TRUTH

Mystical Thinking, Realistic Thinking

I. 

I’m aware that, to mystics, my thinking surely seems shallow. I display what Steiner called mere materialist thinking. Instead of reaching deep into the unconscious or clairvoyant depths of my soul, I emphasize clarity and reason. Steiner’s universe is a dense, complex spiritual aggregation of innumerable beings and layers. Anthroposophists would argue that my view is simplistic and, therefore, untrue.

I understand the appeal of mystical thought. For most of my life, I embraced it. And I’m still prone to it, more than a bit. Walking in a woods, for instance, on a sunny summer day, I may come upon a scene of such powerful natural beauty that my heart swells, and I have a sense of magical powers at work, transcendence, glory.

But these days I know such feelings for what they are — wonderful fulfillment caused in the real world by the workings of a real physical body and brain, mine. I love to experience such moments, and I sometimes go in search of them. But I no longer mistake them for anything but desirable subjective experiences that cause me to be grateful for my life, and — at best — lead me to see my life in context, playing itself out in an astonishing universe that was here long before I was born and will persist, probably, long after I am dust.

Mystical thought can feel profound, but it is often deeply wrong. A friend of mine died recently. Since that day, I’ve been having an experience I’ve often had when someone close to me has died. I keep thinking of my friend as if he were still alive. I have to catch myself and remember that I cannot share with him the thought that has just flown through my mind, an idea that I know would interest him. I cannot drop by for a visit, I cannot expect reciprocation, communication, togetherness. He no longer exists. My mind can't quite grasp this reality. Death is, at some fundamental level, unimaginable to us. My own death, although inevitable, seems to me an incredible prospect. This, I think, is an ingrained attitude given us by evolution: Those of our ancestors who could not accept the thought of death were strengthened — they kept striving, working, pressing on, as if they and all their achievements would not eventually be wiped away. Those of our ancestors who brooded on their coming deaths were weakened — they tended to feel that struggling against the inevitable is pointless, so they were prone to give in, to become passive. As a result, the genes of the defeatists tended to be winnowed away, while the genes of the strivers (who may have had a less clear vision) flourished and were passed on to us.

Denying death leads directly to mysticism. If we can scarcely believe that our dead friends and loved ones are really deceased, lifeless, then we tend to think of them as still existing somewhere. Their bodies don’t still exist, and none of their essence seems to exist here — so we place them, in our imaginations, in some other place, invisible to us — we imagine the dead surviving there without their earthly bodies but still, spiritually, retaining their identities. So without consciously realizing the process, perhaps, we begin to think of souls living in a spiritual realm of some sort, and we begin to dream up theories to account for such visions — theories that easily become religions. Yet all of this may simply be our subjective, irrational natures at work — it has no objective truth that we can ascertain. God may exist. Heaven may exist. But we don’t know these things. We simply wish them to be true, because the alternative feels so wrong.

II. 

Consider a specific form of mystical thinking, Steiner’s. Here is Steiner’s criticism of Isaac Newton, the genius whose work undergirds modern science. Steiner said that Newton stood 

“at the starting point of modern science ... [He] was the first to completely mathematize and separate space [i.e., the physical cosmos] from man [or man’s spiritual nature] ... Newton had torn nature asunder into space and man-who-experiences-space.” [1] 

Steiner’s point is that Newton disregarded the spiritual when he created a mathematical, materialistic description of reality. Newton's theories "mathematize" the cosmos, causing a schism between the cosmos and ourselves. We become alienated from nature. Newtons' theories do not speak to our spiritual natures — they are un-heartfelt and, therefore, both shallow and wrong.

For mystically inclined people (which probably includes almost everyone in the world, to one degree or another, for the reasons I gave above), there may seem to be a core of good, solid sense in spiritual teachings such as Steiner's. It may seem self-evident that a true description of nature must include spirit. Mere dead matter could not have evolved into life, surely. Our world cannot be merely a random assemblage of atoms running through mathematically described courses. Surely there is a spirit realm behind or imminent within the physical realm. Surely our lives have meaning, extending beyond the grave. Surely.

