In his final lectures to the general public, Rudolf Steiner speaks with great clarity and purpose about the inner and outer necessity of the anthroposophical impulse in modern times. Following the fire that destroyed the first Goetheanum building in Dornach, Switzerland, Steiner had focused his efforts on rebuilding and reorganizing the Anthroposophical Society. But he also continued to travel and speak to the public – in Prague, Vienna and Basel – to explain the purpose of the Goetheanum and to elucidate the broader aims of his spiritual work. These lectures, including a semi-public series in Dornach, are gathered here and published in English for the first time, together with an introduction, notes and index.The volume features the following lectures: 'The Purpose of the Goetheanum and the Aims of Anthroposophy'; 'Enhancing Human Powers of Perception to Develop Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition'; 'Human Soul Life and the Development of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition'; 'Experience and Perception of the Activities of Thinking and Speech'; 'The Physical World and Moral-Spiritual Impulses': 'Four Stages of Inner Experience'; 'Perceiving the Etheric World'; 'Soul's Eternity in the Light of Anthroposophy'; 'Human Development and Education in the Light of Anthroposophy'; 'Supersensible Perception, Anthroposophy as a Contemporary Need'; 'Anthroposophy and the Ethical and Religious Life'; 'How Do We Gain Knowledge of the Supersensible World?'

In his final lectures to the general public, Rudolf Steiner speaks with great clarity and purpose about the inner and outer necessity of the anthroposophical impulse in modern times. Following the fire that destroyed the first Goetheanum building in Dornach, Switzerland, Steiner had focused his efforts on rebuilding and reorganizing the Anthroposophical Society. But he also continued to travel and speak to the public – in Prague, Vienna and Basel – to explain the purpose of the Goetheanum and to elucidate the broader aims of his spiritual work. These lectures, including a semi-public series in Dornach, are gathered here and published in English for the first time, together with an introduction, notes and index. The volume features the following lectures: ‘The Purpose of the Goetheanum and the Aims of Anthroposophy’; ‘Enhancing Human Powers of Perception to Develop Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition’; ‘Human Soul Life and the Development of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition’; ‘Experience and Perception of the Activities of Thinking and Speech’; ‘The Physical World and Moral-Spiritual Impulses’: ‘Four Stages of Inner Experience’; ‘Perceiving the Etheric World’; ‘Soul’s Eternity in the Light of Anthroposophy’; ‘Human Development and Education in the Light of Anthroposophy’; ‘Supersensible Perception, Anthroposophy as a Contemporary Need’; ‘Anthroposophy and the Ethical and Religious Life’; ‘How Do We Gain Knowledge of the Supersensible World?’

Published in 1904 (CW 10) "Not everyone can immediately achieve spiritual vision; but the discoveries of those who have it can be health-giving life nourishment for all. The results of supersensible knowledge, when properly employed in life, prove to be not impractical, but rather, practical in the highest sense.... The acquisition of higher knowledge is not the end, but the means to an end; the end consists in the attainment, thanks to this knowledge, of greater and truer self-confidence, a higher degree of courage, and a magnanimity and perseverance such as cannot, as a rule, be acquired in the lower world." This is the classic account of the modern Western esoteric path of initiation made public by Steiner in 1904. He begins with the premise that "the capacities by which we can gain insights into the higher worlds lie dormant within each one of us." Steiner carefully and precisely leads the reader from the cultivation of the fundamental soul attitudes of reverence and inner tranquility to the development of inner life through the stages of preparation, illumination, and initiation. Steiner provides practical exercises of inner and outer observation and moral development. By patiently and persistently following his guidelines, new "organs" of soul and spirit begin to form, which reveal the contours of the higher worlds thus far concealed from us. Steiner in this important work becomes a teacher, a counselor, and a friend whose advice is practical, clear, and effective. The challenges we face in life require increasingly deeper levels of understanding, and Steiner's text helps readers to cultivate the capacities for such insights and places them at the service of humanity. This is Steiner's most essential guide to the modern path of initiation he advocated throughout his life. It has been translated into many languages and has inspired hundreds of thousands of readers around the world. How to Know Higher Worlds has been admired by some of the most brilliant minds of our time. "The methods by which a student is prepared for the reception of higher knowledge are minutely prescribed. The direction he is to take is traced with unfading, everlasting letters in the worlds of the spirit where the initiates guard the higher secrets. In ancient times, anterior to our history, the temples of the spirit were also outwardly visible; today, because our life has become so unspiritual, they are not to be found in the world visible to external sight; yet they are present spiritually everywhere, and all who seek may find them." Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment is a translation from German of the written work Wie erlangt man Erkenntnisse der höheren Welten? (GA 10).

Showing that the findings of anthroposophical spiritual science may be seen as a vital contribution to academic sciences, the author states that anthroposophy aims to enhance human powers of perception. This volume includes two series of lectures given by him on this topic at the request of anthroposophists connected with the university in Zurich.

