◊ “No person is held qualified to 

form a judgment on the contents 

of this work, who has not acquired 

— through the School of 

Spiritual Science itself or in an 

equivalent manner recognized 

by the School of Spiritual Science — 

the requisite preliminary knowledge. 

Other opinions will be disregarded....”

— Prefatory note appearing at the beginning

 of numerous Steiner texts. [1]

◊ “[M]y knowledge of spiritual things is the

result of my own perception.”

— Rudolf Steiner [2]

STEINER’S ILLOGIC

Thinking Straight, Thinking Crooked

It may be enlightening to consider just how logical or plausible Rudolf Steiner’s teachings are. In brief, did Steiner make sense? [3]

Steiner called his teachings “spiritual science.” He said that his books and lectures present objective, verifiable facts about the spirit realm. It would seem, then, that the standards of reason and proof that apply to other sciences should also apply to Steiner’s “science.” Indeed, Steiner said as much. In defending Anthroposophy from charges that it is unreasonable, he stated the following:

“[S]ane and earnest thought not only can but must [emphasis by Steiner] be the touchstone of all the facts presented. Only one who submits what is here advanced to logical and adequate examination, such as is applied to the facts of natural science, will be in a position to decide for himself how much reason has to say in the matter.” [4] 

Although Steiner asserted that his teachings are factual, sane, and scientific, he also erected a thicket of defensive ploys that tend to deflect rational criticism. He said that his occult statements are based on his personal spiritual experiences, and therefore he presented them as undeniable truths. He said that his teachings are beyond the comprehension of anyone who disagrees with him. He said that the only way to test his statements is to develop the same clairvoyant powers he claimed to possess. He said that the language in which he clothed his findings has variable meanings, and these vary in strange ways, being the expression of "living" thoughts, and thus we can't really pin him down on anything. [See "Thinking".] While tipping my cap at Steiner’s defensives efforts, I will argue that no such defenses deserve rational assent.

FIRST LOOK

We can begin our examination of Steiner’s (ir)rationality by looking at the claims I have just now paraphrased. This will only be a first, rough pass. We’ll return to examine matters in more detail later. One concession we can make immediately: Let's concede that Steiner very rarely strove for formal logical rigor, so we should not judge his statements by strict standards. To be fair, we should not be too hard on him concerning forms of thought (rationality, critical thinking) that he considered inadequate. Here's another concession, as well. I am not a logician; a professional logician would doubtless be unimpressed by my efforts here. But my goal is modest. I simply want to use easily grasped standards of rationality to get a handle on Rudolf Steiner's work — in other words, I want to consider the quality of Steiner's books and lectures using good, solid, real-world sense. I hope everything I say is true, but I will keep things informal, aiming to drive home a few fundamental points, approaching them from various directions. Because Steiner rarely strove for formal logical rigor, I will proceed accordingly.

OK: Let's take a first look at Steiner's claims as I have just now paraphrased them.

◊ One cannot be the witness who validates one’s own assertions (as in, Steiner says he knows what he’s talking about: He assures us that he has seen the stuff he says he has seen). Vouching for the accuracy of one's own statements boils down to I am right because I say so. Thus, a defendant in a criminal trial might assert, To the members of the jury: I prove my innocence by stating that I am innocent. To which the judge might quite rightly respond, Sit down, son — you’re going to jail. Taking Steiner at his word is extremely helpful if one wants to become an Anthroposophist. Steiner said his teachings are scientifically sound. That is apparently good enough for people who want it to be good enough — that is, it is good enough for people who yield to their bias in favor of occultism. For everyone else — that is, for people who want rational evidence and discussion — it is clearly insufficient.

◊ Let’s consider the same point from a different angle. The only thing that logically can be known about people who disagree with Steiner is that they disagree with him. They are not necessarily right or wrong. Proving that they are wrong requires proving that Steiner is right. But Steiner did not show that he is right. He merely asserted that he is right. He claimed a lot but proved nothing.

◊ Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable. The statement I saw it with my own eyes has, on innumerable occasions, led to faulty verdicts in criminal cases. If I tell you that yesterday I saw George W. Bush knock down an old lady and steal her purse, you might (depending on your political affiliation) think that I more likely saw someone who merely resembled G. W. Bush commit this dastardly deed. Or, of course, you might think that I was hallucinating. Or you might think that I am lying. In any event, before sending G. W. Bush to the pen, you should demand far more than my eyewitness report. I saw it with my clairvoyant "eyes” takes this to another level. When Steiner said that his teachings are based on his "perception," he meant that he had seen various wonderful things clairvoyantly. Such testimony must be deemed even more suspect than ordinary, "with-my-eyeballs" first-person accounts. Possibly Steiner saw what he claimed to see, clairvoyantly. But possibly he was hallucinating when he "saw" these things. Or possibly his testimony is a tissue of lies. (The truth is that we have no reason to believe that clairvoyance even exists. "Clairvoyant" testimony is extraordinarily suspect. See "Clairvoyance".)

◊ Establishing impossible conditions for testing propositions is clearly invalid, yet this is what Steiner did. He claimed to be clairvoyant, and he said that to assess his teachings we need to become clairvoyant, too. But requiring us to become clairvoyant is like requiring us to grow additional heads. Steiner actually said that we need to grow “organs of clairvoyance.” [5] A clever defense, but bad science. To make his statements on these points valid, Steiner needed to prove that a) clairvoyance is possible, b) there are such things as organs of clairvoyance, and c) he himself, possessing organs of clairvoyance, was clairvoyant. Only then could he plausibly require us to reach a similar condition. But he didn't prove anything of the sort (he merely made unsupported claims), so the requirement he placed on us is wholly unfounded.

 

◊ About Steiner's use of language: Steiner asserted, repeatedly, that the "truths" revealed by "spiritual science" are essentially ineffable. The realities of the spirit realm transcend human comprehension and language. Now, this may be correct. But it severely weakens Steiner's claim that he could comprehend and describe the realities of the spirit realm. A science consisting of statements that do not adequately describe the subjects of that science winds up being empty, null, meaningless. Steiner wrote many books and delivered literally thousands of lectures in which he described what he said was indescribable, and when he was criticized, he frequently offered the defense that he had been misunderstood. Yes, statements that are inadequate are likely to be found inadequate. "Spiritual science" lacks rational content, as Steiner himself indicated it must.

◊ Conclusions cannot be postulated. In any logical system, such as plane geometry, a few basic postulates must be accepted as self-evident, such as: Only one straight line can be drawn between two points. The postulates used in any logical system must be few and obvious. Conclusions, by contrast, must arise from a rigorous process of proof. It is not self-evident, for instance, that a diameter perpendicular to a chord bisects the chord and its arcs. This cannot be offered as a postulate, but it can be reached as a conclusion if it is proven through a series of deductive steps. Clairvoyance cannot be postulated; the existence of clairvoyance must be proven. Likewise, “spiritual science” is not self-evidently a real discipline; we must be convinced that such a science is possible. Simply defining (postulating) complex or questionable propositions as true is invalid. Almost all of Steiner’s assertions require proof; almost none get it. [6] 

TWO PRINCIPLES

Let’s see what else we can discover. I won’t discuss huge numbers of Steiner’s statements, nor will I try to include examples of every type of logical blunder Steiner committed — we would all die of boredom. Instead, I’ll attempt to satisfy our curiosity with a few representative examples. To facilitate discussion, I will offer Steiner statements that many readers will find familiar.