We all incline toward such thinking. But if we are to live rationally, with our eyes open in the real world, we need to resist it. All of the mystical statements I made just now may be true, but we have no proof. For all that we know (as opposed to all that we feel or wish), all of these mystical statements are wrong. The only reasonable attitude for us to take — hard as it is, rubbing us the wrong way — is to suspend judgment. We know what we know, and we don’t know what we don’t know — and, sadly, the latter category is quite large. We know far more than our ancestors knew, and in the future people will presumably know far more than we know now. But we are stuck in our age, possessing only the information that has been obtained up to this point in human history.

Steiner pretended to know far more than anyone of our modern era can know. Appealing to our innate desire for the mystical, and borrowing from many sources, he conjured up a fabulous universe teeming with discarnate, spiritual beings. And he claimed to truly know the things he described; he said his visionary system, Anthroposophy, is scientific — it is "spiritual science." Some people find Steiner's vision irresistibly attractive. But very little in Steiner's teachings is genuinely knowable; virtually all of it is, for all we actually know, fantasy. Steiner gained his “knowledge” of the spirit realm by using a faculty that does not exist: clairvoyance. Everything he said, arising from his claimed powers of clairvoyance, is almost certainly unfounded.

Steiner was factually mistaken in almost all of his teachings. Even his criticism of Newton veers from the historical record. Newton was, in fact, a spiritual man. He had deep spiritual interests. As THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA reports: 

“Newton found time now to explore other interests, such as religion and theology. In the early 1690s he had sent Locke a copy of a manuscript attempting to prove that Trinitarian passages in the Bible were latter-day corruptions of the original text. When Locke made moves to publish it, Newton withdrew in fear that his anti-Trinitarian views would become known. In his later years, he devoted much time to the interpretation of the prophecies of Daniel and St. John, and to a closely related study of ancient chronology. “ [2] 

Newton did not tear nature asunder — he probed nature and learned some of its basic laws, which he set forth. And all the while, he also concerned himself with metaphysics.

God is not necessarily absent from the universe described by Newton. Rather, the laws of nature Newton discovered may simply be procedures God chose for the operations of the physical universe. Steiner himself understood (or nearly understood) this, although he did not moderate his criticism as a result. 

“Newton becomes ill at ease, as it were, when he contemplates his own view of space. He is not quite comfortable with this space, torn as it is out of man and estranged completely from the spirit. So he defines it after all, saying that space is the sensorium of God.” [3] 

Steiner argued that Newton tried to banish God from the universe, then found that he was uncomfortable with the result, so he reintroduced God into it. This is a nice rhetorical point, but it misstates the situation. Newton said that an apple falls due to the force of gravity; Steiner denied the existence of universal gravitation, teaching that all things — including falling apples — work as they do because of the activities of spiritual beings. [4] Perhaps, ultimately, Steiner is right. Perhaps God or the gods do ultimately control everything in the universe. But Newton’s laws do not necessarily conflict with this possibility. The conflict exists for us only if we, like Steiner, reject modern science, modern knowledge. If we accept modern knowledge while still wishing to affirm our religious faiths, our challenge is to reconcile these affirmations — a daunting challenge, certainly, but not one that is self-evidently impossible, not one that must lead us to despair.

Steiner’s thinking is circular — it does not lead anywhere. He started with what should be a conclusion, reached only after long, diligent investigation. He postulated the notion that multiple spiritual beings exist and guide everything. Over the years, he elaborated this view, creating a body of doctrines that fills many volumes of convoluted prose. But he never proved any of it. Rather, after expending all those untold words, he arrived at a conclusion that is indistinguishable from his premise: Multiple spiritual beings exist and guide everything. Steiner did not advance our pursuit of knowledge by an inch. If spiritual beings exist, he did not demonstrate their existence, he merely asserted it. Thus, he left us no farther along than we were before, whereas Newton advanced our knowledge of the universe greatly.

Steiner may have meant well, but he did not do well. He asked us to remain forever in a benighted, ancient, dark frame of mind, knowing little about reality, but imagining a lot. Whether or not he realized it, he misled us. Isaac Newton told us demonstrable truths.

III. 

Many people are drawn to mysticism because they find the real, material world inadequate. This is especially the case among people who are downtrodden or impoverished. Yet even for them it is a sad error. We live in what is — as far as anyone truly knows — the only world we will ever inhabit. And we currently are experiencing — as far as anyone truly knows — the only lives we will ever have. If we can’t find fulfillment here, we will find it nowhere.

