{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p011-p020","extent":"range","passage_number":11,"through":20,"paragraph_count":10,"first_locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p011","last_locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p020","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"title":"8. Potential Aberrations in Spiritual Investigation","date":"1924-08-19","location":null,"alignment_confidence":"low","alignment_reason":"count_diverges","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"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},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":0.89,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5874,"original_word_count":6572,"may_be_abridged":false},"site_heading":null,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p011-p020","json_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p011-p020.json","lecture_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19#p011","word_count":1547,"quote_safe":true,"passages":[{"passage_number":11,"locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p011","text":"Now in the Cosmos there are many beings belonging to different regions. In the region where we meet with the dead and can follow them for ten, twenty or thirty years after their death until they leave this region, are to be found a number of beings who are undoubtedly real, but who, unperceived by men, enter into our physical world. Perhaps I can best describe them as a particular kind of elementary being. When, therefore, we follow the dead after they have passed through the gates of death, we enter into a world inhabited by all kinds of elementary beings who are endowed with form and who really belong to that world. We may say therefore that, since these beings appertain to that world, they ought in reality to utilize only the forces pertaining to it. Now amongst these elementary beings will be found some who do not confine their activities to their own world, but who observe men when they write, for example, and who follow all the activities within the world of men between birth and death. We are permanently surrounded by such beings who are spectators of our activities.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":193,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p011","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"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."}},{"passage_number":12,"locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p012","text":"Now this spectator rôle is not in itself harmful, for the essence of the entire plan underlying what I am now describing is that all the worlds which border on our own, the world we enter immediately after death, the world where we contact the dead many decades after death, all these worlds lack everything that man acquires through his association with the physical world. In this world of the dead there is, for example, neither writing nor reading; there are no aeroplanes, no motor cars or coaches-and-four as we know them.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":92,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p012","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"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."}},{"passage_number":13,"locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p013","text":"We cannot say that here on Earth we construct motor cars, write, read and write books, in all of which Angels do not also participate. We cannot say that all these things have no significance for the Cosmos in general. The fact is that those beings which I have just described are ‘commissioned’ from the world immediately adjacent to our own. They have to keep an eye on the activities of man. From other worlds they are charged with the mission to concern themselves with human nature and to preserve what they learn in that field for future times.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":99,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p013","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"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."}},{"passage_number":14,"locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p014","text":"As human beings we are able to carry over our karma from one life to the next and also the effects of external culture upon our karma. We can carry over from one earthly life to another our experiences associated with the motor car, but not the construction of the car itself. We cannot ourselves carry over from one life to the next that which is born of earthly forces alone. In the course of civilization, therefore, mankind has laid the foundations of something that would be lost to it if other beings had not come to its aid. Now the beings of whom I have spoken are ‘detailed’ for the task of preserving for the future that which man cannot carry over from one earthly life to another.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":129,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p014","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"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."}},{"passage_number":15,"locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p015","text":"Since in past ages it has been most difficult for many of these beings to fulfil their tasks, much of what had been discovered in ancient times has again been lost to humanity. The salient point I am trying to establish is that we are surrounded by beings who, in accordance with the cosmic plan, have been charged with the mission to carry over into the future that which man himself is unable to transmit from one earthly life to another, especially the abstract content of our libraries, for example. The spiritual beings with whom man is in direct contact cannot do it and therefore we as human beings cannot do it either. These beings must enlist into their service others who had long been alien to them, who had experienced a totally different evolution from the spiritual beings associated with man. These beings with their different evolution I have called in my books, Ahrimanic beings. Despite their different evolution there are occasions when they come in contact with our own, when, for example, we build a motor car. They are beings who are able by virtue of their Ahrimanic cosmic forces to understand modern techniques such as the construction of a motor car. They transmit to future ages the technical achievements of civilization which man himself cannot carry over from one incarnation to the next.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":226,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p015","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"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."