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Community Life, Inner Development, Sexuality and the Spiritual Teacher
GA 253

14 September 1915, Dornach

V. Sexuality and Modern Clairvoyance, Freudian Psychoanalysis and Swedenborg as a Seer

Yesterday I inserted a talk on psychoanalysis into this lecture series, since that subject is of concern to all of us at the moment because of the case at hand. You will have noticed that I first characterized the psychoanalytic view as distinguishing between consciousness and the unconscious in our inner life. I then went on to describe, if only briefly, how the psychoanalytic point of view as a whole is swimming in sexuality, and you could see that with this second aspect, an extremely unfortunate (you might even say “terrible”) element has entered our culture. This points to something characteristic of current intellectual trends in general.

There can be no doubt that in distinguishing an unconscious that exists alongside the conscious mind, psychoanalysis has made a legitimate contribution to our culture. We can look at it like this: These people are on the right track in thinking that the human soul goes beyond what our ordinary consciousness encompasses. However, these same people have also taken their materialism to extremes. It has done more than engulf their thinking, which is what happened in the case of what is now erroneously known as monism. The materialism of the psychoanalysts, however, also pulls the lower human drives into their theory and incorporates them into it. As a result, sexual drives, the most subjective element possible, become the motivating impulse in scientific activity.

We must look particularly closely at such modern cultural phenomena, because they show us that something independent of human individuals is compelling even the crassest materialists among us to recognize a higher spiritual element than the one we are immediately aware of. After all, the followers of Freud are deeply rooted in materialism, in their intellect as well as their instincts; yet the objective world compels even them to investigate something beyond the scope of ordinary consciousness. That is the objective side of the matter.

On the other hand, the subjective aspect is that these people are so tangled up in materialism that their lowest and most subjective drives are immediately drawn into the business of formulating their outlook on life. That is part and parcel of materialism just as much as the left hand belongs to the right hand or the left eye to the right eye. And tumbling right down into the very lowest human drives is the inevitable consequence of getting stuck in materialism if people really let themselves go.

However, my friends, we can really understand this way of looking at the world only if we can get to the bottom of many a riddle of the world order. The dangerous thing about philosophies like psychoanalysis is that people are on the right track, but drag their impure instincts into what is true. It is much less harmful when impure instincts are incorporated into something completely erroneous than it is when they are incorporated into a partial truth. And the truth in the psychoanalytic view lies in its recognition of the fact that so much of what is at work in human life is unconscious, truly unconscious. That is where psychoanalysts are on the right track and have come upon many things that are true and correct.

Let us follow up how psychoanalysts stumble onto the right track. In the book I told you about yesterday, the head of the psychoanalytic school of thought attempts to explain certain customs among primitive people on the basis of certain psychoanalytic theories. He does so in accordance with connections he assumes to exist between early childhood and neurotic conditions later in life.

We saw yesterday how the element of sexuality plays into these theories. In his book Totem and Taboo, in the essay “Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence,” Freud compares some of the views and ideas of primitive people with certain infantile characteristics of civilized human beings that manifest in neuroses, in certain types of nervous or psychological disorders.1Freud, Totem and Taboo. See Lecture Four, note 5. From what we discussed yesterday, you will recall that psychoanalysts explain many things as the result of impulses that affect people in the early years of their life and then retreat to islands in these people's psyche where they work on in the unconscious. This means that infantile psychological activity is still going on in civilized adults. According to this view, neurotics, or at least a certain type of neurotics, are walking around at age forty with psyches in which earliest childhood experiences, infantile experiences, are still especially influential.

Freud then compares certain primitive beliefs with the experience of neurosis. For example, he says:

A Maori chief would not blow on a fire with his mouth; for his sacred breath would communicate its sanctity to the fire, which would pass it on to the pot on the fire, which would pass it on to the meat in the pot, which would pass it on to the man who ate the meat, which was in the pot, which stood on the fire, which was breathed on by the chief; so that the eater, infected by the chief's breath conveyed through these intermediaries, would surely die. 2Ibid., p. 28.

Freud does not compare this fear of blowing on a flame because of what might happen to someone eating out of the pot warmed by it with the habits of the person we have been speaking about for the past few days—after all, he did not know her and her fear of others affecting her aura. However, he does compare it to the behavior of someone else who came to him as a patient. He says:

My patient's husband purchased a household article of some kind and brought it home with him. She insisted that it should be removed or it would make the room she lived in “impossible”.3Ibid., p. 28.

That is what the patient tells the psychoanalyst. A spiritual scientist using healthy understanding to contemplate a patient like this would have to consider the problem from many different angles. Psychoanalysts, too, might or might not be able to follow the clues in a case like this. And a false mystic might come up with all kinds of profound ideas about magical influences at work on this person or proceeding from this very refined personality who has reached such an advanced stage of evolution that she cannot tolerate having certain objects in the same room with her!

The psychoanalyst says of his patient:

She had heard that the article had been bought in a shop situated in, let us say, “Smith” Street.

He finds out that she has heard that the item in question was bought in a store on Smith Street—increasing mystification! He continues:

“Smith,” however, was the married name of a woman friend of hers who lived in a distant town and whom she had known in her youth under her maiden name. This friend of hers was at the moment “impossible” or taboo.

That is, it was something she did not want to come into contact with.

Consequently the article that had been purchased here in Vienna was as taboo as the friend herself with whom she must not come into contact.

As the psychoanalyst in question has found out, the patient had had a friend with whom she had once gotten into trouble. The friend's name was Smith. This fact survives on an island in her psyche. Nothing of it is present in her ordinary waking consciousness, but although she is unaware of the connection, it remains in her unconscious. Only the name provides the connecting link inasmuch as the friend whom she hated in her youth—a hatred the patient was not conscious of—is called Smith and the article in question was bought on Smith Street. The similarity of the names provides the connection; that is how the subconscious works up into the realm of consciousness.

People with a strong mystical bent make much of names that sound alike. They make such associations very readily and are led to all kinds of mystical conclusions without ever becoming fully aware of the connection. For example, it could happen that a person who once played the role of Persephone might come to believe that she was an actual reincarnation of Persephone because she thinks she once heard someone she didn't know call out the name Persephone as she went past. It could well be, however, that she simply overheard someone saying he saw a woman telephoning, and that she understood “Persephone” from that sequence of sounds. The person in question misheard “Persephone” when what was actually said was “telephoning,” and that is enough for her to go on spinning her mystical threads. This is all strictly hypothetical, of course, but it does correspond to how such things can actually happen.

I could give you many other examples from the essays of Dr. Freud and his followers that would show you that the philosophy of psychoanalysis is in fact seeking the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious. However, as I described yesterday, as a result of certain tendencies of our times, all it finds down there in the unconscious is sexuality. This is an extremely important point, and we must take a very close look at it.

The day before yesterday, I told you about Swedenborg and his clairvoyance, for in his own way, Swedenborg was an extremely distinguished and advanced clairvoyant. I explained that he was characteristically unable to cross the threshold into a different state of consciousness, to say “I am being observed” instead of “I am observing.” Swedenborg always wanted to observe everything himself. He observed his Imaginations. He himself was not being observed from the sphere of the Angeloi, but was observing that sphere with the same kind of consciousness he used on the physical plane. Let's take a good look at this once more so as to be clear about the right way to ascend from the physical plane to a higher plane of existence. We must be very clear that on the physical plane, we perceive various objects which are mirrored by means of our physical body and thus become our concepts. That's how we arrive at the important insight that we are looking at objects, and this is the basis of our consciousness.

As soon as we ascend to a higher state of consciousness, however, all this changes fundamentally. There we are received with our I by beings of a higher order, and then we become aware of being perceived, of being looked at by them.

Swedenborg presents a third state of consciousness in which a whole world of objects not present on the physical plane is perceived by him exactly as he perceived objects on the physical plane, although in a more refined state. Thus Swedenborg perceives spiritual objects presented to him in the form of Imaginations just as if the spiritual world were nothing more than a finer version of the physical world. He looks at the spiritual world in the same way we look at the physical world in everyday life. What is the cause of this?

We have already traced the process Swedenborg went through. He discovered certain spiritual beings who made it clear to him that they came from Mars. These beings were incomprehensible to him because they repressed all expressions of emotion and expressed themselves only in thought-gestures. As I told you on Sunday, he realized that he could not understand these beings because they had acquired the ability to conceal their soul life. If Swedenborg had been able to see with the kind of consciousness available to the Angeloi (which is what would have happened if he had really ascended to the spiritual world—that is, if he had also carried his consciousness up into the spiritual world), he would have been able to understand the nature of these Mars beings even though they concealed all their emotions. As it was, however, the content of the Mars beings' soul appeared to Swedenborg as a cold world of thoughts. This is all very strange.

Just think how terribly afraid most people here on the physical plane are of the cold and abstract world of reason. You hear all kinds of derogatory comments about this cold and abstract world of thoughts, and people do everything possible to try to avoid it, to avoid thinking in pure thoughts. Someone who expects people to ascend to pure thought is held to be out of touch with and hostile to real life. That's how people on the physical plane feel about the abstract world of thoughts.

