Foundations of Anthroposophy
GA 79
1 December 1921, Christiania
III. World-Development in the Light of Anthroposophy
The thoughts which I have been putting before you, will show you that the acquisition of real super-sensible knowledge entails above all, with the aid of the exercises already described, that the two sides of human nature which are usually inexactly designated as man's inner and outer being should be distinctly separated. Perhaps it may be pointed out that in ordinary consciousness one does not make an exact distinction between man's inner and outer being, when speaking of these. The way in which I characterised the going out of man's sentient and volitional being during sleep and the becoming conscious in super-sensible knowledge outside the physical body, shows us that just this super-sensible knowledge enables us to separate distinctly those parts which are usually described vaguely in ordinary consciousness as man's outer and inner being.
I might say that by this separation man's inner world becomes his outer world, and what we usually consider as his outer world becomes his inner world.
What takes place in that case? During sleep, man's sentient and volitional being abandons what we have called his physical body and etheric body, or the body of formative forces, and then this sentient-volitional being looks back upon the physical body and the etheric body as if they were objects. We showed that in this retrospection the whole web of thought appears outside man's inner being. The world of thought which fills our ordinary consciousness and which reflects the external world, does not go out with man's true inner being in falling asleep, but remains behind with the physical body, as the true forces of the etheric body. In this way we were able to grasp that during our waking state of consciousness we cannot grow conscious of that part which goes out during sleep and which remains unconscious for the ordinary consciousness. (Self-observation can easily convince us that during our ordinary waking consciousness the world of thoughts produces this waking state of consciousness).
In that part of the human being which goes out of the physical and the etheric bodies during sleep, there is a dull twilight-life, and we only learn to know this inner being of man when super-sensible knowledge fills it, as it were, with light and with warmth, when we are just as conscious within this inner being as we are ordinarily conscious within our physical body. But we also learn to know why we have an unconscious life during our ordinary sleeping condition. Consciousness arises when we dive down into our physical and etheric bodies at the moment of waking up. And by diving down into the physical body, we make use of the senses which connect us with the external world. As a result, the sensory world awakes and we thus grow conscious in it.
In the same way we dive down into our etheric or life-body, that is to say, into our world of thoughts, and we grow conscious within our thoughts. Ordinary consciousness is therefore based upon the fact that we use the instruments of our physical body, and that we make use, so to speak, of the etheric body's web of formative forces. In ordinary life, man's true inner being, woven out of feeling and will, is not in a position to attain consciousness, because it has no organs. By making the thought- and will-exercises of which I have spoken, we endow the soul itself with organs. This soul-element, which is at first indistinct in our ordinary consciousness, acquires plastic form, even as our physical body and our etheric body acquire plastic form in the senses and in the organs of thought. Man's real soul-spiritual being therefore obtains a plastic form.
In the same measure in which it is moulded plastically and acquires (if I may use this paradoxical expression) soul-spiritual sense-organs, the world of soul and spirit rises up round our inner being. That part of our being which ordinarily lives in a dull twilight existence and which can only perceive an environing world, namely the physical world, when it uses the physical and etheric organs of perception, thus acquires plastic form and enters into connection with a world which always surrounds us, even in our ordinary life, though we are not aware of it, a world in which we lived before descending into our physical being through birth or conception, as described the day before yesterday; a world in which we shall live again when we pass through the portal of death, for then we shall recognise it as a world which belongs to us and which is not limited by birth and death. But there is one thing which rises up before us when we enter the spiritual world. We cannot enter this world in the same abstract theoretic manner with which we can live in the physical world and in the world of thoughts or of the intellect. In the physical world and in the world of thoughts we use ideas and thoughts, which as such, leave us cold. With a little self-observation anyone can discover that when he ascends to the sphere of pure thinking, when he surrenders to the external sensory world without any special interest or a close connection with it, the external physical world, as well as the world of ideas, really leaves him cold. We must learn to know this in detail from particular examples in life. We should note, for instance, how different are the inner feelings with which we consider our home, from those with which we look upon any other strange country which is indifferent to us. This will show us that in order to have a living interest for the environing world, our feeling and our will must first be drawn in through special circumstances. Feeling will indeed always dive down into the physical world when we awake, obtaining from this physical world a connection with the senses and the understanding. The fact that love or perhaps hate are kindled in us when we encounter certain people in the physical world, the fact that we feel induced to do certain things for them out of compassion, all this demands the inclusion of our feelings and of everything which constitutes our inner being, when we come across such things in the external physical world. How conscious we are of the fact that our inner life grows cold, when we rise up to spheres which are generally called the spheres of pale, dry thought and of theoretic study!
The being which lives in a dull twilight state from the moment of falling asleep to the moment of waking up, must, as it were, connect itself during the waking daytime condition with thoughts and with sensory experiences through an inner participation in these processes, thus giving rise to the whole wealth of interest in the external world.
And so we recognise that in life itself feeling and will must first be drawn into the sense world and into the world of thoughts. But we perceive this in the fullest meaning of the word only when through super-sensible knowledge, we become free from the physical and etheric bodies, and have experiences outside them within our sentient-volitional being.
And hence it is evident that we must begin to speak of the world in a different way from how we speak in ordinary life, in ordinary consciousness. The dry ideas, the laws of Nature which we are accustomed to find in science and which interest us theoretically, though they leave us inwardly cold, these should be permeated with certain nuances and expressions which characterise the external world differently from the way in which we usually characterize it.
Our inner life acquires greater intensity through super-sensible knowledge. We penetrate more intensively into the life of the external world. When we try to gain knowledge, we are then no longer able to submit coldly to inner ideas. No doubt one is then exposed to the reproach that the objectivity may suffer through a certain inner warmth, through the awakening of feeling and of a subjective sense. But this objection is only raised by those who are not acquainted with the circumstances.
The things perceived through super-sensible knowledge make us speak differently of the super-sensible objects of knowledge. These do not change, they do not become less objective, for in fact they are objective. When I look upon a wonderfully painted picture, it does not change through the fact that I look upon it with fire and enthusiasm; I should be a cold prosaic person if I were to face one of Raphael's Madonnas or one of Leonardo's paintings with a purely analytical artistic understanding, quite coldly and without any enthusiasm. It is the same when the spiritual worlds rise up in super-sensible knowledge. Their content does not change through the fact that we connect ourselves with these worlds with inner feelings, far stronger than those which usually connect us with the external world and its objects.
When speaking from a knowledge of the higher worlds, many things will therefore have to be said differently, the descriptions will have to be different from those which we are accustomed to hear in ordinary life. But this does not render these worlds less objective. On the contrary, one could say: The subjective element which now breaks forth from the physical and etheric bodies becomes more objective, more selfless in its whole experience. And so the first experience which we have when going out of the physical body and experiencing our inner being consciously (whereas otherwise we always experience it unconsciously) is a feeling of absolute loneliness.
In our ordinary consciousness we never have the feeling that by dwelling only within our inner self, independently of anything in the world pertaining to us, complete loneliness fills our soul, that we ourselves, with everything which now constitutes our soul-spiritual content, must rely entirely upon ourselves.
The feeling of loneliness which sometimes arises in the physical world, but only as a reflection of the real feeling, though it is painful enough for many people, becomes immeasurably intensified when we thus penetrate into the super-sensible world. But we then look back upon that which reflects itself as the spiritual environment in the mirror of the physical and etheric body which we left behind. We grow aware, on the one hand, of a complete feeling of loneliness, which alone enables us to maintain our Ego in this world ... for we should melt away in this world of the spirit, if loneliness would not give us this Ego-feeling in the spiritual world, in the same way in which our body, our bodily sensation, gives us our Ego-feeling here on earth. To this loneliness we owe the maintenance of the Ego in the spiritual world. We then learn to know this spiritual world as our environment. But we know that we can only learn to know it through the inner soul-spiritual eye, even as we see the physical world through our physical eyes.
It is the same when the human being abandons his physical and etheric bodies by passing through the portal of death, and in this connection I shall enlarge the explanations already given yesterday. It is true that in this case the physical body is given over to the elements of the earth and that the etheric body dissolves, as I described, in the universal cosmic ether. But what we learned to know as our physical world, through our feeling and will, the world in which we experienced ourselves through the ordinary consciousness between birth and death, this world remains to man. The physical body filled with substance and the body of formative forces permeated by etheric forces, are laid aside with death, but what we experienced within them remains as a mirroring element.
From the spiritual world we look back through death, through which we have passed, into our last earthly life. Just because we have before us this last earthly life as a firm resistance which mirrors everything, just because of this, everything which surrounds us as we pass through the soul-spiritual world between death and a new birth, can also reflect itself. Through these experiences we perceive everything rising up in a far more intensive life than the one which we learned to know here in the physical world. And we first perceive as a soul-spiritual being everything with which we were in some way connected through our destiny, through our Karma. The people we loved, stand before us as souls. In our super-sensible vision we see all that we experienced together with them.
Those who acquire spiritual, super-sensible knowledge, already acquire imaginative vision here in the physical world, through everything which I described to you. Those who pass through the portal of death in the ordinary way, acquire this faculty, though it is somewhat different from spiritual vision on earth, they acquire it after having passed through the portal of death. From the sheaths of the physical and etheric bodies which were laid aside, emerges everything with which we were connected by destiny, or otherwise, in this earthly life—it undoubtedly arises in a different way when those whom we left behind still live on the earth, where the connection with them is more difficult, but when they follow us through death, this connection exists in the free, soul-spiritual life. Everything in our environment with which we were connected as human beings rises up before us. To super-sensible knowledge, the fact that people (if I may now express myself in words of the ordinary consciousness) who belonged together here in the physical world find each other again in the soul-spiritual world, after having passed through the portal of death, is not a belief to be accepted as a vague premonition, but it is a certainty, a fact just as certain as the results of physics or chemistry. And this is in fact something which the spiritual science of Anthroposophy can add to the acquisitions of modern culture.
People have grown accustomed to a certain feeling of certainty through the gradual popularisation of a scientific consciousness. They strive to gain some knowledge of the super-sensible worlds, but no longer in the form of the old presentiments handed down traditionally in the religious beliefs, for they have been trained to accept that certainty which the external world can offer. In regard to that which lies beyond birth and death the spiritual science of Anthroposophy seeks to pave the way to this same kind of certainty. It can really do this. Only those who tread the path already described, the path leading into the spiritual worlds, can carry the knowledge acquired in physics or chemistry further, out into the worlds which we enter when we pass through the portal of death.
Not everything of course, appears to us in this way when we look back upon our physical body through super-sensible knowledge outside the body. There is one thing which then appears to us very enigmatic, and this enigma can show us best of all that the spiritual science of Anthroposophy does not translate the truths which it includes in its spheres of knowledge into a prosaic, dry rationalism. It leads us to spiritual vision, or by communicating its truth it speaks of things which can be perceived through spiritual vision. But in being led to spiritual vision, we do not lose full reverence towards the mysteries contained in the universe, towards everything in the universe which inspires reverence and which can now be clearly perceived, whereas otherwise they are at the most felt darkly. This enigmatic something which I mean and which appears to us, is that we now learn to know man's relationship with the earth, particularly his relationship with the physical mineral earth.
I have already explained to you from many different aspects how our web of thoughts, which is connected with the physical body, remains behind, and in addition to what has been described to you, in addition to what reflects itself and leads us to a knowledge of man's eternal being, we can also recognise the nature of this mirror itself which we have before us.
One might say: Even as in the physical world we face a mirror and in this mirror the environing world appears simultaneously with our own self, so in super-sensible knowledge the spiritual world appears through this mirror. But just as we can touch the material mirror with its foil and investigate its composition, so we can also investigate this mirror of the super-sensible—namely, our physical body and our etheric body—when we are outside with our real soul-spiritual being.
And there one can see that during his earthly life man constantly takes in substances from the external world, in order to grow and to sustain his whole life. We certainly absorb substances from the animal and vegetable kingdoms, but all these substances which we absorb from the animal and vegetable kingdoms also contain mineral substances. Plants contain mineral substances, for the plant builds itself up from mineral substances. By taking in vegetable nourishment we therefore build up our own body out of mineral substances.
By looking back upon our physical body from outside, we can now perceive the true significance of the mineral substances which we absorb. For now spiritual vision reveals something of which our ordinary consciousness has not the faintest inkling, namely the activity of thinking. We have, as you know, left behind our thinking. Our thoughts continue, as it were, to glimmer and to shine within the physical body. Thus we can now observe the effects of thoughts in the physical body from outside, as something objective. And we perceive that the effect of thoughts upon man's physical body is a dissolution of its physical substances, which fall asunder, as it were, into nothing.
I know that this apparently contradicts the law of the conservation of energy, but there is no time now to explain more fully its full harmony with this law. The nature of my subject obliges me to express myself in somewhat popular terms. But it is possible to understand that the purely mineral in man, what he bears within him as purely mineral substances, must be within him because it must be dissolved by his thoughts. For otherwise his thoughts could not exist—this is the condition for their existence—his thoughts could not exist if they did not dissolve mineral, earthly substances, a fact also revealed by the spiritual sciences of earlier times, based more on intuitive feeling. This dissolution, this destruction of physical substances constitutes the physical instrumentality of thinking.
When our sentient-volitional part, our true inner being, lives within the physical body and within the etheric body and is filled by the activity of thinking, we now learn to recognise that this activity takes its course through the fact that physical substance is continually destroyed. We now learn to recognise how our ordinary consciousness really arises. We are not conscious because forces of growth hold sway in us, forces which develop in the rest of the organism through nutrition. For in the same measure in which the forces of growth are active within us, thinking is dulled. When we wake up, thinking must, so to speak, have a free hand to dissolve physical substances, to eliminate them from the physical body. To the spiritual science of Anthroposophy, the nervous system appears as that organ which mediates this secretion of mineral-physical substances throughout the whole body. And in this secretion of the mineral-physical develops just that thought-activity which we ordinarily carry with us through the world.
You therefore see that the spiritual science of Anthroposophy not only enables us to recognise the eternal in man, but also to know of the way in which this eternal works within the physical body; that, for instance, thought can only exist through the fact that man continually develops within himself the mineral substances, that is, something dead.
And so we can say: If we learn to know man from this aspect, we also learn to know death from another aspect. Ordinarily death confronts us as the end of life, as a moment in life, as an experience in itself. But when we throw light upon man's physical and etheric body in this way we learn to know the gradual course of death, or the separation of physical-mineral substance,—for death in fact, is nothing but the complete liberator of man's mineral-physical substance—we learn to know the continuous secretion of a dead, corpse-like element within us.
We recognise that from birth onwards, we are really always dying and only when with the whole body we accomplish that which we ordinarily accomplish through the nervous system, in a small part of the body, only then do we die.
We therefore learn to contemplate the moment of death by seeing it on a small scale in the activity of thinking in the human organism. And throughout the whole time that we pass through after death, we can only look back upon our physical body because the following fact exists: Whenever a thought lights up within you during your ordinary life, this is always accompanied by the fact that physical matter is secreted in the physical body, in the same way in which, for instance, physical substance separates from a precipitated salt-solution. This lighting up of thought you owe as it were, to this opaqueness, to this separating off of physical mineral substances. Inasmuch as you abandon the physical body, there is summed up in a comparatively brief space of time what lives in the continual stream of your thoughts. You confront the fact that in death you see lighting up as if all at once that which slowly glimmered and shone throughout your whole earthly life, from birth to death.
And through this powerful impression, in which the life of thoughts illuminates the soul like a mighty flash of lightning, man acquires the memory of his physical lives on earth. The physical body may be cast off, the etheric body may dissolve completely in the universal ether, but through the fact that we obtain in one experience this powerful thought-impression (to mathematicians I might say: this thought-integral in comparison with thought-differentials, from birth to death), we always have before us, throughout the time after death, as a mirroring element, our physical life on earth, even though we have laid aside our physical and etheric parts. And this mirroring element reveals everything which we experience when the human beings with whom we were connected by destiny in love or in hate, gradually come up, when the spiritual Beings who live in the spiritual world and do not descend to the earth, whose company we also now share, rise up before us.
The spiritual investigator may state this with a calm conscience, for he knows that he does not speak on the foundation of illusionary pictures; he knows instead that to super-sensible vision, when super-sensible vision arises through the organ of the physical and etheric bodies which are now outside, these things are just as real, can be seen just as really as physical colours are ordinarily perceived through physical eyes, or physical sounds through physical ears.
This is how the evolution of humanity forms part of the evolution of the world. If we study the development of the world, for instance, the mineral life on earth, we understand why there should be mineral, earthly laws. They exist so that they might also exist within us, and thinking is therefore bound up with the earth. But in perceiving how the Beings who have bound their thinking with the earth emerge from that which produces their thought, we also learn to recognise how man in his true being lifts himself above the merely earthly. This is what connects the development of the world with the development of humanity and unites them.
We learn to know the human being and at the same time we learn to know the universe. If we learn to know man's physical body and its mineralization through thinking, we also learn to know through man's physical body the lifeless mineralised earth. This created a foundation for a knowledge of the evolution of the world from its spiritual aspect also.
When we thus learn to know man's inner being, we can consider the development of the world in the light of the ordinary earthly experiences through which we have passed since our birth.
