Occult science (translated) E-Book

by Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: ALEMAR S.A.S.
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

- This edition is unique;
- The translation is completely original and was carried out for the Ale. Mar. SAS;
- All rights reserved.


Occult Science is one of the fundamental works of Rudolf Steiner, one of the greatest 'spiritual' critics of modern materialism. In it, he emphasises how the "conquest" of the world by "Science" has come at the expense of intuition and imagination: all that is hidden behind the physical universe has been lost and thought is driven to wander.
behind the physical universe has been lost and thought is driven to wander in search of more stable supports than those provided by official 'science'.
The 'spiritual' reality of the world has been rejected as superfluous, but man is able to recover the lost knowledge of the Spirit with a supreme effort of will.

Leseprobe

Contents

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

AUTHOR'S REMARKS TO THE FIRST EDITION

CHAPTER 1. THE CHARACTER OF OCCULT SCIENCE

CHAPTER 2. THE NATURE OF MAN

CHAPTER 3. SLEEP AND DEATH

CHAPTER 4. THE EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD AND MAN

CHAPTER 5. KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS

CHAPTER 6. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE EVOLUTION OF THE WORLD AND HUMANITY

CHAPTER 7 . DETAILS FROM THE DOMAIN OF OCCULT SCIENCE THE ETHERIC BODY OF MAN

Occult science

Rudolf Steiner

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

Those who undertake to represent certain results of spiritual scientific research of the kind recorded in this book must above all be prepared to discover that this type of investigation is currently considered almost universally impossible. For in the pages that follow, things are narrated about which those who are today esteemed exact thinkers claim that they are likely to remain completely indeterminable by human intelligence. Those who know and can respect the reasons that lead many serious people to assert this impossibility, would like to attempt again and again to show what misunderstandings really underlie the belief that it is not given to human knowledge to penetrate the superphysical worlds.

For two things arise to be considered. Firstly, no human being will be able, with deeper reflection, to close his eyes to the fact that his most important questions about the meaning and significance of life must remain unanswered if there is no access to the higher worlds. Theoretically, one can delude oneself about this fact and thus escape; the depths of our soul life, however, will not tolerate such self-delusion. The person who does not want to listen to what comes from these depths of the soul will naturally reject any account of supersensible worlds. There are, however, people - and their number is not small - who find it impossible to remain deaf to the requests that come from the depths of the soul. They always have to knock on the doors that, according to others, bar the way to what is 'incomprehensible'.

Secondly, the claims of 'exact thinkers' are in no way to be despised. When they are to be taken seriously, one who deals with them will feel and fully appreciate this seriousness. The writer of this book would not want to be taken for one who lightly ignores the enormous amount of thought work that has gone into determining the limits of the human intellect. This thought work cannot be brushed aside with a few sentences about 'academic wisdom' and the like. In many cases it has its source in the true quest for knowledge and genuine discernment. Indeed, it must be admitted even more than this; reasons have been given to prove that the knowledge that is now considered scientific cannot penetrate into the supersensible worlds, and these reasons are in a sense irrefutable.

Now it may seem strange to many that the author of this book freely admits this, and yet undertakes to make statements about the supersensible worlds. Indeed, it seems almost impossible for a person to admit the reasons why knowledge of the superphysical worlds is unattainable, and yet talk about these worlds.

Yet it is possible to take this attitude, and at the same time realise that it impresses others as inconsistent. It is not given to everyone to enter into the experiences we go through when we approach the supersensible realms with the human intellect. Then we discover that intellectual proofs can certainly be irrefutable and yet need not be decisive for reality. Instead of all sorts of theoretical explanations, let us now try to make this understandable through comparisons. That comparisons are not proofs per se is easily admitted, but that does not prevent them from often making intelligible what needs to be expressed.

Human understanding, as it functions in everyday life and in ordinary science, is indeed constituted in such a way that it cannot penetrate the superphysical worlds. This can be proved beyond any possibility of disproof. But this proof can have no more value for a certain kind of animate life than that which would be used to prove that the natural human eye cannot, with its visual faculty, penetrate to the smallest cells of a living being, or to the constitution of distant heavenly bodies.

Just as the claim that the ordinary power of seeing does not penetrate down to the cells is true and provable, so is the other claim that ordinary knowledge cannot penetrate into the supersensible worlds. Yet the proof that the ordinary power of seeing must stop below the cells in no way excludes the investigation of the cells. Why should the proof that the ordinary power of cognition must stop before the suprasensible worlds decide anything against the possibility of investigating those worlds?

One can well understand the feeling that this comparison can arouse in many people. One can also understand that those who doubt and hold the above comparison against this work of thought do not even remotely perceive the seriousness of that mental effort. Yet the present writer is not only fully convinced of this seriousness, but is of the opinion that this work of thought can be counted among the noblest achievements of mankind. To prove that human visual power cannot perceive cellular structure without the aid of instruments would surely be a futile undertaking; but in exact thought, to become aware of the nature of that thought is a necessary work of the mind. It is natural that one who devotes himself to such work should not realise that reality can refute him. The preface to this book cannot be the place to go into many 'refutations' of previous editions, put in place by those who are completely lacking in appreciation of what they strive for, or who direct their unfounded attacks against the author's personality; but it must, however, be emphasised that the belittling of serious scientific thought in this book can only be imputed to the author by someone who wants to close themselves off from the spirit of what is expressed in it.

