Original Impulses for the Science of the Spirit
GA 96
1 October 1906, Berlin
V. Spiritual Insight Offering Greatest Liberation I: Man's Share in the Higher Worlds
I am delighted to see you again after such a long time—the branch members and those of you who have joined the meetings in the course of the year. Let us hope that the winter which lies ahead will take our work and our spiritual movement some way forward again, and that we'll gain a little more depth in finding our way to the world of the spirit and living in it.
We have not seen one another for a long time but in a way this period is like all those other times when we were not together in outer terms. For the members of this branch are deeply and most eminently concerned to see this spiritual movement spread in the world as well as letting it enter into their own hearts. All our seeking in theosophy would be just a refined form of egoism if we were not also interested in having other people in this world hear of the movement and take an interest in it, just as we ourselves love being part of it.
The speaker has been able to talk to wider audiences and all kinds of different people in recent times, and it is good to know that people from all levels of society and of all classes have a longing for the world of the spirit, something which is also evident in the fact that the theosophical movement exists.
Perhaps we may just make a brief review of those wider audiences as we start our winter studies. The tour I was able to undertake to make the theosophical movement more widely known took me to Leipzig, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Alsace, Switzerland and Bavaria. I was able to speak in Leipzig, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Colmar, Strasbourg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg, Basel, Bern, St. Gallen, Regensburg, Nurnberg and Weimar. In some places I gave lecture courses. The course in Leipzig consisted of fourteen lectures, the one in Stuttgart took more than a fortnight,30‘Populärer Okkultismus’, Leipzig 28 June–11 July 1906 (notes from members of the audience in GA 94). At the Gates of Spiritual Science 14 lectures, Stuttgart 22 Aug.–4 Sept. 1906 (GA 95). Tr. E.H. Goddard, C. Davy. London: Rudolf Steiner Press 1976. during which time people interested in the theosophical movement had to meet daily. Such courses are probably the most effective way of helping the theosophical movement gain deeper entry into our time. It is not so easy to spread the theosophical movement with sufficient intensity if one can only give one or two lectures and arouse initial interest But when people are given an introduction to life in the spirit for a whole two weeks, they can begin to realize that a new world can open up for them.
There are, of course, infinitely many obstacles that prevent people from getting closer to the science of the spirit and from living with it One does have to go more deeply into the approach we have come to call theosophy, for only then will hearts and minds begin to get an idea, a feeling, that this higher world is something very real. Initially everything they hear is taken to be not only incomprehensible but also pure fantasy. People do not find it easy to let go of the accepted view that the things we speak of in theosophy are mere dreams and fantasies and to realize now that our spiritual movement is concerned with something that in a most profound sense is the very basis of the real world. Many think that people who talk of these things are remote from the realities of life. However one gradually comes to see the point of view that can be gained, and realize that this is something down-to-earth, not living in cloud-cuckoo-land, but is at deeper levels, giving us strength, insight and truth. It enables us to find genuine ways of achieving the great tasks humanity has been given in this world. It is prejudice to say that theosophy is inimical to life, that it denies life. One hears people say: ‘Theosophy presents the world in a very nice light, offering great ideals, but it deflects people from life itself, from the true enjoyment of and pleasure in life.’ It has even been said that theosophists may have nice things to tell, but that these are not wholesome.
This kind of prejudice will probably take longest to disappear. It will always be possible to find people who understand the things presented in theosophical literature and lectures. It will be harder for them to find their way out of the kind of inner responses and feelings that are part of their upbringing and acquired prejudices. Inner responses and feelings are harder to overcome than are thoughts that need to be discarded. You may even hear someone say: ‘Yes, of course, we want to devote ourselves to theosophy, but we also don't want to spoil things for people who want to make the most of life.’ They'll say that we must remember that young people should enjoy life. It is a question, of course, of what we take pleasure in, and the issue must really go deeper. For it is possible to look for better and more noble objects of pleasure and to work with these to take life to a nobler level. We can give life a new content and there is no need to spoil young people's pleasure in life, for we shall give them new kinds of pleasure and enjoyment. People often find it hard to understand that one may find the things others consider entertaining rather uninteresting—going to the cinema, and spending one's time talking about things that have nothing to do with the reality of life. Perhaps a day will come when we speak of today's popular amusements as of a cloud-cuckoo-land.
It probably does not happen very often that someone envies someone else the inability to enjoy things, but it does happen. We have a small theosophical group in one particular city. One of our theosophists, who takes a tremendous interest in the science of the spirit and has also adopted a certain theosophical life style, is living with someone else who is also interested in the science of the spirit but cannot yet give up his predilection for roast suckling pig, that is, he really loves to eat roast suckling pig. Sitting there eating his suckling pig he then gets pangs of conscience because he is still much given to this enjoyment. And he thinks the other individual is lucky because he no longer has a taste for suckling pig. The point is that the other individual has developed different needs. And the day may well come when people who are no longer looking for common amusements will be considered true examples, and people will look to them for the good.
Much deeper down lie the prejudices that come from learning and intelligence and prove an obstacle to humanity's progress. You can find an article in a journal about national epidemics. A well-known academic31Möbius, Paul Julius (1853–1907), neurologist and lecturer in Leipzig. Über den Begriff der Hysterie und andere Vorwürfe vorwiegend psychologischer Art, Neurologische Beiträge 1. Heft, Leipzig 1894. See also Nachrichten der Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung Nr 22 (Michaeli 1968) S. 30f. who works in the field of psychiatry and deals with issues that lie between psychology and psychiatry, writes about mass epidemics. He refers to a phenomenon that existed for 200 years, to the end of the Middle Ages, with excessive asceticism widely practised as a ritual, with people throwing themselves to the ground, scourging and torturing themselves, their fantasies going to extremes and leading to strange excesses. This may be seen as a disease. The psychiatrist calls it hysteria of epidemic proportions. He goes on to say that hysterics of that type are often open to suggestions that cannot be evaluated by thinking. When a person sees someone else who has hurt his arm, he'll feel compassion and do what he can to help. We need not go into the things that go on in normal people's minds. But there are others who feel the pain in their own arm, abnormally so, when someone gets hurt. This is due to suggestion. It can reach such levels that the individual is completely out of control, his inner life lacking all order and given up to all impressions coming from outside.
When a materialistic soul expert speaks of such a phenomenon affecting whole populations, he is referring to public suggestion coming from particular groups—in medieval times from the monasteries—and becoming widespread. A kind of ‘disease of the age’ develops. People are not inclined to ask what they should think about such a thing when it comes up. They are wholly caught up in the suggestion. Such an expert will speak of the matter in all seriousness, but he fails to notice one thing, which is that an independent person who is capable of insight into himself will be able to recognize and clearly distinguish another kind of epidemic among the masses. This has reached many social groups today, even highly educated people. It consists in people living under the influence of specific suggestions, both positive and negative. If you speak of the truths to be found in the science of the spirit to such people, the truths will act as a negative suggestion on them. Such people cannot understand them; they will find them intolerable. Many materialistic prejudices that are widespread today act as positive suggestions. What do you find in medical, theological and law faculties? Suggestion that influences specific social groups and goes so far that one is perfectly justified in calling them a kind of disease, just like the kind of mass epidemic of which I spoke.
A well-known biologist has written something rather strange in a widely-read journal.32Has not so far been identified. It is strange—perhaps not so much for someone who only reads a bit here and a bit there, but for someone who studies the whole it is something he finds in 95% of the whole academic world. He will find that in future it will be possible to speak of a kind of academic madness, academic feeble-mindedness just as we now speak of hysteria. In the essay it says: ‘If a rolling billiard ball strikes another and makes it move, I cannot imagine that nothing passes from the one to the other.’ The scientist calls the peculiar spectre which emerges from the first billiard ball, creeping into the second one and setting it in motion under the influence of the first ball, the materia movens. He thinks he is enormously clever but is in fact only under the influence of materialistic suggestion, which affects him just as mass hysteria influenced people in the 16th century. Now just think how the suggestions to which a person is subject are apt to live around him. Their number is infinite. If they occur in large numbers—and it is possible to list a great many of them—they may be brought together in a picture that would be a disease picture of modern academic knowledge like that of dementia precox, which we keep hearing so much about.33Dementia precox is an earlier term for schizophrenia.
There you see the unfreedom of those who are governed by suggestion. A little bit has changed since the Middle Ages. Only a theosophist is able to realize this. In medieval times people would speak of possession when something spoke out of a human being which was not that person himself. Today people laugh at the idea of possession and speak of an illness instead. This kind of possession, which existed in medieval times, has grown a little less today. It only shows itself in particular circles today. Another kind of possession, real and genuine possession, is however widespread today. The medieval kind of possession was astral by nature, today it is mental. The spirits to be found in academics today, spirits that possess them, are on the mental, the devachanic plane. In the world which is considered to be the only real world they come to expression as thoughts and are therefore also said to exist as thoughts. Just as the world of human feelings, inner responses, passions, drives and desires is not merely something arising from existence in a body, but is something independent, true and real in its own right, so the world of thoughts, too, is a distinct entity. It is just that the thoughts which human beings have are not real. These human thoughts are but shadow images of the real thoughts, just as human passions and feelings are only shadow images of something completely different. We have often spoken about the way these things are connected. We know that things we are able to observe in human beings through the physical senses are indeed the physical body, which is only part of the whole human being. We know that muscles and nerves, bones and blood are only part of the whole human being. These things, which we call the parts, the elements, of the human body, are part of the physical world. In the same way, however, human feelings and thoughts belong to another world, the astral world.
This is where modern logic takes the strangest leaps. People do not realize at all today that their own thinking, their own logic, should really tell them how impossible the conclusions are which they are drawing all the time, and that they are including things in their trains of thought that are obvious suggestions. It is terribly easy and it only needs some very commonplace ideas for an audience to accept what one is saying if for five minutes one presents them with an inevitable sequence of conclusions. They fail to realize that the debris of old life and of old ways of seeing things covers it all. That is the way it is with 'inevitable conclusions'.
Someone who was born blind and might be among us would be quite right in thinking we were indulging in fantasies when speaking of light and colour. This has never been a truth to him. He'll object that things can only be known by touch. He need not believe what we tell him, but he would nevertheless be wrong. What matters here is not that he is wrong but that he does not have the organ to perceive light and colour. The moment he is given that organ a new world will exist around him. True theosophy will never assume another world; it will merely approach it in a different way. The higher worlds of the theosophists are here around us, just as the world of colours is around the blind person. Someone born blind whose condition is operable may regain the use of his physical eye. We are saying no more than this in theosophy when we say that it is possible to develop the inner eyes. Just as it has been possible to achieve the physical eye, made with such art, so it is also possible to create organs out of the passions, instincts and feelings that live in us, organs of perception that will truly open up new worlds around the human being. It is thus possible to help human beings to achieve and develop this, so that they will be able to look into these other worlds just as they otherwise do into the physical world. This is the astral world of which we speak in theosophy. Within the outside world it is as real as is the world of colour within the world given by the sense of touch.
Someone who knows nothing of these worlds should not raise objections to them. It should be a general principle for everyone that we may only speak of things that we know something about and should never make statements about things about which we know nothing. All opinions about the science of the spirit based on the idea that those worlds must remain unknown to us are therefore a logical monstrosity that does no good at all. No one should ever say: ‘Any world I do not know about does not exist for me.’
So much to characterize the prejudices we meet. These are the suggestions made in today's academic world. And many, many people are subject to these suggestions. A lecture based on the science of the spirit is heard once, after which people continue to hear hundreds and thousands of things said to be highly significant, but they always involve elements that come not from materialistic science but from the materialistic interpretation of science.
