Initiation and Its Results
GA 10
III. Dream Life
[ 1 ] An intimation that the student has arrived at the stage of evolution described in the foregoing chapter is the change which comes over his dream-life. Hitherto his dreams were confused and haphazard, but now they begin to assume a more regular character. Their pictures begin to arrange themselves in an orderly way, like the phenomena of daily life. He can discern in them laws, causes, and effects. The contents of his dreams will likewise change. While hitherto he discerned only the reverberations of daily life, mixed impressions of his surroundings or of his physical condition, there now appear before him pictures of a world with which he had no acquaintance. At first, indeed, the general nature of his dreams will remain as of old in so far as the dream differentiates itself from waking phenomena by presenting in emblematical form whatever it wishes to express. This dramatization cannot have escaped the notice of any attentive observer of dream-life. For instance, you may dream that you are catching some horrible creature and experiencing an unpleasant sensation in your hand. You wake up to discover that you are tightly holding a piece of the bed-clothes. The perception does not express itself plainly, but only through the allegorical image. Or you may dream that you are flying from some pursuer and in consequence you experience fear. On waking up you find that during sleep you had been suffering from palpitation of the heart. The stomach which is replete with indigestible food will cause uneasy dream-pictures. Occurrences in the neighborhood of the sleeping person may also reflect themselves allegorically in dreams. The striking of a clock may evoke the picture of soldiers marching by to the sound of their drums. Or a falling chair can become the origin of a complete dream-drama in which the sound of falling is translated into a gun report, and so forth. The more regulated dreams of the person whose etheric body has begun its development have also this allegorical method of expression, but they will cease to repeat merely the facts of the physical environment or of the sense-body. As these dreams which owe their origin to such things become orderly they are mixed up with similar dream-pictures which are the expression of things and events in another world. Here one has experiences that lie beyond the range of one's waking consciousness. Now it must never be fancied that any true mystic will then make the things which in this manner he experiences in dreams the basis of any authoritative account of the higher world. One must only consider such dream-experiences as hints of a higher development. Very soon, as a further result of this, we find that the pictures of the dreaming student are no longer, as hitherto, withdrawn by the guidance of a careful intellect, but are regulated thereby, and methodically considered like the conceptions and impressions of the waking consciousness. The difference between this dream-consciousness and the waking state grows ever smaller and smaller. The dreamer becomes, in the fullest meaning of the word, awake in his dream-life : that is to say, he can feel himself to be the master and leader of the pictures which then appear.
[ 2 ] During his dreams the individual actually finds himself in a world which is other than that of his physical senses. But if he possesses only unevolved spiritual organs, he can receive from that world only the confused dramatizations already mentioned. It would only be as much at his disposal as would be the sense-world to a being equipped with nothing but the most rudimentary of eyes. In consequence he could only discern in this world the reflections and reverberations of ordinary life. Yet in dreams he can see these, because his soul interweaves its daily perceptions as pictures into the stuff of which that other world consists. It must here be clearly understood that in addition to the workaday conscious life, one leads in this world a second and unconscious existence. Everything that one perceives or thinks becomes impressed upon this other world. Only if the lotus-flowers are evolved can one perceive these impressions. Now certain minute beginnings of the lotus-flowers are always at the disposal of anyone. During daily consciousness he cannot perceive with them, because the impressions made on him are very faint. It is for similar reasons that during the daytime one cannot see the stars. They cannot strike our perceptions when opposed by the fierce and active sunlight, and it is just in this way that faint spiritual impressions cannot make themselves felt in opposition to the masterful impressions of the physical senses. When the door of outward sense is closed in sleep, these impressions can emerge confusedly, and then the dreamer remembers what he has experienced in another world. Yet, as already remarked, at first these experiences are nothing more than that which conceptions related to the physical senses have impressed on the spiritual world. Only the developed lotus-flowers make it possible for manifestations which are unconnected with the physical world to show themselves. Out of the development of the etheric body arises a full knowledge concerning the impressions that are conveyed from one world to another. With this the student's communication with a new world has begun. He must now—by means of the instructions given in his occult training—first of all acquire a twofold nature. It must become possible for him during waking hours to recall quite consciously the beings he has observed in dreams. If he has acquired this faculty he will then become able to make these observations during his ordinary waking state. His attention will have become so concentrated upon spiritual impressions that these impressions need no longer vanish in the light of those which come through the senses, but are, as it were, always at hand.
[ 3 ] If the student is able to do this, there then arises before his spiritual eyes something of the picture which has been described in a former chapter. He can now discern that what exists in the spiritual world is the origin of that which corresponds to it in the physical world, and, above all things, can he learn in this world to know his own higher self. The task that now confronts him is to grow, as it were, into this higher self, or, in other words, to regard it as his only true self, and also to conduct himself accordingly. He now retains, more and more, the conception and the vital realization that his physical body and what hitherto he designated “himself ” is only an instrument of the higher self. He takes an attitude toward his lower self, such as might be taken by some one limited to the world of sense with regard to some instrument or vehicle which serves him. Just as such a person would not consider the carriage in which he travelled to be himself, though he says “I travel,” or “I go,” so, too, the developed person, when he says “I go through the door,” retains in his mind the conception, “I take my body through the door.” This must become for him such an habitual idea that he never for a moment loses the firm ground of the physical world, that never a feeling of estrangement in the world of sense arises. If the student does not wish to become a mere fantastic or vain enthusiast, he must work with the higher consciousness, so that he does not impoverish his life in the physical world, but enriches it, even as the person who makes use of a railway instead of his own legs may enrich himself by going for a journey.
