live through every moment of our existence.
If we experience this inner illumination, we know that we do not only have a physical body, a spatial body. We then learn to know that the human being also has a second body, which is less substantial than the physical body, and which is really woven out of the images of our earthly, life. These images, however, are more than pictures, for they are forces which mould our earthly existence in a creative way. They form our physical organism and shape our activities. We thus learn to know of the existence of a second human being within us.
This second human being that now appears to us, is perceived in such a way that it grows aware of its existence. If becomes conscious of itself, even as the physical spatial body is aware of its existence within a physical body, it becomes conscious of its existence within a finer, I might say more etheric world, within a world which is filled with light. The world manifests itself to us in a second form of existence and reveals finer, more etheric shapes. For at the foundation of everything physical lie these finer more etheric forms, which can be perceived in this way.
We then have the strange experience that everything which we experience through this finer body can only be retained for a short time. Generally speaking, people who have acquired exact clairvoyance and can therefore shed light upon their etheric body, or the body of formative forces, as it can also be designated, perceive, the etheric aspect of the world, the etheric part of their own being. At the same time however, they must admit that these impressions vanish very quickly. They cannot be retained. A kind of fear then takes hold of us, and we wish to return as quickly as possible to the perceptions of the physical body, in order to feel an inner sense of firmness as human beings, as human personalities.
When we experience our own SELF within the etheric body, we also experience things pertaining to the higher world, we experience the etheric aspect of the higher world. And at the same time, we discover how fleeting these impressions are, for we cannot retain them for long; we can only retain them by seeking some kind of support.
Let me now give you an example showing you the kind of aid which I must draw in, in order to prevent these etheric impressions from vanishing too quickly. Whenever such impressions arise, I do not only endeavour to see them, but I also try to write them down, so that the activity, which thus sets in, does not only come from the soul's abstract capacities, but is held fast through the act of writing down the impressions. It is not important at all to read these notes afterwards; the essential thing is that a stronger activity should flow into the one which is, to begin with, a purely etheric activity.
By doing this, we pour, as it were, into our ordinary human capacities something which is immensely evanescent and liquid and which vanishes very quickly. This is not done unconsciously, as in the case of a medium, but with full consciousness. We pour our etheric experiences into our ordinary bodily faculties, and are thus able to retain these impressions.
This also enables us to understand something very important: We can now understand how a supersensible etheric world (we shall speak of other supersensible worlds in due course) can be retained. It is a supersensible, etheric world which comprises our own being, the course of our own life and the etheric part of Nature which reaches as far as the starry spheres. We learn to know this etheric world. And we learn to experience our own being within this etheric world, and at the same time we learn to know that unless we come down into the physical body it is impossible to retain the etheric world longer than two or three days at the most. If our clairvoyant faculties are highly developed, the etheric world can be retained for two or three days.
Since certain things, of which I shall speak presently, enable us to have this survey as modern initiates, we are able to form a judgment of what we thus, retain within our etheric body, or within the body of formative forces, without the support of our ordinary bodily capacities. It is the same survey which we obtain from the standpoint of a higher consciousness of self when we pass through the portal of death, after having cast aside the physical bone which decays. But for the reasons stated above, also this post-mortem survey cannot be retained in human consciousness longer than two or three days after death.
The development of an exact clairvoyance thus makes us experience the first conditions which arise after death. We experience them by learning to know them in advance, in a fully conscious state.
Every human being who sheds his physical body when passing through the portal of death, goes through the experiences which an initiate has in advance in a fully conscious state. But the human being would not continue to be conscious (why he has a consciousness after death, in spite of it all, will be explained afterwards) he would have no consciousness throughout the time in which higher knowledge enables him to retain his etheric body, or the body of formative forces, that is to say for two or three days.
Within his etheric body the human being can therefore be conscious of the etheric world for two or three days after death. Then he sheds this consciousness. He feels how the etheric body falls away from him, as it were, in the same way in which his physical body first fell away from him; he feels that it is now necessary to pass over to a new state of consciousness in order to continue to live consciously after death as a human being.
What I have now described to you as the first moments, as it were, after death (for in the face of the life of the cosmos these are only the first moments) can be retained by those who have acquired the above-mentioned capacity to look into the higher worlds. They experience in advance what otherwise takes place only after death. When such a strong consciousness of Self is acquired, so that the support of the physical body is no longer needed, these first moments after death can be experienced in advance within this intensified state of consciousness.
We can then shed light upon our higher existence, and this enables us to recognise within us that light which during the first two or three days after death sheds its rays upon a world which differs from our ordinary physical environment, which we perceive through our senses during our earthly existence between birth and death.
The experiences which follow these first days after death will be explained when the first part of this lecture has been translated.
The inner illumination described to you just now is needed in order to survey the supersensible part of life's course on earth, which, in its character form, continues a few days after death, as already explained. The spiritual light which sheds its rays into man's inner being must be kindled within us. This enables us to go beyond the stage in which we only live in the perceptions of the present moment transmitted by our sense-organs.
If we wish to gain further knowledge of the super-sensible world, not only the perceptive state of consciousness in life should undergo a transformation, but also life itself. Ordinary life generally consists of a state of existence enclosed within our physical spatial body. The boundaries of our skin are at the same time the boundaries of our existence. Our life reaches as far as the boundaries of our body. When we live within this state of consciousness we cannot go beyond that sphere of knowledge of the higher worlds which has been described so far. When we gain knowledge of the higher worlds, we can only transcend our ordinary experiences by acquiring a form of experience which is not closed in by our spatial body, but which participates in the life of the whole world which constitutes our environment in ordinary life.
It is possible to participate in the lit ... of the universe when we gain knowledge of the higher worlds. As already stated, I shall only give a few indications concerning the methods of a modern initiate which enable him to gain an exact knowledge of the higher worlds. Everything else may be found in my book “INITIATION.”
When we acquire the capacity to live not only within a second form of existence that consists in a life of thought still enclosed within the spatial body, but when we acquire the capacity to live outside our body, through the fact that we do not only allow certain thoughts to live intensively within our consciousness, but through the fact that we can also eliminate these thoughts from our consciousness by systematic exercise, we gain this new state of consciousness enabling us to have experiences outside the body. Let me now give you an easy example.
Let us suppose that we are contemplating a crystal. This crystal is there before us, because we see it with our eyes. A person who only wishes to become a medium or to reach a kind of hypnotic condition will stare at this crystal until a dulled state of consciousness arises. But the spiritual science of Anthroposophy has nothing to do with such things. It must draw in quite different exercises. When we look at a crystal, Anthroposophy finally leads us to the point of turning away our attention from the crystal, of abstracting our attention from it in the same way in which we generally abstract our attention from thoughts. We therefore have before us a crystal, but this crystal teaches us to look through it psychically, not physically, so that we do not use our eyes for this kind of contemplation, although our eyes are wide open. This psychical knowledge arises through the fact that we eliminate the crystal from our vision. Such exercises can also be done by eliminating a colour which we have before us, so that we no longer see it, although it is still there before us.
In this way we can above all do exercises consisting in the elimination of thoughts that rise up in the present moment through external impressions. Or we can eliminate thoughts which we have had in some past moment of our life and that now rise up in the form of memories; we eliminate such thoughts, we throw them out of our consciousness, so as to bring about a state of mind which only consists of a waking consciousness and which excludes every impression coming from the external world.
By doing such exercises we discover within us the capacity to transcend the boundaries of our spatial body, so that we no longer live within these boundaries. In that case we participate in the life of the whole world which we ordinarily perceive as our environment from the limited aspect of its physical phenomena.
This gives rise above all to something which can be compared with a recollection of that state of existence in which we live when we are asleep, from the moment of falling asleep to the moment of waking up, but it is a recollection which rises up in a completely clear state of consciousness. Even as in our ordinary perceptions we are limited to the present moment, so in our ordinary life we are limited to the experiences which we always have during our waking state of consciousness.
Consider the fact that whenever you remember some portion of your life, the experiences which you have during the hours of sleep remain blanks in your ordinary consciousness. All the soul-experiences from the moment of falling asleep to the moment of waking up do not rise up in your memory; in reality, memory is therefore an interrupted stream. But we do not always notice this.
All the experiences of the soul from the moment of falling asleep to the moment of waking up confront our awakened higher consciousness as if they were intensified memories. This awakened consciousness arises through the fact that the human being can live consciously outside his body. This leads us to the second stage of knowledge in the supersensible worlds; we can, to begin with, perceive what our soul passes through when our body is in a state of repose, when it has no perceptions and no manifestations of the will, as if the soul were no longer contained within it.
We are thus able to remember in ordinary life our experiences outside the physical body, the experiences which we have whenever we go to sleep, from the moment of falling asleep to the moment of waking up. But we should bear in mind that these experiences must be judged in the right way. We learn to know the experiences of the soul outside the body, from the moment of falling asleep to the moment of waking up. This can only be perceived if we develop a state of consciousness, a condition of existence outside our body.
At this point we do not only recognise the thing which is illumined, as it were, by that inner light which also sheds its rays over our “time-body” as already explained to you, but within our daytime memory, that has risen to this stage of exact clairvoyance of a higher kind, we now learn to know our real experiences, from the moment of falling asleep to the moment of waking up. To begin with, however, these experiences are rather surprising. Even as in ordinary life we live within our ordinary consciousness, within our physical body, and know that we have within us the lungs, the heart, etc., so we have a cosmic, not a personal human state of consciousness, from the moment of falling asleep to the moment of waking up. Although this may sound paradoxical, clairvoyant knowledge enables us to perceive that this cosmic state of consciousness contains the living images of the planetary worlds, of the starry worlds. We feel that we live within the universal life of the cosmos. We contemplate the world, as it were, from the standpoint of this universal experience within the cosmos.
Because we now experience within us what ordinarily exists in our environment, we pass through everything that we experienced during our physical life from the moment in which we last woke up to the moment in which we fell asleep; we live backwards through all these experiences, in the real form in which we experienced them during our waking life.
For example, if we live through an ordinary day and then sleep during the night, the experiences which we had just before going to sleep will be lived through backwards; then come the experiences of the afternoon, and throughout the night we live backwards through our daytime existence.
As stated, in exact clairvoyance it is a question of acquiring this retrospective memory within our ordinary daytime consciousness. Even as our ordinary memory can recall experiences of many years ago in our daytime consciousness, so exact clairvoyance enables us to have this retrospective experience of our daytime existence. This exact clairvoyance therefore constitutes a kind of extended memory. We look back upon the experiences which we have when we are asleep. We know that when we are asleep, we have experiences outside the physical, spatial body, we know that we live in a real world, in an essential world, which contains, as it were, within its consciousness an image of the whole universe, and we know that within this universal essence we live backwards through our daytime life.
We then discern that within this retrospective experience our daytime-existence does not last as long as it does here in the physical world. When we investigate this supersensible sphere, that is to say, when we learn to know these things better and better by systematic practice, we gradually recognise that this retrospective experience is three times faster than the physical experience within our ordinary consciousness. During his sleeping life which lasts one third of his waking life, a person who is awake two thirds of his time and asleep one third of his time, also passes through the experiences which he has during the two thirds which constitute his physical existence. We therefore learn to know a life which we develop outside our body and which takes its course backwards with threefold speed.
When by exact clairvoyance we recollect our sleeping life of the night during the ordinary life of the day, we also know that this retrospective experience of sleep has no meaning of its own What exact clairvoyance can call up within our ordinary daytime consciousness is like a memory. But the experiences of sleep which we are thus able to remember, reveal at the same time that they do not have a meaning in themselves, but that they point to something which lies in the future.
This can be explained as follows: If you ask your selves; How do I judge the memory of an experience which I had twenty years ago? you will reply: I experience it like a shadowy thought. Through its very essence, however, this memory offers the guarantee that, we do not have before us an empty fantasy, but the image of something which we really experienced in the past during the course of earthly life. Even as memory in itself guarantees that it refers to something which really existed in the past, so the experiences of the night upon which we look back contain the guarantee that they have no meaning in themselves but point to something which lies in the future.
In regard to memory it is not necessary to prove that it refers to something past. Similarly, when we acquire exact clairvoyance it is just as little necessary to prove that the night-experiences which we survey are not fancies that arise out of the present, moment, for they show in an evident manner that they are related with man's future, with that moment in the future when the human being lays aside his physical body through death, in the same way in which he lays it aside symbolically through exact clairvoyance.
We thus learn to know the experiences of the human being after death, when he has absolved the three days of which we have spoken. Indeed, this process resembling memory also teaches us to recognise, the importance of the two or three days after death, when we have the feeling as if we lived within ä universal consciousness, within a cosmic consciousness, when we survey our etheric being once more from the aspect of the cosmos and look back upon our experiences during our past earthly life. We then learn to know the experiences which follow this stage of existence, namely we learn to know that the event of death is followed by a life which takes its course three times faster than earthly life. It is the same thing which we learned to know by contemplating the experiences which we have at night, when we are asleep.
We know that the contemplation of our etheric part, which only lasts a short time after death, is followed by a life that lasts twenty, thirty years, or even less, according to the age reached during our life on earth. Approximately—for all these things are approximate—this life after death takes its course three times faster than our earthly life. If a person has, for example, reached the age of thirty, he will pass through the existence referred to above three times faster, that is to say, in ten years. If a person has reached the age of sixty years, he will after death live backwards through his earthly life in twenty years;—but everything must be taken approximately.
We perceive all this by exact clairvoyance in the same way in which we perceive past things through memory. We thus learn to know that death is followed by a supersensible life, by a life in the supersensible world, which consists of a retrospective experience of our whole earthly life. Each night we pass through the preceding day. After death we pass through our whole preceding life retrospectively. We once more pass through every experience of our earthly life. By living again through all these things experienced during our earthly life, by passing through them spiritually, we acquire a right judgment of our own moral value.
