Results of Spiritual Research: (Cw 62)

by Rudolf Steiner, Simon Blaxland-de Lange (Introduction), Simon Blaxland-de Lange (Translator)

Overview

In a previously-unavailable series of talks to the general public, Rudolf Steiner builds systematically, lecture by lecture, on the fundamentals of spiritual science - from the nature of spiritual knowledge and its relationship to conventional science, the path of personal development and the task of metaphysical research, to specific questions on the mystery of death, the meaning of fairy-tales, the significance of morality and the roles of individual figures in human evolution, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Jacob Boehme. At the time of these presentations, Steiner had already worked in Berlin for many years, and thus, '…could reckon with a regularly returning audience to whom what mattered was to enter ever, more deeply into the areas of knowledge that were newly opening up to them' (Marie Steiner). As a consequence - and through 'a series of inter-connecting lectures whose themes are entwined with one another' - he was able to communicate a coherent and challenging spiritual perception of reality, based on his personal research. Presented here with notes, an index and an introduction by Simon Blaxland-de Lange, the 14 lectures include: 'How is Spiritual Science Refuted?'; 'On What Foundation is Spiritual Science Based'; 'The Tasks of Spiritual Research for both Present and Future'; 'Errors of Spiritual Research'; 'Results of Spiritual Research for Vital Questions and the Riddle of Death'; 'The World-Conception of a Cultural Researcher of the Present, Herman Grimm' and 'The Legacy of the Nineteenth Century'.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781855845992
Publisher:	Rudolf Steiner Press
Publication date:	09/13/2022
Series:	Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner , #62
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Rudolf Steiner (b. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, 1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner's multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.

Simon Blaxland de Lange has for many years worked as an educator for people with special needs. He is also a prolific writer and translator and an amateur musician and gardener. Blaxland de Lange helped establish Pericles Translations and Research, Pericles Training and Work (for adults with special needs), and the Pericles Theatre Company. Together with Dr Vivian Law, he cofounded the Humanities Research Group in 1997 and the British group of the Humanities Section of the School of Spiritual Science in 1998. He met Owen Barfield in 1979, and has been a student of his work for the past thirty years.

Simon Blaxland de Lange has for many years worked as an educator for people with special needs. He is also a prolific writer and translator and an amateur musician and gardener. Blaxland de Lange helped establish Pericles Translations and Research, Pericles Training and Work (for adults with special needs), and the Pericles Theatre Company. Together with Dr Vivian Law, he cofounded the Humanities Research Group in 1997 and the British group of the Humanities Section of the School of Spiritual Science in 1998. He met Owen Barfield in 1979, and has been a student of his work for the past thirty years.

Table of Contents

Publisher's Note xiii

Introduction Simon Blaxland-de Lange xv

Lecture 1 Berlin, 31 October 1912

How is Spiritual Science Refuted?

Spiritual science must be mindful of understanding and tolerating the objections of its opponents. Regarding the knowledgeability of the spiritual world. The four members of man's being. The life of sleep. Life and death. Repeated earthly lives. Objective natural-scientific research and spiritual science. Spiritual science, a refined capacity for having illusions and hallucinations? Is belief in the life-force' and in the etheric body a form of scientific dilettantism? Astral or organic reasons for waking and sleeping? Independence of spiritual life. Repeated earthly fives, different individualities and heredity. Spiritual science and charlatanism. Repeated earthly lives, the law of karma and egotism. An objection of Friedrich Schlegel. The religious life. The danger of arrogance and 'self-deification' through spiritual science. An objection of Jacob Frohschammer against the pre-existence of the soul. An example: Eduard von Hartmann and the criticism in connection with his Philosophy of the Unconscious. Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire regarding man's weakness. 1

Lecture 2 Berlin, 7 November 1912

Off What Foundation is Spiritual Science Based?

