People are apt to believe that if someone has become clairvoyant, he knows everything

In the domain of occultism — using the word in its true sense — investigation is difficult and full of complications. Suppose a man with good sight goes to some district in Switzerland, climbs a high mountain and then, when he has come down again, gives you an accurate description of what he has seen. You can well imagine that if he goes to the district again and climbs higher up the same mountain, he will describe what he has seen from a different vantage point. Through descriptions given from different vantage points it is obvious that an increasingly accurate and complete idea of the landscape will be obtained. Now people are apt to believe that if someone has become clairvoyant, he knows everything! It is by no means so. In the spiritual world, investigation always has to be gradual — ”bit by bit,” as it were. Even in respect to things that have been investigated with great exactitude, new discoveries can be made all the time.

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 140 – Life Between Death and Rebirth: Lecture III – Hanover, November 18, 1912

Translated by Rene M. Querido

Previously posted on June 11, 2015