{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 80a/1922-01-23/p012","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"The first thing that is involved is the development of the soul in terms of [the powers of] presentation and thought. Just as you can strengthen a muscle by using it in work, so you can indeed strengthen the powers of thought of the human soul by using them in a certain way, using them again and again, indeed using them again and again in rhythmic succession, so that they become something quite different from what they initially are. To do this, it is necessary to bring a clearly defined idea or a clearly defined complex of ideas into the center of consciousness, and then to withdraw one's attention from everything else by strong inner volition and to concentrate the entire life of the human soul on this one idea or this one complex of ideas. In order to achieve what is necessary, however, this complex of ideas must be such that it is not taken from our ordinary memory life. I have already indicated how what we bring up from ordinary memory life can put us in illusion, it brings up reminiscences that lie dormant in the unconscious. One cannot know what will come up from the soul if one were to take an idea or a complex of ideas from one's ordinary memory life and make it the focus of one's soul life, and then concentrate on it. Therefore, one should take something that one finds, let us say – this is just an example – in some book by someone else, a saying, a sentence. What matters is not the content, but the fact that one is strengthening one's thinking by working with thoughts, and that one is taking some material that was previously unknown to one, that is newly entering one's soul life. We will see in a moment why. Or else, one can have some experienced person in this field compose such a spell. Because what matters is that what enters into the center of the soul life, and on which one then concentrates the whole soul life, on which one focuses all attention, that it approaches the human being as otherwise only any external sense impression, such as a color or a sound or any other external sense impression. What Anthroposophy strives for in this path of research is quite definitely the outer sensory perception. This outer sensory perception presents itself to us from the outside, compelling us to accept its content. Just as the human being faces external perception as something foreign, and is thus particularly alert to it, so too should the soul life face what I have been talking about here, which should be brought to the center of experience. For the human being should be as alert in their thinking as they are when they are facing an external sensory impression.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"The Essence of Anthroposophy","site_heading":null,"date":"1922-01-23","location":null,"word_count":471,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/80a/1922-01-23/p012","alignment_confidence":"high","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Anthroposophy","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA080a/English/SOL2024/19220123p01.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"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/80a/1922-01-23/p012"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/80a/1922-01-23/p012","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},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 80a/1922-01-23/p012","passage_number":12,"text":"Das Erste, um das es sich handelt, ist eine Entwicklung der Seele nach [den vorstellenden], nach den Gedankenkräften hin. So wie man einen Muskel dadurch verstärken, erkraften kann, dass man ihn arbeitend gebraucht, so kann man in der Tat auch die Gedankenkräfte der menschlichen Seele, indem man sie in einer gewissen Weise gebraucht und immer wieder gebraucht, ja, in rhythmischer Folge immer wieder gebraucht, verstärken, erkraften, sodass sie etwas ganz anderes werden, als sie zunächst sind. Dazu ist notwendig, dass man eine leicht überschaubare Vorstellung oder einen leicht überschaubaren Vorstellungskomplex in den Mittelpunkt des Bewusstseins rückt, dass man dann das ganze menschliche Seelenleben, indem man die Aufmerksamkeit von allem Übrigen durch starke innere Willkür abzieht, auf diese eine Vorstellung oder diesen einen Vorstellungskomplex konzentriert. Damit man dasjenige erreicht, was zu erreichen notwendig ist, dazu muss allerdings dieser Vorstellungskomplex so sein, dass er nicht aus unserem gewöhnlichen Erinnerungsleben entnommen ist. Das, was wir aus dem gewöhnlichen Erinnerungsleben heraufholen, ich habe ja schon angedeutet, wie es uns in Illusionen versetzen kann, es bringt uns Reminiszenzen herauf, die im Unbewussten schlummern. Man kann gar nicht wissen, was da alles aus der Seele heraufkommt, wenn man aus seinem gewöhnlichen Erinnerungsleben eine Vorstellung oder einen Vorstellungskomplex in den Mittelpunkt des Seelenlebens versetzen würde, und sich dann darauf konzentrieren würde. Man nehme daher dasjenige, was man, sagen wir — es ist nur beispielsweise — in irgendeinem fremden Buch findet, einen Spruch, einen Satz, es kommt nicht auf den Inhalt an, sondern darauf, dass man das Denken erkraftet, in der Gedankenarbeit eben, und dass man dazu irgendeine Materie nimmt, die einem bisher nicht bekannt war, die neu in das Seelenleben eintritt. Wir werden gleich sehen, warum. Oder aber, man lasse sich von irgendeinem auf diesem Gebiet erfahrenen Menschen solch einen Spruch geben. Denn das, worauf es ankommt, ist, dass dasjenige, was da in den Mittelpunkt des Seelenlebens hereindringt, und auf das man dann das ganze Seelenleben konzentriert, auf das man alle Aufmerksamkeit verwendet, dass das so an den Menschen herantritt, wie sonst nur irgendein äußerer Sinneseindruck, wie eine Farbe oder ein Ton oder ein sonstiger äußerer Sinneseindruck. Dasjenige, dem Anthroposophie bei diesem Forschungswege nachstrebt, das ist durchaus die äußere sinnliche Wahrnehmung. Diese äußere sinnliche Wahrnehmung, sie bietet sich ja dar so, dass sie von außen an uns herankommt, dass wir dadurch genötigt sind, ihren Inhalt hinzunehmen. So wie der Mensch der äußeren Wahrnehmung als etwas Fremdem gegenübersteht, und dadurch gerade lebhaft seine Aufmerksamkeit auf sie verwendet, geradeso soll dasjenige, wovon ich hier gesprochen habe, dass es in den Mittelpunkt des Erlebens gerückt wird, dem Seelenleben gegenüberstehen. Denn so lebendig soll der Mensch sein Denken erkraften, wie er sonst nur sich verhält, wenn er einem äußeren Sinneseindruck gegenüber ist.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":451,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/80a/1922-01-23/p012"}],"english":["GA 80a/1922-01-23/p012"],"method":"identity","confidence":"high","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":451,"en_words":471,"ratio":1.04,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","reader"],"reader_german":["GA 80a/1922-01-23/p012"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.04,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":10817,"original_word_count":10371,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2024","book_title":"The Essence of Anthroposophy","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA080a/English/SOL2024/19220123p01.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":"ok","checked_against":["GA 80a/1922-01-23/p012"],"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."}}