This point of view is very widespread. I will give you an example; present company is always excepted, of course, so I am sure there will be no hurt feelings. For a number years now, a great many people have been reading my The Philosophy of Freedom, which is a work of pure thought.4Rudolf Steiner, The Philosophy of Freedom: A Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, GA 4, (London: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1988). It first appeared in the 1890s. It would be interesting to find out how many of the people in our movement who are now reading The Philosophy of Freedom would have read it on its own merits, without knowing anything about me and our movement, if it had fallen into their hands back in the early 1890s. How many people would have read it back then and how many would have said, “I can't get through this tangled web of thoughts; it just doesn't make any sense!”? You can just imagine, then, how many people are reading this work of pure thought for strictly personal reasons. (Present company excepted, of course.) The only ones who are reading it for other than personal reasons are the ones who would have read it even if they had never met me in person. We have to admit to this quite soberly; it shows how horrified we on the physical plane are of so-called abstraction.

In spite of being such a great scholar, when Swedenborg encountered the beings I described, this particular class of Mars beings, on the astral plane, he was incapable of understanding the pure thoughts, free of any emotion, that were active in their souls. Transferred to the physical plane, this is the same as if someone would say about The Philosophy of Freedom, “It's all Greek to me; no sensible person can read that kind of language,” meaning that it seems totally incomprehensible. In the same way, Swedenborg found these Mars beings incomprehensible on the astral plane.

It is important, however, that we at least have the good will and make the effort to advance to the kind of thinking that is free of emotion—to begin with, free of the emotions we know so well in ordinary life. If the content of The Philosophy of Freedom appeals to people because their feelings incline them to a more spiritual way of looking at things, they have not yet achieved pure thinking. Only those people who take it in because of the thoughts' logical sequence and the way they support each other are relating to the book in the right way.

Swedenborg, on the other hand, in spite of being such a great scholar, could not conceive of being drawn to a world of pure thoughts free of emotional motives. We must try to understand, my friends—and the means of doing so are available in our anthroposophical literature—to what extent in everyday life our choice of truths is dictated by emotional impulses, by impulses provided for us on the physical plane through our karma or upbringing. We are only free of subjectivity when we have really moved on to a realm of thinking in which thoughts sustain each other and no longer have any subjective content.

After that, however, there is still one more thing we must accomplish. When we have really reached the stage of thinking in pure thoughts, when a sequence of pure thoughts is present in our soul, then our personal mind or subjective I is no longer involved. This accounts for the severity we experience when we reach this stage of pure thinking. It is no longer possible to bend things to fit into the mold of how we subjectively would like to have them. Take a train of thought like that of The Philosophy of Freedom. It is impossible to construct it in any other way. It cannot be arbitrarily tampered with; you have to let it grow inside you like a living organism. Then your I is really uninvolved; it is thinking itself that is doing the thinking.

However, your thinking only becomes mature if what it has been emptied of—your own I—is replaced with something else. In place of the contents of your personal mind, the mind-content of spirits belonging to higher hierarchies must fill this emotion-free thinking. When you have come so far as to be able to gradually rid your emotion-filled thinking of its subjective content so that it contains only pure concepts, then divine content, the content that comes from above, can flow in.

Swedenborg never reached this stage. In spite of being a great scholar, he could not extricate what he was thinking from his personal emotions. When he ascended to the astral plane, beings such as the Mars dwellers who could think in pure thought were completely alien to his thinking, confined as it still was to his own personality, and they were therefore incomprehensible to him. As far as he was concerned, their gestures could not be understood at all. But why was Swedenborg barred from entering the world of higher consciousness? Why did he carry a mode of perception appropriate to the physical plane up into the spiritual world, to which he really did gain access? We need not investigate why certain spirits were able to keep their thoughts free of subjective emotional content, but why was Swedenborg unable to understand their words and gestures?

The answers to all these questions will become apparent if we first ask what was actually going on in Swedenborg's case and what he took with him onto the astral plane. It seems he was not completely able to extricate his spiritual nature from his physical person, for if he had been able to do so, he would have seen his I as an object in the realm of higher consciousness. His I would have become like a remembered object, something like the broken pots in a comparison I used some time ago. He was unable to wrest himself sufficiently free of himself. However, as you know from what I have already said about him, it was characteristic of Swedenborg's clairvoyance that he did not just see illusions. He did not just see maya—he could actually recognize objective facts; for instance, he knew he was dealing with beings from Mars and could see what they were like. That was all correct, but he was seeing the spiritual world in its maya aspect, through a veil of illusion, so to speak. He was in fact looking at real beings from Mars, but could not understand that they were actual spiritual beings.

Now, my friends, let me ask you to be really, really clever for a moment, and clever in a way that people who want to develop their clairvoyance usually are not. Obviously, Swedenborg did not perceive these beings from Mars with his ordinary senses, with his ordinary sense of sight. After all, he was seeing them in the spiritual world. In other words, he could not see them with his sense of sight or hear them with his sense of hearing or even understand them with his ordinary capacity for thought. As I have explained to you, this capacity for thought was actually a gift of the ancient Moon stage, that is, something that developed before the Mars forces came into play...5In a lecture given in Dornach, August 8, 1915. See Lecture Three, note 8. [gap in the stenographic record]. Among all the powers of cognition known to human beings, there was nothing that could have enabled him to understand these beings.

Thus we are confronted with the strange fact that Swedenborg undoubtedly recognized the beings he saw, but did not recognize them by means of any higher forces. He recognized them by means of some ability he should not have had because he was lacking the necessary consciousness—ordinary powers of consciousness on the physical plane are inadequate to explain what he was seeing. But in that case, how was he actually seeing? Now, Swedenborg had spent his life not only as a great scholar but also as a very pure person, and so a certain energy was transformed within him. All people on the physical plane have this energy, which is somewhat similar to clairvoyant ability. On the physical plane, however, it is used for a different purpose. What was this energy that enabled Swedenborg to see as he did?

Swedenborg was seeing by means of a force that perceives outer appearances without touching them in any way and without making use of the eyes. What kind of a force is that? On earth, on the physical plane, it is the force that comes to expression in sexual activity, the mysterious force that pulls people together in earthly love, a force different from all other powers of perception. Swedenborg had stored up this force, and when he reached a certain age it was transformed in him, although it remained sexual energy in some respects. He used this sexual energy to see spiritual worlds. That is, transformed sexual energy is actually the basis of Swedenborg's clairvoyance.

You can conclude from all this that human beings during their evolution on earth are provided with a force that expresses itself as sexuality during earthly life, but that will be transformed once it is no longer bound to the physical body. On the other hand, you can also come to the conclusion that the forces leading to clairvoyant vision are very intimately related to forces involved in what are now the lowest drives in human nature, and that one of these realms can be attracted by the other, so to speak.

My friends, it follows that clairvoyance is not something to be toyed with. Of course, what I have just said does not apply to spiritual science as such, but it does apply to all kinds of clairvoyance people grab for in passing without working to acquire it legitimately. We cannot take seriously enough the fact that clairvoyance is not to be developed by simply applying a transformation of our usual mode of perception on the physical plane to higher planes of existence. These higher planes require that we work toward a new mode of perception applicable to the spiritual world, a mode of perception that has nothing to do with sexual energy, since that is physical and exists only for the physical plane. Applying the same mode of perception to higher worlds as is applied on the physical plane, that is, the assumption that people can still perceive in the same way as they do on the physical plane, is what makes people relate clairvoyance and sexual energies.

There are several ways of avoiding this, and we are now at a crucial point in human evolution where these things must be understood. What I have just told you is ancient knowledge, and in olden times people knew how to protect themselves. They knew that people approaching the spiritual world had to recognize both their own weakness and the fact that strength of character, inner discipline, and doing away with any unrestrained emotional impulses are necessary for ascending into the spiritual worlds in the right way. Ancient initiates were aware of human weakness and took steps to prevent any possibility of mixing the two spheres.

How did they do it? Simply by keeping people away from the opposite sex whenever truly spiritual matters were being spoken of. That is, the female sex was not allowed to participate in gatherings in which spiritual scientific matters were discussed. That is why in the past women were excluded from all spiritual-scientific gatherings. This measure prevented the men from mixing the two spheres in any way, because they were bound by strictest oath not to discuss what went on in the lodge outside the lodge itself. Women, then, could have no connection to spiritual science other than the white gloves, which were a significant symbol of this whole state of affairs.6It is a Masonic custom to give the neophyte two pairs of white gloves at the occasion of his admission. One is for himself, the other for the woman he reveres most highly.

Now these times are long gone, and spiritual scientific movements such as ours should attempt to do away with such constraints. However, the spiritual realm must still be kept totally free of the other sphere I mentioned; these two realms are not to be mixed.

What we have seen recently is a case of the worst possible mingling of spheres, a case in which sexual drives were at work but were interpreted as something quite different. They were interpreted as all kinds of mystical things, but in reality they were sexual drives. It is important to face this fact squarely and to understand it from the inside, out of the inner nature of the cosmic order. Only our recognition of the very great dignity and solemnity of spiritual life can guard us against egotism in spiritual activity. Once egotistical mysticism enters, nothing can save us from mixing the two above-mentioned spheres in the worst possible way.

Thus we saw how in Swedenborg's case, repressed sexuality filled his Imaginations that would otherwise have remained empty, but only to a certain extent. When he came into contact with beings who were able to eliminate all emotions from their gestures, he was no longer able to fill that sphere, which was a strictly human one and came about because his sexuality extended to include his Imaginations. Swedenborg, then, is a good example of what to avoid in approaching the spiritual world in modern times. Aspirations that resemble Swedenborg's in any way put people striving for clairvoyance in danger of arousing the sphere of sexuality and having the two spheres mingle.

My friends, we must be able to speak of these things as a matter of course in spiritual scientific contexts. It would be very unfortunate if we were unable to mention them objectively and scientifically, because serious seekers also need to know the dangers they face in their search. That is also why it is so easy for an impure fantasy to misinterpret pure spiritual striving.