If you draw out of your memory-store an experience which you had ten years ago, a past event which you have gone through rises up before your soul as an image. You know exactly from the circumstances of life that it rises up as a picture. Yet this picture conveys a knowledge of something which really existed ten years ago.
How does this arise? Through the fact that in your organism certain processes remained behind which now summon up the picture. Certain processes have remained behind in your organism and these summon up in you the picture enabling you to re-construct what you experienced ten years ago. But super-sensible knowledge leads us deeper into man's inner nature. We can perceive, for instance, that the physical body becomes mineralised during the thinking process; we perceive this in the same way in which we learn to know some past experience of our earthly life through the traces which it left behind within us.
In the same way the development of the earth can be understood from the development of man; through the activity of the mineral in man we learn to know the task of the mineral kingdom within the development of the earth. And if, as already set forth, we learn similarly to know (I can only mention this, for a detailed description would lead us too far) how the vegetable kingdom is connected with man, and how the animal kingdom is connected with him (for this too can be recognised), then the development of the world can be grasped by setting out from the human being.
And within the development of the world we can then see something which is again of the same importance to those who are interested in modern civilisation, as are the facts which I explained in connection with a knowledge of the human being, of the eternal inner kernel of man.
We know that modern civilisation has succeeded, at least up to a certain point, in so regarding man's relationship to the development of the world as to attach him to the evolution of the animals,—even though the corresponding theories, or the hypotheses, as some people say, still contain much that is unclear, requiring completion and modification. We follow the development of the simplest organic beings up to the higher animals, and if we continue this line of observation we come indeed to the point of placing man at the summit of animal development. One person does it in this way, and the other in that way, one more idealistically, and the other more materialistically in accordance with Darwin's theory of evolutionary descent, but methodically, it can hardly be denied that if we wish to study man's physical nature according to natural-scientific methods, we must rank him with the animal kingdom,—as has been done for some time.
We must investigate how his head has changed in comparison with the heads of the different animal-species; we must investigate his limbs, etc., and we thus obtain what is known as comparative anatomy, comparative morphology, comparative physiology, and we then also form concepts as to how man's physical form has gradually developed out of lower beings in the course of the world's evolution. But in so doing we always remain in the physical sphere. On the one hand people take it amiss to-day if the anthroposophical spiritual investigator speaks of the spiritual world as I have taken upon myself to do in this lecture; from many sides this is viewed as pure fantasy, and although many people believe that it is well-meant ... they nevertheless look upon it as something visionary and fanciful.
Those who become acquainted to some extent with what I have described, those who at least try to understand it, will see that the preparations and preliminary conditions for it are just as serious as, for instance, the preparations for the study of mathematics, so that it is out of the question to speak of sailing into some sort of fanciful domain. But just as on the one hand people take it amiss if one describes the spiritual world as a real visible world, so they take it amiss on the other hand if in regard to man's physical development one fully accepts those who follow man's development Darwinistically, with a natural-scientific discipline, along the animal line of descent, as far as man. No speculations should enter the observations made in the physical sphere and all sorts of things sought for there, as is done for instance, to-day in Neo-vitalism. This is full of speculations; the old vitalism was also full of speculative elements. But whenever we consider the physical world, we must keep to the physical facts.
For this reason, the anthroposophical spiritual investigator who on the one hand ventures to speak in a certain way of the conditions after death and before birth, as I have done, does not consider it as a reproach (i.e. he is not affected by it) when people tell him that his description of the physical world is completely that of a modern natural scientist. He does not bring any dreams into the sphere which constitutes the physical world. Even though people may call him a materialist when he describes the physical world, this reproach does not touch him, because he strictly separates the spiritual world, which can only be observed with the aid of a spiritual method, from the physical-sensory world, which has to be observed with the orderly disciplined methods of modern natural science.
A serious spiritual-scientific investigator must therefore feel particularly hurt and pained at reproaches made to him with regard to certain followers of spiritual science who sometimes rebuke natural science out of a certain pride in their spiritual-scientific knowledge and out of their undoubtedly shallow knowledge of natural science. They think that they have the right to speak negatively of science and of scientific achievements but the spiritual investigator can only feel deeply hurt at their amateurish, dilettantish behaviour. This is however not in keeping with spiritual science. The spiritual science of Anthroposophy is characterised by the fact that it deals just as strictly and scientifically with the external physical world, as with the spiritual world, and vice versa.
With this preliminary condition, the anthroposophical spiritual investigator stands entirely upon the ground of strictest natural-scientific observation in regard to the study of the world's development, but at the same time he turns his gaze towards the soul-spiritual world. And even as he knows that not only a physical process is connected with man's individual embryonic origin in the physical world, but that a soul-spiritual element unites with the human embryo, with the human germ, so he also knows that in the whole development of the world—though to the physical body it appears as a tapestry of sensory objects, and though it manifests itself to the web of thoughts, i.e. to the etheric body, in laws of Nature—he also knows that the physical world is permeated and guided in its whole development by spiritual forces, under the sway of spiritual Beings, that can be known through the methods I have described.
The anthroposophical investigator therefore knows that when he contemplates the external physical world in the sense of genuine science, he comes to the right boundary, where he may then begin with his spiritual investigation.
If we have conscientiously traced evolutionary development through the animal kingdom up to man, as Darwin or other Darwinians or Haeckel did, and if we have gone into its scientific justification we can then continue this in a spiritual-scientific direction, after having reached the boundary to which we are led by natural science.
We now discover that contemplation of the form into which we penetrate through super-sensible knowledge, shows us the whole significance of forms, as they appear in the kingdom of man on the one hand, and in the animal-kingdom on the other; we discover the whole significance of these forms.
Equipped with the knowledge supplied by super-sensible research, we see how the animal (this is at least the case with most animals, and exceptions can be easily explained) stands upon the ground with its four limbs, how its spine is horizontal, parallel with the surface of the earth, and how in regard to the spine, the head develops in an entirely different position from that of man. We learn to know the animal's whole form, as it were, from within, as a complex of forces, and also in relationship with the whole universe. And we thus learn to make a comparison: We perceive the transformation, the metamorphosis in the human form, in the human being whom we see standing upon his two legs, at right angles, so to speak, with the animal's spine, with his own spine set vertically to the surface of the earth and his head developing in accordance with this position of the spine.
By penetrating into the inner art of Nature's creative process, we learn to distinguish the human form from the animal form; we recognise this by entering into the artistic creative process of the cosmos. And we penetrate into the development of the world by rising from otherwise abstract constructive thoughts to thoughts which are inwardly filled with life, which form themselves artistically in the spirit.
The important thing to be borne in mind is that when it seeks to know the development of the world, anthroposophical spiritual research changes from the abstract understanding ordinarily described—and justly so—as dry, prosaic, systematic thought, or combining thought, into more concrete, real thought. Not for the higher spiritual world, in which concepts must penetrate by the methods described, but for the physical world, the forms in world-development should first be grasped through a kind of artistic comprehension, which in addition develops upon the foundation of super-sensible knowledge.
By thus indicating how science should change into art, we must of course encounter the objection raised by those who are accustomed to think in accordance with modern ideas: “But science must not become an art!” Now this can always be said, as a human requirement. People can say: Now I forbid the logic of the universe to become an art, for we only learn to know reality by linking up thought with thought and by thus approaching reality. Yes, if the world were as people imagine it to be, one could refuse to ascend to art, to an artistic comprehension of forms; but if the world is formed in such a way that it can only be comprehended through an artistic comprehension, it is necessary to advance to such an artistic comprehension. This is how matters stand. That is why those people who were earnestly seeking to grasp the organic in the world-development really came to an inner development of the thinking ordinarily looked upon as scientific thinking, they came to an artistic comprehension of the world. And as soon as we observe with an artistic-intuitive eye the development of the world, beginning with the point where the ordinary Darwinistic theory comes to a standstill, we perceive that man, grasped as a whole, cannot simply be looked upon by saying that once there were lower animals in the world, from which higher animals developed, that then still higher animals developed out of these, and so forth, until finally man arose.
If we study embryology in an unprejudiced way, it really contradicts this conception. Although modern scientists set up the fundamental law of biogenetics and compare embryology with phylogeny, they do not interpret rightly what appears outwardly even in human embryology, because they do not rise to this artistic comprehension of the world's development. If we observe in a human embryo how the limbs develop out of organs which at first have a stunted aspect, how everything is at first actually head, we already obtain the first elements of what is revealed by the artistic comprehension of the human form as I meant it. It is not possible to range the whole human being with the animals. One cannot say: The human being, such as he stands before us to-day, is a descendant of the whole animal species. No, this is not the case. Just those who penetrate with genuine scientific conscientiousness into scientific Darwinism and its modern description of the development of the world, will discover that through a higher understanding it is simply impossible to place man at the end, or at the summit of the animal-chain of development; they must instead study the human head as such, the head of the human beings. This human head alone descends from the whole animal kingdom. Though it may sound strange and paradoxical, the part which is generally considered as man's most perfect part, is a transformation from the animal kingdom.
Let us approach the human head with this idea and let us study it carefully. Observe with a certain morphological-artistic sense how the lower maxillary bones are transformed limbs, how also the upper maxillary bones are transformed limbs, how everything in the head is an enhanced development of the animal form; you will then recognise in the human head that upon a higher stage it reveals everything which has been developed in the animal under so many different forms. You will then also understand why it is so.
When you observe the animal, you can see that its head hangs upon one extremity of the spine and that in the typical animal it is entirely subjected to the law of gravity. Observe instead the human head, observe how the human being stands within the cosmos. The human head is set upon a spine which has a vertical direction. It rests upon the remaining body in such a way that the rest of man protects the head, as it were, against being subjected to the force of gravity alone. The human head is really something which rests upon the remaining organism with comparative independence. And we come to understand that through the fact that the human head is carried by the remaining body, it really travels along like a person using a coach; for it is the rest of the body which carries the human head through the world. The human head has its transformed limbs which have become shrivelled, as it were, and it is set upon the rest of the organism. This remaining organism is related to the human head in the same way in which the whole earth with its force of gravity is related to the animal. In regard to the head, the human being is “membered” into his whole remaining body in the same way in which the whole animal is “membered” into the earth.
We now begin to understand the human being through the development of the world. And if we proceed in this knowledge of the human form with an artistic sense and understanding, we finally comprehend how the human head is the continuation of the animal-series and how the remaining body of man developed later, out of the earth, and was attached to the human head. Only in this way we gradually learn to understand man's development.
If we go back into earlier times of the past, we can only transfer into these primordial epochs that part of man which lies at the foundation of his present head-development. We must not seek the development of his limbs or of his thorax in those early ages, for these developed later. But if we observe the development of the world by setting out, as I described, from the human being, if we observe it in the same way in which we look upon some past experience through memory, we find that the human being had already begun his development in the world at a time when our higher animals, for instance, did not as yet exist. There were however other animal forms present at that time from which the human head has developed, but the higher animals of to-day were not in existence.
We can therefore say: (let us now take a later epoch of the earth) In the further course of his development, man developed his head out of earlier animal-beings through the fact that his spiritual essence animated him. That is why he could bring his head to a higher stage of development. He then added his limbs, which developed out of the regular forces of the earth. The animals which followed, could only develop to the extent to which man had developed with the exclusion of his head. They began their development later, so that they have not come as far as the human development of the head; they remain connected with the earth, while the human being separates himself from it.
This proves that it has a real meaning to say: Man is organised into the development of the universe in such a way that while he is connected with the animal kingdom, he rises above it through his spiritual development. The animals which followed man in their development could only develop as much as man had developed in his limbs and thorax ... the head remained stunted, because a longer time of development should have preceded it, such as that of man, in order that the real head might develop.
Through an artistic contemplation of the forms in the world's development, the conscientiously accepted Darwinistic theory is transformed, in so far as it is scientifically justified to-day. And we recognise that in the development of the world the human being has behind him a longer time of development than the animals,—that the animals develop as their chief form that part which man merely adds to his head. In this way man reaches the point of lifting one part of his being out of the force of gravity, whereas the animals are entirely subjected to it. Everything which constituted our head with its sense-organs, is raised above the force of gravity, so that it does not turn towards heavy ponderable matter, but towards the ether, which fills the sensory world. This is the case above all with the senses; we should see this, if we were to study them more closely. In this way, for instance, the human organ of hearing depends upon an etheric structure, not only upon the air structure.
Through all this, the human being forms part not only of the material world, of the ponderable physical world, but he forms part of the etheric outer world. Through the etheric world he perceives, for instance, what the light conjures up before him in the world of colours, etc., etc. Even through his external form he rises above heavy matter, up to the free ether, and for this reason we see the development of the world in a different way when we ascend from natural science to spiritual science.
But when we rise up to an artistic conception, we also perceive the activity of the soul-spiritual in man, and we must rise up to such a conception if we wish to understand the human being. We should, for instance, be able to say: In regard to his soul-spiritual, sentient-volitional being, we must speak of loneliness and of a life in common with others, as if these were theoretical concepts, as I described to-day; we must rise up to the moral world and finally we come to the religious world. These worlds are interwoven and form a whole.
If we study the human being in accordance with a natural-scientific mentality and in the sense of modern civilisation, we find on the one hand the rigid scientific necessity of Nature into which the human being is also inserted, and on the other hand, we find that man can only be conscious of his dignity and can only say: I am truly man, if he can feel within him the moral-religious impulses. But if we honestly stand upon the foundation of natural science, we have pure hypotheses as to the beginning and the end of the earth, hypotheses which speak of the Kant-Laplace nebula for the beginning of the earth and of a heat-death for the end of the earth.
If in the face of the natural-scientific demands we now consider, in the sense of modern civilisation, the moral-religious world which reveals itself intuitively (I have shown this in my Philosophy of Spiritual Activity), if we consider this world we must say: We really delude ourselves, we conjure up before us a fog. Is it possible to believe that when the earth passes through the death by heat, that there should still exist anything else in the sense of natural science than the death too of all ideals?
At this point spiritual science, or Anthroposophy steps in, and shows that the soul-spiritual is a reality, that it is working upon the physical and that it has placed man in the human form, into the evolution of the world. It shows that we should look back upon animal-beings which are entirely different from the present animals, that it is possible to adhere to the methods of modern science, but that other results are obtained. Anthroposophy thus inserts the moral element into the science of religion, and Anthroposophy thus becomes moral-religious knowledge.
Now we no longer merely look towards the Kant-Laplace nebula, but we look at the same time to an original spiritual element, out of which the soul-spiritual world described in Anthroposophy has just as much developed as the physical world has developed out of a physical-earthly origin. And we also look towards the end of the earth and since the laws of entropy are fully justified, we can show that the earth will end through a kind of death by heat. But we look towards the end just as from the anthroposophical standpoint we can view the end of the single human being: his corpse is handed over to the elements, the human being himself passes over into a spiritual world. This is how we envisage the end of the earth. The scientific results do not disturb us, for we know that everything of a soul-spiritual nature which men have developed will pass through the earth's portal of death when the earth no longer exists; it will pass over into a new world-development, even as the human being passes over into a new world-development when he passes through death.
By surveying the development of the earth in this way, we perceive in the middle of its development the event of Golgotha. We see how this event of Golgotha is placed in the middle of the earth's development, because formerly, there only existed forces which would have led man to a kind of paralysis of his forces. We really learn to recognise (I can only allude to this at the end of my lecture) that in the same way in which through the vegetable and animal fertilization a special element enters the fertilised organism, so the Mystery of Golgotha brought something into the evolution of the world from spiritual worlds outside the earth, and this continues to live, it accompanies the souls, until at the end of the earth, they pass on to new metamorphoses of earthly life. I should have to describe whole volumes were I to show the path leading in a strictly conscientious scientific way from what I have described to you to-day in connection with the evolution of humanity and of the universe, to the mystery of Golgotha, to the appearance of the Christ-Being within earthly existence.
But through a spiritual-scientific deepening many passages in the Gospel will appear in an entirely new light, in a different way from what it has hitherto been possible for Western consciousness. Let us consider only the following fact: If we take our stand fully upon a natural-scientific foundation, we must envisage the physical end of the earth. And those who continue to stand upon this scientific foundation, will also find that finally the starry world surrounding the earth will fall away; they will look upon a future in which this earth below will no longer exist and the stars above will no longer exist. But spiritual science gives us the certainty that just as an eternal being goes out of the physical and etheric body every evening and returns into them every morning, so an eternal being will continue to live on when its individual body falls away. When the whole earth falls away from all the human soul-spiritual beings, this eternal part will continue to live and it will pass over to new planetary phases of world evolution.
Now Christ's words in the Gospels resound to us in a new and wonderful way: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away, and connected with these words are those of St. Paul: Not I, but Christ in me. If a Christian really grasps these words, if one who really understands Christianity inwardly and who says, “Not I, but Christ in me,” understands Christ's words, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away,” that is, what lives within my everlasting Being shall not pass away,—these words will shine forth from the Gospel in a remarkable way, with a magic that calls forth reverence, but if one is really honest they cannot be directly understood without further effort.
If we approach such words and others, with the aid of spiritual science and in the anthroposophical sense, if we approach many other sayings which come to us out of the spiritual darkness of the world-development, of the development of the earth and of humanity, a light will ray on to them. Indeed, it is as if light were to fall upon such words as “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away”—light falls upon them, if we hear them resounding from that region where the Mystery of Golgotha took place, that event through which the whole development of the earth first acquires its true meaning.