During the time through which we pass after death we acquire, as it were, a consciousness of our moral personality, of our moral value, in the same way in which here on earth we are conscious of our existence within a body of flesh and blood. After death we live within that part which constituted our moral essence here on earth. By passing once more through all these things in a reversed order, so that the development of a moral judgment is no longer handicapped by our instincts, impulses and passions—for we now survey them spiritually—we learn to acquire a right and true judgment of our own moral quality.
In order to acquire this judgment, we must pass through the length of time of which we have spoken just now. When we have absolved this length of time after death, our inner moral life begins to vanish, the retrospective memory of our moral value on earth disappears, and we must proceed further through the spiritual worlds, equipped with another state of consciousness, which can also be recognised through exact clairvoyance.
This does not only entail that we should live outside our spatial body, but within a state of consciousness which completely differs from the consciousness which we have here, in the physical world. We then perceive that the living experience of our moral worth, which we acquired by passing through one third of the time which constituted our earthly life, is followed by a supersensible life, by a spiritual life. And we learn to know this life. It is a new form of existence, a purely spiritual life. But in order to know it, exact clairvoyance must be able to rise from the ordinary consciousness to a higher state, to a pure state of consciousness, so that it is fully able to recognise this higher state of consciousness.
I have tried to give you a description of two conditions after death. The description of the third condition of existence will follow, when the above has been translated.
If you consider this retrospective experience described just now, which we have when we are asleep, you will see that this is an experience which the human being has outside his physical, spatial body—he is, as it were, outside himself, by the side of his own self,—but this existence is, I might say, of such a kind that one cannot move in it. Essentially speaking, we then reverse the actions which we carried out during our ordinary daytime consciousness. Even a person who attains supersensible insight into these experiences by exact clairvoyance, in the manner explained to you, feels as if he were a captive in a world which he is able to recall in the clear, daytime consciousness of clairvoyance, but in which he cannot move about, for he is chained and fettered in it.
The third condition of higher knowledge and of higher life which we must attain, is therefore the capacity to move about freely in the spiritual world. Otherwise it is impossible to gain knowledge of the purely spiritual, supersensible state of consciousness.
In addition to exact clairvoyance we must acquire what I designate as ideal magic, but this is to be clearly distinguished from the wrong kind of magic which takes on external forms and which is connected with a great deal of charlatanism. The ideal magic of which I intend to speak is to be clearly distinguished from this charlatanism.
By ideal magic I understand the following:
When we survey our life with our ordinary consciousness, we perceive that in a certain sense we underwent a change with the years and decades that passed by. Though slowly, our habits gradually changed. We acquired certain capacities and certain others disappeared. One who observes himself honestly in regard to certain capacities pertaining to his earthly life can say that whenever he acquired a new capacity he became a different person. This is how life transforms us. We completely surrender to life and life educates and trains us and develops the configuration of our soul.
But those who wish to enter the supersensible world with full knowledge—in other words, those who wish to acquire ideal magic must not only intensify thought, as described, so that it enables them to recognise a second form of their existence. But they must also emancipate their will from the physical body on which it depends in ordinary life. We can only activate our will through the fact that we use our physical body, our legs, our arms, our instruments of speech. The physical body is the foundation of our volitional life.
The following can be done, and this has to be done quite systematically by those spiritual investigators who wish to attain to ideal magic in addition to exact clairvoyance. Such a strong will-power should be unfolded, that at a certain moment of life they can say to themselves: I must lose a certain habit and my soul must assume a new habit.
When we apply our will-power strongly in order to change certain forms of experience completely, a few years may sometimes be needed for this—but it can be done. We can be educated as it were not only by life itself, through the means of the physical body, but we ourselves can take in hand this education, this self-training.
Such strong exercises of the will, which are also described in the above-mentioned books, lead those who wish to be initiates in the modern meaning, to new experiences besides those that imply the retrospection of our daytime experiences during sleep.
It is then possible to develop states of consciousness which are not those of sleep, but which are lived through in full consciousness and which nevertheless render it possible to do something and to move about while one is asleep, so that one is not only in a passive state as is ordinarily the case when one is outside the body in the spiritual world, but one is able to act in it, one can be active in the spiritual world. Otherwise one will not be able to progress during the condition of sleeping.
Those who become modern initiates in this meaning are also active within their human being during their sleeping condition; they carry this activity also into the existence which takes its course from the moment of falling asleep to the moment of waking up. If the will is thus carried into the human being during the condition of sleep, when the human being lives outside his body, an entirely new state of consciousness can be developed: a consciousness which is really able to perceive what we pass through during the time which follows the post-mortem period that has just been described.
There, this new state of consciousness really enables us to look into our human existence after our earthly life, in the same way in which we look into our prenatal human existence. We then perceive that we pass through an existence which takes its course within a spiritual world, even as our physical-earthly existence takes its course within a physical world. We learn to know our purely spiritual essence within a spiritual world, even as here upon the earth we learn to know our physical body within a physical world. We then obtain the possibility to judge how long this life may last, which constitutes as it were the epoch of moral valuation, as described above!
If through ideal magic we thus carry the will into our soul-life, we gain knowledge of this adult state of consciousness and we learn to compare it in the right way with the dull state of consciousness which we had at the beginning of our earthly life, as infants.
You know that through our ordinary consciousness we cannot remember the first years of our infancy. There we live in a kind of dull consciousness and we enter the world in a kind of sleep. As adults our consciousness is intensive and clear in comparison with this dull, dark consciousness into which we look back and which we had at the beginning of our earthly life.
Those who ascend to ideal magic in the manner described, learn to know the difference between the ordinary waking consciousness of an adult and the dull consciousness of an infant. They learn to know, as it were, that they rise by stages from the dull consciousness of infancy to the clearer consciousness which they have as adults.
The connection which they discover between the child's dreaming consciousness and the consciousness of an adult, teaches them to judge the other connection which exists between the ordinary consciousness of an adult and that illumined consciousness which contains not only exact clairvoyance, but also ideal magic, a consciousness which enables them to move about freely in the spiritual world.
I might say that we learn to move about freely in the spiritual world in the same way in which we learned to move about freely with our physical body in our physical existence on earth, as we passed over from the helpless state of childhood to this more emancipated state. In addition to the connection which exists between the consciousness of early childhood and our ordinary consciousness, we thus learn to know another connection which exists between our adult state of consciousness and the highest purely spiritual state of consciousness.
But this also enables us to know that in the post-earthly life after death we are spiritual beings among spiritual beings; we work together with these spiritual beings and at the same time learn to judge how long this spiritual existence among them will last.
I must again bring in the example of an ordinary experience which we remember. We now realise that even as a memory contains a past reality, so the experiences which we now have contain the right judgment of the fact that in the initiate's higher consciousness there are not only things which have a significance for our earthly life, but things which pertain to the life after death, when we live as a spiritual being among spiritual beings. We also learn to know what connection there is between the purely spiritual life and the earthly life through which we passed between birth and death.
When an initiate looks back upon his earliest childhood, he knows that the older he grows, the easier it will be for him to look into the spiritual world. To be sure there are some people who are comparatively young and who possess the capacity to look into the spiritual world. But this vision gains in exactness and clearness with every year that passes. As we grow older we are more and more capable to pass over into that other state of consciousness. This shows us the relation which exists between the different states of consciousness.
We learn to know the following; We have, for instance, reached the age of forty years, but we are only able to remember our life as far as the third or fourth year. We study the conditions and realise how much more we have at the age of forty, than during the unconscious, dreamlike state of consciousness which we have in childhood. We learn to recognise that the life after death is longer to the same extent as our earthly life is longer than our dreamlike childhood existence; the life after death lasts for many centuries.
After our retrospective experience of a moral character we therefore enter a purely spiritual life, where man is spirit among spirits. This is a life which lasts for centuries. During this spiritual existence the human being faces tasks which pertain to the spiritual world, even as here, during his earthly existence, he faces tasks which pertain to the physical world.
To exact clairvoyance, which is supported, I might say, by ideal magic, or by the capacity to move about freely in the spiritual world, these tasks become manifest through the fact that from the essence of the spiritual world in which we live after death we extract all the forces which then lead us on to a new life on earth. From the very outset of our existence after death, this new life on earth confronts us as a goal, as an aim which we always have before us. And the earthly existence within the body of a human being, which is a real microcosm, is the result of a powerful experience which we have, in the spiritual world after death.
You see, when we speak of a germ here in the physical world, this germ is small and gradually unfolds itself, until it becomes a large tree or a large animal. I might also speak of a spiritual germ which develops after our physical life on earth, after death. Out of the spiritual forces of the universe the human being develops with the aid of the spiritual Beings, a spiritual germ for his next life on earth. This elaboration does not consist in a repetition of his earthly life, but it contains activities and essential forces which are far greater to be sure than anything which can be experienced on earth. During our post-earthly existence, our first experience in the spiritual world is this preparation of our future earthly life, upon the foundation of experiences which we can only have in the spiritual world.
In addition, we have the cosmic consciousness, of which I have spoken. Through the fact that such a cosmic consciousness arises in one human being and also in other human beings ... indeed, it exists every night, though we pass through it in a dull state which is no real consciousness, but, if I may use the paradoxical expression, an unconscious consciousness ... through this fact the human beings live not only as spiritual beings together with other spiritual beings who never come down to the earth, but who dwell in the purely spiritual world, but they also live together with all the souls who are either incarnated in physical bodies, or who have also passed through the portal of death and consequently have the same experiences: the cosmic state of consciousness which is common to them all.
The threads which were spun here on earth from soul to soul, in the family or in other human relationships, the connections which we made while living within a physical body, these threads and all the ties upon the physical plane are now laid aside. We lay aside everything which we experienced as lovers or friends, or in connection with human beings otherwise closely connected with us, we lay aside these experiences which we had through our physical body, in the same way in which we lay aside the physical body when we enter the spiritual world. But family ties, friendships, loves which we experienced here on earth continue spiritually beyond the portal of death. They become spiritual experiences which build-up our next earthly life. We do not work alone, but during the time in which we pass through the moral valuation if our past life we work together with the human souls who were dear to us here on earth.
Through exact clairvoyance and ideal magic these facts appear as something which is not subjected to faith, but as something which constitutes real knowledge. They are facts which penetrate into our direct vision. Indeed, we may say: Here in the physical world a gulf separates one human soul from the other, no matter now dearly they may love each other, for they can only meet within their bodies and they can only cultivate relations which are determined by the fact that they live within physical bodies.
When we live in the spiritual world, the physical body that belongs to a beloved person here on earth no longer constitutes an obstacle and no longer renders it difficult for us to live together with the other soul. Even as the vision of the spiritual world entails the capacity to look right through earthly objects, as already described to you, so a human being who has passed through the portal of death can commune with the souls whom he left behind upon the earth, he can have intercourse with them by passing right through their bodies. All those who were dear to him are experienced by him as living souls, even while they are still living upon the earth, until the moment when they too pass through the portal of death.
I wished to speak to you first of all of these things, as an introduction to the three lectures on exact clairvoyance and ideal magic, for such truths can give us an insight into the real, supersensible life of the human being. I wished to show you that when we strive after exact clairvoyance and ideal magic, it is really possible to speak of the higher worlds in terms of scientific knowledge, in the same way in which one can speak of the physical world in terms of an exact knowledge of Nature.
If we penetrate further and further into the higher worlds—and there will be people who will develop their faculties so that they will be able to do this—we shall see that no branch of science, even in its most perfect form, need be an obstacle which prevents us from accepting the truths revealed by exact clairvoyance and ideal magic. Upon the foundation of a real scientific mentality we can accept the truths relating to experiences through which we pass not only here upon the earth during our existence between birth and death, but also during our existence between death and a new birth, until we return into a new earthly life.
To-morrow I shall speak to you of the repeated lives on earth and indicate how they will terminate, for I shall take the liberty to give you a description of the relation which was brought into human life on earth by the Event of Christ, by the Event of Golgotha.
I shall then be able to show you that the knowledge of which I have spoken, in so far as it concerns us individually sheds light upon the whole development of the human race during its existence upon the earth, so that it can also illumine what really took place when Christ entered the earthly life of humanity.
These lectures are therefore meant to show on the one hand that it is not necessary to reject the exact natural science of modern times when one speaks of spiritual truths. The subject of tomorrow's lecture will be the Event which is of greatest importance also for mankind's life on earth. The Christ Event will rise up before our souls in a new, more radiant aspect, if our souls are willing to take in the truths concerning the spiritual world, as set forth here.
To-morrow's task will therefore be to explain the connection which exists between the spiritual science of Anthroposophy and Christianity.