Two basic requirements of logic are found in the principles of consistency and non-contradiction. These are virtually axiomatic. To be logical, you must make statements that are consistent with one another, and you certainly cannot make statements that flat-out contradict one another. 

Consistency is a broader concept than non-contradiction. Inconsistent statements do not necessarily invalidate one another, as contradictory statements do, but they are hard to fit with one another. If you tell one group of people one thing and another group another, you are being inconsistent. You may get away with it, but you will win no awards for honesty. Politicians violate the principle of consistency pretty often. Meeting with public school teachers, they promise increased support for public schools. Meeting with anti-tax zealots, they endorse the solemn need to cut all taxes, including those that pay for public schools. While it may not be impossible to "support" public schools while denying them the funding they need, inconsistency certainly seems to lurk in these contrary pronouncements. Persistent inconsistency is one reason politicians are generally considered liars. 

Steiner was, at least occasionally, inconsistent. Addressing teachers at the first Waldorf school, he said 

“The things I say here, I could not say to parents.” [7] 

Saying different things to teachers than to parents (giving the former the real scoop, and peddling soft soap to the latter) may be canny. It may be politic. It may even be necessary. But it is not truthful.

Contradiction, even more than inconsistency, smacks of intellectual dishonesty. It is not difficult to find specific Steiner statements that overthrow each other. For example, he sometimes said that the planets orbit the Sun, and sometimes he said that they don't. [See "Deception".] These teachings are not simply inconsistent; they are contradictory. Steiner contradicted himself on many specific issues throughout his career.

But I want to look at the question of Steiner's contradictions with a wider focus. Steiner tried to reconcile various irreconcilable religions in order to roll them up in the package he called Anthroposophy. (Theosophists and others also aim for an all-in-one religion, but we aren’t concerned with them here.) Steiner's doctrines include polytheism, the centrality of Christ, reincarnation, and evolution, among many other beliefs (i.e., Steiner's "clairvoyant observations"). Reconciling these tenets is, at the least, a challenge. If Steiner was a Christian, for instance, he should have taught that salvation through Christ results in eternal bliss in heaven (Christ's Father's house). Instead, Steiner taught that a good soul progresses toward perfection through a very long karmic process of repeated incarnations. He called this process evolution. The inverse of evolution is involution: Bad souls fall through downward incarnations to lower and lower levels. Here are three of Steiner’s pronouncements:

◊ “[P]eople live repeated earthly lives.” [8]

◊ “What, then, is this mysterious impulse making its victorious way through the world? ... It is the Christ himself. He goes from heart to heart, from soul to soul, living and working in the world regardless of whether he is understood as evolution progresses through the centuries.” [9] 

◊ “Monotheism...can only represent an ultimate ideal; it could never lead to a real understanding of the world....” [10]

Christianity, like Islam and Judaism, is a monotheistic faith: There is but one God. Steiner admitted the supremacy of the Godhead [11], yet he often spoke of multiple “gods,” as when he told Waldorf teachers that they must carry out the gods’ (plural) intentions. [12] Steiner tried to reconcile the various elements of his doctrines by, for example, asserting that few people except he and his followers understand Christ’s real nature and mission (“regardless of whether he is understood as evolution progresses through the centuries”): Christ assists humanity in its evolutionary progress through the mechanism of reincarnation. This will come as a surprise to most Christian ministers and theologians. A fundamental Christian tenet is that we live one life on Earth (not "repeated earthly lives") and then go to our eternal reward or punishment.

On the issue of multiple gods, Steiner did not so much resolve matters as make a choice: He opted for polytheism as a truer vision than monotheism (which can “never lead to a real understanding of the world”). We could permit Steiner to embrace both monotheism and a modified polytheism if we agreed that by “gods” he meant spiritual beings who are not themselves really deities but who are, rather, God’s attendants. But this would boil down to an affirmation of monotheism, with the subsidiary “gods” losing any real claim to that title, whereas we have just seen Steiner reject monotheism. So no deal.

What do we have here, then? To the extent that Steiner revered Christ, he was a polytheistic Christian. Does this make sense? No. Christianity is a monotheistic faith; Anthroposophy is polytheistic. Thus, true Christianity and Steiner's Anthroposophy are fundamentally incompatible. It is possible to spin elaborate rationalizations that seem to remove contradiction from this picture; Steiner devoted much of his time to such efforts. But in the end, irreconcilable beliefs remain irreconcilable — they contradict one another.

LOGIC AND REALITY

Steiner constantly skated on the edge — and often beyond the edge — of reason. [13] This brings us to an important empirical point. Being illogical isn’t necessarily the same as being wrong. In our topsy-turvy world, illogical things often turn out to be true. People can be right for the wrong reasons, or wrong for the right reasons. You may know things in your heart that your mind cannot justify — and your heart may be right, even if your mind cannot understand. Importantly, this may be a governing principle for spiritual matters. Possibly the spiritual realm is so far beyond our comprehension that our paltry logic doesn’t apply there. Maybe the spirit realm is so strange, from our perspective, that it is simultaneously Christian and not Christian, monotheistic and polytheistic, geared to salvation after one life and yet also geared to evolution over countless lives. Our minds can’t grasp such a state of affairs, but maybe that’s how things really are. We may just have to accept it.

But do we? The question for us here is whether Steiner gave us any good reason to accept his vision of spiritual reality. Put it like this: He invited us to a place that is beyond our comprehension, but — claiming to be a "spiritual scientist" — he promised us a comprehensible rationale. What reasons did Steiner give us for believing him? His visions may awe and wow us, but by the standards Steiner himself posited — the standards of “logical and adequate examination” — awe and wow are not enough. Steiner might have been better off if he had simply presented himself as a mystic whose teachings must be taken on faith. But he promised us logic and adequate evaluation. Did he deliver? If you are unsure of the answer, please keep reading. 

(One caveat or disclaimer or confession before we proceed. In much of what follows, I will scramble questions of logic with questions of fact. This will offend logicians, but I am doing it for a reason. Most readers will care far more whether Steiner was right than whether he was logical, and by "right" here I mean factually correct. Did Steiner give us descriptions of the universe that we can take seriously? "Adequate investigation," in this sense, includes checking not just the internal consistency of arguments but the applicability of the arguments to the real world. Thus, I will not offer an excursion into the heart of formal logic, but I will undertake a sort of layman's bus tour through some of logic's outer precincts. I am not presenting logic as it is usually taught but as I think it should be employed in response to Steiner's occultist claims.) 

