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The Reality of the Higher Worlds
GA 79

26 November 1921, Christiania

Paths to Knowledge of Higher Worlds

I have been asked to speak to-day on the subject: Paths leading to higher, that is to super-sensible knowledge. As not all of you were present at my last lecture, it will be necessary to weave into this lecture some of the more important things explained yesterday.

The spiritual science of Anthroposophy strives above all towards a full harmony with the scientific truths which have emerged in the course of the past centuries. Anthroposophy is in no way directed against the efforts of natural science, as so many people believe; on the contrary, those who honestly and earnestly stand within our anthroposophical movement appreciate most of all such men as can fully judge the achievement of our modern times, resulting from scientific conscientiousness, from inner scientific feeling. It is however true that one cannot penetrate into the super-sensible worlds with the aid of the generally accepted science, and in regard to this point Anthroposophy in a certain way shares the views of the officially recognised scientists.

Anthroposophy clearly recognises that people are quite right when in regard to natural science they speak of boundaries to human knowledge. Anthroposophy also recognises that one cannot step beyond these boundaries with the ordinary forces of human understanding. Consequently Anthroposophy does not even attempt to discover paths to super-sensible knowledge by applying the forces of ordinary consciousness and ordinary knowledge, but it strives not only as regards the results of scientific investigation to begin where ordinary science must come to an end, but through its methods Anthroposophy also strives to begin where the generally accepted science must come to a final point in regard to a knowledge of external Nature and also of the physical nature of the human being.

Consequently Anthroposophy must not only speak of different subjects, but it must also speak in a different way. Nevertheless it is in full harmony with scientific conscientiousness and scientific discipline. Its starting point is to draw out of man’s inner being latent forces, to rouse slumbering forces of knowledge enabling the human being to penetrate into the super-sensible worlds.

Anthroposophy does not say that special qualities and capacities are needed for a knowledge of the super-sensible worlds, it does not declare that such a knowledge is based on qualities which can only be possessed by a few people, but it takes as its foundation forces which can be drawn out of every human soul, forces which transcend those which we inherit, as it were, from childhood onwards and which also transcend those which we gain through ordinary education, through an ordinary schooling.

A person who wishes to become a spiritual investigator, in the anthroposophical sense of this word, must set out from the point where he stands in ordinary life and in ordinary science; from there he must guide his development of his own accord. The forces which should be developed first of all are the forces of thinking. This is a first step in such a development, and we shall see that this does not imply the development of one-sided intellectual forces of thought, but the unfolding of the whole human being. But a beginning must be made with a particular exercise in thinking.

The kind of thinking to which we are accustomed in ordinary life and also in ordinary science is given up to external observation and follows, as it were, the thread of external observation. We direct our senses towards the external world and link our thoughts with perceptions transmitted by the senses. The observation of the external world provides a firm support, enabling us to connect our experiences with the contents of our soul.

It has been the endeavour of science, and rightly so, to develop more and more the support given by external observation. Observation has been enhanced by the use of scientific experimental research, where every single condition leading to different manifestations can be clearly surveyed, so that the processes become, as it were, quite transparent.

For the attainment of its task, the spiritual science of Anthroposophy must deviate from this way of thinking which is entirely directed towards the objective reality outside. Anthroposophy must above all strengthen and intensify thought within the human being. In the public lecture which I gave yesterday I remarked that a muscle grows stronger if it does a certain work and that the same applies to the forces of the soul. When certain definite concepts which can easily be surveyed are again and again set at the centre of our consciousness by systematic practice, so that we completely surrender to such concepts, our thinking power grows stronger.

This intensification of the forces of thinking must of course be reached in such a way as to maintain throughout our clear and complete willpower. A person who wishes to become a spiritual investigator in the anthroposophical sense, may therefore take mathematics above all as an excellent example for the scientific mentality of modern times.

Though it may sound strange and paradoxical it must be said that an anthroposophical spiritual investigator who wishes to transcend the stage of dilettantism, must in the first place observe a rule which already existed in the old Platonic school: That no one can penetrate into real spiritual-scientific knowledge unless he has a certain mathematical culture.

What particular result can the human soul gain through mathematics? The result that everything which confronts the soul through mathematics can be inwardly surveyed, is inwardly transparent, and that mathematics contains, as it were, nothing to which we submit unconsciously, without the application of our will.

The spiritual science of Anthroposophy is naturally not mathematics. But a significant example may be found in the way in which one penetrates into mathematical thought. It is not mathematics in itself which constitutes this example, but — if I may coin this expression, — “mathematizing,” the activity of mathematical thinking. If such a “mathematizing” culture shows us how to transcend any illusionary or suggestive element, we shall be particularly successful in concentrating upon concepts which can be surveyed and which are quite new to us.

Such concepts can be obtained from an experienced spiritual-scientific investigator, or in some other way we may seek to develop concepts which do not live in our memory. They are set in the centre of consciousness, and we then concentrate upon them with the whole life of our soul, with all our power of concentration. Our attention is turned away from everything else, and for a certain space of time which must not be too long, we try to concentrate ourselves upon such a concept, or complex of concepts.

Why must such a concept or complex of concepts be something quite new? When we draw reminiscences out of memory, we can never be quite sure of what takes place within our organism, where processes may lead to certain experiences coming from the unconscious spheres outside the soul. Our cognitive power can only act freely when we confront a sense-perception, for it can be envisaged at any moment and because we are quite sure that a sense-perception is not drawn in some fantastic way out of the reminiscences of our life.

The same applies to that which we now allow to fill our consciousness with the exclusion of all sense-perceptions and to which we yield completely. Though we have no sensory perceptions, we are inwardly just as living as is ordinarily the case with external sense perception. The first thing which should be borne in mind when treading the path to higher knowledge, is that our thinking, which is free from sense impressions, acquires an inner activity which completely claims the attention of our soul, in the same way in which this attention is ordinarily claimed only by an external sense perception. One might say: What we ordinarily experience in connection with an external sense impression, we should learn to experience in connection with that intensified thought-activity which is completely permeated by a clear, conscious will.

This in itself sets up a strong barrier against anything which seeks to enter human consciousness in the form of suggestions, illusions, visions or hallucinations. Spiritual-scientific knowledge, in our meaning of the word, is not understood in the right way if people say: By his exercises, a spiritual investigator might after all be led to hallucinations or to similar results, he may be led into all kinds of pathological conditions of the soul. But those who earnestly consider the way in which Anthroposophy describes the path leading to higher knowledge, will see that this kind of spiritual investigation reveals most clearly of all the true nature of illusions, hallucinations or mediumistic phenomena. It rejects all this severely, as pathological elements; in fact, the results obtained by real spiritual research, clearly enable us to perceive the worthlessness of such phenomena.

Then one comes to quite a new way of thinking. The old way of thinking which is used in ordinary life and in ordinary science, remains. But a new way of thinking is added to it, if we do the exercises principally characterised as thought-exercises (you will find them in my book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, or in my Outline of an Occult Science) and if we constantly practise them in a systematic way. (One person will need longer time for the attainment of results, and another person a shorter time). These thoughts, constituting a systematic practice, should be carried out in our consciousness as an inner soul-development.

I might describe this new way of thinking which is added to the old way of thinking in the following way.

Perhaps you will allow me to make a personal remark; which, however, is not meant personally, but, as you will readily admit, it belongs to the objective part of my descriptions. In the early nineties of the nineteenth century, I wrote my Philosophy of Spiritual Activity in order to show that freedom really lives in man’s ethical, moral life. There it has its roots. The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity called forth many misunderstandings, because people simply cannot penetrate into the way of thinking which is employed in this book.

My Philosophy of Spiritual Activity already employs that form of thinking which must be gained by systematic practice in order to reach a knowledge of the higher worlds. It is a first beginning in this direction, a first step which anyone can make in ordinary life. Yet it is at the same time a first step leading to a knowledge of the higher worlds.

Ordinary thinking (it suffices to bear in mind the true nature of the ordinary way of thinking, in order to see that my remarks are justified)—ordinary thinking really consists of spatial perceptions. In our ordinary thinking everything is arranged spatially. Consider that even time is led back to space! For time is expressed by the movements of the clock. The same process in fact is also contained in our physical formulae. In short, we finally must come to the conclusion that ordinary thinking is a combining way of thinking, one that collects scattered elements. We use this way of thinking in our ordinary sound conditions of life, and in ordinary science.

But the kind of thinking which should be used for the cognition of higher worlds and which is gained with the aid of the exercises I have described, is one which I might call morphological thinking, one in which we think in forms.

This way of thinking is not limited to space; it lives within the medium of time, in the same way thinking lives within the medium of space. This thinking does not link up one thought with the other; it sets before the soul a kind of thought-organism. When we have a conception, an idea or a thought, we cannot pass over at will to another. Even as in the human organism we cannot pass over at will from the head to any other form, but must first pass over to the neck, then the shoulders, the thorax, etc., even as in an organism everything has a definite structure which must be considered as a whole, so the thinking which I characterised as morphological thinking must be inwardly mobile. As stated, it lives within the medium of time, not of space. But it is inwardly so mobile that it produces one form out of another, by constantly growing and producing an organic structure.

It is this morphological way of thinking which should be added to the ordinary way of thinking. It can be attained through exercises of meditation which are described in principle in some of my books. These exercises strengthen and intensify thinking. The morphological way of thinking, the thinking activity which takes its course in forms and pictures, enables us to reach the first stage in the knowledge of super-sensible worlds, namely the stage described in my books as imaginative knowledge.

Imaginative knowledge does not as yet supply anything pertaining to an external world. To begin with, it leads only to man’s self-knowledge, but it is a far deeper knowledge of self than the one which is ordinarily reached by self-contemplation. This imaginative knowledge brings forms into our consciousness, forms which are experienced just as livingly as any sense-perception. But they have a peculiar quality of their own.

Our ordinary thoughts could not live within our consciousness in a sound way if we were unable to remember them. In regard to spiritual health and a sound development of soul-life, a very great deal depends upon our remembering capacity, upon our memory. Only those who have a continuous memory in their waking-life condition, a memory which goes back to a certain moment in childhood, can be said to be of sound mind.

Perhaps you will also have heard of the terrible condition of certain psychopathic people due to the fact that certain memories are blotted out. Psychiatry knows this state in which memories are blotted out, and it shows us the great importance of a continuous memory if the human soul is to live in a sound condition. This applies to the ordinary development of thought.

But it does not apply to the way of thinking just characterised as morphological or imaginative thinking. When our eye, or some other sense-organ is turned to some external object, the perception can be experienced only as long as our sense-organ is exposed to it. In the same way morphological thinking, or imaginative thinking, only exists while we experience it, and what thus arises within imaginative thinking cannot in the ordinary sense be impressed upon our memory. It must be called forth every time afresh, if it is to be experienced.

Those who reach such an organic-morphological way of thinking which develops as it were into a living process of growth, cannot retain the results of this thinking in their ordinary memory. Freedom, too, can only be characterised by ascending to such growing, constantly developing way of thinking. This is why my Philosophy of Spiritual Activity gave rise to so many misunderstandings. But it had to be transmitted through this method of thinking, because freedom is a spiritual experience and it is impossible to come to it with ordinary combining thinking.

Beginners in the method of spiritual science generally think that an imaginative experience can be impressed on the soul like any other thought. But this is not the case. An imaginative thought vanishes from our consciousness. The only thing which can be retained is the way in which the imaginative experience was reached. The conditions can be reconstructed, thus giving rise to the experience. If we wish to see again a flower which we have already seen, we must return to it and look at it; in the same way, the inner processes leading to an imaginative experience must be recalled, if we wish to have this experience again.

A spiritual-scientific content cannot be remembered without further ado. This even applies to the most elementary things in honest spiritual-scientific investigation. Here again, allow me to mention something personal, but which is also an objective fact.

You see, what an anthroposophical investigator of spiritual science has to say, cannot, as it were, be transmitted day by day in the form of lectures, in the same way in which natural-scientific facts are generally advanced. Scientific facts can be remembered, they live in our memory and can be set forth with the aid of memory. But the facts which a spiritual-scientific investigator has to advance, must come from his inner living experience. He cannot prepare himself in the same way in which one generally prepares lectures based on memory. The only thing he can do is to reconstruct the conditions enabling him to experience the most elementary facts of spiritual science.

We should realise that the spiritual science of Anthroposophy leads in its very first steps to a development of otherwise dormant forces of the human soul, and we should not think that any results can be reached in regard to higher worlds through ordinary philosophical speculations.

The imaginative knowledge described to you just now, leads, as already stated, to a kind of self-knowledge. Finally it leads us to a great tableau in which we simultaneously survey all the organic elements that have built up our whole life from our earthly birth onwards. Inwardly we perceive the creative formative forces which build up the human being and we first perceive them in connection with our own self.

We can see this tableau in the same way in which certain people in danger of death (even natural-scientific thinkers admit this), for instance, when they are drowning, see before them a weaving, living picture of their past life; we do not however, see it as a memory-picture, we do not look upon the small details of life, but we survey its chief facts, the forces which made us progress. We see, as it were, a deeper memory-tableau. At the same time, this tableau does not merely set before us the ordinary thinking life of the soul, but that inner life which works upon the physical organism from the soul.

This conception leads to a standpoint that makes it appear childish that even in the first decades of the 19th century people should have spoken in a speculative way of vital forces, of vitalism. Anthroposophy does not speak of such a vital force. It speaks instead of the conception of life, of what I call the etheric body, or body of formative forces, which represents on the one hand a soul-element, and on the other, a condensed, intensified soul-element which works upon the physical organism.

We are thus led to a deeper knowledge of the soul and also to a deeper knowledge of the way in which the soul-element works within the organism. Let me now give you an example, an elementary but characteristic example:

You know that recognised modern psychology does not go beyond certain speculative ideas in regard to the connections which exist between the soul and the body. The soul is described as if it were the body’s motive force, and scientists with a more materialistic mentality consider the body as a plus, which as it were, produces the soul. Most frequently of all modern psycho-physicists speak of parallelism, viz., that psychic phenomena and bodily phenomena follow a parallel course, and so forth. But all these things are mere speculations, simply based on the fact that people are unwilling to penetrate with the scientific spirit that prevails elsewhere into the psychical-bodily life of man.

You are all acquainted with the physical concept of latent heat contained in every object, but which does not manifest itself as heat. But this heat can be freed, it is said, if certain conditions are created, and in that case it manifests itself. But before the heat appeared, it existed in the objects as a latent force, where it gives rise to something which does not reveal itself outwardly through heat-processes. We therefore speak of latent heat and of heat which is set free.

This conception — of course, duly modified and extended — should be applied to the soul-life, by observing it in a concrete way, and not speculatively. We can observe the child’s growth until the time of its second dentition around the seventh year. Far more than one generally thinks is connected with this second dentition. If we observe the soul-bodily processes in an unprejudiced way, we can see that after the second dentition the child’s whole way of thinking, its whole life of representation and feeling, in fact the whole life of the soul, undergoes a complete change.

When the child changes its teeth, it reaches a final point in regard to a certain direction of life. After the second dentition, the human being no longer requires certain forces for the development of his physical organism which he formerly required. The forces which push out (if I may use this trivial expression) the second teeth are not merely localised in the human head, but they are forces which work in the whole body and manifest themselves locally when the second teeth appear. They exist however in the whole physical organism.

Those who observe this whole process as objectively as natural scientists are accustomed to observe and think in natural science, reach the point of recognising that the forces which push out the second teeth were latent forces, bound up with the physical organism. They gave the child’s physical body its structure, but with the second dentition they were set free, so that they can now appear in the child as soul-spiritual forces.

Here we may see concretely how the soul-spiritual forces and the bodily organisation are inter-related. This is not seen speculatively, but in a real, concrete way. Those who only wish to observe the soul at one moment and then the body, may speculate or experiment for a long time, yet they will only come to quite abstract results in regard to the connection which exists between the soul and the body. But those who observe the processes in the sequence of time, will find that after the second dentition certain soul-forces appear in the child revealing a more sharply outlined concept of memory, more sharply outlined feelings, and they will know that these are forces in the soul which were set free and which now manifest, whereas formerly they were submerged in the physical organism. Observations, not mere speculative thought, shows them the connection between the body and the soul.

This example shows us how we should investigate the inter-activity of soul and body with the aid of imaginative thought. We gain insight into the activity of the soul-spiritual forces in the physical-bodily organisation. This is what is presented in the tableau which I have described.

If we have reached the point of developing this imaginative way of thinking, we must proceed further with the strength thus gained. Even as a muscle grows stronger through practice, so the thinking power grows stronger if we do these exercises which are described in greater detail in the books mentioned. If we develop within us an intensified thinking endowed with plastic forces which lives in time, other forces of our soul may be developed and intensified.

The ordinary thoughts of life come and go, or we try to get rid of them either by discarding them from our soul, or the organism sees to it that we forget them, and so forth. But the thoughts of the kind described, which are called up in our consciousness for the sake of gaining higher knowledge, cannot be blotted out as easily as ordinary thoughts. A great effort must be made to forget them. This is a second kind of exercise: an artificial forgetting, as it were, an artificial suppression of thought.