Thus we see that spiritual science in the sense of Anthroposophy strives above all after a conscientious observation of the strict methods of the physical world, but at the same time it seeks to continue these strict scientific methods into regions where our true eternal being shines out towards us, regions where also the spiritual being of the world-development rays out its light towards us, a light in which the world-development itself with its spiritual forces and Beings appears in its spiritual-divine character.
At the conclusion of my lecture let me express the following fact: Spiritual-scientific Anthroposophy can fully understand that modern humanity, particularly conscientious, scientifically-minded men, have grown accustomed to consider as real and certain the results of causal natural-scientific knowledge, the results of external sense-observation, intellectual combinations of these sensory observations, and experiments. And by acquiring this certainty, they acquired a certain feeling in general towards that which can be “certain.” Up to now no attempt has been made to study super-sensible things in the same way in which physical things are studied. This certainty could therefore not be carried into super-sensible regions. To-day people still believe that they must halt with a mere faith at the thresh-hold of the super-sensible worlds, that feelings full of reverence suffice, because otherwise they would lose the mystery, and the super-sensible world would be rationalised. But spiritual science does not seek to rationalise the mystery, to dispel the reverent feeling which one has towards the mystery: it leads man to these mysteries through sight. Anthroposophy leaves the mystery its mystery-character, but it sets it into the evolution of the world in the same way in which sensory things exist in the sphere of world-evolution.
And it must be true that men also need certainty for the spheres transcending mere Nature. To the extent in which they will feel that through spiritual science in the sense of Anthroposophy they do not hear some vague amateurish and indistinct talk about the spiritual worlds, but something which is filled by the same spirit which comes to expression in modern science, to this same extent humanity will also feel that the certainty which it acquired, the certainty which it is accustomed to have through the physical world, can also be led over into the spiritual worlds. People will feel: If certainty exists only in regard to the physical world, of what use is this certainty, since the physical world passes away? Man needs an eternal element, for he himself wants to be rooted in an eternal element. He cannot admit that this certainty should only be valid for the transient, perishable world. Certainty, the certainty of knowledge, must also be gained in regard to the imperishable world.
This is the aim pursued in greatest modesty (those who follow the spiritual science of Anthroposophy know this) by Anthroposophy. Its aim is that through his natural certainty man should not lose his knowledge of the imperishable; through his certainty in regard to perishable things he should not lose the certainty in regard to imperishable things. Certainty in regard to the imperishable, that is to say, certainty in regard to the riddle of birth and death, the riddle of immortality, the riddle of the spiritual world-evolutions, this is what Anthroposophy seeks to bring into our civilisation.
Anthroposophy believes that this can be its contribution to modern civilisation. For in the same measure in which people courageously recognise that certainty must be gained also in regard to imperishable things, and not only in regard to perishable things, in the same measure they will grow accustomed to look upon Anthroposophy no longer as something fantastic and as an idle individual hobby, but as something which must enter our whole spiritual culture, like all the other branches of science, and thereby our civilisation in general.
Die Weltentwickelung im Lichte der Anthroposophie
Es dürfte aus den Betrachtungen, die ich mir erlaubte, vor Ihnen hier anzustellen, hervorgegangen sein, daß es sich vor allen Dingen zum Behufe wirklicher übersinnlicher Erkenntnisse darum handelt, gewissermaßen zu trennen durch Übungen‚ wie ich sie charakterisiert habe, die beiden Seiten der menschlichen Natur, die man gewöhnlich ungenau bezeichnet als menschliches Inneres und menschliches Äußeres. Es darf vielleicht darauf hingewiesen werden, daß ja der Mensch im gewöhnlichen Bewußtwerden, wenn er von Äußerem und Innerem spricht, eine genaue Trennung nicht vornimmt. Und die Art und Weise, wie zu charakterisieren war jenes Heraustreten des gefühls- und willensmäßigen Wesens des Menschen im Schlafzustande, und wie weiter zu charakterisieren war das Bewußtwerden im übersinnlichen Erkennen außerhalb des menschlichen Leibes, das wird zeigen, daß gerade in diesem übersinnlichen Erkennen eine genaue Trennung desjenigen zu erlangen ist, was man eigentlich im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein nur ahnend als das Äußere und das Innere des Menschen bezeichnet. Ich möchte sagen, durch diese Trennung wird das Innere des Menschen zum Äußeren, und was der Mensch sonst als sein Äußeres anspricht, das wird zum Inneren.
Was geschieht denn da eigentlich? Das willens- und gefühlsmäßige Wesen des Menschen tritt im Schlafzustande aus dem heraus, was genannt worden ist der physische Leib des Menschen und der Bildekräfteleib oder Ätherleib des Menschen, und dieses gefühls-willensmäßige Wesen des Menschen sieht zurück wie auf ein Objekt auf den physischen Leib und den Ätherleib. Wir haben gezeigt, daß bei diesem Zurückschauen uns das gesamte Gewebe des Denkens ja nun auch außerhalb des menschlichen Inneren erscheint. Was uns im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein als unsere Gedankenwelt erfüllt, in der sich die Außenwelt spiegelt, das geht ja nicht im Einschlafen mit dem eigentlichen Inneren des Menschen, das bleibt zurück als die eigentlichen Kräfte des Ätherleibes beim physischen Leib. Und wir haben auf diese Weise es begreiflich finden können — weil der Mensch ja den gewöhnlichen Wachzustand, wie man leicht durch Selbstbeobachtung sich überzeugen kann, durch seine Gedankenwelt hat —, daß im wachen Zustande der Mensch sich gerade dessen nicht bewußt sein kann, was nun als für das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein eben Unbewußtes im Schlafe heraustritt.
Es ist ein dumpfes, dämmerhaftes Sein in jenem Menschenwesen, das mit dem Einschlafen aus dem physischen Leib und Ätherleib herausgeht, und man lernt dieses menschliche Innere erst kennen, wenn es durch die übersinnliche Erkenntnis, ich möchte sagen, durchleuchtet und durchwärmt wird, wenn man sich in diesem Inneren ebenso bewußt wird, wie man sich sonst im physischen Leib bewußt ist. Man lernt aber auch erkennen, warum man im gewöhnlichen Schlaf unbewußt dahinlebt. Die Bewußtheit tritt eben auf, wenn man beim Aufwachen untertaucht in den physischen und in den ätherischen Leib. Und durch das Untertauchen in den physischen Leib bedient man sich seiner Sinne, die einen mit der Außenwelt in Verbindung bringen. Die Folge davon ist, daß die sinnliche Welt erwacht und man dadurch in dieser sinnlichen Welt bewußt wird.
Ebenso taucht man unter in seinen Äther- oder Lebensleib, das heißt in seine Gedankenwelt, und man wird sich bewußt in Gedanken. Das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein beruht also darauf, daß man sich der Werkzeuge seines physischen Leibes bedient, und daß man sich, ich möchte sagen, des Bildekräftegewebes des ätherischen Leibes bedient. Im gewöhnlichen Leben ist dieses wirkliche Innere des Menschen, das aus Gefühl und Wille gewoben ist, nicht imstande, zu einem Bewußtsein zu kommen, weil es keine Organe hat. Indem man diejenigen denkerischen und Willensübungen macht, von denen ich gesprochen habe, stattet man das Seelische selber mit Organen aus. Dieses Seelische, das zuerst unbestimmt im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein ist, das wird plastisch gestaltet, so wie sonst unser physischer Leib und unser Ätherleib zu den Sinnen, zu den Denkorganen plastisch gestaltet wird. Es wird also das eigentliche seelisch-geistige Wesen des Menschen plastisch gestaltet. Und in demselben Maße, in dem es plastisch gestaltet wird, indem es gewissermaßen geistig-seelische Sinnesorgane — wenn ich mich des paradoxen Ausdruckes bedienen darf — bekommt, taucht die geistig-seelische Welt um dieses menschliche Innere auf. Was also sonst im dumpfen, dämmerhaften Zustande ist und deshalb erst eine Welt, nämlich die Sinneswelt, wahrnehmen kann, wenn es sich der physischen und der ätherischen Organe bedient, das gewinnt Plastik, kommt in Beziehung zu der Welt, von der wir sonst auch immer umgeben sind, ohne daß wir es wissen, und in der wir ja lebten, bevor wir durch die Geburt oder Empfängnis auf die vorgestern hier beschriebene Art in das physische Wesen eingezogen sind, in der wir auch wiederum leben — denn wir erkennen sie dann als zu uns gehörig und nicht begrenzt durch Geburt und Tod —, wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes treten. Indem man die seelisch-geistige Welt betritt, macht man aber eine bestimmte Erfahrung: Es ist so, daß man nicht in derselben abstrakt-theoretischen Weise in diese Geisteswelt einziehen kann, mit der man leben kann in der sinnlichen und in der Verstandes- oder Gedankenwelt. In der sinnlichen und in der Verstandeswelt, da bedienen wir uns der Gedanken, Ideen, welche uns eigentlich als solche, ich möchte sagen, kalt lassen. Jeder Mensch, der nur ein wenig Selbstbeobachtung hat, weiß ja, daß, wenn er sich in das Gebiet des reinen Gedankens erhebt, wenn er sich der äußeren Sinneswelt hingibt, ohne besondere Interessen, ohne ein besonderes Zusammengewachsensein mit irgend etwas, ihn eigentlich sowohl die äußere Sinneswelt als auch die Ideenwelt kalt läßt. Man muß nur im einzelnen an besonderen Beispielen aus dem Leben kennen lernen, wie dies der Fall ist. Man muß einmal vergleichen, mit wie anderen inneren Erlebnissen zum Beispiel der Mensch gewöhnlich seine Heimat betrachtet, als irgendeine ihm gleichgültige fremde Gegend. Man wird dann sehen, wie der Mensch durch besondere Verhältnisse sein Gefühl und seinen Willen — die eben immer erst beim Aufwachen untertauchen in die physische Welt und von dorther die Verbindung mit der Sinneswelt und der Verstandeswelt bekommen — heranziehen muß, um ein lebendiges Interesse an der Umwelt zu haben. Daß wir an gewissen Menschen, die uns in der physischen Welt entgegentreten, unser Gefühl entzünden in Liebe, vielleicht auch unseren Haß entzünden, daß wir geneigt sind, aus Mitgefühl für sie irgendwelche Taten zu tun: das alles fordert erst, daß wir unsere Empfindungen, unsere Gefühle, alles, was unser Inneres ist, heranerziehen zu dem, was uns da in der äußeren physischen Welt entgegentritt. Und wie sehr weiß ja der Mensch, wie sein inneres Leben erkaltet, wenn er sich in die Gebiete erhebt, die man gewöhnlich die Gebiete des blassen, trockenen Gedankens, des theoretischen Studiums nennt.
Es muß erst das, was vom Einschlafen bis zum Aufwachen im dumpfen, dämmerhaften Zustand verweilt, sich gewissermaßen durch das innerliche Miterleben während des Tagwachens zusammenbinden mit dem Gedanken und mit den Sinneserlebnissen, damit die ganze Mannigfaltigkeit der Interessen für die äußere Welt entstehe. Und so erkennen wir ja, wie erst im Leben selbst Gefühl und Wille engagiert werden an der Sinneswelt und an der Gedankenwelt. Im vollsten Sinne des Wortes aber erfahren wir das erst, wenn wir nun durch übersinnliche Erkenntnisse, frei vom physischen Leib und frei vom ätherischen Leib, uns außerhalb derselben erleben in dem gefühls- und willensmäßigen Wesen des Menschen. Und da zeigt sich, daß man anfangen muß, ganz anders zu reden über die Welt, als man im gewöhnlichen Leben, im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein redet. Man muß anfangen, das, was man sonst in der Wissenschaft gewöhnt ist, mit trockenen Ideen, mit Naturgesetzen, die uns theoretisch wohl interessieren, aber innerlich doch teilnahmslos lassen, darzustellen, zu durchdringen mit gewissen Wortnuancen, die in anderer Weise charakterisieren, als man die äußere Welt im gewöhnlichen Leben zu charakterisieren versucht ist. Durch diese übersinnliche Erkenntnis wird das innere Erleben wesentlich intensiver. Man lebt mehr als sonst die äußere Welt mit. Man ist gar nicht imstande, im Erkennen teilnahmslos und kalt sich den inneren Ideen hinzugeben. Freilich ist man dadurch ausgesetzt dem Vorwurf, daß eine gewisse innere Wärme, daß das Gefühl erwacht, und daß man dadurch, daß der subjektive Sinn erwacht, die Objektivität fälschen würde. Allein diesen Vorwurf erheben nur diejenigen, die die Verhältnisse nicht kennen.
Was man in der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis schaut, das macht, daß man anders spricht von den übersinnlichen Erkenntnisobjekten. Anders werden diese nicht, weniger objektiv werden diese nicht, denn sie sind eben objektiv. Und wenn ich ein kunstvoll gemaltes Bild ansehe, so wird das dadurch nicht anders, daß ich voll Feuer und Enthusiasmus vor ihm stehe. Aber ich müßte ein kalter Nüchternling sein, wenn ich mit Kunstverständnis etwa vor einer Raffaelschen Madonna oder vor einem Leonardo-Bild kalt und nüchtern stehen würde. Ebenso ist es, wenn in der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis die geistigen Welten auftauchen. Was sie enthalten, das wird nicht anders dadurch, daß man mit stärkerem inneren Anteil mit diesen Welten verbunden sein muß, als man gewöhnlich in der äußeren Welt mit seinen Objekten verbunden ist. Daher wird manches eben anders gesprochen sein, was aus der Erkenntnis dieser höheren Welten heraus gesprochen ist, als man im gewöhnlichen Leben zu hören gewöhnt ist. Aber weniger objektiv wird dadurch diese Welt nicht. Man könnte im Gegenteil sagen: Das Subjektive, das da jetzt herausdringt aus dem physischen und aus dem ätherischen Leib, das wird selbst in seinem ganzen Erleben objektiver, selbstloser. Und so ist dasjenige, was man zuerst erlebt, indem man aus dem physischen Leib heraustritt und sich in seinem eigentlichen Inneren nun bewußt erlebt — während man sich sonst immer unbewußt erlebt —, ein Gefühl absoluter Einsamkeit. Man hat niemals sonst im gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein dieses Erlebnis, daß man — was es auch sonst in der Welt von ihm geben mag, indem man nur in diesem Inneren verweilt — einsam ist, daß man ganz und gar auf sich angewiesen ist mit alledem, was nunmehr seelischer und geistiger Inhalt sein soll.
Das, was nur im Abglanz — und da manchmal schon schmerzlich genug für manche Menschen — in der physischen Welt als das Gefühl der Einsamkeit auftritt, das steigert sich in unermeßlicher Art, wenn man in dieser Weise eintritt in die übersinnliche Welt. Aber dann schaut man ja zurück zu dem, was sich als die geistige Umgebung im Spiegel des physischen und des ätherischen Leibes zeigt, die man zurückgelassen hat. Da wird man eben gewahr des völligen Einsamkeitsgefühls, durch das man einzig und allein sein Ich aufrechterhalten kann in dieser Welt. Man würde sonst in dieser Welt des Geistes zerfließen, wenn man nicht gerade so, wie man hier sein Ich-Gefühl durch seinen Leib, durch sein Leibesempfinden hat, in der geistigen Welt dieses Ich-Gefühl nicht durch die Einsamkeit erleben würde. Dieser Einsamkeit dankt man die Aufrechterhaltung des Ich in der geistigen Welt. Dann lernt man erkennen diese geistige Welt als dasjenige, was einen umgibt. Aber man weiß, daß man sie nur kennenlernen kann — wie man in der sinnlichen Welt durch die Augen sieht — durch das innere seelisch-geistige Auge. So ist es ja auch, wenn der Mensch — wie ich in weiterer Ausführung dasjenige, was ich gestern gesagt habe, hier darstellen will — durch des Todes Pforte seinen physischen Leib und seinen Ätherleib verläßt. Es ist wahr, daß dann der physische Leib den Elementen der Erde übergeben wird, daß der ätherische Leib, wie ich es dargestellt habe, zerfließt im allgemeinen Weltenäther. Dasjenige aber, was der Mensch erkennen gelernt hat als seine physische Welt, das heißt, fühlend, wollend erkennen gelernt hat, worinnen er sich erlebt hat in dem gewöhnlichen Bewußtsein zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode, das bleibt dem Menschen. Der stofferfüllte physische Leib, der ätherdurchdrungene Bildekräfteleib, die werden mit dem Tode abgelegt, aber dasjenige, was der Mensch darinnen erfahren hat, das bleibt wie ein weiteres Spiegelndes vorhanden. Man sieht von der geistigen Welt zurück durch den Tod, durch den man hindurchgegangen ist, in das letzte Erdenleben. Und gerade dadurch, daß man nach dem Tode wie einen festen Widerstand, an dem sich alles spiegelt, dieses letzte Erdenleben vor sich hat, dadurch spiegelt sich auch jetzt beim ganzen Durchgang durch die geistig-seelische Welt zwischen dem Tode und neuer Geburt alles dasjenige, was einen umgibt. Und man sieht nun aus dem, was man auf diese Weise erlebt, alles in einem intensiveren Leben auftauchen, als man es hier in der physischen Welt kennengelernt hat. Und als geistig-seelische Wesenheit sieht man zunächst alles dasjenige, zu dem man durch sein Schicksal, durch sein Karma eine gewisse Verbindung eingegangen ist, in dieser Welt. Die Menschen, die man liebgewonnen hat, sie tauchen als Seelen auf. Was man mit ihnen erlebt hat, tritt einem vor das übersinnliche Schauen.
