Inward Experiences After Death E-Book

Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: Rudolf Steiner Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

A single lecture taken from the volume Life Beyond Death.

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Leseprobe

RUDOLF STEINER (1861–1925) called his spiritual philosophy ‘anthroposophy’, meaning ‘wisdom of the human being’. As a highly developed seer, he based his work on direct knowledge and perception of spiritual dimensions. He initiated a modern and universal ‘science of spirit’, accessible to anyone willing to exercise clear and unprejudiced thinking. From his spiritual investigations Steiner provided suggestions for the renewal of many activities, including education (both general and special), agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. Today there are thousands of schools, clinics, farms and other organizations involved in practical work based on his principles. His many published works feature his research into the spiritual nature of the human being, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods of personal development. Steiner wrote some 30 books and delivered over 6000 lectures across Europe. In 1924 he founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world.

INWARD EXPERIENCES AFTER DEATH

RUDOLF STEINER

RUDOLF STEINER PRESS

Rudolf Steiner Press Hillside House, The Square Forest Row, RH18 5ES

www.rudolfsteinerpress.com

Published by Rudolf Steiner Press 2015

First published in English in Life Beyond Death by Rudolf Steiner Press 1995

Originally published in German by Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Basel. This authorized translation is published by permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach

© Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung This translation © Rudolf Steiner Press Ltd., 1995

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Inquiries should be addressed to the Publishers

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 85584 461 2

Cover by Andrew Morgan

Contents

Inward Experiences after Death

Notes

Inward Experiences after Death

Stuttgart, 23 November 1915

WHEN WE approach the mystery of death we must always bear in mind, above everything else, that it is indeed necessary for a characterization of the spiritual worlds to change the meaning contained in the words which are cut out for our ordinary world, for the ordinary physical world.

The dead, the so-called dead person, enters the spiritual world, and, as we have repeatedly explained, in the spiritual world things present an aspect which is fundamentally different from that of the physical world. Not only a spiritual-scientific insight but also the ordinary common sense pertaining to the physical world might induce us to believe that when the dead person enters the spiritual world through the portal of death the first thing which takes place there is the loosening of his physical body from that which constitutes his other human being within the physical body. This is, of course, quite a commonplace truth. But today we shall contemplate the inner experiences of the dead in the sense in which they can be investigated by spiritual science; we shall contemplate processes which should be borne in mind when describing the portal of death and tracing the path between death and a new birth.

The one who remains behind here, on the physical plane, will feel: ‘That part which was enclosed within the physical frame of the deceased abandons him, and it abandons the friends whom he has left behind.’ He will feel that the dead departs for another world.

The first perception of the dead person is that he, too, is being abandoned by those who are still dwelling upon the earth, and also by his physical body. Between birth and death this body was the instrument of his perceptive faculties, of his thinking, feeling and of his capacity for willing. (These descriptions are based, as already stated, on spiritual-scientific investigations.) Hence, his first perception is that those who were about him, who were connected with him, depart from him. And this perception is, to begin with, connected with processes which we have often described, namely, that the earth itself departs, as it were, and it is the departing earth which takes away the physical frame from the one who is passing through the portal of death. It is indeed almost as if the dead would acquire the feeling that he is remaining behind, that he remains behind a movement which he did not perceive at all while he lived upon the earth; he feels that he remains behind the earth's own movement. He feels that the earth is going away from him and with it everything which surrounded him upon the earth. He also feels that he is beginning to form part of an entirely different world, but it is a world which enables him to perceive something he had not seen before; namely, that his bodily frame, the bodily frame which has been given to him, is closely connected with the earth, and even with the movements of the earth. He feels, as it were (although this is expressed inadequately), that he can no longer follow the path of the earth and of its spirits, and for this reason they abandon him. He feels that he is left behind in a kind of greater state of repose, and that he begins to form part, as it were, of a more reposeful world. This perception which the dead person has, the perception of being abandoned particularly by the physical bodily frame, by everything he has experienced through other human beings and in common with them during the life between birth and death, constitutes the foundation of many things. During his earthly life, the possession of his physical frame was, so to speak, an obvious thing to him. What he now perceives is, therefore, an entirely new experience, and we shall see that there is a difference according to whether a person dies a so-called natural death through illness or old age, or a violent death; for instance, the kind of death which so many people must encounter today. Certain differences corresponding to the different cases must, therefore, be borne in mind.