If we have practised this artificial suppression of thought for a sufficiently long time, corresponding to our individual development and predispositions, we become able to suppress the whole tableau of which I have spoken, so that our consciousness is quite empty. The only thing which should remain to us is our calm thinking power, permeated by the will. But this thinking now appears in a new form.

I have now described to you two ways of thinking: the ordinary way of thinking which is connected with space, and a way of thinking which has a growth of its own, in which one thought always grows out of the other, even as in a living organism one limb is connected with the other.

If this morphological way of thinking is practised for a certain time, we gradually develop a third way of thinking, which we need in order to ascend to a higher stage of super-sensible knowledge. We need this kind of thinking when we rise to a stage which is higher than that in which we merely survey our own organisation.

Imaginative knowledge leads us to a survey of our own organisation, so that we say to ourselves: Here on earth, the soul-spiritual element, which is super-sensible, works upon the physical body. We must use this morphological way of thinking, for otherwise it is not possible to understand what takes place in the medium of time and works upon the physical body out of a super-sensible sphere, for this is something which undergoes continual metamorphoses. Our thinking must become mobile and our thoughts must be inwardly connected with each other. Mere combining thought cannot grasp the life which proceeds from the spirit, this can only be grasped by an inwardly living thinking.

But still another way of thinking must be developed if we wish to rise up to the next stage of super-sensible knowledge. Let me use an example in order to explain this to you. Even this example is difficult to penetrate, but I think you will be able to grasp what I mean.

Let us bear in mind the fact that Goethe tried to interpret the single cranial bones as metamorphoses of the vertebrae. In the single bones of the skull Goethe perceived transformations of the vertebra. Though somewhat modified, modern science also adopts this view, but it is no longer entirely in keeping with Goethe’s conception; nevertheless this view is valid to-day.

It does not suffice, however, to consider the purely morphological derivation of the cranial bones. We must go further if we wish to understand the relationship of the human head to the remaining human organism (we will restrict ourselves to the skeleton). We must not only envisage a transformation, but something very different. Let us ask, for instance: What relation exists between the bony system of the arms or legs and the bony system of the cranial bones, of the bones of the head? Here it is the case that the metamorphoses through which one form gives rise to the other can only be grasped if we bear in mind that this is not only a spatial metamorphosis taking place within the medium of time, but that quite another process takes place which is very difficult to understand, namely, a kind of turning over, a reversal.

If you wish to grasp the mutual relation between the bones of the leg and the bones of the skull, you must compare the external surface of the skull with the inner surface of a hollow bone, let us say of the upper thigh bone. This means that the inner side of the thigh bone must be turned inside out, so that also its elasticity would change; its inner surface would in that case be turned outwards and correspond to the external surface of a cranial bone; and vice versa, the outer surface of the thigh bone would not correspond to the outer surface of the cranium, but to its inner surface.

Imagine this process of metamorphosis like a glove which is turned inside out, but at the same time the elasticity of the glove undergoes a change. A new form arises. It is as if the glove is not only turned inside out, but takes on quite a different shape through the new elasticity.

You see, as a first indication of this third kind of thinking I must bring before you a very complicated process. This kind of thinking does not only live in constantly changing forms, but it is able to reverse the inner structure, so as to change its form.

This can only be achieved through the fact that now our thinking no longer lives in the medium of time, for in this process of reversion the subject of our thoughts transcends space and time and penetrates into a reality which lies beyond space and time.

I know that we cannot immediately become familiar with this third kind of thinking, which differs so greatly from the combining and the plastic ways of thinking. It is not easy to penetrate into this third kind of thinking, which dives down, as it were, into spacelessness and timelessness; it is not easy to understand that it reappears in a changed form turned inside out.

Anthroposophy does not wish to speak of the higher worlds in the amateurish way adopted by so many people, but because Anthroposophy is as honest as any other honest science it must point out that it is not only necessary to abandon the sphere of higher science, but that it is even necessary to acquire a completely new way of thinking.

If we wish to advance to a qualitative thinking man’s inner forces must be held together in an entirely different way, for the whole quality of our thinking undergoes a change during this process of reversal, when the inner is turned into the outer.

When we succeed in submerging our thought into a qualitative element, it is possible to ascend to that stage of knowledge of the super-sensible worlds which follows the stage of imaginative thought.

If the tableau of which I have spoken has been suppressed, so that an empty consciousness is established, then we have an empty consciousness for a certain time; this can be achieved if we suppress merely a concept. But when such a reality is suppressed, when we suppress forces which are constantly at the service of growth and nutrition during our earthly existence, we dive down into a completely new world. We then really are in the higher worlds and the ordinary physical world lies behind us like a memory. We must have it as a memory, for otherwise we should not be of sound mind; without memory we should be psychopaths, subjected to hallucinations and to illusions.

If we proceed in the right way along the path of spiritual investigation, we maintain our calm thoughtful consciousness permeated by the will even when we ascend to the highest worlds and there can be no question of falling a prey to hallucinations or suggestions.

When we are subjected to hallucinations or suggestions, the ordinary consciousness is entirely supplanted by a pathological consciousness. In the state of consciousness which Anthroposophy strives to reach for the attainment of knowledge of higher worlds, the essential thing is to maintain our ordinary consciousness in its full extent, so that we keep our sound common sense and our calm state of mind while ascending to the higher worlds. Even the thinking strengthened with the reversion of thought already mentioned, or the super-morphological thought, even this exists only for the sake of penetrating in full consciousness into the higher worlds. We then really experience the higher worlds and their spiritual contents.

Through the imaginative consciousness which enables us to gain a conception of the forces working in us from birth onwards, a conception of super-sensible forces working upon the physical body, we gain knowledge of that part of our being which existed before our birth, or before we were conceived within the physical world, when we still lived in a soul-spiritual world surrounded by soul-spiritual beings, even as here on earth, during the time between birth and death, we are surrounded by physical beings.

In short, we experience the eternal kernel of man’s being, when we look behind birth into that stage of existence through which we passed before the earth received us into the physical stream of heredity; we experience man’s eternal being in his spiritual environment.

Thus it is neither speculation, nor a system of thought that has led us to a knowledge of the higher worlds; it is a beholding. Even as the development of the body, from the embryonic stage onwards, gives us a conception of the external physical world, so the steps described to you in principle (details can be found in the books I have mentioned) lead us to a knowledge of soul-processes and enable us to live in a spiritual world in which we existed before birth and into which we enter when we pass through the portal of death. Objective vision leads to a knowledge of the higher worlds.

I have now described to you in the first place a path of knowledge. But this is incompletely described if it is merely described as a path of knowledge, for the experiences which we gain call for something besides a mere activity of thought. Though it may be difficult to acquire these two higher forms of thinking, there is something else which presents far greater difficulties.

If here in the physical world we preferably cling to observation and experiments, it is because in a certain way this sets our mind at rest in regard to the reality of our knowledge. From the standpoint of a theory of knowledge one may dispute about the true nature of sense-perceptions and their relation to reality, etc., but this is not the point just now; the point is that sense-perception gives us a guarantee for the truth of our soul’s experience, the reflected images of our sense-perceptions which arise in the soul; we set our minds at rest by leaning upon the external reality.

The disease of spiritism has arisen in recent times; which in just such a way seeks to establish the reality of the spiritual by external observation. One cannot of course be a stronger materialist than by being a spiritist. Spiritism is but the enhanced form of materialism, for in spiritism people not only wish to establish the reality of physical substance, which they perhaps consider as the only reality, but they even wish to show that the spirit appears in the same form as matter, i.e. that the spirit itself is nothing but matter. What arises in the form of spiritism is the last phase of materialism and draws out of it the last consequences. [See Rudolf Steiner: “Geschichte des Spiritismus” and “Geschichte des Hypnotismus and Sonnambulismus.”]

Real spiritual science seeks for an ascent into the spiritual worlds and not a drawing down of the spiritual worlds into material processes.

But when we ascend to the spiritual world in the manner described we no longer have the support which the external world provides, as it were, for our soul-experiences. We need something which gives the certainty that we are not floating in emptiness, that our soul-experiences in the higher worlds are not mere fancies; we need a support in the same way in which the external sense perceptions give us a support in our ordinary life. This again can only be reached through the development of inner forces.

Please do not misunderstand me. I do not mean that the forces which we already have in ordinary life (one has to speak in terms taken from ordinary life) suffice. We must develop forces even in spheres which are not the spheres of thought, in order to reach not only vision, but vision rooted in reality.

The assurance which our sense-perceptions provide from outside, consists in the fact that one sense supports the other. When we have an impression of sound or of sight, we do not immediately know whether this is a hallucination or not. We can only be sure of the impression gained, when we are supported — I might say — by the sense of gravitation, when another sense comes to our aid, when an impression which is not sufficiently guaranteed by the sense of sight or hearing can be supported by some other sense.

What is it that gives us the right to speak of reality in the physical world? Several things may be taken into consideration. I should have to speak for hours from the standpoint of a theory of knowledge (of course, I cannot do this now) in order to prove the fact which I now briefly wish to summarize. But if you follow the corresponding train of thought you will see that the following fact can be accepted: In the physical world we designate a fact as “real” when it influences us in such a way that we should be obliged to deny our own existence were we to deny the existence of that thing. If you not only hear the sound of a bell, but if you can touch it and discover its connection with other things, you would have to blot out your own self if you were not able to say that the external object is real, when you experience its reality within your soul. An external object can be called real, if we should have to deny our own reality in denying the reality of the object.

What we describe as reality is therefore intimately related with our own reality. That is why forces must also be drawn out of our own reality, which is a soul-spiritual reality, and these moral forces may be compared with an object which I grasp and which shows itself to be heavy. Within our own being we must seek supporting forces for the reality of the spiritual worlds into which we penetrate in the way I have described.

This can only be done if we develop certain moral qualities which we already have in our ordinary ethical attitude in life; the moral forces must be strengthened in the same way in which we strengthen the force of thought. These moral forces should not only be developed for the sake of our ethical life, they must be further strengthened.

Let me now speak to you only of two kinds. The first is what we call moral courage, or courage in general; this should be intensified in the same way in which the forces of thinking are intensified. The forces of courage within us may be intensified if the retrospective tableau arising through imagination is placed before the soul and we then look upon it and experience it in the right way. We then discover a higher kind of courage in our own life; when diving down into this tableau we discover inner forces of courage which are greater than those which we generally use in our external life, which is more or less passive. This courage should be intensified.

There is another moral force which should be intensified. Whereas courage is generally connected with the life of feeling and resembles an inner sense of sureness, a certain inner power, it is necessary to unfold certain forces which are connected with the will and which consist, for example, in the fact that at certain given moments we determine to do something, which we set about to do at some later time, by establishing with an iron will the conditions which enable us to carry out our resolution. An Anthroposophical spiritual investigator should carry out these exercises quite systematically. He should inwardly connect his present will-impulses with impulses that were in him at a former time.

In our ordinary life we give ourselves up to the present. But in the life which is to bring us into higher worlds we must visualise with an inner continuity of the will. Throughout many years we should be able to hold a purpose in mind and carry out at some later time things which we once resolved to do. This unfolds strong forces which support the will; it develops a strong current of volition which we ourselves establish within us.

This a special form of self-discipline. We are then no longer dependent on external circumstances or on ideals which induce us to do certain things, but by the will-impulse we inwardly connect in a soul-spiritual manner a later moment of our soul-life with an earlier moment. If a higher form of courage unfolds within our soul, if we develop the continuity of our will-impulses so that our will-impulses endure over the gulfs of time then we come to the point of ascending into the higher worlds, we shall be able to verify the reality of what we then perceive in the same way in which we do this in regard to the external physical world. The reality which we perceive there must be verified with the aid of inwardly intensified forces.

Hence the path leading to the spiritual worlds is not the development of a one-sided cognitive force, but the development of the whole human being in the direction of thinking, feeling and will, which implies a striving after knowledge, an aesthetic striving and an ethical striving. This path leading to the higher worlds is at the same time a religious immersion, a religious deepening of the human being.

There is one essential point which should be borne in mind: In modern times, even as through science to a great extent doubts have arisen in regard to the spiritual worlds, so through science these spiritual worlds must be conquered again. It is shortsighted to believe that the religious life must suffer through the fact that it is possible to ascend to the spiritual worlds with the same clear consciousness that we have in the physical world.

Those who advance criticism in this respect, generally do so because they think that the spiritual science of Anthroposophy remains within the limits of the intellect and rationalism. This is not the case. The whole human being, with his feeling and his will, flows into the development of thought, which is acquired in the manner I have described. The path leading to higher worlds indicated by the spiritual science of Anthroposophy is the unfolding and the development of the whole human being. Even as in ordinary physical life thinking grows out of the organism like a flower, so higher knowledge grows out of the fully developed human being, who unfolds all his forces harmoniously and intensively along the path leading to the higher worlds.

Through the development of mere thinking we only come to a world of images. If reality is to be perceived within this world of images, we must develop in the way I have indicated the courage contained in moral forces, the will contained in our character, our own individual will which we maintain throughout periods of time.

These two forces, and others, which you will find described in the books already mentioned before, should be intensified. The human being as a whole must be led in a soul-spiritual way into those other worlds in which he lives before he is conceived by physical forces and enters physical life on earth or in which he lives after passing through the portal of death.

If we wish to ascend to this life with knowledge, if we wish to acquire the vision of the super-sensible worlds, the whole soul-spiritual being of man must be led towards them — not only some vague part of him which desires to become acquainted with these worlds theoretically.

The spiritual science of Anthroposophy can therefore fructify the whole life of man. Anthroposophy does not seek in some abstruse mystical way to estrange us from the world, but strives on the contrary to lead us into practical life, into a life which is truly practical. That is why it can be so fruitful for science and art, social and religious life—in short, for the most different spheres of life.

I can only give a few indications in this connection.

If we can see the life-tableau of retrospective vision of which I have spoken, a tableau which is in reality a structure of formative forces moving in the stream of time, if we can recognise this structure, we can also see how the human body arises out of this system of forces and how it develops. For it is only an external illusion to speak of the heart, the lungs, etc.; in reality, the heart is a process, and the external spatial form of the heart is merely the process which is held fast for a time. This applies to every organ. What is retained for a moment within a certain shape, can be perceived. But we cannot perceive the incessant life-process giving rise to health and illness unless we attain to a knowledge of the super-sensible formative forces of the body.

Medicine, and therapy in particular, can be essentially fructified by spiritual science, and we have already opened Clinical-therapeutic Institutes in Stuttgart and Dornach where the sickness of humanity can benefit from knowledge derived from Anthroposophy.

Spiritual science can fructify life in many other directions. When a School for Spiritual Science was opened at Dornach it was not possible to give it any ordinary kind of frame. What the friends of our anthroposophical world-conception had in mind when they wished to erect a building for a school of spiritual science was something quite special. Let me explain this by a comparison.

Take a nut with its shell. An unprejudiced person will think that the nut’s shell must have the form which it has, because the nut itself has a definite form. The shell forms part of the nut. When a spiritual world-conception, such as that contained in the Anthroposophical movement, is called into life, the members may find themselves in the position to erect a building and they may think: Let us go to an architect who will draw us a plan in this or in that style, in accordance with traditional customs, or something thought out which would not in any way be connected with the things which are to be cultivated within it — just as if the nut’s shell were not to fit the nut!

Since Anthroposophy is not a mere theory, and does not merely live in words, the Anthroposophical Movement can therefore not proceed in this way, not even in regard to its frame. At Dornach, the words which resound from the speaker’s platform, the scenes on the stage, whatever art is presented through word or movement from the stage, must have exactly the same inner essential style as that which is expressed in the walls, in the external architecture of the Building. Even as the shell of the nut is formed by the same forces which formed the nut, so the Anthroposophical realities which come to expression in the world must have an artistic frame and call into being a new style of architecture.

It was therefore an organic necessity for a new style of architecture to arise in Dornach. This new style is simply the externally visible part of the reality which lives soul-spiritually in the world. One will be able to see what is the intention of Anthroposophy to-day just through the fructifying influence which it exercises also upon the artistic spheres of life.

In Eurhythmy, which is only a beginning, we called into life a human art of movement in which the single artists or the groups of artists do not dance or pantomime, but in which the forms of movement constitute a speech based on laws just as strict as those of spoken language, or a visible song, similar to that which one ordinarily hears in the form of sound. Eurhythmy is entirely drawn out of the law of man, in spirit, soul and body.

Through Anthroposophy we have thus been able to exercise a fructifying influence on many different spheres of art.

In my Threefold State the attempt has been made to face the great social problems of the present time from the anthroposophical standpoint. Those who bear in mind that from the anthroposophical standpoint the whole human being has to be taken into account in the social question, and not only that part which is accessible to a rationalistic science, to Marxism and similar directions of thought, must admit that forces which penetrate into the higher spiritual worlds can also penetrate into the social laws of human life, for these in fact are soul-spiritual laws pertaining to the higher worlds; they can also lead us to laws which are able to call into existence satisfactory social conditions in human life. For it is a spiritual element which unites human beings in their life in common, and physical links are simply formed out of the spiritual.

The terrible catastrophe of the present time and the decadent forces which now hold sway are largely due to the fact that people forget this spiritual foundation. Humanity must again permeate itself with the spirit.

