The Rudolf Steiner Archive

6. On the Proper Relationship to Anthroposophy

[ 1 ] What is often said in the various lectures on the cycles that unfold in the number seven is not mere rhetoric; it truly corresponds to a law of existence. Now that we have completed a seven-year cycle in the life of our spiritual scientific movement, it may be said that we should actually take a few moments to reflect a little on our entire endeavor, on all our work. This work is, after all, only possible if the spiritual movement proceeds in such a way that, so to speak, its inner laws contain something of the laws of the great world order. The world order unfolds in cycles that can be calculated according to the number seven. We count seven planetary states, seven states within the planetary worlds, and so on. But even in a movement such as ours, the number seven plays a certain role, and in a sense, the endeavor returns to its beginning after seven years, having in the meantime incorporated what has been worked out. The striving returns to its beginning again on a higher level. Such a thing can only be achieved if the deeper, inner lawfulness of the matter is not disregarded.

[ 2 ] If you look back a little on how we have worked over these seven years, you will notice one thing: there has truly been a certain regularity to this work. Of course, you cannot take what is being said here literally, but if you take it in essence, you will see that it is so. In the first four years of our work, we laid, so to speak, the foundations of our work. In the first four years, we gained a certain understanding of the nature of the human being, a certain understanding of the paths leading up to the higher worlds, and we gained some insight into the great cosmic connections, into what might be called the examination of the findings of the Akashic Records in relation to the mysteries of the world.

[ 3 ] Those of our members who joined later have always needed—and will always need—to acquire this solid foundation of our endeavor, which is indispensable. For it is by no means sufficient merely to assimilate what has taken place in the last three years in order to make the progress of a movement possible in the right way. If you look back a bit, you will see that in the last three years, even those truths and insights that may have struck you as somewhat surprising in recent years have, in a certain sense, been further developed. If you try to establish a connection with what has been cultivated in the first four years of our work—in the fourfold foundation of the whole, so to speak—you will see that even what was surprising, what are great, comprehensive truths, has an intimate connection with what happened in the first four years. You will be able to convince yourselves of this if you look within yourselves. The younger members should take it very much to heart that they must by no means neglect to lay a solid foundation within themselves. Indeed, wherever work is being done, more and more care is being taken to ensure that those who join later can catch up on what has been worked out here in the early years. Without this catching up, it is actually impossible to truly keep pace. We must take what the spiritual science movement is in the deepest sense very seriously. In connection with this, perhaps we may speak today about a topic, particularly in relation to our important period of time, a topic that concerns more the attitude and the entire spiritual way of thinking: What is the right way for the anthroposophist to approach spiritual science itself?

[ 4 ] What is meant by this will become much clearer to us if we rephrase the question slightly, if we ask it this way: Why, after all, is anthroposophy taught today in the way it is? Why are messages conveyed about the higher worlds—messages that are the results of spiritual research and clairvoyant consciousness? Could it not perhaps be the case that a completely different approach would be taken, that one might perhaps begin by giving everyone certain instructions on how to develop their own inner abilities, which lie dormant in the soul, so that through these instructions they would, so to speak, be given the opportunity to gradually ascend into the spiritual worlds themselves, even before receiving any communication, as happens today, about what the facts in the higher worlds are? It must be said that, in a certain sense, this was the custom in the past; it was so before our spiritual scientific movement in the modern sense of the word. For a long time, it was said: It is actually of little use if anyone steps before the world and communicates the results of spiritual research. - And people behaved as reservedly as possible regarding such communications. They actually limited themselves to giving people certain rules on how to develop the abilities slumbering in their souls, and then, essentially, let them know no more than what they had slowly acquired for themselves through their own observation in the higher worlds. The question might now arise: Why is this path not pursued exclusively today, but why is Anthroposophy communicated today based on the results of spiritual research?

[ 5 ] This did not arise from any human preference or whim, but has its good reasons. And we will better understand what we ought to understand if we keep asking ourselves: What does this spiritual science actually reveal? It reveals facts and truths from the realm of the higher, supersensible worlds; it reveals what clairvoyant consciousness can explore in these higher worlds.

[ 6 ] Now, it is true that the person to whom such messages are conveyed—and who is not clairvoyant himself—cannot, at first, verify the facts as such through direct perception. It is true that they accept the messages and that they cannot, so to speak, verify them through clairvoyant perception. Certainly, that is quite true. But it would be entirely wrong to believe that a person who is not clairvoyant could not verify the insights communicated today at all, could not understand them at all. To believe that would be entirely wrong, and it would be a mistaken view to claim that one must accept what is communicated from clairvoyant consciousness solely on the basis of good faith or mere authority. There would indeed be something highly imperfect in these communications, something deficient, if these communications were to claim validity solely on the basis of authority or faith.

