Initiation and Its Results
GA 10
IV. The Three States of Consciousness
[ 1 ] The life of man is passed in three states, which are as follows: waking, dreaming sleep, and dreamless deep sleep. One may comprehend how to attain to a higher knowledge of the spiritual worlds by forming an idea of the changes in the conditions that have to be undergone by the aspirant to such knowledge. Before a person has passed through the necessary training, his consciousness is continually broken by the periods of rest which accompany sleep. During these periods the soul knows nothing of the outer world and nothing either of itself. Only at certain times above the wide ocean of unconsciousness there will arise dreams which are related to events in the outside world or to the conditions of the physical body. At first one recognizes in dreams only a special manifestation of the sleep-existence, and commonly men speak of two states only—waking and sleeping. From the occult standpoint, however, dreams have a special significance, apart from both the other two states. It has already been shown in a previous chapter how changes occur in the dream-existence of the person who undertakes the ascent to higher knowledge. His dreams lose their meaningless, disorderly, and illogical character, and begin gradually to form a regulated, correlated world. With continued development this new world, born of one's dreams, will yield nothing to outer and phenomenal realities, not only as regards its inner truth, but also in the facts which it reveals, for these in the fullest sense of the word present a higher reality. In the phenomenal world especially there are secrets and riddles hidden everywhere. This world reveals admirably the effects of certain higher facts, but he who limits his perceptions to the senses alone cannot penetrate into causes. To the occult student such causes are partly revealed in the state already described as being evolved out of his dream-existence. To be sure, he ought not to regard these revelations as actual knowledge so long as the same things do not reveal themselves to him during ordinary waking life as well. But to that he also attains. He acquires the power to enter the state which he had first evolved from his dream-life during the hours of waking consciousness. Then the phenomenal world is enriched for him by something quite new. Just as a person who, though born blind, undergoes an Operation an his sight and finds everything in his environment enriched by the new testimony of visual perception, so does the person who has become clairvoyant in the above manner, regard the entire world around him, perceiving in it new characteristics, new beings, and new things. No longer is it necessary that he should wait for a dream in order that he may live in another world, for he can transport himself into the state of higher perception at any suitable time. This condition or state has an importance for him comparable to that of perception with open eyes as opposed to a blindfold state. One can say quite literally that the occult student opens the eyes of his soul and sees things which must ever remain veiled from the bodily senses.
[ 2 ] This state (which has previously been described in detail) only forms the bridge to a still higher stage of occult knowledge. If the exercises which are assigned to him should be continued, the student will discover at the appropriate time that the vigorous changes hitherto mentioned affect not only his dream-life, but that the transformation extends even to what was before a deep and dreamless sleep. He notices that the utter unconsciousness in which he has always found himself during this sleep is now broken by conscious isolated experiences. Out of the great darkness of sleep arise perceptions of a kind which he had never known before. Naturally it is no easy matter to describe these perceptions, for our language is only adapted to the phenomenal world, and in consequence it is only possible to find approximate words to describe what does not appertain to that world at all. Still, one has to make use of these words in describing the higher worlds, and this can only be done by the free use of simile; yet, seeing that everything in the world is interrelated, such an attempt can be made. The things and beings of the higher worlds are anyway so distantly connected with those of the phenomenal world that though in good faith a portrayal of these higher worlds in the words usually descriptive of the phenomenal world may be attempted, one must always retain the idea that very much in descriptions of this kind must obviously partake of the nature of simile and imagery. Occult education itself is only partially carried an by the use of ordinary language; for the rest, the student learns in his ascent a special symbolical language, an emblematical method of expression; but nothing concerning this can at present, and for very good reasons, be openly imparted. The student must acquire it for himself in the occult school. This, however, need form no obstacle to the acquisition of some knowledge concerning the nature of the higher worlds by means of an ordinary description, such as will here be given.
[ 3 ] If we wish to give some suggestion of the experiences mentioned above as appearing from out of the sea of unconsciousness during the period of deep sleep, we may best liken them to those of hearing. We can speak of perceptible sounds and words. If we may liken the experiences of dreaming sleep to a certain kind of seeing comparable to the perceptions of the eyes, the experiences of deep sleep allow of similar comparison with oral impressions. It may be remarked in passing that of these two faculties that of sight remains the higher even in the spiritual worlds. Colors are there still higher than sounds or words, but the student at the beginning of his development does not perceive these higher colors, but merely the inferior sounds. Only because the individual, after his general development, is already qualified for the world which reveals itself to him in dreaming sleep, does he straightway perceive its colors, but he is still unqualified for the higher world which is kindled in deep sleep, and in consequence this world reveals itself to him at first as sounds and words ; later an he can mount up, here as elsewhere, to the perception of colors and forms.
