{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 261/1914-05-09/p005-p009","extent":"range","passage_number":5,"through":9,"paragraph_count":5,"first_locus":"GA 261/1914-05-09/p005","last_locus":"GA 261/1914-05-09/p009","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"title":"How the Spiritual World Interpenetrates the Physical I","date":"1914-05-09","location":null,"alignment_confidence":"low","alignment_reason":"no_original_to_compare","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"How the Spiritual World Interpenetrates the Physical","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SpiritPhys/19140509p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","note":"rsarchive's lecture list spells the credit 'Harry Collison'; the lecture pages of this edition print 'Henry Collison', which is served."},"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":null,"band":"no_original","note":null,"word_count":5301,"original_word_count":null,"may_be_abridged":false},"site_heading":null,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/261/1914-05-09/p005-p009","json_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/261/1914-05-09/p005-p009.json","lecture_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/261/1914-05-09#p005","word_count":1180,"quote_safe":true,"passages":[{"passage_number":5,"locus":"GA 261/1914-05-09/p005","text":"Human life changes with respect to many things, but certain fundamental facts of life remain constant for long periods. In the Middle Ages there existed a certain fear, the so-called fear of spirits, of all sorts of elemental beings and ghosts; this we now call mediaeval superstition. In our day the object has changed, but not the fear; for just as the people of the Middle Ages were afraid of ghosts-—those of the present time are afraid of bacilli and similar things. It might be said that ghosts are more respectable and more to be feared than bacilli. The change has come about through the fact that formerly people were of a more spiritual disposition; they were afraid of the elemental spirit-beings; while now as the disposition is more materialistic, the spirits must be of a physical nature. This corresponds better with the age of materialism. What I wanted to say, however, is that Occult Science reveals the fact that bacilli are nourished in the human body if they are to thrive. Human beings do cultivate them. Of course everyone in the present time will say that it would be silly to breed bacilli. This is not a question of principle of any kind, but of looking at things from the right standpoint. It cannot be denied that, as Spiritual Science teaches, an Ego and astral body which have been fed on materialistic ideas alone, and have rejected all spiritual conceptions and wished to have nothing to do with them, when they leave the body during sleep, send into the bodily organs forces from the spiritual spheres which are just what the bacilli need. Nothing better can be done for the rearing of bacilli than to carry crude material ideas into sleep-life; thereby calling forth Ahrimanic forces which stream into the body and become the cultivators of bacilli.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":308,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/261/1914-05-09/p005","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"How the Spiritual World Interpenetrates the Physical","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SpiritPhys/19140509p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","note":"rsarchive's lecture list spells the credit 'Harry Collison'; the lecture pages of this edition print 'Henry Collison', which is served."},"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":6,"locus":"GA 261/1914-05-09/p006","text":"To form a proper judgment of all this, we must understand clearly that the moment we turn to the study of spiritual life, we immediately have to consider what is called human fellowship. For a common co-operation in fellowship is effectual in a far greater measure when working at spiritual matters than when only concerned with the physical plane. We might say that in order to have no harmful bacilli in our bodies, it is best to apply the remedy of falling asleep with spiritual thoughts in our minds. Perhaps that might become a remedy, if it were to be medically proved, so that the most materialistic people in times to come would allow spiritual thoughts to be prescribed for them; and something contributing to spiritual life might be hoped for in this way. But the matter is not so simple, for the importance of communal life really begins when we touch spiritual matters, and there we can say: it is perhaps of no advantage to the individual to cherish spiritual ideas if all those around him are breeding bacilli by their materialistic thinking; here the one breeds for the other. This is an important fact and we must bear it in mind. Therefore I must again emphasize what I have already told you, that Spiritual Science can only be fruitful in its service to humanity when it does not merely serve the individual. It is not enough for the individual to accept it; Spiritual Science must patiently wait until it can become a factor in civilization, until it grips the heart and soul of the many; then we shall see what it can do for man.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":277,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/261/1914-05-09/p006","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"How the Spiritual World Interpenetrates the Physical","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SpiritPhys/19140509p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","note":"rsarchive's lecture list spells the credit 'Harry Collison'; the lecture pages of this edition print 'Henry Collison', which is served."