Relationships Between the Living and the Dead
GA 168
16 February 1916, Hamburg
Translator Unknown
My dear friends:
It is our striving to penetrate, knowingly and at the same time livingly, in so far as this is possible, into those worlds which are closed to the usual everyday knowledge, the usual intellectual knowledge—bound to the physical plane.
For, in the life in which man is enclosed in his physical body, he stands in a world, as we have become accustomed to think during the course of years, which is only a part, a small part, of the entire actual world. As we come together so seldom, it is not possible, at these meetings, to explain everything from its foundations. How well founded these things are, that must be spoken of at such meetings, which take place only at less frequent intervals, and by what means they are established—this we must assume to be known from other meetings and through our books. For particularly at such a gathering it may, indeed, be our desire to learn something more important and more essential about what has just been referred to, about the greater, real world, which embraces both the physical and the spiritual world.
Since we last gathered here, many things have taken place within the circle which nurtures our spiritual science. A larger number of our dear friends have passed through the portal of death. Also, since the beginning of this hard war time, friends have passed through the portal of death who had to take part directly in these great events. In other words, within our circle, we are ourselves touched by the great spiritual world, because souls who were among us have entered this spiritual world after laying aside their bodies. It lies within the attitude which results from our Spiritual Science that, for us, the souls who have left the physical plane, who are received by another world, remain united with us, as they were united with us while they still looked at us with physical eyes and could speak to us by means of the instrument of the physical body.
Precisely when we approach the world which has received into itself our dead, in this moment, as we draw nearer to the souls of the so-called dead, we learn to know all those shattering experiences which must heap themselves upon our soul where it seeks to look across the threshold which separates us from the spiritual world, when it seeks to enter the world which can only be seen in the disembodied state of the soul. And you will perhaps understand that many of the words spoken here to-day resound out of the many feelings which have passed through my own soul in the course of the year, since we last saw one another.
Particularly during the last year, I have often had to say to our friends, that the right confidence can be gained only gradually, by one who sees into the fundamental conditions of existence, when he knows that those who have passed through the portal of death and who were faithful fellow-workers here on earth, will remain so also after death; so that in our work we quite certainly do not lose those souls who have won an understanding of our work, because they were already united with us here before they passed through the portal of death. And just among such souls there are such faithful fellow-worker that we may say: Even if the enemies and the lack of understanding here on the physical plane are sometimes so strong in opposition to our work, and become ever stronger, as we can well see, yet we may still have faith that Spiritual Science will penetrate into the evolution of mankind, because we can win this faith through our connection with the disembodied souls who have reached an understanding of the whole significance of our work for the course of man's development.
Of course, just when the human being, by means of his opened soul, approaches the world in which the so-called dead are—we can speak in this way, although it is, of course, the entire spiritual world in which the dead are to be found—precisely then, when the human being is able to approach this world as a visitor, as one who accompanies the dead into the spiritual world, he learns to know again and again that which has also been emphasised here: that, in reality, the concepts, the percepts and ideas which we form concerning the world, since we form them as we do because we are in a physical body, must be changed, must be made pliant, flexible, so that they can also encompass the secrets of the spiritual world. The man of to-day is adapted very strongly to the purely material perception of his surroundings, and thus he also forms concepts according to a purely material perception. For this reason, it becomes especially difficult for him to penetrate into the spiritual world even by means of concepts. In fact, many people believe that it is not possible to attain to an understanding of the spiritual world, if we are not able to see into it. They believe this, however, only because their ideas have become stiff and dead, through the fact that they have too strongly accustomed themselves to think only about the physical world.
Now that I have made these introductory remarks, I should like to speak to you to-day particularly about certain things in connection with the life of the so-called dead.
We know that, if we wish to consider the life between death and a new birth, we must consider and notice carefully how the human being forms himself of four parts, which are well known to us: physical body, etheric body, astral body and Ego.
If we consider, to begin with, the most outward fact regarding the dead a fact visible even from the physical plane, we find it to be the fact that man lays aside his physical body. We do not need to go into the different ways by which this physical body becomes united with the earth, be it by means of fire or decay—these differ, after all, only in regard to the time which they require.
But, even when we consider this fact, that the physical body falls away from the whole being of man in the moment of death and unites itself with the earth, as we say,—if we consider even this fact only with regard to its meaning for the physical plane, we shall have considered it, in reality, in a very inadequate way. And, in fact, it is often considered in a most inadequate way by persons of all manner of spiritual-scientific tendencies, who allow themselves still to be led astray by all sorts of moral conceptions, which do indeed penetrate into spiritual realms, to a certain extent, but are unfitted, in many respects, to understand in the right way the penetration of the spiritual into the physical world.
All physical events have also their spiritual significance. There is no physical event which has not, at the same time, a spiritual significance. In this case, then, the physical event is that our physical body falls away from us and is at the same time separated into its parts, into its molecules, into its atoms, and given over to the earth.
Now, it is a great prejudice of the modern materialistic world-conception, which has, however, held mankind more or less in its grip already for a long time, that the human body, as we carry it about from birth until death, or let us say from conception until death, that this human body simply falls into the smallest possible parts, into atoms, and that these atoms are then incorporated in the earth, or the sphere of the earth, and thereafter remain atoms, and then pass over as such into other beings.
Through the modern materialistic mode of investigation one comes very easily to such a preconception. But this mode of conception is, after all, nothing but nonsense, in view of spiritual science. It is nonsense. For, in reality, there are no such things as atoms, in the sense in which the chemists assume them. What the smallest parts of our bodies finally become, under all circumstances, regardless of the way in which we, as bodies, are united with the earth, is warmth. Our whole physical organism finally transforms itself, in reality, in one way or another, in a short or a long time, into warmth.
For this reason, we often speak, as you know, in spiritual science of warmth as a fourth physical state of aggregation, whereas physics does not acknowledge it as such, but only as a kind of characteristic. But it is this warmth which is, in reality, given to the earth; this is given over to the earth. Thus, from our physical body, we give to our earth—Warmth.
The warmth which is to be found in the earth, is, in reality, intimately connected with what human beings leave behind. Man does not transform himself into air, water, etc. These are only transitional stages through which he passes. Those parts of him which become air and water become at last warmth. Yes, even though it may be after a long time, even though the last remnants of matter may pass over into warmth only after hundreds of years, indeed, even though what belongs to the bone-system may pass over into warmth only after thousands of years, it is transformed finally into warmth.
If you go into Museums to-day, you will find skeletons of ancient men who lived upon earth in bygone ages, yet the time will indeed come when what is present there to-day as skeletons, will exist only as warmth within the body of the earth.
In any case, however, the way in which we are united with the earth, through warmth, is the materialistic way. The fact that even our physical body remains connected with the earth, has a great, an essential, importance for the one who has passed through the gate of death. He passes into the spiritual world. He leaves his body to the earth. This is an experience, an event, for the so-called dead. He has the experience:—“Your body passes away from you”. We must realise that this is an experience.
What is an experience? Well, you can form a conception of what it is, if you consider the experiences on the physical plane. It is an experience, if you have some new sensation, or feeling which you have never had before, and you learn to understand this. You have added something to your soul which you did not possess before a new concept, a new perception.
But now imagine such a small experience increased into a very great one. It is something mighty, something unfathomably mighty, that the human being experiences, which gives him the possibility between death and birth to see, to realise, to grasp the fact that he lays this physical body aside, that he gives over to the planet which he is leaving. It is a very great experience, an experience which naturally cannot be compared with any experience on earth—a mighty experience. The value of an experience lies in the fact that something remains in our soul as a result, as a consequence, of this experience. We may, therefore, ask the question:—What then remains as a result, as a consequence of this experience of the falling away of the physical body from the entirety of our being?
Indeed, if we were not able to have this experience when we pass through the gate of death, of knowingly participating in the falling away of our physical body, we should never be able to develop an Ego-consciousness after death. The Ego consciousness is aroused after death through this experience of the falling away of the physical body. For the dead it is of the greatest significance that he is able to say:—“I see my physical body slipping away from me and disappearing.” And, on the other hand:—“I see growing within me, out of this event, the feeling—I am an Ego.”
We may express this with the paradox words:—“If we were unable to experience our death from the other side, we would not have an Ego-consciousness after death.”
Just as the human soul entering existence through birth or, let us say, through conception—gradually becomes accustomed to the use of the physical apparatus and thereby acquires the Ego-consciousness within the body, so does the human being acquire the Ego consciousness after death, from the other side of existence, through the fact that he experiences the falling away of the physical body from the whole human being.
Consider now, for a moment, what this means. When we contemplate Death from the physical side of existence, we may say that it appears to us as the end of existence—as that which has beyond it, as far as the physical outlook is concerned, “Nothing”. Viewed from the other side, Death as such is a most wonderful thing, which can ever anew stand before man's soul. For it signifies that man can always have the feeling of the victory of spiritual life over physical life. And just as long as we can always have before us the conception of our birth here, in physical life—for no one can have the conceptual nature of his birth through physical means alone, indeed, no one knows anything about his birth through his own physical experience—just so surely do we always have before us, when we become fully conscious after death, a direct experience of the event of our death.
At the same time, this event of our death contains nothing which is in any way depressing; on the contrary, this death event, viewed from the other side, is the greatest, most wonderful and beautiful event which can appear before our soul. For it always places before us, in its entirety, the greatness of the idea that in the spiritual world, consciousness, self-consciousness is the result of death—that death stimulates this self-consciousness, in the spiritual world.
Secondly, we must observe the second member of our human existence, the etheric body. We find, with the help of the elementary presentations which we have all shared in, in the interval since we last met together, that this ether-body remains with us for a brief—a relatively brief—period after death, but after this, it is also laid aside. We know, too, that a certain importance must be attributed to the fact that our etheric body—the same one we possessed on earth—remains still united with us after death, for several days.
So long as we still carry this etheric body, after having laid aside our physical body, we can still think everything that we were able to think during our physical existence. We can, therefore, survey all the thoughts which we carry in us, as in a mighty picture. We see those thoughts which we experienced during life, in the life-picture which has often been described to you. Our whole life lies before us like a panorama, during the days in which we still carry our etheric body with us; and we have it before us simultaneously, i.e. we see it all at one glance. For, what we call memory, here, in the physical world, arises, to be sure, in the etheric body, but it is bound, nevertheless, to the physical body. This physical body we have laid aside. We see our thoughts. We do not draw them out of the depths that are connected with the physical body, but we see them; and we survey, as if in a panorama, the life which we have just passed through.
We then lay aside this etheric body. But this etheric body which we lay aside, remains visible for us, throughout our entire remaining life after death. It is outside, but it remains visible to us. It unites itself with the whole universe; nevertheless, whatever happens to it there, remains visible to us—we see it.
And this is one of the mysteries of death: that, so long as we carry our etheric body, we see in a panorama what we had in us in the form of thoughts while we were alive—we survey, as it were, what is outside us as being united with, woven into, the world; we see that, after death, it forms part of our surrounding world, not of our Ego. In this experience, it actually is as if that which weaved and lived in us as our etheric body, during life, were now entering the life of the etheric world outside.
Then comes the time, as you know, when we carry with us—of that which we carried here on the physical plane—only the Ego and the astral body, and when we, of course, look back. upon what we were. We then experience ourselves in an entirely different way from the way we did in the physical body—we experience ourselves with an enhanced consciousness, with a consciousness which death has founded in us.
We must never think, for instance, as the fanatics so easily do, that this life between death and a new birth is an unconscious experience for the soul. Connected with this life, is a stronger, more intensive consciousness, than is the consciousness belonging to the physical body—only that it has an entirely different form. And, of course, we can approach the way in which we should imagine the dead, only by taking all that Spiritual Science can give us, to help us to transform those conceptions which are suited to purely physical objects and events here on the physical plane.
Thus we now live, as we see, within our Ego and our astral body. We have cast off our etheric body. It is united with objective existence.
For one who is able to enter the spiritual world, it is a moving experience, indeed—and from this standpoint also, I may say—to visit and accompany the dead with whom one is able to find a contact; it is a moving experience to follow, not only the individual life of the dead between death and a new birth, but also, for instance, to follow what the dead beholds: that part of himself which is now contained, as his etheric body, in the woof of the world, which is now for him an exterior world, an objective world. It is deeply moving to observe what, the dead has just given over to the etheric world. Thus we may experience the dead in a twofold way, as it were. We can experience that part of him which he has passed on to the etheric world; and we can experience also that part which contains his consciousness after death.
I repeat, that this first contact with what the dead leave behind in the etheric world, is deeply moving. It would move us even if we were unable to come into contact with the Being itself, which continues to live between death and a new birth, and which carries both the consciousness and the self-consciousness of the deceased, but could come into contact only with what he had left behind. Even then this kind of experience would move our souls most deeply—it would have that moving quality peculiar to all contacts with the spiritual world.
And a part of what especially moves us is the actual, living experience that such spiritual substance as has here been indicated—indeed, that etheric spiritual thing which has been left behind by the dead—is, in reality, always round about us. Just so truly as we are living in the air which surrounds man everywhere, just so truly are we, at the same time, surrounded by what the dead have left behind them, as etheric spirituality. In this world, in which we stand, even with our physical bodies there is also that spiritual element which I have just mentioned. Just as we are surrounded by the air, so are we, in the same way, surrounded by what the dead leave behind. It is only states of consciousness that sever us from the spiritual world—we are not separated from them through spatial conditions, but only through conditions of consciousness.
Consider, for instance, the following fact:—Let us imagine a human being who is striving to carry out the following soul exercises. But I should like to emphasize that such soul-exercises must be carried out in perfect calmness of soul. If anyone becomes in any way excited through these exercises, he will damage himself. If soul-exercises are carried on in the way described here and in our literature, so that they are real soul-exercises, and our physical being does not take part in them, then they can never damage a human being in the very least—they cannot even damage his soul. Yet we should not on the other hand, be able to penetrate into spiritual knowledge, did we not call attention to such things, now and again.
Let us suppose that someone does the following exercise, and that he says to himself:—With my eyes I see red, blue, etc. And now he proceeds by experiencing something that is in a certain sense alive—when he sees red, blue green, etc.
Gradually, we begin to realise that, after all, we live in the physical world—especially our modern materialistic age—in a very coarse way—that we do not notice the finer experiences which come to us.
This finer element may be experienced if we take notice of the more purely soul-impression made upon us—let us say by colours—but also by other sense-impressions. Of course everybody knows, roughly speaking, that when he looks upon a blue surface, the impression it leaves will not be the same as that left by a red surface. A red surface—and I must emphasize this particularly—even when a person is not made nervous by looking at it, has something that attacks something which comes out of the surface, as it were, and thrusts itself at us. Whereas blue, for instance, awakens the opposite sensation—it remains quietly in its place; nothing comes toward us, out of the blue. On the contrary, we feel—if we are able to accompany colour-impressions with a fine feeling—that we can penetrate into this blue with our soul forces, that we can press through it.
Green is, as it were, in a rythmical state of balance. This is why it has so beneficent an effect upon us, as the plant's covering of the earth. Green works upon us in such a way that we are able, in part, to penetrate into it, while at the same time it comes back again toward us. When we look out upon the wide green field, we have this impression, that we enter into something; yet, at the same time, that it comes toward us. This is what constitutes the refreshing effect made upon us by a wide green field.
You will be able to convince yourselves of this fact: that human beings have noticed that it is possible to live with colour as it were, and if you read in Goethe's Theory of Colours—which, to be sure, is understood by very few persons of to-day—the chapter on the ethical effects of colours, you will find indicated the corresponding feeling to be experienced through each colour. Thus we find that we can experience colours ... we can also experience other sense-impressions; but, for the moment, we are speaking about colours, in order to have an example.
We can live with colours in such a way that blue, for example, calls to life in our souls a force that resembles the longing which goes forth from us and which is taken up kindly by blue.
In the case of red, something always arises which seems to come toward us and will not leave us alone—something that wishes to overpower us, as it were.
When we thus feel colours, we may have a soul-experience—a moral soul-experience, as it were. Of course, not every human being can carry on such experiences in any one incarnation; but I am describing them to you, in order that you may see how the different worlds are interrelated.
If, accordingly, a man were to carry on these exercises, he would live far more purely in the world of colours. And if he did them in connection with other sense-impressions, he would likewise live more purely in the other sense-impressions. In that case, however, something else would very soon have to arise—something different would take place.
Suppose that such a person were to experience the blue sky in this living way; he would in this case, not simply have the blue above him, (this is, moreover, a very subjective blue; for, in reality, there is no vault above us) but he would feel it above him as the inner surface of a beneficent, inner hemisphere, everywhere receiving his soul-life—a hemisphere, behind the apparent surface of which the soul's experience could penetrate.
It is because of this that human beings who experience the world in a deeper sense, speak as did Jacob Böhme, for instance, who did not say:—“When we see the blue vault of heaven ...”, but, rather:—“When we see the depths”. In these words, “When we see the depths”, we find contained the whole experience of “blue”.
But there is another parallel phenomenon which arises, if we so completely penetrate into the life of colour, that soul-experiences begin to light up when we see colours. There is then awakened in us the ability to make use of a very brief space of time, which we should otherwise not use at all.
When you face an exterior object in ordinary physical life, you see it—you see a certain colour. And, indeed, this is the starting-point of your impression. Then you are able to think about it. You can form a conceptual idea of the colour. But it is with the act of vision that you begin to live with the object. Yet, nevertheless, this is not the actual beginning of what takes place. Even the modern physiologist, working in the laboratories, knows that a certain time elapses between the effect upon our eye, and the arising of the idea connected with the colour blue. Thus, we see that, first of all, the blue colour works upon our eye. We do not immediately perceive it, but a certain time elapses, and only then do we become conscious of it.
You may read, even in ordinary books, how experiments connected with these things are carried on nowadays in the laboratories. Certain kinds of apparatus are constructed; and then the attempt is made to cause a certain impression—the student is the experimental rabbit. He must register, by means of another apparatus, when he receives the impression, so that one can establish the small fraction of time which elapses between the moment an impression strikes our sense-organs, and the moment we grow conscious of this. A certain space of time elapses. In this short interval, we do not as yet, for instance, experience the blue colour, (in the case of an impression of blue), but we do experience the moral effect of the colour. This works in us. Thus, the whole process of how the soul pours itself into the blue colour, how it is accepted with a kindly pleasure—all this lives in us already—the soul-element of the colour is active in us before anything else. Only, this activity remains unconscious; man does not perceive it. Man does not begin to develop his consciousness of the colour, until the colour arises. He does not notice what precedes the colour-sensation.
Now, let us think for a moment: when one is impelled to notice more particularly this moral impression of colours, this soul-experience of colours, then something special appears. We notice this when we should colour some sort of a surface—i.e. when we paint, or transmit colours in any way at all, which ought first to arise out of thoughts. In any real painting, the artist works out of the soul-impression of the colours. In this case, it is not as it is with the artist who simply uses a model—who simply imitates the model; but, rather the real artist knows that, because he has called forth a particular soul-impression, he must therefore use red; whereas, on some other surface, he uses blue, because he has called forth this or that soul-impression.
This is the way, you see, in which all of the painting has been worked out in our Dornach Building. The application of the colours has here arisen entirely out of the soul-element—which indeed must then shine through the colours. Yet, in order to achieve this, it was necessary, in the deepest sense of the word, first of all to have the Building in ourselves—as a Soul Being. The way in which the Building faces the world will be identical with the way in which it has grown out of “the Building”, as a Soul-Being.
People would perceive the thing out of which this Dornach Building has grown, were they able to make use of that short interval of time elapsing between the moment in which the Building strikes their sense-organs, and the moment in which the impression reaches their consciousness.
Any one, moreover, who has a share in the erection of the Building, must himself create all that is in it—its forms and colours—out of that short interval of time.
