Man in the Past, Present, and Future
GA 228
16 September 1923, Stuttgart
Lecture III
You will have been able to realize from the lecture yesterday that a certain state of consciousness, which was an actual experience to men of earlier times, has to some extent been lost. I told you that the special sort of waking consciousness we have today, which consists predominantly in more or less abstract ideas or at the best in shadowy pictures, did not then exist in the same form, and that in its place there was a kind of waking-dreaming, or dreaming-waking. This was not experienced as we experience dreams but as a living picture which corresponded pretty well with spiritual reality. There was a condition of sleep which, though it was dreamless, left an after-effect of the kind described, and there was a third state of consciousness beyond this which was experienced as a resting in the surging Moon-forces, forces which, reaching under the Earth, lift man out of earthly gravity and allow him to experience his cosmic existence. The essential point about these older conditions of soul was that they allowed man to experience his cosmic existence. In our ordinary everyday consciousness there is only a shadowy image left of that older state of consciousness—a shadowy image that is noticed by very few and is mostly entirely unheeded.
I will try to describe this survival of a primeval state of consciousness. When we observe our dreams—chaotic as they are—we find that all sorts of experiences drawn from earthly existence flow into them. Things long forgotten crop up altered in many ways, even things which passed unnoticed at the time. The times, too, at which events took place may be thoroughly confused. But if you look more closely into the details of a dream, you will discover the remarkable fact that in essence practically everything which crops up in it is related to the happenings of the last three days. You may perhaps have a dream about something that happened to you twenty-five years before; you may dream of it in all its vividness, though somewhat altered in detail. But if you study it closely you will always discover something of the following sort: in this dream about an event of twenty-five years before, a character appears whom we will call Edward, and you will find that you have somewhere heard the name casually in passing, or your eye has caught it as you were reading. In the details of a dream, even the remotest, there is always some relation, however insignificant, to something which has happened during the last three days. The reason is that we bear within ourselves the events of the last two, three or four days—the period is of course approximate—in a quite different way from those which occurred earlier.
Our perceptions are, as you know, taken up into our astral organism and our ego-organism, and the events thus perceived do at first live in direct connection with our consciousness. What we have experienced in the course of three days—that is, when at least three days have passed—goes more intensively into our feelings. Ordinarily we do not notice these things, but they are realities all the same. The reason is that all we perceive or think, which is taken up into the astral organism and the ego-organism, has also to be somehow imprinted upon the etheric body, the body of formative forces, and at least to some extent even upon the physical body. This process takes two to four days, so that we have to sleep two or three times on anything we experience before it is imprinted on the etheric and physical bodies. Only then is it firmly fixed in the etheric body so that it may be a permanent memory. Thus in man there is a perpetual inner reciprocity, a sort of struggle, between the astral and etheric bodies, and the result is always that what we have experienced consciously is imprinted into the denser, more material elements of our being. After three or four days, what was at first only a transitory sense-experience is transferred into the body of formative forces and into the physical body.
But how little of what I have been describing actually comes into men's consciousness nowadays! Yet it is something which is perpetually taking place in the life of the human body and soul. Every experience of which we have been aware has to wait three or four days before it is fully our own. It fluctuates between the astral and etheric bodies, and cannot decide—one might say—whether it has really been impressed into the etheric and into the physical body.
This is something of extraordinary significance. Remember that basically our true being is only our ego and astral body. We cannot really claim that the etheric body is our own property. In this materialistic age people talk as though the etheric and physical bodies were their, whereas actually they belong to the whole Cosmos. And so when in the course of three or four days, what our ego and astral body have experienced is passed on to the etheric and physical bodies, it is then part, not only of ourselves but of the Cosmos. It is only for three days that we can claim any action of ours in the world as significant for ourselves alone. After that we have, as it were, imprinted it on the Universe, and it rests within the whole Universe and belongs not only to us but also to the gods.
In very early periods of human evolution, as a result of that state of consciousness which is now lost and which has deeper than sleep, men had a definite impression of this remarkable fact, and the Initiates were able to give information about what lay behind it. Particularly in the epoch of which I spoke yesterday, the Egypto-Chaldean epoch, it was only a vague feeling that men had. But the priests were initiated into the real nature of the fact. Whereas nowadays Initiation must be a purely inner experience of soul and spirit, at the most with symbols and rites of a physical nature only, in those earlier days Initiation was an external process and the effects of that external process passed over into man's inner being. To take one example: when a man was to be initiated, for three or four days he was put by the Hierophant who was initiating him, into this state of consciousness which we have now lost. The purpose of this was to enable him to see for himself what happens during these three days in the world external to him, and how it finds entrance into the real being of man. The Initiate was enabled to see what happens to an idea, to an experience or a feeling, before it becomes a man's own property.
Our materialistic attitude to the world today affords us no conception at all of the extraordinary significance of the wisdom that lay within this condition that is so deeply concealed from us. I can perhaps best explain to you what was accomplished in the three days of this Initiation during that dim condition of consciousness if I remind you first of our ordinary dream-life with an attitude based purely on what we might call scientific method, there is still something extraordinarily profound involved.
How is this dream-life really revealed? There are of course many kinds of dreams, but let us keep for the moment to what consists largely in the recollection of past experiences. Pictures of these experiences arise in dreams. How do they arise? You are aware that they appear radically transformed. This transformation may go a very long way; for instance, we may take the case of a tailor who in his ordinary life has never had the occasion of making a Minister's state robes; he may have made a number of coats and been very proud of them, but for all that he has not the slightest chance of making such a robe as he now dreams he makes. In a dream like this there may be a number of different influences at work. For instance, the man may in a former life have been the attendant of a Roman magistrate and among his duties had to help him on with his toga. A dim feeling of all this survives and what a man experiences in this life may be colored by what streams over from a previous one.
This is just an example of how the content of dreams may be altered; the important fact is that they undergo the intense transformations we all know. One must really ask what is contained in these dreams, what is at work in them. It is external events which give the occasion for this type of dream, but the external events make their appearance in a wholly altered form.
The reason for this is quite beyond the conception of our ordinary scientific ideas. The sort of law which we should recognize as scientific, the laws we look for in the external world by our method of observation and experiment, cease to be valid as soon as we pass inside the skin of a human being. We should be very much mistaken were we to assume that the natural laws laid down in the laboratory were valid within the human being. Not only are the substances transformed within our organism when we consume them in the ordinary course of nourishment, but the laws of the substances are also changed, down to the smallest atoms. What appears in our dreams is not just the abstract reflection of some reality; in our dreams we see the weaving of the organic laws within which man has his being. Dreams are much closer to us than is our normal abstract thinking; they show the way in which external substances act within man. Our dreams are a protest against the part of reality that is shackled within the laws of Nature. From the time you go to sleep until the time you wake, you live in a world where according to the scientist everything is controlled by these laws. Actually the moment you enter, even to the slightest degree, into the spiritual world through your dreams, your dream-experience arises as a protest against the laws of Nature. Dreams cannot run their course in the way of external events, or they would be very much like actual waking life. Dreams which emerge from real sleep are in their make-up a protest against the laws of Nature, and they concern us much more intimately.
In this regard modern investigators of a materialistic turn of mind have made some interesting discoveries. Some of you will know a book by a man called Staudenmaier, entitled Experimental Magic, which appeared a good many years ago and is typical of the spiritual constitution of many modern scientific thinkers. Staudenmaier wanted to find out if there is any reality in the spiritual world. Of Anthroposophy he admitted that he knew only what its opponents had written. People don't like studying Anthroposophy; they find it difficult, particularly if they are typical scientific thinkers of today.
Staudenmaier attempted, by spiritualistic methods, to get into the spiritual world. He dulled his consciousness until he was in a sort of mediumistic state; then he began automatic writing and was surprised that he wrote a lot of nonsense which did not at all agree with what he knew about reality. In particular, the fact that spirits seemed to be speaking to him did not agree with it! He knew that was impossible and yet what he wrote assured him that spirits were speaking. He was appalled by the lies that these non-existent spirits told him. You should read in his book all the incredible lies which flowed into his writing. He became—to use no worse a word—a medium, and he did not know what to make of it all. A friend advised him to give the whole thing up and to lead a normal, sensible life and go out shooting. So he did, and he went out after magpies; but even there he found that whatever it was he had stirred up inside himself continued its activity, and he could not rid himself of it. If he looked up at a tree, he saw, not a magpie but a fearful dragon with terrible fangs, which looked at him with horrifying eyes. The same things happened everywhere, and he lived in an inner struggle to get himself back into a normal condition.
I mention all this because here we have experimental evidence that there is an immediate protest against the external order of Nature as soon as we are not merely dreaming while awake but are using this device to contact and arouse the inner being of man. Obviously we regard it all as lies. When we have thought of a man as a friend and as a decent fellow, and if after he has got into this mediumistic condition we see him putting out his tongue at us or making long noses, then inevitably we say that the spiritual world is lying and that this experience is simply that of a dream. Now there is something in this. Whenever man approaches the spiritual world inside himself, within which everything inside his skin is enclosed, there is an immediate protest from this sphere against the natural order. It is not surprising that when a man enters it with underdeveloped faculties of judgment, all kinds of elemental beings appear and create delusion. But there is always this protest against the natural order when we approach the spiritual; and ordinary dreams make this clear.
We ought to realize that we then enter a quite different order of being, and, even though it appears only in the fleeting form of the dream, it is all the same a protest against those admirable laws of Nature which we establish by laboratory experiments. This is the first step into the spiritual world where we immediately find the protest against natural laws, which are, as it were, robbed of their dignity as soon as we penetrate a little into man's inner being.
The old Initiates knew very well through their three days' Initiation that there is not only a natural order, but that within and behind that natural order there is a spiritual one. It is moreover still possible for anyone who has acquired some knowledge of Initiation to penetrate with modern methods into these things and to pass through the experiences a really fearful torment of the soul. When dreams begin to weave their forms we actually enter a world where the laws of Nature collapse, and just because the ordinary laws no longer hold good, their interrelations change, however many recollections of ordinary life may still be effective. If we have come to regard natural laws as the last word, we find ourselves face to face with nothingness. It is painful, almost tragic, for a modern man, as he passes through Initiation, to experience entry into a sphere of being where this protest against the laws of Nature is encountered; he feels that everything he had got from his intellect, and which was determined by the laws of Nature is swamped. His soul can no longer breathe because he has been too much accustomed to the natural order. He finally realizes that an altogether different world is pressing in from a quite different direction. This is no longer a natural but a spiritual order, which is throughout permeated with what in the depths of our present-day human conscience we experience as a moral world-order. He gradually learns that on the one hand there is the order of Nature perceived by the senses, for which the laws have been established by natural science; on the other hand, if he moves out of this natural order, he moves into a world that protests against the natural order. As he experiences this protest, a sort of luminous water of life pours round him and he can once again breathe—this is the moral order which ultimately expands into the spiritual.
The highest knowledge gained by the ancient Initiates was when they discovered the protest against the physical world-order and saw the true moral world-order extend into the physical. It is indeed experienced in a much weaker degree during the three days described: whatever we experience in the external world, whether actions or feelings, takes three or four days to be imprinted on our organism. But when the process is completed, the imprinted form is not like that which we experienced externally; it becomes an impulse demanding a moral expression very different from the natural order. If we could see how our experiences have changed in our inner being during those three of our days, we should see that what we experienced in its natural form during our earthly existence has been imprinted in our external being and is no less real than it was in the external world. But now it lives within us as the impulse of a moral world-order by means of which we may move further over the ocean of life. Thus we carry the results of what we have experienced naturally as the moral foundation for our later life.
In recent periods of human evolution, however, when men plunged into that “lower sleep,” if I may call it so, that Earth-embraced sphere, he plunged into the outer ether. There his experiences find their compensation. He is not merely set within the moral world-order as regards the direction of his inner life; in that lower sleep he is set within the moral order of the Cosmos. Since this deep sleep has been lost to our forms of consciousness and we now have only a very faint echo of it in the three-days' experience described, this contact with the Cosmos has been lost also. Indeed, we should have been gradually thrust out of the self-subsisting moral world-order if a particular event had not occurred in the course of Earth-evolution. The experience undergone by the older Initiates so as to be able to tell men what happens during those three days, was undergone as a unique world-event, as an event in world-history, by the Christ Being who descended from spiritual worlds into the body of Jesus of Nazareth and, though a God, lived a truly human life. That experience of the three days now became available for all mankind. What could previously be discovered in the sleep of deep consciousness, taking place in man not consciously but at least subconsciously, in a natural way, had to be gone through in order that man might find his connection with what was brought about for earthly humanity by Christ in the Mystery of Golgotha. This was the vicarious deed of a God. Man was to take a step upwards in his evolution and to experience in moral form through Christianity what had previously come to him naturally. The Mystery of Golgotha is therefore closely related to the whole meaning of earthly evolution, because of its relation to the evolution of man's consciousness. We can understand what was to be accomplished by the Mystery of Golgotha only if we can look back on what had once occurred naturally and was now to occur morally.
