{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 56/1907-10-10/p033-p035","extent":"range","passage_number":33,"through":35,"paragraph_count":3,"first_locus":"GA 56/1907-10-10/p033","last_locus":"GA 56/1907-10-10/p035","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"title":"The Mission of Esoteric Science in Our Time","date":"1907-10-10","location":null,"alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"eLib2015","book_title":"Knowledge of Soul and Spirit","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA056/English/eLib2015/19071010p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"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. 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And then materialistic writings say that a brain cannot arrive at such views as those presented by Spiritual Science without pathological changes. From the psychiatrist's point of view, it is possible to describe quite precisely the mental illness that leads to such statements as those given here. If we wanted to enjoy working as psychiatrists do, we could also classify ourselves in such a way that the scholar who otherwise does so would take great delight in us. There is a small book that you can buy very cheaply, which reports something that is absolutely true. It is as follows: a series of newspaper articles dealt with arteriosclerosis and described the symptoms by which one can observe this disease in oneself. The author of the pamphlet, a doctor, found that a large number of people came to him who imagined they had the symptoms of arteriosclerosis. And what can be deduced from this? That many people, due to the chaotic nature of our culture, even if they imagine themselves to have nerves of steel, are in a state where, when they hear about such a disease, they are immediately overcome by fear and actually become ill, albeit in a psychological form. It is also said that there are many people who only need to hear lectures by Professor So-and-so or the naturopath So-and-so to have the disease that is being discussed. But what is not considered here is that a certain form of mental illness is already involved in thinking this way in the first place! And that is a pathological trait that is still relatively harmless today, but which will become more and more harmful. We will talk about such questions and facts in the lecture on “Delusions of illness and health fever.”","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":347,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/56/1907-10-10/p033","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"eLib2015","book_title":"Knowledge of Soul and Spirit","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA056/English/eLib2015/19071010p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 56/1907-10-10/p033"],"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."}},{"passage_number":34,"locus":"GA 56/1907-10-10/p034","text":"The reasons for certainty on which a person can base themselves must always come from within. But the spirit must be stronger. It must have the ability to find certainty within itself. It is weakness of spirit not to believe in oneself, not to believe that one can find the reasons within oneself. It is weakness of spirit to believe only what the eyes see and the hands touch, and to want to grasp the truth only with the hand. Materialism is a sign of spiritual decadence, an erosion of the inner self. And if it were only a theoretical erosion, it would still be relatively harmless. But this theoretical erosion leads to the practical undermining of first mental and then physical health. What is true about this example is that sick, incorrect thoughts really do cause illness. In the lecture on “Illness Delusion and Health Fever,” however, we will hear how health and physical well-being depend on the true or false thoughts we harbor. We will hear how, in Theosophy, something is to be spread with healthy thoughts, how Theosophy is to be a propagator of healthy living and useful people for the world.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":195,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/56/1907-10-10/p034","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"eLib2015","book_title":"Knowledge of Soul and Spirit","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA056/English/eLib2015/19071010p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 56/1907-10-10/p034"],"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."}},{"passage_number":35,"locus":"GA 56/1907-10-10/p035","text":"Even if we remain within the life of the soul itself, we see how those who are tormented by doubts every hour, who cannot gain knowledge about the questions that concern their deepest soul needs, are unfit for work, and such a soul will ultimately be unable to keep the body healthy. Basically, secret science only puts into practice and makes real what natural science has also suspected. When, for example, a natural scientist such as Karl von Baer, to whom Ernst Haeckel dedicated his work “Goals and Paths of Modern Evolutionary History,” says: It is a thought that pervades the whole world, that orders the planets, that has brought living beings forth from matter, that appears in its letters and in its meaning in the manifold forms of life, and that is, in essence, life itself — then one may well add: And if this thought, which can only be found in the supersensible world, is cherished and nurtured, if it consciously finds its way into human nature, then it will make people healthy, strong, and capable. Will it not then first dispel doubts, calm minds, lift hearts, and make human nature healthy? That is a deeper mission of secret science in our time. A science that remains on the surface of the sensual is to blame for the fact that human beings are hollowed out inside and that the age of materialism is also the age of nervousness and lack of concentration. These conditions would worsen if those who cling only to the external remained in the ascendancy.