Man's power of cognition can be increased and made more powerful, just as the power of vision of the eye can be increased. Only the means to strengthen the power of cognition are entirely spiritual in nature; they are inner processes, belonging purely to the soul. They consist of what is described in this book as meditation and concentration (contemplation). Ordinary soul life is bound to the corporeal instrument; enhanced soul life is freed from it. There are schools of thought at the present time to which this statement must seem completely nonsensical, to which it must seem based only on self-delusion. Those who think in this way will find it easy, from their point of view, to prove that 'all soul life' is connected with the nervous system. Those who have the point of view from which this book was written can fully understand such evidence. They understand people who say that only superficiality can claim that there can be a kind of soul life independent of the body, and who are quite convinced that in such soul experiences there is a connection with the life of the nervous system, which the 'amateurism of occult science' simply cannot detect.

Here, certain quite understandable habits of thought are in such stark contradiction to what has been described in this book, that there is still no prospect of coming to an understanding with many people. It is here that we come to the point where a desire must arise that it is no longer a characteristic of our current culture to immediately decry as fanciful or visionary a method of research that differs from one's own. But on the other hand, it is also a fact, at the present time, that a certain number of people can appreciate the supra-sensible research method as presented in this book, people who understand that the meaning of life is not revealed in general phrases about the soul, the self, and so on, but can only result from truly entering into the facts of superphysical research.

Not out of any lack of modesty, but with a sense of joyful satisfaction, the author of this book deeply feels the need for this fourth edition after a relatively short time. The author is not prompted to this statement by a lack of modesty, because he is all too aware of how little even this new edition comes close to the 'outline of a supersensual world concept' he wants it to be. The whole book has been revised again for the new edition, much additional material has been included at important points, and explanations have been attempted. But in numerous passages the author realised how poor the means of presentation accessible to him are in comparison to what superphysical research uncovers. Thus it was not possible to do more than point out the way to the conceptions of the events described in this book as the evolutions of Saturn, the Sun and the Moon. An important aspect of this subject has been briefly remodelled in this edition. But experiences in relation to these things diverge so widely from all experiences in the realm of the senses, that their presentation requires a continuous effort to find expressions that can be, at least to some extent, adequate. Those who are willing to enter into the attempt at presentation that has been made here will perhaps notice that in the case of many things that cannot be expressed by mere words, an attempt has been made to convey them through the manner of description. This mode is, for example, different in the account of Saturn's evolution from that used for the evolution of the Sun, and so on.

Much complementary and additional material has been included in this edition in the part dealing with the 'Perception of the Higher Worlds'. An attempt has been made to graphically represent the kind of inner processes of the soul by which the power of cognition frees itself from the limitations that confine it to the world of the senses and thus becomes qualified to experience the supersensible world. An attempt has been made to show that these experiences, although obtained by completely inner ways and methods, do not yet have a merely subjective significance for the particular individual who obtains them. The description seeks to show that within the soul stripped of its individuality and personal peculiarities, an experience takes place that every human being can have in the same way, if only he will work on his development from his subjective experiences. Only when 'knowledge of the suprasensible worlds ' is thought to have this character, can it be differentiated from the old experiences of merely subjective mysticism. It can be said of this mysticism that it is basically more or less a subjective concern of the mystic.

The scientific spiritual formation of the soul, on the other hand, as described here, aims at objective experiences, the truth of which, although recognised in an entirely inward-looking manner, can nevertheless, for this very reason, be found universally valid. This, too, is a point on which it is very difficult to arrive at an understanding of many habits of thought of our time.

In conclusion, the author would like to observe that it would be good if the sympathetic reader of the book also took his statements exactly as they are.

At present there is a very prevalent tendency to give this or that spiritual movement a historical name, and for many it is only such a name that seems to make it valuable. But, one may ask, what would the statements in this book gain from being designated as 'Rosicrucian' or anything else of the sort?

What is important is that in this book, a glimpse into the supersensible worlds is attempted with the means that are possible and suitable for the human soul in our present period of evolution; and that from this point of view, the problems of human destiny and human existence are considered beyond the limits of birth and death. It is not an enterprise that will bear this or that old name, but a search for truth.

On the other hand, expressions have also been used, with hostile intent, for the conception of the universe presented in this book. Leaving aside the fact that those intended to most heavily attack and discredit the author are absurd and objectively false, these expressions are branded as unworthy because they denigrate a fully independent search for truth; because the attackers do not judge it on its own merits, but seek to impose on others, as a judgement of these searches, erroneous ideas about their dependence on this or that tradition, ideas that they have invented, or adopted from others without reason. As necessary as these words are in the face of the many attacks on the author, it is nevertheless repugnant for him to enter further into the subject here.

Rudolf Steiner

June 1913.