I have led you in a more scientific way, I might say, to something which may appear difficult to you. But we must also overcome difficulties such as these. Moreover, the possibility may arise, even in this modern Age, as if through an act of grace—and, in a certain sense, we are constantly being favoured by an act of grace, through the simple fact that we are in the world—for man to hold fast, in some way, to this moment. He will see something, and will at times be able to feel that something reciprocal has taken place between himself and the object which he sees outside—if he succeeds in bringing it to his consciousness. He will say to himself, when he sees something:—When I am looking at it, it seems almost as if I had already seen it before this moment.
Perhaps you have all become familiar with the experience of facing a being or an object, and then feeling, as it were, as if, after all, it is not there before you for the first time, when it makes an impression on your consciousness, but that it had already come nearer—indeed, it had come quite close. This creeping nearer—as one might call it—can indeed at times be observed. But, in ordinary life, what here takes place within this brief space of time, lies beyond our consciousness—beyond the threshold.
The moment we are able to bring into our consciousness what thus lies just beyond the threshold, we make an important spiritual discovery. I shall again bring it to your minds by citing a special case. Many of you have already heard about this. Perhaps I have also mentioned it here, in this place. Last year, a little boy died in close proximity to the Goetheanum Building; he was crushed by a furniture-van. The etheric body of this little boy is now united with the Dornach Building—forms the aura of the Dornach Building and lives in this aura. And when some artistic work must be carried out, in connection with this Building, forces come out of this etheric body, which then, of course, appears enlarged. We can feel these forces in us, in the same way that we feel the Building within our souls.
Why is this so? Because the world of which I have just spoken—that world which is always round about us, but which we do not perceive because it remains unnoticed until its impressions reach us—contains the etheric bodies of the dead, and the dead are looking on these bodies. What the dead see of our world—what the dead look upon—is contained in the etheric world which surrounds us. And we should always see it, if we could, so to speak, look into it before we look out into the physical world—if we were able to take even a little step across the threshold.
This does not, however, prevent the dead from being active in this world, through what they have left behind. We are surrounded by a world in which the etheric bodies of the dead are living. In some way or other, they are connected with that world. And only because what lives in the etheric must first come into contact with our physical body, and must set the physical apparatus into movement, do we fail to perceive this powerful weaving around us, of what the dead leave behind them, in etheric form, in our world. But we must acquire the feeling that it is our duty to enrich our world, in our conceptual ideas, by including in it, in the first place, what is contained in the whole etheric world, through the etheric bodies of the dead.
The dead themselves are not in this world—but only the etheric bodies which they have left behind. We cannot find the dead themselves in so easy a way—although even this “easy way” is difficult.
The dead, after they have laid aside their etheric bodies, continue to live in their astral bodies and their Egos. You can gauge to what extent we must transform our conceptions, if you bear in mind that everything pertaining to thought, is stripped off with our etheric bodies, which pass over into the exterior etheric world. After death, we do not keep the thoughts which we have collected here, in our physical body. All that pertains to thought becomes an exterior world. The one who has died, does not look upon his thoughts after death in the same way in which he looked upon thoughts which he formed during his life, and which he then remembered and drew up out of his sub-consciousness. After death he looks upon his thoughts as if they were an etheric painting; he sees his thoughts in the world outside. Thoughts are something exterior for one who has passed through the portal of death—they are outside. What reveals itself here through feeling and will, remains connected with our individuality. It continues to live in our astral body and in our Ego.
Our Ego lights up in self-consciousness through the contemplation of the moment of death. Our astral body is kindled because the thoughts contained in the picture before us, penetrate into the astral body. Thus we experience them in our astral body.
In the physical body, on the other hand, we experience thoughts by drawing them up from within us. After death, we experience thoughts by looking at them as we look at the stars, or as we look out at the world and the mountains, and they make an impression upon us; we take up this impression and experience it in our astral body and our Ego. Thus we see that just the opposite thing takes place: Whereas here on Earth we look upon thoughts as something within us, we must consider them as being something external, after death. Our life then dissolves in the world, flows out in the world.
It is important for us to bear this in mind and not to adopt the idea that the world after death is like a fine, thin repetition of the physical world here—an idea which is often accepted in spiritist circles. It is in fact something entirely different. And it is different, for the reason that our thoughts are Beings outside of us. Now, at the moment we begin to call up before our souls, conceptual ideas like these, we notice not only that we need a certain freedom from prejudice, as I might say, in order to accept Spiritual Science, but also that we must have a certain kind of ability to render our concepts more fluid, to transform our concepts—and that we cannot claim to be able to picture what is in the spiritual world with the same concepts and ideas which we have here, in the physical world.
Consequently, one who is in a position to visit—let us say—a so-called dead person, must first learn how to carry on this intercourse with the dead. Whereas, here, when we meet a person, we come into contact with his inner life through the fact that he expresses this inner life in words or gestures, we find instead, in the case of the dead, that if we wish to come into contact with him, he shows us what he wishes to tell us in the objective world. We see, as it were, in the form of imaginations, which he shows us, what it is that he experiences, and what he wishes to say to us. I might say that the dead person, when we ask him something, says to us: Look over there—it is there that you will find what I am now experiencing.
But all of this is a rapid process. The dead, accordingly, as you see from what I have said, have the capacity to see supersensibly the thoughts which we, here on earth, can experience only in an inward, invisible way. Only if we acquire the capacity to behold thoughts in union with him, are we able to share in his experience, for this reason, he has the special capacity, as a dead person—as a so-called dead person—to share with us the experience of our thoughts.
We are particularly struck by this in the case of a certain phenomenon which I should like to touch upon. When someone whom we have loved has departed from us, we continue, as we all know, to cherish our thoughts of him within our souls. We think about the experiences we have had in common, about the feelings we have shared with him, and so forth. The dead person, as I have said, beholds thoughts. He can also see our thoughts, and he can even distinguish very soon the thoughts which he himself has, in the form of impressions of the spiritual world—these are Imaginations of what is contained in the spiritual world, and thoughts living in the soul of a human being who is still dwelling in a physical body. He can distinguish these thoughts. His own inner experience enables him to make this distinction. For, you see, the difference is really very great. When a deceased person (and exactly the same thing applies to an initiate) has to experience a thought about something which exists only in the spiritual world, he must himself experience this thought, actively. He must himself first follow the thought—every position of it, as it were. It is difficult to make this process clear; but I might explain it as follows:—Suppose a painting were hanging before us, here. But supposing you were to see this painting only when you yourself had traced its lines and painted its colours—followed all the details. This is what the dead can do. He paints every thought he sees; he himself creates the thoughts anew, as it were, and experiences his own activity. A large portion of the life between death and a new birth consists in this—in a creative copying of what exists in the spiritual world as thought-formations. We must learn to create these anew, with the dead—then we know that these are forms of thought which pertain only to the spiritual world.
The experience is different when we look down from the spiritual world upon the thoughts living in the human beings who have been left behind in the physical world. In this case, it is not necessary to re-create them; but these thoughts actually come to meet us, so that the dead person can remain passive. Just as a flower does not need first to be drawn or painted by us, but immediately makes an impression upon us, so it is with the thoughts coming from those who are still alive. These thoughts actually arise in a way similar to the way in which impressions arise, here in the physical world.
And this is just what uplifts, gladdens and warms the dead, in the thoughts of the living whom they have loved. For it is a very special sphere of activity for the dead—this being able to look into the thoughts of those whom they have left behind and who loved them. This is a special world for them.
It would be possible—would it not—for us to experience the physical world, as if it contained only what arises in the mineral, animal and vegetable kingdom and in the kingdom of man. In this case, for example, the physical world would contain no Art. Art would have to be added to all this—it would have to be created in addition to what we actually need. Yet Art is the very element which, from a soul-aspect of human evolution, must not be absent in the world, in spite of the fact that Nature would be just as perfect as it is, even if there were no Art. Thus, the dead could go on living, if necessary—although it would be like the human being living in a barren, lifeless, naked world of Nature, a world devoid of Art—were the peculiar circumstance to arise that everyone who had died were to be immediately forgotten, after death, by those who had loved him. Whatever can be seen as thoughts, remaining in the souls of those who love the dead, is something which is, to be sure, an additional element, going beyond the immediate requirements of the world of the dead; yet, at the same time, it uplifts and beautifies the life of the dead. It cannot be compared with Art in the physical world—that is to say, it can be compared, but the comparison is a lame one—for it means for the dead, as I have said, an uplifting, a beautifying element, yet in a far higher sense than the beautifying influence of Art is for us, here, in the physical world.
Thus it is deeply significant for the whole existence of the world, if we unite our thoughts with the thoughts of the dead, and especially if we do this in the form which we have often spoken about, here. Above all, we should approach the dead with thoughts clothed in that language, in that language of concepts which is common both to the living and to the dead—in the language which we speak here, in Spiritual Science. For the dead understand what constitutes the contents of Spiritual Science, just as well as do the living. And, moreover, it never becomes alien to the dead.
It is precisely through the bringing together of conceptual ideas such as these, I believe, that we shall be able gradually to form a plastic picture of the spiritual world. We can thus find our way into what lies beyond the threshold—whence, in reality, there flows forth all that exists for us on this side of the threshold.
In the face of these phenomena, we must bear in mind that present-day humanity is shortsighted in its vision of the world—and this is justified, to be sure, because it forms part of the universal plan—at the same time, it really is more shortsighted than it needs to be. For, you see, when a materialistic person of the present day forms his ideas, his conceptions of the world, he thinks that these are the universally-accepted human ideas and conceptions. You know how difficult it is to convince a materialistically-minded person that there are also other ways of thinking than his own. The standpoint taken by the materialist causes him to say that anyone who does not think as he does is a fool. There is no greater inward intolerance than that of a materialist.
Hence, a materialistic person actually thinks, generally speaking:—“Oh, of course, in the past, men thought all manner of things as to the existence of the spiritual; they could hardly move a step, in their daily life, without suspecting the presence of spirits everywhere, or indeed without seeing them. But all this was sheer fancy—now, at last, we have progressed so far that we have discarded this childish play of the human race.”
And yet it would seem as if human beings ought to be able to see at each step how nonsensical such a conception really is.
I shall try to make this clear to you, by citing an example, which may appear to be far-fetched, and from an entirely different side than the one we have discussed to-day in essence.
Let us think, for a moment, about that picture, which we have often discussed from various aspects, relating to the first stage of human evolution on earth—of man's life in Paradise, as we find it described in the Bible. Let us think about this picture of Adam and Eve in Paradise, the first human beings—Eve biting into the apple and giving the apple to Adam. Let us think of the picture of the Serpent on the Tree, tempting Eve.
When the painter of our day paints this picture—and even to-day, the modern painters still occasionally do paint it—he paints it, to be sure, in such a way that the picture will show a woman as true to Nature as possible, and a still more naturalistic man, because this is modern ... Impressionism, Expressionism, and I do not know what else; in any case, a very naturalistic woman and a still more naturalistic man, then a naturalistic landscape, and a naturalistic serpent showing, of course, greedy naturalistic teeth, etc. This is actually the way it is painted.
Painters have not always painted in this way, however; for such a picture would not render the true facts, as we know them. We know that in the Serpent, we may recognize a symbol of the real Tempter, Lucifer. Moreover, Lucifer is a Being who, as we know, remained behind during the Moon Period, and who—in the way in which he appears during the Earth Period—may be symbolized by the Serpent. Nevertheless, the Serpent is not Lucifer, and this must somehow become evident, spiritually. In other words, this Lucifer must also be seen with the forces of the soul—he must be seen from within, through the effort of inner forces.
How is it possible to see him, my dear friends? Indeed, we bear within us all the impressions of Lucifer. We actually carry them about within us. Just as we carry about the impressions of Ahriman, so we carry these in us, also.
Now I shall explain to you as briefly as possible, without any proofs or detailed explanations—these you must find for yourselves, in our already existing literature on this subject—how it is possible to form a conception of Lucifer.
Man carries about within him the impulses of Lucifer. They live in him in such a way that they are centred in his head, and from there they permeate the astral body where the Luciferic principle has remained within him; that is to say they force their way into his head—whereas otherwise it is the Spirits of Form which have moulded his head—and they also force their way into what is formed by the astral force into the spinal cord.
Thus, if we were to draw the head of a man and prolongation, the spine, the result would be a Serpent, a serpent like form, with a human head. Of course, the whole thing should be imagined as an astral form—the head to some extent still resembling a human head, and the spinal cord appended to it and turning around like a serpent. Imagine this projected objectively—and you will have a serpent with a human head. That is, Lucifer viewed externally, in the form of an image, assumes the aspect of a serpent with a human head. Not a serpent with a serpent's head, for that would no longer be a Lucifer—that would be an earthly serpent, which has already, as an earthly creature, been subjected to the influence of the Spirits of Form.
Hence, if a painter wished to paint Lucifer on the Tree, he would have to imagine the Serpent coiled around the Tree with a human head looking out above. He would then be painting out of the knowledge gained through our Spiritual Science.
Thus, we should have to picture Adam and Eve by the side of the Tree, and—coiled into the Tree—the astral shape of the spinal cord, resembling, as I have said, a serpent body, together with the image of the human head. If the woman Eve, sees it first, it will, of course, take on the form of a woman's face.
If you go into the Museum here, and look at the painting of Master Bertram, you will see there, that in the Middle Ages this kind of serpent was still portrayed coiled on the Tree, as I have explained. It is most striking and sublime; for it proves to us that a painter living in the very heart of the Middle Ages could paint from out of the true and real concepts of the spiritual world. This is an undeniable proof for the fact that we need not go back so very many centuries; and there are many documents, still existing to-day, to show us that in those days people still knew something of what our present materialistic humanity has already forgotten.
Of course, in an exterior history of Art, this fact which I have just mentioned is never touched upon. Nevertheless, anyone—by adopting not only the modern materialistic attitude, but also the materialistic standpoint or conception—can convince himself that both the vision of the spiritual, and the disappearance of this vision, are events of only a few centuries ago. Anyone here in Hamburg can convince himself of this, by going to the Museum and looking at this Paradise-picture of Master Bertram, he will find, there, the irrefutable proof, furnished on the physical plane, that it was not at all so long ago that men were able, by means of atavistic clairvoyance—as we may call it—to look into the spiritual world, and to have knowledge of its mysteries in a way that was entirely different from the way of to-day.
We need only think how blindly people go through the world to-day; how, if they only wished to do so, they could convince themselves, even externally, on the physical plane that evolution takes place, in the human race.
The significant fact is that during the course of the last three to four centuries, the formerly extant, more atavistic and unconscious clairvoyance has been disappearing. For, naturally, Master Bertram would not have been able to develop Spiritual Science. He merely saw, still saw in the etheric world, what Lucifer was really like, and then painted him accordingly. It was an unconscious, instinctive clairvoyance.
In order that man should acquire the external form of vision, the old way of looking at the spiritual world had to disappear. But it must be acquired anew by man. And the time must gradually come, only of course, this must be in the sphere of consciousness—when what has been lost, must be striven after anew. For this reason, the way must be prepared by Spiritual Science. People can approach the spiritual world again only if they study Spiritual Science. But this Spiritual Science must really bring an insight into the spiritual world.
To-day it is possible to prove scientifically, as it were how far natural science can bring the world forward. When a scientifically-trained person to-day speaks about such matters, he really speaks about the soul-apparatus, about the bodily instrument of soul-life. Now, if you try to investigate in the descriptions available to-day—they are generally called psycho-physiology—even those written by the most significant modern scientists, you will find there, what they have to say about the soul-instrument. You will find that these people express themselves, everywhere, in a most peculiar way. They say, for instance:—Let us consider the life of impressions and reactions, and the life of conceptual ideas; to this life of impressions and conceptual ideas belongs, in every case, the soul-apparatus. And then they describe what happens in the brain and in the nervous system when a man has impressions or forms conceptions. The parallel bodily process can always be found. But when these scientists approach feeling and the will, they cannot find a parallel bodily process. They cannot find anything.
That a thing like this does not come to light, but remains unnoticed, is due only to the fact that natural science and its rear-guard—we cannot really say rear-guard, because a rearguard is useful, and the monistic rear-guard of natural science is entirely superfluous—because natural science and its rearguard, the Monists, simply crow about the fact that for every process of thought and sensation, a certain physical parallel process is to be found, and that thought and sensation are bound to the brain. But they do not speak of shades of feeling or will. At the most, they speak of shades of feeling—in other words, a certain nuance of conceptual thought. But they do not go as far as feeling and will.
And the honest scientists say:—Our science does not extend as far as feeling and will. You can read for yourselves what I have just said, in the natural-scientific literature. It is possible to corroborate it in all spheres of science. For instance, in the case of Dr. Th. Ziehen, the well known modern psychiatrist and psycho-physiologist—in his book, you can find most easily of all a confirmation of what I have just said. He points out the single processes which correspond to thought and to sensation. He goes as far as certain shades of feeling; but he does not reach to actual feeling and will. Thus he disavows feeling and will. They do not exist at all, he says.
Now could we really find any clearer scientific proof than this, for the fact that natural-scientific thought extends only over the sphere of the temporal—only over that which we lay aside with death; whereas, at the same time, there is something that extends beyond this, living, precisely, as I have indicated, in feeling and will, and yet so far removed from the body that the scientist simply does not find it, indeed he rejects it and disavows it!
This is, accordingly, the reason why the scientists boast that feeling and will do not exist: because they cannot be found by the ordinary science. Indeed, it is natural science itself, as we see, that proves to us today that feeling and will are not bound to the body as such, like thought and sensation.
This is connected with the fact that our thoughts separate themselves from us; after death they appear spread out, outside of us. Feeling and will remain ours. And out of feeling and will springs forth the power to create the thought-tableau. He who wishes to do so to-day, can show by means of what is strictly scientific, that feeling and will are not connected with what we call “Nature”, but that, on the contrary, they pass out after death, as astral body and Ego, and remain united with the human individuality—kindling themselves to a new consciousness, in the way that I have described, through the fact that what spreads itself out is all etheric, that is, mirrors itself first in the astral body and then in the Ego when the astral body has been laid aside.
This is all as it should be. Modern science does not refute Spiritual Science, but confirms it. It really does confirm it. If it were possible to arouse even a little understanding, it would be seen that, for a right understanding, it is precisely an honest natural science that points to a justification of Spiritual Science, even in all its separate details.
Spiritual Science is, as you see—in view of all that has been said—something which must in our day begin to enter into the development of humanity, which must begin to have a grip on humanity, because otherwise the human race will reach the point where it will understand only the temporal, and when it will know nothing of the eternal, which lives in us. The time will come, when people will first recognise this, and when they will also concern themselves more with the development of their feeling-life. For only through feeling and will do we unite ourselves with the world which is not devoid of thought.
The objection might be made:—Very well, then, you feel the spiritual world, but you do not will it. But no, it is precisely through feeling and will that we are united with the objective thought-world—with the thoughts that live, and which we do not merely think. And just as truly as in the past mankind possessed a power of seeing into the spiritual world, just so truly will it have to win this power again in the future. Man will be able to win it again, however, only if he determines first to enter a little way into the thought-world which is no longer recognised by our generation, as coming from the spiritual world.
In order to attain this, a very great deal of what is rumoured about to-day as concept and percept will have to be corrected. Indeed, it would be hard to believe how thoughtlessly, as a matter of fact, human beings of to-day—allow me to use a paradox—how thoughtlessly human beings think. This really would be hard to believe. They make definitions which they are unshakably convinced are right, and cannot be refuted in any way. It belongs to the task of the spiritual scientist, however, to test all the more carefully what it is that convinces people so unshakably—just because it appears to them to be entirely logical and thus they are convinced of it. What, for instance—they think—could be a better definition than this, when someone is asked, in this modern materialistic Age of ours “What is a true concept?”—that he answers by saying:—“It is a true concept, when I form an inner picture of an object which is actually present, outside in the world. This is then a true picture of an object which exists outside.” In other words, everyone, in our day, would give this definition: “Truth consists in the conformity of a picture which we form in thought, to something actually existing outside.” We can now very easily show, however, if we examine concepts, that true concept has nothing to do with what we usually call by this name—has nothing whatever to do with it, in so far as it is supposed to be a picture of something having actual existence. It can easily be shown that actual existence goes along quite another path than does the picture which we fancy to be concept. You see, if this were true: that a concept is only true when it conforms with something having actual existence, naturally, then, it would also be true only so long as that which has actual existence verifies it.
