The East in the Light of the West
GA 113
24 Aug 1909, Munich
2. Comparison of the Wisdom of East and West
In this and the succeeding chapters we shall make it a special point to consider the wisdom of the Eastern world, that is to say humanity's treasures of ancient wisdom in general, in the light which may be kindled by the knowledge of the Christ impulse and all that the course of the centuries has gradually evolved from this Christ impulse in the form of the wisdom of the Western world. If Anthroposophy is to be a living thing it must not consist in views and opinions of the higher worlds which are already in existence, taken from history and then taught, but it must comprise all the knowledge obtainable by us today about the nature of the higher worlds. Not only in olden times were there people who could turn their gaze towards these higher worlds and see them in the same way as we see the outer world with our physical eyes and understand it with our intellect. There have been such people at all periods of human evolution and there are such today. Humanity never has been dependent on the mere study of truths recorded in history, nor is man dependent on receiving these teachings about the higher worlds from any special physical place. Everywhere in the world the current of higher wisdom and knowledge may be tapped. It would be no wiser for our schools to teach mathematics or geography today by means of old documents, written in ancient times, than it is for us, when studying the great wisdom of the super-sensible worlds, to consider only ancient, historical accounts. Therefore it will be our present task to approach the things of the higher worlds, the beings of the super-sensible regions themselves, to review many things that are known, less known, or quite unknown about these higher worlds, and then to ask ourselves what the people of older and of ancient times had to say about these things. In other words, we shall allow Western wisdom to pass before our souls, and then enquire how that which we learn to know as Western wisdom accords with what we may learn to know as Eastern wisdom. The point is that the wisdom of the super-sensible worlds, if related to man, may be grasped by the intellect. It has often been emphasised by me, that any unprejudiced mind may grasp and comprehend the facts of the higher worlds. Although this unprejudiced common sense is a very rare faculty in our present time it does exist, and whoever is willing to exercise it can understand everything that is related of the result of clairvoyant investigation. It is true that these facts of the higher worlds can only be collected and investigated by so-called clairvoyant research, through the ascent into the higher worlds of people who have prepared themselves for this special purpose. And as in these higher worlds beings live which, in relation to man, we may call spirits or gods, the investigation of the higher worlds is in reality an association of the clairvoyant or the initiate with spirits or gods. Consequently a clairvoyant can only investigate the higher worlds by ascending the stages which lead to intercourse with the spirits or gods.
Much already has been said about these things at different times and places, and only the most essential part is here repeated. The first requisite for a person who wants to become clairvoyant in order to penetrate the higher worlds is nothing less than the acquisition of the faculty of seeing, knowing and experiencing without the help of the outer senses, not only without the help of instruments which have been built into our body such as eyes and ears, etc., but also unaided by the instrument which more especially serves our intellect, namely, our mind. No more than we can see the super-sensible worlds with physical eyes, or hear in them with physical ears, can we learn to know them through the intellect which is bound up with our physical brain. Thus man has to become independent of the activity which he exercises when using his physical senses and his physical brain.
Now we know already that in normal human life there is a condition in which man is outside the instrument of his physical body, viz. the condition of sleep. We know that of the four principles of human nature, the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body and the Ego, the latter two, the astral body and the Ego, gain a certain independence during sleep. During our waking life, from morning till we fall asleep at night, they are closely connected with the other two principles, with the physical and etheric bodies. But when we are asleep these four principles separate in such a way that the physical body with the etheric body remain lying on the bed, and the astral body and the Ego are liberated and live in another world. Thus in the normal course of his life man is for some hours out of every twenty-four in a condition in which he is free from the instruments which are built into his physical body; but he has to pay for this liberation from his sense-body in a certain way with darkness; he cannot perceive the world in which he lives during sleep.
The organs and instruments necessary for man when he wishes to see in the spiritual world, in which he lives with his Ego and his astral body at night, must of course be built into his astral body—relatively speaking into his ego. And the difference between a normal person of our time and a clairvoyant investigator consists in the fact that the astral body and the ego of the normal person are in a certain way unorganised and lacking organs of perception when they withdraw from the physical and etheric bodies at night, while in the astral body and ego of the clairvoyant investigator organs have been similarly developed to the eyes and ears of the physical body, though the organs are of a different kind. Thus the first task which the person who wants to become a clairvoyant investigator has to undertake is that of building into his hitherto unorganised astral body, and ego, spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, etc., and of doing all that is necessary to develop these spiritual organs. But that is not the only thing necessary. Let us suppose that a person has progressed so far that, by the methods, which we shall presently mention, he has equipped his astral body and ego with spiritual eyes and ears, etc. Such a person would then have an astral body different from that of an ordinary person since he would have an organised astral body. He would, however, not yet be able to see in the spiritual world, or at any rate he would not be able to reach certain stages of seeing. Therefore something more is necessary. If in our present conditions man really wishes to ascend to conscious clairvoyance, it is not only necessary for spiritual eyes and ears to be developed in his astral body, but also for all that is thus plastically formed in this astral body to be imprinted upon the etheric body, even as a seal is stamped on sealing-wax. Real, conscious clairvoyance begins when the organs, the spiritual eyes and ears, etc. formed in the astral body imprint themselves on the etheric body.
Thus the etheric body has to help the astral body and the ego if clairvoyance is to be brought about; or in other words, all the principles of man's nature that we possess—the ego, astral body and etheric body, with the sole exception of the physical body, have to work together to this end. Now there are greater difficulties for the etheric body than for the astral body in this respect. For the astral body and ego are, we might say, in the fortunate position of being free from the physical body once every twenty-four hours. From morning when we wake till evening when we go to sleep they are united with the physical body, and, all that time the astral body and the ego are bound up with the forces of the physical body, which prevent the astral body and ego from developing their own organs. The astral body and ego are delicate soul-beings; they follow, by their own elasticity, the forces of the physical body, conforming themselves to it and taking on its form. Therefore at night the astral body and ego of normal persons still have these forces of the physical body within themselves as after-effects, and only by special measures can we free the astral body and ego from these after-effects and enable the astral body to develop its own form, that is to say its spiritual eyes and ears, etc. But we are at least in the fortunate position of having the astral body free in the course of every twenty-four hours; that is to say we have the possibility of working on it in such a way that it no longer follows the elasticity of the physical body at night but its own elasticity.
The preparatory exercises taken up by the clairvoyant investigator consist essentially in spiritual activities performed during waking life, which strongly influence the astral body and the ego, and which have such strong inner effects that when at the moment of falling asleep the astral body and ego withdraw from the physical and etheric bodies, they experience the after effect of what has been done by way of special preparation for clairvoyant research.
Let us now consider two cases. The ordinary person living a normal life surrenders himself from morning till evening to the impressions of the outer world, which works on the outer senses and the intellect. He falls asleep at night, his astral body goes out of his physical body and is then given over entirely to the experiences of the day, following the elasticity of the physical body, but not its own. But when through meditation, concentration and other exercises given to those who wish to tread the path to higher knowledge a person strongly influences his soul, that is his astral body and ego, during waking life; in other words, when he has certain moments which he sets apart from ordinary daily life and in which he does something entirely different from the pursuits of ordinary waking life, and when in these particular moments he does not surrender himself to what the outer world has to say to the senses and to the intellect, but to what is a revelation from and a product of the spiritual worlds, a marked change takes place. When a man surrenders himself to such things, when he spends part of his daily waking life in meditation, concentration and other exercises, for however short a time it may be, they affect his soul so strongly that the astral body experiences the effects of this meditation, concentration, etc., at night when it leaves the physical body, and follows an elasticity different from that of the physical body. The method for the attainment of clairvoyant powers employed by the teachers of this research is drawn from the knowledge which has been tested for thousands of years in the way of exercises, meditations and concentrations, which have to be followed in waking life in order that they may have after-effects in sleeping life and produce a different organisation of the astral body. It is a great responsibility, which the person who gives such exercises to his fellow men takes upon himself. Such exercises are not invented, they are the result of spiritual labour in the mysteries, in the occult schools. It is known that that which is prescribed in these exercises works on the soul in such a way that when this soul withdraws from the physical body in sleep it develops its spiritual eyes and ears and its spiritual thinking in the right way. If something wrong is done, or wrong exercises are practiced, certain results also follow. Effects do not fail to appear, but in this case abnormal forms (or if we want to use an expression of the sense-world we might say ‘unnatural’ forms) are built into the astral body. What is the meaning of unnatural forms being built into the astral body? It means that forms are built into it, which contradict the great universe, which do not harmonise with it. It would correspond in this sphere to building organs in our physical body which could not hear outer sounds in the right way or see the outer light in the right way, and which would not be in accord with the outer world. Through wrong meditation and concentration man would therefore be brought into a position of contradiction to the universe, with regard to his astral body and his ego; and he would, instead of receiving organs through which the spiritual world could gradually reveal itself, be shattered by the influences of the spiritual world. He would experience these influences of the spiritual world not as something which benefited and enriched him, but as something which shattered his life, and, if the methods were quite wrong, tore his being asunder.
It is important to take particular notice that we are here confronted with the fact that something which exists in the outer world—and we speak now of the spiritual outer world—may be beneficial to man in the highest degree, as well as harmful in the highest degree, according to the way in which he brings his own being to meet it. Let us suppose that a man with a wrongly developed astral body exposes himself to the spiritual world around him. This world works in upon him. Whereas this spiritual world would flow in on him and enrich him with the mysteries if he has cultivated his organs in the right way, it will tear him asunder and shatter him if he has developed them in the wrong way. It is one and the same outer world which in one case carries man upwards to the highest, in the other case shatters and ruins him; the same external world, of which he will say that it is a divine and beneficent world when he carries within himself the right organs of perception, and a world of ruin and destruction when he has within himself an inner being which is not developed in the right way. In these words lies much of the key to an understanding of good and evil, of what is fruitful and what is destructive in the world. And this should enable us to see that the effect which any kind of beings of the outer world have on us is no standard by which to judge these beings themselves. According to the way in which we confront the outer world, the same being may either be beneficial or destructive to us, god or devil to our inner Organisation, and it is therefore imperative to bear this continually in mind.
We have now placed before our minds what the preparation for clairvoyant investigation is like with regard to our astral body and ego. And we have emphasised that we human beings are in a certain respect in a fortunate position, because we have our delicate astral body and ego outside our physical and etheric bodies for at least a certain time during each twenty-four hours. But the etheric body does not leave the physical body at night; it remains united with it. We know that not till the moment of death is the physical body deserted by the etheric body, which then withdraws along with the astral body and the ego. We need not mention today what becomes of these three principles of human nature between death and a new birth; we will only clearly present to our minds the fact that at death man is set free from his physical body and from all that is built into this physical body, free from the physical sense-organs and free from the brain, the instrument of the intellect which works physically. The ego, the astral body and the etheric body are then united in an appropriate fashion and can work together. Therefore it is that from the moment of death true clairvoyance sets in with regard to the previous life, although this at first lasts only for a short time. This has been often stated. Such a co-operation as normally only takes place at the moment of death must be made possible to the ego, the astral body and the etheric body during life if complete clairvoyance is to be brought about. The etheric body must be liberated from the condition in which it is imprisoned during normal life; it must arrive at being able to use its elasticity and to become independent of the elasticity of the physical body, as the astral body is at night. For this purpose more intense, more strenuous and in a certain respect higher exercises are required. All these things will be mentioned again in their corresponding connection in the course of the next chapters; for the present it will suffice to understand that such exercises are necessary, and that it is not sufficient to have practiced the preparatory exercises which have the effect of developing spiritual eyes and ears in the astral body, but that exercises for giving the etheric body independence and freedom from the physical body are also required. Just now, however, we will only consider the result. It is not difficult to imagine, from what has been said what this result must be. In normal cases it is only at the moment of death that the astral body and the etheric body can work together, free from the physical body. So if clairvoyance is to be aroused, something must take place which can only be compared with what sets in for man at the moment of death; that is to say, man must, if he wishes to become consciously clairvoyant, reach a stage of development where he is just as independent of his physical body and the use of the members of his physical body during life as he is at the moment of death.
By what means can man acquire such independence of his physical body, and bring himself into a condition which resembles the moment of physical death? Only by cultivating certain feelings and shades of feeling which stir the soul so forcibly that by their power they seize the etheric body and lift it out of the physical body. Such strong impulses of thought, feeling and will must work in the soul that an inner force is aroused which frees the etheric body from the physical body, at any rate for certain moments. In these moments, however, the physical body must absolutely be as if dead to ordinary, normal human life. But this cannot be brought about by external, physical methods in our period of human evolution. Anyone who thinks that such things can be brought about by physical methods would become the victim of a stupendous delusion. Such a person would wish to enter the spiritual worlds by adhering to the methods of the physical world; that is to say he would not yet have attained to a real belief in the force of the spiritual worlds. For purely subjective experiences, impulses proceeding from the strong, energetic life of the soul, are alone competent to bring about this death-like condition. And speaking in the abstract, we may say for the present that the most essential thing for bringing about such a condition is that man experiences a change, as it were, a turning upside down of his sphere of interests. For ordinary life provides man with certain interests. These interests play their part from morning till night. Man is interested and quite rightly, for he must live in the world—in things that appeal to his eyes, his ears, his physical intellect, his physical feelings, etc.; he is interested in what confronts him in the outer world; one thing interests him more, another less; he pays more attention to one thing and less to another; and that is natural. In these fluctuating interests, binding him to the tapestry of the outer world by a certain power of attraction, man lives, and by far the greater part of our present humanity lives in these interests alone. Nevertheless it is possible for man, without detriment to the freshness and intensity of these interests, to bring about moments in his life in which these outer interests are not at all active, in which, if we wish to express it radically, this whole outer sense-world becomes absolutely indifferent to him, in which he kills out absolutely all the interest forces which fetter him to this or that object in the world of the senses. It would be wrong for a man not to reserve this deadening of his interests in the outer world for certain ‘festival moments’ in life, it would be wrong to extend it over his whole life. He would then become incapable of taking part in the work of the outer world, whereas we are called to take part in the outer world and in its life.
We must therefore reserve for ‘times of high festival’ this possibility of letting all interests in the surrounding world die out; we must, so to say, acquire this twofold nature. On the one hand we must feel a fresh and vital interest in everything which goes on in the outer world in the way of joy and sorrow, of pleasure and pain, and of life which is blossoming and flourishing and of life which is dying. This freshness and originality of our interest in the outer world must be kept alive in our earthly life; we must not become strangers upon earth, for then we should act from egoism and deprive the stage to which our forces must be devoted in our present evolution of these forces. But on the other hand we must, if we wish to ascend into the higher worlds, cultivate the other side of our being, which consists in killing out during ‘moments of Holy Day’ all our interests in the outer world, of letting them die out. And if we have patience and perseverance and energy and strength to practice this as long and as much as our Karma demands, this deadening of interest in the outer world at last liberates a strong energetic force in our inner being, because that which we kill out in this way in the outer world reappears as higher and more abundant life in the inner world. We experience an entirely new kind of life; we experience the moment in which we can say: That which we can see with our eyes and hear with our cars is only a small part of life. There is an entirely different life, life in the spiritual world; a resurrection in the spiritual world, a transcending of what we usually call life, a transcending in such a way that not death but a higher life is the result. As soon as this pure spiritual force has grown strong enough in our inner being, we may gradually experience moments in which we become rulers and lords over our etheric body, when this etheric body does not take on the shape forced upon it by the elasticity of the lungs and the liver, but the shape forced upon it from above downwards by our astral body. Thus we imprint on our etheric body the shape which, through meditation, concentration, etc., we have first imprinted on our astral body. We imprint the plastic form of our astral body on the etheric body, and we ascend from ‘preparation’ to ‘illumination’—the next stage of clairvoyant research. The first stage, by which our astral body is changed in such a way that it receives organs, is also called ‘purification,’ because the astral body is purified and purged from the forces of the outer world, and conforms to the inner forces—purification, cleansing, Catharsis. But the stage at which the astral body succeeds in imprinting its own form on the etheric body implies that in a spiritual sense, light begins to shine around us, that the spiritual world around us is revealing itself and that ‘illumination’ is setting in.