[ 7 ] What is communicated in a lawful manner can—as has often been said—be explored only through clairvoyant consciousness. But once it has been investigated—even by a single person, for all I care—once it has been perceived and communicated, then everyone can understand it through their unbiased reason, through what is accessible to them on the physical plane. And it may well be said: Even if not everyone sitting here always has the opportunity to examine everything in the most comprehensive sense, they could at least create this opportunity for themselves if they had the time and ability—but only abilities of this physical plane—to do so.

[ 8 ] Let us take even such difficult matters as those touched upon here in the recent lectures—the incarnations of Zarathustra— such difficult matters, that is, concerning how Zarathustra’s astral body passed into Hermes, how Zarathustra’s etheric body passed into Moses—then no one may claim that the person who knows these things through spiritual research is merely calling for blind faith. No, that is by no means the case! If someone were to come and say: Well, I don’t believe a word of what a clairvoyant says. Someone is claiming these things about Zarathustra and his incarnations. I now want to take up everything available to humanity on the physical plane, everything handed down by history, everything contained in stone documents, everything contained in religious texts—I want to examine all of that in the most meticulous way. - And such a person would say: “Let’s assume that what he says is true—does that correspond to the facts that can be objectively verified?” - And then he would investigate everything that can be objectively verified and would see that the more meticulously he proceeds with his research, the more he would find confirmation of the facts communicated by the clairvoyant.

[ 9 ] If the word “fear” had any meaning in this context at all, one might say that spiritual scientific research might possibly fear an inaccurate examination, but not those who wish to make use of everything available to physical research. The latter will see that the more precisely they proceed in their research, the more they will find the facts communicated by the clairvoyant to be confirmed. But for those matters that are not so remote and not so difficult—those relating to karma and reincarnation, to life between death and a new birth—one need only observe what life offers with an open mind. The more closely one observes this, the more one will find confirmation of what the clairvoyant communicates; that is to say, there are ample opportunities to convince oneself that what is gained from the supersensible worlds finds confirmation in the outer physical world. And this is something that should not be accepted so lightly, but rather something we should regard as an indispensable necessity. We should first test the facts—which perhaps only a few can investigate—against life itself. We should not constantly repeat the phrase: “One must accept this on faith!” — No, accept as little as possible on faith, but test, test—not with prejudice, but with an open mind! That is what can be emphasized first.

[ 10 ] The point, however, is that such an examination, when undertaken, is in a certain sense demanding. It requires thought; it requires, so to speak, that one work at it, that one actually engage in the task of finding confirmation in the physical world for what is stated through clairvoyant research. And this brings us to a topic that is certainly worth discussing, one that truly addresses our original question, namely: Is it necessary, or at least beneficial, for people today—in addition to the legitimate aspiration to penetrate the spiritual world themselves—to engage deeply and energetically with the ordinary means of knowledge and the ordinary methods of thought of the physical plane? In other words: Is the spiritual student well advised to overcome that complacency which he brings with him in abundance today from the non-spiritual world? Is he well advised to overcome that complacency and earnestly expand his world of thought, to truly master the means by which one can also recognize human beings from the physical plane, and to make use of them? Is he well advised, above all, to learn a great deal, particularly with regard to the nature of thought? It is, in fact, quite difficult to explain clearly and precisely to the consciousness of today what is meant by this.

[ 11 ] It occurred to me that someone who wished to make progress in the field of anthroposophy, but who also wanted to train themselves to think spiritual ideas with ever greater precision, might have wanted me to recommend some reading. I recommended to this person, for the purpose of training his thinking so that he might become increasingly able to sketch out the ideas he received in sharp contours, that he should study Spinoza’s work *Ethics*. It took only a few weeks before the person in question wrote to me: Yes, he didn’t really know why he should study it; for it was a relatively thick book, and everything in it amounted to nothing more than proving the existence of God. But he had never doubted that, and therefore did not need to go through lengthy lines of reasoning to prove the existence of God. — You see, this is a perfect example of the complacency with which many people approach spiritual science today. They are, so to speak, quickly satisfied once they have acquired a belief, and they shy away from the effort of gradually acquiring and developing those ideas that are, after all, uncomfortable. But this can never result in anything other than blind faith, whereas you will see that the matter ceases to be blind faith when you truly train your thinking and do not merely greedily strive to develop those powers that lead, so to speak, to an elementary stage of clairvoyance.

[ 12 ] Certainly, nothing should be said today against the endeavor to develop the hidden powers within the soul. That is a noble and good endeavor. But on the other hand, it must also be emphasized that this must go hand in hand with the necessity of training, albeit in an uncomfortable way, the physical powers of thought—those cognitive abilities that are initially given to us here on the physical plane—so that we may be able to form clear images and precise concepts of what is communicated to us from the higher worlds. One might easily believe that the slightest degree of clairvoyance is better than hearing as much as one might through rational comprehension of the facts of the higher worlds. Someone might say: I don’t know at all why I am in this society. Things from the higher worlds are always being told here; that is all well and good, but I would prefer it if I could see even just a tiny, tiny bit through clairvoyant vision.

