{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 94/1906-07-10/p003","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"You will remember that I explained to you how much depended on man's beginning to breathe through the lungs in the course of his development. His higher schooling is now also connected with a breathing process. In the training in yoga the pupil brings a certain rhythm into his breathing by bringing inhaling, holding the breath and exhaling into a certain number of seconds. But the way in which these breathing exercises are done can only be indicated to the pupil by the teacher. Through the exercises for consciously regulating the breathing process, nothing less is done than the beginning of alchemy; this is called “seeking the philosopher's stone”. At the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, the Rosicrucians still knew something about it, and some of it could still be read in public. The occultist knows that man continually pollutes the air through his carbonic acid exhalations and kills life, even more than is killed through eating meat. And the more material the ages became, the worse the exhaled air became, and the more fresh air man needs. The Indian yogi exhaled less bad air. The bad air exhaled by people is restored by plants, which release oxygen and absorb carbon. Thus, animals and humans owe their lives to plants. In the anthracite coal, the plants then release the carbon back to humans. The plant, in turn, is designed to be built with the help of carbon. This process forms a complete and wonderful unity. Just as man was once a plant, so in the distant future he will also become a plant again in a certain sense, namely with full self-awareness. Then man will produce within himself what plants still do for him today, and he will consciously build his etheric body out of carbon. This is the goal of regulating the breathing process. Carbon is the philosopher's stone. The more a person breathes in accordance with wisdom, the purer and more useful the air around him becomes. Chemistry will soon address this issue. Those who have been breathing rhythmically for a while gain control over their astral senses. Europeans must be very careful with breathing exercises and only begin them after receiving appropriate instruction.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"Lecture XIII","site_heading":"Breathing, Meditation, and Three Paths of Initiation","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":"1906-07-10","location":null,"word_count":369,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/94/1906-07-10/p003","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:identity","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2023","book_title":"Popular Occultism","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA094/English/SOL2023/19060710p01.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/94/1906-07-10/p003"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/94/1906-07-10/p003","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"listeners_notes","scope":"volume","note":"Written from listeners' notes, summaries, or memory rather than a shorthand transcript. The wording is the note-taker's as much as Steiner's: weigh a single striking phrase here far more cautiously than the same phrase in a stenographic volume, and do not rest an argument on one word.","evidence":"Zusammenfassungen und Notizen von Vorträgen u. Vortragsreihen","evidence_translation":"Summaries and notes of lectures and lecture cycles","evidence_source":"Rudolf Steiner Verlag Gesamtverzeichnis 2022, volume subtitle. The translation is the maintainer's, not a published one."},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1906-07-10","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 94/1906-07-10/p003","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/94/1906-07-10/p003"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"],"length_check":{"de_words":369,"en_words":369,"ratio":1.0,"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 94/1906-07-10/p003","passage_number":3,"text":"Sie erinnern sich, daß ich Ihnen darlegte, wieviel bei der Entwicklung des Menschen davon abhing, daß der Mensch begann, durch die Lungen zu atmen. Seine höhere Schulung hängt nun auch mit einem Atmungsprozeß zusammen. In der Yoga-Schulung bringt der Schüler einen gewissen Rhythmus in seine Atmung, indem er Einziehen, Anhalten des Atems und Ausatmen in eine gewisse Anzahl von Sekunden bringt. Die Art und Weise dieser Atemübungen kann aber nur vom Lehrer dem Schüler angegeben werden. Durch die Übungen zur bewußten Regelung des Atemprozesses wird nichts Geringeres getan, als der Anfang zur Alchimie gemacht; dies nennt man «das Aufsuchen des Steines der Weisen». Noch an der Wende vom 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert haben die Rosenkreuzer etwas davon gewußt, und es war noch manches davon öffentlich zu lesen. Der Okkultist weiß, daß der Mensch durch seine Kohlensäureausatmung fortwährend die Luft verpestet und Leben tötet, mehr sogar, als durch das Fleischessen Leben getötet wird. Und je materieller die Zeitalter wurden, desto schlechter war die ausgeatmete Luft, desto mehr frische Luft braucht der Mensch. Der indische Yogi atmete weniger schlechte Luft aus. Die schlechte Luft, die von den Menschen ausgeatmet wird, wird von den Pflanzen wiederhergestellt, die Sauerstoff abgeben und den Kohlenstoff aufsaugen. Den Pflanzen verdankt somit Tier und Mensch sein Leben. In den Steinkohlen geben dann die Pflanzen auch den Kohlenstoff wieder an die Menschen ab. Die Pflanze ihrerseits ist so eingerichtet, daß siemit Hilfe des Kohlenstoffs aufgebaut wird. Dieser Prozeß bildet eine vollständige und wunderbare Einheit. Genauso wie der Mensch einmal Pflanze war, so wird er in ferner Zukunft auch wieder Pflanze werden in einem gewissen Sinn, nämlich mit vollem Ich-Bewußtsein. Dann wird der Mensch das, was heute noch die Pflanzen für ihn besorgen, in sich selbst herstellen, und er wird sich seinen Ätherkörper aus dem Kohlenstoff in bewußter Weise aufbauen. Dahin zielt die Regelung des Atmungsprozesses. Der Kohlenstoff ist der Stein der Weisen. Je mehr der Mensch nach der Weisheit atmet, um so reiner und brauchbarer wird die Luft um ihn herum. Die Chemie wird sich bald mit dieser Frage beschäftigen. Wer eine Zeitlang rhythmisch geatmet hat, bekommt Gewalt über seine astralischen Sinne. Der Europäer muß sehr vorsichtig mit Atemübungen sein und sie erst spät nach entsprechender Anweisung beginnen.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":369,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/94/1906-07-10/p003"}],"english":["GA 94/1906-07-10/p003"],"method":"identity","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":369,"en_words":369,"ratio":1.0,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"verified","verified":true,"evidence":["length","meaning","audit"]},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.05,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":1045,"original_word_count":991,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Steiner Online Library","identified_edition":"SOL2023","book_title":"Popular Occultism","publisher":"Steiner Online Library","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA094/English/SOL2023/19060710p01.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 94/1906-07-10/p003"],"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."}}