We stand at an extremely significant point in our spiritual scientific communications, and what I wanted to do today was sketch the lines converging in this point. Because I want to be very thorough in speaking to you about these things, I will continue to present my reflections on this question tomorrow. We will meet again at the same time, or at whatever time seems best—we can decide that before we leave here today.

Fünfter Vortrag

Freudsche Psychoanalyse, Swedenborgs Sehertum, Sexualität und modernes Hellsehen

Meine lieben Freunde, als ich Ihnen gestern gewissermaßen einfügend über das Thema Psychoanalyse sprach, weil es durch den uns alle berührenden Fall so nahe liegt, da werden Sie ja haben bemerken müssen, daß ich die Unterscheidung des Seelenlebens in Bewußtes und Unbewußtes durch die Psychoanalyse, oder besser gesagt durch die psychoanalytische Anschauung, als die eine Seite der psychoanalytischen Anschauung charakterisiert habe; und indem ich dann weiter - wenigstens andeutend - ausgeführt habe, wie die ganze psychoanalytische Anschauung gewissermaßen «plätschert» in Sexualismus, haben Sie sehen können, wie auf der anderen Seite ein wirklich trostloses, man möchte sagen, «grauenvolles» Element gerade mit dieser psychoanalytischen Anschauung innerhalb unseres Geisteslebens aufgetaucht ist. Damit ist aber überhaupt auf etwas Charakteristisches in den geistigen Bestrebungen der Gegenwart hingewiesen.

Mit der Unterscheidung eines unbewußten von einem bewußten Seelenleben wird durch die psychoanalytische Weltanschauung ja ganz zweifellos etwas Richtiges unserem Geistesleben eingefügt, und wir können vieles davon so betrachten, daß wir sehen: da sind Leute auf eine gewisse Spur gekommen; da sind Leute dahinter gekommen, daß man das Seelische tiefer suchen muß als in demjenigen, was das gewöhnliche Menschenbewußtsein umfaßt. Aber nun wird diese richtige Spur von Menschen verfolgt, welche ihren Materialismus so weit getrieben haben, daß dieser nicht nur so wirkt, wie er etwa in dem jetzigen fälschlich so genannten Monismus wirkt, daß er die Gedankenrichtung umfaßt, sondern der Materialismus des Psychoanalytikers wirkt so, daß die niederen Menschentriebe in die Theorie hineingetragen werden und mit der Theorie bewirken, daß wirklich ein ganz subjektives, das subjektivste Element, das Element der sexuellen Triebe selber, zum inneren Impuls des wissenschaftlichen Lebens gemacht wird.

Gerade eine solche Erscheinung im Geistesleben der Gegenwart muß besonders deutlich ins Auge gefaßt werden, aus dem Grunde, weil wir auf der einen Seite sehen, daß dasjenige, was - vom Menschen unabhängig - die Menschen zwingt, ein höheres Geistiges anzuerkennen als das zunächst uns bewußte, sogar die grobklotzigsten materialistischen Köpfe dazu zwingt, es eben anzuerkennen. Was sind denn diese Anhänger Freuds und der Freudschen Schule anderes als Leute, welche nicht nur in ihrem Verstande, sondern bis in ihre Triebe hinein auf grobklotzig materialistischem Boden stehen, aber durch die Objektivität der Welt gezwungen sind, etwas über das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein Hinausgehendes zu erforschen. Das ist die objektive Seite. Die andere, die subjektive Seite ist die, daß der Mensch so tief verstrickt ist mit dem Materialistischen, so daß damit zugleich - weil das so zu dem Materialistischen dazugehört wie die linke Hand zur rechten, das linke Auge zum rechten oder vielleicht wie Dinge, die noch mehr zusammengehören -, so daß damit zugleich die niedersten, die subjektivsten Triebe in den Weltanschauungsbetrieb hineinkommen. Zu dem Stehenbleiben beim Materialismus gehört ganz notwendig, wenn man sich ganz gehen läßt, das Hineinfallen, ich möchte sagen «Hineinplumpsen» in die niedersten menschlichen Triebe.

Und dennoch, meine lieben Freunde, diese ganze Anschauungsweise, wie sie vor uns auftritt, sie kann dem Menschen nur dann ganz klar werden, wenn er hinter so manches Geheimnis der Weltordnung kommt. Es ist das Gefährliche solcher Weltanschauungen, wie sie die psychoanalytische ist, daß die Leute im Richtigen tapsen und ihre unreinlichen Instinkte gerade in das Richtige hineinbringen. Es ist viel weniger schädlich, wenn die unreinlichen Instinkte in den Irrtum, in den vollen Irrtum hineingetragen werden, als wenn sie in ein teilweise Richtiges hineingetragen werden. Und das Richtige der psychoanalytischen Weltanschauung besteht in der Anerkennung der Tatsache, daß eben im Menschenleben so unendlich viel Unbewußtes, richtig Unbewußtes spielt. Und da kommen die Psychoanalytiker wirklich auf sehr, sehr vieles, was wahr, was richtig ist. Sie werden auf richtige Spuren getrieben.

Verfolgen wir einmal, wie so die Psychoanalytiker auf manche richtige Spur getrieben werden. In dem Buche, von dem ich Ihnen gestern gesprochen habe, bemüht sich der Führer der psychoanalytischen Schule, gewisse Bräuche bei den wilden Völkern zu erklären in Anlehnung an gewisse psychoanalytische Theorien, in Anlehnung an Zusammenhänge, die die Psychoanalyse annimmt zwischen dem kindlichen, dem infantilen Leben und dem späteren Zustande der Neurose des Menschen.

Wir haben gestern gesehen, wie gerade in diese Theorien das sexuelle Element hineinspielt. Nun vergleicht Freud in seinem Buche «Totem und Tabu», in dem Aufsatz über «Das Tabu und die Ambivalenz der Gefühlsregungen», gewisse Anschauungen, gewisse Vorstellungen bei Wilden mit gewissen infantilen Eigenschaften der Kulturmenschen, die in der Neurose, in einer gewissen Art von Nervenerkrankungen seelischer Art, in nervösen Seelenerkrankungen auftreten. Aus dem Gestrigen werden Sie ja erkennen, daß vieles von den Psychoanalytikern so erklärt wird, daß im ganz jungen Leben auf den Menschen Impulse ausgeübt werden, die sich dann zurückziehen in Seeleninseln und weiterwirken, aus dem Unterbewußtsein heraufwirken. Dadurch aber wirkt gleichsam das infantile Leben im Kulturmenschen weiter, und darin besteht ja nach dieser Anschauung die Neurose oder eine gewisse Art der Neurose, daß Menschen herumgehen, die mittlerweile 40 Jahre alt geworden sind, aber eine Seele haben, in der die allerersten Jugenderfahrungen, das heißt die infantilen Erfahrungen, besonders wirksam sind.

Nun vergleicht Freud eben eine Vorstellung der Wilden mit Erfahrungen in der Neurose. Er sagt zum Beispiel: «Ein Maorihäuptling wird kein Feuer mit seinem Hauch anfachen, denn sein geheiligter Atem würde seine Kraft dem Feuer mitteilen, dieses dem Topf, der im Feuer steht, der Topf der Speise, die in ihm gekocht wird, die Speise der Person, die von ihr ißt, und so müßte die Person sterben, die gegessen von der Speise, die gekocht in dem Topf, der gestanden im Feuer, in das geblasen der Häuptling mit seinem heiligen und gefährlichen Hauch.» Nun vergleicht Freud die Scheu davor, in das Feuer zu hauchen, damit ein anderer dann nicht essen könne aus dem Topf, der in dem Feuer gestanden hatte, selbstverständlich nicht mit den Lebensgewohnheiten derjenigen Persönlichkeit, von der wir in diesen Tagen sprechen mußten - weil er sie und ihre Scheu, auf ihre Aura wirken zu lassen, nicht gekannt hat -, aber er vergleicht sie mit einer anderen Person, die als Patientin zu ihm kam. Er sagt: «Die Patientin verlangte, daß ein Gebrauchsgegenstand, den ihr Mann vom Einkauf nach Hause gebracht, entfernt werde, er würde ihr sonst den Raum, in dem sie wohnt, unmöglich machen.» Also eine Patientin kommt zu dem Psychoanalytiker und erklärt, daß ein Gebrauchsgegenstand, den ihr Mann vom Einkaufen nach Hause brachte, entfernt werden müsse, weil er ihr sonst den Raum, in dem sie wohnt, unmöglich machen würde.

Nun könnte eine solche Patientin ja auch betrachtet werden von dem gesunden Sinn eines Geisteswissenschaftlers; der wird seine Gedanken über eine solche Patientin in allerlei Richtungen zu bringen haben. Aber auch von Psychoanalytikern könnte eine solche Patientin betrachtet werden, und sie kämen dabei vielleicht - vielleicht auch gar nicht - auf eine gewisse Spur. Allerdings ein Mystiker, der zu den verkehrten Mystikern gehört, der könnte tiefsinnige Betrachtungen anstellen über allerlei magische Einwirkungen, die auf diese Person geschehen sind oder die ausgehen von einer so feinen Persönlichkeit, die auf einem so vorgeschrittenen Punkt der Evolution oder Entwickelung ist, daß gewisse Gegenstände nicht in dem von ihr bewohnten Raum sein dürfen!

