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.Even in ordinary life a certain self-education is necessary if we wish to come closer to pure memory, to the capacity to have these pictures ready at hand so that they faithfully render our experience.We can distinguish what happens with memory.On the one hand there is an activity of fantasy, quite justified, that goes on in an artistic direction.On the other hand there is a falsification of our experience.It should suffice for the moment to point out the difference between the fantasy tendency and the falsifying tendency, and that we must be able to experience this to maintain a healthy soul life.Certainly we must be aware of how memory is transformed by our fantasy, and how, when it is not subjected to such arbitrary action, when it is allowed to proceed according to a kind of natural similarity in the soul, it becomes increasingly faithful and true.In any case, both from the good tendency to artistic fantasy, as well as from the forces active in falsifying the memories — when we study it psychologically, we can recognize what is alive in the memory forces.And out of these forces, something can take form that is no longer just memory.For example, one can point to certain mystical teachings that are in fact essentially falsified memory images; and yet we can profit from studying 'such images that have taken the form of earnest mystical experience.What concerns us at this moment, however, is what I have already indicated, that we can attain a power of the soul which is alive in the memory which can be metamorphosed into something else.This must happen in such a way that the original power of memory is led in the direction of inner faithfulness and truth, and not toward falsification.As I have said, when we repeatedly evoke easily surveyable mental images, which we intentionally combine out of their separate elements and then view as a whole, just as easily as the mathematical images: when we call up such images, hold them in our consciousness and dwell upon them, not so that we are fascinated by them, but so that at each moment we continue to hold them through an inner act of will — then gradually we succeed in transforming the memory process into something different, something of which we were previously unaware.The details are contained in the book I named, and also in.If we continue long enough with such exercises (how long depends on the individual) and if we are in a position to expend sufficient soul energy on them, then we come to a point where we simply begin to experience pictures.The form of these pictures in the life of the soul is like that of memories.Gradually we win the capacity to live in such imaginations of our own making, although in their content they are not of our making.The exercise of this capacity results in imaginations rising up in the soul, and if we maintain a “mathematical” attitude of soul, we can make sure at any time whether we are being fooled by a suggestion or auto-suggestion, or are really living in that attitude of soul voluntarily.We begin to have mental images with the characteristic form of memory pictures but with a greater degree of intensity.Let me emphasize: at first these imaginations have the character of memory pictures.Only through inspiration do they become permeated with a more intense experience.At first they have the character of memory pictures, but of such a kind that we know their meaning does not relate to any experiences we have lived through externally since our birth.They do, however, express something just as pictorially as memory pictures express pictorially our personal experiences.They refer to something objective, yet we know that this objective something is not contained in the sphere which is surveyed by our memory.We are conscious that these imaginations contain a strong inner reality, yet at the same time we are aware that we are dealing with just images — just pictures of the reality.It is a matter of being able to distinguish these pictures from those of memory, in order that these imaginations remain pure, so that no foreign elements slip into them.I will describe the outer process, but of course in just a few lectures one cannot go into any great detail.We may form a mental picture of an outer experience and we can see how in a sense the outer experience passes over into our organism, and — expressed abstractly — it then leads a further existence there, and can be drawn forth again as a memory picture.We notice that there is a certain dependence between what lives in the memory and the physical condition of the human organism.The memory is really dependent on our human organism right into the physical condition.In a way we pass on what we have experienced to our organism.It is even possible to give a detailed account of the continuation of the various pictures of our experience in the human organism.But this would be an entire spiritual-scientific chapter in itself.For our memories to remain pure and true, no matter how much our organism may participate in what lives on in the memory process, this involvement may not add anything of real content.Once mental pictures of an experience have been formed, nothing further should flow into the content of the memories.If we are clear about this fact of memory life, we are then in a position to ascertain what it means when pictures appear in our consciousness that have the familiar character of memory pictures, but a content which does not relate to anything in our personal experience.In the process of experiencing imagination we realize the necessity of continually increasing the power of our soul.For what is it that we must really do? Normally our organism takes over the mental pictures we have formed from life and provides memory.Thereby the mental pictures do not just sink down into an abyss, if I may so express it, but are caught and held by our organism so that they can be reflected back again at any necessary moment.With imaginative pictures, this is just what should not be the case; we must be in a position to hold them through inner soul forces alone.Therefore it is necessary for us to acquire something that will make us stronger than we are ordinarily in receiving and retaining mental images.There are of course many ways to do this; I have described them in the books already named.I wish to mention just one of them.From what I now tell you, you will be able to see the relation between various demands of life which spring from anthroposophical spiritual science and their connection with the foundation of anthroposophical research.Whoever uses his intellect to spin all kinds of theories about what he confronts as phenomena in the world (which of course can be extraordinarily interesting at times) will hardly find the power for imaginative activity.In this respect, certain developments in the intellectual life of the present day seem specifically suited to suppress the imaginative force.If we go further than simply taking the outer phenomena of the mineral-physical realm and connecting them with one another through the power of our intellect; if we begin to search for things that are supposed to be concealed behind the visible phenomena, with which we can make mental constructions, we will actually destroy our imaginative capacity.Perhaps I may make a comparison.No doubt you have had some dealings with what could be called phenomenalism in the sense of a Goethean world view.In arranging experiments and observations, Goethe used the intellect differently from the way it is used in recent phases of modern thought.Goethe used the intellect as we use it in reading
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