Anthroposophy has also had a fructifying influence on education, pedagogy. At the Waldorf School at Stuttgart, founded by Emil Molt, the results of anthroposophical research in the direction of a true knowledge of man are applied to the developing human being, to the child. The paths which lead us to the higher worlds also enable us to observe the child year by year and week by week, as it develops from birth to puberty; it enables us to see in the child the forces which it brought with it from the spiritual worlds and which the teacher or the educator must conjure forth.

I can only give a few indications in this direction, for at the Waldorf School we have tried to develop all these things in detail into an art of education. These are a few examples showing how Anthroposophy can influence different spheres of life.

I already told you that Anthroposophy can also fructify religious life, because it leads in a scientific way to the higher worlds and because it shows us the true nature of man’s eternal being which he bears in his transient earthly existence as an ever-developing spiritual element not accessible to the ordinary forces of cognition. It shows this eternal essence in its own element, in the super-sensible worlds. Higher vision can discover it there. Here it is concealed, because when it enters earthly life through birth it becomes absorbed by the physical form. But this fact does not deprive the spirit of its living forces, for the physical substance only conceals it. The spiritual can however be perceived in physical substance, in matter. An aid to such an insight is provided by the paths leading to the super-sensible worlds, which Anthroposophy seeks to indicate.

Anthroposophy does not wish on this account to lead us away from the ordinary world into asceticism, but it opens out the paths to the spirit, to the super-sensible worlds in such a way that with the aid of the spirit we can once more form and shape material, practical life.

The essential thing is to recognise a creative power in the spirit. The spiritual world would be weak indeed were we to experience it only as an uncreative element transcending matter. There are many people who say: The physical aspect of the world is something low, let us rise above it; let us abandon matter in order to reach high spiritual spheres.

Many things assuredly must be overcome in order to attain a knowledge of this spirit, but when we have reached it through love (and it can only be reached through love, through religious devotion and warmth, for the development of the moral capacities mentioned above lead us, through love, into the super-sensible worlds) then we take hold of the spiritual, super-sensible essence as we approach matter. For the strong spiritual element is not one which flees matter, but one which forms matter, which can be spiritually active within matter. This is one aspect.

On the other hand let me tell you one other thing which should be borne in mind, my dear fellow-students, namely that the spiritual science of Anthroposophy, as it is meant here, treads the paths leading to the super-sensible worlds in such a way that the results obtained along these paths do not stand outside the ordinary natural-scientific facts and their operations, but penetrate them as a soul-spiritual force.

Even as a person is a full human being in the true meaning of the word because here on earth he lives in a physical body which bears within it a soul-spiritual element, so science can only be science in the full meaning of the word if it is not a mere knowledge of the external, physical reality, but if this knowledge can be permeated by the knowledge of the spiritual worlds. For this reason the spiritual science of Anthroposophy wishes to set itself within the other science by meeting the demands of the being and nature both of man and of the universe. Even as in his physical life man must bear within him spirit and soul, so a real spiritual science which opens up true reliable ways into the super-sensible spiritual worlds, must become the spirit and soul of ordinary science dealing with the physical world. And even as the spirit and the soul in man do not fight or rebel against the body, but should harmonise with it fully, so the spiritual science of Anthroposophy should be in full harmony with real, genuine knowledge of nature and history.

Wege zur Erkenntnis Höherer Welten

Mein erstes Wort gelte dem Ausdruck meines innigsten Dankes für den herzlich schönen Willkommensgruß Ihres Herrn Vorsitzenden, und Ihnen allen Dank dafür, daß es möglich geworden ist, vor Ihnen über ein Kapitel anthroposophischer Geisteswissenschaft sprechen zu können. Ich darf es aussprechen, daß mir diese Einladung Ihrerseits von ganz besonderem Wert ist, denn es muß ja begreiflich erscheinen, daß dasjenige, was in den nächsten Bestrebungen für die Zukunft gemeint ist, sich vor allem gern an die Studentenschaft wendet, weil geistige Schätze wohl zunächst innerhalb der Studentenschaft am besten geborgen sein können und von da aus am besten ihren Weg in die Zukunft machen können. Aus diesem Gefühl heraus sage ich also Ihrem Herrn Vorsitzenden und Ihnen allen für Ihren herzlichen Willkommensgruß innigsten Dank.

Es ist gewünscht worden, daß ich heute gerade über das Thema spreche: Wege zur höheren, das heißt zur übersinnlichen Erkenntnis. Ich nehme an, daß nur ein Teil von Ihnen in meinem gestrigen Vortrage war, daher wird es schon geboten sein, daß ich einige der wichtigeren gestern vorgebrachten Dinge in meinen Vortrag wiederum hineinverwebe.

Anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft strebt vor allen Dingen nach einem vollen Einklang mit dem, was im Laufe der letzten Jahrhunderte an wissenschaftlichen Geistesgütern heraufgekommen ist. Anthroposophie ist nicht in irgendeiner Weise, wie manche glauben, gegen wissenschaftliche Bestrebungen gerichtet, sondern im Gegenteil, am liebsten sind denjenigen, die ganz ehrlich und ernst in unserer anthroposophischen Bewegung stehen, solche Menschen, die ein volles Urteil darüber haben, was in der neueren Zeit errungen worden ist an wissenschaftlicher Gewissenhaftigkeit, an innerer wissenschaftlicher Gesinnung. Allerdings, mit dem, was anerkannte Wissenschaft ist, glaubt man mit Recht, nicht in übersinnliche Welten eindringen zu können. Und auf einem gemeinsamen Boden mit der anerkannten Wissenschaft steht in einer gewissen Weise in bezug auf diesen Punkt auch Anthroposophie. Sie ist sich durchaus klar darüber, daß diejenigen Recht haben, die gegenüber der Naturerkenntnis von Grenzen des menschlichen Wissens reden. Sie ist sich auch klar darüber, daß diese Grenzen mit den gewöhnlichen menschlichen Erkenntniskräften nicht überschritten werden können. Daher wird auch von Anthroposophie gar nicht der Versuch gemacht, mit diesen gewöhnlichen Bewußtseins- und Erkenntniskräften die Wege zur übersinnlichen Erkenntnis zu finden, sondern Anthroposophie ist bestrebt, nicht nur in bezug auf die Ergebnisse des wissenschaftlichen Forschens dort anzufangen, wo gewöhnliche Wissenschaft aufhören muß, sondern sie ist auch bestrebt, mit ihren Methoden dort anzufangen, wo die für die äußere Natur und auch für die physische Natur des Menschen geltende Wissenschaft aufhören muß. Anthroposophie muß daher nicht nur über anderes reden, sondern sie muß auch anders reden. Dennoch steht sie im vollen Einklange mit wissenschaftlicher Gewissenhaftigkeit und mit wissenschaftlicher Disziplin. Sie geht davon aus, die Erkenntniskräfte, durch welche in die übersinnlichen Welten hinaufgedrungen werden soll, erst aus ihrem Schlummer in der menschlichen Wesenheit herauszuholen. Anthroposophie behauptet nicht, daß zum Erkennen übersinnlicher Welten besondere Eigenschaften, Fähigkeiten gehören, die nur einzelne Menschen haben, sondern sie will durchaus nur auf diejenigen Kräfte sich stützen, welche aus jeder Menschenseele hervorgeholt werden können, welche aber hinausgehen über das, was wir im gewöhnlichen Wachstum seit unserer Kindheit gewissermaßen als Menschen anererbt erhalten, und welche auch hinausgehen über das, was durch die gewöhnliche Erziehung, durch das gewöhnliche Lernen erreicht wird.

Der Mensch muß, wenn er im anthroposophischen Sinne Geistesforscher werden will, wenn ich so sagen darf, von dem Punkte aus, auf dem man im gewöhnlichen Leben und in der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft steht, seine Entwickelung nun selbst in die Hand nehmen. Diejenigen Kräfte, die zunächst ausgebildet werden müssen, sind die des Denkens. Damit wird nur ein Anfang dieser Entwickelung gemacht, denn wir werden sehen, daß es sich nicht bloß um Ausbildung einseitiger Verstandes- oder Denkkräfte, sondern um Ausbildung des ganzen Menschen handelt. Aber ein Anfang muß gemacht werden mit einer besonderen Übung im Denken. Das Denken, an das wir heute nicht nur im äußeren Leben, sondern auch in der Wissenschaft gewöhnt sind, gibt sich hin an die äußere Beobachtung, es läuft gewissermaßen am Faden der äußeren Beobachtung hin. Wir richten unsere Sinne in die Außenwelt und knüpfen unsere Gedanken an dasjenige an, was uns die Sinne überliefern. Wir haben dadurch eine feste Stütze an der Beobachtung der Außenwelt für die Verbindung unserer Seeleninhalte, unserer Erlebnisse. Es ist in berechtigter Weise wissenschaftliches Bestreben gewesen, gerade diese Stütze, die Stütze der Beobachtung, immer mehr und mehr auszubilden. Und diese Beobachtung hat noch ihre besondere Verstärkung erfahren durch den wissenschaftlichen Gebrauch des Experimentes, bei dem man ja alle einzelnen Bedingungen, um zu einzelnen Erscheinungen hinführen zu können, wirklich zu überblicken vermag, so daß gewissermaßen die Vorgänge ganz durchsichtig werden.

Von diesem Hingegebensein des Denkens an die äußere Objektivität muß anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft für ihre Aufgabe abgehen. Für sie handelt es sich darum, das Denken vor allen Dingen innerlich zu verstärken, intensiver zu machen. Ich habe mir erlaubt, gestern zu sagen: Wie ein Muskel, wenn er eine bestimmte Arbeit verrichtet, stärker wird, so ist es auch mit unseren Seelenkräften. Wenn wir bestimmte, überschaubare Vorstellungen immer wieder und wieder in systematischer Übung in den Mittelpunkt unseres Bewußtseins rücken, und mit dem ganzen Menschen uns hingeben an solche Vorstellungen, so verstärken wir gerade unsere Denkkräfte. Dieses Intensivwerden der Denkkräfte muß aber natürlich so erreicht werden, daß in alledem, was man da vornimmt, der volle besonnene Wille des Menschen enthalten ist. Daher kann derjenige, der im anthroposophischen Sinne ein Geistesforscher werden will, vor allen Dingen ein großes Vorbild haben innerhalb der heutigen Wissenschaftlichkeit: das ist die Mathematik. So sonderbar und paradox es klingen mag, der anthroposophische Geistesforscher, wenn er über das Laientum hinauskommen will, beobachtet vor allen Dingen etwas, was schon über des alten Plato Schule als eine Devise geschrieben war: daß in wirkliche geisteswissenschaftliche Erkenntnis keiner eindringen kann, der nicht eine gewisse mathematische Kultur hat.

Was ist denn eigentlich das Besondere, das die Seele von der Mathematik hat? Das hat sie, daß alles, was im mathematischen Erkennen vor die Seele tritt, innerlich durchsichtig, übersichtlich ist, daß gewissermaßen nichts in dieser Erkenntnis drinnen steckt, dem man sich nur unbewußt und ohne Anwendung seines Willens hingibt. Natürlich ist Geisteswissenschaft im anthroposophischen Sinne nicht Mathematik. Aber ein bedeutsames Vorbild kann gerade die Art und Weise sein, wie man sich in mathematisches Denken hineinfindet. Eigentlich ist nicht die Mathematik dieses Vorbild, wohl aber, wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf, das Mathematisieren. Und wenn man vor allen Dingen gelernt hat, über alles Illusionäre, über alles Suggestive hinauszukommen durch eine solche mathematisierende Kultur, dann kann man mit besonderem Erfolg daran gehen, überschaubare Vorstellungen, aber solche Vorstellungen, die einem neu sind, in sich aufzunehmen. Man läßt sie sich von einem erfahrenen Geistesforscher geben oder sucht sonst zu Vorstellungen zu kommen, die man noch nicht in der Erinnerung hat. Diese setzt man in den Mittelpunkt des Bewußtseins und gibt sich ihnen mit dem ganzen Seelenleben hin, wendet alle Kräfte der Aufmerksamkeit von allem übrigen ab und versucht eine gewisse, nicht allzulange Zeit auf eine solche Vorstellung oder solchen Vorstellungskomplex zu richten. Warum muß diese Vorstellung oder dieser Vorstellungskomplex etwas Neues sein? Ja, wenn wir Reminiszenzen aus unserer Erinnerung heraufholen, können wir niemals ganz sicher sein, was da in unserem Organismus vorgeht, was da in unserem Organismus im außerseelischen Unbewußten zu gewissen Erlebnissen treibt. Wir können mit unserer Erkenntnis uns wirklich nur frei bewegen, wenn wir der Sinnesanschauung gegenüberstehen, weil die Sinnesanschauung in jedem Augenblicke uns begegnen wird, weil wir bei ihr sicher wissen, daß sie nicht in irgendeiner phantastischen Weise hervorgeholt sein kann aus Lebensreminiszenzen. Ebenso muß dasjenige sein, was wir jetzt mit Ausschluß der sinnlichen Wahrnehmungen anwesend sein lassen in unserem Bewußtsein, dem wir uns ganz hingeben, so hingeben, daß wir ohne sinnliche Wahrnehmungen in einer inneren Lebendigkeit sind, wie sonst nur bei der äußeren sinnlichen Wahrnehmung. Das ist es, worauf es zunächst ankommt bei dem Wege zur höheren Erkenntnis, daß das sinnlichkeitsfreie Denken in eine innere Bewegung kommt, die unsere Seele so stark in Anspruch nimmt, wie sonst nur eine äußere Sinneswahrnehmung. Man möchte sagen: Was der Mensch sonst in der äußeren Sinneswahrnehmung erlebt, das muß er erleben lernen an demjenigen Denken, welches sich verstärkt und dennoch ganz von besonnenem, bewußtem Willen durchzogen ist.

Damit ist schon eine Barriere starker Art aufgerichtet gegen alles das, was in das Bewußtsein hereinkommen will an Suggestion, Illusion, an Visionen, Halluzinationen. Geisteswissenschaftliche Erkenntnis, wie sie hier gemeint ist, wird immer mißverstanden, wenn man sagt: Nun ja, solch ein Geistesforscher kann ja durch seine Übungen auch nur zu Halluzinationen oder dergleichen kommen, zu allerlei krankhaften Seelenzuständen. - Wer es wirklich ernst nimmt mit der Art und Weise, wie der Weg in die höhere Erkenntnis der Anthroposophie geschildert wird, der wird sehen, daß gerade diese Geistesforschung den Menschen am allerklarsten macht über alles, was Illusionen, was Halluzinationen oder was gar Mediumistisches ist. Das wird alles nach der anderen Seite, nach der krankhaften Seite gehend, streng abgewiesen, wird in seiner Wertlosigkeit gerade von demjenigen durchschaut, was mit wirklicher geistiger Forschung errungen werden kann. Dann kommt man dazu, ein ganz anderes Denken sich anzueignen. Das alte Denken, das man für das gewöhnliche Leben und für die gewöhnliche Wissenschaft braucht, das bleibt voll bestehen. Aber es tritt zu diesem Denken ein ganz neues Denken hinzu, wenn man in entsprechender Weise — Sie finden das in meinem Buche «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» oder in meiner «Geheimwissenschaft» beschrieben — solche Übungen, wie ich sie prinzipiell jetzt als Denkübungen charakterisiert habe, immer wieder und wiederum systematisch vollführt — der eine braucht länger dazu, der andere kürzer —, wenn man diese Übungen in seinem Bewußtsein als innerlich intime Seelenentwickelung vollführt. Was da zu dem gewöhnlichen Denken hinzukommt, ich möchte es in der folgenden Weise charakterisieren.

Ich darf vielleicht dabei eine persönliche Bemerkung machen, die aber nicht persönlich gemeint ist, sondern von der Sie wohl zugeben werden, daß sie zu dem Objektiven meiner Darstellungen gehört. Ich habe in dem Beginn der neunziger Jahre des vorigen Jahrhunderts meine «Philosophie der Freiheit» geschrieben, um zu zeigen, wie im moralischen, ethischen Leben der Menschheit die Freiheit wirklich begründet ist, wirklich lebt. Diese «Philosophie der Freiheit» hat viele Mißverständnisse hervorgerufen, weil man sich einfach nicht hineinfinden kann in die Art des Denkens, wie sie in dieser «Philosophie der Freiheit» geübt wird. Es ist nämlich in dieser «Philosophie der Freiheit» schon jenes Denken geübt, zu dem man sich eigentlich behufs Erkenntnis höherer Welten systematisch hindurchringen muß. Es ist der Anfang nur gemacht, derjenige Anfang, den jeder schon im gewöhnlichen Leben machen kann. Aber es ist zu gleicher Zeit der Anfang für die Erkenntnis höherer Welten. Das gewöhnliche Denken — Sie brauchen sich nur zu besinnen auf die Art dieses gewöhnlichen Denkens, so werden Sie sehen, wie berechtigt das ist, was ich sage —, das gewöhnliche Denken ist eigentlich ein aus räumlichen Wahrnehmungen bestehendes Denken. Wir richten ja alles im Grunde genommen in unserem gewöhnlichen Denken räumlich ein. Bedenken Sie nur, daß wir das Zeitliche ja auch auf das Räumliche zurückführen. Wir drücken die Zeit durch die Bewegungen der Uhr aus. Wir haben im Grunde genommen auch in unseren physikalischen Formeln denselben Vorgang. Kurz, wir kommen zuletzt darauf, daß das gewöhnliche Denken ein kombinierendes ist, ein solches, das auseinanderliegende Gebilde zusammenfaßt. Dieses Denken brauchen wir für das gesunde gewöhnliche Leben, brauchen wir auch für die gesunde gewöhnliche Wissenschaft.

