A Geek History of Time - Episode 249 - The Humors of the Ooze, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the Four Humours Part II

Episode Date: February 3, 2024

Music See people when they click on this they'll see the title so they'll be like poor Ed. What does that even fucking mean? However because it's England that's largely ignored and unstudied. He had a goddamned ancestral home and a noble title until Germany became a republic. You know, none of this highfalutin, you know, critical role stuff. So they chewed through my favorite shit. No, I'm not helping them. I'm gonna say that you're getting into another kind of, you know, Mediterranean or psyche

archetype kind of thing. Makes sense. Also trade winds are a thing. Haha, just serious. Like, no, he really has a mad on it. We'll go upon a tangent as we keep doing. Like, yeah, this is how we fill time. වවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවවව� This is a Geek History of Time. Where we connect to NERD2 the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock.

I'm a world history and English teacher here in Northern California. And I had the experience just the other day in my classroom of relating a story out of my own middle school years to my students. They're working on a memoir, vignette, a personal narrative, they have to think of an event in their life and they have to write a narrative about it. And they have to use a certain amount of sensory language. There are multiple points from the curriculum and state standards that are built into the assignment. And to give them an example of, you know, how they might do some of these things in the outline that they were working on, I verbally modeled for them some of the things I might

use in my outline. And I wound up relating to them a very memorable story from my time in middle school where a very good friend of mine who I am not going to name, although they are a listener to the show and they will recognize that I'm talking about them when I mention it. There was a very dramatic moment where this friend of mine and I had an encounter with someone who was bullying the two of us. And I described it using sensory language and described my friend's response and like how things went. And at the end of all of it, I had a student look at me go, Mr. Blaylock, you don't have any boring stories in your life anywhere, do you? I said, well, I mean, obviously I do just they're not the ones I tell you all.

Like, so, you know, it was it was entertaining to to have that moment. But yeah, so that's one of the joys of teaching is getting to have those moments where your students look at you like that. And yeah, if you can't mess with the kids, like kind of what's the point. So that's my story. Who are you and what have you got going on? Well, I'm Damien Harmony. I'm a US history teacher up here in Northern, California I also have a student interaction story, although mine's going to be I'm going to dance along a few razor blades on this one because I think the substance of it is is quite

something, but I don't want substance of it is quite something, but I don't want the specifics of it to be traceable in any way. So a student, as some sometimes do, wants desperately to get out of my class. Very often, students who have learned from fifth grade forward that if I have nice handwriting, if I am polite, if I include the key words that the teacher has mentioned in the assignment, then they're probably going to skim and give me an A. And they have gamed the system so much because we are so overworked and so overput upon that very often we triage it. So it's like, yeah, that's a kid that doesn't need help. Just keep going. OK. Yeah. So as a result, the very, very smart fifth grader becomes

the once great eleventh grader. Yeah, the very glib eleventh grader. Yeah, that too. But but more more to the point. It's almost as though like you haven't had to use your sword in the last seven years. You're wondering why the blade is dull. OK, yeah, through lack of honing, through lack of keening, through lack of use.

So students will on occasion try like hell to get out. And the thing is they are good at the student games. So one of them listed a series of complaints and I will not speak to all of those complaints. But one of them was that I was very unreasonable in the way that I was forcing students to structure their essays and and on and on and on. And my standard structure is you provide a thesis statement. I always say you start with the research.

What does the day tell you? Yeah, come up with a thesis statement. Yeah, most kids can't do that yet. They don't trust that process. And because the thesis is first, they think they have to develop it first, which is unfortunate because that's super good training for shopping around your confirmation bias, right? Yeah.

I claim this thing. Now I'm going to go find that evidence instead of what's all the evidence telling me. But then, Thisa's statement, one claim, three criteria. That's the gist, right? That's exactly what I'm teaching in my class. So yeah. The email that this student wrote to my administrator did all of that. Okay. And the administrator brought it to me and said, you know, can you speak to these things? I said, absolutely. And I showed them everything. I'm very much an open book. I know that I'm

right. Yeah. And I have no problem sharing that. The only X factor is whether or not the adult who is an administrator has the wherewithal and the temperament to go ahead and side with, oh, shit, he really does have all the evidence instead of coming at me with a with a what do you call it? An agenda. Yeah, with an agenda with I would say with with the confirmation bias that they're looking to shop.