Exakte Erkenntnis Der Übersinnlichen Welten Im Sinne Der Anthroposophischen Geisteswissenschaft
Es ist zweifellos, daß sich in der Gegenwart eine große Zahl von Menschen danach sehnt, etwas zu wissen von den geistigen, von den übersinnlichen Welten, und selbst Männer der Wissenschaft haben sich ja in der neueren Zeit vielfach damit befaßt, Wege zu finden, durch die man zur Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welt kommen kann. Allein bei allen diesen Versuchen, in die übersinnliche Welt hineinzukommen, stellt sich dem modernen Menschen ja immer das in den Weg, was aus der modernen Wissenschaft heraus als Urteilsfähigkeit folgt, was an Autorität aus dieser modernen Wissenschaft heraus vorhanden ist. Und gegenüber so mancher Quelle, aus der man zu schöpfen glaubt für die Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welt, macht sich das Urteil geltend: Ja, aber eine exakte Erkenntnis, wie wir sie gewöhnt sind in der Wissenschaft zu entwickeln, eine exakte Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welten kann es doch nicht geben, denn all das hält nicht stand. Demgegenüber strebt jene anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft, von der ich Ihnen heute und in den nächsten Tagen mir erlauben werde zu sprechen, eine wirklich exakte Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welt an. Eine exakte Erkenntnis nicht dadurch, daß in demselben Sinne, wie für die Wissenschaft der äußeren Welt, Experimente gemacht werden, sondern so, daß innere Fähigkeiten der Seele, die sonst im alltäglichen Leben und in der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft im Menschen nur schlummern, auf eine solche Art entwickelt werden, daß bei all dieser Entwickelung die menschliche Besonnenheit so aufrechterhalten bleibt, wie das nur in der exakten Wissenschaft geschieht. Während man also in der exakten Wissenschaft sein Bewußtsein so behält, wie man es im gewöhnlichen Leben hat, und dann sich in den Methoden exakt verhält bei der Untersuchung der äußeren Welt, verfährt man in der anthroposophischen Geisteswissenschaft so, daß man sich eines Tages unterwirft dem, was ich nennen möchte intellektuelle Bescheidenheit, indem man sich sagt: Du warst einmal Kind, du hast damals Fähigkeiten gehabt, die nicht im entferntesten an diejenigen Fähigkeiten heranreichen, die du jetzt als erwachsener Mensch hast, und die du dir angeeignet hast durch Erziehung, durch das Leben. — Gerade so, wie man von der Kindheit auf gewisse Fähigkeiten entwickelt hat, die vorher eben nicht da waren, so kann man sich sagen, gibt es vielleicht auch im erwachsenen Menschen Fähigkeiten, die bei ihm schlummern, so wie seine jetzigen Fähigkeiten geschlummert haben in der Seele des Kindes. Und man kann durch gewisse Methoden diese Fähigkeiten aus der Seele herausholen.
Nun müssen bei der anthroposophischen Geisteswissenschaft, die hier gemeint ist, diese Fähigkeiten auf eine solche Art aus der Seele herausgeholt werden, daß die Methoden, die man dann, bevor man an eine Erkenntnis geht, auf seine eigene Entwickelung anwendet, eben in dieser eigenen Entwickelung exakt vor sich gehen. Man präpariert sich also für das Schauen in die höhere Welt hinein so, daß die Präparation, die man auf sich selber anwendet, eine exakte Methode voraussetzt. Deshalb kann man, wie ich mir schon erlaubte, bei meinen letzten Vorträgen hier in diesem Saale zu sagen, auf diese Art zu einer exakten Clairvoyance, zu einem exakten Hellsehen kommen. Es ist auf eine exakte Weise erworben, wie man sonst mit den gewöhnlichen Erkenntnissen eben auf exakte Weise die Natur erforscht.
Ich werde heute weniger zu sprechen haben von der Art und Weise, wie man sich dieses exakte Hellsehen erwirbt. Ich werde das Entsprechende gelegentlich erwähnen, denn ich habe bereits in den erwähnten vorigen Vorträgen von den Methoden gesprochen, durch die man zur exakten Clairvoyance kommt, und man kann sich über diese Methoden unterrichten namentlich aus dem Buche, das ins Englische übersetzt ist und das im Englischen eben den Titel trägt: «The Way of Initiation.»
Dagegen möchte ich zunächst heute darauf aufmerksam machen, wodurch dem Menschen im gewöhnlichen Leben versagt ist, einzudringen in die höheren Welten. Das ist ihm vor allen Dingen dadurch versagt, daß er nur immer im gegenwärtigen Augenblicke die Welt wahrnehmen kann. Durch unsere Augen können wir nur im gegenwärtigen Augenblicke die Welt und ihre Erscheinungen sehen. Durch unsere Ohren können wir nur im gegenwärtigen Augenblicke Töne hören. Und so ist es mit allen unseren Sinnen. Alles, was zunächst die Vergangenheit unseres eigenen Erdenlebens ist, können wir nur in der Erinnerung wissen, das heißt in abgeblaßten Gedanken. Man vergleiche nur einmal, wie lebendig, wie konkret dasjenige war, was wir im Dasein vor zehn Jahren durchgemacht haben, und wie blaß, schattenhaft der Gedanke ist, mit dem wir uns heute daran erinnern.
Und so ist alles, was über den gegenwärtigen Augenblick hinausgeht, für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein des Menschen so, daß es in ihm nur in der schattenhaften Erinnerung leben kann. Aber diese schattenhafte Erinnerung kann zu einem höheren Leben angefacht und angefeuert werden. Und das geschieht durch diejenigen Methoden, die ich, wie gesagt, heute weniger erörtern will, durch die Methode der Meditation in Gedanken, der Konzentration auf Gedanken, der Selbsterziehung und so weiter.
Derjenige, der solche Methoden auf sich anwendet, wodurch er lernt, in Gedanken ebenso intensiv zu leben, wie man sonst nur in den äußeren Sinneseindrücken lebt, der erlangt eine gewisse Fähigkeit, die darinnen besteht, daß er nicht nur im gegenwärtigen Augenblicke die Welt betrachten kann. Solche Übungen, welche dazu führen, daß man nicht nur im gegenwärtigen Augenblicke die Welt betrachten kann, müssen allerdings lange Zeit, je nach den betreffenden Anlagen des Menschen, in sorgfältiger und systematischer, eben in exakter Meditation und Konzentration ausgeführt werden. Manche Menschen bringen gerade in der gegenwärtigen Zeit die Fähigkeit, die man auf diese Weise ausbilden kann, schon bei ihrer Geburt mit. Das heißt, sie ist nicht gleich bei der Geburt so da, daß sie offenbar werden kann, aber sie tritt aus dem Inneren hervor in einem gewissen Zeitpunkte des Lebens, und man weiß, man hätte sich sie nicht im gewöhnlichen Leben erworben, wenn man sie nicht schon durch die Geburt mitgebracht hätte. Diese Fähigkeit besteht darin, daß man in den Gedanken drinnen so leben kann, wie man sonst durch seinen Körper in der sinnlichen Welt lebt.
Man nehme eine solche Aussage nicht allzu leicht. Man bedenke, daß der Mensch alles das, wodurch er sich selbst ein Dasein zuschreibt, seinem Miterleben mit der Sinneswelt verdankt. Wenn der Mensch so weit kommt, daß er, ohne daß er sich auf die Eindrücke der Augen, der Ohren, auf die Eindrücke anderer Sinne verläßt, dennoch ein inneres Leben entwickelt, das nun innerlich intensiv ist, wie sonst nur das Leben der Sinne, ein inneres Leben, das nicht bloß in schattenhaften Gedanken lebt, sondern in innerlich lebendigen Gedanken, daß man die Gedanken so erlebt, wie man sonst nur die Sinneseindrücke erlebt, dann erlebt man allerdings ein zweites Dasein, dann erlebt man ein anderes Selbstbewußtsein. Man erlebt geradezu dasjenige, was ich nennen möchte: Aufwachen, nicht außerhalb des Leibes, sondern im Innern des Menschen zu einem Leben erwachen, trotzdem der physische Leib so ruhig und durch die Sinne so unempfänglich ist, wie er sonst nur im Schlafe ist.
Wenn wir in uns selbst hineinschauen, finden wir, daß wir eigentlich nur dasjenige wissen im gewöhnlichen Leben, was wir durch die Sinne aufgenommen haben. Wir wissen von unserem eigenen Inneren durch unmittelbare Wahrnehmungen nichts. Wir können durch das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein nicht hineinschauen in unsere innere Organisation. Wenn wir ein Selbstbewußtsein im reinen Denken erwerben, dann lernen wir ebenso nach innen schauen, wie wir sonst nach außen schauen können.
Dann fühlen wir etwa das Folgende: Wenn wir sonst nach außen schauen, muß die Sonne oder ein Licht da sein, welches seine Strahlen wirft auf die Gegenstände um uns her. Durch dieses Licht, das außer uns ist, sehen wir die Gegenstände um uns her. Wenn wir uns bewußt werden in diesem zweiten Dasein im reinen Denkprozesse, der aber dann ein Anschauungsprozeß ist, der so farbig und intensiv ist wie sonst die Sinneswahrnehmung, dann empfinden wir gewissermaßen — ja, nicht nur gewissermaßen, sondern im eigentlichen Sinne, nur ist der Sinn geistig gemeint —, wir empfinden ein inneres Licht, ein Licht, durch das wir in unser eigenes Inneres so hineinleuchten, wie wir sonst die Gegenstände beleuchtet bekommen durch die äußeren Lichter.
Deshalb kann man diesen Zustand des menschlichen Erlebens eine Clairvoyance, ein Hellsehen nennen. Und dieses Hellsehen bei dem erwachten Selbstbewußtsein im Geiste, dieses Hellsehen bringt zunächst die Fähigkeit hervor, daß man in jedem Momente, den man auf Erden erlebt hat, wiederum drinnen sein kann.
Man kann zum Beispiel ganz gut erleben: Du warst achtzehn Jahre alt, Mit diesen achtzehn Jahren gingst du durch diese oder jene Erlebnisse. — Man hat aber nicht nur eine Erinnerung an diese Erlebnisse, man erlebt sie mehr oder weniger stark ja wieder. Man ist abermals der Mensch, der man mit achtzehn Jahren oder mit fünfzehn Jahren oder mit zehn Jahren gewesen ist. Man kann sich versetzen in jeden Augenblick seines Lebens, und man gelangt dadurch zu einem inneren erleuchteten Anschauen dessen, was man gegenüber dem Raumesleib, der unsere Sinne enthält und uns die äußere Anschauung liefert, einen Zeitleib nennen kann.
Aber dieser Zeitleib ist auf einmal da. Nicht daß man ihn in Momenten hintereinander erlebt, er ist auf einmal da. Er ist da in seiner inneren Beweglichkeit. Man überschaut sich in seinem ganzen bisherigen Erdenleben, wie man sich sonst nur in schattenhaften Gedanken an dieses Erdenleben erinnert. Man durchleuchtet seinen ganzen Erdenlauf, aber so, daß man in jedem Momente drinnensteht.
Wenn man diese innere Erleuchtung erlebt, dann weiß man, man trägt nicht nur diesen physischen Menschenleib, diesen Raumesleib an sich. Man weiß, der Mensch trägt einen zweiten, einen feineren Leib in sich, einen Leib, der eigentlich gewoben ist aus den Bildern des bisherigen Erdenlebens, aber aus solchen Bildern, die zu gleicher Zeit dieses Erdenleben selber schöpferisch gestalten, nämlich unseren Organismus und unsere Tätigkeiten gestalten, unseren Organismus, in dem wir sind, unsere Tätigkeiten, die wir ausgeübt haben. So lernt man einen zweiten Menschen in sich kennen.
Und diesen zweiten Menschen, den man kennenlernt auf diese Art, den nimmt man so wahr, daß er sich in der Tat erlebt - wie sich der physische Raumesleib in einer physischen Welt erlebt — in einer feinern ätherischen, ich möchte sagen, in einer durchleuchteten Welt. Die Welt ist noch einmal da. Die Welt ist in feineren Gestalten da. Allem Physischen liegen feinere ätherische Gestaltungen zugrunde, die man auf diese Weise schaut.
Und man erlebt das Eigentümliche, daß man alles, was man in diesem feineren Leibe erlebt, nur kurze Zeit festhalten kann. Meistens ist es so, daß derjenige, der sich diese exakte Clairvoyance erworben hat und dadurch seinen Äther- oder Bildekräfteleib, wie ich ihn auch nennen möchte, durchleuchtet hat, daß er das Ätherische der Welt, das Ätherische seiner selbst wahrnimmt, daß er aber auch zu gleicher Zeit erkennen muß, wie ungeheuer schnell die Eindrücke verschwinden. Man kann sie nicht festhalten. Man bekommt eine Art von Ängstlichkeit, nur rasch wieder zurückzukehren zu den Wahrnehmungen des physischen Leibes, damit man eine innerliche Festigkeit als Mensch, als Persönlichkeit habe. Und man erlebt sich in seinem Ätherleib. Man erlebt auch Dinge der höheren Welt in diesem Ätherleib, dasjenige, was in der höheren Welt ätherisch ist. Aber man schaut zugleich, wie flüchtig alle diese Eindrücke sind, man kann sie nicht lange festhalten, man kann sie nur dadurch festhalten, daß man sich irgendwie hilft.
Ich möchte als Beispiel anführen, wie ich mir selber helfe, um die Eindrücke dieses ätherischen Schauens nicht allzu schnell verschwinden zu lassen: Ich versuche jedesmal, nachdem solche Eindrücke da sind, sie nicht nur zu schauen, sondern sie aufzuschreiben; so daß die Tätigkeit, die ausgeübt wird, nicht nur ausgeübt wird durch die abstrakten Fähigkeiten der Seele, sondern festgehalten wird durch das Aufschreiben. Es kommt nicht darauf an, daß man die Dinge hinterher liest, aber es kommt darauf an, daß man eine stärkere Tätigkeit einfließen läßt in diejenige Tätigkeit, die zunächst eine rein ätherische ist.
Dadurch gießt man sozusagen das, was ungeheuer flüchtig und flüssig ist und was schnell hinweghuscht, in seine gewöhnlichen menschlichen Fähigkeiten hinein. Es geschieht das alles nicht wie beim Medium unbewußt, sondern es geschieht mit vollem Bewußtsein. Aber man gießt das alles in seine gewöhnlichen menschlichen körperlichen Fähigkeiten hinein. Dadurch kann man es festhalten. Dadurch kommt man auch in die Lage, etwas sehr Wichtiges zu begreifen. Man kommt in die Lage, zu begreifen, wie festzuhalten ist eine übersinnlich-ätherische Welt zunächst - wir werden nachher von anderen übersinnlichen Welten sprechen -, aber eine übersinnlich-ätherische Welt, die einen selbst umfaßt in seinem bisherigen Lebenslauf und die das Ätherische der äußeren Natur umfaßt bis in die Sternenwelt hinauf. Man lernt diese ätherische Welt kennen. Man lernt sich selber in dieser ätherischen Welt erleben; und man weiß, daß, ohne daß man an den physischen Leib wieder herankommt, es unmöglich ist, diese Welt länger als höchstens zwei bis drei Tage festzuhalten. Wenn man die Fähigkeiten sehr stark ausgebildet hat, kommt es dazu, daß man diese Welt zwei bis drei Tage festhalten kann. Und da man dann durch Dinge, von denen ich gleich nachher sprechen werde, dies alles überschauen kann als moderner Eingeweihter, so weiß man auch zu beurteilen, was das ist, das man da, ohne sich auf die körperlichen Fähigkeiten zu stützen, in seinem Ätherleib oder in seinem Bildekräfteleib festhält. Es ist dasjenige, was man, wenn der Mensch durch die Todespforte schreitet aus dem physischen Leib, der zerfällt und abgelegt wird, was man da zunächst aus seinem höheren Selbstbewußtsein heraus schaut, und was aus diesem Grunde auch nicht länger als zwei bis drei Tage nach dem Tode des physischen Leibes bei dem menschlichen Selbstbewußtsein verbleiben kann.