THE MIDDLE

Multiple logical laws arise from the underlying principles of logic. The laws tend to overlap, or at least they may seem to do so. In essence, all logic boils down to making reasonable deductions from one’s premises. Mathematics is rigorous logic applied to quantities. Symbolic logic can be considered the effort to apply math-like precision to ordinary language, discussions, and transactions. Logic in ordinary life is the use of reason to find truth. To treat Steiner fairly, I will confine our discussion to errors of the sort that anyone at any time should know to avoid.

Steiner frequently violated the law of the excluded middle, which states that you cannot divide the difference between true and false: A proposition is either true or it isn’t. Steiner tried to duck this law. He explicitly stated that “true” and “false” do not apply in spiritual science: 

“The concepts of ‘true’ and ‘false’ are dreadfully barren, prosaic, and formal. The moment we rise to the truths of the spiritual world, we can no longer speak of ‘true’ and ‘false’....” [14] 

Anthroposophy is a large-scale attempt to split differences and/or to ignore them.

Some may consider Steiner’s position on this point extremely “deep”: The spiritual realm is more profound than our human concepts of true and false, right and wrong, yes and no. Well, maybe so. But in that case, I repeat: Why would anyone believe Steiner? He has given us no comprehensible reason to do so. Indeed, he has stated that no comprehensible reason is possible.

Let’s stipulate that God is beyond human understanding. But surely we need to comprehend, on at least some level, the beliefs we cherish concerning God and his actions. Otherwise, not only logic but also religious teachings would totter. For instance, let’s consider the miracle of Jesus’s birth. Christians believe that Jesus was born of a virgin. Surely this belief must be either true or false. Mary either was a virgin or she was not a virgin — her condition couldn’t have been something in-between.

Now, of course, Mary's pregnancy and the birth of Jesus occurred (if they occurred) in the physical universe. Steiner did not deny that the concepts of "true" and "false" apply down here — he said that they do not apply up above, in the spirit realm. So, then, let’s put aside mere physical matters and ask some wholly spiritual questions, matters about which Steiner said "we can no longer speak of ‘true’ and ‘false.’” Was Mary's soul pure? Was Jesus the Son of God? Was Jesus the Savior? Did Jesus come from heaven? Is there such a place as heaven? Does God the Father dwell there? Is God the Father omniscient? Does God love us? According to Steiner, there are no true or false answers to these questions (concerning “the truths of the spiritual world, we can no longer speak of ‘true’ and ‘false’....”). What can Steiner mean except that spiritual “truths” are not “true”? Is there any rational way to accept such a proposition? How can "truths" be neither "true" nor "false"? Does Steiner's position stand up to “logical and adequate examination”? No. Judged by the standards Steiner himself accepted, his position is false. 

ABSURDITY

Steiner's arguments were not always illogical, of course. He was a smart guy; he could argue with subtlety and cleverness. But even when he did so, he often slipped. He often stubbed his toe on absurdity. Logical argumentation can boomerang. If a conclusion drawn logically from a premise turns out to be absurd — or if the argument can be extended so that it leads to absurd results — then the premise itself is exposed as being wrong. 

There is logical absurdity and factual absurdity. For the moment, let's concede logic to Steiner and focus on fact. Steiner regularly made assertions of the following sort: I can see hidden truths thanks to my clairvoyance. My clairvoyant ability allows me to assert that the planets do not orbit the Sun. [15] (As I've said, Steiner denied the orbital motion of the planets when he didn't contradict himself by affirming such motion. For the moment, let's pretend Steiner didn't violate the basic logical requirement of non-contradiction.) To put Steiner's position in more formally logical form: All of my clairvoyant observations are true. One of my clairvoyant observations is that the planets do not orbit the Sun. Therefore, my observation (the planets do not orbit the Sun) is true. According to Steiner, just about everyone except Steiner falls for an optical illusion about the motions of the planets: They foolishly think that the planets go around the Sun. Steiner said he knew better. Unfortunately for Steiner, however, science has proven quite conclusively that the planets do indeed orbit the Sun. Thus, not only was Steiner factually wrong about the planets, but, logically, his premise must also be untrue. In other words, Steiner here allows us to discover logically that he was not clairvoyant. (Of course, to repeat, Steiner sometimes said that the planets do orbit the Sun. Does this rescue him? No. It only makes his position all the more absurd — i.e., self-contradictory — and his claims of clairvoyance become all the more dubious. Neither he nor his clairvoyance seemed able to keep the story straight.)

Of course, Steiner rarely set out his positions in even mock-logical terms. I’ve made his “reasoning” seem plainer than it actually was. Still, we can often see through him. His claim that he was clairvoyant — that he objectively studied the universe as a "spiritual scientist" — collapses when we note his numerous, oft-repeated, howling bloomers. [See "Steiner's Blunders".] Steiner is refuted by reality. His clairvoyant powers are disproved by fact. 

Confining ourselves to facts is a limitation. But it is the limitation of reality. Whatever conditions may prevail in the spirit realm, conditions prevailing in the physical realm demonstrate that Steiner had no clairvoyant powers (or, at a minimum, his "clairvoyance" very often led him far, far astray). Thus, Steiner repeatedly taught that the heart does not pump blood. [16] Steiner was not an MD. How did he know what no one else knew about hearts? Because he was clairvoyant. Not.

Likewise, Steiner taught that goblins exist [17], we can converse with the dead [18], ancient humans established  colonies on distant worlds [19], and so forth. Steiner's teachings are a catalogue of factual absurdities. We must hold open the possibility that Steiner was right about at least some spiritual matters, but the possibility seems remote since the power on which he based his "observations' — clairvoyance — was not within his grasp. (Actually, it is within no one's grasp. It doesn't exist. I invite you again to see "Clairvoyance".)

WIDE SCREEN

Illogic is easiest to spot when it occurs within narrow confines: within a few sentences, say. But we can learn even more by adjusting our focal length to consider what we might call Steiner’s meta-fallacies — those that pervade wide swaths of his work. We’ve already done this with Steiner’s self-contradictions. Let’s look at two more examples.

Appeal to authority is a fallacy in which one cites an authority as if the citation were sufficient, in and of itself, to prove a point. Einstein (or Steiner) said so-and-so; therefore, it must be true. The most egregious form of appeal to authority occurs when you cite an “authority” who actually has no real knowledge of the subject under discussion. Einstein said baseball is the best sport, so it must be true. Einstein’s views, in such a case, carry little weight.

Even when we cite an authority in his/her field of expertise, the citation by itself does not prove anything. Authorities can be mistaken. “Experts” used to assure us that the Sun orbits the Earth, for instance. They were wrong; relying on their "authority" led us astray. 

Moreover, because experts can be mistaken, they often disagree with one another. Will a rate cut by the Fed bolster the stock market? Economics sage A says yes, while economics sage B says no. If you appeal to the authority of A, I may appeal to the authority of B, and the argument will remain unresolved. Appealing to authority has gotten us nowhere.

