Learning to See in the Spiritual World
GA 350
28 June 1923, Dornach
I. The Development of Independent Thinking and the Ability to Think Backward
[ 1 ] A few questions were put to me last time. I will now answer them, but in a somewhat different order than they were asked. The questions are:
[ 2 ] What is the relationship between coming to see the secrets of the universe and one's conception of the world and of life?
[ 3 ] How far must one go before one finds higher worlds on the path of natural science?
[ 4 ] Do the forces from the cosmos influence the whole of humanity?
[ 5 ] What connection do plants have with the human being and the human body?
[ 6 ] These are, of course, very complicated questions and so I would like to organize my remarks in such a way that the answers emerge gradually. One cannot do otherwise with such complicated questions because if you ask, How can I come to see the secrets of the universe?—this means, How can I arrive at a true spiritual science? Now, you must not imagine that this is something easy to do nowadays. Most people, when they hear that something like Anthroposophy or spiritual science exists, think to themselves: Very well, if that is so, I too will acquire for myself the capacity to see the spirit. I will manage it within a week then I will be able to know everything for myself.
[ 7 ] Needless to say, it is not as simple as that. One has to realize that a great deal is required to master even ordinary science. In order to undertake the simplest observations, one must first learn how to use the instruments. Of course it is comparatively easy to use a microscope, but if one wants to investigate something with the help of a microscope one cannot simply say: I will now put a piece of muscle or the like under the microscope and look into it; then I will know what goes on in the muscle. If you were to proceed like that, you would see nothing. To see something under a microscope, one must first prepare the slides. A piece of muscle is no use by itself: one must make very thin slices with a fine razor, and sometimes a little must be removed and another cut made so that finally one has a very thin film. And very often even then the microscope does not help. For if you have such a sliver of muscle or cell under the microscope, you will probably still see nothing. What one must do is ask oneself: How can I make visible what is under the microscope? Then, often, what one must next do is color what one wants to see with certain dyes to make it visible. But then one must realize one has changed something. One has to know how it would be if one had not changed it. But these things are still really quite simple.
If one wants to observe the stars with a telescope one must first learn how to handle a telescope, although this is much simpler than a microscope. You know there are people who set up telescopes in the streets for people to look through. By itself, this does not help much. For this again requires lenses and a clock, which in turn one must then also learn to handle, etc. These are only examples to show you how complicated it is to investigate the simplest things in the physical world.
[ 8 ] Now, to investigate the spiritual world is really much more difficult, for more preparation is necessary. People imagine they can learn to do it in a week. But this is not so. Above all, one must realize that one has to activate something one has within oneself. What ordinarily is not active must be made active.
[ 9 ] To make things clear for you I must explain that in all investigation of the spiritual world, as in normal science, one must frequently start with some knowledge of what is not normal. You can only learn how things really are if you know how they are when they are not normal. I once gave you a particular example of this. We have to consider this because people in the outside world call people mad who investigate the spiritual world, however normal they may be. We must therefore set about our investigations in such a way that in the end we arrive at the truth. Of course one must not think one can achieve anything by concerning oneself overmuch with what is diseased and abnormal, but one can learn much from it.
[ 10 ] For instance, there are people who are not normal because they are, as is said, mentally deranged. What does this mean? There is no worse word in the world than "mentally deranged" (geistesgestört) for the spirit can never be deranged. Consider the following case for instance: If somebody is deranged for twenty years—this happens—and afterward recovers, what has occurred? Perhaps for twenty years this person says that he is being persecuted by others—that he suffers, as one says, from paranoia—or he says that he sees all kinds of specters and apparitions which are not there, etc. This can continue for twenty years. Now somebody who has been deranged for twenty years can become normal again. But in these cases you will always notice one thing. If someone was deranged for three, five or twenty years and recovers, he will not be quite the same as he was before. Above all you will notice that he will tell you, after he has recovered, that throughout the time he was ill he was able to look into the spiritual world. He will tell you all sorts of things that he saw in the spiritual world. If one then pursues the matter with the knowledge one has gained of the spiritual world as a completely healthy person, one finds that some of what he says is rubbish but. that also much of it is correct. This is what is so strange, someone can be deranged for twenty years, recover, and then tell you that he has been in the spiritual world and has experienced these things. And if one knows the spiritual world as a healthy, normal person, one must admit that he is right in many instances. [ 11 ] If you speak to him during his mental ill-ness, he will never be able to tell you anything sensible. He will tell you the nonsense he experiences. People who are mentally disturbed over a long period do not actually experience the spiritual world during their illness. They have not experienced anything of the spiritual world. But after they have recovered they can, in a certain way, look back to the time they were ill, and what they have not experienced appears to them like glimpses into the spiritual world. This conviction that they have seen much of the spiritual world only appears when they have recovered.
[ 12 ] One can learn much from this. One can learn that the human being contains something that is not used at all during the time he or she is insane. But it was there, it was alive. And where was it? It was not in the outer world for the person told you that the sky was red and the clouds green—all kinds of things. The sick one saw nothing properly in the outer world, But the inner being, which the person cannot use in the deranged state, is in the spiritual world. When he or she can use the brain again and can look back on what the spiritual being lived through, then spiritual experiences come.
[ 13 ] From this we see that a human being who is mentally ill lives spiritually in the spiritual world. The spirit in the person is perfectly healthy. What, then, is ill in a mentally ill patient? It is, in fact, the body: the body cannot use the soul and spirit. When a person is called mentally ill, there is always something ill in the body, and obviously when the brain is ill one cannot think properly. In the same way, when the liver is ill, one cannot feel properly.
[ 14 ] This is why "mentally ill" (geisteskrank) is the most incorrect expression that one can use, for "mentally ill" does not mean that the spirit (geist) is ill. It means the body is so ill that it cannot use the spirit which is always healthy. Above all you must be quite clear that the spirit is always healthy. Only the body can become ill, with the result that it cannot use the spirit in the right way. When someone has a diseased brain it is like having a hammer that breaks with every blow. If I say to someone who does not have a hammer, You are a lazy fellow, you are not even able to strike a blow—then this is, of course, nonsense. He could well strike a blow but he does not have a hammer. It is therefore nonsense to say someone is mentally ill. The spirit is perfectly healthy, only it lacks the body through which to act.
[ 15 ] A good example of what one can learn in this way comes from considering how our thinking works. From what I have told you, you will see that, though one has the spirit, one needs a tool for thinking, and this is the brain. In the physical world one needs the brain. It is not particularly clever of materialism to say one needs a brain. Obviously one needs a brain. But this postulate explains nothing about the spirit. We can also learn that the spirit can completely withdraw itself. In the case of mental illness the spirit does withdraw completely. And it is important to know this, because this shows that people today—and now I am going to tell you something that will really surprise you—cannot think at all. They delude themselves that they can think, but they cannot. I will show you why people cannot think.
[ 16 ] You will object: But people go to school; nowadays one already learns to think quite well even in grade school. So it seems, at least. Nevertheless, people today cannot think at all. It only appears as if they could. In grade school we have grade school teachers. These have also learned something; ostensibly they have also learned to think. Those from whom they have learned have, as one says in Stuttgart, "swollen heads." These are very clever people according to present ideas. They have been to a university. Before they went to university they went to high school. There they learned Latin. If you think back a bit you might say: But my teacher did not know Latin. Perhaps not, but he learned from teachers who did. And what they learned was entirely under the influence of the Latin language. Everything one learns today is under the influence of the Latin language. You can see this from the fact that when someone gives you a prescription, he writes it in Latin, It stems from the time when everything was written in Latin. It is not so long ago, only thirty to forty years, that if one went to university one was obliged to write one's thesis in Latin. [ 17 ] Everything one learns today is under the influence of Latin. This is because in the Middle Ages, up to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries—this is not so long ago—all teaching was in Latin. For instance the first person to lecture in German was a certain Thomasius1Christian Thomasius (1655-1728), philosopher and jurist, delivered the first lectures in the German language at Leipzig University in 1687. in Leipzig. This was not long ago, it was in the seventeenth century. Everywhere lectures were given in Latin. Everybody who learned anything had to go through the Latin language and in the Middle Ages everything one could learn was in Latin. If one wanted to learn anything new one had to learn Latin first. You may protest: But surely not in the grade schools. But there were no grade schools before the sixteenth century. Only gradually, as the vernacular was adopted by science, did grade schools come into existence. So, you see, Latin influences our whole thinking. All of you think like people who have learned to think under the influence of Latin. And if you were to say that the Americans, for instance, could not have learned Latin so long ago—well, today's Americans emigrated from Europe! They too depended on the Latin language.
[ 18 ] Latin has a certain peculiarity. It was developed in ancient Rome in such a way that it thinks by itself. It is interesting how Latin is taught in high schools. One learns Latin; and then one learns thinking, correct thinking according to Latin syntax. So one's whole way of thinking does not depend on anything one does, but on what the Latin language does. You understand, don't you, that this is something quite significant. Anybody today who has learned something does not think for himself: the Latin language thinks in him, even if he has not learned Latin. Strange as it is, one meets independent thinking today only in the few people who have not been to school very much.
[ 19 ] I am not suggesting that we return to illiteracy. We cannot do this. In no realm do I advocate going backward, but one must understand how things have become as they are. Therefore it is important to be able to go back to what the simple person knows, though he has not had much schooling. He is not very forthcoming because he is used to being laughed at. In spite of everything, it is important to know that contemporary human beings do not think for themselves, but that the Latin language thinks in them.
[ 20 ] You see, as long as one cannot think for oneself, one can in no way enter the spiritual world. This is the reason why modern science is opposed to all spiritual knowledge; because through Latin education people can no longer think for themselves. This is the first thing to learn—independent thinking. People are quite right when they say: the brain thinks. Why does the brain think? Because Latin syntax goes into the brain and the brain thinks quite automatically in modern humanity. What we see running round the world are automatons of the Latin language who do not think for themselves.
[ 21 ] In recent years something remarkable has happened. I hinted at it last time, but you may not have noticed it, because it is not easy to see. Something remarkable has happened in recent years. Now, as you know, besides the physical body, we have the etheric body. (I will not speak for the moment of the rest.) The brain belongs to the physical body. The etheric body is also in the brain and one can only think independently with the etheric body. One cannot think independently with the physical body. One can think with the physical hotly only when—as with Latin—the brain is used like an automaton. But as long as one only thinks with the brain, one cannot think anything spiritual. To think something spiritual one must start to think with the etheric body—with the etheric body which, in the case of the mentally ill, is often not used for years. It has to be awakened to an inner activity.
[ 22 ] This is the first thing one has to learn: to think independently. Without independent thinking, one cannot enter the spiritual world. But it is, of course, necessary first of all to find out that one has not learned to think for oneself in one's youth! One has only learned to think what has been thought for centuries through the use of the Latin language. And if one really grasps this then one knows that the first condition for entry into the spiritual world is this: Learn to think independently!
[ 23 ] Now we come to what I wanted to point out when I said that in recent times something remarkable has happened. The people who, more than anyone else, thought along Latin lines were the people of learning—those who, for instance, created physics. They worked it out with thoughts derived from Latin and with the physical brain. When we were small, when I was about as old as young E. here, we learned physics which was worked out with a Latin brain. We only learned what was thought out with a Latin brain. Since then a lot has happened. When I was small the telephone was just being invented. Until then it did not exist. After this followed all the other great inventions that everyone now takes for granted as if they had always been there. They only appeared in the last decades. This caused more and more people to become involved in science who were not Latin trained. This is rather a strange thing. When one looks into the scientific life of the last decades one finds more and more technicians of this kind involved in science. These people had not had much to do with Latin and so their thinking did not become so automatic. And this non-automatic thinking was then picked up by others. This is why today physics is full of concepts and ideas that fall apart. They are most interesting. There is, for instance, Professor Gruner2Dr. P. Gruner, Professor of Theoretical Physics, gave the Presidential Address, entitled New Guidelines for Physics (1922)," at the eighty-seventh Founder's Day celebration of the University of Bern on the 26 November, 1921. in Bern who two years ago spoke about the new direction in physics. He said that all the concepts have changed in the last years.
[ 24 ] The reason that one does not notice this is because if you listen to lectures on popular science people tell you what was thought twenty years ago. They cannot tell you what is thought today because they themselves cannot think yet. If you take the thoughts of thirty years ago as valid, it is just like taking a piece of ice and melting it; the ideas melt away. They are no longer there if one wants to follow them exactly. We must see this. If someone learned physics thirty years ago, and sees what has become of it today, he wants to tear his hair out, because he has to confess: I cannot handle all this with the concepts I have learned. This is how it is. And why? Because in recent years, through the development of humanity, the human being has reached the point when the etheric body is supposed to begin to think, and human beings do not want this to happen. They want to go on thinking with the physical body. The concepts fall apart in the physical body, and yet human beings do not want to learn to think with the etheric body. They do not want to think independently.
