Munich. November 27, 1912
It is
certainly necessary in every sphere of thought and life to
learn to know, in addition to the characteristics of truth,
also those of the sources of error; for, without doubt,
through a knowledge of error, it is possible for us to guard
ourselves from the hindrances which meet the seeker for truth
in these sources. In contrast to other spheres of scientific
investigation, it is especially in the sphere of spiritual
investigation that error lurks in every nook and corner,
where it is not even easy to recognise. It often appears in
the cloak of truth, in a form difficult to discern, not only
to be overcome in the soul of the spiritual investigator, but
also in immediate life. In many cases, the spiritual
investigator can only push forward to truth, when he really
succeeds in meeting error as an enemy. The day before
yesterday, it was shown how the man who attempts to travel
the paths of spiritual investigation must transform his soul
into an instrument, in order to mediate between human
knowledge, and the super-sensible worlds. External science
employs external instruments, the spiritual investigator,
however, employs as means of investigation, what he can
develop out of the cognitive forces slumbering in the human
soul, in order to penetrate therewith into the super-sensible
worlds. In this way the soul first comes to Imaginative
cognition, and here already an error lurks, as soon as the
soul, feeling herself capable of letting Imaginations arise
out of her depths, believes she may grasp this world of
Images objectively — as if they were existing outside
of herself. Self education must proceed to overcome this
error with strong, inner power of WILL and regard
these Imaginations merely as mirror-images, shadow-pictures
of ones own soul forces, which the soul produces solely out
of herself, when she works on herself in the way indicated.
The spiritual investigator concerned must exclude this error,
and lead back this imaginative world arising, into his own
soul again, in order thereby, later on, to find objective
super-sensible Beings, standing before him.
The
‘mediumistic’ nature of man at once presents
itself as the counterpart of Imaginative cognition. Once
attention is drawn to its many questionable elements, and one
must not conclude, because they are not mentioned, that they
are not considered in spiritual science. Whereas in
Imaginative cognition, consciousness is strengthened and
forces are drawn out of the soul, if one pursues another
path, it is necessary to damp down ordinary consciousness, so
that the usual life of thought and feeling ceases. A
condition void of ordinary consciousness appears then in the
human being known as a ‘medium’. Thereby the
forces which are usually contained in the consciousness of
man are inserted into the universal existence of the cosmos
and the latter works directly into the former, thus being in
a position to reveal himself, i.e. spiritual beings can now
work objectively-spiritually, into the physical world. Let us
first enter into the sources of error in such a mediumistic
being. Those who occupy themselves with gaining knowledge
from out of those worlds which work down into such persons
whose consciousness has been extinguished, as a rule, are
averse to such mediumistic personalities taking into their
consciousness any ideas or concepts from spiritual
science.
And, from
their standpoint they are fully justified, because the
knowledge of spiritual science, with its concepts and ideas
cutting deeply into the soul, makes strong demands on the
consciousness, and thereby renders it difficult to silence or
extinguish it. Therefore the experience can easily be made
that some individuality or another could reveal itself with
far greater facility to a medium than after spirit-science
has worked into him. Accordingly, one will strive to hold the
medium free from all influences of spiritual investigation,
as otherwise, these will make themselves felt,
instead of objective spiritual forces which can appear
through their manifestations in the medium. Also it is not
good for the utterances of the medium, if he has a strong
phantasy, for this works strongly on the individuality and
forces itself into the diminished consciousness. Everything
pertaining to an active, strongly-conscious, creative content
of consciousness works disturbingly on the revelations of the
medium, and so personalities strongly endowed with phantasy
and reflexion are mostly bad mediums. If thus, a medium has
learnt to know from spiritual science the evolution of the
planetary system, then such knowledge mingles with the
mediumistic revelations; but if no such knowledge won in this
way is present, then, surprising, indeed grotesque
pronouncements are obtained concerning world-formations; and
if one can get beyond their unusual impression, one will
discover, in all these declarations, truths of the cosmos and
world-evolution. In all these investigations, knowledge must
be obtained as to how subjective pronouncements, as such, can
be cognised and excluded from those which the medium himself
does not know, although they reveal themselves through him.
