A Conversation with Olivier Faelens (ex-Anthroposophy / Waldorf school student)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 มิ.ย. 2024
- Olivier Faelens from Belgium is the President of S.A.S. (Study and Advisory Group for Cults) and a former student of Anthroposophy (also known as the "Waldorf schools"). In this interview Olivier shares his experience as a former cult member, and offers his observations on strategically combating the influence of cult-like groups.
When I was 10 years old my twin got in trouble at our public school, so our mom and us started looking for a new school. After some searching we found a waldorf school that me and my twin loved: classes in sewing, gardening, woodworking, drawing and painting and a story hour with stories from norse mythology everyday!
We went to this new school and loved it; we learned lots of new skills, stories, rituals and games and made some very close friends! We were never thought to believe any religious systems, told anyone's beliefs, ideas or physical appearance wasn't right or told to behave in accordance with any religious beliefs. We were also never directly thought anthroposophical beliefs, which is a good thing in my opinion.
After primary school we went to a Waldorf secondary school, here we were taught all the regular secondary school things + cooking, sewing, wood- and metal working and eurythmia (which is pretty much slowly 'dancing', gesturing and acting out rhymes and music). Our school anthem was about a quest for the holy grail (which I think was meant figuratively: finding our own way and seeing good things in ourselves and others), but apart from that there was no religious aspect to my schooling.
The only restriction I remember was having to wait till age 13 for the school to allow dying our hair, but we did it anyway and didn't get in trouble for it.
After school I went on to regular higher education. I never experienced my school as a cult, because everyone was free to do what they wanted and encouraged to think. Although my mom has since started working as a biology and chemistry teacher in my former school I do not believe we have been sucked into a cult. There are no rules put on any of us about how we live, what we do, what we believe or what we eat.
Maybe my experience was different from other waldorf students' because my teachers and school policy were better than theirs, but honestly their schools must have been pretty bad if they were actually told to believe in god and the devil and were told critical thinking is bad.
Thanks for sharing. I have a friend who was raised in Waldorf and so after recently hearing someone say it’s a cult, I’m curious to hear the various sides of the story.
No this just is just grossly misrepresenting anthroposophy and the Waldorf schooling. Not all criticism is out of a place of love, most often it steams from contempt. Ie ill willed
@@ngrgroyper6004 definitely true sometimes. Do you want to say anything more about this?
This mans testimony is based on Anthroposophy and the Christian Community church. Both based on Rudolf Steiner, as is Waldorf Schools. However just because you have experiences with a Waldorf school does not mean you have a full understanding of Anthroposophy. I attended a Waldorf school and I studied Anthroposophy and Steiner's esoteric teachings as well as an adult. Waldorf schools would prefer to distance themselves from Steiner's esorteric teachings, however the schools do place seeds .. As an adult returning to Steiner, I took on his esorteric teachings far more openly and easily than most. I think this is because of my education as a child. As time goes on I am learning to question Steiner's philosophies and look at the world with new eyes.
Thanks. This is helpful. May I ask. What is your profession ? In essence - did you become conventionally successful by getting an unconventional education ?
thank you for posting this. My family are all Steiner. It's fucked up their lives and the lives of many people in our family and our friends' families. It's highly manipulative and controlling. Thanks again.
How so ?
the weird thing is how much i had to search to find its a cult
Here too...agreed. Did you reach out?
There are many schools of this type in the world. It is true they have a spiritual practice and people can disapprove it and leave. I followed Olivier Faelens' same decision in five days.