This having already made the decision about what they're going to do. Right. Having been influenced by. Oh, yeah. This is the third complaint of this type instead of like, this is the third complaint of this type. I should probably see what the teacher is doing so that I can then reexamine these complaints.

This administrator absolutely heard me and absolutely was like, whoa, I wish more were like you, et cetera, et cetera. It was a wonderful discussion, very ego building. And I then said, now here's the thing. I absolutely love how this student approached writing this email. If you look at the structure,

that's what I've been asking them to do in my class. If you keep them with me, I can take them places. But if you need to bounce them for any number of reasons that they have listed, just please acknowledge that these two are bogus. This one is valid and has nothing to do with me. And that alone could be a good reason. And so, you know, and I'll tell you off air. Okay. But please let them know that these other two reasons they listed, they didn't interrogate their sources enough. So I said, but if you can keep them with me, I could train them to do that.

And they could write a much better essay for you in about a semester telling you why they need out of my class. OK. So. And so they, you know, it was it was kind of cool, sad, but cool and pretty typical. But it was also very heartening because I have an administrator now who she very much in fact, I have several a couple administrators who very much are what I would say are people of integrity and who are people who are interested in in making making it so students learn. And I like that a lot. That's that is good. Yeah. Now I hope that this student

And I like that a lot. That's that is good. Yeah. Now, I hope that this student gets what they need. And if what they need is to be in a different classroom, then so be it. And if they need is to learn lessons for me, then also so be it. I long ago stopped gatekeeping. So.

All right. Now, speaking of education, when last we spoke, we were going to talk about Austrian cultists and how they used humorism to educate children. So. Okay. Here we go. Now, now wait a minute. Hold on. You said Austrian cultists. Oh, cultists, maybe. Oh, cultists. Okay. All right. Okay. I just wanted to play. To be honest, I do think this person can wear both hats. OK. But you have my attention. So have you ever heard of Rudolf Steiner? Yeah, I've heard the name. OK. And I'm trying to remember in what context I have heard the name.

Not one of the Steiner brothers, the tag team. That's Scott and, yeah. See, that that would have been your go to context. Not my go to. Oh, you know, that's that's that's totally your side of the street. Not fair. So who was Rudolph Steiner? Well, he was an Austrian occultist,

and he also claimed to be clairvoyant. Well, I mean, you an Austrian occultist and he also claimed to be clairvoyant. You say Austrian occultist and then say claim to be clairvoyant like that narrows it down. Okay. True. True. Naturally. Okay. Carry on. Okay. Now, well, I mean, these three things are actually more related than you think because they all involve rebuilding things in a new image in a way that is formed by intelligence and creativity and Ultimately in a way to express one's creativity and see it Its values the values of that creativity reflected back to you. Okay. All right. That's fair. Yeah now Rudolph Steiner was born in 1861 and died in 1925

His ever saw some shit mm-hmm Rudolph Steiner was born in 1861 and died in 1925. His ever saw some shit. His efforts were to make holistic the at odds approaches of life of both science and spirituality. OK, so so trying to link find the link between natural science and spirituality. Not link. That would keep them discreet. Melt. Yes. Okay. All right.

So like, you know, I think he saw it as getting chocolate in your peanut butter. Well, I mean, that's a laudable goal. Right. I would see it more like is getting dog shit in your ice cream You don't improve the dog shit and you've ruined your ice cream Okay, yeah And by the way, it's not even me saying which one was which if you noticed Yeah, just that you should not combine these two things and efforts to do the same should never end well or that they never do. Yeah. Now, Mr. Steiner believed in a system called Anthroposophia. Anthroposophia. Anthroposophia.

You go. Go ahead. Try. Yeah. Yeah. Keep trying. See, it's the P O in the middle of it. That's except the word Anthropos is perfectly fine. Anthroposophy. Right. See, where do you put the stress? Anthroposophy. There it is. There you are. Yeah. Okay. Anthroposophy. Anthroposophy. Yeah. Okay. Again, it comes from the Greek word whole anthropos and Sophia, right? So yeah, the study of man and spirit, right? Yeah. At its core, anthroposophy, now I'm doing it, claims that there is an objective understandable by us spiritual world, which we can all experience. Okay. Of course, he's coming at it from the perspective of a German Gnostic approach, so it's going to be heavily Christianized. But with some really weird.

