“Modern exact clairvoyance, as developed by him [i.e., Rudolf Steiner], reveals spiritual facts to spiritual vision as clearly as men's ordinary senses reveal to the intellect the facts of the physical world.” — Floyd McKnight EXACTLY (More or Less) Steiner claimed to possess "exact clairvoyance," which made his doctrines nearly unquestionable. Here are some statements of the claim as well as some wonderful indications of the wisdom obtainable through the use of "exact clairvoyance." (Steiner is hard to read. Aiming at clarity, I have appended paraphrasings and I have added some explanatory endnotes.)
Paraphrase: I don't need to begin by explaining the methods I employ to acquire occult knowledge. [1] I assume you remember what I said about exact clairvoyance during my last visit to London.
Paraphrase: In my book THE PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM, I describe how intellectual powers can be heightened, leading to the development of exact clairvoyance. Such clairvoyance then exists as a free inner power of the soul. Only after gaining this power can we understand the other components of our being, aside from our powers of pure thought and free will. Through exact clairvoyance (which involves imaginative, inspired, and intuitive consciousness, and goes beyond the limits of the intellect), we attain true self-knowledge and we realize that our true home is the spirit realm. Then we understand that to be fully human, we must develop our exact clairvoyance more and more. [2]
Only those who understand my teachings can, with their eyes wide open, perform the exercises that lead to true knowledge of the spirit realm. Real esoteric training depends on the exercises I have prescribed. You must understand that groping blindly will get you nowhere — you may develop the ability to function as a medium, but you will not develop exact clairvoyance. [3]
Anthroposophy seeks to help its adherents to attain exact clairvoyance. (Scientists use the term "clairvoyance," so we will use it here.) [4] In other words, we seek to gain knowledge of the spirit realm that is no less exact and precise than the knowledge scientists acquire of the physical realm ... We work to develop a higher science [5] — this requires us to consciously sharpen and develop our powers of thought and will, so that we can attain exact clairvoyance.
People who study the physical realm (the world that is accessible to our senses) study outward things, physical causes and effects; but people who want to know the spirit realm consider ordinary science to be a preparation for spiritual vision. When we attain such vision, we no longer need ordinary science. We can call spiritual vision "clairvoyance" or, more precisely, "exact clairvoyance." Spiritual science begins where ordinary science ends. Above all, we must apply the same scientific rigor to our study of the spirit realm as we applied to our study of the physical realm. [6]
Modern philosophy, cosmology, and religion no longer truly reflect a full understanding of human nature. To correct this, we need to develop exact clairvoyance and its components (imagination, inspiration, and intuition). This means developing a truly conscious clairvoyance, unlike the dreamlike clairvoyance that people used to possess. [7] Human consciousness today is largely dominated by abstract concepts. To evolve to higher stages, we must apply full spiritual consciousness to the daily realities of our lives. [8]
Under the influence of Ahriman [9] we are in danger of descending to a level of animalistic desires; but the gods send us a countervailing force in the form of meteors ("iron arrows") that reconnect us to the wider cosmos. [10] Exact clairvoyance sees this with undeniable clarity. The gods' influences pour down inside us just as they pour down in the outer world (we have our own internal "meteoric process"). Exact clairvoyance reveals this in true mental images — "imaginations" that are not fantasies but accurate depictions of reality. We see that what happens in the cosmos, the Macrocosm, also happens within us, the Microcosms. [11]
Ancient cultures, such as oriental cultures located near the equator, had spiritual knowledge based on their peoples' elementary clairvoyance. Today we, in the temperate latitudes, can acquire higher knowledge through higher, exact clairvoyance ... It is foolish to want to revert to ancient ways. [12]
An individual who falls under the sway of the Moon enters a condition equivalent to the Old Moon stage of evolution. [13] It is as if he leaves ordinary physical reality and lives in the astral world [14] — astral influences pervade his physical reality and make use of his physical body. The effects of astral influences are then like conditions that prevailed during Old Moon. We are reminded that astral influences dominated our evolution during Old Moon and they will do so again. [15] But in the future our consciousness will be larger as will our physical abilities, so that physical forces such as gravity will have less hold on us. This is a glimpse of what life will be like during Future Jupiter. [16] Sleepwalking thus points back to a prior stage of evolution and it points forward to a future stage. [17] People who reenter the Old Moon stage may be called Moon Men, and they sometimes walk in their sleep. They unconsciously enter the imponderable astral world, but we may enter that world in full consciousness if we attain sufficient spiritual discipline. [18] The sleepwalker behaves as the forces of the Moon impel him to do, but when we enter the astral world through the use of exact clairvoyance, we remain motionless. The result is that the motions we would otherwise make are transformed within us and become intuitions. [19] Intuitions which we possess in full consciousness — the highest form of exact clairvoyance — are the transformed movements that a sleepwalker is impelled to make by the Moon. [20] When we exercise spiritual discipline, we do not submit to the physical forces of the Moon, but we master them. We thus devote our consciousness to spirituality, attaining intuitive clairvoyance. So studying sleepwalkers is productive; we see how cosmic evolution has affected humanity, and we see that sleepwalking and exact clairvoyance are opposite ends of a spectrum. Sleepwalkers are swayed by instinct, they surrender to the Moon forces, whereas exact clairvoyants achieve intuitive perception and, by controlling themselves, resist the Moon forces. This is what we see now concerning man's relation to the cosmos. [21] Steiner did not claim to be omniscient — he did not claim that his "exact clairvoyance" made him wholly incapable of error. He acknowledged that he might slip up a little, here or there, now and again. But very, very rarely. He sometimes said that spiritual investigation is so difficult, anyone using exact clairvoyance will get some things wrong sometimes. He even said, sometimes, that future spiritual investigators may take "spiritual science" farther than he was able to go. He tended to make such statements defensively, as if to cover himself, much as he sometimes argued that contradictions are inevitable in spiritual matters, since the truths of the spirit realm are not confined by narrow rules of logic. [See "Steiner's Illogic".] Nonetheless, Steiner claimed that his teachings are extremely solid, coming as they do from the use of an extremely reliable faculty, exact clairvoyance. He generally claimed that he was right about almost everything almost always, since his insights derived from such dependable investigative procedures. And his followers have generally accepted his assurances on these matters, looking on him as a virtually unquestionable source of wisdom. — Compilation and commentary by Roger Rawlings For more on the wisdom Steiner attained through exact clairvoyance, see, e.g., "Steiner's Blunders" and "Millennium". Somehow, Steiner's extremely reliable, precise psychic powers led him over and over into error, not truth. Yet Steiner specified the need for Waldorf teachers to follow his lead and develop their own powers of clairvoyance. Failing that, he said, they should accept his clairvoyant word for virtually everything. See "The Waldorf Teacher's Consciousness". For an overview of the cosmology Steiner developed through his claimed use of clairvoyance, see "Everything". For pointers on how to develop clairvoyance, see "Knowing the Worlds". ![]() Although it was not meant as such, this is a fairly good representation of Anthroposophy as it may first appear to anyone beginning the process of trying to comprehend Steiner's bizarre teachings. But take heart. It is possible to work your way through the maze and leave it behind. [Dave Phillips, MIND-BOGGLING MAZES (Dover Publications, 1979.] |