Seven lectures given in Berlin during January, February and March 1918. The following lectures were given at a time during the first world war when many souls were passing through the gate of death. The desire for knowledge that will help to realize true links between the living and the dead is no less intense today. Contents: Present Position of Spiritual Science; A Contribution to our Knowledge of the Human Being; Living and the Dead; Cosmic Thoughts and Our Dead; Man's Connection with the Spiritual World; Feelings of Unity and Sentiments of Gratitude: a Bridge to the Dead; Confidence in Life and Rejuvenation of the Soul: a Bridge to the Dead.

These lectures show the factors in life on earth that will influence one's experiences during life after death, as well as elements of the spiritual world that will affect one's future life on earth. Steiner also speaks of the influence the living may have on the souls of the dead.

The lecture presented here were given by Rudolf Steiner at a series of public meetings in Christiana, Norway, in May, 1923. He had gone there at the invitation of Scandinavian friends to take part in the founding of the Anthroposophical Society in Norway. Upon their request for a series of public lectures he chose to talk about the fundamental anthroposophical problems connected with the being of man, the formation of his destiny and the relationship of the complete man to world evolution. Dr. Steiner, who was then late in life, responded to the warm interest of his audience with the vigor of a young man. As the scandinavian sky and earth appear to blend into each other, so his inspiring worlds seemed to link his listeners with the eternal truths of man's origins, his present needs and future aims. In the very first of these lectures Dr. Steiner typically relates man's being to the vast spaces of the cosmos in a discussion of the period between falling asleep and awaking and the path pursued by man between death and a new birth. From this beginning he traces human destiny working in the individual to the continuing course of mankind's whole evolution. Finally, the destiny of man is contemplated in the light of the Mystery of Golgotha, and the influence of this event on man's development on earth is revealed. The cycle closes with the thought that for man to reach God anew he must, in full consciousn ess of his connections with the Mystery of Golgotha, bring himself to be able to say with St. Paul, "Not I, but the Christ in me!"

This fascinating exploration of pre-birth consciousness—with over 200 real-life case studies—reveals we do make decisions about the families and circumstances into which we’re born. An affirming and inspirational read for parents and grandparents, regression therapists and spiritual counselors, and anyone interested in near-death experiences. Where was your soul before you were born? If your soul is immortal, did it have a “life” prior to birth? Did you choose your life and parents? Is reincarnation real? Elizabeth and Neil Carman, the authors of Cosmic Cradle, address these questions through interviews with adults and children who report pre-birth experiences (PBEs) not based on regression, hypnosis, or drugs. Instead, interviewees recall their pre-birth existence completely sober and awake. In contrast to near-death experiences (NDEs), which have been well documented to show us what the soul experiences after death, PBEs throw light upon our lives before birth. People with NDEs sense that they “return home” when their spirits cross to the other side. What is the nature of this place we “return” to? PBEs suggest that we come from the same place we return to: we come from the Light and return to the Light. The same eternal "you" progresses through life before life, human life, and life after death. This new edition of Cosmic Cradle explores your soul’s journey into your mother’s womb—where your soul comes from, the origin and purpose of your life, and the process by which you entered an earthly body. In pre-birth communications, parents meet a soul seeking to cross over from the heavenly realm to human birth. Persons with pre-birth memories recall existence in a luminous world before birth, in which they preview the upcoming life with a Divine Planner, and recall how they journeyed to their mothers’ wombs.

"My first lectures within the groups that arose from the theosophical movement had to be adjusted to the soul disposition of those people. They had assimilated theosophic literature and were accustomed to certain modes of expression. Initially, in order to be understood, I had to remain with those modes. Nor was it possible for me to use my own terms until, over the course of time, the work had progressed. As a result, the lecture material as it was made available through notes taken during the ?rst years of the anthroposophic work gives a true, inner picture spiritually. It portrays the path I adopted to gradually make spiritual knowledge known, so that what was closer could lead to an understanding of what was more remote. But this approach must really be seen in light of its inner quality." --Rudolf Steiner (from his autobiography) In Berlin, just past the turn of the twentieth century, Rudolf Steiner, then a relatively unknown writer, educator, and editor, first began his spiritual teaching activity under the auspices of the Theosophical Society. The gatherings at this time were small, often being held in private homes, and therefore, in terms of size and location, intimate. Immediately after assuming leadership of the German Section of the Theosophical Society, Rudolf Steiner began a comprehensive program of teaching, at first within the Berlin Branch of the Theosophical Society. The notes from nineteen of those early lectures and four private lessons form the content of this volume. Moving back and forth between Eastern theosophical terminology and Western esoteric tradition, searching for words and pictures, for the first time Steiner was presenting the results of his spiritual-scientific research to small groups of people longing for deeper truths.