What I have just described goes hand in hand with certain experiences which man goes through, with typical experiences which are the same for everyone, and which everyone who treads this path experiences the moment he is ripe for it, if he pays the necessary attention to certain things and occurrences which are beyond the physical. The first experience, which occurs through the organisation of the astral body and which therefore comes about as an effect of meditation, concentration, etc., might be called an inner experience of the feelings describable as an inward division of the whole of our personality. The moment this is experienced one can say to oneself: Now you have become something like two personalities, you are like a sword in its scabbard. Formerly you might have compared yourself with a sword which does not lie loosely in its scabbard but is one with it, the two consisting of one; you felt yourself one with your physical body; but now you seem, although lying in your physical body like a sword in its scabbard, to be a being which feels itself to be something apart from the sheath of the physical body, in which it is lying. You feel yourself to be within the physical body, but not grown into one with it, not as if consisting of one piece with it. This inward liberation, this inward realisation of oneself as a second personality, which has emerged from the first, is the first great experience on the way to clairvoyant vision of the World. The fact must be emphasised that this first experience is an experience of the inner feelings: One must feel that one is lying within one's old personality, and yet feel free and mobile within it. The analogy with the sword and its scabbard is of course rough. For the sword feels itself cramped on all sides by the scabbard, while man, when he has this experience, has a strong feeling of inner mobility, as if he might break on all sides through the limits of his physical body, as if he could forsake it by falling through the skin of his physical body and stretch out his feelers far, far into a world which, although still dark, begins to be perceptible to his feeling in the darkness, one might say, begins to be knowable through inner touch. This is the first great experience man has.
The second great experience is that this second personality which now exists within the first, gradually becomes capable of really leaving this first personality, of stepping out of it. This experience expresses itself in the fact that, although often only for a short time, one feels as if one could see oneself, as if one stood confronting oneself like a double. This is the second experience, and it is moreover of much greater importance than the first. With it something is connected which it is very difficult for man to bear. It must never be forgotten that in normal life man is contained within his physical body That which lives within man's physical body as astral body and ego, accommodates itself to the forces of the physical body; it yields as it were to them; it conforms itself to the bodily forces, assuming the shapes of the liver, the heart, the brain, etc. And this is also true of the etheric body, so long as it remains within the physical body. Now we all know what is indicated by the expression brain, heart, etc., what wonderful instruments and organs they are, how complete in themselves, how perfect as creations! What is all human art and human creative work compared with the creative work, the art and technique necessary for constructing such wonderful instruments as the heart, the brain, etc. What is everything which man can accomplish at the present stage of his evolution in the way of art and technical skill, compared with that divine art and technique which have built up our physical body and which, therefore, also guard us as long as we are within it. So we are not merely in an abstract sense devoted to our physical bodies during daily life, but interwoven with a concrete creation of the gods. Our etheric and astral bodies are fitted into forms created by the gods. If we now become free and independent there will be a change. We free ourselves at the same time from a wonderful instrument of divine creation. Thus we do not leave the physical body as some imperfect thing to be looked down upon, but as the temple which the gods have built for us and in which normally we live during our waking life. Such a temple do we leave on abandoning the physical body. What are we then?
Let us suppose that at a certain moment we could leave this physical body without further preparation, let us suppose that some magician (of whatever kind he might be) could assist us to leave our physical body, and that our etheric body accompanied our astral body, and that we, in a certain respect, went through an experience comparable with the moment of death; let us suppose that we could do this without the preparation of which we have spoken; what should we be when, outside the physical body, we confront ourselves? We are then what in the course of the world evolution we have made of ourselves from incarnation to incarnation. As long as from morning to night we are within our physical body, this divine creation, the temple of our physical body, corrects what we have incorporated within ourselves in the course of our incarnations on earth; but the moment we step out of it, our astral and etheric bodies show what they have accumulated from incarnation to incarnation and appear as they are according to what they have made of themselves. If a man thus unprepared leaves his physical body, he is not a spiritual being of a higher, nobler and purer form than the form was which he had in his physical body, but a being laden with all the imperfections heaped up in his Karma during his incarnations. All this remains invisible so long as the temple of our body encloses our etheric body, our astral body and our Ego. It becomes visible the moment we step out of our physical body with the higher principles of our being. Then there appear before us, if at the same moment we become clairvoyant, all the inclinations and passions, which still remain with us as the result of our former incarnations. In the course of the future evolution of our earth we have still to go through many incarnations, full of activities and accomplishment. The inclinations, instinct and passions for much that you will do later are already within you, developed through incarnations in former times. Everything that man is capable of accomplishing in the world in certain directions, all obligations to others incurred by offences against them for which reparation has to be made in the future, are already incorporated in the astral body and the etheric body when he leaves his physical body. We confront ourselves so to say naked as a soul-being, if at the moment of leaving our body we are clairvoyant; that is to say we stand before our spiritual vision in such a way that we know how much worse we are than would be the case if we had attained the perfection possessed by the gods, which made them capable of creating the wonderful building of our physical body. We perceive at this moment how far we are from the perfection which we must hold before us as our future ideal of development.
We know at this moment how deeply we have sunk below the world of perfection.
This is the experience which is connected with ‘illumination’; it is the experience which is called the meeting with the Guardian of the Threshold. That which is real does not become more or less real according to our seeing or not seeing it. That shape which we see in the moment just described is always there, is always within us; but because we have not yet got loose from ourselves, because we do not confront ourselves but are within ourselves we do not see it. In ordinary life, that which we see at the moment that clairvoyantly we step out of ourselves, is the Guardian of the Threshold. He shields us from an experience that we must first learn to bear. We must first acquire a strong enough force to enable us to see a world of the future before us, and to look without fear and horror upon what we have become, because we know for certain that we can make it all right again. The capacity, which we must possess for experiencing this moment without being depressed by it, must be acquired during the preparation for clairvoyant investigation. This preparation consists, abstractly expressed, in making the active, positive qualities of our souls strong and energetic, in bringing our courage, our feeling of freedom, our love, our energy of thought and our energy of lucid intellect to the greatest possible height, so that we step out of our physical body not as weak people but as strong. If, however, there is too much left in man of what is called anxiety and fear, he will not be able to endure this experience of encountering the Guardian of the Threshold without harm.
Thus we see that there are certain conditions to be fulfilled before looking into the spiritual worlds, those worlds which in a certain respect hold out a prospect of the highest that we can think of for life in our present development of humanity, but at the same time demand of man a complete transformation of his being such as he has to attain in the solemn ‘Holy Day moments’ before mentioned. It is a real blessing in our present time for the aspirant, before he proceeds to this experience, to be told what those who have gained experience in the higher worlds have seen. We can understand even when we cannot see. But by making increasing efforts to reach an intellectual comprehension of what the clairvoyant tells us, and coming to the conclusion, after a survey of everything life brings us, that the clairvoyant's reports are quite sensible after all, we shall be doing the right thing at the present time. We must become Anthroposophists before aspiring to clairvoyance, and we must learn to know Anthroposophy thoroughly. If we do this, the great, comprehensive, strengthening, encouraging and refreshing ideas and thoughts of Anthroposophy give to the soul not only a working hypothesis, but also qualities of feeling, will and thought, which make the soul like tempered steel. If the soul has gone through this process, the moment of meeting with the Guardian of the Threshold becomes something quite different from what it would have been otherwise. Fear and terror, states of anxiety and care, are conquered in quite a different way if previously we have learned to understand and to grasp what is related about the higher worlds. And later, when a person has had this experience, when he has confronted himself and thus has met the Guardian of the Threshold, the world begins to show itself to him in quite a different way. Everything in the world may be said to wear a new aspect. And a justifiable opinion might be expressed by the following illustrations. I had supposed up till now that I knew what fire is but that was only an illusion. For what I have called fire up till now, would be like calling the tracks of a carriage on a road the only reality, and denying that a carriage in which a person was sitting must have been passing that way. I declare these tracks on the road to be the signs, the outer expression of the carriage which has passed there and in which a person was sitting. I have not seen the person who passed there, but he is the cause of these tracks, he is the reality. And a person who believed the marks left by the wheels to be something complete in themselves, something real and basic, would be taking the outer expression for the thing itself.
That which our senses see as flashing fire bears the same proportion to its reality, to the spiritual being which stands behind it, as do the tracks on the road to the person who was sitting in the carriage which passed there. In fire we have only an outer expression. Behind what our eyes see as fire and what we feel as heat is the real spiritual entity, which has only its outer expression in the outer fire. Behind what we inhale as air, behind what enters our eyes as light, and behind what our ears perceive as sound, are active beings spiritual and divine, whose outer garments only we behold in fire, in water and in what surrounds us in the different realms of nature.
In the so-called secret teaching, in the teaching of the mysteries, the experience which is then gone through, is called the passage through the elementary worlds. Whereas previously one had lived in the belief that what we know as fire is a reality, one then becomes aware that living beings are hidden behind the fire. We become, so to say, acquainted with fire, more or less intimately as something quite different from what it appears to be in the world of the senses. We become acquainted with the fire-beings, with what is the soul of the fire. Just as our souls are hidden behind our bodies, so the soul and spirit of the fire are hidden by the fire which we perceive with our outer senses. We penetrate into a spiritual domain when we experience the soul and spirit of fire in this way, and the experience by which we realise that the outer fire is no reality, that it is a mere illusion, a mere garment, and that we now move among the fire-gods just as we did formerly among people of the physical world, is called ‘living in the element of fire,’ to use the terms of occult science. It is the same with that which we breathe. The moment that what we breathe as outer air becomes to us only the garment of the living beings within it, we live in the element of air. And so when one has passed through the meeting with the Guardian of the Threshold, that is to say, when one has acquired true self-knowledge, one can ascend to experiencing the beings in the so-called elements, in the elements of fire, of water, of air and of earth. These four classes of gods, or spirits live a real existence in the elements, and a person who has reached the stage which has just been described, is in touch with the divine spiritual beings of the elements. He lives in the elements; he experiences earth, water, air and fire. That which in ordinary life is designated by these words, is only the outer garment, the outer expression of divine spiritual beings behind it. It becomes plain, therefore, that certain spiritual divine beings live in that which meets us (speaking according to spiritual science) as solid matter or earth, as fluid matter or water, as volatile matter or air, and as warm fiery matter or fire.
These, however, are not the highest spiritual beings. When we have struggled on through the experiences of the elementary world, we ascend to the entities which stand in the relation of creators towards the spirits who live in the elements. For let us consider our physical surroundings. We find that they consist of the four outer principles of the elementary world. Whether we take plants, or animals or stones or anything else on the physical plane, they consist according to spiritual science either of the solid element, that is earth, or the fluid element, water, or the gaseous element, air, or the fiery element, fire. Of these elements the things which physically surround us in the world of stones, of plants, of animals and of men are composed. And we know that behind what physically surrounds us there are, as creative and fructifying forces, those forces which for the most part come to us from the sun. We know that the sun calls forth budding and germinating life out of the earth. Thus the sun sends to the earth forces which—considered physically for the moment—make it possible for us to perceive on earth with our physical senses that which lives in fire, in air, in water and in earth. We see the sun physically because it radiates physical light. This physical light is sustained by physical matter. Man sees the sun from sunrise to sunset, and he does not see it when the physical earth substance hides it; he does not see it from sunset to sunrise. In the spiritual world there is no such darkness as reigns in physical life from sunset to sunrise. When the clairvoyant has gained what has been described, when he perceives behind fire the spirits of fire, behind air the spirits of air, behind water the spirits of water, and behind earth the spirits of earth, in that moment he sees behind these divine spiritual beings their higher ruler, their higher Lord, the entity which in comparison to these beings of the element is like the warming, illuminating beneficent sun as compared to the budding and germinating life on our earth. That is to say, the clairvoyant ascends from a contemplation of the elementary gods to the contemplation of those higher divine beings which in the spiritual world may be symbolically compared with the sun in its physical relation to the earth. Behind the beings of the elements a high spiritual world is seen, the spiritual sun. When for the clairvoyant that which otherwise is darkness becomes light, when he attains to clairvoyance, to ‘illumination,’ he realises the spiritual sun, that is to say the higher divine spiritual beings in the same way as the physical eye realises the physical sun. And when does he penetrate to these higher divine spiritual beings? At the moment when, as it were, for other people the spiritual darkness is at its densest. When man's astral body and Ego are free, that is to say, from the moment of falling asleep to that of waking, man lives surrounded by darkness because he does not see the spiritual world which then surrounds him. This darkness increases gradually, reaches its densest point and decreases again until the morning when he awakes. It comes, as it were, to a point in which it reaches its densest degree. This densest degree of spiritual darkness may be compared with what in outer life is called the hour of midnight. Just as normally the outer physical darkness is then at its densest, since it increases towards this moment and then decreases, so there is a densest degree of spiritual darkness, a midnight. At a certain stage of clairvoyance it happens that the spirits of the elements are seen during the time when for other people the spiritual darkness begins to increase, and similarly during the time in which darkness decreases again. In other words if only a lower stage of clairvoyance has been reached, one experiences, so to say, certain gods of the elements, but just at the time of the highest spiritual moment, the midnight hour, darkness may still set in and ‘illumination’ only begins again after this moment has been passed. When, however, a definite stage of clairvoyance is reached, the midnight hour becomes so much the more ‘illuminated’; and just at this midnight-hour, at the time when the normal person is, so to say, most shut off from the divine spiritual world, most entangled in maya, or illusion, one ascends into the light. At this time one beholds those spiritual beings which, compared to the gods of the elements, are like the sun compared to the physical earth. One beholds the higher creative gods, the sun gods, in the moment which is technically called: ‘Beholding the sun at midnight.’
These are the stages which today, as at all times, have to be lived through by those who wish to work themselves up to clairvoyant investigation, who wish to look through the veil which in the shape of the earthly elements is drawn over the real world. They are: the feeling of freedom inside one's ordinary personality, like that of a sword in its sheath; the feeling of being outside the physical body, as if the sword were drawn out of its sheath; the meeting with the Guardian of the Threshold; the experiencing the gods of the elements, that is, experiencing the great moment when the beings of fire, air, water and earth become beings among whom we walk and with whom we associate as in ordinary life we associate with human beings, and lastly, experiencing the moment when we behold the king, the commander, the leader of these beings of the elements. These are the stages which could be experienced at all past times and which can still be experienced today. These are the stages (already often described, for they can be described in many ways, and still the description always remains imperfect) leading upwards into the spiritual worlds. We were obliged to present them to our souls so as to see what man at all times has had to do himself, in order to learn to know the divine spiritual beings. And we shall further have to place before our souls what it is which man experiences in these divine spiritual worlds we shall have to realise some of the more concrete preparations to be gone through in order to meet the gods. And when we have presented this to our souls and the way in which it can be attained by western initiation, we shall compare what we have thus gained with what has been given to humanity in the way of oriental tradition and ancient wisdom. And in making this comparison, we shall be shedding the light of the Christ upon the wisdom of pre-Christian times.