Nun, der Psychoanalytiker sagt von dieser Patientin: «Denn sie hat gehört, daß dieser Gegenstand in einem Laden gekauft wurde, welcher in der, sagen wir, Hirschengasse liegt.» Das findet also der Psychoanalytiker heraus, daß sie gehört hat, daß der Gegenstand in einem Laden gekauft wurde, der in der Hirschengasse liegt. Die Mystik wird immer stärker! Der Psychoanalytiker fährt fort: «Aber Hirsch ist heute der Name einer Freundin, welche in einer fernen Stadt lebt, die sie in ihrer Jugend unter ihrem Mädchennamen gekannt hat. Diese Freundin ist ihr heute «unmöglich» - tabu - also etwas, das sie nicht berühren will, «und der hier in Wien gekaufte Gegenstand ist ebenso tabu wie die Freundin selbst, mit der sie nicht in Berührung kommen will.» Also jetzt sehen wir, was der betreffende Psychoanalytiker herausgebracht hat: Die Persönlichkeit hat früher eine Freundin gehabt, mit der sie etwas ausgefressen hat. Die Freundin hat Hirsch geheissen. Das lebt in der Seeleninsel weiter. Im Oberbewußtsein, im gewöhnlichen Tagesbewußtsein ist davon nichts vorhanden, wohl aber im Unterbewußtsein, jedoch so, daß das Zwischenglied ganz verborgen bleibt. Es lebt sich nur so aus, daß der Name die Verbindung ist insofern, als die Freundin, die sie in der Jugend gehaßt hat und in bezug auf welche der Haß im Unterbewußtsein geblieben ist, «Hirsch» heißt und der Gegenstand aus der «Hirschen»-gasse herstammt. Im Gleichklang des Namens Hirsch mit Hirschengasse haben wir die Verbindung. So wirkt das Unterbewußte in das Bewußte herauf.

Es ist überhaupt bei Menschen, die gerne über alles so etwas Mystisches hängen, vieles durch Namensanklänge zu verstehen; die finden sehr leicht Namensanklänge, die sie, ohne daß sie es in ihr Oberbewußtsein heraufholen, zu allerlei Mystischem verleiten. Es könnte zum Beispiel vorkommen, daß eine Persönlichkeit, die einmal die Persephone gespielt hat, sich als Persephone-Wiederverkörperung betrachten zu können glaubt, weil sie einmal im Vorbeigehen von einer ihr unbekannten Person den Namen «Persephone» ihr zugerufen gehört haben will. Es könnte aber auch sein, daß nur jemand in ihrer Nähe gesagt hat, er habe eine Dame «am Telefon stehen sehen», und daß sie aus diesen Tönen heraus «Persephone» verstanden hat. Die betreffende Persönlichkeit hat also «Persephone» nur da herausgehört, wo «Telefon» gesagt wurde, und nun spinnt sie ihren mystischen Faden weiter. - Das ist selbstverständlich nur eine Hypothese, die aber durchaus reale Möglichkeiten auf diesem Gebiete wiedergibt.

Ich könnte Ihnen noch mancherlei Beispiele anführen aus diesen oder vielen anderen Aufsätzen des Dr. Freud und seiner Schüler, die Ihnen zeigen würden, daß die psychoanalytische Weltanschauung wirklich auf dem Wege ist, die Zusammenhänge von Unbewußtem und Bewußtem zu suchen. Nur wird sie durch gewisse Neigungen unserer Zeit dahin geführt, da unten in diesem Unbewußten eigentlich nichts anderes als Sexuelles zu sehen, wie ich Ihnen das gestern ausgeführt habe. Nun, meine lieben Freunde, hier stehen wir wirklich vor einem Punkt, der als außerordentlich wichtig ins Auge zu fassen ist.

Ich habe Ihnen vorgestern von Swedenborg und seinem Hellsehertum gesprochen. Wir haben es bei Swedenborg zu tun mit einem - auf dem Wege, auf dem er einmal war — außerordentlich ausgeprägten und vorgeschrittenen Hellseher. Wir haben als charakteristisch bei ihm angeführt, daß er die Schwelle nicht überschreiten konnte, wo man zu dem anderen Bewußtseinszustand aufsteigt, so daß man als Grundtatsache seines Bewußtseins nicht mehr sagt: Ich schaue an -, sondern: Ich werde angeschaut. — Er wollte immer selber anschauen. Er schaute seine Imaginationen an. Er wurde nicht von der Sphäre der Angeloi aus angeschaut, sondern er schaute sie an, mit derselben Bewußtseinsform, mit der man hier auf dem physischen Plan anschaut. Fassen wir das noch einmal ganz genau ins Auge, um uns den regulären Aufstieg von dem physischen zu dem höheren Plan deutlich zu machen. Auf dem physischen Plan - wir müssen uns das ganz deutlich machen - nimmt der Mensch verschiedene Objekte wahr. Diese Objekte spiegeln sich, wie wir wissen, durch seinen physischen Leib und werden dadurch seine Vorstellungen. So gelangt er zu der wichtigen inneren Bewußtseinstatsache: Ich schaue die Objekte an.

(Während der folgenden Ausführungen wurde an die Tafel gezeichnet. Die Originaltafelzeichnung ist nicht erhalten, doch hat Rudolf Steiner später der Nachschrift von Franz Seiler die nachstehend faksimilierten Skizzen eingefügt.)

AltName

Physischer Leib
Gegenstands-Impuls
Vorstellung, die in der Seele ist.

Mensch / höheres Wesen
a) unterbewußter Impuls des Menschen auf höheres Wesen
b) Spirituelles Erlebnis des Wahrgenommenwerdens durch ein höheres Wesen.

In dem Augenblick aber, wo wir zu einem höheren Bewußtsein aufsteigen, ändert sich das ganz grundlegend. Jetzt müßte ich das Geistige zeichnen, das kann man selbstverständlich nicht, also zeichne ich so:

AltName

Da werden wir mit unserem Ich in Empfang genommen von Wesenheiten höherer Ordnung, und nun werden wir uns bewußt: Ich werde wahrgenommen, ich werde angeschaut.

Swedenborg stellt nun noch einen dritten Zustand dar, den Zustand, wo er eine ganze Welt von Objekten hat, die nicht auf dem physischen Plan sind und dennoch von ihm so wahrgenommen werden, nur feiner, wie Gegenstände auf dem physischen Plan. Also Swedenborg nimmt geistige Objekte wahr, die ihm in Form von Imaginationen gegeben werden, genau so als wenn die geistige Welt nichts anderes wäre als nur eine feinere Ausgestaltung der physischen Welt. Er sieht die geistige Welt so an, wie man im normalen Leben die physische Welt ansieht.

Woher kommt das? Wir haben ja verfolgt, wozu Swedenborg auf diesem Wege gekommen ist. Er hat geistige Wesenheiten entdeckt, an denen ihm klar geworden ist, daß sie gewisse Marsbewohner waren, die ihm aber unverständlich waren, weil sie alle ihre Gemütsbewegungen zurückgehalten haben und sich nur in GedankenGebärden ausdrückten. Er wußte, er könne diese Wesen - ich habe es Ihnen am Sonntag erzählt - aus dem Grunde nicht verstehen, weil sie sich fähig gemacht hatten, ihr Seelenleben zu verbergen. Wäre Swedenborg nun in die Lage gekommen, mit dem Bewußtsein der Angeloi selbst zu sehen - wie es hätte sein müssen, wenn er wirklich in die geistige Welt aufgestiegen wäre, das heißt, wenn er auch sein Bewußtsein hinaufgetragen hätte in die geistige Welt -, so würde er trotzdem diese Marsbewohner in ihrer Wesenhaftigkeit durchschaut haben. So aber stellte sich der Inhalt der Seele der Marsbewohner vor Swedenborg hin wie eine kalte Gedankenwelt. Sehr merkwürdig ist das.

Denken Sie doch nur, was für eine scheußliche Angst die Menschen hier auf dem physischen Plan zumeist vor der kalten abstrakten Verstandeswelt haben. Wieviel Abfälliges hört man von dieser kalten abstrakten Gedankenwelt sagen, der die Leute zu entkommen suchen, um nur ja, ja nicht in bloßen Gedanken zu denken. Und wenn jemand den Menschen zumutet, sich bis zu dem reinen Gedanken aufzuschwingen, dann gilt der eben als ein lebensfremder, lebensfeindlicher Mensch. Das ist das Gefühl, das die Menschen auf dem physischen Plan der abstrakten Gedankenwelt gegenüber haben. Dieser Standpunkt ist sehr, sehr weit verbreitet. Und ich trete ja gewiß niemandem von Ihnen, meine lieben Freunde, allzu nahe denn die Anwesenden sind immer ausgenommen -, wenn ich zum Beispiel das Folgende sage. Seit einer Reihe von Jahren lesen eine größere Anzahl von Personen meine «Philosophie der Freiheit» -ein reines Gedankenwerk. Es ist Anfang der neunziger Jahre erschienen. Es wäre interessant, wenn sich einmal jemand die Mühe gäbe, zu zählen, wie viele von jenen Persönlichkeiten innerhalb unserer Bewegung, die heute die «Philosophie der Freiheit» lesen, sie auch gelesen haben würden, wenn sie ihnen im Anfang der neunziger Jahre, ohne von mir und unserer Bewegung etwas zu wissen, in die Hand gekommen wäre, rein so als Buch. Es wäre interessant zu erfahren, wie viele sie dazumal gelesen hätten und wie viele von ihnen gesagt hätten: Nein, in so einem Gedankengespinst komme ich nicht durch, das hat gar keine Bedeutung!