Some appeals to authority are explicit and easy to spot; others are implicit and more difficult to discern. But both forms are erroneous, and Steiner made both forms of the error over and over. He would cite an “authority,” or drop a name, or refer to a mystical tradition, or explain what this group or that believed long ago, and then press on as if he had made a conclusive point. Steiner denied that he did this [20], but he did it. His works are studded with references to occult texts, holy scriptures (Hindu, Christian, Zoroastrian...), holy men (Buddha, Christian Rosenkreutz, Zoroaster...), invisible beings (gods, demons, nature spirits...), ancient traditions and teachings and superstitions... He called upon "authorities" of many types, explicitly or implicitly. He did this in order to bolster his arguments. But nothing is proven by simply referring to some person or thing — nothing is proven even by citing vast hordes of such individuals or entities. In the real world, proving a proposition requires the submission of genuine evidence which is then subjected to rational analysis. Steiner almost never did this.

Steiner was highly educated. He impressed some people with his apparently limitless knowledge. He credited his virtual omniscience to his personal spiritual experiences, including clairvoyant examination of the Akashic Record, a celestial compilation of essentially all knowledge. [21] Various mystic traditions refer to the Akashic Record or some similar repository of transcendent wisdom; this repository is, in a sense, the ultimate "authority." In presenting himself as a spiritual master, Steiner joined a long, occult tradition — he claimed he was privy to deep secrets, gleaned from an authority beyond ordinary perception. But this claim clearly does not withstand rational scrutiny (iIt would be a brave student who footnoted a term paper with references to the Akashic Record). Steiner asserted that he saw many things that ordinary people cannot see. Maybe he did. Or maybe he was mistaken. Or maybe he was trying to fool us. Or maybe he was fooling himself. We cannot know without evidence supported by valid reasoning. Steiner’s undocumented assertions that he knew a whole bunch of secret stuff are worthless. [22]

CIRCLING

Taken as a whole, Steiner’s works are an exercise in tautology or circular reasoning. This fallacy occurs when one starts and ends in the same place, merely rephrasing the premise and offering it as a conclusion. A simple tautology would be Cattle are herbivores, hence cows eat plants. This statement is perfectly true, but it hasn’t gotten us anywhere. A herbivore is, by definition, a plant-eater. Telling us that a herbivore easts plants has not advanced our knowledge of herbivores. 

Steiner was forever offering circular remarks. I’ll paraphrase a few that readers may have come upon before, in one form or another. • Spiritual beings are all around us because the spirit realm infuses all of the physical realm. • We can recall episodes from our past lives because we carry previous experiences within us thanks to the process of reincarnation. • We are engaged in the universal process of spiritual evolution because everything tangible manifests upward-striving or downward-decaying spiritual entities. People who find such sophistry convincing are excellent candidates for enlistment in Anthroposophy. (I’m tempted to add • Anthroposophists fall for tautologies since circular reasoning is irresistible to devotees of spiritual science — but perhaps I shouldn’t.)

Steiner said that his understanding of the spiritual worlds broadened and deepened over time. But he also said that he had been right all along: His later work confirms his earlier work, he said. In a late revision of OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE, Steiner wrote 

“The outline as presented fifteen years ago [i.e., in the first edition] has in no way been shaken. Inserted in its proper place and context, everything that I have since been able to adduce becomes a further elaboration of the original picture.” [23] 

Note that the “outline” is the entire contents of the book. Thus, over a period of 15 or more years, Steiner did not change his views in any essential — his views had been "in no way shaken."

We can easily verify Steiner’s faithfulness to his own views (although, in truth, Steiner shifted ground more than he lets on). When we open a Steiner book, we know beforehand what we will find. There may be some some new details, even some surprises (for instance, books in which Steiner discusses beekeeping), but the core message will always be that ◊ the heavily populated spiritual realm is all around us, ◊ we ourselves are spirit beings, ◊ all creatures above and below, and we ourselves, are evolving (going up spiritually) or involving (going down spiritually), ◊ our evolution entails reincarnation and karma, ◊ we evolve to various "planets" or "planetary conditions", ◊ Christ the Sun God is crucially important to our evolution, ◊ the spirit world is not what science or orthodox religions teach, ◊ the realm of the spirits can be known through clairvoyance, ◊ Steiner can light the way ... and so on. Steiner almost never started at point A and then reasoned his way to point B. He started at point A, tap-danced, waved his hands, and finally — after a display of verbal contortions — ended triumphantly at point A. (Even when discussing bees, Steiner took us from A to A: e.g., 

“The group soul of a beehive...has attained a level of evolutionary development that human beings will later reach in the Venus cycle....” — Rudolf Steiner, BEES (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 176. 

The details are unexpected, perhaps, but the gist is what we’ve heard over and over: spirit realm, spiritual evolution, planetary stages of evolution, etc. [24])

One might argue that I’m attacking Steiner for being consistent, but that misses my point. Steiner’s conclusions tend to be reassertions of his premises, little more. Rather than establishing persuasive chains of reasoning, Steiner walked in circles. How could he have done anything else? He would have advanced his case — moving us, if not himself, from A to B — if he had provided at least a little confirming evidence. (I’m now speaking of a subject I will return to in our examination of insubstantiality.) Steiner might have produced a spirit (a nonphysical being, a denizen of the great beyond) that is clued in to earthly affairs, for instance. A gnome or goblin would be recalcitrant, so how about a guardian angel? If the spirit were invisible and inaudible to anyone but Steiner, Steiner might at least have conversed with it in our presence. From his invisible guest, he might have gathered some information that would floor us, such as that an earthquake would occur in fifteen seconds. So we would take out our watches, count down, experience the fearful tremor occurring as predicted, and presto, we would be swayed. But Steiner didn’t fool with such proofs. He conducted his spiritual explorations in private, within the confines of his cranium (although he would deny that last part: He taught that real cognition doesn’t occur in the brain [25]). Perhaps he was wise to work in private. His mentor, Madame Blavatsky, claimed to possess psychic powers much like those Steiner claimed. But, foolishly, Madame B. held demonstrations — seances and the like. Unfortunately for her, this allowed people to observe her fakery in action. In 1885, the London Society for Psychical Research officially pronounced her a fraud. She retired from public exhibitions thereafter, devoting her time instead to writing her masterpiece, THE SECRET DOCTRINE. [26] Steiner saw and learned. 

Please remember that Steiner said he was teaching us about a type of science to which the standards of the legitimate sciences apply. By his own admission, then, he failed to fulfill his standards: “logical and adequate examination.” He cut himself some slack, however, because he modestly stated that his work “may be numbered among the noblest achievements of humanity.” [27]

MEANING

For a statement to be useful in the search for knowledge, it has to mean something, and that meaning must be clear enough for comprehension and analysis. Steiner’s language fails this test in interconnected ways. (In the following, we'll circle the subject — Steiner's slippery abuse of language — approaching it from various overlapping angles.)

Obfuscation: Steiner often used language that snowed his audiences rather than informing them. Attentive readers who have studied Steiner learn his codes, so they can more or less grasp his meaning. But even for such students, Steiner’s language is elusive, implying a profound wisdom that floats just out of reach. 

