John,

Many thanks for this. Apparently others are feeling less enthusiastic, and are less inclined to venture feelings in this regard. We are each, apparently, tuned somewhat differently.

Still, the question is alive. What would happen to us if we all shared real space and time together? Suppose this little community were not flung out all over the world, but was a group of people who lived and worked together on a day to day basis, even on a short term basis. Would we be in a better position than others to work magic? I suspect we might.

We need to develop a bit, don't you think? We need perhaps to get a little bigger. I think we need elements from the anthroposophical Center (not everyone here does). We need an economic engine of some sort. For these, I agree, internet contact, in these early stages, is sufficient.

At some point, we will begin to circulate real human capital between the Periphery and the Center. We as particularly well-developed individuals will begin to move from node to node in a global network of anthroposophical communities, giving and receiving material as required, sounding certain tones and contributing to local cultures.

I hope this potential does begin to develop here on the Periphery, with clear and distinct thoughts and ideas, and refined, musical feeling of the sort you express, and that the Center begins to reach out toward it.

John,

Could you please say more about how you've been changed by the conversation you are having with Carl. I've been having trouble following the content of the conversation, but I'm very interested in your experience of having it and I bet I could follow that more easily. I just looked over the posts between you two. At first I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that I can't follow your conversation. i can read each post and understand it like that, but I don't know what you're talking about with Carl. I'm not saying you are wrong about how etheric tracks work and what goes on while we are asleep, or that Carl is wrong about becoming angels and how a pentagram radiates into the astral. You both are engaged together in a way that is a wonderful change of pace around here. And I don't doubt that your etheric and astral obsevations of geometry and movements of form and all that are based in true observation. But I personally am not sure how I would sum up your conversation thus far. But I would really appreciate reading how you would. It might give me a sort of key to go back and really track what is being said between you two. Thanks.

Jeff

P.S. but more than anything I'm interested in how you've been changed, John.

Thank you, Jeff, for your generous interest.

Your question – quite properly – points to the blessed curse.

This is the curse of being impenetrable to other souls that gives us an illusion of privacy. It is the abyss that language communication spans as far as personal creativity permits. I experienced that abyss diminish, as if of itself, in my exchanges with Carl. I suddenly had to use imagination differently. It was like having to construct parables instead of sentences. I attempted to offer imaginative seeds that can be sprouted in other soils. I now have to practice a new guardianship around my soul to communicate effectively.

I will not feign surprise that my writing proves opaque to others. My stories are not expressed in universals. Sebastian has found words elsewhere to express also my aspiration to learn to think and to express my thinking in a challenging and discerning online environment. All feedback is welcome.

How am I changed? Noticing this is work in progress. The source of my attention has shifted. It is too early to characterise this clearly yet. I understand Carl differently now, and can enter into his thinking differently. During the EL exchange I woke up inside some of Carl’s contributions and tried to share what I perceived there. I could touch his different consciousness in that place where I became conscious. Our biographies presented the same place as a different landscape to each of us.  We were not alone there. I wondered if readers would also experience this or some other phenomenon.

How can we imbue our public online community with healthiness as characterised in the Motto of the Social Ethic? One principle is that as far as possible my perception be offered for verification by common inquiry. Conversely and complementarily, common perception be integrated and validated in my awareness. This is the story of the exception and the rule. I will share more as it becomes perceptible.