Zweiter Vortrag
Es wird sich in diesem Zyklus von Vorträgen besonders darum handeln, die Weisheit der orientalischen Welt, das heißt die uralten Weistümer der Menschheit überhaupt, so zu betrachten, daß auf sie jenes Licht fällt, das angezündet werden kann an der Erkenntnis des ChristusImpulses und an der Erkenntnis all dessen, was sich im Laufe der Jahrhunderte in der westlichen Welt als Weisheit aus diesem ChristusImpulse heraus nach und nach entwickelt hat. Wenn Geisteswissenschaft etwas Lebendiges sein soll, so kann sie nicht darin bestehen, daß bereits in der Menschheit vorhandene Anschauungen und Meinungen über die höheren Welten aus der Geschichte genommen und dann gelehrt werden; sondern es muß sich darum handeln, daß alles dasjenige, was wir in der Gegenwart erfahren können über das Wesen der höheren Welten, der Gegenstand unserer Betrachtung werde.1Man sieht, daß von mir die Geisteswissenschaft niemals als eine Entlehnung geschichtlich überlieferter Anschauungen genommen, sondern als eine unmittelbar gegenwärtig zu erringende Erkenntnis dargestellt worden ist. Daß die Terminologie älterer Zeiten zuweilen gebraucht wird, hat seinen Grund darin, weil die neuere Zeit, der geisteswissenschaftliches Erkennen fernliegt, eine solche Terminologie nicht hat und man noch immer leichter durch die alte als durch eine frei erfundene verstanden wird. Menschen, welche in der Lage sind, den Blick hinaufzuwenden in die geistigen Welten und in diesen so zu schauen, wie sonst der Mensch mit sinnlichen Augen in der äußeren Welt schaut, wie er mit seinem Verstande die äußere Welt begreift, die hat es ja nicht nur in den alten Zeiten gegeben, die gibt es zu allen Zeiten der Menschheitsentwickelung, die gibt es auch heute; und zu keiner Zeit ist die Menschheit darauf angewiesen, bloß geschichtlich überlieferte Wahrheiten zu lehren und zu betrachten; ebensowenig ist die Menschheit darauf angewiesen, diese Lehren über die höheren Welten von irgendeinem besonderen physischen Orte her zu empfangen. Überall in der Welt kann der Quell höherer Weisheit und höherer Erkenntnis fließen. Ebensowenig als es vernünftig wäre, wenn wir in unseren Schulen etwa heute eine Mathematik oder eine Geographie lehren würden, die wir alten Schriften, welche in der Vorzeit verfaßt sind, entnehmen würden, ebensowenig ist es vernünftig, in bezug auf die großen Weistümer der übersinnlichen Welten das bloß Geschichtliche, das bloß Historische, das Vorzeitliche zu betrachten. Es wird deshalb unsere Aufgabe sein, in diesem Vortragszyklus an die Dinge der höheren Welten, an die Wesenheiten der übersinnlichen Reiche selbst heranzutreten, Bekanntes und weniger Bekanntes und ganz Unbekanntes vor unsere Seele treten zu lassen von demjenigen, wie es da aussieht in den höheren Welten und dann uns zu fragen: Was haben die Menschen in älteren Zeiten, die Menschen der Vorzeit über diese Dinge zu sagen gehabt? Mit anderen Worten: westliche Weisheit wollen wir vor unsere Seele treten lassen und dann die Frage uns stellen: Wie stimmt dasjenige, was wir als westliche Weisheit erkennen können, mit demjenigen zusammen, was uns als östliche Weisheit bekannt werden kann? Dasjenige, um was es sich handelt, ist, daß Weiistümer der übersinnlichen Welten von jedem Menschen, wenn sie ihm erzählt werden, durch die Vernunft eingesehen werden können. Das ist von mir oft betont worden: zum Einsehen, zum Begreifen der Tatsachen der höheren Welten gehört nur unbefangene Vernünftigkeit. Wenn diese unbefangene Vernünftigkeit auch in der Gegenwart eine sehr seltene Fähigkeit ist, sie ist vorhanden; und derjenige, der sie üben will, kann alles das einsehen, was erzählt wird über die Forschungsergebnisse der sogenannten hellseherischen Wissenschaft. Gewonnen werden, erforscht werden können allerdings diese Tatsachen der höheren Welten nur durch die sogenannte hellseherische Forschung, nur durch das Hinaufsteigen in diese höheren Welten durch Menschen, die sich dazu vorbereiten. Da in diesen höheren Welten Wesenheiten wohnen, welche man im Verhältnis zu uns Menschen geistige nennen kann, so ist die Erforschung der höheren Welten nach einer Richtung ein Umgang des Hellsehenden oder des Eingeweihten mit diesen geistigen Wesenheiten. Erforscht werden also kann dasjenige, was in den höheren Welten ist, nur dann, wenn der hellseherische Mensch 2Mit «hellseherisch» ist hier, wie man sieht, nicht der gewöhnlich sogenannte traumhaft-pathologische Zustand gemeint, sondern eine in voller Besonnenheit zu erreichende Erkenntnis, in der die Seele in einer Verfassung ist, welche ganz derjenigen des mathematischen Vorstellens entspricht. Sie ist gerade das Gegenteil des Traumhaft-Pathologischen. die Stufen hinaufsteigt, die ihn bis zum Verkehr mit einer geistigen Welt bringen.
Vieles über diese Dinge ist ja für Sie alle in diesem oder jenem Vortragszyklus schon gesagt worden; das Wesentliche wollen wir uns heute einmal vor die Seele führen. Dasjenige, was zuerst notwendig ist für den hellseherisch werdenden Menschen, um hinaufzudringen in die höheren Welten, das ist nichts Geringeres, als die Fähigkeit, zu schauen, zu erkennen, zu erleben ohne die Hilfe der äußeren Sinne, also ohne die Hilfe derjenigen Werkzeuge, welche in unserem Leib als Augen, als Ohren und so weiter hineingebaut sind, aber auch ohne dasjenige Werkzeug, welches im besonderen unserem Intellekt, unserem Verstande dient. Ebensowenig wie man die übersinnlichen Welten erschauen kann mit den physischen Augen, wie man in ihnen hören kann mit den physischen Ohren, ebensowenig kann man von ihnen etwas erkennen durch den Verstand, insofern er gebunden ist an das Instrument des physischen Gehirns. Frei werden also muß der Mensch von jener Tätigkeit, die er ausübt, während er sich bedient seiner physischen Sinne und seines physischen Gehirns.
Nun wissen Sie alle schon, daß es im normalen Menschenleben einen Zustand gibt, in dem der Mensch außerhalb der Instrumente seines physischen Leibes ist; es ist der Zustand des Schlafens. Wir wissen da, daß von den vier Gliedern der Menschennatur, vom physischen Leib, Ätherleib, astralischen Leib und dem Ich die zwei letzten Glieder, das Ich und der astralische Leib, sich eine gewisse Selbständigkeit erringen.3Diese Ausdrücke werden hier nur so gebraucht, wie sie in meinen Büchern erklärt werden. Sie können natürlich nicht von einem Gesichtspunkte aus kritisiert werden, der mit ihnen ganz andere Vorstellungen (etwa die einer Trivial-Mystik) verbindet, wie das so häufig geschieht. Während des Tagwachens sind innig miteinander verbunden: physischer Leib, Atherleib, astralischer Leib und Ich. Während des Schlafens sind diese vier Glieder so getrennt, daß auf der einen Seite im Bette liegengeblieben ist der physische Leib mit dem Ätherleib, auf der anderen Seite aber frei in einer anderen Welt leben der astralische Leib und das Ich. So ist also der Mensch im normalen Verlaufe seines Lebens innerhalb vierundzwanzig Stunden jedesmal in einem Zustande, wo er die Instrumente, die in seinen physischen Leib hineingebaut sind, nicht an sich hat; aber er muß in einer gewissen Weise diese Befreiung vom physischen Leibe bezahlen mit der Bewußtseinsfinsternis; er sieht während des Schlafzustandes nichts in der Welt um sich herum, in welcher er dann ist.
Nun können diejenigen Organe, die der Mensch dann braucht, wenn er in die geistige Welt schauen will, in welcher er während der Nacht mit seinem Ich und astralischen Leibe ist, natürlich nur in den astralischen Leib hineingebaut werden, beziehungsweise in das Ich. Und es ist der Unterschied zwischen dem sogenannten normalen Menschen von heute und dem hellseherischen Forscher kein anderer als der, daß abends, wenn das Ich und der astralische Leib sich aus dem physischen Leib und Ätherleib herausheben, beim normalen Menschen der astrale Leib und das Ich in gewisser Beziehung ungegliedert sind, ohne Organe zum Schauen; beim hellseherischen Forscher sind in diesem astralischen Leib, beziehungsweise in dem Ich, ebensolche Organe wenn auch anderer Art ausgebildet, wie es für den physischen Leib die Augen und Ohren sind. Es ist daher die erste Aufgabe, die sich derjenige stellen muß, welcher hellseherischer Forscher werden will, diese, daß er alles dasjenige tut, was in seinen vorerst ungegliederten astralischen Leib, beziehungsweise in sein Ich, geistige Augen, geistige Ohren und so weiter hineinbaut.
Das ist aber noch nicht das einzige, was notwendig ist. Nehmen wir einmal an, jemand hätte es dahin gebracht, durch diejenigen Mittel, die wir nachher auch kurz erwähnen wollen, seinen astralischen Leib und sein Ich mit geistigen Augen und geistigen Ohren und so weiter auszustatten, er würde dann einen anderen astralischen Leib haben als der normale Mensch; er würde einen gegliederten, einen organisierten Astralleib haben. Er würde aber noch nichts sehen können in der geistigen Welt; wenigstens würde er gewisse Stufen des Sehens nicht erreichen können. Dazu ist noch etwas anderes notwendig. Wenn unter heutigen Verhältnissen der Mensch zur Hellsichtigkeit, zur bewußten Hellsichtigkeit wirklich hinaufsteigen will, so ist es notwendig, daß nicht nur die geistigen Augen und die geistigen Ohren ausgebildet sind in seinem astralischen Leib, sondern daß auch alles dasjenige, was also plastisch ausgebildet ist in diesem astralischen Leib, sich abdrückt in dem ätherischen Leib, wie sich ein Petschaft abdrückt im Siegellack. Die eigentliche bewußteHellsichtigkeit, sie beginnt dann, wenn dieOrgane, also die geistigen Augen, die geistigen Ohren und so weiter, die im astralischen Leibe ausgebildet werden, sich eindrücken dem ätherischen Leib.
So muß also der ätherische Leib dem astralischen Leibe und dem Ich helfen, wenn Hellsichtigkeit entstehen soll, das heißt es müssen zusammenarbeiten all die Glieder der Menschennatur die man hat, das Ich, der astralische Leib, der Atherleib, mit einziger Ausnahme des physischen Leibes, dem aber trotzdem nach Erleben der übersinnlichen Welt die Aufgabe obliegt, diese Erkenntnis in vollen Einklang zu bringen mit der durch ihn erworbenen sinnlich-vernünftigen Erkenntnis.
Nun gibt es für den Ätherleib ein größeres Hindernis mitzuarbeiten als für den astralischen Leib. Der astralische Leib und das Ich sind ja im Laufe von vierundzwanzig Stunden beim Menschen immer einmal — man möchte sagen in der glücklichen Lage, frei zu sein von dem physischen Leib. So lange sie vom Morgen, wo der Mensch aufwacht, bis zum Abend, wo der Mensch einschläft, im physischen Leib stecken, so lange sind der astralische Leib und das Ich gebunden an die Kräfte dieses physischen Leibes; und diese Kräfte hindern den astralischen Leib und das Ich, ihre eigenen Organe auszubilden. Der astralische Leib und das Ich sind feine geistig-seelische Wesenheiten; sie folgen sozusagen durch ihre eigene Elastizität den Kräften des physischen Leibes und nehmen seine Form an. Daher haben sie für den normalen Menschen auch in der Nacht noch diese Kräfte des physischen Leibes in sich als Nachwirkungen; und man kann nur, wie wir hören werden, durch besondere Maßregeln freimachen den astralischen Leib und das Ich von der Nachwirkung des physischen Leibes, so daß dieser astralische Leib seine eigene Form, das heißt seine geistigen Augen, seine geistigen Ohren und so weiter ausbilden kann. Aber man ist wenigstens in der glücklichen Lage, im Laufe von vierundzwanzig Stunden den astralischen Leib frei zu haben; man hat die Möglichkeit also, ohne weiteres auf diesen astralischen Leib so zu wirken, daß er dann nicht in der Nacht der Elastizität des physischen Leibes weiter folgt, sondern daß er seiner eigenen Elastizität folgt.
Die vorbereitenden Übungen, die der hellseherische Forscher vornimmt, bestehen im wesentlichen darin, daß er während des Tagwachens solche geistigen Verrichtungen macht, die so auf seinen astralischen Leib und auf sein Ich wirken, daß sie dann, wenn sie beim Einschlafen herausgehen aus dem physischen Leib und dem Atherleib, unter der Nachwirkung stehen dessen, was der Mensch zur besonderen Vorbereitung für die hellseherische Forschung getan hat.
Nehmen wir also die zwei Fälle an: den gewöhnlichen Menschen wie er im normalen Leben steht, der vom Morgen bis zum Abend sich den Eindrücken der Außenwelt hingibt, sich demjenigen hingibt, was auf äußere Sinne und Verstand wirkt. Er schläft am Abend ein, sein astralischer Leib geht heraus aus dem physischen Leib. Dieser astralische Leib ist dann ganz hingegeben demjenigen, was während des Tages erlebt worden ist; er folgt der Elastizität des physischen Leibes, nicht seiner eigenen. Etwas anderes ist es aber, wenn der Mensch durch Meditation, Konzentration und durch andere Übungen, welche zum Behufe der höheren Erkenntnis gemacht werden, während seines Tageslebens starke Wirkungen auf seine Seele, das heißt auf seinen astralen Leib und Ich erlebt, wenn er also gewisse Zeiten hat, die er sich aussondert vom gewöhnlichen Tagesleben, in denen er etwas ganz anderes tut als im gewöhnlichen Tagesleben; wenn er sich in besonderen Zeiten nicht hingibt demjenigen, was ihm die äußere Welt für die Sinne, für den Verstand sagen kann, sondern wenn er sich hingibt demjenigen, was eine Kunde und ein Ergebnis der geistigen Welten ist. Wenn er also in Meditation, Konzentration und anderen Übungen einen, wenn auch noch so kurzen Teil des tagwachen Lebens hinbringt, dann wirkt das auf seine Seele so, daß der astralische Leib in der Nacht, wenn er aus dem physischen Leibe heraustritt, die Wirkungen dieser Meditation, Konzentration und so weiter erfährtund dadurch anderen Elastizitäten folgt als jenen des physischen Leibes. Die Methoden zur Erlangung der hellseherischen Forschung bestehen daher darin, daß die Lehrer dieser Forschung all das Wissen anwenden, das äusprobiert worden ist seit Jahrtausenden des Menschenlebens an Übungen, an Meditationen und Konzentrationen, die während des Tageslebens vorgenommen werden müssen, damit sie dann ihre Nachwirkungen im Nachtleben haben so, daß der astralische Leib sich umorganisiert.