It is hard to combat these suggestions with good sense, and this is something only someone able to see more deeply into the intellectual life of today is able to know. Popular science, busy as it is, has an extremely harmful effect because it is presented with an air of authoritative infallibility which can only be shown in its true light at some future date. People today have no idea how much they are subject to suggestion presented with an authoritative air. Take what I am saying merely as a characterization and consider how odd it is that nations struggle to rid themselves of one authority yet at the same time fall prey to new ones.
In the past, people would fall for suggestion, with their I given up to something that was active in them, but someone able to look into the higher worlds would see real entities. Human thoughts relate to certain spirits in the ‘devachanic’ world the way shadows do to the actual objects. The thought images you have are shadows cast by spirits in the devachanic or mental world. The thought that lives in you is but such a shadow image, all by itself. Someone with vision, someone who has developed his higher sense organs, will see it in connection with a spirit. If you see a shadow cast on a wall you can only understand it if you relate it to the object which cast it. It is the same with your thoughts. Without anything to relate them to, your thoughts are shadows. They relate to spirits that are as real in a higher world as this hand of mine is here. Just as my hand casts a shadow on the wall, so do the higher spirits cast their shadows in this our world. And these shadows are your thoughts.
The human being, as we see him before us, is really the scene of events that take place beyond the physical world. As a physical entity, man is in the first place complete in himself, and as such he lives in a physical world that is complete in itself. To understand the human being as a physical entity we have to remain in the physical world. To investigate and understand blood as a physical substance, for instance, you have to remain in the physical world. To understand the nature of feelings, inner responses and passions, you will either have to use empty phrases or relate these things to spirits that are behind the physical world, to a world that relates to this one as the world of colour does to the world of touch. Also you have to use a similar approach to understanding the world of thought.
So you see that man has a share in the higher worlds, that the astral body extends into those worlds, and that the devachanic world for its part casts a kind of shadow into this world. Someone who knows nothing of those higher worlds is subject to them like a slave, powerless against powers that control the chains. Just as the physical person can only be free if able to develop the will to face another person in freedom, so can the astral nature of man only be free if it recognizes its connection with the whole astral world. For as long as people live only in their ordinary inner feelings, their astral nature has them on leading strings, as it were. They are always possessed by it. They come free when they recognize it. Just as we perceive and know the physical world around us, so we must face those spirits, spiritual eye to spiritual eye, and know who we are dealing with. It is the same for the world of human thoughts. This is the way to real freedom, seeing through the world around us. To gain the right measure of understanding we have to consider what lies behind the physical aspect. A beginning has to be made and you need to study these things; the world must study these things.
There is some justification for the following objection, which is also raised by many people: What good it is to us to hear someone tell us of worlds which we ourselves are unable to see? You see, it is the first step towards being able to see into those worlds oneself. Why is it the first step? Because the physical world appears in a somewhat different light to someone who has gained insight than it does to materialistic minds. A comparison may show the different standpoint a theosophist should gain in relation to the physical world. We may take our example from ordinary writing. Someone unable to read may look at it and so may someone who is able to read. They both see the same thing; there is no difference in what they actually see. The person who is unable to read will say: I see lines going down and up, longer and shorter lines. He'll be able to describe them. Someone who is able to read however will find that the lines have meaning. He'll not describe the shape of the letters but find meaning in them.
That is how it is with the whole world when it is seen from the spiritual scientific point of view. Compared to this, take our modern conventional science. Here the world is described in the way someone who has not learned to read describes the letters. For the other person all things in the world become letters; they gain significance and he learns to read them. When someone unable to read describes the shapes of the letters, this cannot be said to be wrong. Many people say our ideas are divorced from reality when we say that the word or the world also holds a specific meaning. You cannot say anything against this objection; it is the everyday view of things. But there is another way of looking at things where every flower becomes a letter, every plant species a word, and the world a great book.
The world holds something within it that goes beyond its physical aspects. The signs for this have no lips, however, and therefore meaning has to be given to them. A completely new world opens up in the devachan for someone able to read the writing of the plants. You can also think of every animal in the world as a letter, and you will gradually be able to decipher these letters. If you understand what comes to expression in animal lives you will relate to them as someone able to read and not as someone who merely describes the letters, which is the way of modern conventional science. Learning to recognize the word that lies in the animal you are able to see another, completely different world behind the physical world—the astral world. Learning to see the plant world as letters you gain the ability to see into the mental world. This is not something divorced from reality. Quite the contrary, it is something firmly based on reality that teaches us to see the abundant meaning of life.
It truly is the case that we only perceive the true significance of spiritual insight into the world if we compare it with reading. What would be the point if I were to draw something on the board here and describe it if there was no meaning to it? It gains meaning in that we perceive its significance. And that is how it is with the world. We gradually come to realize why the world exists, what it can mean to human beings and what human beings themselves are within the world.
Telling you all this, I did not mean to present something new. Those of you who have heard about theosophy on several occasions will know it all. I have been telling it to you to give you a means of rebutting the statement that theosophy is unscientific, to arm you against objections reputed to be logical. Only someone using a shortsighted logic has objections to raise against the science of the spirit. A logic that explores every nook and cranny will show that no objection can be raised but that it is absolutely sensible. It has to be understood therefore that people who base themselves on a scientific point of view in their attacks on theosophy are doing so not for logical reasons but on the basis of suggestion. When you are free of such suggestion and know that thoughts are but the shadows cast by devachanic spirits, and if you then hear a professor who is under the influence of the mental world say that a billiard ball is moved by materia movens, which transfers to a second billiard ball—you can see behind the scenes and see that he is influenced by other spirits.
The earth is atremble, in a way. It presents us with major tasks. Questions arise from the serious challenges of our time. It will not be possible to solve the social question, which has already caused so much bloodshed, with the suggestions people are making at present. The political parties seeking to solve the social question are also under the influence of such suggestions. Someone able to see behind the physical aspects sees the demon who stands behind many a party supporter. It can never be otherwise than it was in the case of Robert Owen,34Owen, Robert (1771–1858), Welsh social and educational reformer. The community he established at New Lanark in Scotland did not prove viable (it has now been restored by the New Lanark Conservation Trust). In 1833 Owen organized the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union. See also Anthroposophy and the Social Question, essay first published in Lucifer-Gnosis 1906-1908 (in GA 34). Tr. H. Collison. 2nd edition Spring Valley: Mercury Press 1982. Also in Reincarnation and Immortality, Tr. M. & E. Tapp. New York: Multimedia Publishing Corp. 1974. a noble and caring person with good knowledge of social conditions in England. He wanted to create an example of an economy where he asked good and bad workers to join him in establishing a social community. He based himself on the understandable prejudice that people are essentially good and one only needed to put them in a situation where they had a chance to earn a proper living. In such a situation, he believed, they would be able to have the kind of life they desired. But this philanthropist finally had to admit that it was not possible to start with practical measures in one’s efforts for social progress but that one had to teach people first, addressing their understanding.
Someone able to see into the world of the spirit perceives what lies behind the physical plane. He will see how people live together, some in the greatest misery, poor and oppressed by labour and need, and others indulging in superabundance, enjoying all kinds of things. If one does not go beyond the physical plane it will be easy to imagine how the situation can be changed. This is what most people do when they feel they are called to be reformers today. They do not find themselves in the same situation as someone who was born blind and after a successful operation suddenly sees the world around him to be full of colour. For then they would see all kinds of different spirits behind everything physical. When they try to bring their well-meant plans for reform to realization but take no heed of the spirits behind it all, the situation will be much worse fifty years later than it has ever been. All the social ideals of today would go grotesquely against the astral world unless this astral world of human passions, desires and wishes were to change as well. General misery, a terrible ferment in the world, a dreadful struggle for existence would then take the place of today's struggle which is terrible enough as it is.
You need only look a little bit into the world of the spirit and you can see the situation. Human beings are not just bodies to be provided with food; human beings are also spirits, and they are in touch with other spirits. The task of those able to see the occult world is to make them aware of being comrades, members, of higher worlds. Imagine a human being, and a few beetles crawling around on this human being. The beetles can have no idea that this human being, this spiritual entity, is something different from themselves. They will describe the shape, e.g. of the nose. That is how human beings describe the heavens, Mars, the Sun, Mercury and the other stars. A modern astronomer is just like a beetle which has no idea that the nose belongs to a soul when he describes Mercury, Mars, the Sun. He describes them just the way he sees them, like a beetle crawling around in the cosmos. We shall only know how to describe the reality of things when we realize that the stars have souls, that spirit is present everywhere, that the whole universe is ensouled. That and nothing else is the aim with the science of the spirit. It is as logical as that. Prejudices, being sheer suggestion, make it difficult to make people aware of what this spiritual view of the world is really about.
The aim of this introductory lecture has been to show the resistance met by people who think in terms of the science of the spirit and who in the eyes of the world represent this science. Each of you may find yourself in a position where you have to show firmness in the face of views presented to you from the outside. It is part of the work in our groups to help members to stand firm. They should be sufficiently sure inwardly that in spite of everything they come up against in the world they have a living inner certainty of the world of the spirit and are thus armed against any objection that may be raised. It is not the amount of theosophical knowledge we have but our inner awareness, inner life and inner certainty that matter. Many people who represent other approaches want to enter into discussion with us, wanting to offer wisdom which theosophy already has. They keep saying things which a theosophist has long since left behind. He will characterize but not criticize. He will not make propaganda in the usual sense, for that cannot be our task. People must come of their own free will if they are to join our ranks. To make propaganda and agitate is not the theosophists' task. It therefore also is not for them to refute others. One seeks to characterize the standpoint of spiritual science itself. The other person has to enter into the spirit of it. Agitation—if a public lecture may be said to be such—consists in telling people: theosophy has this and that to offer. Anyone destined to come to it will come to it. A theosophist does not have to offer views and opinions. He speaks of realities in a higher world, and realities, facts, are beyond dispute. A theosophist presenting the spiritual scientific point of view will stop himself from presenting his own opinions. As theosophists we speak of ancient wisdom that has always been known to wise people. You'll never have two people having different opinions once they have entered the higher realm. At most it may be the case that one of them has not penetrated far enough. This is the kind of attitude a theosophist can develop. He should not impose himself on others, but he should be sure in his heart and sure of himself in presenting theosophy to the world. Someone who knows will also be able to find words for the knowledge he has in him.
This, then, is the way the theosophical approach, and other approaches which are in opposition to it, should be characterized and not criticized. If we develop this attitude more and more, we'll have the best possible means of being active theosophists in the world. We shall understand the world around us more and more and investigate it in the spirit. That is the theosophical way of doing things.
In conclusion one more example, one of those that will shock people when it is referred to in public. These things are simply true and can be found with the means of our spiritual research. I would like to describe a phenomenon of our time to you, and you'll see how we come to understand the world around us if we really penetrate the things which the science of the spirit has to offer. Please do not take my words amiss, for one will have to get used to the fact that there are things of which we do not yet have the least idea. Who would have thought fifty years ago that there is a substance where it just needs a tiny granule to damage our health? Fifty years ago no one knew anything about it. There are things that have an effect before people know about them and understand them. This substance is called radium. In this case, people did not yet have the physical instruments to understand it. When it comes to things of the spirit, people lack the spiritual instruments.
There are members of the socialist movement who are extraordinarily radical and would really like to hit out and destroy everything. Other members are to some extent conservative in their views. You find all kinds of different trends among them. One group within the socialist movement is a closed group with a remarkably homogeneous, like-minded view and the same way of doing things. They have been the least radical people. Basically this is the trade, the occupational group, which gave rise to the socialist union movement—the printers.35The German Printers Association was the first socialist union to be established in Germany in 1866. They were the first to develop a more formal set of rules within the social movement. Rates of pay were agreed on for the relationship between workers and employers. It has even gone so far that a newspaper is produced for the printing trade the editor of which is not a socialist at all, having been thrown out of the socialist party. This shows how moderate the group is.