[ 4 ] If the student has raised himself to such a life in the higher Ego, then—or still more probably during the acquisition of the higher consciousness—it will be revealed to him how he may stir into life what is called the fire of Kundalini which lies in the organ at the heart, and, further, how he may direct the currents described in a previous chapter.
This fire of Kundalini is an element of finer material which flows outward from this organ and streams in luminous loveliness through the self-moving lotus-flowers and the other canals of the evolved etheric body. Thence it radiates outward an the surrounding spiritual world and makes it spiritually visible, just as the sunshine falling upon the surrounding objects makes visible the physical world.
[ 5 ] How this fire of Kundalini in the organ at the heart is fanned into life may only form the subject of actual occult training. Nothing can be said of it openly.
[ 6 ] The spiritual world becomes plainly perceptible as composed of objects and beings only for the individual who in such a way can send the fire of Kundalini through his etheric body and into the outer world, so that its objects are illumined by it. From this it will be seen that a complete consciousness of an object in the spiritual world is entirely dependent upon the condition that the person himself has cast upon it the spiritual light. In reality the Ego, who has drawn forth this fire, no longer dwells in the physical human body at all, but (as has been already shown) apart from it. The organ at the heart is only the spot where the individual from without enkindles that fire. If he wished to do this, not here but elsewhere, then the spiritual perceptions produced by means of the fire would have no connection with the physical world. Yet one should relate all the higher spiritual things to the physical world itself, and through oneself should let them work in the latter. The organ at the heart is precisely the one through which the higher self makes use of the lower self as his instrument and whence the latter is directed.
[ 7 ] The feeling which the developed person now bears toward the things of the spiritual world is quite other than that which is characteristic of ordinary people in relation to the physical world. The latter feel themselves to be in a certain part of the world of sense, and the objects they perceive are external to them. The spiritually evolved person feels himself to be united with the spiritual objects that he perceives, as if, indeed, he were within them. In spiritual space he veritably moves from place to place, and is therefore spoken of in the language of occult science as “the wanderer.” He is practically without a home. Should he continue in this mere wandering, he would be unable to define clearly any object in spiritual space. Just as one defines an object or a locality in physical space by starting from a certain point, so must it also be in regard to the other world. He must seek for a place there which Dream-Life
he practically completely explores—a place of which he spiritually takes possession. This he must make his spiritual home and set everything in relation to it. The person who is living in the physical world sees everything in a like manner, as if he carried the ideas of his physical home wherever he went. Involuntarily a man from Berlin will describe London quite otherwise than a Parisian. Only there is a difference between the spiritual and the physical home. Into the latter you are born without your own cooperation, and from it in youth you have acquired a number of ideas which will henceforth involuntarily give color to everything. The spiritual home, an the contrary, you have formed for yourself with full consciousness. You therefore shape your opinions when going out from it in the full, unprejudiced light of freedom. This formation of a spiritual home is known in the speech of occult science as “the building of the hut.”
[ 8 ] The spiritual outlook at this point extends at first to the spiritual counterparts of the physical world, so far as these lie in what we call the astral world. In this world is found everything which in its nature is akin to human impulse, feeling, desire, or passion. For in every sense-object that surrounds a person there are forces which are related to these human forces. A crystal, for instance, is formed by powers which, when seen from the higher standpoint, are perceptible as akin to the impulse which acts in the human being. By similar forces the sap is drawn through the vessels of the plant, the blossoms unfold, the seed-cases are made to burst. All these powers acquire form and color for the developed spiritual perceptions, just as the objects of the physical world have color and form for physical eyes. At the stage of development here described the student no longer sees merely the crystal or the plant, but likewise the spiritual forces behind them, even as he does not now see the impulses of animal or human being only through their external manifestations, but also directly as veritable objects, as in the physical world he can see chairs and tables. The entire world of instinct, impulse, wish or passion, whether of a person or of an animal, is there in the astral cloud, in the aura with which the subject is enwrapt.
[ 9 ] Besides this, the clairvoyant at this stage of his evolution perceives things that are almost or entirely withdrawn from the perceptions of sense. For example, he can observe the astral difference between a place which is for the most part filled with persons of low development and another which is inhabited by high-minded people. In a hospital it is not only the physical but also the astral atmosphere which is other than that of the ball-room. A commercial town has a different astral air from that of a university town. At first the powers of perceiving such things will be but weak in the person who has become clairvoyant. At first it will seem to be connected with the objects concerned, very much as is the dream-consciousness of the ordinary person in relation to his waking consciousness, but gradually he will completely awaken on this plane also.