Daraus ersehen Sie, meine lieben Freunde, wie viele - selbstverständlich, die Anwesenden sind immer ausgeschlossen - aus rein persönlichen Gründen dieses Gedankenwerk lesen! Denn nur diejenigen lesen es aus unpersönlichen Gründen, die es auch gelesen haben würden, wenn sie mich niemals persönlich kennengelernt hätten. Das muß man nur ganz trocken und nüchtern ins Auge fassen. Das ist der Horror vor dem angeblich Abstrakten auf dem physischen Plan.

Nun, wenn der Swedenborg auf dem astralischen Plan Wesen sieht, diese besondere Kategorie der Marswesen, von denen ich gesprochen habe, so ist er - trotzdem er ein so großer Gelehrter ist doch nicht dazu fähig, verstehen zu können, wenn in Seelen reine Gedanken leben, die ganz und gar von allen Emotionen frei sind. Das würde auf den physischen Plan vergleichsweise übertragen dasselbe sein, wie wenn jemand von der «Philosophie der Freiheit» sagen würde: ©, das ist ja Chinesisch, das ist überhaupt schon nicht mehr eine Sprache, die ein vernünftiger Mensch lesen kann! - Das heißt, daß man sie überhaupt für unverständlich hielte. Ganz genau so hält Swedenborg auf dem astralischen Plan diese Marsmenschen für unverständlich.

Es kommt aber darauf an, daß man wenigstens den guten Willen und das Bestreben haben muß, bis zu jenem Denken fortzuschreiten, das emotionsfrei ist, zunächst von den Emotionen frei ist, die man eben so in der Welt im gewöhnlichen Leben kennt. Derjenige ist zum Beispiel nicht zum reinen Denken gekommen, dem dasjenige, was in der «Philosophie der Freiheit» steht, deshalb gefällt, weil er aus seinem Gefühl heraus nun zu einem mehr geistigen Weltanschauen hinneigt; sondern erst derjenige stellt sich in der richtigen Weise zur «Philosophie der Freiheit», der gerade das, was darinnen lebt, wegen der Art und Weise aufnimmt, wie die Gedanken folgerichtig immer auseinander herauswachsen und sich gegenseitig stützen.

Swedenborg seinerseits hatte - trotzdem er ein so großer Gelehrter war - gar keine Ahnung von einem solchen Hinneigen zu einer Gedankenwelt, die nur reine Gedankenwelt ist und die wirklich nichts mehr enthält von den Motiven, die im Emotionsmäßigen, im Gefühlsmäßigen liegen. Man muß einmal, meine lieben Freunde, versuchen zu durchschauen - und Mittel haben wir dafür genug in unserer Literatur -, wie man im gewöhnlichen Leben aus Gemütsimpulsen heraus, die einem auf dem physischen Plan karmisch oder erzieherisch oder sonstwie gegeben sind, sich für die eine oder andere Wahrheit entscheidet. Das Subjektive hört erst dann auf, wenn man mit seinem eigenen Seelenleben wirklich in eine solche Sphäre des Denkens aufrückt, wo die Gedanken sich gegenseitig selber tragen, wo aus den Gedanken der subjektive Inhalt heraus ist.

Aber man muß es noch zu etwas anderem bringen. Wenn man es einmal wirklich dazu gebracht hat, so denken zu können, daß man den reinen Gedanken erfaßt hat, daß man in seinem Seelenleben eine Folge von reinen Gedanken haben kann, dann ist das eigene Gemüt, das subjektive Ich nicht mehr beteiligt. Daher auch das Strenge, das man fühlt, wenn man beim reinen Denken angekommen ist. Man kann es nicht mehr biegen und brechen, so wie man es subjektiv haben wollte. Wenn man eine Gedankenfolge so nimmt, wie sie zum Beispiel in der «Philosophie der Freiheit» gegeben ist, ist es unmöglich, sie anders zu gestalten. Man kann sie nicht in einer beliebigen Weise meißeln und so weiter, sondern man muß sie so in sich wachsen lassen wie einen Organismus. Man ist wirklich mit seinem Ich unbeteiligt; das Denken selber denkt. Aber dadurch allein wird es reif, daß nun das, was man herausgeleert hat - der eigene IchInhalt -, durch ein anderes ersetzt wird: Statt unseres eigenen Gemütsinhaltes muß jetzt der Gemütsinhalt der Geister der höheren Hierarchien in dieses emotionsfreie Denken hinein. Und wenn Sie es dahinbringen, daß Sie aus dem mit Ihren Emotionen angefüllten Denken nach und nach diesen subjektiven Inhalt herausbringen, den ich hier punktiert gezeichnet habe (siehe Seite 88), und nur noch die reinen Begriffe als solche haben, dann kann der göttliche Inhalt hineinfließen. Und nun haben Sie den Inhalt von oben.

Das konnte Swedenborg nicht erreichen. Er brachte seine persönlichen Emotionen nicht aus dem, was er dachte, heraus, trotzdem er ein großer Gelehrter war. Er brachte es nicht dahin, dieses Denken ganz frei von seinen Emotionen zu haben. Da er nun auf den Astralplan aufgestiegen war, so war er mit dem Denken, das noch immer in seiner Persönlichkeit befangen war, ganz fremd gegenüberstehend solchen Wesenheiten, die in reinem Denken dachten: nämlich diesen betreffenden Marsbewohnern, die er nicht verstehen konnte. Die sprachen für ihn in ganz und gar unverständlichen Gebärden. Woher kommt das, was liegt denn da eigentlich zugrunde? Warum war Swedenborg wie mit einer Klammer abgeschlossen von der Welt eines höheren Bewußtseins, warum kam er nicht hinein in die Welt eines höheren Bewußtseins? Warum trug er die Art des Schauens, die man sonst auf dem physischen Plan hat, in die geistige Welt hinauf, in der er doch wirklich darinnen war, und warum blieben für ihn die Worte, die Gebärdenworte der Geister, die in reinen Gedanken denken konnten, die ihren subjektiven Gemütsinhalt heraushalten konnten - aus welchem Grunde braucht man dabei nicht zu untersuchen, sie konnten ihn eben heraushalten -, warum blieben ihm diese unverständlich?

Diese Fragen beantworten sich uns, meine lieben Freunde, wenn wir fragen: Ja, wie war das denn nun eigentlich bei Swedenborg, was trug er denn da auf den astralischen Plan hinauf? Nicht wahr, er hat seinen geistigen Menschen nicht ganz aus dem physischen Menschen herausgebracht; denn hätte er ihn herausbekommen, so hätte er in der Sphäre des höheren Bewußtseins sein Ich als Objekt geschaut. Sein Ich würde ihm wie ein Erinnerungsobjekt geworden sein, so wie die zerbrochenen Töpfe in dem Vergleich, den ich vor einiger Zeit gebraucht habe. Er konnte sich nicht genügend von sich losreißen. Aber nun ist das gerade das Charakteristische - das ging ja auch aus unserer ganzen Auseinandersetzung hervor -, daß Swedenborg nicht bloß Illusionen sah; er sah nicht bloß Maja, sondern er konnte doch zum Beispiel wirklich richtig die objektive Tatsache erkennen, daß er es mit so und so gearteten Marsbewohnern zu tun hatte. Das war ja richtig. Er sah nur die geistige Welt mit MajaCharakter, sozusagen mit einem illusionären Schleier. Er hatte ja wirkliche Marswesen vor sich, er konnte sie nur nicht verstehen, da er nun wirkliche geistige Wesen vor sich harte.

Nun, meine lieben Freunde, seien Sie nun für einen Augenblick einmal recht schlau, so wie es die meisten derjenigen, die sich hellseherisch entwickeln wollen, nicht sind. Nicht wahr, mit den gewöhnlichen Sinnen, mit der gewöhnlichen Augenkraft konnte Swedenborg diese Wesenheiten, die Marsbewohner sind, nicht sehen; er hat sie ja in der geistigen Welt gesehen. Also mit der Augenkraft konnte er sie nicht sehen, mit der Ohrenkraft nicht hören, mit all den sonstigen Sinneswerkzeugen, auch mit der gewöhnlichen Denkfähigkeit konnte er sie nicht erfassen. Denn ich habe Ihnen auseinandergesetzt, daß diese Denkfähigkeit eigentlich eine alte Mondengabe war, also etwas, was entwickelt war vor der Marskraft ... [Lücke im Stenogramm]. Er hatte also unter den bekannten Erkenntniskräften des Menschen keine Kraft, um diese Wesen zu erkennen. So haben wir die eigentümliche Tatsache vor uns, daß Swedenborg geistige Wesen vor sich hatte, die er unzweifelhaft erkannte, aber er erkannte sie nicht mit höheren Kräften; er sah sie mit etwas, mit was er sie eigentlich nicht hätte sehen können, weil er das Bewußtsein nicht dazu hatte. Denn die gewöhnlichen Bewußtseinskräfte des physischen Planes reichen nicht aus, um das zu erklären, was er da sah. Was war es denn dann, womit er gesehen hat? Nun, Swedenborg war einfach nicht nur ein großer Gelehrter, sondern auch ein reiner Mensch in seinem Leben; und umgewandelt hatte sich in ihm die Kraft, die der Mensch auf dem physischen Plan hat und die schon etwas Ähnliches ist wie die hellseherische Kraft, nur daß sie auf dem physischen Plan eine andere Aufgabe hat, als die hellseherische Tätigkeit auszuüben. Wodurch hat nun also Swedenborg gesehen?