Yeah, it's also going to have some racist pseudoscience in it. Especially the ideas of racial evolution and so evolution, both of which will lend generously to vulkish and proto fascist beliefs that the state has a soul that nations have souls and that meaning is derived from such Because when you're dealing with humorism, you're dealing with essentialism, and essentialism is inherently a racist enterprise. Yes. Yeah. So anthroposophy has deep connections in different parts of the world for its influence in alternative education. Also in holistic health care, organic farming and

natural foods, environmental consciousness. All of these I might add carry a through line of purity, be it spiritual purity, physical purity or chemical purity in them. And that focus on purity, whether it's purposeful or simply hovering in the background is what helps bring steiner's spiritual science into spiritual racism Yeah, yeah Now among his efforts at reforming society Steiner included certain meditative practices to get us back in touch with our original spiritual awareness

So starting off right there. We had a spiritual awareness. We lost that spiritual awareness. I have the key to getting you back to that spiritual awareness. Follow these meditative practices. So, okay, so he was born in the 1860s. So by the time he's doing this, he's in his let's say he's in his 30s. That's the 1890s. Sure. So he's he's predating. Modernism, he's predating fascism, like modernism by. Ten years, say,

and fascism by 30. Yeah, so, yeah, but but. But you're thrown out. You're thrown out all these ideas, all these baseline buzzword concepts that are part of it. And I'm like, this is already fascist catnip. And we have it even like fascism doesn't even exist, but the fascists are salivating. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because fascism doesn't just exist in a vacuum, it doesn't just pop up out of nowhere. There were many precursors to it. And he's developing this stuff at the same time as you have lots and lots of snake oil salesmen lots and lots of you know offshoots

of Christianity again you're gonna have the völkish movement you have the fox sisters doing seances and shit you've got photography making it so that spiritualism could be captured on film like despite the movements forward technologically it doesn't mean our reason moved conventionally. And so those things were then used to prove to people how these things work. Yeah. You know. So I'm fond of pointing out he's doing his thing right around the time they figured out germ theory, which means plenty of people still were rejecting it right around the time they figured out germ theory, which means plenty of people still were rejecting it right around the time that well, they still hadn't figured out that ether was not a substance, you know, stuff like that. So.

Okay. There you go. So there's no historical basis for the idea that we can get back in touch with our original spiritual awareness because there's no historical basis for spiritual awareness. There's not even an anthropological basis for it, but it is still the tale as old as time. Back then, things were better. We were cleaner. We were purer. We were more spiritual, more in touch with nature. I don't know that any of those things are true, but I do know that everybody thinks so. I mean, that even gets into in Buddhism, specifically Japanese Buddhism. I'm not sure how. I've seen this within the context of Japanese Buddhism. I'm not sure whether it's something outside of that realm. But there is this idea that we are living in a fallen world that has fallen away from the Buddha. And one of the foundational ideas of pure land Buddhism

is that it is not possible for any human in a lifetime anymore to achieve enlightenment, that there was a time when the world was pure enough and souls were pure enough that we could achieve nirvana. But now, according to Pure Land Buddhism, and I'm simplifying and translating things out of their context into English as they say this. But there's this idea that you have to rely on a bodhisattva or the Buddha in order to be rescued from rebirth, and you don't actually achieve Nirvana, but you go to the pure land of the West. CB. Right. LR. And it's this salvation ideology, this salvation belief that is yearly semi-Christian. CB. Oh, right.

LR. And it's feel. But it's this same idea that there once was, But it's this same idea that there once was, we lived in a perfect world and now we live in a fallen one. Right. So across cultural contexts. Yeah. We're in the Iron Age of Man, not the Golden or the Silver Age of Man anymore. Everybody has those times where shit was simpler. Like I said, it's literally a tale of as old as time, right?

