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Where and How Does One Find the Spirit?
GA 57

1 May 1909, Berlin

Translated by Dorothy Lenn

Ancient European Clairvoyance

In the course of these winter lectures I have repeatedly said that there is such a thing as knowledge of supersensible worlds.1This translation first appeared in the Golden Blade 1977. We have discussed bow the human being can attain to such knowledge, and we have many times spoken of its fruits. I want now to give two lectures which will serve to illustrate what we mean by knowledge of the higher worlds.

With the help of two examples, out of many that might have been selected, I propose to show how clairvoyant knowledge developed in a certain region—the kind of clairvoyant knowledge that has been, or ought to have been, left behind by present-day humanity. Clairvoyant knowledge given by natural forces, by natural capacities, will be my subject to-day. Next time I will discuss, again by means of examples, how clairvoyant knowledge can be acquired through strict training, by specific methods. To-day we will speak of the knowledge that led our ancestors to a form of spiritual perception which has now been superseded; next time I will deal with the kind of clairvoyance which has existed in all ages, but which has to undergo a different training from epoch to epoch.

I have already pointed out that Spiritual Science speaks of an evolution of human consciousness. What we call our consciousness to-day, the consciousness whereby we recreate the outer world within us in thoughts, in mental images, in ideas, is only one stage of evolution. Another stage preceded it, and yet another stage will follow it. When anyone speaks to-day of the theory of evolution, he usually means the evolution of outer form, of the forms of material existence. Spiritual Science speaks of an evolution of the soul, of the spirit, and therefore of consciousness. We can look back to an earlier form of consciousness which has been superseded by the present form, and we can look forward to a future form of consciousness which will develop only gradually. The earlier state of consciousness we may call subconsciousness, and the consciousness to which our present consciousness can be developed, by spiritual-scientific methods, we may call superconsciousness. Thus we can differentiate three consecutive stages—subconsciousness, consciousness, superconsciousness.

In a certain sense all consciousness to-day is a stage of development of consciousness in general, just as the forms of the higher animals are developments of the universal animal form. Present-day consciousness has evolved from a lower stage. It is surrounded by external objects, which it perceives through the senses—hearing, sight, taste and so on. From what was first perception it makes concepts, mental images, ideas. Thus an external world of objects which work upon us is mirrored in our consciousness.

Subconsciousness was not like that. It was of a far more direct nature. We may call it a lower clairvoyant consciousness, because whoever possessed it did not approach objects with sense-organs and straightway seek to make concepts of them, but the concepts were there directly. Pictures arose and faded away. Let us suppose that the clairvoyant consciousness encountered an external object which was dangerous to it. To-day we see the object, and the mental image called forth by the sight of it brings about the consciousness of danger. It was not like that in the earlier clairvoyant consciousness. The external object was not perceived in clear outline, especially in the earliest times. Something like a dream-picture arose and revealed whether the object was sympathetic or unsympathetic. The fluctuating pictures in dreams to-day will serve to illustrate this for us. The dreams of a normal person to-day have no real connection with any outer world. But suppose something quite definite were to correspond to every picture which arose in us like a dream-picture, one picture occurring in case of dangers another in the presence of a useful object, then we could say that it was immaterial whether we were awake or dreaming, for we could direct our lives according to these pictures!

Our present consciousness has developed out of such a dream-life, which allowed the inner nature of things, their inner soul-quality, to rise up before us. And this dream-consciousness has passed through manifold forms before reaching its present form. If we look back in history as it is revealed to us by Spiritual Science, we reach at last, in the far-distant past, a state of soul in which the external was not perceptible, but in which the surrounding world, possessed inwardly by the soul, was perceived by an old clairvoyant consciousness. But this consciousness had in consequence one attribute which, contrasted with the fundamental attribute of the soul to-day, must be designated as imperfect. It was not self-conscious; the soul could not say “I” to itself, could not distinguish itself properly from its environment. Only because external objects with sharp contours confront the soul can it distinguish itself from them. Thus man has had to purchase his self-consciousness by the surrender of his old clairvoyance. All evolution is an advance which at the same time involves the renunciation of certain advantages of the earlier stage. Now at each stage something from the earlier stage lingers on into later times, and in certain circumstances we can, from such legacies of the past, see the earlier conditions projected into the present where they rank as abnormalities.

We find traces of such atavisms even in the human body, as for example in the muscles round the ear, which in an earlier stage moved the ear. In animals these muscles still have a purpose; in human beings they still exist, but few men are able to move their ears voluntarily. At one time human beings had a form of body in which such muscles were needed. To-day they are just relics of the past—vestiges of an earlier stage of evolution.

Just as we find certain organic survivals in these outer structures, so, too, we find remains of other early evolutionary conditions. Thus we see traces of the old clairvoyance projected right into our own time, but clouded and changed by our present stage of development, and hence abnormal. This throws light upon the old European clairvoyance, which differs in a certain way from the clairvoyance of the East. To-day I want to go into these differences.


What are these survivals of the old clairvoyant state of mankind? We can distinguish two kinds. One of them speaks for itself and is a true legacy of the past. I am referring to the dream and to dream experiences. The other vestiges of the past are in quite a different category. They are very much coloured and altered by present-day development, whereas the dream has not been changed by man, but by advancing evolution. The other remnants of the past are vision, premonition, and deuteroscopy, or second sight.

Let us first take the dream. It is something left behind from the old picture-consciousness But into that ancient consciousness the nature of the object really penetrated, whereas the dream to-day, although it still shows certain characteristics of the old picture-consciousness, has lost its real value, its reality. Let us take an example. Someone dreams that he sees a tree-frog, snatches at it and catches it Then he wakes up and finds a corner of the bedcover in his band. The dream symbolised the external event. Had the man met the dream with objective consciousness, he would have seen that he had the bedcover in his hand. But this is how the dream symbolises. It can become very dramatic. For example, a student dreams that on leaving the lecture-room he is jostled by another student. It comes to a duel. The seconds are chosen, they go to the agreed place, the distance is measured, the pistols are loaded, the first shot is fired. But in that moment the student wakes up, and knocks over the chair by his bedside. There we have the same thing. If the student concerned had seen the event with his objective consciousness, had he been awake, he would have seen that the chair had been knocked over, or possibly it would not have been knocked over. Now, however, the dream gives a more or less symbolic expression to what happened.

There are all kinds of such dreams; they may even have some element of reality. But in typical cases we have to do with an arbitrary connection between what is pictured and the outer event. The dream itself shows that one is dealing with a picture; but it does not show any direct connection between the picture and the inner qualities of the outer world. In direct consciousness a man would not have been obliged to touch salt with his tongue in order to recognise it, but a quite definite dream-picture would have arisen before him, and there would have been one for vinegar, another for sugar, and yet another for a dangerous being, and so on. With every being in nature there went a specific picture.

Something of this survives in dream-consciousness. But because present-day man has contracted his whole being into self-consciousness, because he has cut himself off from the outer world, differentiated himself from it, his dream-pictures no longer have any connection with it. Through having made the normal transition from dream-consciousness to self-consciousness, he has lost connection with the outer world.

It is different as regards the other three survivals—vision, premonition, and deuteroscopy, or second sight. We have often described the course of human evolution somewhat as follows. The human being, as he is to-day, consists of four members: physical body, etheric body, astral body, and ego. The ego is the last member to develop, and it is through the attainment of the ego that man has become a self-conscious being; he has thereby wrested his being from the life in his lower members. When the ego was not so far developed as it is to-day, when man still lived in his astral body, when the astral body was the bearer of his consciousness, this consciousness was pre-eminently a dream-consciousness. It was the astral body which caused these pictures to come and go. Hence it is easy to understand that man was then more closely united with his lower members. Thus it is as if man had become free in his astral body, as if he had disengaged himself from it and had thereby acquired his present objective consciousness.

As man was once submerged in his astral body, so in still earlier times he was submerged in his etheric and physical bodies. Then he had still lower forms of consciousness. Thus we have three states of subconsciousness below the present objective consciousness.

Imagine that a man is swimming below the surface of the sea. It is then possible for him to see what is in the sea. He sees what happens at the bottom of the sea, what swims and moves there, and so on. What he encounters there is quite different from what confronts him if he rises to the surface and looks up at the star-strewn heavens. Similarly, man has been lifted out of that stage of consciousness in which he was aware of what was conveyed to him by astral, etheric and physical bodies; he has risen to self-consciousness. In certain abnormal cases, however, he can revert to the sea of subconsciousness. In dreams this happens involuntarily. What he has won by rising out of this sea he can take back again into it.

Imagine a man plunging back into this sea and able to compare all that he perceives below with what he has learnt above. That is what it is like to-day. The man takes with him what he has experienced here above. It is not as it is with a diver who takes nothing but his memory with him, who can make comparisons only with the help of his memory. Whoever plunges into the sea of subconsciousness after having become a modern man colours everything below with his experiences above. What has been experienced above is carried as a sheath into the subconscious, and man receives no clear picture of that world, but a picture clouded by the world above.

When a man plunges into his astral body, he transplants himself artificially into the sphere occupied by his consciousness when he himself still lived in his astral body. This is how what to-day we call visions come about. Were man to descend into his astral body without knowing anything of the modern world, he would really experience the inwardness of objects; they would appear to him in their true guise. To-day, however, they appear to him as a distorted reflection of what can be experienced only in the upper world of consciousness. Therein lies both the truth and the deceptiveness of visions. Anyone who descends into the world of vision may always be sure that the cause of what he sees lies in the soul-environment; but it is also certain that the vision confronting him will be distorted, that it will not show him things in their true guise, but will imitate what occurs in the world above. Hence a man’s visions usually indicate what the men of his own day are experiencing. This can be checked in full detail, from decade to decade.

Let us suppose that a man plunged into that world at a time when there were no telegrams and no telephone. Then he would have seen no telegrams and no telephone in the world below, whereas in our own day the incidence of telegrams and telephones in visions becomes more and more frequent. That, too, is why the pious Catholic, who in his objective consciousness has so often seen the figure of the Madonna, takes this figure with him, and she appears to him down there too. It is not an expression of the reality, but something which the person has taken down with him, and in which he clothes the reality. In such a case he has carried down into the world below what he has experienced in the world above. Thus when a man returns in vision into the world from which he has emerged, he gives an abnormal colouring to what he experiences.

If he plunges back again into the etheric body, he experiences what we may call premonition. But this is even more dangerous, because his state of consciousness has gone still further back. There man becomes involved in all the tangled threads of existence out of which he had raised himself into ego-consciousness; but in that case, too, he carries below all that he has acquired above. He is unable to see the threads in their true form.

Just think how little of what is all around man comes within his range. The thoughts which he makes (about cause and effect for example) are limited to a small section of the world. But the whole world in its entire circumference hangs together, and there are other relationships involved. Man is, as it were, standing upon an island of existence, and the island is all he sees. But this island is related to the whole cosmos. In his etheric body man is much more closely connected with the cosmos than he is in his present consciousness. If he were able to receive in its purity what his ether body tells him, he would see future events, because down in his etheric body things converge. He would see that an event, which might not emerge into reality for perhaps ten years, was already there in germ. But man takes down with him his little intellect, his narrow little mind soul. Hence what emerges as premonition is falsified; that is why so little reliance can usually be placed upon premonitions, just as generally there is no objective truth in visions which occur by way of nature.