Dasjenige Denken aber, das zum Behufe der Erkenntnis höherer Welten hinzukommen muß, und das man durch solche Übungen erringt, das ist ein Denken, welches ich nennen möchte das morphologische Denken, das Denken in Gestalten. Dieses Denken bleibt nicht im Raume stehen, dieses Denken ist durchaus ein solches, welches im Medium der Zeit so lebt, wie das andere Denken im Medium des Raumes. Dieses Denken gliedert nicht einen Begriff an den anderen, dieses Denken stellt vor die Seele etwas wie einen Begriffsorganismus. Wenn man einen Begriff, eine Idee, einen Gedanken hat, dann kann man nicht in beliebiger Weise zum anderen übergehen. Geradeso, wie man nicht beim Organismus des Menschen vom Kopf zu beliebigen anderen Formen übergehen kann, sondern zum Hals, dann zur Schulter, zum Brustkorb und so weiter übergehen muß, wie in einem Organismus alles gegliedert ist, wie auch ein Organismus nur ganz betrachtet werden kann, so muß dasjenige Denken, das ich das morphologische Denken nenne, innerlich beweglich sein. Es ist, wie gesagt, im Medium der Zeit, nicht des Raumes, aber es ist so innerlich beweglich, daß es eine Gestalt aus der anderen hervorruft, daß dieses Denken selber sich fortwährend organisch gliedert, fortwährend wächst. Dieses morphologische Denken, das ist es, das zum anderen Denken hinzukommen muß, und das man durch solche Meditationsübungen erlangen kann, wie ich sie im Prinzip angedeutet habe und die das Denken verstärken, intensiver machen. Mit diesem morphologischen Denken, mit diesem Denken, das in Gestalten, in Bildern verläuft, erringt man die erste Stufe der Erkenntnis übersinnlicher Welten, namentlich dasjenige, was ich in meinen Schriften die imaginative Erkenntnis genannt habe.

Diese imaginative Erkenntnis gibt noch nicht irgend etwas Äußeres. Sie führt zunächst nur zur menschlichen Selbsterkenntnis, aber zu einer viel tieferen Selbsterkenntnis, als diejenige ist, die man nur in der gewöhnlichen Selbstschau erringen kann. Diese imaginative Erkenntnis, sie führt uns ins Bewußtsein herein Gestalten. Diese Gestalten werden so lebendig erlebt, wie sonst irgendeine Sinneswahrnehmung. Aber sie haben eine ganz besondere Eigentümlichkeit. Unsere gewöhnlichen Gedanken würden nicht gesund in unserem Bewußtsein enthalten sein, wenn wir uns nicht ihrer erinnern würden. An unserer Erinnerungsfähigkeit, an unserem Gedächtnisse hängt außerordentlich viel für die gesunde Entfaltung unseres Seelenlebens, unserer geistigen Gesundheit. Nur derjenige, der eine kontinuierliche Erinnerung hat für alle Wachzustände bis zu einem gewissen Punkte in seiner Kindheit, der ist geistig gesund. Es wird Ihnen ja vielleicht auch bekannt sein, in welche furchtbare Lage ein Mensch kommt, der Psychopath in dem Sinne ist, daß gewisse Erinnerungen ausgelöscht sind. Man kennt in der Psychiatrie diesen Zustand des Auslöschens der Erinnerungen und kann gerade aus ihm entnehmen, wie wesentlich es für die seelische Gesundheit des Menschen ist, daß die Erinnerung eine kontinuierliche ist. Das gilt für unsere gewöhnliche Gedankenbildung.

Es gilt nicht für das, was ich eben als das imaginative, als das morphologische Denken charakterisiert habe. Geradeso, wie wir, wenn wir das Auge oder ein anderes Sinnesorgan an einen äußeren Sinnesreiz hinwenden, nur so lange das Erlebnis der Wahrnehmungen haben, als wir den Sinn exponieren, so haben wir auch dasjenige, was wir erlebt haben als gestaltetes Denken, als imaginatives Denken, nur im Momente des Erlebens, und es kann nicht im gewöhnlichen Sinne das, was so im imaginativen Denken auftritt, in die Erinnerung, in das Gedächtnis geprägt werden. Es muß jederzeit wiederum neu hervorgerufen werden, wenn es erlebt werden soll.

Derjenige also, der zu einem solchen organisch-morphologischen Denken kommt, das gewissermaßen sich in lebendigem Wachstum selber fortbildet, kann die Ergebnisse dieses Denkens nicht in der gewöhnlichen Erinnerung behalten. Freiheit kann man auch nur charakterisieren, wenn man zu solchem sich entwickelnden, wachsenden Denken aufsteigt. Deshalb wurde meine «Philosophie der Freiheit» mit solchen Mißverständnissen behängt, wie das eben geschehen ist. Aber sie mußte in dieser Methode gegeben werden, weil eben die Freiheit ein geistiges Erlebnis ist, und man nicht zu ihr kommt mit dem gewöhnlichen kombinierenden Denken. Das ist ja das Überraschende für Anfänger in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Methode: sie glauben gewöhnlich, wenn sie ein imaginatives Erlebnis haben, daß sich das in ihrer Seele gerade so einprägen könne wie irgendein anderer Gedanke. Das ist aber nicht der Fall. Es verliert sich aus dem Bewußtsein. Nur das kann man behalten, wie man zu diesem imaginativen Erlebnis gekommen ist. Man kann die Bedingungen wieder herstellen, dann kommt auch das Erlebnis. Wie man zu einer Blume, die man gesehen hat, wenn man weggegangen ist, wieder hingehen muß, um sie zu sehen, so muß man dieselben inneren Vorgänge hervorrufen, um ein solches imaginatives Erlebnis, wie man es einmal gehabt hat, wiederum zu haben.

Geisteswissenschaftlicher Inhalt ist nicht ohne weiteres erinnerbar. Das gilt sogar für den ehrlichen Geistesforscher schon für die allerersten elementarsten Dinge. Und da darf ich vielleicht wiederum ein Persönliches anbringen, das aber auch ein Objektives ist. Sehen Sie, dasjenige, was der anthroposophische Geistesforscher zu sagen hat, das kann er nicht in derselben Weise, sagen wir, von Tag zu Tag in seinen Vorträgen vorbringen, wie man gewöhnlich wissenschaftliche Darstellungen vorbringen kann. Die merkt man sich, die hat man im Gedächtnis, die bringt man aus dem Gedächtnisse vor. Was der Geistesforscher vorzubringen hat, das muß aus seinem lebendigen inneren Erleben kommen. Er kann sich gar nicht in derselben Weise vorbereiten, wie man sich sonst mit Hilfe seines Gedächtnisses vorbereitet. Er kann nur die Bedingungen herbeiführen, die es ihm möglich machen, selbst die anfänglichsten Dinge der Geisteswissenschaft zu erleben. Man muß sich schon klar darüber sein, daß anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft eben schon in ihren allerersten Anfängen zur Entwickelung von sonst schlummernden Kräften in der Seele führt, und man muß nicht glauben, daß man durch gewöhnliche philosophische Spekulationen zu irgendwelchen Ergebnissen in bezug auf höhere Welten kommen kann.

Dieses imaginative Erkennen, das ich Ihnen auf diese Weise geschildert habe, das führt, sagte ich, aber nur zu einer Art von Selbsterkenntnis. Es führt nämlich zuletzt dahin, daß man wie in einem großen Tableau, zeitlich aber auf einmal, alles überschaut, was im wesentlichen gesetzmäßig das ganze Leben seit der Geburt hier auf Erden aufgebaut hat. Innerlich sieht man die schaffenden Bildungskräfte am Menschen, zunächst an seinem eigenen Menschen. So, wie das etwa geschildert wird — selbst von naturwissenschaftlich Denkenden ist das ja anerkannt — bei gewissen Leuten, die in Todesgefahr waren, etwa bei Ertrinkenden, daß sie ein webendes, bewegtes Bild ihres bisherigen Lebens ablaufen sehen, so — allerdings nicht als Erinnerungsbild, nicht mit den Einzelheiten des Lebens, sondern gerade mit den Hauptsachen, mit denjenigen Kräften, die einen vorwärts gebracht haben - sieht man dieses Tableau, welches, ich möchte sagen, eben ein tieferes Erinnerungstableau ist. Aber zu gleicher Zeit ist dieses Tableau so, daß man nicht bloß das gewöhnliche, gedankliche Seelenleben vor sich hat, sondern dasjenige innerliche Leben, das von der Seele aus am Organismus arbeitet.

Man kommt jetzt durch eine solche Anschauung zu einem Standpunkt, von dem aus es einem allerdings kindlich erscheint, wenn noch in den ersten Jahrzehnten des 19. Jahrhunderts spekulativ der Vitalismus von einer «Lebenskraft» gesprochen hat. Von einer solchen Lebenskraft spricht man in der Anthroposophie nicht. Wohl aber spricht man von der Anschauung des Lebens, von der Anschauung desjenigen, was ich den Ätherleib oder Bildekräfteleib nenne, der auf der einen Seite das Seelische darstellt, auf der anderen Seite aber, ich möchte sagen, das verdichtete, das intensivierte Seelische, das am Organismus arbeitet. Man wird also zu gleicher Zeit in eine tiefere Erkenntnis des Seelischen geführt und in eine tiefere Erkenntnis der Art und Weise, wie das Seelische am Organismus arbeitet. Ich will Ihnen ein Beispiel dafür anführen, ein elementares, aber charakteristisches Beispiel.

Sie wissen ja, daß heute die anerkannte Psychologie eigentlich doch nicht weiter kommt, als bis zu gewissen Spekulationen über die Beziehungen von Seele und Leib, Seele und Körper. Die Seele wird geschildert, als ob sie den Körper bewegte, oder es wird von den materialistisch Gesinnten die Seele als das Plus angesehen, das der Körper gewissermaßen produziert. Am häufigsten spricht man heute von dem psychophysischen Parallelismus: daß die Seelenerscheinungen und die körperlichen Erscheinungen parallel ablaufen und so weiter. Das alles sind Spekulationen, die eigentlich nur darauf beruhen, daß man denselben Wissenschaftsgeist, der sonst herrscht, in das menschliche seelisch-leibliche, seelisch-körperliche Leben nicht einführen will.

Sie alle kennen die physikalische Anschauung, die von latenter Wärme spricht, von einer latenten Wärme, die in irgendeinem Ding enthalten ist, die aber nicht als Wärme erscheint. Wenn man gewisse Bedingungen herbeiführt, wird diese Wärme, wie man sagt, frei. Sie erscheint dann. Man hat vorher die Wärme in den Dingen drinnen, sie bewirkt in den Dingen etwas, das aber nicht äußerlich durch Wärmevorgänge sich ausdrückt. Man spricht von latenter Wärme, von freiwerdender Wärme.

Eine solche Anschauung, natürlich modifiziert, bereichert, muß durchaus auch auf das konkrete, nicht spekulative Seelenanschauen ausgedehnt werden. Wir sehen das Kind heranwachsen bis zum Zahnwechsel, um das siebente Jahr herum. Mit diesem Zahnwechsel ist aber viel mehr verbunden, als man gewöhnlich meint. Wer eine unbefangene Beobachtung für Seelisch-Leibliches hat, der weiß, daß die ganze Art des Denkens, des Vorstellens, auch des Gefühls- und Empfindungslebens, also alles Seelische bei dem Kinde ganz anders wird nach dem Zahnwechsel, als es vorher gewesen ist. Der Zahnwechsel ist gewissermaßen für eine bestimmte Art des kindlichen Lebens ein Schlußpunkt. Der Mensch hat nicht mehr nötig, nach dem Zahnwechsel diejenigen Kräfte für seinen Organismus anzuwenden, die er vorher angewendert hat. Denn diese Kräfte, welche — wenn ich mich jetzt trivial ausdrücken darf — die zweiten Zähne herausstoßen, die sind nicht bloß lokalisiert etwa im menschlichen Haupte, es sind die Kräfte, die im ganzen Organismus sind, die nur beim Herausstoßen der zweiten Zähne eben sich an einem einzelnen Orte zeigen. Wer diesen ganzen Vorgang so sachgemäß wissenschaftlich verfolgt, wie man heute gewöhnt ist, in der Naturwissenschaft zu denken, der kommt dazu, zu erkennen, daß diejenigen Kräfte, die die Zähne herausstoßen, eben vorher latent waren, gebunden waren im Organismus, daß sie den Organismus eben durchorganisiert haben, und daß sie jetzt beim Zahnwechsel frei geworden sind und nach dem Zahnwechsel beim Kinde als seelisch-geistige Kräfte erscheinen. Hier haben wir ein konkretes, nicht ein erspekuliertes Wechselverhältnis des Seelisch-Geistigen und des Körperlich-Leiblichen. Wer nur im gegenwärtigen Augenblick auf die Seele und dann auf den Leib hinschauen will, der mag lange spekulieren und experimentieren, er wird doch nur zu abstrakten Anschauungen über das Verhältnis der Seele und des Leibes kommen. Derjenige, der zur Zeitenfolge übergeht, der wird beobachten, wie in dem Kinde nach dem Zahnwechsel etwas an seelischen Kräften, an Konturierung des Gedächtnisbegriffes, an Konturierung der Empfindungen auftritt, und er wird wissen, daß das, was da als freigewordenes Seelenleben jetzt da ist, vorher untergetaucht war in den Organismus. Er lernt beobachtend, nicht denkend bloß, das Verhältnis von Seele und Körper wirklich kennen. Das ist ein Beispiel, wie wir das Zusammenwirken von Seele und Leib durch die imaginative Erkenntnis erforschen können. Man sieht hinein, wie das Seelisch-Geistige an dem Leiblich-Physischen arbeitet. Das bietet sich in dem Tableau dar, von dem ich gesprochen habe. Wenn man auf diese Weise dazu gekommen ist, dieses bildhafte, imaginative Denken auszubilden, dann muß man durch die Stärke, die man gewonnen hat, weitergehen. Ich sagte: Wie der Muskel an der Arbeit erstarkt, so erstarkt unsere Denkkraft, indem sie solche Übungen ausführt, wie ich sie charakterisiert habe, wie Sie sie in den genannten Büchern weiter charakterisiert finden können. Wenn man nun in dieser Weise ein verstärktes, bis zur Bildhaftigkeit, bis zur Gestaltungskraft kommendes Denken in sich ausbildet, das in der Zeit lebt, dann kann man auch dazu kommen, andere Kräfte des Seelenlebens zu verstärken. Die gewöhnlichen Vorstellungen des Lebens kommen und gehen, oder auch wir versuchen, sie loszuwerden, entweder indem wir sie seelisch loszuwerden suchen, oder indem unser Organismus durch das Vergessen dafür sorgt und so weiter. Solche Vorstellungen, die wir — wie ich es geschildert habe — behufs höherer Erkenntnis in unserem Bewußtsein präsent machen, gegenwärtig sein lassen, können schwerer zum Vergessen gebracht werden als andere. Da müssen wir uns stark anstrengen. Das ist eine zweite Art der Übung, das, ich möchte sagen, künstliche Vergessen, das künstliche Unterdrücken der Vorstellungen. Wenn wir aber dieses künstliche Unterdrücken der Vorstellungen entsprechend unseren individuellen Anlagen genügend lange üben, dann kommen wir dazu, dieses ganze Tableau, von dem ich eben gesprochen habe, auch unterdrücken zu können, so daß wir das Bewußtsein völlig leer machen. Was uns einzig und allein bleiben muß, das ist eben das vom Willen und von der Besonnenheit durchdrungene Denken. Dieses Denken aber tritt jetzt wiederum in einer neuen Gestalt auf.

Ich habe Ihnen nun schon von zwei Gestalten des Denkens gesprochen, von dem gewöhnlichen, an den Raum gebundenen Denken, und dem Denken, das ein eigenes Wachstum hat, wo immer ein Begriff, ein Gedanke aus dem anderen hervorwächst, wie sich bei einem Organismus ein Glied an das andere ansetzt. Indem man dieses morphologische Denken eine Zeitlang fortführt, kommt man dazu, nun eine dritte Form des Denkens ausbilden zu können, und die braucht man, wenn man aufsteigt zu der höheren Stufe der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis, die ich gleich schildern werde, wenn man also aufsteigt in der höheren Welt zu mehr als zu dem, was ein bloßer Überblick über die eigene Organisation ist.

