The Rudolf Steiner Archive

If we reflect on the fact that we are familiarizing ourselves with this physical world here in the physical world, we will always come to the conclusion that we live in this world primarily through our physical senses, through our minds. We certainly also live within this physical world through our soul life, through the thoughts that arise in us, that remain in our memory, that make up our store of memories; we live in this world through our feelings and will impulses. It is quite understandable that it is quite unlikely for a person who has not yet dealt with spiritual-scientific questions in depth that an experience can take place that is quite different from that in the physical world; because it is clear that man initially knows the world only through thinking, feeling and willing. But there is another form of experience in the world through what we call initiation, which goes beyond the physical world. Basically, it is the same kind of experience as when a person passes through the gate of death and enters the time that lies between death and a new birth.

Now, it must be said that in most cases, what befalls a person when he is supposed to form an idea of the life between death and a new birth here in the physical body, is a feeling of a certain fear of the void in the soul. Let us be clear that this occurrence of fear is quite natural. For try to put yourself in the situation, purely physically, of having walked quite fast and coming to a deep precipice. This would give nothing more than a presentiment, a feeling: you cannot know what might happen in the next moment if you continued your steps. — This feeling can only then afflict the soul when the person has walked so fast that he can no longer stop himself. He says to himself: You have to take the next step. — The uncertainty of fear lives in the soul and this feeling can only be compared to the feeling that is always present in the depths of the soul, but is only not perceived because attention is focused on the physical world. This feeling tells him: What will happen to you if you leave everything you have become accustomed to? Man need only reflect that something like this can live in him subconsciously, and it also lives there, which can be expressed with the words: You cannot see or hear, because the instruments for this sensory activity have been taken from you; you cannot think either. These feelings are not realized, but they are in the soul, and what the person feels is a kind of numbing of himself over this feeling. As soon as it occurs, something else is called into the soul so that the feeling cannot come to consciousness. But with that one can also not make the right preparation, one cannot lift the veil that lies behind death. Today we want to enlighten ourselves about how our life is connected to the one after death.

In the physical world, we rightly speak of perceiving it through our senses. When man speaks of the senses, he actually speaks only of the senses that can be used in the physical world. They can only be used in the physical world because they are connected to the tools that are taken from us at death. Only the five senses are ever mentioned: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. However, these cannot be used in the disembodied state. It is necessary, if one wants to find a transition, that one must completely enumerate the human senses. What the human being misses in this enumeration is that he forgets himself in the process. But he still belongs to the physical world and he could not perceive himself here if he had no senses for it. There are initially few senses through which he perceives himself: the sense of balance, the sense of movement and the sense of life, but they are just as important as the other senses, the external senses. What is the sense of life? You can get an idea of it by considering the difference between feeling hunger and feeling satiety. If man did not understand himself inwardly, he would know nothing of his own corporeality, of well-being or malaise. Just as one speaks of the sense of sight, so one must speak of the sense of life.

But one must also speak of another sense. How impossible it would be for a person to feel if they did not feel the activity of their muscles and tendons. This is a perception of inner mobility. It is only somewhat obscured for humans because we see ourselves in the physical world with our physical eyes. You get the right feeling from the inner perception when you move in the dark; for example, the perception of the breathing process becomes more clearly apparent.

What we call the sense of balance is very necessary. It can be observed in children when they learn to walk and stand; little by little they feel their way into it. We have to get used to feeling that we are walking upright. This sense even has an organ; these are the three semicircular canals in the ear, which are perpendicular to each other. If they are damaged, a person falls over, and the lack of balance in some people comes from the fact that the inner sense of direction is damaged.

If we go further, we find other senses through which we can have a kind of self-awareness within us, but this is more difficult. We have to start from a certain contemplation that points to a state of consciousness that is no longer quite normal. It occurs in certain dreams. The following can occur in consciousness as a dream: a person is in terrible trouble, the helmsman has arrived. He dreams this in great detail, and it can be a long dream. It changes and then the rattling of wagons occurs; the fire brigade passes by. A fire has broken out. Outwardly nothing more has happened than the call “fire”. This word softly echoes the word “tax”, and it calls in the soul through the sound of the transition from the directly heard call “fire”, and that in turn gives birth to the sum of the annoying images of the dream. The dream runs terribly fast. You imagine the individual events in a timeline, which is why the dream seems so long. From this dream, we see the great importance of sounding in the soul body, especially when it is mixed with images, when the word plays a role. If we go deeper into the soul, we see that something completely different is actually going on. Only when a person is fast asleep does he not perceive things. Something would have happened even if the call for “fire” had not been heard at all, but now the call covers something and gives rise to the word “tax”. A fine veil is spun from the resonance of the word. In daytime life, the veil is terribly thick, but alongside the daytime perceptions, the subtle soul perceptions also occur. Only these are not perceived. In such a dream-vision we grasp the world-process as it presents itself to our soul, at one corner.