I mean, Horace wrote about this when he compared the town mouse to the country mouse. Like it is. Older than writing. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, thus we can get back to it

through these different avenues. So all the begging of all the questions um Yeah, and intuitively like you said people tend to think that times were better things were better when life was simpler It's much more attractive that way so there becomes this tension between rationality and spirituality and Wouldn't you know it he's cracked the code on getting the best of both worlds. Through different breathing exercises, through different cognitive exercises, we could synthesize both the rational and the contemplative and spiritual components of our cognition, and in so doing, humanity would awaken its spiritual perception via intense thinking about specific things.

And it starts with individuals doing it because at the end of the day, Steiner was absolutely an individualist. The thought method. Yeah, it's like Professor Harold Hill. I don't know that reference. The music, man. Oh, I do know that. Okay, how are they going to learn to play without any instruments? Oh, it's the thought method. Right. All right, boys, I want you to think real hard about the menu at NG. Right. Yeah. And it's, you know, and the thing is, there is there is so much poetry written about how the totality of life can be found in a single snowflake or cherry blossom or

grain of sand or whatever the culture is using. Yeah, microcosm versus macrocosm is a universal human concept. Yeah. Which is rad, which is cool. I'm down for that. I like that. I mean, that's that sounds awesome. That's great for poetry. Great for literature Maybe not not great for civic planning, but you know, it's a shitty way to design a society It might be you know, yeah, I do think though that like, you know looking at Poland looking at parts of Germany, looking at places that had to rebuild from the rubble, they got to do something pretty cool post World War II. And that was they got to actually plan their city out

and decide what their priorities would be instead of a city growing organically from a different time. And you are stuck to the architecture of those priorities That might have just been a reaction to those realities. See even the back then those times weren't simpler. They were just Like your ignorant of them doesn't mean yeah simpler. Yeah, so now this means that intense effort will be needed to make the world Go toward individual self improvement collectively. Yeah, elective individual self improvement. Yeah, hands across America. You know, it's like the spiritual.

Yeah. Okay. The more people transforming themselves within the better for everyone, and this had deeply moral implications. As Steiner said, quote, for every step in spiritual perception, three steps are to be taken in moral development. So. Okay. Yeah. I mean, depending on how we want to define moral development, that could be a good thing. Right. Right. Like, you know, again, I'm still stuck on the dock, haven't got it on the boat, because you keep talking about spiritual, this and that. But most people would not be stuck on the dock still. And I get that I'm the one being left behind there. And that's fine.

Yeah. But when you all sink and I'm still sitting on the dock, like, yeah, but, you know, whatever. Now this is not the same Steiner who once said, you know, they say that all men are created equal, but you look at me and you look at Samoa Joe and you can see that statement is not true. See, normally if you go one on one with another another wrestler you get a 50-50 chance of winning But I'm a genetic freak and I'm not normal So you get a 25% at best at beat me then you add Kurt Angle to the mix your chances of winning drastic go down

See the three-way at sacrifice you got a 33 and a third chance of winning But I I got a 66 and two-third chance of winning because Kurt Angle knows he can't beat me and he's not even gonna try. So Samoa Joe, you take your 33 and one-third chance, minus my 25% chance, and you got an eight and one-third chance of winning at sacrifice, but then you take my 75% chance of winning.

If we was to go one-on- one and then add 66 and two-third percent, I got 141 and two-thirds chance of winning at sacrifice. See, Joe, the numbers don't lie and they spell disaster for you at sacrifice. Not the same Steiner. I should hope not. Yes. But I did find a link. Speaking of begging a whole lot of questions. I did find a link to one of Steiner's lectures and I put that in the chat.

So I'm going to pause here while you watch that lecture. Okay. It's only a couple minutes. Okay. Wow. So there you go. Oh, it's suffice to say inside of you there are two steiners. Yeah.

You know, right after I feel I should repeat this for our audience. Right after your pause, I said, you know, any universe where we have the man with the machine gun speech, I feel like you've referenced this particular promo more than it deserves. But yeah, you know, the funny thing was, like I tracked his math and and through 66 and two thirds percent of that of that whole promo, I was like, okay, all right, you're doing that correctly. And then he just goes off the rails. Yeah. And and and and then the whole thing about, oh, well, you know, you must you must like being romanced. I'm going to talk to all my freaks out here. Mm hmm. Like that's that's pretty explicit there. Yeah. Like, wow. All right. This is someone clearly of dual natures, right?