Durch das imaginative Erkennen kommt man dazu, die eigene Organisation so zu überblicken, daß man sich sagt: Das Seelisch-Geistige als ein Übersinnliches arbeitet im Erdenleben an dem Physisch-Leiblichen. Man braucht dieses morphologische Denken, sonst würde man das, was in der Zeit vor sich geht, was aus dem Übersinnlichen heraus arbeitet an dem Sinnlichen, nicht verstehen, denn das ist in fortwährender Metamorphose vorhanden. Man muß sein Denken beweglich und innerlich zusammenhängend machen. Dasjenige, was lebt aus dem Geiste heraus, kann man nicht erfassen durch das bloße kombinierende Denken, das muß erfaßt werden durch ein innerlich lebendiges Denken. Aber man muß zu einem noch anderen Denken kommen, wenn man gewachsen sein will der nächsthöheren Stufe der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis. Und dieses andere Denken, ich möchte es Ihnen an einem Beispiel erläutern. Es ist selbst dieses Beispiel schon etwas schwierig zu durchdringen, aber wir werden uns doch verständigen können.

Ich erinnere daran, daß Goethe versucht hat, die einzelnen Schädelknochen als gestaltete, metamorphosierte Knochen von der Art der Rückenwirbel aufzufassen. Goethe hat eine Metamorphose, eine Umgestaltung der Rückgratswirbel in den einzelnen Kopfknochen gesehen. Zu einem gewissen Grade, allerdings modifiziert, ist das ja auch die Anschauung der heutigen Wissenschaft; nicht mehr ganz so, wie Goethe sich das vorgestellt hat, aber es ist das schon heute auch noch cine geltende Vorstellung. Nun ist aber mit dieser bloß morphologischen Ableitung der Kopfknochen nichts getan, sondern man muß noch weitergehen, wenn man die Beziehung des menschlichen Hauptes zu dem übrigen menschlichen Organismus — also beim Skelett wollen wir stehenbleiben — verstehen will. Da muß man nicht bloß an eine Umgestaltung denken, sondern man muß noch an etwas ganz anderes denken, wenn man die Frage aufwirft: Wie verhält sich zum Beispiel das Knochensystem, sagen wir in der Form der Arme oder der Beine, zu dem Knochensystem in der Form der Schädelknochen, der Kopfknochen? Da ist es so, daß man die Metamorphose, durch die das eine aus dem anderen hervorgeht, nur versteht, wenn man davon ausgeht, daß nicht nur eine Umgestaltung stattfindet, eine räumliche Umgestaltung in der Zeit, sondern daß noch etwas ganz anderes stattfindet, nämlich eine Art Umstülpung. Sie müssen nämlich, wenn Sie das gegenseitige Verhältnis verstehen wollen, sagen wir, der Beinknochen zu den Kopfknochen, die äußere Oberfläche der Kopfknochen mit der Innenfläche eines Hohlknochens, sagen wir, des Oberschenkels, vergleichen. So daß die Sache so ist, daß das Innere des Oberschenkelknochens nach außen gewendet werden müßte, außerdem noch seine Elastizität ändern müßte. Dann würde das Innere nach außen gekehrt erscheinen, und es würde die äußere Oberfläche eines Schädelknochens entsprechen der inneren Fläche eines Hohlknochens der Gliedmaßen. Und umgekehrt: Die äußere Fläche des Schienbeins entspricht nicht der äußeren Fläche der Schädeldecke, sondern der Innenfläche der Schädeldecke. Sie müssen sich also vorstellen, daß dabei etwas stattfindet wie beim Umstülpen eines Handschuhs. Das Innere wird nach außen gekehrt, gleichzeitig aber wird die Elastizität verändert. Es entsteht eine andere Form. Es ist also so, wie wenn man den Handschuh nicht nur umstülpt, sondern, nachdem man ihn umgestülpt hat, er durch andere Elastizitätskräfte eine völlig andere Form annehmen würde.

Sie sehen, ich muß Ihnen etwas außerordentlich Kompliziertes schon als einen ersten Hinweis auf diese dritte Art des Denkens anführen: ein Denken, das nicht nur in sich verändernden Gestalten lebt, sondern ein Denken, das in der Lage ist, die Gestaltung des Inneren nach außen zu kehren und dabei die Form zu verändern. Das ist nicht anders möglich als dadurch, daß man nun mit dem Denken nicht mehr in der Zeit bleibt, sondern bei diesem Umstülpen geht dasjenige, worüber man denkt, im Denken aus Raum und Zeit heraus, kommt in eine Wirklichkeit, die jenseits von Raum und Zeit liegt.

Ich weiß sehr gut, daß man sich nicht gleich hineinfinden kann in diese dritte Art des Denkens, die ganz anders ist als das kombinierende und das gestaltende Denken, in dieses Denken, welches, ich möchte sagen, untertaucht in die Unräumlichkeit und Unzeitlichkeit; und dasjenige, was wieder erscheint, das ist der Form nach verändert, hat das Innere nach außen gekehrt, das Äußere nach innen gekehrt. Aber Anthroposophie will nicht jenes laienhafte Herumreden über die höheren Welten bringen, dem sich viele hingeben, sondern Anthroposophie muß darauf hinweisen, weil sie ehrlich wie nur irgendeine ehrliche Wissenschaft ist, daß es nicht nur notwendig ist, das Gebiet der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft zu verlassen, sondern daß die Art des Denkens eine ganz andere werden muß. Man muß ganz anders den Menschen innerlich zusammenhalten, wenn man in dieser Weise zu einem qualitativen Denken vorrücken will, denn es ist einfach ein Ändern der ganzen Qualität des Gedankens, die bei diesem Umstülpen, bei diesem Umkehren des Inneren in das Äußere entsteht.

Erst dann, wenn man in dieser Weise sein Denken dazu gebracht hat, daß es ins Qualitative untergetaucht ist, kann man derjenigen Stufe der Erkenntnis in die übersinnlichen Welten folgen, die sich anschließen muß an das imaginative Denken. Hat man nun das Tableau, von dem ich gesprochen habe, unterdrückt, so daß man ein leeres Bewußtsein hergestellt hat, dann hat man eben für kurze Zeit ein leeres Bewußtsein. Man kann, wenn man bloß eine Vorstellung unterdrückt, das Bewußtsein eine Weile leer machen. Wenn man aber diese Realität, die einem eigentlich in Wachstum, in Ernährung fortwährend gedient hat im Erdendasein, unterdrückt, so taucht man unter in eine völlig neue Welt. Dann ist man in den höheren Welten, und dann hat man die gewöhnliche Sinneswelt wie eine Erinnerung hinter sich. Man muß sie als solche haben, sonst ist man kein seelisch gesunder Mensch, sonst ist man ein psychopathischer Mensch, sonst halluziniert man oder hat Illusionen.

Wenn man in der Geistesforschung regelrecht vorgeht, so bleibt die Besonnenheit, so bleibt das vom Willen durchdrungene Bewußtsein bis in die höchsten Welten hinauf, und es kann gar nicht die Rede davon sein, daß man irgendwie Halluzinationen oder Suggestionen hat. Hat man Suggestionen oder Halluzinationen, so wird das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein ganz verdrängt durch das krankhafte Bewußtsein. Das ist aber das Wesentliche des von der Anthroposophie angestrebten Bewußtseins behufs der Erkenntnis höherer Welten, daß das gewöhnliche Bewußtsein voll bestehen bleibt, daß man ein vernünftiger Mensch, ein besonnener Mensch bleibt neben dem, daß man sich in höhere Welten erhebt. Und auch das, was ich Ihnen angeführt habe als jene Erkraftung des Denkens mit dem umgestülpten Denken, dem übermorphologischen Denken, auch das ist eigentlich nur dazu da, daß man mit völliger Bewußtheit nun in diese höheren Welten eindringen kann. Diese höheren Welten erlebt man jetzt wirklich mit einem geistigen Inhalt.

Hat man durch das imaginative Bewußtsein eine Anschauung erlangt von dem, was an einem arbeitet seit der Geburt — Übersinnliches, das arbeitet an dem Sinnlichen —, so erlangt man jetzt eine Erkenntnis von dem, was vor der Geburt, oder sagen wir vor der Empfängnis des Menschen innerhalb der physischen Welt von ihm im geistig-seelischen Dasein vorhanden war, wo er ebenso umgeben ist von Wesen, geistig-seelischen Wesen, wie wir hier von sinnlichen Wesen umgeben sind in der Zeit zwischen der Geburt und dem Tode. Kurz, man erlebt den ewigen Wesenskern des Menschen, indem man zurückschaut hinter die Geburt in diejenige Daseinsstufe des Menschen, die er durchlebte, bevor er hier auf dieser Erde innerhalb der physischen Vererbungsströmung empfangen wurde, man erlebt ihn in seiner geistigen Umgebung.

Das, was also zur Erkenntnis der höheren Welten geführt hat, ist nicht eine Spekulation, ist nicht ein Begriffssystem, ist eine Anschauung. Gerade so, wie man durch die Entwikkelung seines Leibes seit seinem embryonalen Dasein eine Anschauung von der äußeren Sinneswelt erlangt, so erlangt man durch diejenigen Vornahmen, die ich Ihnen dem Prinzip nach geschildert habe, die Sie in den angeführten Büchern in allen Einzelheiten geschildert finden, Erkenntnisse von Seelenvorgängen, erlangt die Möglichkeit, umgeben zu sein von jener geistigen Welt, in der wir waren vor der Geburt und in die wir eintreten, wenn wir durch die Pforte des Todes treten. Durch Anschauung wird die Erkenntnis der höheren Welten errungen.

Nun, dadurch habe ich Ihnen zunächst den Erkenntnisweg geschildert. Der Weg in die höheren Welten wäre aber nicht vollständig geschildert, wenn man ihn nur als Erkenntnisweg schilderte, denn zu dem, was der Mensch da durchmacht, gehört noch etwas anderes als ein bloßes Leben im Denken. Mag es schwierig sein, die zwei höheren Formen des Denkens sich anzueignen, etwas anderes bietet weitere Schwierigkeiten. Wenn wir hier in der physischen Welt uns vorzugsweise an die Beobachtung, an das Experiment halten, so geschieht das aus dem Grunde, weil wir dadurch in einer gewissen Weise beruhigt sind über den Wahrheitsgehalt unserer Erkenntnisse. Man mag erkenntnistheoretisch nun streiten über das Wesen der Sinneswahrnehmungen und ihr Verhältnis zu dem wahren Sein und so weiter, darauf kommt es jetzt nicht an. Worauf es ankommt, ist, daß uns die Sinneswahrnehmung die Wahrheit desjenigen verbürgt, was wir seelisch erleben, was seelisch als das Spiegelbild dieser Sinneswahrnehmungen auftritt, und wir sind beruhigt, indem wir uns anlehnen an die äußere Wirklichkeit. Es ist ja sogar in der neueren Zeit die Krankheit des Spiritismus aufgetreten, die auf eine ebensolche Art das Sein des Geistigen durch eine äußere Beobachtung erhärten will. Man kann natürlich nicht stärker Materialist sein, als wenn man Spiritist ist. Der Spiritismus ist nur die Potenzierung des Materialismus, denn man will nicht nur behaupten, daß es Materie gibt, oder vielleicht nur Materie gibt, sondern man will sogar behaupten, daß der Geist so erscheine wie die Materie, das heißt selber nur Materie sei. Es ist nur eben die letzte Phase, die letzte Konsequenz des Materialismus, was als Spiritismus auftritt. Wahre Geisteswissenschaft erstrebt eben einen Aufstieg in die geistigen Welten, nicht ein Herunterziehen der geistigen Welten in die materiellen Vorgänge.

Dasjenige aber, was man, ich möchte sagen, als eine Stütze für ein seelisch Erlebtes durch die äußere Sinneswelt hat, das hat man nun nicht, wenn man sich in der angedeuteten Weise hinauflebt in die geistigen Welten. Man muß eine andere Stütze haben. Man braucht etwas, was einem in derselben Weise Ruhe gibt darüber, daß man nicht im Leeren schwebt, daß man nicht in den blauen Dunst hinein seelisch erlebt, man braucht etwas, an das man sich ebenso anlehnen kann, wie an die äußere Sinneswahrnehmung im gewöhnlichen Leben. Und das, was man da braucht, kann wiederum nur durch die Entwickelung innerer Kräfte kommen. Ich bitte, mich nicht mißzuverstehen. Ich meine nicht, daß diejenigen Kräfte, die man im gewöhnlichen Leben schon hat — man muß nur die Worte gebrauchen, die aus dem gewöhnlichen Leben entlehnt sind —, daß die genügend seien. Es müssen auch auf anderen Gebieten als auf dem des Denkens Kräfte ausgebildet werden, damit man nicht nur zu Anschauungen, sondern zu im Sein wurzelnden Anschauungen kommt. Was äußerlich einem in der Sinneswahrnehmung die Beruhigung gibt, das ist ja, daß ein Sinn den anderen unterstützt. Wenn irgendeiner einen Gehöreindruck oder einen Gesichtseindruck hat, so ist er noch immer nicht sicher, ob das nicht eine Halluzination ist. Er ist erst sicher, wenn ihn, ich möchte sagen, der Schwere-Sinn unterstützt, wenn ihm ein anderer Sinn zu Hilfe kommt, wenn dasjenige, was durch das Gesicht oder das Gehör nicht genügend verbürgt werden kann, durch einen anderen Sinn mitverbürgt wird. Und was ist es denn eigentlich, wodurch wir uns berufen fühlen, gegenüber der sinnlichen Welt von Sein zu sprechen?

Sie können verschiedenes erwägen. Ich müßte stundenlang erkenntnistheoretisch sprechen — das kann ich natürlich hier nicht —, wenn ich dasjenige, was ich kurz zusammenfassen will, auch erhärten wollte. Aber dieses gilt, und Sie werden darauf kommen, wenn Sie die entsprechenden Gedanken verfolgen: Wir nennen in der Sinneswelt ein Ding wirklich, wenn es so auf uns wirkt, daß wir uns selber verleugnen müßten, wenn wir das Ding verleugneten. Wenn Sie eine Glocke nicht nur schlagen hören, sondern sie auch berühren können, sie auch sonst im Zusammenhange mit den Dingen finden, so müßten Sie, wenn diese Wirklichkeit von Ihnen seelisch erlebt würde, sich selber auslöschen, wenn Sie nicht das äußere Ding wirklich nennen könnten. Wir nennen ein äußeres Ding wirklich, wenn wir, ohne seine Wirklichkeit anzuerkennen, unsere eigene Wirklichkeit verleugnen müßten. Sie sehen, es hängt innig dasjenige, was wir als Wirklichkeit bezeichnen, mit unserer eigenen Wirklichkeit zusammen. Deshalb müssen wir auch aus unserer eigenen, aber jetzt geistig-seelischen Wirklichkeit die Kräfte holen, die sich etwa vergleichen lassen mit einem Gegenstand, den ich angreife und der sich durch die Schwere kundgibt. Wir müssen in unserem Inneren die Stützkräfte suchen für die Realität der höheren geistigen Welten, in die wir uns in der Art einleben, die ich Ihnen geschildert habe. Das können wir nur, wenn wir gewisse moralische Eigenschaften, die wir im gewöhnlichen Leben eben behufs des ethischen Verhaltens haben, weiter ausbilden. So wie wir die Denkkräfte verstärken, so müssen wir die moralischen Kräfte verstärken. Es handelt sich nicht bloß darum, daß man diese moralischen Kräfte für das ethische Leben ausbildet, sondern es handelt sich darum, daß man diese moralischen Kräfte wiederum verstärkt.

Von zwei Arten möchte ich Ihnen nur sprechen. Das erste ist, daß dasjenige, was man moralischen Mut, was man Mut überhaupt nennt im Menschen, ebenso intensiver gemacht werden muß wie die Denkkräfte. Was wir an Mut in uns haben, es kann intensiver gemacht werden, wenn wir gerade das, was wir in der imaginativen Erkenntnis als eine Rückschau in einem Tableau vor unsere Seele stellen, richtig betrachten, richtig erleben. Da finden wir, daß wir in unserem eigenen Leben, wenn wir in es untertauchen, einen höheren Mut finden, eine stärkere innere Muteskraft, als wir sie für das äußere Leben, dem wir uns passiv hingeben, gewöhnlich brauchen. Dieser Mut muß erhöht werden.

