The Rudolf Steiner Archive

Theosophy and Rosicrucianism XIV

[ 1 ] Yesterday I explained to you what is known as the Rosicrucian initiation, up to the third degree, the “knowledge of the occult script.” We have thus become acquainted with what is called, in the Rosicrucian sense, the “Study,” then the “Attainment of Imaginative Knowledge,” and subsequently what is called “Immersing Oneself in the Occult Scripture”—that scripture which is drawn from the laws of nature themselves. It now falls to us to proceed to the fourth stage of Rosicrucian initiation, to what is called the “preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone.” I ask you to disregard everything you may read in any books about the “preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone” and to be clear that it is only in our present time that one can report on what the Rosicrucian actually means by the “preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone.”

[ 2 ] Under this name, certain guidelines for ascending to the higher worlds have existed ever since the well-known founder of Rosicrucianism established this movement in 1459. You must be aware that this movement has always been treated with the utmost caution and has always been kept secret. It was around the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century that, through improper means—a kind of betrayal—certain secrets of Rosicrucianism were made public. At that time, various things were printed about it; one could gather from them that those involved had heard something, but had not understood it. Yet they had at least heard the right words, so to speak, picked them up, including about “the Philosopher’s Stone.” At that time, a series of reports even appeared in the then “Reichs-Anzeiger” about a society that had made the “preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone” its mission; and among these reports there is also one that only someone who knew what it was about could understand. It reads: “Yes, the Philosopher’s Stone exists; most people actually know it; most have even held it in their hands; it is not that hard to find, only most people do not know it!”

[ 3 ] This concept of the “Philosopher’s Stone” came to be associated with the idea that it gradually teaches one to recognize the immortal part of the human being that cannot succumb to death, and that it leads one up into the higher worlds. When a person realizes that this immortal part cannot succumb to death, then by possessing the “Philosopher’s Stone” they acquire eternal life; through it, they overcome death. This had been interpreted to mean that one would never die. What is meant, however, is that through it a person comes to know the world in which they live after death. Furthermore, the “Philosopher’s Stone” was also seen as an elixir of life. All of this made the “Philosopher’s Stone” extraordinarily desirable. Anyone who knows what it is must have found these words strangely accurate, for they are indeed true; only, those who do not know the secret cannot make much of them.

[ 4 ] Now I would like to briefly show you what this means. If you want to understand this, you must follow me in considering a very simple scientific fact: you must be clear about the relationship that exists between humans and the plant world. The fact is that anything that breathes like a human being could never exist if there were no plants. You must first familiarize yourself with the process that takes place between you and the plants.

[ 5 ] You breathe in the air; you need the oxygen it contains. If there were no oxygen, you could never live. When you take in the air and process the oxygen in your body, you exhale carbon dioxide, a compound of carbon and oxygen. So you must tell yourself: Human beings constantly take in oxygen and thereby sustain their bodies, and they exhale carbon dioxide: they are thus constantly creating a poison that would ultimately kill them. In this way, you are constantly filling your surroundings with a poison. — What does the plant do? In a certain sense, it does exactly the opposite. It takes in carbon dioxide, retains the carbon, and releases the oxygen that is useless to it. So that you give the plant what it needs, and the plant gives you oxygen in return. This process of carbon dioxide respiration and oxygen release far outweighs the plant’s uptake of oxygen. What, then, does the plant do with the carbon it retains? To a certain extent, the plant uses it to build its own body. In a sense, you are giving the plant the opportunity to build its body from the carbon in a way that suits it. When, after millennia, you dig the plant out of the earth as coal, you have the same substance within it.

[ 6 ] The plant gives you oxygen, and you take it in. You give it carbon dioxide, and it retains the carbon from it, uses it to build its own body, and gives you oxygen back. This is a wonderful process of exchange that takes place. That is how it is today. But now humanity is in the process of evolution, and in the future the human body will be such that it will possess within itself the organ that converts carbon dioxide into oxygen, and it will retain the carbon within itself.

