In this talk, the polarities of the Internet will be examined in more detail. On the one hand the Ahrimanic aspects using the example of modern semiconductor technology, on the other hand the Luciferic aspects using the effects of the Internet on the development of young people.

In this seemingly dualistic world, one can reintegrate oneself back into the world through loving attention to nature and thoughtful work on phenomena. This can be found as a healing principle in various spheres of life. In this contribution, using the cyclamen as an example, a concrete path from the plant to the human being and the healing in certain disease tendencies is presented. The plant lives in the physical world between polarities such as heaviness and lightness, darkness and light, earth and cosmos, warmth and cold. The human being is also constantly confronted with these polarities in their inner life. Only the recognition of specific plant processes in the human being makes it possible to transform nature in such a way that a new remedy can emerge. In this way, "the I and the world" become one again.

Many fear that our modern society is sliding into the abyss. Is Technology to be blamed? Are we nearing the end of humanity's earthly evolution? Is Transhumanism the answer? Have we already succumbed to Ahriman? We can come to appreciate Rudolf Steiner’s grim picture of the future by knowing the role in evolution that technology must play. Steiner called it “the terrible truth that must be known.” This talk will explore counterbalances that enable us to stand within this “pandemonium”. In particular, we will look at “refined breathing.”

The example of the plant provides the purest demonstration of creating from polarities. To show the complex laws of becoming from which she produces her dance steps and transformational figures, andwhile at the same time to discoverdiscovering them in himself, was a concern of Goethe's and pioneering for organicnatural science. The site on which this conference takes place was named after himGoethe and still provides unique examples of artistic design out of polarities in the field of landscape design as well as architecture.

Closing Lecture
Ruth Richter

The quoted sentence from Rudolf Steiner's third mystery drama can be read as a literary form of criticism of the rational human being, which the philosopher Heinrich Barth expressed in a lecture at the ETH Zurich in 1957. He describes the field of tension between reason that has become fossilized into fixed facts, as it confronts us in our technologically shaped existence, and a living reason that – as an unavailable gift – makes us human: a being that is capable of finding meaning in its existence and of radiating it again in meaningful action. In Steiner's third mystery drama the quoted statement by Strader marks a turning point: if Strader was able to encounter Ahriman in his realm earlier, he now - standing in this realm - gains a soul sensation which frees him from Ahriman's influence. This can become a seed for the development of supernature, the ability to not be pulled down in dealing with technology and subnature. We follow Strader's path out of his own polarization and connect it with today's challenges of mankind.

Over the last hundred years, social development has led to a decline in the agricultural labor force in Europe from about 50 % to only 4 % of the population. Human labor has been replaced by technology. The implementation of technology can lead to a more mechanistic and less soulful approach of farming. But it can also be used to take over routine work and create more space for the essence of the farming practice: the intercourse with the realm of living nature. Examples from the speaker's own farm are used to show what this means and how subnature and supernature are both elements of a fruitful farming future.

In this contribution, the essence of agricultural work in relation to the inner spirit will be explored through concrete examples. Key skills for future work with culture-nature will be highlighted and the perspective required for this work will be elaborated.

Entwicklung von Löwenzahn als Kulturpflanze. Wirkungen von eurythmischer und v.a. meditativer Behandlung des Saatgutes als ein Beispiel «gezielter» epigenetischer Einflussnahme aus dem Ätherisch-Geistigen heraus., mittels einer kultisch durchgeführten Behandlung im Rückgriff auf die Mantren der 17. Klassenstunde.

Methodologische Ansätze: aus einem tropisch geschulten Goetheanismus entwickelt. Die (tropische) Landschaft sprechen lassen: was spricht sich aus in den Wäldern, den Savannen, den Halbwüsten und der Wüste? Tropen als Landschaftslabor einer Welt von Morgen. Eine hitzebeständige Landwirtschaft? Ein Stockwerk Aufbau, Artenvielfältig & Wassersparend, von innen heraus Klimafreundlich. Am Gerüst des Kohlenstoffs (Lignin) werden kreative neue Lebenskräfte eingebunden. Erträge trotz Hitze und Dürre.