[ 13 ] I know a very learned theosophist who once expressed his fervent longing to go beyond mere scholarship and actually see by saying: “If only I could see the tip of an elemental being’s tail, even just once!” - Certainly, that is understandable. One can certainly understand why someone would say that. This theosophist would never say that he would give up the knowledge of spiritual truths for that. But it can also happen that someone would give them up if he could exchange them for even a little clairvoyance. And yet, if someone has such a feeling, it is tremendously mistaken, and indeed mistaken in every respect. For we live in a time which, in the development of the whole, is the age of conscious thinking. As has often been emphasized, the ancient Indian age still fostered a completely different kind of consciousness, reminiscent of a dim, dull form of clairvoyance. Only gradually have today’s abilities developed, and only with the actual development of the conscious soul have we brought human thinking into the sphere of Earth’s evolution. That is why it must also happen today that spiritual science is brought down from the supersensible world and that it appeals to human rational thinking.

[ 14 ] We must first understand the following distinction: In the case of purely visionary clairvoyance, a person does not need to be a particularly deep thinker. Their thinking may be very primitive, yet they may still be relatively advanced in terms of seeing on the astral plane and, to a certain extent, even on the devachanic plane. So they can be quite advanced there; they can see many things. The other possible case is that someone knows a great deal about spiritual truths and yet sees nothing at all, is completely unable to see anything—as I said, not even the tip of an elemental being’s tail. That, too, can be the case. Now let us ask ourselves: How do these various abilities of the human soul actually relate to one another?

[ 15 ] Above all, we must emphasize that one must not confuse having something with being aware of what one has. It is immensely important to keep this in mind. You will understand this question correctly if we phrase it slightly differently. You see, you were all clairvoyant in ancient times. For all people were clairvoyant, and indeed there were times when people looked back far, far into the past. And now you may ask: Yes, why do we not remember our past incarnations, if we were already able to look back into the past?

[ 16 ] This should serve as proof to you of the fact that it has not helped you at all in developing this ability—for example, to now recall that you were once able to look back on your past incarnations. And you might ask the question: So does it actually benefit us in any way for a future incarnation if we now become clairvoyant, for the purpose of recollection? — You can already keep one fact in mind: that the old clairvoyance is of no use for looking back today, for you all had that. Why do so many people today not remember their previous incarnations? The question is extremely important. So many do not remember their past incarnations, even though they were clairvoyant to a greater or lesser extent in earlier times, because back then they had not developed those very abilities that constitute the abilities of the Self, of the I. For it is not a matter of having developed clairvoyant abilities, but of having truly developed that which is to be seen.

[ 17 ] If people in the past were so clairvoyant and failed to cultivate precisely those abilities that are the abilities of the ego—namely, the ability to think, the power of discernment, and those specific abilities of the human self on this earth—then the ego was not present in their previous incarnations. The sense of self was not present. What, then, is there to remember? One must ensure in the previous incarnation that a self-contained ego was present. That is what matters! Thus, only those people today who worked in those earlier incarnations with the tools of thinking, logic, and discernment can remember past incarnations. They are the ones who can remember. So no matter how highly developed a person’s clairvoyance may be: if they have not worked in earlier incarnations with the tools of discernment and logical thinking, then they cannot remember a past incarnation. Back then, they did not plant the seed they are supposed to remember. You will see that, if one understands anthroposophy, one should realize that one cannot approach the task quickly enough to acquire these very abilities of thorough thinking. Now you might say: If I become clairvoyant, then I will acquire this ability of logical thinking all on my own. — That is not correct. Why did the gods create human beings in the first place? For the reason that they could only develop in human beings abilities that they could not have developed otherwise: the ability to think, to imagine something in thought, so that these thoughts are bound to discrimination. This ability can only be developed on our Earth; it did not exist at all before; it had to come about precisely through the emergence of human beings.

[ 18 ] If we want to use a comparison, we can say: Suppose you have a seed, a wheat seed, for example. No matter how long you look at it, it will not turn into wheat. You must plant it in the ground and let it grow, allowing the forces of growth to act upon it. What the divine-spiritual beings possessed before the formation of humanity can be compared to the wheat seed. If it were to sprout in the form of thoughts, it would first have to be nurtured on the physical plane by human beings. There is no other way to cultivate thoughts from the higher worlds than to allow them to sprout in human incarnations. Thus, what human beings think here on the physical plane is unique and must be added to what is possible in the higher worlds. Humanity was indeed necessary; otherwise, the gods would not have brought it into being. The gods brought humanity into being in order to preserve, through human beings, what they had possessed—even in the form of thought. Thus, what comes down from the higher worlds would never take on the form of thought at all if human beings could not give it this form of thought. And whoever does not wish to think on Earth deprives the gods of what they have counted on, and can therefore not at all achieve what is actually humanity’s task and destiny on Earth. They can only achieve it in that incarnation in which they commit themselves to truly working with thought. When one considers this, everything else follows from it. Whatever revelations or real facts there are about the spiritual world can enter the human soul in the most manifold ways. Certainly it is possible, and in many cases today this is indeed the case, that people attain visionary perception without being keen thinkers—far more people who are not keen thinkers attain clairvoyance than keen thinkers do—but there is a great difference between the experiences in the spiritual world of those who are keen thinkers and those who are not. It is a difference I can express as follows: What is revealed from the higher worlds is best imprinted in those forms of imagination that we bring as thoughts toward these higher worlds; that is the best vessel.