It's a white supremacist cult and the fact they're tied in with theosophists as well ought to tell a petsin with an IQ above room temperature that it's a completely idiotic way to educate kids. If anything, it rips them off.
a cult fulfill peoples longing for living in a tribe the ancient way
but it is more instable since its rules are not tried and tested over centuries, and its trying to be compensating that with more rigidity and more punishment
I'm neither a believer in the "Christian Community" nor the Waldorf schools, but I feel that lumping both in together is unfair. I attended an Evangelical theological college, where we learned about Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant/Evangelical Reformation, and the author of the notorious anti-semitic treatise, "On the Jews and Their Lies", which inspired Hitler and the Nazis to start burning down Jewish synagogues on Luther's birthday, the 10th of November aka Kristallnacht. (In addition to this, Calvin and Zwingli clearly advocated for putting Catholics and Anabaptists to death, so none of the Reformers are the heroes many believe of us believed them to be). Since Martin Luther marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, does this necessarily mean that all Protestants, Evangelicals or Lutherans are anti-semitic Nazis? Saying Waldorf Schools are Anthroposophy students in a cult, is like saying all Evangelical schools follow all of Luther's writings to the point of wanting to become Nazis and burn down synagogues, which is just not true.
Interesting. I'm going to have to look up the Waldorf School and doing a little bit of background research. I recognise the name from Teachers' College, but I can't say I know anything about it.
White supremacist, Crowley-type bs and the UK gov is using tax payer money to fund it which should totally OUTRAGE the citizens of the UK!
An anti-cult cult. Now I've seen everything
I just graduated from 12th grade after 15 years of waldorf education. Waldorf is not a cult. It is a beautiful community of people who are interested in a deeper life and who really care about how their children grow up. It encourages free thinking and teaching children in a way that doesn't just force knowledge down a child's throat. All you have to do to see what waldorf really is is compare a waldorf classroom to a public school classroom.
Great. And what do you do now ?
@@ayethegreat4997 Now I'm in college studying early childhood education, with minors in sociology and creative writing. I also work as a Waldorf kindergarten assistant. My brother is studying outdoor product design. I have former classmates all over the country and across the world studying every subject you can imagine. Psychology, chemistry, social work, veterinary medicine, law, becoming an EMT, music composition, you name it. I don't understand why people think that Waldorf students graduate not ready to take on the world.
You must wake up to the FACT that all religions and cults have a small piece of the puzzle and that YOU ARE THE GURU you were looking for. you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink! never look to man or cult for your identity
It's unbelievable that there's not more heat on these schools. My parents started one and it failed, not sure why. Maybe they actually did the research and realized their foundation was based on inherently racist ideology...or maybe they were racist (Dad was Native American so I'm not sure how this works). He was also very intelligent and I just can't see him not doing the research. Anyway I feel brainwashed at times...my childhood was not normal. I feel that alumni may be brainwashed to protect the truth about the roots of the ideology Waldorf is based on.
It would be interesting to know your story. You could write a blog or something like that.
Spot on! Its symantics as to whether you call it a cult or religion, but acting as if it is not fantastical, faith based practice is dishonest. Anthroposophy is both of those. Do you believe in devils, goblins, gods and a magical world you cant see? Do you believe that Rudolf Steiner had magic powers? If so, then anthroposophy is for you!
Cult dynamics as he points out are the same across all cults including the Waldorf school / Rudolf Steiner cult masked as an educational curriculum. I pity the children who are not able to make the choice to get out as their parents have been sucked into the situation which can be very difficult to remove themselves from. Sad all around.
It's strange to have any objection to a rational, caring and objective interview like this. Normally I support just this kind of investigation into cults , albeit destructive, high control cults rather than reasonably benign spiritual groupings of people around a certain philosophy. But I was myself a Waldorf teacher for many years and have remained a member of the Anthroposophical Society. At no time did I ever myself, nor did anyone ever urge me, to give up my faculties of critical thinking and reason. I was never in the Christian Community, nor do I consider myself a Christian in any accepted sense. Most of what Olivier Faelens described I can certainly understand from his point of view, and I know many of my fellow-anthroposophists well enough to realise that he is relating his experiences honestly and exactly. What is missing from the argument, however, is that his entire interaction was with one person, who he quite correctly cites as his "guru", who was working at the University of Antwerp and was acting, as does every Anthroposophists, in his personal capcity and on his own responsibility. There are quite a number of such figures within Anthroposophy, who draw a certain following around themselves and, I believe, exert a certain undue influence on others, such as advising a person to leave a loved one. That is clearly the behaviour of a cult and should quite rightly be censured. But this does not define Anthroposophy, in which there is no system of control, in which the principles of obedience and control are completly lacking and the question of belief is really left entirely up to the individual. I have myself had many brushes with cults in the course of my work and, while I see certain manifestations in Anthroposophy which are similar, this in no way characterises the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner or the work of the many, completely auntonomous institutions that carry out this work.
