Over the course of the last decades, there has been an increasing demand by people for spiritual experience – whether it involves elemental beings, past incarnations or encounters with angels. But how should we distinguish between reality and illusion in such perceptions, particularly when efforts are often focused on instantaneous experience? Is it really possible to build a scientific foundation for metaphysics today? And what role might thinking play in such a truly contemporary spirituality?There is a tradition, traceable to Aristotle and leading to Rudolf Steiner, that seeks to establish metaphysics as a science. Connecting with this noetic practise, Steffen Hartmann argues that the sure path of personal development begins with pure thought and meditation. Only then, under the right conditions, does it lead to spiritual experience. Through developing our mental faculties to the point where we can properly evaluate such experience, we build a new foundation for understanding the I, our essential core. Self-awareness of the I – in pure thinking – is the eye of the needle through which we should pass. In thought, we can even unite with the essence of the angels. By enriching our thinking, we can access – as conscious, mindful individuals – the realm of angelic beings.
