tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4453450052967579334.post1285336359414301767..comments2023-06-19T01:24:49.277+01:00Comments on Brief Outlines : Rudolf Steiner's Philosophy of FreedomBrief Outlineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18153534581115253885noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4453450052967579334.post-85346198767901771792020-12-15T22:30:01.846+00:002020-12-15T22:30:01.846+00:00"The westerner does not spontaneously see spi..."The westerner does not spontaneously see spirits, and is not determined by them - but by refusing to 'know' the reality of spirits, he has also become determined by the spirit world."<br /><br />This is a very good point, and has got me thinking... Brief Outlineshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18153534581115253885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4453450052967579334.post-83706872617777451592020-12-14T08:36:38.130+00:002020-12-14T08:36:38.130+00:00An example of this stood out from the time when I ...An example of this stood out from the time when I was interested in hunter gatherers. I read a report where a western anthropologist was present at a 'shaman' public ceremony duing which all the native hunter gatherers saw a spirit; but the western anthropologist saw nothing. Who was right?<br /><br />To the modern western consciousness, there are no spirits - so the natives must have been haveing a shared, 'hysterical' hallucination - or engaging in wishful thinking, or being duped by the shaman. Yet these people are able to live and function well in a natural environment - which they could hardly be doing if they were subject to unreal hallucinations. From the hunter gatherer persepctive, the anthropologist was self-blinded by his prejudices. <br /><br />For a postmodernist, the episode illustrates the relativity of all experience, that none of it is real; all of it 'merely' subjective. <br /><br />Another (true!) possibility, from Steiner and Barfield, is that there are different consciousnesses at work - the hunter gatherer can perceive the spirit world, and respond to it - but cannot Not see the spirit world, and so is determined by it (to that extent unfree). <br /><br />The westerner does not spontaneously see spirits, and is not determined by them - but by refusing to 'know' the reality of spirits, he has also become determined by the spirit world. <br /><br />The Steiner/ Barfield 'answer' is seemingly for the modern anthropologist to take advantage of the freedom of not being compelled to perceive and react to spirits; but by 'thinking', voluntarily to know the reality and nature of the spirit world - so that he can participate with spirits by conscious choice. <br /><br />My understanding of this is that the anthropologist could have known (in his thinking) that spirits were present and what they were doing, even though he could not perceive them.<br /><br />And the anthropologist should not try to perceive spirits; since that could only be done for a modern Man by lowering consciousness and reducing freedom, as with hallucinogenic drugs (or in delirium, psychosis, half-sleep etc). Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.com