Ja, sehen Sie, Swedenborg hat gesehen mit einer Kraft, die das Äußere wahrnimmt, ohne es anzugreifen, ohne es zu berühren, die es wahrnimmt, ohne mit dem Auge zu wirken. Was ist das für eine Kraft? Das ist auf der Erde, auf dem physischen Plan die Kraft, die sich im sexuellen Leben, im richtigen sexuellen Leben äußert; jene geheimnisvolle Kraft, die die Menschen in der irdischen Liebe zusammentreibt, die sich unterscheidet von allen anderen Erkenntniskräften. Diese Kraft hatte Swedenborg konserviert, aufbewahrt, und in einem gewissen Alter wurde sie bei ihm umgewandelt, blieb aber gewissermaßen sexuelle Kraft. Er sah die geistige Welt durch die sexuelle Kraft. Das heißt, Swedenborgs Hellsehen ist wirklich ein solches, dem die umgewandelte sexuelle Kraft zugrunde liegt.

Daraus werden Sie nun den Schluß ziehen können, daß dem Menschen während seiner Erdenentwickelung eben eine Kraft gegeben ist, die sich während der Erdenentwickelung als Sexualität auslebt, die aber einmal in umgewandelter Form auftreten wird, wenn sie nicht mehr an das Physische gebunden sein wird. Aber Sie werden andererseits auch den Schluß daraus ziehen können, wie innig verwandt diejenigen Kräfte sind, die zum bildhaften Hellsehen führen, mit diesen Kräften, die mit den gegenwärtig niedersten Trieben der Menschennatur zusammenhängen, und wie sozusagen eine Sphäre da von der anderen Sphäre angezogen werden kann.

Ja, meine lieben Freunde, daraus folgt, daß mit der Hellsichtigkeit nicht zu spielen ist. Gewiß bezieht sich das, was ich jetzt sage, nicht auf die Geisteswissenschaft als solche, aber es bezieht sich auf jedes erhaschte, jedes ungerechtfertigt erstrebte und erworbene Hellsehen. Es muß dies wirklich ernst genommen werden, daß Hellsichtigkeit nicht angestrebt werden soll so, daß bloß die umgewandelte Anschauungsform des physischen Planes hinaufgetragen wird, sondern daß eine neue Art der Anschauung für die höheren Plane erstrebt wird, eine neue Anschauungsweise der geistigen Welt, die dann nichts zu tun hat mit der Sexualkraft, denn die ist physisch, die ist nur für den physischen Plan da. Dieselbe Art der Anschauung wie im Physischen hinaufzutragen in die geistigen Welten, vorauszusetzen, daß man sagen kann: Ich nehme wahr, wie man auf dem physischen Plan wahrnimmt -, das bringt in dem Menschen den Hang hervor, die Verbindungsbrücke zu schlagen zwischen dem Hellsehen und den sexuellen Kräften.

Man kann sich auf verschiedene Art davor retten, und wir stehen jetzt an einem wichtigen Punkte der Menschheitsentwickelung, wo man solche Dinge verstehen muß. Das, was ich Ihnen jetzt gesagt habe, ist ja uralte Wahrheit. Die Menschen der Vorzeit haben sich auf folgende Weise geschützt. Sie haben gesagt: Wenn man den Menschen heranbringt an die geistige Welt, so ist zu beachten, daß der Mensch schwach ist, daß aber Stärke des Charakters, Selbstzucht der Seele, Entfernung aller Zügellosigkeit der seelischen Triebe notwendig ist, um in die geistigen Welten richtig hinaufzukommen. Ja, der Mensch ist schwach, wird recht schwächlich, sagten die alten Wissenden, daher halte man ihm ferne die Möglichkeit, diese beiden Sphären zu mischen. - Nun, wie kann man denn das? Man sperrt ihn einfach ab vom anderen Geschlecht, wenn man ihm von wirklich geistigen Dingen redet, so daß er zum anderen Geschlecht gar nicht hinüberkommt. Das heißt, man läßt das weibliche Geschlecht überhaupt nicht teilnehmen an denjenigen Zusammenkünften, wo man von geisteswissenschaftlichen Dingen spricht. Daher der Ausschluß der Frauen in älteren Zeiten von allen geisteswissenschaftlichen Versammlungen, die man gehalten hat. Dadurch waren die Männer davor bewahrt, irgendwie die beiden Sphären miteinander zu vermischen; denn sie waren durch ein strenges Gelöbnis gebunden, außerhalb der Loge überhaupt nicht zu sprechen von dem, was in den Logen vorging. Die Frauen konnten also von der Gemeinschaft mit der Geisteswissenschaft nichts anderes haben als die weiRen Handschuhe, die ein bedeutsames Symbol waren für diesen ganzen Tatbestand.

Über diese Zeiten sind wir nun wirklich hinaus, und der Versuch sollte unternommen werden, durch solche Bewegungen, wie auch unsere geisteswissenschaftliche, diesen Zwang nicht mehr zu brauchen. Dazu gehört aber das gänzliche Freihalten des geistigen Gebietes von der andern Sphäre, auf die hingewiesen worden ist; wirkliches Freihalten, das heißt, es dürfen beide Gebiete nicht miteinander vermischt werden.

Nun haben wir in der letzten Zeit einen Fall furchtbarster Vermischung gesehen. Das heißt, wir haben gesehen, wie sexuelle Triebe wirkten, die aber in ihrer Auslegung etwas anderes waren. In der Auslegung waren es allerlei mystische Dinge, in Wirklichkeit waren es sexuelle Triebe. Es ist wichtig, diese Tatsache ganz fest ins Auge zu fassen und aus dem Innern heraus zu verstehen, aus der inneren Natur des Weltgefüges zu verstehen. Wirklich nur der höchste Ernst und die höchste Würde, die man in dem geistigen Leben sicht, können das Egoistische innerhalb des geistigen Lebens von uns fernhalten; sobald das egoistische Mystische hineinkommt, ist man nicht mehr gerettet davor, die beiden charakterisierten Sphären miteinander in der übelsten Weise zu vermischen.

Ebenso sahen wir, wie bei Swedenborg eine zurückgehaltene Sexualität ausfüllte dasjenige, was sonst leer gewesen wäre, seine Imaginationen, aber sie nur bis zu einem gewissen Grade ausfüllen konnte. Da wo er an Wesen stieß, die selbst alle ihre Gefühle herauslassen konnten aus ihren Gebärden, da konnte er nicht mehr die Sphäre ausfüllen, weil es nur eine Menschensphäre war, die dadurch entstand, daß er seine Sexualität ausbreitete über seine Imaginationen weg.

So ist gerade Swedenborg ein starkes Beispiel dafür, was gemieden werden soll auf dem Wege zu den geistigen Welten hin in der neueren Zeit. Denn solches Streben, das irgendwelche Ähnlichkeit hat mit dem Swedenborgschen, das bringt den Menschen immer in Gefahr, daß - während er das Hellsehen anstrebt - die Sexualsphäre sich regt und die beiden Sphären sich miteinander vermischen.

Man muß im geisteswissenschaftlichen Zusammenhang von diesen Dingen selbstverständlich sprechen können, meine liebe Freunde. Es wäre sehr schlimm, wenn man diese Dinge nicht objektiv wissenschaftlich erörtern könnte, denn es ist notwendig für den, der ernstlich strebt, auch die Gefahren dieses Strebens kennenzulernen. Daher kommt es auch, daß unreine Phantasie so leicht verkennen kann dasjenige, was als reines Geistesstreben angestrebt wird! Wir stehen jetzt an einem sehr, sehr bedeutungsvollen Punkt der geisteswissenschaftlichen Mitteilungen, an einem höchst bedeutungsvollen Punkt, und ich wollte gewissermaßen so die Linien zeichnen, die zu diesem Punkte führen.

Morgen werde ich um dieselbe Zeit, oder wie es sich eben ergibt, das können wir noch sagen, wenn wir heute auseinandergehen, diese Betrachtungen fortsetzen, aus dem Grunde, weil ich sehr gründlich zu Werke gehen muß, wenn ich über diese Dinge zu Ihnen spreche.

Fifth Lecture

Freudian psychoanalysis, Swedenborg's clairvoyance, sexuality, and modern clairvoyance

My dear friends, when I spoke to you yesterday about psychoanalysis, because it is so relevant to the case that affects us all, you must have noticed that I characterized the distinction between the conscious and unconscious aspects of the soul through psychoanalysis, or rather through the psychoanalytic view, as one side of the psychoanalytic view; And when I then went on to explain—at least in a suggestive way—how the whole psychoanalytic view “splashes” into sexualism, so to speak, you could see how, on the other hand, a truly bleak, one might say “horrific” element has emerged within our intellectual life precisely with this psychoanalytic view. This, however, points to something characteristic of the intellectual endeavors of the present day.

With the distinction between an unconscious and a conscious soul life, the psychoanalytic worldview undoubtedly adds something correct to our intellectual life, and we can look at much of it in such a way that we see: people have come onto a certain track; there are people who have realized that the soul must be sought deeper than in what ordinary human consciousness encompasses. But now this correct trail is being followed by people who have taken their materialism so far that it not only has the effect as it does, for example, in the current falsely named monism, encompassing the direction of thought, but the materialism of the psychoanalyst has the effect of bringing the lower human instincts into the theory and, together with the theory, causing the most subjective element, the element of sexual instincts itself, to become the inner impulse of scientific life.

