VI. THEO3OPHY RUDOLF STEINER - 129

CONCLUSION. THE SCOPE FOR NEW
INVESTIGATIONS - - ' J 54
LITERARY APPENDIX - - - 170
OCCULTISM AND MODERN SCIENCE
INTRODUCTION
CIVILIZATION (Kultur), nowadays, is undergoing a series of critical transforma- tions. We daily witness political changes, the gravity and completeness of which surpass any events known to history. For the first time, all nations are linked up into a causal whole, and the world has become one single political unit. The international means of ex- change enhanced by the increased facilities in material and intellectual communication which was the result of the nineteenth century have brought to an end former conditions under which conflicts only broke out between adjoining countries.
During the world war, nearly all the civilized nations, together with f tl^e majority of their dependent peoples^ we^e 'drawn into combat. All the seas 'and the grjUter- .part of the surface of the continent becapi a theatre of war. But while the fires of this general conflagration still smoulder, a new catastrophe of- international character threatens trf overwhelm the globe.
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Russia, which only two years ago showed every indication of utter collapse and appeared to have dwindled to a mere shadow of itself, has now spread civil war and wholesale terrorism through- out the rest of the world.
The downfall of civilization which took place in Russia is in danger of engendering universal collapse, throwing back the civilized nations in particular to more primitive conditions than those which characterized ancient history. The situation, however, is much more serious to-day than when the invasion of the German hordes heralded the advent of the middle ages with its retarded civilization. For at that period, the invading tribes had no definite object in view beyond youthful enthusiasm for war, conquest and adventure whereas Russian Bolshevism is intent on destroying the very framework of " Kultur," as well as the structures of society an intention carried through with ruthless determination wherever Bolshevism takes root.
But while the foundations of mankind sway under the impact of this torrent, and none can safely predict whether he may not be engulfed by this aftermath of the world war, we visualize on the horizon of pure thought phenomena such as precede the end of a cosmos. The red flush of a setting sun already casts its dying reflection over the whole body of knowledge of the modern world. All is changed. The scientific work of
INTRODUCTION 8
the three last centuries has been proved one- sided and incomplete. It originated with the study of phenomena of movement in Nature, initiated .by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton ; but these were the product of dead matter, and formed but part of a system which cannot be taken as representing the whole.
The widening of our intellectual horizon and the consideration of other branches of reality have already produced far-reaching alterations in our mechanical conception of the world. They have brought about revolutionary changes in theory, even in the realm of dead matter. It is enough to mention in proof of this the dissolution of the elements and the principle of relativity. But far more fundamental are the changes wrought in our conception of the universe by reason of the introduction of facts from the mental and organic worlds. These two sections represent independent spheres of study. When they are given due weight to in our theories, the world of our conception assumes a still more changed appearance.
The advance of the analysis of the life of the mind has made clear the essential difference of its behaviour from that of matter. All the im- portant deductions of modern psychology during the last two centuries have but widened the breach between psychology and natural science. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the
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world lived under the delusion that the principles of a fundamental science that of elementary mental phenomena had been discovered in experimental psychology. It was assumed that this science could be used for the study of the mental world in the same way that mechanics are employed to investigate the conformation of inorganic bodies. This strange delusion is over. No serious student would now allow that ex- perimental psychology, operating within the sphere of the science of mind, can even approxi- mately be compared to that of mechanics, as considered in relation to the natural science. All hope of discovering laws of like structure in the life of the soul, to those that control the domain of mechanics, has remained unfulfilled.
No lasting factor exists in mental life apart from the centre of consciousness to which we ascribe all mental acts and conditions whereas all the mechanics of natural science presuppose the existence and continuity of their elementary physical component parts. In the life of the soul no law of conservation of energy exists similar to that which governs the laws of mechanics. Herbart's attempt to establish a mechanics of the life of the soul on the assumption that perceptions were separate elements con- stituting mental matter, has met with no greater success when repeated by experimental psychology on a more advanced scale. If we wish to make a
INTRODUCTION 5
true comparison between the material world and the world of mind, we find that the material elements do not correspond one by one to separate individual moments in the life of the mind, but rather that each individual psych taken separately as a whole in itself corresponds to a separate material element. On the other hand, however, while mechanical laws alone govern the relationship between the separate material elements, all the so-called psychological laws are based on the distinctions within the individual soul each separate mind being for itself a separate mental universe.
