[Kraft ist Stoff]
Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
Modern science and philosophy are coming closer and closer to accepting the ancient theory that everything in the world originated from a single, indivisible fundamental principle, no matter what name we call it, depending on the point of view from which we look at it. Whether we call it God, will, love, matter, force, consciousness, etc., makes no difference; for all these names are but designations of the manner in which it is revealed to us; the eternal One, which is the true essence of all, remains eternally the same and does not change, however varied the appearances that emerge; spring from him. This is an ancient truth taught in the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the Bible and all religious systems in general; it is the basis of all religion and knowledge. This teaching was known to the ancient sages thousands of years ago; but for them it was not the result of external research and logical deduction, but proceeded from their own practical experiences, that is, out of their inner self-awareness. Everyone is also free to convince himself of the correctness of this theory and to prove it scientifically to himself by gaining the necessary practical experience, which consists in feeling within himself the power that tells him what is true self-consciousness.
All true and undoubted science has its source in man’s own self-knowledge; for the root cause of all things is internal and invisible, and cannot be observed externally, but is known by us only by coming to our consciousness within ourselves. All external research relates only to externals and appearances, consequently only to probabilities and possibilities, and in the end only serves to confirm what one has experienced and recognized inwardly. Anyone who does not grasp and recognize what is true within himself will always be in doubt. Theoretical knowledge, as we see every day, is changeable. What is true today will be discarded tomorrow, and what is considered a pillar of science today may crumble tomorrow. Self-knowledge of truth is immutable. It may well grow, but its nature does not change; for it consists in the eternal unity recognizing itself in the human soul. No thing can have true self-knowledge of any thing other than itself. We would not know any matter if we were not of a material nature ourselves. We can certainly observe the effects of forces in their external consequences, but we only really recognize the nature of a force when we possess and feel it within ourselves. We could have no conception of intelligence, mind, will, love, imagination, imagination, etc., if we did not ourselves have intelligence, mind, will, love, etc.; we cannot attain self-knowledge of God, or of the eternal oneness of the essence of all things, unless we have within us the divine, and feel within ourselves the unity of our essence with the oneness of the essence of all.
As long as science knows only the phenomena of matter, it only deals with these phenomena and their changes. If a man were to truly recognize the essence of matter in himself, he could also control its essence; for ability is nothing other than the art of applying knowledge. Because it would itself be self-conscious matter, it could then create its own forms, transform itself. If he were to recognize the essence of all powers, the eternal primal power from which all powers originate, as his own divine self, he would be this self-conscious primal power and could produce all earthly and heavenly powers from himself. If he were to recognize the essence of God completely and in truth as his own essence, he would himself be God, and he can come to this self-knowledge in no other way than by overcoming his assumed uniqueness and recognizing himself as that in his true essence recognizes what he was, is, and will be from eternity, namely, God; for God is the essence of all things, and in truth there is nothing but Him. All that exists is, not in appearance, but in essence my own eternal self. All is essentially one; consequently there can be no essential difference between matter and force; both are but two different modes of revelation of the One which in itself is not outwardly manifest. There is but one God, one Self of all beings. This is also admitted by all religious systems, whether they call themselves “pantheism,” “monotheism,” “polytheism,” or otherwise, for the Indian and Greek pantheon also emerge from the one being (Brahma and Zeus), and themselves the atheists can only tell us of a single basic substance or protoplasm.
All is God, all is matter, all is power, depending on how we look at it. All is the Self, the Absolute, but that Self is not divine to man until the consciousness of the Divinity of his true Self awakens within him; for something of which man knows nothing and of which he is not conscious does not exist for him either, and the concept of divinity includes the consciousness of God (theosophy). A god without consciousness would not be a divine being. Therefore no being, even if it were the highest of gods or angels, has perfect consciousness of God; for as long as the concept of peculiarity and separateness from the sole still exists in it, he cannot be perfectly one with the One.