Thus a concept might be compared with a portrait which someone has made of a human being. The portrait is good, if it resembles the person in question. Yet it has nothing to do with his being. The fact that the picture corresponds to the person, does not lead to an inner truth in the picture. Imagine to yourself that you have painted the picture of some man who then dies, soon afterwards. At first, the picture corresponded to what was there, but afterwards to what no longer exists. There is no connection between actual existence or life, and the portrait; as far as life is concerned, it is an entirely indifferent matter whether the picture is a true one or not. Such a connection is quite imaginary, when we look at things really logically. The essential thing is to experience things inwardly. It is this inner experience which humanity must again acquire.
In order to acquire this, however—and it is just during these hard, sorrowful days that we can be brought to realise in a special measure how necessary this is—in order to acquire this, it is necessary above all that humanity should acquire again a feeling for Truth, for real Truth.
Materialism gradually estranges us completely from Truth. We have gone astray through materialism—and especially where the idea of Truth is concerned. Compare for yourselves, for instance, the journalistic descriptions of today—and how many people read nothing but the newspapers, nowadays—compare these with the real events, which you may happen to have seen yourself! When you read this again, in the newspapers, you will find that the reporter has written it up in the way that he believes will make an impression on his readers. All feeling that such descriptions should correspond to the Truth grows weaker and weaker. And so long as this feeling for Truth does not permeate humanity, the impulse that leads from the sense-world into the spiritual world cannot be awakened to activity in human souls. For, with this want of any concepts of Truth in our thoughts, our concepts become falsified. How often, for instance, do we come across the following case:
Someone writes about Spiritual Science—let us suppose about what I have published in connection with Spiritual Science. He writes about this, and he cannot help saying—owing to his materialistic mentality—that everything is invented, and that it is not permissible to invent such things. And then he continues by investigating the question of how it can be possible for a man to be so fantastic.
As a matter of fact, this article actually appeared not so very long ago. The writer tries to find out how it is possible that a man can be so fantastic! And then he relates where this man comes from—in this case, it was I—where he used to live (not his recent abode, but where the writer reports him to have lived) and how it is because of his peculiar race-mixture that he can invent such fantastic things. And then this reporter himself invents the most incredible things, impelled by his materialistic mentality. And here you have an example of what I mean: People simply take hold of lies, and allow truth to become inwardly distorted.
Of course, no direct proof can be supplied for this. Yet what could be more false than to accuse someone of inventing fantastic things, and then to invent the most incredibly fantastic things about him, oneself! If you will study our modern life carefully, you will find that there is a very widespread lack of any feeling of responsibility, which would see to it that everything one says should correspond to the Reality. Unless we possess this feeling for Truth most intensively, we cannot gain access to the spiritual world. Nor can we understand why we must believe to be true, what Spiritual Science brings down for us as Truth, from the spiritual world.
But our thinking is far too inadequate for a true contemplation of this sort—and we cling too much to our own personal interests, to be able to see how untruthfulness glitters in everything and how its fragments can be found in all the happenings of life.
A true feeling, a true conception of this is what should occupy our thoughts, and should constitute the first preparatory steps in Spiritual Science. Thoughts like these should be, I might say, a kind of conscious preparation for what Man's future really should be. For, the welfare of the human race can become a reality only if our souls become united again with the spirit. Spiritual Science is not something that we seek in the form of a new kind of sensation, but something whereof we know that it must arise, because humanity needs it. And we ought to feel indebted, as it were, to Spiritual Science, if we observe, in a clear and lucid way the course of human evolution.
How much richer we grow, through what Spiritual Science can give us, because the world widens out for us more and more, through the fact that spiritual reality is added to physical reality, in human evolution! Human beings have been more and more cut off, in this materialistic age, from the world in which man lives between death and a new birth. Spiritual Science must give back to them, again, that life which comprises the whole human being—including that part which remains when man no longer possesses a physical body. In this respect, the physical world has nothing to give us.
It can weigh heavily, very heavily, upon our souls—especially just at the present difficult time—to see a volume like the one by Ernst Haeckel, which has just appeared. He calls it “Thoughts of Eternity”. Now, Ernst Haeckel is one of the most distinguished men of our day. This book, “Thoughts of Eternity”, starts out with the present Great War. What is the chief content of this book? The chief content of this newest book by Haeckel, “Thoughts of Eternity”, is expressed in these words: What can this particular war teach us? Thousands and thousands of people die a death of external violence, without any necessity whatsoever. “Must we not see”—asks Haeckel—“in this very war, the proof for the fact that all thoughts on eternity and infinity are absurd? Does not this same war, which ruins men's lives through outer chance, such as a bullet, for example—does it not show us that there is nothing beyond ordinary physical life?”
Of course, there will be other people of our day, who will be led to a different kind of thinking about eternity, through these events—to quite the opposite kind of thoughts of eternity, to thoughts which, in any case, call up in us the feeling that those who pass through the portal of death in times such as these continue their tasks for humanity in other worlds, and that the very sacrifice which they make, partly constitutes, in their new life, the starting point for what they have to fulfil when they no longer carry a physical body.
It is possible to prove all sorts of things, through ordinary science: it is possible to prove, for instance, that ordinary science enables man to construct all sorts of excellent kinds of apparatus, which raise the standard of human life and advance human civilisation—in a peaceful sense. Yet this same science can also construct the most terrible things—for the destruction of human life. External science enables man to construct both good and destructive things, and to prove all sorts of facts.
In order really to penetrate into the world where the eternal lives, there is need for Spiritual Science. And this Spiritual Science—I have already spoken to you about this, at least to some of you—shows us, among other things, and makes it quite clear to us, that those who leave their physical body at an early age, before the ordinary span of life on the physical plane has elapsed, give over their etheric body to the etheric world, and continue to live as individualities. Then, the spirit and the sense of Spiritual Science show us that such an etheric body, which would still have been able to support a physical body for a long time, still contains vital forces, when it is handed over to the etheric world—forces which would have been able to keep the physical body alive for decades. It exists in the etheric world, as illustrated by the example I have already cited to you.
What a human being acquires, through his sacrificial death continues to live in his individuality. It continues to live in him, especially at a time like the present; and we are able to gain an insight into the significance of what is taking place only when we look at things with our spiritual eyes, through Spiritual Science. Then our attention will be drawn to the fact that the spiritual counterpart of what is now happening on European soil, as the spiritual correlation, the spiritual parallel process of the mighty and sorrowful events taking place on the physical plane, here in Europe—since all physical events are under the guidance of the spiritual world—must flow through physical events, into the future of human evolution.
But this will bear fruit only if human souls, living in physical bodies on the earth, acquire a consciousness of the fact that an active and helping influence is going out to them—from those forces which live in the spiritual world as the result of thousands and thousands of sacrificial deaths: and that they can submit themselves to this influence, in a sense, in order to be able to continue in the future their activity on this earth—united with the dead through that consciousness of the reality of a spiritual world, which can be acquired by the human soul.
This is what Spiritual Science must give to men—also in connection with these events now taking place. And human beings will then be able to render fruitful for the future, in the right way, the spiritual counterpart of this mightiest of all world-events, and they will be able also to think and to feel, in the right way.
From the courage of fighters,
from the blood of battles,
from the sorrow of those who are left behind,
from a nation's sacrifice,
will ripen spiritual fruit—
if, toward the spirit-kingdom,
souls will spirit-conscious turn.
Das Leben Zwischen Tod und Neuer Geburt
Es ist unser Bestreben, erkennend, soweit es möglich ist, einzudringen in diejenigen Welten, welche der gewöhnlichen sinnenfälligen, verstandesmäßigen Erkenntnis, die an den physischen Plan gebunden ist, verschlossen sind. Wir sind ja gewohnt worden zu denken im Laufe der Jahre, daß der Mensch in dem Leben, in dem er innerhalb seines physischen Leibes eingeschlossen ist, in einer Welt steht, die nur ein geringer Teil der gesamten wirklichen Welt ist. Wir können, da wir so selten zusammenkommen, gerade bei diesen Zusammenkünften nicht alles, ich möchte sagen aus den Fundamenten heraus erklären. Bei unseren sonstigen Versammlungen und aus unseren Schriften muß sich erkennen lassen, daß die Dinge wohlbegründet sind, die ausgesprochen werden bei denjenigen Zusammenkünften, die wir nur seltener haben können. Denn es darf unser Bedürfnis sein, gerade bei solchen Zusammenkünften Wichtiges und Wesentliches über die eben angedeutete, größere wirkliche Welt, die die physische Welt und die geistige Welt umfaßt, erkennen zu lernen.
Seit wir das letzte Mal uns hier getroffen haben, ist ja auch innerhalb der Kreise, in welchen unsere Geisteswissenschaft gepflegt wird, mancherlei geschehen. Eine größere Anzahl lieber Freunde sind durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen. Auch seit dem Beginne dieser schweren Kriegszeit sind Freunde durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen, die unmittelbar teilnehmen müssen an den großen Ereignissen. Das heißt, wir sind selbst auch innerhalb unseres Kreises von der großen geistigen Welt insofern berührt worden, als Seelen, die innerhalb unserer Reihen waren, nach Ablegung ihres Leibes diese geistige Welt betreten haben. Es liegt in der Gesinnung, welche aus unserer Geisteswissenschaft erfließt, daß für uns die Seelen, die also den physischen Plan verlassen haben, die von einer anderen Welt aufgenommen worden sind, uns verbunden bleiben, wie sie uns verbunden waren, während sie noch durch physische Augen uns anblickten, durch die Mittel des physischen Leibes zu uns sprechen konnten.
Gerade wenn man sich der Welt nähert, die unsere Toten aufnimmt, dann lernt man in solchen Momenten, in denen man den Seelen der sogenannten Verstorbenen nahetritt, alles Erschütternde kennen, das schon einmal auf unsere Seele sich entladen muß, wenn diese Seele versucht, hinüberzublicken über jene Schwelle, die uns trennt von der geistigen Welt, und einzutreten in die Welt, die nur geschaut werden kann im entkörperten Zustand der Seele. Und Sie werden es vielleicht begreiflich finden, daß aus mancherlei Empfindungen heraus, die gerade durch meine eigene Seele gezogen sind im Laufe des Jahres, seit wir uns gesehen haben, daß aus solchen Empfindungen heraus manches Wort getönt wird, das wir heute miteinander zu sprechen haben.
Ich habe gerade im letzten Jahre öfter zu unseren Freunden auszusprechen gehabt, daß das rechte Vertrauen desjenigen, der in die Bedingungen des Daseins hineinsieht, doch eigentlich erst erwachsen kann, wenn man weiß, daß diejenigen, die durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind und hier treu mitarbeitende Seelen waren, dieses bleiben, so daß wir ganz gewiß für unsere Arbeit diejenigen Seelen nicht verlieren, die Verständnis für unsere Sache gewonnen haben, da sie mit uns verbunden waren hier, bevor sie durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen sind. Und unter solchen Seelen sind so treue Mitarbeiter, daß wir sagen können: Wenn manchmal die Gegnerschaft und das Unverständnis hier in der physischen Welt gerade unserer Sache gegenüber so groß ist und immer größer wird, wie wir es bemerken können, so dürfen wir doch an das Einleben unserer Sache in den Entwickelungsgang der Menschheit glauben, weil wir diesen Glauben gewinnen können durch die Verbindung mit den entkörperten Seelen, die Verständnis gewonnen haben für die ganze Bedeutung, die unsere Sache für diesen Entwickelungsgang der Menschheit hat.
Allerdings gerade dann, wenn der Mensch durch die geöffnete Seele herantritt an die Welt, in der die sogenannten Toten sind - man kann so schon sprechen, wenn es selbstverständlich auch die gesamte geistige Welt ist, in der die Toten sind —, gerade wenn der Mensch heranzutreten vermag, ich möchte sagen wie ein Besucher, wie ein Begleiter der Toten an die geistige Welt, dann lernt er immer mehr kennen das, was auch hier schon betont worden ist: daß wirklich die Begriffe, die Vorstellungen, die Ideen, die wir uns über die Welt machen und die wir uns deshalb so machen, weil wir im physischen Leibe sind, daß diese Vorstellungen und Ideen vielfach verändert werden müssen, biegsam gemacht werden müssen, damit sie auch dasjenige umfassen können, was die Geheimnisse des geistigen Daseins sind. Der heutige Mensch ist sehr, sehr angepaßt an das bloß materielle Schauen seiner Umgebung, und er bildete sich deshalb auch die Vorstellungen nach diesem bloß materiellen Schauen. Dadurch wird es ihm vor allen Dingen schwierig, in die geistigen Welten auch nur mit der Vorstellung einzudringen. Gar viele glauben, man könne nicht ein Verständnis der geistigen Welten gewinnen, wenn man noch nicht hineinschauen kann. Sie glauben es aber nur aus dem Grunde, weil sie ihre Ideen starr und tot gemacht haben dadurch, daß sie sich zu stark gewöhnt haben, nur an die physische Welt zu denken.
Nachdem ich dies vorausgeschickt habe, möchte ich gerade einiges von dem heute zu Ihnen sprechen, was mit dem Leben der sogenannten Toten zusammenhängt. Wir wissen, daß wir betrachten müssen und beachten müssen, wenn wir das Leben zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt ins Auge fassen wollen, wie der Mensch sich aus den vier Gliedern, die wir ja gut kennen - physischem Leib, Ätherleib, astralischem Leib und Ich — zusammensetzt. Wenn wir zunächst die äußerlichste, noch von dem physischen Plane her sichtbare Tatsache des Todes ins Auge fassen, so ist es diese, daß der Mensch seinen physischen Leib ablegt. Wir brauchen nicht einzugehen auf die verschiedene Art, in der nun dieser physische Leib, sei es durch Verbrennung, sei es durch Verwesung — beides ist im Grunde genommen nur durch die Zeit verschieden, in der es geschieht -, sich mit dem Erdendasein vereint. Aber schon wenn wir diese Tatsache, daß der physische Leib von dem gesamten Wesen des Menschen abfällt im Tode und sich mit der Erde, wie man sagt vereinigt— wenn man bloß diese Tatsache betrachtet in ihrer Bedeutung für den physischen Plan, so ist sie eigentlich in einer recht unvollkommenen Weise ins Auge gefaßt. Sie ist sogar oftmals in einer recht unvollkommenen Weise ins Auge gefaßt von geisteswissenschaftlichen Richtungen, die bis zu einem gewissen Grade hineinblicken in geistige Gebiete. Diese lassen sich noch beirren durch allerlei moralische Vorstellungen, die aber in vieler Beziehung gerade ungeeignet sind, das Hereinragen des Geistigen in die physische Welt in der richtigen Art zu verstehen.
Alle physischen Ereignisse haben auch ihre geistigen Bedeutungen. Es gibt kein physisches Ereignis, das nicht auch eine geistige Bedeutung hätte. Also das physische Ereignis ist, daß unser physischer Leib von uns abfällt, gleichsam in seine Teile, in seine Moleküle, in seine Atome zersplittert wird und der Erde übergeben wird. Nun ist es ein großes Vorurteil der heutigen materialistischen Weltanschauung, die aber im Grunde genommen schon lange mehr oder weniger die Menschheit beherrscht, daß der menschliche Leib, wie wir ihn von der Geburt bis zum Tode tragen oder, sagen wir von der Empfängnis bis zum Tode, daß dieser menschliche Leib einfach in kleinste Teile, in Atome zerfällt, und daß diese Atome dann der Erde einverleibt werden oder dem Erdgebiete einverleibt werden und dann Atome bleiben und als Atome dann in andere Wesenheiten übergehen. Zu diesem Vorurteil kommt man leicht durch die heutige materialistische Anschauungsweise. Aber schon diese Vorstellungsweise ist eigentlich im Grunde genommen vor der Geisteswissenschaft nichts anderes als ein Unsinn. Denn Atome in dem Sinne, wie der Chemiker sie annimmt, gibt es in Wirklichkeit nicht. Dasjenige, was da aus den kleinsten Teilen unseres Leibes wird, gleichgültig wie wir mit der Erde als Leib vereinigt werden, das ist zuletzt Wärme. Es verwandelt sich im Grunde genommen in irgendeiner Weise in kürzerer oder längerer Zeit unser gesamter physischer Organismus zuletzt in Wärme.
Deshalb sprechen wir auch von Wärme in der Geisteswissenschaft, wie bekannt ist, als von einem vierten Aggregatzustande, während die Physik die Wärme nicht gelten läßt als einen vierten Aggregatzustand, sondern sie nur als eine Eigenschaft der Körper betrachtet. Und diese Wärme ist es zunächst, welche wirklich der Erde gegeben wird. Sie wird der Erde mitgeteilt. Wir geben also von unserem physischen Leib aus unserer Erde Wärme. Es ist wirklich die in der Erde vorhandene Wärme innig zusammenhängend mit dem, was die Menschen zurücklassen von sich. In Luft, in Wasser und so weiter verwandelt sich der Mensch nicht. Das sind nur Übergangszustände, die er durchmacht. Was von ihm zu Luft und Wasser wird, wird zuletzt Wärme. Ja, wenn auch erst nach Jahrhunderten die letzten Reste des Materiellen in Wärme übergehen, wenn auch dasjenige, was Knochensystem ist, meinetwillen sogar erst nach Jahrtausenden in Wärme übergeht, es geht zuletzt in Wärme über. Und wenn Sie auch in die Museen gehen, jetzt uralte Skelette finden von Menschen, die in ganz vergangenen Zeiten die Erde betreten haben, einmal wird auch der Zeitpunkt kommen, wo das, was da heute in Skeletten vorhanden ist, nur noch Wärme innerhalb des Erdenkörpers ist. Daß überhaupt unser physischer Leib der Erde verbleibt, das hat für den, der durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist, eine große, eine wesentliche Bedeutung. Er geht in die geistige Welt. Er läßt seinen Leib der Erde zurück. Das ist für den sogenannten Toten ein Erlebnis, eine Erfahrung. Er macht das durch: Dein Leib geht von dir weg. - Man muß sich vorstellen, daß das ein Erlebnis ist. Was ist das für ein Erlebnis? Nun, davon können Sie sich einen Begriff machen, wenn Sie die Erlebnisse auf dem physischen Plane nehmen. Ein Erlebnis ist es, sagen wir, wenn Sie irgendeine neue Empfindung, die Sie vorher nicht gehabt haben, erleben und sie verstehen lernen; da haben Sie etwas Ihrer Seele zuerteilt, was sie vorher nicht besessen hat, einen neuen Begriff, eine neue Vorstellung. Aber nun denken Sie sich solch ein kleines Erlebnis ins Große gesteigert. Es ist ein unendlich Gewaltiges, das der Mensch durchmacht, was ihm überhaupt die Möglichkeit gibt, zwischen Tod und Geburt zu sehen, zu denken, zu begreifen: daß er den Leib von sich ablegt, daß er ihn dem Planeten übergibt, den er verläßt. Es ist ein großes, ein gewaltiges Erlebnis, das sich mit keinem Erlebnis des Erdendaseins vergleichen läßt. Der Wert eines Erlebnisses besteht darinnen, daß wir etwas in der Seele haben, das zurückbleibt als Folge, als Konsequenz des Erlebnisses. So können wir die Frage aufwerfen: Was bleibt denn zurück als Folge, als Konsequenz dieses Erlebnisses des Hinweggehens des physischen Leibes von unserem gesamten Menschenwesen?