But the state of psychology, together with that of the mind itself, becomes further com- plicated through the fact that all minds so far as we know are in close communication with the physical world. Natural science is concerned with objects which represent an independent sphere of reality (or at least can be treated as such). The experiences of the mind are corol- laries of events in the material world. We take each mind to be allied to a physical organism. It gets into touch with the outer world through the medium of the senses, and it is only cognizant of the existence of other minds through its per- ception of foreign bodies connected with these other souls. On the other hand, the mind is able partly by its own conscious action though mainly unconsciously to modify its own or-
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ganism, thus conveying to other minds signs of its own existence. The whole of the action of the mind, as shown by its effect upon the material world, entirely destroys and shatters the mechanical conception of the world, which believed itself entitled to consider consciousness as quite isolated without outward influence of any kind upon material things. The theory of parallelism was a desperate attempt to establish this isolation without admitting the influence of consciousness on the physical sphere. 1
Of an equally fundamental character is the upsetting of the mechanical conception of the universe which results when we consider the construction of organisms which take their material from the physical world. Whether this process is attributed to the act of God or to vital forces of a special kind whether one hypostatizes the unconscious functions of the individual mind or constructs special laws for organic life in every and any case the facts cannot be explained unless some new factor is presupposed.
Modern psychology and New Biology have joined together to uproot the older materialistic conception of the world, though they have not succeeded in replacing it by any other definition, It is but too evident that the development of the organic world and the appearance and dis-
1 Theism does not admit that the Material world represents an independent sphere.
INTRODUCTION 7
appearance of minds from the ken of our im- mediate experience remain wholly unexplained and unexplainable. The world of experience presents us with the picture of a cosmos, in which ever new factors become active, only to vanish into nothingness, leaving as little traces of their disappearance as of their previous inception.
If the actual world of experience is to be regarded as the whole of Reality, nothing is of more frequent occurrence than the creatio ex nihilo and its antithesis entire annihilation.
But the crisis in present-day views of the uni- verse has not yet reached its final stage. On the contrary, we are confronted with the prospect of a much more serious upheaval, which will result in a new conception of the universe. A still further revolution is once again to widen the horizons of thought by bringing into considera- tion hitherto unnoted realms of reality.
There are volcanic signs of disruption under the superficial layer of official culture. As a matter of fact, conceptions which are in clear contradistinction to science have always con- tinued to exist. Superstitions of every sort have remained ingrained in civilized nations ; magic and witchcraft exercise their influence as of yore, only to be opposed by the thin veneer of education. It is, however, indisputable that the situation at present indicates change to no inconsiderable degree.
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Mid the lumber of superstition and delusions of every sort there are occasional psychic and psychophysical phenomena of a peculiar nature of their own which has made them the real foundation of, or rather the focus round which, phantasies formerly eluding scientific research have crystallized. They are phenomena of so strange a nature, that they are qualified to influence in decisive fashion our entire concep- tion of the universe, and even of life itself. The whole subject is summed up in the word : OCCULTISM an unfortunate appellation, for it is not only things called " occult " which are mysterious. We designate as mysterious anything which is not clear to us, and of which it is not easy to find the explanation. And as a matter of fact very few things are perfectly clear ; all the real facts of life have their mys- terious side even the simplest and those of daily occurrence. We do not know actually why a stone falls to the ground, why a pane of glass breaks when hit, or how it is that we see when the light-rays reach our eyes. And when we ascribe these events to a cause as formerly to the pres- 'sure or shock of the ether-atoms or, as at present, to the circulation of electrons round a positive nucleus we have again to accept another fact, just as inexplicable, in place of the one last established. For we do not know why this is so why electrons exist and move in this or that
INTRODUCTION 9
definite way, producing this or that effect. The child is right when it demands an explanation for every new fact brought to its notice. We are often forced to answer " It is so," and cannot help ourselves except by forbidding any further questions. In spite of this, the child is right to question us. His thirst for information is not yet blunted by a continuous repetition of events. For, so far as we are concerned, it is nothing less than intellectual laziness when we think that all that we experience, all that we know, has become clear and unenigmatical. The grown-up has merely become accustomed to facts and questions no longer. Everyday happenings have lost for him the sense of the mysterious, the unintelligible. It takes something unexpected and new to make him desire an explanation. Every great dis- covery in the realm of natural science therefore fills him with feelings of awe and mystery. Among these can be classed the X-rays ; the Hert- zian waves ; the radioactive emanations, and numerous others. But after a while they all enter the category of natural phenomena. The same applies to " occult " problems. Only so long as telepathy, clairvoyance and materializa- tions appear as something out of the ordinary, are they surrounded by an aura of mystery.