In this respect, however, our modern consciousness, which runs its course between waking, sleeping and dreaming, has not yet attained inner harmony. Since the fifteenth century, when this modern consciousness first received its imprint, it has looked on Nature one-sidedly and has claimed to understand the order of Nature, considering that what is found there constitutes reality. Beyond this reality men will not look; they will not press forward to that strengthened form of human knowledge to which the spiritual reveals itself just as the natural order does. Thus it has become customary to speak of the moral order as of unknown origin. To do this was not strictly honest, since the common view of Nature cannot admit any reality in the moral order. One could, even if a little dishonestly, get over this difficulty by saying that on the one side we have knowledge, on the other, faith; and that the moral order belongs to the realm of faith; that knowledge cannot become faith nor faith, knowledge; and that the moral order belongs to the realm of faith. Such is the convenient formula which has become customary. The distinction has even come to be regarded as something specifically Christian, though even five or six hundred years ago no genuine Christianity, and certainly not original Christianity, would have admitted the distinction. Even today it is not yet Catholic dogma, however much it may be Catholic custom, to distinguish in this way between faith and knowledge.
We cannot get a proper notion of the relation between the natural and the moral-spiritual order because we are not aware of the transition between them; because the dream is not understood which leads out of the natural order and protests against it, thus preparing the way. If we have gone through this preparatory stage, we can make contact with the moral order of the world.
Only an honest view of the past of mankind, and of something which modern man does not yet possess, can lead to a satisfying picture of all this. Failing that, even historical documents of ancient times remain just things which can be studied but convey no real meaning. Now we spoke this morning a good deal about the opponents of Anthroposophy. I could say much that would be for their good, though certainly not in their favor. The comments of our opponents ... I often have to recall an anecdote supposed to be based on truth which the famous Professor Kuno Fischer was fond of telling. He used to relate how he had had two schoolfellows—they may have been brothers—with an uncle who was a thorough simpleton. The boys got to the stage of learning logarithms and having to buy log tables. The uncle caught sight of these tables and when he saw the mass of figures he asked his nephews what they were. The boys were completely at a loss to explain, but at last the young rascals conceived the idea of telling him they were the house-numbers of all Europe. The uncle believed them and finally thought it an excellent idea to be able to know at a glance all the house-numbers of London, Paris, and so on. Now people who are unable to see with insight into the meaning of the ancient documents are like the old uncle with his log tables. Our modern historians who edit these ancient documents do not tell us much more about them than the uncle did about logarithms when he took them to be the house-numbers of Europe. We must make it clear to ourselves how far their interpretation, based on present-day abstract thought, is removed from the real spiritual facts. We must have the determination to do that, or we shall never be able to see how man has developed into the present out of a past when he was very different.
We are living at a time when all sorts of inner conflicts must arise from our present-day experience of sleeping, waking and dreaming, if we are in the least capable of real self-observation. Just as men lost the real knowledge of that deep sleep which was so significant for them that the Initiates had to explain its nature to them, so in modern times our ordinary sleep tends to crumble to pieces. I do not mean that in the future men will dream the whole night through, but rather that their dreams will be dulled. Just as man has passed since olden times from that “waking dreaming” to our modern abstract thinking, our present-day chaotic dreams will be dulled, and that duller kind of sleep will become normal. Dreams will no longer extend into our consciousness, which will be overlaid entirely by our present-day form of abstract logical thinking. But then a super-consciousness will emerge, already apparent to anyone who can understand these things. This super-consciousness is concerned with the human will and with the effects of the will when it acts on the nervous system. If with the help of Initiation-knowledge you observe the unrestrained way in which human will is developing, you will be able to see how various psychological manifestations, sometimes going as far as actual physical illness, are really the herald of a form of consciousness higher than our present waking consciousness.
But there is something beyond this which men will not yet be able to experience unless they can actually acquire spiritual science: a science, that is, which needs a quite different sort of thinking from the normal and is in reality far more practical than the theoretical attitude to life, which is in fact completely unpractical. This spiritual science adds an inner living power of thinking to ordinary abstract thinking. Yet this is not something we can arbitrarily add or neglect; it occurs because an organism is coming into being within man which did not exist in earlier times and of which only the first foundations have so far emerged. The way in which the blood circulates through man's limbs, his arms, legs, hands and feet, is continually changing. What we often call “nervousness” (a nervous state) nowadays is an expression of the fact that a higher condition is striving to make its way into man, but that he is unwilling to accept it because of its strangeness, and this produces a restlessness which will cease only when he makes the new consciousness his own.
Thus we can visualize three further states of consciousness towards which man is making his way: a dulled dream life, waking, and a heightened state of waking. All the turmoil and upheaval which show themselves even in external conditions today are due to the fact that men are trying, for the most part quite unconsciously, to fight against something that is approaching humanity from the spiritual worlds. It is struggling to make its way especially into the human will. We shall have to understand—as nowadays we do not—that as soon as the spiritual comes into action, we pass at once into a sphere where a protest is uttered against natural laws. We shall also not properly understand the Mystery of Golgotha unless we can rise to the realization that the full import of that Mystery cannot be attained by our ordinary knowledge. To grasp its full meaning we have to develop a new faculty; we have to pass with right understanding beyond mere dreaming, which indicates a natural process, and penetrate to an understanding of the other side of being. It is from the side of the spirit that we have to acquire the elements of understanding adequate for future comprehension of the Mystery of Golgotha. What we must do is to set our experience of the present in this way between the past and the future, and so feel ourselves as a sort of bridge between them. Thus we shall increasingly achieve the understanding required for the use of spiritual truths alongside the natural.
It is easy to understand our ordinary illusions, just because the things that are false are so uncommonly logical. We do not suspect that falsehood can be so logical. What could be more logical than to argue as follows: first observe how long it takes some particular geological stratum to reach a particular thickness, then, if we are dealing with another stratum, divide the smaller into the greater thickness and multiply it by the time taken by that stratum to form, and so reach the conclusion that some epoch, the Silurian or Devonian for instance, was twenty or 200 million years ago. The arithmetical calculation is quite correct and there is nothing to be said against it. It is only ordinary logic that is here deceiving us.
This sort of logic always reminds me of the logic one of the greatest mathematicians of all times applied to his own life. When he had already reached a considerable age he suddenly became ill with some kind of lung trouble; and seeing that he had had a good deal to do with doctors, he had the idea of calculating how many tiny abscesses would have to be got rid of in order to shake off the lung trouble. His calculations about the further development of the illness showed him that it would take fifteen years, and then he would be cured. But ... he died two years later. That was the reality; the other was only logic.
The same sort of thing applies to the relationship between reality in the Cosmos and our ordinary logic. Things are very easily proved by logic, and the logic is perfectly sound. It is just as sound as if we calculated as follows: Our heart goes through certain phases of development; in a definite period it will have reached a definite condition; then we calculate how long it would take to reach that condition and the answer is 300 years. Then we can calculate backwards 300 years and see what our heart looked like 300 years ago. Unfortunately we were not alive, at least as physical beings, 300 years ago, and we shall not be alive 300 years hence. Equally the Earth did not exist in those past ages that are worked out by the geologists. The destinies undergone by the Earth can be known only in spiritual terms. That is the distressing thing about modern science: it can prove so logically what is really an illusion, and its proofs tell us nothing about reality.
Human beings today, though people do not realize it consciously because they refuse to be aware of it, are living with the unconscious fear that they are on the way to losing touch with truth. We can see this fear manifesting itself in various forms. Fundamentally, the people who base their philosophy of life on materialism are very ill at ease. They are always harassed by anxiety about the limits they have set themselves, for their cherished limits create appalling obstacles to living a fully human life. People already feel intuitively that if they have nothing more than the natural order to rely on, they cannot draw life from it; above all, that the ideas derived from this natural order cannot lead them to any genuine artistic and religious experience or ideas.
We must always remember that our existing religious systems originated in the times when men were dependent on that deep sleep I have described for their understanding of the Cosmos. All our religious institutions derive from those times: the religious institutions, yes, but not the Mystery of Golgotha. That is independent of any religious view; it stands grasped by those conditions of consciousness that are still in course of preparation. For centuries now, even millennia, the religiously creative side of man has lain barren and the same is true of real artistic capacity. With rare exceptions we have to live on what we can get from various cultural revivals. We do not possess any original power of creation. But that is what is seeking to make its way into this age, and the general unrest typical of our civilization today is something like the birthpangs of a new age, a new age in the scientific and artistic spheres but also in the social, religious, and moral spheres. The future of mankind—that is what we must strive to take to heart. There has never been a time when humanity has been less disposed to listen to Initiation-knowledge and yet never a time when humanity has been in greater need of it.
That is why I wished particularly to speak to you about the past, present and future of humanity from the point of view of the evolution of consciousness. Of course, in three lectures I could do it only in outline, but you can work out within your own hearts what I have told you. Because our consciousness lies closest to our own being, it is there that men can become most easily fruitful and be stirred towards spiritual experience. In order that present-day man may develop into a man of the future, what we need is not any materialistic experience but spiritual experience. Ever since we have been victims of abstract thinking and ideas, our inner habit is really such that anyone participating in our present culture must have the same sort of impression from any talk of the spirit as the simple old uncle in the story about the log. tables, and will interpret all the powerful evidence for the entry of the spiritual as if it were like the house-numbers of Europe. The analogy is a little far-fetched but if you remember what I have told you, you will understand what it means. Our normal attitude to life, or rather our ordinary judgments about life, penetrate into all our scientific thinking and produce there a philistinism and banality raised to the nth degree, even a moral hypocrisy claiming scientific validity. If there is any, even the slightest, sign of the entry of the spiritual, it is assumed to be something which intelligent human reason, according to this materialistic view, can only call “mad.”
There is a good story, founded on fact, which also illustrates this attitude. At the beginning of the forties of the nineteenth century the old philosopher Schelling was called from Munich to Berlin. He had held his peace for several years, but a high reputation had preceded him. People looked forward to lectures on philosophy of a more positive kind, as opposed to those he himself called negative. Anyway, in these lectures at Berlin University he was to deal with the spiritual development of man, the essence of religion and the Mysteries, in a much deeper fashion than anyone had done hitherto.
When Schelling began his lectures, the front rows were occupied by the most brilliant intelligences, the professors of various subjects, the heads of the teaching departments and the most distinguished representatives of spiritual life—certainly not mere callow students, who had to sit at the back. They were all waiting—as far as they were able to wait—to see what Schelling's great reputation would accomplish. As the lecture proceeded, the faces of the audience grew longer and longer. Schelling did in fact speak in a remarkable way about the spirit; just at the moment when materialism was reaching its climax and coming to its fullest flower, he spoke of the spirit. As he spoke, the faces grew appreciably longer because the audience had no idea what he was after. Trendelenburg, well-known later on as a philosopher, who was sitting in one of the front rows, said he thought he had understood a little, though most of it was beyond him; but he was not even sure he had understood that little!
Then, some days later, two of the people who had been present at the lecture happened to meet. There had been a good deal of discussion among Schelling's hearers, and these two had taken part in it, wondering why on earth he had been called to Berlin, since not a word of what he had said was intelligible. But one of them now had the answer: Schelling's daughter had got engaged to the son of the Minister of Education! So everyone could understand why Schelling had been willing to come to Berlin. The whole thing was explained!
It may seem strange to tell you these things, but I am obliged to talk to you in this way. For the form of thinking characteristic of the present day is so far removed from the sort of thinking proper to Anthroposophy, which is moreover not just a whim of ours but an absolute necessity for man's future unless he is to fall into decadence. Only this new form of spirituality will be able to experience fully the three stages of consciousness which will emerge in the future: namely, a damped-down dream-sleep, ordinary waking, and a heightened consciousness. Otherwise man will never be able to experience his humanity properly in future lives on Earth. For the gods wish out of present threefold man to form the threefold man of the future, as they have formed the present threefold man, the dreaming, sleeping and waking man, out of the former threefold man who dreamt in pictures, slept, and on waking experienced the after-effects of his sleep, and also slept deeply. In this present age of freedom, as I have so often explained to anthroposophists, we must resolve by our own free knowledge to live towards the goal laid down for us by the divine Powers of the world. If we do that we shall not only think, we shall above all feel, in the right way about the past, present and future. Then we shall also have the right will with regard to this life on Earth, in accordance with the divine-spiritual ordering of the world—from the past, through the present, into the future.
This is what I wished to talk about, and with these words I will bring our studies to a close, not however without expressing a wish that tomorrow a discussion may begin here which will show that in the Anthroposophical Society some desire exists to promote a fully living consciousness in this Society of what man in his fullness is to be—the whole man who must be comprehended as including man of the past, man of the present, and man of the future. For these three are also one. What man has been in the past, what he is in the present, and what he is to be in the future, will embrace in face of the divine World-Order the whole being—anthropos. But in order to strive for this there must be an enthusiastic, heart-felt grasping of Anthroposophy to lead us to the true anthropos, the whole man, man in his fullness.