“Just as the leaders of the Sun’s evolution became the higher I that worked in the life body of the descendants of human beings who had remained on Earth, this Jupiter leader became the higher I that spread like a common consciousness through the human beings who had their origins in the interbreeding of Earth offspring with humans who first appeared on Earth during the period of the air element and then moved to Jupiter.” [28] 

All very true, no doubt, but still... If we weren’t dealing with a spiritual sage (and, if fact, we aren’t), we would urge Steiner to rephrase such sentences in plain language. But he just poured out stuff like this and kept going.

Obfuscating language serves as a great impediment to reasoning. If it were not an ad hominem [29], I would be tempted to say that Steiner was a fraud who cynically intended to thwart comprehension and analysis. Steiner’s defenders would say that he used such language because he was attempting to convey virtually ineffable truths. But whatever can be said at all can be said clearly, if one takes the trouble. Consider the Bible. Aside from prophetic passages and terms over which we might haggle (Is my “neighbor” just the guy next door or, really, everyone?), most of the Bible is perfectly plain, even though it conveys truths that Jews, Christians, and Muslims agree are incontestably profound. 

Equivocation: We can consider this a subset of obfuscation and an extension of the principle of non-contradiction: It consists of hedging your statements so that they are two-sided. Steiner peppered his lectures with such equivocations, often marked by phrases like “in a sense.” (A Google search for “in a sense” in Steiner’s books would approach infinity. Sorry: I jest. But the total would be a whole lot.) Variations: Steiner often resorted, over and over, to such interjections as “in a manner of speaking” [30], “so to speak” [31], “I speak here only pictorially” [32], “[this] is only an imagistic way of talking” [33], “as it were” [34], and the like. He was acknowledging that his statements are unclear; but instead of clarifying, he simple made the acknowledgment and moved on.

Of course, we all use such phrases. But when they become a recurrent refrain, they flag a problem. Steiner knew that his style was tough: 

“[My] books require the goodwill of the reader in dealing with a difficult style of writing....” [35] 

Note how this neatly puts the burden on the reader, not the author. Instead of correcting the problem in his language, Steiner ran with it.

As I’ve already conceded, the spirit realm may be a place of flux, multiplicity, and complex manifestation. But that isn’t the issue, here. Steiner’s exposition is needlessly equivocal. I gave the counterexample of the Bible. Here's another example, this time from physics. Quantum mechanics describes a completely bizarre deep level of reality where subatomic particles can be in two places at once, where time can run backward, where merely looking at something may cause it to change, and so forth. Our minds can scarcely cope with that weird realm. Yet we can discuss it in lucid, precise language: The exposition makes sense. In Steiner’s accounts of the spiritual realm, clarity is rarely attained or, apparently, even intended. A mystagogue's trade, after all, is more to mystify than to clarify.

Nonsense: Language is gutted when it is used to peddle misinformation. Let’s return to Steiner’s remarkable view — stated often but not always — that the planets do not orbit the Sun. In his exposition of this "truth," he employed seemingly impressive scientific jargon, but his grasp of the terms he tossed around was shaky. Speaking to Waldorf teachers, Steiner claimed this:  

“The Earth follows the Sun. The incline is the same as what we normally call the angle of declination. If you take the angle you obtain when you measure the ecliptic angle, then you will see that. So it is not a spiral but a helix ... The angle that encloses the helix is the same as the path of a star near the North pole ... [T]he North pole remains fixed, that is the celestial North Pole.” [36] 

An awesome display or knowledge. Except — well, let’s break it down. The solar/planetary motion is “not a spiral, but a helix.” This statement would be illuminating if “helix” and “spiral” weren’t essentially synonyms. [37] In truth, the Earth does travel a spiral-like path, but not the one Steiner described. Steiner said that the Sun and six planets wing through space together, with some planets lined up behind the Sun and some lined up ahead of the Sun. 

“[I]t is not that the planets move around the Sun, but these three, Mercury, Venus, and the Earth, follow the Sun, and these three, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, precede it ... [I]t appears as though the Earth goes around [the Sun], whereas it is actually only following. The Earth follows the Sun.” [38] 

The line the planets and Sun follow, according to Steiner, is a corkscrew spiral or helix. But all of this is bunk. The planets orbit the Sun. No planet always follows the Sun, and none always precedes it. Nor are the planets arranged in bunches, three behind the Sun and three ahead of the Sun. Traveling in separate orbits, the planets separately circle the Sun. Each planet winds up describing its own spiral path, but the group of six-planets-and-Sun does not form a line and this line is not a spiral or helix. (The Sun orbits the center of our galaxy, so the orbits of the planets are stretched: At the end of an orbit, a planet does not return to the place where the orbit began, but it arrives at a point farther along the Sun’s galactic orbit. In this sense, each planet travels a spiral path, corkscrewing along the Sun's orbital path. The Sun, on the other hand, does not travel in a corkscrew fashion; within the context of the galaxy, the Sun travels in a regular, smooth orbit.) [39] 

“[T]he North pole remains fixed.” No cigar. The terrestrial north pole shifts. The shifting is called the precession of the equinoxes (I can use fancy lingo, too). The celestial north pole is an imaginary point in the sky around which stars seem to circle. This point is an illusion caused by the Earth’s rotation. As the Earth’s north pole changes position, so does the celestial north pole. (Steiner carefully distinguished between the fixity of the terrestrial and celestial poles — “that is the celestial North Pole” — but this is pointless.) Since the precession of the equinoxes has great implications for astrology, and since astrology figures in Steiner’s doctrines, Steiner's ignorance about the movement of the poles is shocking, simply shocking. But apparently some things are not recorded in the Akashic Record. [40]

Steiner’s fancy terminology ("declination," "ecliptic"...) doesn’t add anything but a patina of learning — a very thin patina. The Waldorf teachers whom Steiner addressed apparently accepted his guidance on astronomy as on virtually everything else. But let’s move more circumspectly. For instance, what angle would we get if we “measure the ecliptic angle”? Maybe, let me guess, the ecliptic angle? If we accept the ecliptic angle as equal to the angle of declination, then Steiner’s words undergo a near-truth experience. But, upon careful examination, the vestiges of truth evaporate. ◊ “The Earth follows the Sun.” No. The Earth and the Sun are gravitationally linked, but the Earth is not arranged in a line with the other planets, no matter how snaky, and it does not follow the Sun along this line. ◊ For the same reason, there is no “incline.” The Earth does not follow the Sun either uphill or down. ◊ The ecliptic — an imaginary circle on either the celestial sphere or the surface of the Earth — is defined by the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, but here Steiner says the Earth does not orbit the Sun. ◊ “Stars” (some of which are actually distant galaxies or even more distant galactic clusters) that appear to be near the pole ("a star near the North pole") occupy different angular distances from it, so there is no single “angle that encloses the [nonexistent] helix”. Strike four. [41] 

Many of Steiner’s other assertions are similarly devoid of true meaning. He frequently used highfalutin' language to no other effect than stunning his listeners and readers. The degree of stunning depends on the degree of credulity. Each Anthroposophist must speak for her/himself, but the impression created is that Steiner has won converts by offering fabulous, detailed, stunning — but at many points erroneous — visions of a mind-blowing super-reality. But Holy cow! I believe! is not a rational response. [42]

LOGIC AND REALITY, PART 2

Logic is concerned with the forms of statements, not — strictly speaking — the contents of those statements. But in the real world, contents are crucial. No statement can be true, in reality, if it expresses empty thoughts or falsehoods. Even if Steiner had been a careful logician, his work would fail this essential test:

Steiner almost invariably committed what I will call the mistake of insubstantiality (aka fantasy), which for our discussion we can take as failure to provide factual evidence. Logicians do not worry much about evidence. A statement can be considered logically true even if it lacks factual content — even if it consists of factual falsehoods. For example, the following syllogism is logically true but factually absurd: (A) All dogs can fly; (B) Barney is a dog; therefore (C) Barney can fly.

