These lectures concentrate on laws of human destiny and reincarnation in the development of the free, self-conscious, independent human personality.

Centering on the close 34-year relationship with Einstein, the author begins this absorbing book by describing his vow on the battlefield of Verdun: 'God, save me, and I will serve you as long as I live.' A member of the League for Human Rights, the Alexander von Humboldt International Club, and other peace organizations, Professor Hermanns became a disciple of Albert Einstein.

The author encapsulates Steiner's revelations on the meaning of love and indicates the supreme importance of the greatest of all deeds of love; the Mystery of Golgotha.

Rudolf Steiner's teachings of Christ are unique. Christ, he says, is an objective universal force, existing independently of Christian churches and confessions, and working for the whole of humanity. The impulse that Christ brought to earth acts for the advancement of all people, irrespective of religion, creed or race. Among the myriad other themes that emerge here are the introduction of the 'I' (or self) in human development and its connection to Christ and the meaning of the Ten.

Although Steiner did not often speak or write about love explicitly, love is at the very heart of his whole body of work and the foundation of his hopes for humankind and the Earth. Steiner teaches that, without love, nothing is possible; with love, however, we can do everything. Love is always "love of the not-yet." To love is to create; it is to selflessly enter the current of time that flows toward us from the future. Reality, true knowledge of reality, is impossible without love. Only through love can we truly know as we are know, can we encounter the world and its beings in a living way. Without love, knowledge becomes manipulation, domination, control; the world becomes a space of dead things. But, when we know through love, we enter into a pattern of dynamic, potentially redemptive relations and the world becomes a living world of beings working for the good. This collection gathers all of Rudolf Steiner's main lectures and writings related to love. From earthly love to the nature and function of spiritual love, these pieces are essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of humanity and the Earth. Love and Its Meaning in the World is essential reading for anyone who'd like to gain a deeper understanding of our true mission as human beings and the purpose of evolution on Earth. Chapters include: "The Division of the Sexes" "Lucifer and Christ" "The Mission of Reverence" "The Buddha's Teaching of Compassion and Love" "Faith, Love, and Hope" "Love & Its Meaning in the World" "'I'-Feeling, the Soul's Capacity to Love, and Their Relationship to the Elemental World" Love mediated by the senses is the wellspring of creative power, of what is coming into being. Without sense-born love, nothing material would exist in the world; without spiritual love, nothing spiritual can arise in evolution. When we practice love, cultivate love, creative forces pour into the world.... For human beings, love is the most important fruit of experience in the sensory world. Once we really understand the nature of love, or compassion, we will find that love is the way spirit expresses its truth in the world of the senses.... "We may even say that, in love, the spiritual world awakens in the physical. The more truly a soul inhabits the spiritual worlds, the more it experiences lovelessness and lack of compassion as a denial of spirit itself." --Rudolf Steiner

During the Christmas period of 1923-4, Rudolf Steiner refounded the Anthroposophical Society at its headquarters in Dornach, Switzerland. This important event, which has come to be known as the Christmas Conference, can be studied on many levels, and its many mysteries have been central to Sergei O. Prokofieff's anthroposophical research over the years. His beginning point has been an enduring question: What did Rudolf Steiner mean when he called the Christmas Conference the ‘start of a World-Turning-point of Time’? In this far-reaching work, the author – working from several different viewpoints - guides the reader towards an answer. Prokofieff suggests that the impulse of the Christmas Conference can only be reenlivened today through conscious action by individuals to experience its spiritual essence. Rather than offering dogmatic conclusions, he opens up paths of approaching this goal by throwing light on different aspects of the Conference and what lies at its heart: the Foundation Stone and its Meditation. In particular, Prokofieff explores three key perspectives: the connection of the Christmas Conference with humanity’s evolution; the inner relationship of each individual anthroposophist to the Christmas Conference; and the significance of the Conference to Rudolf Steiner himself. Although this is major work of some length, the individual chapters of May Human Beings Hear It! are complete in themselves, and can therefore be studied independently of each other.

First Published in 1996. You may have lived before. As a matter of fact, you may have experienced countless lifetimes. This statement constitutes the basic premise of reincarnation, which is also called transmigration and metempsychosis. This volume explores the origins and development of the belief of reincarnation.