A viewing tube is one of the simplest instruments to be used in science and yet it can produce contradictory research results depending on the way(s) it is employed. Problems with viewing tube experiments led to a major controversy in anthroposophical natural science in 1922 and this controversy has continued to the present day. A reconciliation between the two opposing viewpoints is possible by combining the findings of the history and philosophy of science with knowledge from experimenting.

Study color in nature and inevitably beauty finds you – it did me, and beauty became essential to my research. But what's its role in science today – is it even part of the equation? Turns out theologians and, surprisingly, artists are asking the same question: what happened to beauty? I'd like to share some thoughts out of my ongoing inquiry and my experiences with my camera (technology) in studying seasonal color (nature) – and ask how, and if, we'd like to invite beauty back into our dance.

People have domesticated crop plants by selecting for higher yields, better taste and ease of harvest. In some cases, this resulted in cultivated species that have become totally dependent on humans. In our work we set out to discover natural defense strategies in wild tomato species. We have focused on volatiles that plants produce to communicate with insects. I will take you on our journey into the wild, with its striking discoveries and the possibilities of natural crop protection...

Erkennen erfordert eine Suche, so wie die Muttermilch gesaugt werden muss. Jede Suchrichtung wird gedanklich allgemein erfüllbar durch Begriffe, die eine Polarität bilden. So betrachtet können alle Organismen sich zeigen als Strukturierer von dynamischen Gleichgewichten, die in begrifflichen Polaritäten fassbar sind – je nach Suchrichtung z.B. als Saugen/Widerstehen, Zug/Druck, Fliessgleichgewichte, usw. Goethes Idee von Polarität und Steigerung verlegt diese Dynamik in die Materialität selbst.

Was ist die Besonderheit der Lichtwurzel? Was kann sie dem Menschen als Nahrungsmittel bedeuten? Kann ihr Anbau als Nahrungspflanze in Mitteleuropa auch im Grösseren Fuss fassen?
Das sind Fragen, denen ich in dem Forschungsprojekt nachgehe. Anhand von vergleichenden Pflanzenbetrachtungen und menschenkundlichen Überlegungen soll in der Präsentation eine Annäherung an die Bedeutung der Lichtwurzel als Nahrungsmittel versucht werden. 

Ist menschliches Verhalten durch unbewusste elektrische Hirnprozesse vorbestimmt?  Ist Wärme im Herzen und in unseren Muskeln nur unnütze, chaotische Abwärme von Stoffwechselprozessen? Bei Messungen des Bereitschaftspotentials vor spontanen, kommandierten und nicht durchgeführten Bewegungen konnten diese elektrischen Hirnprozesse als physiologiches Korrelat von bewussten Vorstellungen ohne Zwang oder Notwendigkeit zur Durchführung verstanden werden.  Entsprechend kann im Anschluss an den Wärmekurs die Entwicklung von Wärme in Herz und Muskel als seelische und physiologische Möglichkeit für Wirkungen des freien Willens verstanden werden.  Eine erweiterte Thermodynamik fern vom absterbenden Gleichgewicht kann durch ihre Unvorhersagbarkeit den Übergang von geistigen Impulsen bis in Substanzvorgänge hinein auch physikalisch verständlich machen.

Da Vinci used his alternating engagement with art and mechanics to develop his imaginative faculties. During the birth of electronic engineering, Beethoven developed new forms of musical expression. When the foundations of computer technology were laid, Steiner extended the qualities of movement through eurythmy. What is the law behind this and why did Rudolf Steiner teach his esoteric pupils in Berlin Eurythmy in this way: cross your arms and legs, but don’t move them while doing so?

The discovery of the varied and complex movements of matter within fluids has been associated since the Renaissance with the quest for technical mastery of flows. But the link between the emergence of forms in or by a moving fluid and those resulting from the genesis of living beings opens another dimension. This other dimension deepens  when concepts are understood as coming from  movement. Now, technology to control fluids invites AI to the rescue. What can be seen in that?

A brief description of how we at FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) are trying to bring the animal back into research on feeding from the point of view of its behaviour. How can we learn from the animal what it needs instead of forcing it to need?