Perhaps we can find it, here and now, in reality. The world we occupy is a wondrous place — not because of any real or imagined spiritual presences, but because of the nature of physical reality itself, and because of the true capacities of our own minds. We live in a world of amazing, intricate phenomena at the quantum level, and at the cosmic level, and also at our daily, experienced level. It is a world of charmed quarks and pinwheeling galaxies, a world of birds that migrate seemingly impossible distances, and crawling creatures that revise themselves as butterflies, and cloud-coloring sunsets, undulating hillsides of wildflowers, swarms of fireflies, the melancholy glory of autumn, the quickening excitement of spring... And it is a world of music and painting and literature and science — a world graced by the genius of humanity.

In truth, the real world is far more beautiful and multilayered than the dreams Steiner ginned up. Of course, there is much suffering in our world. But so is there in Steiner’s fantasized worlds — he taught of evil gods, black magicians, disease, cosmic error, souls filled with ugliness, the abyss... [5] Reality stands up well in comparison with such dark conceptions. And reality has the inestimable advantage of being real.

But what about the dreariness that infects so much of our real lives? We are so often dissatisfied, bored, weary. Even when our circumstances are not oppressive, we often find oppression within out own minds and hearts. Steiner taught that the cure will be our evolution to higher, better forms of consciousness. That would be nice, of course. But if the universe and our lives are not as he described them, which is extremely probable, then his solutions have no bearing, they are worthless.

I don't pretend to have solutions for everything that ails us. I cannot lift the impoverished into affluence; I cannot cure the sick. But humanity as a whole, working together — cooperatively and rationally — might well find solutions to many of our tribulations. We will do so, however, only if we see our situation for what it really is, and strive to find remedies that actually work, in the real world. Fantasizing mystical deliverance will avail little, and it may in fact deflect us from undertakings that hold the promise of actual improvement in the human condition.

IV. 

Steiner offered political prescriptions for the reorganization of society, along with recommendations for improvements in education, agriculture, medicine, and other fields. His primary focus, however, was on spiritual matters, so in assessing his work, this must be our focus, too. The darkness that concerned Steiner most is the darkness that often afflicts the human spirit. He addressed the inner pain that infects the wealthy along with the impoverished, the healthy along with the ill.

If his focus was arguably wise, his offered remedies tended to be nonetheless empty. His key prescriptions, which he said would help us overcome all our woes, were various meditative exercises designed to promote the development of clairvoyance. He offered the hope of occult initiation that would yield knowledge of the higher worlds; he offered a dream of evolutionary progress upward through and beyond the ranks of the gods, culminating in our own ultimate apotheosis. It is a remarkably appealing prospect. But little good, I'm afraid, can come from a dream that is, as far as any truly knows, indistinguishable from delusion.

Steiner recommended meditating on natural phenomena, both the living and the dead. Such exercises, undertaken rationally, may actually be beneficial, although they cannot produce the mystical rewards Steiner promised. Sit and gaze at a tree for a few minutes — any tree, or, indeed, any natural object. Try to apprehend it fully; try to observe everything about it. Pretty soon, you’ll realize that you can’t. You can’t know every twist and turn of one tree's trunk, every limb and twig and leaf of that single organism. You can get a general impression of any natural object you study, but grasping all the details of its form and function is far beyond our powers of observation and memory. If you stared at one tree every day for the rest of your life, you still could not know it completely. And that’s one physical object, one out of a virtual infinitude of phenomena that present themselves for our contemplation. The real world is a place of unbounded variety, constant surprise, rewarding challenges and wonders, if we only look at it with clear eyes.

The tragedy of mysticism (and I use the word “tragedy” quite intentionally) is that it gazes upon the universe with clouded eyes. It replaces a wondrous reality with a far less superb fantasy. Even an imagined universe as densely detailed as Steiner’s palls in comparison with the reality Steiner disparaged.

And here’s a related point. If a spirit realm exists apart from the material realm I've been calling reality, it certainly deserves our most careful and concentrated attention. But we should certainly be skeptical of any spiritual teachings that require us to set aside genuine knowledge. Any true religion, axiomatically, must be consistent with truth. If a religion falls apart in the face of scientific fact, it is an unsound faith, one that does not deserve to survive. Put it this way: There is no necessary opposition between true scientific knowledge and true religious faith. Truth at any level must admit the truths of all other levels. This helps explain why, for instance, the Vatican has an observatory. Some leading Catholic thinkers, seeking to profess universal truth, are committed to having a scientifically correct understanding of the physical universe. Such knowledge would not weaken true faith — it would inestimably strengthen true faith. 