[ 7 ] Today I am pointing—in a different way than I did yesterday during the Rosicrucian training—toward a future state of humanity. In the future, humanity will possess a desire-free body of a higher order, the kind you find at a lower level in plants: they will be able to build a body that, at a higher level, will be plant-like. In the organ that is today their heart, they will then have an apparatus that will do what plants do today. Today, plants and humans belong together; one could not live without the other. If there were no plants, all oxygen-breathers would die out in a short time, for it is the plant that gives us oxygen; we cannot even conceive of life without the plant. And what the plant does outside of us today, that organ into which the heart will develop within us will do in the future, when it becomes a voluntary muscle. We extend our consciousness over the plants; we grow together with the plant world, so that what the plant does outside of us today will later take place within us; then we will also retain within ourselves the carbon that we release today and build our own bodies from it. We will become plant-like on a higher level of consciousness.

[ 8 ] Since time immemorial, occultism has clothed all this in a wondrous legend; for truths have been preserved through the millennia in images and legends. It is the Golden Legend. And what I have told you today was taught to a student of occultism through imagery in that legend. It went something like this:

[ 9 ] When Seth, the son whom God had given to Adam and Eve in place of the murdered Abel, once entered Paradise, he found the two trees—the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life—grown together; their branches were intertwined. And from this tree, Seth took three seeds at the behest of the angel who guided him. He kept them safe, and when Adam died, he placed the three seeds in his mouth. And a tree grew out of Adam’s grave; to those who knew how to look, this tree revealed a message in letters of fire; the words were: “Ehjeh asher ehjeh—I am who was, who is, who will be.” Now Seth took wood from this tree that grew out of Adam’s grave, and from this wood many things were fashioned: among them that staff which was Moses’ staff. And it was passed down further; from it was fashioned the gate to Solomon’s Temple, and later, after it had undergone various other fates, the cross on which the Savior hung.

[ 10 ] Thus, the legend links the wood of the cross of Golgotha to the tree that grew from the seeds of the Tree of Paradise in Adam’s grave.

[ 11 ] This legend conceals the very same mystery that I hinted at to you today. The intention was to say: In primeval times, the human race was such that it had not yet sunk into the flesh filled with desire, but was chaste and pure, like the plant that stretches its calyx toward the sun. Then, through the Fall, humanity fell: their flesh became filled with desire. But everything that humanity once possessed in a state of innocence, it shall possess again when, through the path of knowledge, it has created the desireless body—the body as it once was, before humanity entered into knowledge; remember where the I originates. The fact that he no longer has that body is connected to the fact that man has become a lung-breather, that he has been able to form his red blood. Thus, the present form of man is connected to breathing and blood circulation, and to the fact that he could become a bearer of knowledge in the present sense.

[ 12 ] Now imagine yourself in your body today. There you can picture how oxygen flows in, how it stimulates the red blood, how the red blood flows through your entire body like a branching tree, and how the blue blood then flows back, filled with carbon dioxide.

[ 13 ] You have two trees within you: the red and the blue blood trees. Without these two, human beings could not exist as bearers of the “I.” For this, the red blood must be absorbed; this is the way in which our present-day knowledge is brought about. But death was linked to this; for you transform the red blood into the blue, carbon dioxide-filled blood. That is why the Old Testament secret teacher said: Look at yourself, you have the red blood tree within you; had you not received this tree, you would never have become a knowing human being. You have partaken of the tree of knowledge; but at the same time, this has deprived you of the ability to give yourself life from within yourself.

[ 14 ] What was once a tree of life has become a tree of death; therefore, the blue blood tree within us is the tree of death. That is the present state of affairs. For the initiate, however, a future state presents itself to the soul, in which man possesses the plant nature within himself, and through the heart apparatus within him, he will transform the blue blood back into red blood. Then he will have transformed the tree of death into a tree of life. Man will then have become an immortal being; what he was on a lower level, he will be again on a higher one. The apparatus that is in the plant today, he will then possess within himself. — So that in Paradise we have a final state of humanity. And Seth’s mission was understood to be that he sees what lies at the end of time: the balancing of the two principles within the human being himself. Thus the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge intertwine in Paradise; within man they can only find each other if man takes refuge in the plant. But how does man now attain the ability for the two trees to intertwine within him? By developing within himself the three higher members of human nature.

[ 15 ] We have come to know the human being, composed of the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I; and we have seen how the I, when it works on the astral body, attains the first higher member of the being; when it works on the etheric body, the second; and through its work on the physical body, the third. Thus, the future human being will be the sevenfold being, who will also possess the Spirit-Self, the Life-Spirit, and the Spirit-Man. Once the human being has thus transformed his lower nature, he will possess within himself the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. Thus, at the starting point of his development, the human being has been given the prerequisite for his three higher members of being in the form of the potential for his I.