Würden wir beim Durchgang durch die Todespforte dieses Erlebnis nicht haben können, das wir wissentlich mitmachen, das Weggehen unseres physischen Leibes, so würden wir nach dem Tode niemals ein Ich-Bewußtsein entfalten können! Das Ich-Bewußtsein nach dem Tode wird angeregt durch dieses Erleben des Hinweggehens des physischen Leibes. Für den Toten ist es von größter Bedeutung: Ich sehe meinen physischen Leib von mir hinwegschwinden. — Und das andere: Ich sehe aus diesem Ereignis heraus in mir selber die Empfindung erwachsen: Ich bin ein Ich. - Man kann das paradoxe Wort aussprechen: Könnten wir unseren Tod nicht erleben von der anderen Seite, würden wir nach dem Tode nicht ein Ich-Bewußtsein haben können. - So wahr die Menschenseele, wenn sie durch die Geburt oder auch schon durch die Empfängnis ins Dasein tritt, sich nach und nach dem Gebrauche des physischen Apparates anpaßt und dadurch das Ich-Bewußtsein im Leibe gewinnt, so wahr gewinnt das Menschenwesen das Ich-Bewußtsein nach dem Tode von der anderen Seite des Daseins dadurch, daß es das Abfallen des physischen Leibes von dem Gesamtmenschen erlebt.
Denken Sie nur einmal, was das eigentlich bedeutet. Wenn wir den Tod von dieser physischen Seite des Daseins ansehen, erscheint er uns als das Ende dieses Daseins, als dasjenige, was hinter sich für die physische Anschauung das Nichts hat. Von der anderen Seite angesehen, ist der Tod als solcher das Herrlichste, das immerzu vor des Menschen Seele stehen kann. Denn das bedeutet, daß der Mensch immer die Empfindung haben kann von dem Sieg des geistigen Daseins über das Leibliche. Und während wir hier im physischen Leben nicht immer die Vorstellung unserer Geburt vor uns haben können - kein Mensch hat die Vorstellung seiner Geburt, kein Mensch kann aus physischer Erfahrung heraus etwas über seine Geburt wissen -, so wenig wir also hier im physischen Leben auf unsere Geburt hinschauen können, so sicher haben wir immer, wenn wir voll bewußt werden nach dem Tode, unser Todesereignis unmittelbar vor uns. Aber nichts irgendwie Beklemmendes hat dieses Todesereignis, sondern dieses Todesereignis ist dort das größte, das herrlichste, das schönste Ereignis, das wir vor unserer Seele haben können. Denn es stellt uns immer dar die ganze Größe dieser Tatsache, daß von dem Tode das Bewußtsein, das Selbstbewußtsein herrührt in der geistigen Welt, daß der Tod der Anreger dieses Selbstbewußtseins in der geistigen Welt ist.
Als zweites müssen wir das zweite Glied unseres Menschendaseins betrachten, den ätherischen Leib. Wir wissen aus den elementaren Darstellungen, die wir alle durchgemacht haben im Laufe unseres Zweiglebens, daß dieser Ätherleib uns noch eine verhältnismäßig kurze Zeit nach dem Tode erhalten bleibt, daß er aber dann auch abgelegt wird. Wir wissen auch, daß eine gewisse Bedeutung darinnen liegt, daß dieser ätherische Leib, so wie wir ihn hatten, nach dem Tode noch tagelang mit uns vereinigt bleibt.
Solange wir diesen ätherischen Leib an uns tragen, nachdem wir den physischen Leib abgelegt haben, können wir noch immer alles dasjenige denken, was wir haben denken können während unseres physischen Daseins. Daher können wir alle Gedanken, die wir in uns tragen, wie in einem großen Tableau überblicken. Unsere Gedanken, die wir während des Lebens durchgemacht haben, erblicken wir in dem Lebenstableau, das Ihnen oft beschrieben worden ist. Wir haben unser ganzes Leben wie in einem Panorama vor uns in den Tagen, in denen wir den Ätherleib noch an uns tragen, und wir haben es vor uns in Gleichzeitigkeit, das heißt, wir erblicken alles auf einmal. Denn dasjenige, was wir hier in der physischen Welt Gedächtnis nennen, das entsteht zwar im Ätherleib, aber es ist an den physischen Leib gebunden. Diesen physischen Leib haben wir abgelegt. Wir schauen die Gedanken. Wir bringen sie nicht aus den Untergründen herauf, die mit dem physischen Leib etwas zu tun haben, wir schauen sie und überschauen wie in einem Panorama das Leben, das wir durchgemacht haben.
Dann legen wir diesen ätherischen Leib ab. Aber dieser ätherische Leib, den wir da ablegen, er bleibt uns unser ganzes ferneres Leben nach dem Tode sichtbar. Er ist außen, aber er bleibt uns sichtbar. Er vereinigt sich mit dem gesamten Universum, aber dasjenige, was da mit ihm geschieht, das bleibt uns sichtbar, das schauen wir. Und das gehört zu den Geheimnissen des Todes, daß wir dasjenige, was wir in uns gehabt haben an Gedanken, als wir lebten, in einem Panorama schauen, solange wir den Ätherleib an uns tragen, daß wir das außer uns mit der Welt vereinigen, gewissermaßen der Welt einverwoben überschauen, daß das zu unserer Welt gehört, nicht zu unserem Ich nach dem Tode. Es ist wirklich das Erlebnis so, als ob dasjenige, was da als Ätherleib während des Lebens in uns webt und lebt, einfach sich hineinleben würde in die Ätherwelt draußen.
Dann kommt die Zeit, wie Sie wissen, wo wir von dem, was wir hier auf dem physischen Plan an uns tragen, nur das Ich und den astralischen Leib haben, und selbstverständlich das Hinschauen auf dasjenige, was wir waren. Da erleben wir uns in einer ganz anderen Weise als hier im physischen Leib — mit einem erhöhten Bewußtsein, das der Tod in uns begründet hat. Aber wir dürfen uns niemals der Vorstellung hingeben, daß etwa dieses Leben zwischen Tod und neuer Geburt für die Seele unbewußt wäre. Es ist ein stärkeres, intensiveres Bewußtsein mit diesem Leben verbunden als das Bewußtsein hier im physischen Leibe, nur ist das Bewußtsein in einer ganz anderen Art ausgebildet. Und man kommt selbstverständlich dem, wie man sich den Toten vorzustellen hat, nur dadurch nahe, daß man all das zusammennimmt, was die Geisteswissenschaft geben kann, um die Vorstellungen umzuformen, die ja hier auf dem physischen Plane den rein physischen Gegenständen und Ereignissen angepaßt sind. So leben wir in unserem Ich und in unserem astralischen Leib. Unseren Ätherleib haben wir abgelegt. Er ist mit dem objektiven Dasein verbunden.
Meine lieben Freunde, wohl ein erschütterndes Erlebnis ist es für den, der die geistige Welt betritt, um die Toten, mit denen man in Berührung kommen kann, zu besuchen, zu begleiten, nun nicht allein das individuelle Leben des Toten zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, sondern auch dasjenige zu verfolgen, auf das der Tote hinschaut, was sich von ihm als sein Ätherleib einverwoben hat in die Welt, die jetzt für ihn eine Außenwelt, eine objektive Welt ist, also dasjenige zu beobachten, was der Tote jetzt eben der Ätherwelt gegeben hat. Und so ist es schon, daß man in einer gewissen Weise in einer zweifachen Art den Toten erleben kann. Man kann dasjenige von ihm erleben, was er der Ätherwelt übergeben hat, man kann dasjenige von ihm erleben, worinnen sein Bewußtsein nach dem Tode sitzt.
Ich sage, erschütternd ist auch das erste In-Berührung-Treten mit demjenigen, was der Tote der Ätherwelt zurückgelassen hat, erschütternd ist dieses selbst dann, wenn man nicht in Verbindung kommen könnte mit demjenigen Wesen, das zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt fortlebt und das Bewußtsein und Selbstbewußtsein des Toten trägt, sondern mit dem, was er zurückgelassen hat. Selbst dann trägt eine diesbezügliche Erfahrung all das tief, tief die Seele Angreifende, das überhaupt die Berührung mit der geistigen Welt hat.
Und zu diesem Erschütternden gehört vor allen Dingen die wirkliche, lebendige Erfahrung, daß solches Geistige, wie das eben angedeutete, also solches Geistige, das ätherisch Geistiges ist, das zurückbleibt von dem Toten, daß das eigentlich fortwährend um uns herum ist. So wahr als wir in der Luft leben, die uns überall umgibt, so wahr umgibt uns die Welt, in der das zurückbleibt, was der Tote als seine Ätherwelt zurückläßt. In der Welt, in der wir drinnenstehen auch mit unseren physischen Leibern, ist auch dieses Geistige, von dem ich jetzt spreche. So wahr Luft um uns herum ist, so wahr ist um uns herum dasjenige, was die Toten zurücklassen. Nur durch Bewußtseinszustände sind wir getrennt von den geistigen Welten; nicht durch Raumesverhältnisse, durch Bewußtseinszustände sind wir getrennt.
Nehmen Sie einmal einen Menschen, der sich bemüht, Seelenübungen zu machen. Ich betone ausdrücklich, solche Seelenübungen müssen in aller Ruhe der Seele gemacht werden. Wer irgendwie aufgeregt wird durch die Seelenübungen, der schadet sich. Wenn Seelenübungen in der Art gemacht werden, wie hier von ihnen gesprochen wird und wie in unserer Literatur von ihnen gesprochen wird, so daß sie wirklich Seelenübungen sind und das leibliche Dasein an ihnen nicht teilnimmt, dann können sie niemals auch im geringsten Maße den Menschen schaden, auch nicht seelischen Schaden bringen. Aber wir würden ja in das wirkliche Geisteswissen gar nicht hineingelangen, wenn wir nicht auch ab und zu immer solche Dinge andeuten könnten.
Nehmen Sie an, ein Mensch macht etwa die folgende Übung. Er sagt sich: Ich sehe mit meinen Augen Farben: Rot, Blau und so weiter. — Und nun ginge er über dazu, etwas in einem gewissen Sinne Lebendiges mit dem Rot, Blau, Grün und so weiter zu erleben. Man kommt ja allmählich darauf, daß man als Mensch in der physischen Welt, insbesondere in unserer heutigen materialistischen Zeit, in einer sehr groben Weise drinnensteht, daß man nicht eingeht auf das Feinere, das man erleben kann. Dieses Feinere erlebt man, wenn man auf den mehr seelischen Eindruck achtet, den Farben, es können aber auch andere Sinneseindrücke sein, auf uns machen. Natürlich weiß jeder auch im Groben: Wenn er eine blaue Fläche auf sich wirken läßt, so wirkt sie anders, als wenn er eine rote Fläche auf sich wirken läßt. Eine rote Fläche hat für den, der, ohne nervös dabei zu werden - ich betone das ausdrücklich -, empfindet, etwas Attackierendes, etwas gewissermaßen aus seiner Fläche Herausgehendes, uns Angreifendes. Aus dem Rot kommt immer etwas uns entgegen. Das Blau ruft in uns die gegenteilige Empfindung hervor. Es bleibt ruhig an seinem Platze. Es kommt uns nichts entgegen aus dem Blau. Im Gegenteil, wir haben die Empfindung, wenn wir feiner mitempfinden können mit den Farben, daß wir mit unseren Seelenkräften in das Blau hineindringen können, daß wir es durchdringen können. Das Grün ist gewissermaßen in einem rhythmischen Gleichgewichtszustande. Daher wirkt es so wohltätig als Pflanzendecke der Erde. Das Grüne wirkt so auf uns, daß wir zum Teil eindringen, daß es auch wiederum auf uns zurückkommt. Sehen wir ein weithin grünes Feld, so haben wir das Gefühl, daß wir in etwas hineinkommen - und dann kommt es uns wieder entgegen: hinein - entgegen. Dadurch jenes Erfrischende, das ein weites, grünes Feld für uns hat.
Daß so etwas von den Menschen auch bemerkt worden ist, daß man gewissermaßen mit den Farben leben kann, davon können Sie sich ja überzeugen, wenn Sie in Goethes - allerdings heute von wenigen verstandenen - Farbenlehre das Kapitel über sittliche Wirkungen der Farben lesen, wo Sie für alle Farben die entsprechenden Empfindungen angegeben finden, die man bei ihnen haben kann. Man kann also mit den Farben leben, auch mit den anderen Sinnesempfindungen, aber wir wollen, um ein Beispiel zu bringen, jetzt von den Farben sprechen. Man kann mit den Farben so leben, daß einem beim Blau etwas in der Seele ersteht wie eine Kraft, die gleich ist etwa der Sehnsucht, die aus unserer Seele hinausgeht, die aber wohlgefällig aufgenommen wird von dem Blauen. Bei dem Roten entsteht immer etwas, was uns wie entgegenkommt, was uns nicht gelten lassen will, was uns in einer gewissen feinen Weise überfallen will. Man kann, während man Farben empfindet, gewissermaßen moralisch-seelisches Erleben haben. Selbstverständlich kann nicht jeder Mensch in einer Inkarnation solche Übungen machen; aber ich schildere solche Übungen, damit Sie sehen, wie die einzelnen Welten miteinander zusammenhängen. Würde also ein Mensch solche Übungen machen, so würde er viel reiner leben in der Welt der Farben. Würde er für andere Sinnesempfindungen solche Übungen machen, würde er in der Welt der anderen Sinnesempfindungen reiner leben. Aber dann würde bald auch etwas anderes eintreten.
Nehmen Sie an, ein Mensch würde so lebendig das blaue Himmelsgewölbe erleben. Er würde dann nicht bloß das Blau über sich haben - und das ist ja noch dazu ein Blau, das sehr subjektiv ist, denn es ist in Wirklichkeit kein Gewölbe da -, sondern er würde wie eine wohltätige innere Halbkugelfläche über sich erleben, die überall sein seelisches Leben aufnimmt, eine Halbkugelfläche, hinter deren Flächenhaftigkeit sich das seelische Erleben hineinfinden kann. Menschen, die in tieferem Sinne die Welt mitleben, sprechen deshalb so wie zum Beispiel Jakob Böhme, der nicht sagt: Wenn der Mensch das blaue Himmelsgewölbe sieht ... -, sondern der sagt: Wenn der Mensch die Tiefe sieht. - Darinnen liegt das ganze Miterleben des Blau: Wenn der Mensch die Tiefe sieht.
Aber es tritt eine Begleiterscheinung auf, wenn man sich so hineinlebt in das Farbenleben, daß Seelisches zugleich erglimmt, wenn die Farben da sind. Es lebt auf die Möglichkeit, einen ganz kleinen Zeitraum zu benützen, den man sonst gar nicht benützen kann. Wenn Sie einem äußeren Gegenstand entgegentreten im gewöhnlichen physischen Leben, so sehen Sie ihn; Sie sehen also eine bestimmte Farbe. Da beginnt doch eigentlich Ihr Eindruck. Dann können Sie nachdenken, sich eine Vorstellung über die Farbe bilden. Aber mit dem Sehen der Farbe beginnt Ihr Mitleben mit dem Gegenstande. Aber das ist nicht der Anfang desjenigen, was geschieht. Das weiß heute schon der äußere Laboratoriumspsychologe, daß eine gewisse Zeit verfließt zwischen der Wirkung auf unser Auge und dem Eintreten der Vorstellung des Blau. Also das Blau wirkt zunächst auf unser Auge. Dann nehmen wir es nicht gleich wahr, sondern es verfließt eine gewisse Zeit; dann erst wird es uns bewußt.
Sie können heute in den gewöhnlichen Büchern nachlesen, wie in den Laboratorien darüber die Versuche gemacht werden. Man konstruiert gewisse Apparate und versucht, einen Eindruck auftreten zu lassen, und hat davor das Versuchskaninchen, den Studenten. Der muß nun registrieren durch einen anderen Apparat, wann er den Eindruck bekommt, so daß man den kleinen Zeitraum feststellen kann, der verfließt zwischen gleichsam dem Anschlagen unserer Sinnesorgane und dem Bewußtwerden. Da vergeht ein gewisser Zeitraum. In diesem Zeitraum erleben wir also noch nicht die blaue Farbe, wenn es sich um einen blauen Eindruck handelt, aber wir erleben in diesem Zeitraum schon den sittlichen Eindruck der Farbe. Der wirkt schon in uns. Also wie die Seele sich hineinergießt in das Blau, wie das wohlgefällig aufgenommen wird, das ist schon in uns. Das Seelische der Farbe, das wirkt eigentlich früher, nur bleibt es im Unbewußten. Der Mensch nimmt es nicht wahr. Und der Mensch fängt erst an, sein Bewußtsein zu entwickeln, wenn die Farbe auftritt. Er beachtet das nicht, was der Farbempfindung vorangeht.
Denken Sie nun einmal, wenn man genötigt ist, in einer gewissen Weise auf diesen sittlichen Eindruck der Farbe, auf dieses Seelenerleben der Farbe besonders zu achten, dann stellt sich etwas Besonderes auch ein. Man muß darauf achten, wenn man notwendig hat, die Farbe gewissermaßen selbst erst hinzuzutun auf irgendeine Fläche, das heißt, wenn man malt, oder wenn man überhaupt Farben vermittelt, die erst erscheinen sollen aus dem Gedanken heraus. Wenn man es mit wirklicher Malerei zu tun hat, arbeitet man dann aus dem seelischen Eindruck der Farbe heraus. Da macht man es nicht so wie der reine Modell-Künstler, der bloß das Modell nachmacht, sondern da weiß man, da hat man diesen seelischen Eindruck hervorzurufen, da gibt man Rot hin. An einer anderen Fläche gibt man Blau hin, weil man diesen oder jenen seelischen Eindruck hervorzurufen hat. So ist die ganze Malerei gehalten in unserem Dornacher Bau. Da ist das, was Farbengebung ist, durchaus entsprungen aus dem Seelischen, das ja erscheinen soll durch die Farben. Dadurch war aber im eminentesten Sinne notwendig, zuerst den Bau in sich zu haben als seelisches Wesen. So wie der Bau der Welt entgegentreten wird, so ist er herausgewachsen als Bau aus dem seelischen Wesen. Das, woraus er herausgewachsen ist, das würden die Menschen wahrnehmen am Dornacher Bau, wenn sie diesen kleinen Zeitraum benutzen könnten, der da verfließt zwischen dem, daß der Bau auf die Sinnesorgane wirkt, und dem, daß der Eindruck zum Bewußtsein gebracht wird. Aber derjenige, der beteiligt war an dem Aufbau, der muß aus diesem kleinen Zeitraum heraus gerade schaffen, der muß alles, was an dem Bau an Farben und Formen ist, aus diesem kleinen Zeitraum heraus schaffen.
Ich habe Sie, ich möchte sagen in einer wissenschaftlicheren Weise in etwas geführt, was Ihnen vielleicht schwer erscheint. Aber man muß auch solche Schwierigkeiten überwinden. Es kann auch in der heutigen Zeit durchaus schon so sein, daß der Mensch nun wie begnadet - und begnadet sind wir in einer gewissen Weise immer, indem wir in der Welt drinnenstehen - in irgendeiner Weise diesen Augenblick festhalten kann. Er sieht irgend etwas und wird doch zuweilen den Eindruck haben können, daß eigentlich schon eine Wechselwirkung stattgefunden hat zwischen ihm und dem, was er sieht, wenn er es sich zum Bewußtsein bringt. Er sieht etwas und sagt sich: Es kommt mir vor, wie wenn ich das schon früher gesehen hätte.
Sie werden vielleicht alle Bekanntschaft gemacht haben damit, daß man gewissermaßen einem Wesen oder Gegenstand gegenübertritt und so das Gefühl hat: Es ist nicht erst dann da, wenn es einen Eindruck auf das Bewußtsein macht, sondern es hat sich genähert, es ist schon vorher nahe an uns herangekommen. Das Heranschleichen, könnte man sagen, man kann es zuweilen bemerken. Für das gewöhnliche Leben aber liegt das, was so in diesem kleinen Zeitraum stattfindet, schon durchaus jenseits des Bewußtseins, jenseits der Schwelle. In dem Augenblick, wo man sich zum Bewußtsein bringen kann das, was so gerade jenseits der Schwelle des Bewußiseins liegt, in diesem Augenblick macht man eine wichtige geistige Entdeckung. Ich will es in einem speziellen Fall noch einmal vor Augen bringen. Eine Anzahl von Ihnen hat ja die Sache schon gehört, ich habe es vielleicht auch hier schon erwähnt. Im vorigen Jahre starb ein Knäblein in der Nähe des Baues, wurde zerdrückt von einem Möbelwagen. Der Ätherleib dieses Knäbleins ist mit dem Dornacher Bau vereint, bildet die Aura des Dornacher Baues, lebt in der Aura des Dornacher Baues. Und wenn man künstlerisch zu schaffen hat an dem Dornacher Bau, dann kommen Kräfte aus diesem Ätherleib, der vergrößert natürlich dann erscheint. Man fühlt in sich diese Kräfte, wie man seelisch den Bau fühlt.