Thus mediums are chosen for investigations who have nothing
concerning the content of these investigations in their day
consciousness. If one gets from a medium, therefore, some
pronouncement in a speech unknown to the medium, it is to be
supposed that something speaks through the medium,
unconnected with his own individuality, something arising
from an objective world-content. Thus one must seek to regard
everywhere the sources of error when one has to do with the
consideration of somnambulistic-mediumistic beings, as soon
as they are led to pronouncements out of the spiritual world,
into which influences peculiar to themselves can mingle. This
can easily appear e.g. in a catholic or a protestant. The
former feels spiritual beings as he is accustomed to imagine
e.g. the angel, which is not the case, as a rule, with a
protestant. Thus it is extremely necessary to be absolutely
clear about the individualities of persons applied to
mediumship. Then we come to many a sphere where sources of
error are to be indicated. The sceptic thinks that only those
things appear in the medium which he has already taken up
into his consciousness. If however one surveys the entirety
of mediumistic revelations, then one will also transcend the
errors from this source. For the objective observer, in all
such revelations, it is less a question of the exact,
description of the CONTENTS — but far more
— the fact of the experience. And when one can look
away from all the content, and heed only the processes in
human nature, in their relationship to spiritual world
forces, then it is comprehensible that on one occasion the
pronouncements are tinged with catholicism, and on another
occasion with protestantism. The vesture is accidental: the
Truth stands behind it, the same in both, but having passed
through another individuality. The existence of spiritual
beings is thereby shown as it presses into the personality of
the medium, coming to a special form in each. In all these
processes it is difficult to say where error ceases and truth
begins. Therefore a way must be sought along which one can
attain an approach to the truth, and exclude the sources of
error. Experiences in this sphere are not always
unassailable, and in a declaration of the various
accompanying conditions, one can find sources of error. But
for the existence of the spiritual world it suffices to show
the path along which one can remove error ever more to one
side. Thus it does not hold to answer the question ... What
is truth, what is error, but to find the path beyond error
into the sphere of truth, which one seeks to approach as a
far off goal. One will then come more and more to such
— let us say in the usual, if not adequate mode of
speech — experiments, in which the individual
consciousness is purely excluded, and in revelations of world
processes in which the mediumistic person employed cannot
work disturbingly, he becomes all the more a capable
instrument.
I should like
to draw attention to one thing, well known to those who
occupy themselves with these things with earnest intent. If
the medium is placed in this damped down condition, then in
the first place one gets in his revelations super-sensible
cosmic laws. If now, beings of the super-sensible world are to
manifest, then they must take possession of the
somnambulistic-mediumistic person, and one must as it were
look through him into the spiritual being, in order to
recognise the latter. Imaginative cognition is the complete
opposite of what has been described. The comparison has been
attempted in this outline to-day in order to point to what
spiritual science has to say on the
somnambulistic-mediumistic nature. It is not its task to
cultivate this side of investigation, but the pronouncements
of spiritual science should proceed from what the soul as an
instrument can cognize in the surrounding spiritual world in
clear distinction to visions, hallucinations, and illusory
ideas, of all kinds. Let us now ask: — Do not errors
lurk for the spiritual investigator? Even before entry into
the spiritual world one can have an idea as to how errors can
arise. We find in life monism, materialism, positivism,
idealism, spiritism, etc, and whoever is not a fanatic in one
such philosophical standpoint, can heed each advocate of such
streams of thought, whether materialism or spiritualism,
objectively, with its logically produced foundations. One may
be convinced to a certain degree by what is brought forward
in reasonable fashion without making himself a partisan of
the philosophy in question. Thus one can produce much that is
reasonable and convincing for all standpoints and one will
agree with what is thus brought forward really positively.
Generally however one meets an extravagance to the point of
insufferance, when, by the one-sided emphasis of one
standpoint, the others are rejected without anything further.