Wer geistige, übersinnliche Erkenntnisse erwirbt, erwirbt sich das Bildschauen davon eben schon hier in der physischen Welt durch alles das, was ich geschildert habe. Derjenige, der in der gewöhnlichen Weise durch des Todes Pforte geht, hat diese Anschauung auch, obwohl etwas verändert gegenüber dem hiesigen Schauen. Aus dem, was sich als das Abgelegte, Hüllenhafte des physischen Leibes und des ätherischen Leibes zeigt, taucht alles das auf, mit dem wir im Erdenleben schicksalsmäßig oder sonst verbunden waren. Solange diejenigen, die wir zurückgelassen haben, noch hier auf der Erde sind, ist die Verbindung mit ihnen eine schwierigere. Aber dann, wenn sie nachgekommen sind, im freien geistig-seelischen Leben, taucht auf das Zusammensein mit alledem, was man als Menschenwesen um sich herum mit sich in Verbindung gebracht hat. Daß — wenn ich es jetzt ausdrücken will mit den Worten des gewöhnlich sehenden Bewußtseins — die Menschen, insofern sie sich als zusammengehörig erwiesen haben hier in dieser physischen Welt, sich in der geistig-seelischen Welt, nachdem sie durch des Todes Pforte gegangen sind, wiederfinden, das ist für das übersinnliche Erkennen kein Glaube, der in dunkler Ahnung angenommen wird, sondern das ist eine ebensolche Gewißheit, wie die Ergebnisse der Physik oder der Chemie Gewißheiten sind. Und das ist schon dasjenige, was anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft zu dem hinzuzufügen vermag, was der Mensch heute in seiner Zivilisation hat. Der Mensch hat heute sich angewöhnt, in einer bestimmten Weise Gewißheit zu erlangen dadurch, daß immer mehr und mehr das wissenschaftliche Bewußtsein populär wird. Er strebt danach, nicht mehr in Form von alten Ahnungen, wie es die Glaubensbekenntnisse traditionell überliefert haben, etwas zu erfahren über die übersinnlichen Welten; er hat sich nunmehr gewöhnt und erzogen zu derjenigen Gewißheit, die die äußere Welt bieten kann. Anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft will den Weg eröffnen zu dem, was jenseits von Geburt und Tod liegt und dafür dieselbe Art von Gewißheit bieten. Das kann sie tatsächlich. Allein diejenigen, die den Weg, den ich geschildert habe, in die geistigen Welten hinein machen, die können das Wissen fortsetzen, das wir in Physik und Chemie gewonnen haben, bis hinaus in die Welten, die wir betreten, wenn wir durch des Todes Pforte gehen.
Allerdings nicht alles erscheint uns in dieser Weise, wenn wir in der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis zurückblicken von außerhalb des Leibes nach diesem Leibe zurück. Und etwas tritt da ganz besonders rätselhaft auf. Das, was da rätselhaft auftritt, kann am besten zeigen, daß anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft nicht etwa die Dinge, die sie in ihre Erkenntnis hereinnimmt, in nüchternen, trockenen Rationalismus übersetzt. Sie bringt den Menschen zum Schauen, oder indem sie ihre Erkenntnisse mitteilt, spricht sie von etwas, was geschaut werden kann. Aber die volle Ehrfurcht vor dem, was die Welt an Geheimnissen enthält, was die Welt eben an Ehrfurchtwerten enthält, die geht einem nicht verloren, indem man schauend vor das hingeführt wird, was sonst höchstens dem unbestimmten Ahnen aufgeht. Und das Rätselvolle, das ich meine, das einem da erscheint, ist, daß man jetzt kennenlernt, welches das Verhältnis des Menschen zur Erde ist, namentlich welches das Verhältnis des Menschen zur physischen mineralischen Erde ist.
Ich habe ja gerade von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten aus dargestellt, wie, an den physischen Leib gebunden, unser Gedankengewebe zurückbleibt, und man kann außer dem, was ich jetzt geschildert habe, was sich spiegelt und was uns in erkenntnismäßiger Weise zum ewigen Wesenskern des Menschen führt, auch dasjenige erkennen, was die Natur des Spiegels selber ist, den man da vor sich hat. Ich möchte sagen: So wie man in der physischen Welt einen Spiegel vor sich hat und im Spiegel die Welt, die vor einem ist, mit einem selbst erscheint, so erscheint einem die geistige Welt im übersinnlichen Erkennen durch diesen Spiegel. Aber gerade so, wie man den Spiegel mit seinem Belag nun auch betasten kann, wie man ihn untersuchen kann in seiner Wesenheit, so kann man auch diesen Spiegel des Übersinnlichen, nämlich unseren physischen und unseren Ätherleib untersuchen, wenn man mit seinem eigentlichen geistig-seelischen Wesen außerhalb desselben gedrungen ist.
Und da zeigt sich, daß ja der Mensch während seines Erdenlebens fortwährend aus der Außenwelt zu seinem Wachstum, zu seinem ganzen Leben, die Stoffe dieser Außenwelt aufnimmt. Wir nehmen allerdings Stoffe aus dem tierischen, aus dem pflanzlichen Reiche auf, aber in allen diesen Stoffen, die wir aus dem tierischen, aus dem pflanzlichen Reiche aufnehmen, sind ja durchaus auch die mineralischen Substanzen enthalten. In den Pflanzen sind die mineralischen Substanzen enthalten, denn die Pflanze baut sich aus den Mineralsubstanzen auf. Indem wir zum Beispiel Pflanzennahrung zu uns nehmen, bauen wir dann unseren eigenen Leib aus mineralischen Substanzen auf. Und hier zeigt sich, indem wir nun zurückblicken auf unseren physischen Leib von außerhalb, welches eigentlich die Bedeutung ist dieser mineralischen Stoffe, die wir aufnehmen. Denn was man durch das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein gar nicht einmal leicht ahnen kann, das zeigt sich jetzt der Anschauung: wie das Denken waltet. Wir haben ja das Denken zurückgelassen. Die Gedanken glimmen, möchte ich sagen, weiter, leuchten weiter im physischen Leibe, den wir anhaben. Also wir können die Wirkung der Gedanken im physischen Leibe nun von außerhalb wie ein Objektives sehen. Und wir sehen, daß die Wirkung der Gedanken auf den physischen Leib des Menschen die ist, daß die physischen Substanzen aufgelöst werden, eigentlich in einem gewissen Sinne in nichts zerfallen. Ich weiß, daß ich scheinbar jetzt gegen das Gesetz von der Erhaltung der Kraft spreche, allein die Zeit reicht nicht aus, um dasjenige auch hier jetzt erörtern zu können, was zeigt, daß meine Angaben in voller Harmonie mit diesem Gesetz stehen. Ich muß mich in Anbetracht der Natur der Sache etwas populär ausdrücken. Es kann aber verständlich sein, daß eigentlich das, was in den Menschen als rein Mineralisches eingegliedert wird, was er als rein Mineralisches in sich trägt, daß das in ihm sein muß, weil es aufgelöst werden muß durch die Gedanken. Die Gedanken könnten nicht da sein — denn das ist ihre Lebensbedingung —, wenn sie nicht mineralische, irdische Substanzen — wie man in früheren, mehr ahnungsvollen Geisteswissenschaften auch sagt — auflösen würden. Dieses Auflösen, gewissermaßen dieses Fällen physischer Substanzen, das ist das, was die physische Vermittlung des Denkens ist.
Man lernt jetzt erkennen, indem man mit seinem gefühls- und willensmäßigen Menschen, also mit dem eigenen menschlichen Inneren in seinem physischen und in seinem ätherischen Leibe ist, und durchdrungen ist von dem Denken, daß dieses Denken dann abläuft dadurch, daß fortwährend mineralische, physische Substanz vernichtet wird. Man lernt jetzt erkennen, wie eigentlich unser gewöhnliches Bewußtsein verläuft. Es verläuft nicht in der Weise, daß die Wachstumskräfte, die sich im sonstigen Organismus mit Hilfe der Nahrungsaufnahme entwickeln, in uns walten. In demselben Sinne, in dem die Wachstumskräfte rege werden in uns, wird ja gerade das Denken abgedämpft. Im Aufwachen muß das Denken, ich möchte sagen, freie Berätigung darin erlangen, die physische Materie aufzulösen, auszuscheiden aus dem physischen Leib. Und das Nervensystem des Menschen ist für anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft gerade dasjenige Organ, welches durch den ganzen Körper hindurch die Abscheidung des Mineralisch-Physischen vermittelt. Und in dieser Abscheidung des Mineralisch-Physischen entwickelt sich auch gerade eben dasjenige Denken, das wir sonst gewöhnlich durch die Welt tragen.
Sie sehen also, daß man durch anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft nicht allein das Ewige kennenlernt, sondern daß man auch die Art und Weise kennenlernt, wie dieses Ewige des Menschen in dem physischen Leibe wirkt, wie also zum Beispiel das Denken nur dadurch da sein kann, daß der Mensch immer weiter und weiter das Mineralische, das heißt das Tote, in sich entwickelt. Und so können wir sagen: Wenn wir in dieser Weise den Menschen kennenlernen, dann lernen wir den Tod auch noch auf eine andere Weise kennen, als ich es schon geschildert habe. Der Tod tritt uns sonst als der Abschluß des Lebens, als ein Moment des Lebens, als ein einmaliges Erlebnis entgegen. Wenn man in dieser Weise den physischen und den ätherischen Leib des Menschen, ich möchte sagen, durchleuchtet, dann lernt man den langsam verlaufenden Tod, das heißt das Abscheiden von mineralisch-physischer Substanz — und das Sterben ist ja nichts anderes, als daß man die mineralisch-physische Substanz auf einmal abscheidet -, man lernt das fortwährend dauernde Abscheiden eines Leichnamhaften in uns kennen. Man lernt erkennen, daß man eigentlich von der Geburt an partiell immer stirbt, und nur dann, wenn wir mit dem ganzen Leib dasselbe machen, was wir sonst nur durch das Nervensystem in einem kleinen Teil des Leibes machen durch das ganze Leben hindurch, dann sterben wir.
Man lernt also den Moment des Todes anschauen, indem man ihn im Kleinen durchschaut in der Arbeit des Denkens im menschlichen Organismus. Und der Mensch kann die ganze Zeit, die er durchmacht nach dem Tode, deshalb auf seinen physischen Leib zurückblicken, weil folgendes da ist. Denken Sie doch nur, wenn im gewöhnlichen Leben irgendein Gedanke in Ihnen aufhellt, aufleuchtet, dann ist immer das zugrunde liegend im physischen Leibe, daß ja, wie in einer Salzlösung, wenn sie gefällt wird, die physische Materie sich abscheidet, in Ihnen physische Materie sich abscheidet. Das Aufleuchten des Gedankens verdanken Sie gewissermaßen dieser Trübe, dieser Abscheidung von physischer, von mineralischer Substanz. Indem Sie den physischen Leib verlassen, summiert sich für den ganzen Leib in einer verhältnismäßig kurzen Zeit dasjenige, was Sie in fortwährendem Gedankenleben haben. Sie haben also das vor sich, daß Sie im Tode wie auf einmal aufleuchten sehen, was durch Ihr ganzes Erdenleben von der Geburt bis zum Tode langsam geglommen, geleuchtet hat.
Und durch diesen mächtigen Eindruck, in dem das Gedankenleben wie ein mächtiger Blitz die Seele überstrahlt, bekommt der Mensch die Erinnerung an sein physisches Erdenleben. Der physische Leib kann nur ganz abfallen; der Ätherleib kann sich ganz auflösen im allgemeinen Weltenäther. Dadurch, daß man diesen mächtigen, einmaligen Gedankeneindruck bekommen hat — für Mathematiker möchte ich sagen: dieses Gedankenintegral, gegenüber den Gedankendifferentialen, von der Geburt bis zum Tode —, dadurch hat man nun, wenn man auch das Physische, das Ätherische abgeworfen hat, in der ganzen Zeit nach dem Tode dieses physische Erdenleben jederzeit wie ein Spiegelndes vor sich, durch das sich alles das zeigt, was man jetzt erlebt, wenn nach und nach heraufkommen die menschlichen Wesen, mit denen man schicksalsmäßig in Liebe oder in Haß verbunden ist, wenn auftauchen jene geistigen Wesen, die in der Geisteswelt vorhanden sind und die nicht auf die Erde heruntersteigen, in deren Gemeinschaft man jetzt auch eintritt. Der Geistesforscher darf das ruhig sagen, denn er weiß, daß er nicht aus irgendwelchen Wahngebilden heraus redet, sondern er weiß, daß sich diese Dinge dem übersinnlichen Schauen als ebensolche Realitäten ergeben, wenn dieses übersinnliche Schauen eben eintritt durch das Organ des physischen und Ätherleibes, die jetzt draußen sind, er weiß, daß diese Dinge geschaut werden, wie sonst geschaut werden durch die physischen Augen die physischen Farben, durch die physischen Ohren die physischen Töne.
So also gliedert sich Menschheitsentwickelung der Weltentwickelung ein. Wenn man die Weltentwickelung betrachtet, sagen wir zum Beispiel das mineralische Erdenleben, dann begreift man, warum die mineralischen Erdengesetze da sind. Sie sind da, damit sie auch in uns sein können, und das Denken ist daher an die Erde gebunden. Aber indem man sieht, wie die Geschöpfe, die ihr Denken mit der Erde verbunden haben, aus dem heraustreten, was das Denken hervorruft, lernt man auch erkennen, wie der Mensch sich in seiner eigentlichen Wesenheit über das bloß Irdische erhebt. Das ist es, was Weltentwickelung an die Menschheitsentwikkelung anknüpft, sie mit ihr verbindet. Man lernt den Menschen erkennen, und man lernt dadurch auch die Welt erkennen. Lernt man den physischen Leib des Menschen erkennen, wie er durch das Denken mineralisiert wird, so lernt man von dem physischen Leib des Menschen aus auch die tote, mineralisierte Erde kennen. Dadurch ist die Grundlage geschaffen für die Erkenntnis der Weltentwickelung auch ihrer geistigen Seite nach.
Wenn man in dieser Weise das menschliche Innere kennenlernt, dann ist es mit der Weltentwickelung so, wie es mit den gewöhnlichen irdischen Erlebnissen ist, die man seit seiner Geburt durchgemacht hat. Wenn Sie jetzt aus Ihren möglichen Gedächtnisschätzen heraus irgend etwas holen, was Sie als ein Erlebnis vor zehn Jahren durchgemacht haben, so tritt ein Vergangenes, das Sie erlebt haben, im Bilde vor Ihrer Seele auf. Sie wissen genau aus den Lebenszusammenhängen, daß das im Bilde auftritt. Aber das Bild schafft Ihnen eine Erkenntnis dessen, was objektiv vor zehn Jahren da war. Wodurch? Weil Vorgänge im Organismus zurückgeblieben sind, die Ihnen jetzt das Bild heraufrufen. In Ihrem Organismus sind Vorgänge zurückgeblieben, die rufen in Ihnen das Bild hervor, und dadurch können Sie aus dem Bilde dasjenige vor sich wiederum — wie ich es hier einmal genannt habe — konstruieren, was Sie vor zehn Jahren erlebt haben. Aber durch die übersinnliche Erkenntnis kommt man ja tiefer in das menschliche Innere hinein. Man lernt zum Beispiel erkennen, wie während des Denkens der physische Leib sich mineralisiert, ebenso wie man ein Erlebnis, das man gehabt hat seit der Geburt, erkennen lernt durch das, was man in sich selber trägt, durch die Spuren, die es in einem zurückgelassen hat.
Ebenso erkennt man die Entwickelung der Erde aus der Entwickelung des Menschen. Aus dem, was das Mineralische im Menschen tut, lernt man die Aufgabe des Mineralreichs in der Erdenentwickelung kennen. Und lernt man in derselben Weise erkennen, wie ich es Ihnen jetzt dargestellt habe — ich kann es nur erwähnen, die einzelne Darstellung würde zu weit führen —, wie das Pflanzenreich mit dem Menschen verbunden ist, wie das Tierreich mit dem Menschen verbunden ist — denn auch das kann man kennenlernen —, dann kann man vom Menschen aus die Weltentwickelung kennenlernen. Und innerhalb dieser Weltentwickelung ergibt sich dann etwas, was nun wiederum so wichtig ist für den, der sich für die heutige Zivilisation interessiert, wie das wichtig ist, was ich für die eigentliche Erkenntnis des menschlichen Wesens, des ewigen Wesenskernes des Menschen erwähnt habe.