Warum ist denn das? Das ist aus dem Grunde, weil in der Welt, von der ich eben gesprochen habe, die immer um uns ist, die wir nur nicht wahrnehmen, weil sie unbeachtet bleibt, bevor der Eindruck an uns kommt, weil in der Welt also die Ätherleiber der Toten enthalten sind, auf die die Toten hinschauen. Was die Toten von unserer Welt sehen, worauf die Toten schauen, das ist in der uns umgebenden Ätherwelt enthalten. Und wir würden es sogar immer schauen, wenn wir gewissermaßen schauen könnten, bevor wir schauen in der physischen Welt, wenn wir nur ein wenig diese Schwelle übertreten könnten.
Das hindert aber nicht, daß die Toten durch dasjenige, was sie zurückgelassen haben, immer wirksam sind in dieser Welt. Uns umgibt eine Welt, in der die Ätherleiber der Toten leben. In irgendeiner Weise sind sie mit ihr verbunden. Und nur weil dasjenige, was im Äther lebt, erst an unseren physischen Leib anschlagen und den Apparat des physischen Leibes in Bewegung setzen muß, nehmen wir dieses gewaltige Umwobensein von dem, was von den Toten in unserer Welt ätherisch vorhanden bleibt, nicht wahr. Dieses Gefühl müssen wir uns aber aneignen, daß unsere Welt bereichert werden muß für unsere Vorstellungen um dasjenige, was zunächst in dieser ganzen Ätherwelt durch die Ätherleiber der Toten vorhanden ist.
Die Toten selber sind zunächst nicht in dieser Welt drinnen, nur ihre zurückgebliebenen Ätherleiber. Die Toten selber können wir auf so leichte Art nicht finden — obwohl diese leichte Art auch schwierig ist. Die Toten selber leben also weiter, nachdem sie ihren Ätherleib abgelegt haben, in ihrem astralischen Leib und in ihrem Ich. Sie können ermessen, wie wir unsere Vorstellungen umgestalten müssen, wenn Sie in Betracht ziehen, daß ja alles Gedankenhafte mit dem Ätherleib, der in die äußere Ätherwelt geht, von uns abgesondert ist. Das Gedankenhafte, das wir hier in unserem physischen Leibe aufgeschichtet haben, bleibt uns nicht nach dem Tode. Das Gedankenhafte wird eine Außenwelt. Der Tote sieht auf seine Gedanken nach dem Tode nicht so hin, wie er hinsah etwa auf Gedanken, die er sich während des Lebens gebildet hat, und an die er sich dann erinnert, die er aus seinen Untergründen heraufbringt. Der Tote sieht auf seine Gedanken wie auf ein ätherisches Gemälde hin, er sieht seine Gedanken draußen in der Welt. Gedanken sind etwas Äußerliches für denjenigen, der durch die Pforte des Todes gegangen ist. Dasjenige, was hier sich uns offenbart durch Gefühl und Wille, das bleibt mit unserer Individualität verbunden. Das lebt dann weiter in unserem astralischen Leib und in unserem Ich. Unser Ich entzündet sich zum Selbstbewußtsein durch die Anschauung des Momentes des Todes. Unser astralischer Leib entzündet sich dadurch, daß die Gedanken in dem Gemälde vor uns sind, sich in unseren astralischen Leib hereindrängen. Wir erleben sie dadurch in unserem astralischen Leib. Hier im physischen Leib erleben wir Gedanken so, daß wir sie von innen heraus holen. Nach dem Tode erleben wir Gedanken so, daß wir auf sie hinblicken wie auf Sterne, auf Welten oder auf Berge, und sie machen auf uns einen Eindruck. Diesen Eindruck empfangen wir und erleben ihn in unserem astralischen Leib und in unserem Ich. Also das gerade Umgekehrte ist der Fall wie im physischen Leben. Während wir Gedanken hier etwas Innerliches nennen, müssen wir sie nach dem Tode ein Äußerliches nennen. Wir leben, aufgegangen in die Welt, ausgegossen in die Welt. Das ist wichtig, daß wir das einsehen, daß wir nicht uns der Vorstellung hingeben, als ob die Welt nach dem Tode nur so etwas wäre wie eine feine, dünne Wiederholung der physischen Welt hier, wie man es oftmals in spiritistischen Kreisen annimmt. Sie ist etwas ganz anderes. Sie ist schon deshalb etwas ganz anderes, weil unsere Gedanken Wesen außerhalb unserer sind.
Gerade wenn man solche Vorstellungen sich vor die Seele führt, dann merkt man, daß man nicht nur, ich möchte sagen ein wenig Vorurteilslosigkeit braucht, um sich mit der Geisteswissenschaft einverstanden zu erklären, sondern daß man auch eine gewisse Möglichkeit haben muß, die Begriffe flüssig zu machen, die Begriffe etwas zu verändern, daß man nicht den Anspruch erheben darf, mit den Begriffen, die man hier hat, auch dasjenige sich vorstellen zu können, was in der geistigen Welt darinnen ist. Daher ist für denjenigen, der in der Lage ist, einen sogenannten Toten, sagen wir, zu besuchen, nötig, daß er diesen Verkehr mit den Toten lernt. Während wir hier, wenn wir einem Menschen gegenübertreten, dadurch, ich möchte sagen in eine Beziehung zu seinem Inneren treten, daß er vielleicht dieses Innere uns ausspricht durch Worte oder durch Mienen oder durch Gebärden, ist es beim Toten so, daß, wenn wir zu ihm in Beziehung treten, er uns dasjenige, was er uns sagen will, in der objektiven Welt zeigt. Wir sehen gleichsam in Imaginationen, auf die er uns hinweist, dasjenige, was er erlebt, was er uns zu sagen hat. Ich möchte sagen, der Tote sagt, wenn man ihn irgend etwas frägt: Sehe dort hin, dort wirst du finden, was ich jetzt erlebe.
Aber das alles ist ein schneller Vorgang. Der Tote hat also die Fähigkeit, Gedanken, die wir hier nur innerlich, unsichtbar erleben, übersinnlich zu schauen. Nur wenn man sich die Fähigkeit aneignet, mit ihm Gedanken zu schauen, dann kann man mit ihm erleben. Dadurch hat er die ganz besondere Fähigkeit, auch unsere Gedanken als Toter, als sogenannter Toter, mitzuerleben. |
Das tritt einem insbesondere bei einer Erscheinung auf, die ich auch hier berühren möchte. Wenn jemand von uns weggegangen ist, den wir geliebt haben, so tragen wir die Gedanken an ihn in unserer Seele weiter. Wir denken an dasjenige, was wir mit ihm zusammen erlebt haben, was wir mit ihm erfühlt haben und so weiter. Der Tote, sagte ich, schaut Gedanken. Er sieht auch unsere Gedanken, und er kann sogar sehr bald unterscheiden die Gedanken, die er als Abdrücke der geistigen Welt selber hat, die Imaginationen bedeuten für das, was in der geistigen Welt ist, und diejenigen Gedanken, die ein Mensch in der Seele denkt, die in einem Leibe ist. Er kann das unterscheiden. Er unterscheidet es durch sein inneres Erleben. Der Unterschied ist sogar ein sehr großer. Wenn der Tote — beim Initiierten ist es ganz gleich den Gedanken von etwas erleben soll, was nur in der geistigen Welt ist, so muß er aktiv diesen Gedanken erleben. Er muß jedes Stück dieses Gedankens, das er erlebt, selber, ich möchte sagen erst nachfahren. Der Vorgang ist ja schwer klarzumachen. Nehmen Sie an, hier wäre ein Gemälde, aber dieses Gemälde würden Sie nur sehen, wenn Sie alle Einzelheiten selbst nachzeichnen und nachmalen würden. Das kann der Tote. Alle Gedanken, die er sieht, malt er nach, er schafft sie gleichsam nach, und er erlebt dieses Nachschaffen. Darinnen besteht im wesentlichen ein großes Stück des Lebens zwischen dem Tode und einer neuen Geburt, daß dasjenige, was in der geistigen Welt in der Gedankenbildung vorhanden ist, nachgeschaffen wird. Das schafft man so nach. Dann weiß man, man hat es zu tun mit Gedankenbildungen, die bloß der geistigen Welt angehören.
Anders ist das Erlebnis, wenn man auf Gedanken hinschaut von der geistigen Welt aus, die bei den Menschen leben, die man zurückgelassen hat in der physischen Welt. Da ist es nicht, als ob man sie nachschafft, sondern da treten einem wirklich die Gedanken so entgegen, daß man sich passiv zu ihnen verhalten kann. Wie der Blumenstock von mir nicht erst nachgezeichnet zu werden braucht, sondern sich unmittelbar als Eindruck dann bildet, so sind die Gedanken der Lebenden. Die entstehen wirklich in einer ähnlichen Weise, wie die Eindrücke der physischen Welt hier entstehen. Und das ist dasjenige, was die Toten an den Gedanken der Lebenden, die sie liebten, erhebt, erfreut, erwärmt. Denn es ist ein ganz besonderes Gebiet für die Toten, hineinzuschauen in die Gedanken der sie liebenden Zurückgebliebenen. Das ist eine besondere Welt für sie. Man könnte ja hier die physische Welt erleben so, daß nur dasjenige da wäre, was im mineralischen, im tierischen, im pflanzlichen und im menschlichen Reich entsteht. Dann würde es zum Beispiel keine Kunst geben. Die Kunst ist hinzuerschaffen zu dem, über das hinaus, was man eigentlich braucht. Sie ist dasjenige aber, von dem der Mensch, der die Entwickelung der Menschheit überhaupt seelisch ins Auge faßt, weiß, daß es nicht fehlen darf in der Welt, trotzdem die Natur ebenso vollständig wäre, wie sie ist, auch wenn es keine Kunst gäbe. So könnte der Tote allenfalls leben, wie der Mensch in der öden, toten, bloßen Naturwelt leben würde, in einer Welt ohne Kunst, so könnte der Tote leben, wenn das Sonderbare eintreten würde, daß jeder Tote gleich nach seinem Tode von seinen Lieben vergessen würde. Dasjenige, was geschaut wird an Gedanken, die in den Seelen der die Toten Liebenden zurückgeblieben sind, das ist etwas, was zu der Welt, die der Tote unmittelbar braucht, allerdings hinzukommt, was aber das Dasein des Toten erhöht, verschönert. Man kann das vergleichen mit der Kunst in der physischen Welt, aber der Vergleich hinkt, denn für den Toten ist es eine Erhöhung, eine Verschönung in einem weit höheren Sinne als die Verschönung der physischen Welt für uns durch die Kunst.
Es hat daher im ganzen Weltendasein einen tiefen Sinn, wenn wir unsere Gedanken mit den Gedanken der Toten vereinen, namentlich auch in der Weise, wie hier öfter davon gesprochen worden ist, daß wir namentlich auch solche Gedanken an die Toten heranbringen, die in der Sprache, in der Begriffssprache abgefaßt sind, die ja den Lebenden und den Toten gemeinschaftlich ist: in der Sprache, die wir hier in der Geisteswissenschaft sprechen. Denn dasjenige, was Inhalt der Geisteswissenschaft ist, verstehen die Toten so gut wie die Lebendigen. Das wird ihnen auch niemals fremd, den Toten.
Ich glaube, gerade durch das Zusammentragen von solchen Vorstellungen bekommen wir allmählich ein plastisches Bild von der geistigen Welt. Wir können uns hineinfinden in dasjenige, was jenseits der Schwelle liegt und woraus im Grunde genommen doch alles dasjenige auch fließt, was diesseits dieser Schwelle für uns vorhanden ist.
Diesen Erscheinungen gegenüber muß ins Auge gefaßt werden, daß - allerdings in berechtigter Weise, weil es zum Weltenplan gehört - die gegenwärtige Menschheit mit Bezug auf das Schauen der Welt kurzsichtig ist, aber kurzsichtiger eigentlich noch, als es sein müßte. Denn wenn so der recht materialistisch Gesinnte in unserer Gegenwart seine Begriffe, seine Vorstellungen von der Welt sich bildet, dann denkt er, diese Vorstellungen, diese Begriffe, die sind die allgemein menschlichen. Sie wissen ja, wie schwer es einem materialistisch gesinnten Menschen gerade beizubringen ist, daß man auch anders denken kann als er. Der Materialist ist ja doch gerade auf dem Boden stehend, daß er sagt, der ist ein Narr, der nicht so denkt wie er. Es gibt gerade keine größere innere Intoleranz als diejenige des materialistisch gesinnten Menschen. Der materialistisch gesinnte Mensch denkt im Grunde immer so: Früher haben die Menschen gedacht, allerlei Geistiges sei vorhanden, kaum einen Schritt haben sie gemacht im Leben, ohne daß sie überall Geister vermutet oder gesehen haben sogar. Das ist aber alles eitel Phantasterei gewesen. Jetzt haben wir es endlich so weit gebracht als Menschengeschlecht, daß wir diese Kindereien abgelegt haben. — Und doch könnten die Menschen eigentlich auf Schritt und Tritt bemerken, wie unsinnig gerade solch eine Vorstellung ist.
Ich will Ihnen das an einem Beispiel klarmachen, das scheinbar weit hergeholt ist und von einer ganz anderen Seite herkommt als dasjenige, was wir heute besprochen haben. Denken wir einmal an das von uns von verschiedenen Seiten oft betrachtete Bild von dem ersten Stadium des Erdenwerdens, vom Paradiesesdasein des Menschen, wie wir es in der Bibel haben. Denken wir an dieses Bild von den ersten Menschen Adam und Eva im Paradies, Eva in den Apfel beißend, Adam den Apfel gebend, die Schlange am Baum, die Eva verführend. Dieses Motiv wird zuweilen auch noch gemalt, gerade in der heutigen Zeit allerdings so, daß man ein möglichst natürliches Weib und einen noch natürlicheren Mann malt, weil das modern ist. Sei es impressionistisch, sei es expressionistisch, jedenfalls werden ein möglichst natürliches Weib und ein noch natürlicherer Mann und eine natürliche Landschaft und eine natürliche Schlange gemalt, die natürliche gierige Zähne zeigt und so weiter. Aber man hat nicht immer so gemalt, denn ein solches Bild würde nicht den eigentlichen Tatbestand geben, den wir dabei zu sehen haben. Wir wissen ja, daß wir in der Schlange das Symbolum für den eigentlichen Verführer, für den Luzifer zu sehen haben. Aber der Luzifer ist eine Wesenheit, die, wie wir wissen, zurückgeblieben ist während des Mondendaseins, die also so, wie sie im Erdendasein auftritt, in der Schlange nur ihr Symbolum haben kann, aber die Schlange ist doch nicht der Luzifer, sondern das muß doch geistig irgendwie gesehen werden. Das heißt, es muß auch mit seelischen Kräften dieser Luzifer gesehen werden. Von innen heraus, mit Anstrengung innerer Kräfte muß dieser Luzifer gesehen werden. Wie könnte man ihn denn sehen, meine lieben Freunde? Wir tragen ja im Grunde genommen alle die Eindrücke des Luzifer in uns, geradeso wie die Eindrücke des Ahriman. Ich will Ihnen möglichst kurz, ohne alle Beweisführungen und ohne alle Erläuterungen im kleinen, die Sie sich selber suchen können nach dem, was wir schon in unserer Literatur haben, vorführen, wie man etwa über den Luzifer auch eine Vorstellung haben könnte.
Der Mensch trägt die Impulse des Luziferischen in sich. Er trägt sie so in sich, daß sie in seinem Haupte sitzen, von seinem Haupte aus den astralischen Leib, bei dem das Luziferische stehengeblieben ist, durchdringen. Also während sonst die Geister der Form sein Haupt gebildet haben, drängen sich die luziferischen Impulse mit in sein Haupt hinein, aber auch in das, was aus dem Astralischen gebildet wird, in das Rückenmark. Würden wir also von einem Menschen herauszeichnen den Kopf und seine Verlängerung, das Rückgrat, so würden wir eine Schlange bekommen, eine schlangenförmige Bildung mit einem Menschenkopf. Natürlich ist das Ganze dann astralisch zu denken, der Kopf noch etwas Nachbildung des menschlichen Kopfes, und das Rückgrat, das daran hängt, schlängelt sich so. Denken Sie sich das objektiv hinausprojiziert, so ist es eine Schlange mit einem Menschenkopf. Das heißt, wer Luzifer äußerlich im Bilde sieht, könnte eigentlich sagen: Schlange mit dem Menschenkopf. — Nicht eine Schlange mit dem Schlangenkopf, denn das ist kein Luzifer mehr, das ist eine irdische Schlange, auf die schon die Geister der Form als irdisches Wesen gewirkt haben. Also Schlange mit dem Menschenkopf, müßten wir sagen. Das heißt, daß ein Maler, der den Luzifer auf dem Baume malen wollte, die Schlange an dem Baume sich schlängelnd und einen Menschenkopf oben darstellen müßte. Da würde er aus der Erkenntnis unserer Geisteswissenschaft heraus malen. Wir müßten uns also vorstellen Adam und Eva bei einem Baume, und in den Baum hineingeringelt, einem Schlangenkörper ähnlich, eben nur das astralisch gewordene Rückenmark und was nachbildet den menschlichen Kopf. Wenn das Weib ihn zunächst sieht, ist er natürlich dem weiblichen Gesichte nachgebilder.
Gehen Sie hier in das Museum, in die Kunsthalle, und schauen Sie sich das Bild von dem Meister Bertram an und sehen Sie, wie dieser in der Mitte des Mittelalters noch diese Schlange an den Baum hingemalt hat, so wie ich das jetzt erzählt habe. Das ist frappierend! Das ist großartig frappierend, denn es liefert uns den Beweis, daß ein Maler in der Mitte des Mittelalters aus den realen, aus den wirklichen Vorstellungen der geistigen Welt heraus gemalt hat. Das ist ein vollgültiger Beweis, daß wir gar nicht viele Jahrhunderte zurückzugehen brauchen, um heute noch die Dokumente dafür zu erhalten, daß man dazumal noch etwas gewußt hat, was die Menschheit heute in dem materialistischen Zeitalter vergessen hat.
Selbstverständlich wird niemals in einer äußeren Kunstgeschichte diese Sache, die ich eben jetzt auseinandergesetzt habe, berührt werden. Dennoch kann sich jeder in unserer materialistischen Zeit nicht nur gesinnungs-, sondern anschauungsweise überzeugen davon: Das Hinschauen auf das Geistige ist erst seit ein paar Jahrhunderten verschwunden. Wer in die Kunsthalle geht und von dem Meister Bertram dieses Paradiesesbild sich ansieht, hat den vollgültigen, auf dem äußeren physischen Plane erbrachten Beweis, daß es noch gar nicht lange her ist, daß die Menschen durch, wie wir sagen atavistisches Hellsehen in die geistige Welt hineinschauen konnten und deren Geheimnisse noch ganz anders wußten, als man sie in der Gegenwart weiß. Denken Sie nur, wie blind eigentlich die Menschen durch die Welt gehen, da sie sich selbst äußerlich auf dem physischen Plane davon überzeugen könnten, wenn sie nur wollten, daß Entwickelung vorhanden ist im Menschengeschlechte.