Yet, with adequate experience in this sphere, it is possible
to esteem the materialistic as well as the spiritualistic
standpoint. I have presented this method of perception here
in two lectures already, which I held on the theme: —
How does one refute theosophy? and how does one defend
theosophy? In both of which I emphasised this positive
attitude. If this is possible of two opposite standpoints,
this indicates to any man of insight that no single
standpoint, held fanatically, contains the Truth. One might
conceive then that the truth lies between two opposite
opinions, yet this is like sitting between two chairs,
instead of on one! Goethe says: “Truth does not lie
between two opposite opinions, but this problem — the
task which can lead to her.” This is often the case
even in the physical-sensible world, and this fact can work
shatteringly on entry to the super-sensible world on one who
is able to take such knowledge earnestly.
One describes
something, e.g. from one standpoint, but this could occur
just as well from another standpoint. This can lead to a kind
of uncertainty regarding truth, but also to an investigation
as to the origin of this difference in human standpoints. If
one e.g. has not utterly fallen to materialism, but has
preserved for himself the freedom of looking away from his
own standpoint, and asking: — how has my soul then,
formed itself in life? and no more regards the material than
the spiritual side — then in this attitude, one
recognises something dependent on the individuality, and
comes to see how the whole course of life has led one to
judge in the accepted way. Thereby one is just towards
another standpoint, recognises its worth, and attempts to see
how another soul has come to regard things from another side.
Thereby diverse standpoints balance themselves in the world.
Different people with just as different standpoints oppose
each other generally, becoming ever more fanatical; if
however, instead of this the attempt is made to be silent,
and then to see how each has come to his standpoint, then
less strife would arise; the investigation of the path to
ones own opinion would be a self-knowledge; it would
furnish opportunity to approach the truth, which would then
take position as fact in the middle — between the
various starting points. This must occur in greater measure
in one who seeks the sources of error in super-sensible
spheres. Therefore the spiritual investigator must begin to
increase enormously self-knowledge on entering the spiritual
world, and not be persuaded by what first appears in his
soul. He must say: — What you see in wonderful images,
that you are yourself. You have projected them yourself into
space. Thus even the first show not merely the possibility
but also the necessity of self-knowledge through which man
learns to exclude himself from that which holds objectively.
There exists no other way of excluding untruth than that of
complete self knowledge. One can then exclude it from what is
beheld, and what is left is objective. If one will not
accomplish this, it is better for him not to approach the
super-sensible. Nothing is so difficult as self-knowledge. All
possible interests place themselves as hindrances in the way,
seeking to deceive us, by presenting themselves in lying form
before us, whereas they are only mirror-image of our own
self, our own being. That stage by which the spiritual
investigator can experience whether he possesses sufficient
self-knowledge is designated as the meeting with the Dweller
on the Threshold. One can only gradually form for oneself an
idea of this. Assuming it is possible at a definite age in
life to look back on everything that man has developed as
predilections, the way in which one has felt and maintained
something sensible and super-sensible, it is important to put
such questions by the side of others. The exercises of
meditation and concentration themselves, as such, if pursued,
develop slumbering forces in the soul through which man is
put in the position of facing himself. That shows itself in
definite symptoms. One feels changes in the soul, has the
uncomfortable feeling of weariness and disgust with himself.
But without this, one cannot become a real spiritual
investigator. Finally one can regard everything formerly seen
as a worthy characteristic, as something changed, external,
incidental. One appears empty to oneself, as nothing,
compared to what one no longer really is — or at least,
to what one no longer so utterly is as formerly. These
feelings are so gradually intensified, and experienced in
such subtle degrees, that there exists no danger for the
person in question. If one will attain a high grade of
spiritual investigation, such feelings must appear very
strong, making it possible to experience with strong content
of feeling THAT outside of one, which formerly was
inside one — as if one had stripped off everything, no
longer making use of it — as if one stood at an abyss,
forsaken by all the ordinary means of help. One will then
feel very soon experiences appear in imaginative cognition,
in which one learns to know himself anew with all his
unsympathetic appearances, with images of other beings
alongside, who now perceive and feel all that man is, who lie
in wait for him. One then feels his own being as divided up
among other beings, as in the image of Dionysus, whose being
also was divided.
All training
in this direction, as is also presented in my book:
How Does one Attain Knowledge of Higher Worlds?,
— is directed to perceiving and judging the world thus.