Das ist die große Verantwortung, die derjenige übernimmt, der überhaupt solche Übungen seinen Mitmenschen verabreicht. Solche Übungen sind nicht aus dem Blauen herausgeholt, solche Übungen sind das Ergebnis exakter geistiger Arbeit. Dasjenige, was diese Übungen vorschreiben, von dem weiß man, daß es auf die Seele so wirkt, daß wenn diese Seele abends beim Einschlafen heraustritt aus dem physischen Leib, sie in der richtigen Art sich ihre geistigen Augen, ihre geistigen Ohren, ihr geistiges Denken ausbildet. Wenn etwas Falsches gemacht wird, falsche Übungen gemacht werden, dann wirkt das natürlich auch; dann bleiben nicht etwa die Wirkungen aus, aber dann werden widersinnige — wenn wir einen Ausdruck der sinnlichen Welt gebrauchen wollen —, widernatürliche Formen hineingebaut in den astralischen Leib. Was heißt das: widernatürliche Formen werden hineingebaut in den astralischen Leib? Es werden Formen hineingebaut, die dem großen Weltenganzen widersprechen. Es wäre dann gerade so auf diesem Gebiete, wie wenn in unseren physischen Leib Organe hineingebaut wären, die nicht in der richtigen Weise die äußeren Töne hören, das äußere Licht sehen können, die nicht stimmen würden zu der äußeren Welt. Durch unrichtige Meditation und Konzentration würde also der Mensch in bezug auf seinen astralischen Leib und in bezug auf sein Ich in Widerspruch versetzt zur Welt, und er müßte dann, statt daß er Organe erhält, durch welche hineinleuchten kann allmählich diese geistige Welt, zerschellen durch die Einflüsse der geistigen Welt, er müßte diese Einflüsse der geistigen Welt nicht als etwas ihn Förderndes, als etwas ihn Bereicherndes erleben, sondern als etwas sein Denken Hemmendes.
Ich bitte Sie, weil wir diesen Begriff in den nächsten Tagen sehr notwendig haben werden, darauf zu achten, daß wir hier an einem Punkte stehen, wo uns klar werden kann, daß etwas, das in der Außenwelt draußen ist - und wir reden jetzt von der geistigen Außenwelt -, im höchsten Maße fördernd sein kann für den Menschen und wiederum im höchsten Maße hemmend sein kann für ihn, je nachdem er seine eigene Wesenheit diesem Äußeren entgegenbringt. Denken wir uns einmal, ein Mensch mit einem nicht richtig ausgebildeten astralischen Leibe setzt sich der geistigen Umwelt aus. Diese wirkt auf ihn. Während, wenn er die richtigen Organe ausgebildet hätte, diese geistige Umwelt in ihn einfließen würde, ihn bereichern würde mit den Weltgeheimnissen, wird diese selbe Außenwelt ihn seelisch verkümmern, wenn er seine Organe schlecht ausgebildet hat. Es ist dieselbe Außenwelt, die einmal den Menschen in die höchsten Höhen hinaufträgt, das andere Mal ihn hemmt, dieselbe Außenwelt, von der der Mensch einmal sagen wird, sie ist eine göttliche, förderliche Welt, wenn er selber in sich das Richtige trägt; und von der er sagen wird, sie ist eine Welt der Hindernisse, wenn er selbst in sich ein nichtrichtig ausgebildetes Inneres hat. In diesen Worten liegt viel von dem Schlüssel zum Verständnis des Guten, Fruchtbaren, und des Bösen, des Zerstörenden in der Welt. Und Sie können daraus einsehen, daß die Wirkung, die irgendwelche Wesenheiten der Umwelt auf uns haben, nicht maßgebend ist für das Wesen dieser Welt selber. Wie wir uns der Außenwelt gegenüberstellen, so wird das eine Mal dieselbe Wesenheit förderlich oder hemmend sein, dieselbe Wesenheit Gott oder Teufel sein können für unsere seelische Organisation. Das bitte ich durchaus zu berücksichtigen; denn wir werden es für mancherlei in den nächsten Tagen brauchen.
Wir haben uns damit vor die Seele gestellt, wie die Vorbereitung zur hellseherischen Forschung ist in bezug auf den astralischen Leib und das Ich. Und wir haben hervorheben müssen, daß wir Menschen in einer gewissen Beziehung in einer glücklichen Lage sind, weil wir wenigstens zu einer gewissen Zeit während vierundzwanzig Stunden den feinen astralischen Leib und das Ich außer dem physischen Leib und dem Atherleib haben. Den Atherleib aber haben wir auch in der Nacht nicht außer dem physischen Leib; er bleibt da mit dem physischen Leib verbunden. Wir wissen ja aus den mancherlei Vorträgen, die nun seit Jahren hier gehalten werden, daß nur im Tode jener Augenblick eintritt, wo der physische Menschenleib für sich bleibt und der Ätherleib mit dem astralischen Leibe und dem Ich sich aus dem physischen Leibe heraushebt. Wir brauchen heute nicht zu erwähnen, welchen Weg diese drei Glieder der Menschennatur nachher zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt durchmachen; wir wollen uns nur klar vor die Seele stellen, daß mit dem Tode der Augenblick gegeben ist, wo der Mensch frei ist von dem physischen Leibe und von alledem, was in diesen physischen Leib hineingebaut ist, frei ist also von den physischen Sinnesorganen, frei ist von dem Gehirn, dem Instrument des physisch wirkenden Verstandes. Da sind beisammen in der ihnen gemäßen Art Ich und astralischer Leib und ätherischer Leib; da können sie zusammenwirken. Daher tritt auch in bezug auf das vorhergehende Leben von dem Moment des Todes an, wenn auch zunächst nur für kurze Zeit ein wirkliches Hellsehen ein. Es ist das öfter erwähnt worden in diesen Vorträgen. Zu einem solchen Zusammenwirken, wie das nur im Momente des Todes normalerweise der Fall sein kann, zu einem solchen Zusammenwirken muß die Möglichkeit dem Ich, dem astralischen Leibe und dem Ätherleibe gegeben werden, um vollständige Hellsichtigkeit herbeizuführen. Der Atherleib muß also aus jenem Zustand befreit werden können, in den er hineingebannt ist während des normalen Lebens; er muß ebenso in der Lage sein, seine Elastizität zu gebrauchen, unabhängig zu werden von der Elastizität des physischen Leibes, wie das der astralische Leib in der Nacht ist. Dazu sind in gewisser Beziehung höhere, intensivere, anstrengendere Übungen notwendig. Auf alles das kann ja in den nächsten Tagen mit einigem noch hingedeutet werden in den entsprechenden Zusammenhängen; heute aber wollen wir uns klarmachen, daß dies notwendig ist. Es genügt noch nicht, wenn der Mensch jene vorbereitenden Übungen gemacht hat, die nachwirken in seinen astralischen Leib hinein, um die geistigen Augen und Ohren auszubilden, sondern es sind auch Übungen notwendig, die dem Atherleibe Selbständigkeit und Freiheit geben von dem physischen Leibe. Heute aber wollen wir uns in einer gewissen Beziehung das Resultat vor Augen führen, das dann eintreten muß. Sie können dies im Grunde genommen schon entnehmen aus demjenigen, was gesagt worden ist.
Wir können sagen, normalerweise ist nur im Augenblick des Todes die Möglichkeit gegeben, daß frei vom physischen Leib Ich und astraler Leib und Ätherleib zusammenwirken. Für die hellseherische Forschung muß also etwas eintreten, das sich vergleichen läßt einzig und allein mit demjenigen, was sonst für den Menschen im Augenblicke des Todes eintritt, das heißt der Mensch muß, wenn er in bewußtem Sinne hellseherisch werden will, zu einer Entwickelungsstufe in seinem Leben kommen, wo er von seinem physischen Leib und dem Gebrauche der Glieder des physischen Leibes ebenso unabhängig ist, wie er unabhängig von ihnen ist im Momente des Todes.
Wir fragen uns: durch was kann denn — wir wollen die Frage heute in abstracto beantworten, in den nächsten Tagen wird es in concreto geschehen — der Mensch eine solche Unabhängigkeit erlangen von dem physischen Leibe, durch was kann er sich in einen Zustand versetzen, der dem Momente des physischen Sterbens in bezug auf die Erkenntnis ähnlich wird? Einzig und allein dadurch kann er sich in einen solchen Zustand versetzen, daß er gewisse Empfindungen und Empfindungsnuancen ausbildet, welche die Seele so ergreifen, daß in einer gewissen Beziehung diese Empfindungen und Empfindungsnuancen durch ihre Kraft den ätherischen Leib packen und ihn herausheben aus dem physischen Leibe. Es müssen also so starke Empfindungsimpulse, Gedankenimpulse und Willensimpulse in der Seele wirken, daß eine innerliche Kraft da ist, welche den Ätherleib frei macht vom physischen Leibe für gewisse Augenblicke. Nicht aber durch äußere physische Maßnahmen kann so etwas in unserem Zeitraume der Menschheitsentwickelung herbeigeführt werden. Derjenige, der glauben würde, daß man solche Dinge durch physische Maßnahmen herbeiführen kann, der würde sich eben einer gewaltigen Täuschung hingeben. Er würde in die geistigen Welten hinein wollen und dennoch bei den Hantierungen, bei den Tatsachen der physischen Welt bleiben wollen, das heißt er wäre noch nicht gekommen bis zu einem wirklichen Glauben an die Kraft der geistigen Welten. Es müssen lediglich innere Vorgänge sein, Vorgänge des starken, des energischen Seelenlebens, die diesen Zustand herbeiführen.4Es muß bei diesen Schilderungen überall! darauf geachtet werden, daß mit ihnen nur seelische Vorgänge gemeint sind, die mit einem Übergehen in Pathologisch-Organisches so wenig zu tun haben wie die mathematischen Formulierungen, und die trotzdem nicht bloß formaler Natur sind wie die letzteren, sondern denen eine geistige Realität entspricht. Zur gewöhnlichen Hellseherei verhalten sie sich wie das Positive zu dem Negativen. Und wenn wir im Abstrakten bleiben, so können wir heute vorläufig sagen: das Wesentlichste zur Herbeiführung eines solchen Zustandes besteht darin, daß der Mensch eine Umwandlung, gleichsam eine Umstülpung seiner Interessensphäre erlebt. Für das gewöhnliche Leben ist der Mensch ausgestattet mit gewissen Interessen. Sie wissen, daß diese Interessen vom Morgen bis zum Abend spielen. Der Mensch - und er hat damit ganz recht, denn er muß in dieser Welt leben - interessiert sich für dasjenige, was auf seine Augen, seine Ohren, auf seinen physischen Verstand, auf seine physischen Empfindungen und so weiter wirkt; er interessiert sich für dasjenige, was in der Außenwelt ihm entgegentritt; er hat für das eine mehr, für das andere weniger Interesse; er widmet dem einen mehr, dem anderen weniger Aufmerksamkeit; das ist so natürlich. Und in diesen auf- und abwogenden Interessen, die ihn fesseln mit gewissen Anziehungskräften an den Teppich der Außenwelt, iebt der Mensch, lebt ja wahrhaftig ganz allein die weitaus größte Mehrzahl der gegenwärtigen Menschen.
Es gibt nur eine Möglichkeit, daß der Mensch unbeschadet der Frische und Lebendigkeit dieser äußeren Interessen doch Momente im Leben herbeiführt, in denen diese äußeren Interessen gar nicht wirken; in denen ihm, wenn man radikal die Sache ausdrücken will, die ganze äußere Sinneswelt absolut gleichgültig wird; in denen er alle Interessenkräfte, die ihn an dieses oder jenes in der sinnlichen Welt fesseln, abtötet. Falsch wäre es, wenn der Mensch sich nicht aufsparen würde diese Abtötung der Interessen für die Außenwelt für gewisse Feiertagsaugenblicke des Lebens, sondern diese Abtötung auf das ganze Leben ausdehnen würde. Ein solcher Mensch würde unfähig werden, mitzuarbeiten an der Außenwelt; wir sind aber berufen, in unserem Leben an der Außenwelt und an ihrer Arbeit mitzuwirken. Wir müssen es uns daher für Feiertagsaugenblicke aufbewahren und aufsparen, alle äußeren Interessen für die Umwelt in uns ersterben zu lassen, und wir müssen uns sozusagen diese zwiefache Natur erobern, daß wir auf der einen Seite in der Lage sind, lebendig und frisch an allem teilzunehmen, was da draußen an Freude und Schmerz, an Lust und Unlust, an blühendem, sprossendem und an ersterbendem Leben sich abwickelt, und daß wir dazu die andern Interessen fügen. Die Frische und Ursprünglichkeit des Interesses für die Außenwelt müssen wir uns für unser Erdenleben wach erhalten; wir dürfen nicht Fremdlinge werden auf der Erde, denn dadurch würden wir nur aus dem Egoismus heraus handeln und würden unsere Kräfte rauben dem Schauplatz, dem sie gewidmet sein sollen innerhalb unserer gegenwärtigen Entwickelung. Aber wir müssen auf der anderen Seite, damit wir hinaufsteigen können in die höheren Welten, uns die andere Seite der Natur ausbilden, die darin besteht, daß wir in Feiertagsaugenblicken des Lebens die Interessen für die Außenwelt ertöten, ersterben lassen. Und wenn wir Geduld und Ausdauer, wenn wir Energie und Kraft haben, solange als es unser Karma fordert, uns zu üben in diesem Abtöten der Interessen für die Umwelt, wenn wir uns genügend darin üben, so wird zuletzt durch diese Abtötung des Interesses an der Außenwelt eine starke, energische Kraft in unserem Innern frei. Was wir auf solche Art in der Außenwelt ertöten, lebt im höheren Maße in der Innenwelt auf. Wir erfahren eine ganz neue Art des Lebens, wir machen jenen Moment durch, wo wir uns sagen können: das ist ja nur ein Teil des gesamten Lebens, was wir sehen können durch die Augen und hören durch die Ohren. Es gibt ein völlig anderes Leben, ein Leben in der geistigen Welt; eine Auferstehung in der geistigen Welt, ein Hinausschreiten über dasjenige, was man sonst das Leben nennt, ein Hinausschreiten, so daß nicht der Tod eintritt, sondern ein höheres Leben resultiert.