“Life emerged on earth thanks to a 12 billion-year-old process of stars caught in a cycle of collapsing, re-forming and collapsing again, said the former director of the Vatican Observatory. Over time ‘there has been a continuous transformation of energy (in the universe) into ever-more-complex forms of material,’ said U.S. Jesuit Father George Coyne ... The sun in earth’s solar system is a third-generational star, he said, which means it has gone through a process of birth, death, rebirth, death and rebirth. ‘If this process hadn’t happened in the universe, we wouldn’t be here,’ he said.” [6] 

Such scientific information presents challenges for Catholic theologians, but many of them do not shy from the task.

Many Tibetan Buddhists take a similar approach to science, accepting scientific truths and wrestling to accommodate them. 

“Tibetan monks and nuns spend their lives studying the inner world of the mind rather than the physical world of matter. Yet for one month this spring a group of 91 monastics devoted themselves to the corporeal realm of science. Instead of delving into Buddhist texts on karma and emptiness, they learned about Galileo’s law of accelerated motion, chromosomes, neurons and the Big Bang, among other far-ranging topics ... [S]cience has been given a special boost by the Dalai Lama, who has long advocated modern education in Tibetan monasteries and schools in exile, alongside Tibet’s traditions.” [7]

Bear in mind, please, that I do not advocate Catholicism or Buddhism. I am an agnostic. I offer these examples only to illuatrate the possibility that religion and science might be reconciled.

At least some Catholic theologians, along with at least some Buddhist monks and nuns, embrace the realities revealed by science. Steiner claimed to do the same. He claimed, in fact, to do it better than anyone else. He said that his practiced the science of the spirit, applying scientific principles to the study of the spirit realm. He said that his spiritual findings were — or would prove to be — wholly consistent with the findings of natural science.

Those were his claims. But his actual behavior was quite different. For the most part, instead of acknowledging scientific truths, he denied them. He preferred astrology to astronomy, alchemy to chemistry. He derided astrophysicists for their clever but erroneous descriptions of the stars. He repudiated medical knowledge, agricultural knowledge, Einstein's theories of relativity, Newton's theories of gravity, optics, orbital mechanics... [8] Of course, in practice, Catholics and Buddhists may often take antiscientific stands, but our primary concern here is with Steiner and his followers, For Steiner, most real science is trash. [9] When he listened to scientists at all, he found their statements stupid. 

“I once had the opportunity of telling an excellent chemist about our efforts to produce radiant, shining colors for the paintings in the Goetheanum [his headquarters] and how we were experimenting with colors made from plants. He replied, ‘But we can already do much better than that; today we have the means to produce colors that are iridescent and begin to shimmer when it is dark.’ That chemist did not understand anything I was saying; he immediately thought in terms of chemistry.” [10] 

Steiner wanted colors that shine spiritually, as perceived by clairvoyance — which, as far as anyone truly knows, does not exist. He wanted a fantasy, not reality.

A position commonly taken by people of faith is that scientific explanations are incomplete because they do not take spiritual realities into account. Sometimes Steiner expressed this view, but often he went much farther, saying that scientific findings are totally wrong, even at the level of the material universe. Even as he pretended to embrace science, Steiner threw science away. And in doing so, he threw reality away. His repudiation of science and reality was often categorical. Thus, at various times, he expressed opposition to  “scientific simpletons” with their “scientific trash” and their “logical, pedantic, narrow-minded proof of things.” He deplored “primitive concepts like those...of contemporary science.” He proclaimed, 

"[S]cience speaks under the influence of the demonic Mars-forces." 