Und eine andere moralische Kraft muß erhöht werden. Während sich der Mut eigentlich auf das Gefühlsleben bezieht, eine gewisse innere Sicherheit darstellt, eine gewisse innere Kraft bildet, müssen wir in bezug auf den Willen etwas ausbilden, was dadurch entsteht, daß wir zum Beispiel in ganz energischer Weise in bestimmten Zeitpunkten uns etwas vornehmen und dann mit eiserner Gewalt in einem späteren Zeitpunkte versuchen, die Bedingungen herbeizuführen, um dasjenige, was wir früher uns vorgenommen haben, auch wirklich auszuführen. Solche Übungen, ganz systematisch, muß der anthroposophische Geistesforscher auch machen. Er muß die Impulse seines Willens von jetzt in Zusammenhang bringen innerlich mit den Impulsen, die vor Zeiten in ihm da waren. Im gewöhnlichen Leben übergeben wir uns der Gegenwart. In dem Leben, das uns in höhere Welten hinaufführen soll, müssen wir eine innere Kontinuität des Willens vorstellen. Wir müssen selbst in der Lage sein, durch Jahre hindurch aus Absichten heraus in späterer Zeit irgend etwas auszuführen. Dadurch bilden wir eine starke Willensstütze, eine starke Willensströmung, die wir selber in uns setzen. Es ist dies eine ganz besondere Selbstzucht. Wir machen uns nicht bloß von dem abhängig, was uns jetzt aus äußeren Anlässen, unseren Trieben und Instinkten oder vielJeicht selbst aus Idealen heraus zu irgendeinem Handeln treibt, sondern wir verbinden innerlich seelisch-geistig als Willensimpuls einen späteren Zeitpunkt unseres seelischen Lebens mit einem früheren Zeitpunkte. Bilden wir im Gemüte eine Erhöhung des Mutes aus, bilden wir die Kontinuität der Willensimpulse aus, so daß über die Zeit hinüber unsere Willensimpulse dauern, dann kommen wir dazu, indem wir in dieser Art, wie ich es geschildert habe, uns in die höheren Welten hinauferheben, geradeso, wie wir es sonst der äußeren Sinneswelt gegenüber tun können, auch die Wirklichkeit dessen, was wir dann wahrnehmen, zu konstatieren. Diese Wirklichkeit muß aus innerlich verstärkten Kräften konstatiert werden können. Daher ist der Weg in die geistigen Welten nicht die Ausbildung einer einseitigen Erkenntniskraft, sondern sie ist eine Ausbildung des ganzen Menschen nach Denken, Fühlen und Wollen, nach dem Erkenntnisstreben, nach dem ästhetischen Streben, nach dem ethischen Streben. Und es ist dieser Weg in die höheren Welten zugleich eine religiöse Versenkung, eine religiöse Vertiefung des Menschen.

Das ist das Wichtige, daß wir uns klar sind darüber, daß in der neueren Zeit, ebenso, wie durch die Wissenschaft in vieler Beziehung Zweifel entstanden sind an den geistigen Welten, auch durch die Wissenschaft wiederum diese geistigen Welten erobert werden müssen. Es ist eine Kurzsichtigkeit, zu glauben, daß der Mensch dadurch, daß er mit ebenso besonnenem Bewußtsein in die höheren Geisteswelten aufsteigt, wie er mit seinen Sinnen an die Sinneswelt kommt, irgendwie das religiöse Leben beeinträchtigen würde. Diejenigen, die in dieser Richtung Kritik üben, die üben gewöhnlich ihre Kritik aus dem Glauben heraus, daß anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft auch nur zu einem Intellektualismus, zu einem Rationalismus komme. Das ist nicht der Fall. In diejenige Entwickelung des Denkens, die auf die angedeutete Weise errungen wird, fließt der ganze Mensch nach Fühlen, nach Wollen ein, und was die hier gemeinte Geisteswissenschaft als Weg in die höheren Welten vorzeichnet, das ist eine Entfaltung, eine Entwickelung des Vollmenschen. Und so wie auch im gewöhnlichen Sinnesleben das Denken nur erscheint als eine Blüte aus dem Organismus heraus, so erscheint auch die höhere Erkenntnis als eine Blüte des vollentwickelten Menschen, der alle seine Kräfte auf dem Wege in die höheren Welten hinein harmonisch und intensiv ausbildet.

Das bloße Denken auszubilden, führt eigentlich nur zu einer Bilderwelt. Will man in dieser Bilderwelt die Wirklichkeit wahrnehmen, dann muß man in der Weise, wie ich es angedeutet habe, auch das, was in der Moral als Mut, was in dem charaktervollen Leben als der Wille ist, der uns eigen bleibt, der durch die Zeit hindurch erscheint, ausbilden. Diese beiden und noch andere Kräfte, die Sie in den Büchern, die angeführt wurden, lesen können, müssen verstärkt werden. Der ganze, der volle seelisch-geistige Mensch muß in jene anderen Welten hinaufgeführt werden, in denen der Mensch lebt, bevor er hier von den physischen Kräften konzipiert wird, zum physischen Erdenleben übergeht, oder in denen er lebt, wenn er durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Will man zu diesem Leben erkennend aufsteigen, will man sich die Anschauung der übersinnlichen Welten erringen, dann muß man den ganzen seelisch-geistigen Menschen dahin führen, nicht bloß irgend etwas, was theoretisch sich ergehen will in diesen Welten. Dadurch aber ist diese anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft auch befruchtend für das gesamte Leben. Diese anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft will nicht in irgendeiner abstrusen Mystik den Menschen weltfremd machen, sie will ihn gerade ins praktische, ins wahrhaft praktische Leben einführen. Und daher wirkt sie befruchtend auf Wissenschaft, auf Kunst, auf das soziale, auf das religiöse Leben, kurz, auf die verschiedensten Gebiete des Lebens. Darüber kann ich nur noch einige Andeutungen machen.

Wenn man das erkennt, was ich vorhin das Lebenstableau der Rückschau genannt habe, das ein Bildekräfteleib, der aber in der Zeit abfließt, ist, dann schaut man auch an, wie der menschliche physische Leib aus diesem Kräftesystem heraus entsteht, wie er sich bildet. Es ist ja nur ein äußerer Schein, wenn wir sprechen vom Herzen, von der Lunge und so weiter. In Wahrheit ist das Herz ein Prozeß, und die äußere räumliche Gestalt ist nur der im Augenblicke festgehaltene Prozeß. So ist es mit jedem Organ. Wir können das, was im Augenblick als Gestalt festgehalten ist, erkennen. Aber wir können das nicht erkennen, was der fortfließende Lebensprozeß ist, aus dem Gesundheit und Krankheit hervorgehen, wenn wir uns nicht zur Erkenntnis der übersinnlichen Bildekräfte des Leibes aufschwingen. Daher kann Medizin, namentlich die Therapie, eine wesentliche Befruchtung aus der Geisteswissenschaft erfahren, und wir haben sowohl in Stuttgart wie in Dornach bereits aus den Anregungen der Anthroposophie heraus klinisch-therapeutische Institute errichten können, welche dasjenige fruchtbar machen sollen für die kranke Menschheit, was aus der Geisteswissenschaft in anthroposophischer Orientierung gewonnen werden kann. Und in mancher anderen Beziehung kann Geisteswissenschaft das Leben befruchten. Wir haben in Dornach, als wir eine Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft errichten wollten, nicht einen beliebigen Rahmen schaffen können. Was da vorlag, als die Freunde unserer anthroposophischen Weltanschauung in der Hochschule für Geisteswissenschaft einen Bau aufführen wollten, war etwas ganz Besonderes. Ich möchte es mit einem Vergleich charakterisieren.

Nehmen Sie einmal an: eine Nuß mit einer Schale. Wenn Sie unbefangen denken, so werden Sie sich sagen: Die Schale der Nuß muß in ihrer Form gerade so sein, wie sie eben ist, weil die Nuß so ist, wie sie ist. Die Schale gehört zur Nuß. Wenn man heute irgend etwas geistig begründet in ähnlicher Art, wie das, was in der anthroposophischen Bewegung geistig leben will, und man in der Lage ist, einen Bau aufzuführen, so geht man eben zu einem Baumeister, der einem in diesem oder jenem Stil einen Bau aufführt, womöglich irgend etwas, was zu dem darin Befindlichen gar nicht paßt, wie eine Nußschale, die der darin befindlichen Nuß gar nicht angepaßt wäre. Weil Anthroposophie nicht etwas bloß Theoretisches, etwas bloß im Worte Lebendes sein will, konnte die anthroposophische Bewegung auch gegenüber ihrer Umrahmung nicht so vorgehen. In Dornach muß dasjenige, was vom Podium aus erklingt, was von der Bühne aus gespielt wird, was an Künstlerischem vor die Menschen durch das Wort oder durch die Bewegungen auf die Bühne tritt, genau denselben inneren Wesensstil haben wie dasjenige, was von den Wänden spricht, wie das, was außen als äußere Architektur dem Menschen entgegentritt. So wie dieselben Wachstumskräfte, welche die Nuß gestalten, auch die Nußschale gestalten, so mußte dasjenige, was in der Anthroposophie im Worte lebt, auch künstlerisch die Umrahmung in einem neuen Baustil geben. Es war also durchaus organisch begründet, daß in Dornach ein neuer Baustil auftauchte, der eben nichts anderes ist, als das äußerlich Sichtbare für das, was sonst geistig-seelisch auch im Worte lebt. Man wird das, was Anthroposophie unserer Zeit sein will, eben gerade dadurch einsehen können, daß sie in dieser Weise befruchtend auch ins künstlerische Leben hineinwirkt. Und in unserer Eurythmie, die erst im Anfange ist, haben wir eine menschliche Bewegungskunst geschaffen, wo nicht ein Tanz, nicht eine Pantomime vorliegt in den sich bewegenden einzelnen Menschen oder Menschengruppen, sondern wo das, was da in Bewegungsformen auftritt, eine ebenso gesetzmäßige Sprache ist wie die Lautsprache, oder ein sichtbarer Gesang ist, wie sonst der Gesang in Tönen gehört werden kann. Was als Eurythmie auftritt, das ist durchaus aus der geistig-seelisch-leiblichen Gesetzmäßigkeit des Menschen herausgeholt.

So konnten wir nach den verschiedensten künstlerischen Richtungen hin befruchtend mit Anthroposophie wirken.

In meinen «Kernpunkten der sozialen Frage» ist versucht worden, zu den großen sozialen Problemen der Gegenwart von anthroposophischem Standpunkt aus Stellung zu nehmen. Wer da bedenkt, daß man es im sozialen Leben eben mit dem ganzen Menschen zu tun hat, nicht bloß mit dem, was man durch rationelle Wissenschaft etwa im Marxismus oder ähnlichem erreichen kann, der wird zugeben, daß dasjenige, was eindringt in die höheren Geisteswelten, auch eindringen kann in die Gesetze des sozialen Zusammenlebens der Menschen, denn diese Gesetze sind eben seelisch-geistige Gesetze der höheren Welten. Sie können uns auch zu solchen Gesetzen führen, welche die Menschen zu einem befriedigenden sozialen Zusammenleben bringen können. Denn Geistiges ist es, was die Menschen in der Sozietät vereinigt, und was sie physisch vereinigt, ist eben nur herausgestaltet aus dem Geistigen. Daß man dieses vergessen hat, das ist in vielem der Grund für unsere furchtbare Katastrophe, für unsere vorhandenen Niedergangskräfte. Mit dem Geiste muß sich die Menschheit wiederum durchdringen.

Weiter hat befruchtend wirken können Anthroposophie in Erziehung, Pädagogik. In der von Emil Molt in Stuttgart begründeten Waldorfschule wird auf den werdenden Menschen, auf das Kind angewendet, was als wirkliche Menschenerkenntnis vor der anthroposophischen Forschung auftritt. Die Wege, die uns in höhere Welten hineinführen, die bringen uns auch dazu, von Jahr zu Jahr, von Woche zu Woche, dasjenige im Menschenkinde, das heranwächst von seiner Geburt bis zur Geschlechtsreife, zu schauen, was sich das Kind mitgebracht hat aus den höheren geistigen Welten, was der Erzieher, der Unterrichtende, hervorzaubern muß. Ich kann das seiner Richtung nach nur andeuten. Das alles ist im einzelnen zu einer pädagogischen Kunst in der Waldorfschule auszubilden versucht worden. Damit sind nur Beispiele geliefert, wie für die verschiedensten Gebiete des Lebens Anthroposophie anregend wirken will. Für das religiöse Leben, sagte ich schon, kann Anthroposophie belebend wirken deshalb, weil sie wissenschaftlich hinführt zu den höheren Welten, weil sie zeigt, wie dasjenige, was der Mensch im vergänglichen Erdendasein als sich Gestaltendes, aber nicht durch das gewöhnliche Erkennen durchschaubares Ewiges trägt, in seiner wahren Gestalt, in seinem Eigenen in den übersinnlichen Welten sich ausnimmt. Dort kann es höheres Schauen wahrnehmen. Hier ist es verborgen, weil es, indem es in die Geburt eintritt, aufgesogen wird von der physischen Gestaltung. Indem am Materiellen das Geistige arbeitet, wird es für das gewöhnliche Erkennen unsichtbar. Darum ist es aber nicht unlebendig. Es ist nur verborgen im Materiellen. Im Materiellen ist das Geistige zu erkennen. Dazu sollen die Wege, die von der Anthroposophie eröffnet werden wollen in die übersinnlichen Welten, die Mittel bedeuten.

Anthroposophie will eben deshalb nicht etwas sein, was den Menschen asketisch von der gewöhnlichen Welt wegführt, sondern sie will so zum Geistigen, zu übersinnlichen Welten die Wege eröffnen, daß der Mensch mit diesem Geistigen das materielle, das praktische Leben wieder gestalten kann. Das ist ja das Wichtige, daß wir den Geist als ein Schaffendes erkennen. Derjenige Geist wäre schwach, der unschöpferisch nur erlebt würde über dem Materiellen. Es gibt sehr viele Menschen, die sagen: Ach, das Materielle dieser Welt, das ist etwas Niedriges; darüber muß man sich erheben. Das Materielle muß man verlassen, um zu hohem Geistigem zu kommen. — Man muß allerdings vieles überwinden, um zu der Erkenntnis dieses Geistigen zu kommen. Aber wenn man in Liebe dieses Geistige erreicht hat — und man kann es nur erreichen in Liebe und in religiöser Frömmigkeit und Inbrunst, denn die Entwickelung der moralischen Fähigkeiten, von der ich auch gesprochen habe, führt dazu, in Liebe in die übersinnlichen Welten einzudringen —, dann hat man dieses Übersinnlich-Geistige an das Materielle angenähert. Denn nicht das ist das starke Geistige, was das Materielle flieht, sondern das ist das starke Geistige, was das Materielle gestaltet, was im Materiellen praktisch geistig wirken kann. Das auf der einen Seite.

Auf der anderen Seite darf ich Ihnen vielleicht zum Schluß gerade an diesem Orte das eine sagen, daß die anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft, wie sie hier gemeint ist, die Wege in die übersinnlichen Welten hinein so gestaltet, daß das, was gefunden wird auf diesen Wegen, nicht fernsteht den gewöhnlichen naturwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen und ihren Wirksamkeiten, sondern daß es sie durchdringt als eine geistig-seelische Kraft selber. Wie der Mensch dadurch ein Vollmensch ist, daß er in seinem Leiblich-Physischen hier auf der Erde steht, dieses Leiblich-Physische aber ein Geistig-Seelisches in sich trägt, so ist auch Wissenschaft nur im vollen Sinne des Wortes Vollwissenschaft, wenn sie nicht bloß ein Wissen, eine Erkenntnis von der äußeren materiellen Wirklichkeit ist, sondern wenn sie dieses Wissen mit dem anderen Wissen, mit dem Wissen von den geistigen Welten durchziehen kann. Deshalb möchte anthroposophische Geisteswissenschaft sich so in die andere Wissenschaft hineinstellen, daß sie im Grunde genommen dem von der Natur und dem Wesen sowohl des Menschen wie des Kosmos Geforderten entspricht. So wie der Mensch in sich tragen muß Geist und Seele in seinem materiellen Leben, so muß eine wirkliche Geisteswissenschaft, welche wahre, ehrliche Wege in die übersinnlich-geistigen Welten eröffnet, selber der Geist und die Seele der gewöhnlichen, der materiellen Wissenschaft werden. Und so wie der Geist und die Seele im Menschen nicht wider den Leib streiten, nicht wider den Körper sich auflehnen, sondern mit ihm im vollen Einklang stehen sollen, so muß in vollem Einklang stehen mit der wahren, ehrlichen Natur- und Geschichtserkenntnis dasjenige, was anthroposophische Geisteserkenntnis ist.

Paths to Knowledge of Higher Worlds

First, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for the warm welcome extended to me by your chairman, and to all of you for making it possible for me to speak to you about a chapter of anthroposophical spiritual science. I must say that this invitation on your part is of very special value to me, for it must be understandable that what is meant in the next endeavors for the future is addressed above all to the student body, because spiritual treasures can probably best be preserved within the student body and from there can best make their way into the future. Out of this feeling, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to your chairman and to all of you for your warm welcome.

It has been requested that I speak today on the topic: Paths to higher, that is, supersensible knowledge. I assume that only some of you were present at my lecture yesterday, so it will be necessary for me to weave some of the more important points I made yesterday into my lecture again.

Anthroposophical spiritual science strives above all for complete harmony with the scientific intellectual achievements that have emerged over the last few centuries. Anthroposophy is in no way opposed to scientific endeavors, as some believe, but on the contrary, those who are completely honest and serious in our anthroposophical movement prefer people who have a full understanding of what has been achieved in recent times in terms of scientific conscientiousness and inner scientific attitude. However, it is rightly believed that recognized science cannot penetrate into supersensible worlds. And in a certain sense, anthroposophy stands on common ground with recognized science on this point. It is quite clear that those who speak of the limits of human knowledge in relation to the knowledge of nature are right. It is also clear that these limits cannot be exceeded with ordinary human powers of cognition. Therefore, anthroposophy does not even attempt to find the paths to supersensible knowledge with these ordinary powers of consciousness and cognition, but rather strives not only to begin where ordinary science must end in relation to the results of scientific research, where ordinary science must stop, but also to begin with its methods where science applicable to external nature and also to the physical nature of human beings must stop. Anthroposophy must therefore not only speak about other things, but it must also speak differently. Nevertheless, it is in full harmony with scientific conscientiousness and scientific discipline. It proceeds from the assumption that the powers of cognition through which one is to ascend into the supersensible worlds must first be awakened from their slumber in the human being. Anthroposophy does not claim that special qualities and abilities, which only certain individuals possess, are necessary for the recognition of supersensible worlds. Rather, it seeks to rely solely on those powers that can be drawn out of every human soul, but which go beyond what we have inherited as human beings through our ordinary growth since childhood, and which also go beyond what is achieved through ordinary education and learning.