We have chosen this example deliberately because hearing, as it is now established in present-day humanity, is the sense that is closest to the supersensible senses. We are standing right on the border of the supersensible world and if we could cast off the two words, we would be able to experience true soul experiences.

This example shows how man stands before the spiritual world. But the two words hold him back. It is really the case that by far the greatest part of our dreams are spun from the echoes of the sense of hearing, because between hearing and thinking there lives an inner sense that has been completely atrophied for today's life. When one has immersed oneself in the spiritual world, this sense comes into activity. Between hearing and thinking lives this sense, which becomes conscious when one can hear the inaudible, when one has awakened the sense for rhythmic, melodic, harmonious sounds... (gap in the text.)

If one does not advance to a sense that has meaning only for the physical world, one stands before a sense of the supersensible world. In the physical world, this sense has split into the sense of hearing and the sense of perception. It comes to the fore when one comes to a kind of self-awareness. It comes to the fore best when one tries to develop an appreciation of music and poetry. However, it is better to approach it from the other side. In the outer physical life, the sense has atrophied.

From there, it goes further and further to what we call today: the human being comes to the idea of the self. We must be honest about this idea of the self. People express the self and have a certain inner support in the expression. They rightly believe that they are grasping the self by expressing it. This is the case. It is a kind of preparation for grasping the real higher self. This realization is extremely difficult, otherwise all philosophical endeavor would not be directed towards it. In my “Philosophy of Freedom” I have endeavored to make clear how one can arrive at this. All this belongs to self-perception. One must inwardly grasp it, whereby one addresses oneself as I. We therefore have senses by which we grasp the outer world, and others by which we grasp ourselves when we hear the soundless sounding.

Here in the physical, the well-known five senses are particularly developed. These have no significance for the initiate in the spiritual world. The other senses, through which man comes to self-awareness, are atrophied. They have great significance for man when he passes through the gate of death.

The first sense needed in the beyond is the sense that passes from the external musical to the internal musical. For this sense, the presence of the external auditory tool is not a hindrance. Today only the sense through the ear is being killed. In the physical world, one can perceive the power of the sense when musicians compose. The sense stands behind the musical creation. After death, it becomes a sense through which the person is made aware of his entire surroundings. We then experience music inwardly. After death, the sense becomes an external sense and one perceives for a time after death what goes through the world, because the world is permeated by rhythmic-musical harmony. A person who would not perceive this rhythmic-musical harmony would be like a person in the physical world who could not perceive the inorganic.

In my book 'Theosophy', in the description of Devachan, you will find how mutual life consists in the unfolding of the musical-rhythmic harmony. Indeed, the upper and lower are joined by the forward and backward, while we only know that we are walking upright through the sense of balance. We perceive the beings that are above and below, right and left. So the inner senses, which are now atrophied, expand and convey the spiritual world to us. Then the sense of balance develops into a sense of harmony and rhythm, and the sense of movement is added. When we are liberated from the whole apparatus of muscles and tendons, the sense that is otherwise concentrated through the physical body will spread and we will come to the possibility of being everywhere in the universe as we are in our own body through the sense of movement. In the spiritual world, the outer world is as in the physical world a muscle movement takes place in us. When a hand is held out to a child, the child understands and imitates the movement. The sense of movement awakens in the inner experience of the imitated movement.

Over time, one is thoroughly cured of some teachings that always suffer from the fact that they say: We live in ourselves. But there is no blood circulation in the supersensible world.

The sense of inner movement will be a very important sense when we have died, the sense of life will be important to us – if it cannot be claimed in an unpleasant way – because then we will no longer have headaches and no feeling of hunger.

The senses that have been atrophied here are particularly stimulated when we pass through the gate of death. We cannot perceive our own corporeality through our own corporeality, the eye cannot see itself and the brain cannot examine itself; so the organ that perceives something cannot be the same as that which perceives itself. Thus, what we have called the meaning of life must be separated out from the physical, and so it approaches the soul. It is not the case with the sense of balance that it mediates perception; rather, it expresses itself only symbolically in it.