AUTHOR'S REMARKS TO THE FIRST EDITION

In placing a book like this in the hands of the public, the writer must calmly anticipate any criticism of his work that may arise in the present. A reader, for example, whose opinions are based on the results of scientific research, after noticing certain statements made here that touch on these things, may pronounce the following judgement: 'It is astonishing that such statements are possible in our time. The most elementary conceptions of natural science are distorted in such a way as to denote an absolutely inconceivable ignorance of even the rudiments of science. The author uses terms such as 'heat', for example, in a way that would lead one to infer that he has let the whole wave of modern thinking on the subject of physics pass him by unnoticed. Anyone familiar with the simple elements of this science would show him that not even the simplest amateur could have made such claims, which can only be dismissed as the result of total ignorance'.

This and many other similar verdicts could be pronounced, and we can imagine our reader, after reading a page or two, setting the book aside, smiling or indignant, depending on his temperament, and reflecting on the singular growths that a perverse tendency of thought can produce in our time. Thus thinking, he will set aside this volume, with its collection of similar tricks of the mind. But what would the author say if such views came to his knowledge? Might he not, from his point of view, also regard the critic as incapable of judgement, or at least as one who has not chosen to put his good will into forming an intelligent opinion? In no sense does the author feel this, because he can easily conceive of his critic not only as a very intelligent man, but also as a trained scientist, and one whose opinions are the result of conscientious thought. The author of this book is able to enter into the feelings of such a person and understand the reasons that led him to formulate these conclusions.

Now, in order to understand what the author really means, it is necessary to do here what generally seems out of place, but for which there is an urgent reason in the case of this book, namely to introduce some personal details. Naturally, nothing will be said about this except what concerns the author's decision to write this book. What is said in it could not be justified if it had a merely personal character. A book of this kind is bound to propose points of view that any person can arrive at, and these points of view must be presented in such a way as not to suggest any shadow of the personal element, that is, as far as such a thing is possible.

It is therefore not in this sense that the personal note sounds. It is only meant to explain how it was possible for the author to understand the views characterised above regarding his presentations, and yet was able to write this book.

It is true that there is a method that would have made the introduction of the personal element superfluous: it would have been to specify in detail all those details that would show that the statements made here are in agreement with the progress of modern science. This course, however, would have required the writing of many volumes, and since such a task is at present out of the question, the writer feels the need to state the personal reasons which he feels justify him in finding such agreement entirely possible and satisfactory. Had he not been able to make the following explanations, he would certainly never have come to publish statements such as those referring to thermal processes.

Some thirty years ago, the author had the opportunity to study physics in its various branches. At that time, the central point of interest in the sphere of thermal phenomena was the promulgation of the so-called 'mechanical theory of heat', and it so happened that this theory so particularly engaged his attention that the historical development of the various interpretations associated with the names of Julius Robert Mayer, Helmholtz, Joule, Clausius and others formed the subject of his continued study. During that period of concentrated work, he laid the foundations that have enabled him to follow all the current advances that have been made since then in the theory of physical heat, without encountering any difficulty in penetrating what science is accomplishing in this department. Had he been forced to confess himself incapable of doing this, the writer would have had good reason to leave unsaid and unwritten much of what has been brought forward in this book.

He made it a matter of conscience, when writing or speaking about occult science, to deal only with topics on which he could also report, in what seemed to him an appropriate way, the views of modern science. By this, however, he in no way wants to give the impression that this is always a necessary prerequisite. Everyone can feel called upon to communicate or publish whatever his judgement, his sense of truth and his feelings prompt him to do, even if he does not know the attitude of contemporary science on the subject. The writer simply wants to indicate that he stands by the statements he has made. For example, he would never have written those few sentences on the human glandular system, nor those concerning the nervous system of man, contained in this volume, if he had not been able to discuss both subjects in the terms used by the modern scientist, when he speaks of the glandular and nervous system from the point of view of science.

Although it may be said that those who speak of 'heat', as is done here, know nothing of the elements of modern physics, the author feels entirely justified, because he believes he is familiar with current research in this regard, and because if they were unknown to him, he would have dropped the subject. He knows that such statements can be attributed to a lack of modesty, but it is necessary to state his true motives, lest they be confused with others of a very different nature, a result infinitely worse than a verdict of mere vanity.

One who reads this book as a philosopher may ask: "Has this author fallen asleep to current research in the field of the theory of cognition? Had he never heard of the existence of a man called Kant?", this philosopher might ask, "and did he not know that according to this man it was simply inadmissible, from a philosophical point of view, to make such claims?" and so on, while in conclusion he might observe that stuff of such an uncritical, childish and unprofessional nature should not be tolerated among philosophers, and that any further investigation would be a waste of time. However, again, for reasons already stated and at the risk of being misunderstood again, the writer would like to introduce some personal experiences.

His studies on Kant date back to his sixteenth year, and he truly believes that he is capable of fairly objective criticism, from a Kantian perspective, of everything presented in this book. For this reason, too, he might have left this book unwritten had he not been fully aware of what drives a philosopher to pass the verdict of 'puerility' every time the critical criterion of the day is applied. Yet one can indeed know that in the Kantian sense the limits of possible knowledge are exceeded here: one can know how Herbart (who never arrived at an 'accommodation of ideas') would have discovered his 'naive realism'. One can also know to what extent the modern pragmatism of James, Schiller and others would find the limits of 'true presentations' transgressed, those presentations that we are able to make our own, to claim, to enforce and to verify.