A single lecture taken from the volume Life Beyond Death.

‘The intention is to take a practical subject and show how our spiritual science with anthroposophical orientation truly can play an effective role in everyday life.’ – Rudolf Steiner Following his first major lecture course for medical practitioners, Rudolf Steiner sought to elaborate and deepen his ‘extension’ of the art of healing from a spiritual-scientific perspective. In this collection of addresses, discussions, question-and-answer sessions and lectures – running parallel to his major medical cycles – Steiner comments on contemporary medicine’s emphasis on experimental, materially-based research and its subsequent lack of attention to therapy. Steiner’s intention is not to detract from developments in medical science but to build on them with spiritual science – not quackery but a true art of medicine. The medical practitioner has an important task: diseases must be cured, and it is wrong not to intervene and simply to allow ‘karma to take its course’. Speaking to audiences ranging from members of the general public to small groups of medical professionals, Steiner offers new insights into our understanding of human organs such as the brain, kidneys and liver, as well as the efficacy of healing substances including arsenic, sulphur, arnica and essential plant oils. He studies a broad range of specific medical conditions, giving advice on cancer, hysteria, rheumatism, gout, skin eruptions, typhoid, diabetes, haemophilia, syphilis, gonorrhoea, asthma, glaucoma, leukaemia, smallpox, insomnia, and childhood diseases such as measles. His commentaries on a raft of contrasting subjects – such as psychiatry, sexual maturity, memory, poisoning and detoxification – present challenging perspectives for patients and medical practitioners. Steiner’s surprisingly non-dogmatic advice on vaccination, for example, gives a refreshingly balanced, and perhaps unexpected, point of view. This volume also includes a lecture on eurythmy therapy, a comprehensive introduction, index and notes, and nine full colour plates of Rudolf Steiner’s blackboard drawings.

'Our contemporaries – who wish to keep to a narrow-minded and superficial outlook, are annoyed to find that spiritual science continually seeks the whole picture – that it has to create a bridge between the body and the soul, and truly explores how the psyche becomes corporeal and the body becomes psychological.' How do the soul and the spirit live in human physical bodies? In our materialistic age, in which the very existence of the metaphysical is widely rejected, such questions are rarely posed let alone addressed. In this exceptional series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks in scientific detail about the connection of the subtle aspects of human nature – our soul and spirit – to our physical constitution. At the heart of this course are the well-loved 'Bridge' lectures, which appear in English for the first time in their wider context. Steiner discusses the solid, fluid, air and warmth bodies, and how these are connected with the various ethers, the 'I' and human blood. He goes on to describe how ideals and ideas impact the various aspects of the human constitution – how morality is a source of 'world creativity'– with moral thinking imbuing life into substance and will. Moral ideas have a positive effect, he says, whereas theoretical ones have a negative impact. In the realm of the moral, a new natural world comes into being, and thus the moral order and the natural order are intertwined. This volume also features Steiner's classic lecture on the Isis legend and its renewal today as divine wisdom – Sophia. Other themes include the mystery of Christ as the connection between the spiritual and physical sun; the permeation of the life of thought with will (love) and permeation of the life of will with thoughts (wisdom); the path to freedom and love and their importance in the universe; the metamorphosis of head and limbs through successive lives on earth; the threefold nature of the human form (head, thorax, limbs), the threefold nature of the soul (thinking, feeling, will) and the threefold nature of the spirit (waking, dreaming, sleeping).