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Audiobook edition · 12 h 45 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the hidden world begins with a different way of looking within?
In An Outline of Occult Science, Rudolf Steiner sets out what he calls spiritual science. He presents human beings as more than body and mind, with several distinct layers. His account links this inner structure to sleep, death, and the long development of humanity and the universe.
Steiner writes as a researcher, not a prophet, and describes inner training that he says anyone can follow to test his claims. These claims rest on inner experience rather than experiments or ordinary evidence. Read it to explore a connected system of esoteric thought and a basic text of anthroposophy.
What you’ll discover
- Hidden, not sinister Explore why Steiner uses occult to mean hidden, rather than something sinister or theatrical.
- The layers within Meet the four members that, in Steiner's account, make up a human being.
- Sleep and death Consider how Steiner uses these experiences to explain relationships between the human being's members.
- A vast cosmic story Follow his account of the universe and humanity through long stages of development.
- From ideas to practice Examine the path of inner training Steiner proposes as a way to test his teachings.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love big questions about sleep, death, rebirth and the origin of the human being, and who enjoy a thinker who builds a complete picture of the cosmos.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A hidden world invites clear thinking
- Human life joins four distinct layers
- Sleep restores what waking wears away
- Death brings review and spiritual ripening
- Karma connects one life with another
- Human layers emerge through cosmic stages
- Earthly history centers on spiritual freedom
- Higher knowledge rests on ordinary balance
- Testing holds the whole account together
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An Outline of Occult Science
by Rudolf Steiner · 1910
Steiner follows the soul through sleep, death and rebirth, then back to Saturn, the Sun and the Moon.
Challenging5–10 hours to read16 languages
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In short
Can a trained mind see what the eye cannot? Rudolf Steiner builds a whole book around that question.
An Outline of Occult Science at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 55 min5 h 30 min fast, 8 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 99,300 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1910by Rudolf Steiner
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Trained thinking can reach what the senses cannot
Steiner opens with a puzzle. Many careful thinkers say that human knowledge cannot go beyond the senses, and he admits their arguments are strong. He says they show only that ordinary understanding has limits, not that no other kind can be trained.
He offers an analogy. Ordinary sight cannot see the cells of a living body, yet nobody concludes that cells cannot be studied. Instruments and training extend the eye. In the same way, he says, meditation and concentration can strengthen thinking until it grasps what lies behind the visible world.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1910
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 8 h 20 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Steiner, Rudolf. An Outline of Occult Science. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-outline-of-occult-science.
Steiner, R. (2026). An outline of occult science. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-outline-of-occult-science (Original work published 1910)
Steiner, Rudolf. An Outline of Occult Science. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-outline-of-occult-science.
@book{steiner2026outline,
author = {Steiner, Rudolf},
title = {An Outline of Occult Science},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-outline-of-occult-science},
note = {First published 1910}
}
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What is An Outline of Occult Science about?
It describes the human being as made of several layers, follows the soul through sleep, death and rebirth, traces the cosmos from Saturn, Sun and Moon to Earth, and sets out a path of meditation toward higher knowledge.
What does occult science mean in this book?
Steiner uses it for a spiritual science that looks into worlds beyond the senses. He says it must be justified by clear reasoning and tested by experience, and he separates it from vague mysticism and blind faith.
What are Saturn, Sun and Moon in Steiner's book?
They are names for three earlier stages of the world's evolution before Earth, not the planets of today. In them the human physical, life and feeling bodies were formed in turn.
The author
Rudolf Steiner
1861–1925 · Austrian philosopher and esoteric writer
Rudolf Steiner was born in 1861 in Kraljevec, then in the Austrian Empire and now in Croatia. He lived in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. He wrote The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity, published in 1894, and An Outline of Occult Science, published in 1910. He founded anthroposophy and died in Dornach, Switzerland, in 1925.
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