Wir haben ja erlebt in der neueren Zivilisation, daß es gelungen ist, wenigstens bis zu einem gewissen Grade — wenn die betreffenden Theorien, oder wie manche meinen, Hypothesen auch noch manches Unklare, Ergänzungsbedürftige, Modifikationsbedürftige enthalten —, den Menschen in seinem Verhältnis zur Weltentwickelung so zu betrachten, daß wir ihn anschließen an die Entwickelung der Tiere. Wir verfolgen das, was sich von den einfachsten organischen Wesen herauf entwickelt bis zu den höheren Tieren, dann weiter, und wir gelangen dann dazu, den Menschen an die Spitze der tierischen Entwickelung zu stellen. Der eine tut es so, der andere so, der eine in einer mehr idealistischen, der andere mehr in einer materialistischen Andeutung der darwinistischen Evolutionslehre, aber methodisch wird heute kaum jemand leugnen, daß wir — was übrigens seit längerer Zeit gepflogen worden ist —, wenn wir seiner physischen Natur nach den Menschen nach naturwissenschaftlicher Methode kennenlernen wollen, ihn anreihen müssen an die Tierreihe. Wir müssen untersuchen, wie sein Haupt, sein Kopf umgestaltet ist gegenüber den Köpfen der verschiedenen Tierarten, wir müssen seine Gliedmaßen untersuchen und so weiter. Wir bekommen dadurch dasjenige, was man vergleichende Anatomie, vergleichende Morphologie, vergleichende Physiologie nennt, und wir bekommen dann auch Vorstellungen über die Art und Weise, wie sich im Verlauf der Weltentwickelung der Mensch seiner physischen Gestalt nach aus den niederen Wesen heraus gebildet hat. Aber wir bleiben dabei immer im Gebiete des Physischen. Man nimmt heute dem anthroposophischen Geistesforscher übel, daß er von der geistigen Welt in der Weise spricht, wie ich es mir erlaubt habe, in diesem Vortrage zu tun. Man sieht das von vielen Seiten als eine Phantasterei an; wenn auch manche glauben, daß es eine gutgemeinte Phantasterei ist, sie sehen es als eine Phantasterei an.
Wer sich nur ein wenig bekanntmacht mit dem, was ich geschildert habe, wer es nur überhaupt vornimmt, der wird sehen, daß die Vorbereitungen dazu ebenso ernst sind, wie zum Beispiel die Vorbereitungen zum Betreiben der Mathematik, daß daher gar keine Rede davon sein kann, daß man hineinsegelt in irgendein phantastisches Gebiet. Wie aber einem auf der einen Seite übelgenommen wird, daß man von der geistigen Welt als einer realen, anschaubaren Welt spricht, so wird einem auf der anderen Seite übelgenommen, daß man in bezug auf die physische Entwickelung des Menschen sich eigentlich im vollen Sinne des Wortes zu denjenigen bekennt, die in darwinistischer Weise, in ganz disziplinierter Naturwissenschaft die Tierreihe bis herauf zum Menschen verfolgen. Es darf eben durchaus nicht in das, was physisch betrachtet wird, hineinspekuliert werden und allerlei im Physischen schon gesucht werden, wie es heute schon wieder der Neo-Vitalismus tut. Der spekuliert tief hinein; der alte Vitalismus hat es auch getan. Indem man die physische Welt betrachtet, muß man beim Physischen stehen bleiben.
Deshalb betrachtet es der anthroposophische Geistesforscher, der es auf der einen Seite wagt, in gewisser Weise über die Verhältnisse nach dem Tode und vor der Geburt zu sprechen, wie ich es hier getan habe, nicht als Vorwurf, beziehungsweise er erträgt den Vorwurf leicht, wenn man ihm dann sagt, daß, wenn er die physische Welt beschreibt, er dieses ganz im Sinne eines heutigen Naturforschers tue. Er träumt nichts hinein in dasjenige, was die physische Welt ist. Man mag ihn dann, wenn er die physische Welt beschreibt, selber meintwillen einen Materialisten nennen, er nimmt diesen Vorwurf hin, weil er in strengster Weise sondern will die geistige Welt, die nur durch geistige Methode betrachtet werden kann, und die physisch-sinnliche Welt, die mit den ordentlichen, disziplinierten Methoden der heutigen Naturwissenschaft betrachtet werden will. Wenn man daher dem anthroposophischen Geistesforscher sehr häufig diejenigen Anhänger zum Vowurfe macht, die nicht gerade aus einer sehr tiefen Naturwissenschaft heraus manchmal diese Naturwissenschaft abkanzeln, und die in einem gewissen hochmütigen Empfinden ihrer geisteswissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse glauben, dann auch in negativer Weise über das mitsprechen zu können, was Wissenschaftlichkeit ist, dann muß der ernste Geistesforscher wirklich das selber als etwas ganz Schmerzliches empfinden, daß leider manche, die sich auch Anhänger nennen, in dieser laienhaften, dilettantischen Weise verfahren. Es liegt aber nicht in der Natur anthroposophischer Geistesforschung. In der Natur anthroposophischer Geistesforschung liegt es eben, so streng wissenschaftlich in der äußeren Sinneswelt zu verfahren, wie man verfährt in der geistigen Welt selbst und umgekehrt.
Dann aber allerdings, wenn diese Voraussetzung gemacht wird, dann steht zwar der anthroposophische Geistesforscher in bezug auf die Anschauung der Weltentwickelung äußerlich ganz auf dem Boden strengster naturwissenschaftlicher Betrachtungsweise, aber er richtet zu gleicher Zeit den Blick auf die geistig-seelische Welt. Und so wie er weiß, daß — indem der Mensch als Einzelwesen embryonal in dieser physischen Welt entsteht — dies nicht bloß ein physischer Vorgang ist, sondern daß sich ein Geistig-Seelisches vereinigt mit dem menschlichen Embryo, mit dem Menschenkeim, so weiß er auch, daß in der gesamten Weltentwickelung, obzwar sie sich für den physischen Leib als Sinnesteppich ausbreitet, obwohl sie sich in ihren Naturgesetzen für das Gedankengewebe, das heißt für den ätherischen Leib, eben in der Kausalität zeigt, in den Naturgesetzen zeigt, daß diese physische Welt überall in ihrer Entwickelung durchsetzt und geleitet ist von geistigen Kräften, die ihre Führung haben durch geistige Wesenheiten, die ja auf diese Weise erkannt werden, wie ich das geschildert habe. So weiß also der anthroposophische Forscher, daß er gerade dann, wenn er im Sinne echtester Wissenschaft die äußere physische Welt betrachtet, an die richtige Grenze gelangt, wo er dann anfangen darf mit seiner Geistesforschung.
Wenn man nun ganz gewissenhaft verfolgt hat, wie etwa Darwin selbst oder andere Darwinianer oder Haeckel die Tierreihe verfolgen bis herauf zum Menschen, und wenn man auf das wissenschaftlich Berechtigte dieser Weltentwikkelung des Menschen eingegangen ist, dann kann man, gerade wenn man sich in richtiger Weise naturwissenschaftlich an die Grenze gestellt hat, an dieser Grenze geisteswissenschaftlich die Sache weiterführen. Und da kommt man darauf, indem man sich durchdringt für die übersinnliche Erkenntnis mit einem Anschauen der Form, daß man jetzt erst lernen kann die ganze Bedeutung der Formen, wie sie uns entgegentreten im Menschenreich auf der einen Seite, im Tierreich auf der anderen Seite. Man kommt darauf, die ganze Bedeutung der Formen kennenzulernen. Jetzt sieht man, ausgerüstet mit dem, was eine übersinnliche Forschung gibt, wie das Tier — wenigstens für die meisten Tiere ist das der Fall, und die Ausnahmen werden schon erklärlich — mit seinen vier Gliedmaßen auf der Erde steht, wie das Rückgrat horizontal, parallel der Erdoberfläche gelagert ist, wie sich an diesem Rückgrat in einer ganz anderen Lage, als der Mensch seinen Kopf trägt, dieser Kopf beim Tier ausbildet. Man lernt die ganze Gestalt des Tieres, ich möchte sagen, innerlich als Kräftewirkung und auch im Verhältnis zum ganzen Kosmos kennen. Und man lernt damit die Art und Weise vergleichen, wie umgestaltet, metamorphosiert in seiner Gestalt der Mensch erscheint, der nun nur auf den zwei Gliedmaßen steht, der, ich möchte sagen, im rechten Winkel gegen das tierische Rückgrat, sein menschliches Rückgrat senkrecht auf die Erdoberfläche aufstellt, und der sein Haupt gemäß dieser Lage zum Rückgrat nun ausbildet. Man lernt, indem man sich hineinversetzt in die innere Kunst des Naturschaffens, indem man in die kosmische Kunst eindringt, die menschliche Gestalt unterscheiden von der Tiergestalt. Und man dringt in die Weltentwickelung ein, indem man aufsteigt von dem, was sonst abstrakte, konstruktive Gedanken sind, zu den Gedanken, die innerlich leben, die sich künstlerisch im Geiste gestalten.
Das ist das Wichtige, daß anthroposophische Geistesforschung in dem Momente, wo sie die Weltentwickelung kennenlernen will, sich umgestaltet von dem abstrakten Erkennen, das sonst mit Recht in der Wissenschaft als das trockene, nüchterne, systematisierende Erkennen, als das kombinierende Erkennen geschildert wird, in ein konkreteres. Nicht für die höhere geistige Welt, in welche die Begriffe so eindringen müssen, wie ich es dargestellt habe, aber für die sinnliche Welt gestaltet sich nun dieses übersinnliche Erkennen noch um in eine Art künstlerischen Erfassens zunächst der Gestaltungen in der Weltentwickelung. Indem man so hinweisen muß, wie sich Wissenschaft in Kunst umgestaltet, wendet einem natürlich wiederum derjenige, der gewohnt ist, nur mit heutigen Begriffen zu denken, ein: Ja, Wissenschaft darf doch keine Kunst werden! - Nun, das kann man ja als menschliche Forderung immer sagen. Man kann sagen: Ich befehle der Weltenlogik, daß sie keine Kunst werden darf, denn wir lernen das Wirkliche nur erkennen, wenn die Gedanken an Gedanken anknüpfen und dann so an das Wirkliche herangehen. — Ja, wenn die Welt so wäre, wie der Mensch es sich einbildet, dann könnte man ablehnen, zur Kunst, zum künstlerischen Erfassen der Gestalten aufzusteigen. Wenn die Welt aber so ist, daß sie sich nur durch künstlerisches Ergreifen fassen läßt, dann muß man eben zum künstlerischen Ergreifen kommen. Und so ist es. Deshalb kamen diejenigen, die es nun mit der Erkenntnis ernst nahmen, indem sie das Organische in der Weltentwikkelung erfassen wollten, in der Tat zu einer inneren Gestaltung des abstrakten, als wissenschaftlich anerkannten Denkens, zum künstlerischen Erfassen der Welt. Und in dem Moment, wo man mit künstlerisch intuitivem Blick nun fortsetzt die gewöhnliche darwinistische Entwickelungslehre, da sieht man, daß der Mensch, als Ganzes erfaßt, nicht einfach so hingestellt werden darf, als wenn es einmal in der Welt zunächst niedere Tiere gegeben hätte, dann sich daraus etwas höhere, dann noch höhere Tiere entwickelt hätten und so fort, und dann wäre der Mensch entstanden.
Eigentlich widerspricht die Embryologie, wenn man sie unbefangen studiert, einem solchen Vorstellen. Aber obwohl die neueren Forscher das biogenetische Grundgesetz aufgestellt haben, und gerade die Embryologie vergleichen mit der Phylogenie, so deuten sie, weil sie nicht zu diesem künstlerischen Begreifen der Weltgestaltung aufsteigen, das, was auch in der menschlichen Embryologie schon äußerlich einem entgegentritt, nicht im richtigen Sinne. Wenn man beim menschlichen Embryo sieht, wie sich, ich möchte sagen, aus zunächst verkümmert auftretenden Organen die Gliedmaßen ansetzen, wie eigentlich alles zuerst Kopf ist, so hat man schon die ersten Elemente zu dem, was dann das von mir gemeinte künstlerische Ergreifen der menschlichen Gestalt vollends zeigt. Man kann nicht den ganzen Menschen anreihen an die Tierreihe. Man kann nicht sagen: Der Mensch, wie er heute vor uns steht, ist ein Abkömmling der ganzen Tierreihe. Nein, das ist er nicht. Gerade derjenige, der mit echtem wissenschaftlichem Gewissen sich ganz vollständig hineinlebt in den wissenschaftlichen Darwinismus, wie er heute die Weltentwickelung darstellt, der wird darauf kommen, daß er im höheren Erkennen gar nicht einfach den ganzen Menschen an das Ende, an die Spitze der Tierreihe hinstellen kann, sondern da muß er das menschliche Haupt als solches, den menschlichen Kopf studieren. Denn dieser menschliche Kopf allein ist der Abkömmling der ganzen Tierreihe. So sonderbar, so paradox das klingt, dasjenige, was man gewöhnlich als das Vollkommenste beim Menschen ansieht, das ist umgestaltet aus der Tierreihe.
Gehen Sie mit diesem Gedanken an ein wirkliches Studium des menschlichen Kopfes. Studieren Sie von da aus, aber mit einem gewissen morphologisch-künstlerischen Sinn, wie die Unterkieferknochen umgewandelte Gließmaßen sind, die Oberkieferknochen umgewandelte Gliedmaßen sind, wie alles im Haupte umgewandelte, erhöhte, gesteigerte Tiergestalt ist, dann werden Sie im Haupte des Menschen, im Kopfe des Menschen erkennen, daß auf höherer Stufe das erscheint, was in den Tieren in der verschiedensten Weise ausgebildet ist. Dann werden Sie auch erkennen, warum das SO 1st. Wenn Sie das Tier ansehen, dann sehen Sie, wie sein Kopf an der einen Seite des Rückgrates hängt, und wie er beim echten Tiere ganz der Schwerkraft unterworfen ist. Sehen Sie sich dagegen in der Stellung des Menschen in dem Kosmos das menschliche Haupt an. Das menschliche Haupt ist auf der vertikal gerichteten Rückgratlinie aufgestellt. Das menschliche Haupt ruht so auf dem übrigen Menschen, daß dieser übrige Mensch gewissermaßen das Haupt davor schützt, bloß der Schwerkraft zu unterliegen. Das menschliche Haupt ist wirklich etwas, das am menschlichen übrigen Organismus als etwas verhältnismäßig Selbständiges angebracht ist. Und man kommt schon dazu, zu begreifen, daß das menschliche Haupt, indem es getragen wird von dem übrigen Organismus, eigentlich dahinfährt, wie derjenige, der eine Kutsche benützt, in der Kutsche dahinfährt. Der übrige Organismus ist es, der das menschliche Haupt durch die Welt trägt. Das menschliche Haupt hat seine umgewandelten Gliedmaßen, die gewissermaßen zusammengeschrumpft sind. Es ist aufgesetzt dem übrigen Organismus. Dieser übrige Organismus verhält sich zum menschlichen Kopfe, wie sich beim Tiere die ganze Erde mit ihrer Schwerkraft zum Tiere verhält. Der Mensch ist seinem eigenen übrigen Organismus so zugegliedert hinsichtlich seines Kopfes, wie das ganze Tier der Erde zugegliedert ist. Man beginnt jetzt aus der Weltentwickelung den Menschen zu verstehen. Und schreitet man fort in einer solchen Erkenntnis der menschlichen Gestalt mit erkenntnismäßigem künstlerischem Sinn, dann kommt man dazu, zu begreifen, wie der menschliche Kopf die Fortsetzung der Tierreihe ist, wie aber der übrige Organismus gewissermaßen erst ein später, ein aus der Erde hinzuerworbenes Glied ist, erst angesetzt ist an den menschlichen Kopf. Und so kommt man dazu, jetzt erst die Menschheitsentwickelung zu begreifen. Wenn wir in frühere, ältere Zeiten zurückgehen, dann dürfen wir in den Menschen in diesen uralten Zeiten nichts anderes suchen als dasjenige, was zugrunde gelegen hat seiner heutigen Kopfbildung. Wir dürfen nicht in diesen alten Zeiten seine Gliedmaßen, seine Brustbildung suchen; die haben sich erst später angesetzt. Aber wenn wir in der Weise, wie ich es geschildert habe vom Menschen aus, so wie wir durch das Gedächtnis ein früheres Erlebnis anschauen, so die Weltentwickelung anschauen, finden wir, daß der Mensch seine Weltentwickelung schon gefunden hat, als zum Beispiel unsere höheren Tiere noch gar nicht da waren. Damals waren allerdings andere Tierformen vorhanden, aus denen sich der menschliche Kopf gebildet hat, aber dasjenige, was die heutigen höheren Tiere sind, das war noch gar nicht da. So daß man sagen kann — nehmen wir jetzt eine spätere Erdenperiode —: Der Mensch hat, indem er sich fortgebildet hat, seinen Kopf herausgebildet aus früheren Tierwesen, indem er beseelt worden ist von seinem Geistigen. Daher konnte er den Kopf steigern gegenüber dem, was er früher war. Dann hat er angesetzt seine Gliedmaßen aus den gesetzmäßigen Kräften der Erde. Die Tiere, die nun nachgekommen sind, konnten sich nur so weit bilden, als der Mensch mit Ausschluß des Kopfes gebildet ist. Sie haben ihre Entwickelung später angefangen, sind daher nicht bis zu der menschlichen Kopfbildung gekommen. Sie bleiben mit der Erde verbunden; der Mensch sondert sich ab von der Erde. Das zeigt, wie es Sinn hat, wenn man sagt: Der Mensch ist so in die Weltentwickelung eingegliedert, daß er zwar mit der Tierreihe verwandt ist, daß er aber durch seine geistige Bildung aus ihr herausgehoben worden ist, daß die Tiere, die erst nachgekommen sind mit ihrer Entwickelung, eben nur so viel noch entwickeln konnten, als der Mensch dann an seinen Gliedmaßen und seinem Rumpf sich entwickelt hat. Der Kopf blieb verkümmert, weil eine längere Entwickelungsreihe, wie sie der Mensch gehabt hat, hätte vorangehen müssen, um so weit zu kommen, daß die Kopfbildung entsteht.