Wenn dann diese rein geistige Kraft in unserem Innern stark genug geworden ist, dann können wir die Momente nach und nach erleben, wo wir Herrscher und Herr werden über unseren Ätherleib, wo dieser Atherleib nicht diejenige Form annimmt, die ihm die Spannkräfte von Lunge und Leber aufnötigen, sondern jene Form, die wir ihm aufnötigen von oben herunter durch unseren astralischen Leib. Dann prägen wir unserem Ätherleib die Form ein, die wir zuerst durch Meditation und Konzentration und so weiter dem Astralleib eingeprägt haben; dann drücken wir die plastische Form des astralischen Leibes im Ätherleib ab, und wir steigen auf von der Vorbereitung zur Erleuchtung, zu der nächsten Stufe der hellseherischen Forschung. Die erste Stufe, durch welche wir unseren astralen Leib umwandeln so, daß er Organe erhält, sie nennt man auch die Reinigung oder Läuterung aus dem Grunde, weil dieser astralische Leib gereinigt wird von den Kräften der Außenwelt, und inneren Kräften sich fügt. Diejenige Stufe aber, auf welcher es diesem astralischen Leib gelingt, seine Form einzuprägen dem Ätherleib, diese Stufe ist damit verknüpft, daß es um uns herum geistig hell wird, daß die geistige Welt um uns herum offenbar wird, daß die Erleuchtung eintritt.
Dasjenige, was ich Ihnen eben beschrieben habe, ist verknüpft mit gewissen Erfahrungen, die der Mensch durchmacht, und die typisch sind, die bei jedem dieselben sind, und die jeder, der den Weg durchmacht, erfährt in dem Momente, wo er dazu reif ist, und wo er die nötige Aufmerksamkeit auf gewisse über dem Sinnlichen hinausliegende Dinge und Vorgänge wendet. Die erste Erfahrung, die eintritt durch die Organisation des astralischen Leibes, die also eintritt als Wirkung von Meditation, Konzentration und so weiter, könnte man ausdrücken als ein Gefühls-, als ein Empfindungserlebnis, als ein Erlebnis, das man, wenn man es beschreiben will, am besten benennen könnte wie eine in sich verlaufende vollbewußte Spaltung unserer ganzen Persönlichkeit.5Man muß, was hier als «Spaltung der Persönlichkeit» gekennzeichnet wird, streng unterscheiden von dem, was von solchen Denkern, die damit Pathologisches — oder Traumhaftes - im Auge haben, mit diesem Ausdrucke oder auch mit «DoppelIch» gemeint ist. Die hier charakterisierte Spaltung wird in voller Besonnenheit nur im Seelischen vollzogen, wird so völlig durchschaut, daß ein klarbewußtes Drinnen stehen in dem gewöhnlichen Ich in gar keiner Weise beeinträchtigt wird. Dieses «Ich» verliert dabei nichts von seiner inneren Festigkeit und Geschlossenheit. Man sagt sich in diesem Augenblicke, wo man das erlebt: Jetzt bist du eigentlich etwas geworden wie zwei Persönlichkeiten; du gleichst gleichsam einem Schwerte, das in seiner Scheide steckt. Vorher hast du dich vergleichen können mit einem Schwerte, das nicht in seiner Scheide steckt, sondern das mit seiner Scheide in eins gearbeitet ist, aus einem Stück besteht; du hast dich gefühlt als eine Einheit mit deinem physischen Leibe zusammen; jetzt aber ist es so, wie wenn du zwar in deinem physischen Leib drinnensteckest wie das Schwert in der Scheide, aber doch ein Wesen seiest, das sich als etwas fühlt außer der Scheide des physischen Leibes, in der es steckt. - Man fühlt sich zwar in seinem physischen Leibe, aber nicht mit ihm verwachsen, nicht aus einem Stück mit ihm bestehend. Dieses innerliche Freiwerden, dieses innerlich sich Fühlen als zweite Persönlichkeit, die aus der ersten herausgeschritten ist, das ist das große Erlebnis auf dem Wege zur hellseherischen Anschauung der Welt. Es muß also betont werden, daß dieses erste Erlebnis ein Empfindungs-, ein Gefühlserlebnis ist. Man muß fühlen dieses in seiner alten Persönlichkeit-Darinnenstecken und doch wiederum frei und beweglich sich in ihr fühlen. Natürlich ist das nur ein Vergleich, vom Schwerte und seiner Scheide. Denn das Schwert fühlt sich doch nach allen Seiten beengt durch die Wände seiner Scheide; der Mensch aber, der diese Empfindung hat, hat ein hohes Gefühl innerlicher Beweglichkeit, gleichsam wie wenn er an allen Punkten die Grenzen seines physischen Leibes durchbrechen könnte, heraus könnte, Ausfälle machen könnte durch die Haut seines physischen Leibes, geistige Fühlhörner ausstrecken könnte in eine Welt hinein, die ihm zwar noch dunkel ist, die ihm aber fühlbar wird und im Finstern —- man möchte sagen — tastbar, erkennbar wird. Das ist das erste große Erlebnis, das der Mensch hat.
Das zweite besteht darin, daß nun die zweite Persönlichkeit, die in der ersten darinnen steckt, nach und nach die Fähigkeit erlangt, wirklich aus dieser ersten Persönlichkeit seelisch-geistig herauszutreten. Dieses Erlebnis, das drückt sich schon dadurch aus, daß der Mensch nunmehr die Erfahrung, wenn auch zuweilen oft für kurze Zeit, macht, als ob er sich selbst sehen würde, als ob er sich gleichsam wie seinen eigenen Doppelgänger vor sich hätte. Diese zweite Erfahrung allerdings hat eine viel größere Tragweite als die erste. Denn mit dieser zweiten Erfahrung ist etwas verknüpft, was — man möchte sagen — nur sehr schwer zu ertragen ist für den Menschen. Man muß bedenken, im normalen Leben steckt der Mensch in seinem physischen Leibe darinnen. Dasjenige, was darinnen steckt, ist Astralleib und Ich, und dasjenige, was so als Astralleib und als Ich im physischen Leib darinnen steckt, das paßt sich den Kräften des physischen Leibes an; es schmiegt sich sozusagen hinein. Es nimmt an die Form der Leber, die Form des Herzens, die Form des physischen Gehirns und so weiter. Und so ist es auch mit dem Ätherleib, solange er im physischen Leibe darinnen steckt. Er nimmt an die Form des physischen Gehirns, die Form des Herzens und so weiter. Man bedenke, was mit den Ausdrücken Gehirn, Herz und so weiter gesagt ist, was das für wunderbare, in sich vollendete Werkzeuge und Organe sind, was für wunderbare, in sich vollendete Schöpfungen. Man frage sich einmal, was alle menschliche Kunst, was alles menschliche Schaffen bedeutet gegenüber jenem Schaffen, gegenüber jener Kunst und Technik, die notwendig sind, um solch ein Wunderwerkzeug wie das Herz, das Gehirn und so weiter aufzubauen. Was vermag der Mensch auf dem gegenwärtigen Standpunkt seiner Entwickelung an Kunst, an Technik gegenüber jener Götterkunst und Göttertechnik, die unseren physischen Leib auferbaut haben, und die uns daher auch in Schutz nehmen, solange wir drinnenstecken im physischen Leib. Wir sind also mit dem physischen Leibe im Tagesleben Götterschöpfung hingegeben. Unser Ätherleib, unser Astralleib sind hineingepaßt in Formen, welche die Götter geschaffen haben. Werden wir nun frei und selbständig, dann liegt die Sache anders. Dann machen wir uns zu gleicher Zeit frei von dem Wunderwerkzeuge der Götterschöpfung. Wir verlassen also nicht etwa den physischen Leib als etwas, worauf wir als auf ein Unvollkommenes herabschauen dürfen, sondern als den Tempel, den die Götter für uns gebaut haben, in dem wir sonst wohnen während unseres tagwachen Lebens. Wie sind wir dann?
Nehmen wir einmal an, wir könnten diesen physischenLeib in irgendeinem Momente ohne weitere Vorbereitung verlassen; irgendein Zauberkünstler würde uns dazu verhelfen, diesen physischen Leib zu verlassen, so daß er allein bleibt, daß der Atherleib mitgeht mit dem astralischen Leibe, daß wir also in gewisser Beziehung durch ein Erlebnis hindurchgehen, das sich vergleichen läßt dem Momente des Todes. Nehmen wir an, wir könnten das ohne die Vorbereitung, von der wir gesprochen: was sind wir dann, wenn wir da draußen sind, wenn wir uns selbst gegenüberstehen? Da sind wir dasjenige, was wir im Laufe der Weltenentwickelung von Leben zu Leben geworden sind. Solange wir vom Morgen bis zum Abend im physischen Leibe stecken, korrigiert die göttliche Schöpfung des Tempels unseres physischen Leibes dasjenige, was wir uns selbst anorganisiert haben von Verkörperung zu Verkörperung im Laufe unseres Erdenlebens; jetzt aber, wo wir heraustreten, haben unser astralischer Leib und unser Ätherleib dasjenige, was sie sich erworben haben von Leben zu Leben ohne Korrektur; jetzt sehen sie so aus, wie sie aussehen müssen nach dem, was sie selbst aus sich gemacht haben. Wenn der Mensch in einem solch unvorbereiteten Zustand heraustritt aus seinem physischen Leibe, dann ist er nicht etwa ein Wesen von einer höheren, edleren, reineren Form als diejenige war, die er gehabt hat im physischen Leib, sondern ein Wesen mit all den Unvollkommenheiten, die er sich auf sein Karma geladen hat. Das alles bleibt unsichtbar, solange der Leibestempel unseren Ätherleib und astralischen Leib und unser Ich aufnimmt. Es wird sichtbar in dem Augenblick, wo wir mit den höheren Gliedern unserer _ Wesenheit heraustreten aus dem physischen Leibe. Da stehen, wenn wir nun zu gleicher Zeit hellsichtig werden, vor unserem Auge all die Neigungen und Leidenschaften, die wir noch haben aus dem, was wir in früheren Erdenleben gewesen sind. Man nehme einmal an, daß man im Laufe der künftigen Erdenzeit noch viele durchmachen werde; da wird man dieses oder jenes tun, dieses oder jenes vollbringen. Zu mancherlei von demjenigen, was man vollbringen wird, liegen schon die Neigungen, die Triebe und Leidenschaften jetzt vor; man hat sie herausgebildet durch Verkörperungen in der früheren Zeit. Alles, was der Mensch fähig ist, an diesen oder jenen Dingen in der Welt zu vollbringen, alles das, dessen er sich schuldig gemacht hat gegen diesen oder jenen Menschen — was er gegen diesen oder jenen Menschen in der Zukunft abzutragen hat -, alles das ist in diesem Astralleib und Ätherleib verkörpert, wenn er heraustritt aus dem physischen Leib. Wir treten uns selber gleichsam seelisch-geistig nackt entgegen, wenn wir beim Heraustreten zugleich hellsichtig sind; das heißt wir stehen uns so vor dem geistigen Auge, daß wir jetzt wissen, um wieviel wir schlechter sind, als das sein würde, wenn wir jene Vollkommenbheit erreicht hätten, welche die Götter hatten, damit sie schaffen konnten den Wunderbau unseres physischen Leibes. Wir sehen in diesem Augenblick, wie tief wir unter jener Vollkommenheit stehen, die uns vorschweben muß als unser künftiges Entwickelungsideal. Wir wissen in diesem Augenblick, wie tief wir unter die Welt der Vollkommenheit heruntergestiegen sind.
Das ist das Erlebnis, das verbunden ist mit der Erleuchtung; das ist das Erlebnis, das man die Begegnung mit dem Hüter der Schwelle nennt. Dasjenige, was wirklich ist, das wird dadurch nicht mehr und nicht weniger wirklich, daß wir es sehen oder nicht sehen. Die Gestalt, die wir da sehen in diesem Augenblick, der eben geschildert worden ist, ist sonst auch da, ist sonst durchaus auch in uns steckend; aber weil wir noch nicht aus uns herausgetreten sind, weil wir uns nicht gegenüberstehen, sondern weil wir drinnen stecken, sehen wir sie nicht. Im gewöhnlichen Leben ist dasjenige, was wir in dem Augenblicke, wo wir hellseherisch aus uns heraustreten, sehen, der Hüter der Schwelle. Er behütet uns vor jenem Erlebnis, das wir erst ertragen lernen müssen. Wir müssen erst jene starke Kraft in uns haben, die uns befähigt, uns zu sagen: Es liegt eine Welt der Zukunft vor uns, und wir sehen ohne Schrecken und Grauen auf dasjenige, was wir geworden sind, denn wir wissen ganz gewiß, daß wir alles das wiederum ausgleichen können. — Die Fähigkeit, die wir haben müssen, um diesen Moment zu erleben, ohne daß wir von ihm niedergedrückt werden, diese Fähigkeit müssen wir uns während der Vorbereitung zur hellseherischen Forschung aneignen. Diese Vorbereitung besteht darin — wiederum sagen wir es heute im Abstrakten, wir werden auf das Konkrete noch einzugehen haben -, daß wir insbesondere die aktiven, die positiven Eigenschaften unserer Seele stark und energisch machen, daß wir unseren Mut, unser Freiheitsgefühl, unsere Liebe, unsere Energie des Denkens, unsere Energie des klarsichtigen Intellekts so steigern, als wir sie nur steigern können, so daß wir nicht als schwache, sondern als starke Menschen heraustreten aus unserem physischen Leibe. Wenn aber von demjenigen, was man im gewöhnlichen Leben als Angst und Furcht kennt, zu viel im Menschen vorhanden ist, so wird er nicht ohne Bedrückung dieses Erlebnis überstehen können.
So also sieht man, daß es gewisse Bedingungen gibt, um hineinzuschauen in die geistigen Welten, die in einer gewissen Beziehung ja das Höchste, was zu denken ist für das Leben der gegenwärtigen Menschheitsentwickelung, in Aussicht stellen, und die gleichzeitig notwendig machen, daß der Mensch eine vollständige Umformung und Umstülpung seines Wesens für die Feieraugenblicke sich erringt. Die größte Wohltat in unserer heutigen Zeit wird demjenigen, welcher, bevor er zu diesem Erlebnis vorschreitet, sich beschreiben läßt, was diejenigen, die erlebt haben in den höheren Welten, geschaut haben; was dann, wenn es erzählt wird, zu begreifen, zu verstehen ist, ohne daß man selbst in diese Welten hineinsieht. Geforscht werden kann nur, wenn man selbst hineinsieht. Dadurch aber, daß man sich immer mehr und mehr anstrengt mit dem Verstand das zu begreifen, was der hellseherische Forscher sagt, gelangt man immer mehr und mehr dazu, sich zu sagen: Wenn ich alles das betrachte, was das Leben bringt, muß ich sagen, das Ergebnis übersinnlicher Forschung ist doch ganz vernünftig. Wenn man sich bemüht, in dieser Weise zuerst einen Überblick sich zu verschaffen, wenn man zuerst Begreifender werden will und dann Hellseher, dann hat man in bezug auf die heutige Menschheitsstufe das Richtige getan. Erst muß man Geisteswissenschaft gründlich kennenlernen. Tut man das, dann geben die großen, die umfassenden, die stärkenden und mutspornenden und erfrischenden Ideen und Gedanken dieser Wissenschaft der Seele nicht nur etwa Theorie, sie geben der Seele Empfindungs-, Willens- und Denkeigenschaften, so daß sie sich stählt. Dann, wenn die Seele solches durchgemacht hat, wird der Moment der Begegnung mit dem Hüter der Schwelle zu etwas anderem, als was er sonst geworden wäre. In ganz anderer Weise werden Angst und Besorgniszustände überwunden, wenn man vorher durch das Erfassen der Erzählungen der höheren Welten hindurchgegangen ist, als wenn dies nicht geschehen ist.
