Hi MT,

I would think the members of the Anthroposophical Society and others who follow Anthroposophy and Spiritual Science would be the best PR for the movement, but unfortunately for the most part they have not done the best job so far.  But the unfortunate past history of the movement may change for the better in the future, one can hope.

Love,
Patri

Thanks for challenging us about such an important issue M.T. As you might guess, I see this rather differently, but I am willing to be persuaded differently...

I have seen some publicity for other spiritual organisations. In no case have I seen anything that would attract me closer than the length of a bargepole. Would that be different for anthroposophy?

The world needs you! Do your share of anthroposophy! 
Not a serious proposal from me, but what kind of publicity would carry the integrity of today's anthroposophy?

Publicity asks for belief, but anthroposophy does not. Anthroposophy offers experience at the price of persistent commitment. How often have I been advised not to believe the advertising?

Our finest publicity is the work of the thousands of organisations, institutions and initiatives that have been engendered by anthroposophy. Why? Because you can learn the value of anthroposophy through its fruits. Through serving others, we will attract those who would serve.

I think it's a great idea to try to find a way to bring the Threefold Social Order out of hiding, in some way or other. I don't know very much about Public Relations (though I have numerous cynical opinions about it lurking in the background, which don't count as real knowledge!)

Tom Last, who gave us this website, has been trying for years to bring the Philosophy of Freedom to the public. I see what you have written here as being out of the same impulse.

Now we're working on a study couse of PoF, which we hope will develop step by step and give more people, not just anthroposophists, a way in to the book.

Many small businesses may be operating under the Threefold order without even being aware of it. And many people may have similar ideas in their lives as well, without being able to call it that, or even recognize it as a coherent system. Where you and I live (you're a neighbor of mine here in Santa Cruz County) there are many people who are interested in, and practicing, those principles but who would be turned off if they heard where they came from. Odd, isn't it?

I think we have an example in Steiner himself, as well. It seems to me that many of the movements we now credit him with initiating were only started when someone asked him the appropriate question. I'm really learning that at least for me, it doesn't do a bit of good for me to offer advice or share my knowledge if someone isn't out there looking for something.

Undoubtably, there are people in the world who are looking for a path, a meaning, that anthroposophy could provide. I am one of them. I've been involved with spiritual movements and religions before that actively proselytize and attempt to convert people to their way of thinking and feeling, and I have to say that they way I found anthroposophy, through my own initiative, was much more effective for me. Maybe it's not good business practice, but for me, at least, the results are infinitely greater.

Additionally, this is a path for active, striving, seeking people. I think that those kind of people will eventually come to anthroposophy on their own. I feel that my greatest responsibility in 'advertising for anthroposophy' is to exemplify the parts of the philosophy that speak to me the most, and to live my life in the best way that I can. Even if I only touch a few lives throughout my own lifetime, it won't be many generations before the impulse has spread further than we can imagine at this point, and in a much more authentic way than a public relations campaign could ever accomplish.

Sure, it'll take more time, but that's ok. Evolution always does. Threefolding is beautiful, and I wish it was more a reality now than it is, but Steiner said it would take time, and that it would develop naturally. I may be cynical about how things are right now, but I'm optimistic about the future.

The Man won't be able to keep us down for much longer.

The Revolution is coming, and Anthroposophy will be a part of it.

For me, the 3-fold is here. The question is not whether we can persuade someone to take it on, but rather whether we can persuade someone to see it.

Everything that everyone does has a component that is for themselves and a component that is for the other, which are balanced within agreements that they have made and that they are implicitly bound by.

Run your business with this in mind and you run with the flow of life.

Run your business with the view that the needs of the other are secondary to yours, or vice-versa, and you run against the flow of life.

Material success is possible, but spiritual fulfilment harder to obtain.

As with so much of life, its not the world that needs to change, its not even us that needs to change, its just that we need to open our eyes to what is really there.

S-)

Very interesting ideas - opening our eyes, that is, becoming conscious of our 'I' being will do it. I have been deeply contemplating Rudolf Steiner's statement in his 1908 lectures on the Book of Revelation when he talks about the key of David – the I that has found itself within itself.

'The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. " Rev 3:7

About this text Steiner says:
“And if we follow this path we shall bring into the sixth age the right spiritual life of wisdom and of love. Then the anthroposophical wisdom we have acquired will become the impulse of love in the sixth age, which is represented by the community expressing itself even in its name as the community of brotherly love, Philadelphia. All these names are carefully chosen. Man will develop his ego to the necessary height, so that he will become independent and in freedom show love towards all other beings in the sixth age, which is represented by the community at Philadelphia. This is the spiritual life that is to be prepared for the sixth cultural age. We shall then have found the individual ego within us in a higher degree, so that no external power can any longer play upon us if we do not wish it; so that we can close and no one without our will can open, and if we open no opposing power can close. This is the key of David. For this reason he who inspires the letter says that he has the key of David: And to the Angel of the community in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth and no man openeth.... Behold, I have st before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.– (Revelation IIl, 7.) That is the ego that has found itself within itself.”

When I wrote my book I-Connecting: The Soul’s Quest I hoped to bring Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom into the present. I tried to appeal to the modern mind to see what was already within them. That I have achieved this was confirmed when Robert Sardello wrote the following in the Foreword to the book -

“As this writing makes clear, coming into the sense of the I is an evolving process. That is because the kind of consciousness involved is, for each of us, entirely new and thus there are no concepts that can adequately express the experience. This book is perhaps the closest you will find to expressing what happens. The inner sense, however, is still something quite different, lying in the realm of the wordless. If there begins to be an awakening of the I, our author indicates that it may be experienced as anxiety. You may not realize what is happening. This is an exceedingly important moment and it is crucial that it not be interpreted as being primarily a psychological difficulty. It is the moment when we get the first glimpse of the fact that the I is me and not me at the same time. It is certainly not the small ‘me’, but it is not even ‘me’ in a larger sense because it is both personal and transpersonal at the same time. If it were merely personal and individual, its awakening would not be frightening because there would be a strong sense of familiarity.
But, the awakening involves an equally strong sense of unfamiliarity. 
One so strong and so central that absolutely everything in your life is thrown into question, but also into a new light. The work is to let the questioning be present without acting on that questioning and develop the capacity of living within this new light of the I. This book is a manual for doing precisely this kind of spiritual work. It is new spiritual work in the world, new because the spiritual being is not ‘out there’ somewhere to be venerated or addressed, but right here, the central heart of every human being. This book is a guide to coming to be a spiritual human being -- something quite different than just being a human being. And it is something very different than a human being doing spiritual things. This book, this writing, marks a most significant turn in inner work, in spiritual work, and in our very way of being in the world.”
PR will not affect the situation and as Sadj said “As with so much of life, its not the world that needs to change, its not even us that needs to change, its just that we need to open our eyes to what is really there.” If I could add: when we become conscious of what is really there we will be different and the world will be different.