[ 4 ] If the student now realizes that he passes through such experiences in deep sleep, his next task is to make them as clear and vivid as possible. In the beginning this is very difficult, for remembrance during the waking state is at first extraordinarily scanty. You know well on waking that you have experienced something; but as to its nature you remain completely in obscurity. The most important thing during the beginning of this state is that you should remain peaceful and composed, and should not allow yourself, even for a moment, to lapse into any unrest or impatience. Under all circumstances the latter condition is injurious. It can never accelerate any further development, but in every case must delay it. You must abandon yourself calmly, as it were, to what is given to you: all violence must be repressed. If at any period you cannot recall these experiences during the deep sleep, you should wait patiently until it becomes possible to do so, for such a moment will certainly some day arrive. If you have previously been patient and calm, the faculty of remembrance, when it comes, will be a securer possession; while, should it for once appear, perhaps in answer to forcible methods, it would only mean that for a much longer period it would afterwards remain entirely lost.
[ 5 ] If the power of remembrance has once appeared and the experiences of sleep emerge complete, vivid, and clear before the waking consciousness, attention should then be directed to what here follows. Among these experiences, we can clearly distinguish two kinds. The first kind is totally foreign to everything that one has ever experienced. At first one may take pleasure in these, may let oneself be exalted by them; but after a while they are put aside. They are the first harbingers of a higher spiritual world to which one only becomes accustomed at a later period. The other kind of experiences, however, will reveal to the attentive observer a peculiar relationship to the ordinary world in which he lives. Concerning those elements of life on which he ponders, those things in his environment which he would like to understand, but is unable to understand with the ordinary intellect, these experiences during sleep can give him information. During his daily life man reflects on that which surrounds him and he arrives at conceptions which make comprehensible to him the interrelation of things. He tries to understand in thought what he perceives with sense. It is with such ideas and conceptions that the sleep-experiences are concerned. That which was hitherto merely a dark and crepuscular conception now assumes a sonorous and vital character which can only be compared to the sounds and words of the phenomenal world. It seems to the student ever more and more that the solution of the riddle upon which he ponders is whispered in sounds and words that proceed from a finer world. Then ought he to relate what has come to him in this way with the matters of ordinary life. What was hitherto only accessible to his thought has now become an actual experience for him, living and significant as can seldom, if ever, be the case with an experience in the world of sense. The things and beings of the phenomenal world are shown thereby to be more than merely what they seem to the perceptions of the senses. They are the expression and the efflux of a spiritual world. This spiritual world which lay hitherto obscure now reveals itself to the occult student in the whole of his environment.
[ 6 ] It is easy to see that the possession of this perceptive faculty can only prove itself to be a blessing if the soul-senses of the person in whom they have been opened are in perfect order, just as we can only use our ordinary senses for the accurate observation of the world if they are in a well-regulated condition. Now these higher senses are formed by the individual himself in accordance with exercises which are given to him in the course of his occult training. As much concerning these exercises as may be openly said has been already given in The Way of Initiation. The rest is imparted by word of mouth in the occult schools. Among these exercises we find concentration, or the directing of attention upon certain definite ideas and conceptions that are connected with the secrets of the universe ; and meditation, or the living within such ideas, the complete submerging of oneself within them in the manner already explained. By concentration and meditation a person works upon his own soul and develops within it the soul-organs of perception. While he applies himself to the practice of meditation and concentration his soul evolves within his body as the embryo child grows in the body of the mother. When, during sleep, the specific experiences above described begin to occur, the moment of birth has arrived for the full-grown soul, who has thereby become literally a new being brought by the individual from seed to fruit. Instructions concerning the subject of meditation and concentration must therefore be very carefully prepared and equally carefully followed out, since they are the very laws which determine the germination and evolution of the higher soul-nature of the individual; and this must appear at its birth as a harmonious and well-formed organism. If, an the contrary, there were something lacking in these instructions, no such being would appear, but in its place one that was misborn from the standpoint of spiritual matters, and incapable of life.
[ 7 ] That the birth of this higher soul-nature should occur during deep sleep will not seem hard of comprehension if we consider that the tender organism, still unable to withstand much opposition, could hardly make itself noticed by a chance apparition among the powerful, harsh events of workaday life. Its activity cannot be observed when opposed by the activity of the body. In sleep, however, when the body is at rest, the activity of the higher soul, at first so faint and unapparent, can come into sight in so far as it depends upon the perception of sense. A warning must here again be given that the occult student should not regard these sleep-experiences as entirely reliable sources of knowledge so long as he is not in a position to transport himself to the plane of the awakened higher soul during waking-consciousness as well. If he has acquired this power he is able to perceive the spiritual world between and within the experiences of the day, or, in other words, can comprehend as sounds and words the hidden secrets of his surroundings.
[ 8 ] At this period of development we must clearly understand that we are dealing, at first, with separate, more or less unconnected, spiritual experiences. We must be on our guard against the erection of any system of knowledge, whether complete or only interdependent. By so doing we should merely confuse the soul-world with all manner of fantastical ideas and conceptions ; and thus we could very easily weave a world which has really no connection what ever with the true spiritual world. The occult student must practise continually the strictest self-control. The right method is to grow clearer and clearer in one's realization of the separate and veritable experiences which occur, and then to wait for the arrival of new experiences, full and unforced in their nature, which will connect themselves, as if on their own account, with those that have already occurred. By virtue of the power of the spiritual world in which he has now once found his way, and by virtue, also, of practising the prescribed exercises, the student now experiences an ever-enlarging, ever more comprehensive, outspreading of consciousness in deep sleep. Out of what was erstwhile mere unconsciousness, more and more experiences emerge, and ever fewer and fewer become those periods in the sleep-existence that remain unconscious. Thus, then, do the separate experiences of sleep continually close in upon each other without this actual interlocking being disturbed by a multitude of combinations and inferences which would still arise from the meddling of the intellect accustomed to the phenomenal world. The less one's ordinary habits of thought are mixed up in some unauthorized manner with these higher experiences, the better it is.