These senses are actually the ones that are selfish by their very nature, because it is through them that man perceives his self. And we must not hide from ourselves the fact that what we take with us out of life is the more selfish part. So first of all we keep the more selfish part, and from this it becomes understandable that immediately after death, man passes into a rather selfish state. Just as a child brings its senses with it into physical existence and must first get used to the physical sensual world, so too, in the disembodied state, the human being must get used to the supersensible world. This takes quite a long time after death, and while he is learning to get used to his senses, all that remains to him at first is merely what has brought him together with the outside world here in the physical world, as a memory, and specifically as the more unpleasant part of the memory. The first memory lasts only a few days; it appears as a memory tableau that we are familiar with. Then it begins to change so that what is at its innermost here is connected in an inward way, so that the person becomes accustomed to asserting himself inwardly over everything he has experienced, because the possibility of perceiving ceases.

A concrete example: In some relationship of life we have lived together with a person. We pass away, he remains behind on the physical plane. We become more and more accustomed to retaining something from the inner being other than the memory. When we look at a dead person, we see that he knows what we experienced with him during his life on earth. With death, the thread now breaks and now the harrowing realization can be made that one meets dead people who say with the means of communication: “I lived there with this or that person. I know that he lives on, but I only know something about him until I die. That is a great pain. Now the dead person misses him. That is why the dead mainly mourn those they loved and cannot reach out to. It must be admitted that we can provide important services to the dead in this regard if we reach out to them. The external senses are taken from the dead, only what they have experienced in common with us lives in them. Yes, ordinary life actually offers nothing that could change this. It can only be changed if bonds are formed between the dead and the living. It is usually the case for the dead that we look up to the dead. (Gap in the text.) Now there is a common link between the dead and the living: it is what we think of supersensory thoughts. Spiritual thinking is this connecting link. I may emphasize that one can read to the dead about what concerns the supersensible worlds. When we have time, we sit down and go through in thought what the content of spiritual science is and in doing so, we vividly imagine that the deceased are with us. We thus spare them the torment of thinking that we are not there. We have achieved very good results within the anthroposophical movement by reading to the dead in our thoughts. This brings them together with us, and that is what they need and long for. There are two aspects to living together with the dead. The first is what has just been characterized, the lack of the people with whom one lived on earth. We can remedy this by reading to them. We should be together with the dead and bridge the circumstances of our existence. What does it matter to the dead if we read anthroposophy to them, even though they did not want to know about it during their lifetime? — is often said. But that is a materialistic objection, because the circumstances do not remain the same. For example, we can observe that two brothers are there. One of them is drawn to spiritual science, while the other becomes more and more angry about it. He talks himself more and more into a rage. But he does this only because he wants to numb himself to his inner longing for spiritual science. It is not easy to reach him in life, and it is not good to agitate for anthroposophy. In death, what the person has longed for most becomes apparent, and it is precisely such souls that can be given the very best by reading to them. Those who were interested in anthroposophy here will become more and more interested in it there. This is one thing.

The other thing to consider, especially in our time, is that when we enter the supersensible world in our sleep every day, we are in the same realm as the dead. Only we no longer know anything about it after waking up. How do most people go to sleep now? It can be said that when they have crossed the threshold of sleep, they have taken little spirituality with them. Those who have attained the necessary heaviness through the consumption of alcoholic beverages do not bring much of a spiritual nature into the spiritual world. But there are many nuances. We often hear: Yes, what is the use of studying spiritual science if you still can't see into the spiritual worlds? — Yes, if you only study it enough, you will take something with you into your sleep. Imagine a sleeping city, sleeping people, so the souls are disembodied. That which the sleeping souls represent for the spiritual world is still something different than that which they represent for the physical world. It is something similar for the dead. What we give the dead and what they absorb into consciousness is what they need for their life. And when we bring them spiritual thoughts, then they have nourishment; when not, then they are hungry, so that the sentence may be expressed: We can, through our cultivation of spiritual thoughts here on Earth, provide nourishment for the dead. We can leave them hungry when we bring them no spiritual thoughts. When the fields become barren, then they bring forth no fruits for the nourishment of men, and men can starve. The dead, of course, cannot starve, they can only suffer when the spiritual life on earth becomes desolate.

The fact of the matter is that here on earth, science follows different laws about the interrelationships, and one ideal is that through science, life as such can be scientifically grasped. But here on the physical plane one does not get to know life. All laws do relate to the living, but one cannot explore life with all this knowledge. For the supersensible world, one cannot get to know death with all research. For him who sees through things, it is nonsensical to believe that there is a death in the supersensible world. There are sleep-like states of consciousness and also a longing for death, just as we would like to understand life, but there is no death there. One should not believe that one could perish in the spiritual world, one cannot die there either. One cannot destroy one's consciousness either, which corresponds to dying here. But one can become lonely in the spiritual world.