We can know all these things and yet feel justified in holding the views presented here. The writer dealt with trends in philosophical thought in his works: 'Goethe's Theory of Cognition of the World Concept'; 'Truth and Science'; 'Philosophy of Freedom'; 'Goethe's World Concept' and 'Worldviews and Life in the 19th Century'.

Many other criticisms could be suggested. Anyone who has read some of the writer's earlier works: 'Worldviews and Life in the Nineteenth Century', for example, or a smaller work on Haeckel and his opponents, might think it incredible that the same man could have written those books as well as the present work and also his already published 'Theosophy'. "How", he might ask, "can a man throw himself into the breach for Haeckel, and then turn around and discredit every sound theory concerning monism that resulted from Haeckel's research? One could understand the author of this book attacking Haeckel 'with fire and brimstone'; but it goes beyond the bounds of comprehension that, in addition to defending him, he actually dedicated 'Views of the World and Life in the 19th Century' to him. Haeckel, one might think, would have emphatically declined the dedication if he had known that the author would shortly produce stuff like An Outline of Occult Science, with all its cumbersome dualism.

The author of this book is of the opinion that one can very well understand Haeckel without being obliged to regard everything else as nonsense that does not derive directly from Haeckel's own presentations and premises. The author is also of the opinion that Haeckel cannot be understood by attacking him 'at gunpoint', but by trying to grasp what he did for science. Least of all does he consider Haeckel's opponents, against whom he tried to defend the great naturalist in his book Haeckel and His Opponents, to be in the right; for surely the fact that he went beyond Haeckel's premises, placing the spiritual conception of the world alongside the merely natural one conceived by Haeckel, should not be a reason to assume that he agreed with the latter's opponents. Anyone who takes the trouble to look at the matter in the right light must see that the writer's recent books are in perfect agreement with those of an earlier date.

But the author can also conceive of a critic who would in general and on the spur of the moment look at the presentations in this book as the outpourings of an unbridled fantasy or as dreamy images of thought. Yet everything that can be said in this regard is contained in the book itself, and it is explicitly shown that sound and serious thinking not only can but must be the touchstone of all the facts presented. Only those who subject what is presented here to a logical and adequate examination, such as that applied to the facts of natural science, will be able to decide for themselves what reason has to say on the matter.

Having said all this about those who may be inclined, at first, to object to this work, we are perhaps permitted to address a few words to those on whom we can rely for sympathetic attention. These will find all the essential outline elements contained in the first chapter, "Concerning the Nature of Occult Science". One word, however, must be added here. Although this book is concerned with investigations conducted beyond the confines of the intellect limited to the world of the senses, yet nothing has been stated other than what can be grasped by any person in possession of unprejudiced powers of reasoning supported by a sound sense of truth, and who is at the same time willing to put these gifts to the best use; and the writer emphatically wishes it to be understood that he hopes to address readers who will not be content to simply accept by 'blind faith' the arguments presented, but who will take the trouble to test them in the light of their own understanding and life experiences. Above all, he wants cautious readers who will only be convinced by what can be logically justified. The writer is well aware that his work would be worth nothing if its value were based on blind belief; it is only valuable to the extent that it can be justified by impartial reason. It is an easy thing for 'blind faith' to mistake folly and superstition for truth, and no doubt many who have been content to accept the supersensible on mere faith will be inclined to think that this book demands too much of their powers of thought. It is not merely a matter of making certain communications, but rather of presenting them in a manner consistent with a conscientious view of the corresponding plane of life; for this is the plane where the noblest matters are often treated with unscrupulous quackery, and where knowledge and superstition come into such close contact that they can be confused with one another.

Anyone familiar with suprasensible research, reading this book, will be able to see that the author has tried to clearly define the line between what can be communicated now from the sphere of suprasensible cognition, and what will be distributed later, or at least, in a different form.

Rudolf Steiner

December 1909.

CHAPTER 1. THE CHARACTER OF OCCULT SCIENCE

At present, the words 'occult science' are apt to arouse the most diverse feelings. For some people they work like a magical charm, like the announcement of something to which they feel drawn by the innermost forces of their soul; for others there is something repulsive in the words, arousing contempt, derision or a sympathetic smile. For many, occult science is seen as a lofty goal of human endeavour, the crown of all other knowledge and cognition; others, who devote themselves with the utmost seriousness and the noblest love of truth to what appears to them to be true science, regard occult science as a mere idle dream and fantasy, in the same category as what is called superstition. To some, occult science is like a light without which life would be worthless; to others, it represents a spiritual danger, calculated to lead immature minds and weak souls astray, while between these two extremes lies every possible intermediate shade of opinion.

Strange feelings are awakened in one who has attained a certain impartiality of judgement towards occult science, its adherents and its opponents, when one sees how men, undoubtedly possessing a genuine feeling of freedom in many matters, become intolerant when they encounter this particular line of thought. And an unprejudiced observer will in this case not fail to admit that what attracts many adherents to occult science - or occultism - is nothing other than the fatal desire for that which is unknown and mysterious, or even vague. And he will also be prepared to admit that there are many valid reasons in the arguments put forward against what is fantastic and visionary by serious opponents of the cause in question. Indeed, those who study occult science will do well not to lose sight of the fact that the impulse towards the mysterious leads many people to a vain pursuit of useless and dangerous wills.