Der Mensch In Vergangenheit, Gegenwart Und Zukunft Vom Gesichtspunkt Der Bewusstseinsentwickelung III
Sie werden aus den gestrigen Ausführungen haben entnehmen können, daß ein gewisser Bewußtseinszustand, der dem Menschen in älteren Zeiten noch Erlebnis war, gewissermaßen verlorengegangen ist. Ich sagte ja, daß diese besondere Art des wachen Bewußtseins, wie wir es heute haben, das vorzugsweise in mehr oder weniger abstrakten Vorstellungen, oder wenigstens in schattenhaften Bildern lebt, daß dieses Wachbewußtsein einmal nicht in derselben Form vorhanden war, dafür aber eine Art wachendes Träumen, träumendes Wachen, das aber nicht so empfunden werden konnte wie heute der Traum, sondern wie der Inbegriff von lebendigen Bildern, die einer mehr oder weniger geistigen Wirklichkeit entsprachen. Daß dann vorhanden war eine Art Schlafzustand, der traumlos war, aus dem aber ein Nacherleben so blieb, wie ich es Ihnen dargestellt habe. Darüber hinaus gab es aber einen dritten Bewußtseinszustand, jenen Bewußtseinszustand, der im Nacherleben eigentlich empfunden wurde wie ein Ruhen in dem Wellen der Mondenkräfte, die unter die Erde untertauchen, und die eigentlich in einer gewissen Weise den Menschen hinwegheben über die irdische Schwere und ihn sein kosmisches Dasein empfinden lassen. Das war ja das Wesentliche der alten Seelenverfassungen, daß sie das kosmische Dasein des Menschen mitempfanden. Heute, in dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein des Menschen, ist von diesem alten Bewußtseinszustand eigentlich nur ein schattenhafter Nachglanz geblieben, ein schattenhafter Nachglanz, der sogar von den allerwenigsten Menschen bemerkt wird, der einfach vor dem menschlichen Bewußtsein vorübergeht, ohne daß man darauf aufmerksam wird.
Ich will einmal diesen Bewußstseinsrest aus uralten Zeiten charakterisieren. Wenn der Mensch heute seine Träume betrachtet, so wird er finden, daß in diese Träume, die eine Art chaotischen Charakters annehmen, aus seinen Erlebnissen in diesem Erdendasein das Mannigfaltigste einmündet. Längst Vergessenes taucht in den Traumerlebnissen auf, in mannigfaltiger Weise verändert; sogar im Leben Unbeachtetes kann in den Traumerlebnissen heraufkommen. Und auch die Zeiten, in denen die Erlebnisse geschehen sind, werden ja in mannigfaltigster Weise durcheinander gewürfelt. Aber wenn man dann genauer eingeht auf diese Traumeserlebnisse, so stellt sich doch etwas ganz Eigentümliches heraus. Man wird finden, daß im wesentlichen doch alles, was da in dem Trauminhalt herauftaucht, irgendwie, wenn auch noch so entfernt, anknüpft an die Erlebnisse der letzten drei Tage. Sie können träumen, daß Sie wieder vor sich haben etwas, was Sie vielleicht vor fünfundzwanzig Jahren erlebt haben. In aller Lebendigkeit steht es vor Ihnen, vielleicht etwas verwandelt, aber es ist da. Doch wenn Sie genauer zusehen, werden Sie immer Entdeckungen von der folgenden Art machen: In diesen Traum, der ein Erlebnis von vor fünfundzwanzig Jahren heraufbringt, spielt eine Persönlichkeit hinein, die, sagen wir, um etwas recht Abstraktes zu haben, Eduard heißt. Sie werden wenigstens finden, daß Sie irgendwo, wenn auch nur leise an Ihrem Ohr vorübergehend, das Wort Eduard gehört oder leise an Ihrem Auge vorübergehend es gelesen haben. Mit irgend etwas aus den letzten drei Tagen, wenn es auch ein noch so unbedeutendes Erlebnis ist, steht immer, auch das Entfernteste, was im Traum heraufgeholt wird, in Beziehung. Das beruht aber darauf, daß der Mensch die Erlebnisse von zwei, drei und vier Tagen - es ist natürlich eine solche Zeitangabe approximativ, annähernd nur - eigentlich ganz anders in sich trägt als dasjenige, was früher da war.
Der Mensch nimmt ja zunächst das, was er wahrnimmt, in seinen astralischen Organismus und seinen Ich-Organismus auf. Da führen zunächst die wahrgenommenen Erlebnisse ein unmittelbar mit dem Bewußtsein zusammenhängendes Leben. Dasjenige, was im Laufe von drei Tagen erlebt worden ist, geht doch noch in einer ganz intensiveren Weise an das Gefühl heran, als wenn wenigstens drei Tage vergangen sind. Wie gesagt, man beobachtet diese Dinge im gewöhnlichen Leben nicht, aber es sind eben doch Realitäten. Es rührt dies davon her, daß alles dasjenige, was vom Menschen wahrnehmend oder in Gedankenprozessen hereingenommen wird in den astralischen Organismus und in den Ich-Organismus, eingedrückt, eingeprägt werden muß dem Äther- oder Bildekräfteleib, aber auch in einer gewissen Beziehung wenigstens dem physischen Leib. Und diese Einprägung braucht zwei, drei, vier Tage, so daß man zweiund dreimal schlafen muß über irgend etwas, das man erlebt hat, bis es in den Ätherleib und in den physischen Leib eingeprägt ist. Denn erst dann sitzt es sozusagen so fest, wenigstens im Ätherleibe, daß es nun bleibend Gedankenerinnerung für einen werden kann. Und so findet eigentlich beim Menschen fortwährend eine innere Wechselwirkung, eine Art von Kampf statt zwischen dem astralischen Leib und dem Ätherleib, und das Ergebnis dieses Kampfes ist stets, daß dasjenige, was der Mensch zunächst als Bewußtseinswesen erlebt, sich in die dichteren, materielleren Elemente seines Wesens einprägt, eingestaltet. Man trägt nach drei, vier Tagen dasjenige, was man früher nur als ein flüchtiges Sinneserlebnis gehabt hat, dann als eine Eintragung gewissermaßen in seinem Äther- oder Bildekräfteleib und in seinem physischen Leib mit sich.
Bedenken Sie nur, indem ich das beschreibe, wie wenig das eigentlich dem Menschen der heutigen Zeit zum Bewußtsein kommt. Aber es ist das etwas, was im menschlichen Seelen- und auch körperlichen Leben fortwährend sich abspielt. Jedes Erlebnis, das wir als Wahrnehmung haben, muß im Grunde genommen drei, vier Tage warten, bis es unser völliges Eigentum ist. Da pendelt es hin und her zwischen astralischem Leib und Ätherleib, weiß gewissermaßen nicht recht, ob es wirklich eingeprägt wird dem Ätherleib und damit auch dem physischen Leib.
Da geschieht nämlich eigentlich etwas außerordentlich Wichtiges. Bedenken Sie nur, daß wir ja unserem wahren Wesen nach im Grunde nur sind unser Ich und unser astralischer Leib. Wir können von unserem Ätherleib nicht sagen, daß er unser Eigentum ist. Die ‚Menschen der materialistischen Zeit maßen sich an, ihren Ätherleib und namentlich ihren physischen Leib ihren Leib zu nennen. Aber physischer Leib und Ätherleib gehören eigentlich ganz dem Kosmos an. Und indem im Laufe von drei, vier Tagen dasjenige, was wir im Ich und astralischen Leib erleben, dem Ätherleib und physischen Leib übergeben wird, gehört es uns nicht mehr allein, gehört es dem Kosmos an. Wir können eigentlich nur durch drei Tage hindurch sagen, daß irgend etwas, was wir mit der Welt abgemacht haben, nur für uns eine Bedeutung habe. Nach drei, vier Tagen haben wir es in “das Weltenall eingeschrieben, ruht es im Weltenall darin, gehört nicht uns allein, gehört den Göttern mit.
In sehr alten Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung hatten die Menschen eben aus diesem heute verlorengegangenen Bewußtseinszustand, der eine Art tieferer Bewußtseinszustand als der gewöhnliche Schlaf war, eine deutliche Empfindung von dieser merkwürdigen Tatsache. Und die Eingeweihten, die Initiierten, die konnten Auskunft geben, was eigentlich hinter dieser merkwürdigen Empfindung steckte. Namentlich in der Zeitepoche, von der ich gestern gesprochen habe, der ägyptisch-chaldäischen Kulturepoche, war es nur mehr ein dunkles Gefühl, was die Menschen hatten. Aber die Initiierten der Mysterien wurden eingeweiht in das eigentliche Wesen dieser Sache, und das kam dadurch zustande, daß dazumal — während die Initiation heute ein rein innerlich seelisch-geistiger Vorgang sein muß, höchstens mit körperlichen Symbolen und körperlichbildhaften Vorgängen - die Initiation im wesentlichen ein äußerer Vorgang war, und dasjenige, was sich äußerlich mit dem Menschen abspielte, das übertrug sich dann auf das Innere. Und die Initiation bestand vielfach darin - ich erzähle ein Beispiel, ich könnte auch andere erzählen -—, daß der zu Initiierende nun durch seine Mysterienführer, die ihn initiierten, in diesen Zustand, der eigentlich heute verlorengegangen ist, etwa drei Tage lang versetzt wurde. Er wurde in diesen Zustand versetzt drei Tage lang, so daß er durchlebte, wie dasjenige sich verhält, was der Mensch in der Welt außerhalb des Menschen durchmacht in diesen drei Tagen, und wie es gewissermaßen hinübertritt in das eigentliche Wesen des Menschen. Der Initiierte kam zu der Anschauung, was eine Vorstellung, was eine Empfindung, was ein Gefühl für Tatsachen durchmacht, bevor es Eigentum des Menschen wird. Aber dasjenige, was da auftrat, was innerhalb dieser Weisheit von jenem dem Menschen so verborgenen Zustande war, das enthält doch außerordentlich Bedeutungsvolles, so Bedeutungsvolles, daß es heute von der materualistischen Weltanschauung gar nicht einmal geahnt wird. Es enthält nämlich das Folgende.
Ich kann mich am leichtesten begreiflich machen über das, was in dieser durch drei Tage lang in einem dumpfen Bewußtseinszustande bestehenden Initiation erreicht wurde, indem ich Sie zuerst an das Traumesleben, das heute noch jeder kennt, erinnere. Gewiß, das Traumesleben gehört zu dem, was genau studiert werden muß. Auch wenn man absieht von jedem Aberglauben, was ja selbstverständlich sein muß, wenn man in reiner, ich möchte sagen, nach echter Wissenschaft strebender Anschauung sich in das 'Traumesleben vertieft, so stellt es doch etwas außerordentlich Tiefes dar.
Denn wie tritt es eigentlich auf, dieses Traumesleben? Nun, wir kennen ja vielerlei Arten von Träumen. Aber halten wir uns an diese Art von Träumen, welche in Reminiszenzen an Erlebnisse besteht. Die Bilder von solchen Erlebnissen treten in diesen Träumen auf. Wie treten sie auf? Nun, Sie wissen, sie treten in außerordentlicher Verwandlung auf, stark verwandelt. Es kann durchaus sein, daß die Verwandlung, sagen wir bis zu einem solchen Grad geht, daß einmal jemand träumt, der vielleicht nicht die geringste Aussicht hat, jemals im wirklichen Leben so etwas auszuführen, daß er in seinem Kleidermacherberufe den Staatsrock für einen hohen Minister zu fabrizieren hat. Er kann nicht die geringste Aussicht haben dafür, aber Röcke fabriziert er immer und hat er immer fabriziert, auch Röcke vielleicht, an denen er sein Wohlgefallen gehabt hat. Nun, in einen solchen Traum kann alles mögliche hineinspielen. Der Betreffende kann in einem vorigen Erdenleben der Diener eines römischen Staatsmannes gewesen sein und dem Staatsmann haben die Toga anziehen müssen. Dumpfe Empfindungskräfte bleiben, und dasjenige, was der Betreffende in diesem Leben durchmacht, färbt sich durch das, was aus früheren Erdenleben herüberstrahlt.
Ich gab nur eine der Ursachen an, warum sich Träume ihrem Inhalte nach verwandeln. Aber immerhin, sie verwandeln sich stark, das weiß ja jeder. Und man muß sich eigentlich fragen: Was ist denn in diesen Träumen enthalten, was wirkt denn da drinnen? Es sind ja schließlich äußere Ereignisse, welche die Veranlassung zu dieser Art von Träumen geben, aber diese äußeren Ereignisse treten in einer ganz verwandelten Gestalt auf.
Woher kommt denn das? Sehen Sie, das kommt von etwas, wovon sich allerdings die naturwissenschaftliche Anschauung der Gegenwart nicht das Geringste träumen läßt. Das kommt davon her, daß diejenige Gesetzmäßigkeit, die heute als die naturwissenschaftliche anerkannt wird, die in der Außenwelt überall gesucht wird durch Beobachtung, Experimentierkunst, daß diese Gesetzmäßigkeit, diese Summe von Naturgesetzen, von denen wir sprechen, gleich innerhalb der menschlichen Haut aufhört. Und wenn jemand eben glaubt, die Naturgesetze, die er in seinem Laboratorium konstatiert, seien auch diejenigen Gesetze, die innerhalb der menschlichen Haut wirken, so ist er bedeutsam auf dem Holzwege. Nicht nur, daß die Substanzen innerhalb seines Organismus, die der Mensch durch die Nahrungsaufnahme zu sich nimmt, verändert werden, auch die Gesetzmäßigkeiten der Substanzen bis in die geringsten atomistischen Einzelheiten ändern sich. Aber was im Traum vor dem Menschen erscheint, das ist nun nicht bloß das abstrakte Bild einer Wirklichkeit, sondern in dem Traum lebt das Weben der organischen Gesetze, in die der Mensch eingeschaltet ist. Der Traum steht dem Menschen näher als das abstrakte Denken des Tages. Der Traum enthält die Art und Weise, wie sich die äußeren Stoffe im Menschen benehmen als seine Gesetzmäßigkeit. Und als was stellt sich der Traum dar? Als ein Protest gegen die Wirklichkeit, die in die Naturgesetze eingespannt ist. Sie leben vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen in der Welt, von der die Naturforscher sagen, nach diesen Gesetzen spielt sich alles in der Welt ab. In dem Augenblick, wo Sie durch den Traum, ich möchte sagen, nur ein Spinnwebchen durchstechen in die geistige Welt hinein, stellt sich das Traumerleben als ein Protest gegen die Naturgesetze dar. Der Traum kann nicht so verlaufen, wie die Ereignisse äußerlich verlaufen sind, sonst wäre er sehr nahe dem Wachen. Der Traum, der aus dem eigentlichen Schlaf auftaucht, der protestiert in seinem Zusammenhang gegen die Naturgesetze. Denn er geht näher an den Menschen heran.