[ 19 ] If we are not thinkers, then revelations must take other forms, such as the form of an image or a symbol. This is the most common way in which those who are not thinkers receive revelations. And you can then hear from those who are visionary clairvoyants—without being thinkers at the same time—how they recount the revelations in symbols. These are indeed quite beautiful, but we must at the same time be aware that the subjective experience is different depending on whether you receive revelations as a thinker or as a non-thinker. When you have revelations as a non-thinker, the symbol is there; this or that figure stands there. This reveals itself from the spiritual world. Let’s say you see an angelic figure, this or that symbol expressing this or that—for example, a cross, a monstrance, a chalice—it is there in the supersensible realm; you see it as a finished image. You are clear: this is not reality, but it is an image.

[ 20 ] In a somewhat different way, even for subjective consciousness, experiences from the spiritual world are perceived differently by the thinker than by the non-thinker. They do not, so to speak, appear all at once, as if fired from a gun; rather, they present themselves differently. Take, for example, a non-thinking visionary clairvoyant and a thinking one. The non-thinking visionary clairvoyant and the thinking visionary clairvoyant would both receive the same experiences. Let us take a specific case: The non-thinking visionary clairvoyant sees this or that apparition from the spiritual world; the thinking visionary clairvoyant does not see it yet, but somewhat later, and at the moment when he sees it, it has already been grasped by his thinking. Then he can already distinguish it; he can already know whether it is truth or falsehood. He sees it somewhat later. But because he sees it a little later, the phenomenon from the spiritual world presents itself to him in such a way that he has permeated it with thought and can distinguish whether it is illusion or reality, so that he has, so to speak, something earlier than he sees it. He has it, of course, at the same moment as the non-thinking visionary clairvoyant, but he sees it a little later. But then, when he sees it, the phenomenon is already permeated with judgment, with thought, and he can know exactly whether it is an illusion, whether his own desires are objectified there, or whether it is objective reality. That is the difference in subjective experience. The non-thinking visionary clairvoyant sees the phenomenon immediately; the thinking one sees it somewhat later. For the former, however, it will remain exactly as he sees it; he can describe it as such. The thinker, however, will be able to place it entirely within what then exists in the ordinary physical world. He will be able to relate it to that world. The physical world is, just like that apparition, a revelation from the spiritual world.

[ 21 ] From this you can already see that, by approaching the spiritual world equipped with the instrument of thought, you have certainty in your assessment of what is given to you. But there is more: one might dispute the value of messages from the spiritual world if one has not witnessed the corresponding phenomena oneself. Let us add to the two we have set against each other a third person who is by no means a clairvoyant, but to whom are merely communicated the results of spiritual research, insofar as they are obtained through the path of keen thinking combined with visionary seeing. He takes them and regards them as reasonable. Yes, they are facts from the spiritual world. The visionary, thinking individual possesses them, and so does everyone who has understood them rationally, even if they are not aware of it. They need not be clairvoyant, and yet they possess within themselves the full value of what they receive as messages.

[ 22 ] There is a difference between having something and being aware of what one has. This makes it very easy to understand the relationship between a spiritual student who lacks this insight and one who is clairvoyant. Imagine you have inherited something but have not yet heard about it. If this were the case—if you had inherited it but were not yet aware of it—it would already have the proper value for you today. You may only find out later that you inherited it today, but you possess it nonetheless. So it is with the person who, through anthroposophy, comes to know facts of the spiritual world. He has them, once he has grasped them rationally; he possesses them and can now wait for the time when he becomes conscious of them. But this is precisely something that is by no means synonymous with the possession of the facts. This becomes particularly evident after death. What is actually more useful to a person after death—if we are to use this trivial word to clarify the matter—what is more useful: if they see something visionarily without thinking, or if they receive purely spiritual messages without seeing visionarily?