}},{"passage_number":16,"locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p016","text":"With this information at our disposal we are now in a position to describe what a medium really is. We must of course distinguish between a medium in the widest sense and a medium in the literal sense of the word. Taking the term ‘medium’ in the widest sense, we are all mediums fundamentally. We are all beings of soul and spirit before we incarnate to live out our life between birth and death. Our spiritual essence is incarnated in the physical body. The physical body is an intermediary for the activities of the spirit. Taking the word ‘medium,’ then, in the widest sense, we can say that every being is to some extent a medium. This is not the meaning we attach to the term ‘a mediumistic type’ in the normal sense. In the world between birth and death a mediumistic person is one who has developed certain sectors of the brain in such a way that they can be isolated from his total being. Thus, at certain times, those parts of the brain which sustain the Ego-activity in particular, no longer serve as a basis for this Ego-activity.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":190,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p016","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"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."}},{"passage_number":17,"locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p017","text":"When we say “I” to ourselves, when we are fully Ego-conscious, this consciousness is rooted in specific parts of the brain. These parts of the brain are insulated by the medium and, instead of the human Ego, certain entities of the class I have just described feel an urge to slip into these parts of the brain. Such a medium then becomes the vehicle of those beings whose real function is to transmit to the future the achievements of civilization. When these entities take possession of a brain from which, at certain times, the Ego is absent, they feel an overwhelming desire to establish themselves in this brain. And when a medium is in a trance condition, when the brain is insulated, an entity of this kind which is subject to Ahrimanic influences and whose function is to transmit the achievements of civilization to the future, slips into the brain. Instead of being the bearer of the human Ego, such a medium is, temporarily, the vehicle of an elementary being which is neglecting its duty in the Cosmos. I want you to take quite literally the expression: a being which is neglecting its duty in the Cosmos.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":197,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p017","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"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."}},{"passage_number":18,"locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p018","text":"The duty of such a being is to observe how men write. Men write with the forces which are rooted in these parts of the brain of which I am speaking. Instead of merely observing, as is the normal practice, these beings are on the lookout at all times for a mediumistic brain that can be insulated. Then they slip into it and introduce into the contemporary world what their observation has taught them of the art of writing. Thus, with the help of mediums they project into the present that which, in accordance with their mission, they ought to communicate to the future. Mediumism depends upon the fact that what is to become future capacities is already developed in the present in a vague and chaotic manner. This is the origin of the prophetic gift of the medium and the fascination he has for others. Indeed its operations are more perfect than those of man today, but it is introduced by beings in the manner already described.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":168,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p018","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"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."}},{"passage_number":19,"locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p019","text":"Just as the belladonna mediates the astral world—acts as a medium for certain astral forces that it absorbs into its fruit—so a human being through his particular type of brain is a medium for these elementary beings who at some future time must participate in our civilization, because men cannot carry over everything from one earthly life to another. This is the real secret of mediumship—possession by a certain class of beings.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":72,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p019","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"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."}},{"passage_number":20,"locus":"GA 243/1924-08-19/p020","text":"Now you may conclude that these beings are, on the one hand, actual creations of Ahrimanic beings. Ahrimanic beings exist in the Cosmos and possess an intelligence far superior to that of mankind. When we encounter the Ahrimanic beings in the world immediately adjacent to our own or, having attained insight, encounter them in the physical world as well, we are astonished at their vast, outstanding intelligence. Their intelligence ranges far beyond that of human kind. And we first learn to respect them when we realize how infinitely intelligent they are. Something of this intelligence passes over to their progeny, the elementary beings who slip into mediumistic brains, so that in this way significant information may be revealed by mediums. We may learn much of capital importance, especially if we attend to what they communicate in fully developed consciousness. When we rightly understand the nature and constitution of the spiritual world, we cannot deny that mediums are able to impart much authentic information. Though we may learn much of importance from them, this is not the right path to spiritual knowledge.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":181,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/243/1924-08-19/p020","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"A. H. Parker","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"True and False Paths in Spiritual Investigation","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA243/English/RSP1985/19240819p02.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"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."}}],"witnesses":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":54,"passage_count":54,"word_count":6572},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"first_passage":1,"last_passage":52,"passage_count":52,"word_count":5874,"completeness":{"ratio":0.89,"band":"comparable","note":null}}],"aligned_witness":{"status":"not_aligned","lang":"de","note":"No paragraph alignment is recorded for this unit, so the counterpart of this span in the other language is not established. The paragraph of the same number there is not necessarily the same text: fetch that unit and read it."}}