In one reference to his book The Philosophy of Freedom, Steiner stresses that, among other things, he had been concerned to clarify the experience of freedom in thought, in pure thinking emancipated from the senses.

“In thoughts which consciously arise in the human soul as an ethical, moral ideal, in thoughts which have the strength to influence the human will and to lead it to action, in such thoughts there is freedom.


We can speak of freedom when we speak of actions shaped by the human being’s own free thinking, when he reaches the point, through a moral self-training, of not allowing his actions to be influenced by instincts, passions, emotions, or by his temperament, but only by the devoted love for an action. Out of the ideal strength of pure ethical thinking --the devoted love of an action-- something can develop. This is really free action.”

Fair Oaks, Ca—Craig Anderson, 32, a Sacramento-area engineering consultant, has earned the pity of friends and acquaintances for his tragic reluctance to embrace many of Rudolf Steiner’s lectures, sources reported Monday.

"I honestly feel sorry for Craig," said long time Anthroposophical Society member Brunhilde Heilbronn, 96, who knew Steiner. "To live in this world not believing in clairvoyant visions of Lemuria from the akashic record, doubting that Christ is a sun god—that's such a sad, cynical way to live. I don't know how he gets through his day."

Branch Supreme Council member Klaus Heinrich, who spends roughly 30 percent of his annual income at SteinerBooks, similarly extended his compassion for Anderson. "Craig is a real gentleman," Heinrich said. "It's just too bad he's chosen to cut himself off from the world of the supersensible, restricting his beliefs to the limited universe of what can be verified through his own personal experience."

Also feeling pity for Anderson is his former girlfriend Aimee Svenson, a holistic and homeopathic healer who earns a living selling tonics and medicines diluted to one molecule per gallon. "Don't get me wrong—logic and reason have their place," Svenson said. "But Craig fails to recognize the danger of going too far with common sense to the exclusion of alternative New Age remedies like chakra cleansing and energy-field realignment."

"I admit, science might be great for curing diseases, exploring space, cataloging the natural phenomena of our world, saving endangered species, extending the human lifespan, and enriching the quality of that life," Aimee said. "But at the end of the day, only gurus can tell us about the human soul, and that's a critical thing Craig is missing.

Gina Hitchens, a lifelong astrology devotee, blamed Anderson’s lack of faith on an accident of birth.

"Craig can't entirely help himself, being a Gemini," Hitchens said. "Geminis are always very skeptical and destined to feel pain throughout life as a result of their closed-mindedness. If you try to introduce Craig to anything even remotely hard to believe, he starts going off about 'evidence this' and 'proof that.' If only the poor man were open-minded enough to stop attacking everything with his brain and just once look into his heart, he'd find all the proof he needed. But, sadly, he's unable to let even a little bit of blind faith drive his core beliefs."

Indian Valley by Jennifer Thomson, Crestone Colorado. For 33 years, Jennifer has honed her artistic talent and teaching abilities. She spent 4 years in Beppe Assenza’s studio in Dornach Switzerland where she studied Goethe’s color theory and Rudolf Steiner’s color indications and spiritual science.

Does conscious thinking always lead to good decisions and satisfactory choices?

According to consumer research, participants who chose their favorite poster among a set of five after thorough contemplation showed less post choice satisfaction than participants who only looked at them briefly. This research was then used to attack the overall belief in the value of conscious deliberation.

The consumer choice of your favorite poster to hang on your wall is a choice to experience the greatest amount of pleasure with the least amount of pain, in other words, amusement. This example is really only a study of choices made for the purpose of amusement and doesn’t reveal much beyond that.

Our characterological disposition (POF 9-3) gives us an immediate feeling reaction of pleasure or pain based on our past experiences. If we live out of our established character in the pursuit of pleasure then it makes sense that our immediate choice determined by an unthinking pleasure reaction would result in post choice satisfaction.

Our characterological disposition is the more permanent part of our decision making process. The research merely indicates that if our established character finds immediate pleasure from a wall poster it will likely continue to find pleasure in it later. The pure conceptual thinking advocated in The Philosophy of Freedom is free from the influences of our established character.

Amusement
(POF 13-10) If it is only a question whether, after the day's work, I am to amuse myself by a game or by light conversation, and if I am totally indifferent to what I do as long as it serves that purpose, then I simply ask myself: What gives me the greatest surplus of pleasure? And I shall most certainly abandon the activity if the scales incline towards the side of displeasure. If we are buying a toy for a child we consider, in selecting, what will give him the greatest happiness. In all other cases we do not base our decision exclusively on the balance of pleasure.

