Learning to Experience the Etheric World: Empathy, the After Image and a New Social Ethic

Today our world is increasingly filled with feelings of movement and flux, speed and a lack of sufficient time to do what "needs to be done." Life is marked by change, upheaval and revolution. The authors of this book suggest that, amid this life of turmoil, people are beginning to have conscious and semiconscious experiences of the etheric world of life forces. Yet, this growing sensitivity to the etheric realm only intensifies experiences of movement and upheaval. To counter such feelings, we must take hold of our inner life and strengthen the "I"―our true self.

Featuring essays supplemented with a substantial amount of source material from Rudolf Steiner and other authors, this book introduces us to methods for strengthening one's essential self. In particular, we can learn to practice the ability to add to every physical perception―whether of a stone, a plant, an animal or another person―of the etheric reality associated with that entity. This process leads us to become more aware of the "after-image." We can also learn to become conscious within the etheric realm. This work with the after-image, says Baruch Urieli, "is not an esoteric path but is, rather, an endeavor to bring the beginnings of a natural consciousness of the etheric to full conciousness and, hence, under the rulership of the ego."

Learning to Experience the Etheric World is an invaluable resource for inner development and the beginnings of spiritual sight.

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was born in the small village of Kraljevec, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Croatia), where he grew up. As a young man, he lived in Weimar and Berlin, where he became a well-published scientific, literary, and philosophical scholar, known especially for his work with Goethe's scientific writings. At the beginning of the twentieth century, he began to develop his early philosophical principles into an approach to systematic research into psychological and spiritual phenomena. Formally beginning his spiritual teaching career under the auspices of the Theosophical Society, Steiner came to use the term Anthroposophy (and spiritual science) for his philosophy, spiritual research, and findings. The influence of Steiner's multifaceted genius has led to innovative and holistic approaches in medicine, various therapies, philosophy, religious renewal, Waldorf education, education for special needs, threefold economics, biodynamic agriculture, Goethean science, architecture, and the arts of drama, speech, and eurythmy. In 1924, Rudolf Steiner founded the General Anthroposophical Society, which today has branches throughout the world. He died in Dornach, Switzerland.