Becoming a Researcher in the Realm of the Spirit

by Rudiger Janisch and Michael Howard

The object of the General Anthroposophical Society will be the furtherance of research in the realm of the spirit, that of the School of Spiritual Science the actual pursuit of such research.

Ninth Statute of the Constitution of the Anthroposophical Society, 1923

A healthy self-knowledge leads most anthroposophists to assume they do not have the capacities to do spiritual research. If “research in the realm of the spirit” means only clairvoyant research of the kind and scope exemplified by Rudolf Steiner then clearly such research remains at present a lofty goal beyond the reach of most of us. If so, in what sense did Rudolf Steiner have the expectation that anthroposophists would mature from students of spiritual research to actual researchers in the realm of the spirit? In what sense did he intend the Anthroposophical Society to be an association of spiritual researchers with the School of Spiritual Science as the place where spiritual research was cultivated and the capacities and methods of the spiritual researcher developed?

There are different aspects and directions of “research in the realm of the spirit” that we might consider. In a lecture given after the burning of the Goetheanum on February 6, 1923 in Stuttgart (see Awakening to Community), Rudolf Steiner challenged anthroposophists to acquire two complementary faculties. The one can be characterized as a spiritualizing of thinking while the other is a spiritualizing of willing. The spiritualization of thinking can be understood as learning to reconnect with the living spirit of thinking that dies in everyday thoughts and ideas. To spiritualize thinking, to enter the living world of thinking and imaginations, we must learn to suffuse our thinking with will, to will in thinking. In Leading Thought 106 we find: “Michael will lead the will upward, retracing the paths by which the wisdom descended to the final stage of intelligence.” In practice this means to counter the unfree stream of thoughts and opinions that flow through us as a force of nature in everyday consciousness by learning to will what we think as, for example, when we try to think about a pencil for five minutes without distraction.

The other faculty of spiritualizing willing begins with our learning to observe our will activity, to suffuse our willing with thinking, to think in willing. This can be practiced after we try thinking about a pencil and can then observe the waxing and waning of our will to stay focused or become distracted. Learning to observe this waxing and waning of our will even during the exercise is the key to catching our attention from losing its focus.

Similarly, a painter can learn to observe the inner activity of thinking and feeling that underlies her outer activity, for example, whether she is working out of sympathy/antipathy for the colors or out of a perception of the soul/spiritual qualities of the colors like their warmth and coolness. Likewise, a teacher can learn to observe the inner quality of their thinking and feeling that effect the outer quality of how they speak and move.

This second faculty of observing our will is implied in all the lectures in which Rudolf Steiner responded to a question or a need for applying anthroposophy in life such as: the need for a new education for children, the new art of speaking, the new art of movement (Eurythmy), the bio-dynamic care for the earth, curative education, renewal of religious life, a new way of healing, and so on. In all these and other examples, Rudolf Steiner describes directly or indirectly a transformation of our will from an unfree arbitrary and personal willing to a free willing that allows the spirit to work creatively in our deeds so that they might better serve human and world evolution. This spiritualization of the will that we can cultivate when incarnating our ideals into practical reality raises a practical activity into an art, as in the art of education, the art of healing etc.

To any and all practical spheres spiritual science would have us bring not only new ideas about art, teaching, healing, and social life, it asks us to cultivate new faculties of perception, thinking, and feeling in order to spiritualize our deeds. The cultivation of these new faculties is an art that depends on a more refined perception of our will, our inner activity. There is no one-way-fits-all formula for how each individual can take hold of their will in developing new ways of perceiving, thinking, feeling, and ultimately new ways of acting in the world. Each person must find their individual way to transform themselves. In this sense self-metamorphosis is a form of spiritual research.

This opens up an area of research for many individuals. Everyone who does the inner work of meditation, as well as the inner work behind the outer activity of bio-dynamics gardening and farming, of teaching children and adults, of healing, of business, have reason and opportunity to better observe and learn from their activity of will. We will not only learn more from our individual actions but, furthermore, we can see it as a modest way we can each play a role in building a culture of spiritual research. The situation of our time calls for more individuals to take up the challenge of self-metamorphosis that will lead them to be not only students of spirit research but to become actual researchers of spirit. The School for Spiritual Science and the Anthroposophical Society will find new life and direction as a community of individuals, who dare to strive to be spiritual researchers, if only at the most elementary level.

As an individual we can feel disheartened before the scope of what is needed for the earth, for the souls of human beings and for spiritual beings. Goethe in his fairy tale of the Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily lets the old man with the lamp say:

“Whether I can help, I know not; an individual helps not, but he who unites himself with many at the right moment can. We will postpone the evil, and keep hoping. Hold the circle united.”

This leads us to another aspect of the mission of the School for Spiritual Science:

Human beings who seek voluntary relationships group themselves around a center. The feelings which stream towards the center will give spiritual beings the opportunity to work as a kind of group soul, but in an entirely different way from the old group souls. These new beings are compatible with the freedom and individuality of men. Yes, we may say that they derive their existence from human unity and harmony.

Rudolf Steiner June 1, 1908 The Influence of Spiritual Beings on Men

This insight underlies all collegial work, be it in schools, farms, villages, hospitals, stage groups, offices, etc. What the individual cannot achieve out of him or herself, by sharing and working together with others regarding a question, a problem, a need, one can find a way forward, one can form a living thought, an imagination of the will to guide one’s actions.

Such smallish groups of inquiring, reflecting, researching practitioners of the spirit are seed groups in the Sections of the School for Spiritual Science. Circles of people, like branches of the Anthroposophical Society, can share from their work and research in a spirit of an open mind, heart, and will.

The General Section of the School for Spiritual Science...

...is both the starting point and the center of the School for Spiritual Science. Here a foundation is laid step by step for all branches of spiritual research. The three core subjects are: anthroposophical study of the human being; evolution and history of humanity; and the science of initiation. Rudiger Janisch and Michael Howard are members of the School in North America.