In dieser Beziehung machen ja die materialistisch gesinnten Menschen der heutigen Zeit interessante Entdeckungen. Da gibt es ein Buch, ein interessantes Buch, das schon vor Jahren erschienen ist, von dem man eigentlich wirklich nur sagen kann, es ist so recht charakteristisch für die Geisteskonstitution gerade wissenschaftlich denkender Leute der Gegenwart: «Die Magie als experimentelle Naturwissenschaft» von einem gewissen Staudenmaier. Einige von Ihnen werden das Buch kennen. Der Mann wollte auch dahinterkommen, was denn eigentlich an der Geisteswelt ist. Von der Anthroposophie gestand er ja, daß er auch nur die gegnerischen Schriften gelesen hat; also da machen sich die Leute nicht gern heran, weil sie sich in der Anthroposophie doch sehr schwer zurechtfinden. Gerade wenn sie innerhalb der wissenschaftlichen Struktur der Gegenwart sich befinden, stellen sie sich sehr schwer in die Anthroposophie herein. Und so machte er denn zunächst Versuche, um hinter die Geisterwelt zu kommen, nach Art der spiritistischen Versuche. Er benahm sich das Bewußtsein, benebelte sich, bis er in eine Art mediumähnlichen Zustandes kam. Und dann schrieb er mechanische Schrift. Nun wunderte er sich, daß er da lauter dummes Zeug aufschrieb, daß das alles nicht stimmte mit dem, was er sonst wußte von der Wirklichkeit. Es stimmte nicht. Es stimmte vor allen Dingen das nicht, daß in dieser Schrift herauskam: Geister sprechen zu ihm. Denn das wußte er ja, daß das nicht möglich ist, daß Geister zu ihm sprechen. Aber das, was er aufschrieb, sagte ihm, daß Geister zu ihm sprechen. Und außerdem: es war furchtbar, was diese Nichtgeister alles ihn anlogen. Lesen Sie das nur in dem Buche nach, was da alles in die Hand einfloß an unglaublichen Lügen. Ja, er wurde ganz - ich will nicht ein böses Wort sagen -, also medial, fand sich selbst nicht mehr zurecht in der ganzen Sache. Da riet ihm ein Freund, er solle doch das ganze Ding lassen, und soll nun wiederum ein vernünftiges Leben führen, zum Beispiel auf die Jagd gehen. Nun ging er auf die Jagd, auf die Elsternjagd. Siehe da, es setzte sich sogar in das Jagen hinein dasjenige fort, was er da in sich erregt hatte. Er kriegte das nicht wieder los. Wenn er auf einen Baum hinaufschaute, war da nicht eine Elster, sondern ein schrecklicher Drache mit fürchterlichen Fängen, der ihn mit furchtbaren Augen ansah, ganz entsetzlich! Und überall gab es solches Zeug. Nun lebte er fortwährend in diesem inneren Kampf, sich doch zum normalen Menschentum zurückzufinden.
Ich führe Ihnen das an aus dem Grunde, weil hier experimentell gezeigt ist, daß überall, in dem Augenblick, wo man nun doch nicht nur wachend träumt, sondern durch solche Machinationen an dasjenige herankommt, wo das Innere des Menschen mitspricht, sofort der Protest gegen die äußere Naturordnung auftritt. Selbstverständlich empfindet man das als Lüge. Wenn man gewohnt ist, irgend jemanden, der einem Freund ist, immer als einen leidlich anständigen Menschen zu sehen und nachher, wenn man sich in diesem Zustand befindet, merkt man, der streckt einem fortwährend die Zunge heraus, macht lange Nasen und grinst einen aus - wenn das in diesem Zustande vorkommt, dann sagt man: Die geistige Welt lügt einen an! — Man macht es wirklich so wie der Traum in einem solchen Fall. Nun, darinnen steckt doch wieder das Richtige, daß in jedem Fall, wo der Mensch an die geistige Welt herankommit, in die er mit dem eingeschlossen ist, was innerhalb seiner Haut liegt, dieses Dasein, das er nun betritt, gegen die Naturordnung protestiert. Daß in einem solchen unentwickelten Fall, wo man die Sache nicht beurteilen kann, in der Verlogenheit allerlei Elementarwesenheiten auftreten, ist nicht zu verwundern. Aber es ist immer ein Protest gegen die Naturordnung da, wo man an das Geistige herankommt, was schon der gewöhnliche Traum zeigt.
Und der Mensch müßte sich eigentlich sagen: Da trete ich ein in eine ganz andere Ordnung, und erscheint sie auch nur in der flüchtigen Gestalt des Traumes, so erscheint sie als ein Protest gegen die schönsten Naturgesetze, die man äußerlich durch Laboratorium und Experiment feststellen kann. — Aber sehen Sie, das ist die erste Etappe hin zur geistigen Welt. Auf dieser ersten Etappe trifft man den Protest gegen die Naturgesetze an. Da sind die Naturgesetze, ich möchte sagen, ihrer Majestät entsetzt, sobald man in das innere Wesen des Menschen eindringt.
Klar darüber, wie es nicht nur eine Naturordnung gibt, sondern wie in und hinter dieser Naturordnung eine geistige Ordnung steht, wurden nun die alten Eingeweihten, indem sie jene drei Tage durchmachten. Wer in dieser Weise mit der Initiation seine Bekanntschaft macht, der kann ja in diese Dinge auch heute noch mit den heutigen Mitteln eindringen, kann durchmachen die Erlebnisse dieser drei Tage, wenn er zum erstenmal herantritt an die Erfahrung jener eigentlich furchtbaren Seelenqual! Denn es tritt da der Mensch in der Tat in eine Welt ein, wo alle Naturgesetze zusammenstürzen, wo das Weben des Traumes auftritt, in dem, selbst wenn die Reminiszenzen des gewöhnlichen Lebens hineinspielen, die Zusammenhänge andere werden, weil da die Naturgesetze nicht mehr gelten. Und man ist dann wirklich, wenn man die Naturgesetze als alles empfindet, vis-ä-vis dem Nichts zunächst.
Nun handelt es sich darum, daß man besonders schmerzlich, tief schmerzlich und tragisch als moderner Mensch, durch die Initiation tretend, dieses Hineinkommen in jene Region des Daseins empfindet, wo gegen die Naturgesetze dieser Protest ausgesprochen wird, weil man ein Gefühl hat, daß da vor allen Dingen alles, was man früher im Intellekt gehabt hat, was sich ja nach den Naturgesetzen gerichtet hat, daß dieses intellektualistisch Seelenhafte ertrinkt. Man kann seelisch nicht mehr atmen, weil man sich zu stark gewöhnt hat an die Naturordnung. Und endlich sieht man, daß von einer ganz anderen Weltenseite her eben eine andere Welt hereinragt, die nicht in einer Naturordnung lebt, sondern in einer Geistordnung, die überall durchsetzt und durchwellt ist von dem, was heute nachempfunden wird aus der Tiefe des menschlichen Gewissens heraus als moralische Weltenordnung. Dasjenige, was man lernt sich zu sagen, ist dies: Hier ist die Naturordnung, meine Sinne nehmen sie wahr, für sie wird durch die Naturwissenschaft die Gesetzesmäßigkeit festgestellt. Tauche ich heraus aus dieser Naturordnung, dann tauche ich ein in eine Welt, die protestiert gegen diese Naturordnung, und in dem Wahrnehmen dieses Protestes gegen die Naturordnung ergießt sich überall her wie ein neues lichtvolles Lebenswasser, mit dem man wiederum atmen kann, dasjenige, was moralische Weltenordnung ist, die sich endlich zur geistigen Weltenordnung erweitert. — Das war die große Erkenntnis der Initiierten der alten Zeit, daß sie hereinragen sahen die reale moralische Weltenordnung in die physische reale Weltenordnung, indem sie zwischen drinnen erlebten den Protest gegen die physische Weltenordnung. Das wird eben im schwachen Nachglanz erlebt an dem Ereignis der drei Tage, von denen ich gesprochen habe. Dasjenige, was wir erleben in der äußeren Welt, seien es unsere Empfindungen, seien es unsere Handlungen: drei, vier Tage braucht es, um sich in unseren Organismus einzuprägen. Aber wenn es sich eingeprägt hat, prägt es sich nicht in der Form ein, wie wir es äußerlich erlebt haben, prägt es sich ein als Impuls, der eine moralische Ausgestaltung in einer ganz anderen Gesetzmäßigkeit verlangt als die Naturordnung. Und würde der Mensch sehen, wozu seine Erlebnisse nach drei Tagen in seinem eigenen Inneren werden, so würde er sich sagen: Was ich auf naturhafte Weise im irdischen Dasein erlebt habe, das hat sich meinem ewigen Seinskern eingeprägt, so daß es nicht weniger real ist als in der äußeren Welt, aber in mir nunmehr als der Impuls einer moralischen Weltenordnung lebt, auf dem ich nun weiter auf den Ozean des Lebens hinausgehe. — So tragen wir die Ereignisse desjenigen, was wir naturhaft erlebt haben, als die moralischen Ursachen für unser späteres Leben in uns.
Aber es war in den letzten Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung so, daß, indem der Mensch untertauchte in jenen, ich möchte sagen Unterschlaf, in den Zustand der Erdenumfassung, er in den äußeren Äther untertauchte. Und da findet dasjenige, was der Mensch erlebt hatte, seinen Ausgleich mit dem äußeren Äther. Der Mensch wurde sozusagen moralisch nicht nur in bezug auf die Richtung seines Innern hineingestellt in die moralische Weltenordnung, sondern in dem Unterschlaf, in der Erdenumfassung wurde er hineingestellt in die Moral des Kosmos. Und das ist der Menschheit verlorengegangen damit, daß eben aus dem Bewußtseinszustand ausgeschaltet wurde dieser Tiefschlaf, daß der Mensch nur jenen schwachen Nachklang in dem Dreitageserlebnis hat, das ich Ihnen geschildert habe. Der Mensch wäre sozusagen nach und nach aus der selbstverständlichen moralischen Weltenordnung herausgeworfen worden, wenn nicht etwas eingetreten wäre im Laufe der Erdenentwickelung. Dasjenige, was früher die einzelnen Initiierten durchgemacht hatten, um den Menschen sagen zu können, was da in den drei Tagen erlebt wird, das machte als ein weltgeschichtliches Ereignis, als ein einmaliges Erdenereignis die Christus-Wesenheit durch, die aus geistigen Welten in den Körper des Jesus von Nazareth heruntergestiegen ist und als Gott wirkliches Menschenleben geführt hat. Und dasjenige, was während der drei Tage durchgemacht wurde, wurde nun durchgemacht für die ganze Menschheit. Was früher durch den Tiefbewußtseinsschlaf gefunden werden konnte - nicht bewußt, aber wenigstens unterbewußt sich in den Menschen hineinsetzte -, was also auf eine nur naturhafte Weise vom Menschen durchgemacht worden ist, das mußte deshalb durchgemacht werden, damit der Mensch seine Verbindung finden könne mit dem, was für die Menschheit der Erde der Christus im Mysterium von Golgatha vollbracht hat. Das ist die stellvertretende Gottestat. Weil der Mensch einen Ruck heraufmachte in seiner Bewußtseinsentwickelung, mußte er dasjenige, was er früher in seiner Natur erlebte, auf moralische Art in bezug zu dem Christus Jesus durchleben. Und so hängt der Eintritt des Mysteriums von Golgatha zusammen mit dem ganzen Sinn der Erdenentwickelung, weil mit dem Sinn der menschlichen Bewußtseinsentwickelung. Und verstehen kann man nur, was eigentlich geschehen sollte durch das Mysterium von Golgatha, wenn man zurückblicken kann auf dasjenige, was einmal naturhaft geschehen ist und nunmehr moralisch zu geschehen hat.
