Many will be familiar with the notion that people, at the point of death, see their life "flash" before them. Rudolf Steiner describes how--when the spiritual bodies separate from the physical body--the etheric body one who is dying is revealed, giving a panoramic overview of one's earthly life. This etheric body contains everything we have experienced in our consciousness and held in memory. The etheric not only generates and sustains all life, but also encompasses the life forces from which we shape our existence. Although the revelation of the life tableau is part of the early period following death, it can also emerge as a result of meditation. Steiner speaks of this--which occurs through "imagination," the first level of spiritual experience--as conscious self-perception of the soul in the realm of images. Here we are confronted with the harrowing knowledge of our doppelg nger, though we also experience the cosmic forces of childhood that are present in all of our life processes. Those forces are described in psychology as the "inner child." Through this unique anthology of Steiner's work, we are led to a therapeutic, meditative approach that--by working with the imaginative life tableau--can strengthen and heal body, soul, and spirit. C O N T E N T S Introduction Experiencing the Inner Child as the Starting Point for a New PhilosophyThe First Supersensible Experience: Time Becomes SpaceExperiencing Life before BirthThe Three Levels of the Anthroposophical Path of MeditationUnbornness and EternityPain and Sadness when Reliving the Life TableauDeveloping Courage and Will PowerThe Perspectival Alignment of the Life TableauIntensive Backward ThinkingThe Life Tableau as the Second Level of Imaginative PerceptionTransforming the Forces of MemoryFeelings of Happiness when Experiencing the Life TableauRe-experiencing the Inner ChildThe Cosmic Dimension: Wisdom of the IndividualLife EpochsThrough the Forces of Childhood to the "Higher Self" and the Christ Experience NotesSources