When man plunges into his physical body, premonition can pass over into penetration of space. Whereas in premonition he sees other times, in deuteroscopy he can see what happens in the far distance, beyond the range of the physical eye. These pictures are like a Fata Morgana. Abnormal phenomena such as those reported by Swedenborg come into this category.2See also the following lectures by Dr. Steiner: Swedenborg's Power of Vision (Dornach, 12/9/15), printed in the Goetheanum English News-Sheet 1939; Die Geschichte des Spiritismus (Berlin. 30/5/04), published in English as the first of two lectures in the booklet, The History of Spiritism, Hypnotism and Somnambulism (Anthroposophic Press, 1943); and Menschlich und Menschheitliche Entwicklungwahrheiten (Cycle 46, Berlin, 1917: not translated). But here the deceptions are even greater, and nothing ought to be accepted which has not been tested by a trained, disciplined seer. Such conditions, which to-day are morbid, are survivals of an ancient clairvoyance which was once thoroughly healthy, was once something which placed the man in a relationship of complete understanding with his environment.


In the evolution of European peoples, in particular, we find everywhere a picture-consciousness of varying antiquity which saw the world in its inner, soul-spiritual nature. But the ego-consciousness of these peoples was still quite undeveloped. Have we anything left of what was seen and related by these people of olden times, who had not yet got the mature ego-consciousness, who had a transitional consciousness between the old picture-consciousness and the objective consciousness? We have indeed a beautiful and precious survival of it in myths and sagas, in the whole range of mythology. The content of mythology is so often described to-day as folk-poetry. Clouds will be described as flocks of sheep, and thunder and lightning as something else. There is nothing more arbitrary than such interpretations. Sagas, myths and fairy tales, too, tell us about what we experienced in the subconscious. All sagas and myths were experienced, not composed—experienced not in our present-day consciousness, but in the ancient, clairvoyant state.

We can penetrate deeply into this consciousness and into the origin of myths and sagas if we turn to an important passage of the Scriptures. You will remember the significant verse in the Old Testament which reads. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. II, 7). A certain formation of the breathing process is here associated with human evolution. We shall see later that this is a reference to the fact that man owes his present-day ego-consciousness, his capacity for living with and in his blood, to the peculiar structure of the breathing process which he has acquired in course of time and still has to-day. Only through having learnt to breathe as an upright being did man raise himself above the picture-consciousness. Animals still have picture-consciousness to-day, either directly or indirectly, because their lungs have not the upright position. It has quite rightly been observed that the dog is much more intelligent than the parrot, and yet it is only the parrot which has learnt to speak. Much depends on the direction in which an organ is placed. The parrot has a larynx in the vertical position, and that is why it learns to speak. It is because of the special configuration of his organs that man has been able to advance to his present objective consciousness.

If we have understood the words of the Bible just quoted we shall say: “Man has been so formed in conformity with the laws of the cosmos that his present breathing process has developed.” Those who understood this process from its spiritual aspect, who knew that a spiritual element lives in all things, said to themselves: “The spiritual element of the air has to penetrate us in the way that this process makes possible; then the free ego-consciousness will evolve.” When this process takes place in us in an irregular way, when the spirits of the air are unable to work into our blood in a way which corresponds to our present state of consciousness, then consciousness is forced back into an earlier stage. That is why the ancient European experienced every irregularity of the breathing process as a suppression of consciousness and an inner experience.

The physical expression of irregular breathing is the nightmare (Alpdruck). The word comes from Alb or Elf, so that it signifies the spiritual which enters into the human being even though it cannot unfold itself fully. When the breathing process becomes irregular, when the ego has to descend into a lower kingdom, the host of lower spirits, which can make an appearance in the astral realm, have access to man. And though you may say this is a kind of illness, that is not the point; the important thing is what the conditions bring about. From our higher standpoint to-day, the condition must of course be called unhealthy.

Although to-day it is a reversion to an earlier condition, it was once a transitional state between the normal and the abnormal. Our present-day breathing has arisen from a breathing process which is found as a survival in the nightmare; the nightmare is the last vestige of it. At one time man needed less oxygen and more carbon dioxide. When that was the normal condition, when man was nearer the state of the plant, he had a different form of consciousness, he was plunged into the ancient clairvoyant consciousness. Then he emerged from this condition, and what was formerly healthy became unhealthy, and during the transition period, when he oscillated between the one form of consciousness and the other, the ancient European experienced all that we find in the elves and sprites, which came to his consciousness before he had acquired consciousness of the self. Thus we look back by way of nature into conditions which were once normal; the nightmare represents a survival of the picture-consciousness which created myths and sagas.

But the change in the breathing has involved many other changes. The seeing of external objects has come about. Picture-consciousness did not involve seeing external contours, seeing the outer surface of things. Then came the time when pictures gradually vanished and were replaced by the world of external objects. And once again there was an intermediate stage when man had already developed sight, but when his external sight might in abnormal circumstances withdraw and he might revert to a state of clairvoyance.

There is a popular expression in German, an expression of ancient origin, for looking at something without seeing it. It is Spannung, Staunen, Spahnen, and the last word has the same derivation as the German word Gespenst (ghost), so that here you have the ghost before you, so to say; you have before you something which is seen by means of inner, astral forces. To-day that is abnormal. In the transitional period, whenever it occurred, the man was admonished to say to himself, “But I will see, I do not wish to be stared at, I wish to see.” Thus what he saw in this way seemed to him to be something which he had to overcome. All the stories about blinding whatever stares at one, so that it can no longer stare, derive from this. In all these stories, from the story of the blinding of the giant Polyphemus right down to the wonderful story in which Dietrich of Berne overcomes the giant Grim, we have this stage of consciousness. The very strangeness of the phenomenon, however, could have an attraction for the soul. Hence there were beings, beings who belonged to the inwardness of things, who could have a seductive influence on men, who could lead them astray.

The key word in German for this enticement is Lur or Lore. And wherever you meet this word, you have the ghost in its “alluring” form. If men were specially liable to meet it at a special place, they said that this place was its home. The word Lei is connected with this, hence the Lorelei rocks. It is there that the alluring form is to be found which withdraws into the Lei, as into its native country. We can find this word Lei in various associations with the word Lure. Thus we have the subconscious experience of seeing, with its Lore or Lure, which emerges as the specific seeing of external objects develops. The Alpe, or elves, have to do with the fact that man retains his ego-consciousness within him.

We have yet another survival, still to be found in certain Slav regions. It is the saga of the Midday Woman.3See the fourth, lecture in the cycle, The inner Nature of Man between Death and Rebirth (Vienna, 1914), published by Anthroposophical Publishing Company, 1928; out of print. When men go out into the fields, and, instead of returning home at mid-day, remain there, the Midday Woman appears to them, clothed in white. She questions them until the clock strikes. If they are able to answer all the time, she says, “Good, you have redeemed me.”

Here once again an ancient clairvoyant experience is expressed. Just as we breathe in with the air the spirit of the ego, so we have gathered together our entire being, our entire microcosm, out of the macrocosm. Everything within us has come from without. Our inner intelligence is a product of the outer intelligence. There is a transitional period between the time when men saw the spiritual beings who directed the structure of the world, the beings who directed the formation of the flowers and of the crystals, and the time when the outer intelligence was formed. This intelligence has taken possession of man; he has become conscious of it. The midday sun, the midday demon, obliterates the ego-consciousness through a partial, undeveloped sunstroke. Then what has entered into man to make him intelligent, the external cause of his intelligence, appears before the man, and in such a way that he has to exercise his intelligence. It is through his having to make a mental effort that the phenomenon occurs. The man is, so to say, confronted objectively by what the cosmos has made of him. He must overcome it. If he can exercise his intelligence so as to be able to answer the Midday Woman until the clock strikes, he can unite himself again with his ego.

We meet the best expression of this in ancient Greece and sculpturally in ancient Egypt, in the great questioner, the Sphinx. The Sphinx is nothing but the highest expression of the Midday Woman. It asks the ultimate question, the question to which the answer is “man.” Whoever is able to solve the riddle redeems the Sphinx. It falls into the abyss—that is, it unites with human nature.

Man has acquired his present clear day-consciousness, which has brought with it self-consciousness, as a victory over the ancient picture-consciousness. In earlier times, although he was unable to see into himself, did not find a self within him, yet when he looked outside himself he saw spiritual beings everywhere—in the waves, in the air, in the trees—all was indwelt by spiritual beings. How could he himself not be so indwelt also? When he felt, “With the air I breathe in. I receive the actual imprint of the ego,” how could he do otherwise than see in the air the embodiment of the god to whom he owed his objective consciousness? When he breathed in the air, he knew, “The air moves my ego.” When the wind blustered without in the stormy winter nights he knew that Wotan was roaming about, the same Wotan who was breathed in by him. We could go through all the myths and sagas in this way. We should doubtless find that literary composition has brought about modifications, but they can all be traced back to the old clairvoyant consciousness.

European clairvoyance, however, differs essentially from that of the East; for every people has a special mission, a special task to fulfil in the course of evolution. Whereas in the time when the Oriental was going through the transition from the old clairvoyance to the formation of the ego, he possessed only a mere rudiment of the ego, so that it very easily surrendered itself to the higher beings, the consciousness of personality developed early in European life. It was a particular characteristic of the European peoples that during the transition period the ego made tremendous inroads. The human being was able to see into the inwardness of things, but he asserted his ego very strongly, felt himself from the outset as a strong opponent of the beings who were trying to entangle him in the threads of the spiritual world around him. Therefore the beings who are man’s helpers are those who work towards the acquisition of self-consciousness, towards the liberation of the ego.

The victory over the astral Spirits, which is the aim of those Spirits who bestow personal self-consciousness, plays a great part in Germanic literature, in European literature. The Alp-spirit, who ensnares man, is present everywhere for European consciousness in the Midgard Snake, or in the forms of the giants. Everywhere we see how the gods ally themselves with men in the formation of personal self-consciousness. We see how the god Wotan, who lives in the breathing, becomes man’s ally in his fight against all the lower spirits; he stands beside man in his struggle to overcome the lower consciousness. It is Donar or Thor, with his hammer, who conquers the giants and the Midgard Snake; he it is who expresses man’s emergence into reality.


This conquest over the astral powers, who prevent men from becoming free, played a great part in preparing the way for Christianity. There was something more impersonal in the Oriental, whereas the warm-hearted European had to experience something unknown to less advanced Eastern peoples. In Europe the urge to emerge from subconsciousness was the dominant motive. Therefore the European felt intensely: “I with my ego have emerged from the spiritual world into the physical-sensible world, in primeval times my soul was in the spiritual world, the world of light. What I have acquired here has made me blind to the old astral world.” This found its strongest expression where the victory over the astral world was most strongly felt. The ancient European consciousness felt Baldur to be the leader of souls in so far as they belong to the land of their birth, to the astral world of light. The leader of the sense-world is Hodur, who slays Baldur.4See the lectures, The Balder Myth and the Good Friday Mystery (Dornach, 2-3/4/15); published in Festivals and the Seasons (Anthroposophical Publishing Company, 1928: out of print).