[ 10 ] The highest acquisition that comes to the clairvoyant, when he has reached this degree of sight, is that by which the astral reaction of animal or human impulses or passions is revealed to him. A loving action has quite a different astral appearance from one which proceeds out of hatred. The sensual appetite gives rise to a horrible astral image, and the feeling that is based on lofty things to one that is beautiful. These correspondences or astral pictures are only to be seen faintly during physical human life, for their strength is much lessened by existence in the physical world. A wish for any object displays itself, for instance, as a reflection of the object itself, in addition to that which the wish appears to be in the astral world. If, however, that wish is satisfied by the attainment of the physical object, or if at least the possibility of such satisfaction is present, the corresponding image would only make a very faint appearance. It first comes into its full power after the death of a person, when the soul, according to its nature, continues to foster such desires, but cannot any longer satisfy them because the object and its own physical organs are both lacking. Thus the gourmet will still have the desire to tickle his palate; but the possibility of satisfaction is absent, since he no longer possesses a palate. As a result of this the desire is displayed as an exceptionally powerful image by which the soul is tormented. These experiences after death among the images of the lower soul-nature are known as the period in “Kamaloka,” that is to say, in the region of desire. They only vanish away when the soul has cleansed itself from all appetites which are directed towards the physical world. Then does the soul mount up into a loftier region which is called “Devachan.” Although these images are thus weak in the person who is yet alive, they still exist and follow him as his own environment in Kamaloka, just as the comet is followed by its tail, and they can be seen by the clairvoyant who has arrived at this stage of development.
[ 11 ] Among such experiences and all that are akin to them the occult student lives in the world that has been described. He cannot as yet bring himself into touch with still loftier spiritual adventures. From this point he must climb upward still higher.
Veränderungen im Traumleben des Geheimschülers
[ 1 ] Eine Ankündigung, daß der Geheimschüler die im vorigen Kapitel beschriebene Stufe der Entwickelung erreicht hat oder doch bald erreichen werde, ist die Veränderung, die mit seinem Traumleben vorgeht. Vorher waren die Träume verworren und willkürlich. Nun fangen sie an, einen regelmäßigen Charakter anzunehmen. Ihre Bilder werden sinnvoll zusammenhängend wie die Vorstellungen des Alltagslebens. Man kann in ihnen Gesetz, Ursache und Wirkung erkennen. Und auch der Inhalt der Träume ändert sich. Während man vorher nur Nachklänge des täglichen Lebens, umgeformte Eindrücke der Umgebung oder der eigenen Körperzustände wahrnimmt, treten jetzt Bilder aus einer Welt auf, mit der man vorher unbekannt war. Zunächst bleibt allerdings der allgemeine Charakter des Traumlebens bestehen, insofern sich der Traum vom wachen Vorstellen dadurch unterscheidet, daß er sinnbildlich dasjenige gibt, was er ausdrücken will. Einem aufmerksamen Beurteiler des Traumlebens kann ja diese Sinnbildlichkeit nicht entgehen. Man träumt zum Beispiel davon, daß man ein häßliches Tier gefangen und ein unangenehmes Gefühl in der Hand hat. Man wacht auf und merkt, daß man einen Zipfel der Bettdecke mit der Hand umschlossen hält. Die Wahrnehmung drückt sich also nicht ungeschminkt aus, sondern durch das gekennzeichnete Sinnbild. –Oder man träumt, daß man vor einem Verfolger flieht; man empfindet dabei Angst. Beim Aufwachen zeigt sich, daß man von Herzklopfen während des Schlafes befallen war. Der Magen, welcher mit schwerverdaulichen Speisen erfüllt ist, verursacht beängstigende Traumbilder. Auch Vorgänge in der Umgebung des schlafenden Menschen spiegeln sich im Traume als Sinnbilder. Das Schlagen einer Uhr kann das Bild eines Soldatentrupps hervorrufen, der bei Trommelschlag vorbeimarschiert. Ein umfallender Stuhl kann die Veranlassung zu einem ganzen Traumdrama sein, in dem der Schlag sich als Schuß widerspiegelt und so weiter. – Diese sinnbildliche Art des Ausdruckes hat nun auch der geregelte Traum des Menschen, dessen Ätherkörper sich zu entwickeln beginnt. Aber er hört auf, bloße Tatsachen der physischen Umgebung oder des eigenen sinnlichen Leibes widerzuspiegeln. So wie diejenigen Träume regelmäßig werden, welche diesen Dingen ihren Ursprung verdanken, so mischen sich auch solche Traumbilder ein, die Ausdruck von Dingen und Verhältnissen einer anderen Welt sind. Hier werden zuerst Erfahrungen gemacht, welche dem gewöhnlichen Tagesbewußtsein unzugänglich sind. – Nun darf man keineswegs glauben, daß irgendein wahrer Mystiker die Dinge, die er in solcher Art traumhaft erlebt, zur Grundlage irgendwelcher maßgebenden Mitteilungen einer höheren Welt schon macht. Nur als die ersten Anzeichen einer höheren Entwickelung hat man solche Traumerlebnisse zu betrachten. – Bald tritt auch als weitere Folge die Tatsache ein, daß die Bilder des träumenden Geheimschülers nicht mehr wie früher der Leitung des besonnenen Verstandes entzogen sind, sondern von diesem geregelt und ordnungsgemäß überschaut werden wie die Vorstellungen und Empfindungen des Wachbewußtseins. Es verschwindet eben immer mehr und mehr der Unterschied zwischen dem Traumbewußtsein und diesem Wachzustand. Der Träumende ist im vollen Sinne des Wortes während des Traumlebens wach; das heißt, er fühlt sich als Herr und Führer seiner bildhaften Vorstellungen.
