Clairvoyance! How much glamour has been woven around it, what ridicule can be heard from one side,
while the other side shows timid curiosity; the rest is respectful silence. Those who are clairvoyant strut
about proudly like peacocks in a chicken yard. They imagine themselves to be endowed with Divine
Grace, and in their conceited form of humility feel far superior to others. They love to receive admiration
for something which, in reality, is just as strange to them as it is to the many curious enquirers around
them. They hide their actual ignorance behind bland smiles, meant to feign knowledge, while in fact it is
much more the habitual expression of their helplessness when confronted with questions which require
them to have their own knowledge about this process.
In reality they know no more than the hammer and the chisel which a sculptor uses to form a work of
art. Once again, however, it is a case of men insisting on making their fellow men, who have the gift of
clairvoyance, into something other than what they really are, and thereby doing them great harm. This is
the unhealthy state of affairs that is to be found everywhere today. The “seeing” is real enough in most
cases, but it is by no means anything special; it is nothing worthy of being marveled at, much less being
awe-struck by, because in reality it should be something quite natural. However it remains natural only as
long as it occurs of its own accord, and is calmly left to develop without being helped along by the
clairvoyant himself or by someone else. To provide this kind of help is just as damnable as assisting in the
hastening of physical death.
Clairvoyance, however, only becomes of value when it is accompanied by real knowledge.
Knowledge alone can provide a sound foundation for this natural ability, and thereby also the right
attitude and the right goal. However, the lack of knowledge in the majority of clairvoyants is immediately
obvious in the over-ambitious zeal accompanied by arrogance, as well as in the openly displayed and
expressed pretense of possessing knowledge.
It is just this imagined knowledge that not only prevents such people from advancing further, but
which indeed literally leads them to perdition, because it directs their efforts on to wrong paths which
lead downwards instead of upwards. This occurs without the one who imagines that he knows more being
aware of it. The best thing that can happen to these people is that here and there their clairvoyant or
clairaudient abilities gradually diminish and disappear through some favorable circumstance, of which
there are several kinds. This is salvation!
Let us now take a closer look at these clairvoyant people and their erroneous conviction which they
pass on to others. They alone are responsible for this whole field being dragged into the mud as false and
unreliable up till now.
What these people see is, at best and in the most advanced cases, the second step of the so-called
beyond. If one were to divide the beyond into steps (not spheres), the step of the Light is about the
twentieth step, just to gain an approximate picture of the difference. People, however, who are really able
to see to the second step, imagine they have achieved something stupendous, while those who can see
only to the first step are in most cases even more conceited.
Now it must be realized that a person utilizing his highest gifts can in reality see only as far as his
own inner maturity will permit. He is thereby bound by his own inner condition! Because of the nature of
things it is simply impossible for him to see, really to see, anything other than that which is homogeneous
to him. That is, only that which is within the region in which he could move about freely after his
physical death. But no further; for the moment he would step over the boundary prescribed for him in the
beyond by his own state of maturity he would immediately lose all consciousness of his environment. In
any case he would not be able to cross this boundary of his own accord.
However, if after leaving his body his soul were to be carried along by someone belonging to the next
higher step, then he would at once lose consciousness in the arms of that entity upon crossing the border
to the higher step; that is, he would fall asleep. On being brought back he would be able to remember only
as far as his own maturity permitted him to look about while in a wakeful state, despite his clairvoyant
gifts. Thus no benefit would be derived; his ethereal body however would be harmed.
Whatever he imagines he saw beyond that line, be it landscapes or persons, is never truly or actually
experienced or personally seen by him. These are merely pictures being shown to him, and he even imagines that he hears the language. These pictures are never reality. They appear so lifelike that he
himself cannot distinguish between what is only shown to him and what he really experiences, because an
act of will of a stronger spirit can create such lifelike pictures. Thus it happens that many clairvoyant and
clairaudient people imagine they are on a much higher plane during their excursions into the beyond than
is actually the case, and this leads to many an error.
Also, when many think that they see or hear Christ, this is a great delusion; for due to the great gulf
caused by the lack of homogeneity, this would be utterly impossible in the Creation Laws of the Divine
Will! The Son of God cannot come to afternoon tea in a spiritist circle in order to favor and please the
visitors there anymore than great prophets or higher spirits can.
It is not granted to any human spirit during his earth-life, who is still bound up in flesh and blood, to
move about in the beyond with such assurance and confidence as to see and hear everything there
unveiled, and maybe even to simply rush up the steps. It is not quite as simple as that despite all its
naturalness. Everything remains subject to the immutable laws.
And if a clairvoyant or clairaudient person neglects his earthly task in his eagerness to penetrate into
the beyond, he loses more than he gains. As soon as the time arrives for him to continue his maturing in
the beyond, he will take with him a gap which he can only fill on earth. Thus he cannot ascend any
further and remains bound at a certain point, and he must go back to make up for what he missed before
he can think about any further serious ascent. Here too everything is quite simple and natural, merely a
necessary consequence of what lies behind, which can never, ever be turned aside.
Every step in a man's existence demands to be really experienced in full earnestness, with the full
capacity always to grasp the present moment. Neglecting to do this causes a slackening which makes
itself felt ever more acutely further along on the path, until eventually it will lead to a breakdown and
finally to collapse, unless one returns in time in order to mend the faulty spot through further experience,
and to make it firm and secure. This applies to all happenings. Unfortunately, however, man has acquired
the unhealthy habit of always reaching beyond himself, because he imagines himself to be more than
what he actually is.