If you conduct yourself rightly, you now approach nearer and nearer to that stage of the way at which the entire sleep-life is passed in complete consciousness. Then you exist, when the body is at rest, in a reality as actual as is the case while you are awake. It is superfluous to remark that during sleep we are dealing, at first, with a reality entirely different from the phenomenal environment in which the body finds itself. Indeed we learn—nay, must learn if we are to keep our footing an firm ground and avoid becoming a fantastic—to relate the higher experiences of sleep to the phenomenal environment. At first, however, the world which is entered in sleep is a completely new revelation. In occult science the important stage at which consciousness is retained interiorly through the entire sleep-life is known as the “continuity of consciousness.”1That which is here referred to is, at a certain stage of development, a kind of “ideal,” the goal which lies at the end of a long road. The next things that the student learns are two extensions of consciousness—first, into a soul-state wherein hitherto nothing but unregulated dreams were possible, and, secondly, into another state wherein hitherto nothing was possible except unconscious and dreamless sleep. He then knows the three states, even if it remains impossible for him to refuse entirely all tribute to the ordinary state of sleep.
[ 9 ] In the case of a person who has arrived at this point, experiences and events do not cease during the intervals when the physical body rests, and no impressions are conveyed to the soul through the medium of the senses.
Die Erlangung der Kontinuität des Bewusstseins
[ 1 ] Das Leben des Menschen verläuft im Wechsel von drei Zuständen. Diese sind: Wachsein, traumerfüllter Schlaf und traumloser tiefer Schlaf. Man kann verstehen, wie man zu den höheren Erkenntnissen der geistigen Welten gelangt, wenn man sich eine Vorstellung davon bildet, was für Veränderungen in bezug auf diese drei Zustände bei demjenigen Menschen vorgehen müssen, der solche Erkenntnis suchen will. Bevor der Mensch eine Schulung für diese Erkenntnis durchgemacht hat, wird sein Bewußtsein fortwährend unterbrochen von den Ruhepausen des Schlafes. In diesen Pausen weiß die Seele nichts von der Außenwelt und auch nichts von sich selbst. Nur für gewisse Zeiten tauchen aus dem allgemeinen Meere der Bewußtlosigkeit die Träume auf, welche anknüpfen an Vorgänge der Außenwelt oder an Zustände des eigenen Leibes. Zunächst sieht man in den Träumen nur eine besondere Äußerung des Schlaflebens, und man spricht daher wohl überhaupt nur von zwei Zuständen: Schlafen und Wachen. Für die Geheimwissenschaft aber hat der Traum eine selbständige Bedeutung neben den beiden anderen Zuständen. Es ist im vorigen Kapitel beschrieben worden, welche Veränderung in dem Traumleben des Menschen vorgeht, der den Aufstieg zu höherer Erkenntnis unternimmt. Seine Träume verlieren den bedeutungslosen, unregelmäßigen und zusammenhanglosen Charakter und werden immer mehr und mehr zu einer regelerfüllten, zusammenhängenden Welt. Bei weiterer Entwickelung gibt dann diese aus der Traumwelt geborene neue Welt der äußeren sinnlichen Wirklichkeit nicht nur an innerer Wahrheit nichts nach, sondern in ihr offenbaren sich Tatsachen, die im vollen Sinne des Wortes eine höhere Wirklichkeit darstellen. In der sinnlichen Welt sind nämlich überall Geheimnisse und Rätsel verborgen. Diese Welt zeigt wohl die Wirkungen gewisser höherer Tatsachen; allein der Mensch, der seine Wahrnehmung bloß auf seine Sinne beschränkt, kann nicht zu den Ursachen dringen. Dem Geheimsehüler offenbaren sich in dem geschilderten, aus dem Traumleben herausgebildeten, aber keineswegs etwa bei ihm stehenbleibenden Zustande diese Ursachen teilweise. – Er darf ja allerdings diese Offenbarungen so lange nicht als wirkliche Erkenntnisse ansehen, als sich ihm noch nicht während des gewöhnlichen wachen Lebens dieselben Dinge zeigen. Aber auch dazu gelangt er. Er entwickelt sich dazu, den Zustand, den er erst aus dem Traumleben sich geschaffen hat, in das wache Bewußtsein herüberzunehmen. Dann ist für ihn die Sinnenwelt um etwas ganz Neues bereichert. Wie ein Mensch, der, blind geboren und operiert, nach seinem Sehendwerden die Dinge der Umgebung um all die Wahrnehmungen des Auges bereichert erkennt, so schaut der auf obige Art hellsehend gewordene Mensch die ganze ihn umgebende Welt mit neuen Eigenschaften, Dingen, Wesen und so weiter. Er braucht nunmehr nicht auf den Traum zu warten, um in einer anderen Welt zu leben, sondern er kann sich zu höherer Wahrnehmung immer, wenn es angemessen ist, in den geschilderten Zustand versetzen. Bei ihm hat dann dieser Zustand eine ähnliche Bedeutung, wie im gewöhnlichen Leben eine solche das Wahrnehmen der Dinge bei tätigen Sinnen gegenüber dem bei nicht tätigen Sinnen hat. Man kann eben in wahrem Sinne sagen: der Geheimschüler öffnet die Sinne seiner Seele, und er schaut die Dinge, welche den leiblichen Sinnen verborgen bleiben müssen.