It is about not being able to perceive the physical-sensory world. One only knows about oneself and nothing about other beings. That is what is called the suffering and pains of Kamaloka. What broadens human consciousness is the social life after death, and we also come into contact with the various beings of the supernatural world in social life.

One objection that may still be raised is to be resolved this evening in Erfurt. It is this: What is it like, since the dead are in the supersensible world after all? Can they learn anything from our reading to them about the supersensible worlds? — They cannot learn in the supersensible world what we do not give them from the earth. The thoughts must flow up from the earth. Anthroposophy is not taught in heaven, but on earth. People are not on earth to get to know only a vale of tears, but also Anthroposophy. It is often believed that one can also get to know anthroposophy after death, but this is a great mistake. What a person has experienced on earth, he must put down in the spiritual world after he has crossed the gate of death.

I. Report in the “Weimarische Zeitung” of April 17,

The first of three lectures announced by the program was held yesterday evening by Dr. Rudolf Steiner of Berlin on “Theosophy and the Further Development of Religions” (The Bible-Babel Question) before a large audience in the “Erholung” hall. The speaker began by captivatingly expounding on the origin of divine wisdom (theosophy), which has come to the fore in no small measure due to the sensational writing of Adolf Harnack, 'The Essence of Christianity', and the lectures of Friedrich Delitzsch, which have become world-famous, since they consider it their most noble task to promote the comparative study of religions, philosophies and sciences. The theosophy is called upon to reconcile the contradictions arising from the tireless research of science to penetrate into the divine riddles by means of the natural, and from principles such as Harnack's: radical rejection of all scientific interference in religion, Theosophy is called upon to reconcile the contradictions resulting from the relentless research of science to penetrate into the divine riddles by means of the natural, and to balance out principles such as Harnack's: radical rejection of all scientific interference in religion, the essence of which is never struggle and dispute, but always explanation and fulfillment, the explanation and interpretation of the symbols of knowledge, the fulfillment and completion of the tasks of the will. And who is a theosophist? Anyone who, in the wonders that undoubtedly reveal themselves in the smallest and most inconspicuous creature, right up to the microcosm, the most perfect wonder of our own self, feels the living bonds of the Master guiding him, drawing him to the divine and eternal. The realization of Theosophy reaches back to the oldest traditions of all civilized nations, expressing itself in the consciousness of our own divine nature, in the consciousness of our immortality and in the consciousness of the goal of our striving, in divine perfection. We find this threefold consciousness already in the oldest document of our race, in that of the Egyptians, in the traditions of the Chaldeans and in the Mosaic traditions of the Old Testament, even in the Chinese and in the natural philosophy of today's primitive peoples. But we also find this theosophical realization in Homer and the poetry of classical antiquity, in the old Germanic legends, and in its most ideal form in the original text of Christianity, the New Testament. And in the spirit of this knowledge, the representatives of Theosophy considered it their duty, without alienating anyone from their religion, to encourage everyone to search in the depths of religion for the spiritual nourishment that is absolutely necessary for them. Everyone, whether friend or foe, should show the religion of the other the respect that they claim for their own religion. With the meaningful quote: “He who has art and science has religion; he who has neither of these has religion,” the lecturer concluded his extremely interesting 1-hour presentation, which was received with the greatest attention. Unfortunately, we do not have enough space to reproduce the entire content.

