Modern science has developed in a monist direction, with a presumption that there is one single truth about any given subject matter, and one best method for finding that truth. Moreover, there is a strong tendency to demand that all scientists should agree to the methodology and fundamental beliefs that are currently considered to be the best. Due to such tendencies many plausible avenues of inquiry are blocked, even if they were once considered legitimate and may be considered promising again in the future. Due to this monism, there are many scientific questions that are neglected by scientists, and I argue that historians and philosophers of science can take up such questions in a mode of work that I call “complementary science.” Many scholars who have preserved and promoted Goethe’s approach to science can be seen as practitioners of complementary science. more

Zoom Live Keynote Speech

Normally we hear of science as an alternative to religion, an advancement over medieval superstition and magical thinking. In fact, science bears many features of religion. This talk will explore how in its culture, metaphysics, institutions, rituals and construction of knowledge, science is the religion of modern society – and this is not necessarily a bad thing. However, society is changing; so, therefore, must science in all its dimensions. 

Zoom Live Keynote Speech

We can gradually come to an understanding of the plant being by using a Goethean observation method. We can also observe phenomenologically the course of a particular disease in the three-fold organism of the human being. When we can connect the processes of the plant with complementary processes of a particular disease, a path opens for the discovery of a new remedy. 

Over the last 20 years, genome sequencing techniques and our knowledge of genetic lineages and evolutionary pathways have expanded tremendously. Our image of viruses has changed fundamentally during that time. From a systems science perspective, viruses in their entirety represent the mediating medium of global genetic communication among organisms. The genomes of individual organisms are therefore not so much the result of random mutations and their selection, but can be understood as surroundings and context dependent rearrangements of a fundamentally dialogical, integrated, organized system of living things. more

What concerns people today who decide to convert their farm to Demeter? From this question we will enter into considering the conversion process of a farm with its history, people, development possibilities and the biodynamic foundations to be developed. This opens up another aspect of the educational work with conversion farmers. It is about soil, plants, animals and the cosmos, not just figuratively but also practically. Above all, however, it is about the people themselves, the ones who place themselves in the whole, with their abilities and their potential for action, and in doing so come close to feeling that it may just turn the world and their farm upside down.

The Research Institute at the Goetheanum has been working on expanding the spiritual-scientific aspects of the natural sciences for one hundred years. Guenther Wachsmuth and Ehrenfried Pfeiffer founded the Institute under the guidance of Rudolf Steiner, before the actual establishment of the Natural Science Section. Since that time, a multitude of different methods and themes have been worked on, bringing forth experiences which also have significance for the future. This contribution pays tribute to that work.

Just as the surface of a lake or the sea is on the one hand a transparent “window” into the water space and on the other hand a “mirror” to the surroundings, our earth’s atmosphere is also a window to the cosmos but at the same time opaque to some spectral ranges and a mirror to still others. At first, transmission, reflection and absorption seem to be only “optical” phenomena of nature. However, this contribution tries to show how these phenomena enable us to characterize the Earth’s atmosphere as a “shell” that on the one hand, like a window, connects us to the cosmos, but on the other hand, like a mirror, separates us from it, forming an interior space and protecting the earth from harmful influences. more

The paradox of perception is that it assures us of the certainty of a common world which, however, is only available to each of us in the form of a world ‘for me’. Phenomenology is dedicated to this philosophical problem in contrast to Goethe, who barely reflected on it but lived its consequences. One of them is his methodological postulate to make the mode of being of the object under investigation one’s own through repeated practice, taking its appearance as an expression of the whole. With his dynamic morphology of plants, Jochen Bockemühl expanded Goethe’s scientific approach in line with Steiner’s epistemological interpretation. In addition to devotion to the phenomena, he initiated a culture of reflecting on one’s own participation in creating them. more

settlement construction and the use of highly intensive agricultural methods are the main reasons for the climate crisis, which goes hand in hand with the loss of biodiversity. The reduction of climate-damaging emissions is an important goal that can only be achieved globally. However, efforts to preserve and maintain biodiversity are equally important and these always start at the local level. Diversity is not only important ecologically but socially and culturally. It always adds value to relationships – ecologically, socially, culturally and spiritually. Biodiversity is not a technological challenge: it is enabled by people and communities, and also by traditional and ecological land use practices.