[ 2 ] Dieser Zustand bildet nun nur einen Übergang zu noch höheren Stufen der Erkenntnis des Geheimschülers. Setzt dieser die ihm bei seiner Geheimschulung dienenden Übungen fort, so wird er nach angemessener Zeit finden, daß nicht nur mit seinem Traumleben die beschriebene durchgreifende Veränderung vorgeht, sondern daß sich die Verwandlung auch auf den vorher traumlosen tiefen Schlaf ausdehnt. Er merkt, daß die völlige Bewußtlosigkeit, in welcher er sich frilher während dieses Schlafes befunden hat, unterbrochen wird von vereinzelten bewußten Erlebnissen. Aus der allgemeinen Finsternis des Schlafes tauchen Wahrnehmungen von einer Art auf, die er vorher nicht gekannt hat. Es ist natürlich nicht leicht, diese Wahrnehmungen zu beschreiben, denn unsere Sprache ist ja nur für die Sinneswelt geschaffen, und man kann daher nur annähernd Worte für das finden, was gar nicht dieser Sinneswelt angehört. Doch muß man die Worte zur Beschreibung der höheren Welten zunächst verwenden. Das kann nur dadurch geschehen, daß vieles in Gleichnissen gesagt wird. Aber da alles in der Welt mit anderem verwandt ist, so kann dies auch geschehen. Die Dinge und Wesen der höheren Welten sind mit denen der Sinneswelt wenigstens so weit verwandt, daß bei gutem Willen immerhin eine Vorstellung von diesen höheren Welten auch durch die für die Sinneswelt gebräuchlichen Worte erzielt werden kann. Man muß sich nur immer dessen bewußt bleiben, daß vieles bei solchen Beschreibungen übersinnlicher Welten Gleichnis und Sinnbild sein muß. – Die Geheimschulung selbst vollzieht sich daher nur zum Teil in den Worten der gewöhnlichen Sprache; im übrigen lernt der Schüler zu seinem Aufstieg noch eine sich wie selbstverständlich ergebende sinnbildliche Ausdrucksart. Man muß sie sich während der Geheimschulung selbst aneignen. Dies hindert aber nicht, daß man auch durch gewöhnliche Beschreibungen, wie sie hier gegeben werden, etwas über die Natur der höheren Welten erfährt.
[ 3 ] Will man eine Vorstellung geben von den oben erwähnten Erlebnissen, die zunächst aus dem Meere der Bewußtlosigkeit während des tiefen Schlafes auftauchen, so kann man sie am besten mit einer Art von Hören vergleichen. Von wahrgenommenen Tönen und Worten kann man sprechen. Wie man die Erlebnisse des Traumschlafes zutreffend als eine Art des Schauens im Vergleiche mit den Wahrnehmungen der Sinne bezeichnen kann, so lassen sich die Tatsachen des tiefen Schlafes mit den Eindrücken des Ohres vergleichen. (Als Zwischenbemerkung soll nur gesagt werden, daß das Schauen auch für die geistigen Welten das Höhere ist. Farben sind auch in dieser Welt etwas Höheres als Töne und Worte. Aber das, was der Geheimschüler von dieser Welt bei seiner Schulung zuerst wahrnimmt, sind eben noch nicht die hzheren Farben, sondern die niederen Töne. Nur weil der Mensch nach seiner allgemeinen Entwickelung für die Welt schon geeigneter ist, die sich im Traumsehlaf offenbart, nimmt er da sogleich die Farben wahr. Für die höhere Welt, die sich im Tiefschlaf enthüllt, ist er noch weniger geeignet. Deshalb offenbart sich diese ihm zunächst in Tönen und Worten; später kann er auch hier zu Farben und Formen aufsteigen.)
[ 4 ] Wenn nun der Geheimschüler merkt, daß er solche Erlebnisse im tiefen Schlafe hat, dann ist es zunächst seine Aufgabe, sich dieselben so deutlich und klar wie möglich zu machen. Anfangs fällt das sehr schwer; denn die Wahrnehmung des in diesem Zustande Erlebten ist zunächst eine außerordentlich geringe. Man weiß nach dem Erwachen wohl, daß man etwas erlebt hat; was es aber gewesen ist, darüber bleibt man völlig im unklaren. Das Wichtigste während dieses Anfangszustandes ist, daß man ruhig und gelassen bleibt und nicht einen Augenblick in irgendwelche Unruhe und Ungeduld verfällt. Diese müßten unter allen Umständen nur schädlich wirken. Vor allem können sie die weitere Entwickelung nie beschleunigen, sondern müssen sie verzögern. Man muß sich ruhig sozusagen dem überlassen, was einem gegeben oder geschenkt wird; alles Gewaltsame muß unterbleiben. Kann man in einem Zeitpunkte Schlaferlebnisse nicht gewahrwerden, so warte man geduldig, bis dieses möglich sein wird. Denn dieser Augenblick kommt gewiß einmal. Und war man vorher geduldig und gelassen, so bleibt dann die Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit ein sicherer Besitz, während sie bei einem gewaltsamen Vorgehen zwar einmal auftreten, aber sich dann wieder für längere Zeit vollständig verlieren kann.