},"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":7,"locus":"GA 261/1914-05-09/p007","text":"There is, however, something which affects the Ahrimanic beings in the bacilli just as strongly. I say Ahrimanic beings, for I can easily show you the difference between Ahrimanic and other beings—and even externally it can be easily seen. Around us we see Nature with her many creatures; all that lives outside in Nature draws its life from the good, wise and progressive beings. Everything having its existence in other organisms and preferring to thrive therein belongs to the creatures of a Luciferic or Ahrimanic order. All parasites are of Luciferic or Ahrimanic origin; if we remember this we can easily distinguish the differences in the nature-kingdoms. There is something, as I said, very helpful for Ahrimanic creatures when they infest the human body. Suppose we are living at the time of an epidemic or plague. Naturally at such a time we must look after others, and a strong human fellowship or co-operation comes into being, for the karmic conditions may actually be such that the one who in his individual life seems least likely to have the illness, falls a prey to it. Nevertheless—we must not be deceived by appearances—what I am going to say is generally true. If we are living among the sick or dying and have to absorb these pictures that are around us and then fall asleep with these pictures in our minds and if nothing is linked with them but selfish fear, the imaginations arising from these pictures in the soul during sleep become filled with this selfish fear, and that enables injurious forces to enter the human body. Imaginations of fear are really the fostering forces for the Ahrimanic enemies of man. When a noble disposition is present, so that egotistic fear retires and loving help for others prevails, and we pass into the sleep life, not with fearful imaginations but with the effects produced by loving help, this means destruction for the Ahrimanic enemies of humanity. It is quite true that by the encouragement of such an attitude we could put an end to epidemics, if we regulated our conduct accordingly.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":349,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/261/1914-05-09/p007","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"How the Spiritual World Interpenetrates the Physical","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SpiritPhys/19140509p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","note":"rsarchive's lecture list spells the credit 'Harry Collison'; the lecture pages of this edition print 'Henry Collison', which is served."},"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. 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See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}},{"passage_number":8,"locus":"GA 261/1914-05-09/p008","text":"Here I may indicate how some day (but it cannot be yet) the results of knowledge of spiritual life will be seen in the social life of humanity: human souls will become strong through spiritual knowledge, and those whose disposition is to accept spiritual Knowledge will work healingly on material life on earth.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":53,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/261/1914-05-09/p008","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"How the Spiritual World Interpenetrates the Physical","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SpiritPhys/19140509p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","note":"rsarchive's lecture list spells the credit 'Harry Collison'; the lecture pages of this edition print 'Henry Collison', which is served."},"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":9,"locus":"GA 261/1914-05-09/p009","text":"Hence we see how unjustifiable the objection is, that while living on earth we need not bother about spiritual life. A great deal depends upon the kind of spiritual life we take with us into sleep while here on earth, for by it we mold our souls into good or bad instruments for the sending forth of forces from the spiritual world into those organs of the body which are not used as instruments by the soul in the day consciousness, but which function physically and chemically beneath the threshold of consciousness. Those functions which do not belong to the activity of nerves and blood in the human being but are simply of an organic nature-physical and chemical activity—those are not life functions such as obtain in the plant and mineral kingdoms, but functions into which the forces of the spiritual world flow during sleep. Therefore we see the importance of being able to carry spiritual knowledge into sleep life, and we realize the attitude of mind it creates. If there still is doubt as to the inter-working of the spiritual and physical worlds, we may, among other things, make the following remarks.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":193,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/261/1914-05-09/p009","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Henry Collison","identified_edition":null,"book_title":"How the Spiritual World Interpenetrates the Physical","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/SpiritPhys/19140509p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","note":"rsarchive's lecture list spells the credit 'Harry Collison'; the lecture pages of this edition print 'Henry Collison', which is served."},"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. 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