I-experience

The I-experience, the experience of one's own I, i.e. the real self-perception or self-contemplation, gives us a prime example of how we can recognise the spiritual world at all. We can recognise the I-experience in the I-conception, which, however, differs considerably from all other conceptions that we can form. For all other experiences that come from the outer world, even if they are of the most spiritual nature, we must have an organ for perception. We are never spiritually naked, so to speak, in the face of the things of the outer world that approach us, but are always dependent on what we have become. Only in one single case do we directly face the outer world here and now, and that is when we gain our I-perception. This self-perception can therefore neither be foreseen nor remembered, but must be made anew day after day and has nothing to do with the state of our everyday ego.

Real self-perception is not introspection in the usual sense. The latter can only be the first entry into the higher forms of cognition of imagination, inspiration and intuition. Approaches to this can already be found in the philosophy of German idealism, namely in Fichte (→ Tathandlung) and Schelling.

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Philosophie und Anthroposophie, GA 35 (1984), ISBN 3-7274-0350-0 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
• Rudolf Steiner: Exkurse in das Gebiet des Markus-Evangeliums, GA 124 (1995), ISBN 3-7274-1240-2 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.