Dearest Rudolf Steiner you spoke these words on the 17th June 1915 in Düsseldorf ‘The Human Being’s Experience Beyond the Gates of Death’.

‘Some time ago, in Dornach, a member of our Society who had reached a fairly advanced age took leave of the physical plane.  He had passed his life in diligent, caring, thoughtful work; for a good number of years he had been whole-heartedly united with our spiritual-scientific convictions and had impressed and engraved them into his own soul.  In the last period of his physical existence, this person had become wholly united with our world-outlook in his feelings and perceptions. 

You know that when the human being passes through the gates of death he first of all lays aside the physical body; for a while he still carries the etheric body with him, then he lays this, too, aside.  Then comes a time during which he only slowly and gradually achieves the consciousness which will be his between death and a new birth.  Immediately after death the human being is in his etheric body.  At this stage, as we know, he looks back and experiences his whole life in a great tableau.  In particular, the powerful impulses of his soul emerge all of a sudden and can manifest quite differently from the way they did during life.

During life the human being is in many respects bound within the confines of his physical body.  At death we immediately overcome the body’s weight, solidity and constraint, which weaken the clarity of many soul-impulses.  We still possess the etheric body and have therefore not yet lost the memory of our past life.  In this world of images we see first of all scenes of our previous life, but then the particularly strong impulses of our soul.  If someone, during life, has powerfully united himself with the impulses of spiritual science to the point of feeling and experiencing them in a most inward way within his soul, then after death he can unfold and develop these impressions in a quite different way; for his soul now has the supple, flexible, yielding etheric body at its service, which is no longer constrained by the physical body.

One could observe this particularly well in the case of the person of whom I spoke just now: quite shortly after death, once he had succeeded in wholly transposing himself into his soul, he was able to pour out what had lived in him as spiritual-scientific impulses.  During life he would not, of course, have expressed himself in the way he did now.  But because the etheric body was still there, he could clothe in physical words what he wished to say.  What he had taken into himself through spiritual science became the voice and expression of his soul while he remained within the supply etheric body.  And I found it necessary, a few days later at the cremation of this person, to speak the particular words which rang out from the being of his soul, which belonged not to me but to him:

I will carry into world-expanse
My feeling heart,that it may grow
Warm in the fire of holy powers;

I will weave in world-thoughts
My own thinking that it may grow
In the light of eternally unfolding life;

I will plunge into depths of soul
My yielding thoughts that they may grow
Strong for humanity’s true aims;

I strive for the tranquility of God
Through life’s cares and toils,
Preparing myself for the higher Self;

Seeking active, vigorous peace
Sensing world-being in my being
I wish to fulfil humanity’s task;

Then I may live in expectancy,
Following the star of my destiny
Which shows me my place in Spirit-Land.

Here, clothed in words, were the after-death feelings of a soul imbued with spiritual science.  Then followed a time which everyone more or less passes through after death; it cannot really be called a time of sleep, for after we have laid aside the etheric body we are immediately fully immersed in the spiritual world, but we are blinded by its abundance.  We cannot take it all in.  We must first adapt the forces we have brought with us, adjust them to correspond with the spiritual world; we must attune ourself.

We see too much after death; consciousness is present, but we must harmonize it, tone it down to correspond with the forces we have acquired.  Then we begin to be able to find our bearings and really live in the spiritual world.  So it is not quite correct to say that our consciousness awakens after a while; we really have too much consciousness and must tone it down to the point at which it is bearable.  That is the moment of awakening.  When the soul I am speaking of had laid aside its etheric body, it entered, therefore into this condition of not being able to bear the light of spirit.  But it had a great deal of strength; you can glean from the words which I just read.  This strength gradually became quite premeated by powers of feeling and willing which the soul had imbued with spiritual science.  Therefore, shortly after death, it was able to arrive at a stage of consciousness which it could bear. 

If I was going to describe everything which a soul begins to experience at this stage, there would, of course, be a great deal to describe.  I can only describe parts of it, certain aspects.  For us, it is naturally of great significance to observe what connects such souls to our Movement.  We can also learn about the overall connection of human souls with the whole world after death, but can best observe the nature of life after death in souls who have been as close to us as this soul of whom I speak.

This particular soul, then, as it orientated itself and came to clear consciousness, could be observed taking parts in our meetings; yes, really taking part in our meetings.  This involvement became fully-fledged at an Easter festival in Dornach this year, when the attempt was made to impress upon our dear friends in Dornach the profound nature of the meaning of Easter.  This soul was present there and took part, just as it had previously taken part in our conferences with inward warmth.  And it wished also to express itself, just as many who still inhabit their physical bodies wish to speak about what they have heard.

It wished to express itself.  And the remarkable thing is that it again expressed itself in words, so that it could be understood; expressed in words how its experience of our Easter lecture is related to its own continuing, everlasting life.  What it expressed was something like an addition to the verses received at the time of its death.  This addition, which now issued from its consciousness, went as follows:

In human souls I will direct
Feeling of spirit, so that it readily
Wakens to word of Easter in the heart;
Together with human spirits I will think
The warmth of soul, so that they powerfully
Can feel The Risen One.

One can see that this soul wishes to continue working with the people it was connected to in our spiritual-scientific Movement.  It wishes to dedicate itself to them so that the message of Easter can awaken in their hearts – which was also my aim in the Easter lecture – and so that they can develop the right feeling for what we call in spiritual science, ‘The Risen One’.

In those Easter lectures and in various other lectures which were given then, I tired time after time – as I have done on many other occasions – to draw significance that spiritual science has not only for this earthly life, but also for the whole universe.  Whoever passes through the gates of death can experience this, can understand the significance of what is being accomplished by spiritual science.  That is why I advise so many people, whose dear ones have passed through the gates of death, to read to them or speak to them about the teachings of spiritual science; for these have meaning and relevance not only for souls living in a physical body – they are also very significant for disembodied souls.  What is expressed in spiritual scientific words nourishes them like spiritual air, like a spiritual water of life; or one could also say that they perceive light coming up to them from us below.  For us, this light is, as it were, symbolic, for we hear words and receive them in our soul as thoughts; but the dead see it really as spiritual light. 

Now it is very significant that this particular soul, who had often heard these things spoken of, wished to say clearly: ‘I have understood this and it is really so!’  For its words in this respect were:

To the world of appearance of death shines up
Spiritual knowledge’s bright earth-flame …

This soul now sees as actuality what it once heard.  It wishes to say: ‘What you speak below, shines up like a flame.’  And it expresses this by saying ‘earth-flame’.  But why does it speak of the ‘world of appearance’ of death?  If you think about it, you will understand.  The soul had often heard the world described as ‘maya’ or ‘appearance’ and so now it says: ‘On earth I lived in the world of appearance of the senses; now I live also in a world of appearance in which I must seek to perceive real being:’

To the world of appearance of death shines up
Spiritual knowledge’s bright earth-flame;

And then comes something which strengthens the soul:

The Self becomes world-eye and ear.

‘World-ear’ is meant.  The soul means that the whole Self becomes something like a mighty sense-organ, an organ of perception for the whole world.  In this beautiful way the one who has died shows how he has become aware of the truth of the teachings of spiritual science.  It is characteristic of this particular soul that it wishes to express itself immediately after death in order to say :  ‘Yes, I am now able to confirm that what I learned on earth was true and right’.

*

Thank you for teaching everyone of us kind Sir.