Over the course of the last decades, there has been an increasing demand by people for spiritual experience - whether it involves elemental beings, past incarnations or encounters with angels. But how should we distinguish between reality and illusion in such perceptions, particularly when efforts are often focused on instantaneous experience? Is it really possible to build a scientific foundation for metaphysics today? And what role might thinking play in such a truly contemporary spirituality? There is a tradition, traceable to Aristotle and leading to Rudolf Steiner, that seeks to establish metaphysics as a science. Connecting with this noetic practise, Steffen Hartmann argues that the sure path of personal development begins with pure thought and meditation. Only then, under the right conditions, does it lead to spiritual experience. Through developing our mental faculties to the point where we can properly evaluate such experience, we build a new foundation for understanding the I, our essential core. Self-awareness of the I - in pure thinking - is the eye of the needle through which we should pass. In thought, we can even unite with the essence of the angels. By enriching our thinking, we can access - as conscious, mindful individuals - the realm of angelic beings.
STEFFEN HARTMANN, born in 1976 in Freiburg im Breisgau, studied piano in Hamburg and participated as accompanist in master classes with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. He has worked closely with the soprano Marret Winger. In 2007, he founded the MenschMusik Institute in Hamburg together with Matthias Boelts, a leading innovator in the field of contemporary music education. He has followed an inner meditative path based on anthroposophy since 1997 and has worked as a teacher of meditation. Steffen Hartmann regularly writes essays on salient topics connected to anthroposophical spiritual science, meditation and music. Together with Torben Maiwald, he founded the publishing house Edition Widar. He has led the Rudolf Steiner Haus Hamburg branch of the Anthroposophical Society since 2012. He is also the author of many books including The Michael Prophecy and the Years 2012-2033 (2020), and holds lectures and conducts seminars and concerts worldwide.
Foreword by Johannes Greiner - Introduction - 1. On the category of substance - 2. On substance and appearance - 3. On being and becoming - 4. On being and consciousness - 5. The I and I-consciousness - 6. On pure thinking - 7. On thinking and the I - 8. The concept of knowledge - 9. Platonism, Aristotelianism and the knowledge of spiritual beings - 10. Angelic encounters and spiritual-scientific investigation - 11. Our guardian angels - 12. Angels don't lie - 13. On the destiny of thinking and the relation between angels and humans - 14. Meditative epilogue: In conversation with the angels - Reflections on the cover art (Johannes Greiner) - Note about the new edition - Notes
'Angels are messengers of light. In this book the angels themselves are shining their light... in the writings of Steffen Hartmann.' - Johannes Greiner 'The strength of this text lies in its purposeful progression. It is like a guided tour up a mountain that - after a lot of effort - offers a wonderful panoramic view.' - Matthias Bideau, Die Drei