Aber gerade in dieser Beziehung ist ja dieses moderne Bewußtsein, das zwischen Wachen und Schlafen und Träumen verfließt, noch nicht zu seiner inneren Harmonie gekommen. Denn was geht denn durch dieses moderne Bewußtsein, was ging immer mehr und mehr gerade seit dem 15. Jahrhundert, seitdem dieses Bewußtsein seine eigentliche Ausprägung gefunden hat, durch dieses moderne Bewußtsein? Ein einseitiges Hinschauen auf die Naturordnung. Ja, an die glaubt man, und diese Naturordnung glaubt man auch zu verstehen. Und man nennt dasjenige, was in dieser Naturordnung ist, das reale Dasein. Aber weiter will man nicht. Man will nicht bis zu jener Kraft des menschlichen Erkennens weiterdringen, der sich das Geistige ergibt, so wie sich die Naturordnung ergibt. Und so wurde es denn üblich in der neueren Zeit, von der moralischen Weltenordnung als von etwas zu sprechen, was nun so auch von irgendwo hereinkommt. Man vergaß dabei nur die Ehrlichkeit; denn wenn man in der Tat auf die Naturordnung hinschaut, wie man das immer weiter und weiter gewöhnt wurde, so könnte man eigentlich der moralischen Weltenordnung keine Realität zuschreiben. Man konnte eigentlich nur, ich möchte sagen, sich in einer etwas unehrlichen Weise hinweghelfen über dasjenige, was da vorlag, indem man sagt: Es gibt auf der einen Seite ein Wissen, auf der andern Seite einen Glauben. Das Wissen kann nicht Glauben werden, und der Glauben nicht Wissen werden, und dem Glauben gehört die moralische Weltenordnung an. — Das ist die bequeme Formel, die in der neueren Zeit vielfach üblich geworden ist. Man sieht sogar diese Trennung zwischen Glauben und Wissen als etwas echt Christliches an, währenddem das Christentum vor verhältnismäßig gar nicht langer Zeit, vor fünf bis sechs Jahrhunderten ganz gewiß noch nicht jenen Unterschied in dieser Art gemacht hat, ganz gewiß nicht das ältere Christentum. Und heute ist es noch immer nicht katholische Dogmatik, wenn auch katholischer Usus, zwischen Glauben und Wissen in dieser Art zu unterscheiden. Man findet sich eben nicht zurecht mit der Beziehung zur Naturordnung und der moralisch-geistigen Ordnung, weil man den Übergang nicht kennt, weil man schon den Traum nicht versteht, der einen herausführt aus der Naturordnung und ein Protest gegenüber der Naturordnung ist, der gewissermaßen der große Vorbereiter ist. Denn ist man durch seine Vorbereitung durchgegangen, kann man stoßen an das, was moralische Weltenordnung, weil moralisch-geistige Weltenordnung ist.
Nur ein unbefangener Blick in die Vergangenheit des Menschen und in das, was die Gegenwart noch nicht hat, kann eigentlich zu einer befriedigenden Anschauung über diese Dinge führen, sonst bleiben auch die historischen Dokumente uralter Zeiten im Grunde genommen Dinge, die man anglotzt, die man aber durchaus nicht versteht. Sehen Sie, es ist heute vormittag in mannigfaltigster Weise von den Gegnern der Anthroposophie gesprochen worden. Manches kann. man diesen Gegnern, allerdings nicht zu ihren Gunsten, aber zu ihrem Guten rechnen. Man muß sich bei dem, was die Gegner über Anthroposophie sagen, wenigstens ich muß mich manchmal an eine Anekdote erinnern, die auf einer Wahrheit beruhen soll, die der berühmte Professor Kuno Fischer immer wieder erzählt hat. Er erzählte, er habe zwei Schulkollegen gehabt, die beide zusammenwohnten, es dürften Brüder gewesen sein; sie hatten einen außerordentlich simplen Onkel. Nun kam die Zeit, wo sie in der Mathematik die Logarithmen lernten und sich die Logarithmentafeln kaufen mußten. Der simple Onkel, der beguckte sich nun diese Logarithmentafeln. Er sah auf diesen Tafeln lauter Zahlen und da fragte er denn diese Schüler, seine Neffen, was denn das für Zahlen wären. Die wußten nun gar nicht, wie sie das dem Onkel beibringen sollten. Endlich fiel einem der Schlingel ein: Ja, das sind alle Hausnummern von Europa. — Der Onkel glaubte das, und fand auch zum Schluß, daß das ganz nützlich wäre, wenn man alle Hausnummern von London, Paris und so weiter gleich wisse. Sehen Sie, wie dieser Onkel vor den Logarithmentafeln gestanden ist, so stehen die Leute, die nicht innerlich hineinschauen in das, was die alten Dokumente verkünden, vor diesen alten Dokumenten. Die jetzigen Forscher, die diese Dokumente wieder herausgeben, sagen schließlich auch nicht viel anderes, als was der Onkel von den Logarithmen gesagt hat, indem er sie für Hausnummern von Europa ansah. Man muß nur wissen, wie weit die Auffassungsweise, die heute dem abstrakten Denken möglich ist, von der geistig-realen Tatsächlichkeit abweicht. Das muß man sich einmal ganz klarmachen. Dazu muß man den Mut haben. Sonst wird man nicht einsehen, wie der Mensch aus einer ganz anders gearteten Vergangenheit sich in die Gegenwart herein entwickelt hat. Und eigentlich leben wir schon in der Zeit, wo in der mannigfaltigsten Weise für den, der nun in der Lage ist, Selbstbeobachtung, Selbstbesinnung namentlich zu üben, die gegenwärtige Art des Durchlebens von Schlafen, Wachen und Träumen zu inneren Zwiespälten, zu inneren Konflikten führt. Denn geradeso wie abgebröckelt ist von der Menschheit dieser Tiefschlaf, der etwas so Bedeutsames für die Menschheit einer älteren Vergangenheit war, daß die Initiierten diesen Menschen auseinandersetzen mußten die Natur dessen, was der Mensch durchmachte in diesem Tiefschlaf, ebenso bröckelt ab dasjenige, was der heutige Schlaf ist. Nicht als ob der Mensch fortwährend nun in Zukunft träumen würde die ganze Nacht hindurch, aber er macht eigentlich diesen Zustand so durch, daß die Träume dumpfer werden. Wie sie sich seit alten Zeiten auch verwandelt haben aus den Wachträumen zu unserem abstrakten Vorstellen, so werden sich die heutigen chaotischen "Träume abstumpfen, und der Mensch wird eben diesen dumpfen 'Traumschlaf haben. Der Traum wird ihm nicht zum Bewußtsein kommen. Darüber wird der heutige Wachzustand mit dem abstrakten, sogenannten logischen Denken sein. Aber dann wird ein Überbewußtsein kommen, ein Überbewußtsein, das heute schon in die Menschheit hereintritt für den, der diese Dinge versteht. Denn dieses Überbewußtsein, das befaßt sich namentlich mit dem menschlichen Willen und mit der Wirkung, die der Wille haben kann, indem er sich bewegt auf dem Nervensystem. Und wenn Sie heute die ungezügelte Art der menschlichen Willensentfaltung in weitesten Horizonten beobachten, und verstehen das mit der Initiationswissenschaft, dann sehen Sie schon, wie hereindringt in Seelenäußerungen — hereindringt selbst bis in physische Krankheitszustände — dasjenige, was die Ankündigung eines Überbewußtseins ist, eines höheren Bewußtseins als des gewöhnlichen Wachbewußtseins.
Aber es ist heute noch nicht etwas, was die Menschen erleben wollen, weil sie es nur erleben können, wenn sie Geisteswissenschaft zu ihrem Eigentum machen, diese Geisteswissenschaft, in der man ganz anders denken muß), als in der gewöhnlichen Welt gedacht wird, diese Geisteswissenschaft, die wahrlich viel praktischer ist als die heutige theoretische Lebenspraxis, die eigentlich die tiefste Unpraxis ist. Diese Geisteswissenschaft fügt aber zu dem gewöhnlichen abstrakten Denken ein innerlich lebendiges Denken hinzu. Das ist aber nicht etwas, was man willkürlich hinzufügen und willkürlich weglassen kann, das ist etwas, was sich ergibt, weil einfach eine gewisse Organisation in der Menschheit eintritt, die in älteren Zeiten nicht da war, die in der Gegenwart erst in den ersten Anlagen da ist. Die Bewegungsorgane des Menschen, Arme, Beine, Hände, Füße, bekommen eine immer mehr sich ändernde Blutzirkulation, der Mensch verändert sich. Dasjenige aber, was wir heute oftmals als Nervosität bezeichnen, das ist der Ausdruck dessen, daß eigentlich etwas in den Menschen herein will von einem höheren Zustand, der Mensch es aber noch nicht annimmt und dadurch unruhig wird, weil es noch etwas Fremdes ist. Er wird erst zur Ruhe kommen, wenn es ihm eigen sein kann.
So kann man hinschauen auf weitere drei Bewußtseinszustände, die dem Menschengeschlecht in Aussicht stehen, gegen die sich das Menschengeschlecht zuarbeitet: ein dumpfes Traumschlafen, ein Wachsein, ein Überwachsein. Und alles dasjenige, was selbst in den äußeren Lebensverhältnissen heute die Menschheit so durchrüttelt und durchschüttelt, hat seinen Grund darin, daß sich die Menschheit heute noch größtenteils unbewußt wehrt gegen dasjenige, was da aus geistigen Welten über die Menschheit kommen will. Aber es will kommen, es will herein. Namentlich an den Willen des Menschen will es heran. In einer ganz anderen Weise als der Mensch heute will, wird der Mensch verstehen müssen, daß da, wo Geistiges beginnt, die Sache über die Region geht, wo Protest gegen die Naturgesetze ausgesprochen wird. Daher wird der Mensch über das Mysterium von Golgatha auch nur zu einem Zukunftsverständnis kommen, wenn er sich aufschwingen wird können zu der Erkenntnis, daß dasjenige, was der Inhalt des Mysteriums von Golgatha ist, nicht mit den Naturerkenntnissen begriffen werden kann, daß es aber begriffen werden kann mit dem, was man in sich ausbildet, wenn man mit richtigem Verständnis über die Stufe des bloßen 'Träumens, das den Naturprozeß ankündigt, in das Verständnis des anderen Ufers des Daseins eindringt. Denn von dem geistigen Ufer des Daseins müssen die Verständniselemente geholt werden, die dem Zukunftsverständnis für das Mysterium von Golgatha entsprechen. Es kommt durchaus darauf an, daß man in dieser Weise hineinstellen kann dasjenige, was der Mensch in der Gegenwart erleben kann, zwischen die Vergangenheit und die Zukunft, daß sich der Mensch fühlen lernt als einen Übergang aus dieser Vergangenheit in die Zukunft. Dann wird er auch immer mehr und mehr Verständnis gewinnen können für den Gebrauch der geistigen Wahrheiten neben den natürlichen Wahrheiten.
Das, was die Menschen beirrt, stellt sich einem ja als ein leicht begreiflicher Irrtum dar, weil die Dinge, die falsch sind, so ungeheuer logisch sein können. Man bedenkt das heute nicht, daß die Dinge, die falsch sind, so ungeheuer logisch sein können. Was könnte denn logischer sein, als wenn man beobachtet, wie lange ungefähr dieses oder jenes Gesteinssediment braucht, um zu der oder jener Dicke zu kommen; was könnte denn natürlicher sein, als daß man dann ausrechnet, wenn irgendeine geologische Schichte soundso dick ist, daß man multipliziert die kleine Dicke mit der Zahl, berechnet wie oft sie in der großen Dicke enthalten ist, und man bekommt soundso viele Jahre heraus: zwanzig Millionen Jahre, zweihundert Millionen Jahre liegt eine Epoche - Silur, Devon, oder irgendeine Epoche zurück. Oh, die Rechnung ist so grandios richtig, es ist nichts dagegen einzuwenden, aber hier ist es gerade die vermeintliche Logik, die täuscht.