Thus tragically the ancient Europeans experienced the fading out of the clairvoyant soul, the provisional death of the soul. But they experienced it as a transition; they felt that something new had to follow. Hence the “Twilight of the Gods,” the downfall of the spiritual world. And because in ancient times personal consciousness was strongly marked in the European peoples, the appearance of the personal God, Christ Jesus, could be most deeply understood by the Europeans. The germ for the reception of the personal God was laid down long beforehand.

We have seen how in Europe the present-day consciousness has developed out of the earlier one. It was only a small section of the spiritual world that people could see in this way. But the initiates had their consciousness in still higher worlds. We shall show how the knowledge of the initiates was raised above the clairvoyant consciousness of the masses, what impression the appearance of the Christ made on the Mysteries, and how the Mysteries have evolved right up to the present day. What men saw at lower levels in the past they will see in the future at a higher level; for they will see into the spiritual world in full consciousness.

Man has indeed passed through this process. While still leading a subconscious form of existence, he descended in order to acquire self-consciousness. And with his self-consciousness he will rise again. His earlier clairvoyance was not his own, but a clairvoyance which other beings had instilled into him. What he will acquire for himself will be a free self-conscious possession, best described by a saying of Christ-Jesus. On the occasion (John VIII, 32) when the Christ was emphasising the relationship between truth and freedom, he spoke of the far-distant future in these terms: “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Alteuropaisches Hellsehen

Im Laufe dieser Wintervorträge ist immer wieder davon die Rede gewesen, daß es Erkenntnisse übersinnlicher Welten gibt. Es ist davon die Rede gewesen, wie der Mensch zu solchen Erkenntnissen kommen kann, und von den Ergebnissen dieser Erkenntnisse übersinnlicher Welten haben wir so manches Mal gesprochen. Nunmehr soll in zwei Vorträgen etwas gegeben werden wie eine Illustration zu dem, was man Erkenntnisse höherer Welten nennt. Und an Beispielen soll gezeigt werden, wie sich auf einem gewissen Gebiete hellseherisches Erkennen entwickelt hat, jenes hellseherische Erkennen, welches von unserer heutigen Menschheitim Grunde überwunden ist oderüberwunden sein sollte. Von einem gewissermaßen wie durch Naturkräfte, Naturfähigkeiten gegebenen hellseherischen Erkennen soll heute die Rede sein. Das nächste Mal soll davon gesprochen werden, wie durch strenge Schulung, durch ganz bestimmte Methoden hellseherisches Erkennen zu erlangen ist, und zwar wiederum an bestimmten Beispielen. Von jenem hellseherischen Erkennen, das sozusagen unsere Altvordern zu ihren heute überwundenen Anschauungen geführt hat, wollen wir heute sprechen; von jenem hellseherischen Erkenntnisvermögen, das in einer freien selbstbewußten Weise in die höheren Welten führt, soll das nächste Mal die Rede sein.

Es ist auch schon erwähnt worden, daß die Geisteswissenschaft zu sprechen hat von einer Entwickelung des menschlichen Bewußtseins. Das, was wir heute unser Bewußtsein nennen, wodurch wir uns in unserem Innern die äußere Welt in Gedanken, Vorstellungen und Ideen wieder erschaffen, ist nur eine Entwickelungsstufe. Ihm ging in der Entwickelung der Menschheit ein anderes Bewußtsein voraus und wird ein anderes folgen. Wenn heute von Entwikkelung im gewöhnlichen Sinne gesprochen wird, so meint man in der Regel eine Entwickelung der äußeren Formen, der materiellen Daseinsgestalten. Die Geisteswissenschaft spricht von einer Entwickelung der Seele und des Geistes, also auch von der Entwickelung des Bewußstseins. Wir können zurückblicken auf eine frühere Form des Bewußtseins, die durch unsere gegenwärtige Stufe derEntwickelung überwunden ist, und wir können hinblicken in die Perspektive eines Zukunftsbewußtseins, das erst allmählich sich auftun wird. Wenn wir die heutige Bewußtseinsstufe «Bewußtsein» schlechthin nennen, so können wir das frühere Bewußtsein nennen ein Unterbewußtsein, und das, wozu sich das jetzige durch geisteswissenschaftliche Methoden hinaufentwickeln wird, ein Überbewußtsein. So unterscheiden wir drei aufeinanderfolgende Stufen: Unterbewußtsein, Bewußtsein und Überbewußtsein.

In gewisser Beziehung ist alles heutige Bewußtsein eine Entwickelungsstufe des Bewußtseins überhaupt, wie die höheren Tierformen Entwickelungsformen sind der allgemeinen Tiergestalt. Das heutige Bewußtsein hat sich aus untergeordneten Bewußtseinsstufen herausentwickelt. Unser heutiges Bewußtsein, das wir auch Gegenstandsbewußtsein nennen können, können wir so charakterisieren, daß wir sagen: Es nimmt die äußeren Gegenstände wahr durch die Sinne wie Gehör, Gesicht, Tasten und so weiter. Es macht sich Begriffe, Vorstellungen und Ideen von dem, was erst Wahrnehmung war. So spiegelt sich in unserem Bewußtsein eine äußere Welt von auf unsere Sinne einwirkenden Gegenständen.

Das Unterbewußtsein war noch nicht so; es hatte eine viel unmittelbarere Natur. Wir dürfen es in gewissem Sinne nennen ein niederes Hellseherbewußtsein, weil das Wesen, dem dies Bewußtsein eigen war, nicht mit den Sinnesorganen an die Gegenstände heranging und sie gleichsam abfühlte, um sich einen Begriff davon zu machen, sondern die Begriffe waren unmittelbar da; es stiegen Bilder auf und ab. Nehmen wir an, das Bewußtsein tritt einem äußeren Gegenstande entgegen, der ihm gefährlich ist. Heute sehen wir den Gegenstand, und die durch das Gesicht hervorgerufene Vorstellung bewirkt, daß in uns das Bewußtsein der Gefahr auftritt. So war es nicht bei dem hellseherischen Bewußtsein früher. Der äußere Gegenstand wurde nicht in deutlichen Umrissen wahrgenommen, in den älteren Zeiten überhaupt nicht. Etwas wie ein Traumbild stieg auf und zeigte dem Wesen an, ob etwas Sympathisches oder Unsympathisches ihm entgegentrat. Das können wir uns veranschaulichen durch das heutige Träumen, die auf- und abwogenden Traumbilder. So wie das Träumen heute im normalen Zustande ist, so ist es zu charakterisieren als etwas, das keine wirkliche Beziehung hat zu der äußeren Welt. Dagegen wenn wir uns das Traumbewußtsein so vorstellen, daß einem jeden Bilde, das als Traumbild in uns aufsteigt, etwas ganz Bestimmtes entspricht und zugeordnet ist, so daß ein bestimmtes Bild bei einer Gefahr aufsteigt, ein anderes bei einem nützlichen Gegenstand — wenn also durch diese Bilder eine bestimmte Beziehung zu uns vorhanden wäre —, dann könnten wir sagen, es käme uns nicht darauf an, ob wir träumen oder wachen, dann könnten wir unser praktisches Leben auch nach diesen Traumbildern einrichten.

Aus einem solchen realen Traumleben, das die innere Natur, die innere Seelenhaftigkeit der Dinge in Bildern aufsteigen ließ, aus einem solchen Bewußtsein ist das heutige Bewußtsein hervorgegangen. Und die mannigfaltigsten Gestalten hat es angenommen, bis es sich zu der heutigen Form entwickelt hat. Wenn wir zurückgehen in der Geschichte, wie sie die Geisteswissenschaft an die Hand gibt, würden wir bei alten Völkern zuletzt in ferner, ferner Vergangenheit einen Entwickelungszustand finden, in dem das Äußere nicht wahrgenommen wurde; aber von einem alten, hellseherischen Bewußtsein wurde die Umwelt in innerlicher Weise wahrgenommen. Aber dieses hellseherische Bewußtsein hatte eine Eigenschaft der Seele im Gefolge, welche gegenüber der jetzigen Grundeigenschaft unserer Seele als eine unvollkommene Stufe bezeichnet werden muß. Die Menschenseele war keine selbstbewußte Seele, sie konnte nicht zu sich «ich» sagen, sie konnte sich nicht von der Umwelt unterscheiden. Nur dadurch, daß die äußeren Gegenstände mit ihren festen Konturen der Seele entgegentraten, lernte die Seele, sich von ihnen zu unterscheiden. Es konnte sich dieses Bewußtsein nur dadurch bilden, daß das alte Bewußtsein dahinschwand, als das Tages- oder Gegenstandsbewußtsein eintrat.

So hat der Mensch sein Selbstbewußtsein erkaufen müssen mit dem Aufgeben des alten, ursprünglich hellseherischen Zustandes. Jede Entwickelung ist zugleich eine Höherentwickelung, wenn auch gewisse Vorteile früherer Stufen dabei aufgegeben werden müssen. Nun bleibt sozusagen von jeder Stufe in spätere Zeiten hinein etwas zurück, und wir können in gewisser Beziehung solche Erbschaften früherer Zeiten noch in die gegenwärtige Zeit hineinragen sehen. Das ist etwas Abnormes heute. Es wurde schon darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß wir ja auch in der äußeren Gestalt solche Atavismen haben, so zum Beispiel die Muskeln in der Nähe des Ohres, die früher das Ohr bewegt haben. Bei den Tieren haben sie ja zum Bewegen des Ohres noch einen Zweck. Beim Menschen haben sie keinen Zweck mehr, und nur wenige Menschen können ihre Ohren willkürlich bewegen. Was sind solche Muskeln? Sie sind Überbleibsel einer früheren Entwickelungsstufe. Der Mensch hat einmal eine solche Kopfform gehabt, daß die Ohren beweglich waren. |

So wie solche Organformen in der Entwickelung übrig geblieben sind, so bleiben auch gewisse alte Zustände des Bewußtseins zurück. Deshalb sehen wir solche Überbleibsel, solche Erbstücke alten Hellsehens hineinragen bis in unser heutiges Bewußtsein; aber sie sind getrübt und verändert auf der heutigen Entwickelungsstufe und deshalb abnorm. Wenn wir hinweisen auf das, was zurückgeblieben ist vom Hellsehen, können wir leicht charakterisieren das alte europäische Hellsehen, das in der Entwickelung aller europäischen Völker zu finden ist und unterschieden werden kann von dem Hellsehen des Orients. Auf diese Unterschiede soll heute hingewiesen werden.

Welches sind die Erbschaften des alten hellseherischen Zustandes der Menschheit? Wir können da zwei Kategorien unterscheiden. Die eine steht gewissermaßen ganz für sich und gehört zu den göttlichen Erbstücken. Das sind der Traum und die Traumerlebnisse. Die anderen Überbleibsel gehören zu einer ganz anderen Kategorie. Der Traum ist nicht durch die Menschen, sondern durch die fortgehende Entwickelung selbst verändert. Die anderen Erbstücke sind die Vision, die Ahnung, und die Deuteroskopie oder das «andere Gesicht».

