How the Spiritual World Projects into Physical Existence: The Influence of the Dead (CW 150) (Volume 150) (The Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner)

Death is a predominant topic here. Rudolf Steiner explains how people on Earth can reach the dead in a non-mediumistic way and how such interaction between “living” and “dead” is mutually beneficial. He states that people who do not recognize the being of Lucifer during their earthly life―those who have not “already got to intuit and know the luciferic impulses in the human soul properly while here in life”―will be “vampirized” by that being after passing through the gate of death. Steiner elaborates on the activities of the adversarial beings in today’s civilization―spiritual powers that play a needed role in Earth’s evolution―and how we can counteract them. The longer we can stay alive, for example, the greater the victory over Ahriman’s activity. Even losing one’s teeth has beneficial aspects, allowing us to “gain certain impulses, and these overcome Ahriman.” Steiner relates the actions of such spiritual entities to child development, too, indicating the various influences in the seven-year cycles of growth.