I am sorry that I have this objection. It is not easy from the inside to recognize a cult, even a "open" one like anthroposophy. And it is not easy to recognize one self in a cult, because the entire system of believes would fall apart.
In every cult at one point some people start to have doubts, but most of them never have doubts on the leader.
When someone leave, the ones who are still in, they think that is because of his particular experience, meeting the wrong people, or misunderstandings the books.
Objections are always the same.
It is like the mind cannot accept that leader didn't tell the truth and create everything..
This happens also with Steiner.
And there is no freedom in believe in something, it is faith.
It's faith cause nobody can prove it.
There is no an extreme vision or misunderstandings, it is Steiner vision.
Of course every person can have a religious belief, but than one cannot claim that is science, like Steiner did, is something that one cannot investigate, there is no method or path that works. It is a faith based on one man.
So one man claim to have the truth, than he teach you a method, exercises, meditation etc, with this method one can investigate by his own exactly? Than he tells you that you don't have to believe in his words, while is giving to you more than 700 conferences covering every aspect of life. You have to experience by yourself but by the moment I tell you everything.
So you repeat every day to yourself that yes you are free, cause Steiner told you, and cause you are following a path, path of freedom. But Steiner has defined the path, every step, every exercise.
And he has decided almost everything about the education, the medicine, the agriculture.
So or all anthroposophyst are clairvoyants or they are following instructions since 100 years.
There is a difference with religion, in a religion you don't have to proof nothing it's a belief.
While Steiner catch the attention of many people insisting of one self experience of the truth. And claiming that you can call this science.
But from the very first beginning he has fixed all the rules.
You're just trying to rationalize having wasted your life studying bs.
We have one of the Waldorf cult schools in Illinois, and a few others here in the mid-west, very disturbing stuff they are instilling in young minds and the community.
Like what?
Hey, I would love to speak to you about this as Im ex steiner and I'm trying to build a support network outside the cult
LOTS of nervous Steiner drones in the comments. 😂😂
Is this guy the president of the anti-cult cult?
A personal experience based on a very limited understanding of Anthroposophy. As written below, critical thinking is at the core of it. A personal quest is needed to experience truth. R. Steiner is famous for saying " please, do not take my word for it, research for yourself". And " do not judge contend just by the people preaching it". Food for thought.
R. Steiner also had the meeting of the guardian of the threshold spiritual initiation the end point of his teachings. Directing people into deep esorteric meditation to grow people's psychic abilities; "the student of the spirit ascends upon the path into the higher worlds of knowledge". Also food for thought.
Nonsense. There is no critical thinking WHAT.SO.EVER in that bs pseudo-philosophy.
then how do you explain that the steiner dogma hasn't evolved over all these years?
@@taniatey2909 It has -- although it depends on how you define it, exactly. I research Steiner as one of many people to connect the dots and a lot of what he has done (among dozens or more others) have helped piece together a number of the occult metaphysical phenomenon I have noticed in my life.
I've just spent my life figuring out what is. I don't actually know.
But I have noticed that there are some phenomena which-- to a western audience -- he happens to describe it better than others.
I am just looking for criticisms of him now, as I have already found some of Blavatsky which gives me reason for pause.
It's very tricky because I have noticed some metaphysical phenomena and patterns which can be replicated, but there is a LOT of reason for complexity and nuance given what knowledge I have. Of particular use is his concept of what he refers to as "luciferic" force, or sort of a false / illusory light, which again, is also connected to a number of traditions.
I don't take his word for everything.
I don't know, yet, if he has necessarily been a con artist or something, but perhaps may have been someone who discovered a lot of things and was seeing what he claimed he saw from his perspective.