Although the occult scientist keeps an eye on all the errors and whims of the adherents to his views, and all justifiable antagonisms, nevertheless there are reasons that keep him from immediately defending his efforts and aspirations. These reasons will become obvious to anyone who enters more deeply into occult science. It would therefore be superfluous to discuss them here. If they were cited before crossing the threshold of this science, they would not suffice to convince the one who, held back by an irresistible repugnance, refuses to cross that threshold. But to him who enters, the reasons will soon manifest themselves with unmistakable clarity from within.

This, however, implies that the reasons in question point to a certain attitude as the only right one for an occult scientist. He avoids, as far as possible, any kind of external defence or conflict, and lets the cause speak for itself. He simply proposes occult science; and in what it has to say on various questions, he shows how its knowledge is related to other departments of life and science, what antagonism it may encounter, and how reality bears witness to the truth of his knowledge. It knows that an attempt at vindication, not only because of present faulty thinking, but by virtue of a certain inner necessity, would lead into the realm of artistic persuasion; and it wishes nothing more than to let occult science have its way entirely independently.

The first point of occult science is not at all the advancement of assertions or opinions that need to be proven, but the communication, in purely narrative form, of experiences that are encountered in a world other than that which is seen with physical eyes and touched with physical hands. Furthermore, it is an important point that through this science, methods are described by which man can verify the truth of such communications for himself. For he who studies true occult science seriously will soon discover that in this way much changes in conceptions and ideas that are formed - and rightly so - in other spheres of life. A completely new conception also necessarily arises concerning what has hitherto been called "proof". We come to see that in certain spheres this word loses its usual meaning, and that there are other bases for insight and understanding than 'evidence' of this kind.

All occult science stems from two thoughts, which can take root in any human being. For the occult scientist, these thoughts express facts that can be tested if the proper methods are used. But for many people, these same thoughts represent highly questionable assertions, which can arouse bitter objections, even if they are not regarded as something that can be 'proven' impossible.

These two thoughts are, firstly, that behind the visible world there is another, the invisible world, which is hidden from the senses and also from the thought that is chained by these senses; and secondly, that it is possible for man to penetrate that invisible world by developing certain faculties dormant in him.

Some will say that this hidden world does not exist. The world perceived by man through his senses is the only one. Its riddles can be solved by himself. Although man is still a long way from being able to answer all the questions of existence, the time will certainly come when sensory experience and science based on it will be able to give the answers to all these questions.

Others say that it cannot be said that there is no invisible world behind the visible one, but that human powers of perception are unable to penetrate that world. These powers have limits that they cannot overcome. Faith, with its urgent yearnings, can take refuge in such a world; but true science, based on established facts, can have nothing to do with it.

A third class regards it as a kind of presumption for human beings to attempt to penetrate, by their own efforts at knowledge, into a field in respect of which they should renounce all pretensions to knowledge and be content with faith. Adherents of this viewpoint consider it wrong for weak human beings to want to force their way into a world that should belong to religious life.

It is also asserted that a common knowledge of the facts of the sense-world is possible for mankind, but that as far as supersensible things are concerned, it can only be a matter of the individual's personal opinion, and that in these matters there can be no possibility of a universally recognised certainty. And many other statements are made in this regard.

The occult scientist is convinced that consideration of the visible world poses enigmas to man that can never be solved from the facts of that world. Their solution in this way will never be possible, no matter how advanced the knowledge of those facts may be. For the visible facts clearly indicate, through their very inner nature, the existence of a hidden world. Those who do not see this close their eyes to the problems that obviously arise everywhere from the facts of the sense world. He refuses to recognise certain questions and problems, and therefore thinks that all questions can be answered through facts within the reach of sense perception. The questions he is willing to ask are all capable of being answered by facts that he is convinced will be discovered in the course of time. Every true occultist admits this. But why should one, when he does not ask questions, expect answers on certain subjects? The occult scientist says that for him such questions are natural and must be regarded as a wholly justifiable expression of the human soul. Science must certainly not be confined within limits that prohibit impartial investigation.

The opinion that there are limits to human knowledge that it is impossible to overcome, forcing man to stop before the unseen world, is thus satisfied by the occult scientist: he says that there can be no doubt about the impossibility of penetrating the unseen world by means of the type of cognition understood here. He who regards it as the only type can come to no other opinion than that man is not allowed to penetrate into a possibly existing higher world. But the occult scientist goes on to say that it is possible to develop another type of cognition, and that this leads to the unseen world. If this type of cognition is deemed impossible, one arrives at a point of view from which any mention of an invisible world appears as pure nonsense. But for an impartial judgement, there can be no basis for such an opinion except that the person holding it is a stranger to that other kind of cognition. But how can a person form an opinion about a subject of which he claims ignorance? Occult science must in this case maintain the principle that men should speak only of what they know, and should not make statements about something of which they are ignorant. It can only recognise the right of every man to communicate his experiences, not the right of every man to declare the impossibility of what he does not know or does not want to know. The occult scientist does not dispute anyone's right to be ignorant of the unseen world; but there can be no real reason why a person should declare himself an authority, not only on what he can know, but also on things considered unknowable.