Mich erinnert immer diese Logik an die Logik, die einmal einer der größten Mathematiker aller Zeiten für sein eigenes Leben ausgeführt hat. Er wurde, als er schon ein ziemliches Alter erreicht hatte, plötzlich lungenkrank, und durch seine mannigfaltigen Beziehungen, die er zu Medizinern hatte, kam er darauf, wieviel kleine Abszesse er aushusten müsse, um diese Lungenkrankheit wegzubringen. Das war so eine Rechnung, wie sich die Lunge weiterentwickelt: er brachte fünfzehn Jahre heraus. Er wird also fünfzehn Jahre leben, dann wird es gut sein. Nun starb er zwei Jahre danach. Ja, sehen Sie, das ist die Wirklichkeit. Das andere ist die Logik gewesen. Und in einem ebensolchen Verhältnis steht die Wirklichkeit auch im ganzen kosmischen All zu der Logik. Die Dinge sind so ungemein leicht zu beweisen, weil die Logik nicht angegriffen werden soll, sondern verteidigt werden soll. Es soll ausdrücklich gesagt werden, es stimmt. Es stimmt ebenso, wie wenn einer berechnet: Mein Herz macht eine bestimmte Entwickelung durch. Es wird in einer gewissen Zeit einen bestimmten Zustand erreicht haben. Ich’ rechne aus, wie lange das dauern kann, bis es in diesen bestimmten Zustand kommt, und bekomme dreihundert Jahre heraus. Dann rechne ich dreihundert Jahre zurück, rechne aus, wie mein Herz vor dreihundert Jahren ausgeschaut hat. - Nur habe ich als physischer Mensch mit diesem physischen Herzen nicht gelebt vor dreihundert Jahren! Und nach dreihundert Jahren werde ich auch nicht mehr leben. Aber ebensowenig hat die Erde gelebt in den Zeiträumen, die die Geologen ausrechnen, denn was die Erde für Schicksale durchgemacht hat, muß nach der Geistesordnung erkannt werden. Das ist das Berückende in der Wissenschaft der Gegenwart, daß die Dinge, die Illusionen sind, sich so strikte beweisen lassen, aber daß die Beweise nichts aussagen über die Wahrheit. So daß die Menschheit heute - sie bringt sich das nicht zum Bewußtsein, weil sie nicht will, aber unterbewußt - wirklich lebt in der Angst, daß ihr die Wahrheit eigentlich verlorengehen muß. Und diese Angst sehen wir heute schon aus zahlreichen menschlichen Äußerungen herausschimmern. Im Grunde ist es denjenigen, die heute aus dem Materialismus heraus Weltanschauungen formen, doch nicht recht geheuer. Sie empfinden überall eine gewisse Ängstlichkeit gegenüber den Grenzen, die sie auf der einen Seite nicht überschreiten wollen, die ihnen auf der andern Seite aber doch furchtbare Hindernisse für ein vollmenschliches Leben darstellen. Die Menschen fühlen schon, daß sie, wenn sie dasjenige annehmen, was bloß Naturordnung ist, sie eigentlich damit nicht leben können, daß vor allen Dingen das, was so als Naturordnung in unsere Vorstellungen aufgenommen wird, nicht wiederum führen kann zu einem wirklich innerlich künstlerischen und religiösen Empfinden und Vorstellen. Wir dürfen nicht vergessen, daß dasjenige, was heute als Religionssystem vorhanden ist, herstammt aus jenen Zeiten, in denen die Menschen auf die Ihnen geschilderte Weise das Kosmische aus dem tiefen Schlaf ergründet haben. Aus jenen alten Zeiten stammen noch unsere sämtlichen religiösen Einrichtungen her. Die religiösen Einrichtungen, nicht das Mysterium von Golgatha. Das ist nicht abhängig von irgendeiner religiösen Ansicht, das stellt sich als eine Tatsache in die Erdenentwickelung hinein. Das muß begriffen werden auch von jenen Bewußtseinszuständen, die eben erst in Vorbereitung sind. Aber bis jetzt ist das Religionsschöpferische in der Menschheit seit vielen Jahrhunderten, ja Jahrtausenden unfruchtbar geblieben; unfruchtbar geblieben das wirklich künstlerische Vermögen. Denn wir leben eigentlich, mit einzelnen Ausnahmen von Renaissancen, wir leben nicht in ursprünglich elementarem Schaffen. Aber es will in die Gegenwart herein. Und jene menschliche Beunruhigung, die sich heute als die vorzüglichste Zivilisationserscheinung zeigt, die ist es, welche sozusagen darstellt die Geburtswehen einer neuen Zeit, einer neuen Zeit auf wissenschaftlichem, einer neuen Zeit auf künstlerischem, einer neuen Zeit auf sozialem, religiösem, moralischem Boden, der Zukunft des Menschen, die uns vor allen Dingen auf dem Herzen liegen muß, denn ihr muß die Menschheit entgegenleben. In keiner Zeit war das menschliche Ohr weniger geneigt, die Initiationswissenschaft zu hören, als in der heutigen. Man kann in einer gewissen Weise auch sagen, in keiner Zeit hatte die Menschheit das nötiger als in der heutigen.
Das ist der Grund, warum ich gerade zu dieser Tagung über Vergangenheit und Gegenwart und Zukunft des Menschen von dem Gesichtspunkte der Bewußtseinsentwickelung einmal sprechen wollte. Natürlich konnte das in drei Vorträgen nur skizzenhaft geschehen, aber was gesagt worden ist, kann ja weiter ausgebaut werden in jedem einzelnen Gemüt. Denn mir scheint, daß gerade das Bewußtsein, weil es dem Menschen am nächsten dem eigenen Wesen liegt, auch dasjenige ist, was am leichtesten im einzelnen Menschen fruchtbar werden kann, ihn anregen kann, daß er immer mehr und mehr hineinkommt in das geistige Erleben selbst. Und dieser Art des geistigen Erlebens. - nicht des materialistischen — bedarf es beim Menschen der Gegenwart, damit dieser Mensch der Gegenwart werden könne der Mensch der Zukunft. Aber es sind ja wirklich alle, ich möchte sagen, inneren Lebensgewohnheiten des Menschen, dadurch, daß er in sein ohnmächtiges abstraktes Denken und Vorstellen hineingekommen ist, zunächst so geworden, daß ihm wirklich, wenn er aufgeht in der Bildung der Gegenwart, das Reden vom Geistigen den Eindruck macht wie die Logarithmentafeln dem simplen Onkel, und daß er sich von dem, was in der Gegenwart doch immerhin da oder dort als gewaltige Wahrzeichen auftritt für ein Hereinwollen des Geistigen, daß er das sich so mißdeutet, als ob diese Dinge die Hausnummern Europas wären. Das ist ein etwas weit hergeholter Vergleich, aber im Zusammenhang mit dem, was ich gesagt habe, verständlicher Vergleich. Denn das, was äußerlich heute so vielfach Lebensgewohnbheit ist, ich möchte besser sagen, Lebensbeurteilungsgewohnbheit ist, das drängt sich auch hinein in das allerwissenschaftlichste Denken, und wird dort nicht nur Philistrosität, sondern Philistrosität und niederes banausisches Menschentum in allerhöchster Potenz, wird Moralheuchelei, die sich wissenschaftlich umbrämt und umkleidet. Und wenn einmal sich etwas hervorwagen will, wenn auch nur in einer leisen Spur, dann wird es heute als etwas aufgenommen, was man eigentlich nach der materialistischen Ansicht mit klarem Menschenverstand nur «verrückt» nennen kann.
Sehen Sie, auch dafür gibt es eine hübsche, auf Realität beruhende Geschichte. Es wurde ja im Beginne der vierziger Jahre des 19. Jahrhunderts der alt gewordene Philosoph Schelling von München nach Berlin berufen. Er hatte lange geschwiegen. Ein großer Ruf ging ihm ‚ voraus. Er sollte dort vortragen positive Philosophie im Gegensatz zu der negativen, wie er sie selber nannte. Wenigstens die Entwickelung des geistigen Lebens der Menschheit, die Entwickelung des Mysterienwesens, Religionswesens, wollte er in einer unendlich viel tieferen Weise dazumal an der Berliner Universität entwickeln, als es von anderen bis heute geschehen ist. Als Schelling seine erste Vorlesung in Berlin hielt, da saßen in den ersten Reihen die erleuchtetsten Köpfe. Da saßen noch lange nicht die Studenten; da saßen die Professoren aller Fakultäten, die Leiter des Unterrichtswesens, die glänzendsten Vertreter des Geisteslebens, dann kamen erst ganz hinten die Studenten. Und man wartete tatsächlich sogar - insofern man da ehrlich warten konnte —, man wartete ehrlich auf dasjenige, was dieser große Ruf, der vorausgegangen war, nun zur Erfüllung bringen würde. Die Gesichter wurden immer länger und länger, als Schelling seine erste Vorlesung hielt. In dieser ersten Vorlesung sprach Schelling wirklich in einer besonderen Art vom Geiste, ja, er sprach vom Geist dazumal, wo das matenalistische Zeitalter seine Kulmination vorbereitete, wo es gerade ankam in sein stärkstes Blühen. Er sprach vom Geist. Die Gesichter wurden immer länger und länger, man wußte nicht, was er will. Man wußte schlechterdings nicht, was er will. Der später berühmte Philosoph Trendelenburg saß in diesen ersten Reihen. Er sagte: Ja, er glaube ein ganz Weniges verstanden zu haben, das andere habe er alles nicht verstanden von dieser Philosophie, aber er sei nicht sicher, ob er dieses ganz klein Wenige verstanden habe. - Aber sehen Sie, eines Tages begegnete einer von denen, die diese Vorlesung gehört hatten, einem anderen, der auch dabei war. Die Leute hatten sich - und diese zwei Bekannten auch - tagelang die Köpfe zerbrochen: Warum ist denn eigentlich der Schelling nach Berlin berufen worden, denn er redet doch etwas, was kein Mensch verstehen kann? - Nun, der Freund konnte es dem andern sagen, er konnte ihm nämlich ankündigen, daß sich Schellings Tochter verlobt hatte mit dem Sohne des Unterrichtsministers. Nun konnte man begreifen, warum der Schelling nach Berlin gestrebt hat, jetzt hatte das Ganze einen realen Inhalt.
Ja, es sieht allerdings paradox aus, wenn man solche Dinge erzählt, aber man muß es so erzählen, denn so weit liegt dasjenige, was gerade die charakteristische Denkweise der Gegenwart erfassen kann, eben vorläufig ab von dem, was wahrhaftig nicht durch eine Willkür als Geisteswissenschaft auf die Zukunft hinweist, sondern weil es eine innere menschliche Notwendigkeit ist, weil das Menschengeschlecht der Dekadenz verfallen muß, wenn es nicht zu einer neuen Geistigkeit kommt. Denn nur diese neue Geistigkeit wird wiederum die drei vollen Zustände des Bewußtseins, zu denen es in der Zukunft kommen muß - der abgedämpfte Traumschlaf, das gewöhnliche Wachen und das Überwachen -, erleben können. Sonst wird der Mensch seine Menschheit in der Zukunft auf der Erde nicht erleben können. Denn die Gottheit will diesen zukünftigen dreigliedrigen Menschen aus dem gegenwärtigen dreigliedrigen Menschen heraus bilden, wie sie den gegenwärtigen dreigliedrigen Menschen, den träumenden, schlafenden, wachenden Menschen, aus dem alten bildträumenden, schlafenden mit dem Nachgefühl im Wachen, und tiefschlafenden Menschen heraus gebildet hat. Und der Mensch ist heute im Zeitalter der Freiheit -—. das habe ich für Anthroposophen ja oftmals auseinandergesetzt - angekommen. Er muß sich dazu entschließen, aus eigener freier Erkenntnis entgegenzuleben dem, was die Gottheit der. Welt über ihn bestimmt hat.
Dann wird in der richtigen Weise heute nicht nur gedacht, sondern vor allen Dingen empfunden werden können über Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft des Menschen. Dann wird aber auch gewollt werden können mit Bezug auf das Leben auf Erden im Sinne desjenigen, was eigentlich göttlich-geistige Weltenordnung sein soll von der Vergangenheit aus durch die Gegenwart hindurch, in die Zukunft hinein.
Davon wollte ich sprechen. Mit diesen Worten möchte ich diese Betrachtungen abschließen, möchte nur zum Schluß noch wünschen, daß nun morgen eine solche Diskussion hier beginnt, daß innerhalb der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft etwas zu merken ist davon, daß wirklich jetzt gewollt werde in solcher Weise diese Gesellschaft zu gestalten, daß in dieser Gesellschaft gerade ein rechtes lebendiges Bewußtsein vorhanden sei von dem, was der Vollmensch sein soll, der Vollmensch, der sich richtig verstehen muß als der Mensch der Vergangenheit, der Mensch der Gegenwart, der Mensch der Zukunft. Denn diese drei sind auch eins. Und dasjenige, was der Mensch in Vergangenheit gewesen ist, in Gegenwart ist, was er in Zukunft sein wird, das wird erst einmal, ich möchte sagen, vor der göttlichen Weltenordnung umfassen den ganzen Anthropos. Aber er wird angestrebt werden müssen dadurch, daß eine enthusiastisch mit vollem Herzen ergriffene Anthroposophie hinleitet zu dem rechten, wahren Anthropos, dem totalen Menschen, dem Vollmenschen.
Man In The Past, Present And Future From The Point Of View Of The Development Of Consciousness III
You will have gathered from yesterday's remarks that a certain state of consciousness, which was still an experience for man in older times, has to a certain extent been lost. I said that this particular kind of waking consciousness as we have it today, which lives preferably in more or less abstract ideas, or at least in shadowy images, that this waking consciousness was once not present in the same form, but a kind of waking dreaming, dreaming waking, which could not be felt as dreams are today, but as the epitome of living images that corresponded to a more or less spiritual reality. There was then a kind of sleep state that was dreamless, but from which an after-experience remained as I have described it to you. Beyond this, however, there was a third state of consciousness, that state of consciousness which in the after-experience was actually felt as a resting in the waves of the moon forces which submerge beneath the earth, and which actually in a certain way lift man above the earthly heaviness and let him feel his cosmic existence. That was the essence of the old soul constitutions, that they also felt the cosmic existence of man. Today, in the ordinary consciousness of man, only a shadowy afterglow has actually remained of this old state of consciousness, a shadowy afterglow which is even noticed by very few people, which simply passes before the human consciousness without one becoming aware of it.
I would like to characterize this remnant of consciousness from ancient times. If man today looks at his dreams, he will find that the most varied things from his experiences in this earthly existence flow into these dreams, which take on a kind of chaotic character. Things long forgotten emerge in the dream experiences, changed in various ways; even things unnoticed in life can emerge in the dream experiences. And the times in which the experiences occurred are also jumbled up in the most diverse ways. But if one then examines these dream experiences more closely, something quite peculiar emerges. You will find that essentially everything that emerges in the dream content is somehow linked, however remotely, to the experiences of the last three days. You can dream that you have something before you again that you may have experienced twenty-five years ago. It stands before you in all its vividness, perhaps somewhat transformed, but it is there. But if you look more closely, you will always make discoveries of the following kind: In this dream, which brings up an experience of twenty-five years ago, a personality plays a part who, let us say, in order to have something quite abstract, is called Eduard. You will at least find that you have heard the word Eduard somewhere, even if only softly in your ear for a moment, or read it softly in your eye for a moment. Something from the last three days, however insignificant an experience it may be, is always connected with even the most distant thing brought up in a dream. But this is based on the fact that the human being actually carries the experiences of two, three and four days - of course such a time is approximate, only approximate - quite differently than what was there before.