[ 25 ] Now you see why, in the year 1893, it became necessary for me to write the book The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity,3The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (also called The Philosophy of Freedom). First published in German in 1894 and in English in 1916, this basic work of Rudolf Steiner exists at present in two English editions: Anthroposophic Press, Hudson, New York, 1986 (translated by William Lindemann) and Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1988 (translated by Rita Stebbing). It is not the contents of this book that are so important, though obviously at that time one wished to tell the world what is said in it, but the most important thing is that independent thinking appeared in this book for the first time. No one can possibly understand this book who does not think independently. From the beginning, page by page, a reader must become accustomed to using his etheric body if he would think the thoughts in this book at all. Hence this book is a means of education—a very important means—and must be taken up as such.
[ 26 ] When this book appeared in the nineties people did not know at all what to make of it. It was as if someone in Europe wrote Chinese and no one could understand it. It was of course written in German, but people were completely unaccustomed to the thoughts expressed in it, because all connection with Latin was purposely cast off. For the very first time, quite consciously, it was intended that there should be no thoughts in it that are influenced by Latin, but only independent thoughts. Only the physical brain is a Latin scholar. The etheric body is no Latin scholar. And therefore one has to try to express such thoughts in a language one can only have in the etheric body.
[ 27 ] I will tell you something else. People have noticed, of course, that concepts have changed in the last decades. When I was young the professor filled the whole blackboard with writing. You had to learn it all and then you did well in your exams. But recently, people have begun to notice what Gruner said in his inaugural lecture: none of our concepts would remain valid if there were no solid bodies, only fluids. If the whole world were liquid, as Gruner imagined in his lecture, then our concepts would be invalid and we would have to think quite differently.
[ 28 ] Yes, of course one would have to think differently if there were no solid bodies. In that case you, as you sit here, could do nothing with the concepts you learned in school. If you, say, as a fish, suddenly became clever and had the idea that, as a fish, you wanted to attend a human university, then you would learn something that does not exist for a fish, because it lives in water. A fish only has a boundary sensation of a solid body; the moment it touches the body, it is immediately repulsed. So, if a fish began to think, it would have to have thoughts quite different from those a human being has. But a human being likewise needs such different thoughts, because other thoughts escape him, so that he has to say to himself: If everything were liquid I would have to have quite different thoughts. [ 29 ] Well, have I not told you about the condition of the earth when there were no solid bodies and when everything was fluid, even the animals? I have told you of this condition. Can you not then understand that present day thinking cannot reach back to these conditions? It cannot think them. So present day thinking cannot make anything of the beginning of the world. Naturally, then, a human being today begins to say to himself: Good heavens! If the world were fluid we would have to have quite different concepts. But in the spiritual world there are no solid bodies. So, with all the concepts with which Latin has gradually schooled us, we are unable to enter the spiritual world. We must wean ourselves of these concepts.
[ 30 ] Here is another hidden truth. In Greek times, which preceded the Latin era (the Latin era only began in the fifth or sixth century B.C. but the Greek period is much older), in Grecian times there was still a knowledge of the spirit, One could still see into the spiritual world. When Rome emerged with the Latin language, this was gradually extinguished. Now I must again say something you will find curious, but you will understand it. Who has used Latin, only Latin, throughout the centuries? More than anyone, the Church. It is precisely the Church that claims to teach humanity about the spirit that has contributed the most to drive out the spirit. In the Middle Ages all universities were ecclesiastical. Of course one must be grateful to the Church for founding the universities in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but it founded them in Latin, and Latin thought has no possibility of attaining the spirit. And so it gradually came about that human beings only have concepts relating to solid bodies. Just look at the Romans, they only introduced dry, prosaic and unspiritual concepts into the world. And this was the reason that all ideas became so material. How would the Greeks have described the sacrament of the Eucharist? They would certainly not have described it as if the elements were actually blood and flesh. This stems from materialism. So even the concept of the Eucharist has become materialistic and this is connected with the Latin language.
[ 31 ] Latin is entirely logical. I have worked with many people who were Latin in their whole attitude to life, although they spoke German. If one wanted to make something clear one quickly translated it into Latin, because since the time of Christ only in Latin does one think logically. But this logical thinking only applies to solid bodies. If one wants to enter the spiritual world one needs fluid concepts.
[ 32 ] There is for instance the Theosophical Society. It also wanted to reach the spiritual world. The Theosophical Society says that man has a physical body, an etheric body, etc. But these people are materialistic because they think the physical body is dense, the etheric body is a little thinner and the astral body thinner still. But all these are still bodies, they never become spirit. If one wants to reach the spirit one has to find concepts which are constantly changing.
Even when I draw something on the blackboard you will notice that I take this into consideration. When I draw the physical body I try to portray physical man as he is. But if I try to draw the etheric body, I would never dream of representing it in the same way. I would do it like this. The human being has an etheric body which expands.
But you must know that this is not so much the etheric body, but the picture of one instant. In the next moment it is different. So if I wish to draw the etheric body, I would have to draw, quickly wipe it off, draw differently, again wipe it off, draw again and wipe it off. It is in constant movement. With the concepts we have today, we cannot catch up with these movements. This is what you have to keep in mind, concepts must become mobile. People must get into the habit of it, This is why it is necessary that thinking become completely independent.
[ 33 ] But this is not enough. I will tell you something more. As you know a human being develops, but one does not usually notice it. However, when a person is quite young, one does notice it. One knows that a child who is only four years old can neither write nor read nor do sums. An eight year old child can perhaps do these things. Here one can see development. But in later life when we have made our way, we are so terribly superior that we don't admit that we can still develop. But we do, throughout our lives, and it is remarkable how we develop. Our development goes like this: Imagine this is man:
I will draw him diagrammatically. When the child is quite young its development proceeds from the head. After the change of teeth, the development proceeds from the chest. Therefore one must watch how a child between seven and fourteen breathes—that it breathes adequately, etc. So this is a picture of the older child. (Nowadays one would have to say it differently. Children do not like to be called children any more. From fourteen onward one must call them "young ladies" and "young gentlemen.") Only at puberty does the development proceed from the limbs and from the whole human being. So one can say that only when one has reached puberty is one developing from the whole being. And this goes on throughout our twenties and thirties. But when one becomes older—some of you can already see it in yourselves—there is a certain retrogression. This need not be the case if one has adopted a spiritual mode of life, but in normal life there is a certain retrogression as one gets older. It is just the task of Anthroposophy to see to it that in the future one does not regress as one gets older. Slowly and gradually this must happen.
[ 34 ] Now there are people whose mental capacities diminish alarmingly. But the mind, the spirit, cannot diminish. It is again only the body. It is interesting that often it is the most brilliant people who regress very much in old age. You may have heard that Kant was reckoned to be one of the wisest men, but in old age he became feeble-minded. His body regressed so much that he could not express his wise mind any more. And so it often is. Especially the very intelligent become feeble-minded in old age. It is an exaggerated form of what happens to everybody. Eventually in old age there comes a point when one can no longer use the physical body. The reason for this is mainly be-cause the arteries harden with excessive deposits of calcium, And the more this happens, the less one can make use of the physical body. As, up to the fortieth year, development proceeds from the head into the whole body, so, in the same degree, the process reverses. As one proceeds from the forties to the fifties one comes back to using the chest more, and in old age one goes back to using the head. So if one becomes really old, one again has to use one's head much more. But now one would have to use the finer head—the etheric head. But this is not learned in Latin education. And it is just those who, in the last decades, had a materialistic Latin education who were most strongly affected by senility.
[ 35 ] In old age one must go back to childhood. There are people in whom this is very noticeable. They become mentally weaker and weaker. The mind, the spirit, however, remains completely intact. Only the body becomes weaker and weaker. In the end such people can no longer do the things they first learned to do in life. Such things happen. Let us say somebody gets old. He can no longer do the work he used to do. He can only do what he did as an older child. Finally he cannot even do this. He can only play and can only understand ideas he learned when playing. There are even very old people who can only understand what their parents or their nurse told them in the very first years of their lives. The saying about returning to second childhood is well founded. One really does return to childhood.
[ 36 ] Actually it is not a misfortune, that is, if one has developed a spiritual life. In fact it is rather fortunate, for as long as one is a child, one can use one's etheric body. If a child tears around and shouts and does all kinds of things, this is not done by the physical body—except if it has a stomachache, but even then the stomachache has to be transferred to the etheric and astral bodies so that the child throws itself about as a result. What tears around is not the physical body. Now one grows old and returns to childhood. Gradually one has learned not to tear around any more, but one no longer uses the etheric body like a child, but for something more sensible. So it can be fortunate that one returns to childhood.
[ 37 ] This is the second point. The first was that in order to enter the spiritual world one has to learn to think in the right way. We shall have to speak further about how one achieves this. The matter is very complicated. Today we have to concentrate on the question why there has to be independent thinking. One must break away from much in modern education, for what one learns in modern education is not independent thinking, it is Latin thinking. Do not imagine that the thinking emerging from socialist theories being developed today is free thinking! It has all been learned from what originally came from Latin, but people do not know it. The worker may have this or that intention in his will, but when he begins to think he thinks in bourgeois concepts and these originate in Latin thinking. So the first thing one has to learn is independent thinking. [ 38 ] The second thing is that one must learn not only to live in the present moment, but to be able to turn back into the life one led in childhood. If you want to penetrate into the spiritual world you must continually remember to ask yourself how it was when you were twelve years old. What did you do? One must not do this superficially, but imagine it in great detail. Nothing is better than to begin to try to picture: Oh yes, there I was twelve years old—I can see it quite clearly—there was a pile of stones by the roadside and I climbed up on it. Once I fell off it. There was a hazel bush and I took out my pocket knife and cut off some branches and cut my finger. It is important really to visualize what one did so many years ago; in this way one gets away from just living in the present. If you think the way one learns to think today, you think with your present physical body. But if you turn back to when you were twelve, you cannot think with your physical body as it then was, for it is no longer there (I told you the physical body is renewed every seven years) so you have to think with your etheric body. If you think back to something that happened twelve or fourteen years ago, you call on your etheric body. This is the way to call up inner activity.
[ 39 ] Above all, one should get accustomed to think in a new way, different from one's usual thinking. How do you think? You know we met here at nine o'clock. I began by reading to you the questions on the slips of paper. Then I proceeded with various observations and we have now arrived at saying: We have to think back into the life we lived when we were twelve or fourteen years old. Now when you get home, you can, if you find it really interesting, think through these thoughts again. One can do this. Most people do it. They go through it once again. But you can do something different. You can ask yourself: What did he say last? The last thing he said was that one should think back to one's early life, to the age of twelve or fourteen years. Before that he said one has to have independent thinking. Earlier still he described how Latin gradually took over. Before that, how a person who was mentally ill for a time and then looks back on it, says he has experienced extraordinary things. It was further explained to us how the inner being cannot be mentally ill—only the body can be ill. Now you have run backward through the whole lecture.
[ 40 ] But in the world things do not run backward. I could possibly have given you the lecture backward in the first place, but then you would not have understood it. One has to begin at the beginning and then look at the whole as it gradually unfolds, but once one has understood it, one can think it backward. But things do not run backward. So I tear myself free from things. I say: Just to be contrary, I will think things exactly not the way they go in the outer world, but I will think them backward. This requires a certain strength. When I think backward I have to make myself inwardly active. A person who wants to look through a telescope has to learn how to handle it. In the same way a person who wants to see into the spiritual world must learn how to handle it. He must think backward many times. One day the moment will come when he knows: Ah, now I am entering the spiritual world.
[ 41 ] You see, throughout your whole life you have accustomed your physical body to thinking forward, not backward. When you begin to think backward your physical body does not take part in it. Something strange happens. This is the first advice to those who ask: How can I reach the spiritual world? You can also read this in Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment.4Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment. First published in book form in German in 1909. English editions appeared in 1909 and 1910. Two versions are currently available in English: Anthroposophic Press, Hudson, New York, 1983 (translated by Henry B. and Lisa D. Monges); and Rudolf Steiner Press, London, 1985 (translations by Max Gysi (1909) and Clifford Bax (1910) revised by D.S. Osmond and C. Davy). What is said there repeatedly is: At least learn to go backward through the course of the day; then other things, People have, of course, only learned to think with their physical body. They notice this and have to make a great effort to think backward, but they have only learned to think with the physical body, not with the etheric body. Now there is an all-out strike by the etheric body; yes, a real "general strike." And if people would not fall asleep so easily, they would know that, if they began to think backward, they would arrive at the spiritual world. But the moment the vision begins, they fall asleep. People fall asleep, because the effort is too great. So one must exert one's entire will and all one's strength not to fall asleep. In addition, one must have patience. Sometimes it takes years, but one must have patience.
[ 42 ] If somebody could tell you what you experienced unconsciously when you went to sleep after thinking backward, you would see that it was something very wise. The most stupid people begin to have extraordinarily wise thoughts in their sleep, but they do not know anything about it.