Long before Darwin, Goethe, in his work on the theory of metamorphosis, sought to understand the diversity of plant and animal formations as the variability of their ontogeny. Evolutionary developmental biology today overcomes a neo-Darwinian fixation on the variability and selection of individual traits or genes by reconstructing phylogenesis as the evolution of ontogenetic development. Moreover, many aspects of Goethe's insights can be confirmed by this research and deepened in a reductionist sense. This lecture demonstrates the complementarity of these two perspectives using selected examples.

Atem ist Leben II

Der Atem ist eines unserer feinstofflichen Mittel, um sowohl unsere Intuition als auch unsere Kundalini-Energie zu wecken. R. Steiner kannte und nutzte dieses alte Wissen der indigenen Völker, das ich aus meinen Atem-Ausbildungen kenne, denn es ist letztlich - wie so häufig - alles dasselbe Akasha-Wissen. In der Verbindung zur Natur und zum eigenen Herzens- und Atemraum wird unser höheres Selbstgefühl und Mitgefühl über Meditationen und einen tiefen, verbundenen Atem aktiviert.

Alles ist Spross

Goethes Hypothese «Alles ist Blatt» ist zu einem Dogma verkommen. Das typische Blatt gliedert sich in Spreite, Stiel und Blattgrund. Diese Definition reist das Blatt aus dem Zusammenhang heraus aus dem es hervorgeht. Die inneren Bedingungen für die Bildung von Blattformen sind für den verholzenden, für den krautigen Spross und für die Blüte sehr verschieden. Die aktuelle morphologische Typisierung des Blattes ist atomistisch geprägt, die dynamische Perspektive fehlt.

Recovering the Hidden Content of World History

Rudolf Steiner said in his lecture cycle “The Search for the New Isis, the Divine Sophia”, that: “we must approach luciferic science and seek there the coffin of Isis”. A simple theory will be outlined showing that certain natural-scientific endeavours of the first third of the 20th century have been overlooked, and that out of Anthroposophy they can be seen in a new light in their true significance, themselves illumining Earth’s deeper past extending to the Lemurian epoch.

Rauschen und die experimentelle Methode

Die Aufgabe einer Wissenschaft des Lebendigen kann in der Findung von Indikatoren, die Leben anzeigen, gesehen werden. Rauschen wird als Grenzphänomen, als Träger und Vermittler von Information betrachtet. Durch eine prozesshafte Experimentiertechnik ist es möglich Rauschen zu integrieren, in einen Dialog mit der Natur zu treten. Rauschen wird als experimentelle Methode vorgestellt, als Indikator zur Beschreibung der Lebenskräfte-Situation. Die Bedeutung der Rolle des Denkens wird hervorgehoben.

Picture-forming Diagnostic Tests: A Review

We reviewed, systemized, and categorized diagnostic tests based on pattern formation in drying body fluids. Literature in different languages was included; publications where the patterns did not represent the main test outcome, or animal studies with artificially induced target conditions were excluded. In total, we identified six methods applied on 20 different body fluids. We continue the project by performing a meta-analysis of picture forming methods applied for the diagnosis of cancer.

Living Farms: The Impact of the Individual

Our world is facing severe challenges, such as climate change, soil degradation and biodiversity loss. On the other hand, powerful and healthy solutions exist and can be implemented throught the world. The project Living Farms shows how individuals have achieved great things by establishing biodynamic places, which are healthy for humans, environment and our global system. During the presentation, the individual strategies and lessons learnt are shared with the audience.

Buchpräsentation: Landschaft – eine innere Entdeckungsreise

Lebendige Landschaften sind die Grundlage für die biologische Vielfalt, fruchtbare Böden, sauberes Wasser und ein ausgeglichenes Klima. Viele Menschen schätzen die erholsame, gesundende und anregende Wirkung eines Aufenthalts in der Natur.  Doch eine vielfältige, regionaltypische Kulturlandschaft kann heute nur entstehen, wenn sich Menschen bewusst mit ihrer Umgebung verbinden und daraus verantwortlich tätig werden. Dieser Band zeigt Wege auf, wie jeder einzelne etwas dazu beitragen kann. Das bewusste Miterleben der Naturphänomene führt auch zu einem Erkennen der eigenen Impulse und öffnet uns für eine tiefere Begegnung mit den anderen Menschen.

Sonja Schürger wird die Entstehung des Buches erläutern. Danach ist eine kritische Besprechung angedacht (Vortragender angefragt). Es ist eine musikalische Umrahmung eingeplant.

Turning human waste into digital currency?

Science Walden is a community of scientist-artists who wish to tackle difficult challenges our society faces using a currency everyone can access. Our goal is to create a platform and facilitate discussion by generating new values from human waste, our basic human denominator. We are working on developing eco-friendly toilets that convert feces into digital currency with which people can engage each other and the world. Users can provide and receive a diversity of goods and services and more.