He's obviously choleric, but also clearly saying one. OK, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, that is that is famed philosopher Scott Steiner. Scott Steiner. Yes. His normed deplume being big pop a pump. But. I could say some things about that, but I won't. All right. OK. Yeah.

So yeah. And so yeah, based on these two philosophers, it's clear that moral development could reveal how much a person has grown in their journey of spiritual philosophy. You've got Rudolf Steiner talking about it, and you've got the evidence right here with Scott Steiner about how if you don't grow at all, this is what can happen. So if you've been working at it properly, doing all the right meditations and things like that, your moral development will reveal how much you've achieved control over your inner life. So you've got that duality, the inner and the outer, right?

That's a very common thing across most cultures. You'll make sure that you live in harmony with the surrounding natural and social world. Interesting like that those two now get fused. Also, looking at one's moral development, you will see how much you've progressed in your spiritual development, which mind you is based on an objective measure, and it will correlate with your spiritual

perception. As in, as in the more development you've made, the more you will perceive spiritually. Uh-huh. And see, that's the most snake oil part of it all for me. Because if you're better at spinning bullshit and polishing an image, you'll look more spiritually evolved, and then the superpowers can kick in. Yeah, okay. Your moral development will guarantee your capacity and your ability to distinguish between true perceptions and mere illusions, and be able to tell in your own perceptions what is the influence of subjective elements and objective realities, which is pretty badass thing you

can gain by meditating very specific ways. Okay, Elron. They're not. Yeah. These are not new. see org called. Still haven't found any gold. A lot of kids doing to work for you. Yeah, don't pick up.

Um, yeah. So how does one meditate toward these ends? Yeah, according to Rudolf Steiner, not Scott Steiner. It's simpler math than his descendant came up with. I am sorry. I love the alternate universe in which that's actually fact. Right.

Like, I kind of want to live in the universe where none of that's entirely true. Right. Like I kind of want to live in the universe where no, no, that's that's entirely true. I could just see him cutting a promo, you know, I used to have a partner, but he was too melancholic and I just I had to cut him loose. And this pay review is happening in the summer. So you know that that means I'm going to eat one third as much mutton. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my God. All right. So the math that he uses is that you use imaginative cognition, inspiration and intuition. I already don't like where this is going. I already don't like where this is going. It's very Ozzy Osbourne. It's okay. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, that that that song I got completely wrong. And my daughter is still mystified. I thought it was I'm going after a real tiny crazy train. And it's I'm going off the rails.

Rails on a crazy train. Yeah, but go after a real tiny crazy train. Which made no sense, but it's called crazy train. So I just went with it. I was like, yeah, that's, you know, it's called crazy train. So I just went with it. I was like, yeah, that's, you know, it's Ozzy Osbourne. He snorted ants once. Um, like. But no, the metaphor actually hangs better.

I've bet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, the metaphor hangs together better with the actual lyrics that he used, which is going off the rails on a crazy. So it does. Now, let's talk imaginative cognition, shall we? If we must. Yeah. Imaginative cognition is where you meditate to achieve thinking that is independent of sensory perception. Okay. Okay. Visualization. Yeah. Yeah. And again, it's independent of the Epicurean senses, right? Yeah. Okay. By way of concentrating on either visual forms or symbolic significance, which are never encountered in the sensory world. So think of a pink pentagram made up of penguins. Okay. I just like alliteration. But like, yeah, but you would never see that

in the wild. You would never see that in, you know, in nature. So, okay. Or it could be by way of metaphor, metamorphoses. For instance, if you concentrate on on seeing the life cycle of a flower from seed to mulch. OK. What I find interesting about this. Is this presupposes that anybody, that anybody who's undertaking these exercises is capable of visualization. Yes. Which like recently, you know, there's been all the memes going around the internet where it's like there are people who are a visual. Right. Well, he has a solution for that too, though. He does. Oh, okay. All right. So there's these things. Or there's mantric versus spoken aloud aloud or silently like for instance James Taylor with you've got a friend

Okay, spring summer or fall And just that on loop So you could just get into that over and over again. So if you are a visual there you go Okay, okay, so far I Don't see much wrong with meditating in this way. I don't think any of these things will be harmful to you. I do think there is something to be said for repetition. I do think that, you know, I mean, and I've seen this play out in all the religions,

like there is a repetitive ceremony aspect to it. And oh, yeah, have at it. You know, hymns or the same verses over or in Catholicism the rosary, right? Or having the phylactery on your forehead and in your hand or in Buddhism, repeating the name of the Buddha, Yeah, more me to but Sue. Yeah, or different sounds or whatever. Like I cool, cool. Sounds great. If it brings you peace, chills you out, makes it you can. So you can do like complex math like Scott Steiner.