So erlebt man durch die Gestaltung der exakten Clairvoyance die ersten Zustände, die beim Menschen nach dem Tode eintreten; man erlebt sie aus dem Grunde, weil man sie erkennend vorerlebt.
Dasjenige, was der Eingeweihte erkennend vorerlebt, das tritt nun bei jedem Menschen ein, wenn er seinen physischen Leib ablegt. Aber der Mensch würde weiter kein Bewußtsein haben — wodurch er trotzdem ein Bewußtsein hat nach dem Tode, das werde ich nachher erklären —, der Mensch würde kein Bewußtsein all die Zeit hindurch haben, in der er durch die höhere Erkenntnis seinen Äther- oder Bildekräfteleib festhalten kann, das heißt zwei bis drei Tage.
Zwei bis drei Tage nach dem Tode hat also der Mensch ein im Ätherleib lebendes Bewußtsein von der ätherischen Welt. Dann legt er dieses Bewußtsein ab. Er erlebt, wie der Ätherleib gewissermaßen von ihm abfällt, wie zuerst der physische Leib abgefallen ist, und wie er nötig hat, in ein anderes Bewußtsein überzugehen, um nach dem Tode als bewußtes Menschenwesen weiterzuleben.
Das, was ich Ihnen hier schildere als die ersten Augenblicke gewissermaßen — denn gegenüber dem Weltendasein sind es die ersten Augenblicke —, das darf derjenige, der sich die charakterisierte Fähigkeit erworben hat, in die höhere Welt hineinzuschauen, behaupten, weil er das vorerlebt, was sonst im Menschenleben normal nach dem Tode eintritt. Dadurch, daß er jenes starke Selbstbewußtsein sich erworben hat, das nicht mehr auf den Leib angewiesen ist, erlebt er diese Momente unmittelbar nach dem Tode schon in diesem Bewußtsein vor.
Er gelangt dazu, sein eigenes höheres Leben zu beleuchten, und er gelangt dadurch dazu, jenes Licht in sich selber zu erkennen, wodurch er nach dem Tode in den ersten zwei bis drei Tagen eine Welt um sich herum hat, die anders ist als diejenige Welt, die wir um uns herum haben, wenn wir durch unsere Sinne hinausschauen in unsere Umgebung während unseres Erdenlebens zwischen Geburt und Tod.
Was nach diesen Tagen eintritt, das will ich, nachdem dieser Teil des Vortrages übersetzt ist, weiter auseinandersetzen.
Um den übersinnlichen Teil des irdischen Lebenslaufes zu überschauen, der in seinem Charakter, wie ich gesagt habe, noch einige Tage nach dem Tode nachlebt, braucht man die geschilderte innere Erleuchtung. Man muß gewissermaßen in sich selber das geistige Licht anfachen, das nach innen leuchtet. Dann kommt man darüber hinaus, bloß in dem gegenwärtigen Augenblicke wahrzunehmen, wie das durch die Sinne möglich ist.
Um zu weiteren Erkenntnissen in der übersinnlichen Welt zu kommen, ist notwendig, daß sich nicht nur der Wahrnehmungszustand beim Menschen ändere, sondern daß sich auch der Lebenszustand selber ändert. Wir Menschen haben im gewöhnlichen Leben einen solchen Lebenszustand, daß unser Leben eingeschlossen ist in unseren physischen Raumeskörper. Die Grenzen unserer Haut sind zu gleicher Zeit die Grenzen unseres Lebens. Unser Leben reicht so weit, als unser Körper reicht. Innerhalb eines solchen Erlebniszustandes kann man nicht hinauskommen über dasjenige, was ich bis jetzt beschrieben habe an Erkenntnissen der höheren Welten. Man kann für Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten erst dadurch hinauskommen aus dem gewöhnlichen Erleben, daß man sich ein Erleben aneignet, das nicht eingeschlossen ist in die Grenzen des Raumesleibes, sondern das miterlebt die ganze Welt, die sonst um einen herum ist.
Und auch ein solches Miterleben kann für die Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten erworben werden. Ich will nur, wie ich schon gesagt habe, gelegentlich einiges anführen von den Methoden des modernen Eingeweihten, durch die er Erkenntnis der höheren Welten exakt erwirbt. Das übrige ist in der genannten Schrift zu finden.
Wenn man nicht nur sich die Fähigkeit erwirbt, ein zweites Dasein im Gedankenleben zu haben, das noch immer eingeschlossen bleibt in den Raumesleib, sondern wenn man sich die Fähigkeit erwirbt, außer seinem Leibe zu leben, dadurch, daß man nicht bloß Gedanken intensiv in seinem Bewußtsein leben läßt, sondern sie auch ganz übungsgemäß, durch systematische Übungen aus seinem Bewußtsein immer fortschaffen kann, dann erwirbt man sich diesen Erlebenszustand außerhalb des Leibes. Ich will eine einfache Übung angeben.
Man nehme an, man schaue einen Kristall an. Man hat durch seine Augen diesen Kristall vor sich. Derjenige, der ein bloßes Medium sein will oder zu einer Artvon Hypnose kommen will, der starrt diesen Kristall an, und der Eindruck, den der Kristall auf ihn macht, versetzt ihn in einen Zustand der Unbesonnenheit. Damit hat anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft nichts zu tun. Sie muß zu ganz anderen Übungen ihre Zuflucht nehmen. Für sie handelt es sich darum, daß, indem man einen Kristall anschaut, man zuletzt dazu kommt, von ihm abzusehen, zu abstrahieren, wie man sonst von Gedanken nur abstrahiert. So hat man einen Kristall vor sich und lernt durch ihn nicht physisch, aber seelisch durchzuschauen, so daß man seine Augen nicht benützt, um ihn anzuschauen, trotzdem man sie voll offen hat, und man gestaltet das seelische Erkennen so, daß man den Kristall nicht mehr vor sich hat, daß man ihn für die Anschauung wegschafft, Man kann diese Übungen auch so machen, daß man eine Farbe, die man vor sich hat, wegschafft, so daß man sie, trotzdem man sie vor sich hat, nicht mehr schaut.
Und so kann man insbesondere Übungen machen dahingehend, daß man Gedanken, die durch das äußere Leben im gegenwärtigen Augenblicke auftauchen, oder aber in früheren Momenten des Erdenlebens durchgemacht worden sind und jetzt als Erinnerungen auftauchen, daß man solche Gedanken fortschafft, das Bewußtsein von ihnen leer macht, damit man bloß wacht und eigentlich nichts von der äußeren Welt in seinem Bewußtsein hat.
Macht man solche Übungen, dann findet man in sich die Möglichkeit, mit seinem Leben nicht mehr innerhalb der Grenzen seines Raumesleibes zu bleiben, sondern über denselben hinauszugehen. Man erlebt dann das Leben der ganzen Umwelt mit, die man sonst nur in ihren sinnlichen Erscheinungen anschaut.
Dadurch tritt vor allen Dingen im ganz besonnenen Bewußtsein etwas auf, was ich vergleichen kann mit einer Erinnerung an das Leben, das man im Schlafe zubringt, an das Leben, das man zubringt vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen. Geradeso wie man sich für das gewöhnliche Wahrnehmen auf den gegenwärtigen Augenblick beschränkt sieht, so sieht man sich für das gewöhnliche Leben beschränkt auf dasjenige, was man immer im wachen Zustande erlebt hat.
Denken Sie nur, wenn Sie sich zurückerinnern an Ihr Leben, so sind ja immer die Zeiten, die Sie durch den Schlaf haben, für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein leer. Was da die Seele vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen immer erlebt hat, das tritt nicht in der Erinnerung auf, so daß wir in der Erinnerung eigentlich immer eine unterbrochene Strömung haben. Wir nehmen nur nicht immer Notiz davon.
Dasjenige aber, was die Seele jedesmal zwischen dem Einschlafen und dem Aufwachen erlebt, das steht wie eine intensive Erinnerung vor demjenigen Bewußtsein, das so erwacht ist, daß der Mensch mit ihm außerhalb seines Leibes leben kann. Dadurch tritt die zweite Stufe der Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Welten ein, und wir können zunächst gewahr werden, was wir durchmachen als Seele, wenn unser Leib, unser physischer Leib, ruhig, wie seelenlos, ohne Wahrnehmung, ohne Willensäußerungen in Ruhe schlafend beharrt. Wir können uns dadurch im gewöhnlichen Tagesleben gewissermaßen erinnern an dasjenige, was wir außerhalb des Leibes jedesmal zwischen dem Einschlafen und Aufwachen erlebt haben. Nur müssen wir uns eben klar sein, daß, was da auftritt, von uns in der richtigen Weise beurteilt werden muß. Wir lernen ja kennen, daß das, was die Seele erlebt vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen, außerhalb des Leibes erlebt wird. Wir können es nur anschauen, wenn wir ein Bewußtsein, einen Lebenszustand entwickeln können außerhalb des Leibes. Und wir lernen jetzt nicht nur etwas kennen, was gewissermaßen durch ein inneres Licht bestrahlt wird, wie unser eigener Zeitleib, wie ich das geschildert habe, sondern wir lernen jetzt in der Tageserinnerung, die nur zu dieser exakten Clairvoyance höherer Art aufgestiegen ist, dasjenige erkennen, was wir jedesmal zwischen dem Einschlafen und Aufwachen wirklich erleben. Nur ist zunächst dieses Erleben etwas Frappierendes. So wie wir im Tagesleben im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein in unserem physischen Leibe leben, in uns Lunge, Herz und so weiter haben, so haben wir vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen tatsächlich nicht ein persönliches menschliches Bewußtsein, sondern ein kosmisches Bewußtsein. Wir haben ein Bewußtsein, als ob in uns — so paradox das klingt, es ist der anschauenden Erkenntnis dieses wahrnehmbar — leben würden Nachbildungen der Planeten- und Sternenwelten. Wir fühlen uns im Alleben des Kosmos. Wir schauen gewissermaßen die Welt an von dem Gesichtspunkte des Allebens im Kosmos.
Und indem wir das, was wir sonst um uns haben, dann innerlich in uns erleben, gehen wir — und zwar im wirklichen Lebenszustande rückwärts — jedesmal beim Schlafen dasjenige durch, was wir hier im physischen Leben durchlebt haben vom vorigen Aufwachen bis zum Einschlafen.
Wenn wir also zum Beispiel regelmäßig einen Tag durchwacht haben und dann in der Nacht schlafen, dann zeigt es sich, daß wir, indem wir einzuschlafen beginnen, die letzten Erlebnisse, die wir am Abend gehabt haben, bevor wir in den Schlaf gekommen sind, rückwärts erleben, dann die mehr am Nachmittag liegenden. Und so erleben wir rücklaufend das ganze Tagesleben die Nacht hindurch.
Wie gesagt, es handelt sich für die exakte Clairvoyance, von der ich hier sprach, darum, daß man im gewöhnlichen Tagesleben diese Rückerinnerung an diese nächtlichen Erlebnisse hat. Gerade so, wie man sich in der gewöhnlichen Erinnerung rückerinnert an das, was man im Tagesbewußtsein vor Jahren erlebt hat, so kann man durch die exakte Clairvoyance erleben dieses rückwärtige Erleben des Tageslebens. Und so hat man in der Tat etwas wie eine erweiterte Erinnerung in dieser exakten Clairvoyance vor sich. Man schaut zurück auf sein schlafendes Erleben. Man weiß, daß man schlafend außerhalb des physischen Raumesleibes erlebt, daß man in einer wirklichen Weltwesenheit, die gewissermaßen ein Nachbild der ganzen Welt in sich im Bewußtsein hat, daß man in einer solchen Weltwesenheit sein eigenes Tagesdasein rückwärts erlebt. Und man findet dann auch, daß dieses Tagesdasein im rückwärtigen Erleben nicht so lange braucht, als es hier in der physischen Welt braucht. Man lernt allmählich, indem man wirklich Forscher wird auf diesem Gebiete, das heißt in systematischer Weise, immer mehr und mehr die Dinge kennen durch eine exakte Erfahrung, man lernt erkennen, wie dieses Rückwärtserleben dreimal so schnell vor sich geht als das physische Erleben im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein. So daß also jemand, der etwa zwei Drittel seiner Zeit wach ist und dann ein Drittel der Zeit schläft, in diesem Drittel der Zeit auch dasjenige durchlebt, was er in den zwei Dritteln im physischen Dasein durchgemacht hat. So daß man also kennenlernt ein Leben, das der Mensch außer seinem Leibe entfaltet, das rückwärts verläuft mit dreifacher Schnelligkeit.