[ 23 ] One might very easily believe that visionary seeing is a better preparation for death than merely hearing the facts from the spiritual world. And yet! After death, what a person has merely seen in visions is of very little use to them. If, on the other hand, there is a fact, they immediately begin to become aware of the messages they have received, provided they have understood them rationally. It is precisely this that has value after death: what one has understood, regardless of whether it has been seen or not. And take the most deeply initiated: through his clairvoyance he can see the entire spiritual world, but that does not increase his significance after death if he is not able to express these facts in human terms. After death, only those things that he has here as concepts will help him. These are the seeds for life after death. Of course, one who is a visionary clairvoyant and a thinker can make use of what he sees in his visions. But two non-thinking people, one of whom is clairvoyant and the other merely hears what the first sees, are in exactly the same situation after death; for what we bring with us into the life after death is precisely what we acquire here through the power of keen thinking. That is what takes root as a seed, not what we draw from the worlds into which we enter. We do not receive what we receive from the higher worlds as a free gift so that we may have it more comfortable when we leave the physical plane, but rather so that we may convert it here into the currency of this earth. As much as we have converted into the currency of this earth, so much helps us after death. That is the essential point.

[ 24 ] This is how it is with regard to the relationship after death. But even here on the physical plane, the relationship is different for the visionary clairvoyant and for the thinking visionary clairvoyant. Certainly, it is interesting and beautiful to look into the spiritual worlds; but there is nevertheless a difference between merely seeing these spiritual worlds in a visionary way, apart from the fact that, without thinking through these things, one is never protected from delusions. There is no other remedy against delusions than to first think clearly about what has been seen. But even setting that aside: Let us suppose that a visionary clairvoyant has seen this or that, just as he sees it—you can gather this from his descriptions—yet it is still permeated by elements of the physical plane. Or has anyone ever described an angel to you who was not permeated by elements of the physical plane? He had wings, but birds have wings too. He had a human upper body, but every human being on the physical plane also has a human upper body. Certainly, the way the things are composed that the visionary clairvoyant describes is not present on the physical plane; but the elements for them are present on the physical plane. The images are entirely composed of elements of the physical plane. That is not without justification. But you can still infer from this that such an image has an earthly basis. What you have in your visions in the form of shapes and images taken from the physical plane does not belong to the spiritual world; it is merely a symbolization of the spiritual world using the means of the physical world. I have clearly explained this in *Outline of Esoteric Science*. There I explained that for clairvoyance today, this must indeed go so far that, while it initially has its pictorial nature as a preliminary stage, it must not remain there but must advance to the point where even the last earthly remnant of what is seen is cast off. Then, however, a certain danger exists for the clairvoyant when he sheds all earthly remnants. If, for example, he sees the angel and sheds everything earthly, there is a danger that he will then see nothing at all. If he omits what has been carried upward in terms of symbolism, then there is a danger that he will see nothing at all. What then preserves one from losing the whole thing when one truly enters the spiritual world is the seed that can sprout from thinking. Thoughts then provide the substance to grasp what is present in the spiritual world. Through this we gain the ability to truly live in the spiritual world, by grasping in our sensory world that which is no longer permeated by elements of the senses and yet is here on the physical plane. These are solely and exclusively thoughts. We may bring nothing into the spiritual world but thoughts alone; from a circle, for example, nothing of the chalk, but only the thoughts of the circle. With these, you can ascend into the spiritual worlds. You may bring nothing of the image with you.

[ 25 ] Now I can describe the subjective process mentioned earlier in even greater detail. Let us once again assume the case that something—let us say, for the sake of argument, a monstrance—is seen in the mental field. Now I wish to characterize the two clairvoyants—the purely visionary one and the intellectual one—in such a way that I assume one sees it here, at point a, while the other, the intellectual clairvoyant, sees it only here, at point b.

[ 26 ] a———b

[ 27 ] Only now does he become aware of it. But in doing so, he simultaneously perceives it through his thoughts and can penetrate it with his thoughts. However, the moment the intellectual clairvoyant permeates the form with his thoughts, it becomes indistinct to the visionary clairvoyant; it turns black and indistinct to him—here, b, at this point. It only reappears after some time. Precisely where the thought can connect with the form, it becomes indistinct for the visionary clairvoyant. He is actually never able to connect the thought with it. That is why he never has the experience: “You were there with your I.” — This experience is something that the purely visionary clairvoyant lacks.

[ 28 ] All of this delves more deeply into the matter, so to speak, and is immensely important to consider; it must lead one to the realization that it is truly necessary to develop one’s thinking and to overcome the complacency that arises from a reluctance to acquire true, discerning knowledge. It is a thousand times better to have first grasped the spiritual concepts intellectually and then, depending on one’s karma, sooner or later, to be able to ascend oneself into the spiritual worlds, than to have initially believed without having intellectually grasped what is communicated in the movement known as anthroposophy. It is a thousand times better to know spiritual science and not yet see anything than to see something and not have the ability to penetrate things intellectually as well, because this introduces uncertainty into the matter.