So wandelt sich um durch künstlerisches Anschauen der Weltentwickelungsgestaltungen die ganz gewissenhaft aufgenommene darwinistische Theorie, soweit sie heute naturwissenschaftlich berechtigt ist. Und der Mensch wird dadurch erkannt als in der Weltentwickelung so enthalten, daß er eine längere Entwickelungsvorzeit hinter sich hat als die Tiere, daß die Tiere dasjenige, was er dem Kopf nur ansetzt, als ihre Hauptgestalt entwickeln. Und in dieser Weise kommt der Mensch dazu, daß, während die Tiere an die Schwerkraft gebunden sind, ihr unterworfen sind, er einen Teil seines Wesens heraushebt aus der Schwerkraft. Alles dasjenige, was unser Kopf mit den Sinnesorganen ist, das ist der Schwerkraft enthoben, das wendet sich daher nicht zu der schweren Materie, zu der ponderablen Materie, das wendet sich nach dem Äther, der eingegliedert ist der Sinneswelt. Das tun vorzugsweise die Sinne. Wenn wir näher darauf eingehen könnten, würde sich das schon zeigen. In dieser Weise ist zum Beispiel auch das menschliche Gehörorgan abhängig von einer ätherischen Struktur, nicht nur von der Luftstruktur.
Durch alles das gliedert sich der Mensch nicht nur der schwermateriellen Welt ein, sondern er gliedert sich auch der ätherischen Außenwelt ein. Er nimmt durch die Ätherwelt zum Beispiel dasjenige wahr, was ihm das Licht in der Farbenwelt hervorzaubert, und so weiter. Er erhebt sich aus der schweren Materie zum freien Äther herauf schon durch seine äußere Gestalt, und wir sehen daher in einer anderen Weise in die Weltentwickelung hinein, als das möglich ist, wenn wir nicht durch Naturwissenschaft heraufsteigen zur Geisteswissenschaft.
Aber wir sehen auch, was an dem Menschen das GeistigSeelische tut, sehen, wie wir heraufsteigen müssen bis zum Künstlerischen, wenn wir den Menschen zu begreifen suchen. Aber wir müssen auch noch weiter heraufsteigen; wir müssen zum Beispiel sagen können: Für seine geistig-seelische, gefühlsmäßige, willensmäßige Wesenheit muß man von Einsamkeit und vom Zusammenleben mit anderen sprechen wie von theoretischen Begriffen, wie ich es heute geschildert habe. Man muß heraufsteigen zur moralischen Welt, und kommt zuletzt zur religiösen Welt, Diese Welten gliedern sich zusammen als ein Ganzes.
Wenn wir im Sinn der heutigen Zivilisation nach den Gewohnheiten der naturwissenschaftlichen Denkweise den Menschen betrachten, dann finden wir die starre wissenschaftliche Naturnotwendigkeit, welcher der Mensch eingegliedert ist. Wir finden aber auf der anderen Seite, wie der Mensch sich seiner Würde nur bewußt werden kann, wenn er sagen kann: Ich bin wahrhaft Mensch nur, wenn ich in mir die moralisch-religiösen Impulse fühle. — Aber wenn man ehrlich sich auf naturwissenschaftlichen Boden stellt, dann bleiben einem für Erdenanfang und Erdenende lediglich Hypothesen, die uns am Anfange sprechen von dem Kant-Laplaceschen Weltennebel, am Ende vom Wärmetod.
Wenn man nun gegenüber dem, was als naturwissenschaftliche Anforderung an uns gestellt wird, nur im Sinne der heutigen Zivilisation dasjenige betrachtet, was sich uns als moralisch-religiöse Welt intuitiv enthüllt — ich habe das getan in meiner «Philosophie der Freiheit» —, wenn man das anschaut, so muß man sagen: Eigentlich täuscht man sich einen Nebel vor. Kann man denn noch glauben, daß, wenn die Erde durch den Wärmetod geht, etwas anderes da sein würde im naturwissenschaftlichen Sinne, als der Tod auch aller Ideale? Da tritt Geisteswissenschaft, Anthroposophie ein und zeigt, wie das Geistig-Seelische eine Realität ist, wie es am Physischen arbeitet, wie es in der menschlichen Gestalt in die Weltentwickelung hinein den Menschen gestellt hat, und daß man zurückschauen muß auf ganz andere animalische Wesen, als die heutigen Tiere es sind, daß man die Methode der heutigen Naturwissenschaft zwar beibehalten kann, aber andere Resultate bekommt. Dadurch gliedert Anthroposophie das Moralische, das Religiöse in die Wissenschaft ein. Dadurch wird Anthroposophie moralisch-religiöse Erkenntnis. Wir blicken nun nicht bloß mehr hin auf den Kant-Laplaceschen Urnebel, wir blicken zugleich hin auf ein ursprünglich Geistiges, aus dem heraus dasjenige, was geistig-seelisch in der Anthroposophie aufgezeigt wird, ebenso sich entwickelt hat, wie sich das Physische aus eben dem physischen Erdenursprung entwickelt hat. Und wir blicken hin zum Erdenende, können zeigen, weil die Entropiegesetze vollberechtigt sind, daß die Erde mit einer Art von Wärmetod enden wird. Aber wir blicken ebenso darauf hin, wie wir hinblicken vom anthroposophischen Gesichtspunkte auf das Ende des einzelnen Menschen. Der Leichnam wird den Elementen übergeben, der Mensch geht in eine geistige Welt ein. So blicken wir auf das Erdenende. Die wissenschaftlichen Resultate beirren uns nicht weiter, denn wir wissen: Alles dasjenige, was an Geistig-Seelischem die Menschen entwickelt haben, es wird, wenn die Erde einmal nicht mehr sein wird, ebenso durch die Todespforte der Erde hinaus zu neuen Weltentwickelungen gehen, wie der Mensch, wenn er durch seinen einzelnen Tod geht, zu neuen Weltentwickelungen geht.
Und indem man die Erde also überblickt, da erst sieht man in die Mitte ihrer Entwickelung das Ereignis von Golgatha gestellt. Da sieht man, wie dieses Ereignis von Golgatha hineingestellt ist in die Mitte der Erdentwickelung, weil vorher nur Kräfte in dieser Erdentwickelung waren, die längst den Menschen zu einer Art Ablähmung seiner Kräfte hätten führen müssen. Man lernt wirklich erkennen — das kann ich hier nur zum Schlusse erwähnen —, daß so wie in der pflanzlichen, wie in der tierischen Befruchtung etwas Besonderes eintritt in dem befruchteten Organismus, so durch außerirdische geistige Welten im Mysterium von Golgatha etwas hereingetragen ist in die Erdentwickelung, das nun weiterlebt, die Seelen begleitet, bis sie am Erdenende zu anderen Verwandlungsformen unseres Erdendaseins sich wandeln. Ich müßte tagelang zu Ihnen sprechen, wenn ich Ihnen den Weg zeigen wollte, der in strenger wissenschaftlicher Gewissenhaftigkeit führt von dem, was ich Ihnen heute dargestellt habe über die Menschheitsentwickelung und Weltentwickelung, zu dem, was dann das Mysterium von Golgatha, was das Auftreten der Christus-Wesenheit im irdischen Zusammenhang ist.
Aber manches Wort wird dann aus den Evangelien gerade durch die geisteswissenschaftliche Vertiefung in einer ganz anderen Weise heraufleuchten, als das bisher möglich war für das abendländische Bewußtsein. Denken wir uns einmal nur: Wenn wir uns ganz auf naturwissenschaftlichen Boden stellen, müssen wir hinschauen auf das physische Erdenende. Und derjenige, der dann weiter diesen naturwissenschaftlichen Boden verfolgt, der wird auch verfolgen können, wie das, was schließlich die Erde mit der Sternenwelt umgibt, wie auch das verfällt. Er wird hinschauen auf eine Zukunft, wo diese Erde unten nicht mehr sein wird, wo diese Sterne oben nicht mehr sein werden. Aber die Gewißheit kommt aus dieser Geisteswissenschaft, daß das, was jeden Abend herausgeht aus dem physischen und dem Ätherleib, und des Morgens wieder hineingeht, daß dieses Ewige weiterlebt, geradeso wie es weiterlebt, wenn sein einzelner Leib abfällt. Wenn von allen Menschenseelengeistern die ganze Erde abfällt, dieses Ewige lebt weiter zu neuen planetarischen, zu neuen Weltentwickelungsphasen.
Und jetzt klingt uns in einer ganz wunderbaren Weise aus dem Evangelium entgegen das Christus-Wort: Himmel und Erde werden vergehen, aber meine Worte werden nicht vergehen. — Und es schließt sich an das Pauluswort: Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir. - Und wenn das von dem Christen, von demjenigen, der innerlich das Christentum also versteht, wirklich empfunden wird, wenn der Christ sich sagt: Nicht ich, sondern der Christus in mir - und wenn er versteht das Wort des Christus: Himmel und Erde werden vergehen, aber meine Worte — das heißt dasjenige, was in meinem Ewigen liegt — werden nicht vergehen —, dann leuchtet in merkwürdiger Weise aus diesem Evangelium etwas heraus wie ein allerdings Ehrfurcht hervorzauberndes Wort, das jedoch, wenn man ehrlich ist, nicht so ohne weiteres verstanden werden kann.
Tritt man mit Geisteswissenschaft, wie sie im anthroposophischen Sinne gemeint ist, heran an diese und viele andere solche Worte, die aus dem Geistesdunkel der Weltentwickelung, der Erden- und Menschheitsentwickelung uns entgegentreten, strahlt ein Licht auf sie. Es ist schon so, als wenn ein Licht strahlte auf ein solches Wort, wie das: Himmel und Erde werden vergehen, aber meine Worte werden nicht vergehen — wenn wir es hertönen hören aus derjenigen Gegend, in der sich abgespielt hat das Mysterium von Golgatha, durch das die ganze Erdenentwickelung ihren Sinn erst eigentlich bekommen hat.
Und so sehen wir, wie durch Geisteswissenschaft, wie sie als Anthroposophie gemeint ist, erstrebt wird allerdings ein gewissenhaftes Beharren bei den strengen Sinnesmethoden, aber auch ein Fortführen dieser strengen Wissenschaftsmethode bis zu denjenigen Gebieten, in denen uns entgegenstrahlt unser eigenes ewiges Wesen, in denen uns aber auch entgegenstrahlt das geistige Wesen der Weltentwickelung, in denen uns das Licht erscheint, in welchem die WeltentwickeJung selber mit ihren geistigen Kräften und geistigen Wesenheiten in ihrer Geistgöttlichkeit erscheint.
Lassen Sie mich das zum Schlusse dieser Betrachtungen — daß Sie ihnen Ihr Interesse zugewendet haben, dafür bin ich sehr dankbar — aussprechen, daß geisteswissenschaftliche Anthroposophie voll verstehen kann, wie sich die neuere Menschheit, gerade die wissenschaftlich gewissenhafte neuere Menschheit, daran gewöhnt hat, das für wahr und sicher zu halten, was aus der kausalen, aus der naturwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnis, aus der äußeren Sinnesbeobachtung und aus der verstandesmäßigen Kombination der Sinnesbeobachtungen und des Experimentes erfolgt. Gewißheit hat man daran gelernt. Und indem man zunächst diese Gewißheit an dem gelernt hat, hat man sich hineingelebt in eine gewisse Empfindung überhaupt dem gegenüber, was «gewiß» sein kann. Bisher hat man noch nicht versucht, in derselben Weise zu verfolgen, was übersinnlich ist, wie man verfolgt hat das, was sinnlich ist. Man hat daher diese Gewißheit noch nicht hineingetragen in die übersinnlichen Welten. Man glaubt heute noch, man müsse bei einem bloßen Glauben stehenbleiben den übersinnlichen Welten gegenüber, bei einem ehrfurchtsvollen Ahnen, weil sonst das Geheimnis verlorengehe, weil sonst das Übersinnliche rationalisiert würde. Geisteswissenschaft versucht nicht, das Geheimnis zu rationalisieren, die ehrfürchtige Scheu zu vertreiben, die der Mensch vor den Geheimnissen hat. Sie führt durch Schauen den Menschen vor diese Geheimnisse hin. Sie läßt es Geheimnis sein, aber sie stellt es so in das Gebiet der Weltentwickelung, wie sonst die sinnlichen Dinge im Gebiete der Weltentwickelung stehen.
Und wahr muß es sein, daß der Mensch auch Gewißheit braucht für das, was über das bloße Natürliche hinaus liegt. In dem Maße, in dem der Mensch empfinden wird, daß er durch Geisteswissenschaft, wie sie im anthroposophischen Sinne gemeint ist, nicht ein vages, ein dilettantisches, ein verschwommenes Herumreden über die Welten hört, sondern etwas, was durchzogen ist von demselben Geiste, wie er sich in der neueren Wissenschaft äußert, in demselben Maße wird auch die Menschheit fühlen und empfinden, daß die Gewißheit, die wir uns angeeignet haben, die wir gewohnt worden sind aus der sinnlichen Welt zu erhalten, auch hinübergetragen werden kann in die geistigen Welten. Und man wird fühlen: Hätten wir zwar Gewißheit, aber nur für die sinnliche Welt, was hülfe uns diese Gewißheit, wenn die sinnliche Welt vergeht? — Der Mensch braucht ein Ewiges, denn er will selber in einem Ewigen wurzeln. Er kann nicht hingeben, die Gewißheit dafür, daß sie nur für das Vergängliche gelten soll. Er muß auch das Unvergängliche der wirklichen Gewißheit, der Erkenntnisgewißheit erobern.
In allerbescheidenstem Maße — das weiß derjenige, der heute mit anthroposophischer Geisteswissenschaft sich befaßt — will das heute diese anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft. Sie will, daß der Mensch nicht verliere über der natürlichen Gewißheit ein Wissen von dem Unvergänglichen, über der Gewißheit von dem Vergänglichen die Gewißheit über das Unvergängliche. Gewißheit über das Unvergängliche, damit Gewißheit über die Rätsel der Geburt und des Todes, über das Rätsel der Unsterblichkeit, über die Rätsel der geistigen Weltentwickelungen will Anthroposophie in unsere Zivilisation hereinbringen. Und damit glaubt sie mitarbeiten zu können an dieser Zivilisation. Denn in demselben Maße, in dem der Mensch hier das mutige Anerkennen faßt, daß Gewißheit auch für das Unvergängliche, nicht nur für das Vergängliche erobert werden muß, in demselben Maße wird man sich gewöhnen, Anthroposophie nicht mehr als phantastisch und als das müßige Spiel einzelner hinzustellen, sondern als etwas, was so wie die anderen Wissenschaften sich unserer gesamten Geistkultur, und damit unserer Zivilisation überhaupt, eingliedern muß.
World Development in the Light of Anthroposophy
It should be clear from the observations I have taken the liberty of making here that, for the purpose of true supersensible knowledge, it is necessary to separate, through exercises such as those I have described, the two sides of human nature, which are usually referred to imprecisely as the human inner and the human outer. It may be pointed out that in ordinary consciousness, when speaking of the outer and the inner, human beings do not make a precise distinction. And the way in which the emergence of the emotional and volitional nature of human beings in the state of sleep was to be characterized, and how to further characterize the becoming conscious in supersensible cognition outside the human body, will show that it is precisely in this supersensible cognition that a precise separation can be achieved between what in ordinary consciousness is only vaguely referred to as the outer and inner aspects of the human being. I would like to say that through this separation, the inner part of the human being becomes the outer part, and what the human being otherwise addresses as his outer part becomes the inner part.
What actually happens there? In the state of sleep, the volitional and emotional being of the human being emerges from what has been called the physical body of the human being and the formative body or etheric body of the human being, and this emotional-volitional being of the human being looks back as if on an object at the physical body and the etheric body. We have shown that in this looking back, the entire fabric of thought now also appears outside the human inner being. What fills our ordinary consciousness as our world of thoughts, in which the outer world is reflected, does not go to sleep with the actual inner being of the human being; it remains behind as the actual forces of the etheric body with the physical body. And in this way we have been able to understand — because, as one can easily convince oneself through self-observation, human beings have their ordinary waking state through their world of thoughts — that in the waking state human beings cannot be conscious of precisely what now emerges in sleep as unconscious to ordinary consciousness.