Now it is possible to ask if we can investigate the spiritual causes of these things just as we can physically investigate the actions of radium. Yes, we can. Do not be too surprised at the answer given in the science of the spirit to the question as to why there is such a group within the socialist movement. It is due to the action of lead on the human soul. All things in the world around us, be they small or large, are the physical bodies of spiritual principles. Gold, silver, copper, everything that lives around us is body for a spiritual principle. Lead, too, is the visible body of a particular spirit. And anyone working with lead is dealing with the metal not just in its chemical sense but also in its spiritual nature. Lead not only affects the lungs; it also has quite a specific effect on the rest of the human being. So there you have the source of the unusual views held in this occupational group.
Now something else—something that happened to me just a few days ago. Someone I know well came to me who cannot explain why he is able to find analogies and see connections in his scientific work with a facility that is unusual even among academics. Such an ability is due to a highly mobile mental body. I thought I’d find out how this phenomenon comes about. After a time I was able to tell the man that he probably had a lot to do with copper. This proved to be true, for he plays the French horn. The small amount of copper in it had such an effect on him.
Now just think. Without knowing it, people are subject to all kinds of influences. I spoke of suggestion earlier. We now see the influence of the whole world of the spirit that is around the human being. And what is theosophy? It is a way of penetrating into the world of the spirit and its laws. And what does this mean? It means freedom, for only insight will give freedom. When we know something we can relate to it in the right way. Gaining insight in the spirit is therefore the greatest process of liberation we can ever possibly have. True development and progress lie in the things the science of the spirit can teach us. People will only come to the search for truth in the spirit when they want to be free. However, today they will not gain knowledge of the spirit, and we can see that it is impossible for them to do so, if they want to be free not only of social prejudices but also of everything else, including things they do not yet have the power of mind to understand. People who still depend on fashion and so on, will not be greatly inclined to consider the influence of the metals that exist around them. But a beginning must be made, a small beginning for something that is large, very large. What I wanted to do today was to take just a bit of a look at something in which the science of the spirit can hope to be a beginning.
Die Geistige Erkenntnis als Höchstes Befreiungswesen
Der Anteil des Menschen an den höheren Welten
Ich freue mich, Sie nach so langer Zeit wieder begrüßen zu können, sowohl die Mitglieder des Zweiges als auch die anderen, die sich im Laufe des verflossenen Jahres nach und nach hier zusammengefunden haben. Wir wollen hoffen, daß die diesjährige Winterzeit unsere Arbeit und unsere geistige Bewegung wiederum ein Stück vorwärtsbringen wird und daß wir imstande sein werden, unser Einleben in die geistige Welt wieder etwas zu vertiefen.
Lange haben wir uns nicht gesehen, aber auch diese Zeit gehört in gewisser Weise zugleich allen denen mit, mit denen wir nicht äußerlich zusammengewesen sind. Denn die Mitglieder des hiesigen Zweiges haben im eminentesten Sinne ein tiefes Interesse daran, daß diese geistige Bewegung nicht nur in die eigenen Herzen einziehe, sondern sich auch in der Welt verbreite. Was wäre alles theosophische Streben anderes als ein verfeinerter Egoismus, wenn wir es nicht ebenso gerne sehen würden, daß andere draußen in der Welt von dieser Bewegung hören und an ihr Anteil nehmen, als es uns lieb ist, selbst an ihr teilzunehmen.
Der Vortragende durfte in der letzten Zeit in einem größeren Umkreis und zu den verschiedensten Menschen sprechen, und es kann uns befriedigen, wenn Angehörige aller Gesellschaftskreise und Klassen die Sehnsucht nach dem geistigen Leben verspüren, wie sie im Bestehen der theosophischen Bewegung zum Ausdruck kommt.
Einen kurzen Rückblick können wir vielleicht am Ausgangspunkt unserer Winterbetrachtungen diesem Umkreise widmen. Die Reise, die mir gestattet war, zur Verbreitung der theosophischen Bewegung zu unternehmen, führte über Leipzig, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Elsaß, Schweiz, Bayern. Vorträge konnten von mir gehalten werden in Leipzig, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Kolmar, Straßburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg, Basel, Bern, St. Gallen, Regensburg, Nürnberg, Weimar. Unter diesen Vorträgen waren auch längere Zyklen. Der Leipziger Zyklus umfaßte vierzehn Vorträge. Der Stuttgarter Zyklus dauerte mehr als vierzehn Tage, wobei sich die dort anwesenden Interessenten für die theosophische Bewegung täglich zu versammeln hatten. Gerade solche Zyklen in den anderen Städten haben sich vielleicht als das Wirksamste erwiesen, um der theosophischen Geistesbewegung einen tieferen Eingang in unsere Zeit zu verschaffen. Wenn man in diese oder jene Stadt kommt und einen oder zwei Vorträge zur Anregung halten darf, ist es nicht so leicht, die theosophische Bewegung in genügend intensiver Weise auszubteiten. Wer aber vierzehn Tage hindurch in dieses Geistesleben eingeführt wird, bekommt eine Ahnung davon, daß ihm da eine neue Welt aufgeht. Wenn man einzelne Vorträge hält, dann sieht man deutlich, daß das Interesse an dem Geistesleben und eine tiefe Sehnsucht fortlebt und das Bedürfnis dafür vorhanden ist. Aber es sind unendlich viele Hindernisse, die dem Menschen entgegenstehen und ihn davon abhalten, der Geisteswissenschaft näherzutreten und mit ihr zu leben. In das, was wir Theosophie zu nennen gewohnt worden sind, muß man sich schon tiefer einlassen. Dann erst geht dem Herzen etwas auf, was eine Ahnung, ein Gefühl, eine Empfindung dafür erweckt, daß man es hier mit einer wirklichen, realen höheren Welt zu tun hat. Anfangs wird doch eigentlich alles das, was hier dem Menschen entgegentritt, nicht nur als etwas Unbegreifliches, sondern als etwas Phantastisches genommen, und die Leute ringen sich schwer durch von dem verbreiteten Standpunkt, das, was in der Theosophie vorgetragen wird, als Träumerisches und Phantastisches anzusehen, bis zu der Einsicht, daß man es in unserer geistigen Bewegung mit etwas zu tun hat, was im tiefsten Sinne der wahren Welt zugrunde liegt. Viele glauben, daß die Leute, die von solchen Dingen reden, dem praktischen Leben ferne stehen. Nach und nach lebt man sich aber in den Standpunkt ein, der zu gewinnen ist, und man lernt dann auch, daß man es mit der wahren Lebenspraxis zu tun hat, die nicht im Wolkenkuckucksheim, sondern in den tieferen Schichten lebt, und die Kraft, Erkenntnis und Wahrheit vermittelt. Wir werden dadurch befähigt, die großen Aufgaben, die dem Menschen in der Welt obliegen, wahrhaft zu lösen. Das sind Vorurteile, wenn die Theosophie als etwas genommen wird, was lebensfeindlich, lebensverneinend sein soll. Man kann hören: Die Theosophie ist ja etwas, was die Welt in einem recht schönen Licht darstellt, was hohe Ideale vermittelt, was aber doch vom Leben abführt, was dem wahren Lebensgenuß und der wahren Lebensfreude entfremdet. — Es wurde sogar schon behauptet: Schön ist es, was die Theosophen reden, aber es ist nicht bekömmlich.
Diese Art von Vorurteilen wird sich vielleicht am langsamsten abschleifen. Es wird leicht Menschen geben, die verstehen, was die theosophische Literatur und die theosophischen Vorträge an Lehren vermitteln. Schwerer windet man sich heraus aus anerzogenen Empfindungen und eingelebten Gefühlen, als aus angelernten Vorurteilen. Empfindungen und Gefühle sind viel schwieriger zu überwinden als Gedanken, die man abstreifen soll. Man kann sogar die Erfahrung machen, daß jemand sagt: Gewiß, wir wollen uns der Theosophie widmen, aber wir wollen auch denen, die etwas vom Leben haben wollen, das Leben nicht vergällen. Man müsse zum Beispiel bedenken, daß die Jugend sich auch am Leben freuen soll. Da kommt es freilich darauf an, an was man sich freut, es kommt darauf an, die Frage etwas tiefer zu stellen; daß es sich nämlich darum handeln könnte, schönere und edlere Gegenstände der Freude zu suchen und sie zu einem edleren Leben heranzubilden. Dann werden wir dem Leben einen neuen Inhalt geben und nicht nötig haben, der Jugend die Lebensfreude zu vergällen, wenn wir ihr eine neue Art von Freude, eine neue Art von Genuß verschaffen. Die Menschen können sich oft nicht vorstellen, daß jemand die Genüsse fade finden könnte, welche die Leute heute kurzweilig finden: in die Kinematographen zu gehen und mit Unterhaltungen, die nichts zu tun haben mit dem wahren Leben, die Zeit zu verbringen. Vielleicht könnte es noch Zeiten geben, in denen man von den trivialen Volksbelustigungen von heute wie von einem Wolkenkuckucksheim sprechen wird.
Es dürfte selten sein, daß jemand einen anderen wegen dessen Unfähigkeit, zu genießen, beneidet, aber auch das kommt vor. In einer Stadt haben wir einen kleinen theosophischen Kreis. Einer unserer Theosophen, der sich für die Geisteswissenschaft stark interessiert und sich auch auf eine gewisse theosophische Lebensweise eingelassen hat, lebt in einer ständigen Gemeinschaft mit einem anderen, der sich ebenfalls von der Geisteswissenschaft angesprochen fühlt, aber noch nicht von dem Genuß von Spanferkeln loskommen kann, der also die Spanferkel gar zu gern ißt. Wenn er dann vor einem Spanferkel sitzt, bekommt er Gewissensbisse darüber, daß er immer noch an diesem Genuß hängt. Dann meint er, der andere habe es gut, der habe keinen Geschmack mehr an Spanferkeln. Bei diesem anderen haben sich die Bedürfnisse eben gewandelt. So könnte es einmal soweit kommen, daß man die, welche nicht mehr das alltägliche Vergnügen suchen, als die eigentlichen Vorbilder betrachten wird und bei ihnen das Gute sucht.