A threefold opposition to spiritual research: science, religious confessions, ordinary waking consciousness. Concerning the nature of proof in natural science and spiritual science. Etheric body and 'life-force'. The supposed 'engendering of living substance' in the laboratory. Waking and sleeping. The process of breathing and oxygen. Just as the chemist conceives of water as the duality of hydrogen and oxygen, so does the spirit-researcher regard man as consisting of a physical body, etheric body, astral body and ego. The strengthening of the soul-forces through meditation and concentration as a prerequisite for supersensible knowledge and perceptions. Regarding the objection that it is impossible truly to distinguish between illusory hallucinations and real supersensible experiences. Comparison of experiences relating to spiritual research with mathematical truths. Facts cannot be proved but only experienced. The objection that one acquires one's characteristics not from former lives but solely from the physical line of inheritance: the example of the Bach family of musicians. Regarding the objection that spiritual research promotes egotism in moral acts. Schopenhauer on the preaching of morality. Regarding the religious objection that spiritual science places the spark of the divine in the human breast. Fichte's answer to the battle against spiritual research. Lines from the Mystery Play The Soul's Probation. 27

Lecture 3 Berlin, 14 November 1912

The Tasks of Spiritual Research for both Present and Future

Spiritual science and natural science. Kepler. The abundance of natural-scientific achievements renders the human soul incapable of perceiving the world of spirit. Herman Grimm about Goethe. Modern philosophers always come close to the world of spirit but cannot embrace it. Wilhelm Wundt. Darwin. The historian Lord Acton. The error of natural science in denying the spirit. Moritz Carrière's intellectual outlook and the simple man Carl Zeuner. No world-conception is valid today if it is in contradiction with natural science. The contradictory views of the naturalists Mivart and Wallace regarding the soul-spiritual aspect of man's being. The task of spiritual science. Lessing. Herman Grimm at the threshold of spiritual science. The urge of the time towards spiritual knowledge. Walther Rathenau's A Critical View of the Age. The abstract reference to 'spirit' and 'soul'. The prejudices against the discoveries of Galileo and Francesco Redi. The prejudices against the discoveries of spiritual science. Giordano Bruno. 55

Lecture 4 Berlin, 21 November 1912

The Paths of Supersensible Knowledge

Waking and sleeping. During sleep the soul-spiritual core of one's being is outside the physical body. A person attains to spiritual knowledge if through his will he consciously and in a waking state withdraws from the physical body to the soul-spiritual core of his being. The four stages of human knowledge: outward sensory and intellectual knowledge and the three stages of supersensible knowledge-Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition. Meditation as a means of rising to Imagination. Rich pictures rise up from the depths of the soul. Differentiation from illusions and hallucinations. Imaginations as a reflection of one's own being. A person must be the master of his own imaginations and be able to forget and again remember them. Spiritual beings can be perceived already in Imagination. The ascent to Inspiration and the perception of creative beings in nature. Intuition and the perception of previous incarnations. The results of spiritual research in everyday life. Publication of the methods of spiritual research. A person's worth is determined by his intellectual and moral qualities, not through his spiritual research. The spirit-researcher is no special authority. Belief in authority and blind discipleship are the worst aspect of any spiritual-scientific research. Perception and understanding of the spiritual world. Only like can understand like. 79

Lecture 5 Berlin, 5 December 1912

Results of Spiritual Research for Vital Questions and the Riddle of Death

Franz Brentano's Psychology. Thomas Henry Huxley's Lessons in Elementary Physiology. The question of destiny as regards people born into various states of being or classes. Just as the scientist Francesco Redi has shown that something living can only arise from the living, so spiritual science shows that the soul and spirit can only arise from the soul and spirit. Heredity in reproduction. Repeated earthly fives in natural science and spiritual science. The evolution of the life of the soul. In the reproduction of the species, all development takes place outwardly (evolution); in the life of the individual all development is inwardly oriented (involution). Goethe: In old age we become mystics. The birth of the 'higher man', the 'second ego'. Tiredness and sleep. The building up of bodily forces that have been used up during sleep. A human being is what he has made out of himself, his concentrated destiny. Death and rebirth in different circumstances. Is genius the result of the qualities inherited from one's ancestors? The changing and eternal nature of life. 103