[ 43 ] So today I have drawn your attention to the fact that one must first learn to think independently. Well, one can do this. I do not want to say—for I am not a conceited fool—that only my Philosophy of Spiritual Activity serves this purpose, but it was quite consciously written in a way that would lead to independent thinking. Independent thinking; thinking backward accurately over things that happened when you were ten or twelve years old, or over other things one has experienced—with these we have at least begun to describe how one tears oneself free from the physical body and how one finds one's way into the spiritual world.
We will pursue this further and eventually deal with all four questions.
Ausbildung eines selbständigen Denkens und des Rückwärtsdenkens
[ 1 ] Es sind einige Fragen da, die mir das letzte Mal gegeben wurden und die ich in einer etwas anderen Reihenfolge beantworten werde, als sie hier gestellt worden sind. Die Fragen sind also:
[ 2 ] Wie kann man in bezug auf Welt- und Lebensanschauung zum Schauen der Weltgeheimnisse kommen?
[ 3 ] Wie weit hat der Mensch zu gehen, bis er auf dem Weg der Naturwissenschaften höhere Welten finder?
[ 4 ] Haben die Kräfte in dem Weltenall auf die ganze Menschheit Einfluß?
[ 5 ] Welche Beziehung haben die Pflanzen zum Menschen, zum menschlichen Leib?
[ 6 ] Nun, ich möchte das so einrichten — es sind natürlich sehr komplizierte Fragen -, daß die Antwort sozusagen nach und nach herauskommt. Anders kann man das nämlich nicht machen bei so komplizierten Fragen. Denn wenn zum Beispiel gefragt wird: Wie kommt man zum Schauen der Weltengeheimnisse? — so heißt das ja: Wie kommt man zu der wirklichen geistigen Wissenschaft. - Nun, das ist etwas, was Sie sich heute natürlich nicht leicht vorstellen müssen. Denn die Sache ist ja so, daß die meisten Menschen, wenn sie davon hören, daß es so etwas wie eine Anthroposophie oder eine geistige Wissenschaft gibt, denken: Nun werde ich mir auch einmal die Fähigkeit aneignen, das Geistige zu schauen. In acht Tagen werde ich damit wohl fertig sein, und dann werde ich alles das ja wohl auch selber wissen können.
[ 7 ] Nun, so einfach verhält sich die Sache natürlich nicht, sondern man muß sich darüber klar sein: Zu der gewöhnlichen Naturwissenschaft gehört doch im Grunde recht viel. Schon wenn man die allereinfachsten Beobachtungen anstellen will in der Naturwissenschaft, so gehört dazu zuerst, daß man lernt, wie man die Instrumente gebraucht. Es ist natürlich verhältnismäßig leicht, ein Mikroskop zu gebrauchen, aber um mit einem Mikroskop in der richtigen Weise etwas zu erforschen, kann man ja nicht einfach sagen: Ich werde jetzt ein Stück Muskel oder so etwas unters Mikroskop legen und dann werde ich hineinschauen, und dann weiß ich, was da drinnen vorgeht. - Wenn Sie es so machen würden, so würden Sie natürlich gar nichts sehen. Denn es handelt sich darum, daß man, wenn man unter einem Mikroskop etwas sehen will, zuerst feine Schnitte machen muß. Also ein Stück Muskel nützt gar nichts, sondern es handelt sich darum, daß man mit einem feinen Rasiermesser einen dünnen Schnitt macht, dann ganz wenig manchmal entfernt und wiederum einen feinen Schnitt macht, so daß man eine ganz dünne Schichte kriegt. Und zumeist kann man auch damit noch gar nichts erreichen. Denn wenn Sie so eine ganz dünne, sagen wir, Muskel- oder Zellschichte unters Mikroskop legen und hineinschauen, sehen Sie auch meistens gar nichts. Dasjenige, was Sie tun müssen, ist, sich zu fragen: Wie kann ich das, was ich unter dem Mikroskop gar nicht sehe, sichtbar machen? - Und da muß man es oftmals mit gewissen Farbstoffen durchdringen, so daß man es erst sichtbar macht dadurch, daß man Farbstoffe hineinbringt. Und dann muß man sich klar darüber sein, jetzt hat man die Sache etwas verändert. Man muß wiederum wissen, wie die Sache ist, wenn man sie nicht verändert. Das sind aber alles noch sehr einfache Sachen. Auch wenn Sie mit dem Teleskop die Sterne untersuchen wollen, müssen Sie erst die Handhabung des Teleskopes lernen. Allerdings, das ist ja noch einfacher. Sie wissen, daß es herumziehende Leute gibt, die einem auf der Straße ein Fernrohr aufstellen. Allein das hilft Ihnen auch nicht viel, Es hilft Ihnen nur, wenn Sie wissen: da müssen Sie wieder ein Mikroskop dazu haben und eine Uhr, die Sie erst handhaben müssen und so weiter. - Also das sind nur Beispiele, durch die ich Ihnen veranschaulichen möchte, wie kompliziert es ist, die einfachsten Dinge in der sinnlich-physischen Welt zu untersuchen.
[ 8 ] Nun ist es für die Forschungen in der geistigen Welt wahrhaftig noch viel schwerer. Da muß man viel mehr Vorbereitungen dazu machen. Die Leute stellen sich so vor, das könne man in acht Tagen lernen. Das ist eben nicht der Fall. Sondern da muß der Mensch vor allen Dingen darauf bedacht sein, daß er ja etwas, was in ihm ist, erst in Tätigkeit bringen muß. Was fortwährend eigentlich nicht in Tätigkeit ist, das muß er erst in Tätigkeit bringen.
[ 9 ] Damit Sie sehen, wie die Dinge eigentlich sind, möchte ich Ihnen zunächst folgendes sagen. Sie wissen ja, gerade bei solchen Forschungen, die in die geistige Welt hineingehen, und auch in der gewöhnlichen Wissenschaft, muß man vielfach von der Erkenntnis dessen ausgehen, was nicht normal ist. Sie lernen die Dinge erst richtig kennen, wenn Sie das Nicht-Normale kennengelernt haben. Ich habe Ihnen das ja schon einmal an bestimmten Beispielen gezeigt. Wir müssen das schon deshalb betrachten, weil ja die Menschen in der Welt draußen oftmals denjenigen, der in der geistigen Welt forscht, auch wenn er noch'so normal ist, doch verrückt nennen. Also wir müssen uns schon darauf einlassen, die Dinge ein bißchen so zu untersuchen, daß wir zuletzt eben auf die Wahrheit kommen. Sie müssen natürlich nicht glauben, daß man dadurch etwas erreichen kann, daß man ins Nicht-Normale, ins Krankhafte hineinschaut, aber lernen kann man daran viel.
[ 10 ] Es handelt sich zum Beispiel darum, daß es ja Leute gibt, die dadurch nicht normal sind, daß man sagt, sie seien geistesgestört. Was heißt das eigentlich, ein Mensch sei geistesgestört? Es gibt kein schlechteres Wort auf der Welt als dieses «geistesgestört», weil der Geist ja niemals gestört sein kann. Der Geist kann nämlich gar nicht gestört sein! Nehmen Sie zum Beispiel folgenden Fall: Wenn ein Mensch, wie man sagt, zwanzig Jahre geistesgestört ist - solche Dinge kommen vor — und nachher wird er wiederum normal, was tritt da eigentlich ein? —- Nun, nicht wahr, es kann eintreten, daß dieser Mensch zwanzig Jahre hindurch behauptet, er würde von anderen verfolgt; er leidet, wie man sagt, an Verfolgungswahn. Oder aber es tritt das ein, daß er, sagen wir, allerlei Gespenster sieht, die nicht da sind und so weiter. Das kann also zwanzig Jahre dauern. Nun, meine Herren, es kann einer, der zwanzig Jahre in dieser Weise geistesgestört ist, durchaus wiederum gesund werden. Aber Sie werden immer eines bemerken: Wenn einer drei, fünf oder zwanzig Jahre, wie man sagt, geistesgestört ist und er wird nachher wieder gesund, so ist er nicht mehr ganz derselbe wie früher. Vor allen Dingen werden Sie folgendes bemerken. Er sagt Ihnen, nachdem er wieder gesund geworden ist: Ja, ich habe in der Zeit, in der ich krank war, fortwährend in die geistige Welt hineinschauen können. — Er erzählt Ihnen alle möglichen Wahrnehmungen aus der geistigen Welt. Und geht man dann mit den Erkenntnissen, die man als ein vollständig Gesunder von der geistigen Welt erlangt, seinen Erzählungen nach, so ist es zwar so, daß er manchen Kohl sagt, aber anderseits auch viel Richtiges. Also das ist das Merkwürdige: Es kann einer durch Jahre hindurch geistesgestört sein, wieder gesund werden, und dann erzählt er einem, er ist da in der geistigen Welt drinnen gewesen, hat das und das erlebt. Und wenn man selbst die Sache kennt als gesunder Mensch, so muß man ihm für vieles recht geben.
[ 11 ] Wenn Sie mit einem reden während der Zeit, in der er geistesgestört ist, wird er Ihnen niemals irgend etwas Vernünftiges erzählen können. Da erzählt er Ihnen eben den Kohl, den er da erlebt. Es ist nämlich gar nicht so, daß solche Menschen, die durch Jahre hindurch geistesgestört sind, während ihrer sogenannten Geisteskrankheit diese Dinge erlebt haben. Da haben sie gar nichts von der geistigen Welt erlebt. Aber hinterher, wenn sie wieder gesund geworden sind und in einer gewissen Weise zurückschauen können in die Zeit, wo sie nicht gesund waren, da kommt ihnen dasjenige, was sie gar nicht erlebt haben während der Krankheit, dann vor wie Blicke in die geistige Welt hinein. Eigentlich tritt also dieses Bewußtsein: Ich habe viel von der geistigen Welt gesehen -, erst ein in dem Momente, wo die Leute wieder gesund werden.
[ 12 ] Sehen Sie, daraus kann man nämlich außerordentlich viel lernen. Daraus kann man lernen, daß der Mensch etwas in sich hat, was er während der Zeit, in der er geistig krank war, überhaupt nicht benutzt hat. Aber das war da, das hat gelebt. Und wo war das? Er hat nichts gesehen von der äußeren Welt, denn er kann Ihnen erzählen: Der Himmel ist rot, und die Wolken sind grün — alles mögliche. Er sieht gar nichts ordentlich in der äußeren Welt. Aber dieser tiefere Mensch, der in ihm sitzt, den er gar nicht gebrauchen kann während seiner Krankheit, der ist in der geistigen Welt. Und wenn er dann selber wiederum sein Gehirn gebrauchen kann und zurücksehen kann auf dasjenige, was dieser geistige Mensch erlebt hat, dann kommen ihm die geistigen Erlebnisse.
[ 13 ] Wir sehen daraus, daß der Mensch, während er in dem Zustand ist, den man geisteskrank nennt, da mit seinem geistigen Teil gerade in der geistigen Welt lebt. Der ist sehr gesund, der geistige Teil. Was ist denn krank bei einem Geisteskranken? Ja, bei einem Geisteskranken ist nämlich der Körper krank, und der Körper kann die Seele und den Geist eben nicht benützen. Bei einem, von dem man sagt, er ist geisteskrank, ist immer irgend etwas im Körper krank, und wenn das Gehirn krank ist, kann man natürlich nicht ordentlich denken. Man kann auch nicht ordentlich fühlen, wenn die Leber krank ist.
[ 14 ] Und so kommt es, daß eigentlich «geisteskrank» der schlechteste Ausdruck ist, den man wählen kann, denn «geisteskrank» heißt nicht, der Geist ist krank, sondern geisteskrank heißt: Der Körper ist so krank, daß er den Geist, der immer gesund ist, nicht benützen kann. Vor allem müssen Sie sich klar sein darüber, daß der Geist immer gesund ist. Nur der Körper kann krank werden und den Geist dann nicht in richtiger Weise benützen. Wenn einer ein krankes Gehirn hat, so ist es gerade so, wie wenn einer einen Hammer hat, der bei jedem Schlag abbricht. Wenn ich zu dem, der keinen Hammer hat, sage: Du bist ein fauler Kerl, du kannst überhaupt nicht klopfen - so ist das natürlich ein Unsinn, Der kann ganz gut klopfen, aber er hat keinen Hammer zum Klopfen. So ist es ein Unsinn, wenn man sagt, jemand sei geisteskrank. Der Geist ist vollkommen gesund, aber er hat nicht den Körper, durch den er wirken kann.