[ 2 ] Während des Träumens befindet sich der Mensch tatsächlich in einer Welt, welche von derjenigen seiner physischen Sinne verschieden ist. Nur vermag der Mensch mit unentwickelten geistigen Organen sich von dieser Welt keine anderen als die gekennzeichneten verworrenen Vorstellungen zu bilden. Sie ist für ihn nur so vorhanden, wie die sinnliche Welt für ein Wesen da wäre, das höchstens die allerersten Anlagen von Augen hat. Deshalb kann der Mensch auch nichts sehen in dieser Welt als die Nachbilder und Widerspiegelungen des gewöhnlichen Lebens. Diese kann er aber aus dem Grunde im Traume sehen, weil seine Seele ihre Tageswahmehmungen selbst als Bilder in den Stoff hineinmalt, aus dem jene andere Welt besteht. Man muß sich nämlich klar darüber sein, daß der Mensch neben seinem gewöhnlichen bewußten Tagesleben noch ein zweites, unbewußtes, in der angedeuteten anderen Welt führt. Alles, was er wahrnimmt und denkt, gräbt er in Abdrücken in diese Welt ein. Man kann diese Abdrucke eben nur sehen, wenn die Lotusblumen entwickelt sind. Nun sind bei jedem Menschen gewisse spärliche Anlagen der Lotusblumen immer vorhanden. Während des Tagesbewußtseins kann er damit nichts wahrnehmen, weil die Eindrücke auf ihn ganz schwach sind. Es ist dies aus einem ähnlichen Grunde, warum man während des Tages die Sterne nicht sieht. Sie kommen für die Wahrnehmungen gegenüber dem mächtig wirkenden Sonnenlicht nicht auf. So kommen die schwachen geistigen Eindrücke gegenüber den machtvollen Eindrücken der physischen Sinne nicht zur Geltung. Wenn nun im Schlaf die Tore der äußeren Sinne geschlossen sind, so leuchten diese Eindrücke verworren auf. Und der Träumende wird dann der in einer anderen Welt gemachten Erfahrungen gewahr. Aber, wie gesagt, zunächst sind diese Erfahrungen nichts weiter als dasjenige, was das an die physischen Sinne gebundene Vorstellen selbst in die geistige Welt eingegraben hat. – Erst die entwickelten Lotusblumen machen es möglich, daß Kundgebungen, welche nicht der physischen Welt angehören, dort verzeichnet werden. Und durch den entwickelten Ätherleib entsteht dann ein volles Wissen von diesen aus anderen Welten herrührenden Einzeichnungen. – Damit hat der Verkehr des Menschen in einer neuen Welt begonnen. Und der Mensch muß jetzt – durch die Anleitungen der Geheimschulung – ein Doppeltes zunächst erreichen. Zuerst muß es ihm möglich werden, ganz vollständig wie im Wachen die im Traume gemachten Beobachtungen zu gewahren. Hat er dies erreicht, so wird er dazu geführt, dieselben Beobachtungen auch während des gewöhnlichen Wachzustandes zu machen. Seine Aufmerksamkeit auf geistige Eindrücke wird da einfach so geregelt, daß diese Eindrücke gegenüber den physischen nicht mehr zu verschwinden brauchen, sondern daß er sie neben und mit diesen immerfort haben kann.
[ 3 ] Hat der Geheimschüler diese Fähigkeit erlangt, dann tritt eben vor seinen geistigen Augen etwas von dem Gemälde auf, das im vorigen Kapitel beschrieben worden ist. Er kann nunmehr wahrnehmen, was in der geistigen Welt vorhanden ist als die Ursache für die physische. Und er kann vor allem sein höheres Selbst innerhalb dieser Welt erkennen. – Seine nächste Aufgabe ist nun, in dieses höhere Selbst gewissermaßen hineinzuwachsen, das heißt, es wirklich als seine wahre Wesenheit anzusehen und auch sich dementsprechend zu verhalten. Immer mehr erhält er nun die Vorstellung und das lebendige Gefühl davon, daß sein physischer Leib und was er vorher sein «Ich» genannt hat, nur mehr ein Werkzeug des höheren Ich ist. Er bekommt eine Empfindung gegenüber dem niederen Selbst, wie es der auf die Sinnenwelt beschränkte Mensch gegenüber einem Werkzeug oder Fahrzeug hat, deren er sich bedient. So wie dieser den Wagen, in dem er fährt, nicht zu seinem «Ich» rechnet, auch wenn er sagt: «Ich fahre» wie «Ich gehe», so hat der entwickelte Mensch, wenn er sagt: «Ich gehe zur Tür hinein», eigentlich die Vorstellung: «Ich trage meinen Leib zur Tür hinein.» Nur muß das für ihn ein so selbstverständlicher Begriff sein, daß er nicht einen Augenblick den festen Boden der physischen Welt verliert, daß niemals ein Gefühl von Entfremdung deshalb gegenüber der Sinnenwelt auftritt. Soll der Geheimschüler nicht zum Schwärmer oder Phantasten werden, so muß er durch das höhere Bewußtsein sein Leben in der physischen Welt nicht verarmen, sondern bereichern, so wie es derjenige bereichert, der sich statt seiner Beine eines Eisenbahnzuges bedient, um einen Weg zu machen.
