e mind with
regard to such schooling. A person may say to himself: "This development
of the inner faculties of the soul means an invasion of man's most hidden
sanctuary. It involves a certain change of the entire human being: the
method for such a change cannot be worked out by any ordinary procedure of
thought, for the manner in which the higher worlds are attained can be
known only to those to whom the path has become visible by reason of
experience. If, therefore, I turn to such an one, I am allowing him to
exercise his influence over the innermost sanctuary of my soul." Any one
given to this attitude of mind will hardly find it reassuring if the
methods for bringing about a higher state of consciousness are imparted to
him in book form. For it is not a question of receiving communications
either verbally or from some person who, having the knowledge, has set the
same down in a book to which we have access. Now there are people
possessing knowledge of the rules for developing the spiritual organs of
perception who are of the opinion that these rules ought not to be
entrusted to a book. These people, for the most part, consider the
communication of certain truths relating to the spiritual world as
forbidden. But this view must be characterized as in a certain sense out
of date in view of the present stage of human evolution. It is true that
the communication of the rules referred to can be made only up to a
certain point. Yet what is imparted leads so far that one who applies it
to his soul-life makes such progress in knowledge that he is able to go on
by himself. This way then leads onward in a manner of which a true idea
can be gained only through what has been previously experienced. From all
these facts, scruples may arise concerning the path of spiritual
knowledge.

These scruples however disappear when one clearly understands the
essential nature of that course of development which is adapted to our
age. Of this latter method of developing we shall speak here and other
methods will be only briefly referred to.

The method of training to be here discussed furnishes to him who has the
will for a higher development, the means for accomplishing the
transformation of his soul. Any questionable encroachment on the
personality of the student would only then be possible, should the teacher
proceed to carry out the change by methods of which the pupil was not
conscious. But no true teacher of occult science in our day w