[ 5 ] Ist die Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit einmal eingetreten und stehen einem die Schlaferlebnisse vollkommen klar und deutlich vor dem Bewußtsein, dann hat man auf folgendes die Aufmerksamkeit zu richten. Unter diesen Erlebnissen sind ganz genau zweierlei Arten zu unterscheiden. Die eine Art wird ganz fremd sein gegenüber all dem, was man vorher jemals kennengelernt hat. An diesen Erlebnissen mag man zunächst seine Freude haben; man mag sich an ihnen erbauen; aber man lasse sie im übrigen vorläufig auf sich beruhen. Sie sind die ersten Vorboten der höheren geistigen Welt, in welcher man sich erst später zurechtfinden wird. Die andere Art von Erlebnissen aber wird dem aufmerksamen Betrachter eine gewisse Verwandtschaft mit der gewöhnlichen Welt zeigen, in welcher er lebt. Worüber er während des Lebens nachdenkt, was er begreifen möchte an den Dingen seiner Umgebung, aber mit dem gewöhnlichen Verstande nicht begreifen kann, darüber geben ihm diese Schlaferlebnisse Aufschluß. Der Mensch denkt während des Alltagslebens über das nach, was ihn umgibt. Er macht sich Vorstellungen, um den Zusammenhang der Dinge zu begreifen. Er sucht das durch Begriffe zu verstehen, was seine Sinne wahrnehmen. Auf solche Vorstellungen und Begriffe beziehen sich die Schlaferlebnisse. Was früher dunkler, schattenhafter Begriff war, gewinnt etwas Klangvolles, Lebendiges, das man eben nur mit den Tönen und Worten der Sinneswelt vergleichen kann. Es wird dem Menschen immer mehr so, wie wenn ihm die Lösung der Rätsel, über die er nachdenken muß, aus einer höheren Welt in Tönen und Worten zugeraunt würde. Und er vermag dann dasjenige, was ihm aus einer anderen Welt zukommt, mit dem gewöhnlichen Leben zu verbinden. Was vorher nur sein Gedanke erreichen konnte, ist jetzt für ihn Erlebnis, so lebendig und inhaltvoll wie nur irgendein Erlebnis der Sinneswelt sein kann. Die Dinge und Wesen dieser Sinneswelt sind eben durchaus nicht bloß das, als was sie der Sinneswahmehmung erscheinen. Sie sind der Ausdruck und Ausfluß einer geistigen Welt. Diese vorher verborgene Geisteswelt tönt jetzt für den Geheimschüler aus seiner ganzen Umgebung heraus.
[ 6 ] Es ist leicht einzusehen, daß ein Segen in dieser höheren Wahrnehmungsfähigkeit für den Menschen nur dann liegen kann, wenn in den seelischen Sinnen, die sich ihm eröffnet haben, alles in Ordnung ist, wie ja der Mensch auch seine gewöhnlichen Sinneswerkzeuge zur wahren Beobachtung der Welt nur gebrauchen kann, wenn sie gesetzmäßig eingerichtet sind. Nun bildet sich der Mensch selbst diese höheren Sinne durch die Übungen, die ihm die Geheimschulung anweist. – Zu diesen Übungen gehört die Konzentration, das ist das Richten der Aufmerksamkeit auf ganz bestimmte mit den Weltgeheimnissen zusammenhängende Vorstellungen und Begriffe. Und es gehört ferner dazu das Meditieren, das ist das Leben in solchen Ideen, das vollkommene Versenken in dieselben in vorgeschriebener Art. Durch Konzentrieren und Meditieren arbeitet der Mensch an seiner Seele. Er entwickelt dadurch in ihr die seelischen Wahrnehmungsorgane. Während er den Aufgaben der Konzentration und Meditation obliegt, wächst innerhalb seines Leibes seine Seele, wie der Kindeskeim im Leibe der Mutter wächst. Und wenn dann während des Schlafes die geschilderten einzelnen Erlebnisse eintreten, dann rückt der Moment der Geburt heran für die freigewordene Seele, die dadurch buchstäblich ein anderes Wesen geworden ist, das der Mensch in sich zur Keimung und Reifung bringt. – Die Anstrengungen für das Konzentrieren und das Meditieren müssen deshalb sorgfältige sein, und sie müssen genau eingehalten werden, weil sie ja die Gesetze für die Keimung und das Reifwerden des gekennzeichneten höheren Menschen-Seelenwesens sind. Und dieses muß bei seiner Geburt ein in sich harmonischer, richtig gegliederter Organismus sein. Wird aber in den Vorschriften etwas verfehlt, so kommt nicht ein solches gesetzmäßiges Lebewesen, sondern eine Fehlgeburt auf geistigem Gebiet zustande, die nicht lebensfähig ist.