[ 29 ] However, you can express this even more precisely by saying: There are sharp thinkers today who can reasonably grasp the spiritual-scientific worldview. Why is it that sometimes these very people find it so difficult to attain clairvoyance? — It is relatively easy for those who are not sharp thinkers to attain visionary clairvoyance, and they then easily become arrogant toward thinking, whereas it is difficult for sharp thinkers to attain clairvoyance. There lies a razor-thin precipice where a certain masked arrogance asserts itself. There is hardly anything that breeds arrogance as much as clairvoyance not illuminated by thought, and it is particularly dangerous because the person in question usually does not even realize that they are arrogant, but rather considers themselves humble. They are completely unable to judge what an immense arrogance is involved in disregarding the intellectual work of human beings and placing the greatest value on certain intuitions. Therein lies a masked arrogance that is monstrous.

[ 30 ] The question now is this: Why is it—as experience teaches us—that it is so incredibly difficult for many a thinker to go on to become clairvoyant? This is connected to an important fact. What is called human discernment and judgment—the very qualities that the thinker cultivates, namely logical thinking—brings about a very specific change in the entire structure of the brain. The physical instrument is transformed by sharp thinking. Physical research knows little of this, but it is true; a physical brain used by a thinker looks different from one that belonged to a non-thinker. The fact that someone is clairvoyant does not change this much. In someone who does not think, you will find the brain in very complicated convolutions; in the sharp thinker, on the other hand, it is relatively simple, without any particular complications. It is precisely in the simplification of the brain’s convolutions that thinking expresses itself. Modern research knows nothing of this.

[ 31 ] Sharp thinking is that which can take in the whole picture, not that which is engaged in analysis. Hence the greater simplicity of the brain’s convolutions in the sharp thinker. Wherever physical research deigns to examine sharp thinking as it applies to physical conditions, it very soon becomes apparent that physical research confirms what spiritual science asserts. The examination of the brain of Mendeleev, to whom science owes the creation of the periodic table of elements, confirms what spiritual science says: his brain convolutions were simpler. He possessed, within certain limits, a comprehensive way of thinking, and the physical examination also fully confirmed the truth of what I have said. This is not of particular value; let me just mention it in passing. So, as I said, there is a change in the instrument of thought. This change must be brought about by the activity of thought itself. After all, no one is born with all the abilities they will later possess, perhaps with the predispositions for them; but they must first develop these abilities, so that a change actually takes place in the brain during the course of life. The instrument of thought has become different after a life of thinking than it was before.

[ 32 ] The fact is that our etheric body—which we must detach from our physical brain in order to develop clairvoyant consciousness—is bound to the physical brain through this mental activity. This work of thinking binds the etheric body strongly to the brain. If, due to their karma, a person does not yet have the strength to detach it at the right time, then it may be that they cannot achieve anything special in the field of clairvoyance in this incarnation. Let us assume that they have the karma of having been a keen thinker in a previous incarnation. Then thinking will not now engage the etheric body so strongly with the brain, and they will be able to detach the etheric body relatively easily and soon; and precisely because the elements of thought are the best seeds for ascending into the higher worlds, they can explore the mysteries of the higher worlds in the most subtle way. Of course, they must first detach the etheric body from the brain. But if the etheric body has become so entangled in the physical brain during the chiseling in of the thinking activity that it is exhausted, then his karma may perhaps make him wait a long time before he can detach it again. But when he then ascends, he has passed through the point of logical thinking. Then it is not lost; then no one can take away from him what he has attained, and that is immensely important, because otherwise clairvoyance can be lost again and again. I would like to point out once again that you were all clairvoyant in earlier times. Why do you no longer possess the ability of clairvoyance now? Because back then you were not linked or connected to earthly existence, because you were raptured into the spiritual world, because you did not bring it down to the level of your abilities, because visionary clairvoyance was based on a state of rapture.

[ 33 ] This is what we must keep in mind. These subtleties must be deeply ingrained in our souls. One must be clear that a true esoteric science today has the task of communicating those results of spiritual research that are imbued with intellectual content, so that the results of clairvoyant research are always presented in such a way that the non-clairvoyant person can grasp them through their thinking. To do this, however, they must first be connected with thought. Hence the difficulty with old books that speak of phenomena of the higher worlds. If you take up such old books, you will find a deficiency everywhere—if you approach them with the standards of today’s spiritual science. You may find magnificent insights in these old books, but modern people cannot make much of them unless they are clairvoyant themselves and can set the record straight, whereas with what spiritual science offers today, anyone who makes an effort can make sense of it because they can penetrate it using the mental elements they can acquire on the physical plane. For the same concepts are used to grasp what exists in the spiritual world and what exists in the physical world. Modern natural science speaks of evolution, and spiritual science speaks of evolution. If you have grasped the concept of evolution, you can understand what is communicated in spiritual science. You can form a concept of karma because you can form a mental image of it. Of course, if you simply say, as some theosophists do: “Every spiritual cause has a spiritual effect, and this is karma”—then you have no concept of karma. You can also see the law of cause and effect in a billiard ball, but that is not the right comparison for karma. Take, on the other hand, an iron ball and throw it into a vessel of water. If the ball is cold, the water remains as it is. But if you heat the ball and then throw it in, the water becomes warm. As a result of what happened to the ball, the water becomes warm. This can be compared to karma, where a later event is the consequence of an earlier occurrence.