[ 16 ] Seth takes three seeds, and the first “I”-man, Adam, causes these three seeds to grow into a tree. Within this tree lies that which passes through all your incarnations. Your “I” was at a very low level in the first incarnation, and from incarnation to incarnation it reaches ever higher levels. What grows forth there is the symbol of the eternal within man, which will find its highest fulfillment at the end of the earthly state. But man can attain this only if he unites himself with all that is highest which has come his way on the spiritual path. Everything that has guided humanity up the path—the staff of Moses, the Temple of Solomon, and finally the Cross of Golgotha—all of this helps man to fully express the higher Trinity. And the Cross of Golgotha was what pointed the way to the highest human perfection. It had been placed in Adam’s mouth at the beginning as a seed from which that tree grew—one could not express it more beautifully than has been done here—and it emerged from the wood that Seth had obtained in this way. There you have depicted the path of humanity as it passes through the course of time, the path of humanity through time. What humanity must achieve in the future—the transformation of its being, the ability to produce carbon within itself through its own power—is what the plant can do today. And this alchemy of the plant, humanity will be able to master in the future.

[ 17 ] The alchemical preparation of what I have just described is achieved by giving the Rosicrucian student specific instructions on how to regulate his breathing process. This is something that can only be understood according to the principle: “Constant dripping wears away the stone.” But the Rosicrucian student works at it. Just as the drop, being small and tiny, only creates a hollow in the stone after a long time, so the progress of the human bodies is brought about by this process of regulating the breath. These instructions, which the Rosicrucian student must practice, are such that they set him on the path to make preparations even today so that his I may acquire the ability to build up his next bodies in a different way. This is, however, linked to the fact that what you will later have in the physical environment, you already have now in the spiritual world. This Rosicrucian guidance consists in preparing, through a slow process, for a future state and acquiring the ability to perceive this state already now in the higher worlds. The Rosicrucian student thus does two things: First, he works in advance for the future of humanity, and second, he acquires for himself the ability to see into the spiritual world; he sees what will later descend into physical reality.

[ 18 ] Now you also understand the instructions that the strange man had printed but did not understand. The “Philosopher’s Stone” is ordinary black coal; but you must learn the process that teaches you to transform carbon through inner power: such is the progress of humanity. In today’s coal, you have a model of what will one day be the most important substance for humanity, even if it will look quite different. Remember the bright diamond: it, too, is nothing but carbon! — This, then, is what is called the “preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone” in the Rosicrucian worldview. Behind it lies a process of human transformation and a call to work toward the future states of humanity. All who work in this way are preparing the human bodies of the future, the bodies that souls will later need.

[ 19 ] There is a word that beautifully expresses this work on the future, and we will understand it once we grasp the difference between soul development and racial development. You were all once Atlanteans, and those Atlantean bodies looked quite different, as I have already described to you. The same soul that was once in an Atlantean body is now in your body. But not all bodies have been prepared, as yours have been today, by a few colonists—those who migrated from west to east at that time. Those who lagged behind, who, as they say, became associated with the race, have degenerated, while the more advanced ones founded new cultures. The last stragglers on the path to the East, the Mongols, have retained something of the Atlantean culture. Likewise, the bodies of those people who will not continue to develop progressively will outlive the next turn of the age and form the Chinese of the future. There will again be peoples in a state of decadence. For there are also souls living in Chinese bodies who, because they were too strongly drawn to the race, will have to be incarnated once more in such races. The souls that are within you today will later be incarnated in bodies that come from those who are working today in the manner described, and who are creating the bodies of the future, just as the first colonists of the Atlanteans did in the past. And those who cling so strongly to the everyday, who do not wish to connect with what is moving toward the future, will merge with the race. There are such people who wish to remain with what is traditional, who want nothing to do with what it means to move forward; who do not want to listen to those who lead the race toward ever-new forms of humanity.