The beginning of all existence is consciousness. Nothing has an existence of its own until it has come into the state of self-consciousness. A corpse is there too; but not for yourself, but for others. It knows nothing of its own existence and is therefore not there for itself. A piece of wood is also there; but it is not aware of its existence. A creature without self-consciousness is without life of its own, without a will of its own, without sensation or perception of its own, it has no power over itself, it only acts as it is driven to act by the forces of nature, it vegetates well, like the oyster, it is a tool for the forces of nature, but it has no power of its own and no ability to control itself. A personality without self-confidence is an automaton, a toy, driven by external forces or guided by its innate imagination.
The beginning of all individual life is individual self-consciousness; from it springs the self-belonging, self-ruling by its own power. This self-consciousness is not a product of the body, although it has its center and develops in the body. It can be produced neither by eating nor by drinking, although the forces of the body form the ground upon which it can grow and strengthen; but just as little as the soil itself is the plant that grows out of it, and just as little as a plant can grow out of the soil if it contains no seed for it, just as little is the soul identical with the body, and just as little could itself develop out of it develop an individual consciousness if the body did not contain a spiritual germ for it.
If we look at our own inner development, we find in ourselves a spiritual power, a self-awareness which, if properly nurtured, grows from its center and spreads. Without this power the spirit has no individuality and no self-consciousness; it moves in and out of the body, but does not attach itself to it. The spiritual power which he receives in the body, and which, as it develops, remains the property of the individual man, is called the “soul,” or the inner spiritual life in man. Its consciousness is different from that of the personality; their sensations, perceptions and knowledge do not belong to the body. For the time being, while connected with the body, it is one with it in appearance and one with it in essence, yet it has its own individuality, just as the rose is one with the stem of the rosebush on which it grew and made of the same stuff, yet in itself in its properties entirely different from the stem.
But how could this soul power exist if it had no material basis? How could the self-consciousness within manifest itself if there were no material self? That which gives the spirit and the body its power and strength is matter; a power without matter is just as unthinkable as a matter without power, although one does not need to imagine any externally perceptible and tangible matter. Everything is one. “Matter is stored up, bound power; power is matter that has become free, and in both of them consciousness slumbers, a spark of the light of the spirit of God in the universe and awaits its awakening.”
The soul draws its strength from the body and its ability to understand from the spirit. It transforms the powers of the body into their soul powers, and the healthier the body is, the easier it is for a strong soul to develop from it, while in weak persons the spirit may have more freedom to act, but the inner strength of the soul flags more easily. Nor does this require any external “scientific” proof, anyone can convince themselves of this by introspection within themselves, and this experience is better than any external proof. The more a man who knows how to look at himself which is filled with animal energy, the more materialistically he feels; the smaller this energy is, or the less noticeable it is, the easier it is for his thought to soar to spiritual heights. But if he doesn’t want to fall back down to earth from these heights, he needs the power of the soul to keep him there and which draws the soul out of the lower elements of the body.
The development of the soul consists, therefore, in a constant intake of substance, of what may be called “matter” or “force” at will, and in a transformation and refinement of lower powers and substances into higher ones that serves this purpose, which also makes spiritual progress possible, because in this ennobled substance the spirit can function and manifest itself in a higher way.
However, the knowledge of this law also shows our modern “psychologists” and “occultists” the way they have to tread if they do not want to stay in the realm of dreams and probabilities, but want to get to know the truth. If we want to practice “psychology,” i.e., “soul study,” we should above all get to know the soul itself, and we find this soul-consciousness nowhere nearer than within ourselves. If we want to know how it is on the top of a high mountain looks like it will be more useful to climb the mountain yourself than to stay down in the valley and draw conclusions from observations from below what it might look like up there. The life of the soul is higher than physical life; the powers of the soul are higher than the powers of the body. Therefore, the first task of a psychologist should be to find his own soul, that is, to attain his true, humane self-consciousness and, by ennobling his character, to enable himself to ascend to those heights of spirit where the deeper secrets in nature, which is hidden from the the egoist, the “occult,” can be known.
Note:
[1] Power is Matter [Kraft ist Stoff. Franz Hartmann. Neue Metaphysische Rundschau 3, no. 2 (1900), 41-46] portrait of Franz Hartmann, opposite p. 41. Same article was published later as: Power is Matter [Kraft ist Stoff. Franz Hartmann. Theosophischer Wegweiser 3, no. 7 (April 1901), 195-201]{This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}