First of all, the human being absorbs what he perceives into his astral organism and his ego-organism. At first the perceived experiences lead a life directly connected with consciousness. That which has been experienced in the course of three days still approaches the feeling in a quite more intensive way than if at least three days have passed. As I said, one does not observe these things in ordinary life, but they are nevertheless realities. This stems from the fact that everything that is perceived by the human being or taken into the astral organism and into the ego-organism in thought processes must be impressed, imprinted on the etheric or formative forces body, but also in a certain respect at least on the physical body. And this imprinting takes two, three, four days, so that you have to sleep two or three times over something you have experienced until it is imprinted in the etheric body and in the physical body. For only then is it so firmly fixed, so to speak, at least in the etheric body, that it can now become a permanent thought memory for you. And so there is actually a continual inner interaction, a kind of struggle between the astral body and the etheric body, and the result of this struggle is always that that which the human being initially experiences as a being of consciousness is imprinted into the denser, more material elements of his being. After three or four days, that which one has previously experienced only as a fleeting sensory experience is then carried along as an entry, so to speak, in one's etheric or formative body and in one's physical body.
Just think, as I describe this, how little this actually comes to the consciousness of people today. But it is something that continually takes place in human soul and physical life. Every experience that we have as a perception must basically wait three or four days until it is completely ours. It oscillates back and forth between the astral body and the etheric body, not really knowing whether it is really imprinted on the etheric body and thus also on the physical body.
There is actually something extraordinarily important happening. Just remember that in our true nature we are basically only our ego and our astral body. We cannot say of our etheric body that it is our property. The 'people of the materialistic age presume to call their etheric body and especially their physical body their body. But the physical body and the etheric body actually belong entirely to the cosmos. And because in the course of three or four days what we experience in the ego and astral body is transferred to the etheric body and physical body, it no longer belongs to us alone, it belongs to the cosmos. We can actually only say for three days that something we have agreed with the world only has meaning for us. After three or four days we have inscribed it in "the universe, it rests in the universe, does not belong to us alone, belongs to the gods as well.
In very ancient times of mankind's development, people had a clear sense of this strange fact precisely from this state of consciousness, which is lost today and which was a kind of deeper state of consciousness than ordinary sleep. And the initiates, the initiated, were able to provide information about what was actually behind this strange sensation. Especially in the epoch I spoke of yesterday, the Egyptian-Chaldean cultural epoch, it was only a dark feeling that people had. But the initiates of the Mysteries were initiated into the actual essence of this matter, and this came about through the fact that at that time - whereas today initiation must be a purely inner soul-spiritual process, at most with physical symbols and physical-image-like processes - initiation was essentially an outer process, and that which took place externally with the human being was then transferred to the inner being. And the initiation often consisted - I will give one example, I could also give others - in the fact that the person to be initiated was put into this state, which has actually been lost today, for about three days by his mystery guides, who initiated him. He was placed in this state for three days, so that he experienced how that which the human being goes through in the world outside the human being behaves during these three days, and how it, so to speak, passes over into the actual being of the human being. The initiate came to see what a conception, what a sensation, what a feeling goes through in terms of facts before it becomes the property of the human being. But that which appeared there, that which was within this wisdom of that state so hidden from man, contains something extraordinarily significant, something so significant that it is not even suspected today by the materialistic world view. It contains the following.
I can most easily make myself understood about what was achieved in this initiation, which lasted for three days in a dull state of consciousness, by first reminding you of the dream life, which everyone still knows today. Certainly, the dream life belongs to that which must be studied carefully. Even if one refrains from all superstition, which must be self-evident if one immerses oneself in the dream life in a pure, I would like to say, scientific view, it still represents something extraordinarily profound.
Because how does it actually occur, this dream life? Well, we know many different kinds of dreams. But let us stick to this type of dream, which consists of reminiscences of experiences. The images of such experiences appear in these dreams. How do they appear? Well, you know, they appear in extraordinary transformation, strongly transformed. It may well be that the transformation, let us say, goes to such a degree that someone dreams who perhaps has not the slightest prospect of ever doing such a thing in real life, that he has to make a state gown for a high minister in his profession as a dressmaker. He cannot have the slightest prospect of doing so, but he always makes and has always made skirts, perhaps even skirts that he has enjoyed. Well, anything can play a role in such a dream. The person concerned may have been the servant of a Roman statesman in a previous life on earth and may have had to put on the statesman's toga. Dull sensory forces remain, and what the person concerned goes through in this life is colored by what shines over from previous earthly lives.
I have only given one of the reasons why dreams change according to their content. But at any rate, they change greatly, as everyone knows. And one must actually ask oneself: What is contained in these dreams, what is at work in them? After all, it is external events that give rise to this kind of dream, but these external events appear in a completely transformed form.
Where does that come from? You see, it comes from something of which, however, the scientific view of the present day cannot dream the slightest. It comes from the fact that the lawfulness that is recognized today as scientific, that is sought everywhere in the outside world through observation and the art of experimentation, that this lawfulness, this sum of natural laws of which we speak, ceases immediately within the human skin. And if someone believes that the laws of nature that he observes in his laboratory are also the laws that operate within the human skin, he is seriously mistaken. It is not only that the substances within his organism, which man ingests through food intake, are changed, but also that the laws of the substances change down to the smallest atomistic details. But what appears before man in a dream is not merely the abstract image of a reality, but in the dream lives the weaving of the organic laws in which man is involved. The dream is closer to the human being than the abstract thinking of the day. The dream contains the way in which the external substances behave in man as his lawfulness. And what does the dream present itself as? As a protest against reality, which is bound by the laws of nature. From the moment you fall asleep to the moment you wake up, you live in the world of which natural scientists say that everything in the world takes place according to these laws. At the moment when you pierce through the dream, I would say just a cobweb, into the spiritual world, the dream experience presents itself as a protest against the laws of nature. The dream cannot proceed in the same way as the external events, otherwise it would be very close to waking. The dream that emerges from actual sleep protests against the laws of nature in its context. For it comes closer to the human being.
In this respect, the materialistically minded people of today are making interesting discoveries. There is a book, an interesting book that was published years ago, of which one can really only say that it is quite characteristic of the mental constitution of scientifically-minded people of the present day: “Die Magie als experimentelle Naturwissenschaft” by a certain Staudenmaier. Some of you will know the book. The man also wanted to find out what the spiritual world actually is. He confessed that he had only read the opposing writings on anthroposophy, so people don't like to approach it because they find it very difficult to find their way around anthroposophy. It is precisely when they find themselves within the scientific structure of the present that they find it very difficult to enter into anthroposophy. And so he first made attempts to get behind the spirit world, in the manner of spiritualistic experiments. He deprived himself of consciousness, clouded himself until he entered a kind of medium-like state. And then he wrote mechanically. Now he was surprised that he was writing down nothing but stupid things, that all this did not correspond with what he otherwise knew about reality. It was not true. Above all, what came out of this writing was not true: Spirits speak to him. For he knew that it was not possible for spirits to speak to him. But what he wrote down told him that spirits were speaking to him. And besides, it was terrible what these non-spirits were lying to him about. Just read about it in the book, all the unbelievable lies that flowed into his hand. Yes, he became completely - I don't want to use a bad word - mediumistic, and he couldn't find his way around the whole thing anymore. Then a friend advised him to leave the whole thing behind and lead a sensible life again, for example to go hunting. So he went hunting, magpie hunting. Lo and behold, what he had aroused in himself continued even into the hunt. He could not get rid of it. When he looked up into a tree, there was not a magpie, but a terrible dragon with horrible fangs, looking at him with terrible eyes, quite horrible! And there were things like that everywhere. Now he was constantly living in this inner struggle to find his way back to normal humanity.
I mention this to you for the reason that it has been experimentally shown here that everywhere, at the moment when one is not only dreaming while awake, but through such machinations comes close to that which the inner being of man has to say, the protest against the outer natural order immediately arises. Naturally this is perceived as a lie. If you are used to seeing someone who is a friend of yours as a reasonably decent person and then, when you are in this state, you realize that he is constantly sticking his tongue out at you, making long noses and grinning at you - if that happens in this state, then you say: The spiritual world is lying to you! - You really do it like the dream in such a case. Now, this again contains the right thing, that in every case where man approaches the spiritual world, in which he is enclosed with that which lies within his skin, this existence, which he now enters, protests against the natural order. It is not surprising that in such an undeveloped case, where one cannot judge the matter, all kinds of elemental beings appear in the mendacity. But there is always a protest against the natural order where one approaches the spiritual, which is already shown by the ordinary dream.
And man should actually say to himself: I am entering into a completely different order, and if it only appears in the fleeting form of a dream, then it appears as a protest against the most beautiful laws of nature, which can be determined externally through laboratory and experiment. - But you see, this is the first stage towards the spiritual world. On this first stage one encounters the protest against the laws of nature. There the laws of nature are, I would say, appalled by their majesty as soon as one penetrates into the inner being of man.
The old initiates became clear about how there is not only a natural order, but how there is a spiritual order in and behind this natural order, by going through those three days. Whoever makes his acquaintance with initiation in this way can still penetrate into these things today with today's means, can go through the experiences of these three days when he approaches for the first time the experience of that actually terrible agony of soul! For there the human being actually enters a world where all the laws of nature collapse, where the weaving of the dream occurs, in which, even if the reminiscences of ordinary life play into it, the connections become different, because the laws of nature no longer apply. And then one really is, when one perceives the laws of nature as everything, vis-à-vis nothingness at first.
Now the point is that as a modern human being, passing through initiation, one feels particularly painfully, deeply painfully and tragically this coming into that region of existence where this protest is voiced against the laws of nature, because one has a feeling that there, above all, everything that one used to have in the intellect, which was directed according to the laws of nature, that this intellectualistic soulfulness is drowning. One can no longer breathe soulfully because one has become too accustomed to the order of nature. And finally one sees that from a completely different side of the world there is another world that does not live in a natural order, but in a spiritual order that is everywhere permeated and interwoven with what is today modeled from the depths of the human conscience as a moral world order. What one learns to say to oneself is this: Here is the natural order, my senses perceive it, for it the lawfulness is established by natural science. If I emerge from this natural order, then I immerse myself in a world that protests against this natural order, and in the perception of this protest against the natural order, that which is the moral world order, which finally expands into the spiritual world order, pours out everywhere like a new light-filled water of life with which one can breathe again. - That was the great realization of the initiates of the old time, that they saw the real moral world order projecting into the physical real world order by experiencing between them the protest against the physical world order. This is experienced in the faint afterglow of the event of the three days of which I have spoken. That which we experience in the outer world, be it our sensations, be it our actions: it takes three or four days to imprint itself on our organism. But when it has imprinted itself, it does not imprint itself in the form in which we have experienced it externally, it imprints itself as an impulse that demands a moral organization in a completely different lawfulness than the natural order. And if man were to see what his experiences become in his own inner being after three days, he would say to himself: "What I have experienced in a natural way in earthly existence has impressed itself on my eternal core of being, so that it is no less real than in the outer world, but now lives in me as the impulse of a moral world order, on which I now go further out into the ocean of life. - Thus we carry within us the events of what we have experienced in nature as the moral causes for our later life.
But in the last times of mankind's development it was in such a way that, by submerging into that, I would like to say, sub-sleep, into the state of earthly envelopment, man submerged into the outer ether. And there what the human being had experienced found its balance with the outer ether. Man was, so to speak, morally placed in the moral order of the world, not only in relation to the direction of his inner being, but in the sub-sleep, in the earthly envelopment, he was placed in the morality of the cosmos. And this has been lost to mankind because this deep sleep has been eliminated from the state of consciousness, so that man has only that faint echo in the three-day experience that I have described to you. Man would have been gradually thrown out of the self-evident moral world order, so to speak, if something had not occurred in the course of his development on earth. That which the individual initiates had previously gone through in order to be able to tell people what would be experienced during the three days, was experienced as a world-historical event, as a unique earthly event by the Christ-being, who descended from spiritual worlds into the body of Jesus of Nazareth and led a real human life as God. And that which was experienced during the three days has now been experienced for the whole of humanity. What previously could be found through the deep sleep of consciousness - not consciously, but at least subconsciously, it entered into the human being - what was thus gone through by the human being in a merely natural way, had to be gone through so that the human being could find his connection with what the Christ accomplished for humanity on earth in the Mystery of Golgotha. This is the vicarious act of God. Because man had a jolt in the development of his consciousness, he had to live through what he had previously experienced in his nature in a moral way in relation to Christ Jesus. And so the occurrence of the Mystery of Golgotha is connected with the whole meaning of earthly development, because it is connected with the meaning of the development of human consciousness. And one can only understand what was actually to happen through the Mystery of Golgotha if one can look back on what once happened naturally and now has to happen morally.
But it is precisely in this respect that this modern consciousness, which flows between waking and sleeping and dreaming, has not yet reached its inner harmony. For what is going through this modern consciousness, what has been going through this modern consciousness more and more, especially since the 15th century, since this consciousness found its actual form? A one-sided view of the natural order. Yes, it is believed in, and this natural order is also believed to be understood. And what is in this natural order is called real existence. But you don't want to go any further. One does not want to penetrate further to that power of human cognition to which the spiritual arises, just as the natural order arises. And so it became customary in more recent times to speak of the moral order of the world as something that comes in from somewhere. The only thing that was forgotten was honesty; for if one does indeed look at the natural order, as one has become more and more accustomed to doing, then one could not actually ascribe any reality to the moral world order. One could actually only, I would say, in a somewhat dishonest way, help oneself over what was there by saying: On the one hand there is knowledge, on the other hand there is faith. Knowledge cannot become faith, and faith cannot become knowledge, and the moral world order belongs to faith. - This is the convenient formula that has become common in recent times. This separation between faith and knowledge is even regarded as something genuinely Christian, whereas not so long ago, five to six centuries ago, Christianity certainly did not make this kind of distinction, certainly not the older Christianity. And today it is still not Catholic dogma, even if it is Catholic custom, to distinguish between faith and knowledge in this way. One does not find one's way with the relationship to the natural order and the moral-spiritual order because one does not know the transition, because one does not understand the dream that leads one out of the natural order and is a protest against the natural order, which is, so to speak, the great forerunner. For once you have gone through its preparation, you can come up against what is the moral world order, because it is the moral-spiritual world order.
