Not only do we pass through the gate of death as immortal beings we also enter through the gate of birth as unborn beings. We need the term unbornness as well as the term immortality to encompass the whole human being. Rudolf Steiner As anyone who has had a child knows newborns enter the earthly world as beings different from their parents. They arrive with their own individuality being and history. From the beginning they manifest an essential dignity and a unique I which they clearly brought with them from the spiritual world. This unborn life of a persons higher individuality guides the whole process of incarnation. It frames our lives but we fail to recognize this because of a singleminded focus on immortality or lifeafterdeath which makes us forget the reality of our unbornness. This unbornness extends not only from conception to birth but also includes the whole existence and history of ones I in its long journey from the spiritual world to Earth. Unbornnessthe other side of eternityallows us to experience the fact that birth is just as great a mystery as is death. In a new and striking way unbornness poses the mystery of our human task on Earth. It was one of Rudolf Steiners great gifts that he returned the concept of unbornness to human consciousness and language. In this brief stunning and moving almost poetic work Peter Selg gathers the key elements and images needed to begin an understanding ofand wonder atthe vast scope of our unbornness. Drawing on and expanding on Steiners work as well as Raphaels Sistine Madonna and the poems of Nelly Sachs and Rainer Maria Rilke Selg unveils this deepest mystery of human existence. After reading it one will never look at a child or another human being in the same way again. Life after death life before birth only by knowing both do we know eternity. Rudolf Steiner Unbornness is a translation of Ungeborenheit Die Prexistenz des Menschen und der Weg zur Geburt Verlag Ita Wegman Institut 2009.