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ancestors which have been indicated. In oral presentations also has often been described how the earth
surface looked in the old Atlantean land.
It was said that at that time the air was saturated with water mist vapors. Man lived in the water mist,
which in certain regions never lifted to the point where the air was completely clear. Sun and moon
could not be seen as they are today, but were surrounded by colored coronas. A distribution of rain
and sunshine, such as occurs at present, did not exist at that time. One can clairvoyantly explore this
old land; the phenomenon of the rainbow did not exist at that time. It only appeared in the post-
Atlantean period.
Our ancestors lived in a country of mist. These facts have been ascertained by purely supersensible
observation, and it must even be said that the spiritual researcher does best to renounce all deductions
based on his knowledge of natural science, for through such deductions his unprejudiced inner sense
of spiritual research is easily misled. With such observations one should now compare certain ideas
toward which some natural scientists feel themselves impelled at present. Today there are scientists
who find themselves forced by facts to assume that at a certain period of its development the earth
was enveloped in a cloud mass.
They point out that at present also, clouded skies exceed the unclouded, so that life is still to a large
extent under the influence of sunlight which is weakened by the formation of clouds, hence one
cannot say that life could not have developed under the cloud cover of that Atlantean time. They
further point out that those organisms which can be considered among the oldest of the plant world
are of a kind which also develop without direct sunlight.
Thus, among the forms of this older plant world those desert-type plants which need direct sunlight
and dry air, are not present. And also with respect to the animal world, a scientist, Hilgard, has
pointed out that the giant eyes of extinct animals, for instance, of the Ichthyosaurus, indicate that a
dim illumination must have prevailed on the earth in their time. I do not mean to regard such views as
not needing correction. They interest the spiritual researcher less through what they state than through
the direction into which factual research finds itself forced. Even the periodical Kosmos, which has a
more or less Haeckelian point of view, some time ago published an essay worthy of consideration
which, because of certain facts of the plant and animal world, indicated the possibility of a former
Atlantean Continent.
If one brought together a greater number of such matters one could easily show how true natural
science is moving in a direction which in the future will cause it to join the stream which at present
already carries the waters of the springs of spiritual research. It cannot be emphasized too strongly
that spiritual research is nowhere in contradiction with the facts of natural science.
Where its adversaries see such a contradiction, this does not relate to facts, but to the opinions which
these adversaries have formed, and which they believe necessarily result from the facts. But in truth
there is not the slightest connection between the opinion of Forel quoted above, for instance, and the
facts of the stars of the nebulas, the nature of the cells, the liquefaction of the air, and so forth. This
opinion represents nothing but a belief which many have formed out of a need for believing, which
clings to the sensory-real, and which they place beside the facts. This belief is very dazzling for
present-day man.
It entices him to an inner intolerance of a quite special kind. Its adherents are blinded to the point
where they consider their own opinion to be the only "scientific" one, and ascribe the views of others
merely to prejudice and superstition. Thus it is really strange when one can read the following
sentences in a newly-published book on the phenomena of the soul life [Hermann Ebbinghaus, Abriss
der Psychologie (Outline of Psychology) ]: "As a help against the impenetrable darkness of the future
and the insuperable might of inimical powers, the soul creates religion for itself. As in other
experiences involving ignorance or incapacity, under the pressure of uncertainty and the terror of
great dangers, ideas as to how help can be found here, are quite naturally forced upon man in the same
way in which one thinks of water when in danger from fire, of the helpful comrade in the peril of
combat."
"In the lower stages of civilization, where man still feels himself to be quite impotent and to be
surrounded by sinister dangers at every step, the feeling of fear, and correspondingly, the belief in evil
spirits and demons naturally entirely prevail. In higher stages on the other hand, where a more mature
insight into the interconnection of things and a greater power over them produce a certain self-
confidence and stronger hopes, a feeling of confidence in invisible powers comes to the fore and with
it the belief in good and benevolent spirits.
But on the whole, both fear and love, side by side, remain permanently characteristic of the feeling of
man toward his gods, except that their relation to one another changes according to the
circumstances."  "These are the roots of religion . . . fear and need are its mothers, and although it is
principally perpetuated by authority once it has come into existence, still it would have died out long
since if it were not constantly being reborn out of these two."
Everything in these assertions has been shifted and thrown into disorder, and this disorder is
illuminated from the wrong points of view. Furthermore, he who maintains this opinion is firm in his
conviction that his opinion must be a generally binding truth. First of all, the content of religious
conceptions is confused with the nature of religious feelings. The content of religious conceptions is
taken from the region of the supersensible worlds.
The religious feeling, for example, fear and love of the supersensible entities, is made the creator of
this content without further ado, and it is assumed without hesitation that nothing real corresponds to
the religious conceptions. It is not even considered remotely possible that there could be a true
experience of supersensible worlds, and that the feelings of fear and love then cling to the reality
which is given by this experience, just as no one thinks of water when in danger from fire, of the
helpful comrade in the peril of combat, if he has not known water and comrade previously.
In this view, the science of the spirit is declared to be day-dreaming because one makes religious
feeling the creator of entities which one simply regards as non-existent. This way of thinking totally
lacks the consciousness that it is possible to experience the content of the supersensible world, just as
it is possible for the external senses to experience the ordinary world of the senses.
The odd thing that often happens with such views is that they resort to the kind of deduction to
support their belief which they represent as improper in their adversaries. For example, in the above-
mentioned work of Forel the sentence appears, "Do we not live in a way a hundred times truer,
warmer, and more interestingly when we base ourselves on the ego, and find ourselves again in the
souls of our descendants, rather than in the cold and nebulous fata morgana of a hypothetical heaven
among the equally hypothetical songs and trumpet soundings of supposed angels and archangels,
which we cannot imagine, and which therefore mean nothing to us."
But what has that which "one" finds "warmer," "more interesting," to do with the truth? If it is true [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]