I know a LOT of people like that... and I have seen many of the same things. But I also ask myself whether what I have seen is connected to another force which is creating the illusion of false unified cosmology --- and upon connecting what has been experienced from what you could call "astral" or whatever (I'm just trying to find words to describe it) to the physical --- I have found both real "powers" or "siddhis" manifested through "entities" people have connected to, but I have also found these to not always be accurate -- and in some cases, have patterns of tending to lead people to destruction, while seeming to produce miracles along the way. But WHILE this is happening, the experience can actually seem to be ENTIRELY positive, beautiful, and wonderful, until it ends up somewhere dark.
I, luckily, have been fortunate enough to turn away from that on a hunch -- despite all of the "signs" pointing in a positive direction. Others, not so much.
I don't know WHAT it all is, but this level of discernment is definitely missing from the more "new age" - like people, working with all of those trappings and ideas, as of 2022.
Most Christians will say they need Jesus and/or Yahweh.
Muslims will say they need Allah.
And... many other religious/spiritual systems can have various things they say people need which takes a lot longer to get into, with nuance and variation among sub-groups.
Interestingly though, is that there is a TREMENDOUS amount of information in common ------- and patterns which can be noticed, and logical maps which can be formed of if-then statements.
I'm basically just here doing detective work.
Be totally sure of this, for I could name MANY people I have met in my life whose perspective has been influenced by Steiner... and altered with additional information.
In fact, I would say it is quite common.
We just wouldn't call what we are doing a Steiner institute --- and he does not happen to be the most influential teacher in my life.
The most influential teacher is myself... and I will ask questions of people I come across -- and of books -- and of access points to various experiences.
_____________
One phenomena I am trying to deal with is THIS:
It seems highly plausible, from my current perspective --- that whatever deity / spirit / tradition one works with... one may actually end up SUBJECTIVELY experiencing the experiences of that tradition. But it's not all just in one's head, because those who are seriously on this path will notice "miracles" (which are not always, and not usually as crazy as something right out of the bible -- but can be quite profound. You might not believe me... so just take it as my subjective experience that this gets repeated and repeated...).
My concern is that almost and/or all spirits / religions themselves may be false diversions.
There is definitely a "deception" in the astral / spirit side of things... which does seem to have the power to orchestrate coincidences, and create things such as divination, teaching, healing, harm, etc. -- with various levels of effect ----- and there are VERY definite patterns, many of which I believe should have people give great caution.
I would say for example, if one does a mantra to Ganesha with certain virtues (I can't tell you what they are) that person may begin to experience "Ganesha" consciousness or interaction or partial possession or blessing... things like that.
But that doesn't mean that what is experienced as Ganesha is telling the truth.
And I can DEFINITELY say people have experienced false gods of pretty much every major religion in my research... I don't find any of them 100% beleivable as I have found either holes or reasons to be skeptical of almost every tradition I have come across.
For such reason... I work on experiencing things --- WITHOUT rituals that will lock me into THIS frequency or THAT frequency because I think that's what's happening.
Each ritual or tone you use is like opening your browser or email to a certain address.
And many of those entries could easily do NOTHING or bring you to a DIFFERENT result depending on how your internet connection is set up... or if you have any viruses.
That's the best analogy I can possibly give. The human-mind-body-spirit-complex is like computers.
I don't know what it all is.
I can write 10 books on the patterns... and say that these patterns exist 90% of the time --- from what *I* have seen / noticed / seen documented.
But that might just be one VERY VERY VERY TINY aspect of what has been done by, like 0.000000000000000000000050000026589411 % of what has been done by even the 100th - 200th most experienced humans who have ever lived. I don't know how one would really know.
But I don't find it to be a total waste of time to go after it.
Steiner simply gave me the vocabulary to say, "Ahrimanic" to refer to the desire to say that "everything is material only, there is no spirit" and "Luciferic" to refer to an over-spiritual-fanciful-like identification, which I would certainly apply to the majority of New Age youtube as well as most spiritual seekers I have met in my life, like 90% (other than the few who I have kept around).