There is a dull, dim existence in that human being that leaves the physical body and etheric body when falling asleep, and one only gets to know this human inner being when it is illuminated and warmed by supersensible knowledge, I would say, when one becomes as conscious of this inner being as one is otherwise conscious of the physical body. But one also learns to recognize why one lives unconsciously in ordinary sleep. Consciousness arises when one submerges into the physical and etheric bodies upon awakening. And by submerging into the physical body, one makes use of one's senses, which connect one with the outside world. The result of this is that the sensory world awakens and one thereby becomes conscious in this sensory world.
In the same way, one submerges into one's etheric or life body, that is, into one's world of thoughts, and one becomes conscious in thought. Ordinary consciousness is therefore based on using the tools of one's physical body and, I would say, using the formative forces of the etheric body. In ordinary life, this real inner being of the human being, which is woven from feeling and will, is unable to attain consciousness because it has no organs. By doing the thinking and will exercises I have spoken of, one equips the soul itself with organs. This soul, which is initially undefined in ordinary consciousness, is shaped plastically, just as our physical body and our etheric body are otherwise shaped plastically for the senses and the organs of thought. Thus, the actual soul-spiritual essence of the human being is given a plastic form. And to the same extent that it is given a plastic form, in that it acquires, so to speak, spiritual-soul sense organs — if I may use this paradoxical expression — the spiritual-soul world appears around this human inner being. What is otherwise in a dull, twilight state and can therefore only perceive one world, namely the sensory world, when it makes use of the physical and etheric organs, gains plasticity, comes into relationship with the world that otherwise always surrounds us without our knowing it, and in which we lived before we entered the physical being in the manner described the day before yesterday through birth or conception, in which we also live again — for we then recognize it as belonging to us and not limited by birth and death — when we pass through the gate of death. However, when one enters the spiritual-soul world, one has a certain experience: It is not possible to enter this spiritual world in the same abstract, theoretical way that we live in the sensory and intellectual or mental world. In the sensory and intellectual world, we make use of thoughts and ideas that, as such, leave us cold, so to speak. Every person who has even a little self-observation knows that when they rise to the realm of pure thought, when they surrender to the outer sensory world without any particular interests, without any particular attachment to anything, both the outer sensory world and the world of ideas leave them cold. One only has to learn how this is the case through specific examples from life. One must compare how, for example, people usually view their homeland with other inner experiences, such as some foreign region that is indifferent to them. One will then see how, through special circumstances, people must draw on their feelings and their will — which only emerge into the physical world when they wake up and from there connect with the sensory world and the world of the intellect — in order to have a lively interest in their environment. The fact that we feel love, or perhaps even hatred, for certain people we encounter in the physical world, that we are inclined to do something out of compassion for them: all this requires that we draw our feelings, our emotions, everything that is our inner being, closer to what we encounter in the outer physical world. And how well does man know how his inner life grows cold when he rises into the realms that are usually called the realms of pale, dry thought, of theoretical study.
What lingers in a dull, twilight state between falling asleep and waking up must first be bound together with thought and sensory experiences through inner experience during waking hours, so that the whole diversity of interests in the outer world can arise. And so we recognize how it is only in life itself that feeling and will become engaged in the sensory world and the world of thought. But in the fullest sense of the word, we only experience this when, through supersensible knowledge, free from the physical body and free from the etheric body, we experience ourselves outside of them in the emotional and volitional being of the human being. And then it becomes apparent that we must begin to talk about the world in a completely different way than we do in ordinary life, in ordinary consciousness. We must begin to describe what we are accustomed to in science with dry ideas, with laws of nature that may interest us theoretically but leave us indifferent inwardly, and to penetrate them with certain nuances of language that characterize them in a different way than we are tempted to characterize the outer world in ordinary life. Through this supersensible knowledge, the inner experience becomes much more intense. One experiences the outer world more intensely than usual. One is not at all able to remain unmoved and cold in one's cognition and devote oneself to inner ideas. Of course, this exposes one to the accusation that a certain inner warmth, that feeling, is awakened and that, by awakening the subjective sense, one is falsifying objectivity. But only those who do not know the circumstances make this accusation.
What one sees in supersensible cognition causes one to speak differently about the objects of supersensible cognition. They do not become different, they do not become less objective, for they are objective. And when I look at an artistically painted picture, it does not become different because I stand before it full of fire and enthusiasm. But I would have to be a cold, sober person if I stood coldly and soberly in front of a Raphael Madonna or a Leonardo painting with an understanding of art. It is the same when the spiritual worlds appear in supersensible knowledge. What they contain does not change because one must be connected to these worlds with a stronger inner involvement than one is usually connected to objects in the outer world. Therefore, some things spoken from the knowledge of these higher worlds will be different from what one is accustomed to hearing in ordinary life. But this does not make this world any less objective. On the contrary, one could say: The subjective, which now emerges from the physical and etheric bodies, becomes more objective and selfless in its entire experience. And so, the first thing one experiences when stepping out of the physical body and consciously experiencing one's inner self — whereas one otherwise always experiences oneself unconsciously — is a feeling of absolute loneliness. One never otherwise has this experience in ordinary consciousness, that one is lonely — whatever else may exist in the world — when one dwells only in this inner self, that one is completely dependent on oneself with all that is now to be soul and spiritual content.
What appears only as a reflection — and is sometimes painful enough for some people — in the physical world as a feeling of loneliness, increases immeasurably when one enters the supersensible world in this way. But then one looks back at what is revealed as the spiritual environment in the mirror of the physical and etheric bodies that one has left behind. There one becomes aware of the complete feeling of loneliness through which one can maintain one's ego in this world. Otherwise, one would melt away in this world of the spirit if one did not experience this sense of self in the spiritual world through loneliness, just as one has a sense of self here through one's body and bodily sensations. One owes the maintenance of the self in the spiritual world to this loneliness. Then one learns to recognize this spiritual world as that which surrounds one. But one knows that one can only get to know it — just as one sees in the sensory world through the eyes — through the inner soul-spiritual eye. This is also the case when the human being — as I will explain further here what I said yesterday — leaves his physical body and his etheric body through the gate of death. It is true that the physical body is then surrendered to the elements of the earth, that the etheric body, as I have described, dissolves into the general world ether. But what the human being has learned to recognize as his physical world, that is, what he has learned to recognize through feeling and willing, in which he has experienced himself in ordinary consciousness between birth and death, remains with the human being. The physical body filled with matter, the ether-permeated body of formative forces, are laid aside at death, but what the human being has experienced within them remains as a further reflection. From the spiritual world, one looks back through the death one has passed through to one's last earthly life. And precisely because, after death, one has this last earthly life before one as a solid resistance on which everything is reflected, everything that surrounds one is now also reflected during the entire passage through the spiritual-soul world between death and new birth. And from what one experiences in this way, one now sees everything emerging in a more intense life than one has known here in the physical world. And as a spiritual-soul being, one first sees everything in this world with which one has entered into a certain connection through one's destiny, through one's karma. The people you have grown fond of appear as souls. What you have experienced with them comes before your supersensible vision.
Those who acquire spiritual, supersensible knowledge already acquire the ability to see images of it here in the physical world through everything I have described. Those who pass through the gate of death in the ordinary way also have this view, although it is somewhat different from the view we have here. From what appears as the discarded, shell-like nature of the physical body and the etheric body, everything emerges with which we were connected by fate or otherwise in our earthly life. As long as those we have left behind are still here on earth, the connection with them is more difficult. But then, when they have followed us into free spiritual-soul life, we are reunited with everything we as human beings have associated with ourselves around us. That — if I want to express it now in the words of ordinary consciousness — human beings, insofar as they have proven themselves to belong together here in this physical world, will find each other again in the spiritual-soul world after they have passed through the gate of death, is not a belief for supersensible knowledge that is accepted in a dark premonition, but it is a certainty just as certain as the results of physics or chemistry are certainties. And that is already what anthroposophical spiritual science can add to what human beings have today in their civilization. Human beings today have become accustomed to gaining certainty in a certain way, as scientific consciousness becomes more and more popular. They no longer strive to learn about the supersensible worlds in the form of old premonitions, as traditionally handed down in creeds; they have now become accustomed and educated to the certainty that the outer world can offer. Anthroposophical spiritual science wants to open the way to what lies beyond birth and death and offer the same kind of certainty. It can indeed do so. Only those who follow the path I have described into the spiritual worlds can continue the knowledge we have gained in physics and chemistry into the worlds we enter when we pass through the gate of death.
However, not everything appears to us in this way when we look back from outside the body to this body in supersensible knowledge. And something appears there that is particularly mysterious. What appears mysterious there can best show that anthroposophical spiritual science does not translate the things it takes into its knowledge into sober, dry rationalism. It leads people to see, or by communicating its insights, it speaks of something that can be seen. But the full reverence for what the world contains in terms of mysteries, what the world contains in terms of things worthy of reverence, is not lost by being led to see what otherwise would at most be a vague premonition. And the mystery I mean, which appears to us there, is that we now learn what the relationship of human beings to the earth is, namely what the relationship of human beings to the physical, mineral earth is.
I have just described from various points of view how, bound to the physical body, our thought-web remains behind, and in addition to what I have now described, which is reflected and which leads us in a cognitive way to the eternal core of human beings, one can also recognize the nature of the mirror itself that one has before one. I would like to say: just as in the physical world we have a mirror in front of us and in the mirror the world that is in front of us appears with ourselves, so the spiritual world appears to us in supersensible cognition through this mirror. But just as one can now touch the mirror with its coating, just as one can examine it in its essence, so too can one examine this mirror of the supersensible, namely our physical and etheric bodies, when one has penetrated outside of it with one's actual spiritual-soul being.
And then it becomes apparent that during their earthly life, human beings continually absorb substances from the outside world for their growth and their entire life. We do indeed absorb substances from the animal and plant kingdoms, but all these substances that we absorb from the animal and plant kingdoms also contain mineral substances. Plants contain mineral substances because plants build themselves up from mineral substances. For example, when we eat plant-based food, we build our own bodies from mineral substances. And here, when we look back at our physical body from the outside, we see what the significance of these mineral substances that we absorb actually is. For what cannot easily be guessed at through ordinary consciousness is now revealed to our view: how thinking works. We have left thinking behind. Thoughts continue to glow, I might say, continue to shine in the physical body we wear. So we can now see the effect of thoughts in the physical body from outside, as if it were an objective. And we see that the effect of thoughts on the physical body of the human being is that the physical substances are dissolved, actually disintegrated into nothingness in a certain sense. I know that I now seem to be speaking against the law of conservation of energy, but there is not enough time here to discuss what shows that my statements are in complete harmony with this law. In view of the nature of the matter, I must express myself in somewhat popular terms. But it can be understood that what is incorporated in human beings as purely mineral, what they carry within themselves as purely mineral, must be there because it must be dissolved by thoughts. Thoughts could not exist — for that is their condition of life — if they did not dissolve mineral, earthly substances, as was also said in earlier, more intuitive spiritual sciences. This dissolution, this breaking down of physical substances, so to speak, is what constitutes the physical mediation of thought.
One now learns to recognize, by being with one's emotional and volitional human being, that is, with one's own human inner being in one's physical and etheric body, and being permeated by the thought that this thinking then takes place through the continuous destruction of mineral, physical substance. One now learns to recognize how our ordinary consciousness actually works. It does not proceed in such a way that the forces of growth, which develop in the rest of the organism with the help of food intake, prevail in us. In the same sense in which the forces of growth become active in us, thinking is actually dampened. Upon awakening, thinking must, I would say, gain free confirmation in dissolving physical matter, in excreting it from the physical body. And for anthroposophical spiritual science, the human nervous system is precisely the organ that mediates the separation of the mineral-physical throughout the entire body. And in this separation of the mineral-physical, the very thinking that we otherwise usually carry through the world develops.
So you see that through anthroposophical spiritual science, one not only learns about the eternal, but also learns about the way in which this eternal aspect of the human being works in the physical body, how, for example, thinking can only exist because the human being continues to develop the mineral, that is, the dead, within themselves. And so we can say: when we get to know human beings in this way, we also get to know death in a different way than I have already described. Death usually appears to us as the end of life, as a moment in life, as a unique experience. When we examine the physical and etheric bodies of the human being in this way, we learn about the slow process of death, that is, the separation of mineral-physical substance — and dying is nothing other than the sudden separation of mineral-physical substance. one learns to recognize the continuous separation of something corpse-like within us. One learns to recognize that we are actually dying partially from birth onwards, and only when we do with the whole body what we otherwise do only through the nervous system in a small part of the body throughout our whole life, do we die.
So we learn to observe the moment of death by seeing it in miniature in the work of thinking in the human organism. And the human being can look back on his physical body throughout the entire time he experiences after death because the following is there. Just think, when in ordinary life a thought dawns on you, lights up, then there is always something underlying this in the physical body, so that, as in a salt solution when it is precipitated, physical matter separates out, physical matter separates out in you. The illumination of the thought is, in a sense, due to this cloudiness, this separation of physical, mineral substance. When you leave the physical body, what you have in your continuous life of thought accumulates for the whole body in a relatively short time. So what lies ahead of you is that in death you will suddenly see illuminated what has slowly glowed and shone throughout your entire earthly life, from birth to death.
And through this powerful impression, in which the life of thought outshines the soul like a powerful flash of lightning, the human being receives the memory of his physical earthly life. The physical body can only fall away completely; the etheric body can dissolve completely into the general world ether. By receiving this powerful, unique thought impression — for mathematicians, I would say: this thought integral, as opposed to the thought differentials, from birth to death — one now has, even after shedding the physical and etheric bodies, this physical earthly life reflected before one at all times in the entire period after death, through which everything that one now experiences is revealed, when little by little the human beings with whom one is fatefully connected in love or hate come up, when those spiritual beings appear who are present in the spiritual world and who do not descend to earth, into whose community one now also enters. The spiritual researcher can say this with confidence, because he knows that he is not speaking out of some delusion, but knows that these things reveal themselves to supersensible vision as realities when this supersensible vision occurs through the organ of the physical and etheric bodies, which are now outside, he knows that these things are seen, just as physical colors are seen through the physical eyes and physical sounds are heard through the physical ears.
This is how human development is integrated into world development. When we look at world development, for example, the mineral life of the earth, we understand why the mineral laws of the earth exist. They are there so that they can also be within us, and thinking is therefore bound to the earth. But by seeing how creatures who have bound their thinking to the earth emerge from what thinking brings forth, we also learn to recognize how human beings, in their true essence, rise above the merely earthly. This is what connects world development to human development, linking it with it. One learns to recognize the human being, and through this one also learns to recognize the world. When one learns to recognize the physical body of the human being, how it is mineralized through thinking, one also learns to recognize the dead, mineralized earth from the physical body of the human being. This creates the basis for understanding world development, including its spiritual side.
When you get to know the human inner life in this way, world development is like the ordinary earthly experiences you have had since birth. If you now draw from your possible treasures of memory something that you experienced ten years ago, a past event that you experienced appears in the image before your soul. You know exactly from the context of life that this appears in the image. But the image gives you an insight into what was objectively there ten years ago. How? Because processes have remained in your organism that now bring up the image. Processes have remained in your organism that evoke the image in you, and through this you can construct from the image what you experienced ten years ago, as I once called it here. But through supersensible knowledge, one penetrates deeper into the human interior. For example, one learns to recognize how the physical body mineralizes during thinking, just as one learns to recognize an experience one has had since birth through what one carries within oneself, through the traces it has left behind.
In the same way, one recognizes the development of the earth from the development of the human being. From what the mineral element does in the human being, one learns about the task of the mineral kingdom in the development of the earth. And if you learn to recognize in the same way as I have now described to you — I can only mention it, as a detailed description would go too far — how the plant kingdom is connected with the human being, how the animal kingdom is connected with the human being — for this too can be learned — then you can learn about the development of the world from the human being. And within this world evolution, something emerges that is just as important for those interested in today's civilization as what I have mentioned for the actual understanding of the human being, the eternal core of the human being.
We have seen in recent civilization that it has been possible, at least to a certain extent — even if the theories in question, or as some believe, hypotheses, still contain many unclear points that need to be supplemented and modified — to view human beings in their relationship to world development in such a way that we connect them to the development of animals. We follow what develops from the simplest organic beings up to the higher animals, and then further, and we then arrive at placing human beings at the top of animal development. Some do it one way, others another, some in a more idealistic, others in a more materialistic interpretation of Darwinian evolutionary theory, but methodologically, hardly anyone today would deny that — as has been the practice for some time — if we want to understand human beings according to their physical nature using scientific methods, we must place them in the animal series. We must examine how his head is shaped in comparison to the heads of various animal species; we must examine his limbs and so on. This gives us what is called comparative anatomy, comparative morphology, comparative physiology, and we then also gain an understanding of how, in the course of world development, human beings have evolved their physical form from lower beings. But we always remain in the realm of the physical. Today, anthroposophical spiritual researchers are resented for speaking about the spiritual world in the way I have taken the liberty of doing in this lecture. Many people regard this as a fantasy; even if some believe it to be a well-intentioned fantasy, they still regard it as a fantasy.