Hence, 

"[W]hen we listen to a modern physicist blandly explaining that Nature consists of electrons...we raise Evil to the rank of the ruling world-divinity.” [11] 

“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....” [13]

“The right to judge such private material can, of course, be conceded only to someone who has the prerequisite basis for such judgment, and regarding most of this material this would mean at least knowledge of the human being and of the cosmos insofar as these have been presented in the light of anthroposophy, and also knowledge of what exists as ‘anthroposophical history’ in what has been imparted from the spiritual world.” [14] 

“The hidden knowledge which is gradually taking hold of mankind, and will increasingly be doing so, may in the language of a well-known symbol be called the Knowledge of the Grail. We read of the Holy Grail in old-time narratives and legends, and as we learn to understand its deeper meaning we discover that it most significantly pictures the heart and essence of the new Initiation-knowledge, centering in the Mystery of Christ. The Initiates of the new age may therefore be described as the 'Initiates of the Grail.' ... We are now living at a time when the higher knowledge needs to be far more widely received into the general consciousness of mankind than hitherto; it is with this view in mind that the present work has been written." [15]

“From Venus, a a certain stage, a separate celestial body becomes detached [i.e., will become detached]. This — as it were an 'irreclaimable Moon' — includes all the beings who have persisted in withstanding the true course of evolution. It enters now upon a line of development such as now words can portray, so unlike is it to anything within the range of man's experience on Earth. The evolved mankind on the other hand, in a form of existence utterly spiritualized, goes forward into the Vulcan evolution, any description of which would be beyond the compass of this book." [16] 

“These things cannot be — nor are they meant to be — discovered by dint of reasoning and reflection.” [17] 

“[I]f we are able to raise our faculty of perception [i.e., clairvoyance] and look through the visible world to the invisible, we arrive at length at a point where we have [i.e., we see] before us what might be compared to a mighty spiritual panorama wherein all the past events of the world are displayed. These abiding traces of all spiritual happenings may be called the ‘Akashic Records’....” [18]

“[T]he beings and events seen in this field are not of a kind to be perceived by outer senses ... All we receive of them are the impressions of purely spiritual sound, spiritual light and spiritual warmth. They do not find expression in material embodiment.” [19] 

"It is a very complicated matter, as you may well imagine, when the Spirits of the different Hierarchies [i.e., gods of different ranks] have to coordinate their forces in such a way that the mission of the Earth can be fulfilled ... You will understand therefore that statements such as those made in our last lecture are valid only in so far [sic] as they refer to a definite period in evolution and that the whole picture changes immediately one depicts evolution at another period." [20] 

“The results of my anthroposophical work are, first, the books available to the general public; secondly, a great number of lecture courses, originally regarded as private publications and sold only to the members of the Anthroposophical Society. The courses consist of more-or-less accurate notes taken at my lectures, which for lack of time I have not been able to correct ... [T]he public and the private publications are in fact two quite different things, built upon different foundations ... Whoever reads these privately printed lectures can take them to represent anthroposophy in the fullest sense ... It must be borne in mind, however, that faulty passages occur in these lecture-reports not revised by me. [paragraph break] The right to judge such private material can, of course, be conceded only to someone who has the prerequisite basis for such judgment...” [21]

"What people discover on the earth by way of natural laws loses its validity more and more as they distance themselves from earth." — Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 98. 

[My sketch, 2009, based on a portion of Steiner's sketch on p. 98. 

The connection between Steiner's words and his sketches is often obscure.]

◊ “Just as wisdom shines towards us on the Earth, so on Jupiter there will come fragrantly towards the Jupiter beings that which is evolving here on Earth as love — from the purely sex-love to Spinoza's ‘Divine Love.’ It will send out perfume as plants send out their various aromas ... Future evolution will bring about the full community of the spirit, that is, on Jupiter the belief will begin to prevail that there is no health and happiness of the one without the health and happiness of all the rest, and indeed to an equal degree.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS UPON MAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1961), lecture 6, GA 102. 

◊ “A lily is the visible expression of a word that was once spoken by the creator. Much depends on which words and vowels one speaks, which thoughts and feelings one sends out, because they will become visible during the Jupiter, Venus, etc., earth conditions [i.e., the form our planet will take during Future Jupiter, Future Venus, etc.]. The mineral, plant and animal kingdoms here on earth are likewise the expression of what Moon dwellers once said and thought. That's why mantras and the words of meditations have the letter sequence and the word sounds that they do, because they only have their effect in that particular sequence. What we do and create will be visible on Jupiter, for instance Koeln Cathedral will be visible as a larger formation, Raphael's paintings will surround Jupiter like clouds or a mirage. Our music will resound as music of the spheres over there on Jupiter.” — Rudolf Steiner, FROM THE LESSONS OF THE ESOTERIC CLASS (transcript, Rudolf Steiner Archive), GA 266. 

[R.R. sketch, 2010 — 

not, perhaps, wholly accurate.]