Wir betrachten zunächst den Traum. Er ist zurückgeblieben von dem alten Bilderbewußtsein. Aber in jenem alten Bilderbewußtsein hing der Traum noch mit der Wirklichkeit zusammen. Wie ist der Traum heute? Er zeigt noch gewisse charakteristische Eigenschaften des alten Bilderbewußtseins, hat aber den realen Wert, den Wirklichkeitswert des alten Bilderbewußtseins verloren. Denken wir an ein Beispiel: Es träumt jemand, er sehe vor sich einen Laubfrosch, hasche nach ihm und ergreife ihn. Da wacht er auf und hat den Zipfel der Bettdecke in der Hand. Der Traum symbolisiert das äußere Ereignis. Würde der Mensch diesem Traum mit dem Gegenstandsbewußtsein gegenübergestanden haben, so würde er gesehen haben, daß er die Bettdecke in der Hand hielt. So aber symbolisiert der Traum. Er kann zu einem großen Dramatiker werden. Es träumt zum Beispiel einem Studenten, er würde beim Verlassen des Hörsaales von einem anderen angerempelt, ein Verbrechen, das nur durch ein Duell gesühnt werden kann. Er fordert nun den anderen auf Pistolen, die Sekundanten werden bestimmt, man findet sich an dem verabredeten Ort ein, die Distanz wird abgemessen, die Pistolen geladen, und der erste Schuß fällt. Im selben Augenblick aber wacht der Student auf und hat den Stuhl neben seinem Bett umgestoßen. Da haben wir wiederum dasselbe: der Traum verwandelt ein äußeres Vorkommnis in ein Bild. Wenn der Betreffende mit Gegenstandsbewußtsein das Geschehene angesehen hätte, wenn er wach gewesen wäre, so würde er gesehen haben, daß der Stuhl umgeworfen wurde.

Wir sehen bei diesen Träumen, daß es eine gewisse willkürliche Verbindung gibt zwischen dem, was der Träumende erlebt hat und dem, was äußerlich geschieht. Daß man es mit einem Bilde der äußeren Tatsachen zu tun hat, das hat sich der Traum bewahrt aus dem alten Bilderbewußtsein, aber nicht bewahrt hat er sich die unmittelbare Beziehung zu der äußeren Welt. Wenn er diese unmittelbare Beziehung noch hätte, dann würde der Mensch nicht nötig haben, das Salz mit der Zunge zu berühren, um es zu erkennen, sondern ein ganz bestimmtes Traumbild würde vor ihm aufsteigen, ein anderes bei Essig, Zucker, bei gefährlichen Wesen und so weiter. Jeder Wesensnatur entsprach ein ganz bestimmtes Bild.

Dieses Bewußtsein ist wie ein Rest zurückgeblieben, wie ein Erbstück im heutigen Traumbewußtsein. Weil der Mensch sozusagen mit seinem ganzen Wesen in seinem Selbstbewußtsein aufging, weil er sich losgerissen hatte von der Umgebung, haben beim heutigen Menschen die Traumbilder keinen Bezug mehr zur Außenwelt. Dadurch, daß der Mensch in ganz normaler Weise vom Traumbewußtsein zum Selbstbewußtsein aufstieg, ist die Beziehung des Traumes zur Außenwelt verlorengegangen.

Anders ist es bei den drei anderen Überresten: bei Vision, Ahnung und bei Deuteroskopie oder dem «anderen Gesicht». Wenn Sie sich erinnern an die ganze Entwickelung des Menschen, wie sie hier oft dargestellt worden ist, so stellt sie sich uns so dar: Der Mensch, wie er heute vor uns steht, besteht aus vierGliedern: aus physischem Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib, Ich. Das Ich ist das letzte Entwickelungsglied, und durch das Aufsteigen zum Ich ist der Mensch zu einem selbstbewußten Wesen geworden. Wann hatte nun der Mensch dieses Bilderbewußtsein? Er hatte es, als sein Ich noch schlummerte im astralischen Leibe, als der astralische Leib selbst der Träger des Bewußtseins war. Der astralische Leib war es, der diese Bilder auf- und absteigen ließ. Es ist also gleichsam so, als wenn der Mensch aufgetaucht wäre aus dem astralischen Leibe und dadurch sein heutiges Gegenstandsbewußtsein errungen hat. Dadurch ist es auch erklärlich, daß der Mensch noch tiefer verbunden sein mußte mit den anderen Gliedern seiner Natur. So wie er im astralischen Leibe untergetaucht war in früheren Zeiten, so war er untergetaucht im Ätherleibe und noch tiefer im physischen Leibe. Wir haben also drei Stufen des Unterbewußtseins unter dem heutigen Gegenstandsbewußstsein.

Denken Sie sich einmal einen Menschen schwimmend unter der Oberfläche des Meeres, im Meer drinnen. Die Möglichkeit sei ihm gegeben, das, was im Meer ist, zu sehen. Er sieht, was auf dem Grunde des Meeres vorgeht, was dort geschieht, was dort schwimmt, schwebt. Da hat er etwas anderes um sich, als wenn er auftaucht, hinaufschaut und den sternbedeckten Himmel über sich sieht. So können wir uns das Bewußtsein vorstellen, herausgehoben aus seinen Unterstufen, wo dem Menschen das bewußt war, was ihm astralischer, ätherischer und physischer Leib vermittelt haben, hinaufgestiegen zum heutigen Gegenstandsbewußtsein. Nun kann aber der Mensch in gewissen abnormen Fällen wiederum hinuntertauchen sozusagen in dieses Meer des Unterbewußtseins. Er kann sich so hineinbegeben, daß er das, was er schon erobert hatte, nachdem er herausgetaucht war aus dem Meer des Unterbewußtseins, jetzt wieder mit hinunternimmt.

Denken Sie sich einen Menschen, der oben alles gesehen hat, dann wieder hinuntertaucht und nun alles unten Wahrgenommene vergleichen kann mit dem, was er von oben kennt. So ist es mit dem heutigen Menschen: er nimmt dasjenige mit, was er sich oben erworben hat. Es ist nicht so, wie es beim Taucher ist, der alles nur in der Erinnerung mitnimmt und vergleichen kann. Wer da hinuntertaucht, nachdem er ein gegenwärtiger Mensch gewesen ist, dem färbt sich hier alles, was unten ist, mit den Erfahrungen von oben. Man bringt wie eine Hülle das oben Erlebte in dieses Unterbewußtsein hinein und bekommt dadurch keine reine Vorstellung, kein ungetrübtes Bild, sondern ein Bild, das durch die Erfahrungen des Gegenstandsbewußtseins getrübt ist.

Wenn der Mensch da hinuntertaucht in seinen Astralleib, so versetzt er sich künstlich zurück in die Sphäre, die sein Bewußtsein einnahm, als er noch selber im astralischen Leibe lebte. Dadurch entsteht im gegenwärtigen Sinne die Vision. Würde der Mensch hinuntersteigen in das Bewußtsein des astralischen Leibes, ohne etwas von der heutigen Welt zu wissen, so würde er wirklich jene Bilder erleben, die das Innere der Gegenstände darstellen. Da er aber, wenn er hinuntersteigt, das mitnimmt, was er oben erfahren hat, erscheinen ihm alle Dinge, die ihm sonst in ihrer wahren Gestalt erscheinen würden, so, daß sie ihm vorgaukeln, vorspiegeln das, was man nur hier in der Welt des Gegenständlichen erleben kann. Das ist das Wahre und das Trügerische der Vision.

Wenn jemand hinuntersteigt in die Welt der Vision, so kann er immer sicher sein, daß da Gründe sind, die in der seelischen Umwelt liegen; aber es ist auch sicher, daß das, was ihm als Vision vor Augen tritt, Gaukelbilder sein werden, daß sich ihm die wahre Gestalt der Dinge nicht enthüllt, sondern Nachbilder dessen, was in der Oberwelt gesehen wird. Deshalb erscheinen die Visionen des Menschen zumeist so, daß sie das andeuten, was eben die Menschen in der Gegenwart erleben. Das kann man bis in die Einzelheiten prüfen, sogar von Jahrzehnt zu Jahrzehnt.

Denken Sie, ein Mensch tauchte in jene Welt unter in einer Zeit, in der es noch keinen Telegraphen und kein Telephon gab. Da hätte er auch in der Unterwelt keinen Telegraphen und kein Telephon gesehen. Dagegen wird in unserer Zeit das Sehen von Telegraphen und Telephonen in der Vision immer häufiger werden. Daher kommt es auch, daß ein frommer Katholik, der oft die Madonna gesehen hat in der Gestalt, wie sie dem Gegenstandsbewußtsein entgegentritt, wenn er hinuntersteigt, dieses Bild mitnimmt und ihm das in der Vision erscheint. In der Regel werden die, die nicht fromme Katholiken sind, auch in den Visionen nicht die Madonna erleben. Was in der Vision gesehen wird, das entspricht nicht der Realität; sondern das, was sich als Realität kleidet, hat der Mensch erst hinuntergebracht. Er trägt hinunter in diese Welt, was er hier erlebt hat. Wir sehen also, daß der Mensch in der Tat in der Vision in gewisser Weise dasjenige färbt, was er erlebt.

Taucht er zurück in den Ätherleib, so erlebt er das, was man mit Ahnung bezeichnet. Aber hier ist es noch gefährlicher, weil dieser Bewußtseinszustand noch weiter zurückliegend ist. Da ist der Mensch hineinverwoben in alle die verschlungenen Daseinsfäden, aus denen er aufgestiegen ist zu seinem Ich-Bewußtsein, aber er kann die Fäden nicht in ihrer wahren Gestalt durchschauen. Bedenken Sie, wie wenig die Menschen die Zusammenhänge überblicken, die um sie herum sind. Über einen kleinen Ausschnitt der Welt machen sie sich Gedanken, über Ursache und Wirkung, aber sie vergessen, daß die ganze Welt mit ihrem Umkreise zusammenhängt wie in einem Netz, in dem Zusammenhänge sich hin- und herspinnen. Der Mensch ist heute herausgehoben aus alledem, er überblickt gewissermaßen eine Insel, aber diese Insel ist zusammenhängend mit dem ganzen Kosmos. Und in seinem Ätherleib hängt der Mensch innig zusammen mit dem Kosmos. Wenn er hinuntersteigen würde in seinen Ätherleib, ohne daß er etwas von dem hellen Tagesbewußtsein mitbrächte, dann würde er sehen, wie sich im Keime etwas anknüpft, was erst, sagen wir, in zehn Jahren sich ereignen wird. Nun können Sie sich denken, daß der Mensch seinen Intellekt mit herunterbringt. Er trägt seinen kleinen Intellekt, sein kleines Verstandesseelchen mit herunter. Dadurch wird das, was als Ahnung auftritt, schon verfälscht. Wenn die Ahnung auf natürlichem Wege auftaucht, hat sie meistens — wie auch die Vision — keinen großen objektiven Wert.