Indem man sich im gewöhnlichen Tagesleben durch exakte Clairvoyance an dieses nächtliche schlafende Leben erinnert, weiß man zu gleicher Zeit, daß dieses schlafende Rückerleben keine eigene Bedeutung hat. Das, was man im Tagesbewußtsein hat in der exakten Clairvoyance, ist schon eine Erinnerung. Aber dasjenige, woran man sich als an die Schlafeserlebnisse erinnert, das zeigt, daß es keine eigene Bedeutung hat, sondern nur eine Vorbedeutung. Und das ist so. Fragen Sie sich, wie beurteilen Sie eine Erinnerung an ein Erlebnis, das Sie vor zwanzig Jahren gehabt haben? — Sie sagen sich: Ich erlebe in schattenhaften Gedanken. Aber diese Erinnerung bietet mir durch ihr eigenes Wesen die Garantie, daß ich keine Phantasie vor mir habe, sondern daß sie ein Abbild ist dessen, was in der Vergangenheit meines Erdenlebens von mir wirklich, tatsächlich einmal erlebt worden ist. So wie die Erinnerung in sich eine Garantie enthält, daß sie sich auf etwas ganz anderes bezieht, was wirklich in der Vergangenheit ist, so trägt dasjenige, auf das man hinsieht als auf ein nächtliches Erleben, die Garantie in sich, daß es keine eigene Bedeutung hat, sondern auf ein Zukünftiges weist.
Man braucht der Erinnerung nicht zu beweisen, daß sie sich auf ein Vergangenes bezieht. Man braucht ebensowenig, wenn man die exakte Clairvoyance erlangt hat, demjenigen, was man da überschaut von seinen nächtlichen Erlebnissen, zu beweisen, daß es nicht eine Phantasterei der Gegenwart ist. Man sieht ihm an, daß es sich auf die Zukunft des Menschen bezieht, und zwar auf jene Zukunft des Menschen, wo der Mensch seinen physischen Leib mit dem Tode wirklich abgelegt haben wird, wie er ihn jetzt bloß in der exakten Clairvoyance bildhaft abgelegt hat.
Und dadurch lernt man erkennen, was der Mensch erlebt nach dem Tode, wenn er die drei Tage absolviert hat, von denen ich gesprochen habe. Ja, man lernt durch diesen erinnerungsähnlichen Vorgang auch die Bedeutung der zwei bis drei Tage nach dem Tode erkennen, wo man sich wie in einem Weltbewußtsein fühlt, in einem kosmischen Bewußtsein, wo man das Ätherische von sich nun von dem Kosmos aus noch einmal überschaut, wo man zurückblickt auf dasjenige, was man durchlebt hat in seinem irdischen Lebenslauf. Und man lernt erkennen, was man nachher erlebt, und zwar so, daß sich anschließt an das Todesereignis ein Leben, das dreimal so schnell verläuft als das Erdenleben. Man lernte ja das kennen durch die Anschauung der nächtlichen Erlebnisse.
Man weiß, an die ätherische Anschauung, die nur kurze Zeit nach dem Tode dauert, schließt sich ein Leben an, das zwanzig, dreißig Jahre oder auch kürzer dauert, je nachdem der Mensch in seinem Erdenleben alt geworden ist. Ungefähr — das alles ist ja approximativ — dreimal so schnell als das Erdenleben verläuft dieses Leben. Ist also jemand dreißig Jahre alt geworden, so erlebt er dasjenige Leben, das ich jetzt meine, nach dem Tode dreimal so schnell, also in zehn Jahren. Ist jemand sechzig Jahre alt geworden, erlebt er rückwärts sein Leben, nach dem Tode, in zwanzig Jahren; aber alles approximativ genommen.
Das alles wird erkannt, wie durch eine Erinnerung eine durchlebte Tätigkeit erkannt wird, in der exakten Clairvoyance. Und so lernen wir erkennen, daß sich an unseren Tod ein übersinnliches Erleben anschließt, ein Erleben in der übersinnlichen Welt, welches ein Rückwärtserleben unseres ganzen Erdenlebens ist. Jede Nacht durchleben wir den vorhergehenden Tag. Nach unserem Tode erleben wir rückwärts verlaufend unser ganzes Erdenleben. Wir machen alles wieder durch. Und wir eignen uns, indem wir alles, was wir im Erdenleben durchgemacht haben, in einer geistigen Form wieder durchmachen, ein zutreffendes Urteil über unseren eignen moralischen Wert an.
Wir gliedern uns gewissermaßen durch diese Zeit, die wir nach dem Tode durchmachen, ein Bewußtsein ein von unserer moralischen Persönlichkeit, von unserem moralischen Werte, wie wir uns hier auf dieser Erde ein Bewußtsein aneignen von dem Leben im Fleische und im Blute. Wir leben nach dem Tode in demjenigen, was wir als moralischer Mensch hier auf Erden waren. Indem wir alle die Ereignisse wieder durchmachen, rückwärts verlaufend, und dadurch nicht mehr abgezogen sind von der moralischen Beurteilung durch unsere Instinkte, Triebe, Leidenschaften, sondern sie rein geistig überschauen, lernen wir ein zutreffendes, ein richtiges Urteil über unsere eigene moralische Qualität kennen.
Zu dieser Beurteilung ist diejenige Zeit notwendig, von der ich eben gesprochen habe. Haben wir diese Zeit nach dem Tode absolviert, dann schwindet das hin, was moralisches Innenleben ist, die Rückerinnerung an unseren moralischen Wert auf der Erde, und wir müssen weiterschreiten durch die geistigen Welten mit einem anderen Bewußtsein, das nun auch durch exakte Clairvoyance kennengelernt werden kann.
Da ist dann notwendig, daß der Mensch nicht nur leben lernt außerhalb seines Raumesleibes, sondern daß er leben lernt in einem ganz anderen Bewußtsein, als er es hier innerhalb der physischen Welt hat. Dann lernt der Mensch erkennen, wie sich anschließt an das Erleben seiner moralischen Qualität durch ein Drittel der Zeit seines vorangehenden Erdenlaufes ein übersinnliches, ein geistiges Erleben. Er lernt erkennen, was sich anschließt. Es schließt sich dann an ein anderes, ein rein geistiges Leben. Dazu muß aber erst die Möglichkeit gewonnen werden, daß die exakte Clairvoyance aufsteigt von dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein zu einem reinen, höheren Bewußtsein und daß sie dieses höhere Bewußtsein voll beurteilen lernt.
So habe ich versucht, Ihnen zwei Zustände nach dem Tode zu schildern. Den dritten werde ich sogleich nachher schildern, wenn die bisherige Darstellung übersetzt ist.
Wenn Sie dieses Hineinschauen in das Rückwärtserleben während des Schlafzustandes ins Auge fassen, so wie ich es geschildert habe, so werden Sie sehen, daß in diesem Rückwärtserleben der Mensch zwar außerhalb seines physischen Raumesleibes ein Leben hat; er ist gewissermaßen außer sich, neben sich. Aber dieses Leben ist, ich möchte sagen, so, daß man sich in ihm nicht bewegen kann. Man muß im Grunde genommen das ausführen, nur in der anderen Richtung, was man ausgeführt hat während des gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins am Tage. Und auch derjenige, welcher durch exakte Clairvoyance einen übersinnlichen Einblick in diese Erlebnisse erhält, von denen ich gesprochen habe, der fühlt sich wie hineingebannt in eine Welt, an die er sich erinnert im Tagesbewußtsein der Clairvoyance, aber in der er sich nicht bewegen kann, in die er eingespannt, gefesselt ist. Dasjenige, was man als einen dritten Zustand der höheren Erkenntnis und des höheren Lebens erringen muß, das ist die freie Bewegung in der geistigen Welt. Sonst kann man nicht eintreten in die Erkenntnis des rein geistigen, des rein übersinnlichen Bewußtseins.
Man muß hinzuerwerben zu der exakten Clairvoyance das, was ich bezeichnen werde als ideelle Magie. Wohl zu unterscheiden von der unrichtigen Magie, die äußerlich ausgeführt wird, die mit vielem Scharlatanhaften verknüpft ist; wohl zu unterscheiden davon ist dasjenige, was ich jetzt meine als ideelle Magie.
Unter dieser ideellen Magie verstehe ich das Folgende: Wenn der Mensch für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein sein Leben überblickt, dann sieht er, wie er eigentlich mit jedem Jahr und mit jedem Jahrzehnt ein anderer geworden ist in einer gewissen Beziehung. Die Gewohnheiten haben sich, wenn auch langsam, so doch geändert. Gewisse Fähigkeiten hat man sich angeeignet, gewisse Fähigkeiten sind auch verschwunden. Wer sich ehrlich anblickt in bezug auf gewisse Fähigkeiten des Erdenlebens, der kann sich jeweilig sagen, daß er ein anderer geworden ist. Aber das hat das Leben aus uns gemacht. Wir haben uns ganz hingegeben dem Leben, und das Leben erzieht uns, trainiert uns, bildet unsere Seelenformation aus.
Aber wer in die übersinnliche Welt erkennend eintreten will, wer mit anderen Worten ideelle Magie erwerben will, der muß nicht bloß seine Gedanken innerlich so intensiv machen, daß er ein zweites Dasein von sich dadurch erkennt, wie ich es geschildert habe, sondern er muß auch seinen Willen befreien von der Gebundenheit an den physischen Leib. Wir können unseren Willen im gewöhnlichen Leben nur in Bewegung bringen dadurch, daß wir uns unseres physischen Leibes, unserer Beine, unserer Arme, unserer Sprachwerkzeuge bedienen. Der physische Leib ist die Grundlage für unser Willensleben. Aber wir können folgendes machen, und das hat wiederum in ganz systematischer Weise derjenige durchzuführen, der als Geistesforscher zur ideellen Magie kommen will und diese hinzu erwerben will zu der exakten Clairvoyance. Er hat zum Beispiel einen so starken Willen zu entwickeln, daß er sich in einem bestimmten Zeitpunkt seines Lebens sagt: Du sollst dir eine bestimmte Gewohnheit abgewöhnen, und dafür eine andere deiner Seele einverleiben.
Man wird, wenn man energischen Willen angewendet hat, manchmal Jahre brauchen, um sich in dieser Beziehung ganz umzuwenden für gewisse Erlebnisformen, aber man kann das. Man kann sozusagen nicht bloß das Leben durch den physischen Leib sich Erzieher sein lassen, sondern man kann diese Erziehung, diese Selbstzucht nun auch selbst in die Hand nehmen.
Durch solche energischen Willensübungen, die ich wiederum in den genannten Büchern beschrieben habe, gelangt derjenige, der im modernen Sinne ein Eingeweihter, ein Initiierter werden will, dazu, nun nicht bloß das nachzuerleben im Schlafe, was er am Tage erlebt hat. Er gelangt dazu, Zustände herbeizuführen, die nicht Schlaf sind, die bei voller Besonnenheit erlebt werden und die ihm aber dennoch die Möglichkeit bieten, während er schläft, beweglich zu sein, etwas zu tun, so daß er außerhalb seines Leibes nicht bloß passiv ist, wie das beim gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein der Fall ist, nicht bloß passiv ist in der geistigen Welt, sondern handeln kann in der geistigen Welt, tätig sein kann in der geistigen Welt. Der Mensch bringt sich sonst während seines Schlafzustandes nicht weiter. Derjenige, der in diesem Sinne ein moderner Initiierter wird, der trägt die Fähigkeiten, tätig zu sein, zu handeln, in sein Wesen als Mensch auch für das Leben hinein, das zwischen dem Einschlafen und Aufwachen erlebt wird. Und wenn man so den Willen in das menschliche Wesen hineinträgt in dem Zustande, in dem dieses Wesen außerhalb des Leibes lebt, dann gelangt man dazu, ein ganz anderes Bewußtsein in sich auszubilden: dasjenige Bewußtsein, das nun wirklich schauen kann, was der Mensch erlebt in der Zeit, die sich an die geschilderte nach seinem Tode anschließt. Und da erlebt man tatsächlich durch dieses andere Bewußtsein die Möglichkeit, hineinzuschauen in unser nachirdisches Erdenleben ebenso wie in unser vorirdisches Erdenleben. Man schaut hinein, wie man ein Leben durchlebt, welches ebenso eine geistige Welt durchläuft, wie das physische Erdenleben eine physische Welt durchläuft. Man lernt sich erkennen als reiner Geist in einer geistigen Welt, wie man sich hier, innerhalb der physischen Erde, als physischer Leib innerhalb der physischen Welt erkennt. Und es bietet sich einem nun die Möglichkeit, auch ein Urteil darüber zu bekommen, wie lange dieses Leben, ich möchte sagen, nach der moralischen Bewertungszeit, die ich früher geschildert habe, dauert.
Indem man nämlich auf diese Weise den Willen durch ideelle Magie in sein Seelenleben hineinträgt, lernt man dieses Bewußtsein, das man als erwachsener Mensch hat, erkennen und in der richtigen Weise zu vergleichen mit dem dumpfen Bewußtsein, das man in der ersten Zeit seines Erdenlebens als kleines Kind, als Säugling gehabt hat.
Sie wissen, daß das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein sich nicht an diese allerersten Jahre der Kindheit zurückerinnern kann. Da lebt der Mensch wie in einem dumpfen Bewußtsein; wie schlafend lebt er sich herein in die Welt. Und unser gewöhnliches Bewußtsein als Erwachsener ist hell und intensiv und durchleuchtet, eben gegenüber diesem dumpfen, finsteren Bewußtsein, in das wir zurückblicken und das wir gehabt haben, während wir die erste Lebenszeit hier auf Erden durchmachten. Aber derjenige, der in der geschilderten Weise zur ideellen Magie aufsteigt, der lernt den Unterschied erkennen zwischen seinem gewöhnlichen Wachbewußtsein als erwachsener Mensch, und diesem dumpfen Kindheitsbewußtsein. Er lernt gewissermaßen erkennen, daß er wie über eine Stufe heraufsteigt von dem dumpfen Kindesbewußtsein zu dem helleren Bewußtsein als Erwachsener. Und aus dem Verhältnis, das er ja kennt, zwischen dem kindlichen Bewußtsein, das wie ein Traumbewußtsein ist, und seinem Bewußtsein während der Erwachsenheit, aus diesem Verhältnis lernt er auch beurteilen das andere Verhältnis zwischen seinem Bewußtsein als Erwachsener und jenem durchleuchteten Bewußtsein, in das er nicht nur exakte Clairvoyance, sondern ideelle Magie hineingetragen hat, so daß er sich in der geistigen Welt jetzt frei bewegen kann.
