Rudolf Steiner said that this book is not a story of mysticism. The book deals with a problem that has occupied him for many decades and which has now become a main issue for all of humanity: the impact of modern scientific thought on the experiences of the inner spiritual life of man.

In the conflict of reason and revelation, which reached its peak in the 19th century but had begun much earlier, Steiner saw the seed of an even greater conflict that was to come, a conflict that involves the struggle of humanity against the point of subhumanity of modern technological advancements.