In 1909 the publication of this book (An Outline of Occult Science) appeared to be a risk. For I knew indeed that professional scientists are unable to call up in themselves the necessary impartiality, nor are the numerous personalities able to do so who are dependent on them for their judgment.
But, before my soul there stood the very fact that at the time when the consciousness of mankind was furthest removed from the world of spirit, the communications from that world would answer a most urgent necessity.
I counted upon the fact that there are human beings who feel, more or less desperately, the remoteness from all spirituality as a grave obstacle to life that causes them to seize upon the communications of the spiritual world with inner longing.
During the subsequent years this has been completely confirmed. Theosophy and Occult Science, books that presume the goodwill of the reader in coping with a difficult style of writing, have been widely read.
Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 13 – An Outline of Occult Science – Preface, sixteenth to twentieth edition – January 10, 1925 – Goetheanum Dornach, Switzerland
Translated by Maud and Henry B. Monges and revised for this edition by Lisa D. Monges
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