Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment

There slumber in every human being faculties by means of which he can acquire for himself a knowledge of higher worlds. Mystics, Gnostics, Theosophists - all speak of a world of soul and spirit which for them is just as real as the world we see with our physical eyes and touch with our physical hands. At every moment the listener may say to himself: that, of which they speak, I too can learn, if I develop within myself certain powers which today still slumber within me. -- Rudolf Steiner

2024 Reprint of the 1947 Edition. A Revised and Enlarged Edition of The Way of Initiation and Initiation and Its Results. Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Rudolf Steiner developed exercises aimed at cultivating new cognitive faculties he believed would be appropriate to contemporary individual and cultural development. According to Steiner's view of history, in earlier periods people were capable of direct spiritual perceptions, or clairvoyance, but not yet of rational thought; more recently, rationality has been developed at the cost of spiritual perception, leading to the alienation characteristic of modernity. Steiner proposed that humanity now has the task of synthesizing the rational and contemplative/spiritual components of cognition, whereby spiritual perception would be awakened through intensifying thinking. He considered this relevant not only to personal development, but as a foundation for advanced scientific research. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment constitutes a fundamental guide to the anthroposophical path of cognition or knowledge. In human consciousness, faculties are sleeping that, if awakened, lead to life-giving wisdom. With great clarity and warmth Rudolf Steiner details the exercises and moral qualities to be cultivated on the path to a conscious experience of supersensible realities. This book, perhaps the most controversial of Steiner's extensive literary legacy, suggests the possibility of a person in the 20th century developing sufficient skills of concentration, empathy, etc. to be able to obtain first-hand knowledge of spiritual realities consciously.

2024 Reprint of the 1947 Edition. A Revised and Enlarged Edition of The Way of Initiation and Initiation and Its Results. Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Rudolf Steiner developed exercises aimed at cultivating new cognitive faculties he believed would be appropriate to contemporary individual and cultural development. According to Steiner's view of history, in earlier periods people were capable of direct spiritual perceptions, or clairvoyance, but not yet of rational thought; more recently, rationality has been developed at the cost of spiritual perception, leading to the alienation characteristic of modernity. Steiner proposed that humanity now has the task of synthesizing the rational and contemplative/spiritual components of cognition, whereby spiritual perception would be awakened through intensifying thinking. He considered this relevant not only to personal development, but as a foundation for advanced scientific research. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment constitutes a fundamental guide to the anthroposophical path of cognition or knowledge. In human consciousness, faculties are sleeping that, if awakened, lead to life-giving wisdom. With great clarity and warmth Rudolf Steiner details the exercises and moral qualities to be cultivated on the path to a conscious experience of supersensible realities. This book, perhaps the most controversial of Steiner's extensive literary legacy, suggests the possibility of a person in the 20th century developing sufficient skills of concentration, empathy, etc. to be able to obtain first-hand knowledge of spiritual realities consciously.

Here is the classic translation of Steiner's foundational guide to the spiritual path. It is a manual for attaining suprasensory knowledge of the invisible and opens new perspectives on one's essential purpose in life. In 1904, Rudolf Steiner first made this account of the Western esoteric path of initiation public. With great precision, he carefully leads us from the cultivation of the fundamental soul attitudes of reverence and inner tranquility to inner development through the stages of preparation, illumination, and initiation. Practical exercises in inner and outer observation and moral development are given. By patiently and persistently following these, new organs of soul and spirit begin to form that reveal the contours of the higher worlds hitherto concealed from us.

Here is the classic translation of Steiner's foundational guide to the spiritual path. It is a manual for attaining suprasensory knowledge of the invisible and opens new perspectives on one's essential purpose in life. In 1904, Rudolf Steiner first made this account of the Western esoteric path of initiation public. With great precision, he carefully leads us from the cultivation of the fundamental soul attitudes of reverence and inner tranquility to inner development through the stages of preparation, illumination, and initiation. Practical exercises in inner and outer observation and moral development are given. By patiently and persistently following these, new organs of soul and spirit begin to form that reveal the contours of the higher worlds hitherto concealed from us.

There slumber in every human being faculties by means of which he can acquire for himself a knowledge of higher worlds. Mystics, Gnostics, Theosophists - all speak of a world of soul and spirit which for them is just as real as the world we see with our physical eyes and touch with our physical hands. At every moment the listener may say to himself: that, of which they speak, I too can learn, if I develop within myself certain powers which today still slumber within me. -- Rudolf Steiner