[ 7 ] Daß die Geburt dieses höheren Seelenwesens zunächst im tiefen Schlafe erfolgt, wird begreiflich erscheinen, wenn man bedenkt, daß der zarte, noch wenig widerstandsfähige Organismus bei einem etwaigen Erscheinen während des sinnlichen Alltagslebens durch die starken, harten Vorgänge dieses Lebens ja gar nicht zur Geltung kommen könnte. Seine Tätigkeit käme nicht in Betracht gegenüber der Tätigkeit des Leibes. Im Schlafe, wenn der Körper ruht, soweit seine Tätigkeit von der sinnlichen Wahrnehmung abhängt, kann die im Anfang so zarte, unscheinbare Tätigkeit der höheren Seele zum Vorschein kommen. –Wieder aber muß beachtet werden, daß der Geheimschüler die Sehlaferlebnisse so lange nicht als vollgültige Erkenntnisse ansehen darf, solange er nicht imstande ist, die erwachte höhere Seele auch in das Tagesbewußtsein hertiberzunehmen. Ist er das imstande, so vermag er auch zwischen und innerhalb der Tageserlebnisse die geistige Welt nach ihrem Charakter wahrzunehmen, das heißt, er kann die Geheimnisse seiner Umgebung seelisch als Töne und Worte erfassen.
[ 8 ] Nun muß man sich auf dieser Stufe der Entwickelung klarwerden, daß man es ja zunächst mit einzelnen mehr oder weniger unzusammenhängenden geistigen Erlebnissen zu tun hat. Man muß sich daher hüten, sich aus ihnen irgendein abgeschlossenes oder auch nur zusammenhängendes Erkenntnisgebäude aufbauen zu wollen. Da müßten sich allerlei phantastische Vorstellungen und Ideen in die Seelenwelt einmischen; und man könnte sich so sehr leicht eine Welt zusammenbauen, die mit der wirklichen geistigen gar nichts zu tun hat. Strengste Selbstkontrolle muß ja von dem Geheimschüler fortwährend geübt werden. Das richtigste ist, über die einzelnen wirklichen Erlebnisse, die man hat, immer mehr und mehr zur Klarheit zu kommen und abzuwarten, bis sich neue ergeben in völlig ungezwungener Art, die sich wie von selbst mit den schon vorhandenen verbinden. – Es tritt da nämlich bei dem Geheimschüler durch die Kraft der geistigen Welt, in die er nun einmal gekommen ist, und bei Anwendung der entsprechenden Übungen eine immer mehr um sich greifende Erweiterung des Bewußtseins im tiefen Schlafe ein. Immer mehr Erlebnisse treten hervor aus der Bewußtlosigkeit und immer kleinere Strecken des Schlaflebens werden bewußtlos sein. So schließen sich dann die einzelnen Schlaferfahrungen eben immer mehr von selbst zusammen, ohne daß dieser wahre Zusammenschluß durch allerlei Kombinationen und Schlußfolgerungen gestört würde, die doch nur von dem an die Sinneswelt gewöhnten Verstande herrühren würden. Je weniger aber von den Denkgewohnheiten dieser sinnlichen Welt in unberechtigter Weise hlneingemischt wird in die höheren Erlebnisse, desto besser ist es. Verhält man sich so, dann nähert man sich immer mehr und mehr derjenigen Stufe auf dem Wege zu höherer Erkenntnis, auf welcher Zustände, die vorher nur unbewußt im Schlafleben vorhanden waren, in vollständig bewußte umgewandelt werden. Man lebt dann, wenn der Körper ruht, ebenso in einer Wirklichkeit, wie dies beim Wachen der Fall ist. Es wird überflüssig sein, zu bemerken, daß während des Schlafes selbst zunächst man es mit einer anderen Wirklichkeit zu tun hat, als die sinnliche Umgebung ist, in welcher sich der Körper befindet. Man lernt ja und muß – um fest auf dem Boden der Sinneswelt stehenzubleiben und nicht Phantast zu werden – lernen, die höheren Schlaferlebnisse an die sinnliche Umgebung anzuknüpfen. Aber zunächst ist eben die im Schlaf erlebte Welt eine vollkommen neue Offenbarung. – Man nennt in der Geheimwissenschaft die wichtige Stufe, die in der Bewußtheit des Schlaflebens besteht, die Kontinuität (Ununterbrochenheit) des Bewußtseins.1Was hier angedeutet wird, ist für eine gewisse Stufe der Entwickelung eine Art «Ideal», das am Ende eines langen Weges liegt. Was der Geheimschüler zunächst kennenlernt, sind die zwei Zustände: Bewußtsein bei einer seelischen Verfassung, in welcher ihm vorher nur regellose Träume, und in einer solchen, in der nur bewußtloser, traumloser Schlaf möglich war.
[ 9 ] Bei einem Menschen, der diese Stufe erreicht hat, hört das Erleben und Erfahren in solchen Zeiten nicht auf, in denen der physische Leib ruht und der Seele keine Eindrücke durch die Sinneswerkzeuge zugeführt werden.