To those who say that it is presumptuous to penetrate the invisible regions, the occult scientist would simply point out that this can be done, and that it is a sin against the faculties with which man has been endowed if he lets them go to waste instead of developing and using them.

But those who think that opinions about the invisible world are necessarily entirely dependent on personal opinion and feeling, deny the common essence of all human beings. Although it is true that everyone must find the light on these things within himself, it is also a fact that everyone who goes far enough arrives at the same conclusions, not different ones. Differences exist only so long as human beings do not approach the highest truths by the well-trodden path of occult science, but attempt paths of their own choosing. True occult science will certainly admit that only those who have followed, or at least begun to follow, the path of occult science are able to recognise it as the right one. But all those who follow that path will recognise its genuineness, and have always done so.

The path to occult knowledge will be found, at the appropriate time, by every human being who discerns in what is visible the presence of something invisible, or who even vaguely supposes or divines it, and who, from his consciousness that the powers of cognition are capable of development, is impelled to feel that what is hidden can be revealed to him. He who is drawn to occult science by such experiences of the soul will find open before him not only the prospect of finding the answers to certain questions that press upon him, but the further prospect of overcoming all that hinders and weakens his life. And in a higher sense it implies a weakening of life, in fact a death of the soul, when a person is forced to turn away from, or deny, the unseen. Indeed, in certain circumstances, despair is the result of man's loss of all hope of seeing the invisible revealed. This death and despair, in their many forms, are at the same time the inner spiritual enemies of occult science. They make their appearance when a person's inner strength is diminishing. In this case, if he is to possess a life force, it must be supplied to him from without. He perceives things, beings and events that approach his sense organs and analyses them with his intellect. They bring him pleasure and pain and drive him to the actions of which he is capable. For a while he can continue in this way; but eventually he must reach a point where inwardly he dies. For what can be extracted for man from the external world, he exhausts. This is not a statement derived from the personal experience of an individual, but something that results from an impartial investigation of the whole of human life. That which secures life from exhaustion is found in the unseen world, deep within the roots of things. If a person loses the ability to descend into those depths so that he cannot continuously draw new vitality from them, then eventually the outer world of things also ceases to give him something life-giving.

It is by no means the case that only the individual and his personal good and evil are concerned. Through occult science man obtains the conviction that from a higher point of view the good and evil of the individual is intimately linked to the good and evil of the world as a whole. This is a means by which man comes to see that he is inflicting harm on the whole world and on every being within it if he does not develop his powers in the right way. If a man makes his life desolate by losing contact with the unseen, he not only destroys something in his inner self, the decay of which may eventually lead him to despair, but through his weakness he constitutes an obstacle to the evolution of the whole world in which he lives.

Now man can delude himself. He can give in to the belief that there is nothing invisible and that what is manifest to his senses and intellect contains all that can exist. But such an illusion is only possible on the surface of consciousness and not in its depths. Feeling and desire do not yield to this illusory belief. They will perpetually yearn, in one way or another, for that which is invisible. And if this is denied, they drive man to doubt, uncertainty about life, or even despair. Occult science, by making manifest that which cannot be seen, is calculated to overcome all despair, uncertainty and hopelessness, all that, in short, weakens life and renders it unfit for its necessary service in the universe.

The beneficial effect of occult science is that it not only satisfies the thirst for knowledge, but also gives strength and stability to life. The source from which the occult scientist draws his strength for work and his confidence in life is inexhaustible. Whoever has once had recourse to this source will always return to it with renewed vigour.

There are people who do not want to hear anything about occult science, because they think they discern something unhealthy in what has just been said. These people are right as far as the superficial and external aspect of life is concerned. They do not wish what life, in its so-called reality, offers to be stunted. They see weakness in the fact that man turns away from reality and seeks his well-being in an invisible world that for them is synonymous with the chimerical and visionary. If as occult scientists we do not want to fall into morbid dreaming and weakness, we must admit that these objections are partially justified. For they are based on sound judgement, which leads to a half-truth instead of a whole truth only because it does not penetrate to the roots of things, but remains on the surface. If occult science were calculated to weaken life and lead man away from true reality, such objections would certainly be strong enough to cut the ground from under the feet of those who follow this spiritual way of life. But even in the face of such views, occult science would not take the right path to defend itself in the ordinary sense of the word. Again, it can only speak through what it gives to those who truly penetrate its meaning, that is, through the real strength and vitality it imparts. It does not weaken life, but strengthens it, because it endows man not only with the forces of the manifest world but with those of the invisible world of which the manifest is the effect. So it does not imply an impoverishment, but an enrichment of life. The true occult scientist does not detach himself from the world, but is a lover of reality, because he does not wish to enjoy the invisible in a remote dream world, but finds his happiness in bringing to the world ever new contributions of strength from the invisible sources from which this same world derives and from which it must be continually fructified.