Dann aber, wenn der Mensch untertaucht in die Tiefen des physischen Leibes, dann kann die Ahnung übergehen in das Durchdringen des Raumes. Während die Ahnung noch mit der Zeit zusammenhängt, kann in der Deuteroskopie, im «anderen Gesicht» das gesehen werden, was mit physischen Augen nicht wahrgenommen werden kann. Die Bilder stellen sich dem Menschen dar wie eine Fata Morgana. Abnorme Erscheinungen, wie sie zum Beispiel von Swedenborg berichtet werden, gehören hierher. Daß auf seelischem Gebiet die Täuschungen noch größer sein müssen und nichts ungeprüft hingenommen werden darf, das können Sie aus dem Gesagten entnehmen.

Was heute als krankhafte Zustände auftritt, ist das zurückgebliebene Erbstück alten Hellsehens und war in den alten Zeiten durchaus gesund, war etwas, durch das der Mensch in Wahrheit sich in ein Verhältnis zur Umwelt gesetzt hat. Wenn wir zurückblicken, namentlich in der Entwickelung der europäischen Völker, so finden wir überall mehr oder weniger das alte Bilderbewußtsein, das die Welt anschaut, wie sie innerlich ist, wie sie ihrer geistig-seelischen Wesenheit nach ist. Aber das Ich-Bewußtsein ist noch ganz unentwickelt. Und was ist denn geblieben von dem, was die Alten gesehen und erzählt haben, die noch nicht das vollständige Ich-Bewußtsein hatten? Wir können sehen, daß ein Übergang vorhanden war vom alten Bilderbewußtsein zum Gegenstandsbewußtsein. Oh, es ist ein gutes, schönes Erbstück davon vorhanden: das sind dieMythen und Sagen, der gesamte Inhalt der Mythologien. Was die Mythologien enthalten, das wird heute vielfach als Volksdichtung hingestellt. Da werden Wolken als Schafherden angesehen, oder Blitz und Donner in irgendeiner Weise umgedeutet. Es gibt vielleicht keine willkürlichere «Dichtung», als diese Ausdeutung der alten Mythen und Sagen. Alles dasjenige, was heute geblieben ist in Mythen und Sagen, entstammt altem Hellsehen. Das, was erlebt wurde im Unterbewußtsein, das ist erzählt worden, und diese Erzählungen sind die Sagen und Mythen und auch die Märchen.

Alle Sagen und Mythen sind erlebt, nicht erdichtet, aber auch nicht im heutigen Gegenstandsbewußtsein erlebt, sondern im alten dämmerhaften Bewußtsein. Und wir können gleichsam tief hineinschauen in das Wirken dieses dämmerhaften Bewußtseins, wenn wir uns an etwas Großes in den religiösen Schriften erinnern. Erinnern Sie sich einmal an jene bedeutungsvolleStelle im Alten Testament, wo es heißt: «Und Gott, der ewige Gott, blies dem Menschen den lebendigen Odem ein, und da ward der Mensch eine lebendige Seele.» Eine gewisse Gestaltung des Atmungsprozesses ist hier in Verbindung gebracht mit der Entwickelung des Menschen. Diese Stelle will uns zeigen, daß der Mensch sein heutiges Ich-Bewußtsein, diese besondere Art, in und mit seinem Blute zu leben, verdankt der besonderen Gestaltung des Atmungsprozesses, die er im Laufe der Zeiten erlangt hat, und die ernoch heute hat. Nur dadurch, daß der Mensch als aufrechtgehendes Wesen atmen lernte, erhob er sich über das Bilderbewußtsein.

Die Tiere haben heute noch entweder direktes oder indirektes Bilderbewußtsein, weil sie keine aufrechtstehende Lunge haben. Man hat mit Recht darauf aufmerksam gemacht, daß der Hund viel intelligenter ist als der Papagei, und doch lernt nur der Papagei sprechen und der Hund nicht. Das hängt damit zusammen, daß der Papagei einen gewissermaßen aufrechtstehenden Kehlkopf hat. Damit, daß der Mensch eine besondere Konfiguration der Organe hat, hängt zusammen, daß der Mensch aufgestiegen ist zu seinem heutigen Gegenstandsbewußtsein.

Wenn wir das aufgeführte Bibelwort richtig verstehen wollen, müssen wir sagen: Durch die Weltengesetzlichkeit wurden die menschlichen Organe so geformt, daß der heutige Atmungsprozeß sich ausbildete. Die, welche diesen Prozeß geistig verstanden, welche wußten, daß in allem ein Geistiges lebt, die sagten sich: Es muß das Geistige der Luft in einer solchen Weise in uns hineindringen, daß sich entwickeln kann das freie Ich-Bewußtsein. — Wenn dieser Prozeß in unregelmäßiger Weise geschieht, wenn die Geister der Luft nicht den richtigen Weg finden, unser Blut in der richtigen Weise zu bearbeiten, wie es zu unserem heutigen Ich-Bewußtsein gehört, dann entsteht auch eine Unregelmäßigkeit unseres Bewußtseins: es wird zurückgeschraubt auf eine frühere Stufe. Deshalb empfand der alteuropäische Mensch in jeder Unregelmäßigkeit des Atmungsprozesses nichts anderes als ein Zurückschrauben des Bewußtseins.

Welches ist der physische Ausdruck für unregelmäßiges Atmen? Es ist der Alpdruck. Das Wort kommt her von Alb, Alf oder Elb, Elf und hängt auch zusammen mit Orpheus. So sehen wir, daß wir in ihm nichts anderes haben als ein Geistiges, welches im Atmungsprozeß so wirkt, daß das Ich nicht zur vollen Entfaltung kommen kann. Wenn der Atmungsprozeß unregelmäßig ist, dann hat das Heer niederer Geister Zutritt zum Menschen. Und nun nennen Sie es krankhaft oder wie Sie wollen, darauf kommt es nicht an; es kommt darauf an, was sich dadurch im Menschen entwickelt. Von unserem heutigen Standpunkte aus muß dieser Zustand ja als krankhaft bezeichnet werden. Denn wenn es auch ein Zurück schrauben ist auf einen früheren Zustand, so ist doch dieser Zustand heute ein Übergang vom Normalen zum Abnormalen.

Unser heutiger Atmungsprozeß ist entsprungen einem Prozeß, der als Überbleibsel im Alpdruck vorhanden ist, in ihm sein letztes Erbstück hat, einem Prozeß, wo der Mensch nicht so viel Sauerstoff brauchte. Als der Mensch noch dem Pflanzenzustande näher war, hatte er eine andere Bewußtseinsform, war untergetaucht in das alte dämmerhafte Bewußtsein. Dann tauchte er daraus auf, und beim Übergang, als der Mensch abwechselnd da und dort in seinem Bewußtsein war, erlebte der alteuropäische Mensch alles dasjenige, was in allem Alben- und Elfenwesen uns entgegentritt.

So blicken wir in einer natürlichen Weise zurück in uralte Zustände. Wir haben im Alpdrücken den heutigen äußeren Zustand von etwas, was geistig war, und was nichts anderes darstellt, als den Überrest des alten hellseherischen Bewußtseins, des Bilderbewußtseins, das Mythen und Sagen schafft.

Aber indem sich das Atmen umwandelte, hat sich ja auch manches andere umgewandelt. Es ist auch entstanden das äußere Sehen der Gegenstände. Das «Bildersehen» der Gegenstände war nicht verknüpft mit dem Sehen der äußeren Konturen, der Oberflächen der Gegenstände. Der Mensch sah nicht die Außenflächen der Gegenstände. Es gab auch einen Übergang, wo der Mensch erfahren hat, daß die alten Bilder versanken und aufstieg das Bild der äußeren Gegenstände. Und wiederum gab es einen Zwischenzustand, wo der Mensch schon zum Sehen entwickelt war, aber in abnormen Zuständen, wo das äußere Sehen zurücktrat, in hellseherische Zustände kam. Der Volksmund hat ein altes Wort für diesen Zustand, wo das normaleBewußtsein zurücktritt, wo man einen Gegenstand anschaut und doch nicht sieht. Das nennt man «spannen», «staunen», und dieses Wort ist wurzelhaft verwandt mit dem Wort Gespenst, so daß Sie hier sozusagen das Gespenst vor sich haben, dasjenige, was als inneres Bild auftauchte, was noch nicht äußerer Gegenstand war, sondern durch astralische Kräfte gesehen wurde. Heute ist das etwas Abnormes. Beim Übergang war der Mensch darauf angewiesen, wenn das auftrat, sich zu sagen: Aber ich will doch sehen, ich will nicht, daß du mich anglotzt, ich will sehen. — Da kam ihm das, was als Äußeres vor ihm stand, als etwas vor, das er zu überwinden hatte. Alle Sagen, die darauf ausgehen, das, was einen anglotzt, blind zu machen, zu überwinden, daß es einen nicht mehr anglotzt, haben hier ihren Ursprung. In der Sage von Polyphem, in der Blendung vom Riesen bis zu der wunderbaren Sage, wo Dietrich von Bern den Riesen Grim überwindet, überall haben wir dieses Bewußtseinsmoment.

Die ganze Seltsamkeit der Erscheinungen konnte aber auch für die Seele etwas Lockendes haben. Dadurch, daß sie auftraten, wie einer unbekannten Welt angehörend, hatten sie etwas Verlockendes, dadurch waren diese Wesenheiten solche, die ver-lockend, ver-führend auf den Menschen wirken konnten. Der oder die «Lur» oder «Lore» ist dasGrundwort für ein Lockgespenst. Wenn der Mensch es erblickte, konnte er nicht anders es sehen, als aus dem Innern der Dinge entstanden. Nun noch etwas Merkwürdiges: Mit dem Wort «Heimat» hängt wurzelhaft zusammen das Wort «Lei», daher «Lorelei-Felsen». Das ist das Lockgespenst, das sich in die Lei, also in seine Heimat zurückzieht, die dort war. Das Wort «Lei» kann man in den mannigfaltigsten Gegenden finden. So haben wir sozusagen das unterbewußte Erlebnis des Sehens der Lore oder Lure, das auftritt, als sich das bestimmte Sehen nach außen entwickelt. Die Alpe oder Elfen sind damit zusammenhängend, daß der Mensch in seinem Innern sein Ich-Bewußtsein erhält.

Aber es ist uns noch eine andere Sage als Erbstück erhalten, die in gewissen slawischen Gegenden noch heute als Sage lebt. Es ist die Sage von der Mittagsfrau. Wenn die Menschen hinausgehen aufs Feld und, statt mittags nach Hause zu gehen, draußen bleiben, so erscheint ihnen die Mittagsfrau in der Gestalt einer weißen Frau. Sie legt dem Menschen Fragen vor, bis die Mittagsglocke schlägt. Kann der Mensch diese Fragen beantworten, so sagt die Mittagsfrau am Schluß: «Es ist gut, du hast mich erlöst.» Was sehen wir in einer solchen Sage? Wir sehen wiederum ein altes hellseherisches Erlebnis hier ausgedrückt. So, wie der Mensch mit der Luft den Geist des Ichs einatmet, so hat er aus der geistigen Umwelt, aus dem Makrokosmos, sein ganzes Inneres, seinen ganzen Mikrokosmos aufgebaut. Alles, was innen ist, ist von außen hereingekommen. Unsere innere Intelligenz ist das Ergebnis der äußeren Intelligenz.