Dann aber, wenn der Mensch dieses Erlebnis gehabt hat, daß er sich selbst gegenübergetreten ist, daß er also dem Hüter der Schwelle begegnet ist, dann beginnt für ihn die Welt eine ganz andere zu werden; dann erfahren in einer gewissen Beziehung alle Dinge der Welt eine neue Gestalt. Und es ist das Urteil berechtigt, das etwa so sagt: Bisher habe ich gekannt, was Feuer ist; aber das war nur eine Täuschung; denn was ich bisher Feuer genannt habe, das verhält sich zu seiner Wirklichkeit, zu dem, was ich jetzt als Feuer kenne, etwa so, wie wenn ich die Eindrücke, welche die Räder eines Wagens machen auf der Straße, für die einzige Wirklichkeit halten und nicht mir sagen wollte: da muß ein Wagen darüber gefahren sein, in dem ein Mensch gesessen hat. Von diesen Furchen sage ich aus, daß sie die Zeichen, der äußere Ausdruck sind für den Wagen, der darüber gefahren ist und in dem ein Mensch gesessen hat. Wenn er vorübergefahren ist, sehe ich nichts von ihm; er aber ist der Grund der Furchen, er ist das Wesentliche. Und derjenige, der da glauben würde, die Furchen, welche die Räder hinterlassen haben, seien etwas in sich Abgeschlossenes, etwas Wesentliches, der würde den äußeren Eindruck für die Sache selbst halten. — So ist das, was wir im äußeren Leben als das aufleuchtende Feuer sehen, im Verhältnis zu seiner Wirklichkeit, zu der geistigen Wesenheit, die dahintersteht, wie die Furchen in der Straße zu dem Menschen, der im Wagen gesessen hat, welcher über die Straße dahingefahren ist. In dem Feuer haben wir nur einen äußeren Ausdruck. Hinter demjenigen, was das Auge als Feuer sieht und was wir als Wärme empfinden, ist erst die wahre geistige Wesenheit, die im äußeren Feuer nur den äußeren Ausdruck hat. Hinter demjenigen, was wir als Luft einatmen, hinter demjenigen, was als Licht ins Auge dringt, was als Ton in unserem Ohre ist, hinter dem liegen die wirkenden göttlich-geistigen Wesenheiten, welche nur gleichsam ihr äußeres Kleid im Feuer, im Wasser, in demjenigen haben, was uns in den verschiedenen Reichen der Welt umgibt.
In der sogenannten Geheimlehre, in der Mysterienlehre, nennt man dieses Erlebnis, das man in dieser Art hat, das Durchgehen durch die elementaren Welten. Während man sich vorher dem Glauben hingegeben hat, daß dasjenige, was man als Feuer erkennt, eine Wirklichkeit ist, erfährt man nun, daß hinter dem Feuer lebendige Wesenheiten stehen. Man macht sozusagen Bekanntschaft, mehr oder weniger intime Bekanntschaft mit dem Feuer als etwas ganz anderem als dem, wie es sich in der Sinnenwelt darstellt; man macht Bekanntschaft mit den Feuerwesen, mit demjenigen, was als Seele hinter dem Feuer steht. Wie unsere Seele hinter unserem Leibe steht, so steht hinter dem Feuer, das mit den äußeren Sinnen wahrnehmbar ist, die Seele und der Geist des Feuers. Man dringt in ein geistiges Reich ein, wenn man die Seele und den Geist des Feuers erlebt; und dieses Erleben, das sich sagt: das äußere Feuer ist keine Wahrheit, es ist bloßer Schein, ist bloßes Kleid, ich bin jetzt unter den Feuergöttern, wie ich vorher unter den Menschen in der physischen Welt war — dieses Erleben heißt Leben im Element des Feuers, wenn man im geheimwissenschaftlichen Sinne spricht. Ebenso ist es mit dem, was wir einatmen. In dem Augenblicke, wo uns dasjenige, was wir als äußere Luft einatmen, nur das Kleid wird für dahinterliegende lebendige Wesenheiten, leben wir in dem Elemente der Luft.
Und so kann der Mensch, wenn er die Begegnung mit dem Hüter der Schwelle hinter sich hat, aufsteigen zu dem Erleben der Wesenheiten in den sogenannten Elementen, im Element des Feuers, des Wassers, der Luft, der Erde. Diese vier Arten von Geistern, die in den Elementen leben, gibt es, und der Mensch, der diese Stufe erreicht hat, die soeben beschrieben worden ist, verkehrt mit den geistigen Wesenheiten der Elemente. Er lebt in den Elementen, er durchlebt Erde, Wasser, Luft und Feuer, Dasjenige also, was man im gewöhnlichen Leben mit diesen Worten bezeichnet, das ist nur das äußere Kleid, der äußere Ausdruck von dahinterstehenden geistigen Wesenheiten. Es leben also gewisse göttlich-geistige Wesenheiten in demjenigen, was uns entgegentritt als feste Materie oder Erde — im geisteswissenschaftlichen Sinne gesprochen -, als flüssige Materie oder Wasser — im geisteswissenschaftlichen Sinne gesprochen -, als ausdehnbare Materie oder Luft und als warme, feurige Materie oder Feuer. Das aber sind noch nicht die höchsten geistigen Wesenheiten, sondern wenn wir uns durchgerungen haben durch das Erleben der Elementenwelt, dann steigen wir auf zu denjenigen Wesenheiten, welche die schaffenden Wesenheiten für jene Geister sind, die in den Elementen leben. Und nun nehme man folgendes: Wenn man seine Umgebung betrachtet, die physische Umgebung, sieht man: sie besteht aus demjenigen, was die vier äußeren Glieder sind der eigentlichen Elementarwelt. Ob man Pflanzen oder Tiere oder Steine auf dem physischen Piane sieht, man kann sagen: sie bestehen entweder aus dem Festen, das heißt Erdigen - geheimwissenschaftlich gesprochen — oder aus dem Flüssigen, das heißt aus dem Wasser — geheimwissenschaftlich gesprochen —, aus Gasartigem oder der Luft und aus dem Feurigen, dem Wärmehaften. Daraus sind die Dinge zusammengesetzt, die in der Steinwelt, Pflanzenwelt, in der Tier- und Menschenwelt physisch vorhanden sind. Und als schöpferische Kräfte, als . befruchtende Kräfte stehen hinter demjenigen, was physisch ist, diejenigen Kräfte, die uns von der Sonne zum größten Teil zuströmen. Die Sonne, sie ruft ja aus der Erde hervor das sprießende, sprossende Leben. Die Sonne also sendet diejenigen Kräfte, im physischen Sinne zunächst, zur Erde, die es möglich machen, daß auf der Erde gesehen wird mit physischen Sinnen dasjenige, was im Feuer, in der Luft, im Wasser und in der Erde lebt. Wir sehen physisch die Sonne, weil sie physisch Licht verbreitet. Das physische Licht wird durch die physische Materie aufgehalten. Der Mensch sieht die Sonne vom Aufgange bis zum Niedergange, und er sieht die Sonne nicht, wenn die physische Erdenmaterie sie zudeckt; vom Untergange bis zum Aufgange sieht er sie nicht. Solche Finsternis, wie sie im physischen Leben herrscht vom Niedergange der Sonne bis zum Aufgange derselben, solche Finsternis gibt es in der geistigen Welt nicht. In dem Augenblicke, wo der Hellseher dasjenige errungen hat was beschrieben worden ist, indem Augenblicke, wo er hinter dem Feuer die Geister des Feuers, hinter der Luft die Geister der Luft, hinter dem Wasser die Geister des Wassers und hinter der Erde die Geister der Erde erblickt, in diesem Augenblick sieht er hinter diesen geistigen Wesenheiten deren höheren Herrscher, deren höheren Lenker, dasjenige, was sich verhält zu diesen Elementarwesenheiten, wie sich verhält die erwärmende und beleuchtende, die wohltätige Sonne zu dem sprießenden und sprossenden physischen Leben auf unserer Erde. Das heißt, der Hellseher ringt sich durch von der Betrachtung der Elementarwesenheiten zu der Betrachtung der höheren geistigen Wesenheiten, die im geistigen Reiche etwa sind, was sich im physischen Reiche sinnbildlich vergleichen läßt mit der Sonne im Verhältnis zur Erde. Der Mensch sieht dann hinter den Elementenwesen eine hohe geistige Welt: die geistige Sonne. Wenn für den Hellseher dasjenige, was sonst Finsternis ist, Licht wird, wenn er die Erleuchtung erlangt, dann, dann dringt er vor, wie das physische Auge zur Sonne vordringt, zur geistigen Sonne, das heißt zu den geistigen Wesenheiten. Und wann dringt er vor zu diesen höheren geistigen Wesenheiten? Dann dringt er vor, wenn gleichsam für die Menschen die geistige Finsternis am höchsten ist. Der Mensch lebt, wenn er sonst frei ist in bezug auf seinen Astralleib und auf sein Ich, also vom Momente des Einschlafens bis zu dem des Aufwachens, er lebt, indem ihn Finsternis umgibt, weil er die geistige Welt, die ihn dann umgibt, nicht sieht. Diese Finsternis nimmt allmählich zu, erreicht einen Höhepunkt und nimmt wiederum ab bis zum Morgen, wo er aufwacht. Sie erlangt sozusagen einen höchsten Grad. Man kann diesen höchsten Grad geistiger Verfinsterung vergleichen mit demjenigen im äußeren Leben, was man die Mitternachtsstunde nennt. Wie in dieser normalerweise die äußere physische Finsternis am stärksten ist, wie sie bis dahin zunächst zunimmt und nachher abnimmt, so gibt es in bezug auf die geistige Finsternis einen höchsten Grad, eine Mitternacht. Auf einer gewissen Stufe des Hellsehens ist es so, daß man während der Zeit, während welcher für den ungeistig-erkennenden Menschen die geistige Finsternis aufsteigt, die Elementargeister sieht; wiederum so beim Abfluten der Finsternis. Hat man nur eine niedere Stufe des Hellsehens erreicht, so ist es so, daß man zuerst sozusagen gewisse Elementargeister erlebt, daß aber gerade dann, wenn man den höchsten geistigen Moment erleben will, die Mitternachtsstunde, daß dann noch eine Verfinsterung eintritt, und erst dann wiederum eine Erhellung eintritt. Wenn man aber eine bestimmte Stufe des Hellsehens erreicht hat, dann wird, was man Mitternachtsstunde nennen kann, um so heller. In dieser Zeit 6Man muß sich darüber klar sein, daß mit dieser «Mitternachtsstunde» nicht ein mit dem äußeren Zeitverlauf zusammenfallender Augenblick, sondern ein innerer Zustand gemeint ist. erlebt man das Anschauen derjenigen geistigen Wesenheiten, die in bezug auf die Elementengeister sind wie die Sonne zur physischen Erde; man erlebt die höheren, schöpferischen, die Sonnenwesenheiten, es tritt jener Moment ein, den man technisch nennt das Schauen der Sonne um Mitternacht.
So sind die Stufen, welche heute wie zu jeder Zeit von demjenigen durchlebt werden müssen, der zur hellseherischen Forschung sich hinaufschwingen will, der hinter den Schleier, welcher in den irdischen Elementen die wahre Welt überzieht, hindurchblicken will. Diese Stufen, die nun beschrieben worden sind, das Sich-Freifühlen in bezug auf seine zweite Persönlichkeit wie das Schwert in der Scheide, dieses sich außerhalb des physischen Leibes Fühlen, wie wenn man das Schwert herausgezogen habe aus der Scheide; das Begegnen mit dem Hüter der Schwelle; das Erleben der Elementenwesenheiten, das heißt das Erleben jenes großen Momentes, wo die Feuer-, Luft-, Wasser- und ErdenWesenheiten werden zu Wesenheiten, unter denen man wandelt, mit denen man nun verkehrt wie im gewöhnlichen Leben mit den Menschen; und dann das Erleben jenes Momentes, wo man das Urwesen dieser Elementarwesenheiten erlebt, das sind die Stufen, die zu jeder Zeit durchgemacht werden konnten, die auch heute noch durchgemacht werden können, das sind - in anderer Weise ist dies öfter schon beschrieben worden, denn in mancherlei Art kann man sie beschreiben, und es bleibt immer nur eine unvollkommene Beschreibung! — die Stufen, die in die geistigen Welten hinaufführen. Wir mußten sie uns vor die Seele führen, um zu sehen, was der Mensch zu jeder Zeit selber tun muß, um die geistigen Wesenheiten zu erkennen. Und wir werden nunmehr uns weiter vor die Seele zu führen haben, was nun der Mensch in diesen geistigen Welten erlebt; wir werden uns vor die Seele zu führen haben einiges von den konkreten Verrichtungen, die der Mensch vorzunehmen hat, um den Geistwesenheiten zu begegnen. Und wenn wir die Sache uns vor die Seele geführt haben in der Art, wie es durch die westliche Einweihung erreicht werden kann, dann werden wir das, was wir also gewonnen haben aus der Sache selbst heraus, vergleichen mit dem, was an orientalischer Überlieferung, an uralter Weisheit an die Menschheit erging. Das ist dasjenige, was man verstehen kann als das Fallenlassen des Christus-Lichtes auf die Weisheit der vorchristlichen Zeit.
Second lecture
This series of lectures will focus in particular on examining the wisdom of the Eastern world, that is, the ancient teachings of humanity as a whole, in such a way that they are illuminated by the light that can be kindled by the knowledge of the Christ impulse and by the knowledge of everything that has gradually developed in the Western world over the centuries as wisdom arising from this Christ impulse. If spiritual science is to be something living, it cannot consist in taking views and opinions about the higher worlds that already exist in humanity from history and then teaching them; rather, it must be a matter of making everything that we can experience in the present about the nature of the higher worlds the object of our consideration. 1It can be seen that I have never regarded spiritual science as a borrowing of historically handed-down views, but have presented it as knowledge to be gained directly in the present. The reason why the terminology of earlier times is sometimes used is because the modern age, which is far removed from spiritual scientific knowledge, does not have such terminology, and it is still easier to understand the old terminology than one that has been freely invented. People who are able to turn their gaze upward into the spiritual worlds and see there as human beings otherwise see with their physical eyes in the outer world, as they comprehend the outer world with their intellect, have not only existed in ancient times, but have existed at all times in the development of humanity, and they exist today as well; and at no time is humanity dependent on teaching and contemplating truths that have been handed down historically; nor is humanity dependent on receiving these teachings about the higher worlds from any particular physical location. The source of higher wisdom and higher knowledge can flow everywhere in the world. Just as it would not be reasonable for us to teach mathematics or geography in our schools today based on ancient writings, it is equally unreasonable to consider only the historical, the merely historical, and the ancient in relation to the great mysteries of the supersensible worlds. It will therefore be our task in this series of lectures to approach the things of the higher worlds, the beings of the supersensible realms themselves, to allow the familiar, the less familiar, and the completely unknown to come before our souls as they appear in the higher worlds, and then to ask ourselves: What did the people of earlier times, the people of ancient times, have to say about these things? In other words, we want to let Western wisdom come before our souls and then ask ourselves: How does what we recognize as Western wisdom correspond to what we can come to know as Eastern wisdom? What is at stake here is that the truths of the supersensible worlds can be understood by every human being through reason when they are told to them. I have often emphasized this: only unbiased reason is needed to understand the facts of the higher worlds. Although this unbiased reason is a very rare ability in the present day, it does exist; and those who wish to practice it can understand everything that is said about the research results of so-called clairvoyant science. However, these facts of the higher worlds can only be gained and researched through so-called clairvoyant research, only by ascending into these higher worlds through people who have prepared themselves for this. Since beings dwell in these higher worlds which, in relation to us humans, can be called spiritual, the exploration of the higher worlds is, in one sense, the interaction of the clairvoyant or the initiated with these spiritual beings. What is in the higher worlds can therefore only be explored when the clairvoyant person 2By “clairvoyant” we do not mean here, as can be seen, the usual so-called dreamlike pathological state, but a state of knowledge that can be attained in full consciousness, in which the soul is in a condition that corresponds entirely to that of mathematical conception. It is precisely the opposite of the dreamlike pathological state. climbs the steps that lead him to communication with a spiritual world.
