Man or Matter | Page 5

being has recognized itself as a product of evolution, it
immediately ceases to be that and nothing more. With its very first act
of self-knowledge it transcends its previous limits, and must in future
rely on its own conscious actions for the carrying on of its
development.
For me, accordingly, the concept of evolution, when thought through to
the end, began to suggest the possibility of further growth in man's
spiritual capacities. But I saw also that this growth could no longer be
merely passive, and the question which now beset me was: by what
action of his own can man break his way into this new phase of
evolution? I saw that this action must not consist merely in giving outer
effect to the natural powers of human thinking; that was happening
everywhere in the disordered world around me. The necessary action
must have inner effects; indeed, it had to be one whereby the will was

turned upon the thinking-powers themselves, entirely transforming
them, and so removing the discrepancy between the thinker and the
doer in modern man.
Thus far I could go through my own observation and reflexion, but no
further. To form a general idea of the deed on which everything else
depended was one thing; it was quite another to know how to perform
the deed, and above all where to make a start with it. Anyone intending
to make a machine must first learn something of mechanics; in the
same way, anyone setting out to do something constructive in the
sphere of human consciousness - and this, for me, was the essential
point - must begin by learning something of the laws holding sway in
that sphere. But who could give me this knowledge?
Physiology, psychology and philosophy in their ordinary forms were of
no use to me, for they were themselves part and parcel of just that kind
of knowing which had to be overcome. In their various accounts of man
there was no vantage point from which the deed I had in mind could be
accomplished, for none of them looked beyond the ordinary powers of
knowledge. It was the same with the accepted theory of evolution; as a
product of the current mode of thinking it could be applied to
everything except the one essential - this very mode of thinking.
Obviously, the laws of the development of human consciousness
cannot be discovered from a standpoint within the modern form of that
consciousness. But how could one find a viewpoint outside, as it were,
this consciousness, from which to discover its laws with the same
scientific objectivity which it had itself applied to discovering the laws
of physical nature?
It was when this question stood before me in all clarity that destiny led
me to Rudolf Steiner and his work. The occasion was a conference held
in 1921 in Stuttgart by the Anthroposophical Movement; it was one of
several arranged during the years 1920-2 especially for teachers and
students at the Hochschulen and Universities. What chiefly moved me
to attend this particular conference was the title of a lecture to be given
by one of the pupils and co-workers of Rudolf Steiner - 'The
Overcoming of Einstein's Theory of Relativity'.1

The reader will readily appreciate what this title meant for me. In the
circles where my work lay, an intense controversy was just then raging
round Einstein's ideas. I usually took sides with the supporters of
Einstein, for it seemed to me that Einstein had carried the existing
mode of scientific thinking to its logical conclusions, whereas I missed
this consistency among his opponents. At the same time I found that
the effect of this theory, when its implications were fully developed,
was to make everything seem so 'relative' that no reliable world-outlook
was left. This was proof for me that our age was in need of an
altogether different form of scientific thinking, equally consistent in
itself, but more in tune with man's own being.
What appealed to me in the lecture-title was simply this, that whereas
everyone else sought to prove Einstein right or wrong, here was
someone who apparently intended, not merely to add another proof for
or against his theory-there were plenty of those already - but to take
some steps to overcome it. From the point of view of orthodox science,
of course, it was absurd to speak of 'overcoming' a theory, as though it
were an accomplished fact, but to me this title suggested exactly what I
was looking for.
Although it was the title of this lecture that drew me to the Stuttgart
Conference (circumstances prevented me from hearing just this lecture),
it was the course given there by Rudolf Steiner himself which was to
prove the decisive experience of my life. It comprised eight lectures,
under