Ich möchte sagen, wir lernen uns in der geistigen Welt frei bewegen, geradeso wie wir uns als Körper haben frei bewegen gelernt während des physischen Erdenlebens aus der Kindheit heraus, wo wir uns nicht bewegen konnten. Man lernt also hinzu erkennen zu dem Verhältnis, das man von der ersten Kindheit zu dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein hat, das andere Verhältnis des erwachsenen Bewußtseins zu einem höchsten, rein geistigen Bewußtsein.
Dadurch aber lernt man auch erkennen, wie man nicht nur in dem nachirdischen Leben, nach dem Tode, ein Geist ist unter Geistern, mit denen man zusammen arbeitet, sondern man eignet sich auch ein Urteil darüber an, wie lange dieses geistige Leben unter geistigen Wesenheiten dauert. Wiederum müßte ich das Beispiel von dem Erinnern an ein gewöhnliches Erlebnis anführen. Man sieht ein: Wie die Erinnerung in sich vergangene Wirklichkeit trägt, so trägt dasjenige, was man jetzt erlebt, in sich ein richtiges Urteil darüber, daß man in dem höheren Bewußtsein des Initiierten nicht etwas hat, was eine eigene Bedeutung hat, sondern etwas, was hinweist auf das Leben als Geist unter Geistern nach dem Tode. Und man lernt erkennen, wie sich dieses rein geistige Leben zu dem Erdenleben verhält, das man hier zwischen Geburt und Tod durchgemacht hat.
Sieht man nämlich als Initiierter zurück auf sein allererstes Kindheitsleben, so weiß man, es wird einem immer leichter möglich, in die geistige Welt hineinzuschauen, je älter man wird. Gewiß, es gibt verhältnismäßig jugendliche Personen, die gut hineinsehen können in die geistige Welt. Aber exakter und klarer wird dieses Hineinschauen mit jedem Jahre, mit dem man älter wird. Man erlangt immer mehr und mehr die Fähigkeit, in dieses andere Bewußtsein hinüberzugehen; dadurch lernt man erkennen, wie sich ein Bewußtsein zu dem anderen verhält. Man lernt folgendes erkennen: Man ist zum Beispiel vierzig Jahre alt geworden und man hat ja nur die Möglichkeit, sich zurückzuerinnern, sagen wir, bis zu seinem dritten, vierten Jahre. Man betrachtet diese Verhältnisse, wievielmal die vierzig Jahre mehr sind, als das unbewußte traumhaft kindliche Bewußtsein. Man lernt erkennen, wie das Leben im Geiste nach dem Tode ebensovielmal länger sein wird, als dieses Erdenleben im ganzen länger ist als das Leben als kleines Kind im traumhaften Zustande; das erstreckt sich auf viele Jahrhunderte. So daß sich anschließt an das Nacherleben des moralischen Zustandes ein rein geistiges Leben des Menschen als Geist unter Geistern, das nach Jahrhunderten dauert. In diesem Erleben hat der Mensch die Aufgaben der geistigen Welt ebenso um sich, wie er hier im Erdenleben die Aufgaben der physischen Welt um sich hat.
Aber diese Aufgaben, die zeigen sich für jene exakte Clairvoyance, die unterstützt wird von dem, ich möchte sagen, Herumwandeln in der geistigen Welt, durch ideelle Magie, sie zeigen sich dadurch, daß aus dem Wesen der geistigen Welt, in der man nach dem Tode lebt, alles dasjenige an Kräften herausgearbeitet wird, was dann hinführt zu einem folgenden Leben auf der Erde. Dieses folgende Leben auf der Erde steht einem als Ziel bevor, vom Anfange an des Lebens nach dem Tode. Und dieses Leben auf Erden im Menschen ist ja ein wirklicher Mikrokosmos. Dieser Mikrokosmos wird herausgearbeitet aus einem gewaltigen Erleben in der geistigen Welt nach dem Tode.
Sehen Sie, wenn man hier in der physischen Welt von einem Keime spricht, dann ist der Keim klein und entfaltet sich; nachher wird er eine große Pflanze oder ein großes Tier. Ich könnte auch von einem Geistkeim sprechen, den der Mensch ausbildet nach seinem physischen Leben auf Erden, nach dem Tode. Er arbeitet im Zusammenhang mit geistigen Wesenheiten aus den Geistkräften der Welt einen Geistkeim heraus für sein späteres Erdenleben. Und dieses Erarbeiten ist nicht etwa eine Wiederholung des Erdenlebens, sondern das schließt Betätigungsweisen, Wesenhaftes in sich, das größer und gewaltiger ist, selbstverständlich, als all das, was auf Erden erlebt werden kann. Das Zubereiten des künftigen Erdenlebens unter den Erfahrungen der geistigen Welt, das ist es, was der Mensch zunächst für sich erlebt im nachirdischen Leben.
Und dazu kommt, daß ja das kosmische Bewußtsein auftritt, wie ich es geschildert habe. Dadurch, daß in dem einen Menschen das kosmische Bewußtsein auftritt, und in dem anderen Menschen ebenso, ja, dieses kosmische Bewußtsein allnächtlich schon vorhanden ist, wenn auch in einem dumpfen Zustande, so daß es kein wirkliches Bewußtsein ist, sondern — wenn ich den paradoxen Ausdruck gebrauchen darf ein unbewußtes Bewußtsein ist, dadurch leben die Menschen, indem sie als geistige Wesen leben, nicht nur mit anderen geistigen Wesenheiten zusammen, die niemals auf die Erde kommen, sondern eben in der reinen Geisteswelt wohnen; sie leben vielmehr dadurch auch mit all den Seelen zusammen, die entweder in physischen Menschenleibern verkörpert sind, oder aber, die selbst durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind und dasselbe durchmachen wie sie: durchmachen das kosmische Bewußtsein, das alle gemeinsam haben.
Und es ist wirklich so, daß dasjenige, was sich hier angesponnen hat auf Erden von Seele zu Seele, in der Familie, unter Menschen, wo wir uns gefunden haben dadurch, daß wir uns in physischen Menschenleibern begegnet sind, wir uns dadurch aber auch als Seelen gefunden haben, es ist so, daß wir das alles, was wir hier auf Erden gefunden haben, dann abgelegt haben; was wir erleben als Liebende, was wir erleben als Freunde, als uns sonst nahestehende Menschen, was wir erleben durch unsere physischen Erfahrungen im physischen Leibe, das streifen wir ab, das legen wir ab, ebenso wie wir diesen physischen Leib selber ablegen. Aber dadurch, daß wir hier Verhältnisse des Familienhaften, der Freundschaft, der Liebe entwickelt haben, pflanzt sich das geistig fort durch die Pforte des Todes hinein in jene GeistErlebnisse, die ein späteres Leben aufbauen. Und wir arbeiten nicht nur für uns allein, sondern wir arbeiten - sogar schon in der Zeit, wo wir die moralische Beurteilung unseres vergangenen Lebens haben — mit den Menschenseelen zusammen, die uns hier wert und lieb geworden sind in der Welt.
Das alles wird durch exakte Clairvoyance und durch ideelle Magie nicht nur etwas, was dem Glauben unterliegt, sondern es wird eine wirkliche Erkenntnis. Es dringt herein in das unmittelbare Anschauen des Menschen. Ja, wir können sogar sagen: Hier in der physischen Welt ist ein Abgrund zwischen den Seelen, auch wenn sie sich noch so lieb haben, denn sie begegnen sich innerhalb ihrer Körperhaftigkeit, und sie können nur in solche Wechselverhältnisse treten, die durch körperliche Beziehungen vermittelt sind. Aber wenn der Mensch selber in der geistigen Welt ist, dann ist nicht einmal das der Fall, daß der physische Leib, der hier einem zurückgelassenen geliebten Wesen eigen ist, ein Hindernis ist, um mit seiner Seele zusammen zu leben. So wie man sich aneignen muß für das Hineinschauen in die geistige Welt die Fähigkeit, durchzuschauen durch irdische Gegenstände, wie ich es geschildert habe, so hat derjenige, der durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, Gemeinschaft durch den Körper hindurch mit den Seelen, die er hier als ihm nahestehende zurückgelassen hat. Er erlebt sie auch noch, solange sie auf der Erde sind, bis zu ihrem eigenen Tode, als Seelen.
Das möchte ich zunächst heute im Beginne dieser drei Vorträge gesagt haben über dasjenige, was Einsichten geben kann in das wirkliche übersinnliche Leben des Menschen. Ich möchte darauf hingewiesen haben, daß dadurch, daß exakte Clairvoyance und ideelle Magie angestrebt werden, tatsächlich in solcher Weise — wissenschaftlich erkennend — über die höheren Welten gesprochen werden kann, wie durch die exakte Naturerkenntnis über die Sinneswelt gesprochen werden kann. Und man wird sehen, indem man sich immer mehr und mehr einleben wird — denn Menschen werden schon da sein, die ihre Fähigkeiten entwickeln werden, um sich in diese Welten einzuleben —, man wird sehen, daß keine Wissenschaft, so vollkommen sie sich auch entwickelt hat, ein Hindernis dafür sein kann, das anzunehmen, was mit echter wissenschaftlicher Gesinnung durch exakte Clairvoyance und durch ideelle Magie an Erkenntnissen dem Menschen gegeben werden kann über das, was er durchmacht, nicht nur hier auf dieser Erde zwischen Geburt und Tod, sondern auch zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt bis zu einem Wiederkehren in einem Erdenleben.
Wie diese wiederkehrenden Leben sind und inwiefern sie ein Ende erreichen, davon will ich dann morgen sprechen, wenn ich mir gestatten werde, darzustellen, welche Beziehung das Christus-Ereignis, das Ereignis von Golgatha hereingebracht hat in das menschliche Erdenleben.
Da werde ich zu zeigen haben, daß diejenige Erkenntnis, von der ich gesprochen habe, insofern sie den Menschen als einzelnen angeht, hinleuchtet auf die ganze Entwickelung des Menschengeschlechtes durch das Leben der Erde, und dadurch auch hinleuchten kann auf dasjenige, was eigentlich durch den Eintritt des Christus in das Erdenleben für die Menschheit geschehen ist.
Und so soll gezeigt werden durch diese Vorträge auf der einen Seite, daß man nicht gegen die heutige exakte Naturwissenschaft zu gehen braucht, wenn man von übersinnlichen Erkenntnissen spricht. Und das soll der Gegenstand des morgigen Vortrags sein, daß auch das für das Erdenleben der Menschheit wichtigste Ereignis, das Christus-Ereignis, in einer neuen Gestalt, in einer leuchtenderen Gestalt, vor die menschliche Seele tritt, wenn diese menschliche Seele sich bereit erklärt, anzunehmen die hier gemeinten Erkenntnisse der übersinnlichen Welt.
Die Beziehung der anthroposophischen Geisteswissenschaft zum Christentum zu erörtern, wird dann meine Aufgabe morgen sein.
Exact Knowledge of the Supersensible Worlds in the Sense of Anthroposophical Spiritual Science
There is no doubt that in the present day a large number of people long to know something of the spiritual, of the supersensible worlds, and even men of science have in recent times often concerned themselves with finding ways by which one can come to knowledge of the supersensible world. However, in all these attempts to enter the supersensible world, modern man is always hindered by what follows from modern science as the ability to judge, what authority is available from this modern science. And in the face of many a source from which one believes to draw for the knowledge of the supersensible world, the judgment asserts itself: Yes, but an exact knowledge, as we are accustomed to developing it in science, an exact knowledge of the supersensible worlds cannot exist, because none of that holds up. On the other hand, anthroposophical spiritual science, which I will take the liberty of speaking to you about today and in the next few days, strives for a truly exact knowledge of the supersensible world. An exact knowledge not by conducting experiments in the same sense as for the science of the outer world, but in such a way that inner faculties of the soul, which otherwise only lie dormant in everyday life and in ordinary science, are developed in such a way that in all this development human prudence is maintained in a way that only happens in exact science. So while in exact science one retains one's consciousness as one has it in ordinary life, and then behaves exactly in one's methods in the investigation of the outer world, in anthroposophical spiritual science one proceeds in such a way that one day one submits to what I would like to call intellectual modesty, by saying to oneself: You were once a child, you had abilities then which do not remotely approach those abilities which you now have as an adult human being, and which you have acquired through education, through life. - Just as you have developed certain abilities from childhood onwards that were not there before, you can say that there may also be abilities in the adult person that lie dormant in him, just as his current abilities lay dormant in the soul of the child. And certain methods can be used to extract these abilities from the soul.
Now in anthroposophical spiritual science, which is meant here, these abilities must be brought out of the soul in such a way that the methods which one then applies to one's own development before one goes to a realization, proceed exactly in this own development. Thus one prepares oneself for seeing into the higher world in such a way that the preparation which one applies to oneself presupposes an exact method. That is why, as I took the liberty of saying in my last lectures here in this hall, you can achieve an exact clairvoyance, an exact clairvoyance, in this way. It is acquired in an exact way, just as one otherwise investigates nature in an exact way with ordinary knowledge.
Today I will have less to say about the way in which one acquires this exact clairvoyance. I will mention this occasionally, for I have already spoken in the previous lectures mentioned of the methods by which one arrives at exact clairvoyance, and one can learn about these methods from the book which has been translated into English and which bears the title: “The Way of Initiation.”
Today, however, I would first like to draw attention to the fact that in ordinary life man is denied access to the higher worlds. This is denied him above all by the fact that he can only ever perceive the world in the present moment. Through our eyes we can only see the world and its phenomena in the present moment. Through our ears we can only hear sounds in the present moment. And so it is with all our senses. Everything that is initially the past of our own life on earth, we can only know in memory, that is, in faded thoughts. Just compare how vivid, how concrete what we went through in our existence ten years ago was, and how pale, shadowy the thought is with which we remember it today.