Aha! cries the Anthroposophist. Your vaunted "logic" is disconnected from reality. It allows you to believe that dogs can fly! Sorry. It does no such thing. Logic tells us how to think rationally, not what to think about. If you start with silly premises (“All dogs can fly”) then you will reach silly conclusions (garbage in, garbage out: GIGO). The tool of logic, employed by people who take care to start with factually true premises, enables us to ascertain truths about reality: truths in both senses: logically true and factually true.

Finding examples of insubstantial statements in Steiner’s works is embarrassingly easy. Steiner almost never bothered with evidence. In reading the following, ask yourself: Are these statements grounded in fact? What evidence would we need to accept them? What sort of thinking do we see in action here? Do these statements compel acceptance? I’ll keep these quotations brief, which opens a possible rebuttal: I have left out the evidence! Well, no, I haven’t. Steiner did. Please go to the passages I quote and look around for evidence, either before or after. Hint #1: Be prepared for a long, unrewarding slog. Hint #2: Consider what Steiner says about the human head (third quote, below). What does this tell us about his view of mental processes? [For more on these matters, see "Thinking" and "Steiner's Specific".]

Consider these Steiner quotes, please:

◊ “There were...beings who had detached Mars from the common cosmic substance and made it their dwelling place.” [43] 

◊ “What spiritual beings become [clairvoyantly] visible in any particular instance depends on the colour to which we devote ourselves. In a red room, other [spiritual] beings become visible than in a blue room....” [44] 

◊ “The human head was formed by cosmic antipathy. When the cosmos is so ‘repulsed’ by what human beings have in them that the cosmos expels it, then this form [i.e., the human head] is created.” [45] 

◊ “[T]he physical sun...is the external expression of the spiritual world that is received at the point where Christ’s physical body is walking around.” [46] 

◊ “[T]he heart is indeed a sense organ for perceiving the blood’s movement, not a pump as physicists [sic] claim.” [47] 

◊ “[T]he scientist would, in principle, always say that minerals, plants and animals would develop without the existence of people. [paragraph break] This is incorrect ... At a particular stage in their earthly development, human beings, to develop further, needed to rid their nature, which then was much different than it is now, of the higher animals [i.e., animals evolved downward from people]....” [48]

We could dig deeply into all these statements, but I’ll offer just a quick response to the last one. Steiner’s evolutionary theory was completely at odds with the findings of science. Notice that Steiner actually affirms his disagreement with science. But this is unfortunate for him. Vast volumes of evidence have been accumulated to support Darwinian evolution. Where is the evidence for Steinerian evolution? As usual, Steiner offered no evidence, and scarcely a scintilla has been provided by any of his devotees. This is characteristic of most of the claims Steiner made. He performed no field work or experiments to substantiate “spiritual science.” He just spoke.

Steiner pretended to tell us about reality, but his remarks lacked substance. They blow away on the breeze. They do not recommend themselves to our brains, those uncomprehending organs sitting forlorn in hollowed globes of antipathy, our skulls.

— Roger Rawlings

---

Samples of Steiner's "logic" are scattered throughout Waldorf Watch. Here's one from the page titled "Star Power":

"The head develops first in the embryo. It is utter nonsense to regard it as being merely inherited. Its spherical shape tells you that it is truly a copy of the cosmos." — Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 36.

If that seems illogical to you (as it should) you need to consider this:

"Logic does not apply when we come into a sphere [i.e., area or subject] that can no longer be comprehended by physical means. We finally have to realize that our physical logic works neither in the realm of philosophy nor anywhere else where we concern ourselves with other than physical forms of existence." — Rudolf Steiner, THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1990), p. 84.

Now, the "spherical" human head is presumably a physical form, so... But Steiner's aversion to logic was actually not confined to any one plane of existence. (And is there such a thing a "physical logic"?)

Steiner's response to demands that he be logical was generally to disavow logic (despite his endorsement of the need for "logical and adequate examination").

---

---

How to make the impossible plausible.

Almost.

[R. R., 2009.]

---

To consider Steiner's "logic" on the subject of karma,

please use this link: "Karma"

---

The following is excerpted from

"Steiner Static".

(If you want to see the preceding

forty-five quotations by Steiner.

see — you guessed it — 

"Steiner Static".)

---

---

Logic or, indeed, thinking cannot cope with reality, 

the real present moment, now, here, this.

Or so Steiner said. To cope with the present 

— and even more, with the future — 

we need forms of clairvoyance such as imagination and inspiration. 

Dead logic is adequate only for considering the dead past.

"What is the present? The present has no logical structure ... 

The picture changes every moment.

The present is such that we cannot embrace it 

with mathematics nor with a mere thought construct.

What we can embrace in a mere thought construct 

is the past continuing on in the present.

Logical thinking: past

Imagination: present

Inspiration: future."

— Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 

(Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 50.

[R.R. sketch, 2011, based on the one in the book.

Time's arrows move through the past (yellow) 

and into the present (red). 

Logic can comprehend the past

and the effects of the past, 

but only imagination is equal to the present, 

and as for the future (purple), 

we know it only through inspiration. 

Steiner discounted the truth that rational thinking 

enables us not only to understand the past,

but to grasp the realities of the present, 

and to anticipate the probable developments of the future.]

---

PERSONAL NOTE

I was a student at a Waldorf school for most of my childhood, grades 2-12. During those long-ago years (1950s-1960s), I had little idea what Rudolf Steiner’s doctrines were. Today, as I read Steiner, I’m haunted by a question. Did my teachers know that Steiner made such remarkably foolish statements as that the Earth does not orbit the Sun? The motions of the planets have been firmly understood since the work of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler — 400 years ago. Did my teachers reject such well-established findings of science? 

