Outline of the processes of cosmic evolution, including detailed exercises for attaining higher conscious states.

This book contains all of the talks given by Steiner in the Stuttgart school during the years 1919-1924. Included are speeches given by him at various school assemblies, parents' evenings, and other meetings. On all these occasions, Steiner spoke spontaneously, warmly, and enthusiastically. Readers will find here a unique glimpse of what Steiner was really like, and how he viewed the school and the educational philosophy he brought into being. From the Foundations of Waldorf Education series.

"We must become selfless-that is the task of culture today for the future. Human beings must become more and more selfless. Therein lies the future of right moral life actions, the future of all acts of love that can occur through earthly humanity." -Rudolf Steiner (Approaching the Mystery of Golgotha) In a lecture eight weeks before the outbreak of World War I, Rudolf Steiner, conscious of developments to come, coined the phrase "culture of selflessness" to describe the culture that would develop in the future. The far-reaching social implications of his primarily Christological lectures on the Fifth Gospel, given in 1913/14 under the same political circumstances, were foreign to many of Steiner's contemporary audiences, who largely failed to understand his dramatic accounts drawn from the Fifth Gospel (or that gospel itself) as a "source of comfort" for the future, or (as Rudolf Steiner said of them) as "needed" for future work. The subsequent catastrophes of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, however, have sensitized us to Steiner's central themes and contents of 1913/14. He spoke of spiritual development and self-preservation in the face of great suffering; of truly participating in the misfortunes of others; and of acquiring "true selflessness" that takes the human "I" fully into account. During the 1930s, during the National Socialist reign of violence, a few of Rudolf Steiner's pupils took this path of moral resistance and all-embracing therapeutic action. One example is described in the second chapter of this volume. Many other destinies are less well-known; by now, they can no longer be saved completely from oblivion. They include the great life work of Maria Krehbiel-Darmstadter, an anthroposophist of Jewish origin who was murdered in Auschwitz in January 1943. However, both now and in the future, in a world that must find humane ways to endure continued calamities of tremendous magnitude, the task Rudolf Steiner described remains relevant in all cultures and all parts of the globe. "A single great community covers the earth. Its name is suffering and strength."

The point, line, plane and solid objects represent the first three dimensions, but a kind of reversal of space is involved in the ascent to a fourth dimension. Steiner leads us to the brink of this new perspective-as nearly as it can be done with words, diagrams, analogies, and examples of many kinds. In doing so, he continues his lifelong project of demonstrating that our objective, everyday thinking is the lowest rung of a ladder that reaches up to literally infinite heights. The talks in this series and the selections from the question-and-answer sessions on many mathematical topics over the years are translated into English for the first time in THE FOURTH DIMENSION. They bring us to tantalizing new horizons of awareness where Steiner hoped to lead his listeners: Topics include: * The relationship between geometric studies and developing direct perception of spiritual realities * How to construct a fourth-dimensional hypercube * The six dimensions of the self-aware human being * Problems with the theory of relativity * The Trinity and angelic hierarchies and their relationship to physical space * The dimensional aspect of the spiritual being encountered by Moses on Mt. Sinai

"Rudolf Steiner's model of a spiritualized medicine could hold the key for the next growth phase in Western medicine, if it is to survive, flourish, and become consistently and deeply therapeutic instead of merely palliative." -Richard Leviton, author of Imagination of Pentecost: Rudolf Steiner & Contemporary SpiritualityRudolf Steiner, a scientist by training, lectured and wrote, at different times on medical subjects and advised physicians on their work. His view of medicine was both unconventional and precise. He could describe-based on his highly developed powers of observation and his spiritual research-processes of health and disease that escape conventional methods of medical observation. In all his lectures to doctors and in his explanations of anthroposophic medicine, Steiner emphasized that his medical concepts are not intended to replace conventional Western medicine, but to extend it; diagnosis and healing methods are expanded to include our soul and spirit. In these broadly ranging talks, Steiner introduces fundamental principles of anthroposophically extended medicine. Some of the most remarkable insights that anthroposophy brings to medicine are contained in this volume. For example, Steiner points out that the heart is not a pump and that its motion is a consequence, not the cause, of rhythmic movements in human beings. Topics include: Health problems, such as hay fever, migraine, sclerosis, cancer, tuberculosis, typhoid, and childhood diseasesThe polarity between nerve and liver cellsThe functions of the spleen and the gallbladderThe three basic processes of sensory-nervous system, rhythmic system, and metabolic-limb systemRegenerative and degenerative processesThe true nature of the nervous systemPlus many suggestions for the use of minerals, plants, and artistic therapies in healing.This Collected Works edition contains a new introduction, a chronology of Rudolf Steiner's life, and an index.

Though Steiner was born with clairvoyant capacities, it was not until his fortieth year that he could link his inner experiences with the principal figure of Western spirituality, Jesus Christ. After that "solemn festival of knowledge", as he describes it in his autobiography, Steiner received ceaseless revelations about the significance and detailed course of the Christ's incarnation. In lecture cycles spanning two decades, he spoke of the hidden background to all four gospels, the Book of Revelations, and even the "Fifth Gospel" of events that he read directly from the spiritual worlds.

This lecture cycle presents the most accessible and illuminating of Steiner's revelations with regard to Christ, and his significance for humanity's spiritual development. He discusses the link between Buddha and the life of Christ, a description that unites Buddhism and Christianity, not in theory but in perceived spiritual deeds of these two figures. Here, too, Steiner describes the relationship of the Greek Mystery traditions to the event at Golgotha:

"A 'sign' was to be placed before them as well, a sign now to be enacted before the eyes of all mankind. The 'mystical death' that had been a ceremonial act in the Mystery Temples for hundreds and thousands of years was now to be presented on the great arena of world-history. Everything that had taken place in the secrecy of the Temples of Initiation was brought into the open as a single event on Golgotha".

Utilizing a historical overview, revealing the relationship between the great religious traditions, and how they have conspired together for the good of humanity, Steiner never loses sight of the Gospel's great inner meaning, as echoed in theGospel of St. Luke: "The revelation of the spiritual worlds from the Heights and its answering reflection from the hearts of men brings peace to all whose purpose upon the evolving Earth is to unfold good will".

A clear, concise explanation of human nature; the worlds of body, soul, and spirit; the laws of reincarnation; and the workings of karma.

Topics include: The Three States of Night Consciousness ? The Changing Experience of Breathing in the Course of History ? The Inquiry and Formulation of the Cosmic Word in Breathing In and Out ? The teaching of the Risen One ?  The Threefold Sun and the Risen Christ ? and more.

For two weeks, prior to the opening of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Rudolf Steiner intensively prepared the individuals he had chosen to become the first Waldorf teachers. At 9:00 a.m. he gave the course now translated as Foundations of Human Experience; at 11:00 a.m., Practical Advice to Teachers; and then, after lunch, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., he held the informal "discussions" published in this book. The tone is spontaneous and relaxed. Steiner does not prescribe specific methods but introduces topics and situations, giving guidelines and allocating practical assignments that are taken up and discussed in the next session. In this way, the discussions are filled with insights and indications in many different areas of teaching - history, geography, botany, zoology, form drawing, mathematics. Speech exercises are included. This edition also includes, for the first time in English, three very important lectures on the curriculum given on the day before the school opened. These fifteen discussions constitute an essential part of the basic training material for Waldorf teachers.