Das ist das Bedeutsame, daß im Laufe der letzten drei bis vier Jahrhunderte das vorhandene, mehr atavistisch unbewußte alte Hellsehen zurückgegangen ist. Denn selbstverständlich, der Meister Bertram hätte nicht Geisteswissenschaft entwickeln können. Er hat nur geschaut, noch im Ätherischen geschaut, was da eigentlich mit dem Luzifer ist, und hat darnach gemalt. Es war unbewußtes, instinktives Hellsehen.
Damit die äußere Anschauung dem Menschen hat kommen können, mußte dieses alte Erblicken der geistigen Welt zurückgehen. Es muß aber wieder errungen werden von den Menschen. Und die Zeit muß kommen nach und nach, in der wieder errungen werden wird dasjenige, was verlorengegangen ist, nur allerdings im Felde der Bewußtheit. Daher muß es durch die Strömung der Geisteswissenschaft vorbereitet werden. Die Menschen kommen nicht anders als dadurch, daß sie die Geisteswissenschaft studieren, wiederum an die geistige Welt heran. Aber diese Geisteswissenschaft muß eben wirklich den Einblick in die geistige Welt bringen.
Man kann heute wissenschaftlich beweisen, wie weit es die Naturwissenschaft bringen kann. Wenn heute der rein naturwissenschaftlich Denkende über die Sache spricht, spricht er eigentlich über den Seelenapparat, über das körperliche Werkzeug des seelischen Lebens. Nun prüfe man einmal in den Darstellungen, die heute zu haben sind - man nennt es Psychophysiologie -, die von den bedeutendsten naturwissenschaftlichen Denkern der Gegenwart herrühren, dasjenige, was sie über das Seelische, das heißt in ihrem Sinne über den Seelenapparat zu sagen wissen. Da finden Sie in höchst eigentümlicher Weise überall, daß diese Leute sagen: Betrachten wir das Empfindungs-, das Vorstellungsleben, so gehört überall der seelische Apparat dazu, und sie schildern nun, was im Gehirn, im Nervensystem geschieht, wenn ein Mensch empfindet, vorstellt. Überall läßt sich der leibliche, der materielle Parallelvorgang finden. Wenn nun diese Forscher an das Fühlen und an den Willen kommen, dann finden sie nichts von einem leiblichen Parallelvorgang.
Daß so etwas nicht zutage tritt, nicht beachtet wird, das rührt nur davon her, weil die Naturforschung und ihr Nachtrab - Nachtrab kann man eigentlich nicht sagen, weil Nachtrab nützlich ist, der monistische Nachtrab der Naturforschung ist aber höchst überflüssig -, also weil die Monisten bloß krähen davon, daß für jeden Denk- und Empfindungsvorgang ein gewisser physischer Vorgang vorhanden ist und daß das Denken und Empfinden an das Gehirn gebunden ist. Aber sie sprechen nicht vom Fühlen und Wollen. Höchstens von Gefühlstönen sprechen sie, das heißt ein gewisses abgetöntes Vorstellen. Aber zum Fühlen und Wollen, da kommen sie nicht. Und die ehrlichen Naturforscher sagen: Unsere Wissenschaft erstreckt sich nicht über Fühlen und Wollen. Sie können es in der naturwissenschaftlichen Literatur nachlesen, was ich jetzt sage. Es läßt sich in allen Teilen nachweisen. Zum Beispiel können Sie bei Dr. Theodor Ziehen, dem sehr bekannten Psychiater und Psychophysiologen der Gegenwart, am leichtesten dasjenige bewahrheitet finden, was ich jetzt sage. Der weist die einzelnen Vorgänge auf, die dem Denken, die dem Empfinden entsprechen. Er kommt noch bis zur Gefühlstönung; aber zum eigentlichen Gefühl und Willen kommt er nicht. Er leugnet daher Gefühl und Wille. Die sind überhaupt nicht vorhanden, sagt er. Kann man eigentlich wissenschaftlich klarer belegen, daß sich das naturwissenschaftliche Denken bloß auf das Zeitliche, bloß auf dasjenige erstreckt, was wir mit dem Tode ablegen, und daß dasjenige, was darüber etwas hinaus ist, was gerade, wie ich angeführt habe, in Gefühl und Wille lebt, so wenig zum Leibe gehört, daß der Naturforscher es gar nicht findet, daß er es sogar ablehnt, ableugnet! Daher krähen die Leute: Gefühl und Wille gibt es nicht, weil sie nicht mit der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft zu finden sind; die Naturwissenschaft beweist uns heute selber, daß Gefühl und Wille nicht mit dem Leib als solchem verbunden sind wie Gedanken und Empfindungen!
Das hängt damit zusammen, daß die Gedanken sich absondern von uns, nach dem Tode draußen ausgebreitet erscheinen. Gefühl und Wille bleiben uns. Und aus Gefühl und Wille entspringt die Kraft, das Gedankentableau zu schaffen. Wer heute will, kann streng durch das Naturwissenschaftliche zeigen, wie mit allem, was Natur ist, Gefühl und Wille nichts zu tun haben, sondern daß sie als astralischer Leib und als Ich herausgehen nach dem Tode und mit der Menschenindividualität zusammenbleiben, sich entzünden zu einem neuen Bewußtsein auf die Weise, wie ich es beschrieben habe; aus dem Grunde, weil das gesamte Sich-Ausbreiten ätherisch ist, sich im astralischen Leibe spiegelt und dann im Ich spiegelt, wenn der astralische Leib auch abgelegt ist.
Im Grunde genommen ist alles in Ordnung. Und die heutige Wissenschaft widerlegt nicht die Geisteswissenschaft, sondern sie beweist sie in Wirklichkeit! Wenn man nur einiges Verständnis aufbringen könnte, so würde man sehen, wie durch ein richtiges Verständnis gerade die echte Naturwissenschaft die Berechtigung der Geisteswissenschaft auch in bezug auf deren einzelne Behauptungen aufweist.
Geisteswissenschaft ist, wie Sie sehen, etwas, was in unserer Zeit beginnen muß, in die Entwickelung der Menschheit hereinzutreten, was beginnen muß, die Menschheit zu ergreifen, weil sonst die Menschheit dahin kommen wird, nur das Zeitliche zu begreifen und vom Ewigen, das in uns lebt, nichts zu wissen. Es wird die Zeit kommen, wo die Menschen zuerst dieses einsehen werden, und dann sich auch wiederum mehr mit der Entwickelung ihres Willenslebens, mit der Entwickelung ihres Gefühlslebens befassen werden. Denn nur durch Gefühl und Wille einen wir uns mit der Welt, die nicht gedankenlos ist.
Da werden natürlich die Leute einwenden: Nun, dann fühlst du halt die geistige Welt, du willst sie gar nicht! Nein, wir werden ja gerade vereint durch Gefühl und Wille mit der objektiven Gedankenwelt, mit den Gedanken, die leben, die wir nicht bloß denken. Und so wahr wie die Menschheit in der Vorzeit ein Hineinschauen in die geistige Welt gehabt hat, so wahr wird sich diese Menschheit in der Zukunft dieses Hineinschauen in die geistige Welt wiederum erringen müssen. Sie wird es sich aber nur erringen können, wenn sie sich entschließen wird, auf die Gedanken von der geistigen Welt, die von unserer Zeit abgelehnt wird, sich erst etwas einzulassen.
Dazu wird vieles, vieles korrigiert werden müssen, was so an Begriffen und Vorstellungen in unserer Gegenwart herumschwirrt. Man glaubt gar nicht, wie gedankenlos im Grunde genommen die Menschen der Gegenwart — gestatten Sie, daß ich das Paradoxon gebrauche -, die Menschen denken. Sie geben Definitionen, von denen sie felsenfest überzeugt sind, daß sie richtig sind, daß sie gar nicht angefochten werden können. Der Geisteswissenschafter aber hat die Aufgabe, das, wovon die Menschen felsenfest überzeugt sind, weil es ihnen ganz logisch vorkommt, weil sie überzeugt sind davon, erst recht zu prüfen. Wenn zum Beispiel jemand gefragt wird im heutigen materialistischen Zeitalter: Was ist ein wahrer Begriff? - so wird man kommen und ungefähr sagen: Ein wahrer Begriff ist, wenn ich mir ein inneres Bild mache von einem Gegenstand, der wirklich draußen vorhanden ist in der Welt. Das heißt, jeder wird heute definieren: Wahrheit besteht in der Übereinstimmung eines Bildes, das man sich in Gedanken macht, mit einem Sein draußen. Man kann nun sehr leicht, wenn man den Begriff untersucht, nachweisen, daß der wahre Begriff mit dem, was man gewöhnlich so nennt, überhaupt nichts zu tun hat. Man kann leicht nachweisen, daß das Sein ganz andere Wege geht als das Bild, das man sich als Begriff macht. Wenn ein Begriff nur dann wahr ist, wenn er mit einem Sein übereinstimmt, dann würde er natürlich auch nur so lange wahr sein, als das Sein ihn bewahrheitet. So könnte man einen Begriff etwa vergleichen mit einem Gemälde, das man als Porträt von einem Menschen macht. Das Porträt ist dann gut, wenn es ähnlich ist dem Menschen. Aber mit dem Sein des Menschen hat es nichts zu tun. Die Übereinstimmung des Bildes mit einem Selbst kommt gar nicht dazu zu der inneren Wahrheit des Bildes. Denn denken Sie sich, Sie machen ein Porträt von einem Menschen und er stirbt gleich darnach. Erst hat das Bild übereingestimmt mit dem, was ist, und nachher mit dem, was nicht ist. Das Sein hat gar keinen Bezug darauf, ob das Bild wahr ist oder nicht, keine Beziehung mit dem Sein. Die ist überhaupt etwas ganz Erphantasiertes für den, der wirklich die Sache logisch betrachtet. Das Wesentliche ist, daß die Dinge innerlich erlebt werden. Und dieses innerliche Erleben, das muß sich die Menschheit wiederum aneignen.
Dazu gehört aber vor allem - und dazu können wir insbesondere durch unsere so schwere, leidvolle Zeit hingeführt werden -, daß die Menschheit sich wiederum erringt ein Gefühl für wirkliche Wahrheit. Wir kommen ja nach und nach durch den Materialismus von der Wahrheit im Grunde genommen ganz ab. Wir haben uns verloren durch den Materialismus gerade in bezug auf den Wahrheitsbegriff. Vergleichen Sie heute einmal da, wo Sie es nachprüfen können, die journalistischen Schilderungen —- und wie viele Menschen lesen heute gar nichts anderes als Zeitungen - irgendeines Ereignisses, das Sie selber mitangesehen haben mit Ihren eigenen Wahrnehmungen. Wenn Sie es wiederlesen in den Zeitungen, da werden Sie finden, es ist so geschildert, wie der betreffende Zeitungsschreiber meint, daß es auf seine Leser einen Eindruck machen kann. Aber ein Gefühl davon, daß alles der Wahrheit entsprechen soll, das, das wird immer geringer und geringer. Aber das gehört dazu. Und solange das nicht die Menschheit durchdringt, wird in den Seelen sich nicht derjenige Impuls regen können, der aus der sinnlichen Welt in die geistige hinausführt. Denn unter diesen mangelnden Wahrheitsbegriffen werden die Begriffe unter der Hand zu falschen. Wie oft erleben wir zum Beispiel folgendes: Irgendeiner schreibt über Geisteswissenschaft, sagen wir über dasjenige, was ich über Geisteswissenschaft veröffentlicht habe. Der schreibt nun und kann natürlich nicht umhin, von seinen materialistischen Begriffen aus zu sagen, daß das alles aus der Phantasie heraus gesponnen werde und daß man das nicht dürfe: aus der Phantasie heraus spinnen. Und dann kommt er darauf, daß er untersucht, wie es denn komme, daß ein Mensch ein Phantast sein kann.
Ein solcher Artikel ist wirklich erschienen vor gar nicht langer Zeit! Er untersucht, wie es denn kommt, daß ein Mensch so phantastisch sein kann. Da wird erzählt, wo denn der Mensch - in diesem Falle war ich es — herstammt, wo er früher gelebt hat, wie er durch eine gewisse Rassenmischung dazu kommen kann, solche Phantasien zu haben. Er phantasiert in seinem Materialismus das Unglaublichste zusammen. Und das ist das, was ich sage: Man nimmt einfach die Lüge in die Hand, man verdreht innerlich die Wahrheit.
Selbstverständlich kann man das nicht unmittelbar nachweisen. Aber was für eine Verlogenheit liegt darinnen, wenn man imstande ist, jemandem Phantasie vorzuwerfen und dann über ihn selber zu phantasieren! Wenn Sie genauer unser gegenwärtiges Leben ansehen, dann werden Sie sehen, wie ungeheuer verbreitet heute dieses mangelhafte Verantwortlichkeitsgefühl dafür ist, daß alles dasjenige, was wir sagen, mit der Realität auch wirklich übereinstimmt. Ohne uns dieses Gefühl in der allerintensivsten Weise anzueignen, können wir nicht den Zugang zu der geistigen Welt finden. Wir können gar nicht erfassen, warum denn dasjenige wahr sein muß, was uns die Geisteswissenschaft aus der geistigen Welt als Wahrheit herausholt. Aber wir sind viel zu kurzdenkend, um in dieser Weise wirklich unsere Gegenwart zu betrachten, und wir sind zu sehr mit unseren Interessen an dem oder jenem hängend, um wirklich auf allen Gebieten zu sehen, wie die Unwahrheit hereinschillert und -splittert in alle einzelnen Vorgänge des Lebens.
Wahres Empfinden, wahres Vorstellen, darüber wirklich nachzusinnen, das gehört zu den ersten Vorbereitungen der Geisteswissenschaft. Und hineinfallen muß solches Sinnen, ich möchte sagen in eine Art bewußter Vorbereitungszeit für dasjenige, was Menschenzukunft wirklich sein muß; denn nur in der Wiedervereinigung unserer Seele mit dem Geistigen kann das zukünftige Heil des Menschengeschlechts liegen. Geisteswissenschaft ist nicht etwas, was wir nur wie eine andere Sensation suchen, sondern Geisteswissenschaft muß etwas sein, von dem wir wissen, daß es in der gegenwärtigen Zeit auftreten muß, weil die Menschheit diese Geisteswissenschaft braucht. Und gewissermaßen wie zu ihr verpflichtet müssen wir uns fühlen, wenn wir licht und klar in den Gang der Entwickelung der Menschheit hineinblicken.
Welche unendliche Bereicherung aber erfahren wir durch dasjenige, was uns die Geisteswissenschaft dadurch geben kann, daß uns die Welt nach und nach erweitert wird dadurch, daß zu dem Physisch-Wirklichen der Menschheitsentwickelung auch das Geistig-Wirkliche hinzugefügt wird! Immer mehr und mehr sind von der Welt, in der der Mensch ist zwischen dem Tod und einer neuen Geburt, die Menschen in der materialistischen Zeit abgeschnitten worden. Wiederum gegeben werden muß ihnen durch die Geisteswissenschaft das Zusammenleben mit dem gesamten Menschen, mit dem auch, was vom Menschen vorhanden ist, wenn der Mensch keinen physischen Leib an sich trägt. Dafür gibt unsere Welt nichts.
Man kann es wirklich schwer auf der Seele empfinden, wenn man gerade in unserer heutigen schweren Zeit so etwas sieht wie ein Buch, das jetzt eben zum Beispiel von Ernst Haeckel erschienen ist. «Ewigkeitsgedanken» nennt er dieses Buch. Nun ist Ernst Haeckel einer der ausgezeichnetsten Geister in unserer Gegenwart. Diese «Ewigkeitsgedanken» knüpfen gerade an den großen Krieg der Gegenwart an. Welches ist der Hauptinhalt davon? Der Hauptinhalt dieses neuesten Haeckelschen Buches ist, daß er fragt: Was kann uns dieser Krieg zeigen? Tausende und abertausende von Menschen sterben dahin durch die äußere Gewalt, ohne irgendeine Notwendigkeit. Kann da jemand nicht in diesem Kriege den notwendigen Beweis sehen - meint Haeckel -, daß alle Ewigkeits- und Unendlichkeitsgedanken ein Unding sind? Muß uns nicht gerade dieser Krieg davon überzeugen, der des Menschen Leben verdirbt durch die äußeren Zufälte, der Kugeln und so weiter, muß uns dieser Krieg nicht zeigen - so meint Ernst Haeckel -, wie es nichts gibt, das über das gewöhnliche physische Leben hinausgeht?
Selbstverständlich werden andere Menschen der Gegenwart durch dasjenige, was diese schweren Ereignisse sind, gerade zu Ewigkeitsgedanken anderer Art kommen, zu dem entgegengesetzten Ewigkeitsgedanken, zu dem Ewigkeitsgedanken, der Ihnen wenigstens das Gefühl hervorruft, daß diejenigen, die durch die Pforte des Todes gehen in solchen Zeiten, ihre Menschheitsaufgabe in anderen Welten weiter fortsetzen und daß gerade dasjenige, was sie als Opfer bringen, in dem weiteren Leben mit der Ausgangspunkt für dasjenige ist, was sie zu leisten haben, wenn sie den physischen Leib nicht mehr an sich tragen.
Mit den bisherigen Wissenschaften kann man das eine und das andere beweisen. So wie man mit den bisherigen Wissenschaften ausgezeichnete Apparate machen kann, die das menschliche Dasein erhöhen, die die menschliche Kultur im friedlichen Sinne vorwärtsbringen, und die schlimmsten Zerstörungsapparate, so läßt sich mit derselben äußeren Wissenschaft das eine und das andere machen und das eine und das andere beweisen.
Um wirklich in die Welt einzudringen, in der das Ewige lebt, dazu ist die Geisteswissenschaft notwendig. Und diese Geisteswissenschaft, ich habe auch hier davon gesprochen, wenigstens zu einer Anzahl von Ihnen habe ich schon davon gesprochen, sie zeigt uns unter anderem auch, daß diejenigen, die frühzeitig, bevor das gewöhnliche Lebensalter für den physischen Plan abgelaufen ist, aus ihrem physischen Leib hinausgehen, ihren Ätherleib der Ätherwelt übergeben, in ihrer Individualität fortleben. Also der ganze Sinn und Geist der Geisteswissenschaft zeigt, daß ein solcher Ätherleib, der noch lange den physischen Leib versorgen könnte, wenn er nun der Ätherwelt übergeben wird, Lebenskräfte in sich hat, die noch durch Jahrzehnte den physischen Leib versorgen könnten. Das ist da in der Ätherwelt, wie ich es Ihnen an einem Beispiel gezeigt habe.
Dasjenige, was einer mit seinem Opfertod sich erwirbt, das lebt in seiner Individualität weiter. Das lebt in ihm gerade in einer solchen Zeit, wie die unsrige ist, wo wir den Sinn dessen, was geschieht, nur durchschauen können, wenn wir ihn mit dem Seelenauge der Geisteswissenschaft durchschauen können. Und sie macht uns aufmerksam auf das geistige Gegenbild desjenigen, was jetzt über Europas Erde geschieht dadurch, daß auf dem physischen Plane Europas die gewaltigen und leidvollen Vorgänge sich abspielen. Das geistige Korrelat, der geistige Parallelvorgang davon muß, weil alles Physische von der geistigen Welt aus geleitet wird, hereinfließen in die physischen Vorgänge der Menschheitsentwickelung in die Zukunft hinein. Aber fruchtbar wird das nur werden können, wenn Menschenseelen hier auf Erden in ihren physischen Leibern ein Bewußtsein haben werden, daß sie mit dem, was von den zahlreichen, tausenden und abertausenden von Opfertoden fortlebt in der geistigen Welt, ein Wirksames und Helfendes haben, unter das sie sich gleichsam stellen können, um in die Zukunft hinein auch auf der Erde selber hier zu wirken, vereint mit den Toten durch das Bewußtsein, das die Seele haben kann von der Wirklichkeit einer geistigen Welt.