[ 4 ] Hat es der Geheimschüler zu einem solchen Leben in seinem höheren Ich gebracht, dann – oder vielmehr schon während der Aneignung des höheren Bewußtseins – wird ihm klar, wie er die geistige Wahrnehmungskraft in dem in der Herzgegend erzeugten Organ zum Dasein erwecken und durch die in den vorigen Kapiteln charakterisierten Strömungen leiten kann. Diese Wahrnehmungskraft ist ein Element von höherer Stofflichkeit, das von dem genannten Organ ausgeht und in leuchtender Schönheit durch die sich bewegenden Lotusblumen und auch durch die anderen Kanäle des ausgebildeten Ätherleibes strömt. Es strahlt von da nach außen in die umgebende geistige Welt und macht sie geistig sichtbar, wie das von außen auf die Gegenstände fallende Sonnenlicht diese physisch sichtbar macht.
[ 5 ] Wie diese Wahrnehmungskraft im Herzorgane erzeugt wird, das kann nur allmählich im Ausbilden selbst verstanden werden.
[ 6 ] Deutlich als Gegenstände und Wesen wahrnehmbar wird die geistige Welt eigentlich erst für einen Menschen, der in solcher Art das charakterisierte Wahmehmungsorgan durch seinen Ätherleib und nach der Außenwelt senden kann, um damit die Gegenstände zu beleuchten. – Man sieht daraus, daß ein vollkommenes Bewußtsein von einem Gegenstande der geistigen Welt nur unter der Bedingung entstehen kann, daß der Mensch selbst das Geisteslicht auf ihn wirft. In Wahrheit wohnt nun das «Ich», welches dieses Wahmehmungsorgan erzeugt, gar nicht im physischen Menschenkörper, sondern, wie gezeigt worden ist, außerhalb desselben. Das Herzorgan ist nur der Ort, wo der Mensch von außen her dieses geistige Lichtorgan entfacht. Würde er es nicht hier, sondern an einem anderen Orte entzünden, so hätten die durch dasselbe zustande gebrachten geistigen Wahrnehmungen keinen Zusammenhang mit der physischen Welt. Aber der Mensch soll ja alles höhere Geistige eben auf die physische Welt beziehen und durch sich in die letztere hereinwirken lassen. Das Herzorgan ist gerade dasjenige, durch welches das höhere Ich das sinnliche Selbst zu seinem Werkzeug macht und von dem aus dies letztere gehandhabt wird.
[ 7 ] Nun ist die Empfindung, welche der entwickelte Mensch gegenüber den Dingen der geistigen Welt hat, eine andere als die, welche dem Sinnenmenschen gegenüber der physischen Welt eigen ist. Der letztere fühlt sich an einem gewissen Orte der Sinnenwelt, und die wahrgenommenen Gegenstände sind für ihn «außerhalb». Der geistig entwickelte Mensch dagegen fühlt sich mit dem geistigen Gegenstande seiner Wahrnehmung wie vereinigt, wie «im Innern» desselben. Er wandelt in der Tat im Geistesraume von Ort zu Ort. Man nennt ihn deshalb in der Sprache der Geheimwissenschaft auch den «Wanderer». Er ist zunächst nirgends zu Hause. – Bliebe er bei dieser bloßen Wanderschaft, dann könnte er keinen Gegenstand im geistigen Raume wirklich bestimmen. Wie man einen Gegenstand oder Ort im physischen Raume dadurch bestimmt, daß man von einem gewissen Punkte ausgeht, so muß das auch in der erreichten anderen Welt der Fall sein. Man muß sich auch da irgendwo einen Ort suchen, den man zunächst ganz genau erforscht und geistig für sich in Besitz nimmt. In diesem Orte muß man sich eine geistige Heimat gründen und dann alles andere zu dieser Heimat in ein Verhältnis setzen. Auch der in der physischen Welt lebende Mensch sieht ja alles so, wie es die Vorstellungen seiner physischen Heimat mit sich bringen. Ein Berliner beschreibt unwillkürlich London anders als ein Pariser. Nur ist es mit der geistigen Heimat doch anders als mit der physischen. In die letztere ist man ohne sein Zutun hineingeboren, in ihr hat man während der Jugendzeit eine Reihe von Vorstellungen instinktiv aufgenommen, von denen fortan alles unwillkürlich beleuchtet wird. Die geistige Heimat hat man sich aber mit vollem Bewußtsein selbst gebildet. Man urteilt von ihr ausgehend deshalb auch in voller lichter Freiheit. Dieses Bilden einer geistigen Heimat nennt man in der Sprache der Geheimwissenschaft «eine Hütte bauen».