Much has already been said about these things in this or that lecture cycle; today we want to bring the essentials to the forefront of our minds. The first thing that is necessary for the person who is becoming clairvoyant in order to ascend to the higher worlds is nothing less than the ability to see, to recognize, to experience without the help of the outer senses, that is, without the help of those tools that are built into our bodies as eyes, ears, and so on, but also without the tools that serve our intellect and our understanding in particular. Just as one cannot see the supersensible worlds with the physical eyes or hear in them with the physical ears, so one cannot recognize anything of them through the mind, insofar as it is bound to the instrument of the physical brain. Man must therefore free himself from the activity he exercises while making use of his physical senses and his physical brain.
Now you all know that in normal human life there is a state in which the human being is outside the instruments of his physical body; it is the state of sleep. We know that of the four members of human nature, the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I, the last two members, the I and the astral body, attain a certain independence. 3These expressions are used here only as they are explained in my books. They cannot, of course, be criticized from a point of view that associates them with entirely different ideas (such as those of trivial mysticism), as is so often the case. During waking life, the physical body, etheric body, astral body, and I are intimately connected. During sleep, these four members are so separated that, on the one hand, the physical body with the etheric body remains lying in bed, while on the other hand, the astral body and the ego live freely in another world. Thus, in the normal course of his life, within twenty-four hours, man is always in a state where he does not have the instruments built into his physical body; but he must pay for this liberation from the physical body in a certain way with a darkening of consciousness; during sleep he sees nothing in the world around him in which he then finds himself.
Now, the organs that human beings need when they want to look into the spiritual world, where they are with their ego and astral body during the night, can of course only be built into the astral body, or into the ego. And the difference between the so-called normal human being of today and the clairvoyant researcher is none other than that in the evening, when the ego and the astral body lift themselves out of the physical body and etheric body, in normal human beings the astral body and the ego are in a certain sense unstructured, without organs for seeing; in clairvoyant researchers, however, organs of the same kind, albeit of a different nature, are formed in this astral body, or in the ego, as the eyes and ears are for the physical body. The first task that anyone who wants to become a clairvoyant researcher must therefore set themselves is to do everything possible to build spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, and so on into their initially unstructured astral body or ego.
But that is not the only thing that is necessary. Let us suppose that someone has succeeded, by means of those methods which we will briefly mention later, in equipping his astral body and his I with spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, and so on. He would then have a different astral body from the normal human being; he would have a structured, organized astral body. However, they would still not be able to see anything in the spiritual world; at least they would not be able to reach certain levels of vision. Something else is necessary for this. If, under present conditions, human beings really want to ascend to clairvoyance, to conscious clairvoyance, it is necessary that not only the spiritual eyes and spiritual ears be developed in their astral body, but also that everything that is plastically formed in this astral body is imprinted in the etheric body, like a seal is imprinted in sealing wax. Actual conscious clairvoyance begins when the organs, that is, the spiritual eyes, the spiritual ears, and so on, which are developed in the astral body, are imprinted in the etheric body.
Thus, the etheric body must help the astral body and the I if clairvoyance is to arise. This means that all the members of human nature must work together: the I, the astral body, and the etheric body, with the sole exception of the physical body, which nevertheless has the task, after experiencing the supersensible world, of bringing this knowledge into full harmony with the sensory-rational knowledge acquired through it. bring this knowledge into full harmony with the sensory-rational knowledge acquired through it.
Now, there is a greater obstacle to cooperation for the etheric body than for the astral body. The astral body and the I are, in the course of twenty-four hours, always once — one might say in the fortunate position of being free from the physical body. As long as they are stuck in the physical body from the morning when the human being wakes up until the evening when the human being falls asleep, the astral body and the I are bound to the forces of this physical body; and these forces prevent the astral body and the I from developing their own organs. The astral body and the ego are fine spiritual-soul entities; through their own elasticity, so to speak, they follow the forces of the physical body and take on its form. Therefore, even at night, normal human beings still have these forces of the physical body within them as after-effects; and, as we shall hear, it is only through special measures that the astral body and the ego can be freed from the after-effects of the physical body, so that the astral body can develop its own form, that is, its spiritual eyes, its spiritual ears, and so on. But at least we are in the fortunate position of having the astral body free for twenty-four hours; we therefore have the possibility of acting upon this astral body in such a way that it does not continue to follow the elasticity of the physical body during the night, but follows its own elasticity.
The preparatory exercises undertaken by the clairvoyant researcher consist essentially in performing spiritual activities during waking hours that have such an effect on his astral body and his ego that when they leave the physical body and the etheric body at the moment of falling asleep, they are still under the after-effect of what the person has done in special preparation for clairvoyant research.
Let us take two cases: the ordinary person in normal life, who from morning to evening is given over to impressions from the outside world, to what affects the outer senses and the intellect. In the evening he falls asleep, and his astral body leaves the physical body. This astral body is then completely devoted to what has been experienced during the day; it follows the elasticity of the physical body, not its own. But it is something else when, through meditation, concentration, and other exercises done for the purpose of higher knowledge, a person experiences strong effects on their soul, that is, on their astral body and I, during their daily life, if he has certain periods of time which he sets aside from his ordinary daily life, during which he does something completely different from what he does in his ordinary daily life; if, at special times, he does not give himself over to what the outer world can tell him through his senses and his intellect, but gives himself over to what is a message and a result of the spiritual worlds. If, therefore, he spends even a short part of his waking life in meditation, concentration, and other exercises, this has such an effect on his soul that the astral body, when it leaves the physical body at night, experiences the effects of this meditation, concentration, and so on, and thereby follows different elasticities than those of the physical body. The methods for attaining clairvoyant research therefore consist in the teachers of this research applying all the knowledge that has been tried and tested over thousands of years of human life in exercises, meditations, and concentrations that must be carried out during the day so that they then have their after-effects in the night life in such a way that the astral body reorganizes itself.
This is the great responsibility assumed by those who impart such exercises to their fellow human beings. Such exercises are not pulled out of thin air; they are the result of precise spiritual work. What these exercises prescribe is known to have such an effect on the soul that when this soul leaves the physical body in the evening as it falls asleep, it develops its spiritual eyes, its spiritual ears, its spiritual thinking in the right way. If something is done wrong, if wrong exercises are done, then of course this also has an effect; the effects do not fail to appear, but then absurd — if we want to use an expression from the sensory world — unnatural forms are built into the astral body. What does it mean that unnatural forms are built into the astral body? Forms are built in that contradict the great whole of the world. It would then be just as if organs were built into our physical body that could not hear external sounds or see external light in the right way, that would not correspond to the external world. Through incorrect meditation and concentration, the human being would thus be placed in contradiction to the world in relation to his astral body and in relation to his I, and instead of receiving organs through which this spiritual world can gradually shine in, he would be shattered by the influences of the spiritual world. He would not experience these influences of the spiritual world as something that promotes him, as something that enriches him, but as something that inhibits his thinking.
I ask you, because we will need this concept very much in the next few days, to pay attention to the fact that we are at a point where it can become clear to us that something that is outside in the external world—and we are now talking about the spiritual external world—can be highly beneficial for human beings and, conversely, highly detrimental, depending on how they relate their own being to this external world. Let us imagine that a person with an improperly developed astral body exposes himself to the spiritual environment. This environment has an effect on him. Whereas if he had developed the right organs, this spiritual environment would flow into him and enrich him with the secrets of the world, this same external world will cause him to wither spiritually if he has poorly developed his organs. It is the same external world that sometimes lifts people up to the highest heights and at other times holds them back, the same external world that people will one day say is a divine, beneficial world if they themselves carry the right things within them, and which they will say is a world of obstacles if they themselves have an incorrectly developed inner life. These words hold much of the key to understanding the good, the fruitful, and the evil, the destructive in the world. And you can see from this that the effect that any entities in the environment have on us is not decisive for the nature of this world itself. Depending on how we relate to the external world, the same entity can be beneficial or harmful, the same entity can be God or the devil for our soul organization. Please keep this in mind, for we will need it for many things in the coming days.
We have thus prepared our souls for clairvoyant research in relation to the astral body and the I. And we have had to emphasize that we humans are in a fortunate position in a certain respect, because at least for a certain period of time during the twenty-four hours of the day, we have the subtle astral body and the I outside of the physical body and the etheric body. However, we do not have the etheric body outside the physical body at night; it remains connected to the physical body. We know from the various lectures that have been given here over the years that only at death does the moment occur when the physical human body remains on its own and the etheric body, together with the astral body and the I, lifts itself out of the physical body. We need not mention today the path these three members of human nature subsequently take between death and a new birth; we only want to clearly understand that with death comes the moment when the human being is free from the physical body and from everything that is built into this physical body, free from the physical sense organs, free from the brain, the instrument of the physically active intellect. There, the I, the astral body, and the etheric body are together in their proper form; there they can work together. That is why, from the moment of death, a real clairvoyance occurs in relation to the previous life, even if only for a short time at first. This has been mentioned frequently in these lectures. In order for such cooperation, as can normally only occur at the moment of death, to take place, the ego, the astral body, and the etheric body must be given the opportunity to bring about complete clairvoyance. The etheric body must therefore be able to be freed from the state into which it is bound during normal life; it must also be able to use its elasticity and become independent of the elasticity of the physical body, as the astral body is at night. To this end, higher, more intensive, and more strenuous exercises are necessary in a certain sense. In the next few days, we will be able to point to some of these in the appropriate contexts; but today we want to make it clear that this is necessary. It is not enough for the human being to have done those preparatory exercises that have a lasting effect on his astral body in order to develop the spiritual eyes and ears; exercises are also necessary that give the etheric body independence and freedom from the physical body. Today, however, we want to consider in a certain connection the result that must then occur. You can already gather this, in essence, from what has been said.
We can say that normally it is only at the moment of death that the possibility exists for the I, the astral body, and the etheric body to work together freely, free from the physical body. For clairvoyant research, therefore, something must occur that can be compared solely with what otherwise happens to human beings at the moment of death. That is, if a person wants to become clairvoyant in a conscious sense, they must reach a stage of development in their life where they are as independent of their physical body and the use of the limbs of the physical body as they are independent of them at the moment of death.
We ask ourselves: through what means — we will answer the question today in abstracto, in the next few days we will do so in concreto — can a person attain such independence from the physical body, through what means can he place himself in a state that is similar to the moment of physical death in terms of knowledge? He can put himself into such a state solely by developing certain sensations and nuances of sensation which so seize the soul that, in a certain relationship, these sensations and nuances of sensation, through their power, grasp the etheric body and lift it out of the physical body. So, there have to be really strong feeling impulses, thought impulses, and will impulses working in the soul to create an inner force that frees the etheric body from the physical body for a few moments. But you can't do this through external physical measures in our time of human development. Anyone who believes that such things can be brought about by physical measures would be indulging in a tremendous delusion. They would want to enter the spiritual worlds and yet remain with the manipulations and facts of the physical world, which means they would not yet have arrived at a real belief in the power of the spiritual worlds. It must be solely inner processes, processes of the strong, energetic soul life, that bring about this state. that they refer only to soul processes that have as little to do with a transition into the pathological-organic as mathematical formulations, and that they are nevertheless not merely formal in nature like the latter, but correspond to a spiritual reality. They relate to ordinary clairvoyance as the positive relates to the negative. And if we remain in the abstract, we can say for the time being that the most essential factor in bringing about such a state is that the individual experiences a transformation, a reversal, as it were, of his sphere of interest. In ordinary life, human beings are equipped with certain interests. You know that these interests play a role from morning to night. Human beings — and they are quite right to do so, because they have to live in this world — are interested in what affects their eyes, their ears, their physical intellect, their physical sensations, and so on; they are interested in what what confronts them in the outer world; they are more interested in some things than in others; they devote more attention to some things than to others; that is only natural. And in these fluctuating interests, which bind them with certain forces of attraction to the carpet of the outer world, human beings live, indeed, the vast majority of people today live truly alone.
There is only one way in which human beings can, without losing the freshness and vitality of these external interests, bring about moments in their lives when these external interests have no effect whatsoever; when, to put it radically, the entire external sensory world becomes absolutely indifferent to them; when they kill off all the forces of interest that bind them to this or that in the sensory world. It would be wrong for humans not to reserve this killing of interest in the external world for certain holiday moments in life, but to extend it to their entire lives. Such a person would become incapable of cooperating with the external world; but we are called upon to participate in the external world and its work in our lives. We must therefore reserve and save for moments of celebration the ability to let all external interests in our environment die within us, and we must, so to speak, conquer this dual nature so that, on the one hand, we are able to participate vividly and freshly in everything that unfolds outside us in joy and pain, pleasure and displeasure, in blossoming sprouting and dying life, and to add our other interests to this. We must keep alive the freshness and originality of our interest in the outside world for our life on earth; we must not become strangers on earth, for then we would act out of egoism and rob the scene to which our energies should be devoted within our present stage of development. But on the other hand, in order to ascend to the higher worlds, we must develop the other side of nature, which consists in killing, in letting die, our interests in the external world during the holiday moments of life. And if we have patience and perseverance, if we have the energy and strength to practice this killing of interest in the environment for as long as our karma demands, if we practice it sufficiently, then ultimately, through this killing of interest in the external world, a strong, energetic force will be released within us. What we kill off in the outer world in this way lives on to a higher degree in the inner world. We experience a whole new kind of life, we go through that moment when we can say to ourselves: what we can see with our eyes and hear with our ears is only a part of the whole of life. There is a completely different life, a life in the spiritual world; a resurrection in the spiritual world, a stepping out beyond what we otherwise call life, a stepping out so that death does not occur, but a higher life results.
When this purely spiritual power within us has become strong enough, we can gradually experience moments when we become rulers and masters of our etheric body, when this etheric body does not take on the form imposed on it by the tensile forces of the lungs and liver, but rather the form we impose on it from above through our astral body. Then we imprint on our etheric body the form that we first imprinted on the astral body through meditation and concentration and so on; then we press the plastic form of the astral body into the etheric body, and we rise from the preparation for enlightenment to the next stage of clairvoyant research. The first stage, through which we transform our astral body so that it acquires organs, is also called purification or refinement, because this astral body is purified of the forces of the outer world and submits to inner forces. The stage at which this astral body succeeds in imprinting its form on the etheric body is connected with the fact that it becomes spiritually bright around us, that the spiritual world around us becomes apparent, that enlightenment occurs.