II. Report in “Germany,” Second Sheet, dated April 17, 1903.

The Secretary General of the “Theosophical Society for Germany”, Dr. Steiner of Berlin, gave an introductory lecture on the spiritual and historical significance of Theosophy on Wednesday evening. This first lecture will be followed by two more, to be held on Friday, April 17, and Monday, April 20. Dr. Steiner, who is known as a captivating speaker, began his lecture by stating that the Theosophical movement found its justification in the fact that it had set itself the goal of solving the many mysteries surrounding human existence, as well as the lack of clarity regarding any continued existence after death. Theosophy does not want to take away anyone's religion, but only to encourage them to research their religion and to seek the spiritual nourishment that every person needs. In the further course of the lecture, Dr. Steiner explained that the idea of theosophy dominates all cultural religions, just as the idea of God was almost the same in almost all cultural peoples of the ancient world. The account of the Fall of Man, as we find it in the Old Testament, corresponds at the same time to the account of the Chinese, the Egyptians, Babylonians, even the Aztecs in Mexico. Likewise, we find the same traditions of the idea of God in Greek history as in our old Germanic Edda. The consciousness of this idea of God lived in all peoples at all times; each people interpreted its God in its own way; only with the material advancement of culture does the deepening of this consciousness become a mystery of initiates. The speaker explained that one should not join those for whom research in the fields of religion always causes a feeling of dread; it is the duty of the world of scholars to penetrate ever deeper into the natural sciences. Heart and mind could very well explore the true essence of religion together, and the recently so justified sensational research of Professor Delitzsch is a big step towards enlightenment. In any case, one should not oppose a movement that may be inclined to create a completely new worldview. The three purposes of Theosophy are, firstly, to form the core of a fraternal spiritual community that extends to all of humanity, without distinction of race, religion, class, nationality or gender; secondly, to promote the comparative study of religions, philosophies and sciences; and thirdly, to explore the as-yet-unexplained laws of nature and the forces slumbering within man. Even if all the above-mentioned cultural religions are based on Theosophy, there is something about it that distinguishes it from all religions as different forms of worship. Each of them places the emphasis on its own particular expression of wisdom. The Theosophical movement, however, has always emphasized only the common core, which promotes the same striving and the same knowledge in all people. Above all, it is opposed to materialistic scholasticism, and not only to natural science, but also to historical and linguistic science. The two opposing world views are the inward and the outward, the spiritual and the sensual. The speaker explained that this lecture should be regarded as an introduction. In any case, Theosophy offers effective protection against the twin enemies of civilized man, superstition and materialism; the purifying and ennobling influence of this movement would not fail to materialize. The extremely stimulating and interesting lecture lasted about an hour and a half.

I. Report in the “Weimarische Zeitung” of April 19, 1903

Second lecture by the Secretary General of the German Section of the Theosophical Society, Dr. Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, on: “The Main Theosophical Teachings”. Even more attentive listeners than at the first lecture gathered yesterday evening in the “Erholung” hall to listen to the excellent, convincing and fiery presentation. The following is a brief summary of the interesting topic:

The origin of the theosophical movement lies, as we all know and as the oldest traditions prove, in the earliest ages, as the theosophical activity of the Essenes and Pythagoreans amply confirms. In the so-called mystery schools (secret schools), which already existed in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th centuries of our era, the secrets of human existence were taught at that time. An example of the interest with which the study and development of the wisdom of God was pursued in earlier times is given by Redner, who recounts the event of how an Indian scholar, who gave a theosophical lecture from the point of view of the natural science of the time, was asked by a member of the audience what would remain when all the ethereal, physical components of the human being had dissolved. The speaker suggested that the public was not the place to answer this question, and therefore invited the questioner to join him in solitude, in order to introduce him to the secrets of his own soul life and to explain to him the existence of the divine being in his ego. The explanation of reincarnation and karma is based on the firm conviction that everything in the world is based on karma, on activity. As even Goethe once said so aptly: “Function is existence conceived in activity.” Both our highly developed and our still imperfect organs of animals have never been what they are now from the very beginning. Even today, there are living creatures that lack eyes altogether, for example, that have only the most primitive skin openings connected to the optic nerves, and that have only the very slightest insight into the outside world around them. And yet the time will come for these imperfect creatures, too, when their visual organs have developed to the same extent as in other, more perfect animals. The necessity and the need to gain further insights into the light will, through the continuous interaction and the incessant activity, also make the visual organs of these undeveloped animals the same as those of other animals, when the soul of the animals has lived through and perfected itself through countless generations. Further proof of perpetual activity and development is that there is, for example, a species of fish in America, the newt fish, in which, during the time of their existence, breathing organs in the form of lungs have , which later, due to a lack of water, has become an unavoidable necessity for them, as they originally only spent their lives in the water. The activity of the organs came to their aid, and today these fish can spend part of the waterless summer on land, while as soon as water is available, they live only in it. And just as the natural scientist did not observe and research this development of forces inherent in the body, so too our inherent spirit has come about through the never-ceasing soul activity in our own ego. And if there are still people today who are as spiritually immature as some primitive peoples, who even today devour their fellow human beings, it is precisely because their soul activity has been a slow one that has not developed the spirit to the extent that they would be aware of their actions. And the presence of the soul even in plants was also recognized and discussed by Goethe in conversation with Schiller, in which he confessed that even the most perfectly developed plant had emerged from the primal plant and that, when he looked at every flower and plant, the soul of the same seemed to him to be present, as it were. But the most significant, the most sublime, the immeasurable difference in the soul life of bodies is the individuality of the human being. Every human being, even the most imperfect and insignificant, has his biography, which another being, however perfect, lacks. And in this individuality we find the essence of reincarnation, of re-embodiment, to the explanation of which we may add: That which you think today you will be in later time; what we grasp intellectually today was first seen in an earlier life, to which we now look back. And since a cause also belongs to the spiritual effect, we see the earlier lives in us as the cause of the spiritual effect. The constant perfection of our soul wisdom, the study of the human soul, will give us insight into the astonished questions [of the Belgian Maeterlinck]: How are we to do justice to our tremendous needs? Within our ego lie the spiritual powers; in our causal body we find the cause of individuality, the eternal activity that produces cause and effect. With the principle: the soul was present, it is present and will remain present, we characterize the eternal existence of life. And in this sense, we must agree with the former remarks of the scholar Fichte, who explained to his Jena students: “Break over me, world; fall upon me, rocks; devour me, earth and sea; I stand fearless and undaunted, for I feel the divine immortal power in my ego, in my soul, which lifts me above all the terrors of physical mortality.