I'm all for it. Also, visualization does help some people. Yeah. Awesome. Cool. I'm here for it now Once you've mastered that though, you move on to inspiration. So this is a step by step It's not pick one on the circle and go with it. It's you got to start with the imaginative cognition now again his goal is Not something I can get behind right his goal of you are going to transcend your sensory Right? His goal of you are going to transcend your sensory capabilities and find that harmony with the big the question inner life and outer life. In fairness, big is a question for almost

every culture. But yeah, and getting superpowers by doing this is, is well, it is very 1800s. So once you've mastered that, you move on to inspiration. And that's where you try to eliminate all of the consciously chosen meditative content. So then you get into that space and it's all supposed to fade away. It's it feels like the concept of attaining nothingness, You do this very specific anchor and then it all disappears and now you are alone with yourself and at that point you are in a receptive space so that you can encounter the objective spiritual content that is out there. These would come in as impressions stemming from the objective spiritual beings that exist. And there's no

clear way to do it, so you'll know when you know. And yeah, this is where I'm like, well, it was a cool thing, you know, and now I'm done. So is this where this starts tapping into ideas of, you know, like at this level of development, you'll be able to sense the national soul. I think so. And also, this is where the channeling comes in, where you're in contact with spiritual beings from the past or the far future or whatever. I've had friends who have taken PsychoCillib they straight up discussed this described those exact experiences.

And I'm like, you were just talking to yourself. Yeah. You were. He's like, no, man, like it was it was it was different. And even if I was, it was them acting as myself. And I'm like, okay, okay. Yeah. And again, the thing is, though, I say the same thing when people talk about feeling

the Holy Spirit. Cool. All right. Sounds sounds great. Yeah. Good for you. And again, the thing is, though, I say the same thing when people talk about feeling the Holy Spirit. Cool. All right. Sounds sounds great. Yeah. Good for you. I hope it's great for you. Yes. Maybe you don't make a school based on it. So and and so then you've got that all in and again, you when you know, you know, you've got that mastered. This does strike me as being how Tai Chi was once described to me. In Tai Chi, there's three stages. The first stage, you're not sweating at all because you're doing it wrong. And the second stage, you're sweating because you're doing it wrong. And in the third stage, you're not sweating again because you're doing it right.

Okay. OK. And I get it. Having only ever gotten to the second stage, but having the guy taught me it. Yeah. Never sweating and able to just like move me in slow motion way the fuck far away and not like, you know, the, you know, oh, he threw me and I felt it. No, no. He just like literally leveraged me and he was so rooted with how he held his body and, you know, absolutely had the whole thing. Um, you know, how else can I explain how a guy who weighed 130 pounds could just like toss my 250 pound ass all over the place? Yeah. Like, um, so now you've gotten your imaginative cognition down. That's opened you up to your inspiration. You've got that down, which nobody can tell you if you've got it.

You just know you've got it. Now it's on to intuition, which is the final form. And that's where you practice the exercises of will, where you mentally travel down your street backwards. You alphabetize your organs. You do shit like that for some reason. And here you seek unity with the creative forces of the cosmos without losing yourself at all. So you've gone from receptive to I am myself. I am you and you are me and we are all together.

It feels like Adam Warlock from the eternity watch or talking to eternity in the infinity watch comics. Yeah. So yeah. And we're yeah, they are the eggman. And we do. Yeah. So now I'm obviously irreverent about all this. Yes. If I'm being honest, it just really does sound like prayer. It just really does sound like prayer. My house. I mean, it really to my Catholic ears, it sounds the same way. So yeah. So I'm like, OK, cool, man.

That that's how you want to spend your morning. Do it. Have fun. Yeah. Zero problem. OK. Right. So like the idea is that you get focused on yourself and then you go beyond yourself and you say things that you know by rote to help you focus. You open yourself up to God's voice and then you let the spirit flow through you. Like, yeah, sounds like a lot of people I know who believe in God.