Swedenborg, who communicated with the spirits as though they were still in the flesh (as he believed), found nothing out of the way even
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in this. In the same way the relationship of the innumerable automatic writers of the present day to the spirits with which they claim to be in communication (through the Planchette) is also treated by them as quite in the ordinary course of things.
The debated facts of occultism are only different from many others in the world because of their comparative rarity, but this does not mean that they are unique in their nature, for it is possible to arrange them in groups or classes. They may be compared to works of a creative nature in art or science, which also like occult facts cannot be produced artificially, but can only be observed after they have come into existence. The appellation " occultism " is consequently extremely inapposite. Despite this, it may be accepted provisionally as an accepted designation as many other words are accepted, if it is under- stood that it does not possess any other signi- ficance except the conventional designation of a certain definite sphere of problematic matter. After all, the actual word used is of no importance.
In recent times the word " scientific " has been added to " occultism," and by this is meant scientific research into the problematic realm of the facts under discussion. A better and more trenchant term is " Parapsychology " or also as Richet puts it, " Metapsychology." It stands to reason that the most competent
INTRODUCTION 11
investigator for the major part of this domain should be the psychologist, an assertion beyond dispute. With regard to the remaining part of the facts to be investigated, the question might well be raised as to whether naturalists and biologists are not the best investigators ; though as one delves deeper into the subject, it becomes obvious that this work, too, cannot be accom- plished without the psychologist, and that what is really required is collaboration.
What makes Occultism so repellent to the professional scientist is the mental milieu in which the problematic facts under observation are so often presented. The parapsychologic problems exercise a peculiarly fascinating influence on all half-educated individuals, whose inherited conceptions of the universe have been uprooted, but who long, nevertheless, for more complete knowledge. They are drawn to them as moths to the light of arc-lamps. In the case of decided hysterical or neuropathological types, they soon come to believe that they are in mys- terious contact with the transcendental world, and they then develop a peculiar spiritual fanaticism which makes all discussion with them as hopeless as it is unrefreshing. They look down on science with ineffable disdain, meet every critical objection with instinctive enmity, filled as they are with the secret fear that they may find themselves to have been mistaken.
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This general mental predisposition tends to make them the easy victims of astoundingly impudent frauds, I have noticed with amaze- ment how women who were both educated and intelligent allowed themselves to be duped in the most transparent fashion by a woman medium at a spiritualistic stance. So crass were the means employed, that I could not resist the temptation of competing with the medium, and in my turn giving an exhibition of the same methods, in order to prove the absolute lack of critical analysis reached by these women in their search for the miraculous.