Lecture 6 Berlin, 12 December 1912

Natural Science and Spiritual Research

Natural-scientific discoveries at the end of the nineteenth century. The results of research in biology, zoology and anatomy. The difficulty of distinguishing between scientific facts and speculative theories. The strictness of natural-scientific thinking. The need to research in accordance with the model of natural science also in teachings of the soul: Franz Brentano's Psychology. Brentano's shortcomings on the path to the spiritual world. Sinnett's Esoteric Buddhism cannot be justified in terms of strict natural-scientific standards of truthfulness. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine is also interspersed with natural-scientific dilettantism. Indian wisdom and yoga. Aristotle's teaching of the soul. The loss of the perception of the spiritual world with the arising of natural science.. Du Bois-Reymond's Concerning the Limits of a Knowledge of Nature. The sleeping and waking human being. Spiritual science can only be recognized as justified when it is familiar with present-day natural-scientific research. 128

Lecture 7 Berlin, 9 January 1913

Jacob Boehme

The originality and spiritual greatness of Boehme. Boehme's 'dream experience' as a shepherd boy. His experience as a shoemaker's apprentice. His withdrawal from the physical body into another world for seven days. His book Dawn in the Ascendant. Boehme is prohibited to write. Boehme's other books. What lives in Jacob Boehme's soul can be compared with the first stage of supersensible knowledge, Imagination. The submergence and reappearance of Jacob Boehme's imaginations. The problem of evil in Boehme. The world as the counterpart of the Godhead. Jacob Boehme seeks not only the primal ground but the groundlessness of evil. Good fulfils its function in the world in that it is juxtaposed to evil. Concerning Lucifer. Boehme's formulation of the problem of evil: 'No yes without a no'. Boehme as a solver of the riddles of runes and a 'Philosophicus teutonicus'. Writings opposing Jacob Boehme. 153

Lecture 8 Berlin, 16 January 1913

The World-Conception of a Cultural Researcher of the Present, Herman Grimm, and Spiritual Research

Herman Grimm as a mediating link between the time of Goethe and modern cultural life and as a spiritual representative of Goethe. His lectures on Goethe. Herman Grimm as an observer of history: Whoever has faith in outer historical documents receives a falsified picture of human evolution. Grimm, in contrast, looked at the continuous stream of the creations of the popular imagination in literature and art. Grimm's book on Homer. Herman Grimm regarding the Christ impulse in human evolution. Grimm's Fragments. His book Raphael in relation to his other works. Grimm's prior studies for his books are not historical but soul studies. The collection of novellas, the novel Insuperable Powers. Herman Grimm at the threshold of spiritual science. 175

Lecture 9 Berlin, 30 January 1913

Raphael's Mission in the Light of the Science of the Spirit

The education of the human race through such outstanding figures as Raphael. The advancement of humanity towards inwardness. The balance between the soul-spiritual and outward bodily aspects in the culture of Ancient Greece, the inwardly focused soul in Christianity (Augustine), the creations of Raphael as a watershed in human evolution. Raphael's development in stages of four years. Birth in Urbino, apprenticeship in Perugia, the Florence of Savonarola. The popes. Raphael in Rome seemingly as the servant of a Christianity that had become pagan, but in his works Christian ideas appear in a new form. The Sistine Madonna. The Madonna delta Sedia. Inner Christian fire in Raphael and in Savonarola. Raphael's Christianity and the culture of Ancient Greece. The School of Athens. The Parnassus. The Disputa. Raphael's creations in the course of human evolution. 201

Lecture 10 Berlin, 6 February 1913

Fairy-tale Literature in the Light of Spiritual Research

The sources of fairy-tale literature he much deeper in the human soul than the sources of other works of art. The difference between fairy tales and tragedy. The battle of the soul in going to sleep and waking up is enacted at such depths of the human soul. The constant unconscious dreaming of the soul. The former clairvoyant consciousness. The arising of fairytale images. The tale of the child and the toad. 'Rumpelstilstkin'. Rudolf Steiner's Occult Science and fairy tales from Wilhelm Wundt's Elements of Folk Psychology. The German fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Giants in fairy tales. The tale 'A Hundred with one Stroke'. Fairy tales are wonderful nourishment for the soul of the child and are a good Angel for a person's journey through life. 226