If I am ever in some group that tells me I can't critically think I tell them to F*** OFF and I have voluntarily left almost every group I have joined for some reason, often something like that --- people are too limited in their thinking.
. . . . . . . . .
So... I have a LOT more to do to understand the body of Steiner's work.
But MANY MANY people DEFINITELY look at his work, and use it as a mere sign-post to help their attempted navigation, information, or description of the cosmos, and come up with unique perspectives.
The thing is, those who do, are not as easy to google and categorize as organizations with big, fancy names.
I just wanna know if I can catch the guy in a juicy scam. That would be informative.
@@bright-flame You are doing your science homework, the same way that all of us gone through that pathway, even Steiner. You are reaching a verificationist perspective on entities, phenomena and the Universe itself and later that will carry you to collapse in front of nihilism. Rationalism must be critical in the sense of falsationism, and verificationism must be only provisional. When it is not done that way, well, there are a lot of forces around you and inside your mind that can and will take all of you until there remains nothing about youself. There is no scam in cognition and mental potentials to alter the reality surrounding you, and verificationst sciences do it as well as cults all arround the world, leaving you trapped in hard echo chambers. We can talk about these topics if you want, I think we can learn some things from each other, tell me if it sounds good for you and will give you a place to connect.
WALDORF STUDENTS ARE NOT ANTHROPOSOPHY STUDENTS! Anthroposophy is not part of the 12 year curriculum
it can be compared to students who go to a christian school where they don't study christianity, chances are that the majority of the students end their curriculum as christians
@@taniatey2909 That's not the same thing at all. Students in religious schools have religion class and may even have to attend mass as part of their schedule. Many people graduate from Waldorf not even knowing what anthroposophy is because it is never talked about. Unless your parents are anthroposophists, you won't grow up hearing about anthroposophy. Even in Waldorf high schools it is never discussed.
@@louisegreer4790 the point i am making is that even though anthroposophy isn't studied, a lot of the students will hold anthroposophic values or worldview, even if only through eurythmy or any ritual which waldorf schools are rich of
@@piersregan7586 the point i'm making is that certain values or behaviours or views are transferred through rituals, that's all
@@piersregan7586 the rituals used in waldorf schools, so the views and values expressed in anthroposophy, behaviour is related to view and value
Anthroposophy is not a group, it's a body of knowledge- mainly what Rudolf Steiner wrote. Sure there is a society. It's not very big. You can go to meeting and read lectures together- there are no rituals. There is no compulsion to stay. No one will pressure you. You are not compelled to believe one thing or another.
Steiner honoured people's free will choices, and he abhorred dogmatism:
"We found communities of human beings within which there must be no
dogmatic beliefs or any tendency to accept teaching simply because it
emanates from one person or another. We found communities of human
beings in which everything, without exception, must be built upon the
soul's free assent to the teachings. Herein we prepare what spiritual
science calls freedom of thought."
-Rudolf Steiner
Anything could be a cult, read, research and study the framework of S.A.S and see where they form their basis of judgment, their rational, what influences their points of view, is it contemporary society, science, psychology, etc. Study their thinking and analyze their points of critically. They claim that cults create people identities, perhaps they do, society also creates our identity, our nationalities create our identities, what creates their identity?
+Martin Young I suppose I should also go to Kim Jong-Un to find out if he is truly a despotic tyrant.
Yes, why not, why stop short, go all the way my friend, enlighten us all, cedar-cult style!
Perhaps you could also come to America, let us all know if Obama is truly a Socialist and Muslim while your at it. There is after all what can only be called a cult-like following of Obama!.....
Next of course would be Russia and Putin, who has his own preferred Motorcycle Club, would love to hear your thoughts on Putinism!.....
Spiritual scientists like to think about thinking, they like to trace the source of people's thoughts and the framework/context out of which they arise, back to their origins. Spooky isn't it, people thinking about you and what has influenced your thought processes, analyzing your conclusions, questioning whether you are forming your own judgments or simply regurgitating stuff perhaps which you learned at school.