The Attainment of the Continuity of Consciousness
[ 1 ] Human life alternates between three states. These are: Wakefulness, dream-filled sleep and dreamless deep sleep. One can understand how to attain the higher realizations of the spiritual worlds by forming an idea of what changes must take place in relation to these three states in the person who wishes to seek such realization. Before the human being has undergone training for this knowledge, his consciousness is continually interrupted by the pauses of sleep. During these pauses the soul knows nothing of the outside world and also nothing of itself. Only for certain periods do dreams emerge from the general sea of unconsciousness, which are linked to events in the outside world or to states of the soul's own body. At first one sees in dreams only a special manifestation of the life of sleep, and one therefore speaks of only two states: Sleeping and waking. For secret science, however, dreams have an independent meaning alongside the other two states. It has been described in the previous chapter what change takes place in the dream-life of man who undertakes the ascent to higher knowledge. His dreams lose their meaningless, irregular and incoherent character and become more and more a coherent world filled with rules. With further development, this new world born of the dream world not only yields nothing to the outer sensory reality in terms of inner truth, but facts are revealed in it that represent a higher reality in the full sense of the word. In the sensual world, secrets and mysteries are hidden everywhere. This world certainly shows the effects of certain higher facts; but man, who limits his perception merely to his senses, cannot penetrate to the causes. These causes are partially revealed to the student of the secret in the state described, which has developed out of the dream life, but by no means remains with him. - He must not, however, regard these revelations as real realizations as long as the same things do not show themselves to him during ordinary waking life. But he also comes to this. He develops in such a way that the state which he has first created for himself from dream life is brought over into waking consciousness. Then the world of the senses is enriched for him by something quite new. Just as a person who, born blind and operated on, recognizes the things in his surroundings enriched by all the perceptions of the eye, so the person who has become clairvoyant in the above way sees the whole world around him with new qualities, things, beings and so on. He does not need to wait for the dream in order to live in another world, but can always, when appropriate, place himself in the described state for higher perception. This state then has a similar meaning for him as the perception of things with active senses has in ordinary life as opposed to non-active senses. In a true sense, one can say that the secret disciple opens the senses of his soul and sees things that must remain hidden from the bodily senses.
[ 2 ] This state now forms only a transition to still higher levels of the secret disciple's knowledge. If he continues the exercises that serve him in his secret training, he will find after a reasonable time that not only his dream life undergoes the radical change described, but that the transformation also extends to the previously dreamless deep sleep. He realizes that the complete unconsciousness in which he used to be during this sleep is interrupted by isolated conscious experiences. Out of the general darkness of sleep emerge perceptions of a kind he had not known before. It is of course not easy to describe these perceptions, for our language is only created for the sense world, and we can therefore only find approximate words for what does not belong to this sense world at all. But we must first use words to describe the higher worlds. This can only be done by saying many things in parables. But since everything in the world is related to something else, this can also be done. The things and beings of the higher worlds are related to those of the sensory world at least to such an extent that, with good will, an idea of these higher worlds can also be achieved through the words commonly used for the sensory world. One must only always remain conscious of the fact that much in such descriptions of supersensible worlds must be parable and symbol. - The secret training itself is therefore only partly carried out in the words of ordinary language; in addition, the pupil learns a naturally arising symbolic form of expression for his ascent. He must acquire it himself during the secret training. However, this does not prevent one from learning something about the nature of the higher worlds through ordinary descriptions such as those given here.
[ 3 ] If one wants to give an idea of the above-mentioned experiences that first emerge from the sea of unconsciousness during deep sleep, they can best be compared to a kind of hearing. One can speak of perceived sounds and words. Just as the experiences of dream sleep can be appropriately described as a kind of seeing in comparison with the perceptions of the senses, so the facts of deep sleep can be compared with the impressions of the ear. (As an interim remark it should only be said that looking is also the higher for the spiritual worlds. Colors are also in this world something higher than sounds and words. But what the secret disciple of this world perceives first in his training are not yet the higher colors, but the lower sounds. It is only because man, after his general development, is already more suitable for the world that reveals itself in dream-sleep that he immediately perceives the colors. For the higher world, which reveals itself in deep sleep, he is even less suited. This is why it first reveals itself to him in sounds and words; later, he can also ascend to colors and forms.
[ 4 ] When the secret disciple realizes that he has such experiences in deep sleep, his first task is to make them as clear and distinct as possible. At first this is very difficult, because the perception of what is experienced in this state is at first extremely limited. After awakening one knows that one has experienced something, but what it was remains completely unclear. The most important thing during this initial state is to remain calm and composed and not to fall into any kind of restlessness or impatience for a moment. These would only have a harmful effect under any circumstances. Above all, they can never accelerate further development, but must delay it. One must calmly abandon oneself, so to speak, to what is given or bestowed upon one; anything violent must be avoided. If you cannot become aware of sleep experiences at a certain time, wait patiently until this is possible. For this moment will certainly come. And if one was patient and calm beforehand, then the ability to perceive remains a secure possession, while it may occur once with a violent approach, but then completely disappear again for a long time.
