The fast-beam-spectroscopy is used for cascade-free high-precision lifetime measurements of highly excited atomic states, which are populated by a two-stage excitation as resulting from gas cell and laser interactions. An experimental extension of the method is presented demonstrating the selective population of high lying levels even from shorterliving intermediate states by an intracavity dye-laser excitation. A first example for this type of experiments is given for the lifetime of the Li 3d 2D level, which was determined to be ~(3 2D)= 14.60_+0.13 ns. The appropriate experimental set-up is described in detail and an approximate expression for signal calculation is presented, by which the applicability of this method to other levels can be estimated.