{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 322/1920-10-03_02/p019","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"What, in fact, is the process of perception? It is nothing but a modified process of inhalation. As we breathe in, the air presses upon our diaphragm and upon the whole of our being. Cerebral fluid is forced up through the spinal column into the brain. In this way a connection is established between breathing and cerebral activity. And the part of the breathing that can be discerned as active within the brain works upon our sense activity as perception. Perception is thus a kind of branch of inhalation. In exhalation, on the other hand, cerebral fluid descends and exerts pressure on the circulation of the blood. The descent of cerebral fluid is bound up with the activity of the will and also of exhalation. Anybody who really studies *The Philosophy of Freedom*, however, will discover that when we achieve pure thinking, thinking and willing coincide. Pure thinking is fundamentally an expression of will. Thus pure thinking turns out to be related to what the Oriental experienced in the process of exhalation. Pure thinking is related to exhalation just as perception is related to inhalation. We have to go through the same process as the yogi but in a way that is, so to speak, pushed back more into the inner life. Yoga depends upon a regulation of the breathing, both inhalation and exhalation, and in this way comes into contact with the eternal in man. What can Western man do? He can raise into clear soul experiences perception on the one hand and thinking on the other. He can unite in his inner experience perception and thinking, which are otherwise united only abstractly, formally, and passively, so that inwardly, in his soul-spirit, he has the same experience as he has physically in breathing in and out. Inhalation and exhalation are physical experiences: when they are harmonized, one consciously experiences the eternal. In everyday life we experience thinking and perception. By bringing mobility into the life of the soul, one experiences the pendulum, the rhythm, the continual interpenetrating vibration of perception and thinking. A higher reality evolves for the Oriental in the process of inhalation and exhalation; the Westerner achieves a kind of breathing of the soul-spirit in place of the physical breathing of the yogi. He achieves this by developing within himself the living process of modified inhalation in perception and modified exhalation in pure thinking, by weaving together concept, thinking, and perceiving. And gradually, by means of this rhythmic pulse, by means of this rhythmic breathing process in perception and thinking, he struggles to rise up to spiritual reality in Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition. And when I indicated in my book *The Philosophy of Freedom*, at first only philosophically, that reality arises out of the interpenetration of perception and thinking, I intended, because the book was meant as a schooling for the soul, to show what Western man can do in order to enter the spiritual world itself. The Oriental says: systole, diastole; inhalation, exhalation. In place of these the Westerner must put perception and thinking. Where the Oriental speaks of the development of physical breathing, we in the West say: development of a breathing of the soul-spirit within the cognitional process through perception and thinking.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture VIII","site_heading":"Western Spiritual Science: Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition","site_heading_note":"A heading the site wrote for this unit from a summary of it; not in the edition, and not the words of Rudolf Steiner or of the translator. Cite the unit by its title and locus, never by this heading, and do not quote it.","date":"1920-10-03","location":null,"word_count":538,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/322/1920-10-03_02/p019","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Frederick Amrine and Konrad Oberhuber","identified_edition":"AP1983","book_title":"The Boundaries of Natural Science","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA322/English/AP1983/19201003p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","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"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/322/1920-10-03_02/p019"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/322/1920-10-03_02/p019","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},"other_renderings":{"loci":[{"locus":"GA 322/1920-10-03","ga":"322","lecture":"1920-10-03","kind":"renderings","relation":"another translation or transcription of the same lecture"}],"note":"The same lecture is also served at the loci listed, each with how it relates to this one. They are ONE witness, not independent attestations: quote the rendering you fetched, and do not cite another as corroborating it. Wording differs between translations, so a quotation found in one need not occur in the other."