Some people find many obstacles when embarking on the path of occult science. One of these is expressed in the fact that a person, attempting to take the first steps, is sometimes discouraged because at first he is presented with the details of the supersensible world, so that he can, with all patience and devotion, become acquainted with it. He is given a series of communications on the invisible nature of man, on certain precise events in the realm of which death opens the door, and on the evolutions of man, the earth and the entire solar system. What he expected was to enter the supersensible world easily, in an instant. Now he is told: "Everything I am told to study is food for my mind, but leaves my soul cold. I seek the deepening of my soul life. I want to find myself within myself. I seek something that lifts my soul into the sphere of the divine, leading it to its true home; I do not want information about the human being and the processes of the world. People who speak in this way have no idea that with such sentiments they are barring the door to what they are really seeking. For it is only when, and only when, with a free and open mind, in surrender and patience, they assimilate what they call 'only' food for the intellect, that they will find what their soul thirsts for. This path leads the soul to union with the divine, which brings the soul knowledge of the works of the divine. The elevation of the heart is the result of learning the knowledge of the creations of the spirit.

That is why occult science must begin by imparting the information that sheds light on the realms of the spiritual world. So too in this book we will begin with what can be revealed about the invisible worlds through the methods of occult research. What is mortal in man and what is immortal will be described in their connection to the world of which he is a member.

Then will follow a description of the methods by which man is able to develop those powers of cognition latent in him, which will lead him into that world. About the methods will be said as much as is currently possible in a work of this kind. It seems natural to think that these methods should be dealt with first. For it seems that the main point is to make known to man that which can lead him, through his own strength, to the desired vision of the higher world. Many might say: "What use is it to me for others to tell me what they know of the higher worlds? I wish to see them for myself.

The fact is that for a truly fruitful experience of the mysteries of the invisible world, prior knowledge of certain facts belonging to that world is absolutely necessary. Because this is so, it will be sufficiently brought out in what follows.

It is a mistake to think that the truths of occult science that are imparted by those qualified to communicate them, before mentioning the means of penetration into the spiritual world itself, can only be understood and grasped through the higher vision that results from the development of certain latent powers in man. This is not the case. To investigate and discover the mysteries of a suprasensible world, that higher vision is essential. No one is able to discover the facts of the invisible world without the clairvoyance that is synonymous with that higher vision. However, when the facts have been discovered and imparted, any person who applies the full range of his ordinary intellect and unprejudiced powers of judgement to them will be able to understand them and rise to a high degree of conviction about them. He who claims that the mysteries are incomprehensible to him, does so not because he is not yet clairvoyant, but because he has not yet succeeded in putting into activity those powers of cognition that can be possessed by anyone, even without clairvoyance.

A new method of proposing these arguments is to describe them, after investigating them in a clairvoyant manner, so that they are fully accessible to the faculty of judgement. If only men do not close themselves up in prejudice, there is no obstacle to arrive at a conviction, even without a higher vision. It is true that many will find that the new method of presentation, as given in this book, is far from corresponding to their usual ways of forming an opinion. But any objection due to this will soon disappear if one takes the trouble to follow these habitual methods to their ultimate consequences.

When, through extensive application of ordinary thought, a certain number of higher mysteries have been assimilated and found intelligible by someone, then the time is right to apply the methods of occult research to his or her individual personality: these will give him or her access to the unseen world.

Nor will a true scientist find any contradiction in spirit and truth between his science, which is built on the facts of the sense world, and the way occult science conducts its research. The scientist uses certain tools and methods. He builds his tools by working on what 'nature' gives him. Occult science also uses an instrument, but in this case the instrument is man himself. And even this instrument must first be prepared for that higher quest. The faculties and powers given to man by nature in the beginning, without his co-operation, must be transformed into higher faculties. In this way, man is able to make himself an instrument for the investigation of the unseen world.

CHAPTER 2. THE NATURE OF MAN

With the consideration of man in the light of occult science, what this means in general becomes immediately apparent. It is based on the recognition of something hidden behind what is revealed to the external senses and the intellect acquired through perception. These senses and this intellect can only grasp a part of what occult science reveals as the total human entity, and this part is the physical body. To illuminate its conception of this physical body, occult science first turns to a phenomenon that confronts all observers of life as a great enigma, the phenomenon of death, and in relation to it, points to the so-called inanimate nature, the mineral realm. These are therefore facts that it is up to occult science to explain and to which an important part of this work must be devoted. But to begin with, only a few points will be touched upon, by way of orientation.

In manifest nature, the physical body, according to occult science, is that part of man that is of the same nature as the mineral kingdom. On the other hand, that which distinguishes man from minerals is considered as not being part of the physical body . From the occult point of view, what is of supreme importance is the fact that death separates the human being from that which, during life, is similar in nature to the mineral world. Occult science points to the dead body as that part of the human being that is similarly existing in the mineral realm. It places great emphasis on the fact that in this principle of the human being, which it regards as the physical body, and which death reduces to a corpse, the same materials and forces are at work as in the mineral kingdom; but no less important is the fact that at death the disintegration of the physical body takes place. Occult science therefore says: 'It is true that the same materials and forces are at work in the physical body as in the mineral, but during life their activity is placed at the disposal of something higher. They are only left to themselves when death occurs. Then they act, as they must in accordance with their own nature, as decomposers of the physical body'.