[ 20 ] Myth has captured this tendency in a wonderful way. It could not portray it better than by pointing to one of the greatest figures who spoke these words: “Whoever does not forsake father and mother, wife and child, brother and sister, cannot be my disciple,” and in contrast depicts the sadness in a person who says: I want nothing to do with such a leader! — and rejects him. How could one express this more clearly than in the image of the one who rejects the leader and is unable to ascend! This is the legend of Ahasver, the Eternal Jew, who sat there and rejected the greatest leader, Christ Jesus, wanted nothing to do with evolution, and who must therefore remain with his race, must return again and again to his race. These are the kinds of myths given to humanity for eternal remembrance, so that it may know what is at stake.

[ 21 ] Thus, this fourth stage of Rosicrucian training must be understood as something profoundly deep, and in this way the “preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone” becomes an integral part of human evolution.

[ 22 ] The fifth is the “correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm.” The entire complex human body, as it is today, came into being in a specific way. I have guided you through the Saturn, Sun, Moon, and Earth stages. Of all that is in your body today, only the earliest rudiments of your sensory organs were present on Saturn, embedded in the Saturn mass just as crystals are today in the mountain mass; your eye was like a quartz crystal in the mountain. On the Sun, your highest organs—all the glands—were such that they covered its surface. On the Moon, the organs that today make up your nervous system were spread out over the Moon’s surface. The Moon had a nervous system, and the individual human-like beings that were there first became partakers of the nervous system on the Moon. On Earth, the human being acquired his skeletal system, for a mineral kingdom did not yet exist at all on the Moon.

[ 23 ] You can see, then, how artfully the human being has been composed. What is now the eye within us was once spread out as an eye over the entire planet Saturn; what was in the great world has been drawn into us. The Esoteric Doctrine can now tell you, for every single organ, how it is connected to the great world outside: the liver, spleen, heart, and so on, with what corresponds to them in the outer world and what had to happen in the outer world so that they could form. There are methods in Rosicrucian esoteric teaching through which we delve into ourselves using our sense organs as a point of reference, immersing ourselves inwardly in the eyes and ears, and thereby gaining a clairvoyant insight into the formation of these organs.

[ 24 ] I have guided you to that point in Atlantean evolution when the etheric body was still so far removed that it could not connect with the point located here in the head, above the bridge of the nose. We have seen how the etheric body then moved into the physical body, and how the physical body subsequently took on its present form. There is now a method of meditation with a very specific formula that is communicated only from person to person. When you use this to immerse yourself in the point where the head connects with that part of the etheric head we spoke of, then the realization dawns on you of that point in Earth’s history, of what the Earth looked like back then, when this part of the etheric head moved into the physical head. In this way, you can delve into every limb of your microcosm and thereby come to know the forces of the macrocosm—that which the architects of the world have built within you. Following the guidance of occultism, you can thus come to know the macrocosm; for every thing in the world, out there in the macrocosm, there is a corresponding organ in the microcosm. The human being is the most complex being. Just as you can infer the sender from the message in a telegram, so too can you, through contemplation of an organ in the human body, come to recognize its creator.

[ 25 ] With this, we have already touched upon the sixth stage, what is called “immersion in the macrocosm.” Anyone who has come to know within themselves the relationship between the microcosm and the macrocosm has expanded their understanding to encompass the entire world. This is what lies behind the ancient saying: Know thyself! — Much harm has been done by the Theosophists’ assertion: The whole God is already within you; the Highest is already present within you. You need only look within yourself, and then you will know the whole world!

[ 26 ] This brooding within oneself is the most foolish thing imaginable; through it, one comes to know only one’s lower self, which one already possesses. No one learns more through it than what they already know. True self-knowledge comes about only through the complex process described, and it is, at the same time, knowledge of the world. True theosophy is not in a position to make things so easy for people; it must say: In quiet, serious contemplation, you must come to know even the most complex being that exists. You cannot come to know God in any other way than by getting to know Him piece by piece in the world. Patience and perseverance are part of this. It is through calm, slow progress that one comes to know the world. Theosophy cannot give you any all-encompassing formula for attaining complete knowledge, but it can only point you toward the path by which you will arrive at self-knowledge and, through that, also at knowledge of the world. Then, too, will come knowledge of God.