Viel tiefer liegen die Vorurteile, die dem Menschheitsfortschritt von der Seite entgegenstehen, die auf Klugheit, Gescheitheit, Gelehrtheit fußt. Sie können in einer Zeitschrift einen Artikel finden, in welchem von Volksepidemien gesprochen wird. Ein bekannter Forscher, der sich mit Psychiatrie beschäftigt und mit Fragen, die zwischen Seelenkunde und Psychiatrie liegen, läßt sich über Volksepidemien aus und schildert eine Erscheinung, die zweihundert Jahre, bis gegen Ende des Mittelalters dauerte, wo tatsächlich in weiten Kreisen wie ein Kultus übertriebene Askese getrieben wurde, wo die Leute sich zu Boden warfen, sich geißelten, sich quälten, wo sich ihre übertriebene Phantasie in merkwürdigen Exzessen erging. Man kann das als Krankheit ansehen. Der Psychiater bezeichnet es als Hysterie, die epidemisch aufgetreten ist. Er sagt dann, solche Hysteriker sind oft zugänglich für Suggestionen, die nicht mehr durch unser Denken kontrolliert werden können. Wenn ein Mensch einen anderen sieht, der sich den Arm verletzt hat, wird er Mitleid haben und helfend zugreifen. Was im normalen Menschen vorgeht, braucht man nicht besonders zu schildern. Aber es gibt auch Personen, die selbst den Schmerz im Arme fühlen, abnorm fühlen, wenn der andere sich verletzt. Das ist eine suggestive Wirkung, die sich sehr summieren kann, die den Menschen ganz und gar zu einer Kontrollosigkeit bringen kann, so daß er ein ungeordnetes Seelenleben führt, das allen Eindrücken von außen her hingegeben ist. Wenn ein materialistischer Seelenkundiger nun von einer solchen Erscheinung spricht, die ganze Volkskreise erfaßt, dann zeigt er die öffentliche Suggestion auf, die von einzelnen Kreisen — damals von den Klöstern — ausgeht und sich weit verbreitet. Es entsteht eine Art von Zeitkrankheit. Die Leute sind nicht geneigt zu fragen, wenn ihnen etwas derartiges entgegentritt: Wie habe ich das aufzunehmen? — Sie stehen ganz unter dem Eindruck der Suggestion. Ein solcher Seelenkundiger redet ganz ernsthaft darüber, aber eines merkt er nicht: daß ein freier Mensch, der sich in sein Selbst vertiefen kann, eine andere Art von epidemischer Volkskrankheit einsieht und scharf abgrenzen kann. Sie hat heute zahlreiche, auch gebildete und gelehrte Kreise ergriffen und äußert sich darin, daß unter gewissen positiven und negativen Suggestionen gelebt wird. Kommen Sie einem solchen Menschen mit geisteswissenschaftlichen Wahrheiten, dann wirken diese wie eine negative Suggestion auf ihn. Er kann sie nicht verstehen, sie sind etwas, was er nicht vertragen kann. Als positive Suggestion wirken zahlreiche materialistische Vorurteile, die heute verbreitet sind. Was Sie in der medizinischen, theologischen und juristischen Fakultät finden, was ist es? Suggestionen, die auf bestimmte Kreise wirken, die sich bis zu dem Punkte steigern, daß man sie mit demselben Recht, wie jene Volkskrankheit, als eine Art von Krankheit bezeichnen kann.
Ein bedeutender Biologe hat in einer sehr verbreiteten Zeitschrift etwas ganz Merkwürdiges geschrieben. Es ist merkwürdig - vielleicht nicht so sehr für den, der nur einzelnes liest. Für den aber, der das Ganze verfolgt, ist es etwas, was ihm bei fünfundneunzig Prozent der gesamten gelehrten Welt entgegentritt, und er findet, daß in Zukunft ebenso von einer Art Gelehrten-Irreseins, Gelehrten-Schwachsinns gesprochen werden kann wie über die Hysterie. Da wird in jenem Aufsatz gesagt: Wenn eine Billardkugel rollt, auf eine andere stößt und diese weiterstößt, so kann ich mir nicht vorstellen, daß da gar nichts von der ersten in die zweite übergeht. Dieser Gelehrte nennt das eigentümliche Gespenst, das von der ersten Billardkugel heraussteigt, um in die zweite hineinzukriechen und die zweite unter dem Einfluß der ersten in Bewegung zu setzen, die «Materia movens». Der Betreffende glaubt ungeheuer klug zu sein, steht aber nur unter der materialistischen Suggestion, die auf ihn genau so wirkt, wie die Volkshysterie im 16. Jahrhundert auf die große Masse gewirkt hat. Bedenken Sie nun, wie um den Menschen herum solche Suggestionen leben können, denen er unterworfen ist. Unendlich ist die Zahl solcher Suggestionen. Wenn sie in großer Anzahl auftreten — und man kann eine große Anzahl aufführen -, dann lassen sie sich zu einem Bilde zusammenfügen, das genau so ein Krankheitsbild der heutigen Gelehrsamkeit darstellen würde, wie man in ausgedehntem Maße von Dementia praecox spricht.
Da haben Sie das Maß von Unfreiheit, in dem derjenige lebt, der unter dem Eindruck der Suggestion steht. Ein klein wenig hat sich gegenüber dem Mittelalter geändert. Inwiefern, kann nur der Theosoph verstehen. Im Mittelalter redete man, wenn etwas anderes aus dem Menschen sprach als das, was er selbst war, von Besessenheit. Heute lacht man über die Besessenheit und betrachtet sie als eine Art Erkrankung. Diese Form der Besessenheit, wie sie im Mittelalter auftrat, ist in der letzten Zeit etwas zurückgetreten. Sie tritt nur noch in einzelnen Kreisen auf. Dafür aber ist eine andere Form von Besessenheit, von wirklicher, echter Besessenheit, viel verbreitet. Die mittelalterliche Besessenheit ist eine astrale Besessenheit, die heutige ist eine mentale Besessenheit. Im Mittelalter waren die Menschen besessen von Wesenheiten, die sich, wenn man sie in der Geistesforschung untersucht, auf dem astralen Plan befanden. Die Wesenheiten aber, welche heute in den Gelehrten stecken und von denen sie besessen sind, sind auf dem mentalen Plane, auf dem Devachanplan. Sie äußern sich in der Welt, die man als die allein wirkliche betrachtet, nur als Gedanken, und man spricht ihnen daher auch nur ein Gedankendasein zu. Genau ebenso wie die Welt der Gefühle, der Empfindungen, Leidenschaften, Triebe und Begierden des Menschen nicht bloßer Ausfluß eines körperlichen Daseins ist, sondern etwas Selbständiges, Wahres, Wirkliches für sich, so ist auch die Gedankenwelt eine Wirklichkeit für sich. Nur so, wie der Mensch seine Gedanken hat, sind sie keine Wirklichkeit. Diese menschlichen Gedanken sind nur die Schattenbilder der wirklichen Gedanken, wie die menschlichen Leidenschaften und Gefühle nur die Schattenbilder von etwas ganz anderem sind. Oft haben wir es hier besprochen, wie die Dinge zusammenhängen. Wir wissen, daß das, was wir an dem Menschen mit den physischen Sinnen beobachten können, eben der physische Leib, nur ein Glied der menschlichen Wesenheit ist. Wir wissen, daß Muskeln und Nerven, Knochen und Blut nur ein Teil dieser menschlichen Wesenheit sind. Was wir so die Bestandteile, die Elemente des physischen Leibes nennen, gehört der physischen Welt an. Ebenso gehören aber einer anderen Welt, nämlich der astralen Welt, die menschlichen Gefühle und Gedanken an.
Hier macht nun die zeitgenössische Logik mit ihren Vorurteilen ganz merkwürdige Sprünge. Die Zeitgenossen kommen gar nicht darauf, daß ihr eigenes Denken, ihre eigene Logik ihnen eigentlich sagen müßten, wie unmöglich die Konsequenzen sind, die sie fortwährend ziehen, und daß sie öffentliche Suggestionen in ihre Gedankengänge hineinbringen. Es ist ungeheuer leicht und es genügen ganz triviale Gedanken, so daß eine Zuhörerschaft einem fünf Minuten lang recht geben muß, indem man ihr einen «zwingenden Gedankengang» vorlegt. Daß aber ein Schutt von altem Leben und alten Empfindungen sich darüber lagert, wird nicht gemerkt. So ist es beim «zwingenden Gedankengang».
Ein Blindgeborener, der unter uns ist, hätte von seinem Standpunkt aus recht, uns als Phantasten anzusehen, wenn wir ihm von Licht und Farbe reden. Das ist nie eine Wahrheit für ihn gewesen. Er wird einwenden: Die Dinge lassen sich nur tasten. Er braucht nicht zu glauben, was wir ihm sagen. Dennoch hat er Unrecht. Aber nicht darum handelt es sich, daß er unrecht hat, sondern daß ihm das Organ für die Wahrnehmung von Licht und Farbe fehlt. In dem Augenblick, wo er das Organ bekommt, ist eine neue Welt um ihn herum da. Niemals wird eine wahre Theosophie eine andere Welt annehmen, sie wird sie nur in einer anderen Weise auffassen. Was die Theosophen höhere Welten nennen, ist hier um uns, genauso wie die Welt der Farben für den Blinden. Der Blindgeborene, der operierbar ist, kann den Gebrauch der physischen Augen erhalten. Nichts anderes behauptet die Theosophie, wenn sie sagt, daß es möglich ist, die inneren Augen auszubilden. So wie das kunstvolle Auge gewoben werden konnte, so ist es auch möglich, aus dem, was in den Menschen an Leidenschaften, Instinkten und Gefühlen lebt, Organe zu weben, Wahrnehmungsorgane, durch die neue Welten um den Menschen wirklich aufgehen. So ist es möglich, den Menschen dazu zu erziehen und zu entwickeln, daß er selbst in diese anderen Welten hineinzuschauen vermag, wie sonst in die physische Welt. In diesem Sinne redet die Theosophie von einer astralen Welt, die innerhalb der äußeren Welt so wirklich ist wie die Farbenwelt innerhalb der Welt des Tastsinnes.
Gegen solche Welten sollte niemand etwas einwenden, der nichts von ihnen weiß. Grundsätzlich müßte es für jeden Menschen feststehen, daß er nur über das etwas behaupten darf, worüber er etwas weiß, und daß er niemals über das etwas sagen sollte, worüber er nichts weiß. Daher sind alle Urteile, welche der Geisteswissenschaft entgegengebracht werden, die von der Voraussetzung ausgehen: Das sind Welten, von denen man nichts wissen kann -, ein heilloses logisches Unding. Es darf nie das Urteil gefällt werden: Es gibt eine Welt für mich nicht, weil ich nichts von ihr weiß! — Das zur Charakteristik dessen, was uns an Vorurteilen entgegengebracht wird. Das sind die wissenschaftlichen Suggestionen der Gegenwart. Und wie viele Leute stehen unter diesen wissenschaftlichen Suggestionen! Wie schwer hat man es heute, gegen diese Suggestionen anzukämpfen! Ein geisteswissenschaftlicher Vortrag wird einmal gehört und dann werden den Leuten wieder Hunderte und Tausende von Dingen vor das Auge gebracht, die ihnen als höchst bedeutsame Tatsachen hingestellt werden, aber immer verwoben mit dem, was nicht der materialistischen Wissenschaft, sondern der materialistischen Deutung der Wissenschaft entspringt.