And so everything that goes beyond the present moment is such for the ordinary consciousness of man that it can only live in him in the shadowy memory. But this shadowy memory can be kindled and fanned into a higher life. And this happens through those methods which, as I said, I will discuss less today, through the method of meditation in thought, concentration on thought, self-education and so on.
He who applies such methods to himself, whereby he learns to live in thought as intensely as one otherwise lives only in the outer impressions of the senses, attains a certain ability which consists in the fact that he can not only contemplate the world in the present moment. Such exercises, which lead to the ability to contemplate the world not only in the present moment, must, however, be carried out for a long time, according to the respective dispositions of the person, in careful and systematic, exact meditation and concentration. Some people are born with the ability that can be developed in this way. That is to say, it is not there at birth in such a way that it can become manifest, but it emerges from within at a certain point in life, and one knows that one would not have acquired it in ordinary life if one had not already brought it with one at birth. This ability consists in the fact that one can live in one's thoughts in the same way as one otherwise lives through one's body in the sensual world.
Do not take such a statement too lightly. Consider that man owes everything by which he ascribes existence to himself to his co-experience with the sensory world. When man comes so far that, without relying on the impressions of the eyes, the ears, the impressions of other senses, he nevertheless develops an inner life that is now inwardly intense, as otherwise only the life of the senses is, an inner life that does not merely live in shadowy thoughts, but in inwardly living thoughts, that one experiences the thoughts as one otherwise only experiences the sense impressions, then one certainly experiences a second existence, then one experiences a different self-consciousness. One experiences precisely what I would like to call: awakening, not outside the body, but awakening to a life within the human being, despite the fact that the physical body is so calm and so unresponsive through the senses as it is otherwise only in sleep.
When we look into ourselves, we find that we actually only know in ordinary life what we have taken in through the senses. We know nothing of our own inner being through direct perception. We cannot see into our inner organization through ordinary consciousness. When we acquire self-awareness in pure thinking, then we learn to look inwards just as we can otherwise look outwards.
Then we feel something like this: When we otherwise look outwards, there must be the sun or a light that casts its rays on the objects around us. Through this light, which is outside of us, we see the objects around us. When we become conscious in this second existence in the pure process of thinking, which is then a process of perception that is as colorful and intense as sensory perception otherwise is, then we feel to a certain extent - yes, not only to a certain extent, but in the actual sense, only the sense is meant spiritually - we feel an inner light, a light through which we shine into our own inner being in the same way as we otherwise get the objects illuminated by the outer lights.
This is why this state of human experience can be called clairvoyance. And this clairvoyance in the awakened self-consciousness in the spirit, this clairvoyance first produces the ability that one can be inside again in every moment that one has experienced on earth.
For example, you can experience it quite well: You were eighteen years old, and during those eighteen years you went through this or that experience. - But you don't just have a memory of these experiences, you relive them to a greater or lesser extent. You are once again the person you were when you were eighteen or fifteen or ten. You can take yourself back to every moment of your life and thereby attain an inner, enlightened view of what we can call a temporal body as opposed to the spatial body, which contains our senses and provides us with the external view.
But this temporal body is suddenly there. It is not experienced in successive moments, it is there all at once. It is there in its inner mobility. One looks over oneself in one's entire earthly life to date, as one otherwise only remembers this earthly life in shadowy thoughts. One illuminates one's entire earthly course, but in such a way that one is present in every moment.
When you experience this inner enlightenment, then you know that you are not only carrying this physical human body, this space body. One knows that the human being carries a second, a finer body within him, a body that is actually woven from the images of the previous earthly life, but from such images that at the same time creatively shape this earthly life itself, namely shape our organism and our activities, our organism in which we are, our activities that we have practiced. In this way we get to know a second person within ourselves.
And this second human being, whom one gets to know in this way, one perceives in such a way that he actually experiences himself - as the physical space body experiences itself in a physical world - in a finer etheric, I would like to say, in a transilluminated world. The world is there once again. The world is there in finer forms. All physical things are based on finer ethereal forms, which we see in this way.
And one experiences the peculiarity that one can only hold on to everything one experiences in this finer body for a short time. It is usually the case that the person who has acquired this exact clairvoyance and has thereby illuminated his etheric or formative body, as I would also like to call it, perceives the etheric of the world, the etheric of himself, but at the same time he must also recognize how tremendously quickly the impressions disappear. One cannot hold on to them. One develops a kind of anxiety to return quickly to the perceptions of the physical body so that one has an inner stability as a human being, as a personality. And you experience yourself in your etheric body. One also experiences things of the higher world in this etheric body, that which is etheric in the higher world. But at the same time you see how fleeting all these impressions are, you cannot hold on to them for long, you can only hold on to them by helping yourself somehow.
I would like to give you an example of how I help myself to prevent the impressions of this ethereal vision from disappearing too quickly: Every time I have such impressions, I try not only to see them, but to write them down; so that the activity that is being practiced is not only practiced by the abstract faculties of the soul, but is recorded by writing it down. It is not important that one reads things afterwards, but it is important that one allows a stronger activity to flow into that activity which is initially a purely ethereal one.
Through this you pour, so to speak, what is tremendously fleeting and fluid and what quickly flits away into your ordinary human abilities. All this does not happen unconsciously, as with the medium, but with full consciousness. But you pour it all into your ordinary human physical faculties. This enables you to hold on to it. This also enables you to grasp something very important. One comes to understand how to hold on to a supersensible etheric world at first - we will speak of other supersensible worlds later - but a supersensible etheric world that encompasses oneself in one's previous course of life and that encompasses the etheric of outer nature up to the starry world. One gets to know this etheric world. One learns to experience oneself in this etheric world; and one knows that, without returning to the physical body, it is impossible to hold on to this world for more than two or three days at most. If one has developed the faculties very strongly, one can hold on to this world for two or three days. And since one can then, as a modern initiate, survey all this through things of which I will speak shortly, one also knows how to judge what it is that one holds in one's etheric body or in one's body of formative forces without relying on one's physical abilities. It is that which, when the human being passes through the gate of death from the physical body, which disintegrates and is discarded, is what one initially sees out of one's higher self-consciousness, and which for this reason cannot remain with the human self-consciousness for more than two to three days after the death of the physical body.
Thus, through the formation of exact clairvoyance, one experiences the first states that occur in man after death; one experiences them for the reason that one cognitively pre-experiences them.
That which the initiate cognitively pre-experiences now occurs in every human being when he lays down his physical body. But the human being would continue to have no consciousness - whereby he nevertheless has a consciousness after death, I will explain later - the human being would have no consciousness throughout the time in which he can hold on to his etheric or formative forces body through higher cognition, that is, two to three days.
Two to three days after death man therefore has a consciousness of the etheric world living in the etheric body. Then he sheds this consciousness. He experiences how the etheric body, as it were, falls away from him, how first the physical body has fallen away, and how he has to pass over into another consciousness in order to live on as a conscious human being after death.
What I am describing to you here as the first moments, so to speak - for they are the first moments in relation to the world existence - can be claimed by the one who has acquired the characterized ability to look into the higher world, because he pre-experiences what otherwise normally occurs in human life after death. Because he has acquired that strong self-consciousness which is no longer dependent on the body, he experiences these moments immediately after death already in this consciousness.
He comes to illuminate his own higher life, and he thereby comes to recognize that light in himself, whereby he has a world around him after death in the first two to three days, which is different from the world we have around us when we look out through our senses into our surroundings during our earthly life between birth and death.
What happens after these days, I want to discuss further after this part of the lecture has been translated.
In order to survey the supersensible part of the earthly course of life, which, as I have said, lives on in its character for several days after death, one needs the inner enlightenment I have described. One must, so to speak, kindle the spiritual light within oneself that shines inwards. Then one goes beyond merely perceiving in the present moment, as is possible through the senses.
In order to come to further insights into the supersensible world, it is necessary that not only the state of perception in man changes, but that the state of life itself also changes. In ordinary life we humans have such a state of life that our life is enclosed in our physical space body. The boundaries of our skin are at the same time the boundaries of our life. Our life reaches as far as our body reaches. Within such a state of experience one cannot go beyond what I have described so far in terms of knowledge of the higher worlds. One can only get out of the ordinary experience for knowledge of the higher worlds by acquiring an experience that is not enclosed within the boundaries of the spatial body, but that experiences the whole world that is otherwise around us.
And such a co-experience can also be acquired for the knowledge of the higher worlds. I will only, as I have already said, occasionally mention some of the methods of the modern initiate by which he exactly acquires knowledge of the higher worlds. The rest can be found in the aforementioned scripture.
If one not only acquires the ability to have a second existence in the life of thought, which still remains enclosed in the spatial body, but if one acquires the ability to live outside one's body by not only allowing thoughts to live intensively in one's consciousness, but also by always being able to remove them from one's consciousness through systematic exercises, then one acquires this state of experience outside the body. I will give you a simple exercise.
Suppose you are looking at a crystal. You have this crystal in front of you through your eyes. The person who wants to be a mere medium or wants to achieve a kind of hypnosis stares at this crystal, and the impression the crystal makes on him puts him into a state of recklessness. Anthroposophical spiritual science has nothing to do with this. It must have recourse to quite different exercises. For it it is a matter of looking at a crystal and finally coming to look away from it, to abstract from it, as one otherwise only abstracts from thoughts. So you have a crystal in front of you and learn to look through it, not physically, but mentally, so that you do not use your eyes to look at it, even though you have them fully open, and you shape your mental cognition in such a way that you no longer have the crystal in front of you, that you put it away for viewing, You can also do these exercises in such a way that you put away a color that you have in front of you, so that you no longer look at it, even though you have it in front of you.
And so one can especially do exercises in such a way that one gets rid of thoughts which arise through the outer life in the present moment, or which have been gone through in earlier moments of earthly life and now arise as memories, that one gets rid of such thoughts, empties the consciousness of them, so that one merely wakes up and actually has nothing of the outer world in one's consciousness.
When one does such exercises, one finds within oneself the possibility of no longer remaining within the boundaries of one's spatial body, but of going beyond it. One then experiences the life of the whole environment, which one otherwise only looks at in its sensual appearances.
Through this, above all, something arises in the completely prudent consciousness that I can compare with a memory of the life that one spends in sleep, of the life that one spends from falling asleep to waking up. Just as one sees oneself limited to the present moment for ordinary perception, so one sees oneself limited for ordinary life to that which one has always experienced in the waking state.
Just think, if you remember back to your life, the times that you have through sleep are always empty for the ordinary consciousness. What the soul has always experienced from falling asleep to waking up does not appear in the memory, so that we actually always have an interrupted flow in the memory. We just do not always take note of it.
But that which the soul experiences every time between falling asleep and waking up stands like an intense memory before that consciousness which has awakened in such a way that man can live with it outside his body. Thus the second stage of knowledge of the supersensible worlds occurs, and we can first become aware of what we go through as souls when our body, our physical body, remains quietly asleep, as if soulless, without perception, without expressions of will. In this way we can, so to speak, remember in ordinary daily life what we have experienced outside the body each time between falling asleep and waking up. But we must be clear that what occurs there must be judged by us in the right way. We learn that what the soul experiences from falling asleep to waking up is experienced outside the body. We can only see it if we can develop a consciousness, a state of life outside the body. And now we not only get to know something that is, so to speak, illuminated by an inner light, like our own temporal body, as I have described, but we now learn to recognize in the day memory, which has only risen to this exact clairvoyance of a higher kind, that which we really experience every time between falling asleep and waking up. But at first this experience is something astonishing. Just as we live in ordinary consciousness in our physical body during the day and have lungs, heart and so on within us, so from the time we fall asleep until we wake up we actually do not have a personal human consciousness, but a cosmic consciousness. We have a consciousness as if - as paradoxical as this sounds, it is perceptible to the observing cognition - replicas of the planetary and stellar worlds were living within us. We feel that we are part of the cosmos. We look at the world, so to speak, from the point of view of living in the cosmos.
And by experiencing inwardly what we otherwise have around us, we go through - and indeed in the real state of life backwards - every time we sleep, what we have lived through here in physical life from the previous waking up to falling asleep.
If, for example, we have regularly woken through a day and then sleep at night, then it turns out that, as we begin to fall asleep, we experience the last experiences we had in the evening before we went to sleep backwards, then those that were more in the afternoon. And so we experience the whole of our daytime life backwards through the night.
As I said, for the exact clairvoyance I was talking about here, it is a matter of having this recollection of these nocturnal experiences in ordinary daytime life. Just as one recalls in ordinary memory what one experienced in daytime consciousness years ago, one can experience this backward experience of daytime life through exact clairvoyance. And so you do indeed have something like an extended memory in front of you in this exact clairvoyance. One looks back on one's sleeping experience. One knows that one experiences sleeping outside the physical space body, that one experiences one's own daytime existence backwards in a real world entity, which to a certain extent has an afterimage of the whole world within itself in consciousness, that one experiences one's own daytime existence backwards in such a world entity. And one then also finds that this daily existence in the backward experience does not take as long as it takes here in the physical world. Gradually, by really becoming a researcher in this field, that is, in a systematic way, one learns to know things more and more through exact experience, one learns to recognize how this backward experience proceeds three times as fast as the physical experience in ordinary consciousness. So that someone who is awake for about two-thirds of his time and then sleeps for one-third of his time also experiences in this third of the time what he has gone through in the two-thirds of his physical existence. So that one gets to know a life that man unfolds outside his body, which runs backwards with threefold speed.
