Life Between Death and Rebirth

During the winter of 1912–13 Rudolf Steiner lectured repeatedly on the subject of life after death. constantly impressing upon human consciousness details of the realm of the dead and of those at work between death and rebirth. In retrospect, his words seem almost a warning to prepare for the approaching times in which the deaths of millions of people through world wars and social turmoil would make this subject a question of destiny for every individual.

Questions of life between death and rebirth had never before been expounded in such a way as to include the details of actual events between death and reincarnation. Previously, the after-life had only been affirmed or denied in a general way through belief. But Steiner called attention to the fact that although belief may have sufficed for the past, a point in evolution has been reached today where men must consciously familiarize themselves with such knowledge during physical existence. To neglect to do so could lead to disharmony and even illness.

“Man,” Steiner says, “passes through the events of the spiritual world between death and a new birth in a special manner. He experiences them, however, also upon earth through initiation. If he has prepared his soul, he also experiences them even during existence in the physical body in that, through initiation, he becomes a participant in the spiritual worlds.”

In this book Steiner answers the problem of life after death from many perspectives and in detail. A study of his presentation can bail to a living understanding of the spiritual realm and to knowledge of those individuals present in it.