Es gibt einen Übergang von der Zeit, wo der Mensch die geistigen Wesenheiten gesehen hat, die den Aufbau der Welt leiteten, die die Blumen und Kristalle in ihrer Bildung leiteten, bis zur Bildung der äußeren Intelligenz. Die äußere Intelligenz ist gewissermaßen in den Menschen hineinmarschiert, und er ist sich ihrer bewußt geworden. Nehmen Sie an, das Bewußtsein lösche sich einfach aus durch die Mittagssonne. Diejenigen, die das geistig wußten, nannten die Mittagssonne den Mittagsdämon. Nehmen Sie an, es lösche sich da das lichte Bewußtsein aus — durch einen latenten, partiellen Sonnenstich, könnte man sagen —, und es gehe auf vor dem Menschen dasjenige, was wie die äußere Veranlassung, die äußere Ursache seiner Intelligenz-Kräfte ist. Wie muß das auftreten? Nur dadurch, daß der Mensch seine Intelligenz anspannen muß. Es tritt dem Menschen sozusagen das, was ihm aus der Welt einverwoben ist, objektiv entgegen. Er muß es besiegen, indem er imstande ist, seine Intelligenz so lange anzustrengen, daß er antworten kann, bis die Mittagsglocke ertönt. Gelingt ihm das, so hat er die Aufgabe erfüllt und das Bewußtsein vereinigt sich wieder mit seinem Ich. Und nun übertragen Sie das einmal auf die schönste Form, die dieses geistige Erlebnis erlangt hat, in der es uns entgegentritt im alten Griechenland — und plastisch im alten Ägypten —, wo die große Fragestellerin, die Sphinx auftritt. Nichts anderes ist dieSphinx als die höchstgesteigerte Mittagsfrau. Sie legt dem Menschen ebenfalls Fragen vor, Fragen über das Menschenrätsel, wo er seine höchste Intelligenz anwenden muß. Denn alle Fragen der Sphinx verlangen die Antwort: «Der Mensch.» So tritt dem Menschen dasjenige, was er im Innern ist, in der Sphinx entgegen, und wer imstande war, das Sphinx-Rätsel zu lösen, der konnte sie erlösen. Dann stürzte sie sich in den Abgrund, das heißt sie vereinigte sich mit der inneren Menschennatur.

Wir haben an einzelnen Beispielen gesehen, wie sich in der wunderbaren Sagenwelt nichts anderes ausdrückt als der Gegenstand der Entwickelung des Bewußtseins. Von dem alten Bilderbewußtsein eroberte sich die Menschheit ihr gegenwärtiges helles Tagesbewußtsein, das dem Menschen das Selbstbewußtsein gebracht hat. Und während er früher nicht in sich hineinschauen konnte, nicht ein Selbst dort fand, so fand er, wenn er hinausschaute, überall geistige Wesen, in der Quelle, in der Luft, im Baum — alles war von geistigen Wesen belebt. Wenn er mit seinem dämmerhaften Bewußtsein hinausblickte und sah die Luft, so wußte er, daß sie die Verkörperung desjenigen Gottes war, der sein Inneres gestaltete. Drang die Luft in ihn ein, so wußte er: das bewegt mein Ich. — Brauste der Wind, der sonst von ihm eingeatmet wurde, draußen in kalten, stürmischen Winternächten über die Erde, dann wußte er, daß in dem Sturmesbrausen Wotan einherfährt.

So könnten wir alle Mythen und Sagen durchgehen. Wir würden wohl Umgestaltungen durch Dichtungen finden, aber alle führen zurück auf altes hellseherisches Bewußtsein. Aber dieses hellseherische Bewußtsein, wie es sich innerhalb Europas entwickelt hatte, das unterscheidet sich ganz wesentlich von dem der Orientalen. Jedes Volk hat innerhalb der Entwickelung eine besondere Mission, eine besondere Aufgabe zu erfüllen. Während der Orientale überall in der Zeit, in der er gerade jenen Übergang vom alten Hellsehen zur Ausgestaltung des Ichs erlebt, dieses Ich selber nur in sehr geringem Grade hatte, so daß sich dieses Ich sehr leicht hingab an die höheren Wesenheiten, war innerhalb des europäischen Lebens früh dasPersönlichkeitsbewußtsein entwickelt. Das charakterisiert jene Übergänge besonders: ungeheuer stark fällt das Ich hinein in jene Übergangsstadien zum Gegenstandsbewußtsein. Der Mensch konnte hineinsehen in das Innere der Dinge, aber er machte in stärkstem Maße sein Ich geltend, fühlte sich von Anfang an als ein starker Kämpfer gegenüber den Wesenheiten, die ihn einspinnen wollten in die Fäden der umliegenden geistigen Welt. Daher sind seine Helfer vorzugsweise solche Wesenheiten, die auf die Erringung des Selbstbewußtseins, auf die Befreiung des Ich hinarbeiten.

Wir sehen, wie in dem Sieg, den die Geister erringen wollen, die das persönliche Selbstbewußtsein über die Astralgeister verleihen, etwas gegeben ist, was innerhalb der germanischen, der europäischen mythologischen Literatur eine große Rolle spielt. Der Alpgeist, der unfrei macht, ist in der Midgardschlange, in den Gestalten der Riesen, und auch in den Gestalten der Sirenen, überall im europäischen Bewußtsein vorhanden. Überall sehen Sie, wie sozusagen die Götter dem Menschen Genossen werden zur Ausgestaltung des persönlichen Selbstbewußtseins. Wir sehen, wie der Gott, der im Atem lebt, Wotan, ein Genosse wird des Menschen im Kampfe gegen all die niederen Geister. Wir sehen, wie der starke Gott dem Menschen zur Seite steht, wenn es sich darum handelt, das niedere Bewußtsein zu überwinden. Donar oder Thor mit seinem Hammer ist es, der die Riesen und die Midgardschlange überwindet; er ist es, der im eigentlichen Sinne ausdrückt, wie der Mensch mit seinem Ich-Bewußtsein aus der geistigen Welt heraustritt in die Welt der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung.

In Europa war der vorbereitete Boden für das Christentum dadurch gegeben, daß dieses Besiegen der astralischen Mächte, die den Menschen unfrei machen wollen, ein Hauptmotiv bildet. Dadurch mußte das Gemüt der Europäer etwas fühlen, was die orientalischen Völker nicht verspürten. In Europa herrschte der Drang, aufzutauchen mit dem freien Ich aus dem Unterbewußtsein. Darum fühlte das europäische Gemüt in der intensivsten Weise: Ich bin mit meinem Ich herausgestiegen aus der geistigen Welt in die physisch-sinnliche Welt. Wo meine Seele war in uralter Zeit, dieses Land habe ich verloren, ich habe die physische Welt errungen, das aber hat mich blind gemacht gegenüber der alten astralischen Welt; ich habe hingeworfen mein altes dämmerhaftes Bewußtsein. — Das muß am stärksten da zum Ausdruck kommen, wo der Sieg zum Ausdruck kommen sollte über die astralische Welt. Sozusagen den Führer in der hellen astralischen Welt, aus der des Menschen Seele geboren ist, empfand das alte europäische Bewußtsein in Baldur. Er, der sonnenhelle Gott, ist der Führer der Seelen, insofern sie ihrem Heimatlande, der hellen astralischen Welt, angehörten. Jetzt sind die Seelen in den physischen Leib eingeschlossen. Da ist der Führer in der sinnlichen Welt der gegenüber der geistigen Welt blinde Hödur, der den Baldur erschlägt.

So empfanden die alten europäischen Menschen den Untergang der hellseherischen Seele wie den vorläufigen Tod der Seele. Aber sie empfanden diesen Untergang auch wie einen Übergang. Sie haben gefühlt, daß ein Neues folgen mußte. Daher die Götterdämmerung, der Untergang jener Ordnung der Welt, die uns die äußeren Gegenstände nur als Bilder vor die Augen stellte. Und weil in den alten Zeiten das persönliche Bewußtsein besonders bei den europäischen Völkern ausgeprägt war, konnte auch der persönliche Gott, der in Christus Jesus erschienen ist, am tiefsten und intensivsten von den europäischen Völkern begriffen und ergriffen werden. Schon vor langer Zeit war dort der Keim gelegt für die Entgegennahme des persönlichen Gottes in Christus.

Wir haben gesehen, wie in Europa das heutige Bewußtsein sich aus dem früheren Bewußtsein herausgebildet hat. Das nächste Mal wird es unsere Aufgabe sein zu zeigen, wie von den großen Eingeweihten schon in den alten Mysterien, lange vor dem Auftreten des Christentums, hingewiesen wurde auf höhere Welten. Wie sich die Mysterien weiter entwickelt haben bis in unsere Zeit hinauf, das werden wir im nächsten Vortrage hören.

Dasjenige, was der Eingeweihte früher erschaut hat, das wird durch die Geisteswissenschaft der Mensch lernen, auf höherer Stufe zu sehen, wenn er mit vollem, freiem Bewußtsein hineinsehen wird in die geistige Welt.

Der Mensch ist als ein in seinem Unterbewußtsein lebendes Wesen aus der geistigen Welt heruntergestiegen, um sich in der sinnlichen Welt sein Selbstbewußtsein zu holen. Er wird wiederum hinaufsteigen zur übersinnlichen Welt mit seinem Selbstbewußtsein. Das alte Hellsehen war nicht sein Hellsehen, sondern das, was ihm andere Wesen eingeträufelt haben. Das Hellsehen, das der Mensch sich erwerben wird in der Zukunft, das wird ein selbstbewußtes, ein Ichdurchdrungenes Hellsehen sein. Das wird am besten getroffen durch einen Ausspruch des Christus Jesus. Indem der Christus Jesus hinwies auf den Zusammenhang zwischen Wahrheit und Freiheit, hat er auf eine ferne Zukunft geblickt; und in diese Zukunft hinein weist sein Ausspruch: Ihr werdet die Wahrheit erkennen, und die Wahrheit wird euch frei machen!

Ancient European Clairvoyance

In the course of these winter lectures, there has been repeated mention of the existence of knowledge of supersensible worlds. There has been talk of how human beings can attain such knowledge, and we have spoken many times about the results of this knowledge of supersensible worlds. Now, in two lectures, we will provide something like an illustration of what is called knowledge of higher worlds. And we will use examples to show how clairvoyant knowledge has developed in a certain area, that clairvoyant knowledge which has basically been overcome by humanity today, or should have been overcome. Today we will talk about clairvoyant knowledge that is, in a sense, given by natural forces and natural abilities. Next time we will talk about how clairvoyant knowledge can be attained through rigorous training and very specific methods, again using specific examples. Today we will talk about the clairvoyant knowledge that led our ancestors to their now-outdated views, so to speak; next time we will talk about the clairvoyant faculty of knowledge that leads to the higher worlds in a free and self-aware manner.

It has already been mentioned that spiritual science has to speak of a development of human consciousness. What we today call our consciousness, through which we recreate the outer world in our inner being in thoughts, images, and ideas, is only one stage of development. It was preceded by another consciousness in the development of humanity, and another will follow. When we speak of development in the ordinary sense today, we usually mean a development of external forms, of material forms of existence. Spiritual science speaks of a development of the soul and spirit, and thus also of the development of consciousness. We can look back on an earlier form of consciousness that has been overcome by our present stage of development, and we can look forward to the prospect of a future consciousness that will only gradually unfold. If we call today's level of consciousness “consciousness” per se, we can call the earlier consciousness a subconsciousness, and that to which the present consciousness will develop through spiritual scientific methods a superconsciousness. Thus we distinguish three successive stages: subconsciousness, consciousness, and superconsciousness.