Wie schwer es ist, mit der Vernunft gegen diese Suggestionen zu kämpfen, kann nur der wissen, der tiefer in das Geistesleben hineinschaut. So ist gerade das populäre wissenschaftliche Treiben etwas, was sich äußerst abträglich auswirkt, weil es mit einer autoritativen Unfehlbarkeit auftritt, die erst künftige Zeiten in dem richtigen Lichte werden beurteilen können. Der heutige Mensch hat noch keine Ahnung davon, in welchem Grade er den Suggestionen unterliegt, die von den Autoritäten ausgehen. Betrachten Sie das, was ich sage, nur als Charakteristik, und bedenken Sie, wie paradox es doch ist, wenn Völker kämpfen, um eine Autorität abzuschütteln, während sie neuen zum Opfer fallen. Wenn der Mensch früher seinen Suggestionen unterlag, wenn sein Ich an dasjenige hingegeben war, was in ihm wirkte, so waren das wahre Wesen, welche der sieht, der in die höheren Welten hineinschauen kann. Die Gedanken der Menschen verhalten sich zu gewissen Wesenheiten einer sogenannten devachanischen Welt wie der Schatten zu einem wirklichen Gegenstand. Die Gedankenbilder, die Sie haben, sind die Schattenbilder, die aus der devachanischen oder mentalen Welt geworfen werden. Der Gedanke, der in Ihnen lebt, ist nichts als ein solches Schattenbild — abgeschlossen in sich. Den sieht der Seher, der seine höheren Sinnesorgane ausgebildet hat, im Zusammenhang mit einer Wesenheit. Sehen Sie an der Wand das Schattenbild, so werden Sie es nur verstehen können, wenn Sie es auf seinen Gegenstand beziehen. So ist es auch mit Ihren Gedanken. Ohne etwas anderes, auf das sie zurückweisen, sind Ihre Gedanken Schatten. Sie beziehen sich auf Wesenheiten, die in einer höheren Welt ebenso wirklich sind wie diese Hand hier. Wie diese Hand hier einen Schatten an die Wand wirft, so werfen die höheren Wesenheiten ihre Schatten in diese Welt. Und diese Schatten sind Ihre Gedanken. Der Mensch, wie er vor uns steht, ist eigentlich der Schauplatz von Vorgängen, die sich außerhalb des Physischen abspielen. Als physisches Wesen ist er zunächst eine abgeschlossene Wesenheit. Als solche lebt er in einer abgeschlossenen Welt. Um den Menschen als physisches Wesen zu verstehen, müssen wir in der physischen Welt bleiben. Wollen Sie zum Beispiel das Blut als physische Substanz untersuchen und verstehen, so müssen Sie in der physischen Welt bleiben. Wollen Sie aber verstehen, was Gefühle, Empfindungen und Leidenschaften sind, so müssen Sie entweder Redensarten machen oder diese Dinge auf Wesenheiten beziehen, die hinter der physischen Welt sind, auf eine Welt, die sich zu dieser verhält wie die Farbenwelt zur Tastwelt. Und die Gedankenwelt müssen Sie in ähnlicher Weise zu verstehen suchen. So sehen Sie, wie der Mensch an den höheren Welten Anteil hat, wie der Astralleib in diese Welten hineinragt, und wie die Devachanwelt wiederum eine Art Schattenbild in diese Welt hineinwirft. Wenn der Mensch von diesen höheren Welten nichts weiß, so ist er ihnen wie ein Sklave hingegeben, der gegenüber demjenigen, der an den Ketten zieht, machtlos ist. Wie die physische Persönlichkeit nur dadurch frei wird, daß sie ihren Willen in sich selbst zu entfalten, dem anderen frei gegenüberzutreten vermag, so kann die astralische Wesenheit des Menschen nur dadurch frei werden, daß sie ihren Zusammenhang mit der ganzen astralischen Welt erkennt. Solange der Mensch nur in den gewöhnlichen Empfindungen lebt, zieht ihn die astrale Wesenheit wie am Gängelbande: er ist immer von ihr besessen. Frei wird er, wenn er sie erkennt. Wie wir die physische Welt um uns herum erkennen, so müssen wir diesen Wesenheiten gegenüberstehen, geistiges Auge gegen geistiges Auge, und wissen, mit wem wir es zu tun haben. Ebenso ist es bei der menschlichen Gedankenwelt. Dies führt zur wirklichen Freiheit, zum Durchschauen unserer Umgebung. Um im richtigen Maße zu erkennen, müssen wir auf das sehen, was hinter dem Physischen steht. Der Anfang muß damit gemacht werden, daß Sie diese Dinge studieren, daß die Welt diese Dinge studiert.
Mit einem gewissen Recht wird von vielen wieder eingewendet: Was hilft es uns, wenn dieser oder jener uns von jenen Welten erzählt, wenn wir nicht selbst hineinschauen können? — Das ist eben der erste Schritt, um in die höheren Welten selbst hineinzuschauen. Warum ist es der erste Schritt? Weil sich die physische Welt dem Einsichtigen dann als etwas anderes zeigt als das, was sie dem materialistischen Geiste ist. Ein Vergleich kann es uns klarmachen, zu welchem anderen Standpunkt gegenüber der physischen Welt der 'Theosoph kommen soll, ein Vergleich, der von der gewöhnlichen Schrift hergenommen werden soll. Diese Schrift kann einer ansehen, der nicht lesen kann, und ein anderer, der lesen kann. Beide sehen dasselbe, es ist kein Unterschied in dem, was sie sehen. Der, welcher nicht lesen kann, wird sagen: Ich sehe Striche, die hinunter- und hinaufgehen, größere und kleinere Striche. Die kann er dann beschreiben. Der aber, der lesen kann, findet darin einen Sinn. Der beschreibt nicht die Form der Buchstaben, sondern findet darin eine Bedeutung. So ist es mit der ganzen Welt in der geisteswissenschaftlichen Anschauung. Nehmen Sie dagegen die Wissenschaft von heute: sie beschreibt die Welt so, wie der, welcher nicht lesen gelernt hat, das geschriebene Wort beschreibt. Für den anderen werden alle Dinge in der Welt zu Buchstaben, sie erhalten Bedeutung, er lernt lesen. Es ist nicht falsch, wenn einer, der nicht lesen kann, die Form der Buchstaben beschreibt. Viele erklären: Ihr seid Phantasten, weil ihr in dem Wort oder in der Welt noch eine besondere Bedeutung seht. — Das ist selbstverständlich nicht anzufechten, denn das ist die alltägliche Anschauung der Dinge. Darüber hinaus gibt es aber eine Anschauung, in der jede Blume ein Buchstabe wird, jede Blumengattung als ein Wort und die Welt als eine große Schrift betrachtet werden kann. Die Welt enthält etwas, was sich im Physischen gar nicht erschöpft. Die Zeichen dafür haben aber keinen Mund, darum muß die Bedeutung hineingelegt werden. Im Devachan geht dem, der die Pflanzenschrift lesen lernt, eine ganz neue Welt auf. Auch jedes Tier in der Welt können Sie als Buchstaben betrachten. Sie werden nach und nach diese Buchstaben zu entziffern vermögen. Wenn Sie die Tiere in ihren Lebensäußerungen verstehen, so stehen Sie ihnen gegenüber wie einer, der lesen kann, und nicht wie einer, der es macht wie die materialistische Wissenschaft, die nur die Buchstaben beschreibt. Lernen Sie das Tier als Wort zu erkennen, so blicken Sie hinter die physische Welt in eine ganz andere, in die astrale Welt. Lernen Sie die Pflanzenwelt als Buchstaben zu betrachten, dann erlangen Sie die Fähigkeit, in die Mentalwelt hineinzuschauen. Das ist nichts Unwirkliches, sondern im Gegenteil etwas, was ganz und gar auf dem Boden der Wirklichkeit steht und uns eigentlich erst den reichen Sinn des Lebens erkennen lehrt: Es verhält sich in der Tat auch so, daß uns die richtige Bedeutung einer spirituellen Welterkenntnis erst aufgeht, wenn wir sie mit dem Lesen vergleichen. Was hätte es für einen Zweck, wenn ich hier an der Tafel etwas hinmalte und beschriebe, ohne daß es etwas bedeutete? Einen Sinn erhält es dadurch, daß man seine Bedeutung erkennt. Und so ist es auch mit der Welt. Man lernt allmählich erkennen, warum die Welt da ist, was sie dem Menschen sein kann und was der Mensch selbst in ihr ist.
Mit alldem wollte ich Ihnen nicht etwas Neues sagen. Diejenigen, die öfter etwas über Theosophie gehört haben, wissen das alles. Ich habe es Ihnen gesagt, um Ihnen eine Handhabe gegen die Behauptung zu geben, die Theosophie sei nicht wissenschaftlich, und um Sie gegen Einwände zu rüsten, die sich auf Logik berufen wollen. Nur die Logik, die zu kurz ist, hat Einwände gegen die Geisteswissenschaft. Die Logik, die bis in die letzten Winkel des Logischen sucht, wird gegen ihre absolute Vernünftigkeit nichts einwenden können. So muß es klar werden, daß die, welche vom wissenschaftlichen Standpunkt aus gegen die 'Theosophie vorgehen, das nicht aus logischen Gründen tun, sondern aus Suggestionen heraus. Wenn man von diesen Suggestionen frei wird und weiß, daß die Gedanken nichts sind als Schattenbilder von devachanischen Wesenheiten, und wenn man dann erlebt, wie ein Professor unter Einflüssen aus der mentalen Welt behauptet, daß eine Billardkugel von Materia movens bewegt wird, die sich auf die andere Billardkugel überträgt - dann kann man hinter die Kulissen blicken und sehen, daß er von anderen Wesenheiten beeinflußt wird.
Die Welt bebt in gewisser Beziehung. Sie stellt uns große Aufgaben. Fragen sind da, die aus den ernsten Erfordernissen der Zeit hervorgehen. Die soziale Frage, die schon so viel Blut gekostet hat, wird mit den Suggestionen unserer heutigen Zeit nicht zu lösen sein. Auch die Parteien, welche die soziale Frage lösen wollen, stehen unter solchen Suggestionen. Sie sind von mentalen Wesenheiten besessen. Wer hinter das Physische zu blicken vermag, sieht hinter manchem Parteigänger den Dämon, der hinter ihm steht. Niemals wird es anders gehen als bei Robert Owen, der als edler Mensch und Menschenfreund, als guter Kenner der sozialen Verhältnisse in England eine Art Musterwirtschaft einführen wollte, indem er gute und schlechte Arbeiter heranzog und in größerem Rahmen eine soziale Gemeinschaft zu begründen versuchte. Er ging von dem begreiflichen Vorurteil aus, die Menschen seien von Natur gut, man brauche sie nur in auskömmliche Verhältnisse hineinzusetzen. Schaffe man solche Verhältnisse, dann würden sie auch ein Dasein entfalten, wie sie es selbst wünschten. Aber gerade dieser Menschenfreund mußte sich schließlich gestehen, daß man in seinen Bemühungen für den sozialen Fortschritt nicht mit praktischen Maßregeln beginnen könne, sondern nur mit der Lehre, mit der Aufklärung.
Wer in die geistige Welt hineinschaut, erkennt die Zusammenhänge, die dem physischen Plan zugrunde liegen. Er sieht die Menschen, wie sie zusammenleben: im tiefsten Elend die einen, arm und gedrückt von Arbeit und Not, die anderen schlemmend im Überfluß, dieses oder jenes genießend. Man kann sich leicht ausmalen, wie das zu ändern sei, wenn man bloß auf dem physischen Plane bleibt. Das tun die meisten, die sich heute berufen fühlen, zu reformieren. Sie befinden sich nicht in der gleichen Lage wie der mit Erfolg operierte Blindgeborene, dem sich die Welt um ihn plötzlich in Farben darbietet, denn sonst würden sie hinter allem Physischen die mannigfachsten Wesenheiten sehen. Wenn sie ihre gutgemeinten Reformpläne zu verwirklichen versuchen, dabei aber die geistigen Wesenheiten außer acht lassen, dann wird es in fünfzig Jahren noch viel schlimmer sein, als es jemals zuvor gewesen ist. Alle heutigen sozialen Ideale würden in fünfzig Jahren der astralen Welt grotesk widersprechen, wenn nicht diese astralische Welt, die menschlichen Leidenschaften, Begierden und Wünsche zugleich eine Änderung erführen. Ein allgemeines Elend, eine furchtbare Weltgärung, ein schrecklicher Kampf ums Dasein würde an die Stelle des heutigen schon furchtbaren Kampfes treten. Man braucht nur etwas in die geistige Welt hineinzuschauen, dann sieht man, worum es sich da handelt. Die Menschen sind nicht nur Leiber, die man mit Nahrung versehen muß, die Menschen sind auch Geister, und sie sind in Berührung mit anderen Geistern. Ihnen zum Bewußtsein zu bringen, daß sie Genossen höherer Welten sind, ist die Aufgabe der okkulten Weltanschauung. Sie können sich einen Menschen vorstellen, und auf diesem Menschen ein paar Käfer herumkrabbelnd: diese Käfer werden keine Vorstellung davon haben, daß dieser Mensch, diese Wesenheit etwas anderes darstellt als sie selber. Sie beschreiben die Form, beispielsweise die Nase. So beschreibt der Mensch den Himmel, den Mars, die Sonne, den Merkur und die anderen Sterne. Ebenso wie der Käfer, der keine Ahnung hat, daß die Nase zu einer Seele gehört, beschreibt der heutige Astronom den Merkur, den Mats, die Sonne. Er beschreibt sie so, wie er sie sieht, wie ein Käfer auf dem Weltenkosmos. Erst dann wird man wieder real beschreiben lernen, wenn man erkennen wird, daß die Sterne beseelt sind, daß überall Geist ist, daß das ganze Weltall beseelt ist. Nichts anderes bezweckt die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung; so logisch ist sie. Die Vorurteile, die nichts anderes sind als Suggestionen, machen es schwer, allen Menschen heute zum Bewußtsein zu bringen, worum es sich in dieser geistigen Weltanschauung eigentlich handelt.
