{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 194/1919-11-29/p023","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"For the person who takes spiritual research truly seriously this is a problem of great magnitude. I was confronted with this problem especially strongly—at the time I spoke to a number of our friends about it in one or another form—I was confronted with this problem in a demanding fashion, as it were, when, in the year 1914, this war catastrophe broke in upon us. One had to ask oneself: How did an event overtake European mankind which it is impossible to gauge as to its causes in the way that is customary in regard to previous historical events? The one who knows that not more than thirty or forty people participated in Europe in the decisive events of the year 1914, and who also knows the soul condition in which most of these people were, will be confronted by this significant problem. For most of these people, as strange as it may sound today, my dear friends, most of these people had a dulled, obscured state of consciousness. During the last few years much has occurred that was caused by a dulled human consciousness. In the decisive places of the year 1914 we see everywhere that the most important decisions of the end of July and the beginning of August were reached with an obscured consciousness; and this has continued on right into our present day. This is a problem, terrifying in its nature. If we investigate it spiritual-scientifically, then we find that these obscured consciousnesses were the gateways through which precisely these will-beings were able to take possession of the consciousness of these men; they took possession of the obscured, veiled consciousness of these human beings and acted with *their* consciousness. And these beings who thus took possession, who are still sub-human beings, what kind of beings are they? We have to pose this question very seriously: What kind of beings are they?","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"V. The Michael Deed and the Michael Influence as Counter-pole of the Ahrimanic Influence","site_heading":null,"date":"1919-11-29","location":null,"word_count":315,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/194/1919-11-29/p023","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Lisa D. Monges","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"The Mission of the Archangel Michael","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/MissMich/19191129p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/194/1919-11-29/p023"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/194/1919-11-29/p023","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1919-11-29","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 194/1919-11-29/p020","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/194/1919-11-29/p020"}],"bead_confidence":"high","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":299,"en_words":315,"ratio":1.05,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 194/1919-11-29/p020","passage_number":20,"text":"Für den, der die Geistesforschung konkret ernst nimmt, ist das ein Problem von gewaltiger Größe. Mir trat dieses Problem besonders stark entgegen — und ich habe es dazumal zu verschiedenen unserer Freunde in der einen oder in der anderen Form ausgesprochen -, mir trat dieses Problem besonders stark entgegen, ich möchte sagen, fordernd entgegen, als im Jahre 1914 diese Kriegskatastrophe ausbrach. Da mußte man sich fragen: Wie stürmte über die europäische Menschheit herein ein Ereignis, das etwa so auszumessen nach seinen Verursachungen, wie man das gewohnt ist gegenüber früheren geschichtlichen Ereignissen, tatsächlich unmöglich ist? Wer da weiß, daß bei den entscheidenden Dingen doch im Jahre 1914 kaum mehr als dreißig bis vierzig Menschen in Euröpa beteiligt waren, und wer da weiß, in welcher Seelenverfassung die meisten dieser Menschen waren, für den kommt das eigentlich bedeutsame Problem herauf: Denn die meisten dieser Menschen, so sonderbar das heute klingt, die meisten dieser Menschen waren von getrübtem Bewußtsein, von verdunkeltem Bewußtsein. Überhaupt hat sich in den letzten Jahren ungeheuer viel zugetragen von der Art, das verursacht ist von getrübtem menschlichem Bewußtsein. An den entscheidenden Stellen des Jahres 1914 sehen wir überall, wie geradezu aus Bewußtseinsverdüsterung heraus Ende Juli und Anfang August die wichtigsten Entschlüsse gefaßt wurden, und wiederum durch diese Jahre hindurch bis in unsere Gegenwart herein. Das ist ein Problem, furchtbar in seiner Art. Untersucht man es geisteswissenschaftlich, dann findet man, daß diese verdunkelten Bewußtseine die Tore waren, durch die gerade diese Willenswesen von dem Bewußtsein dieser Menschen Besitz ergriffen haben, von dem umdunkelten, umflorten Bewußtsein dieser Menschen Besitz ergriffen haben und gewirkt haben mit ihrem Bewußtsein. Und diese Wesen, die da Besitz ergriffen haben, die noch untermenschliche Wesen sind, was für Wesenheiten sind sie wiederum? Diese Frage müssen wir uns einmal ganz ernsthaftig vorlegen: Was sind das eigentlich für Wesenheiten?","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":299,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/194/1919-11-29/p020"}],"english":["GA 194/1919-11-29/p023"],"method":"length","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":299,"en_words":315,"ratio":1.05,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.91,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":4720,"original_word_count":5180,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Lisa D. Monges","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"The Mission of the Archangel Michael","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/MissMich/19191129p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 194/1919-11-29/p020"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"high","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}