Gehirnphysiologie und Willensfreiheit

Das im Gehirn messbare Bereitschaftspotential (BP) vor selbst-initiierten Bewegungen tritt ~ 1 Sek. vor der Entscheidung auf. Diese Beobachtung von B. Libet führte zu der Annahme, dass das BP mit unbewusster Entscheidungsvorbereitung zusammenhängt und wurde z.T. als empirischer Beweis gegen die Möglichkeit des freien Willens gewertet. Um das mentale Korrelat des BP und den Freiheitsbezug zu erforschen haben wir den ursprünglichen Versuch vielseitig variiert – methodisch inspiriert durch Goethe.

Die Lebensphasen und -übergänge von Gaia

Gaia, die Mutter Erde, erlebt tagtäglich einen «Wandel im Kleinen». Darüberhinaus haben auch Umbrüche und ausgedehnte Ruhe- und Wachstumsphasen die Erdentwicklung geprägt. Während wir den kleinen Wandel in uns integriert haben, tun wir uns schwer mit Klimaänderungen umzugehen. Wie können wir von Gaia lernen und die Erdentwicklung begleiten während wir uns weiterentwickeln?

Wärme als geistig-physische Brücke in der Organik

In Fortsetzung des Wärmekurses kann bei der menschlichen Bewegung Wärme als eine Brücke gefunden werden, die eine physische Manifestation von geistigen Impulsen als «Wille» auch bis in Substanzvorgänge hinein ermöglicht. «Wille» braucht auch eine seelische Wärme, und eine erweiterte Thermodynamik fern von dem dem abgestorbenen Mineralischen entsprechenden Gleichgewicht kann uns durch ihre Unvorhersagbarkeit diesen Übergang auch physikalisch verständlich machen.

Bericht zum aktuellen Stand des geschädigten Naturschutzgebietes Schwinbach-Aue 

Mit Führung auf dem betroffenen Gelände beim Glashaus.

www.initiative-dornach-arlesheim.ch

Observing One's Thinking & Cognitive Phenomenology

Observing One's Thinking (PhilOfFreedom, Bernardo Gut, Teichmann, Strube) enables one to observe thought movements, the lowest level of living thinking and imagination. The method is universal, but in university contexts (cognitive phenomenology) I select different concepts than with students of elementary or spiritual beings, experiencing the phenomenal contrast in thought movements of, for example, water beings or water spirits.

Approaching the Human Body Through Self Experience

The practice of Bothmer gymnastics and Gerda Alexander eutony will allow us to make useful observations of the law of gravity and the law of righting in the human being. Exercises and exchanges based on experience.

The Rainbow as a Bridge to the Beings of Colour

In his Principles Steiner describes the descent of man from being to revelation to efficacy to work. In our time man learns to ascend in the opposite direction. Tanis Helliwel stated that everyone can access nature spirits through a specific group of them. For me these are the beings of colour. The rainbow is central in this workshop. Through experiments we approach the phenomenon (the Work), through meditative exercises the Efficacy and eventually something of the Revelation of these Beings.

Zur Gestaltbiologie der «Südkontinente»

Ausgehend von der Gestaltbiologie der (Säuge)tiere und der Vegetation, wollen wir auf die drei «Südkontinente» – genauer: auf die drei Tropenregionen unserer Erde – blicken. Dabei kann man grosse Regelmässigkeit in Form einer «globalen Dreigliederung» finden. Bei der Arbeitsform handelt es sich nicht um fertige Vorträge, sondern um einen Werkstattbericht und ein gemeinsames Herantasten an die Phänomene. Näheres dazu finden Sie hier.

Das Blattverwandlungsspiel

Gelingt es mir, aus einem Haufen von Spielkärtchen, auf denen Blätter gedruckt sind, die Blätter zusammenzusuchen, die eine Blütenpflanze nacheinander bildet? Welche Gesetzmässigkeiten sind zu erkennen? Ein spielerischer Umgang mit der Vielfalt von Formen - für Gruppen oder Einzelpersonen.

A Goethean approach to Psychology

In Goethean Psychology, the artistic medium is the human body itself, using gesture. The observer follows an imaginative perception of their own bodily gesture to observe archetypal patterns common to all human soul life. As in the Goethean observation of a plant, principles of the soul life can be imaginatively observed, clothed in personal particulars, just as the principles of plant development are clothed as primrose or buttercup.