[ 27 ] This insight, which comes to a person on the sixth stage, is not a dry intellectual understanding; it is an insight that brings us into an intimate connection with the world. Whoever has attained it has an intimate relationship with all things in the world, such as modern man knows only in the mysterious relationship of love between man and woman, which is based on a secret understanding of the other person’s essence. Such a relationship, through which you not only understand but feel connected to all beings, just as the lover today feels connected to the beloved, comes to you when you contemplate the macrocosm. You then have an intimate relationship, a kind of loving bond with the plant, with every stone, with all beings in the world. Your love for all beings becomes more specialized; they tell you something that they would otherwise only tell you if you had not yet descended to the level of knowledge. The animal eats what suits it and leaves what does not suit it; it has a sympathetic relationship with one thing and an antipathetic relationship with another. In order to attain today’s knowledge, humanity had to lose its direct relationship with things; but it will regain it on a higher level. How does the occultist today know that the plant with its flower affects humans differently than the root? How does he know that an ordinary root has a different effect than a carrot? Because things speak to him again in the same way they do to animals. This intimate relationship exists on the lower levels, excluding intellectual consciousness; on the highest levels, humanity will once again become conscious of it.

[ 28 ] Once you have reached this point, the seventh stage follows naturally. As you have already gathered from everything said so far, this involves an understanding of emotional impressions and feelings. There is nothing here that would not move a person’s heart in the most vivid way; therefore, you must not distinguish between an ideal, intellectual, and spiritual understanding. To move you, to tell you all sorts of beautiful things—that is not the occultist’s intention. The occultist tells you the facts of the spiritual world; he would consider it shameless to try to appeal directly to your feelings. But he knows that the facts, when told, speak for themselves; they themselves are meant to evoke the feelings. Therefore, for the Rosicrucian, the person of the teacher is never a factor. The teaching has nothing to do with the person. The teacher is there only as an opportunity for the facts to speak to people. And the more he makes himself a means of expression for the vision of the higher worlds, the more accurately he will speak. Anyone who still believes and thinks and holds views that are his own is not suited to be an occult teacher. For if emotion, rather than objectivity, were to decide, then you might say: two plus two equals five!

[ 29 ] As you can see, the Rosicrucian gradually ascends to the knowledge of the higher worlds through the various qualities he must cultivate within himself. This, however, requires guidance, which everyone will find at the right time if they seek it earnestly.

[ 30 ] You must not assume that, in personal instruction, these seven stages are completed one after the other; rather, the teacher selects what is particularly suitable for each individual. I also wanted to mention the preliminary stages to you. From these, I will now single out just two things to show you that one must develop other qualities before proceeding to the more rigorous exercises. There is one thing that must be practiced from the very beginning: concentration, concentration of the life of thought. Just consider how your thoughts wander aimlessly within you from morning until night! Thoughts come to you here and there and carry you away. Now, as a Rosicrucian student, you must set aside a time when you are master of your thoughts, when you take an object that is as uninteresting as possible and reflect upon it. This will have an immensely beneficial effect on you. Time is of no consequence; energy, patience, and perseverance are necessary for this.

[ 31 ] The other is what is called “positivity,” which consists in seeking out in life what is best characterized by a Persian legend about Jesus Christ: Once, when Jesus Christ was walking along a path with his disciples, they found a dead dog lying by the roadside that had already begun to decompose. The disciples, who were not yet as advanced as Jesus Christ, turned away from the ugly sight; only Jesus Christ stopped, looked meaningfully at the animal, and said: “What beautiful teeth this animal has!”

[ 32 ] Whatever ugliness there is in the world, there is still beauty within the ugly, a grain of truth in every falsehood, and good in every evil. You don’t have to stop being critical! People often interpret this to mean that one must no longer find anything bad, and so on; but what is meant is that in every ugly thing there is still a grain of beauty, and in every evil there lies something good. This brings forth the higher powers of the soul. All of this is already part of the preparation.