Only an unbiased look into man's past and into what the present does not yet have can actually lead to a satisfactory view of these things, otherwise even the historical documents of ancient times basically remain things that one gazes at but does not understand at all. You see, this morning the opponents of anthroposophy have been spoken of in many different ways. Some things can be counted against these opponents, not in their favor, but in their favor. One has to remember what the opponents say about anthroposophy, at least I sometimes have to remember an anecdote that is said to be based on a truth that the famous Professor Kuno Fischer told again and again. He said that he had two schoolmates who both lived together, they must have been brothers; they had an extraordinarily simple uncle. Now the time came when they had to learn logarithms in mathematics and had to buy logarithm tables. The simple uncle looked at these logarithm tables. He saw lots of numbers on them and asked these pupils, his nephews, what these numbers were. They didn't know how to explain them to their uncle. Finally, one of the rascals remembered: Yes, those are all the house numbers in Europe. - The uncle believed it and finally thought that it would be quite useful to know all the house numbers of London, Paris and so on. You see, just as this uncle stood in front of the logarithmic tables, so people who do not look inwardly into what the old documents proclaim stand in front of these old documents. After all, the present-day researchers who are reissuing these documents do not say much different from what the uncle said about the logarithms, considering them to be the house numbers of Europe. You only have to know how far the way of understanding that is possible for abstract thinking today deviates from the spiritual-real reality. You have to realize that. One must have the courage to do so. Otherwise we will not realize how man has developed into the present from a completely different kind of past. And in fact we are already living in a time when the present way of living through sleeping, waking and dreaming leads to inner conflicts in the most varied ways for those who are now in a position to practise self-observation and self-contemplation. For just as this deep sleep has crumbled away from mankind, which was something so significant for mankind in an older past that the initiates had to expose to these people the nature of what man went through in this deep sleep, so too is that which is today's sleep crumbling away. Not as if man would dream continuously throughout the night in the future, but he actually goes through this state in such a way that the dreams become duller. Just as they have changed since ancient times from waking dreams to our abstract imagination, so today's chaotic "dreams will become dull, and man will have this dull 'dream sleep. He will not become conscious of the dream. Above it will be today's waking state with abstract, so-called logical thinking. But then a superconsciousness will come, a superconsciousness that is already entering humanity today for those who understand these things. For this superconsciousness is particularly concerned with the human will and with the effect that the will can have by moving on the nervous system. And if you observe today the unbridled nature of the human development of will in the broadest horizons, and understand this with the science of initiation, then you can already see how that which is the announcement of a superconsciousness, of a higher consciousness than the ordinary waking consciousness, penetrates into soul expressions - penetrates even into physical states of illness.
But today it is not yet something that people want to experience, because they can only experience it when they make spiritual science their own, this spiritual science in which one must think quite differently than is thought in the ordinary world, this spiritual science that is truly much more practical than today's theoretical life practice, which is actually the deepest unpractice. But this spiritual science adds an inwardly living thinking to the ordinary abstract thinking. But this is not something that can be arbitrarily added and arbitrarily omitted, it is something that arises simply because a certain organization occurs in humanity that was not there in older times, that is only present in the first stages of development. Man's organs of movement, arms, legs, hands, feet, are becoming more and more circulatory, man is changing. But what we often call nervousness today is the expression of the fact that something from a higher state actually wants to enter the human being, but the human being does not yet accept it and thus becomes restless because it is still something foreign. He will only come to rest when it can be his own.
So one can look at three further states of consciousness that are in prospect for the human race, towards which the human race is working: a dull dream-sleep, a wakefulness, a state of being under surveillance. And all that which is so shaking and shaking humanity today, even in the external conditions of life, has its reason in the fact that humanity today is still largely unconsciously resisting that which wants to come over humanity from the spiritual worlds. But it wants to come, it wants to enter. In particular, it wants to approach the will of man. In a completely different way than man wants today, man will have to understand that where the spiritual begins, the matter goes beyond the region where protest against the laws of nature is expressed. Therefore man will only come to a future understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha if he can rise to the realization that that which is the content of the Mystery of Golgotha cannot be grasped with the knowledge of nature, but that it can be grasped with that which one develops within oneself, if one penetrates with right understanding beyond the stage of mere 'dreaming, which announces the natural process, into the understanding of the other shore of existence. For it is from the spiritual shore of existence that the elements of understanding must be drawn which correspond to the future understanding of the Mystery of Golgotha. It is absolutely essential that what man can experience in the present can be placed in this way between the past and the future, that man learns to feel himself as a transition from this past into the future. Then he will also be able to gain more and more understanding for the use of spiritual truths alongside natural truths.
What misleads people presents itself as an easily comprehensible error because the things that are wrong can be so tremendously logical. People don't realize today that things that are wrong can be so incredibly logical. What could be more logical than to observe approximately how long this or that rock sediment takes to reach this or that thickness; what could be more natural than to calculate when some geological layer is so-and-so thick, to multiply the small thickness by the number, to calculate how many times it is contained in the great thickness, and you get so-and-so many years: twenty million years, two hundred million years is an epoch - Silurian, Devonian, or some epoch in the past. Oh, the calculation is so grandiosely correct, there's nothing wrong with it, but here it's precisely the supposed logic that's deceptive.
This logic always reminds me of the logic that one of the greatest mathematicians of all time once applied to his own life. When he was quite old, he suddenly became ill with a lung disease, and through his many connections with doctors, he worked out how many small abscesses he would have to cough up in order to get rid of this lung disease. It was a calculation of how the lungs develop: he got fifteen years out of it. So he will live for fifteen years, then it will be good. Now he died two years after that. Yes, you see, that's the reality. The other thing was logic. And in the entire cosmic universe, reality stands in the same relationship to logic. Things are so incredibly easy to prove because logic is not to be attacked, but defended. It should be expressly stated that it is true. It is just as true as when one calculates: My heart undergoes a certain development. It will have reached a certain state in a certain time. I' calculate how long it can take until it reaches this certain state, and I get three hundred years. Then I count back three hundred years and work out what my heart looked like three hundred years ago. - Only I didn't live as a physical person with this physical heart three hundred years ago! And I won't be alive after three hundred years either. But neither did the earth live in the periods of time that geologists calculate, because the destinies that the earth has gone through must be recognized according to the spiritual order. That is the enchanting thing about the science of the present day, that things which are illusions can be so strictly proved, but that the proofs say nothing about the truth. So that mankind today - it does not make itself conscious of this because it does not want to, but subconsciously - really lives in the fear that the truth must actually be lost to it. And we can already see this fear shimmering out of numerous human expressions today. Basically, those who today form world views out of materialism are not really at ease. They feel a certain anxiety everywhere about the boundaries which, on the one hand, they do not want to cross, but which, on the other hand, represent terrible obstacles to a fully human life. People already feel that if they accept what is merely the order of nature, they cannot actually live with it, that above all what is taken into our conceptions as the order of nature cannot in turn lead to a truly inner artistic and religious feeling and conception. We must not forget that what exists today as a religious system comes from those times in which people fathomed the cosmic from a deep sleep in the way described to you. All our religious institutions still originate from those ancient times. The religious institutions, not the Mystery of Golgotha. This is not dependent on any religious view, it is a fact of earthly development. This must also be understood by those states of consciousness which are only just in preparation. But up to now the religiously creative in humanity has remained unfruitful for many centuries, even millennia; the truly artistic faculty has remained unfruitful. For we do not actually live, with a few exceptions of the Renaissance, in originally elementary creativity. But it wants to enter the present. And it is this human disquiet, which shows itself today as the most outstanding phenomenon of civilization, which represents, so to speak, the birth pangs of a new age, a new age on scientific, a new age on artistic, a new age on social, religious, moral ground, the future of man, which must lie above all on our hearts, for mankind must live towards it. In no time has the human ear been less inclined to listen to the science of initiation than in the present. In a certain sense, one can also say that in no time has humanity needed it more than today.
That is the reason why I wanted to speak at this conference about the past, present and future of man from the point of view of the development of consciousness. Of course this could only be sketched out in three lectures, but what has been said can be further developed in each individual mind. For it seems to me that precisely consciousness, because it is closest to man's own being, is also that which can most easily become fruitful in the individual, can stimulate him to enter more and more into the spiritual experience itself. And this kind of spiritual experience. - not the materialistic - is needed in the man of the present, so that this man of the present can become the man of the future. But all, I would like to say, inner habits of life of the human being, through the fact that he has come into his impotent abstract thinking and imagining, have first of all become such that, when he is absorbed in the formation of the present, that, when he is absorbed in the formation of the present, talk of the spiritual makes the same impression on him as the logarithmic tables do on his simple uncle, and that he misinterprets those things which appear here and there in the present as mighty emblems of the coming in of the spiritual as if they were the house numbers of Europe. That is a somewhat far-fetched comparison, but in the context of what I have said, it is an understandable comparison. For that which is so often an outward habit of life today, I would rather say a habit of judging life, forces its way into the most scientific thinking, and there becomes not only philistrosity, but philistrosity and low philistine humanity in the highest potency, becomes moral hypocrisy, which cloaks and dresses itself scientifically. And if something dares to come forward, even if only in a faint trace, then it is received today as something that can only be called “crazy” according to the materialist view with clear common sense.
You see, there is also a nice story based on reality. At the beginning of the 1940s, the philosopher Schelling, who had grown old, was called from Munich to Berlin. He had been silent for a long time. A great reputation preceded him. He was to present positive philosophy there in contrast to negative philosophy, as he himself called it. At least the development of the spiritual life of mankind, the development of the mystery system, the religious system, he wanted to develop in an infinitely deeper way at the Berlin University at that time than has been done by others to this day. When Schelling gave his first lecture in Berlin, the most enlightened minds were sitting in the first rows. The professors of all faculties, the heads of education, the most illustrious representatives of intellectual life were seated there, and then the students came at the very back. And they were actually waiting - insofar as they could honestly wait - they were honestly waiting for what this great reputation that had preceded them would now bring to fruition. The faces grew longer and longer as Schelling gave his first lecture. In this first lecture Schelling really spoke of the spirit in a special way, indeed, he spoke of the spirit at that time, when the maternalistic age was preparing its culmination, when it was just entering its strongest flowering. He spoke of the spirit. The faces grew longer and longer, one did not know what he wanted. They simply did not know what he wanted. The philosopher Trendelenburg, who later became famous, was sitting in the first rows. He said: Yes, he thought he had understood a very small amount, he had not understood the rest of this philosophy, but he was not sure whether he had understood this very small amount. - But you see, one day one of the people who had heard this lecture met another person who was also there. People - and these two acquaintances too - had been racking their brains for days: Why had Schelling actually been called to Berlin, because he was talking about something that no one could understand? - Well, the friend was able to tell the other, because he was able to announce to him that Schelling's daughter had become engaged to the son of the Minister of Education. Now one could understand why Schelling had aspired to Berlin, now the whole thing had a real content.
Yes, it does look paradoxical when you tell such things, but you have to tell it that way, because that is how far removed that which can grasp the characteristic way of thinking of the present is, for the time being, from that which truly does not point to the future through arbitrariness as spiritual science, but because it is an inner human necessity, because the human race must fall into decadence if it does not come to a new spirituality. For only this new spirituality will again be able to experience the three full states of consciousness to which it must come in the future - the subdued dream-sleep, the ordinary waking, and the watching. Otherwise man will not be able to experience his humanity on earth in the future. For the Godhead wants to form this future tripartite man out of the present tripartite man, just as it has formed the present tripartite man, the dreaming, sleeping, waking man, out of the old picture-dreaming, sleeping man with the after-feeling in waking, and deep-sleeping man. And man today has arrived in the age of freedom - as I have often explained for anthroposophists. He must decide to live out of his own free knowledge in opposition to what the deity of the world has determined for him. World has determined about him.
Then it will not only be possible to think in the right way today, but above all to feel about the past, present and future of man. But then it will also be possible to will with regard to life on earth in the sense of what is actually intended to be the divine-spiritual world order from the past through the present into the future.
This is what I wanted to talk about. With these words I would like to conclude these reflections, I would only like to conclude by wishing that tomorrow such a discussion will begin here, that within the Anthroposophical Society something will be noticed of the fact that it is really now intended to shape this society in such a way that in this society there is just a right living consciousness of what the full human being is to be, the full human being who must understand himself correctly as the human being of the past, the human being of the present, the human being of the future. For these three are also one. And what man has been in the past, what he is in the present, what he will be in the future, that will first of all, I would like to say, encompass the whole Anthropos before the divine world order. But it will have to be striven for by an enthusiastically and wholeheartedly embraced anthroposophy leading to the right, true anthropos, the total human being, the full human being.