Undivided applause from the silently enthralled audience rewarded the speaker, who finally announced that in the last lecture on Monday, any of the attendees who had appeared could ask questions related to the topic, which the speakers intended to answer in all respects, so that part of the evening would might be held within the framework of a discussion.

II. Report in “Germany”, second page, dated April 19, 1903

On Friday evening, Dr. Steiner gave his second lecture on Theosophy in the recreation room, again to a large audience. This time, it was about the main theosophical teachings (reincarnation and karma). The speaker began his lecture with a story about the Indian sage Jaina Walkia, who was firmly convinced of the doctrine of reincarnation and already shared it with others. Man is an organic being with developed limbs and organs, but the latter did not suddenly appear as we see them today, but rather, through their own activity, they have reached this perfection over a long period of development. All this activity can be summarized in the word karma. Just as completely different beings have developed from imperfect animals over the centuries, adapting to their needs, so has the soul life of man been in constant activity and development. It is absolutely correct to assume that the human spirit always experiences re-embodiment and remains still after the organic limbs have died off until a being for it can be found again. Thus, every single human spirit has already lived an infinite number of times, constantly developing and perfecting itself. For example, the spirit of Goethe and Mozart was already present in the boys of youthful age, and it will also return, because it is unthinkable that after the death of the organic body these highly developed individualities should not continue to live; nor can it be assumed that, for example, Goethe's spirit emerged from nothing. Nor should one believe in a different inheritance from generation to generation, because often siblings are fundamentally different in their individuality and even twin brothers, who were under the same organic influence, would be endowed with the most divergent character traits. The spirit or individuality in man has emerged from the primal soul and in the words “from God to God” lies the content of all wisdom. The origin and purpose of all existence is the core that underlies all religious knowledge. Everything that exists has emerged from the primal power and carries the divine essence within itself; from this view arises the individual continuation of the soul, which today is called immortality. Everything that emerges from the primal power and returns to it must continue to exist until the cycle is complete. The aim of all development is, of course, perfection and completion during the journey back to the primal power. The highly developed animal also has a certain knowledge, as does the completely undeveloped human being, only the animals lack the individual essence, the feeling of personal “I”; this is highly peculiar to humans. One can always speak of an animal species as a whole, whereas the concept of a human being always applies only to one individual, since a second person has a different individual disposition. We can indeed form a perception through our transient organs, but knowledge arises from the source of the spirit. Matter does not produce the spirit, but the spirit emerges from the Primordial Spirit — God — in order to return to Him one day. Every human being contains an individual spirit, and when the organic body dies, it leaves behind the further developed spirit, just as a plant decays and leaves behind a viable seed for new development. The Theosophical movement seeks to awaken the consciousness of the divine essence in each individual, and this then allows for the conscious realization and rational comprehension of the individual path of development, the resulting inner spiritual view. From this arises the striving for the complete development of the spirit. Karma, however, means the active development of the individual soul life to perfection. From this arises the proof that the soul cannot perish, but goes through and completes its process of development long before us and long after us. At the end of his lively lecture, the speaker recalled a saying of the Jena philosopher Fichte, who exclaimed: “You mountains fall upon me, you waters engulf me, I am not afraid, for I know that my spirit lives on and is not lost!” Dr. Steiner also said that next Monday, after the lecture, he would be happy to provide any answers to questions addressed to him and to clarify any ambiguities.