Yeah. It's not surprising that this was effective in the early 1900s as a philosophy considering what Foursquare Church and Radio Evangelism was bringing about. this was effective in the early 1900s as a philosophy considering what Four Square Church and Radio Evangelism was bringing about. Now, it's also interesting the commonalities that this has with all of the other occult movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries like Hermetic Society of the Golden Dawn. There's all this... Theosophomy. Yeah, theosophy.

Yeah, theosophy. Yeah, theosophy. Yeah. The Latin and the Greek, I'm like, no, the emphasis needs to be elsewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Helena Bolavatsky, that kind of shit. Yeah. All of these people, there's all this emphasis on the ego, and it winds up kind of going

either one of two ways or it tries to go both ways at once depending on which movement you're talking about, but it's all about the ego it as extinction and it really is supremacy. Yeah. It feels very Roddenberry-esque, to be honest. Yeah. No God heads but me, and now there's no need for a Godhead. Yeah. It's that kind of stuff. Very much.

Yeah. I mean, it is, again, I think when you have a system wherein you are not the center of your own universe, and there's something else that is, that is a federal, that is omnipotent, that is indescribable. Yeah. The desire to reach it and touch it and be in communion with it is probably strong. I cannot speak for myself, I can I can I can guess for others. Yes, it can be very strong. Yeah. And, and, you know, I can't fault people for wanting that. I mean, if that's, that sounds rad. Like it really does. Yeah, sounds cool. Like, you know, I've tried to join costuming groups

Because I'm like, ooh a community and it's like, oh never mind never mind but Yeah, you know if if you get down that way you get down that way and and it does feel like through obliterating the ego and then rediscovering the ego, you are coming back to a pure form of yourself maybe, or you are shedding the unhealthy things that society has grown upon you like barnacles. self-aware enough and not what sort of looking for self-congratulatory or or like if you were really willing to be like no no there there are faults within myself that I want to get rid of, that I want to eliminate. And those faults aren't things like weakness, those faults are my self-centeredness. I want to get rid of my

preconceived notions of others. If that's what you're looking to get rid of, okay, great. But a lot of the time, the language around that process winds up becoming very close to narcissistic. You know, in the way that it winds up getting getting expressed and and kind of the culture that comes up around it. Well, because you lawed the humility and it's like, yeah, it's like a humble off. Yeah. On some level, it's like, well, my son been obliterated so much, like yours has. Well, well, let me tell you, pal, you know, it. it, you know, it's interesting to me that this guy came about, came up and and developed this at the same time, like his childhood and early adulthood

has people like Helena Blavatsky doing their thing in the world. Has the Fox sisters doing their thing in the world has judo coming out as a sport in around the same time? Well, yeah, go on. What I noticed on a very macro level was during his childhood, the Franco-Prussian war occurred, and the process of German unification was finalized. Yeah, but he's in Austria, so they're an empire that's on the decline, but not under threat of Germany at all. Yeah. Well, but what it points to is that this is part of what is going on during this time period is the early phases or not the early phases, but the youth of nationalism. That's very true. On the other end of the Austrian Empire, you've got Italy also defying. Yeah. And so all of these ideas surrounding identity

are part of what informs all of this. And the reason I brought up the Judo was because you had a ranking system. Oh yeah. And so there's a reverence based on ranking and you're starting to see that because also coming up at the same time as he's coming up with this stuff as his childhood is turning into adulthood and things like that, the Olympics, amateur sports, people being ranked worldwide, stuff like that. And that is driven by that nationalism you're talking about. Yeah, it's 100% driven by that. It's like, you know, you are for your country. This is how your country is great because you swim across this river faster than anyone else. Like, yeah. So yeah, I fully agree with you that that that sense of identity and that sense of national consciousness is absolutely there and radio. And now you're broadcasting ideas and

you're broadcasting things that could be mantra, mantric, mantric, on mantra. Yeah, I would say. Tantric. Yeah. All right. It's tantric. So I don't know. So and the thing is, if this is your philosophy, if this is what you've come to, doesn't it by necessity need to be missioned out? Like, why wouldn't you share that with the world? Well, yeah, it definitely becomes an evangelical kind of movement. When you build it the way this has been built philosophically, it becomes an issue of, no, we have to inform the people. And what better way to do that than to create a place where children can learn to do this earlier, making the world an ipso facto better place. Right. Enter the Waldorf school. Where else would you constantly strive to develop a healthy body and soul but at a