[ 15 ] Dasjenige, was man auf diese Weise lernen kann, das zeigt sich nun ganz besonders dann, wenn man nachdenkt darüber, wie es sich eigentlich mit unserem Denken verhält. Aus dem, was ich Ihnen gesagt habe, werden Sie ersehen, daß man zwar den Geist hat, aber zum Denken ein Werkzeug braucht, das Gehirn. Zum Denken in der physischen Welt braucht man das Gehirn. Es ist gar keine Kunst, wenn der Materialismus sagt, man brauche das Gehirn. Selbstverständlich braucht man das Gehirn. Aber es besagt nichts über den Geist, wenn er es so behauptet. Außerdem ersehen Sie daraus, daß sich der eigentliche Geist im Menschen ganz zurückziehen kann. Beim Geisteskranken zieht sich der eigentliche Geist ganz zurück. Und es ist wichtig, daß man das weiß, weil man dadurch erst einsehen lernt, daß die Menschen in der heutigen Zeit — jetzt werde ich Ihnen etwas sagen, was Sie sehr erstaunen wird, aber es ist so — überhaupt nicht denken können. Sie bilden sich ein, daß sie denken können, aber sie können es gar nicht. Ich will ihnen zeigen, warum die Menschen nicht denken können.
[ 16 ] Sie werden sagen: Ja, die Menschen gehen doch auf die Schulen, heute lernt man in der Volksschule schon ganz wunderbar denken! Gewiß, das schaut so aus. Dennoch können die heutigen Menschen gar nicht denken. Es sieht nur so aus, als ob sie denken könnten. Nicht wahr, in der Volksschule haben wir Volksschullehrer. Die Volksschullehrer haben wiederum etwas gelernt, angeblich haben sie auch denken gelernt. Diejenigen, von denen sie wieder gelernt haben, sind, wie man in Stuttgart sagt, «Großkopfete»; also das sind ganz furchtbar weise Menschen nach der heutigen Ansicht. Die haben Hochschulstudium durchgemacht. Bevor sie Hochschulstudium gemacht haben, haben sie das Gymnasium oder etwas ähnliches durchgemacht, und da haben sie Latein gelernt. Wenn Sie nämlich so ein bißchen herumgucken, werden Sie zwar sagen können: Ja, mein Lehrer, der hat nicht Latein gekonnt! — Aber der hat ja wiederum von einem gelernt, der doch Latein gekonnt hat! Daher ist auch das, was Sie gelernt haben, abhängig von der lateinischen Sprache, und alles, was man heute lernt, ist abhängig von der lateinischen Sprache. Sie können das schon daraus sehen, daß, wenn Ihnen einer ein Rezept ausstellt, er es lateinisch schreibt. Das rührt noch her von den Zeiten, wo man überhaupt alles lateinisch geschrieben hat. Es ist noch nicht lange her, dreißig, vierzig Jahre, da wurde verlangt, daß jeder, der an der Hochschule war, seine Prüfungsarbeit in der lateinischen Sprache schrieb.
[ 17 ] Also alles, was man heute lernt, ist abhängig von der lateinischen Sprache. Und das ist dadurch so geworden, daß man im Mittelalter, wenn man zurückgeht ins 14., 15. Jahrhundert - das ist also noch gar nicht so lange her -, alles lateinisch vorgetragen hat. Der erste, der zum Beispiel deutsch in Leipzig vorgetragen hat, ist ein gewisser Thomasins. Das ist noch nicht lange her, das war im 17. Jahrhundert. Überall wurde lateinisch vorgetragen. Derjenige, der etwas gelernt hat, ging durch die lateinische Sprache hindurch, und im Mittelalter war überhaupt all das, was man lernen konnte, nur lateinisch. Wenn man irgend etwas anderes lernen wollte, mußte man erst Lateinisch lernen. Sie werden sagen: Aber nicht in der Volksschule. - Aber Volksschulen gibt es ja erst seit dem 16. Jahrhundert. Erst allmählich, als die Volkssprache auch die Wissenschaft aufnahm, gab es Volksschulen. Also dasjenige, wovon unser ganzes Denken beeinflußt ist, ist die lateinische Sprache. Sie alle, meine Herren, denken so, wie die Menschen denken gelernt haben durch die lateinische Sprache. Und wenn Sie auch zum Beispiel anführen, sagen wir, die Amerikaner lernten nicht so früh Lateinisch — ja, aber die Amerikaner von heute sind ja von Europa eingewandert! Das hängt alles von der lateinischen Sprache ab.
[ 18 ] Die lateinische Sprache hat aber eine ganz bestimmte Eigentümlichkeit, Sie ist nämlich so ausgebildet worden im alten Rom, daß sie selber denkt. Es ist interessant, wie der lateinische Unterricht in den Gymnasien gegeben wird. Er wird so gegeben, daß man also Latein lernt, und dann lernt man das Denken, das richtige Denken an dem lateinischen Satze. So daß also das ganze Denken abhängig wird von etwas, was gar nicht der Mensch macht, sondern was die lateinische Sprache macht. Verstehen Sie das nur, meine Herren, daß das etwas ganz Wichtiges ist! Also die Menschen, die heutzutage irgend etwas gelernt haben, denken nicht selber, sondern bei denen, wenn sie auch niemals die lateinische Sprache gelernt haben, denkt die lateinische Sprache. Deshalb ist es ja so, daß man selbständiges Denken, so kurios das ist, eigentlich heute nur noch bei manchen Menschen trifft, die nicht viel gelernt haben.
[ 19 ] Ich will damit ja nicht etwa sagen, wir sollen wiederum in den Analphabetismus zurück. Das können wir nicht. Ich will nirgends einen Rückschritt; aber dasjenige, was ist, muß man verstehen. Deshalb ist es ja so wichtig, daß man manchmal auch zurückgehen kann zu dem, was der einfache Mensch, der wenig gelernt hat, noch weiß. Er kann es ja gar nicht mehr herausbringen, weil man ihn natürlich auslacht. Aber trotzdem, es ist außerordentlich wichtig, daß man weiß: Die Menschen denken heute nicht selbst, sondern die lateinische Sprache denkt in ihnen.
[ 20 ] Sehen Sie, solange man nicht selber denken kann, solange kann man überhaupt nicht in die geistige Welt hineinkommen. Jetzt haben Sie den Grund, warum sich die heutige Erkenntnis auflehnt gegen alles geistige Erkennen: weil die Leute durch die lateinische Erziehung dazu gekommen sind, nicht selber zu denken. Das ist das erste, was man lernen muß: selber denken. Die Leute haben heute ganz recht, wenn sie sagen: Das Gehirn denkt. - Warum denkt das Gehirn? Weil die lateinischen Sätze ins Gehirn hereingehen, und das Gehirn denkt ganz automatisch bei dem heutigen Menschen. Das sind Automaten der lateinischen Sprache, die herumlaufen und gar nicht selber denken.
[ 21 ] In der letzten Zeit ist nämlich etwas geschehen, was ganz merkwürdig ist. Ich habe es Ihnen schon das letzte Mal angedeutet, aber Sie werden es nicht bemerkt haben, weil es nicht so leicht zu bemerken ist. In der letzten Zeit ist nämlich etwas ganz Besonderes geschehen. Nicht wahr, wir haben in uns unseren physischen Körper, außerdem unseren Ätherkörper und die anderen auch noch, davon will ich jetzt nicht reden. Nun, das Gehirn gehört natürlich zum physischen Körper, aber es ist der Ätherkörper auch im Gehirn darin, und selbst denken kann man nur mit dem Ätherkörper. Man kann nicht mit dem physischen Körper selbst denken. Aber denken kann man mit dem physischen Körper, wenn es so ist wie bei der lateinischen Sprache: daß das Gehirn wie ein Automat benutzt wird, wenn man mit dem Gehirn denkt. Aber solange man bloß mit dem Gehirn denkt, kann man ja nichts Geistiges denken. Da muß man anfangen mit dem Ätherkörper zu denken, mit dem Ätherkörper, der bei dem, der geisteskrank ist, durch viele Jahre oft nicht benutzt wird. Das muß man in innere Tätigkeit bringen.
[ 22 ] Aber das ist es, worauf es zuallererst ankommt: daß man selbständig selber denken lernt. Ohne daß man selbständig selber denken kann, kann man nicht in die geistige Welt hineinkommen. Dazu ist natürlich notwendig, daß man überhaupt zuallererst darauf kommt: Donnerwetter, du hast ja in deiner Jugend gar nicht selber denken gelernt! Du hast nur gelernt, das zu denken, was seit Jahrhunderten durch den Gebrauch der lateinischen Sprache gedacht worden ist. - Und wenn man dies in der richtigen Weise weiß, dann weiß man, daß die allererste Bedingung, auf die es ankommt zum Hineinkommen in die geistige Welt, ist: Lerne selbständig denken.
[ 23 ] Aber jetzt kommt das, worauf ich hindeuten wollte, indem ich sagte, in der letzten Zeit ist etwas Merkwürdiges vorgekommen. Diejenigen Menschen, die am meisten nur nach dem Lateinischen gedacht haben, das waren ja die Gelehrten, und die Gelehrten haben zum Beispiel die Physik gemacht. Die Physik haben sie ausgedacht, sie haben sie gedacht ganz im Sinne der lateinischen Sprache mit dem physischen Gehirn. Als wir klein waren, als ich so alt war wie zum Beispiel da der junge Erbsmehl, da haben wir nur eine Physik gelernt, die ausgedacht worden ist mit dem lateinischen Gehirn. Nur das haben wir ja gelernt, was ausgedacht worden ist mit dem lateinischen Gehirn. Aber seither, meine Herren, ist ja ungeheuer viel geschehen. Sehen Sie, als ich klein war, kam eben das Telephon auf. Es war ja vorher nicht da. Nachher kamen alle die anderen großen Erfindungen, in die heute der Mensch schon so hineinwächst, als wenn sie immer dagewesen wären. Die sind ja erst in den allerletzten Jahrzehnten gekommen. Dadurch sind immer mehr Leute in die Wissenschaft hineingekommen, die nicht lateinisch dressiert worden sind. Das ist solch eine merkwürdige Geschichte. Wenn man nämlich dem wissenschaftlichen Leben in den letzten Jahrzehnten nachgeht, so findet man, daß immer mehr solche Techniker hineinkommen in die Wissenschaft. Die haben sich nicht viel mit dem Lateinischen befaßt. Dadurch ist ihr Denken nicht so automatisch geworden. Und dieses nichtautomatische Denken ist dann auch auf die anderen übergegangen. Daher ist es heute so, daß die Physik lauter Begriffe, Ideen hat, die zerfallen. Die sind höchst interessant. Da ist zum Beispiel der Professor Gruner in Bern, der vor zwei Jahren über die Neuorientierung der Physik gesprochen hat. Da hat er gesagt: Alle Begriffe sind anders geworden in den letzten Jahren.
[ 24 ] Daß man das nicht bemerkt, kommt eben nur davon her, daß, wenn Sie heute in populäre Vorträge gehen, Ihnen die Leute noch das erzählen, was man vor zwanzig Jahren gedacht hat! Das was heute gedacht wird, das können sie Ihnen nicht erzählen, weil sie selber noch nicht denken können. Es ist nämlich gerade so, wenn man die Begriffe nimmt, die man noch vor dreißig Jahren hat gelten lassen, wie wenn man ein Stückchen Eis hat und das zerschmilzt: die Ideen zerschmelzen. Sie sind nicht mehr da, wenn man sie genau denken will. Wir müssen das eben einsehen. Es ist ja so: Wenn einer vor dreißig Jahren Physik gelernt hat und heute sich anschaut, wie es geworden ist, möchte er sich die Haare ausraufen, weil er sich sagen muß: Ja, da komme ich nicht zu Rande mit den Begriffen, die ich gelernt habe! — Dies ist eben so. Und woher rührt das? Ja, das rührt eben davon her, weil in den letzten Jahren die Menschen durch die Entwickelung der Menschheit dazu gebracht worden sind, daß der Ätherleib anfangen soll zu denken. Und das wollen sie nicht, sie wollen mit dem physischen Leib weiter denken. Aber im physischen Leib fallen einem die Begriffe ganz auseinander. Und mit dem Ätherleib wollen sie nicht denken lernen. Selbständig denken wollen sie nicht lernen.
[ 25 ] Nun, sehen Sie, da ist es eben so, daß es notwendig geworden ist, daß ich im Jahre 1893 dieses Buch geschrieben habe über die Philosophie der Freiheit. Dieses Buch, «Die Philosophie der Freiheit», ist nicht so wichtig durch das, was drinnen steht. Natürlich, das, was drinnen steht, das wollte man schon auch dazumal der Welt sagen, aber das ist nicht das Allerwichtigste, sondern das Wichtige bei diesem Buche «Die Philosophie der Freiheit» ist, daß zum ersten Mal ganz und gar selbständiges Denken in diesem Buche ist. Kein Mensch kann das Buch verstehen, der nur unselbständig denkt. Er muß sich Seite für Seite, ganz von Anfang an, daran gewöhnen, zurückzugehen zu seinem Ätherleib, um solche Gedanken überhaupt haben zu können, wie sie in diesem Buche sind. Deshalb ist dieses Buch ein Erziehungsmittel — es ist ein schr wichtiges Erziehungsmittel -, und als solches muß man es auffassen.
