Der sichtbare und der unsichtbare Mensch. Darstellung verschiedener Menschentypen, wie der geschulte Hellseher sie wahrnimmt

Introduction.

It was reserved for the "Theosophical Publishing House" to publish the two most significant foundational works of occultism: "Thought-Forms" original: "Die Gedankenformen" by Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, and the present volume. The Americans, English, French, and Dutch have already been in possession of these works for some time. They are only appearing in Germany after almost all other major theosophical works have been translated and studied. The ground for a rational understanding is therefore sufficiently prepared. If one wished to see a sign of fate in this fact, one could conclude that these books are not intended for beginners. No work in theosophical literature can be more easily profaned than this one. It is intended only for occultists and friends of occultism. Only those who know the theosophical teachings of the sevenfold constitution of man the belief that humans exist across seven distinct planes of reality or those of the hermetic classification are able to appreciate the grandiose value of this work. The modern person, who has only enjoyed an academic education and does not know the higher worldview, will reject it without further ado: they lack the most necessary conditions for even a superficial understanding.

This work, which surpasses even "Thought-Forms" in importance, does not deal with thoughts, the products and effects of thinking, but with the thinker, the individuality, the "I" of the human being itself, as it reveals itself and acts in various states of existence.

It should be used as a book of devotion and edification, for then the occult facts recorded in pictures have an increased and more sublime effect. Trained thinking, controlled imagination, and an unbiased will are necessary conditions for a deeper understanding. The work is therefore not suitable to be passed around as an interesting new release, perhaps at five o'clock tea. It requires, if it is to remain a guide of a higher kind, a holy mood and a prayerful, soulful state of mind during its viewing. To the student, it imparts immense knowledge: it gives them the key to all secrets. But knowledge brings obligation. The knowledge of the head must go hand in hand with the knowledge of the heart. When knowledge seeks to unite with love, the knowledge of the good with the practice of the good, and knowledge with virtue, then there is no longer any danger for the learner.

The book has been published so that the student is given a visual means to get to know their true and transitory nature, in order to gradually learn, on the path of self-mastery, to bring themselves and their abilities into harmony with the Infinite.

If it is understood in the sense of the Christian initiate Paul:

and though I could prophesy and knew all secrets and all knowledge, and had all faith, so that I could move mountains, and had not love, I would be nothing,

— then it can become a great message of salvation.