Das ist es, was auch für dieses Ereignis die Geisteswissenschaft den Menschen geben muß. Dann werden sie in richtigem Sinne auch das Geistige dieses allergewaltigsten Weltereignisses für die Zukunft fruchtbar machen können und in rechtem Sinne erdenken und erfühlen und empfinden können:
Aus dem Mut der Kämpfer,
Aus dem Blut der Schlachten,
Aus dem Leid Verlassener,
Aus des Volkes Opfertaten
Wird erwachsen Geistesfrucht
Lenken Seelen geistbewußt
Ihren Sinn ins Geisterreich.
Life Between Death and Rebirth
It is our endeavor to penetrate, as far as possible, into those worlds which are closed to ordinary sensory and intellectual perception, which is bound to the physical plane. Over the years, we have become accustomed to thinking that during the life in which we are enclosed within our physical bodies, we stand in a world that is only a small part of the entire real world. Since we meet so rarely, we cannot explain everything, I would say from the ground up, during these meetings. Our other gatherings and our writings must show that the things that are said at these rare meetings are well-founded. For it must be our need, especially at such gatherings, to learn important and essential things about the greater real world that I have just mentioned, which encompasses the physical world and the spiritual world.
Since we last met here, many things have happened within the circles in which our spiritual science is cultivated. A large number of dear friends have passed through the gate of death. Since the beginning of this difficult time of war, friends who had to participate directly in the great events have also passed through the gate of death. This means that we ourselves, even within our circle, have been touched by the great spiritual world insofar as souls who were among us have entered this spiritual world after laying down their bodies. It is in the spirit that flows from our spiritual science that for us, the souls who have thus left the physical plane and been taken up into another world remain connected to us as they were when they still looked at us through physical eyes and could speak to us through the means of the physical body.
It is precisely when one approaches the world that receives our dead, in those moments when one comes close to the souls of the so-called deceased, that one learns all the shocking things that must first be unloaded from our soul when it tries to look across the threshold that separates us from the spiritual world and enter the world that can only be seen in the disembodied state of the soul. And you will perhaps find it understandable that, out of various feelings that have passed through my own soul in the course of the year since we last saw each other, that out of such feelings many words are spoken that we have to say to each other today.
In the last year, I have often had occasion to say to our friends that the true confidence of those who look into the conditions of existence can only really mature when one knows that those who have passed through the gate of death and were faithful co-workers here remain so, so that we can be quite certain that we do not lose for our work those souls who have gained an understanding of our cause since they were connected with us here before they passed through the gate of death. And among such souls are such faithful co-workers that we can say: Even though opposition and misunderstanding here in the physical world are sometimes so great and growing ever greater, as we can see, we can still believe that our cause will take root in the course of human development, because we can gain this belief through our connection with the disembodied souls who have gained an understanding of the whole significance of our cause for the course of human development.
However, precisely when human beings approach the world in which the so-called dead are, through their open souls — one can already speak in this way, even though it is of course the entire spiritual world in which the dead are — precisely when human beings are able to approach, I would say as visitors, as companions of the dead in the spiritual world, then they learn more and more about what what has already been emphasized here: that the concepts, the ideas, the notions we have about the world, and which we have because we are in the physical body, must be changed many times, must be made flexible, so that they can also encompass the mysteries of spiritual existence. People today are very, very accustomed to the purely material view of their surroundings, and they have therefore formed their ideas according to this purely material view. This makes it difficult for them, above all, to penetrate the spiritual worlds even with their imagination. Many believe that it is impossible to gain an understanding of the spiritual worlds if one cannot yet see into them. But they believe this only because they have made their ideas rigid and dead by becoming too accustomed to thinking only of the physical world.
Having said this, I would like to talk to you today about some things that have to do with the life of the so-called dead. We know that if we want to consider the life between death and a new birth, we must observe and take into account how the human being is composed of the four members that we know well: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the I. If we first consider the most external fact of death, which is still visible from the physical plane, it is that the human being sheds his physical body. We need not go into the different ways in which this physical body unites itself with earthly existence, whether through cremation or decay — both of which are basically only different in the time in which they occur. But even if we consider only this fact, that the physical body falls away from the entire being of the human being in death and unites with the earth, as it is said — if we consider only this fact in its significance for the physical plane, then it is actually viewed in a very imperfect way. It is often viewed in a rather imperfect way even by spiritual scientific schools of thought that look to a certain extent into spiritual realms. These are still misled by all kinds of moral ideas that are in many respects unsuitable for understanding the intrusion of the spiritual into the physical world in the right way.
All physical events also have spiritual meanings. There is no physical event that does not also have a spiritual meaning. So the physical event is that our physical body falls away from us, is split into its parts, into its molecules, into its atoms, and is returned to the earth. Now it is a great prejudice of today's materialistic worldview, which has basically dominated humanity for a long time, that the human body, as we carry it from birth to death, or, let us say, from conception to death, that this human body simply disintegrates into the smallest parts, into atoms, and that these atoms are then incorporated into the earth or into the earth's territory and remain atoms, passing as atoms into other beings. It is easy to arrive at this prejudice through today's materialistic way of thinking. But this way of thinking is actually nothing more than nonsense in the face of spiritual science. For atoms, in the sense in which chemists assume them to exist, do not really exist. What becomes of the smallest parts of our body, regardless of how we are united with the earth as a body, is ultimately heat. In essence, our entire physical organism is transformed in some way, in a shorter or longer period of time, into heat.
That is why, as is well known, we speak of heat in spiritual science as a fourth state of matter, whereas physics does not recognize heat as a fourth state of matter, but regards it only as a property of bodies. And it is this heat that is initially given to the earth. It is communicated to the earth. So we give heat from our physical body to our earth. It is really the heat present in the earth that is intimately connected with what human beings leave behind. Human beings do not transform into air, water, and so on. These are only transitional states that they go through. What becomes air and water ultimately becomes warmth. Yes, even if it takes centuries for the last remnants of matter to turn into warmth, even if what constitutes the skeletal system takes millennia to turn into warmth, it ultimately turns into warmth. And even if you go to museums and find ancient skeletons of people who walked the earth in times long past, the time will come when what is present today in skeletons will be nothing more than heat within the earth's body. The fact that our physical body remains on the earth at all has a great, essential meaning for those who have passed through the gate of death. They go into the spiritual world. They leave their bodies behind on the earth. This is an experience for the so-called dead. They go through this: your body leaves you. You have to imagine that this is an experience. What kind of experience is it? Well, you can get an idea of this if you take experiences on the physical plane. It is an experience, let us say, when you have a new sensation that you have not had before and learn to understand it; you have acquired something for your soul that it did not possess before, a new concept, a new idea. But now imagine such a small experience magnified to a great extent. It is an infinitely powerful thing that a person goes through, which gives them the opportunity to see, think, and understand between death and birth: that they lay down their body, that they surrender it to the planet they are leaving. It is a great, powerful experience that cannot be compared to any experience of earthly existence. The value of an experience lies in the fact that we have something in our soul that remains as a result, as a consequence of the experience. So we can ask the question: What remains as a result, as a consequence of this experience of the physical body leaving our entire human being?
If we were unable to have this experience, which we consciously undergo, of our physical body passing away as we pass through the gates of death, we would never be able to develop an ego-consciousness after death! Ego-consciousness after death is stimulated by this experience of the physical body passing away. For the dead, it is of the utmost importance: I see my physical body disappearing from me. — And the other thing: out of this event, I see the feeling arise within myself: I am an I. — One can utter the paradoxical words: if we could not experience our death from the other side, we would not be able to have an I-consciousness after death. — As true as it is that the human soul, when it comes into existence through birth or even through conception, gradually adapts itself to the use of the physical apparatus and thereby gains self-consciousness in the body, so true is it that the human being gains self-consciousness after death from the other side of existence by experiencing the separation of the physical body from the whole human being.
Just think what that actually means. When we look at death from this physical side of existence, it appears to us as the end of this existence, as that which has nothing behind it for physical perception. Viewed from the other side, death as such is the most glorious thing that can ever stand before the human soul. For this means that human beings can always have the feeling of the victory of spiritual existence over the physical. And while we here in physical life cannot always have the idea of our birth before us—no human being has the idea of his birth, no human being can know anything about his birth from physical experience—just as little as we can look back on our birth here in physical life, so surely we always have, when we become fully conscious after death, the event of our death immediately before us. But there is nothing distressing about this event of death; rather, this event of death is the greatest, most glorious, most beautiful event that we can have before our soul. For it always shows us the whole greatness of the fact that consciousness, self-consciousness, originates in the spiritual world from death, that death is the stimulus of this self-consciousness in the spiritual world.
Secondly, we must consider the second link in our human existence, the etheric body. We know from the elementary explanations we have all gone through in the course of our school life that this etheric body remains with us for a relatively short time after death, but that it is then also discarded. We also know that there is a certain significance in the fact that this etheric body, as we had it, remains united with us for days after death.
As long as we carry this etheric body with us after we have shed the physical body, we can still think everything that we were able to think during our physical existence. Therefore, we can survey all the thoughts we carry within us as if in a large tableau. We see the thoughts we went through during life in the tableau of life that has often been described to you. We have our whole life before us like a panorama in the days when we still carry the etheric body with us, and we have it before us in simultaneity, that is, we see everything at once. For what we call memory here in the physical world arises in the etheric body, but it is bound to the physical body. We have laid down this physical body. We see our thoughts. We do not bring them up from the depths that have something to do with the physical body; we see them and survey the life we have lived as in a panorama.
Then we lay down this etheric body. But this etheric body that we lay down remains visible to us throughout our entire life after death. It is outside, but it remains visible to us. It unites with the entire universe, but what happens to it remains visible to us; we see it. And it is one of the mysteries of death that we see in a panorama, as long as we carry the etheric body with us, what we had within us in thoughts when we were alive, that we unite this outside ourselves with the world, that we see it, as it were, woven into the world, that it belongs to our world, not to our I after death. It really is as if what weaves and lives within us as the etheric body during life simply lives its way into the etheric world outside.
Then comes the time, as you know, when we have only the ego and the astral body of what we carry here on the physical plane, and of course the ability to look back on what we were. There we experience ourselves in a completely different way than here in the physical body—with a heightened consciousness that death has established in us. But we must never give in to the idea that this life between death and new birth is unconscious for the soul. A stronger, more intense consciousness is connected with this life than the consciousness here in the physical body, only the consciousness is formed in a completely different way. And, of course, the only way to come close to imagining what the dead are like is to take everything that spiritual science can offer and use it to transform the ideas that are adapted to purely physical objects and events here on the physical plane. Thus we live in our ego and in our astral body. We have laid aside our etheric body. It is connected with objective existence.
My dear friends, it is certainly a shocking experience for those who enter the spiritual world to visit and accompany the dead with whom they come into contact, not only to follow the individual life of the dead between death and a new birth, but also to observe what the dead look upon, what has become interwoven with the world as their etheric body, which is now an external world, an objective world for them, that is, to observe what the deceased has now given to the etheric world. And so it is that, in a certain sense, one can experience the deceased in two ways. One can experience what they have given to the etheric world, and one can experience what their consciousness resides in after death.
I say that the first contact with what the dead person has left behind in the etheric world is also shocking, even if one cannot come into contact with the being that lives on between death and a new birth and carries the consciousness and self-consciousness of the dead person, but only with what he has left behind. Even then, such an experience carries with it everything that deeply, deeply affects the soul, everything that has anything to do with contact with the spiritual world.
And part of this shock is, above all, the real, living experience that such spiritual things, as just indicated, that is, such spiritual things that are ethereal, remain behind when a person dies, that they are actually constantly around us. As surely as we live in the air that surrounds us everywhere, so surely does the world surround us in which what the dead leave behind as their etheric world remains. In the world in which we stand with our physical bodies, there is also this spiritual element of which I am now speaking. As surely as there is air around us, so surely is there around us that which the dead leave behind. It is only through states of consciousness that we are separated from the spiritual worlds; it is not through spatial relationships, but through states of consciousness that we are separated.
Take, for example, a person who is trying to do soul exercises. I emphasize that such soul exercises must be done in complete peace of mind. Anyone who becomes agitated in any way by spiritual exercises is harming themselves. If spiritual exercises are done in the way described here and in our literature, so that they are truly spiritual exercises and the physical existence does not participate in them, then they can never harm people in the slightest, not even spiritually. But we would never gain access to real spiritual knowledge if we could not occasionally hint at such things.
Suppose a person does the following exercise. He says to himself: I see colors with my eyes: red, blue, and so on. — And now he goes on to experience something in a certain sense alive with red, blue, green, and so on. One gradually comes to realize that as a human being in the physical world, especially in our present materialistic age, one is in a very crude state, that one does not respond to the finer things that can be experienced. You experience these finer things when you pay attention to the more soulful impression that colors make on you, but it can also be other sensory impressions. Of course, everyone knows in a general way that when you look at a blue surface, it has a different effect on you than when you look at a red surface. For those who perceive it without becoming nervous—I emphasize this—a red surface has something aggressive about it, something that seems to come out of the surface and attack us. Something always comes toward us from the red. Blue evokes the opposite sensation in us. It remains calm in its place. Nothing comes toward us from the blue. On the contrary, if we are able to empathize more finely with colors, we have the feeling that we can penetrate the blue with the powers of our soul, that we can pass through it. Green is, in a sense, in a state of rhythmic equilibrium. This is why it has such a beneficial effect as the plant cover of the earth. Green has such an effect on us that we penetrate it to some extent, and it in turn comes back to us. When we see a wide green field, we have the feeling that we are entering something—and then it comes back to us: in—out. This is what gives us the refreshing feeling that a wide, green field has for us.
That something like this has also been noticed by humans, that one can, in a sense, live with colors, you can convince yourself of this when you read the chapter on the moral effects of colors in Goethe's theory of colors, which is, however, understood by few today, where you will find the corresponding sensations that one can have for all colors. So you can live with colors, and with other sensory perceptions, but let us now talk about colors, to give an example. You can live with colors in such a way that when you see blue, something arises in your soul like a force that is similar to the longing that emanates from our soul, but which is pleasantly received by the blue. With red, something always arises that seems to come toward us, that does not want to accept us, that wants to overwhelm us in a certain subtle way. While perceiving colors, one can have a kind of moral-spiritual experience. Of course, not every human being can do such exercises in one incarnation, but I describe such exercises so that you can see how the individual worlds are connected with each other. If a person were to do such exercises, they would live much more purely in the world of colors. If they were to do such exercises for other sensory perceptions, they would live more purely in the world of other sensory perceptions. But then something else would soon happen.
Suppose a person were to experience the blue vault of heaven so vividly. They would not merely have the blue above them — and that is, moreover, a very subjective blue, because in reality there is no vault — but they would experience above them a benevolent inner hemisphere that absorbs their entire soul life, a hemisphere behind whose surface the soul experience can find its place. People who experience the world in a deeper sense therefore speak like Jakob Böhme, for example, who does not say: When man sees the blue vault of heaven ... – but rather: When man sees the depth. – Therein lies the whole experience of the blue: when man sees the depth.
But there is a side effect when you immerse yourself in the life of colors to such an extent that your soul glows at the same time when the colors are there. It lives on the possibility of using a very small period of time that you cannot use otherwise. When you encounter an external object in ordinary physical life, you see it; you see a certain color. That is where your impression actually begins. Then you can think about it and form an idea of the color. But when you see the color, your participation in the object begins. However, that is not the beginning of what happens. Today, even external laboratory psychologists know that a certain amount of time elapses between the effect on our eye and the emergence of the idea of blue. So blue first affects our eye. We do not perceive it immediately, but a certain amount of time passes; only then does it become conscious to us.
Today, you can read in ordinary books how experiments are carried out in laboratories. Certain apparatus is constructed and an attempt is made to produce an impression, and in front of it stands the guinea pig, the student. They have to register through another device when they get the impression, so that the short period of time that elapses between the stimulation of our sensory organs and becoming aware of it can be determined. A certain amount of time passes. During this period, we do not yet experience the blue color, if it is a blue impression, but we already experience the moral impression of the color. It is already working within us. So how the soul pours itself into the blue, how it is pleasantly received, is already within us. The soul aspect of color actually has an effect earlier, but it remains in the unconscious. The human being does not perceive it. And the human being only begins to develop his consciousness when the color appears. He does not pay attention to what precedes the color perception.
Now think about it: when you are forced to pay particular attention to this moral impression of color, to this soul experience of color, then something special happens. You have to pay attention to this when you need to add the color yourself to a surface, so to speak, that is, when you paint, or when you convey colors that are supposed to emerge from your thoughts. When you are dealing with real painting, you work from the soul impression of the color. You don't do it like the pure model artist, who merely copies the model, but you know that you have to evoke this soul impression, so you apply red. On another surface, you apply blue because you have to evoke this or that soul impression. This is how all the painting is done in our building in Dornach. The coloring is entirely born out of the soul, which is supposed to appear through the colors. This made it absolutely necessary to first have the building within oneself as a soul being. Just as the building confronts the world, it has grown out of the soul being as a building. People would perceive what it has grown out of in the Dornach building if they could make use of the short period of time that elapses between the building's effect on the sense organs and the impression being brought to consciousness. But those who were involved in the construction must create from this brief period of time; they must create everything that is color and form in the building from this brief period of time.
I have, I would say in a more scientific way, led you into something that may seem difficult to you. But such difficulties must also be overcome. It may well be the case even today that human beings, as if gifted—and in a certain sense we are always gifted, in that we stand within the world—are able to capture this moment in some way. They see something and yet sometimes have the impression that an interaction has already taken place between them and what they see when they bring it to consciousness. They see something and say to themselves: It seems to me as if I have seen this before.
You may all have experienced the feeling of encountering a being or an object and feeling that it is not only there when it makes an impression on your consciousness, but that it has approached you, that it has already come close to you. You could say that you can sometimes notice this creeping up. In ordinary life, however, what happens in this short period of time lies completely beyond consciousness, beyond the threshold. The moment you become aware of what lies just beyond the threshold of consciousness, you make an important spiritual discovery. I would like to illustrate this again with a specific example. Some of you have already heard this story, and I may have mentioned it here before. Last year, a little boy died near the building, crushed by a furniture truck. The etheric body of this little boy is united with the Dornach building, forms the aura of the Dornach building, and lives in the aura of the Dornach building. And when one has to work artistically on the Dornach building, forces come from this etheric body, which naturally appear magnified. One feels these forces within oneself, just as one feels the building spiritually.
Why is that? It is because in the world I have just spoken of, which is always around us but which we do not perceive because it remains unnoticed until the impression reaches us, because the etheric bodies of the dead are contained in this world, which the dead look upon. What the dead see of our world, what the dead look upon, is contained in the etheric world surrounding us. And we would even see it all the time if we could see, so to speak, before we look into the physical world, if we could only cross that threshold a little.
But that does not prevent the dead from always being effective in this world through what they have left behind. We are surrounded by a world in which the etheric bodies of the dead live. In some way they are connected with it. And it is only because what lives in the ether must first strike our physical body and set the apparatus of the physical body in motion that we do not perceive this tremendous envelopment by what remains of the dead in our world in etheric form. But we must acquire the feeling that our world must be enriched for our ideas about what initially exists in this entire etheric world through the etheric bodies of the dead.
The dead themselves are not initially in this world, only their remaining etheric bodies. We cannot find the dead themselves so easily — although this easy way is also difficult. The dead themselves therefore continue to live after they have shed their etheric bodies, in their astral bodies and in their I's. You can appreciate how we must transform our ideas when you consider that everything mental is separated from us by the etheric body, which passes into the outer etheric world. The thoughts we have accumulated here in our physical body do not remain with us after death. Thoughts become an external world. After death, the dead do not look at their thoughts in the same way as they looked at the thoughts they formed during their life, which they then remember and bring up from their subconscious. The dead person looks at his thoughts as if they were an ethereal painting; he sees his thoughts outside in the world. Thoughts are something external to those who have passed through the gate of death. That which is revealed to us here through feeling and will remains connected to our individuality. It then lives on in our astral body and in our I. Our ego ignites into self-consciousness through the contemplation of the moment of death. Our astral body ignites through the thoughts in the painting before us pushing their way into our astral body. We experience them in our astral body. Here in the physical body, we experience thoughts by bringing them out from within. After death, we experience thoughts by looking at them as if they were stars, worlds, or mountains, and they make an impression on us. We receive this impression and experience it in our astral body and in our ego. So the opposite is true of what happens in physical life. While we call thoughts something internal here, after death we must call them something external. We live, opened up to the world, poured out into the world. It is important that we understand this, that we do not give ourselves over to the idea that after death the world is just a kind of fine, thin repetition of the physical world here, as is often assumed in spiritualistic circles. It is something completely different. It is something completely different simply because our thoughts are beings outside of us.