[ 8 ] Das geistige Schauen auf dieser Stufe erstreckt sich zunächst auf die geistigen Gegenbilder der physischen Welt, soweit diese Gegenbilder in der sogenannten astralen Welt liegen. In dieser Welt befindet sich alles dasjenige, was seinem Wesen nach gleich den menschlichen Trieben, Gefühlen, Begierden und Leidenschaften ist. Denn zu allen den Menschen umgebenden Sinnesdingen gehören auch Kräfte, die mit diesen menschlichen verwandt sind. Ein Kristall zum Beispiel wird in seine Form gegossen durch Kräfte, die sich der höheren Anschauung gegenüber ausnehmen wie ein Trieb, der im Menschen wirkt. Durch ähnliche Kräfte wird der Saft durch die Gefäße der Pflanze geleitet, werden die Blüten zur Entfaltung, die Samenkapseln zum Aufspringen gebracht. Alle diese Kräfte gewinnen Form und Farbe für die entwickelten geistigen Wahmehmungsorgane, wie die Gegenstände der physischen Welt Form und Farbe für das physische Auge haben. Der Geheimschüler sieht auf der geschilderten Stufe seiner Entwickelung nicht nur den Kristall, die Pflanze, sondern auch die gekennzeichneten geistigen Kräfte. Und er sieht die tierischen und menschlichen Triebe nicht nur durch die physischen Lebensäußerungen ihrer Träger, sondern auch unmittelbar als Gegenstände, wie er in der physischen Welt Tische und Stühle sieht. Die ganze Instinkt-, Trieb-, Wunsch-, Leidenschaftswelt eines Tieres oder Menschen wird zu der astralen Wolke, in welche das Wesen eingehüllt wird, zur Aura.
[ 9 ] Weiter nimmt der Hellseher auf dieser Stufe seiner Entwickelung auch Dinge wahr, die sich der sinnlichen Auffassung fast oder vollständig entziehen. Er kann zum Beispiel den astralen Unterschied merken zwischen einem Raume, der zum großen Teile mit niedrig gesinnten Menschen erfüllt ist, und einem solchen, in dem hochgesinnte Personen anwesend sind. In einem Krankenhause ist nicht nur die physische, sondern auch die geistige Atmosphäre eine andere als in einem Tanzsaale. Eine Handelsstadt hat eine andere astrale Luft als ein Universitätsort. Zunächst wird das Wahmehmungsvermögen des hellsehend gewordenen Menschen für solche Dinge nur schwach entwickelt sein. Es wird sich zu den zuerst genannten Gegenständen so verhalten wie das Traumbewußtsein des Sinnenmenschen zu seinem Wachbewußtsein. Aber allmählich wird er auch auf dieser Stufe voll erwachen.
[ 10 ] Die höchste Errungenschaft des Hellsehers, der den charakterisierten Grad des Schauens erreicht hat, ist diejenige, auf welcher sich ihm die astralen Gegenwirkungen der tierischen und menschlichen Triebe und Leidenschaften zeigen. Eine liebevolle Handlung hat eine andere astrale Begleiterscheinung als eine solche, die vom Hasse ausgeht. Die sinnlose Begierde stellt außer sich selbst noch ein häßliches astrales Gegenbild dar, die auf Hohes gerichtete Empfindung dagegen ein schönes. Diese Gegenbilder sind während des physischen Menschenlebens nur schwach zu sehen. Denn ihre Stärke wird durch das Leben in der physischen Welt beeinträchtigt. Ein Wunsch nach einem Gegenstande erzeugt zum Beispiel ein solches Spiegelbild außer dem, als welches dieser Wunsch selbst in der astralen Welt erscheint. Wird aber der Wunsch durch das Erlangen des physischen Gegenstandes befriedigt oder ist wenigstens die Möglichkeit zu solcher Befriedigung vorhanden, so wird das Gegenbild nur ein sehr schwacher Schein sein. Zu seiner vollen Geltung gelangt es erst nach dem Tode des Menschen, wenn die Seele noch immer, ihrer Natur nach, solchen Wunsch hegen muß, ihn aber nicht mehr befriedigen kann, weil der Gegenstand und auch das physische Organ dazu fehlen. Der sinnlich veranlagte Mensch wird auch nach seinem Tode zum Beispiel die Gier nach Gaumengenuß haben. Ihm fehlt jetzt aber die Möglichkeit der Befriedigung, da er doch keinen Gaumen mehr hat. Das hat zur Folge, daß der Wunsch ein besonders heftiges Gegenbild erzeugt, von dem die Seele dann gequält wird. Man nennt diese Erfahrungen durch die Gegenbilder der niederen Seelennatur nach dem Tode die Erlebnisse im Seelenreich, besonders in dem Orte der Begierden. Sie schwinden erst, wenn die Seele sich geläutert hat von allen nach der physischen Welt hinzielenden Begierden. Dann steigt diese Seele erst in das höhere Gebiet (Geisteswelt) auf. – Wenn auch diese Gegenbilder beim noch physisch lebenden Menschen schwach sind: sie sind doch vorhanden und begleiten ihn als seine Begierden-Anlage, wie den Kometen sein Schweif begleitet. Und der Hellseher kann sie sehen, wenn er die entsprechende Entwickelungsstufe erreicht hat.
[ 11 ] In solchen Erfahrungen und in allen denen, welche damit verwandt sind, lebt der Geheimschüler in dem Stadium, das beschrieben worden ist. Bis zu noch höheren geistigen Erlebnissen kann er es auf dieser Entwickelungsstufe noch nicht bringen. Er muß von da an noch höher aufwärts steigen.
