Yes, electromagnetism is a great counterforce when one would like to meditate and would like to do so in such a way that one enters a realm where the purely spiritual lives. When one thinks, feels and wills in ordinary life, then we are active in a mixed way, in pure thinking, even if we do not know it, in ordinary object-related thinking, in feelings, in reverie, in associations and in all kinds of impulses of will that run through one another and send us into our karma. When we then wish to meditate, one can also do this along all kinds of paths in such a way that one does not get out of this ordinary mixture at all, when one simply stops thinking, for example, or when one tries to become aware of oneself while breathing. Then concentration does indeed arise, but naturally, when one follows one’s breathing, the attention is directed towards the physical body, and one cannot say that one would then detach oneself from the physical body with one’s consciousness.
In anthroposophy, we have been made aware that there is a pure thinking and that this is actually the starting point for investigations in the spiritual world. Now one can do two things, or perhaps many more, but at least two. The one is that one actually regards pure thinking as more or less not so important and says: when I read lectures by Rudolf Steiner or books, well, then I am already in it, so what more is there to it?
That is the one. And the other is that one places it so high and so unattainably that one actually cannot have any hope of ever reaching it. Only when one knows Rudolf Steiner’s explanations of pure thinking, I do not want to say in their entirety, but nevertheless very extensively, and then tries to reproduce these explanations within oneself, when one also tries to investigate: yes, where is this pure thinking actually situated? When one tries this, one will indeed find the right middle.
Thus, on the one hand, pure thinking is indeed there for all human beings, even without being sought, but the point is not that it is there; the point is that we learn to experience it as such. That is the one thing. And the other is that it is necessary that we do not imagine it to be too high, but that we also really know that it is continually active within us, that we exercise it and that what matters is that we learn to experience it.
And so there was a reaction to the last video, in which it was said, concerning an analysis of a fugue by Bach, the person writing says that she does indeed forget everything around her and becomes completely absorbed in it, in a flow, but that she doubts whether this is then pure thinking. And I found that a very interesting question that one can then ask oneself. I know Bach’s fugues; I would not be able to analyse them, but I can imagine what is meant.
And I think one can say: when it is the case that one makes such an analysis and then at the same time, for example, plays it on the piano, or plays and thinks, listens attentively, then the thinking about it is indeed very concentrated, but only mixedly pure. Only when it is completely detached from the audible music and moves in more or less abstract, analytical patterns can one say: now I am within pure thinking. That would indeed appeal to me, to do it in this way.
But this is actually the case with everything that we do in a concentrated way, that we can distinguish between concentrated, for example, scientific thoughts that relate to sensory facts, and, on the other hand, scientific, concentrated thoughts that represent general principles. One can also have this in physics or chemistry or whatever else, but the easiest is naturally philosophy, because in philosophy one has usually already left sensory reality behind when one begins to philosophise, and the question of pure thinking then weighs less heavily. That is then not so important, because one actually knows from the very beginning that it is a thinking free from sensory perception.
What matters there is that this thinking free from sensory perception is also exercised independently. When one merely thinks along, or usually it is not even that, but rather reading along or listening. When one merely thinks along, then one does indeed have this pure thinking, but it must be experienced. One must come so far that one also recognises it as such and, yes, can experience it more or less with feeling.
And that is something that is tremendously disturbed by the counteraction of electromagnetism. For these strong effects of electricity and magnetism simply work in such a way that what is free from sensory perception can actually have no existence within them at all. Thus, when one thinks free from sensory perception, then one is, on the one hand, liberated from electromagnetism, but on the other hand it is so difficult because electromagnetism is so strongly active everywhere.
And the best remedy against this is concentration of thought. First in the thought, and then what matters is that these are thoughts that are not sensory again, for then one chains oneself once again to the physical. Rudolf Steiner has left behind a very great quantity, a treasure of verses and meditation contents, from which one can choose what appeals most, and one can then concentrate on this for a longer period of time.
Rudolf Steiner himself says: take a book, open it, and whatever your eye falls upon, that is the content for you. When one does this, then what happens is very interesting. And when one then takes, for example, the Wahrspruchworte, that is of course already a choice, that one says: I will take this book now and open it, and then I will meditate on the verse that is written there, then one does not have the difficulty of searching according to inclination and disposition, but inclination and disposition seek us, and we find the right thing.
Concentration is then actually the remedy against the effects of electricity and magnetism, but it is nevertheless important that we are also, yes, more or less present with ourselves in order to feel what actually happens when I meditate, when I begin to meditate, that the everyday thoughts repeatedly want to destroy the whole thing, want to spoil it, and that my concentration often does not become nearly strong enough to avoid these effects or to forget them or then to become completely absorbed in that which I have resolved to do. And there a fugue by Bach, if one were able to do it, could be a beautiful subject. On the other hand, it is nevertheless also the case that one educates one’s concentration better when one does not exercise it out of ordinary interest in life.
Thus, if I love Bach and I analyse the music, then that goes much more easily than when I read completely abstract sentences by Fichte or Hegel and concentrate on them. Thus, it is actually a matter of the effort of thinking free from sensory perception, and one can do this by reading a content, but better is a meditation, and that is a concentration on a thought free from sensory perception. Electromagnetism is also everywhere, and one can actually say: the electrical and magnetic forces that come from the body disturb spiritual activity.
And if one has the good fortune or the misfortune to know migraine, then one knows very well how this works within a person. For what then happens, just try it when you have a headache, to meditate then. What then happens is that, on the one hand, the power of thinking is much, much stronger than normal; on the other hand, the headache becomes worse and worse, and one feels: this is the wrong power of thinking, this is magnetism, will, which inflates thinking, electricity, one might say.
And then, naturally, one had actually better stop. These are effects that are known, that one comes to know in one’s life as a meditator, which indicate that electromagnetism seems to be a very strong support for thinking, for the power of thinking, but when one really experiences and observes carefully, then it turns out that it is a counterforce and that the genuine power of will in thinking is active on an entirely different level and is also experienced there. Perhaps it will be possible to go into this more deeply next time.