For such experiences and for such a survey, one must be correctly
schooled in order not to be utterly confounded. This
condition which man does not consider in ordinary life, i.e.
that he sits, as it were, in a glass house, and the
world-powers see through him completely — is a Fact,
and knowledge of the spiritual investigator. Ordinary life
prevents man perceiving the Dweller of the Threshold beside
him, which would otherwise bring him out of the necessary
secure grasp of life, c.f. the Mystery Drama.
Der Huter der Schwelle.
Now man first learns how
everywhere not merely errors of knowledge but Real Error
appears, and how necessary it is to behold things in their
natural way, even if the difficulty of self-knowledge (which
veils it) is still so considerable, until, as spiritual
investigator, one comes to see oneself completely, to see
oneself, beside oneself, without any limitation. One cannot
then say: here is truth, there is error — but, the
further one is on this path of seeing oneself, and the less
that deceptions coming from self flow into the knowledge of
higher worlds, all the truer is ones knowledge. Consciousness
must be strengthened and sharpened in this way, in order
especially to have concentrated before one what must be
excluded in an ignoble personality. Then one sharply draws
all this together, one can first really know oneself. If one
does not progress thus far in the transformation of his soul,
then one easily intermingles the sensible with the
super-sensible, and is easily confused. Whoever travels this
path to the end, however, i.e. till he attains certainty in
his powers of perception, will correctly observe and estimate
the qualities and prejudices of his feeling. He will not
mingle them with objective cognition, nor bring unrelated
images together. For he can exclude now his entire
personality, and separate his former self from the
super-sensible world. If one has not progressed far enough in
the stripping off of his own personality, he comes to
definitions of the super-sensible world, in which he mingles
his own personal views, thus, without knowing it, falsifying
what is seen and presented. In spite of all care, it is
hardly possible to attain the ideal of a spiritual
investigator since something subjective will always have
flowed into ones pronouncements. Nevertheless, in all the
various utterances of the spiritual investigator, we shall
find the same content, if they are sincerely presented, in so
far as one looks away from the images and the scaffolding
employed for their presentation, although the seer must
exercise the utmost consciousness in their selection. Thus
you will have seen that one can look, in the way described,
into the spiritual world, if, after careful preparation one
has developed oneself as a seer; yet, everyone is in a
position to understand what is investigated, once it is
expressed in the ideas and concepts of the healthy human
understanding. It is just as comprehensible and true that one
who can think well and logically, can also correctly judge
what he has experienced as a spiritual investigator in the
spiritual world, Yet a fool might see ever so much — he
will describe it all distortedly. In all sincerity, it is a
question of moral qualities. The immoral person will get to
know in the spiritual world especially, the hindering and
disturbing events and beings, only grasping these in
distorted form and describe them correspondingly. The moral
person however, with selfless mood of soul, will find the
paths in the spiritual world, which shows him things in their
right mutual ordering and value. One cannot begin to acquire
the right measure of perception there, but one must
already possess it in intellectual and especially in moral
form. If, e.g. one has prejudged a mood regarding some
definite religious belief, he thinks something which could be
rightly and truly grasped, yet in a coloured or even
incorrect form, and therein lie many sources of error in the
preparation for spiritual science and its results. Each one
however can be a critic of its investigations, if
sufficiently prepared, can follow with understanding, and
comprehend its results, without applying its methods to
himself, the method which led to these results. Also each
person can fully understand the pronouncements of the
spiritual investigator, and impart them further. The spheres
of spiritual science are of such a nature that the seer
cannot coldly face materialistic things; in addition, the
followers of the investigator always meet him with definite
sympathies and antipathies. This comes strongly into
consideration, in the handling on of its communications.
