Many will be familiar with the notion that people, at the point of death, see their life "flash" before them. Rudolf Steiner describes how--when the spiritual bodies separate from the physical body--the etheric body one who is dying is revealed, giving a panoramic overview of one's earthly life. This etheric body contains everything we have experienced in our consciousness and held in memory. The etheric not only generates and sustains all life, but also encompasses the life forces from which we shape our existence.

Although the revelation of the life tableau is part of the early period following death, it can also emerge as a result of meditation. Steiner speaks of this--which occurs through "imagination," the first level of spiritual experience--as conscious self-perception of the soul in the realm of images. Here we are confronted with the harrowing knowledge of our doppelg nger, though we also experience the cosmic forces of childhood that are present in all of our life processes. Those forces are described in psychology as the "inner child."

Through this unique anthology of Steiner's work, we are led to a therapeutic, meditative approach that--by working with the imaginative life tableau--can strengthen and heal body, soul, and spirit.

C O N T E N T S

Introduction

Experiencing the Inner Child as the Starting Point for a New Philosophy
The First Supersensible Experience: Time Becomes Space
Experiencing Life before Birth
The Three Levels of the Anthroposophical Path of Meditation
Unbornness and Eternity
Pain and Sadness when Reliving the Life Tableau
Developing Courage and Will Power
The Perspectival Alignment of the Life Tableau
Intensive Backward Thinking
The Life Tableau as the Second Level of Imaginative Perception
Transforming the Forces of Memory
Feelings of Happiness when Experiencing the Life Tableau
Re-experiencing the Inner Child
The Cosmic Dimension: Wisdom of the Individual
Life Epochs
Through the Forces of Childhood to the "Higher Self" and the Christ Experience

Notes
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