This book is the first introduction into anthroposophy and anthroposophical medicine on the basis of epistemology, physics, chemistry, molecular biology, neurobiology, psychology, philosophy of mind, history of science, and evidence based medicine. Justification of a non-reductionist, academic anthropology and medical practice accounting for body, life, soul, and spirit.

18 lectures in Dornach, January 9 - February 22, 1920 (CW 196) In the vast range of Rudolf Steiner's lectures, jewels of all kinds lie hidden in plain sight, awaiting only our discovery of them. Such lectures contain a kind of wisdom not found anywhere else. And sometimes, as in What Is Necessary in These Urgent Times, they also have a translucency and conviction that makes them transformational. In early 1920, political, economic, social, and spiritual chaos was everywhere. The old world had fallen apart and would need to be rebuilt. Anthroposophy, too, had to be remade. Recognizing this, Rudolf Steiner tirelessly working for the "threefold social order," establishing the first Waldorf school, helping to create businesses, and addressing the talented, educated, and idealistic young people who were beginning to turn toward Anthroposophy for answers. In these lectures, Steiner speaks in the new, direct "Michaelic" way, seeking the path to a new way of doing Anthroposophy. Throughout the critical situation of the time, he never lost his sense of humor or his compassion and equilibrium. His tone is warm, relaxed, and intimate. Rather than following a strictly predetermined path, he speaks directly from the heart about what concerned him. He stresses that the task of spiritual science is to awaken us to reality and to a true understanding of life that sees through illusions and understands the ever-present potential of evil. Speaking both esoterically and exoterically, he returns repeatedly to the importance of community, of meeting one another face-to-face, heart-to-heart, as individuals. Thus, rather than seeking power and control, we are called to cultivate trust and receptivity. This takes a spiritual transformation. We must learn to live this present life in the context of our greater spiritual life, which extends from before birth through earthly life and into the life after death that precedes our next birth. At the same time, we must come to know the Christ, who is to be met only in community. Selfishness, egotism, has no part in the new way: "When someone is alone Christ is not there. You cannot find Christ without first feeling a connection to humanity as a whole. You must seek Christ on the path that connects you with all humankind.... To be connected only with your own inner experiences leads you away from Christ." Steiner deals with many other important themes, as well, including "imperialism," the initiate behind Shakespeare, Bacon, and James I--makers of our modern age--and well as fascinating, initiatory remarks on reincarnation, esoteric physiology, and psychology. Running throughout the talks is the earnest admonition to be true to the spirit and the call to come to our senses and not fall prey to self-pity. Now, as it was then, the world needs us to be awake spiritually, and we need the world to be awake spiritually. There is nowhere to hide. What Is Necessary in These Urgent Times is a translation from German of Geisitige und soziale Wandlungen in der Menschheitsentwikelung (GA 196).

In describing the development of Anthroposophy, Steiner illumined the philosophies that lie at its roots. He speaks of Madame H. P. Blavatsky, of the anti-Christian forces in the world, and of the 'homeless' souls who seek a spiritual scientific understanding of the world and humanity.

In 1924, Rudolf Steiner gave a series of urgent, impassioned, talks to members of the Anthroposophical Society regarding their karma and its relationship to the culture of the time. Steiner's words characterize vividly a spiritual battle, of forces gathering to fight for the soul of humanity itself. Given the challenges faced by humanity today, it has, perhaps, never been more urgent for those who ally themselves with Rudolf Steiner's work to study, absorb and take to heart the contents of this critically important material.

With the unprecedented global conflict of the First World War as an overarching theme, Rudolf Steiner addresses timeless issues such as the search for harmony between peoples and nations, the development of the human capacity for love, the contemporary presence of Christ, and the questions of reincarnation and life after death. Speaking in the German city of Stuttgart during and after the war years, Steiner discusses the perpetual tension between East and West – particularly in relation to Europe. The war, he says, arose principally out of the Anglo-Saxon peoples' determination 'to exercise world-domination'. Knowing that Slavic culture is destined to be the precursor of the sixth cultural epoch, Western national interests resolved to make Eastern Europe – specifically Russia – 'the field for socialist experiments'. These events were aggravated by the failure of the Central European peoples in their own world-historical task, to 'rise to a broad sense of vision' as intermediaries between the two groups. Throughout, Steiner refers to the work of individual Folk Souls, but distinguishes them from the scourge of nationalism – especially when it is based on blood – whilst emphasizing the sovereignty of the individual human being. Although more than a century old, the enduring themes of these previously-untranslated lectures will resonate with many readers today. The main text is supplemented with an introduction by Simon Blaxland-de Lange, editorial notes and an index. Sixteen lectures, Stuttgart, Sept. 1914–March 1921, GA 174b

These lectures give a fresh and exceptionally clear approach to the anthroposophical path of knowledge. Imagination is described as a widening of our experience of memory to cosmic dimensions. Inspiration is described as an extension of forgetting. Intuition is shown to be the means by which the spiritual world bears fruit for the future of human evolution.