Changes in the dream life of the secret disciple
[ 1 ] An announcement that the secret disciple has reached or will soon reach the stage of development described in the previous chapter is the change that takes place in his dream life. Before, the dreams were confused and random. Now they begin to take on a regular character. Their images become meaningfully coherent like the ideas of everyday life. You can recognize law, cause and effect in them. And the content of the dreams also changes. Whereas before you only perceived echoes of everyday life, transformed impressions of your surroundings or your own bodily states, images from a world with which you were previously unfamiliar now appear. At first, however, the general character of dream life remains, insofar as the dream differs from the waking imagination in that it sensuously expresses what it wants to express. An attentive observer of dream life cannot fail to notice this symbolism. One dreams, for example, that one has caught an ugly animal and has an unpleasant feeling in one's hand. You wake up and realize that you are holding a corner of the blanket in your hand. The perception is therefore not expressed unadorned, but through the labeled symbol. -Or you dream that you are fleeing from a pursuer; you feel fear. On waking, it becomes apparent that one was afflicted by palpitations during sleep. The stomach, which is filled with indigestible food, causes frightening dream images. Events in the sleeping person's surroundings are also reflected in dreams as symbols. The striking of a clock can evoke the image of a troop of soldiers marching past to the beat of a drum. A chair falling over can be the cause of a whole dream drama in which the blow is reflected as a shot and so on. - This symbolic kind of expression is now also found in the regulated dream of the human being whose etheric body is beginning to develop. But it ceases to reflect mere facts of the physical environment or of one's own sensual body. Just as those dreams become regular which owe their origin to these things, so also those dream images interfere which are the expression of things and relationships of another world. Here experiences are first made which are inaccessible to ordinary day-consciousness. - Now one must by no means believe that any true mystic makes the things which he experiences in such a dreamlike manner the basis of any authoritative communications from a higher world. Such dream experiences are only to be regarded as the first signs of a higher development. - Soon, as a further consequence, the fact occurs that the images of the dreaming secret disciple are no longer, as in former times, withdrawn from the guidance of the prudent mind, but are regulated and properly surveyed by it like the ideas and sensations of the waking consciousness. The difference between the dream consciousness and this waking state disappears more and more. The dreamer is awake in the full sense of the word during dream life; that is, he feels himself to be the master and leader of his pictorial representations.
[ 2 ] During dreaming, man is actually in a world that is different from that of his physical senses. However, a person with undeveloped mental organs is unable to form any other ideas of this world than the confused ones described above. It exists for him only as the sensory world would exist for a being who has at most the most rudimentary faculties of eyes. That is why man can see nothing in this world but the afterimages and reflections of ordinary life. But he can see these in dreams for the reason that his soul itself paints its daily perceptions as images into the material of which that other world consists. For it must be clearly understood that man leads a second, unconscious life in the indicated other world in addition to his ordinary conscious daily life. Everything he perceives and thinks, he engraves in imprints in this world. These imprints can only be seen when the lotus flowers are developed. Now, in every human being, certain sparse lotus flower predispositions are always present. During daytime consciousness he cannot perceive anything with them because the impressions on him are quite weak. It is for a similar reason that one does not see the stars during the day. They are not able to perceive the powerful sunlight. Thus the weak spiritual impressions do not come into play against the powerful impressions of the physical senses. When the doors of the outer senses are closed during sleep, these impressions light up in confusion. And the dreamer then becomes aware of experiences made in another world. But, as I said, at first these experiences are nothing more than what the imagination itself, bound to the physical senses, has engraved in the spiritual world. - Only the developed lotus flowers make it possible for manifestations that do not belong to the physical world to be recorded there. And through the developed etheric body a full knowledge of these inscriptions from other worlds then arises. - Thus man's intercourse in a new world has begun. And the human being must now - through the instructions of the secret training - first achieve two things. First of all, he must be able to realize completely, as in waking life, the observations made in dreams. Once he has achieved this, he will be led to make the same observations during the ordinary waking state. His attention to mental impressions is then simply regulated in such a way that these impressions no longer need to disappear in relation to the physical ones, but that he can have them alongside and with them all the time.
[ 3 ] Once the secret disciple has attained this ability, something of the picture described in the previous chapter appears before his mental eyes. He can now perceive what is present in the spiritual world as the cause of the physical world. And, above all, he can recognize his higher self within this world. - His next task is now to grow into this higher self, that is, to really see it as his true essence and to behave accordingly. More and more he now gets the idea and the living feeling that his physical body and what he previously called his "I" is only a tool of the higher self. He acquires a feeling towards the lower self, just as a person limited to the sense world has towards a tool or vehicle which he uses. Just as the latter does not count the car in which he drives as his "I", even when he says: "I drive" as "I walk", so the developed man, when he says: "I go in at the door", actually has the idea: "I carry my body in at the door". Only this must be such a natural concept for him that he does not for a moment lose the solid ground of the physical world, so that a feeling of alienation from the sense world never arises. If the secret disciple is not to become an enthusiast or a fantasist, he must not impoverish his life in the physical world through the higher consciousness, but enrich it, just as he who uses a train instead of his legs to make a journey enriches it.
[ 4 ] Once the secret disciple has attained such a life in his higher self, then - or rather already during the acquisition of the higher consciousness - it becomes clear to him how he can awaken the spiritual power of perception in the organ generated in the region of the heart and guide it through the currents characterized in the previous chapters. This power of perception is an element of higher materiality that emanates from the organ mentioned and flows in luminous beauty through the moving lotus flowers and also through the other channels of the developed etheric body. From there it radiates outwards into the surrounding spiritual world and makes it spiritually visible, just as the sunlight falling on the objects from outside makes them physically visible.