Lecture 11 Berlin, 13 February 1913

Leonardo's Spiritual Greatness at the Turning-Point leading to the Modern Age

The Last Supper in Milan. Leonardo's path of life. His drawing talent. His studies of facial characteristics for the most diverse soul-experiences.. Leonardo at the court of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. His technical inventions and plans. The equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza. Leonardo's many years of struggle to complete the Last Supper. His Treatise on Painting. The particular relationships of light and shade in the countenance of Christ and of Judas in the Last Supper. The mystery of the personality of Leonardo. The twofold significance of the development of natural science. The art of the Renaissance and the art of Greece. The statue of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. The loss of the feeling of connectedness with the spirit rn the age of Leonardo. Leonardo as a tragic figure at the turning-point to a new age. His soul in supersensible existence. 248

Lecture 12 Berlin, 6 March 1913

Errors of Spiritual Research

Healthy organs of perception and a full development and clarity of consciousness as a precondition for right observation. A sound faculty of judgement and a moral mood of the soul as a point of departure for spiritual-scientific schooling. The visions of the spirit-researcher are initially only the illusory mental pictures of his own being. Hence the spirit-researcher must also have the capacity to extinguish the spiritual phenomena that he is able to evoke. This is only possible by mastering the obstinacy of self-love. The spirit-pupil should not be frightened of fear. The 'Guardian of the Threshold'. The fear of the spiritual world as the reason for materialism, which can lead to phenomenalism and spiritism. In the spiritual world error arises through what is dead being taken as something living. Maurice Maeterlinck's book Death is phenomenalism and spectre-research rather than spiritual research. The other extreme of the possibilities for error is ecstasy. The so-called mystical 'God within' is often nothing other than an ego branded with God's name. Truthfulness as the outward sign of the true spirit-re searcher. The communications of the spirit-researcher can also be understood by a person's faculty of thinking. The path of spiritual research between phenomenalism and ecstasy. 268

Lecture 13 Berlin, 3 April 1913

Morality in the Light of Spiritual Research

Arthur Schopenhauer's idea of morality. The difference in the moral reasoning in the example of a moral deed of Lord Byron's. The three stages of initiation (Imagination, Inspiration, Intuition) and the moral mood of soul. In order to be able to recognize the pictures of Imagination as reflections of his own being, the spirit-researcher needs a sense for facts and the practice of truthfulness. In order to be able to recognize the spiritual voices of Inspiration as the echo of his own being, the spirit-researcher needs moral courage, fortitude. In order to arrive in Intuition at true knowledge of higher beings, the spirit-researcher needs free open interest. Thus spiritual schooling is intimately connected with the enhancement of moral power. Schopenhauer's moral demand for compassion, sympathy. The moral experience of the spirit-researcher in the encounter with the Guardian of the Threshold. Moral qualities in their causes and effects in the course of repeated earthly lives. Even if it is as yet very hidden, there is something in man that professes goodness. 292

Lecture 14 Berlin, 10 April 1913

The Legacy of the Nineteenth Century

Spiritual science endeavours to be for the soul a knowledge of its spiritual origin. The brilliant period of philosophical striving: Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Schopenhauer. Kant's treatise What is Enlightenment? The fading of philosophical striving and the rise of natural science around the middle of the nineteenth century. Goethe, Herman Grimm, Emerson. The significance of natural-scientific thinking for the human soul. The human soul in former cultural epochs: in the Egypto-Chaldaean age the soul feels at one with the world, in the Graeco-Roman age the soul feels at one with its own bodily nature, in the present cultural epoch the soul has thrust itself out of the objective world-picture. Kepler and Giordano Bruno regarding the Earth as an organism. The three members of the human soul and their development in the cultural epochs. The struggle of the consciousness soul in the nineteenth century in Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Du Bois-Reymond. The preparation of the age of the Spirit-self already in our age of the consciousness soul. Otto Liebman's idea of the cosmos as a giant brain. The natural-scientific world-picture of the nineteenth century is the best educational means for what the human soul is to become: a being that is striving towards the Spirit-self from the consciousness soul. 313

Notes 344

Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works 357

Significant Events in the Life of Rudolf Steiner 371

Index 387