By remembering this nocturnal sleeping life in ordinary daytime life through exact clairvoyance, one knows at the same time that this sleeping re-experience has no meaning of its own. That which one has in daytime consciousness in exact clairvoyance is already a memory. But that which one remembers as sleep experiences shows that it has no meaning of its own, but only a pre-meaning. And that is so. Ask yourself, how do you judge a memory of an experience you had twenty years ago? - You say to yourself: I am experiencing in shadowy thoughts. But this memory, by its very nature, offers me the guarantee that I do not have a fantasy before me, but that it is an image of what I really, actually experienced in the past of my life on earth. Just as memory contains in itself a guarantee that it refers to something quite different that is really in the past, so that which one looks at as a nocturnal experience carries in itself the guarantee that it has no meaning of its own, but points to something in the future.
There is no need to prove to memory that it refers to a past. Nor is it necessary, when one has attained exact clairvoyance, to prove to what one sees of one's nocturnal experiences that it is not a phantasy of the present. One can see that it refers to the future of man, and indeed to that future of man where man will really have laid aside his physical body at death, as he has now merely laid it aside pictorially in the exact clairvoyance.
And through this one learns to recognize what man experiences after death, when he has completed the three days of which I have spoken. Yes, through this memory-like process one also learns to recognize the significance of the two to three days after death, when one feels as if one is in a world consciousness, in a cosmic consciousness, where one looks over the etheric of oneself once again from the cosmos, where one looks back on what one has lived through in one's earthly life. And one learns to recognize what one experiences afterwards, in such a way that the event of death is followed by a life that runs three times as fast as life on earth. You get to know this through the contemplation of nocturnal experiences.
We know that the etheric experience, which lasts only a short time after death, is followed by a life that lasts twenty, thirty years or even less, depending on how old the person has become in his earthly life. Approximately - and this is all approximate - this life runs three times as fast as life on earth. So if someone is thirty years old, he will experience the life I am talking about three times as quickly after death, i.e. in ten years. If someone is sixty years old, he experiences his life backwards, after death, in twenty years; but all taken approximately.
All this is recognized as an activity lived through is recognized through a memory, in exact clairvoyance. And so we learn to recognize that our death is followed by a supersensible experience, an experience in the supersensible world, which is a backward experience of our whole life on earth. Every night we relive the previous day. After our death we experience our whole life on earth in reverse. We go through everything again. And by reliving everything we went through in earthly life in a spiritual form, we acquire an accurate judgment of our own moral worth.
Through this time, which we go through after death, we acquire an awareness of our moral personality, of our moral value, just as we acquire an awareness of life in the flesh and in blood here on this earth. After death we live in what we were as a moral person here on earth. By going through all the events again, going backwards, and thus no longer being detached from the moral judgment by our instincts, drives, passions, but rather seeing them purely spiritually, we learn to know an accurate, a correct judgment of our own moral quality.
The time I have just spoken of is necessary for this judgment. Once we have completed this time after death, that which is moral inner life, the recollection of our moral value on earth, fades away and we must move on through the spiritual worlds with a different consciousness, which can now also be known through exact clairvoyance.
There it is then necessary that man not only learns to live outside of his space body, but that he learns to live in a completely different consciousness than he has here within the physical world. Then man learns to recognize how the experience of his moral quality is followed by a supersensible, a spiritual experience through a third of the time of his previous earthly course. He learns to recognize what follows. It is then followed by another, a purely spiritual life. For this, however, the possibility must first be gained that the exact clairvoyance ascends from the ordinary consciousness to a pure, higher consciousness and that it learns to fully assess this higher consciousness.
So I have tried to describe to you two states after death. I will describe the third immediately afterwards, when the previous description has been translated.
If you consider this looking into the backward experience during the state of sleep, as I have described it, you will see that in this backward experience man does have a life outside of his physical space body; he is to a certain extent outside of himself, beside himself. But this life is, I would say, such that one cannot move within it. Basically, one has to carry out, only in the other direction, what one has carried out during ordinary consciousness during the day. And also the person who, through exact clairvoyance, receives a supersensible insight into these experiences of which I have spoken, feels as if spellbound into a world which he remembers in the daytime consciousness of clairvoyance, but in which he cannot move, in which he is confined, bound. That which one must attain as a third state of higher knowledge and higher life is free movement in the spiritual world. Otherwise one cannot enter into the knowledge of the purely spiritual, the purely supersensible consciousness.
In addition to exact clairvoyance, one must acquire what I will call ideal magic. This is to be distinguished from the incorrect magic that is performed externally, which is linked to many charlatanic things; what I now mean as ideal magic is to be distinguished from this.
By this ideal magic I mean the following: When a person looks over his life for the ordinary consciousness, he sees how he has actually become a different person in a certain respect with every year and with every decade. Habits have changed, albeit slowly. Certain skills have been acquired and certain skills have disappeared. Anyone who looks at himself honestly with regard to certain abilities of life on earth can say that he has become someone else. But that is what life has made of us. We have given ourselves completely to life, and life educates us, trains us, forms our soul formation.
But whoever wants to enter the supersensible world in a cognitive way, whoever wants to acquire ideal magic in other words, must not only make his thoughts so intense inwardly that he recognizes a second existence of himself through it, as I have described, but he must also free his will from the bondage to the physical body. In ordinary life we can only set our will in motion by using our physical body, our legs, our arms, our instruments of speech. The physical body is the basis for our life of will. But we can do the following, and this again has to be carried out in a very systematic way by those who, as spiritual researchers, want to come to ideal magic and want to acquire this in addition to exact clairvoyance. He has, for example, to develop such a strong will that he says to himself at a certain point in his life: You should break yourself of a certain habit and in return incorporate another into your soul.
If one has applied a strong will, it will sometimes take years to completely change one's attitude towards certain forms of experience, but it can be done. You can, so to speak, not only let life be your educator through the physical body, but you can now also take this education, this self-discipline into your own hands.
Through such energetic exercises of the will, which I have again described in the books mentioned, the one who wants to become an initiate in the modern sense, an initiate, comes to not only relive in sleep what he has experienced during the day. He comes to bring about states which are not sleep, which are experienced in full contemplation and which nevertheless offer him the possibility of being mobile while he sleeps, of doing something, so that he is not merely passive outside his body, as is the case with ordinary consciousness, is not merely passive in the spiritual world, but can act in the spiritual world, can be active in the spiritual world. Otherwise the human being does not progress during his state of sleep. The person who becomes a modern initiate in this sense carries the ability to be active, to act, into his being as a human being for the life that is experienced between falling asleep and waking up. And if one thus carries the will into the human being in the state in which this being lives outside the body, then one comes to form a completely different consciousness in oneself: that consciousness which can now really see what the human being experiences in the time that follows the time described after his death. And through this other consciousness one actually experiences the possibility of looking into our post-earthly life on earth as well as into our pre-earthly life on earth. One looks into how one lives through a life which passes through a spiritual world just as the physical life on earth passes through a physical world. One learns to recognize oneself as a pure spirit in a spiritual world, just as one recognizes oneself here, within the physical earth, as a physical body within the physical world. And you are now offered the opportunity to make a judgment about how long this life lasts, I would say, according to the moral evaluation time I described earlier.
By bringing the will into your soul life in this way through ideal magic, you learn to recognize this consciousness that you have as an adult human being and to compare it in the right way with the dull consciousness that you had in the first time of your life on earth as a small child, as an infant.
You know that the ordinary consciousness cannot remember these very first years of childhood. There man lives as if in a dull consciousness; as if asleep he lives his way into the world. And our ordinary consciousness as adults is bright and intense and illuminated, in contrast to this dull, dark consciousness that we look back on and that we had during our first lifetime here on earth. But the one who ascends to ideal magic in the way described learns to recognize the difference between his ordinary waking consciousness as an adult human being and this dull childhood consciousness. He learns to recognize, so to speak, that he ascends as if over a step from the dull child consciousness to the brighter consciousness as an adult. And from the relationship, which he knows, between the childish consciousness, which is like a dream consciousness, and his consciousness during adulthood, from this relationship he also learns to judge the other relationship between his consciousness as an adult and that illuminated consciousness into which he has brought not only exact clairvoyance, but ideal magic, so that he can now move freely in the spiritual world.
I would like to say that we learn to move freely in the spiritual world, just as we have learned to move freely as a body during our physical life on earth from childhood, where we could not move. So in addition to the relationship that we have from our first childhood to our ordinary consciousness, we learn to recognize the other relationship of adult consciousness to a supreme, purely spiritual consciousness.
But through this one also learns to recognize how one is not only in the after-earthly life, after death, a spirit among spirits with whom one works together, but one also acquires a judgment about how long this spiritual life lasts among spiritual beings. Again, I would have to give the example of remembering an ordinary experience. One can see this: Just as memory carries within it past reality, so that which one experiences now carries within it a correct judgment that in the higher consciousness of the initiate one does not have something that has a meaning of its own, but something that points to life as a spirit among spirits after death. And one learns to recognize how this purely spiritual life relates to the earthly life one has gone through here between birth and death.
For if an initiate looks back to his very first childhood life, he knows that the older he gets, the easier it becomes for him to look into the spiritual world. Certainly, there are relatively young people who can see well into the spiritual world. But this insight becomes more precise and clearer with every year that you grow older. One acquires more and more the ability to go over into this other consciousness; thereby one learns to recognize how one consciousness relates to the other. You learn to recognize the following: For example, you have reached the age of forty and you only have the possibility of remembering back to, say, your third or fourth year. You look at these relationships, how many times the forty years are more than the unconscious dreamlike childlike consciousness. One learns to recognize how life in the spirit after death will be just as many times longer than this life on earth as a whole is longer than life as a small child in a dreamlike state; this extends over many centuries. So that the after-experience of the moral state is followed by a purely spiritual life of man as a spirit among spirits, which lasts for centuries. In this experience man has the tasks of the spiritual world around him just as he has the tasks of the physical world around him here in earthly life.
But these tasks, they show themselves for that exact clairvoyance, which is supported by, I would like to say, walking around in the spiritual world, through ideal magic, they show themselves in that from the nature of the spiritual world, in which one lives after death, all that power is worked out, which then leads to a following life on earth. This following life on earth stands before one as a goal, from the beginning of life after death. And this life on earth in man is a real microcosm. This microcosm is worked out of a tremendous experience in the spiritual world after death.
You see, when one speaks of a germ here in the physical world, then the germ is small and develops; afterwards it becomes a large plant or a large animal. I could also speak of a spiritual germ that a person develops after his physical life on earth, after death. In connection with spiritual beings, he works out a spiritual germ from the spiritual forces of the world for his later life on earth. And this working out is not a repetition of life on earth, but includes modes of activity, beings that are greater and more powerful, of course, than anything that can be experienced on earth. The preparation of the future life on earth under the experiences of the spiritual world, that is what man first experiences for himself in the after-earthly life.
And in addition the cosmic consciousness appears as I have described it. Because cosmic consciousness arises in one person, and in the other person likewise, indeed, this cosmic consciousness is already present nightly, even if in a dull state, so that it is not real consciousness, but - if I may use the paradoxical expression - an unconscious consciousness, thereby people, by living as spiritual beings, not only live together with other spiritual beings who never come to earth, but just dwell in the pure spiritual world; they also live together with all those souls who are either embodied in physical human bodies or who have themselves passed through the gate of death and are going through the same as they are: going through the cosmic consciousness that they all have in common.
And it is really so that what has been spun here on earth from soul to soul, in the family, among people, where we have found each other by meeting in physical human bodies, but we have also found each other as souls, it is so that we have then discarded everything that we have found here on earth; What we experience as lovers, what we experience as friends, as people who are otherwise close to us, what we experience through our physical experiences in the physical body, that we strip off, that we discard, just as we discard this physical body itself. But because we have developed relationships of family, friendship and love here, this spiritually carries on through the gate of death into those spiritual experiences that build up a later life. And we not only work for ourselves alone, but we work - even at the time when we have the moral judgment of our past life - together with the human souls who have become valuable and dear to us here in the world.
Through exact clairvoyance and through ideal magic, all this becomes not only something that is subject to faith, but it becomes a real realization. It penetrates into the immediate vision of man. Yes, we can even say that here in the physical world there is an abyss between the souls, no matter how much they love each other, for they meet within their corporeality, and they can only enter into such interrelationships that are mediated by physical relationships. But when man himself is in the spiritual world, then it is not even the case that the physical body, which here belongs to a beloved being left behind, is an obstacle to living together with his soul. Just as one must acquire the ability to see through earthly objects in order to look into the spiritual world, as I have described, so the one who has passed through the gate of death has communion through the body with the souls he has left behind here as his loved ones. He still experiences them as souls as long as they are on earth, until their own death.
That is what I would like to have said today at the beginning of these three lectures about that which can give insights into the real supersensible life of man. I would like to have pointed out that by striving for exact clairvoyance and ideal magic, one can actually speak about the higher worlds in such a way - scientifically recognizing - as one can speak about the sense world through the exact knowledge of nature. And one will see, as one settles in more and more - for there will already be people who will develop their abilities to settle into these worlds - one will see that no science, however perfectly it has developed, can be an obstacle to accepting this, what can be given to man with a genuine scientific attitude through exact clairvoyance and through ideal magic about what he goes through, not only here on this earth between birth and death, but also between death and a new birth up to a return in an earthly life.
How these recurring lives are and to what extent they come to an end is what I will talk about tomorrow, when I will take the liberty of describing the relationship that the Christ event, the event of Golgotha, has brought into human earthly life.
There I will have to show that the knowledge of which I have spoken, in so far as it concerns man as an individual, shines on the whole development of the human race through the life of the earth, and thus can also shine on that which actually happened for mankind through the entry of the Christ into earth life.
And so it is to be shown through these lectures on the one hand that one does not need to go against today's exact natural science when one speaks of supersensible knowledge. And this shall be the subject of tomorrow's lecture, that also the most important event for the earthly life of mankind, the Christ-event, comes before the human soul in a new form, in a more luminous form, when this human soul declares itself ready to accept the knowledge of the supersensible world meant here.
To discuss the relationship of anthroposophical spiritual science to Christianity will then be my task tomorrow.