[ 33 ] I had initially wanted to give you a mental image of the spirit in which Christian-Gnostic training takes place. In Rosicrucian training, you will find the deepest, most authentic Christianity; you can be a Christian in the truest sense of the word, despite all aspects of modern life. One could be a Christian in the old style as long as there were more opportunities to withdraw from the world, and as long as the thought forms that make it so difficult for us to be Christians today had not yet taken root within us. However, these mental images, formed out of a scientific way of thinking, make it difficult for people to take Christianity in its original form into themselves. It is precisely the noblest spirits who say: I can no longer reconcile myself with Christianity today. — The spiritual world certainly lives in our surroundings, but the thought forms produced by our materialistic age also live within us. We are constantly surrounded by the thought forms of material life shaped in this way. So that anyone who is conscientious must say to themselves: Our time needs a means that can prove itself amidst these mental images flowing into us, in order to sustain us against everything that flows into us from the world. — Spiritual Science provides it for us. If one rejects this means, if one does not wish to make it one’s own, then one is an egoist. Spiritual Science sees itself as the executor of what medieval theosophy also sought. Yet it can be understood by everyone, even by those familiar with all the legitimate objections of natural science. Everyone today will be able to find in Rosicrucian-oriented theosophy that which leads them to a knowledge of the world and also to peace of soul and security in life. The Rosicrucian theosophy is not merely a theoretical knowledge that can be debated with mere arguments, but a knowledge that must flow into our entire culture. The Theosophist trained in the Rosicrucian sense knows full well all the objections that can be raised; he is familiar with all the counterarguments himself. If one were to argue against it with logical arguments, it would turn out as it once did for Eduard von Hartmann with his “Philosophy of the Unconscious.” Eduard von Hartmann published his “Philosophy of the Unconscious.” In it, he had said things about Darwinism and so on that appeared to represent a higher standpoint in contrast to the materialistic standpoint of scientific research. Then all the scholars rose up against him, and a flood of critiques appeared against this “Philosophy of the Unconscious.” Eduard von Hartmann was called the greatest dilettante! — Among these many pamphlets, one by an anonymous author also appeared; in it, the “Philosophy of the Unconscious” was brilliantly refuted with everything one could possibly cite when one has mastered the knowledge of our time. This pamphlet was met with great acclaim everywhere. And Oscar Schmidt, the famous zoologist, said, for example: It is a pity that we do not know who wrote this counter-pamphlet, for this is a person who stands at the scientific height of his time! — And Ernst Haeckel said: Let him name himself, and we will count him among our own! — Indeed, this pamphlet caused quite a stir. And a second edition was published bearing the author’s name, Eduard von Hartmann! The natural scientists now began to fall silent, and the matter did not become widely known. But it had, after all, once existed.

[ 34 ] You see, anyone who has mastered a higher perspective can already present the counterarguments themselves; they need only lower themselves to a different point of view. And we, too, if we had had the time, could have presented some such counterarguments. But given the limited time, it was important that we be informed of what spiritual research is already able to reveal today regarding the realities of the higher world. What matters is that these insights can have a healing effect on people, and that Spiritual Science is able to demonstrate how they can increasingly integrate into and enrich all branches of human life. And if it has a fertilizing and healing effect, then by that very fact it will have provided the best proof of its validity. This is also the proof that Spiritual Science seeks. That is why the theosophist remains quite undaunted when people still say today: All of this is just fantasy! — After all, everything that has become a blessing to humanity was once regarded as fantasy. An example of this from the last four decades of the 19th century: At that time, our ordinary postage stamp did not yet exist. The postage stamp was, after all, only invented at the end of the 1840s by a certain Hill—actually an amateur. The person who had to defend it in Parliament gave a curious speech. First, he said, it cannot possibly be that traffic is increasing in the way this man calculates, and if that were the case, then one would have to make the building bigger! — What seems completely self-evident today—that one also enlarges the building when traffic increases—was dismissed in this manner. Another example: When the first railroad was to be built, the Medical Council in Bavaria was consulted on the matter. The gentlemen said that no railroad should be built, because it would have the most terrible consequences for the nervous systems of the people riding it. But if a railroad were to be built, then high wooden walls would have to be erected around it so that others wouldn’t suffer concussions from it!

[ 35 ] Everything was regarded as something fantastical when it first appeared. But Spiritual Science, if it is to become a fact of life, must penetrate directly into what surrounds us daily. Only when it becomes a force that inspires our entire life, that penetrates our most everyday actions and activities, will it have proven itself as a reality. Rosicrucian theosophy proceeds from this point of view, and it is from this perspective that I ask you to understand everything that has been said in these lectures. In the future, it will be able to develop into something that acts upon the creative powers of the human being and will give him new impulses in the fields of medicine and education, art and higher knowledge, which will flow into all branches of life, animating and enlivening them.

[ 36 ] It is from this perspective that such lectures are given, and it is from this perspective that I ask you to listen to them.