[ 34 ] We must therefore be fully aware that anyone who penetrates the facts of the spiritual world with their thoughts can also communicate them in such a way that those who have formed these thoughts here on the physical plane can apply them to what is communicated from the spiritual worlds. Then they can understand it. Everyone should take this to heart. Everyone should understand that what matters is not receiving messages from the higher worlds, but rather receiving them in a way that corresponds to our earthly circumstances. Everyone should take care not to receive messages from the higher worlds in any other way. Of course, it is convenient simply to believe what is communicated. But that is a great evil. For, is it not true that if someone wants to believe, it is much like wanting to be told that there is a light, while they actually need the light to illuminate a room? There they must have the light; mere belief is of no help. Thus it is important to first adopt the form—the form of conscientious, thorough reflection—in order to receive the messages from the spiritual world through this form. They can only be investigated if one possesses the ability of clairvoyance, but once investigated, anyone who receives them in the right way can understand them.

[ 35 ] If one thinks this way, then all the dangers that are otherwise genuinely associated with what is called the anthroposophical movement will be more or less eliminated. However, the dangers arise immediately when people develop clairvoyant abilities and do not take care to simultaneously enrich their thinking—and especially their understanding—through the means of thought. Many have this eagerness to grasp something from the spiritual world at any cost, rather than proceeding with careful, genuine understanding toward what must be achieved on the physical plane. No god can grasp the world in thought unless he incarnates on this physical earth. He can grasp the world in another form; but to grasp it in this form, he must incarnate on this earth. Bearing this in mind, everyone can realize that there are certain dangers involved in developing abilities within oneself that are then not used properly. Whoever develops a certain visionary clairvoyance and does not use it properly, thereby cutting off the possibility of convincing the world with it; whoever remains only on the astral plane and does not bring his experiences down to the physical plane—such a person exposes himself to the danger that a gulf will open up between his visions and the physical plane.

[ 36 ] Let us suppose that someone has very significant visions that belong to the astral plane. For my sake, let us assume these are entirely real—after all, they may well be so for the non-thinking visionary clairvoyant—but now a gulf opens up between him and that which underlies the physical plane. Imagine for a moment that this towel represents the physical plane. Now the visionary clairvoyant stands before it; he sees his vision. Behind the physical plane, however, lies the actual spiritual world. The physical plane is Maya. The visionary clairvoyant does not eliminate this physical plane; it only disappears for the one who removes it through the power of thought. Only then do you penetrate beyond the physical plane, so that you can understand it only through intellectual clairvoyance. The physical plane is there, but you do not see the spiritual world, the real spiritual world. There the abyss opens up; there the physical plane remains as Maya. And this impossibility of penetrating the physical plane is due to the fact that the brain is not capable of switching itself off. Once you have learned to think correctly, you do not need your brain directly for thinking. That which is thinking works on the brain, but the activity of thinking does not require the brain directly. It is nonsense for anyone to claim: “The brain thinks.” I was once walking down the street—perhaps thirty-five years ago now—with a young man who was a student at the time and was well on his way to becoming a complete materialist. He said: Well, when he thinks, the brain atoms vibrate inside; every specific thought has a specific form, and he described how it would actually be nonsense to assume something like a soul that thinks there. Because the brain is the one that thinks. — I said to him: Yes, tell me, why are you actually being so dishonest? If that’s the case, then you can’t say: “I think.” You would have to say: ‘My brain thinks.’ You would also have to say: ‘My brain eats, my brain sees the sun.’ That would be the truth. — Then he would soon see what nonsense he’s carrying around with him.

[ 37 ] So it is not the brain that thinks. As I said, this can be made clear through quite trivial considerations—unless one happens to be a rather modern materialist. Thought activity does not, at first, depend on using the brain as its instrument, so to speak. Where thought is pure, the brain is not involved. It is involved only in the process of conceptualization.

[ 38 ] When you imagine a chalk circle, this happens solely through the brain; but when you conceive of a pure circle, free of any symbolic meaning, the circle itself is the active force that the brain first forms. But when a person has visionary clairvoyance, they remain in their etheric body and do not reach the physical brain at all. One can live in visionary clairvoyance one’s entire life. This does not change the brain; it develops the etheric body, but not the brain. Consequently, however, you can never penetrate this abyss; you can never truly penetrate Maya. You can only do so if you penetrate it with your thoughts.