It is precisely this phenomenon in contemporary intellectual life that must be considered particularly carefully, because on the one hand we see that what compels people—independently of themselves—to recognize a higher spiritual reality than the one we are initially aware of compels even the most coarse-grained materialistic minds to recognize it. What are these followers of Freud and the Freudian school other than people who stand on coarse materialistic ground not only in their minds but also in their instincts, but who are compelled by the objectivity of the world to explore something beyond ordinary consciousness? That is the objective side. The other, the subjective side, is that human beings are so deeply entangled with materialism that at the same time – because it belongs to materialism like the left hand belongs to the right, the left eye to the right, or perhaps like things that belong even more closely together – at the same time, the lowest, most subjective instincts enter into the worldview. If one allows oneself to go completely with the flow, remaining stuck in materialism necessarily involves falling, or rather “plunging,” into the lowest human instincts.

And yet, my dear friends, this whole way of looking at things, as it appears before us, can only become completely clear to people when they discover some of the secrets of the world order. The danger of worldviews such as psychoanalysis is that people stumble upon the truth and bring their impure instincts into it. It is much less harmful when impure instincts are carried into error, into complete error, than when they are carried into something that is partially true. And the correctness of the psychoanalytic worldview consists in recognizing the fact that there is so much that is unconscious, truly unconscious, at play in human life. And here the psychoanalysts really do come up with a great deal that is true, that is correct. They are led onto the right track.

Let us follow how psychoanalysts are led onto some correct tracks. In the book I told you about yesterday, the leader of the psychoanalytic school attempts to to explain certain customs among primitive peoples on the basis of certain psychoanalytic theories, on the basis of connections that psychoanalysis assumes between childhood, infantile life, and the later state of neurosis in humans.

Yesterday we saw how the sexual element plays into these theories. Now, in his book Totem and Taboo, in the essay on “Taboo and the Ambivalence of Emotions,” Freud compares certain views and ideas among savages with certain infantile characteristics of civilized people that appear in neurosis, in a certain type of mental nervous disorder, in nervous mental disorders. From yesterday's lecture, you will have learned that psychoanalysts explain many things by saying that in early life, impulses are exerted on people, which then retreat into islands of the soul and continue to have an effect, emerging from the subconscious. As a result, however, the infantile life continues to have an effect on civilized people, and according to this view, neurosis or a certain type of neurosis consists in the fact that there are people who are now 40 years old but have a soul in which the very first experiences of youth, that is, infantile experiences, are particularly effective.

Now Freud compares a concept of the savages with experiences in neurosis. He says, for example: "A Maori chief will not fan a fire with his breath, because his sacred breath would impart its power to the fire, which would then be imparted to the pot standing in the fire, the pot the food cooked in it, the food the person eating it, and so the person would have to die, having eaten the food cooked in the pot that stood in the fire into which the chief blew with his sacred and dangerous breath." Now Freud compares the reluctance to breathe into the fire so that another person cannot then eat from the pot that had been in the fire, of course not with the lifestyle habits of the personality we had to talk about these days — because he did not know her and her reluctance to let her aura affect others — but he compares it to another person who came to him as a patient. He says: “The patient demanded that an everyday object her husband had brought home from shopping be removed, otherwise it would make the room in which she lives impossible for her.” So a patient comes to the psychoanalyst and explains that an everyday object that her husband brought home from shopping must be removed, because otherwise it would make the room in which she lives impossible for her.

Now, such a patient could also be considered from the healthy perspective of a humanities scholar, who would have to consider his thoughts about such a patient in all sorts of directions. But such a patient could also be considered by psychoanalysts, and they might—or might not—come up with a certain clue. However, a mystic who belongs to the wrong kind of mystics could make profound observations about all kinds of magical influences that have been exerted on this person or that emanate from such a refined personality, who is at such an advanced stage of evolution or development that certain objects must not be in the room she inhabits!

Now, the psychoanalyst says of this patient: “For she has heard that this object was bought in a shop located in, let's say, Hirschengasse.” So the psychoanalyst finds out that she has heard that the object was bought in a shop located in Hirschengasse. The mysticism is getting stronger and stronger! The psychoanalyst continues: “But Hirsch is now the name of a friend who lives in a distant city, whom she knew in her youth under her maiden name. Today, this friend is ‘impossible’ for her—taboo—something she does not want to touch, ”and the object bought here in Vienna is just as taboo as the friend herself, with whom she does not want to come into contact." So now we see what the psychoanalyst in question has brought to light: the personality used to have a friend with whom she did something wrong. The friend's name was Hirsch. This lives on in the soul island. There is no trace of it in the upper consciousness, in ordinary everyday consciousness, but it is present in the subconscious, albeit in such a way that the link remains completely hidden. It only manifests itself in such a way that the name is the connection insofar as the friend she hated in her youth and in relation to whom the hatred has remained in the subconscious is called “Hirsch” and the object comes from “Hirschen” lane. The connection lies in the similarity between the name Hirsch and Hirschengasse. This is how the subconscious influences the conscious mind.

In general, people who like to attach a mystical significance to everything can be understood in terms of the resonance of names; they very easily find resonances in names which, without bringing them to their conscious mind, lead them to all kinds of mystical ideas. For example, it could happen that a person who once played Persephone believes herself to be the reincarnation of Persephone because she thinks she once heard a stranger call her “Persephone” in passing. But it could also be that someone near her said they had seen a lady “on the phone” and that she understood “Persephone” from these sounds. The person in question only heard ‘Persephone’ where “phone” was said, and now she continues to spin her mystical thread. This is, of course, only a hypothesis, but it reflects very real possibilities in this field.

I could give you many more examples from these and many other essays by Dr. Freud and his students that would show you that the psychoanalytic worldview is truly on the path to seeking the connections between the unconscious and the conscious. However, certain tendencies of our time lead it to see nothing but sexuality in the unconscious, as I explained to you yesterday. Well, my dear friends, here we are faced with a point that must be regarded as extremely important.

The day before yesterday, I spoke to you about Swedenborg and his clairvoyance. In Swedenborg we are dealing with a clairvoyant who was, on the path he once followed, extraordinarily developed and advanced. We have pointed out as characteristic of him that he could not cross the threshold where one ascends to the other state of consciousness, so that one no longer says as a basic fact of one's consciousness: I am looking at — but rather: I am being looked at. — He always wanted to look himself. He looked at his imaginations. He was not looked at from the sphere of the angeloi, but he looked at them with the same form of consciousness with which one looks here on the physical plane. Let us take a closer look at this in order to clarify the regular ascent from the physical to the higher plane. On the physical plane — we must make this very clear — human beings perceive various objects. As we know, these objects are reflected through their physical body and thus become their ideas. In this way, they arrive at the important inner fact of consciousness: I look at the objects.

(During the following explanations, drawings were made on the blackboard. The original blackboard drawing has not been preserved, but Rudolf Steiner later added the following facsimile sketches to Franz Seiler's transcript.)

AltName

Physical body
Object impulse
Idea that is in the soul.

Human being / higher being
a) Subconscious impulse of the human being toward a higher being
b) Spiritual experience of being perceived by a higher being.

But the moment we ascend to a higher consciousness, this changes fundamentally. Now I would have to draw the spiritual, which of course is impossible, so I draw it like this:

AltName

There, our ego is received by beings of a higher order, and now we become aware: I am being perceived, I am being looked at.

Swedenborg now describes a third state, the state in which he has a whole world of objects that are not on the physical plane and yet are perceived by him in the same way, only more subtly, as objects on the physical plane. So Swedenborg perceives spiritual objects that are given to him in the form of imaginations, just as if the spiritual world were nothing more than a finer manifestation of the physical world. He sees the spiritual world as one sees the physical world in normal life.

Where does this come from? We have followed Swedenborg's reasoning in this regard. He discovered spiritual beings who, he realized, were certain inhabitants of Mars, but who were incomprehensible to him because they restrained all their emotions and expressed themselves only in thought gestures. He knew that he could not understand these beings – as I told you on Sunday – because they had made themselves capable of concealing their soul life. If Swedenborg had been able to see with the consciousness of the angels themselves – as would have been the case if he had really ascended into the spiritual world – that is, if he had also carried his consciousness up into the spiritual world—he would still have seen through these Martians in their essential nature. But as it was, the content of the Martians' souls appeared to Swedenborg as a cold world of thoughts. This is very strange.

Just think what a terrible fear most people here on the physical plane have of the cold, abstract world of the intellect. How many disparaging remarks are heard about this cold, abstract world of thought, which people try to escape in order to avoid thinking in mere thoughts. And if someone expects people to rise to the level of pure thought, then that person is considered to be alienated from life and hostile to life. That is the feeling that people on the physical plane have toward the abstract world of thought. This point of view is very, very widespread. And I am certainly not offending any of you, my dear friends, for those present are always exempt, when I say the following, for example. For a number of years now, a large number of people have been reading my Philosophy of Freedom—a work of pure thought. It was published in the early 1990s. It would be interesting if someone took the trouble to count how many of those personalities within our movement who read “The Philosophy of Freedom” today would also have read it if it had come into their hands in the early 1990s, without knowing anything about me and our movement, purely as a book. It would be interesting to know how many would have read it at that time and how many of them would have said: No, I can't get through such a web of thoughts, it has no meaning at all!

From this, my dear friends, you can see how many—of course, those present are always excluded—read this work of thought for purely personal reasons! For only those who would have read it even if they had never met me personally read it for impersonal reasons. One must simply face this fact in a very dry and sober manner. This is the horror of the supposedly abstract on the physical plane.

