10 lectures at The Hague, March 20-29, 1913 (CW 145)

Address in Berlin, February 3, 1913

"The future of spiritual esoteric movements such as ours will depend more and more upon the realization that human spiritual development is necessary. Whoever rejects or is hostile toward spiritual development will thus have identified with what is no longer useful on Earth, with what is withered and shriveled, and will have abandoned cosmic evolution as willed by the gods." --Rudolf Steiner

On February 3, 1913, the first General Meeting of the newly formed Anthroposophical Society was convened in Berlin. Six weeks later, in Holland, Rudolf Steiner spoke for the first time to an anthroposophic audience in a detailed, intimate way about individual esoteric training and the subtle effects of spiritual development on every level of one's being.

Beginning with questions regarding the body's experience of food and drink--meat, coffee, alcohol, and so on--he lays out the progression of anthroposophic spiritual inner work, up to direct perception of "Paradise" and the Holy Grail. He discusses the role of human beings in our evolution that takes place between the forces of Lucifer and Ahriman.

Included is Steiner's important lecture "The Being of Anthroposophy," which this volume introduces to the English-speaking world. This edition also includes Steiner's "introductory words," previously available only as an unpublished German typescript.

The Effects of Esoteric Development is a translation from the German of Welche Bedeutung hat die okkulte Entwicklung des Menschen für seine Hüllen--physischen Leib, Ätherleib, Astralleib--und sein Selbst? (GA 145).