Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are essentially Christian Gnosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory. Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment constitutes a fundamental guide to the anthroposophical path of cognition or knowledge. In human consciousness, faculties are sleeping that, if awakened, lead to life-giving wisdom. With great clarity and warmth Rudolf Steiner details the exercises and moral qualities to be cultivated on the path to a conscious experience of supersensible realities. Contents: The Way of Initiation; or, How to Attain Knowledge of the Higher Worlds An Outline of Occult Science The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity Christianity as Mystical Fact, and the Mysteries of Antiquity The Spiritual Guidance of Man and of Mankind Four Mystery Plays The Education of Children from the Standpoint of Theosophy