},"unit_kind":{"kind":"second_translation","base_unit":"GA 322/1920-10-03","note":"A second English translation of the same lecture as 1920-10-03. The German served under this id repeats the German of 1920-10-03: one German text, to be cited at 1920-10-03.","same_lecture_as":"GA 322/1920-10-03","german_repeats":"GA 322/1920-10-03"},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1920-10-03_02","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 322/1920-10-03_02/p018","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/322/1920-10-03_02/p018"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","anchors","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 322/1920-10-03_02/p018"],"length_check":{"de_words":505,"en_words":538,"ratio":1.07,"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 322/1920-10-03_02/p018","passage_number":18,"text":"Was ist denn eigentlich der Wahrnehmungsprozeß? Der Wahrnehmungsprozeß ist nämlich nichts anderes als ein modifizierter Einatmungsprozeß. Indem wir die Luft einatmen, drückt diese Luft auf unser Zwerchfell, auf unsere ganze Organisation. Es wird das Gehirnwasser durch den Rückenmarkskanal nach aufwärts nach dem Gehirn gedrängt. Dadurch wird eine Verbindung hergestellt zwischen der Gehirntätigkeit und dem Einatmen. Und dasjenige, was sich vom Einatmungsprozeß auf diese Weise im Gehirn spezialisiert, das wirkt in der Sinnestätigkeit als Wahrnehmen. So daß, ich möchte sagen, ein Ast des Einatmens das Wahrnehmen ist. Dann wiederum beim Ausatmen: Das Gehirnwasser geht hinunter, es drückt auf den Blutkreislauf. Es ist das Hinuntersteigen des Gehirnwassers verbunden mit der Willenstätigkeit, und das wiederum verbunden mit dem Ausatmen. Aber derjenige, der die «Philosophie der Freiheit» wirklich studiert, wird finden, daß in jenem Denken, das wir als das reine Denken erreichen, Wille und Denken zusammenfallen. Das reine Denken ist im Grunde eine Willensäußerung. Daher wird dasjenige, was Denken ist, was reines Denken ist, nun verwandt mit dem, was der Orientale erlebte im Ausatmungsprozeß. Es ist verwandt das reine Denken mit dem Ausatmungsprozeß, so wie das Wahrnehmen verwandt ist mit dem Einatmungsprozeß. Wir müssen gewissermaßen mehr zurückgeschoben nach dem Inneren des Menschen denselben Prozeß durchmachen, den der Orientale durchmacht mit seiner Jogaphilosophie. Diese Jogaphilosophie geht auf ein reguliertes Einatmen, Ausatmen, und ergreift so das Ewige im Menschen. Der Abendländer, was kann er tun? Er kann klar für sich seelisch zum Erlebnis machen auf der einen Seite die Wahrnehmung, auf der andern Seite das Denken. Und er kann dasjenige, was sonst abstrakt und formhaft nur in Ruhe verbunden wird, Wahrnehmen und Denken, in innerem Erleben verbinden, so daß er innerlich geistig-seelisch erlebt, was man physisch erlebt bei Einatmen, Ausatmen. Physisch erlebt man Einatmung, Ausatmung; in ihrem Zusammenklang erlebt man bewußt das Ewige. Im gewöhnlichen Erleben erlebt man die Wahrnehmung, das Denken. Indem man beweglich macht sein seelisches Leben, erlebt man den Pendelschlag, den Rhythmus, das fortwährende Ineinandervibrieren von Wahrnehmen und Denken. Und wie sich eine höhere Wirklichkeit in Einatmung und Ausatmung für den Orientalen entwickelt, so entwickelt sich, indem der Okzidentale in sich den lebendigen Prozeß der modifizierten Einatmung im Wahrnehmen, der modifizierten Ausatmung im reinen Denken entwickelt, indem er Begriff, Denken und Wahrnehmung ineinanderwebt, gewissermaßen ein geistig-seelisches Atmen anstelle des physischen Atmens der Jogaphilosophie. Und er zwingt sich auch allmählich hinauf durch diesen rhythmischen Schlag, durch dieses rhythmische Eratmen in Wahrnehmung und Denken zu der wahren geistigen Wirklichkeit in Imagination und Inspiration und Intuition. Und als ich in meiner «Philosophie der Freiheit» eben zunächst nur philosophisch darauf hindeutete, daß sich die wahre Wirklichkeit ergibt aus dem Ineinanderschlagen von Wahrnehmung und Denken, sollte, weil eben gerade diese «Philosophie der Freiheit» als innere Seelenkultur gedacht war, hingewiesen werden auf dasjenige, was der Mensch als Abendländer üben muß, um in die Geisteswelt selber hineinzukommen. Der Orientale sagt: Systole, Diastole; Einatmung, Ausatmung. Der Abendländer muß an die Stelle setzen: Wahrnehmung, Denken. Der Morgenländer sagt: Ausbilden des physischen Atmens -; der Abendländer sagt: Ausbilden des geistig-seelischen Atmens in dem Erkenntnisprozeß durch Wahrnehmen und Denken.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":505,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/322/1920-10-03_02/p018"}],"english":["GA 322/1920-10-03_02/p019"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":505,"en_words":538,"ratio":1.07,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","anchors","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 322/1920-10-03_02/p018"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.02,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":6201,"original_word_count":6102,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Frederick Amrine and Konrad Oberhuber","identified_edition":"AP1983","book_title":"The Boundaries of Natural Science","publisher":"Anthroposophic Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA322/English/AP1983/19201003p01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","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":"ok","checked_against":["GA 322/1920-10-03_02/p018"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","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."}}