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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

a project of Steiner Online Library, a public charity

How to Know Higher Worlds
GA 10

The first English version of this basic work by Rudolf Steiner, appeared in print in 1904 as two volumes with the titles:

1. The Way of Initiation or How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds (Bn 10.1)

2. Initiation and Its Results. (Bn 10.2)

It was extensively rewritten, and the new version appeared in English translation in 1923 with the title, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment. This book, perhaps the most controversial of Steiner's extensive literary legacy, suggests the possibility of a person in the 20th century developing sufficient skills of concentration, empathy, etc. to be able to obtain first-hand knowledge of spiritual realities consciously. It was originally published in German as, Wie Erlangt Man Erkenntnisse der Hoeheren Welten?.

The Way of Initiation (1960)

This book is an early version of the first half of the book entitled Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment. The book Initiation and Its Results corresponds to the second half of Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment.
Chapter titles are: The Superphysical World and Its Gnosis, How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, The Path of Disciple- ship, Probation, Enlightenment, Initiation, The Higher Education of the Soul, and, The Conditions of Discipleship.


Initiation and Its Results (1909)

Initiation and Its Results is an early version of the second half of the book entitled Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment.

Chapter titles are: The Astral Centers(Chakras), The Constitution of the Etheric Body, Dream Life, The Three States of Consciousness, The Dissociation of the Human Personality During Initiation, The First Guardian of the Threshold, and, The Second Guardian of the Threshold — Life and Death.


Knowledge of the Higher Worlds (1947)

This book, perhaps the most controversial of Steiner's extensive literary legacy, suggests the possibility of a person in the 20th century developing sufficient skills of concentration, empathy, etc. to be able to obtain first-hand knowledge of spiritual realities consciously. In the collected edition of Rudolf Steiner's works in German, the volume containing the German text is entitled Wie Erlangt Man Erkenntnisse der Hoeheren Welten?, (Vol. 10 in the Bibliographic Survey). This translation into English was made by George Metaxa, with revisions by Henry B. Monges.