If a person wants to become a spiritual researcher in the anthroposophical sense, they must, if I may say so, take their development into their own hands from the point at which they stand in ordinary life and ordinary science. The first powers that need to be developed are those of thinking. This is only the beginning of this development, for we shall see that it is not merely a matter of developing one-sided intellectual or thinking powers, but of developing the whole human being. But a start must be made with a special exercise in thinking. The thinking to which we are accustomed today, not only in our outer lives but also in science, surrenders itself to external observation; it runs, as it were, along the thread of external observation. We direct our senses to the outside world and link our thoughts to what our senses convey to us. This gives us a firm foundation in the observation of the outside world for connecting the contents of our souls, our experiences. It has been a legitimate scientific endeavor to develop this support, the support of observation, more and more. And this observation has been further strengthened by the scientific use of experimentation, in which one can really survey all the individual conditions that lead to individual phenomena, so that the processes become completely transparent, so to speak.

Anthroposophical spiritual science must depart from this devotion of thinking to external objectivity in order to fulfill its task. For it, the main thing is to strengthen thinking internally, to make it more intense. Yesterday I took the liberty of saying that just as a muscle becomes stronger when it performs a certain task, so too do our soul forces. When we repeatedly bring certain, manageable ideas to the center of our consciousness in systematic practice, and devote ourselves with our whole being to such ideas, we strengthen our powers of thinking. However, this intensification of the powers of thought must of course be achieved in such a way that everything we undertake is imbued with the full, deliberate will of the human being. Therefore, anyone who wants to become a spiritual researcher in the anthroposophical sense can above all find a great role model within today's scientific world: mathematics. Strange and paradoxical as it may sound, the anthroposophical spiritual researcher, if he wants to go beyond amateurism, observes above all something that was already written as a motto in the school of Plato: that no one can penetrate into real spiritual scientific knowledge who does not have a certain mathematical culture.

What is it that makes mathematics so special to the soul? It is that everything that comes before the soul in mathematical knowledge is internally transparent and clear, that there is, so to speak, nothing in this knowledge to which one surrenders unconsciously and without applying one's will. Of course, spiritual science in the anthroposophical sense is not mathematics. But the way in which one finds one's way into mathematical thinking can be a significant model. Actually, it is not mathematics that is this model, but rather, if I may express it this way, mathematizing. And when one has learned above all to go beyond everything illusory, everything suggestive, through such a mathematizing culture, then one can proceed with particular success to take in comprehensible ideas, but ideas that are new to one. You can obtain them from an experienced researcher of the mind or otherwise seek to arrive at ideas that you do not yet have in your memory. You place these at the center of your consciousness and devote your entire soul to them, turning all your powers of attention away from everything else and trying to focus on such an idea or complex of ideas for a certain, not too long period of time. Why must this idea or complex of ideas be something new? Yes, when we bring up reminiscences from our memory, we can never be entirely sure what is going on in our organism, what is driving certain experiences in the unconscious outside our soul. We can only really move freely with our knowledge when we are faced with sensory perception, because sensory perception will encounter us at every moment, because we know for sure that it cannot be brought forth in any fantastical way from life reminiscences. Likewise, what we now allow to be present in our consciousness, excluding sensory perceptions, to which we devote ourselves completely, must be such that we are in an inner liveliness without sensory perceptions, as is otherwise only the case with external sensory perception. This is what is most important on the path to higher knowledge: that thinking free of sensuality enters into an inner movement that engages our soul as strongly as otherwise only external sensory perception does. One might say: what human beings otherwise experience in external sensory perception, they must learn to experience in thinking that is intensified and yet completely permeated by calm, conscious will.

This already erects a powerful barrier against everything that wants to enter consciousness in the form of suggestion, illusion, visions, and hallucinations. Spiritual scientific knowledge, as it is meant here, is always misunderstood when people say: Well, such a spiritual researcher can only arrive at hallucinations or the like through his exercises, at all kinds of pathological states of mind. Anyone who takes seriously the way in which the path to higher knowledge in anthroposophy is described will see that it is precisely this spiritual research that makes people most aware of everything that is illusion, hallucination, or even mediumistic. All of this, which goes in the other direction, the pathological direction, is strictly rejected and seen through as worthless, precisely by what can be achieved through real spiritual research. Then one comes to acquire a completely different way of thinking. The old way of thinking, which is needed for ordinary life and for ordinary science, remains fully intact. But a completely new way of thinking is added to this way of thinking when, in the appropriate manner — you will find this in my book “How to Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds” or in my “Occult Science” — exercises such as those I have now characterized in principle as thinking exercises, performed again and again and systematically — some need longer for this, others less — when one performs these exercises in one's consciousness as an inner, intimate development of the soul. I would like to characterize what is added to ordinary thinking in the following way.

I would like to make a personal remark here, which is not meant to be personal, but which you will probably agree belongs to the objective nature of my presentations. At the beginning of the 1890s, I wrote my Philosophy of Freedom to show how freedom is truly founded and truly lives in the moral and ethical life of humanity. This “Philosophy of Freedom” has given rise to many misunderstandings because people simply cannot find their way into the kind of thinking practiced in this “Philosophy of Freedom.” For in this “Philosophy of Freedom,” the kind of thinking is already practiced that one must actually struggle through systematically in order to gain knowledge of higher worlds. It is only the beginning, the beginning that everyone can make in ordinary life. But at the same time, it is the beginning of the knowledge of higher worlds. Ordinary thinking — you only need to reflect on the nature of this ordinary thinking to see how justified what I am saying is — ordinary thinking is actually thinking that consists of spatial perceptions. In our ordinary thinking, we basically arrange everything spatially. Just consider that we also reduce time to space. We express time through the movements of the clock. We basically have the same process in our physical formulas. In short, we ultimately come to the conclusion that ordinary thinking is a combining kind of thinking, one that brings together separate entities. We need this kind of thinking for a healthy ordinary life, and we also need it for healthy ordinary science.

But the thinking that must be added for the purpose of knowing higher worlds, and which is achieved through such exercises, is a kind of thinking that I would like to call morphological thinking, thinking in forms. This thinking does not remain in space; this thinking is entirely such that it lives in the medium of time, just as other thinking lives in the medium of space. This thinking does not link one concept to another; this thinking presents something like a conceptual organism to the soul. When one has a concept, an idea, a thought, one cannot move on to another in any arbitrary way. Just as one cannot move from the head to any other form in the human organism, but must move to the neck, then to the shoulder, to the chest, and so on, just as everything is structured in an organism, just as an organism can only be viewed as a whole, so the thinking that I call morphological thinking must be internally mobile. As I said, it is in the medium of time, not space, but it is so internally flexible that it evokes one form from another, that this thinking itself is constantly structured organically, constantly growing. This morphological thinking is what must be added to other thinking, and it can be attained through such meditation exercises as I have outlined in principle, which strengthen thinking and make it more intense. With this morphological thinking, with this thinking that proceeds in forms, in images, one attains the first stage of knowledge of supersensible worlds, namely what I have called imaginative knowledge in my writings.

This imaginative knowledge does not yet yield anything external. At first, it leads only to human self-knowledge, but to a much deeper self-knowledge than can be attained through ordinary self-observation. This imaginative knowledge brings forms into our consciousness. These forms are experienced as vividly as any other sensory perception. But they have a very special characteristic. Our ordinary thoughts would not be healthily contained in our consciousness if we did not remember them. An extraordinary amount depends on our ability to remember, on our memory, for the healthy development of our soul life, our mental health. Only those who have a continuous memory of all waking states up to a certain point in their childhood are mentally healthy. You may also be aware of the terrible situation in which a person finds themselves who is psychopathic in the sense that certain memories have been erased. This state of memory erasure is known in psychiatry, and it shows how essential it is for a person's mental health that their memory is continuous. This applies to our ordinary thought formation.

It does not apply to what I have just characterized as imaginative, morphological thinking. Just as when we turn our eye or another sense organ to an external sensory stimulus, we only have the experience of perception for as long as we expose the sense organ, so too do we only have what we have experienced as formed thinking, as imaginative thinking, in the moment of experience, and what occurs in imaginative thinking cannot be imprinted in memory in the ordinary sense. It must be evoked anew at any time if it is to be experienced.

So, those who arrive at such organic-morphological thinking, which in a sense develops itself in living growth, cannot retain the results of this thinking in ordinary memory. Freedom can only be characterized when one ascends to such developing, growing thinking. That is why my “Philosophy of Freedom” has been burdened with such misunderstandings, as has just happened. But it had to be given in this method, because freedom is a spiritual experience, and one cannot arrive at it with ordinary combinatory thinking. This is what surprises beginners in the spiritual-scientific method: they usually believe that when they have an imaginative experience, it can be imprinted on their soul just like any other thought. But that is not the case. It is lost from consciousness. The only thing that can be retained is how one came to this imaginative experience. One can recreate the conditions, and then the experience will come back. Just as one must return to a flower one has seen in order to see it again, so one must evoke the same inner processes in order to have again an imaginative experience such as one has had once before.

Spiritual science content is not easily remembered. This applies even to the honest spiritual researcher, even to the very first, most elementary things. And here I may perhaps again add something personal, but which is also objective. You see, what the anthroposophical spiritual researcher has to say cannot be presented in the same way, let's say, from day to day in his lectures, as one can usually present scientific representations. You remember those, you have them in your memory, you present them from memory. What the spiritual researcher has to present must come from his living inner experience. He cannot prepare himself in the same way that one usually prepares with the help of one's memory. He can only bring about the conditions that enable him to experience even the most elementary things of spiritual science for himself. One must be clear that anthroposophical spiritual science, even in its very beginnings, leads to the development of otherwise dormant forces in the soul, and one must not believe that ordinary philosophical speculation can lead to any results in relation to higher worlds.

This imaginative knowledge, which I have described to you in this way, leads, as I said, only to a kind of self-knowledge. Ultimately, it leads to an overview, as if in a large tableau, but at a single moment in time, of everything that has essentially built up one's entire life since birth here on earth according to certain laws. Inwardly, one sees the creative forces of education at work in human beings, first of all in one's own human being. This is described, for example — and even those who think in scientific terms recognize this — in the case of certain people who were in mortal danger, such as those who were drowning, that they see a weaving, moving picture of their life so far, — not as a picture of memories, not with the details of life, but with the main things, with the forces that have brought one forward — one sees this tableau, which, I would say, is a deeper tableau of memories. But at the same time, this tableau is such that one does not merely have the ordinary, intellectual life of the soul before one, but rather the inner life that works on the organism from the soul.

Such a view now leads us to a standpoint from which it seems childish indeed when, even in the first decades of the 19th century, vitalism speculatively spoke of a “life force.” Anthroposophy does not speak of such a life force. However, we do speak of the view of life, of the view of what I call the etheric body or formative forces body, which on the one hand represents the soul, but on the other hand, I would say, the condensed, intensified soul that works on the organism. So at the same time, one is led to a deeper understanding of the soul and to a deeper understanding of the way in which the soul works on the organism. I would like to give you an example of this, an elementary but characteristic example.

You know that today's accepted psychology does not really go beyond certain speculations about the relationship between soul and body, soul and physical body. The soul is described as if it moved the body, or, from a materialistic point of view, the soul is regarded as the plus that the body produces, so to speak. Today, people most often speak of psychophysical parallelism: that the phenomena of the soul and the phenomena of the body run parallel, and so on. These are all speculations that are actually based only on the fact that people do not want to introduce the same scientific spirit that otherwise prevails into human spiritual-physical, spiritual-bodily life.

You are all familiar with the physical concept of latent heat, a latent heat that is contained in some object but does not appear as heat. When certain conditions are met, this heat is said to be released. It then appears. The heat is present in things beforehand, it causes something in things, but this is not expressed externally through heat processes. We speak of latent heat, of heat being released.

Such a view, naturally modified and enriched, must certainly also be extended to the concrete, non-speculative observation of the soul. We see the child growing up until the change of teeth, around the age of seven. However, much more is connected with this change of teeth than is usually thought. Anyone who has an unbiased observation of the soul-physical knows that the whole way of thinking, imagining, and also the life of feelings and sensations, in other words, everything soul-related in the child, becomes completely different after the change of teeth than it was before. The change of teeth is, in a sense, the end point for a certain kind of childish life. After the change of teeth, the human being no longer needs to apply the forces to his organism that he previously applied. For these forces, which — if I may express myself trivially — push out the second teeth, are not merely localized in the human head, for example; they are forces that are present in the whole organism and only manifest themselves in a single place when the second teeth are pushed out. Anyone who follows this entire process in a scientific manner, as is customary in natural science today, will come to realize that the forces that push the teeth out were previously latent, bound within the organism, that they have thoroughly organized the organism, and that they have now been released during the change of teeth and appear as soul-spiritual forces in the child after the change of teeth. Here we have a concrete, not a speculative, interrelationship between the soul-spiritual and the physical-bodily. Those who want to look only at the soul and then at the body in the present moment may speculate and experiment for a long time, but they will only arrive at abstract views of the relationship between the soul and the body. Those who take a chronological approach will observe how, after the change of teeth, something emerges in the child in terms of soul forces, the contouring of the concept of memory, and the contouring of sensations, and they will know that what is now present as a liberated soul life was previously submerged in the organism. Through observation, not just thinking, they learn to truly understand the relationship between soul and body. This is an example of how we can explore the interaction between soul and body through imaginative knowledge. We can see how the soul-spiritual works on the physical body. This is presented in the tableau I mentioned. Once you have developed this pictorial, imaginative thinking in this way, you must continue with the strength you have gained. I said: just as muscles grow stronger through work, so our thinking power grows stronger by performing exercises such as those I have described, which you can find further described in the books mentioned. If you develop in this way a strengthened thinking that reaches pictoriality, that reaches creative power, that lives in time, then you can also come to strengthen other powers of the soul life. The ordinary ideas of life come and go, or we try to get rid of them, either by trying to get rid of them psychologically, or by our organism taking care of it through forgetting, and so on. Such ideas, which we — as I have described — make present in our consciousness for the sake of higher knowledge, allow to be present, are more difficult to forget than others. We have to make a great effort here. This is a second type of exercise, which I would call artificial forgetting, the artificial suppression of ideas. But if we practice this artificial suppression of ideas long enough in accordance with our individual dispositions, we will eventually be able to suppress this whole tableau I have just spoken of, so that we can completely empty our consciousness. What must remain for us is thinking that is permeated by will and prudence. But this thinking now appears in a new form.

I have now spoken to you about two forms of thinking: ordinary thinking, which is bound to space, and thinking that has its own growth, where one concept or thought grows out of another, just as one limb attaches itself to another in an organism. By continuing this morphological thinking for a while, one comes to be able to develop a third form of thinking, and this is what one needs when one ascends to the higher level of supersensible knowledge, which I will describe in a moment, when one ascends in the higher world to more than a mere overview of one's own organization.

Through imaginative cognition, one comes to survey one's own organization in such a way that one says to oneself: the soul-spiritual as something supersensible works on the physical-bodily in earthly life. One needs this morphological thinking, otherwise one would not understand what is happening in time, what is working from the supersensible on the sensory, for this is present in constant metamorphosis. You have to make your thinking flexible and internally coherent. What lives out of the spirit cannot be grasped by mere combinatory thinking; it must be grasped by internally living thinking. But you have to arrive at yet another kind of thinking if you want to grow to the next higher level of supersensible knowledge. And I would like to explain this other kind of thinking to you with an example. This example itself is somewhat difficult to grasp, but we will be able to understand each other.

I would like to remind you that Goethe attempted to understand the individual skull bones as shaped, metamorphosed bones of the same type as the vertebrae. Goethe saw a metamorphosis, a transformation of the vertebrae into the individual bones of the head. To a certain extent, albeit modified, this is also the view of modern science; not quite as Goethe imagined it, but it is still the prevailing view today. However, this purely morphological derivation of the skull bones is not enough; we must go further if we want to understand the relationship of the human head to the rest of the human organism—let us stick with the skeleton for now. One must not only think of a transformation, but one must also think of something completely different when one raises the question: How, for example, does the bone system, say in the form of the arms or legs, relate to the bone system in the form of the skull bones, the head bones? In this case, one can only understand the metamorphosis through which one emerges from the other if one assumes that not only a transformation takes place, a spatial transformation in time, but that something else entirely takes place, namely a kind of inversion. If you want to understand the mutual relationship, say, between the leg bones and the head bones, you have to compare the outer surface of the head bones with the inner surface of a hollow bone, say, the thigh bone. So that the inside of the thigh bone would have to be turned outward and also change its elasticity. Then the inside would appear turned inside out, and the outer surface of a skull bone would correspond to the inner surface of a hollow bone of the limbs. And vice versa: the outer surface of the tibia does not correspond to the outer surface of the skull, but to the inner surface of the skull. So you have to imagine that something like turning a glove inside out is taking place. The inside is turned outward, but at the same time the elasticity is changed. A different shape is created. It is as if, after turning the glove inside out, it would take on a completely different shape due to different elastic forces.