Probably at least some of them did. I don’t know how many of Steiner’s books and lectures they had studied. However, English-language editions of some of Steiner's works had been available in the USA at least since 1908. [49] Various books and transcripts were available in Germany even earlier. Those of my teachers who could read German (several could) might easily have read Steiner in the original German, and they may quite possibly have passed the “wisdom” they gained to their colleagues. Booklet transcriptions of Waldorf faculty meetings run by Steiner were circulated in Germany in the 1930s. [50] There were other editions of such transcripts published in 1946-1952 and again in 1962. Today, transcripts are available in English as FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER. A companion volume, DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS, became available in Germany at least as early as 1961. [51] 

One early English translation of a Steiner book dealing with Waldorf education is ESSENTIALS OF EDUCATION, published in 1926. It includes passages such as this: “When we behold the earth wandering through cosmic space and taking up into herself elements flowing from the sun, moon, and other stars, we see her living in the cosmos.” [52] This is a strikingly antiscientific conception: The Earth wanders through space, she is alive, she is an animated cosmic entity. Astronomers, biologists, and geologists would beg to differ. But these are the sorts of propositions that Waldorf teachers have long received from Steiner. 

So I wonder whether my teachers knew and believed what Steiner said about the planets. Or, knowing, did they selectively reject this particular set of teachings while accepting most of Steiner's other teachings? Anthroposophists willingly accept all manner of bizarre statements made by Steiner. In recent years, I’ve had e-mail exchanges with Anthroposophists who were eager to affirm everything Steiner ever said, no matter how plainly wrong. The Anthroposophical editors of FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER apologized for Steiner’s racism in one especially glaring instance [53], but they offered no apology or explanation for Steiner’s senseless description of planetary motions. For Anthroposophists, stating that the Earth does not orbit the Sun is evidently neither embarrassing nor especially doubtful. 

•• ◊◊◊ ••

Months after writing the Personal Note, above,

I gained further information. Here's how I put it

on the page "I Went to Waldorf":

•• ◊◊◊ ••

If Anthroposophists don't generally doubt Steiner, 

they do try to understand him, 

and sometimes they find this quite difficult.

On the matter of planetary orbits, e.g.,

see "Deception".

---

[R.R., 2010.]

---

ADDENDUM

“[M]an is a Microcosm and contains within himself the secrets of the Great World outside ... [W]hat we perceive inwardly — our thoughts, our feelings, our will-impulses, our memory-pictures, when regarded from the other side, from without, in a macrocosmic sense, can all be recognized again in the kingdom of nature [i.e., what we find inside ourselves is true of the wide world beyond ourselves] ... [But] to mere thoughts reality is a matter of indifference; they only hold to logic. But this same logic can prove the most contradictory things in the sphere of reality.” [55] 

“Once upon a time a lion, a wolf and a hyena set out upon a journey. They met an antelope. The antelope was torn to pieces by one of the animals. The three travelers were good friends, so now the question arose as to how to divide the dismembered antelope between them. First the lion spoke to the hyena, saying, 'You divide it.' The hyena possessed his logic. He is the animal who deals not with the living but with the dead. His logic is naturally determined by the measure of his courage, or rather of his cowardice. According to whether this courage is more or less, he approaches reality in different ways. The hyena said: 'We will divide the antelope into three equal parts — one for the lion, one for the wolf, and one for myself.' Whereupon the lion fell upon the hyena and killed him. Now the hyena was out of the way, and again it was a question of sharing out the antelope. So the lion said to the wolf, 'See, my dear wolf, now we must share it out differently. You divide it. How would you share it out?' Then the wolf said, 'Yes, we must now apportion it differently; it cannot be shared out evenly as before. As you have rid us of the hyena, you as lion must get the first third; the second third would have been yours in any case, as the hyena said, and the remaining third you must get because you are the wisest and bravest of all the animals.' This is how the wolf apportioned it. Then said the lion, 'Who taught you to divide in this way?' To which the wolf replied, 'The hyena taught me.' So the lion did not devour the wolf, but, according to the wolf's logic, took the three portions for himself.” [56] 

“Genghis Khan was the pupil of a priest who had been initiated into these Asian mysteries, and he instilled into Genghis Khan the following. The time has now come for divine justice to scour the earth. The charge has been laid upon you to put this divine justice into operation ... This campaign was intended to carry into European culture influences that would [cause] the souls of men to believe in divine justice ... This was the inner purpose of the Mongol onslaughts that spread from Asia, and which, as you know, were not overthrown by physical deeds ... Although the Mongols were the victors, they turned back to Asia.” [58] 

“[A]fter the 14th century both European and Chinese artificers were able to begin elaboration of more and more efficient guns. By about 1650 handguns had become powerful enough to make nomad [i.e., Mongol] bows obsolete.” [61] 

"But [the archangel] Michael has never appropriated Intellectuality to himself. He rules it as a Divine-Spiritual force while feeling himself united with the Divine-Spiritual Powers. And when he pervades the intellect it becomes manifest that the intellect can equally well be an expression of the heart and soul as an expression of the head and mind. For Michael has within him all the original forces of his Gods as well as those of man. Consequently he does not convey to the intellect anything that is soulless, cold, frosty, but he stands by it in a manner that is full of soul and inwardly warm." — Rudolf Steiner, "The World-Thoughts in the Working of Michael and in the Working of Ahriman", ANTHROPOSOPHICAL LEADING THOUGHTS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1973), GA 26.

"[W]asps' nests, as well as all of the beavers' constructions, are built by the cleverness that flows to earth from the sun ... [O]ne must say: it is indeed the sun! Gentlemen, it really is so. In this manner, through the pure facts themselves, one comes to recognize how the cosmic surroundings of the earth affect living beings ... [T]he soul life of animals exists only in groups — hence, group souls [i.e., animals of any species share that species' collective soul]. Man, however, has his individual soul ... A human being is actually built up in such a way that, when observing him correctly, one can say: he builds up everything in himself that the beaver builds outwardly ... We are, indeed, not earthly beings but sun beings ... [I]f the facts are viewed correctly they lead you to realize that the world is really a unity and that we are dependent upon the earth's surroundings, which consist not merely of a shining, warming sun but also of a clever sun, an intelligent sun." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM COMETS TO COCAINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), pp. 212-215. 

"External history is a positive hindrance to occult research ... [A]ll history that is based on documental evidence [is unreliable]. When we pin our faith to documents we must never forget that precisely the most important of these may have perished. In fact we have in ‘history’ neither more nor less than a fable convenue [an agreed-upon fable] ... [E]xperience of the Akashic records [a celestial storehouse of wisdom accessible through clairvoyance], being least hampered by exoteric history [i.e., conventional or mainstream history], is most true." — Rudolf Steiner, THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN (Percy Lund, Humphries and Co., 1933), lecture 2, GA 112.

“Can the attribute of omnipotence be ascribed to the Divine Being who lives and weaves through the world? Contentions born of feeling must here be silent: were God omnipotent, he would be responsible for everything that happens and there could be no human freedom. If man can be free [which Steiner says man is], then certainly there can be no Divine omnipotence.” — Rudolf Steiner, LOVE AND ITS MEANING IN THE WORLD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1972), a lecture, GA 143.

“[T]here had been men who could see beyond concepts into the spiritual world, the world of thought which Aquinas himself speaks of as a real world, in which he perceives the immaterial, intellectual [sic] beings whom he calls angels.” — Rudolf Steiner, REDEMPTION OF THINKING (SteinerBooks, 1983), p. 72. 