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":260,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/56/1907-10-10/p035","witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"eLib2015","book_title":"Knowledge of Soul and Spirit","publisher":null,"publisher_inferred":false,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA056/English/eLib2015/19071010p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line"},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 56/1907-10-10/p035"],"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. 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Und dann wird in materialistischen Schriften gesagt, daß ein Gehirn nicht ohne krankhafte Veränderung zu solchen Anschauungen kommen kann, wie die Geisteswissenschaft sie darbietet. Man wird vom Standpunkte des Psychiaters aus die Geisteskrankheit ziemlich genau angeben können, die zu solchen Ausführungen führt, wie sie hier gegeben werden. Wenn wir uns die Freude machen wollten, zu arbeiten, wie die Psychiater es tun, so könnten wir uns auch so klassifizieren, daß der Gelehrte, welcher das sonst tut, seine helle Freude an uns haben würde. Es gibt eine kleine Schrift, die Sie ganz billig kaufen können, wo etwas berichtet wird, was absolut wahr ist. Es handelt sich um folgendes: In einer Reihe von Zeitungsartikeln wurde die Arterienverkalkung behandelt und die Symptome angegeben, an denen man diese Krankheit an sich selber beobachten kann. Da hat der Verfasser der Schrift, ein Arzt, erleben müssen, daß eine ganze Menge Menschen zu ihm gekommen sind, die sich einbildeten, die Symptome der Arterienverkalkung zu haben. Und was wird nun daraus abgeleitet? Daß sehr viele Menschen durch das Chaotische unserer Kultur selbst wenn sie sich einbilden, Nerven wie Stränge zu haben — in einem Zustand sind, daß, wenn sie von einer solchen Krankheit hören, sie sogleich von Furcht befallen und tatsächlich krank werden, wenn auch in einer psychischen Form. — Es wird auch gesagt, daß es eine Menge Menschen gibt, die nur Vorträge von Professor Soundso oder dem Naturheilkundigen Soundso zu hören brauchen, um die Krankheit zu haben, über die gesprochen wird. Was aber dabei nicht bedacht wird, ist, daß schon eine gewisse Form von geistiger Erkrankung dazugehört, um überhaupt so zu denken! Und das ist ein pathologischer Zug, der heute noch verhältnismäßig unschädlich auftritt, der aber immer schädlicher und schädlicher werden wird. Wir werden über solche Fragen und Tatsachen im Vortrag über «Krankheitswahn und Gesundheitsfieber» noch sprechen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":346,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/56/1907-10-10/p033"},{"locus":"GA 56/1907-10-10/p034","passage_number":34,"text":"Die Gründe der Gewißheit, auf denen der Mensch fußen kann, müssen immer aus dem Inneren kommen. Da muß aber der Geist stärker sein. Er muß die Fähigkeit haben, die Gewißheit im eigenen Inneren zu finden. Schwäche des Geistes ist es, nicht an sich zu glauben, nicht zu glauben, daß man in sich die Gründe finden kann. Schwäche des Geistes ist es, nur das zu glauben, was Augen sehen und Hände tasten, und nur mit der Hand die Wahrheit greifen zu wollen. Der Materialismus ist ein Zeichen geistiger Dekadenz, eine Aushöhlung des Inneren. Und wäre es nur eine theoretische Aushöhlung, so wäre es noch verhältnismäßig unschädlich. Aber diese theoretische Aushöhlung führt zur praktischen Untergrabung zuerst der seelischen und dann der physischen Gesundheit. Was wahr ist an dem Beispiel, das ist, daß kranke, unrichtige Gedanken wirklich Krankheiten hervorbringen. Wir werden in dem Vortrage über «Krankheitswahn und Gesundheitsfieber» aber hören, wie Gesundheit und physisches Wohl von den wahren oder unwahren Gedanken, die wir hegen, abhängen. Wir werden hören, wie in der Theosophie etwas verbreitet werden soll mit gesunden Gedanken, wie die Theosophie Verbreiter sein soll von gesundem Leben und brauchbaren Menschen für die Welt.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":191,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/56/1907-10-10/p034"},{"locus":"GA 56/1907-10-10/p035","passage_number":35,"text":"Schon wenn wir innerhalb des Seelenlebens selber bleiben, sehen wir, wie derjenige, der stündlich von Zweifeln gequält wird, der kein Wissen erringen kann über die Fragen, die seine tiefsten Seelenbedürfnisse betreffen, untauglich ist zur Arbeit, und eine solche Seele wird zuletzt unfähig sein, den Körper gesund zu erhalten. Im Grunde genommen macht die Geheimwissenschaft nur das zur Tat, zur Wirklichkeit, was auch die Naturwissenschaft geahnt hat. Wenn zum Beispiel ein Naturwissenschafter wie Karl von Baer, dem Ernst Haeckel sein Werk «Ziele und Wege der heutigen Entwickelungsgeschichte» gewidmet hat, sagt: Ein Gedanke ist es, der die ganze Welt durchzieht, der die Planeten ordnet, der aus der Materie die lebendigen Wesen hervorgerufen hat, der in seinen Buchstaben und in seinem Sinn in den mannigfaltigen Lebensformen erscheint und im Grunde genommen das Leben selber ist — dann darf man wohl hinzufügen: Und wenn dieser Gedanke, der in der übersinnlichen Welt allein gefunden werden kann, gehegt und gepflegt wird, wenn er bewußt Eingang findet in die Menschennatur, dann wird er die Menschen gesund, stark und tüchtig machen. Wird er dann nicht zuerst die Zweifel zerstreuen, die Gemüter beruhigen, die Herzen erheben und die Menschennatur gesund machen? Das ist eine tiefere Mission der Geheimwissenschaft in unserer Zeit. - Einer Wissenschaft, die an der Oberfläche des Sinnlichen bleibt, ist es zuzuschreiben, daß der Mensch innerlich ausgehöhlt ist, und daß das Zeitalter des Materialismus auch das Zeitalter der Nervosität und der Dekonzentriertheit ist. Diese Zustände würden sich noch verschlimmern, wenn diejenigen die Oberhand behielten, die nur am Äußeren hängen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":252,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/56/1907-10-10/p035"}],"beads":[{"from":[33],"to":[33],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[34],"to":[34],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"},{"from":[35],"to":[35],"confidence":"high","pairing_state":"verified"}],"note":"Paired by the paragraph aligner; each language numbers its own paragraphs. A bead at either end of the span can carry text beyond it (the `from` numbers show what each bead covers)."}}