"[T]he human embryo merely rests in the mother's body; it is given form by the sun's forces ... The moon forces become evident, above all, as the inner influence of the lower, metabolic nature of man ... With their whole being human beings are placed into the polarity of the sun forces and moon forces." — Rudolf Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), pp. 240-241. 

[R.R. sketch, 2009, 

based on the illustration on p. 241.]

"[F]rom the eighth pre-Christian century to the fifteenth century A.D....human beings predominantly employed their etheric body when they engaged in thinking ... [I]n the fifteenth century people began to think with their physical bodies. When we think, we do so with the forces the etheric body sends into the physical body." — Rudolf Steiner, MATERIALISM AND THE TASK OF ANTHROPOSOPHY  (Anthroposophic Press, 1987), pp. 178-179. 

[R.R. sketch, 2009, 

based on illustration on p. 179.]

“[T]he astral body makes itself very much at home everywhere in the [physical] body. It gets too strong. It attacks all the organs and wears them down. And that is the consequence of rapid arsenic poisoning. If someone takes a lot of arsenic, quickly, his astral body begins to become terribly active, whirling, whirling, whirling ... The ether body gives life, the astral body gives sentience. But there can be no sentience unless life is suppressed. To draw it in diagrammatic form, therefore, it is like this. There you have the astral body [darker areas], there the ether body [lighter areas]. They are always fighting one another. If the ether body wins we get a bit sleepy; if the astral body wins we come wide awake ... [T]he astral body gets what it needs...from the arsenic human beings produce themselves." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM ELEPHANTS TO EINSTEIN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1998), pp. 19-20. 

[R. R. sketch, 2009, 

based on the sketch on p. 20.]

"Is there a formula in numbers, or any other means by which we can express the respective relationships of force in the physical, the etheric and the astral bodies? ... I shall now sketch the relationship of these for you on the blackboard. If we consider deeply this figure on the blackboard...it is like a part of the occult script [i.e., the Akashic Record] on which we can meditate ... When, in meditation, we give ourselves up to this occult sign and evoke a certain inward feeling of the relationship of these...surfaces to one another, we obtain an impression of the mutual proportions of the physical body, etheric body and Ego." — Rudolf Steiner, WONDERS OF THE WORLD (Kessinger, facsimile of 1929 edition), pp. 40-42. 

[Illustration from p. 40; 

I have added color to the b&w image.]

“[P]eople have completely forgotten how to consider things within the universe ... Animals usually go away before there is a volcanic eruption or the like; people stay put. Why do the animals move away? Yes, when the different influence comes, the different influence of the stars, it is like this with the animals. An animal is essentially made in such a way that it has its legs here [see drawing], there its spine, the spinal vertebra, and there its head. As the stars move along there, the whole spine is always exposed to the stars, vertebra by vertebra exposed to the stars, and they belong together; they belong together so much that we have 28 to 31 vertebrae in the spine and the moon takes 28 to 31 days to complete its orbit. The connection is as close as that.

"But humans walk upright. With them, only the head, this little bit of head, is exposed to the starry heavens. Their spine has been lifted out. So in humans only the blood is exposed to the star influence and not the nervous system." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM MAMMOTHS TO MEDIUMS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), pp. 128-129. 

[R.R. sketch, 2009, 

based on sketch on p. 128.]

"Try to picture the sun and moon both contained in the earth and oysters that had no shells, but were slime. When lumps of this substance separated off, new oysters developed, and so forth. They were so huge and lay right next to each other so that you could not have told them apart. What did the earth look like at that time? It looked like our brain, whose cells also lie next to each other. They only difference is that these cells die off, whereas in that very ancient time the huge oysters cells were one next to the other, and the sun constantly developed forces, because it was inside the earth. Yes, gentlemen, the earth was here [see drawing], and there was a giant oyster, another next to it, and many other huge lumps of slime, which continuously propagated ... If you had looked at the earth at that ancient time, it would have resembled a gigantic creature that contained within it the forces of the sun and of the moon." — Rudolf Steiner, FROM CRYSTALS TO CROCODILES (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2002, pp. 143-144. 

[R. R. sketch, 2009, 

based on sketch on p. 143.]

EXTREMITY

Crossing many lines

“He did not want any fairy tales told to children, or to teach children anything other than scientific trash....” — Rudolf Steiner, THE RENEWAL OF EDUCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 2001), p. 94.