[ 5 ] How this power of perception is generated in the heart organ can only be understood gradually in the process of formation itself.
[ 6 ] The spiritual world only becomes clearly perceptible as objects and beings for a person who can send the characterized organ of perception through his etheric body and to the outside world in order to illuminate the objects. - It can be seen from this that a perfect consciousness of an object of the spiritual world can only arise under the condition that man himself throws the spiritual light upon it. In truth, the "I" which produces this organ of perception does not dwell in the physical human body at all, but, as has been shown, outside it. The heart organ is only the place where the human being ignites this spiritual organ of light from the outside. If he did not kindle it here, but in another place, the spiritual perceptions brought about by it would have no connection with the physical world. But man is supposed to relate everything of a higher spiritual nature to the physical world and let it work through him into the latter. The heart organ is precisely that through which the higher ego makes the sensual self its tool and from which the latter is handled.
[ 7 ] Now the feeling which the developed human being has towards the things of the spiritual world is different from that which the sensual human being has towards the physical world. The latter feels himself in a certain place in the sense world, and the perceived objects are "outside" for him. The spiritually developed person, on the other hand, feels united with the spiritual object of his perception, as if "inside" it. In fact, he wanders from place to place in spiritual space. This is why he is also called the "wanderer" in the language of secret science. At first he is not at home anywhere. - If it remained in this mere wandering, then it could not really determine any object in spiritual space. Just as one determines an object or place in physical space by starting from a certain point, so this must also be the case in the other world reached. There, too, one must look for a place somewhere, which one first investigates very thoroughly and spiritually takes possession of. In this place one must establish a spiritual home and then relate everything else to this home. The person living in the physical world also sees everything in the way that the ideas of his physical home entail. A Berliner automatically describes London differently from a Parisian. But the spiritual home is different from the physical one. One is born into the latter without doing anything; during one's youth, one has instinctively absorbed a series of ideas from which everything from then on is involuntarily illuminated. However, one has formed one's spiritual home with full awareness. Therefore, one judges from it in full freedom. In the language of secret science, this forming of a spiritual home is called "building a hut".
[ 8 ] Spiritual vision at this level initially extends to the spiritual counter-images of the physical world, insofar as these counter-images lie in the so-called astral world. In this world there is everything that is similar in nature to human drives, feelings, desires and passions. For all the sensory things that surround man also include forces that are related to these human ones. A crystal, for example, is molded into its form by forces that appear to the higher mind like an instinct at work in man. By similar forces the sap is conducted through the vessels of the plant, the blossoms are made to unfold, the seed capsules to burst open. All these forces acquire form and color for the developed spiritual organs of perception, just as the objects of the physical world have form and color for the physical eye. At the stage of his development described above, the secret disciple sees not only the crystal and the plant, but also the marked spiritual forces. And he sees the animal and human instincts not only through the physical life expressions of their bearers, but also directly as objects, just as he sees tables and chairs in the physical world. The entire world of instinct, drive, desire and passion of an animal or human becomes the astral cloud in which the being is enveloped, the aura.
[ 9 ] Furthermore, at this stage of his development, the clairvoyant also perceives things that almost or completely elude sensory perception. For example, he can notice the astral difference between a room that is largely filled with low-minded people and one in which high-minded people are present. In a hospital not only the physical but also the spiritual atmosphere is different from that of a dance hall. A commercial city has a different astral air than a university town. At first, the clairvoyant's ability to perceive such things will only be weakly developed. It will relate to the objects first mentioned in the same way as the dream-consciousness of the sensory man to his waking consciousness. But gradually he will also fully awaken at this level.
[ 10 ] The highest attainment of the clairvoyant who has reached the characterized degree of seeing is that on which the astral counter-effects of the animal and human instincts and passions show themselves to him. A loving action has a different astral accompaniment than one that emanates from hatred. Senseless desire represents an ugly astral counter-image in addition to itself, whereas a feeling directed towards higher things represents a beautiful one. These counter-images can only be seen weakly during the physical life of man. This is because their strength is impaired by life in the physical world. A desire for an object, for example, produces such a mirror image apart from that as which this desire itself appears in the astral world. But if the desire is satisfied by the attainment of the physical object, or if at least the possibility of such satisfaction exists, the counter-image will only be a very faint appearance. It only attains its full validity after the death of man, when the soul must still, according to its nature, harbor such a desire, but can no longer satisfy it because the object and also the physical organ for it are missing. The sensually inclined person will still have a craving for the pleasures of the palate after his death, for example. But now he lacks the possibility of satisfaction, since he no longer has a palate. As a result, the desire creates a particularly strong counter-image, which then torments the soul. These experiences through the counter-images of the lower soul nature after death are called experiences in the realm of the soul, especially in the place of desires. They only disappear when the soul has purified itself of all desires directed towards the physical world. Only then does this soul ascend to the higher realm (spiritual world). - Even if these counter-images are weak in the still physically living human being, they are nevertheless present and accompany him as his desire system, just as the comet is accompanied by its tail. And the clairvoyant can see them when he has reached the appropriate stage of development.
[ 11 ] In such experiences and in all those that are related to them, the secret disciple lives in the stage that has been described. At this stage of development he cannot yet reach even higher spiritual experiences. From then on he must ascend still higher.