In diesem einleitenden Vortrage sollte einmal gezeigt werden, welche Widerstände diejenigen finden, welche geisteswissenschaftlich denken und die Geisteswissenschaft vor der Welt vertreten. Jeder von Ihnen kann in die Lage kommen, gegenüber Anschauungen, die ihm von außen her begegnen, Festigkeit zeigen zu müssen. Das gehört zur Arbeit der Zweige, ihren Mitgliedern zu dieser Festigkeit zu verhelfen. Sie sollten soweit innerlich gefestigt sein, daß sie trotz allem, was ihnen in der Welt entgegentritt, die Gewißheit der geistigen Welt in sich selbst erleben und dadurch gegen jeden Widerspruch gewappnet sind. Nicht der Umfang des theosophischen Wissens, sondern das innere Bewußtsein, das innere Leben und die innere Gewißheit machen es aus. Nicht zu kämpfen brauchen wir gegen das, was uns in der Welt entgegentritt. Viele Vertreter anderer Richtungen kommen her und wollen mit uns diskutieren, wollen die Weisheit vorbringen, die sich die Theosophie selbst sagen kann. Sie sagen immer wieder solche Dinge, die der Theosoph lange schon abgelegt hat. Er charakterisiert, aber kritisiert nicht. Er treibt nicht in gewöhnlichem Sinne Propaganda, denn das kann nicht unsere Aufgabe sein. Nur wer freiwillig zur Theosophie kommt, soll wohl aufgenommen werden. Propaganda und Agitation zu treiben, ist nicht die Aufgabe der Theosophie. Daher ist es auch nicht ihre Aufgabe, andere zu widerlegen. Man sucht den Standpunkt der Geisteswissenschaft selbst zu charakterisieren. Der andere muß sich in ihn einleben. Die Agitation — wenn man einen öffentlichen Vortrag dazu rechnet — besteht darin, daß man erzählt: dies und das hat die Theosophie zu bieten; und der, welcher dann dazu kommen soll, wird auch herankommen. Der Theosoph hat nicht Meinungen und Ansichten zu vertreten. Er erzählt Tatsachen der höheren Welt, und über Tatsachen streitet man nicht. Wer als Theosoph die geisteswissenschaftliche Weltanschauung verbreitet, verbietet es sich, seine eigene Meinung zu sagen. Was wir als Theosophen verkündigen, ist die uralte Weisheit, zu der alle Weisen vorgedrungen sind. Es gibt nicht zwei, welche verschiedener Meinung sind, wenn sie auf dem höheren Gebiete angekommen sind. Es kann höchstens einer davon nicht weit genug sein. — Das ist eine Art von Gesinnung, die der Theosoph in sich ausbilden kann. Nicht aufdringlich soll er damit sein, aber er soll sie bestimmt in sich erleben, um sie ebenso bestimmt vor die Welt hinzutragen. Derjenige, der weiß, wird auch für das, was als Wissen in ihm liegt, die Worte finden.
So sollte heute einmal die theosophische Gesinnung und so sollten die anderen Gesinnungen, die ihr gegenüberstehen, charakterisiert und nicht kritisiert werden. Wenn wir diese Gesinnung mehr und mehr ausbilden, dann werden wir das beste Mittel haben, um in der Welt theosophisch zu wirken. Mehr und mehr werden wir unsere Umgebung verstehen und diese Umgebung geistig erforschen. Das ist theosophisches Wirken.
Zum Schluß noch ein Beispiel, das zu denen gehört, welche die Leute schockieren, sobald man sie öffentlich ausspricht. Diese Dinge sind einfach wahr und können mit den Mitteln unserer geistigen Forschung gefunden werden. Ich möchte Ihnen eine Zeiterscheinung schildern und Sie werden sehen, wie man seine Umgebung verstehen lernt, wenn man das, was die Geistesforschung bieten kann, wirklich durchdringt. Was jetzt gesagt wird, sollen Sie nicht gar zu schief auffassen, denn man wird sich daran gewöhnen müssen, daß es noch Dinge gibt, von denen wir keine Ahnung haben. Wer hat vor fünfzig Jahren eine Ahnung davon gehabt, daß es einen Stoff gibt, von dem ein kleines Körnchen genügt, um uns gesundheitlich zu schädigen? Vor fünfzig Jahren hat kein Mensch etwas davon gewußt. Es gibt eben Dinge, die wirken, bevor der Mensch von ihnen etwas weiß und sie kennt. Radium heißt dieser Stoff. Beim Radium sind es die physischen Instrumente, die dem Menschen gefehlt haben. Bei geistigen Dingen sind es die geistigen Instrumente.
In der sozialistischen Bewegung gibt es Leute, die außerordentlich radikal sind, die am liebsten alles kurz und klein schlagen möchten. Es gibt auch solche mit einem gewissen konservativen Sinn. Man findet da alle möglichen Richtungen. So gibt es innerhalb der sozialistischen Bewegung eine Organisation, die als geschlossene Gruppe immer eine ganz merkwürdig homogene, gleichartige Gesinnung und ein gleichartiges Vorgehen gezeigt hat. Das waren die am wenigsten Radikalen. Im Grunde genommen ist es ein Stand, ein Gewerbe, von dem die sozialistische Gewerkschaftsbewegung ausgegangen ist, nämlich die Buchdrucker. Sie haben als erste eine Art Gesetzmäßigkeit innerhalb der sozialistischen Bewegung entwickelt. Tarife wurden für das Verhältnis zwischen Arbeiter und Arbeitgeber abgeschlossen. Es ist sogar so weit gekommen, daß bei den Buchdruckern eine Zeitung existiert, deren Redakteur gar kein Sozialist ist, weil er von der sozialistischen Partei herausgeworfen wurde. Man sieht daran, wie gemäßigt diese Gruppe ist.
Nun ist die Frage möglich: Kann man diese Dinge ihrer geistigen Ursache nach ebenso erforschen, wie man die Wirkung des Radiums physisch erforscht? Ja, das kann man. Staunen Sie nicht so sehr darüber, was die geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung uns als Antwort auf die Frage gibt, warum es innerhalb der sozialistischen Bewegung eine solche Gruppe gibt. Das ist die Wirkung des Bleies auf die menschliche Seele. Was in unserer Umgebung ist, das Kleinste und das Größte, stellt den Körper eines Geistigen vor. Gold, Silber, Kupfer, alles was da lebt, ist Körper für etwas Geistiges. Auch Blei ist der äußere Körper für eine gewisse Geistigkeit. Und wer mit Blei hantiert, hat es nicht nur mit Blei im chemischen Sinne, sondern auch mit dessen Geistigkeit zu tun. Blei greift nicht nur die Lunge an, sondern hat auch eine ganz bestimmte Wirkung auf den übrigen Menschen. Da haben Sie den Ursprung für die eigentümliche Gesinnung innerhalb dieses Standes.
Noch ein anderes Erlebnis, das mir gerade vor ein paar Tagen passiert ist. Es kam ein guter Bekannter zu mir, der sich nicht erklären konnte, warum er bei seiner wissenschaftlichen Tätigkeit ohne besondere Schwierigkeiten Analogien zu finden und Kombinationen aufzustellen vermag, und zwar in einem Ausmaß, wie es selbst unter Gelehrten äußerst selten ist. Eine derartige Fähigkeit geht auf eine leichte Beweglichkeit des Mentalleibes zurück. Nun wollte ich auch herausfinden, wie dieses Phänomen zustande kommt. Nach einiger Zeit konnte ich dem Manne sagen, wahrscheinlich habe er viel mit Kupfer zu tun. Tatsächlich bestätigte sich dies, denn der Betreffende ist Waldhornbläser. Das geringe Maß von Kupfer war es, das bei ihm eine solche Wirkung auslöste.
Nun bedenken Sie einmal, was der Mensch, ohne es zu wissen, für ein Wesen ist, das allen möglichen Einflüssen unterworfen ist! Von der Suggestion habe ich vorhin gesprochen. Jetzt sehen wir den Einfluß der ganzen um den Menschen herumliegenden geistigen Welt. Und was ist die Theosophie? Sie ist das Hineindringen in die geistige Welt und deren Gesetze. Und was bedeutet dieses Hineindringen in die geistige Welt? Es bedeutet Freiheit, denn nur Erkenntnis gibt Freiheit. Wenn man etwas weiß, so kann man sich in ein richtiges Verhältnis dazu bringen. So ist die geistige Erkenntnis der höchste Befreiungsprozeß, den wir überhaupt in uns durchmachen können. Die wirkliche Entwickelung ist dasjenige, was uns durch die Geisteswissenschaft gelehrt werden soll. Nur wenn die Menschen frei werden wollen, werden sie an die Geist-Erkenntnis herankommen. Wenn sie aber nicht nur von gesellschaftlichen Vorurteilen abhängig sein wollen, sondern auch von alledem, was sie mit ihrem Denken überhaupt nicht überblicken, dann werden sie heute noch nicht an die Geisteswissenschaft herankommen, und wir werden begreifen, daß sie nicht herankommen können. Diejenigen, welche noch von der Mode und so weiter abhängig sind, werden nicht sehr geneigt sein, den Einfluß der Metalle um sie herum einzusehen. Aber ein Anfang muß gemacht werden, ein kleiner Anfang zu einer großen, sehr großen Sache. Nur einen kleinen Blick auf das, wozu die Geisteswissenschaft ein Anfang sein möchte, wollte ich heute werfen.
Spiritual knowledge as the highest form of liberation
Man's share in the higher worlds
I am delighted to welcome you all back after such a long time, both the members of the branch and the others who have gradually gathered here over the course of the past year. Let us hope that this winter season will once again advance our work and our spiritual movement and that we will be able to deepen our immersion in the spiritual world a little further.
We have not seen each other for a long time, but in a certain sense this time also belongs to all those with whom we have not been together externally. For the members of the local branch have a profound interest, in the most eminent sense, in ensuring that this spiritual movement not only enters their own hearts, but also spreads throughout the world. What would all theosophical striving be other than a refined egoism if we did not want others out in the world to hear about this movement and take part in it as much as we ourselves like to participate in it?
The speaker has recently had the opportunity to speak to a wider audience and to a wide variety of people, and it is gratifying to see that members of all social circles and classes feel the longing for spiritual life as expressed in the existence of the theosophical movement.