In a certain sense, all present-day consciousness is a stage in the development of consciousness in general, just as higher animal forms are forms of development of the general animal form. Present-day consciousness has developed out of lower stages of consciousness. We can characterize our present consciousness, which we can also call object consciousness, by saying that it perceives external objects through the senses such as hearing, sight, touch, and so on. It forms concepts, representations, and ideas of what was initially perception. Thus, our consciousness reflects an external world of objects that affect our senses.

The subconscious was not yet like this; it had a much more immediate nature. In a certain sense, we may call it a lower clairvoyant consciousness, because the being that possessed this consciousness did not approach objects with the sense organs and, as it were, feel them in order to form a concept of them, but rather the concepts were immediately there; images rose and fell. Let us assume that consciousness encounters an external object that is dangerous to it. Today we see the object, and the image evoked by the eye causes the awareness of danger to arise in us. This was not the case with the clairvoyant consciousness of earlier times. The external object was not perceived in clear outlines, not at all in earlier times. Something like a dream image arose and indicated to the being whether something sympathetic or unsympathetic was approaching it. We can illustrate this by today's dreaming, the undulating dream images. As dreaming is today in its normal state, it can be characterized as something that has no real relationship to the external world. On the other hand, if we imagine dream consciousness in such a way that every image that arises in us as a dream image corresponds to and is assigned to something very specific, so that a certain image arises in the case of danger, another in the case of a useful object — if, in other words, these images had a specific relationship to us — then we could say it would not matter to us whether we were dreaming or awake, then we could also organize our practical life according to these dream images.

Today's consciousness has emerged from such a real dream life, which allowed the inner nature, the inner soulfulness of things to arise in images, from such a consciousness. And it has taken on the most diverse forms until it has developed into its present form. If we go back in history, as spiritual science provides it, we would find among ancient peoples, in the distant, distant past, a state of development in which the external was not perceived; but the environment was perceived in an inner way by an ancient, clairvoyant consciousness. But this clairvoyant consciousness was accompanied by a characteristic of the soul which, compared to the basic characteristic of our soul today, must be described as an imperfect stage. The human soul was not a self-conscious soul; it could not say “I” to itself, it could not distinguish itself from its surroundings. Only when external objects with their fixed contours confronted the soul did the soul learn to distinguish itself from them. This consciousness could only be formed when the old consciousness faded away as day consciousness or object consciousness entered.

Thus, human beings had to pay for their self-awareness by giving up their old, originally clairvoyant state. Every development is at the same time a higher development, even if certain advantages of earlier stages have to be given up in the process. Now, something remains from each stage into later times, so to speak, and in a certain sense we can still see such legacies of earlier times extending into the present. This is something abnormal today. It has already been pointed out that we also have such atavisms in our external form, for example, the muscles near the ear that used to move the ear. In animals, they still serve a purpose in moving the ear. In humans, they no longer serve any purpose, and only a few people can move their ears at will. What are such muscles? They are remnants of an earlier stage of development. Humans once had a head shape that allowed the ears to be movable.

Just as such organ forms have remained in development, certain old states of consciousness also remain. That is why we see such remnants, such heirlooms of ancient clairvoyance, protruding into our present consciousness; but they are clouded and altered at the present stage of development and therefore abnormal. When we point to what remains of clairvoyance, we can easily characterize the ancient European clairvoyance that can be found in the development of all European peoples and can be distinguished from the clairvoyance of the Orient. These differences will be pointed out today.

What are the legacies of humanity's ancient clairvoyant state? We can distinguish two categories here. One stands, so to speak, entirely on its own and belongs to the divine heritage. These are dreams and dream experiences. The other remnants belong to a completely different category. Dreams have not been changed by human beings, but by the ongoing development itself. The other legacies are visions, premonitions, and deuteroscopy or the “other face.”

Let us first consider dreams. They are a remnant of the old image consciousness. But in that old image consciousness, dreams were still connected to reality. What are dreams like today? They still display certain characteristic features of the old image consciousness, but they have lost the real value, the reality value, of the old image consciousness. Let us consider an example: Someone dreams that he sees a tree frog in front of him, reaches for it, and catches it. Then he wakes up and finds himself holding the corner of the bedspread in his hand. The dream symbolizes the external event. If the person had approached this dream with object consciousness, he would have seen that he was holding the bedspread in his hand. But as it is, the dream symbolizes. He can become a great dramatist. For example, a student dreams that he is jostled by another student as he leaves the lecture hall, a crime that can only be atoned for by a duel. He now challenges the other to a duel with pistols, the seconds are appointed, they meet at the agreed place, the distance is measured, the pistols are loaded, and the first shot is fired. At that very moment, however, the student wakes up and has knocked over the chair next to his bed. Here we have the same thing again: the dream transforms an external event into an image. If the person concerned had viewed what happened with object consciousness, if he had been awake, he would have seen that the chair was knocked over.

In these dreams, we see that there is a certain arbitrary connection between what the dreamer has experienced and what is happening externally. The dream has retained from the old image consciousness that it is dealing with an image of external facts, but it has not retained the immediate relationship to the external world. If it still had this direct relationship, then people would not need to touch the salt with their tongue in order to recognize it, but a very specific dream image would arise before them, and another for vinegar, sugar, dangerous creatures, and so on. Each creature's nature corresponded to a very specific image.

This consciousness has remained as a remnant, like an heirloom in today's dream consciousness. Because humans, so to speak, absorbed their entire being into their self-consciousness, because they broke away from their surroundings, dream images no longer have any connection to the outside world for humans today. As humans ascended in a completely normal way from dream consciousness to self-consciousness, the relationship between dreams and the outside world was lost.

The situation is different with the three other remnants: vision, intuition, and deuteroscopy or the “other face.” If you remember the entire development of the human being, as it has often been described here, it presents itself to us as follows: The human being as he stands before us today consists of four members: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I. The ego is the last link in this development, and through its ascent to the ego, human beings have become self-conscious beings. When did human beings have this image consciousness? They had it when their ego was still slumbering in the astral body, when the astral body itself was the bearer of consciousness. It was the astral body that allowed these images to ascend and descend. It is therefore as if human beings had emerged from the astral body and thereby attained their present consciousness of objects. This also explains why human beings had to be even more deeply connected with the other members of their nature. Just as he was submerged in the astral body in earlier times, he was submerged in the etheric body and even deeper in the physical body. So we have three levels of subconsciousness beneath today's consciousness of objects.

Imagine a person swimming beneath the surface of the sea, inside the sea. He is given the opportunity to see what is in the sea. He sees what is happening at the bottom of the sea, what is going on there, what is swimming and floating there. He has something different around him than when he surfaces, looks up, and sees the starry sky above him. This is how we can imagine consciousness, lifted out of its lower levels, where the human being was aware of what his astral, etheric, and physical bodies conveyed to him, ascended to today's object consciousness. Now, however, in certain abnormal cases, humans can dive back down, so to speak, into this sea of the subconscious. They can enter it in such a way that they take with them what they had already conquered after emerging from the sea of the subconscious.

Imagine a person who has seen everything above, then dives down again and can now compare everything perceived below with what he knows from above. This is how it is with people today: they take with them what they have acquired above. It is not like the diver, who can only take everything with him in his memory and compare it. Those who dive down there after having been a present human being find that everything below is colored by their experiences above. They bring what they have experienced above into this subconscious like a shell and thus do not obtain a pure idea, an unclouded image, but an image that is clouded by the experiences of the object consciousness.

When a person descends into their astral body, they artificially transport themselves back to the sphere that occupied their consciousness when they themselves were still living in the astral body. This creates the vision in the present sense. If a person were to descend into the consciousness of the astral body without knowing anything about the present world, they would truly experience those images that represent the inner nature of objects. But since, when he descends, he takes with him what he has experienced above, all things that would otherwise appear to him in their true form appear to him in such a way that they deceive him, presenting him with what can only be experienced here in the world of objects. This is the true and the deceptive nature of vision.

When someone descends into the world of vision, they can always be sure that there are reasons for this that lie in the spiritual environment; but it is also certain that what appears before their eyes as a vision will be illusions, that the true form of things will not be revealed to them, but rather afterimages of what is seen in the upper world. That is why human visions usually appear in such a way that they hint at what people are experiencing in the present. This can be verified in detail, even from decade to decade.

Imagine a person descending into that world at a time when there were no telegraphs or telephones. Then he would not have seen any telegraphs or telephones in the underworld either. In our time, on the other hand, seeing telegraphs and telephones in visions is becoming more and more common. This is also why a devout Catholic who has often seen the Madonna in the form in which she appears to the conscious mind takes this image with him when he descends and it appears to him in his vision. As a rule, those who are not devout Catholics will not experience the Madonna in their visions either. What is seen in the vision does not correspond to reality; rather, what appears as reality has been brought down by the person. They carry down into this world what they have experienced here. We see, then, that in a certain way, people do indeed color what they experience in their visions.

When they return to the etheric body, they experience what is called intuition. But here it is even more dangerous, because this state of consciousness is even further back. There, the human being is woven into all the intricate threads of existence from which he has ascended to his ego consciousness, but he cannot see the threads in their true form. Consider how little people understand the connections that surround them. They think about a small part of the world, about cause and effect, but they forget that the whole world is connected to its surroundings like a web in which connections spin back and forth. Today, human beings are removed from all this; they overlook an island, so to speak, but this island is connected to the entire cosmos. And in their etheric body, human beings are intimately connected with the cosmos. If they were to descend into their etheric body without bringing anything of their bright daytime consciousness with them, they would see how something is beginning to take shape that will only happen, say, in ten years' time. Now you can imagine that human beings bring their intellect down with them. They bring their little intellect, their little soul of understanding, down with them. This distorts what appears as a premonition. When a premonition arises naturally, it usually has little objective value, just like a vision.

But then, when the human being submerges into the depths of the physical body, the premonition can transform into a penetration of space. While the premonition is still connected to time, in deuteroscopy, in the “other face,” one can see what cannot be perceived with physical eyes. The images appear to the person like a mirage. Abnormal phenomena, such as those reported by Swedenborg, belong here. From what has been said, you can conclude that in the spiritual realm, the deceptions must be even greater and nothing should be accepted without verification.

What appears today as pathological conditions is the remnant of ancient clairvoyance and was perfectly healthy in ancient times, something through which human beings truly established a relationship with their environment. When we look back, particularly at the development of the European peoples, we find everywhere, to a greater or lesser extent, the old image consciousness that views the world as it is inwardly, as it is in its spiritual and soul essence. But the consciousness of the self is still completely undeveloped. And what has remained of what the ancients saw and told, who did not yet have complete self-consciousness? We can see that there was a transition from the old image consciousness to object consciousness. Oh, there is a good, beautiful legacy of this: the myths and legends, the entire content of mythologies. What the mythologies contain is often presented today as folk poetry. Clouds are seen as flocks of sheep, or lightning and thunder are reinterpreted in some way. There is perhaps no more arbitrary “poetry” than this interpretation of the old myths and legends. Everything that remains today in myths and legends comes from ancient clairvoyance. What was experienced in the subconscious has been recounted, and these stories are the legends and myths, as well as the fairy tales.