I. Report in the “Weimarische Zeitung” of April 22, 1903

Third lecture by Dr. Rudolf Steiner – Berlin on “Theosophy and the scientific spirit of the present day”. Following on from the two lectures already given, the lecturer undertook to sketch out a comparative and concordant picture of theosophy and natural science for the numerous listeners who had again turned up, and the following is reproduced from this topic:

In my previous lectures I have already tried to show that the great mystery surrounding us is nothing more than the lawfulness, the logical consequence of all research that has been and is being undertaken to fathom the mystery. In the near future, research in the natural sciences will have reached the point where theosophy begins, thus ensuring a future for it as its representatives strive for. The longing for enlightenment of the highest riddles on the one hand and the discouragement, the doubts regarding the highest questions on the other are still facing each other undefeated. But the struggle will make it necessary even for the most brilliant minds of the present day to press on to the points which Theosophy regards as its fundamental questions. Not only a scholar, in his book on the origin of man, shows by means of research how the physical man came into being, how the first imperfect creatures were formed from carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. In the tenth stage, he shows how the original fish formed from the aforementioned primeval substances, which possessed an indication or hint of a backbone but no complete nervous system. He further shows how the brain, teeth and limbs developed in these primitive animals, albeit only to an imperfect and informal degree. In the further stages, we find how these primitive animals, otherwise living only in the water, become accustomed to life on land and the limbs necessary for this develop. The animals become more perfect and, after a long transformation, come into the world as kangaroos and later as monkeys, the animal most similar to humans in physical terms. In the 21st link of the development, we see the great ape, from which the 22nd link is the human being itself. But in the chain of investigations, one forgets to add the soul, the spiritual power of the human being, as the 23rd link, because it is in the biography, in the individuality of our ego, that which elevates us above all other living beings. With the 22nd link, the species may well come to an end, but now our soul life begins, the development of which we can observe in exactly the same way as physical development, if we go from stage to stage. The course of science shows in the 1860s (Haeckel) that Western natural science is nothing more than elementary theosophy, and we may assume that this elementary theosophy will develop into a higher one over time. When the greatest naturalists seek to draw the consequences, they find in them the theosophy.

[Huxley], the most important anatomist, who rendered the greatest service to the doctrine of Darwinism, says in his last great manifestation that it cannot be just nature in the degrees of development up to the most complicated human brain, but that one must ascend to a higher intelligence, which stands exalted above the most perfect living being. In 1866, Haeckel pointed out the biogenetic law, which states that every animal species undergoes the entire new development again during germ development. And just as the animal acquired the possessing properties through its perpetual development, so man also received the organs that now adorn him from what his ancestors acquired and what he acquired himself. This is the law of karma in the physical realm. Only in this way did the perfect living beings come into being, because they have an unconscious memory that connects them to their ancestors. And in the sense of Ostwald: Matter does not exist, as was also stated in 1895 at the Lübeck Natural Science Assembly. Matter is perpetual activity. From physics and chemistry we enter the spiritual world and the natural scientist is forced, in order to continue his research, to borrow from the spiritual realm. Goethe also characterizes this spiritual essence of our ego in his well-known saying: “When I have been restlessly active in all of life and developed to full activity, the power of nature cannot possibly dissolve me into the vile elements, but must seek a new place for further activity.” Bunge teaches that the basis of all theosophical knowledge is to be found in self-observation: If you want to know the activity, you must not only look at the outside world. That our living soul life cannot have developed from dead matter is also taught by [Darwin] and Preyer, who consider it impossible for something alive to develop from the dead. - And to recognize the divine unity, to thankfully profess that “God cannot do the slightest thing without me” is to reach the first stage in the belief that we individual human beings are members of the body of God.

After a short break in his remarks, the lecturer dealt with a few written questions, and also answered a personal question. His remarks were met with general applause.