Perhaps we can devote a brief review to this circle at the starting point of our winter reflections. The journey I was permitted to undertake to spread the theosophical movement took me to Leipzig, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Alsace, Switzerland, and Bavaria. I was able to give lectures in Leipzig, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden, Colmar, Strasbourg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg, Basel, Bern, St. Gallen, Regensburg, Nuremberg, and Weimar. These lectures also included longer cycles. The Leipzig cycle comprised fourteen lectures. The Stuttgart cycle lasted more than fourteen days, during which those interested in the Theosophical Movement had to meet daily. It was precisely such cycles in other cities that perhaps proved most effective in giving the Theosophical Movement a deeper foothold in our time. When one comes to this or that city and is allowed to give one or two lectures for inspiration, it is not so easy to convey the theosophical movement in a sufficiently intensive way. But those who are introduced to this spiritual life over a period of fourteen days get a sense that a new world is opening up for them. When you give individual lectures, you can clearly see that interest in spiritual life and a deep longing for it continue to exist and that there is a need for it. But there are countless obstacles that stand in the way of people and prevent them from approaching spiritual science and living with it. One must engage more deeply with what we have become accustomed to calling theosophy. Only then does something open up in the heart that awakens an inkling, a feeling, a sense that one is dealing here with a real, higher world. At first, everything that confronts people here is taken not only as something incomprehensible, but as something fantastical, and people struggle to move away from the widespread view that what is presented in theosophy is dreamy and fantastical, to the realization that our spiritual movement is dealing with something that lies at the very foundation of the true world. Many believe that people who talk about such things are far removed from practical life. Gradually, however, one becomes accustomed to the point of view that is to be gained, and one then also learns that one is dealing with the true practice of life, which does not live in a cloud cuckoo land, but in the deeper layers, and which imparts strength, knowledge, and truth. This enables us to truly solve the great tasks that fall to human beings in the world. These are prejudices when Theosophy is taken as something that is supposed to be hostile to life, life-denying. One may hear: Theosophy is something that presents the world in a rather beautiful light, that conveys high ideals, but that nevertheless leads away from life, that alienates one from the true enjoyment of life and the true joy of life. It has even been claimed that what theosophists say is beautiful, but it is not digestible.
This kind of prejudice will perhaps be the slowest to wear away. There will easily be people who understand what theosophical literature and theosophical lectures convey in terms of teachings. It is more difficult to wriggle out of ingrained feelings and habits than out of learned prejudices. Feelings and habits are much more difficult to overcome than thoughts that one should cast aside. One may even encounter the experience of someone saying: Certainly, we want to devote ourselves to theosophy, but we also do not want to spoil the enjoyment of life for those who want to enjoy life. One must consider, for example, that young people should also enjoy life. Of course, it depends on what one enjoys; it depends on asking the question a little more deeply, namely that it could be a matter of seeking more beautiful and noble objects of joy and cultivating them into a more noble life. Then we will give life new meaning and will not need to spoil young people's enjoyment of life if we provide them with a new kind of joy, a new kind of pleasure. People often cannot imagine that anyone could find the pleasures that people today find entertaining to be dull: going to the movies and spending time with entertainment that has nothing to do with real life. Perhaps there may still be times when people will speak of today's trivial popular amusements as if they were a pipe dream.
It may be rare for someone to envy another for their inability to enjoy themselves, but it does happen. In one city, we have a small theosophical circle. One of our theosophists, who is very interested in spiritual science and has also embraced a certain theosophical way of life, lives in constant communion with another who is also attracted to spiritual science but cannot yet break away from the enjoyment of suckling pigs, which he loves to eat. When he sits in front of a suckling pig, he feels remorseful that he is still attached to this pleasure. Then he thinks that the other person is lucky because he no longer enjoys suckling pigs. The other person's needs have simply changed. It could come to the point where those who no longer seek everyday pleasures are regarded as the true role models, and people look to them for guidance.
Much deeper are the prejudices that stand in the way of human progress, which is based on intelligence, cleverness, and erudition. You can find an article in a magazine that talks about epidemics among the people. A well-known researcher who deals with psychiatry and questions that lie between psychology and psychiatry discusses epidemics among the people and describes a phenomenon that lasted two hundred years, until the end of the Middle Ages, when exaggerated asceticism was practiced like a cult in wide circles, where people threw themselves to the ground, flagellated themselves, tortured themselves, and where their exaggerated imagination indulged in strange excesses. This can be regarded as an illness. Psychiatrists refer to it as hysteria, which occurred epidemically. They say that such hysterical people are often susceptible to suggestions that can no longer be controlled by our thinking. When a person sees another person who has injured their arm, they will feel compassion and offer help. There is no need to describe what happens in a normal person. But there are also people who themselves feel the pain in their arms, feel it abnormally, when the other person injures themselves. This is a suggestive effect that can add up considerably, that can lead people to a complete lack of control, so that they lead a disordered inner life that is devoted to all external impressions. When a materialistic psychologist speaks of such a phenomenon affecting entire communities, he is pointing to the public suggestion that emanates from individual circles — in those days from the monasteries — and spreads widely. A kind of zeitgeist arises. People are not inclined to ask, when confronted with something like this: How am I to take this? — They are completely under the influence of suggestion. Such a psychologist talks about it quite seriously, but he does not notice one thing: that a free person who can delve into his own self can recognize a different kind of epidemic popular disease and can sharply distinguish it. Today, it has taken hold of numerous circles, including educated and scholarly ones, and manifests itself in the fact that people live under certain positive and negative suggestions. If you approach such a person with spiritual-scientific truths, they will have a negative suggestive effect on them. They cannot understand them; they are something they cannot tolerate. Numerous materialistic prejudices that are widespread today have a positive suggestive effect. What do you find in the medical, theological, and law faculties? Suggestions that affect certain circles, which intensify to such an extent that they can be described as a kind of disease, just like that widespread disease.
A prominent biologist wrote something very strange in a widely read magazine. It is strange—perhaps not so much for those who only read individual articles. But for those who follow the whole, it is something that confronts them in ninety-five percent of the entire scholarly world, and they find that in the future, one can speak of a kind of scholarly insanity, scholarly idiocy, just as one speaks of hysteria. The essay says: When a billiard ball rolls, hits another ball and pushes it forward, I cannot imagine that nothing at all passes from the first to the second. This scholar calls the peculiar ghost that emerges from the first billiard ball to creep into the second and set the second in motion under the influence of the first the “materia movens.” The person in question believes himself to be tremendously clever, but he is only under the materialistic suggestion that affects him in exactly the same way as the mass hysteria of the 16th century affected the masses. Now consider how such suggestions, to which man is subject, can live around him. The number of such suggestions is infinite. When they occur in large numbers—and one can list a large number—they can be pieced together into a picture that would represent a clinical picture of today's scholarship, just as one speaks extensively of dementia praecox.
There you have the measure of bondage in which the person who is under the influence of suggestion lives. A little has changed since the Middle Ages. Only the theosophist can understand to what extent. In the Middle Ages, when something other than the person himself spoke from within, people spoke of possession. Today, people laugh at possession and regard it as a kind of illness. This form of possession, as it occurred in the Middle Ages, has receded somewhat in recent times. It now only occurs in certain circles. However, another form of possession, of real, genuine possession, is much more widespread. Medieval possession was astral possession, whereas today's possession is mental possession. In the Middle Ages, people were possessed by beings who, when examined through spiritual research, were found to be on the astral plane. But the beings that inhabit scholars today and possess them are on the mental plane, the devachanic plane. They express themselves in the world that is considered the only real one only as thoughts, and therefore they are only attributed a thought existence. Just as the world of human feelings, sensations, passions, instincts, and desires is not merely an outflow of physical existence, but something independent, true, and real in itself, so too is the world of thoughts a reality in itself. Only in the way that human beings have their thoughts are they not reality. These human thoughts are only the shadow images of real thoughts, just as human passions and feelings are only the shadow images of something completely different. We have often discussed here how things are connected. We know that what we can observe in human beings with our physical senses, namely the physical body, is only one part of the human being. We know that muscles and nerves, bones and blood are only part of this human being. What we call the components, the elements of the physical body, belong to the physical world. But human feelings and thoughts belong to another world, namely the astral world.
This is where contemporary logic, with its prejudices, makes some very strange leaps. Contemporary people do not even realize that their own thinking, their own logic, should actually tell them how impossible the conclusions they continually draw are, and that they are introducing public suggestions into their thought processes. It is incredibly easy, and completely trivial thoughts are sufficient, so that an audience has to agree with you for five minutes when you present them with a “compelling train of thought.” But they do not notice that this is overlaid with the debris of old life and old feelings. This is how it is with “compelling trains of thought.”
A person born blind who is among us would be right from his point of view to regard us as fantasists when we talk to him about light and color. That has never been a reality for him. He will object: Things can only be felt. He does not need to believe what we tell him. Nevertheless, he is wrong. But the point is not that he is wrong, but that he lacks the organ for perceiving light and color. The moment he acquires this organ, a new world will open up around him. True theosophy will never accept another world; it will only perceive it in a different way. What theosophists call higher worlds are here around us, just as the world of colors is for the blind. Those born blind who are operable can retain the use of their physical eyes. Theosophy claims nothing else when it says that it is possible to train the inner eyes. Just as the artistic eye could be woven, so it is also possible to weave organs from what lives in human beings in terms of passions, instincts, and feelings—organs of perception through which new worlds truly open up around human beings. It is thus possible to educate and develop human beings so that they themselves are able to look into these other worlds, just as they otherwise look into the physical world. In this sense, Theosophy speaks of an astral world that is as real within the outer world as the world of colors is within the world of the sense of touch.
No one who knows nothing about such worlds should object to them. It should be clear to everyone that they can only make statements about things they know something about, and that they should never say anything about things they know nothing about. Therefore, all judgments made against spiritual science that are based on the assumption that these are worlds about which nothing can be known are a hopeless logical absurdity. One must never make the judgment: A world does not exist for me because I know nothing about it! — This characterizes the prejudices that are held against us. These are the scientific suggestions of the present day. And how many people are under the influence of these scientific suggestions! How difficult it is today to fight against these suggestions! A spiritual scientific lecture is heard once, and then hundreds and thousands of things are brought before people's eyes again, which are presented to them as highly significant facts, but always interwoven with what springs not from materialistic science, but from the materialistic interpretation of science.
Only those who look more deeply into spiritual life can know how difficult it is to fight against these suggestions with reason. Popular scientific activity is something that has an extremely detrimental effect because it presents itself with an authoritative infallibility that only future times will be able to judge in the right light. People today have no idea to what extent they are subject to the suggestions emanating from the authorities. Consider what I am saying merely as a characteristic, and think how paradoxical it is when peoples fight to shake off one authority only to fall victim to another. When people were previously subject to suggestions, when their ego was devoted to what was working within them, these were true beings, which can be seen by those who can look into the higher worlds. People's thoughts relate to certain beings of a so-called devachanic world like shadows relate to a real object. The thought images you have are the shadow images cast from the devachanic or mental world. The thought that lives within you is nothing but such a shadow image — self-contained. The seer who has trained his higher sense organs sees it in connection with a being. When you see the shadow image on the wall, you can only understand it if you relate it to its object. It is the same with your thoughts. Without something else to refer back to, your thoughts are shadows. They relate to beings that are just as real in a higher world as this hand here. Just as this hand casts a shadow on the wall, so the higher beings cast their shadows into this world. And these shadows are your thoughts. The human being as he stands before us is actually the scene of events that take place outside the physical realm. As a physical being, he is first and foremost a self-contained entity. As such, he lives in a self-contained world. In order to understand the human being as a physical being, we must remain in the physical world. If, for example, you want to examine and understand blood as a physical substance, you must remain in the physical world. But if you want to understand what feelings, sensations, and passions are, you must either use figures of speech or relate these things to beings that are behind the physical world, to a world that relates to this one as the world of colors relates to the world of touch. And you must seek to understand the world of thoughts in a similar way. Thus you see how human beings participate in the higher worlds, how the astral body extends into these worlds, and how the Devachan world in turn casts a kind of shadow image into this world. If human beings know nothing of these higher worlds, they are devoted to them like slaves who are powerless against those who pull their chains. Just as the physical personality becomes free only by developing its will within itself and being able to face others freely, so the astral being of the human being can become free only by recognizing its connection with the entire astral world. As long as the human being lives only in ordinary sensations, the astral being pulls him along as if on a leash: he is always possessed by it. They become free when they recognize it. Just as we recognize the physical world around us, we must face these beings, spiritual eye to spiritual eye, and know who we are dealing with. The same is true of the human world of thought. This leads to true freedom, to seeing through our surroundings. In order to recognize things in the right measure, we must look at what lies behind the physical. The beginning must be made by studying these things, by the world studying these things.
