, before mention is made of
the means of penetrating into the spiritual world itself, can be
understood and grasped only by means of the higher vision which results
from developing certain powers latent in man. This is not the case. For
investigating and discovering the mysteries of a supersensible world, that
higher sight is essential. No one is able to discover the facts of the
unseen world without the clairvoyance which is synonymous with that higher
vision. When however, the facts have been discovered and imparted, every
one who applies to them the full range of his ordinary intellect and
unprejudiced powers of judgment, will be able to understand them and to
rise to a high degree of conviction concerning them. One who maintains
that the mysteries are incomprehensible to him, does not do so because he
is not yet clairvoyant, but because he has not yet succeeded in bringing
into activity those powers of cognition which may be possessed by every
one, even without clairvoyance.

A new method of putting forward these matters consists in so describing
them, after they have been clairvoyantly investigated, that they are quite
accessible to the faculty of judgment. If only people do not shut
themselves off by prejudice, there is no obstacle to arriving at a
conviction, even without higher vision. It is true that many will find
that the new method of presentment, as given in this book, is far from
corresponding to their customary ways of forming an opinion. But any
objection due to this will soon disappear if one takes the trouble to
follow out these customary methods to their final consequences.

When, by an extended application of ordinary thought, a certain number of
the higher mysteries have been assimilated and found intelligible by any
one, then the right moment has come for the methods of occult research to
be applied to his individual personality:--these will give him access to
the unseen world.

Nor will any genuine scientist be able to find contradiction, in spirit
and in truth, between his science, which is built upon the facts of the
sense-world, and the way in which occult science carries on its
researches. The scientist uses certain instruments and methods. He
constructs his instruments by working upon what "nature" gives him. Occult
science also uses an instrument, but in this case the instrument is man
himself. And that instrument too must first be prepared for that higher
research. The faculties and power