[ 5 ] Once the ability to perceive has occurred and the sleep experiences are completely clear and distinct before one's consciousness, then one must pay attention to the following. Among these experiences, two types are to be distinguished. One kind will be quite alien to anything you have ever known before. At first you may take pleasure in these experiences; you may be edified by them; but for the time being let them rest. They are the first harbingers of the higher spiritual world, in which you will only find your way later. The other kind of experiences, however, will show the attentive observer a certain kinship with the ordinary world in which he lives. What he thinks about during life, what he would like to understand about the things in his surroundings but cannot grasp with the ordinary mind, these sleep experiences give him information about. During everyday life, man thinks about what surrounds him. He forms ideas in order to understand the connection between things. He tries to understand through concepts what his senses perceive. Sleep experiences relate to such ideas and concepts. What used to be a dark, shadowy concept becomes something sonorous and vivid that can only be compared with the sounds and words of the sensory world. It becomes more and more as if the solution to the riddles he has to think about were whispered to him in sounds and words from a higher world. And he is then able to connect that which comes to him from another world with ordinary life. What previously only his thought could achieve is now an experience for him, as vivid and full of content as only any experience of the sense world can be. The things and beings of this sensory world are not merely what they appear to the sensory perception. They are the expression and outflow of a spiritual world. This previously hidden spiritual world now emerges for the secret disciple from his entire environment.
[ 6 ] It is easy to see that this higher faculty of perception can only be a blessing for man if everything is in order in the spiritual senses that have opened up to him, just as man can only use his ordinary sensory instruments for the true observation of the world if they are set up according to law. Now man himself forms these higher senses through the exercises which the secret training instructs him to do. - These exercises include concentration, i.e. directing attention to very specific ideas and concepts connected with the mysteries of the world. It also includes meditation, which is living in such ideas, completely immersing oneself in them in a prescribed manner. By concentrating and meditating, man works on his soul. He thereby develops the soul's organs of perception. While he is engaged in the tasks of concentration and meditation, his soul grows within his body, just as a child's germ grows in its mother's womb. And when the individual experiences described above occur during sleep, the moment of birth approaches for the released soul, which has literally become a different being that the person brings to germination and maturation within himself. - The efforts for concentrating and meditating must therefore be careful, and they must be strictly observed, because they are the laws for the germination and maturation of the marked higher human soul being. And this must be a harmonious, correctly structured organism at birth. If, however, something is missed in the regulations, the result is not such a lawful living being, but a miscarriage in the spiritual realm that is not viable.
[ 7 ] The fact that the birth of this higher soul being initially takes place in deep sleep will appear understandable if one considers that the delicate, still not very resistant organism could not come into its own through the strong, hard processes of this life if it were to appear during sensual everyday life. Its activity would not be considered in relation to the activity of the body. In sleep, when the body rests, as far as its activity depends on sensory perception, the activity of the higher soul, so delicate and inconspicuous in the beginning, can come to light. -Again, however, it must be noted that the secret disciple must not regard the visual sleep experiences as fully valid realizations as long as he is not able to take the awakened higher soul into the day consciousness. If he is able to do so, he is also able to perceive the spiritual world according to its character between and within the daytime experiences, that is, he can grasp the secrets of his surroundings psychically as sounds and words.
[ 8 ] Now, at this stage of development, one must realize that one is initially dealing with individual, more or less unconnected spiritual experiences. One must therefore be careful not to try to construct any kind of complete or even coherent body of knowledge from them. All kinds of fantastic notions and ideas would have to interfere with the world of the soul; and one could very easily construct a world that has nothing to do with the real spiritual world. The strictest self-control must be constantly practiced by the secret disciple. The most correct thing is to become more and more clear about the individual real experiences one has and to wait until new ones arise in a completely unconstrained way, which combine with the existing ones as if by themselves. - Through the power of the spiritual world, into which he has now come, and through the application of the corresponding exercises, the secret disciple experiences an ever-increasing expansion of consciousness in deep sleep. More and more experiences emerge from unconsciousness and smaller and smaller stretches of the sleeping life will be unconscious. In this way, the individual experiences of sleep come together more and more by themselves, without this true connection being disturbed by all kinds of combinations and conclusions, which would only come from the mind accustomed to the sensory world. The less, however, of the habits of thought of this sensory world is unjustifiably interfered with in the higher experiences, the better it is. If one behaves in this way, then one approaches more and more that stage on the path to higher knowledge at which states that were previously only unconsciously present in the life of sleep are transformed into fully conscious ones. When the body is at rest, we live in a reality just as we do when we are awake. It will be superfluous to remark that during sleep itself one is at first dealing with a reality other than the sensory environment in which the body is located. One learns and must learn - in order to remain firmly on the ground of the sensory world and not become a fantasist - to link the higher sleep experiences to the sensory environment. But first of all, the world experienced in sleep is a completely new revelation. - In the secret science, the important stage that consists in the awareness of the life of sleep is called the continuity (uninterruptedness) of consciousness.1What is indicated here is a kind of "ideal" for a certain stage of development that lies at the end of a long path. What the secret disciple first gets to know are the two states: consciousness in a mental state in which previously only irregular dreams were possible, and in one in which only unconscious, dreamless sleep was possible.
[ 9 ] In a person who has reached this stage, experiencing and experiencing does not cease at times when the physical body is at rest and the soul is not supplied with impressions by the sensory organs.