deed, and above all where to make a start with it. Anyone intending to
make a machine must first learn something of mechanics; in the same
way, anyone setting out to do something constructive in the sphere of
human consciousness - and this, for me, was the essential point - must
begin by learning something of the laws holding sway in that sphere.
But who could give me this knowledge?

Physiology, psychology and philosophy in their ordinary forms were of
no use to me, for they were themselves part and parcel of just that
kind of knowing which had to be overcome. In their various accounts of
man there was no vantage point from which the deed I had in mind could
be accomplished, for none of them looked beyond the ordinary powers of
knowledge. It was the same with the accepted theory of evolution; as a
product of the current mode of thinking it could be applied to
everything except the one essential - this very mode of thinking.
Obviously, the laws of the development of human consciousness cannot be
discovered from a standpoint within the modern form of that
consciousness. But how could one find a viewpoint outside, as it were,
this consciousness, from which to discover its laws with the same
scientific objectivity which it had itself applied to discovering the
laws of physical nature?

It was when this question stood before me in all clarity that destiny
led me to Rudolf Steiner and his work. The occasion was a conference
held in 1921 in Stuttgart by the Anthroposophical Movement; it was one
of several arranged during the years 1920-2 especially for teachers and
students at the Hochschulen and Universities. What chiefly moved me to
attend this particular conference was the title of a lecture to be
given by one of the pupils and co-workers of Rudolf Steiner - 'The
Overcoming of Einstein's Theory of Relativity'.1