Now, when Swedenborg sees beings on the astral plane, this particular category of Martian beings I have spoken of, he is – despite being such a great scholar – still unable to understand when pure thoughts live in souls that are completely free of all emotions. Transferred to the physical plane, this would be comparable to someone saying of the “Philosophy of Freedom”: O, that's Chinese, it's no longer a language that a reasonable person can read! - That is, that one would consider it completely incomprehensible. In exactly the same way, Swedenborg considers these Martians on the astral plane to be incomprehensible.

However, it is important that one at least have the good will and the desire to progress to that way of thinking which is free from emotion, at least free from the emotions that one knows in the world in ordinary life. For example, someone who likes what is written in “The Philosophy of Freedom” because they now lean toward a more spiritual worldview based on their feelings; rather, only those who accept what lives within it because of the way in which the thoughts consistently grow apart and support each other are in the right position to understand the Philosophy of Freedom.

Swedenborg, for his part, despite being such a great scholar, had no idea of such a tendency toward a world of thought that is purely a world of thought and that really contains nothing more of the motives that lie in the emotional and sentimental. My dear friends, we must try to understand—and we have sufficient means for this in our literature—how, in ordinary life, we decide for one truth or another on the basis of impulses of the mind that are given to us on the physical plane karmically, educationally, or in some other way. The subjective only ceases when one's own soul life truly ascends to such a sphere of thought where thoughts support each other, where the subjective content is removed from the thoughts.

But one must still achieve something else. Once one has really managed to think in such a way that one has grasped the pure thought, that one can have a sequence of pure thoughts in one's soul life, then one's own mind, the subjective ego, is no longer involved. Hence also the severity one feels when one has arrived at pure thinking. You can no longer bend and break it as you subjectively wanted it to be. If you take a sequence of thoughts as it is given, for example, in the Philosophy of Freedom, it is impossible to shape it differently. You cannot carve it in any way you like, but must let it grow within you like an organism. One is truly uninvolved with one's ego; thinking itself thinks. But it only matures when what one has emptied out—one's own ego content—is replaced by something else: instead of our own mental content, the mental content of the spirits of the higher hierarchies must now enter into this emotion-free thinking. And if you manage to gradually remove this subjective content, which I have outlined here (see page 88), from your thinking filled with emotions, and only have the pure concepts as such, then the divine content can flow in. And now you have the content from above.

Swedenborg was unable to achieve this. He did not remove his personal emotions from his thinking, even though he was a great scholar. He did not manage to free his thinking completely from his emotions. Since he had now ascended to the astral plane, he was, with his thinking still caught up in his personality, completely alien to those beings who thought in pure thinking: namely, those Martians whom he could not understand. They spoke to him in gestures that were completely incomprehensible. Where does this come from, what is actually behind it? Why was Swedenborg closed off from the world of higher consciousness, as if by a clamp, why did he not enter the world of higher consciousness? Why did he carry the way of seeing that one otherwise has on the physical plane up into the spiritual world, in which he was actually present, and why did the words, the gestural words of the spirits, who could think in pure thoughts, who could keep their subjective feelings out of it—for whatever reason, there is no need to investigate this, they could simply keep it out—why did these words remain incomprehensible to him?

These questions answer themselves, my dear friends, when we ask: Yes, what actually happened with Swedenborg, what did he bring up to the astral plane? It is true that he did not completely bring his spiritual human being out of the physical human being; for if he had brought it out, he would have seen his ego as an object in the sphere of higher consciousness. His ego would have become an object of memory for him, like the broken pots in the comparison I used some time ago. He could not detach himself sufficiently from himself. But now, the characteristic feature—which also emerged from our entire discussion—is that Swedenborg did not merely see illusions; he did not see only Maya, but he was able, for example, to correctly recognize the objective fact that he was dealing with Martians of a certain nature. That was correct. He only saw the spiritual world with a Maya-like character, with an illusory veil, so to speak. He had real Martian beings in front of him, but he could not understand them because he had real spiritual beings in front of him.

Now, my dear friends, be very clever for a moment, as most of those who want to develop clairvoyance are not. It is true that Swedenborg could not see these beings, who are inhabitants of Mars, with his ordinary senses, with his ordinary eyesight; he saw them in the spiritual world. So he could not see them with his eyes, hear them with his ears, or perceive them with any of his other sensory organs, including his ordinary thinking ability. For I have explained to you that this ability to think was actually an ancient gift of the moon, something that was developed before the power of Mars ... [gap in the stenogram]. So he had no power among the known powers of human cognition to recognize these beings. So we are faced with the peculiar fact that Swedenborg had spiritual beings before him whom he undoubtedly recognized, but he did not recognize them with higher powers; he saw them with something with which he should not actually have been able to see them, because he did not have the consciousness for it. For the ordinary powers of consciousness of the physical plane are not sufficient to explain what he saw there. What, then, was it with which he saw? Well, Swedenborg was not only a great scholar, but also a pure human being in his life; and the power that human beings have on the physical plane, which is already something similar to clairvoyant power, had been transformed in him, except that on the physical plane it has a different task than to exercise clairvoyant activity. So how did Swedenborg see?

Yes, you see, Swedenborg saw with a power that perceives the external without touching it, without touching it, that perceives it without using the eye. What is this power? On earth, on the physical plane, it is the power that manifests itself in sexual life, in proper sexual life; that mysterious power that brings people together in earthly love, which is different from all other powers of cognition. Swedenborg had preserved and stored this power, and at a certain age it was transformed in him, but remained, in a sense, sexual power. He saw the spiritual world through sexual power. That is to say, Swedenborg's clairvoyance is truly based on transformed sexual power.

From this you will now be able to conclude that during their earthly development, human beings are given a power that is expressed as sexuality during their earthly development, but which will one day appear in a transformed form when it is no longer bound to the physical. But you will also be able to conclude how closely related those powers that lead to pictorial clairvoyance are to those powers that are connected with the lowest instincts of human nature, and how, so to speak, one sphere can be attracted to the other sphere.

Yes, my dear friends, it follows that clairvoyance is not to be trifled with. Certainly, what I am saying now does not refer to spiritual science as such, but it does refer to every snatched, every unjustifiably sought and acquired clairvoyance. It must be taken very seriously that clairvoyance should not be sought in such a way that merely the transformed form of perception of the physical plane is carried upwards, but that a new kind of perception is sought for the higher planes, a new way of perceiving the spiritual world, which then has nothing to do with the sexual force, for that is physical, it is only there for the physical plane. To carry the same kind of perception as in the physical world up into the spiritual worlds, assuming that one can say: I perceive as one perceives on the physical plane — this brings forth in the human being the tendency to build a bridge between clairvoyance and the sexual forces.

There are various ways to protect oneself from this, and we are now at an important point in human development where such things must be understood. What I have just told you is an ancient truth. The people of ancient times protected themselves in the following way. They said: When bringing people closer to the spiritual world, it must be borne in mind that human beings are weak, but that strength of character, self-discipline of the soul, and the removal of all unrestrained soul impulses are necessary in order to ascend properly into the spiritual worlds. Yes, human beings are weak, become quite feeble, said the ancient sages, so keep them from mixing these two spheres. Well, how can this be done? One simply separates them from the opposite sex when talking about truly spiritual matters, so that they cannot cross over to the opposite sex at all. This means that women are not allowed to participate at all in those gatherings where spiritual scientific matters are discussed. Hence the exclusion of women in earlier times from all spiritual scientific gatherings that were held. This prevented men from somehow mixing the two spheres, for they were bound by a strict vow not to speak outside the lodge about what went on inside it. Women could therefore have nothing from the community of spiritual science other than the white gloves, which were a significant symbol of this whole situation.

We have now truly moved beyond those times, and an attempt should be made, through movements such as our spiritual science, to no longer need this constraint. However, this requires keeping the spiritual realm completely separate from the other sphere that has been referred to; truly keeping it separate, that is, the two realms must not be mixed together.

Recently, we have seen a case of the most terrible mixing. That is, we have seen how sexual urges were at work, but were interpreted as something else. In the interpretation, they were all kinds of mystical things, but in reality they were sexual urges. It is important to look this fact squarely in the eye and understand it from within, from the inner nature of the world structure. Only the utmost seriousness and dignity that one sees in spiritual life can keep the egoistic within spiritual life away from us; as soon as the egoistic mystical enters, one is no longer safe from mixing the two characterized spheres in the worst possible way.

Similarly, we saw how, in Swedenborg, a restrained sexuality filled what would otherwise have been empty, his imaginations, but could only fill them to a certain degree. Where he encountered beings who were able to express all their feelings through their gestures, he could no longer fill the sphere, because it was only a human sphere that arose from his spreading his sexuality beyond his imaginations.

Swedenborg is a strong example of what should be avoided on the path to the spiritual worlds in modern times. For such striving, which bears some resemblance to Swedenborg's, always puts people in danger that—while striving for clairvoyance—the sexual sphere is stirred and the two spheres become mixed together.

Of course, my dear friends, we must be able to speak about these things in the context of spiritual science. It would be very bad if we could not discuss these things objectively and scientifically, for it is necessary for those who are seriously striving to also learn about the dangers of this striving. This is also why impure imagination can so easily misjudge what is sought as pure spiritual striving! We are now at a very, very significant point in the spiritual scientific communications, at a most significant point, and I wanted, in a sense, to draw the lines that lead to this point.

Tomorrow, at the same time, or as it happens, we can say that when we part today, I will continue these reflections, for the reason that I must proceed very thoroughly when I speak to you about these things.