It is precisely when one brings such ideas to mind that one realizes that one needs not only, I would say, a little impartiality in order to agree with spiritual science, but that one must also have a certain ability to make the concepts fluid, to change the concepts somewhat, that one must not claim to be able to imagine what is in the spiritual world with the concepts we have here to be able to imagine what is in the spiritual world. Therefore, for those who are able to visit a so-called dead person, let us say, it is necessary that they learn this communication with the dead. While here, when we encounter a human being, we enter into a relationship with his inner being, so to speak, because he perhaps expresses this inner being to us through words or facial expressions or gestures, with the dead it is such that when we enter into a relationship with them, they show us what they want to tell us in the objective world. We see, as it were, in imaginations to which he points us, what he is experiencing, what he has to say to us. I would say that when you ask the dead something, they say: Look there, there you will find what I am now experiencing.
But all this is a quick process. The dead person therefore has the ability to see thoughts that we experience here only inwardly, invisibly, in a supersensible way. Only when one acquires the ability to see thoughts with him can one experience with him. This gives him the very special ability to also experience our thoughts as a dead person, as a so-called dead person.
This occurs in particular in a phenomenon that I would also like to touch upon here. When someone we have loved has passed away, we carry thoughts of them in our soul. We think about what we experienced together with them, what we felt with them, and so on. The dead, I said, see thoughts. They also see our thoughts, and very soon they can even distinguish between the thoughts they themselves have as impressions of the spiritual world, which are imaginations of what is in the spiritual world, and the thoughts that a person thinks in their soul, which is in a body. They can distinguish between them. They distinguish them through their inner experience. The difference is actually very great. When the dead person—for the initiated it is all the same—is to experience thoughts of something that is only in the spiritual world, he must actively experience these thoughts. He must first follow every part of the thought that he experiences, I would say. The process is difficult to explain. Suppose there is a painting here, but you can only see this painting if you trace and copy all the details yourself. The dead person can do this. He copies all the thoughts he sees, he recreates them, as it were, and he experiences this recreation. Essentially, a large part of life between death and a new birth consists of recreating what exists in the spiritual world in the form of thoughts. That is how one recreates it. Then one knows that one is dealing with thought formations that belong solely to the spiritual world.
The experience is different when one looks at thoughts from the spiritual world that live in the people one has left behind in the physical world. It is not as if one recreates them, but rather the thoughts really come to meet one in such a way that one can relate to them passively. Just as my flower stalk does not need to be traced first, but immediately forms as an impression, so are the thoughts of the living. They really arise in a similar way to how impressions of the physical world arise here. And that is what uplifts, delights, and warms the dead in the thoughts of the living whom they loved. For it is a very special realm for the dead to look into the thoughts of those who love them and have remained behind. This is a special world for them. One could experience the physical world here in such a way that only what arises in the mineral, animal, plant, and human realms would exist. Then, for example, there would be no art. Art is something that must be created in addition to what is actually necessary. But it is something that human beings, who contemplate the spiritual development of humanity as a whole, know must not be missing in the world, even though nature would be just as complete as it is, even if there were no art. Thus, the dead could at best live as humans would live in the barren, dead, bare natural world, in a world without art. The dead could live if the strange thing happened that every dead person were forgotten by their loved ones immediately after their death. What is seen in the thoughts that remain in the souls of those who love the dead is something that is added to the world that the dead immediately need, but which elevates and beautifies the existence of the dead. One can compare this to art in the physical world, but the comparison is flawed, because for the dead it is an enhancement, an embellishment in a far higher sense than the embellishment of the physical world for us through art.
It therefore has a profound meaning in the whole of world existence when we unite our thoughts with the thoughts of the dead, namely in the way that has been mentioned here several times, that we bring to the dead thoughts that are formulated in language, in conceptual language, which is common to the living and the dead: in the language we speak here in spiritual science. For the dead understand the content of spiritual science just as well as the living. It will never become foreign to them, to the dead.
I believe that it is precisely by gathering such ideas that we gradually gain a vivid picture of the spiritual world. We can find our way into that which lies beyond the threshold and from which, in essence, everything that exists for us on this side of the threshold flows.
In view of these phenomena, it must be realized that—admittedly in a justified way, because it is part of the world plan—the present human race is short-sighted with regard to its view of the world, but actually even more short-sighted than it should be. For when the truly materialistic person of our time forms his concepts and ideas about the world, he thinks that these ideas and concepts are universal to all human beings. You know how difficult it is to teach a materialistic person that it is possible to think differently from him. The materialist stands firmly on the ground and says that anyone who does not think as he does is a fool. There is no greater inner intolerance than that of the materialistic person. The materialistic person basically always thinks like this: In the past, people thought that all kinds of spiritual things existed, and they hardly took a step in life without suspecting or even seeing spirits everywhere. But that was all vain fantasy. Now we as a human race have finally reached the point where we have discarded these childish notions. — And yet people could actually notice at every turn how absurd such an idea is.
I will illustrate this with an example that may seem far-fetched and come from a completely different angle than what we have discussed today. Let us consider the image of the first stage of the earth's creation, of the paradise existence of human beings, as we have it in the Bible, which we have often examined from various angles. Let us think of this image of the first humans, Adam and Eve in paradise, Eve biting the apple, Adam giving Eve the apple, the serpent on the tree tempting Eve. This motif is still sometimes painted, especially today, but in such a way that the woman is painted as naturally as possible and the man even more naturally, because that is modern. Whether impressionistic or expressionistic, in any case, a woman who is as natural as possible and a man who is even more natural are painted, along with a natural landscape and a natural snake showing its natural greedy teeth, and so on. But this is not how it was always painted, because such a picture would not represent the actual facts that we are supposed to see. We know that we must see in the snake the symbol of the actual tempter, of Lucifer. But Lucifer is a being who, as we know, remained behind during the Moon existence, and therefore, as he appears in the Earth existence, can only have his symbol in the snake, but the snake is not Lucifer; this must be seen spiritually in some way. That means it must also be seen with the soul forces of this Lucifer. This Lucifer must be seen from within, with the effort of inner forces. How else could you see him, my dear friends? We all carry within us the impressions of Lucifer, just as we carry the impressions of Ahriman. I will try to show you as briefly as possible, without all the proofs and explanations, which you can find for yourselves in our literature, how one might form an idea of Lucifer.
Human beings carry the impulses of Lucifer within themselves. They carry them within themselves in such a way that they sit in their heads and penetrate from there into the astral body, where the Luciferic has remained. So while the spirits of form have formed the head, the Luciferic impulses push their way into the head, but also into what is formed from the astral, into the spinal cord. If we were to draw the head and its extension, the spine, out of a human being, we would get a snake, a snake-shaped formation with a human head. Of course, the whole thing must then be thought of as astral, the head still something of a replica of the human head, and the spine attached to it writhes in this way. If you imagine this projected out objectively, it is a snake with a human head. This means that anyone who sees Lucifer externally in a picture could actually say: a snake with a human head. Not a snake with a snake's head, because that is no longer Lucifer, that is an earthly snake on which the spirits of form have already worked as earthly beings. So we would have to say a snake with a human head. This means that a painter who wanted to paint Lucifer on the tree would have to depict the snake writhing on the tree with a human head at the top. He would be painting from the knowledge of our spiritual science. We would therefore have to imagine Adam and Eve by a tree, and coiled up inside the tree, resembling a snake's body, only the spinal cord that has become astral and what resembles the human head. When the woman first sees him, he is naturally modeled after the female face.
Go to the museum, to the art gallery, and look at the painting by Master Bertram and see how, in the middle of the Middle Ages, he still painted this snake hanging from the tree, just as I have described. It is striking! It is strikingly remarkable because it provides us with proof that a painter in the middle of the Middle Ages painted from real, actual ideas of the spiritual world. This is solid proof that we don't have to go back many centuries to find documents showing that people back then knew something that humanity has forgotten in our materialistic age.
Of course, this matter, which I have just discussed, will never be touched upon in any external history of art. Nevertheless, in our materialistic age, everyone can convince themselves of this, not only in their minds but also in their perceptions: the focus on the spiritual has only disappeared in the last few centuries. Anyone who goes to an art gallery and looks at this picture of paradise by the master Bertram has full proof, provided on the outer physical plane, that it is not so long ago that people were able to look into the spiritual world through what we call atavistic clairvoyance and knew its secrets in a completely different way than they are known today. Just think how blind people actually are as they go through the world, when they could convince themselves outwardly on the physical plane, if only they wanted to, that there is development in the human race.
What is significant is that over the last three to four centuries, the existing, more atavistic, unconscious clairvoyance has declined. For it goes without saying that Master Bertram could not have developed spiritual science. He only looked, still in the etheric realm, at what was actually happening with Lucifer, and then painted it. It was unconscious, instinctive clairvoyance.
In order for external perception to come to human beings, this old way of seeing the spiritual world had to recede. But it must be regained by human beings. And the time must gradually come when what has been lost will be regained, but only in the field of consciousness. Therefore, it must be prepared by the flow of spiritual science. Human beings can only approach the spiritual world again by studying spiritual science. But this spiritual science must truly bring insight into the spiritual world.
Today it can be scientifically proven how far natural science can go. When those who think purely in terms of natural science speak about things today, they are actually speaking about the soul apparatus, about the physical instrument of soul life. Now examine the descriptions available today — they are called psychophysiology — which originate from the most eminent natural scientists of our time, and see what they have to say about the soul, that is, in their sense, about the soul apparatus. You will find everywhere, in a most peculiar way, that these people say: If we consider the life of sensation and imagination, the soul apparatus is everywhere involved, and they then describe what happens in the brain, in the nervous system, when a person senses or imagines something. Everywhere we find the physical, material parallel process. When these researchers come to feeling and the will, they find nothing of a physical parallel process.
The fact that something like this does not come to light, is not taken into account, stems solely from the fact that natural science and its imitators — one cannot really call them imitators, because imitation is useful, but the monistic imitation of natural science is highly superfluous — so because the monists merely crow about that for every thought and feeling there is a certain physical process and that thinking and feeling are bound to the brain. But they do not speak of feeling and willing. At most they speak of emotional tones, that is, a certain muted imagination. But they do not get to feeling and willing. And honest natural scientists say: Our science does not extend to feeling and willing. You can read what I am saying now in the scientific literature. It can be proven in all respects. For example, you can most easily find confirmation of what I am saying now in the work of Dr. Theodor Ziehen, the well-known contemporary psychiatrist and psychophysiologist. He points out the individual processes that correspond to thinking and feeling. He even goes as far as to describe the tone of feeling, but he does not reach the actual feeling and will. He therefore denies feeling and will. They do not exist at all, he says. Can one actually prove more clearly from a scientific point of view that scientific thinking extends only to the temporal, only to that which we lay down with death, and that that which is beyond it, which, as I have just shown, lives in feeling and will, belongs so little to the body that the natural scientist cannot find it at all, that he even rejects it, denies it! That is why people crow: feeling and will do not exist because they cannot be found by ordinary science; natural science itself proves to us today that feeling and will are not connected with the body as such, as are thoughts and sensations!
This has to do with the fact that thoughts separate themselves from us and appear spread out outside after death. Feeling and will remain with us. And from feeling and will springs the power to create the thought tableau. Anyone who wants to today can show strictly through natural science how feeling and will have nothing to do with anything that is nature, but that they emerge as the astral body and the I after death and remain with the human individuality, igniting into a new consciousness in the way I have described; for the reason that the entire spreading out is etheric, is reflected in the astral body, and then reflected in the I when the astral body is also laid down.
Basically, everything is in order. And today's science does not refute spiritual science, but in fact proves it! If only people could bring a little understanding to bear, they would see how, through a correct understanding, genuine natural science demonstrates the validity of spiritual science, even with regard to its individual assertions.
Spiritual science, as you can see, is something that must begin in our time to enter into the development of humanity, something that must begin to take hold of humanity, because otherwise humanity will come to understand only the temporal and know nothing of the eternal that lives within us. The time will come when people will first realize this and then again concern themselves more with the development of their will life, with the development of their feeling life. For it is only through feeling and will that we unite ourselves with the world, which is not thoughtless.
People will naturally object: Well, then you feel the spiritual world, you don't want it! No, it is precisely through feeling and will that we are united with the objective world of thoughts, with the thoughts that live, which we do not merely think. And just as humanity in ancient times had insight into the spiritual world, so will humanity in the future have to regain this insight into the spiritual world. But it will only be able to do so if it decides to first engage with the thoughts of the spiritual world that are rejected in our time.
To this end, much, much will have to be corrected in the concepts and ideas that are circulating in our present day. It is unbelievable how thoughtless people of the present day are — allow me to use this paradox — in their thinking. They give definitions of which they are firmly convinced that they are correct, that they cannot be challenged. But it is the task of the humanities scholar to examine precisely those things that people are firmly convinced of because they seem entirely logical to them, because they are convinced of them. For example, if someone is asked in today's materialistic age: What is a true concept? — they will come and say something like: A true concept is when I form an inner image of an object that really exists outside in the world. That is, everyone today will define truth as the correspondence between an image one forms in one's mind and a being outside. If one examines the concept, one can very easily prove that the true concept has nothing at all to do with what is commonly called a concept. One can easily prove that being takes a completely different path than the image one forms as a concept. If a concept is only true when it corresponds to a being, then it would of course only be true as long as the being confirms it. One could compare a concept to a painting that one makes as a portrait of a person. The portrait is good if it resembles the person. But it has nothing to do with the being of the person. The correspondence of the image with a self does not contribute to the inner truth of the image. For imagine that you paint a portrait of a person and he dies immediately afterwards. At first, the picture corresponded to what is, and afterwards to what is not. Being has no relation whatsoever to whether the picture is true or not, no relation to being. This is something completely imaginary for those who really look at things logically. The essential thing is that things are experienced inwardly. And humanity must reacquire this inner experience.
However, this requires above all – and our difficult, painful times can lead us to this – that humanity regains a sense of real truth. Through materialism, we are gradually losing touch with the truth altogether. Materialism has caused us to lose our sense of truth. Compare today, wherever you can, the journalistic accounts — and how many people today read nothing but newspapers — of some event that you yourself have witnessed with your own perceptions. When you reread it in the newspapers, you will find that it is described in such a way that the newspaper writer thinks it will make an impression on his readers. But the feeling that everything should correspond to the truth is becoming less and less. But that is part of it. And as long as this does not permeate humanity, the impulse that leads from the sensory world to the spiritual world will not be able to stir in people's souls. For under these deficient concepts of truth, concepts are secretly becoming false. How often do we experience the following, for example: Someone writes about spiritual science, let's say about what I have published on spiritual science. He writes and, of course, cannot help but say, based on his materialistic concepts, that it is all spun out of fantasy and that one must not do that: spin things out of fantasy. And then he comes to the conclusion that he is investigating how it comes about that a person can be a fantasist.
Such an article really appeared not so long ago! It investigates how it comes about that a person can be so fantastical. It tells where the person—in this case, it was me—comes from, where he used to live, how he can come to have such fantasies through a certain mixture of races. In his materialism, he fantasizes the most incredible things. And that is what I am saying: one simply takes up the lie, one twists the truth inwardly.
Of course, you can't prove this directly. But what a lie it is to accuse someone of fantasy and then fantasize about them yourself! If you take a closer look at our present life, you will see how widespread this lack of responsibility is today, that everything we say actually corresponds to reality. Without acquiring this feeling in the most intense way, we cannot find access to the spiritual world. We cannot even comprehend why what spiritual science brings out of the spiritual world as truth must be true. But we are far too short-sighted to really look at our present in this way, and we are too attached to our interests in this or that to really see how untruth shimmers and splinters into all the individual processes of life.
True feeling, true imagination, really thinking about these things, are among the first preparations for spiritual science. And such thinking must fall into, I would say, a kind of conscious preparation for what the future of humanity must really be; for only in the reunification of our soul with the spiritual can the future salvation of the human race lie. Spiritual science is not something we seek merely as another sensation; spiritual science must be something we know must appear in the present time because humanity needs it. And we must feel, as it were, obligated to it when we look clearly and brightly into the course of human development.
But what infinite enrichment do we experience through what spiritual science can give us, in that the world is gradually expanded for us by adding the spiritual reality to the physical reality of human evolution! In the materialistic age, people have become increasingly cut off from the world in which human beings exist between death and a new birth. Spiritual science must give them back their coexistence with the whole human being, including that which exists when human beings no longer have a physical body. Our world has nothing to offer in this regard.
It can be truly distressing to see something like a book that has just been published by Ernst Haeckel, for example, especially in these difficult times. He calls this book “Ewigkeitsgedanken” (Thoughts on Eternity). Now, Ernst Haeckel is one of the most distinguished minds of our time. These “Thoughts on Eternity” tie in directly with the great war of the present. What is the main content of this book? The main content of Haeckel's latest book is that he asks: What can this war show us? Thousands upon thousands of people are dying through external violence, without any necessity. Can anyone not see in this war the necessary proof, Haeckel asks, that all thoughts of eternity and infinity are absurd? Must not this war, which destroys human life through external accidents, bullets, and so on, convince us, must not this war show us, says Ernst Haeckel, that there is nothing that goes beyond ordinary physical life?
Of course, other people of the present will be led by these grave events to thoughts of eternity of a different kind, to the opposite thought of eternity, to the thought of eternity that at least gives them the feeling that those who pass through the gates of death in such times continue their human task in other worlds and that precisely what they sacrifice will be the starting point in the next life for what they have to accomplish when they no longer carry their physical body.
With the sciences we have so far, one can prove one thing and the other. Just as with the sciences we have so far, one can make excellent apparatus that elevate human existence, that advance human culture in a peaceful sense, and the worst apparatus of destruction, so with the same external science one can do one thing and the other and prove one thing and the other.
In order to truly penetrate the world in which the eternal lives, spiritual science is necessary. And this spiritual science, which I have also spoken about here, at least to some of you, shows us, among other things, that those who leave their physical body early, before the usual age for the physical plane has passed, and surrender their etheric body to the etheric world, continue to live in their individuality. So the whole meaning and spirit of spiritual science shows that such an etheric body, which could still nourish the physical body for a long time if it were now surrendered to the etheric world, has life forces within it that could nourish the physical body for decades. This is in the etheric world, as I have shown you with an example.
What a person gains through their sacrificial death lives on in their individuality. It lives on in them, especially in a time like ours, when we can only understand the meaning of what is happening if we can see it with the soul's eye of spiritual science. And it draws our attention to the spiritual counterpart of what is now happening on the earth in Europe, where powerful and painful events are unfolding on the physical plane. The spiritual counterpart, the spiritual parallel process, must flow into the physical processes of human development in the future, because everything physical is guided by the spiritual world. But this can only be fruitful if human souls here on earth, in their physical bodies, are conscious that they have something in the spiritual world that lives on from the thousands and thousands of sacrificial deaths, something effective and helpful that they can, as it were, place themselves under in order to continue into the future. what lives on in the spiritual world from the numerous, thousands upon thousands of sacrificial deaths, something effective and helpful that they can, as it were, place themselves under in order to continue to work in the future on Earth itself, united with the dead through the consciousness that the soul can have of the reality of a spiritual world.
This is what spiritual science must give people for this event. Then they will be able to make the spiritual aspect of this most powerful world event fruitful for the future in the right sense, and they will be able to think, feel, and sense it in the right sense:
From the courage of the fighters,
From the blood of battles,
From the suffering of the forsaken,
From the sacrifices of the people
Spiritual fruit will grow
Souls will consciously guide
Their minds into the spiritual realm.