But even the individuals under examination the mediums are not infrequently of similar mental constitution. It is possibly a mistake to assume that all mediums are hysterical, although many of them are. But, after all, with hardly an exception, they take their stand on their spiritistic convictions. In dealing with them, therefore, tact is required to an unusual degree. The psychical researcher has, further- more, to adapt himself to strange and often quite repellent opinions. This is essential. Mediums are extremely sensitive in regard to a sceptical attitude towards spiritualism. The experience of Flournoy with Helene Smith is a case in point, though his book made her famous all over the world. Their connection was broken off after it had lasted for several years simply because he
INTRODUCTION 13
could not commit himself to countenance the phenomena she presented by the desired spiritistic explanation. I myself have tried in vain to maintain my relations with an automatic writer. These too came to an abrupt end when I, though admitting the fact of automatic writing, refused to agree to its spiritistic interpretation. But even when the investigator manifests the utmost care and caution, he is not immune from disillusion and unpleasant surprises. And yet despite all this it is impossible any longer to refuse to discuss the problems of occultism.
A large part of the more serious occult litera- ture is contributed by authors who have devoted themselves exclusively to this domain. We approach their work with a natural scepticism and reserve, for the absence of any other scientific productions on their part deprives us of other standards by which to judge the quality of their parapsychological investigations or the mental value of their occult publications. In some cases the impression left on our minds is such that we cannot refuse them credence, though in others we do not get beyond a nonliquet. The more curious and astounding the result of their deductions, the more we are inclined to reserve our judgment, even in the event of a general favourable impression of a given work.
However, for some time past, parapsychological investigations have not been exclusively confined
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to convinced occultists. To-day there is a considerable increase in the number of com- petent investigators who have proved their ability in other departments before turning their attention to Occultism. This already started in the eighties and nineties of last century. Those of the older generation have vivid recol- lections of the sensation when the founder of Astralphysics, C. F. Zoellner, his friend the originator of Psychophysics, G. Th. Fechner, and the distinguished English Physicist, Crookes, occupied themselves with the mediums Slade and Home, all three affirming the reality of phenomena hitherto regarded as definitely re- futed by all physical experiments. Although it was possible to contend successfully against Zoellner, Fechner and Crookes, that they placed too much faith in their mediums, and did not take sufficient precautions against possible decep- tion, this contention holds less and less with regard to more recent investigators, more especially as it has become the rule to keep the possibility of fraud well in mind. Formerly the whole problem could be waived aside. Zoell- ner could be called insane (and also erroneously accused of having committed suicide), and Crookes met with no better treatment. But is it really admissible to accuse every fresh student of being half-witted or unscientific, for the simple reason that having taken up Occultism, and remaining
INTRODUCTION 15
equally competent in his own sphere, he deduces certain definite though quite abnormal facts from his later study ? Surely the probability is greater, that their unanimity expresses the real hate of affairs, and that Occultism in conse- quence really deals with new facts of a peculiar character.
True, we are not dealing with happenings that can be observed at any time anywhere. They are peculiar to certain persons, to be made use of wherever they are to be found. But in psychology this situation is not rare. It has already been mentioned, that all creative work which is of any importance in the history of intellectual development has been confined to certain individuals only, and in their case even has not at all times been in evidence.
The scepticism brought to bear on such subjects in Germany at the present day goes much too far. Those familiar with foreign literature are forced to the conclusion that it is simply based on ignorance of the information already available. It is characteristic enough that until a few years ago the chief periodical on the subject, containing the most important and essential work and data, the " Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research," was (so far as I know) only procurable at the Munich State Library (though now it can also be found in the Berlin State Library). We are merely behind
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the times in this respect, and this attitude is a reversion to Materialism, and not the only one at that. The present state of affairs is more and more unworthy of German science, and my object in this book is to put an end to it.
The best and shortest way is to give a summary of the results of the examination of several contemporary mediums. For that purpose I have chosen those who demonstrate the phenomena under consideration in a peculiarly distinct and clear-cut fashion. These are the Swiss medium, Helene Smith ; the American, Mrs. Piper ; and the Italian, Eusabia Palladino the three most famous mediums of modern times. No others have been so thoroughly and continuously examined as they, for they remained for years in succession under scientific observa- tion. Once acquainted with the facts estab- lished through their mediumship, we shall be in possession of the best proofs by which to judge Occultism as a whole. We shall, however, not content ourselves with the examination of these three special cases, but occupy ourselves either in conjunction with them or separately with other more recent cases.