Many people rightly object: What good does it do us if this or that person tells us about those worlds if we cannot see into them ourselves? — That is precisely the first step toward seeing into the higher worlds ourselves. Why is it the first step? Because the physical world then reveals itself to the insightful as something other than what it is to the materialistic mind. A comparison can make it clear to us what other point of view the theosophist should take toward the physical world, a comparison taken from ordinary writing. This writing can be seen by someone who cannot read and by someone who can read. Both see the same thing; there is no difference in what they see. The one who cannot read will say: I see lines going up and down, larger and smaller lines. He can then describe them. But the one who can read finds meaning in them. He does not describe the form of the letters, but finds meaning in them. So it is with the whole world in the spiritual scientific view. Take today's science, on the other hand: it describes the world in the same way that someone who has not learned to read describes the written word. For the other person, all things in the world become letters, they take on meaning, he learns to read. It is not wrong for someone who cannot read to describe the shape of the letters. Many people say: You are dreamers because you still see a special meaning in the word or in the world. — Of course, this cannot be disputed, because it is the everyday view of things. Beyond that, however, there is a view in which every flower becomes a letter, every genus of flower can be regarded as a word, and the world as a great script. The world contains something that is not exhausted in the physical realm. However, the signs for this have no mouth, so the meaning must be put into them. In Devachan, a whole new world opens up to those who learn to read the script of plants. You can also regard every animal in the world as a letter. Gradually, you will be able to decipher these letters. When you understand the animals in their expressions of life, you stand before them as one who can read, and not as one who does as materialistic science does, which only describes the letters. If you learn to recognize the animal as a word, you will see behind the physical world into a completely different one, the astral world. If you learn to regard the plant world as letters, you will gain the ability to look into the mental world. This is not something unreal, but on the contrary, something that is entirely grounded in reality and actually teaches us to recognize the rich meaning of life: In fact, it is only when we compare it to reading that we realize the true significance of spiritual knowledge of the world. What would be the point of me drawing and describing something on the board here if it had no meaning? It acquires meaning when we recognize its significance. And so it is with the world. We gradually learn to recognize why the world is there, what it can be for human beings, and what human beings themselves are in it.
I did not want to tell you anything new with all this. Those who have heard about theosophy before know all this. I have told you this to give you a weapon against the claim that theosophy is not scientific, and to arm you against objections that appeal to logic. Only logic that is too limited has objections to spiritual science. Logic that searches to the furthest corners of the logical will not be able to object to its absolute rationality. So it must be clear that those who oppose Theosophy from a scientific standpoint do so not for logical reasons, but out of suggestion. When one is freed from these suggestions and knows that thoughts are nothing but shadow images of devachanic beings, and when one then experiences how a professor, under influences from the mental world, claims that a billiard ball is moved by materia movens, which is transferred to the other billiard ball—then one can look behind the scenes and see that he is being influenced by other entities.
The world is shaking in a certain sense. It presents us with great tasks. There are questions that arise from the serious demands of the times. The social question, which has already cost so much blood, cannot be solved with the suggestions of our time. Even the parties that want to solve the social question are under such suggestions. They are possessed by mental entities. Those who are able to see beyond the physical can see the demon behind many a party supporter. It will never be any different than with Robert Owen, who, as a noble man and philanthropist, as a good connoisseur of social conditions in England, wanted to introduce a kind of model economy by attracting good and bad workers and attempting to establish a social community on a larger scale. He started from the understandable prejudice that people are good by nature and only need to be placed in adequate circumstances. If such circumstances were created, they would develop a life as they themselves desired. But this philanthropist himself ultimately had to admit that his efforts for social progress could not begin with practical measures, but only with teaching and enlightenment.
Those who look into the spiritual world recognize the connections that underlie the physical plane. They see people living together: some in deepest misery, poor and oppressed by work and hardship, others feasting in abundance, enjoying this or that. It is easy to imagine how this could be changed if one remained solely on the physical plane. This is what most of those who feel called upon to reform today do. They are not in the same position as the blind man who has been successfully operated on and suddenly sees the world around him in colors, for otherwise they would see the manifold beings behind everything physical. If they try to realize their well-intentioned reform plans while ignoring the spiritual beings, then in fifty years' time things will be much worse than they have ever been before. All of today's social ideals would be grotesquely at odds with the astral world in fifty years if this astral world, human passions, desires, and wishes did not undergo a change at the same time. General misery, terrible world turmoil, and a horrific struggle for existence would replace today's already terrible struggle. One need only look into the spiritual world to see what this is all about. Human beings are not just bodies that need to be fed; they are also spirits, and they are in contact with other spirits. It is the task of the occult worldview to make them aware that they are companions of higher worlds. You can imagine a human being with a few beetles crawling around on them: these beetles will have no idea that this human being, this entity, is anything other than themselves. They describe the form, for example the nose. In the same way, human beings describe the sky, Mars, the sun, Mercury, and the other stars. Just as the beetle has no idea that the nose belongs to a soul, today's astronomer describes Mercury, Mars, and the sun. He describes them as he sees them, like a beetle on the world cosmos. Only then will we learn to describe things realistically again, when we recognize that the stars are animated, that spirit is everywhere, that the entire universe is animated. The spiritual-scientific worldview aims at nothing else; it is that logical. Prejudices, which are nothing more than suggestions, make it difficult to bring to the consciousness of all people today what this spiritual worldview is actually about.
This introductory lecture was intended to show the resistance encountered by those who think in terms of spiritual science and represent spiritual science to the world. Each of you may find yourself in a position where you have to show firmness in the face of views that come to you from outside . It is part of the work of the branches to help their members achieve this steadfastness. They should be so inwardly steadfast that, despite everything they encounter in the world, they experience the certainty of the spiritual world within themselves and are thus armed against any contradiction. It is not the extent of theosophical knowledge that counts, but inner consciousness, inner life, and inner certainty. We do not need to fight against what we encounter in the world. Many representatives of other movements come and want to discuss with us, want to present the wisdom that Theosophy itself can express. They repeatedly say things that theosophists have long since discarded. They characterize, but do not criticize. They do not engage in propaganda in the usual sense, for that cannot be our task. Only those who come to theosophy voluntarily should be welcomed. Propaganda and agitation are not the task of theosophy. Therefore, it is also not its task to refute others. One seeks to characterize the standpoint of spiritual science itself. The other must accustom himself to it. Agitation—if one counts a public lecture as such—consists in telling people: this and that is what Theosophy has to offer; and those who are meant to come to it will come. The Theosophist has no opinions or views to represent. He recounts facts about the higher world, and facts are not disputed. Anyone who, as a theosophist, spreads the spiritual scientific worldview refrains from expressing his own opinion. What we proclaim as theosophists is the ancient wisdom that all sages have attained. There are not two who disagree when they have arrived in the higher realm. At most, one of them may not have gone far enough. — This is a kind of attitude that theosophists can develop within themselves. They should not be pushy about it, but they should definitely experience it within themselves in order to convey it just as definitely to the world. Those who know will also find the words for what lies within them as knowledge.
This is how the theosophical attitude should be characterized today, and this is how the other attitudes that oppose it should be characterized, without criticism. If we develop this attitude more and more, we will have the best means of working theosophically in the world. We will understand our surroundings more and more and explore them spiritually. That is theosophical work.
Finally, here is an example that belongs to those that shock people as soon as they are spoken of publicly. These things are simply true and can be found by means of our spiritual research. I would like to describe a contemporary phenomenon to you, and you will see how one learns to understand one's surroundings when one truly penetrates what spiritual research has to offer. You should not take what is now being said too badly, for we will have to get used to the fact that there are still things we have no idea about. Fifty years ago, who had any idea that there was a substance of which a tiny grain was enough to damage our health? Fifty years ago, no one knew anything about it. There are simply things that have an effect before people know about them and understand them. This substance is called radium. In the case of radium, it was physical instruments that people lacked. In the case of spiritual things, it is spiritual instruments.
In the socialist movement, there are people who are extremely radical, who would like nothing better than to smash everything to smithereens. There are also those with a certain conservative sensibility. You find all kinds of different tendencies there. Within the socialist movement, there is an organization that, as a closed group, has always displayed a very strange, homogeneous, uniform attitude and a uniform approach. They were the least radical. Basically, it is a profession, a trade, from which the socialist trade union movement originated, namely the printers. They were the first to develop a kind of legality within the socialist movement. Tariffs were agreed upon for the relationship between workers and employers. It has even gone so far that there is a newspaper among the printers whose editor is not a socialist at all because he was expelled from the socialist party. This shows how moderate this group is.
Now the question arises: Can these things be researched according to their spiritual cause in the same way that the effect of radium is researched physically? Yes, they can. Do not be so surprised at what spiritual scientific research gives us as an answer to the question of why such a group exists within the socialist movement. This is the effect of lead on the human soul. Everything in our environment, from the smallest to the largest, represents the body of a spiritual being. Gold, silver, copper, everything that lives is the body of something spiritual. Lead, too, is the outer body for a certain spirituality. And those who handle lead are not only dealing with lead in the chemical sense, but also with its spirituality. Lead not only attacks the lungs, but also has a very specific effect on the rest of the human being. There you have the origin of the peculiar mindset within this profession.
Another experience that happened to me just a few days ago. A good acquaintance came to me who could not explain why, in his scientific work, he was able to find analogies and make combinations without any particular difficulty, to an extent that is extremely rare even among scholars. Such an ability is due to a slight mobility of the mental body. Now I also wanted to find out how this phenomenon comes about. After some time, I was able to tell the man that he probably had a lot to do with copper. This was indeed confirmed, for the person in question is a French horn player. It was the small amount of copper that had such an effect on him.
Now consider what a being human beings are, without knowing it, subject to all kinds of influences! I spoke earlier about suggestion. Now we see the influence of the entire spiritual world surrounding human beings. And what is theosophy? It is penetrating into the spiritual world and its laws. And what does this penetration into the spiritual world mean? It means freedom, for only knowledge gives freedom. When you know something, you can bring yourself into the right relationship to it. Thus, spiritual knowledge is the highest process of liberation that we can undergo within ourselves. Real development is what spiritual science is meant to teach us. Only when people want to become free will they approach spiritual knowledge. But if they want to be dependent not only on social prejudices, but also on everything that they cannot comprehend with their thinking, then they will not yet approach spiritual science today, and we will understand that they cannot approach it. Those who are still dependent on fashion and so on will not be very inclined to recognize the influence of the metals around them. But a start must be made, a small start toward a great, very great thing. Today I wanted to take just a small look at what spiritual science would like to be a start toward.