Synopses & Reviews
If nothing is within the reach of scientific research except what is in the sense world, the doors are closed to the worlds where the human being originates and where the creative forces of the world are found. Steiner calls on us to develop the organs of perception that go beyond these limits of cognition to where we can behold the Spirit active in the phenomena of nature.
Synopsis
8 lectures, Dornach, Sep-Oct, 1920 (CW 322)
"We must begin by acquiring the discipline that modern science can teach us. We must school ourselves in this way and then, taking the strict methodology, the scientific discipline we have learned from modern natural science, transcend it, so that we use the same exacting approach to rise into higher regions, thereby extending this methodology to the investigation of entirely different realms as well." --Rudolf Steiner
If only sensory phenomena are within the reach of scientific research, the doors are closed to those worlds from which the human being originates and where the creative forces of the world are found. Rudolf Steiner challenges us to develop organs of perception needed to go beyond these limits of perception, so that we can witness the spirit that is active in all natural phenomena.
Read Bobby Matherne's review of this book
Synopsis
The widespread penetration of twenty-first century life by modern science has created a troubling gulf between the inner experience of human consciousness and the external scientific investigation of the physical world. This is reflected in the "mind-body split" in our modern times. These two "worlds" collide again and again in our daily experience. Increasing efforts are expended to order modern society "scientifically." Yet, as Nobel prize-winning author Saul Bellow states in his lucid foreword, "the scientific method... is powerless to explain the consciousness that directs it." For this crucial dilemma, Rudolf Steiner suggests a solution beyond the "boundaries of natural science." Steiner argues for a twofold extension of consciousness. The first involves mental disciplines leading to a pure, sense-free thought activity. The second requires the mind to learn how to set aside thinking and give itself over to pure perception. Both exercises can lead to the development of higher cognitive faculties that enable us to grasp the vital connections between the inner and outer realms.