Perhaps we could all benefit from the freedoms of independent thinking, feeling and willing and learn once again to respect each others points of view instead of always resulting to superficial insults. Learn to truly dive into the thoughts and feelings of others, however repulsive and repugnant they may be to our own and see if there is not some type of truth behind what they say.
More videos please, we want to get to the source of your outlook and who you reference as a guide for your the critical framework which you use to judge everyone else. what is the illuminating source behind your words?
hi there!
in any school systems you find bad teachers... not living up to their own expectations!
steiner ment the best... just read IT YOURSELF!.... what people CAN make of it . ....are different stories!
some are great, because you can find great individuals in Steinrr schools or their way of farming too!..... humans are tempted creatures!
it does not matter what you believe in. we all have to balance good and bad.... but I agree:
teachers who don't 'get' .... their pupils (or what the agegroup needs) should not be teaching!!!
The whole foundation of Anthroposophy is "critical thinking". Where he got the idea that it is against critical thinking is absurd.
well the stuff R Steiner is claiming to know! is absurd and anti science. If you really practice critical thinking on steiner your only conclusion can be that he is totally delusional and is definitely not contributing human kind!! you agree?
Absolutely. I went to three Steiner schools and they focus on critical thinking. Everyone I know from school constantly change their mind and never stop learning. Everyone I know from outside have such a hatred of learning and seem so uncritical, bar a select few. Steiner teaches you to learn by yourself and think by yourself. Anthropological education is a key reason why. Not that it's the only way.
Edwin van gent they were his opinions. in a time and place where his thoughts were very critical and radical. of course, almost 100 years after his death, we know more and he looks stupid. every average person looks stupid in what we know and how we act now.
plenty of people practice religion and spiritualism and are critical. and plenty of people we raise up high from history have had equally questioning religious beliefs that don't match up with modern science. critical thinking isn't always right.
his beliefs in stuff like reincarnation are believed by so many people... all that aside, people have taken his words and interpreted, picked and chosen. and at Steiner school, you barely learn about Steiner the man. it's just his ideas on how people should be educated, which I for one think are brilliant and undoubtedly encourage free and critical thinking.
I went to a Steiner school and critical thinking about Steiner was definitely at the very least strongly discouraged. We also had any amount of rules that 'you will understand later' - like how to draw the Orthodox Steiner Way. There was a general distrust of modern technology, that was also not really critically analysed. Anything that existed when Rudolf was alive was good, anything after that was either bad or at least suspect.
While it was not completely dogmatic, there definitely was a notable lack of critical thinking.
@@TulilaSalome I went to a Steiner School and had the exact opposite experience. Just like all types of schools, there are well run Steiner Schools and badly run Steiner Schools.
My takeaway from this video is that any belief which is shared by others is a cult. I am getting the impression that you simply do not believe in people having any faith, period. I may not continue to subscribe to this channel if you continue down this path. You seem to want people to not have the right to believe in anything spiritual, regardless of whether the belief is part of some organization.
I would encourage a little more patience here with John/Lloyd as he finds his sea legs, so to speak..
These young men are wrestling with many things they were taught as truth, but proved false. It takes a while to sort thru
@@richardvsassoon5144 well said..... Now 4 years later he is stuck in the same loop. Channels like his are necessary stepping stones for people that are trying to advance and descend in their knowledge and spirituality. But if you spend anything more than a month listening to this kind of stuff, you are stuck in the same loop with him. Glad he's here, but move on from this garbage., which is usually hate and fear based. Anthroposophy is an excellent modality of thought. Try it
@@iambeing4328 I tried it! It is actually not very good because it has a "secret society" element to it. As I went further and further into the association, more and more things were "revealed" to me and it did take away my sense of critical thinking because it makes you rely on the Anthroposophical view-point. Eventually I could really only see the world through Anthroposophical googles and when I began to detach from that world view it became painful in a way to recognize the world differently. It is also very wrong to think that Lucifer and other beings (like Ahriman) are really helpers of mankind. They are not helpers, they are deceivers. AND, there is only ONE Jesus Christ, he did not have a brother and he is not a son god. There are many wrongs here. Root races? That is just mind-control of the 19th century fascists who wanted world domination. Anthroposophy taught me where real racism comes from, and what is worse is that no Anthroposophical follower can willingly admit they are racists. It's not okay to think in this form.
