Anthroposophy and Ecofascism 44

Continuing my commentary on the 12th paragraph of Peter Staudenmaier's Anthroposophy and Ecofascism.

Steiner's description of the Akasha Chronicle from the last post was also to take a position against C.W Leadbeater's (a prominent Theosophist) description of the Akasha in a 1903 book titled “Clairvoyance.”

"When the visitor to [the mental] plane is not thinking specifically of them in any way, the records simply form a background to whatever is going on, just as the reflections in a pier-glass at the end of the room might form a background the life of the people in it. It must always be born in mind that under these conditions they are really merely reflections from the ceaseless activity of a great Consciousness upon a far higher plane, and have very much the appearance of an endless succession of cinematographs, or living photographs. They do not a melt into one another like dissolving views, nor do a series of ordinary pictures follow one other; but the action of the reflected figures constantly goes on as though one were watching the actors on a distance stage. But if the trained investigator turns his attention special especially to any one scene, or wishes to call it up before him, an extraordinary change at once takes place, for this is the plane of thought, and to think of anything is to bring it instantly before you. For example, if a man wills to see the record of that event to which we before referred – the landing of Julius Caesar – he finds himself in the moment not looking at any picture, but standing on the shore among the legionnaires, with the whole scene being enacted around him, precisely in every aspect as he would have seen it if he had stood there in the flash on that autumn morning in the year 55 B.C. Since what he sees is but a reflection, the actors are of course entirely unconscious of them, nor can any effort of his change the course of their action in the smallest degree, except only that he can control the rate at which the drama shall pass before him – can have the event of the whole year rehearsed before his eyes in a single hour, or can at any moment stop the movement altogether and hold the particular scene in view as a picture as long as he chooses."

C.W. Leadbeater. "Clairvoyance." Adyar, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1903. 13 th Reprinting, 1978. Pages 141-142.

Neither classical Theosophy nor Steiner's Anthroposophy consider the Akasha Chronicle to be a written record. While throwing around words like "scripture" and "tenets of belief" is a clever way to impute religious character to Steiner's work (and blind faith on the part of his followers), it remains clear that Peter Staudenmaier has no actual understanding of that which he condescendingly denigrates.