Anyone who familiarizes themselves even a little with what I have described, anyone who even attempts to do so, will see that the preparations for this are just as serious as, for example, the preparations for practicing mathematics, and that therefore there can be no question of sailing into some fantastical realm. But just as, on the one hand, people take offense at one speaking of the spiritual world as a real, visible world, so, on the other hand, they take offense at one's professing, in relation to the physical development of the human being, to be in full agreement with those who, in a Darwinian manner, in a completely disciplined natural science, trace the animal series up to the human being. It is simply not permissible to speculate about what is physically observable and to seek all kinds of things in the physical realm, as neo-vitalism is doing again today. It speculates deeply; the old vitalism did the same. When observing the physical world, one must remain with the physical.
That is why the anthroposophical spiritual researcher, who on the one hand dares to speak in a certain way about the conditions after death and before birth, as I have done here, does not regard it as a reproach, or rather, he easily bears the reproach when he is told that when he describes the physical world, he does so entirely in the spirit of a modern natural scientist. He does not dream anything into what the physical world is. When he describes the physical world, one may call him a materialist for his own sake, and he accepts this reproach because he wants to distinguish in the strictest sense between the spiritual world, which can only be observed by spiritual methods, and the physical-sensory world, which wants to be observed by the regular, disciplined methods of modern science. Therefore, when the anthroposophical spiritual researcher is very often reproached by those followers who, not exactly coming from a very deep scientific background, sometimes disparage this science and who, in a certain haughty sense, believe that their spiritual scientific insights also enable them to speak in a negative way about what scientificity is, then the serious spiritual researcher must really find it very painful that, unfortunately, some who also call themselves followers proceed in this amateurish, dilettantish manner. But this is not in the nature of anthroposophical spiritual research. It is precisely in the nature of anthroposophical spiritual research to proceed as strictly scientifically in the outer sensory world as one proceeds in the spiritual world itself, and vice versa.
But then, of course, if this prerequisite is met, the anthroposophical spiritual researcher stands, in relation to the view of world development, entirely on the ground of the strictest scientific approach, but at the same time he directs his gaze to the spiritual-soul world. And just as he knows that — when the human being as an individual being develops embryonically in this physical world — this is not merely a physical process, but that a spiritual-soul entity unites with the human embryo, with the human germ, so he also knows that in the entire development of the world, although it spreads out for the physical body as a sensory tapestry, and although it manifests itself in its natural laws for the thought fabric, that is, for the etheric body, precisely in causality, in the natural laws, that this physical world is permeated and guided throughout its development by spiritual forces that are guided by spiritual beings, who are recognized in this way, as I have described. Thus, the anthroposophical researcher knows that it is precisely when he observes the outer physical world in the spirit of genuine science that he reaches the right boundary where he may then begin his spiritual research.
If one has conscientiously followed how Darwin himself or other Darwinists or Haeckel trace the animal series up to the human being, and if one has considered the scientific validity of this world development of the human being, then one can, precisely when one has correctly placed oneself at the boundary of natural science, continue the matter at this boundary from a spiritual scientific point of view. And one comes to this conclusion by penetrating the supersensible knowledge with a contemplation of form, so that one can now learn the whole meaning of the forms as they appear to us in the human realm on the one hand and in the animal realm on the other. One comes to know the whole meaning of forms. Now, equipped with what supersensible research provides, one sees how the animal — at least for most animals this is the case, and the exceptions become understandable — stands on the earth with its four limbs, how the spine is positioned horizontally, parallel to the earth's surface, how the head of the animal develops on this spine in a completely different position than the human head. One learns to know the whole form of the animal, I would say, inwardly as a force and also in relation to the whole cosmos. And in doing so, one learns to compare the way in which humans appear transformed, metamorphosed in their form, now standing on only two limbs, with, I would say, their human spine at right angles to the animal spine, perpendicular to the earth's surface, and their head now formed in accordance with this position of the spine. By immersing oneself in the inner art of nature's creation, by penetrating cosmic art, one learns to distinguish the human form from the animal form. And one penetrates world evolution by ascending from what are otherwise abstract, constructive thoughts to thoughts that live inwardly, that take artistic form in the spirit.
It is important that, at the moment when it seeks to understand world development, anthroposophical spiritual research transforms itself from abstract cognition, which is otherwise rightly described in science as dry, sober, systematizing cognition, as combinatory cognition, into a more concrete form. Not for the higher spiritual world, into which the concepts must penetrate as I have described, but for the sensory world, this supersensible cognition is now transformed into a kind of artistic grasping, initially of the forms in world development. When one points out how science is transformed into art, those who are accustomed to thinking only in terms of today's concepts naturally object: Yes, but science must not become art! Well, one can always say that as a human demand. One can say: I command the logic of the world that it must not become art, for we learn to recognize the real only when thoughts connect with thoughts and then approach the real in this way. — Yes, if the world were as man imagines it to be, then one could refuse to ascend to art, to the artistic grasping of forms. But if the world is such that it can only be grasped through artistic apprehension, then one must simply come to artistic apprehension. And so it is. That is why those who took knowledge seriously, in wanting to grasp the organic in the development of the world, did in fact arrive at an inner formation of abstract, scientifically recognized thinking, at an artistic apprehension of the world. And the moment one continues the usual Darwinian theory of evolution with an artistically intuitive view, one sees that human beings, understood as a whole, cannot simply be presented as if there had first been lower animals in the world, then somewhat higher animals developed from them, then even higher animals, and so on, and then human beings came into being.
Actually, if you study embryology impartially, it contradicts such an idea. But although more recent researchers have established the biogenetic law and compare embryology with phylogeny, they do not interpret what is already apparent in human embryology in the right sense, because they do not rise to this artistic understanding of the creation of the world. When one sees in the human embryo how, I would say, the limbs develop from what initially appear to be stunted organs, how everything is actually head at first, one already has the first elements of what I mean by the artistic grasp of the human form. One cannot place the whole human being in the animal series. One cannot say: The human being as he stands before us today is a descendant of the entire animal series. No, he is not. It is precisely those who, with genuine scientific conscience, immerse themselves completely in scientific Darwinism, as it represents the development of the world today, who will come to the conclusion that, in higher knowledge, they cannot simply place the whole human being at the end, at the top of the animal series, but must study the human head as such, the human head. For this human head alone is the descendant of the entire animal kingdom. As strange and paradoxical as it may sound, what is usually regarded as the most perfect part of the human being is transformed from the animal kingdom.
Take this idea with you as you embark on a real study of the human head. From there, but with a certain morphological-artistic sense, study how the lower jaw bones are transformed limbs, how the upper jaw bones are transformed limbs, how everything in the head is transformed, elevated, enhanced animal form, then you will recognize in the human head, in the human head, that what is formed in animals in various ways appears at a higher level. Then you will also recognize why this is so. When you look at an animal, you see how its head hangs on one side of the spine and how, in real animals, it is completely subject to gravity. In contrast, look at the human head in relation to the position of the human being in the cosmos. The human head is positioned on the vertically oriented spine. The human head rests on the rest of the human being in such a way that the rest of the human being protects the head from being subject to gravity alone. The human head is really something that is attached to the rest of the human organism as something relatively independent. And one comes to understand that the human head, being carried by the rest of the organism, actually travels along like someone who uses a carriage travels along in the carriage. It is the rest of the organism that carries the human head through the world. The human head has its transformed limbs, which have shrunk, so to speak. It is attached to the rest of the organism. This rest of the organism relates to the human head in the same way that the whole earth with its gravity relates to the animal. The human being is as attached to the rest of his own organism with regard to his head as the whole animal is attached to the earth. One now begins to understand the human being from the development of the world. And if one proceeds in such a knowledge of the human form with a cognitive artistic sense, then one comes to understand how the human head is the continuation of the animal series, but how the rest of the organism is, in a sense, only a later limb acquired from the earth, only attached to the human head. And so we come to understand the development of humanity for the first time. When we go back to earlier, older times, we must look for nothing else in the human beings of those ancient times than that which formed the basis of their present head formation. We must not look for his limbs or his chest formation in these ancient times; these were only added later. But if we look at the development of the world in the way I have described, starting from the human being, just as we look at an earlier experience through our memory, we find that the human being had already found his world development when, for example, our higher animals did not yet exist. At that time, there were indeed other animal forms from which the human head was formed, but what we now know as higher animals did not yet exist. So we can say — taking a later period of Earth's history — that as human beings developed, they formed their heads from earlier animal beings by being animated by their spiritual nature. This enabled him to develop his head beyond what it had been before. Then he developed his limbs from the lawful forces of the earth. The animals that came later could only develop to the extent that humans have developed, excluding the head. They began their development later and therefore did not reach the level of human head development. They remain connected to the earth; humans separate themselves from the earth. This shows how it makes sense to say that man is integrated into the development of the world in such a way that he is related to the animal kingdom, but that he has been lifted out of it through his spiritual development, and that the animals that came later could only develop as far as man had developed his limbs and torso. The head remained stunted because a longer series of development, such as that undergone by humans, would have had to precede it in order to reach the stage where the head was formed.
Thus, through artistic observation of the forms of world development, the conscientiously accepted Darwinian theory, insofar as it is scientifically justified today, is transformed. And man is thereby recognized as being so included in the development of the world that he has a longer period of development behind him than animals, that animals develop as their main form what he only attaches to his head. And in this way, while animals are bound to gravity and subject to it, man lifts part of his being out of gravity. Everything that our head is with the sense organs is removed from gravity and therefore does not turn to heavy matter, to ponderable matter, but turns to the ether, which is integrated into the sensory world. The senses do this in particular. If we could go into this in more detail, it would become clear. In this way, for example, the human organ of hearing is also dependent on an etheric structure, not just on the structure of the air.
Through all this, the human being is not only integrated into the heavy material world, but also into the etheric outer world. Through the etheric world, for example, he perceives what light conjures up for him in the world of colors, and so on. He rises from heavy matter to free ether simply through his outer form, and we therefore see into world development in a different way than is possible if we do not ascend from natural science to spiritual science.
But we also see what the spiritual-soul does in human beings, see how we must ascend to the artistic if we seek to understand human beings. But we must ascend even further; we must be able to say, for example, that for his spiritual-soul, emotional, and volitional nature, one must speak of loneliness and living together with others as theoretical concepts, as I have described today. One must ascend to the moral world, and finally arrive at the religious world. These worlds are structured together as a whole.
If we look at human beings in the spirit of today's civilization, according to the habits of scientific thinking, we find the rigid scientific necessity of nature into which human beings are integrated. On the other hand, however, we find that human beings can only become aware of their dignity when they can say: I am truly human only when I feel the moral and religious impulses within me. — But if we honestly stand on scientific ground, then all we are left with for the beginning and end of the earth are hypotheses that speak to us at the beginning of the Kant-Laplace nebula and at the end of heat death.
If, in response to what science demands of us, we consider only what is intuitively revealed to us as a moral and religious world in the sense of today's civilization — I have done this in my Philosophy of Freedom — if we look at this, we must say: Actually, we are deceiving ourselves with a nebula. Can we still believe that when the earth goes through heat death, there will be anything else in the scientific sense than the death of all ideals? This is where spiritual science, anthroposophy, comes in and shows how the spiritual-soul is a reality, how it works on the physical, how it has placed the human being in the world's development in human form, and that one must look back on animal beings quite different from today's animals, that one can retain the methods of today's natural science, but obtain different results. In this way, anthroposophy integrates morality and religion into science. In this way, anthroposophy becomes moral-religious knowledge. We no longer look only at the Kant-Laplace primordial nebula, we also look at an original spiritual element from which that which is shown in anthroposophy as spiritual and soul-related has developed, just as the physical has developed from the physical origin of the earth. And we look toward the end of the earth and can show, because the laws of entropy are fully justified, that the earth will end in a kind of heat death. But we also look at this in the same way that we look at the end of the individual human being from an anthroposophical point of view. The corpse is handed over to the elements, and the human being enters a spiritual world. This is how we look at the end of the earth. The scientific results do not confuse us, for we know that everything that human beings have developed in terms of spirit and soul will, when the earth ceases to exist, pass through the gate of death on earth to new world developments, just as human beings, when they pass through their individual death, go on to new world developments.
And when we look at the earth in this way, we see the event of Golgotha placed at the center of its development. We see how this event of Golgotha is placed at the center of the earth's development, because before that there were only forces in this earth's development that should have long since led human beings to a kind of paralysis of their powers. One really learns to recognize — I can only mention this here in conclusion — that just as in plant and animal fertilization something special occurs in the fertilized organism, so, through extraterrestrial spiritual worlds, something was brought into Earth's development through the Mystery of Golgotha that now lives on, accompanying souls until, at the end of their earthly existence, they transform into other forms of our earthly existence. I would have to speak to you for days if I wanted to show you the path that leads, with strict scientific conscientiousness, from what I have presented to you today about human evolution and world evolution to what is then the Mystery of Golgotha, what is the appearance of the Christ Being in the earthly context.
But then, through spiritual scientific deepening, many words from the Gospels will shine forth in a completely different way than has been possible for Western consciousness up to now. Let us just think for a moment: if we stand entirely on scientific ground, we must look at the physical end of the earth. And those who then continue to pursue this scientific ground will also be able to follow how what ultimately surrounds the earth with the starry world also decays. They will look toward a future where this earth below will no longer be, where these stars above will no longer be. But the certainty comes from this spiritual science that what goes out every evening from the physical and etheric body and goes back in again in the morning, that this eternal lives on, just as it lives on when the individual body falls away. When all human soul spirits depart from the whole earth, this eternal lives on to new planetary, to new phases of world development.
And now, in a most wonderful way, the words of Christ from the Gospel resonate with us: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. — And this is followed by the words of Paul: Not I, but Christ in me. — And when this is truly felt by the Christian, by the one who understands Christianity in this way, when the Christian says to himself: Not I, but Christ in me — and if he understands the words of Christ: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words — that is, what lies in my Eternity — will not pass away — then something shines out of this Gospel in a remarkable way, like a word that evokes reverence, but which, if one is honest, cannot be easily understood.
If one approaches these and many other such words, which confront us from the spiritual darkness of world evolution, of the evolution of the earth and humanity, with spiritual science as it is meant in the anthroposophical sense, a light shines upon them. It is as if a light were shining on a word such as this: Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away — when we hear it resounding from the region where the mystery of Golgotha took place, through which the whole of earthly evolution actually gained its meaning.
And so we see how spiritual science, as understood in anthroposophy, strives for conscientious adherence to strict sensory methods, but also a continuation of these strict scientific methods into those realms where our own eternal being shines forth, but where the spiritual being of world evolution also shines forth, where the light appears to us in which world evolution itself appears with its spiritual forces and spiritual beings in its spiritual divinity.
Let me conclude these reflections — for which I am very grateful that you have taken an interest in them — by saying that spiritual science anthroposophy can fully understand how modern humanity, especially the scientifically conscientious modern humanity, has become accustomed to for which I am very grateful — that spiritual science anthroposophy can fully understand how modern humanity, especially the scientifically conscientious modern humanity, has become accustomed to considering as true and certain that which results from causal, scientific knowledge, from external sensory observation, and from the intellectual combination of sensory observations and experimentation. Certainty has been learned in this way. And by first learning this certainty, people have become accustomed to a certain feeling toward what can be “certain” at all. Until now, no attempt has been made to pursue the supersensible in the same way as the sensible has been pursued. Therefore, this certainty has not yet been carried over into the supersensible worlds. Today, people still believe that they must remain at the level of mere belief in the supersensible worlds, at the level of reverent intuition, because otherwise the mystery would be lost, because otherwise the supersensible would be rationalized. Spiritual science does not attempt to rationalize the mystery, to dispel the reverential awe that human beings feel before mysteries. It leads human beings to these mysteries through contemplation. It allows them to remain mysteries, but it places them in the realm of world development in the same way that sensory things are otherwise placed in the realm of world development.
And it must be true that human beings also need certainty for what lies beyond the merely natural. To the extent that human beings feel that spiritual science, as understood in the anthroposophical sense, does not offer vague, dilettantish, vague talk about the worlds, but something imbued with the same spirit as that expressed in modern science, to the same extent will humanity also feel and sense that the certainty we have acquired, which we have become accustomed to receiving from the sensory world, can also be carried over into the spiritual worlds. And people will feel: even if we had certainty, but only for the sensory world, what good would this certainty be to us if the sensory world passes away? Human beings need something eternal, because they themselves want to be rooted in something eternal. They cannot give up the certainty that it should only apply to the transitory. They must also conquer the imperishable nature of real certainty, of the certainty of knowledge.
In the most modest way — as anyone who is involved in anthroposophical spiritual science today knows — this is what anthroposophical spiritual science wants today. It wants human beings not to lose, above natural certainty, a knowledge of the imperishable, above certainty about the transitory, certainty about the imperishable. Anthroposophy wants to bring certainty about the imperishable into our civilization, and with it certainty about the mysteries of birth and death, about the mystery of immortality, about the mysteries of spiritual world developments. And in this way it believes it can contribute to this civilization. For to the same extent that human beings here courageously recognize that certainty must be gained not only for the transitory but also for the imperishable, to the same extent will they become accustomed to to no longer regard anthroposophy as fantastical and as the idle play of individuals, but as something that, like the other sciences, must be integrated into our entire spiritual culture, and thus into our civilization as a whole.