[ 26 ] Als das Buch erschienen war in den neunziger Jahren, da haben die Leute überhaupt nicht gewußt, was sie mit ihm machen sollen. Das ist für sie so gewesen, wie wenn einer in Europa chinesisch schreibt und kein Mensch das verstehen kann. Es war ja natürlich deutsch geschrieben, aber es war in Gedanken geschrieben, die den Leuten gar nicht gewohnt waren, weil in dieser Beziehung alles Lateinische ganz absichtlich abgestreift ist. Es ist zum ersten Male ganz bewußt Rücksicht darauf genommen: Da drinnen sollen keine Gedanken sein, die noch durchs Lateinische beeinflußt sind, sondern nur ganz selbständige Gedanken. Ein Lateiner ist ja nur das physische Gehirn. Der Ätherleib des Menschen ist kein Lateiner. Daher muß man sich erst bemühen, in einer Sprache solche Gedanken auszudrücken, wie man sie dann hat, wenn man sie im Ätherleib hat.
[ 27 ] Ich will Ihnen noch etwas sagen. Natürlich bemerkten die Menschen, daß in den letzten Jahrzehnten die Begriffe alle anders geworden sind. Als ich eben noch jung war, da kam der Professor, schrieb die ganze Tafel voll. Das mußte man lernen, und dann machte man ein gutes Examen. Na, schön! Und jetzt, in den letzten Jahren sind die Leute darauf gekommen, was eben dieser Gruner gesagt hat bei seiner Rektoratsrede: Alle unsere Begriffe hätten ja keinen Sinn mehr, wenn es keine festen, sondern nur flüssige Körper geben würde. - Er stellt sich vor, daß die ganze Welt ein flüssiger Körper wäre. Dann aber hätten die Begriffe alle keinen Sinn mehr, dann müßte man ganz anders denken, sagt er.
[ 28 ] Ja, natürlich müßte man anders denken, wenn kein fester Körper mehr da wäre! Dann könnten Sie mit all den Begriffen, die Sie in der Schule gelernt haben, nichts mehr anfangen. Wenn Sie also, sagen wir, als Fisch plötzlich ganz gescheit würden und es käme Ihnen die Idee, Sie sollten als Fisch auf eine menschliche Hochschule gehen, dann würden Sie da etwas lernen, was es überhaupt für den Fisch nicht gibt, weil der Fisch im Wasser lebt. Er hat feste Körper nur an der Grenze, wo er antippt und gleich wieder zurückprallt. Also wenn der Fisch anfangen würde zu denken, müßte er ja ganz andere Gedanken haben als der Mensch. Aber solche Gedanken, die braucht der Mensch heute auch, weil ihm die anderen Gedanken entfallen, und er muß sich selber sagen: Donnerwetter, wenn alles flüssig wäre, müßten wir ganz andere Gedanken haben.
[ 29 ] Ja aber, meine Herren, habe ich Ihnen nicht erzählt von einem Zustand der Erde, wo es noch keine festen Körper gegeben hat, wo alles flüssig war, wo selbst die Tiere so waren, daß sie flüssig waren? Ich habe Ihnen ja erzählt von diesem Zustande. Ist es Ihnen nicht begreiflich, daß das heutige Denken in diese Zustände überhaupt nicht zurückkommt? Die kann es ja nicht denken! Also kann das heutige Denken über den Weltanfang überhaupt nichts ausmachen. Und, so muß man sagen, die heutigen Menschen fangen an, sich zu denken: Donnerwetter, wenn die Welt flüssig wäre, müßten wir ganz andere Begriffe haben! — Aber in der geistigen Welt sind keine festen Körper! Also mit all den Begriffen, die die lateinische Sprache in die Menschen nach und nach hineindressiert hat, kann man überhaupt nicht in die geistige Welt hineinkommen. Die muß man sich erst abgewöhnen, diese Begriffe.
[ 30 ] Sehen Sie, das ist ja ein großes Geheimnis: Im Griechentum, das vorangegangen ist dem Lateinertum — das Lateinertum, das entstand erst fünf, sechs Jahrhunderte vor Christi Geburt, aber das Griechentum ist viel älter -, im Griechentum, da gab es noch eine Erkenntnis des Geistigen. Da konnte man noch in die geistige Welt hineinschauen. Als das Römertum gekommen ist mit der lateinischen Sprache, da wurde der Geist allmählich ausgerottet. Jetzt muß ich wiederum etwas sagen, was Ihnen sehr kurios vorkommen wird, aber Sie werden das begreifen. Wer hat sich denn der lateinischen Sprache durch die Jahrhunderte bedient, nur die lateinische Sprache gebraucht? - Die Kirche selber hat am meisten dazu beigetragen! Das ist es gerade, daß die Kirche, die vorgibt, den Menschen den Geist beizubringen, gerade am meisten dazu beigetragen hat, den Geist auszutreiben. Und im Mittelalter waren alle Hochschulen kirchlich. Natürlich muß man der Kirche dankbar sein, daß sie überhaupt die Hochschulen begründet hat im 13., 14., 15. Jahrhundert, aber sie hat sie begründet aus dem Lateinertum heraus, und das Lateinertum hat niemals die Möglichkeit, zum Geist zu kommen. Und so ist es eben gekommen, daß die Menschen allmählich nur Begriffe gehabt haben für feste Körper. Sehen Sie sich das einmal bei den Römern an: Die Römer haben diese ganz trockenen, nüchternen, ungeistigen Begriffe in die Welt eingeführt. Das hat gemacht, daß dann alles so materiell vorgestellt worden ist. Was glauben Sie, wenn noch die Griechen solch eine Handlung wie das Abendmahl geschildert hätten — ja, die hätten doch das nicht so geschildert, als ob das Materielle, das man da hat, Blut und Fleisch wäre! Das kommt ja vom Materialismus. Sogar die Abendmahlsauffassung ist materialistisch geworden, weil alles das zusammenhängt mit der lateinischen Sprache.
[ 31 ] Die lateinische Sprache ist ganz nur logisch. Sehen Sie, ich habe ja mit vielen solchen Menschen gearbeitet, die eine ganz lateinische Kultur gehabt haben, trotzdem sie deutsch geredet haben. Wollte man irgend etwas klar haben, dann übersetzte man geschwind die Geschichte ins Lateinische, weil man im Lateinischen nur logisch denkt in der neueren Zeit. Aber dieses logische Denken, das bezieht sich ja eben nur auf feste Körper. Will man in die geistige Welt hinein, so braucht man flüssige Begriffe.
[ 32 ] Da gibt es zum Beispiel die Theosophische Gesellschaft. Die wollte ja auch in die geistige Welt hinein. Diese Theosophische Gesellschaft, die redet auch davon: Der Mensch hat einen physischen Leib, einen Ätherleib und so weiter — aber die sind materialistisch, denn sie denken ja nur: Der physische Leib, der ist dick, der Ätherleib ist etwas dünner und der astralische Leib noch dünner. — Aber das bleibt ja lauter Körper, das wird ja niemals Geist, weil man zu solchen Begriffen kommen muß, wenn man in den Geist hinein will, die fortwährend sich verändern. Sehen Sie, wenn ich zeichne, dann werden Sie bemerken, daß ich das selbst beim Zeichnen berücksichtige. Ich zeichne meinetwillen den physischen Leib auf; da versuche ich nachzuahmen, wie der Mensch als physischer Mensch ist. Wenn ich aber nun versuche den Ätherleib zu zeichnen, da wird es mir gar nicht einfallen, Ihnen in derselben Weise eine Figur hinzuzeichnen, sondern da versuche ich so darzustellen: Der Mensch hat auch einen Ätherleib, der dehnt sich so aus (siehe Zeichnung). — Aber Sie müssen wissen: Das ist nicht so sehr der Ätherleib, nicht so sehr, wenn ich ihn so aufzeichne, seine Abbildung, sondern das ist nur die Abbildung eines Augenblicks. Im nächsten Augenblick ist er wieder anders. - Also wenn ich den Ätherleib zeichnen wollte, müßte ich jetzt aufzeichnen, geschwind auslöschen, wieder anders aufzeichnen, wieder löschen, wieder aufzeichnen, wieder löschen. Das ist in fortwährender Bewegung. Der Mensch kommt da mit seinen Begriffen, wie er sie heute hat, diesen Bewegungen gar nicht nach. Das ist es, was Sie vor allen Dingen berücksichtigen müssen: daß die Begriffe beweglich werden müssen. Daran müssen sich die Menschen erst gewöhnen. Daher ist es notwendig, daß man heute zu ganz selbständigem Denken kommt.
[ 33 ] Aber das genügt noch nicht, meine Herren. Ich will Ihnen noch etwas anderes sagen. Sie wissen ja: Der Mensch entwickelt sich. Nun, man beachtet gewöhnlich diese Entwickelung im Leben des Menschen nicht; aber wenn der Mensch noch ganz jung ist, beachtet man es. Man weiß ganz gut: Ein vierjähriges Kind kann noch nicht schreiben und rechnen und lesen, ein achtjähriges Kind kann es vielleicht. Da sieht man die Entwickelung. Aber im späteren Leben, wenn wir einmal «gemachte Menschen» sind, da sind wir ja überhaupt so hochnäsig, daß wir es nicht mehr zugeben, daß wir uns entwickeln. Aber wir entwikkeln uns eigentlich durch das ganze Leben, und es ist sehr eigentümlich, wie wir uns entwickeln. Sehen Sie, unsere Entwickelung, die geht nämlich so: Nehmen Sie an, wir haben den Menschen - ich will ihn ganz schematisch zeichnen -: Wenn das Kind ganz jung ist, dann geht alle Entwickelung vom Kopfe aus. Wenn man dann den Zahnwechsel durchgemacht hat, also älter geworden ist, dann geht alle Entwickelung von der Brust aus. Deshalb muß man so achtgeben, wie die Kinder vom siebenten bis vierzehnten Jahre atmen; daß sie genügend atmen und so weiter. Also das ist das Alter von dem größeren Kind — heute müßte man ja eigentlich schon anders sagen, heute lassen sich das die Kinder nicht mehr gefallen; vom vierzehnten Jahr an muß man heute schon «junge Damen» und «junge Herren» sagen. Also sagen wir: das ist das Alter der größeren Kinder. Und erst, wenn der Mensch geschlechtsreif geworden ist, geht vom ganzen Menschen, von den Gliedmaßen die Entwickelung aus. So daß wir sagen können: Wenn der Mensch geschlechtsreif geworden ist, da erst ist der Mensch selber in voller Entwickelung. — Das bleibt jetzt. Da entwickeln wir uns durch die Zwanzigerjahre, Dreißigerjahre noch hindurch. Aber, sehen Sie, meine Herren - einige von Ihnen können das ja schon an sich selbst sehen -, wenn man älter wird, dann geht manches wiederum zurück. Da geht wirklich manches zurück. Nun, das braucht ja nicht der Fall zu sein, wenn man ein geistiges Leben aufgenommen hat, aber so im normalen menschlichen Leben geht schon die Sache zurück, wenn man älter geworden ist. Das ist gerade die Aufgabe der Anthroposophie, dafür zu sorgen, daß die Menschen in der Zukunft mit dem Alter nicht mehr zurückgehen. Aber das muß natürlich auch langsam und allmählich geschehen.
[ 34 ] Nun ist es ja so, daß es Menschen gibt, bei denen die geistigen Kräfte, wie man sagt, ganz furchtbar zurückgehen. Nun kann der Geist aber nicht zurückgehen, sondern es ist wieder nur der Körper, der zurückgeht. Es ist nun interessant, daß gerade sehr geistreiche Menschen oftmals im Alter furchtbar zurückgehen. So zum Beispiel werden Sie schon gehört haben, daß die Menschen ja den Kant zu den besonders großen Weisen rechnen. Kant war aber in seinem Alter blödsinnig. Also sein Körper ist so zurückgegangen, daß er seinen weisen Geist nicht mehr benützen konnte. Und so ist es bei vielen. Gerade sehr gescheite Leute sind im Alter ja richtig blödsinnig geworden. Das ist natürlich wieder nur ein starker, intensiver Ausdruck für das, was bei jedem Menschen eintritt. Allmählich kann man ja im Alter den physischen Körper nicht mehr gebrauchen. Man kann ihn ja dann schon aus dem Grunde nicht gebrauchen, weil sich ungeheuer viel Kalk einlagert, namentlich in die Adern. Und je mehr sich Kalk in die Adern einlagert, desto weniger kann man den physischen Körper gebrauchen. Aber in demselben Maße, in dem, sagen wir zum Beispiel bis zum vierzigsten Jahre vom Kopfe herunter die Entwickelung in den ganzen Körper hineingeht, in demselben Maße geht es wiederum zurück. Kommt man von den Vierziger- in die Fünfzigerjahre hinauf, so muß man wiederum die Brust mehr gebrauchen, und im Alter muß man wieder mehr den Kopf gebrauchen. Wenn man also ganz alt geworden ist, muß man wieder mehr den Kopf gebrauchen. Aber jetzt müßte man im Alter nicht den physischen Kopf gebrauchen, sondern den feineren Kopf, den Ätherkopf da oben muß man gebrauchen. Aber das lernen die Leute in der lateinischen Erziehung nicht. Und gerade diejenigen, die in den letzten Jahrzehnten materialistische lateinische Erziehung genossen haben, die sind am meisten diesem Altersblödsinn ausgesetzt gewesen.