What I have just described to you is connected with certain experiences that human beings go through, which are typical, which are the same for everyone, and which everyone who goes through the path experiences at the moment when they are ready for it and when they turn their attention to certain things and processes that lie beyond the senses. The first experience that occurs through the organization of the astral body, which thus occurs as an effect of meditation, concentration, and so on, could be expressed as an emotional experience, as a sensory experience, as an experience that, if one wants to describe it, could best be called a fully conscious splitting of our entire personality that takes place within ourselves. 5What is referred to here as a “split personality” must be strictly distinguished from what is meant by this expression or by “double ego” by thinkers who have pathological or dreamlike phenomena in mind. The split characterized here is carried out in full deliberation only in the soul, is so completely understood that clear consciousness within the ordinary ego is in no way impaired. This “I” loses none of its inner strength and unity. At the moment when one experiences this, one says to oneself: Now you have actually become something like two personalities; you are like a sword in its sheath. Before, you could compare yourself to a sword that is not in its sheath, but is worked into one with its sheath, consisting of one piece; you felt as one with your physical body; but now it is as if you are inside your physical body like the sword in its sheath, yet you are a being that feels itself to be something outside the sheath of the physical body in which it is enclosed. - One feels oneself in one's physical body, but not grown together with it, not consisting of one piece with it. This inner liberation, this inner feeling of oneself as a second personality that has stepped out of the first, is the great experience on the path to clairvoyant perception of the world. It must therefore be emphasized that this first experience is a sensory, emotional experience. One must feel oneself stuck in one's old personality and yet feel free and mobile within it. Of course, this is only a comparison with a sword and its sheath. For the sword feels constrained on all sides by the walls of its sheath; but the person who has this sensation has a high feeling of inner mobility, as if he could break through the boundaries of his physical body at all points, could break out, could make forays through the skin of his physical body, could extend spiritual feeling horns into a world that is still dark to him, but which becomes perceptible to him and, in the darkness — one might say — tangible, recognizable. This is the first great experience that man has.
The second consists in the fact that the second personality, which is hidden within the first, gradually acquires the ability to truly step out of this first personality in a spiritual sense. This experience is already expressed in the fact that the human being now has the experience, albeit often only for a short time, of seeing himself, as if he had his own double standing before him. This second experience, however, has a much greater significance than the first. For this second experience is connected with something that is, one might say, very difficult for the human being to bear. One must remember that in normal life the human being is enclosed in his physical body. What is enclosed within it is the astral body and the I, and what is enclosed within the physical body as the astral body and the I adapts itself to the forces of the physical body; it nestles into it, so to speak. It takes on the form of the liver, the form of the heart, the form of the physical brain, and so on. And so it is with the etheric body as long as it is contained within the physical body. It takes on the form of the physical brain, the form of the heart, and so on. Consider what is meant by the terms brain, heart, and so on, what wonderful, perfect instruments and organs they are, what wonderful, perfect creations. Ask yourself what all human art, all human creativity means in comparison to that creativity, to that art and technology that are necessary to build such a marvelous tool as the heart, the brain, and so on. What can human beings, at their present stage of development, achieve in art and technology compared to the divine art and technology that built our physical bodies and therefore also protect us as long as we are enclosed in them? In our daily lives, we are therefore devoted to the creation of the gods with our physical bodies. Our etheric body and our astral body are fitted into forms created by the gods. When we become free and independent, the situation is different. Then we free ourselves from the miraculous tools of divine creation. We do not leave the physical body as something we can look down on as imperfect, but as the temple that the gods built for us, in which we otherwise dwell during our waking life. What are we then?
Let us assume that we could leave this physical body at any moment without further preparation; that some magician would help us to leave this physical body so that it remains alone, that the etheric body goes with the astral body, so that we pass through an experience that can be compared to the moment of death. Let us assume that we could do this without the preparation we have spoken of: what would we be then, when we are out there, when we stand before ourselves? We would be what we have become in the course of world evolution, from life to life. As long as we are stuck in our physical body from morning to evening, the divine creation of the temple of our physical body corrects what we have organized ourselves from embodiment to embodiment in the course of our earthly life; but now, when we step out, our astral body and our etheric body have what they have acquired from life to life without correction; now they look as they must look according to what they have made of themselves. When a person steps out of their physical body in such an unprepared state, they are not a being of a higher, nobler, purer form than the one they had in their physical body, but a being with all the imperfections they have loaded onto their karma. All this remains invisible as long as the body mold absorbs our etheric body, astral body, and ego. It becomes visible the moment we step out of the physical body with the higher members of our being. If we become clairvoyant at that moment, we see before our eyes all the inclinations and passions that we still have from what we were in previous earthly lives. Let us suppose that we will go through many more of these in the course of our future earthly lives; we will do this or that, accomplish this or that. Many of the things we will accomplish are already present in our inclinations, drives, and passions; we have developed them through incarnations in earlier times. Everything that a person is capable of accomplishing in this or that thing in the world, everything that he has done wrong against this or that person — what he has to pay back to this or that person in the future — all of this is embodied in the astral body and etheric body when he steps out of the physical body. We stand before ourselves, as it were, spiritually naked, if we are clairvoyant when we step out; that is, we stand before our spiritual eye in such a way that we now know how much worse we are than we would be if we had attained the perfection that the gods had, enabling them to create the marvelous structure of our physical body. At that moment, we see how far below that perfection we stand, which must remain before us as our ideal for future development. At that moment, we know how far we have descended below the world of perfection.
This is the experience connected with enlightenment; this is the experience called the encounter with the guardian of the threshold. That which is real becomes neither more nor less real because we see it or do not see it. The form we see at this moment, which has just been described, is also there otherwise, is also completely within us; but because we have not yet stepped out of ourselves, because we do not stand opposite ourselves, but because we are stuck inside, we do not see it. In ordinary life, what we see at the moment when we step out of ourselves clairvoyantly is the guardian of the threshold. He protects us from that experience which we must first learn to endure. We must first have that strong force within us that enables us to say to ourselves: There is a world of the future before us, and we look without fear or horror at what we have become, for we know quite certainly that we can compensate for all this again. The ability we must have in order to experience this moment without being overwhelmed by it is something we must acquire during our preparation for clairvoyant research. This preparation consists—again, we are speaking in abstract terms today; we will have to go into the concrete details later—in making the active, positive qualities of our soul strong and energetic, in increasing our courage, our sense of freedom, our love, our energy of thought, our energy of clear-sighted intellect as much as we can, so that we emerge from our physical body not as weak but as strong human beings. But if there is too much of what we know in ordinary life as fear and anxiety in a person, they will not be able to survive this experience without feeling oppressed.
Thus we see that there are certain conditions for looking into the spiritual worlds, which in a certain sense offer the highest that can be thought of for the life of the present stage of human evolution, and which at the same time make it necessary for the human being to achieve a complete transformation and reversal of his being for the festive moments. The greatest benefit in our present time will be gained by those who, before they proceed to this experience, allow themselves to be told what those who have experienced the higher worlds have seen; what can then be grasped and understood when it is told, without one's own insight into these worlds. Research can only be done if one looks in for oneself. But by striving more and more with the intellect to comprehend what the clairvoyant researcher says, one comes more and more to say to oneself: When I consider all that life brings, I must say that the result of supersensible research is quite reasonable after all. If you first try to gain an overview in this way, if you first want to become understanding and then clairvoyant, then you have done the right thing in relation to the present stage of humanity. First you must thoroughly familiarize yourself with spiritual science. If you do that, then the great, comprehensive, strengthening, encouraging, and refreshing ideas and thoughts of this science of the soul are not just theory; they give the soul qualities of feeling, will, and thinking that strengthen it. Then, when the soul has gone through this, the moment of encounter with the guardian of the threshold becomes something different than it would otherwise have been. Fear and anxiety are overcome in a completely different way if one has previously gone through the stories of the higher worlds than if this has not happened.
But then, when a person has had this experience of facing themselves, of encountering the guardian of the threshold, the world begins to become something completely different for them; then, in a certain sense, all things in the world take on a new form. And the judgment that says something like this is justified: Until now I knew what fire was; but that was only an illusion; for what I have hitherto called fire is to its reality, to what I now know as fire, about what the impressions made by the wheels of a carriage on the road are to the carriage itself, if I were to regard those impressions as the only reality and refuse to say to myself: there must have been a carriage with a person sitting in it passing over the road. I say that these ruts are the signs, the external expression of the car that drove over them and in which a person was sitting. When it has passed, I see nothing of it; but it is the cause of the ruts, it is the essential thing. And anyone who would believe that the ruts left by the wheels are something self-contained, something essential, would take the external impression for the thing itself. — So what we see in outer life as the glowing fire is, in relation to its reality, to the spiritual entity behind it, like the ruts in the road to the person who sat in the car that drove along the road. In the fire we have only an external expression. Behind what the eye sees as fire and what we feel as heat is the true spiritual entity, which has only its external expression in the external fire. Behind what we breathe in as air, behind what enters the eye as light, behind what is sound in our ears, lie the active divine-spiritual beings, which have only their outer garment, as it were, in fire, in water, in what surrounds us in the various realms of the world.
In the so-called secret doctrine, in the mystery teachings, this kind of experience is called passing through the elemental worlds. Whereas previously one believed that what one perceives as fire is a reality, one now experiences that behind fire there are living beings. One becomes acquainted, more or less intimately, with fire as something completely different from how it appears in the sensory world; one becomes acquainted with the fire beings, with what stands behind fire as soul. Just as our soul stands behind our body, so the soul and spirit of fire stand behind the fire that is perceptible to the outer senses. One enters a spiritual realm when one experiences the soul and spirit of fire; and this experience, which says: the outer fire is not truth, it is mere appearance, it is merely a garment, I am now among the fire gods, as I was before among human beings in the physical world — this experience is called life in the element of fire, when one speaks in the secret scientific sense. The same is true of what we breathe in. At the moment when what we breathe in as external air becomes merely a garment for the living beings behind it, we live in the element of air.
And so, once they have encountered the guardian of the threshold, human beings can ascend to experience the beings in the so-called elements, in the elements of fire, water, air, and earth. These four types of spirits that live in the elements exist, and human beings who have reached the stage just described interact with the spiritual beings of the elements. They live in the elements, they live through earth, water, air, and fire. What we refer to in ordinary life with these words is only the outer garment, the outer expression of the spiritual beings behind them. Certain divine-spiritual beings live in what we encounter as solid matter or earth — in the spiritual-scientific sense — as liquid matter or water — in the spiritual-scientific sense — as expansive matter or air, and as warm, fiery matter or fire. But these are not yet the highest spiritual beings. Once we have worked our way through the experience of the elemental world, we ascend to those beings who are the creative beings for those spirits that live in the elements. Now consider the following: when you look at your surroundings, your physical surroundings, you see that they consist of what are the four outer members of the actual elemental world. Whether you see plants or animals or stones on the physical plane, you can say that they consist either of the solid, that is, the earthy — in occult terms — or of the liquid, that is, of water — in occult terms — of the gaseous or the air, and of the fiery, the warm. These are the elements that make up the things that exist physically in the world of stones, plants, animals, and humans. And behind what is physical, as creative forces, as fertilizing forces, are those forces that flow to us for the most part from the sun. The sun brings forth from the earth the sprouting, budding life. The sun therefore sends those forces, initially in the physical sense, to the earth which make it possible for us to see with our physical senses what lives in fire, air, water, and earth. We see the sun physically because it spreads physical light. Physical light is stopped by physical matter. Man sees the sun from sunrise to sunset, and he does not see the sun when physical earth matter covers it; from sunset to sunrise he does not see it. Such darkness as prevails in physical life from sunset to sunrise does not exist in the spiritual world. At the moment when the clairvoyant has attained what has been described, at the moment when he sees behind the fire the spirits of fire, behind the air the spirits of air, behind the water the spirits of water, and behind the earth the spirits of earth, at that moment he sees behind these spiritual beings their higher rulers, their higher guides, that which relates to these elemental beings, just as the warming and illuminating, benevolent sun relates to the sprouting and budding physical life on our earth. This means that the clairvoyant struggles his way from the observation of the elemental beings to the observation of the higher spiritual beings, which are in the spiritual realm what can be symbolically compared in the physical realm to the sun in relation to the earth. The human being then sees behind the elemental beings a high spiritual world: the spiritual sun. When what is otherwise darkness becomes light for the clairvoyant, when he attains enlightenment, then he advances, as the physical eye advances toward the sun, toward the spiritual sun, that is, toward the spiritual beings. And when does he advance toward these higher spiritual beings? He advances when, as it were, spiritual darkness is at its height for human beings. When a person is free in relation to their astral body and their ego, that is, from the moment they fall asleep until they wake up, they live surrounded by darkness because they cannot see the spiritual world that surrounds them. This darkness gradually increases, reaches a peak, and then decreases again until morning, when they wake up. It reaches, so to speak, a highest degree. This highest degree of spiritual darkness can be compared to what we call midnight in the outer life. Just as the outer physical darkness is normally strongest at midnight, increasing until then and then decreasing, so there is a highest degree of spiritual darkness, a midnight. At a certain stage of clairvoyance, during the time when spiritual darkness rises for the unspiritual, one sees elemental spirits; the same happens when the darkness recedes. If one has only reached a low level of clairvoyance, one first experiences certain elemental spirits, so to speak, but just when one wants to experience the highest spiritual moment, the midnight hour, another eclipse occurs, and only then does enlightenment follow. But when one has reached a certain level of clairvoyance, what can be called the midnight hour becomes all the brighter. During this time 6It must be clearly understood that this “midnight hour” does not refer to a moment coinciding with the external passage of time, but to an inner state. one experiences the sight of those spiritual beings who, in relation to the elemental spirits, are like the sun to the physical earth; one experiences the higher, creative, solar beings, and that moment occurs which is technically called the vision of the sun at midnight.
Such are the stages that must be passed through today, as at all times, by those who wish to rise to clairvoyant research, who wish to look behind the veil that covers the true world in the earthly elements. These stages that have now been described, feeling free from one's second personality, like a sword in its sheath, feeling oneself outside the physical body, as if one had drawn the sword from its sheath; the encounter with the guardian of the threshold; the experience of the elemental beings, that is, the experience of that great moment when the fire, air, water, and earth beings become entities among which one walks, with which one now interacts as in ordinary life with human beings; and then the experience of that moment when one experiences the primordial being of these elemental beings—these are the stages that could be passed through at any time, that can still be passed through today, These are — in other words, this has often been described before, for there are many ways to describe it, and it always remains an imperfect description! — the stages that lead up to the spiritual worlds. We had to bring them before our souls in order to see what human beings must do at all times in order to recognize spiritual beings. And we will now have to bring before our souls what human beings experience in these spiritual worlds; we will have to bring before our souls some of the concrete tasks that human beings must perform in order to encounter spiritual beings. And when we have brought this matter before our souls in the way that can be achieved through Western initiation, then we will compare what we have thus gained from the matter itself with what has been handed down to humanity in the Eastern tradition, in ancient wisdom. This is what can be understood as the falling of the Christ light upon the wisdom of pre-Christian times.