You see, I have to give you something extremely complicated as a first indication of this third kind of thinking: a kind of thinking that not only lives in changing forms, but is also capable of turning the inner form outward and thereby changing the shape. This is only possible by no longer remaining in time with one's thinking, but rather, in this turning inside out, what one is thinking about leaves space and time in one's thinking and enters a reality that lies beyond space and time.

I know very well that it is not possible to immediately find one's way into this third kind of thinking, which is quite different from combinatory and formative thinking, into this thinking which, I would say, submerges into non-spatiality and non-temporality; and that which reappears is changed in form, has turned the inner outward and the outer inward. But anthroposophy does not want to bring about that layman's talk about the higher worlds to which many devote themselves. Rather, anthroposophy must point out, because it is as honest as any honest science, that it is not only necessary to leave the realm of ordinary science, but that the way of thinking must become completely different. One must hold the human being together internally in a completely different way if one wants to advance to qualitative thinking in this way, for it is simply a change in the whole quality of thought that arises from this turning inside out, this reversal of the inner into the outer.

Only when one has brought one's thinking to this point, so that it has immersed itself in the qualitative, can one follow the stage of knowledge into the supersensible worlds that must follow imaginative thinking. If one has suppressed the tableau I have spoken of, so that one has created an empty consciousness, then one has an empty consciousness for a short time. If one merely suppresses an idea, one can empty one's consciousness for a while. But if one suppresses this reality, which has actually served one continuously in growth and nourishment in earthly existence, one plunges into a completely new world. Then one is in the higher worlds, and then one has the ordinary sensory world behind one like a memory. You must have it as such, otherwise you are not a mentally healthy person, otherwise you are a psychopathic person, otherwise you hallucinate or have illusions.

If one proceeds correctly in spiritual research, prudence remains, consciousness imbued with will remains up to the highest worlds, and there can be no question of having hallucinations or suggestions of any kind. If you have suggestions or hallucinations, your ordinary consciousness is completely supplanted by pathological consciousness. But the essence of the consciousness sought by anthroposophy for the purpose of knowing higher worlds is that ordinary consciousness remains fully intact, that one remains a reasonable person, a prudent person, alongside the fact that one rises into higher worlds. And what I have described to you as the strengthening of thinking with inverted thinking, super-morphological thinking, is also actually only there so that one can now penetrate these higher worlds with complete consciousness. One now truly experiences these higher worlds with spiritual content.

Once you have gained an insight through imaginative consciousness into what has been working on you since birth — the supersensible working on the sensible —, one now gains an insight into what was present in one's spiritual-soul existence before birth, or let us say before conception within the physical world, where one is just as surrounded by beings, spiritual-soul beings, as we are here surrounded by sensory beings in the time between birth and death. In short, one experiences the eternal core of the human being by looking back beyond birth to the stage of existence that the human being went through before being conceived here on earth within the physical stream of heredity; one experiences him in his spiritual environment.

What has led to the knowledge of the higher worlds is therefore not speculation, not a system of concepts, but a vision. Just as one gains a view of the outer sensory world through the development of one's body since embryonic existence, so too, through the approaches I have described to you in principle, which you will find described in detail in the books cited, one gains knowledge of soul processes, the possibility of being surrounded by that spiritual world in which we were before birth and into which we enter when we pass through the gate of death. Through intuition, knowledge of the higher worlds is attained.

Now, I have described to you the path of knowledge. However, the path to the higher worlds would not be fully described if it were described only as a path of knowledge, for what human beings go through there involves something more than mere life in thought. It may be difficult to acquire the two higher forms of thinking, but something else presents further difficulties. If we here in the physical world prefer to stick to observation and experimentation, it is because this gives us a certain degree of reassurance about the truth of our knowledge. One may now argue epistemologically about the nature of sensory perceptions and their relationship to true being, and so on, but that is not important now. What matters is that sensory perception guarantees the truth of what we experience spiritually, what appears spiritually as the reflection of these sensory perceptions, and we are reassured by relying on external reality. In recent times, the disease of spiritualism has even arisen, which seeks to confirm the existence of the spiritual in the same way through external observation. Of course, one cannot be more materialistic than when one is a spiritualist. Spiritualism is only the potentiation of materialism, for one wants not only to assert that matter exists, or perhaps that only matter exists, but one even wants to assert that the spirit appears as matter, that is, that it is itself only matter. It is only the last phase, the last consequence of materialism, that appears as spiritualism. True spiritual science strives for an ascent into the spiritual worlds, not a descent of the spiritual worlds into material processes.

But what one has, I would say, as a support for a soul experience through the outer sensory world, one does not have when one lives one's way up into the spiritual worlds in the manner indicated. One must have another support. One needs something that gives one the same sense of security, that one is not floating in a void, that one is not experiencing the soul in a blue haze; one needs something to lean on, just as one leans on external sensory perception in ordinary life. And what one needs here can only come through the development of inner powers. Please do not misunderstand me. I do not mean that the powers one already has in ordinary life — one must use words borrowed from ordinary life — are sufficient. Powers must also be developed in areas other than thinking, so that one arrives not only at insights, but at insights rooted in being. What gives us external reassurance in sensory perception is that one sense supports the other. When someone has an auditory or visual impression, they are still not sure whether it is not a hallucination. They are only sure when, I would say, the sense of gravity supports them, when another sense comes to their aid, when what cannot be sufficiently verified by sight or hearing is verified by another sense. And what is it, actually, that makes us feel called upon to speak of being in relation to the sensory world?

You can consider various things. I would have to speak for hours about epistemology — which I cannot do here, of course — if I wanted to substantiate what I am about to summarize briefly. But this is true, and you will come to it if you follow the corresponding thoughts: In the sensory world, we call a thing real if it affects us in such a way that we would have to deny ourselves if we denied the thing. If you not only hear a bell ringing, but can also touch it, and find it in connection with other things, then, if you experience this reality psychologically, you would have to deny yourself if you could not call the external thing real. We call an external thing real if, without acknowledging its reality, we would have to deny our own reality. You see, what we call reality is intimately connected with our own reality. Therefore, we must also draw from our own, but now spiritual-soul reality, the forces that can be compared to an object that I touch and that manifests itself through its weight. We must seek within ourselves the supporting forces for the reality of the higher spiritual worlds, into which we settle in the manner I have described to you. We can only do this if we further develop certain moral qualities that we have in ordinary life for the sake of ethical behavior. Just as we strengthen our powers of thought, so must we strengthen our moral powers. It is not merely a matter of developing these moral powers for ethical life, but of strengthening them in turn.

I would like to mention only two types. The first is that what we call moral courage, what we call courage in general in human beings, must be made just as intense as the powers of thought. The courage we have within us can be made more intense if we correctly observe and experience precisely what we place before our soul in imaginative cognition as a retrospective view in a tableau. We find that when we immerse ourselves in our own lives, we discover a higher courage, a stronger inner strength of courage than we usually need for the outer life to which we passively surrender ourselves. This courage must be increased.

And another moral strength must be increased. While courage actually relates to the life of feeling, represents a certain inner security, forms a certain inner strength, we must develop something in relation to the will that arises, for example, when we energetically set ourselves a goal at certain points in time and then, with iron determination, try at a later point in time to bring about the conditions for actually carrying out what we had previously set ourselves to do. The anthroposophical spiritual researcher must also do such exercises, quite systematically. He must connect the impulses of his will from the present with the impulses that were present in him in the past. In ordinary life, we surrender ourselves to the present. In the life that is to lead us up into higher worlds, we must imagine an inner continuity of the will. We must be able to carry out something in the future based on intentions we have had for years. In this way we form a strong support for the will, a strong current of will that we ourselves set within us. This is a very special kind of self-discipline. We do not merely depend on what drives us to act now, whether it be external circumstances, our drives and instincts, or perhaps even our ideals, but we connect a later point in our spiritual life with an earlier point in time as an inner spiritual impulse of will. If we develop an increase in courage in our minds, if we develop the continuity of will impulses so that our will impulses last over time, then we come to this by raising ourselves up into the higher worlds in the way I have described, just as as we can otherwise do with regard to the outer sensory world, to ascertain the reality of what we then perceive. This reality must be ascertained through inwardly strengthened powers. Therefore, the path to the spiritual worlds is not the development of a one-sided power of cognition, but rather the development of the whole human being in terms of thinking, feeling, and willing, in terms of the striving for knowledge, the striving for aesthetics, and the striving for ethics. And this path to the higher worlds is at the same time a religious immersion, a religious deepening of the human being.

It is important that we are clear about the fact that in recent times, just as science has raised doubts about the spiritual worlds in many respects, it is also through science that these spiritual worlds must be conquered. It is short-sighted to believe that by ascending into the higher spiritual worlds with the same calm consciousness with which he approaches the sensory world with his senses, man would somehow impair religious life. Those who criticize in this direction usually do so out of the belief that anthroposophical spiritual science leads only to intellectualism and rationalism. This is not the case. The whole human being, with all his feelings and will, flows into the development of thinking that is achieved in the manner indicated, and what spiritual science, as understood here, outlines as the path to the higher worlds is an unfolding, a development of the whole human being. And just as in ordinary sensory life, thinking appears only as a blossom from the organism, so higher knowledge appears as a blossom of the fully developed human being who harmoniously and intensively develops all his powers on the path into the higher worlds.

Simply training the thinking faculty actually leads only to a world of images. If one wants to perceive reality in this world of images, then one must also develop, in the manner I have indicated, that which in morality is courage, and in a life of character is the will that remains our own and appears throughout time. These two and other forces, which you can read about in the books mentioned, must be strengthened. The whole, the complete soul-spiritual human being must be led up into those other worlds in which the human being lives before he is conceived here by physical forces, passes over into physical earthly life, or in which he lives when he has passed through the gate of death. If one wants to ascend to this life in a conscious way, if one wants to gain insight into the supersensible worlds, then one must lead the whole soul-spiritual human being there, not just something that theoretically wants to experience these worlds. In this way, however, this anthroposophical spiritual science is also fruitful for life as a whole. This anthroposophical spiritual science does not want to make people unworldly in some abstruse mysticism; it wants to introduce them to practical, truly practical life. And therefore it has a fruitful effect on science, on art, on social and religious life, in short, on the most diverse areas of life. I can only make a few hints about this.

When we recognize what I earlier called the life tableau of retrospection, which is an image-bearing body that flows away in time, we also see how the human physical body arises from this system of forces, how it is formed. It is only an outward appearance when we speak of the heart, the lungs, and so on. In truth, the heart is a process, and the outer spatial form is only the process captured at a moment in time. This is true of every organ. We can recognize what is captured as a form at the moment. But we cannot recognize the flowing life process from which health and illness arise unless we rise to the knowledge of the supersensible formative forces of the body. Therefore, medicine, especially therapy, can experience essential enrichment from spiritual science, and we have already been able to establish clinical-therapeutic institutes in both Stuttgart and Dornach based on the inspiration of anthroposophy, which are intended to make fruitful for sick humanity what can be gained from spiritual science in an anthroposophical orientation. And in many other ways, spiritual science can enrich life. When we wanted to establish a school of spiritual science in Dornach, we could not create just any framework. What was available when the friends of our anthroposophical worldview wanted to build a school of spiritual science was something very special. I would like to characterize it with a comparison.

Take, for example, a nut with a shell. If you think about it impartially, you will say to yourself: the shell of the nut must be exactly as it is in form, because the nut is as it is. The shell belongs to the nut. If today one wants to establish something spiritually in a similar way to what wants to live spiritually in the anthroposophical movement, and you are in a position to erect a building, you go to a builder who erects a building in this or that style, possibly something that does not fit what is inside it at all, like a nut shell that would not fit the nut inside it at all. Because anthroposophy does not want to be merely theoretical, something that lives only in words, the anthroposophical movement could not proceed in this way with regard to its framework. In Dornach, what is heard from the podium, what is performed on stage, what appears before people in artistic form through words or movements on stage, must have exactly the same inner essence as what speaks from the walls, as what confronts people externally as architecture. Just as the same forces of growth that shape the nut also shape the nut shell, so what lives in anthroposophy in words also had to artistically provide the framework in a new architectural style. It was therefore entirely organic that a new architectural style emerged in Dornach, which is nothing other than the outwardly visible expression of what otherwise lives spiritually and soulfully in the word. We will be able to understand what anthroposophy wants to be in our time precisely because it has such a fruitful effect on artistic life. And in our eurythmy, which is only just beginning, we have created a human art of movement in which the moving individuals or groups of people are not performing a dance or pantomime, but rather what appears in the forms of movement is a language that is just as lawful as spoken language, or a visible song, just as song can otherwise be heard in tones. What appears as eurythmy is drawn entirely from the spiritual, soul, and physical laws of the human being.

In this way, we were able to work with anthroposophy in a way that was fruitful for a wide variety of artistic directions.

In my “Key Points of the Social Question,” an attempt has been made to take a position on the major social problems of the present from an anthroposophical point of view. Anyone who considers that social life involves the whole human being, not just what can be achieved through rational science, for example in Marxism or similar ideologies, will admit that what penetrates the higher spiritual worlds can also penetrate the laws of social coexistence among human beings, for these laws are precisely the soul-spiritual laws of the higher worlds. They can also lead us to laws that can bring people to a satisfying social coexistence. For it is the spiritual that unites people in society, and what unites them physically is only a manifestation of the spiritual. The fact that we have forgotten this is in many ways the reason for our terrible catastrophe, for our present forces of decline. Humanity must once again be permeated by the spirit.

Anthroposophy has also had a fruitful influence on education and pedagogy. At the Waldorf School founded by Emil Molt in Stuttgart, what appears as real knowledge of the human being in anthroposophical research is applied to the developing human being, to the child. The paths that lead us into higher worlds also lead us, from year to year, from week to week, to see in the human child, who grows from birth to sexual maturity, what the child has brought with it from the higher spiritual worlds, what the educator, the teacher, must bring out. I can only hint at the direction this takes. All of this has been attempted to be developed in detail into an educational art in the Waldorf school. These are only examples of how anthroposophy aims to have a stimulating effect on the most diverse areas of life. As I have already said, anthroposophy can have an invigorating effect on religious life because it leads scientifically to the higher worlds, because it shows how that which the human being carries in his or her transitory earthly existence as something formative but not transparent to ordinary perception, appears in its true form, in its own right, in the supersensible worlds. There it can perceive higher vision. Here it is hidden because, as it enters into birth, it is absorbed by the physical form. As the spiritual works on the material, it becomes invisible to ordinary perception. But that does not mean it is lifeless. It is only hidden in the material. The spiritual can be recognized in the material. To this end, the paths that anthroposophy seeks to open up into the supersensible worlds are to be the means.

Anthroposophy does not want to be something that ascetically leads people away from the ordinary world, but rather wants to open up paths to the spiritual, to supersensible worlds, so that people can use this spiritual element to reshape their material, practical lives. It is important that we recognize the spirit as a creative force. A spirit that is experienced only in an uncreative way above the material would be weak. There are many people who say: Oh, the material world is something base; one must rise above it. One must leave the material behind in order to attain a higher spiritual level. — It is true that one must overcome many things in order to attain knowledge of this spiritual realm. But when one has attained this spirituality in love — and one can only attain it in love and in religious piety and fervor, for the development of moral abilities, of which I have also spoken, leads to penetrating the supersensible worlds in love — then one has brought this supersensible spirituality closer to the material world. For it is not that which flees from the material that is the strong spiritual, but that which shapes the material, that which can work spiritually in the material world. That is on the one hand.

On the other hand, perhaps I may conclude by saying here that anthroposophical spiritual science, as it is meant here, shapes the paths into the supersensible worlds in such a way that what is found on these paths is not far removed from ordinary scientific knowledge and its effects, but rather permeates it as a spiritual spiritual-soul force itself. Just as human beings are complete human beings because they stand here on earth in their physical bodies, but these physical bodies carry a spiritual-soul force within them, so too is science only science in the full sense of the word when it is not merely knowledge, an understanding of external material reality, but when it can permeate this knowledge with other knowledge, with knowledge of the spiritual worlds. Therefore, anthroposophical spiritual science wants to position itself within other sciences in such a way that it fundamentally corresponds to the requirements of nature and the essence of both the human being and the cosmos. Just as human beings must carry spirit and soul within themselves in their material lives, so a true spiritual science, which opens up genuine, honest paths into the supersensible spiritual worlds, must itself become the spirit and soul of ordinary, material science. And just as the spirit and soul in human beings should not fight against the body, should not rebel against the body, but should be in complete harmony with it, so must anthroposophical spiritual knowledge be in complete harmony with true, honest knowledge of nature and history.