[ 35 ] Man muß im Alter wiederum auf die Kindheitsstufe zurück. Es gibt ja Leute, bei denen das sehr stark eintritt. Sie werden, wie man sagt, geistig immer schwächer und schwächer. Der Geist bleibt aber ganz erhalten, der Körper wird nur immer schwächer und schwächer. Solche Leute können zuletzt das nicht mehr, was sie zuallererst fertig gebracht haben. Solche Dinge kommen durchaus vor. Sagen wir, ein Mensch ist alt geworden. Das, was er zuletzt getrieben hat, das kann er gar nicht mehr. Er kann nur noch dasjenige, was er als größeres Kind getrieben hat. Zuletzt kann er auch das nicht mehr, sondern er kann nur noch spielen und versteht auch nur noch diejenigen Begriffe, die er während des Spielens aufgenommen hat. Es hat sogar Leute gegeben, die konnten im höchsten Alter nur noch dasjenige verstehen, was ihnen die EItern oder die Amme in den allerersten Kindheitsjahren gesagt haben. Der Ausdruck: Im Alter wird man kindisch — der hat nämlich eine sehr gute Begründung. Man gelangt wirklich wiederum in die Kindheit zurück.
[ 36 ] Aber das ist, sobald man Geistesleben in sich hat, kein Unglück, gar kein Unglück, sondern es ist eigentlich ein Glück; denn wenn man noch Kind ist, da kann man nämlich den Ätherleib benützen. Wenn das Kind herumtobt und schreit und alles mögliche macht, ja, das macht nicht der physische Leib - höchstens nur dann, wenn es Bauchweh hat, aber dann muß auch erst der Bauchschmerz übertragen werden auf den Ätherleib und astralischen Leib, damit das Kind sich infolge des Bauchwehs bewegt —; aber das, was da tobt, das ist eben nicht der physische Leib. Nun ist man alt und kommt wiederum auf die Kindheitsstufe zurück; dann hat man sich allmählich angewöhnt, nicht mehr zu toben, und benützt denselben Ätherleib, den man als Kind zum Toben benützt hat, dann im Alter zu etwas Gescheiterem. Also das kann ein Glück werden, daß man wiederum so zurückkommt.
[ 37 ] Da haben Sie das zweite. Das erste, was man lernen muß, um in die geistige Welt hineinzukommen, ist ein richtiges Denken. Wie man dazu kommt, darüber werden wir noch weiter reden; die Fragen sind sehr kompliziert. Wir müssen heute erst einmal darauf kommen, einzusehen, wie das ist. Das erste ist ein ganz selbständiges Denken. Da muß man mit vielem brechen, was heutige Erziehung ist, denn die heutige Erziehung ist eben unselbständiges Denken, das vom Latein herrührt. Denken Sie nicht, daß dasjenige Denken, das heute an sozialistischen Theorien entwickelt wird, ein freies Denken ist! Die haben ja alle von dem gelernt, was aus dem Latein herausgekommen ist; die haben es nur nicht gewußt. Nicht wahr, der Arbeiter mag in seinem Wollen das oder jenes sich vornehmen können; aber wenn er anfängt zu denken, so denkt er ganz nach Bourgeoisbegriffen, und die sind ja aus lateinischem Denken hervorgegangen. Also das erste, das man haben muß, ist selbständiges Denken.
[ 38 ] Das zweite aber, das ist, daß man lernen muß, nicht bloß in dem gegenwärtigen Augenblick zu leben, sondern immer wiederum zurückgehen zu können in das Leben, das man bis in die Kindheit hinein geführt hat. Sehen Sie, wer in die geistige Welt eindringen will, der muß oftmals sich vornehmen: Jetzt mußt du darauf kommen, wie es war, als du ein zwölfjähriger Junge warst. Was hast du da getan? — Und das muß man nun nicht oberflächlich, nur äußerlich, sondern ganz im einzelnen sich vorstellen. Es ist zum Beispiel nichts nützlicher, als wenn man anfängt sich zu sagen: Ja, da war ich ein zwölfjähriger Junge - ich kann es ganz gut übersehen -, da war ein Steinhaufen am Weg, auf den bin ich draufgestiegen. Einmal bin ich heruntergepurzelt. Da war irgendeine Haselnußstaude, da habe ich mein Messer herausgenommen, Zweige abgeschnitten, mich in den Finger geschnitten. — Dieses wiederum so richtig sehen, was man vor vielen Jahren selber gemacht hat: dadurch kommt man in das hinein, daß man eigentlich nicht bloß im Gegenwärtigen lebt. Wenn Sie denken, so wie man es heute gelernt hat, da denken Sie mit Ihrem gegenwärtigen physischen Leib. Aber wenn Sie auf das zurückkommen, was Sie mit zwölf Jahren waren, da können Sie nicht mit Ihrem damaligen physischen Leib denken, denn der ist nicht mehr da — ich habe Ihnen das gesagt, der physische Leib ist alle sieben Jahre neu -, da müssen Sie mit Ihrem Ätherkörper denken. Deshalb rufen Sie diesen Ätherleib auf, wenn Sie zurückdenken an etwas, was im Alter von zwölf, vierzehn Jahren zurückliegt. Dadurch kommen Sie in diese innere Ttätigkeit hinein.
[ 39 ] Und ganz besonders kann man sich angewöhnen, überhaupt anders zu denken, als man gewöhnlich denkt. Sehen Sie, wie denken Sie? Nicht wahr, wir haben uns heute um neun Uhr getroffen. Da habe ich angefangen Ihnen zuerst die Zettel vorzulesen, auf denen Fragen stehen. Dann habe ich allerlei Betrachtungen angestellt, und wir sind jetzt dazu gelangt, zu sagen: Wir müssen zurückdenken an ein früheres Leben, das wir durchgemacht haben, als wir zwölf, vierzehn Jahre alt waren. Jetzt können Sie, wenn Sie heimkommen, vielleicht, wenn es Ihnen besonders interessant ist, diese Gedanken noch einmal durchdenken. Nun ja, das kann man. So machen es ja die meisten Menschen: sie gehen das noch einmal durch. Aber Sie können etwas anderes machen. Sie können sagen: Was hat er zuletzt gesagt? Er hat zuletzt gesagt, daß man also an sein früheres Leben, bis ins Alter von zwölf, vierzehn Jahren zurück, denken soll. Noch früher, da hat er davon gesprochen, daß man freies Denken haben muß. Noch früher hat er ausgesprochen, wie das Lateinische allmählich hereingekommen ist. Noch früher, wie der Mensch, wenn er eine Zeitlang geistig nicht gesund gewesen ist, dann zurückschaut und sagt, er hätte da etwas Besonderes erfahren. Da hat er auseinandergesetzt, wie der innere Mensch nicht geistig krank wird, sondern nur der Körper krank wird. Sehen Sie, jetzt hätten Sie den ganzen Vortrag rückwärts gedacht.
[ 40 ] Ja, meine Herren, rückwärts laufen die Dinge draußen nicht! Ich könnte Ihnen ja allenfalls auch gleich im Anfang den Vortrag rückwärts halten, aber Sie würden ihn nicht verstehen, denn man fängt eben vom Anfang an und baut so auf, daß man es allmählich versteht. Hat man es aber verstanden, dann kann man es auch rückwärts denken. Aber rückwärts gehen doch die Tatsachen nicht vor sich! Da reiße ich mich los von den Tatsachen. Da denke ich so, daß ich sage: Justament denke ich so, wie es nicht draußen vorgeht, sondern ich denke rückwärts. — Dazu gehört nämlich eine gewisse Kraft. Da muß ich mich innerlich regsam machen, wenn ich rückwärts denke. Geradeso wie derjenige, der durch ein Teleskop sieht, lernen muß, das Teleskop zu handhaben, so muß derjenige, der in die geistige Welt hineinschauen will, oftmals rückwärts denken, immer wieder rückwärts denken. Da kommt schon eines Tages die Zeit, wo er weiß: Ah, jetzt gehe ich in die geistige Welt hinein,
[ 41 ] Daran können Sie wieder sehen, meine Herren: Ihren physischen Körper haben Sie Ihr ganzes Leben daran gewöhnt, vorwärts zu denken. Wenn Sie jetzt anfangen rückwärts zu denken, da tut der physische Körper nicht mit. Da kommt etwas Eigentümliches zustande. Das ist ja, was man denen, die immer wiederum fragen: Ja, wie komme ich in die geistige Welt hinein? - als ersten Ratschlag gibt - er steht auch in «Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten?» —, daß man ihnen sagt: Lernet wenigstens zunächst die Tagesereignisse zurückgehen; dann anderes. - Nun haben die Leute natürlich zunächst bloß mit ihrem physischen Körper denken gelernt. Das beobachten sie. Sie strengen sich nun an, rückwärts zu denken, aber sie haben nur gelernt mit dem physischen Leib zu denken, nicht mit dem Ätherkörper. Und jetzt kommt der «Generalstreik» vom Ätherkörper. Ja, es ist ein richtiger Generalstreik! Und wenn die Leute beim Rückwärtsdenken nicht so viel einschlafen würden, dann würden sie nämlich wissen: Wenn ich anfange rückwärts zu denken, müßte ich ankommen bei der geistigen Welt. - Aber gerade in dem Moment, wo das Schauen beginnt, schlafen die Leute ein, weil ihnen die Anstrengung zu groß ist. Also muß man den ganzen guten Willen und die ganze Kraft haben, nicht einzuschlafen. Dazu muß man Geduld haben. Das dauert sogar oft jahrelang; aber man muß dazu Geduld haben.
[ 42 ] Sehen Sie, wenn Ihnen einer erzählen könnte, was Sie, wenn Sie rückwärts gedacht haben, nach dem Einschlafen unbewußt erleben, da würden Sie sehen, wie das ein furchtbar Gescheites ist! Die dümmsten Menschen fangen dann an, im Schlaf außerordentlich gescheite Gedanken zu haben, nur wissen sie nichts davon.
[ 43 ] Also darauf habe ich Sie zuerst aufmerksam gemacht: Erst muß man überhaupt lernen, selbständig zu denken. Nun, das kann man. Ich will nicht sagen zum Beispiel, weil ich ja nicht ein eingebildeter Tropf bin, daß nur meine «Philosophie der Freiheit» dazu dient, aber die ist bewußt dazu geschrieben, daß man sich selbständiges Denken angewöhnt. Also: Selbständiges Denken; über Dinge, die im Alter von zehn, zwölf Jahren zurückliegen, oder Dinge, die man erlebt hat, ganz genau rückwärts denken. — Damit haben wir zunächst wenigstens einmal darauf aufmerksam gemacht, wie man sich losreißt vom physischen Leib, wie man hineinkommt in die geistige Welt. Und davon wollen wir dann am Samstag weitersprechen, wollen das weiter so verfolgen, daß alle diese vier Fragen allmählich herauskommen.
Training Independent Thinking and Thinking Backwards
[ 1 ] There are some questions here that were given to me last time and that I will answer in a slightly different order than they were asked here. So the questions are:
[ 2 ] How can one, in terms of one's worldview and philosophy of life, come to see the secrets of the world?
[ 3 ] How far does man have to go before he finds higher worlds on the path of natural science?
[ 4 ] Do the forces in the universe influence all of humanity?
[ 5 ] What is the relationship between plants and humans, and the human body?
[6] Now, I would like to arrange it so that the answer comes out little by little, so to speak. There is no other way to do it with such complicated questions. Because if, for example, the question is: How do you come to see the secrets of the world? – it means: How do you come to real spiritual science? Now, that is something that you naturally do not have to imagine easily today. The fact of the matter is that when most people hear about the existence of something like anthroposophy or spiritual science, they think: Now I will also acquire the ability to see the spiritual. I will probably be finished with it in a week, and then I will be able to know all of this myself.
[ 7 ] Well, of course it's not that simple. Rather, one must realize that a great deal is basically part of ordinary natural science. Even if one wants to make the very simplest observations in natural science, the first step is to learn how to use the instruments. Of course, it is relatively easy to use a microscope, but in order to investigate something in the right way with a microscope, you can't just say: I'm going to put a piece of muscle or something under the microscope and then I'll look at it, and then I'll know what's going on in there. If you did it that way, you wouldn't see anything, of course. Because the point is that if you want to see something under a microscope, you first have to make fine cuts. So a piece of muscle is of no use at all. Instead, you have to make a thin cut with a fine razor, then sometimes remove a very small amount and make another fine cut, so that you get a very thin layer. And most of the time you can't achieve anything with that either. Because if you put a very thin, say, muscle or cell layer under the microscope and look into it, you usually see nothing at all. What you have to do is ask yourself: How can I make visible what I can't see under the microscope? And there you often have to penetrate it with certain dyes so that you only make it visible by introducing dyes. And then you have to be clear about the fact that you have now changed the matter somewhat. You also have to know what the matter is like when you have not changed it. But these are still very simple things. Even if you want to examine the stars with a telescope, you first have to learn how to use the telescope. However, that is even easier. You know that there are people who go around setting up a telescope for you on the street. But that alone does not help you much. It only helps if you know that you need a microscope and a clock, which you first have to operate, and so on. These are just examples to illustrate how complicated it is to examine the simplest things in the sensual-physical world.