All legends and myths are experienced, not invented, but also not experienced in today's objective consciousness, but in the ancient twilight consciousness. And we can, as it were, look deeply into the workings of this twilight consciousness when we remember something great in the religious scriptures. Remember that meaningful passage in the Old Testament where it says: “And God, the eternal God, breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” A certain shaping of the breathing process is here connected with the development of man. This passage wants to show us that man owes his present ego consciousness, this special way of living in and with his blood, to the special shaping of the breathing process which he has attained in the course of time and which he still has today. It was only by learning to breathe as an upright being that man rose above image consciousness.

Animals today still have either direct or indirect image consciousness because they do not have upright lungs. It has rightly been pointed out that dogs are much more intelligent than parrots, and yet only parrots learn to speak, not dogs. This is related to the fact that parrots have a larynx that is, in a sense, upright. The fact that humans have a special configuration of organs is related to the fact that humans have risen to their present consciousness of objects.

If we want to understand the Bible verse correctly, we must say: Through the laws of the universe, the human organs were formed in such a way that the present breathing process developed. Those who understood this process spiritually, who knew that a spiritual being lives in everything, said to themselves: The spirit of the air must penetrate us in such a way that free self-consciousness can develop. — If this process occurs irregularly, if the spirits of the air do not find the right way to work on our blood in the right way, as befits our present self-consciousness, then an irregularity also arises in our consciousness: it is scaled back to an earlier stage. That is why the ancient Europeans perceived every irregularity in the breathing process as nothing other than a scaling back of consciousness.

What is the physical expression of irregular breathing? It is nightmares. The word comes from Alb, Alf, or Elb, Elf, and is also related to Orpheus. So we see that we have nothing in it but a spiritual element that acts in the breathing process in such a way that the ego cannot fully develop. When the breathing process is irregular, the army of lower spirits has access to the human being. And now you can call it pathological or whatever you like, it doesn't matter; what matters is what develops in the human being as a result. From our present point of view, this condition must indeed be described as pathological. For even if it is a regression to an earlier state, this condition today is a transition from the normal to the abnormal.

Our present breathing process originated from a process that is present as a remnant in the pressure of the nightmare, in which it has its last heirloom, a process in which humans did not need as much oxygen. When humans were still closer to the plant state, they had a different form of consciousness, submerged in the old twilight consciousness. Then they emerged from it, and during the transition, when humans were alternately here and there in their consciousness, the ancient European humans experienced everything that confronts us in all alb and elf beings.

Thus, we look back in a natural way to ancient states. In the nightmare, we have the present external state of something that was spiritual and represents nothing other than the remnant of the old clairvoyant consciousness, the image consciousness that creates myths and legends.

But as breathing changed, many other things also changed. The external seeing of objects also came into being. The “image seeing” of objects was not linked to the seeing of the external contours, the surfaces of objects. Human beings did not see the outer surfaces of objects. There was also a transition where human beings experienced the sinking of the old images and the rising of the image of external objects. And again, there was an intermediate state where humans had already developed the ability to see, but in abnormal states where external vision receded and clairvoyant states emerged. Folklore has an old word for this state, where normal consciousness recedes, where one looks at an object and yet does not see it. This is called “gazing” or “marveling,” and this word is related to the word “ghost,” so that here you have, so to speak, the ghost before you, that which appeared as an inner image, which was not yet an external object but was seen through astral forces. Today, this is something abnormal. During the transition, when this occurred, humans had to say to themselves: But I want to see, I don't want you staring at me, I want to see. — Then what stood before them as an external object appeared to them as something they had to overcome. All legends that aim to blind what stares at you, to overcome it so that it no longer stares at you, have their origin here. In the legend of Polyphemus, in the blinding of the giant, to the wonderful legend where Dietrich von Bern overcomes the giant Grim, we find this moment of consciousness everywhere.

However, the whole strangeness of the apparitions could also have something alluring for the soul. Because they appeared as belonging to an unknown world, they had something tempting about them, which meant that these beings were capable of having a tempting, seductive effect on humans. The word “Lur” or “Lore” is the root word for a seductive ghost. When people saw it, they could not help but see it as arising from within things. Now something else that's interesting: the word “Heimat” is related to the word “Lei,” hence “Lorelei Rock.” This is the lure ghost that retreats to the Lei, its home, which was there. The word “Lei” can be found in many different areas. So we have, so to speak, the subconscious experience of seeing the Lore or Lure, which occurs when certain vision develops outwardly. The Alps or elves are connected with the fact that humans retain their sense of self within themselves.

But we have another legend that has been passed down to us, which still lives on as a legend in certain Slavic regions today. It is the legend of the Midday Woman. When people go out into the fields and, instead of going home at noon, remain outside, the Midday Woman appears to them in the form of a white woman. She asks the people questions until the noon bell rings. If the people can answer these questions, the Midday Woman says at the end: “It is good, you have redeemed me.” What do we see in such a legend? We see, once again, an ancient clairvoyant experience expressed here. Just as people breathe in the spirit of the ego with the air, so they have built up their entire inner being, their entire microcosm, from the spiritual environment, from the macrocosm. Everything that is inside has come in from outside. Our inner intelligence is the result of outer intelligence.

There is a transition from the time when human beings saw the spiritual beings who guided the construction of the world, who guided the formation of flowers and crystals, to the formation of outer intelligence. External intelligence has, in a sense, marched into humans, and they have become aware of it. Suppose consciousness simply disappears in the midday sun. Those who knew this spiritually called the midday sun the midday demon. Suppose that light consciousness is extinguished there — by a latent, partial sunstroke, one might say — and that what appears before human beings is what is like the external cause, the external source of their powers of intelligence. How must this occur? Only by the person having to strain their intelligence. What is woven into the world, so to speak, objectively confronts the person. They must overcome it by being able to strain their intelligence long enough to respond before the noon bell rings. If he succeeds, he has fulfilled the task and consciousness reunites with his ego. And now transfer this to the most beautiful form that this spiritual experience has attained, in which it confronts us in ancient Greece — and vividly in ancient Egypt — where the great questioner, the Sphinx, appears. The Sphinx is nothing other than the most exalted noon woman. She also poses questions to humans, questions about the human riddle, where they must apply their highest intelligence. For all the Sphinx's questions demand the answer: “The human being.” Thus, what man is inwardly confronts him in the Sphinx, and whoever was able to solve the Sphinx's riddle could redeem her. Then she threw herself into the abyss, that is, she united herself with inner human nature.

We have seen from individual examples how the wonderful world of legends expresses nothing other than the subject of the development of consciousness. From the ancient image consciousness, humanity conquered its present bright daytime consciousness, which has brought self-consciousness to man. And while he could not look within himself before and find a self there, when he looked outside he found spiritual beings everywhere, in the spring, in the air, in the tree — everything was animated by spiritual beings. When he looked out with his dim consciousness and saw the air, he knew that it was the embodiment of the God who shaped his inner being. When the air entered him, he knew: this moves my self. When the wind, which he otherwise breathed in, roared outside on cold, stormy winter nights, he knew that Wotan was riding along in the storm.

We could go through all myths and legends in this way. We would probably find transformations through poetry, but they all lead back to ancient clairvoyant consciousness. However, this clairvoyant consciousness, as it had developed within Europe, differs significantly from that of the Orientals. Every people has a special mission to fulfill within its development, a special task to accomplish. While the Oriental, at the time when he was experiencing the transition from ancient clairvoyance to the development of the ego, had only a very small degree of this ego, so that it surrendered very easily to the higher beings, the consciousness of personality developed early in European life. This characterizes those transitions in particular: the ego falls tremendously strongly into those transitional stages of object consciousness. Man was able to see into the inner nature of things, but he asserted his ego to the utmost, feeling from the beginning that he was a strong fighter against the beings who wanted to ensnare him in the threads of the surrounding spiritual world. Therefore, their helpers are preferably those beings who work toward the attainment of self-consciousness, toward the liberation of the ego.

We see how the victory that the spirits who bestow personal self-consciousness over the astral spirits want to achieve contains something that plays a major role in Germanic and European mythological literature. The alp spirit, which makes one unfree, is present everywhere in European consciousness in the Midgard serpent, in the figures of the giants, and also in the figures of the sirens. Everywhere you see how the gods, so to speak, become companions to humans in the development of personal self-awareness. We see how the god who lives in the breath, Wotan, becomes a companion to humans in the fight against all the lower spirits. We see how the strong god stands by man when it comes to overcoming lower consciousness. It is Donar or Thor with his hammer who overcomes the giants and the Midgard serpent; it is he who expresses in the truest sense how man, with his ego consciousness, steps out of the spiritual world into the world of sensory perception.

In Europe, the ground was prepared for Christianity by the fact that this defeat of the astral powers that want to make people unfree is a main motif. As a result, the European mind had to feel something that the Oriental peoples did not feel. In Europe, there was a urge to emerge with the free ego from the subconscious. That is why the European mind felt most intensely: I have emerged with my ego from the spiritual world into the physical-sensory world. Where my soul was in ancient times, I have lost that land; I have conquered the physical world, but that has blinded me to the old astral world; I have cast aside my old twilight consciousness. This must be expressed most strongly where victory over the astral world should be expressed. The old European consciousness perceived Baldur as the leader in the bright astral world from which the human soul is born. He, the sun-bright god, is the leader of souls insofar as they belonged to their homeland, the bright astral world. Now the souls are enclosed in the physical body. The leader in the sensory world, blind to the spiritual world, is Höðr, who slays Baldur.

Thus, the ancient Europeans perceived the demise of the clairvoyant soul as the temporary death of the soul. But they also perceived this demise as a transition. They felt that something new had to follow. Hence the twilight of the gods, the demise of that world order which presented external objects to us only as images before our eyes. And because personal consciousness was particularly pronounced in the ancient times, especially among the European peoples, the personal God who appeared in Christ Jesus could also be understood and grasped most deeply and intensely by the European peoples. Long ago, the seed had already been sown there for the acceptance of the personal God in Christ.

We have seen how today's consciousness in Europe developed out of earlier consciousness. Next time, our task will be to show how the great initiates already pointed to higher worlds in the ancient mysteries, long before the advent of Christianity. We will hear in the next lecture how the mysteries have continued to develop up to our time.

What the initiate saw in the past, human beings will learn to see at a higher level through spiritual science, when they look into the spiritual world with full, free consciousness.

Human beings, as beings living in their subconscious, have descended from the spiritual world in order to gain self-awareness in the sensory world. They will ascend again to the supersensible world with their self-awareness. The clairvoyance of old was not their own clairvoyance, but that which other beings instilled in them. The clairvoyance that human beings will acquire in the future will be a self-aware clairvoyance, imbued with the ego. This is best expressed by a saying of Christ Jesus. By pointing to the connection between truth and freedom, Christ Jesus looked into a distant future; and his saying points to this future: You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free!