II. Report in “Germany,” First Page, April 23, 1903

The third and final lecture by Dr. Steiner, Berlin, held on Monday evening at 8 p.m., was about theosophy and the scientific spirit of the present day. The speaker began with a brief reference to the two lectures he had given previously and explained that the main tenet of the theosophical doctrine is, above all, self-knowledge. Today, he said, we would explore the extent to which the spirit of contemporary science was suited to absorbing the teachings of Theosophy. He said that once the leading minds of science in our time had embraced the Theosophical knowledge, we could be sure that Theosophy had a future and would indeed conquer the world. We are dealing here with a Janus face, on the one hand a yearning of the minds for a magnificent new world view, on the other hand a discouragement and despondency to penetrate the deep wisdom of karma. It is the spirit of the present that must first be penetrated in order to characterize the position of modern science in relation to the theosophical teaching. A large part of modern science is virtually pushing towards the theosophical science. The speaker pointed out the significant lecture by the Leipzig chemist Ostwald, which was held at the naturalists' congress in Lübeck. Dr. Steiner explained that this lecture would have been impossible about 10 years ago, because Ostwald took the view that there is no matter at all, only activities. Using drastic examples, Ostwald explained how he justified this point of view. For example, Ostwald said: “When we are struck with a stick, it is not matter that strikes us, but the activity that moves the stick and inflicts the blow.” Here, the law of karma is emphasized again, and the human spirit is also formed by this activity in the course of a long period of development. Exactly the same developments that the physical body of man has undergone over a long period of time, exactly the same further developments the human spirit undergoes. It is a perfect process that takes place from personality to personality. It must be emphasized again and again that the spiritual development corresponds exactly to the physical development. Ernst Haeckel was the first to present this science in a rather radical way in the 1860s. It is clear that Theosophy also has to develop to a higher level, and if all signs are not deceptive, this circumstance will soon occur. It is well known that natural science is in a state of continuous change, and already today a great deal of theosophical thinking can be found among natural scientists. Ernst Haeckel, in particular, is one of the leading minds who are pushing hard towards the theosophical movement, even if he himself might not want to admit it. Other leading minds also admit the circumstance that runs like a red thread through all living beings, and which we call the causal body. Another researcher says, “All my organs I have acquired in the course of long development, always from my ancestors. Today my physical organs remember everything that has been acquired over time.” This, Dr. Steiner continued, is not said by a theosophist, but by a radical naturalist. Just as natural scientists are always surprising humanity with new scientific problems for which there is just as little clear evidence, so it cannot be prevented that the spiritual world of humanity is penetrated from another side. Just as Ostwald established the principle “not matter but activity”, it can be claimed that only materialism can assume that spirit lies buried in matter. This is the level from which Goethe also arrived at his spiritual world view. Goethe expressed his view of the destiny of the human spirit in the following sentence: “If I have been restlessly active throughout my life, nature has the obligation not to dissolve me into the base elements, but to assign me a new arena for my activity!” The researcher Bunge also cites a number of examples to show that only activity has caused the further development of the human soul. However, for all those who want to understand human life, deep self-observation is essential. From this arises the realization that everything that happens around us in the universe is activity (karma) and not matter. Of course, the actual activity cannot be seen either, but only the result of it. Thus one arrives at the main tenet of Theosophy, which can be summarized in a single word: self-observation. We have explored the fact that we have a causal body that continues to propagate itself. But we are not a single special being in the universe, but a link in the whole cosmos. The three parts of the human individuality are called Manas, Budhi and Atma in the wisdom of the East, and in these three words they summarize the levels of intellect. If a modern scholar such as Professor Baumann of Göttingen, Germany, speaks of what Theosophy calls reincarnation, then it can be seen that modern science is leading everywhere to the main tenets of Theosophy. However, in order for this high science to become clear to every thinking person, a continued self-knowledge must work in man, the spirit must itself feel and notice that individuality is properly evaluated in the theosophical teaching. When this principle of self-knowledge is established, a saying of Goethe comes to our aid: “If the eye were not sun-like, the sun could not behold it; if there were not in us the power of God, how could we be delighted by the divine?” It is the task of the Theosophical Society to instill this very truth into Western culture. In the future, the same will also be actively developed in Germany, and specifically here in Weimar, a “Theosophical Society” has been founded in which everyone who has absorbed even a spark of theosophical wisdom can continue to work on their further development in a spiritual sense. Finally, Dr. Steiner pointed out that he would be happy to answer any questions that may be put to him, and that some questions had already been received. One question, which had appeared in the Weimarer Zeitung, was as follows: “Can't the spirit of Goethe, just for a change, enter a female individual?” Dr. Steiner, who described this question as very facetious and naive, explained that this could very well be the case, but of course one could not say in which time period Goethe's spirit took possession of another body. Nevertheless, this time could be about 38 generations in the past. Another question dealt with whether a soul community could not also exist between a highly developed animal, such as a dog, and a human being; a noble dog has intellect, loyalty, a sense of shame, even imagination, all of which are qualities that cannot be observed in “lower human races”, as Dr. Steiner himself noted in the previous lectures. In response to this, Dr. Steiner explained that there is a great difference between the abilities of the dog's soul and the human soul. In the animal, there is no biography of the individual, but only a concept of the race. Above all, however, animals lack the ability to count, which every human being possesses. This is probably the most significant difference between human and animal souls. Another question, whether Theosophy was a science or a religion, was answered by the lecturer to the effect that in Theosophy, science, religion, philosophy and ethics were combined into a whole. An objection to this answer, that religion and science should not be mixed up, otherwise one would lose one's footing, was rejected by Dr. Steiner when he explained that the theosophist must indeed disregard this outdated view, as had already been explained in the previous lectures. With enthusiasm and gripping rhetoric, the speaker once again advocated his Theosophical teachings, pointing out that the first point of the Theosophical principles is to form a brotherly spiritual community that extends to all of humanity, regardless of race, religion, class, nationality or gender. — The lecture was met with enthusiastic applause.