[ 8 ] Now it is even more difficult for research in the spiritual world. Much more preparation is needed for this. People imagine that it can be learned in eight days. That is simply not the case. Rather, a person must, above all, be aware that he must first activate something that is within him. What is actually not constantly active must first be activated.
[ 9 ] In order for you to see how things actually are, I would like to tell you the following first. You know, especially in such research that goes into the spiritual world, and also in ordinary science, one must often start from the realization of what is not normal. You only really get to know things when you have got to know what is abnormal. I have already shown you this before with certain examples. We have to look at it because people in the outside world often call the person who does research in the spiritual world, even if he is so normal, a madman. So we have to get involved in examining things a little bit so that we finally come to the truth. Of course you don't have to believe that you can achieve anything by looking into the non-normal, into the pathological, but you can learn a lot from it.
[ 10 ] For example, there are people who are not normal because they are said to be mentally disturbed. What does it actually mean to say that a person is mentally disturbed? There is no worse word in the world than “mentally disturbed,” because the mind can never be disturbed. The mind cannot be disturbed at all! Take, for example, the following case: if a person is said to have been mentally disturbed for twenty years – such things do happen – and then returns to normal, what actually occurs? Well, it may be that this person claims to be being persecuted by others for twenty years; they suffer from persecution mania, as they say. Or it may be that he, let us say, sees all kinds of ghosts that are not there and so on. This can last for twenty years. Now, gentlemen, someone who is mentally disturbed in this way for twenty years can absolutely become healthy again. But you will always notice one thing: If someone is mentally disturbed for three, five or twenty years, as they say, and he recovers afterwards, he is no longer quite the same as he was before. Above all, you will notice the following. He tells you, after he has recovered: Yes, during the time I was ill, I was able to see into the spiritual world all the time. He tells you all kinds of perceptions from the spiritual world. And if you then go with the knowledge that you, as a completely healthy person, have gained from the spiritual world, according to his stories, it is true that he says some nonsense, but on the other hand he also says many correct things. So that is the strange thing: a person can be mentally disturbed for years, become healthy again, and then he tells you that he has been in the spiritual world and experienced this and that. And if you yourself know the matter as a healthy person, then you have to agree with him on much.
[ 11 ] If you talk to someone during the time when he is mentally disturbed, he will never be able to tell you anything sensible. He will just tell you the nonsense that he is experiencing. It is not at all the case that such people, who are mentally disturbed for years, have experienced these things during their so-called mental illness. They have not experienced anything of the spiritual world. But afterwards, when they have recovered and can look back in a certain way to the time when they were not well, what they did not experience at all during the illness then seems to them like glimpses into the spiritual world. Actually, this awareness – I have seen a lot of the spiritual world – only arises at the moment when people recover.
[ 12 ] You see, there is an enormous amount to be learned from this. One can learn that a person has something within him that he did not use at all during the time when he was mentally ill. But it was there, it was alive. And where was it? He saw nothing of the external world, for he can tell you: heaven is red and the clouds are green, all kinds of things. He sees nothing clearly in the outer world. But this deeper person who sits within him, who he cannot use at all during his illness, is in the spiritual world. And when he can use his brain again and can look back at what this spiritual person has experienced, then the spiritual experiences come to him.
[ 13 ] We see from this that the human being, while in the state that is called mental illness, lives with his spiritual part in the spiritual world. The spiritual part is very healthy. So what exactly is wrong with a mentally ill person? Yes, in a mentally ill person, it is the body that is ill, and the body cannot use the soul and the spirit. In someone who is said to be mentally ill, there is always something wrong with the body, and if the brain is ill, one cannot think properly, of course. One cannot feel properly either if the liver is ill.
[ 14 ] And so it happens that “mentally ill” is actually the worst term one could choose, because “mentally ill” does not mean that the mind is ill, but “mentally ill” means that the body is so ill that it cannot use the mind, which is always healthy. Above all, you must be clear about the fact that the spirit is always healthy. Only the body can become ill and then cannot use the spirit in the right way. If someone has a sick brain, it is just as if someone has a hammer that breaks at every blow. If I say to someone who doesn't have a hammer, “You're a lazy fellow, you can't hammer at all,” that's nonsense, of course. He can hammer just fine, but he doesn't have a hammer to hammer with. So it's nonsense to say that someone is mentally ill. The mind is perfectly healthy, but it doesn't have the body through which it can work.
[ 15 ] What can be learned in this way becomes especially clear when we reflect on the actual nature of our thinking. From what I have told you, you will see that although you have the mind, you need a tool to think, the brain. To think in the physical world, you need the brain. It is no art at all when materialism says that you need the brain. Of course you need the brain. But it says nothing about the mind when it asserts it. Besides, you can see from this that the actual mind in man can withdraw completely. In the mentally ill, the actual spirit withdraws completely. And it is important to know this, because only through this can one learn to understand that people in this day and age – now I am going to tell you something that will astonish you, but it is true – are completely unable to think. They imagine that they can think, but they cannot. I will show you why people cannot think.
[ 16 ] They will say: Yes, but people go to school, and today they are taught to think wonderfully well in elementary school! Certainly, it seems so. Nevertheless, people today cannot think at all. It only seems as if they can think. Isn't it so, in elementary school we have elementary school teachers. The primary school teachers have in turn learned something, and supposedly they have also learned to think. Those from whom they have learned are, as they say in Stuttgart, “big-heads”; that is, they are terribly wise people according to today's view. They have gone through university studies. Before they went to university, they went to high school or something similar, and there they learned Latin. If you look around a bit, you will be able to say: Yes, my teacher didn't know Latin! But he in turn learned from someone who knew Latin! Therefore, what you have learned is dependent on the Latin language, and everything you learn today is dependent on the Latin language. You can see this from the fact that when someone writes you a prescription, he writes it in Latin. This comes from the times when everything was written in Latin. It was not so long ago, thirty or forty years, that everyone who went to university was required to write their thesis in Latin.
[ 17 ] So everything we learn today is dependent on the Latin language. And that has become the case because in the Middle Ages, if you go back to the 14th, 15th century - that is not so long ago - everything was presented in Latin. The first person, for example, to present in German in Leipzig was a certain Thomasins. That was not so long ago, in the 17th century. Everything was presented in Latin. Anyone who wanted to learn anything had to go through the Latin language, and in the Middle Ages, everything that could be learned was only available in Latin. If you wanted to learn anything else, you first had to learn Latin. You will say: But not in elementary school. - But elementary schools have only existed since the 16th century. Only gradually, when the vernacular also took up science, did elementary schools come into existence. So the thing that influences all our thinking is the Latin language. All of you, gentlemen, think the way people have learned to think through the Latin language. And when you cite examples, say, for example, that Americans do not learn Latin at an early age, yes, but today's Americans immigrated from Europe! It all depends on the Latin language.
[ 18 ] The Latin language has a very particular idiosyncrasy, namely, it was developed in ancient Rome in such a way that it thinks for itself. It is interesting to note how Latin is taught in secondary schools. It is taught in such a way that you learn Latin, and then you learn to think, to think correctly in Latin sentences. So that the whole thinking becomes dependent on something that is not done by the human being at all, but by the Latin language. Please understand, gentlemen, that this is something very important! So people who have learned anything these days do not think for themselves, but rather, even if they have never learned Latin, the Latin language thinks for them. That is why it is the case that independent thinking, however curious it may be, is actually only found today in some people who have not learned much.
[ 19 ] I do not want to say that we should go back to illiteracy. We cannot do that. I do not want to go back anywhere; but what is, must be understood. That is why it is so important that we can sometimes go back to what the simple person, who has learned little, still knows. He can no longer even bring it out because, of course, he is laughed at. But nevertheless, it is extraordinarily important to know that people today do not think for themselves, but rather the Latin language thinks in them.
[ 20 ] You see, as long as you cannot think for yourself, you cannot enter the spiritual world at all. Now you have the reason why today's knowledge revolts against all spiritual knowledge: because people have come to not think for themselves through Latin education. That is the first thing one must learn: to think for oneself. People today are quite right when they say: the brain thinks. Why does the brain think? Because the Latin sentences go into the brain, and the brain thinks quite automatically in the case of today's human beings. These are automata of the Latin language that walk around and do not think for themselves.
[ 21 ] Recently, something very strange has happened. I already hinted at it last time, but you may not have noticed it, because it is not that easy to notice. Recently, something very special has happened. Don't we have our physical body in us, and also our etheric body and the others, I won't talk about that now. Now, the brain is of course part of the physical body, but the etheric body is also in the brain, and you can only think yourself with the etheric body. You cannot think with the physical body itself. But you can think with the physical body when it is like with the Latin language: that the brain is used like an automaton when you think with the brain. But as long as one only thinks with the brain, one cannot think anything spiritual. Then one must begin to think with the etheric body, which in the case of someone who is mentally ill is often not used for many years. This must be brought into inner activity.
[ 22 ] But that is what matters first and foremost: learning to think independently. Without being able to think independently, one cannot enter the spiritual world. Of course, it is necessary to realize this in the first place: Gosh, you didn't learn to think for yourself in your youth! You only learned to think what had been thought for centuries through the use of the Latin language. And when one knows this in the right way, then one knows that the very first condition for entering the spiritual world is to learn to think independently.
[ 23 ] But now comes what I wanted to point out when I said that something strange has happened recently. Those people who thought most in Latin were the scholars, and the scholars did physics, for example. They thought up physics, they thought it up entirely in terms of the Latin language with the physical brain. When we were little, when I was the same age as the young Erbsmehl, for example, we only learned one physics, which was thought up with the Latin brain. We only learned what had been thought up with the Latin brain. But since then, gentlemen, an enormous amount has happened. You see, when I was a child, the telephone had just been invented. It wasn't there before. After that, all the other great inventions came, which people today take for granted as if they had always been there. They have only come in the last few decades. As a result, more and more people have come into science who have not been trained in Latin. This is such a strange story. If you look at scientific life in recent decades, you will find that more and more such technicians are entering science. They have not studied Latin very much. As a result, their thinking has not become automatic. And this non-automatic thinking has then spread to the others. That is why physics today is full of concepts and ideas that are disintegrating. They are extremely interesting. For example, there is Professor Gruner in Bern who, two years ago, spoke about the reorientation of physics. He said that all concepts have changed in recent years.
[ 24 ] The fact that people have not noticed this is simply because when you go to popular lectures today, people still tell you what was thought twenty years ago! They can't tell you what is being thought today, because they themselves can't think yet. It is just like when you take the concepts that were still accepted thirty years ago, it's like having a piece of ice that melts: the ideas melt. They are no longer there when you want to think them through carefully. We just have to realize that. It's like this: If someone studied physics thirty years ago and looks at how it has developed today, they want to tear their hair out because they have to say to themselves: Yes, I can't keep up with the concepts I've learned! — This is just the way it is. And what is the reason for this? Yes, it is precisely because in recent years, through the evolution of humanity, people have been led to believe that the etheric body should begin to think. And they do not want that, they want to continue thinking with the physical body. But in the physical body, the concepts fall apart completely. And they do not want to learn to think with the etheric body. They do not want to learn to think independently.
[ 25 ] Well, you see, it is precisely because of this that it became necessary for me to write this book in 1893, the book on the Philosophy of Freedom. This book, “The Philosophy of Freedom”, is not so important for what is in it. Of course, what is in it is what one wanted to say to the world even back then, but that is not the most important thing. Rather, the important thing about this book, “The Philosophy of Freedom”, is that for the first time, completely independent thinking is in this book. No one can understand the book who only thinks in an unoriginal way. He must, page by page, right from the beginning, become accustomed to going back to his etheric body in order to be able to have thoughts at all such as are in this book. That is why this book is an educational tool – it is an important educational tool – and as such it must be understood.
[ 26 ] When the book was published in the nineties, people had no idea what to make of it. It was as if someone in Europe had written in Chinese and no one could understand it. Of course it was written in German, but it was written in thoughts that people were not accustomed to at all, because in this respect everything Latin was deliberately stripped away. For the first time, it was consciously taken into account: there should be no thoughts in it that are still influenced by Latin, but only completely independent thoughts. A Latin is only the physical brain. The etheric body of man is not a Latin. Therefore, one must first endeavor to express such thoughts in a language as one has them when one has them in the etheric body.