“Awareness of spiritual-reality...faded in Europe, and philosophy dried up into logic.” — Ibid., p. 17. 

“It is not sufficient for us to express this in an abstract way, merely as a problem of reason and logic; it must be grasped with the whole heart....” — Ibid., p. 52. 

“These concepts, presented to us in Scholasticism in keen and precise logic, are derived from what had survived from the teaching of the past [when humans were naturally clairvoyant]. We cannot properly understand the working of the souls of the Scholastics unless we take into consideration this intermixture of age-old tradition.” — Ibid., p. 68. 

“Logical and dialectical thought is the product of the common human nature of mankind, differentiated amongst individuals.” — Ibid., p. 69. 

“Up to a certain level we can reach everything by accurate logic and dialectic, but at that point we have to enter the region of faith. In this way Reason and Faith stand face to face without contradicting one another.” — Ibid., p. 81. 

“It is not by a mystic experience which divorces itself from reason and despises logic, that man will return to his spiritual heritage, but by the path of pure, concentrated thinking in which logic is never contradicted — although it is finally transcended....” — Ibid., p. 146. 

“A man who would receive Anthroposophy with his intellect kills it in the very act.” — Rudolf Steiner, LIFE, NATURE, AND CULTIVATION OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain, 1963), p. 15. 

“The intellect destroys or hinders.” — Rudolf Steiner, WALDORF EDUCATION AND ANTHROPOSOPHY, Vol. 1 (Anthroposophical Press, 1995), p. 233. 

“Intellect destroys instinctive capacity. Instinct must be spiritualized.” — Christopher Bamford, introduction to Rudolf Steiner's DEATH AS METAMORPHOSIS OF LIFE (SteinerBooks, 2008), p. vi. 

“[T]he brain and nerve system have nothing at all to do with actual cognition; they are only the expression of cognition in the physical organism.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 60. 

“The brain is an instrument for purely intellectual apprehension. Intellectualism and materialistic thinking [i.e., thinking conditioned by the material realm, accomplished through use of the material brain] are one and the same, for all the thinking that goes on in science, in theology, in the sphere of modern Christian consciousness [i.e., orthodox Christianity, as opposed to gnostic Anthroposophy] — all of it is the product of the human brain alone, is materialistic. This manifests itself, on the one hand, in the empty formalism of belief; on the other, in Bolshevism [sic: emphasis by Steiner] ... [T]he materialistic brain represents a process of decay: materialistic thinking unfolds only through processes of destruction, death-processes, which are taking place in the brain.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), p. 147-148.

“[W]e speak of...meeting with the Father-Principle, with the Father, with that which lies at the foundation of the world, and which we experience when we have the right feeling for what the various religions mean by ‘the Father.’” — Rudolf Steiner, THE HUMAN SOUL IN THE UNIVERSE (Steiner Book Centre, 1982) GA 175.

“Monism or monotheism in itself can only represent an ultimate ideal; it could never lead to a real understanding of the world, to a comprehensive, concrete view of the world.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 115.

“[W]e shall have gradually achieved the transformation of our own being into what is called in Christianity ‘the Father.’” — Rudolf Steiner, THE LORD’S PRAYER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2007), p. 17.

“Had Christ not appeared on the earth, had He remained the Sun-God only, humanity on the earth would have fallen into decay.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE FESTIVALS AND THEIR MEANING, Vol. 3 (Anthroposophical Publishing Company, 1958), lecture 3, GA 226.

“[A] Sun God had to come, a higher being than Lucifer. There still existed what are known as the Solar Pitris. The most exalted among these is Christ.” — Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 26, GA 93a.

“[T]he earth was not created by the Father God. The Father God made the Son come forth from Him; and the Son is the creator of the earth.” — Rudolf Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1987), lecture 16, GA 204.

"[Professor Iain] Graham believes that antiquity in science is a virtue — the 'argument from antiquity' logical fallacy. The unstated assumption is that if an idea has survived for hundreds or thousands of years it must be legitimate. This is demonstrably false. Galenic medicine (blood letting, purging, etc. based on the notion of the four humours) survived for thousands of years, and yet it was based on complete and utter primitive nonsense. In fact its tendrils still exists — there is still blood letting, cupping (which is just another form of blood letting) and similar practices going on in the world. It was replaced in the West because of the advent of science in medicine — a trend that Graham apparently wants to reverse." — Steven Novella, "Pseudoscience in Our Universities", SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, May/June 2012, p. 25.

"Anyone working toward a deeper understanding of human existence will invariably encounter many paradoxical and contradicting phenomena — in life, as well as in Anthroposophy and the work of Rudolf Steiner. Growing into Anthroposophy makes it clear that we should view such paradoxes as the very foundation for a realistic way of knowing; the many-layered, contradictory facets of life cannot simply be captured in schemes and theories.

"By applying our contemplative capacities as well as by developing higher cognitive powers [i.e., clairvoyance], polarities and contradictions can live side-by-side, offering a more complete view of the world, humankind, and spirit."  

[10-3-2011  http://www.steinerbooks.org/detail.html?id=9780946206704]

• ◊◊ •

“External history is a positive hindrance to occult research. When we have reached a certain age, we are influenced in many ways by the culture of our day. The seer, too, brings with him the education of his day, up to the point when he can give birth to his clairvoyant Ego. He has studied history and the knowledge handed down to him in geology, biology, archaeology, and so on. Strictly speaking, all this disturbs his vision and may bias him when he comes to decipher the Akashic records.... In fact we have in ‘history’ neither more nor less than a fable convenue [an agreed-upon fable]. When the facts shown by the Akashic records differ widely from conventional history, the seer finds it difficult to believe in the Akashic picture ... [Direct] experience of the Akashic records, being least hampered by exoteric history, is most true.” [4] 

“[W]hen we look inside the head, we find dying matter ... Once we have penetrated this hard, lifeless skin and reached the brain, we find in it fossilization everywhere, just as we do upon the surface of the earth ... [T]he earth is a huge human head, indeed, a huge, dead human head ... [S]omething can't have died if it has never been alive in the first place. Impossible, isn't it? Only conventional science makes such a claim." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM CRYSTALS TO CROCODILES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002, pp. 148-149.

“A stalk of grass is...a tower ... It can be rocked by the wind and does not break in two ... [T]here are no forces on earth that would allow us to build such a thing using the materials of the earth ... [A] stalk does not grow by resting on what is below ... The stalk is drawn out into cosmic space. So if you visualize the earth, and these are the stalks, they are pulled in all directions into cosmic space, for there everything is filled with a more subtle form of matter which is called the 'ether' and which lives in the plant. But this life does not come from the earth; it comes from cosmic space. And so we are able to say: 'Life comes from cosmic space.'" — Rudolf Steiner, FROM LIMESTONE TO LUCIFER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 3. 

[R.R. sketch, 2009, 

based on the illustration on p. 4.]