[ 39 ] Those who reject a thoughtful approach develop abilities that, so to speak, do not grasp their object, that do not truly reach into the spiritual world. And the result is that a disproportion arises between what they continually develop in their etheric body and what they actually are as human beings. A complete imbalance arises: his brain is not suited to his clairvoyant abilities. The brain is coarse, for the person in question has not made the effort to refine it through thinking. Something forms that he cannot penetrate, which acts as an obstacle preventing him from approaching spiritual reality with his visions. He moves away from reality instead of drawing closer to it. Then any possibility of discerning the spiritual world is ruled out. Such a person will certainly be able to see much, but there is never any guarantee that what he sees corresponds to reality. Only one who can distinguish between mere vision and reality can make such a judgment. Only the power of discernment can make such a distinction. If one lacks this, one can never distinguish a mere vision from reality. But the power of discernment can only be acquired through work on the physical plane. Thus, one always hovers without a foundation if one spurns the somewhat arduous intellectual work required to attain it.

[ 40 ] This is what one must take to heart. Then the things that otherwise arise so easily—things that can happen over and over again—will not occur: that people, by developing visionary clairvoyance, erect a barrier against the real world and then live in their dreams. This is tantamount to no longer being at home in the physical world, tantamount, in fact, to not being fully in one’s right mind. One can attain level-headedness by working where this level-headedness can be cultivated solely: through thinking on the physical plane. If one spurns acquiring this level-headedness, one drifts into error. This is what we must acquire; otherwise, all the harms that must necessarily be associated with what is called the anthroposophical movement will ensue. Those who wish only to believe blindly—that is, who accept all communications from the higher worlds on the mere authority of another without rational thought—are doing something that is very convenient, but it carries a danger within it. Instead of working things out for oneself, instead of thinking for oneself, one takes in the knowledge of another, the things that another has seen. One refrains from critically examining what the other person communicates. This is what can lead to the harm caused by the anthroposophical movement. Of course, no one should allow this to deter them from devoting themselves to it. It can happen that such a blindly believing person loses their way, that they can no longer distinguish between what is true and what is false.

[ 41 ] Nothing fosters deceitfulness as much as a certain purely visionary clairvoyance that is not rooted in thought and controlled by it. And on the other hand, such clairvoyance in turn fosters yet another trait, namely a certain arrogance, a certain haughtiness that can lead to megalomania. And it is all the more dangerous because it goes unnoticed. There is a very great danger that one will consider oneself superior simply because one sees this or that which others do not see. And usually one has no idea how deeply what borders on megalomania is actually rooted in the soul. It hides itself in a certain way, and specifically behind the fact that one swears by one’s visions with absolute certainty and tolerates no objection, so that one can observe people believing the most foolish nonsense, provided it is told to them from the astral plane. It would never occur to them to believe such things from a person on the physical plane if he told them, but they believe it with slavish faith when it is told to them from the astral plane. Whoever breaks this habit will not fall for every hoax and humbug. But one falls for it if one does not cultivate the impulse within oneself to examine things, and as soon as one seeks to form a conviction in a convenient way. One should not take the easy way out. One should consider that forming a conviction is one of the most sacred matters for a human being. If one takes this into account, then one will spare no effort to truly work, rather than merely listening to sensational reports. We really have enough of reports from the spiritual world, so to speak, but it is also necessary to acquire the right attitude and the right way of thinking in order to relate to these things appropriately.

[ 42 ] That’s what I wanted to say today. I didn’t want to say it merely as an admonition, like a sermon, but to explain it with all the necessary reasoning. That’s why it was perhaps, in itself, a somewhat more demanding mental exercise to follow along. But I always try, even in my methods, to adhere to what can be expected as the right approach within the spiritual science movement. Many people want unctuous admonitions. I refrain from that. I try to present things in such a way that they can take on the form of real thoughts. When one discusses matters of the physical plane, as we are doing today, it is of course sometimes a difficult mental task, for they are not as sensational, nor as pleasant as matters of the higher worlds, but they are nonetheless immensely important. You will not underestimate the importance of these matters if you tell yourselves: If what must happen is to come to pass—namely, that in the next incarnations a sufficiently large number of people will remember the present incarnation—then precautions must be taken. So develop your power of judgment, and you will be candidates for remembering the present incarnation in the next one. Make sure you are able to follow the world with your thoughts. For even if you can see as much as you like in a visionary way, it will do you no good in recalling this present incarnation. But anthroposophy is there to prepare for what must necessarily come to pass: that there be a sufficiently large number of people who can now truly look back upon this incarnation from their own knowledge.

[ 43 ] How many people in this incarnation are able to combine spiritual scientific knowledge with clairvoyant abilities depends on the individual’s karma. There are certainly many sitting here whose karma is such that they will not be able to see through the world clairvoyantly in this incarnation. But all those who assimilate what is presented in true spiritual science—clothed in the forms of thought—will reap the fruits of this in their next incarnation, for they have laid the foundations for it. A person can, so to speak, be a clairvoyant without knowing it, and the one who studies spiritual science properly acquires the ability to see and can then wait until his karma allows him to actually perceive things.