[ 27 ] I will tell you something else. Of course people have noticed that in recent decades, all the concepts have changed. When I was young, the professor came and wrote all over the blackboard. You had to learn that and then you passed your exams well. Fair enough! And now, in recent years, people have come up with what this same Gruner said in his speech as rector: All our concepts would no longer make sense if there were no solids but only fluids. He imagines that the whole world would be a fluid. But then all the concepts would no longer make sense, and we would have to think very differently, he says.
[ 28 ] Yes, of course you would have to think differently if there were no solid body! Then you couldn't use any of the concepts you learned in school. So if, let's say, you were a fish and suddenly became very clever and had the idea that you should go to a human university as a fish, then you would learn something that doesn't even exist for fish, because fish live in water. They only have solid bodies at the boundary where they touch and immediately rebound. So if the fish were to start thinking, it would have to have completely different thoughts to those of a human being. But humans need such thoughts today too, because the other thoughts have been forgotten, and he has to say to himself: Gosh, if everything were liquid, we would have to have completely different thoughts.
[ 29 ] Yes, but, gentlemen, have I not told you about a state of the Earth when there were no solid bodies yet, when everything was liquid, when even the animals were liquid? I have indeed told you about this state. Do you not understand that today's thinking cannot go back to these conditions at all? It cannot think of them! So today's thinking about the beginning of the world cannot make anything out. And, it must be said, today's people are beginning to think: Gosh, if the world were liquid, we would have to have completely different ideas! But there are no solid bodies in the spiritual world! So with all the concepts that the Latin language has gradually drilled into people, you cannot enter the spiritual world at all. You have to get rid of these concepts first.
[ 30 ] You see, that is a great secret: in Greek culture, which preceded Latin culture - Latin culture did not arise until five or six centuries before the birth of Christ, but Greek culture is much older - in Greek culture there was still a knowledge of the spiritual. One could still see into the spiritual world. When Romanism came with the Latin language, the spirit was gradually eradicated. Now I have to say something again that will seem very strange to you, but you will understand it. Who has used the Latin language through the centuries, used only the Latin language? - The Church itself has contributed most to this! That is precisely it, that the Church, which purports to teach people the spirit, has done most to expel the spirit. And in the Middle Ages all the universities were ecclesiastical. Of course one must be grateful to the Church for having founded the universities at all in the 13th, 14th, 15th centuries, but it founded them out of Latinism, and Latinism never has the possibility of coming to the spirit. And so it just happened that people gradually only had concepts for solid bodies. Just look at the Romans: the Romans introduced these very dry, sober, unspiritual concepts into the world. That is what made everything so materially conceived. What do you think would have happened if the Greeks had described an act such as the Lord's Supper? They would not have described it as if the material that one has there were blood and flesh! This comes from materialism. Even the concept of the Lord's Supper has become materialistic because it is all connected with the Latin language.
[ 31 ] The Latin language is completely logical. You see, I have worked with many such people who had a completely Latin culture, even though they spoke German. If they wanted to make something clear, they quickly translated the story into Latin, because in modern times people only think logically in Latin. But this logical thinking only applies to solid bodies. If you want to enter the spiritual world, you need fluid concepts.
[ 32 ] For example, there is the Theosophical Society. They also wanted to enter the spiritual world. This Theosophical Society also talks about the human being having a physical body, an etheric body and so on – but they are materialistic, because they only think: the physical body is thick, the etheric body is a little thinner and the astral body even thinner. But that remains purely physical, it never becomes spiritual, because one must arrive at such concepts if one wants to enter into the spirit, which is constantly changing. You see, when I draw, you will notice that I take this into account myself when drawing. I draw the physical body for my own sake; I try to imitate what the person is like as a physical human being. But if I now try to draw the etheric body, it would never occur to me to draw a figure for you in the same way. Instead, I would try to depict it like this: Man also has an etheric body, which expands like this (see drawing). But you have to know: It is not so much the etheric body, not so much when I draw it, its image, but it is only the image of a moment. In the next moment it is different again. So if I wanted to draw the etheric body, I would have to draw it now, quickly erase it, draw it again differently, erase it again, draw it again, erase it again. It is in perpetual motion. Man, with his present concepts, cannot follow these movements at all. That is what you must take into account above all: that concepts must become mobile. People must first get used to this. That is why it is necessary to develop completely independent thinking today.
[ 33 ] But that is still not enough, gentlemen. I will tell you something else. You know that the human being develops. Now, one usually does not pay attention to this development in the life of the human being; but when the human being is still quite young, one does pay attention to it. One knows very well that a four-year-old child cannot yet write and count and read, but an eight-year-old child can perhaps. So you can see the development. But in later life, when we are fully-fledged human beings, we are so snobbish that we no longer admit that we are developing. But we actually develop throughout our whole lives, and it is very peculiar how we develop. You see, our development goes like this: suppose we have a human being – I will draw him quite schematically –: when the child is very young, all development comes from the head. When one has then changed teeth, that is, has grown older, then all development comes from the chest. Therefore, one must pay attention to how children between the ages of seven and fourteen breathe; that they breathe sufficiently and so on. So that is the age of the older child – today one would actually have to say differently, today children no longer put up with that; from the age of fourteen on, one must already say “young ladies” and “young gentlemen”. So we say: that is the age of the older children. And only when a person has reached sexual maturity does the whole human being, the limbs, begin to develop. So that we can say: only when a person has reached sexual maturity is the human being in full development. — That remains now. We continue to develop throughout our twenties and thirties. But, you see, gentlemen – some of you can already see this in yourselves – when you get older, some things regress. Some things really do regress. Now, this need not be the case if one has taken up a spiritual life, but in normal human life, things do decline when one gets older. It is precisely the task of anthroposophy to ensure that in the future people no longer decline with age. But of course this must also happen slowly and gradually.
[ 34 ] Now it is the case that there are people in whom the mental powers, as they say, decline terribly. But the mind cannot decline, it is only the body that declines. It is interesting that very ingenious people often decline terribly in old age. For example, you will have heard that people consider Kant to be one of the particularly great sages. But Kant was stupid in his old age. His body had deteriorated to such an extent that he could no longer use his wise mind. And so it is with many people. Very clever people in particular have become really stupid in old age. This is, of course, just a strong, intense expression for what happens to everyone. Gradually, in old age, you can no longer use your physical body. You can't use it for the simple reason that an enormous amount of calcium is deposited in the veins. And the more calcium is deposited in the veins, the less you can use the physical body. But to the same extent that, let us say, for example, up to the age of forty the development from the head goes down into the whole body, to the same extent it goes back again. When you get from your forties into your fifties, you have to use your chest more again, and in old age you have to use your head more again. So when you have become very old, you have to use your head more again. But now, in old age, one should not use the physical head, but the finer head, the etheric head up there should be used. But people do not learn that in Latin education. And precisely those who have enjoyed materialistic Latin education in their later decades are most exposed to this senile nonsense.
[ 35 ] In old age, one must return to one's childhood level. There are people for whom this happens very strongly. They become, as one says, mentally weaker and weaker. But the mind remains completely intact, only the body becomes weaker and weaker. Such people can no longer do the things that they were first able to do. Such things do happen. Let us say that a person has grown old. He can no longer do the things he did most recently. He can only do the things he did as a larger child. In the end, he can no longer do even those, but he can only play and understands only those concepts that he has absorbed while playing. There have even been people who, even in their very old age, could only understand what their parents or nanny had said to them in their very earliest childhood years. The expression: In old age one becomes childish – has a very good reason. One really does return to childhood.
[ 36 ] But as soon as you have spiritual life within you, it is not a misfortune, not a misfortune at all, but it is actually a luck; because when you are still a child, you can actually use the etheric body. When a child rages and screams and does all sorts of things, it is not the physical body that is doing it – at most only when it has a tummy ache, but then the tummy ache must first be transferred to the etheric and astral bodies in order for the child to move as a result of the tummy ache. But what is raging is not the physical body. Now one is old and returns to the stage of childhood; then one has gradually got out of the habit of raging, and uses the same etheric body that one used as a child to rage, but in old age for something more sensible. So it can be fortunate to come back like that.
[ 37 ] So there you have the second. The first thing one must learn in order to enter the spiritual world is right thinking. We will talk more about how to achieve this; the questions are very complicated. Today we must first come to realize what it is like. The first thing is to think independently. Here we must break with much of what is taught in schools today, for today's education is based on the Latin word for thinking, which means 'to follow'. Do not think that the thinking which is being developed today in socialist theories is free thinking! They have all learned from what came out of Latin; they just didn't know it. Isn't that right? The worker may be able to plan this or that in his will; but when he begins to think, he thinks entirely in bourgeois terms, and these have emerged from Latin thinking. So the first thing one must have is independent thinking.
[ 38 ] But the second thing is that you have to learn not just to live in the present moment, but to be able to go back to the life you led into your childhood. You see, if you want to penetrate the spiritual world, you often have to plan: now you have to think about what it was like when you were a twelve-year-old boy. What were you doing then? And you must not imagine this superficially, only externally, but in great detail. For example, there is nothing more useful than to begin to say to yourself: Yes, I was a twelve-year-old boy - I can see it quite well -, there was a pile of stones by the path, I climbed on it. Once I tumbled down. There was some hazel bush, so I took out my knife, cut off twigs, cut my finger. — To see this clearly, what you did yourself many years ago: that's how you get into it, that you actually don't just live in the present. When you think, as you have learned today, you think with your present physical body. But when you go back to what you were at the age of twelve, you cannot think with your physical body at that time, because it is no longer there – I have told you that the physical body is renewed every seven years – so you have to think with your etheric body. Therefore, you call up this etheric body when you think back to something that happened when you were twelve or fourteen years old. This will help you to enter into this inner activity.
[ 39 ] And especially, one can get into the habit of thinking differently than one usually does. See, how do you think? Right, we met at nine o'clock today. I started by reading the notes with the questions on them. Then I made all kinds of observations, and we now came to the conclusion that we have to think back to a previous life that we went through when we were twelve or fourteen years old. Now, when you come home, you can, if you find it particularly interesting, think over these thoughts again. Well, you can do that. That's what most people do: they go over it again. But you can do something else. You can say, “What did he say last?” He said last that one should think back to one's earlier life, to the age of twelve, fourteen years. Even earlier, he talked about the fact that one must have free thinking. Even earlier, he explained how Latin was gradually introduced. Even earlier, he said, when a person has been mentally ill for a while, he looks back and says that he experienced something special. He explained how the inner person does not become mentally ill, only the body becomes ill. You see, now you would have thought the whole lecture backwards.
[ 40 ] Yes, gentlemen, things do not work backwards out there! I could just as easily give you the lecture backwards right from the start, but you would not understand it, because you start from the beginning and build up so that you understand it gradually. But once you understand it, you can also think it backwards. But the facts do not go backwards! In that case I tear myself away from the facts. I think in such a way that I say: I think precisely in a way that does not correspond to the way things happen in the world, but I think backwards. — This requires a certain strength. I have to mobilize inwardly when I think backwards. Just as someone who looks through a telescope must learn to handle the telescope, so someone who wants to look into the spiritual world must often think backwards, think backwards again and again. Then one day the time will come when he knows: Ah, now I am entering the spiritual world,
[ 41 ] So you can see again, gentlemen: you have been accustomed to thinking forward throughout your physical life. When you now begin to think backwards, the physical body does not cooperate. Something peculiar comes about. That is why the first piece of advice given to those who keep asking, 'How do I enter the spiritual world?' – and it is also found in 'How to Know Higher Worlds' – is to tell them: 'At least initially, learn to go back over the events of the day; then move on to other things'. Now, of course, people have only just learned to think with their physical body. They observe that. They now try hard to think backwards, but they have only learned to think with the physical body, not with the etheric body. And now the “general strike” comes from the etheric body. Yes, it is a real general strike! And if people didn't fall asleep so much when thinking backwards, then they would know: When I begin to think backwards, I should arrive at the spiritual world. But just at the moment when the seeing begins, people fall asleep because the effort is too great for them. So you have to have all the good will and strength not to fall asleep. To do that, you have to have patience. It often takes years, but you have to have patience.
[ 42 ] You see, if someone could tell you what you unconsciously experience after falling asleep when you have thought backwards, you would see how terribly clever it is! The most stupid people then begin to have extraordinarily clever thoughts in their sleep, they just don't know about it.
[ 43 ] So that's what I first drew your attention to: first of all, you have to learn to think for yourself. Well, you can. I'm not saying, for example, because I'm not an imaginary fool, that only my “Philosophy of Freedom” serves that purpose, but it is consciously written to help you develop independent thinking. So: independent thinking; thinking backwards very precisely about things that happened at the age of ten or twelve, or things one has experienced. — With this, we have at least drawn attention to how one breaks away from the physical body and enters the spiritual world. And we will continue to talk about this on Saturday, pursuing it in such a way that all these four questions gradually emerge.