@@gabicerva Steiner doesn’t see Lucifer and Ahriman as helpers. He tells us to acknowledge and work through traits of theirs within us (sin) and to put our focus on Christ.
Anthroposophy is not a cult! It is a teaching which furthers free thinking and spiritual action within the life. Those who make it into a cult do it damage. Rudolf Steiner was a true seer whose message is for the whole of humankind. This guy should concentrate on real cults which seek to enslave, like right-wing Christianity...
Well, you certainly make it sound like a cult! Awkward!
John Cedars How does furthering free thinking and spiritual action sound like a cult? There is no one, absolutely no one, in Anthroposophical study who coerces anyone into ways of thinking - it is all coming from the person who accepts or rejects whatever he/she reads. You don't have to join anything, interact with anyone. They should concentrate on helping people in the real cults like Scientology, etc...
chickrah By the way, no one should interfere or criticize anyone's path in life unless there is a real danger to him. I have a feeling that you would think that anything that someone embraces to help him/her grow spiritually is a cult. It's really all about how conscious a person is....
chickrah Here is what Steiner says about it: "We found communities of human beings within which there must be no dogmatic beliefs or any tendency to accept teaching simply because it emanates from one person or another. We found communities of human beings in which everything, without exception, must be built upon the soul's free assent to the teachings. Herein we prepare what spiritual science calls freedom of thought..."
you couldn't have said it better. people who criticize Steiner often don't even know anything about him or his teachings. if they made an effort to understand and ask the right questions about life and the meaning of things, they'd be happy with what they find.
Interest how this guy seem to actually know nothing of anthroposophy. And labeling reincarnation and chakras as new age is just laughable. Sadly ignorant
I'm sorry that you had this experience, Olivier. However, just as we should all caution against joining groups which set restrictions on our thought, we might also caution against writing off an entire body of knowledge - or in this case, branding it as "cultish" - because of the groups which create those restrictions around it. What you had said about the group you were a part of associating the act of critical thinking with the devil, I know Steiner himself would have been horrified to hear. Fanatical thinking is not the kind of thinking Steiner ever encouraged. All the same, having read many of Steiner's books, it is not totally unfathomable to me that the texts themselves could be adapted for something extreme, as you experienced. This is true for any language that we employ, however. We often read texts without looking for the meaning behind the words, focusing on the words themselves, especially when these texts concern themselves with "Truth". One can see this occur in light of religious texts, scientific texts, philosophical texts, or any writing which makes an attempt to explain the world. Perhaps if we can not have a free relationship to the texts that we read and views of reality that we adopt (in the sense that we aren't able to see any untruth in them, and actually annul the inclination in ourselves to make that view of reality any better), we should be focused primarily on developing that free relationship to our thoughts. I might ask myself, "Do I need this to be true?" If so, why? If I don't need something to be true then I am free to decide what is worth believing about it, and what isn't.
Sounds like the Anthroposophical world-view has beautifully wrapped you in their way of thinking because you are defending it. No one wants to admit to being in a cult. I sure didn't want to when I was warned. Anthroposophical world views are very comforting. You need to understand that much of what institutional racism is based on are world-views which were strong in the 19th century through many organizations that helped imbed it into society. Madame Blavatsky was very influential as well as the Theosophical society. Anthroposophy teaches racism in such a beautiful way that you come to accept it as normal.
I concur with what the previous reply says, and also call out, gaslighting, and immense proportions. Not just with your comment, but with every comment, the defense is utter utter nonsense. I’ve been slowly being sucked into the Waldorf way for four years now, I am now finding my way back out. I want nothing more to do with us, would anyone like a 12 string diatonic harp?
sorry, I think you never ever read a book related with antroposophy. For me your opinions are so superficial. Antroposophy is all about freedom. Cults have nothing to do with this science.