Other explanations for these research results?

Rudolf Steiner architectural design

Finally, some honest Christian fundamentalists who aren’t going to pretend they believe in all that Sermon on the Mount crap like blessed are the gentle, the merciful, the peacemakers….

Gun-toting Kentucky Pastor Ken Pagano invited his flock to bring their guns to church. Approximately 200 people answered Pastor Pagano's call to celebrate American gun culture and the Second Amendment Saturday at New Bethel Church in Louisville, Kentucky. The gun-toting Pastor made the extraordinary request of his flock to bring their handguns, in holsters, to send a message.

During the 90-minute event, Pagano said "If it were not for a deep-seated belief in the right to bear arms, this country would not be here today," he told the crowd, drawing hearty applause and exclamations of "Amen!"

The "Open Carry Celebration" included a handgun raffle, patriotic music and screening of gun safety videos. Some gun owners carried old-fashioned six-shooters in leather holsters, while others packed modern police-style firearms. Kentucky allows residents to openly carry guns in public with some restrictions.

There is an important difference between self-perception and self-definition.

POF 5-7 Self Perception, Self Definition
The perception of myself reveals to me a number of qualities which I combine into my personality as a whole, just as I combine the qualities yellow, metallic, hard, etc., in the unity "gold." The perception of myself does not take me beyond the sphere of what belongs to me.

This perceiving of myself must be distinguished from determining myself by means of thinking. Just as, by means of thinking, I fit any single external perception into the whole world context, so by means of thinking I integrate into the world process the percepts I have made of myself.

My self-perception confines me within certain limits, but my thinking is not concerned with these limits. In this sense I am a two-sided being. I am enclosed within the sphere which I perceive as that of my personality, but I am also the bearer of an activity which, from a higher sphere, defines my limited existence.

How do you perceive and define yourself? How do you perceive and define others?

"From my 'The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity' you will know that the highest ethical ideas required by us as human beings are given to us when we grasp moral intuitions, and that when we begin to gain possession of these ethical ideas, they are the foundation of our human freedom. On the other hand, you may perhaps also know that for certain thinkers there has always been a kind of abyss between that which is given, on the one hand, by the knowledge of Nature, and on the other hand, by ethical knowledge. The philosophy of Kant is based upon this abyss, which he is unable to bridge completely. For this reason, Kant has written a Critique of Theoretical Reason, of Pure Reason, as he calls it, where he grapples with natural science, and where he says all that he has to say about natural science, or the knowledge of Nature. On the other hand, he has also written a Critique of Practical Reason, where he speaks of ethical ideas. We might say: The whole human life is born for him out of two roots which are completely severed from one another, which he describes in his two chief critical studies."

Rudolf Steiner - Fundamentals of the Science of Initiation - October 17, 1919

This Philosophy of Freedom website is banned by government censors in Iran and China.

While biodynamic grape growers apply the knowledge given by Rudolf Steiner to produce an alcohol high, not to be left out, the Biodynamic Cannabis Growers Association (BDCGA) applys biodynamic method to produce a drug high. The BDCGA has launched a new website to help growers of marijuana apply the methods of biodynamic farming. After a (smoke filled?) brain storming session they came up with some things they can do as an organization.

• help to develop & disseminate special preps for & possibly from cannabis
• create/maintain a ganja apprenticeship listings open to “sustainable” producers, trim scenes, dispensaries, seed-breeders, ganja tourism, etc
• contribute to the support and development of members’ ganja tourism / education activities: “learn to grow, learn to trim, learn to dispense, etc the BDCGA way on your vacation”
• how about a “research apartment” / time-share (s) in Amsterdam, Jamaica, Malawi, etc !
• sponsor scholarships (cultivate tomorrow’s BDCGA). send a young adult to Emerson on a cannabis scholarship
• support production of films, events, etc promoting bd + cannabis
• in terms of education: to elucidate both biodynamics as a holistic life-way, and its realization in terms of farms which value cannabis, on a level useful to dedicated professionals

note: The short-term effects of marijuana can include problems with memory and learning; distorted perception; difficulty in thinking and problem solving. A 2008 Australian study says long-term marijuana use causes brain damage that is equivalent to mild-traumatic brain injury or premature ageing.