Souls often yearn for its information, but are as often as
lazy in applying expressly a right meaning and understanding
to them, thereby meeting the investigator in the necessary
critical mood. Then belief appears in place of objective
examination, and takes what is said on authority, until
finally a kind of deceptive Authority develops. If the
spiritual investigator must always be watchful of himself in
his activity, then the listeners also should hold themselves
awake, constantly exercising a self-examination, lest they
receive the assertions of the spiritual investigator with
belief, prejudice, and deluded authority. A suspicious source
of error arises if the follower does not school his power of
judgment, and instead of these troublesome intellectual
efforts, comfortably accepts everything on belief in
authority. If the investigator communicates important things,
he will easily be able to exercise a harmful influence on his
followers, unless above all things he attempts to appeal to
their insight. Otherwise, their ordinary healthy human
understanding is overpowered and ruined. Whereas the insight
of the hearers should be strengthened, the investigator is
then easily tempted not to awaken this, but merely to evoke
belief. The ideal condition on the contrary would be when the
followers make it as difficult as possible for the
investigator, laying on him the highest demands, when he
imprints the knowledge of spiritual science in the concepts
and ideas of the healthy human understanding, thereby making
it impossible for any charlatans to appear by his side, as a
conscientious and sincere spiritual investigator. For this it
is necessary that the listeners carefully hold watch over
themselves sharpening more and more their insight and their
healthy human understanding, so that they can distinguish the
real investigator from the charlatan. The soul-mood of
credible followers is not favourable in this and there hardly
exists any other remedy here than the existence of
conscientious investigators who disdain to procure for
themselves a facile audience, and merely pursue the
investigation of truth. Otherwise, listeners, lazy or lacking
in judgment, throw everything together or else, if they
cannot enter sufficiently unprejudiced into the knowledge,
cannot distinguish between error and conscientiousness. The
faithful often hold the purest charlatanerai for pure truth,
and the ignorant, spiritual insufficiencies for results of
spiritual investigation. Thus it is necessary above all
things for the followers to develop critical judgment instead
of belief. This last will already fall away partially when
the knowledge spreads that a seer who, as a practical
spiritual investigator, can look into the spiritual world
need not be any special human being for that reason, just as
little as a chemist, botanist, or an artisan; for the worth
of a man does not depend on the possession of the results of
spiritual knowledge or powers of knowledge, but on his
healthy human understanding and his moral qualities. The
worth of a man can be decided intellectually and morally
before he enters spiritual investigation and according to
this is his spiritual knowledge. In this sphere, and in the
conquest of false authority, each one must attempt the utmost
possible. Thus the attempt is made to show the possibility of
error in the discovery and spreading of spiritual truths
within a general spiritual civilisation, and to evoke a
feeling, by which one can recognise the conscientious
investigator. Many opponents are right in their objections
but the true investigator can himself make these, in order to
exclude some error. In all his efforts however he will have
abundant confidence in which those things we have discussed
to-day will also resound, that it is a question of the mood
existing in the soul for the truth of the ideas transmitted,
and above all, the trust that these truths, like those also
in other spheres, have a strong force, so that the error
which might creep in through false authority can be removed
through the self correction of the truth. Belief in authority
revenges itself, and a faithful believer, who has not thought
out the details, sharply, has often reached the position of
being forced to believe on coming to far more important
points, and is, as it were, ruined, when a few difficulties
present themselves. True and sincere spiritual science may be
brought together with charlantaneric, and deception, either
by mistake or malice, yet, as has been said, there still
remains a confidence for the human soul which longs for
truth, even if the truth of the spiritual investigation on
its appearance is still more exposed to unkind fate than
other scientific discoveries in human evolution.
One need
merely recall the heliocentric system of Nicholas Copernicus,
the laws of Gravity, the world views of Galileo Galilei, or
Franceseo Redi (who put forward the basic statement: Life can
only develop out of what is living.) I should also like to
draw attention to the view of the Academy of Science in Paris
who believed they had to reject under all circumstances the
fact of the meteor-showers of which they were notified; also
to the opposition on introducing postage stamps, as the
largest post offices would be unable to receive all the
messages. The truth has often been repelled thus, but from
the fact nevertheless it establishes itself, hope,
confidence, and trust can be kindled to-day. Even in such a
strong and sincere searcher for truth as Schopenhauer, we
find this assertion about the power inherent in Truth, when
he says: — In every century poor TRUTH has had to
blush because she was paradoxical yet it is not her fault.
She cannot adopt the form of traditional, general error, and
cannot but look with a sigh to the protective God of Time,
whose wings beat so slowly together with whom however, she
beckons the investigator encouragingly. And if many die
without real success, yet finally truth will conquer, even if
the sources of error raise themselves ever so much against
all that is destined, according to his nature, to flow into
the spiritual life of humanity.