A clear distinction must therefore be made between the manifest and the hidden elements in man. For, during life, that which is hidden from view has to wage perpetual war against the materials and forces of the mineral world. This indicates the point at which occult science intervenes. It must characterise that which makes war as a principle that is hidden from the observation of the senses. Only clairvoyant sight can reveal its workings. How man comes to the awareness of this hidden element, so clearly how his ordinary eyes see sense phenomena, will be described in a later part of this book. The results of clairvoyant observation will be given now for the reason already pointed out in the preceding pages, namely, that communications on how higher vision is obtained can only be of value to the student when he has first become acquainted, in story form, with the results of clairvoyant research. For in this sphere it is entirely possible to understand things that one is not yet able to observe. Indeed, the right path to the higher vision begins with understanding.

Now, although the hidden something that wages war on the disintegration of the physical body can only be observed by the higher sight, it is clearly visible in its effects to the human faculty of judgement that is limited to the manifest world; and these effects are expressed in the form in which the mineral materials and forces combine during life. When death has intervened, the form gradually disappears, and the physical body becomes part of the rest of the mineral world. But the clairvoyant is able to observe this hidden something as an independent member of the human organism, which during life prevents the materials and physical forces from taking their natural course, which would lead to the dissolution of the physical body. This independent principle is called the etheric or vital body.

So that no misunderstandings arise at the outset, two things must be borne in mind in connection with this account of a second principle of human nature . The word 'etheric' is used here in a different sense from that of modern physics, which designates the medium by which light is transmitted as 'ether'. In occult science, the use of the word is limited to the sense given above. It denotes that which is accessible to higher sight, and which can only be known by physical observation because of its effects, i.e. its power to give a definite form to mineral materials and forces in the physical body. Again, the use of the word 'body' must not be misunderstood. It is necessary to use the words of everyday language to describe things on a higher plane of existence, and these terms, when applied to sensory observation, express only that which is physical. The etheric body has, of course, nothing corporeal in the physical sense, however ethereal such a body may be imagined. As soon as the occultist mentions this etheric or vital body, he reaches the point where he is bound to encounter opposition from many contemporary opinions. The development of the human mind has been such that the mention of such a principle of human nature is necessarily regarded as unscientific. The materialistic way of thinking has come to the conclusion that in a living body there is nothing more than a combination of substances and physical forces such as are also found in the so-called inanimate body of the mineral, the only difference being that they are more complicated in the living body than in the inanimate one. Yet it is not so long ago that there were other opinions, even from official science.

It is evident to anyone who studies the works of many serious men of science, produced during the first half of the 19th century, that at that time many genuine investigators of nature were aware of some factor acting within the living body as well as in the lifeless mineral. It was called the 'life force'. It is true that this life force is not represented as what has been characterised above as the vital body, but underlying the conception was a tenuous idea of the existence of such a body. The life force was generally regarded as something that in a living body was united with matter and physical forces in the same way as the force of a magnet is united with iron. Then came the time when the life force was banished from the domain of science. Mere physical and chemical causes were considered sufficient.

At present, however, there is a reaction to this in some scientific circles. It is sometimes conceded that the hypothesis of something of the nature of the 'life force' is pure nonsense. However, even the scientist who concedes this is not prepared to make common cause with the occultist with regard to the vital body. As a rule, there is no point in entering into a discussion of such views from the point of view of occult science. It should be much more important for the occultist to recognise that the materialistic way of thinking is a necessary phenomenon concomitant to the great progress of natural science in our time. This progress is due to the vast improvements in the instruments used in sensory observation. And it is in the very nature of man to bring some of his faculties to a certain degree of perfection at the expense of others. The exact observation of the senses, which has been developed to such an important extent by natural science, should have left in second place the cultivation of those human faculties that lead to the hidden worlds. But the time has come when this cultivation is again necessary; and the recognition of the invisible will not be achieved by fighting the opinions that are the logical result of the denial of its existence, but rather by placing the invisible in its proper light. Then it will be recognised by those for whom 'the hour has come'.

It was necessary to say this, lest one think that occult science ignores the point of view of natural science when speaking of an 'etheric body', which in many circles must necessarily be regarded as purely imaginary.

Thus the etheric body is the second principle of the human being. For the clairvoyant, it possesses a higher degree of reality than the physical body. A description of how it is seen by the clairvoyant can only be given in later parts of this book, when the sense in which such descriptions are to be taken will become manifest. For the present it will suffice to say that the etheric body penetrates the physical body in all its parts, and must be regarded as a kind of architect of the latter. All physical organs are maintained in their form by the currents and movements of the etheric body. The physical heart is based on an etheric heart, and the physical brain on an etheric brain, with this difference, that in the etheric body the parts flow into each other in active movement, whereas in the physical body they are separated from each other.

Man has this etheric body in common with all plants, just as he has the physical body in common with minerals. Every living thing has its etheric body.

The study of occult science proceeds upwards from the etheric body to another principle of the human being. To help form an idea of this principle, it draws attention to the phenomenon of sleep, just as in relation to the etheric body attention has been drawn to death. All human work, as far as the manifest world is concerned, depends on activity during the waking life. But this activity is only possible as long as man is able to recover his strength exhausted by sleep. Action and thought disappear, pain and pleasure vanish during sleep, and upon awakening, man's conscious powers rise from the unconsciousness of sleep as from mysterious hidden sources of energy. It is the same consciousness that sinks into the dark depths when it falls asleep and rises again on awakening.