school? What better place to practice and develop feeling connected with all of existence than a school community? One where you could practice empathy, wherein you could see yourself in everything and everything in yourself. Isn't that the perfect place to learn not to judge others without standing in their shoes? And isn't that the completely at odds with how we were doing school at that time? All of this. All right. Okay. Yeah. You know, it's like and the industrial market, yeah.

And there are parts of that. They're great. Nothing I said there doesn't make sense. Nothing I said there is something you wouldn't want your son to learn this year. Yeah. And yet, I don't want a Waldorf program within striking distance of my kid. Like, no, just please no. Sure.

And I see the Waldorf model and I'm like, oh, there's some really cool shit there. But I'm a pick and choose guy. Yeah. I'm like, oh, you guys have really good ideas with those knee pads that fold down behind the benches. I like that. Yeah, yeah. That's about it. Yeah. Cool staying glass. Can you take out the anti-Judaism stuff? Cool.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I you know, it would be nice if you could, you know, select things from the buffet from Waldorf and Montessori and I Think you can Most people don't not not in the programs that are generally Yeah, well if you have one that is has to be Accountable to a public school system one that is a dependent charter not an independent charter one that is a dependent charter, not an independent charter. One that is publicly funded entirely, not dependent in any way on private funds. You have a better chance. But if you have a better chance at that, you might not have what people would

purists would call war Waldorf at that point either. So there's and again, I got no problem saying like, oh, I took this from this and that from that and that from that and this from over here. And I made this up myself. And I don't mind that. But that's because you're not an ideologue. Weirdly enough. Yeah, I just like. Can you believe you said that about me? Yeah. Well, like, I know it to be true, but it does feel funny. Right. Coming out of my mouth. Yeah. Like, I know it to be true, but it does feel funny. Right. Coming out of my mouth. Yeah, I'm a demagogue, not an ideologue. There's this is just an important distinction.

So, you know, at the time, this makes this sounds great because the industrial model is stripping us a down and stripping us away to just being productive little task managers. And Steiner was like, that is cancerous as fuck to our moral development and thus to our spiritual evolution. I was with him for the first clause. Therefore, anthroposophy demanded that schools that taught children that their thoughts and feelings have as Significant in an influence as their deeds and that work on their inner life is as important as work on their outer life so far

I'm right there with you. All right. See so Maybe you do want your kids school to be Waldorf-ized Um, if those are the parts Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah. Yeah. Again, you're Catholic. You can't pick and choose anything. Yes. No, I got the progress. I got the industrial sized box of Cheerios. This is our identity for the next six years of breakfast. identity for the next six years of breakfast. Whereas I'm like, I'll take a croissant sandwich over there and then I'll make my own over here and then cut up this this sausage and then

smash it so that it's a patty, but I'm not going to buy the patty. Um, yeah, I'm not saying my way is easier. Very labor intensive. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, you've got you've got those as like he's like, hey, let's build a school that does that and that sounds great. And intuitively, nothing about that sounds unhealthy. Honestly, it sounds like the the the social emotional learning shit that we're supposed

to focus on nowadays, right? Yeah. And as parents, don't we read fables to our kids that teach them that the true essence of being human isn't in their outer appearance as a human, but rather on their inner nature as a person and what one might call the soul and spiritual existence of a person? one might call the soul and spiritual existence of a person. Yes. I remember a few years ago, probably a decade now, but the word grit was making its way through education. Do you remember this? I do. Pre-pandemic. And while it was misguided and co-opted at its core, it's not a bad thing to teach a kid. Yeah.

You know, finding the genuine balance between having an open heart for the demands of the outer world and maintaining your own inner strength sounds like pretty good expected school-wide learning results for a WASC accreditation. Yeah. It does, you know. And WASC is the Western Association of Schools

and Colleges, if I recall correctly every yes Every one to six years depending on how a school did on its last one a school will be accredited or Reviewed for accreditation by this association. It's supposed to be a big self-study You're supposed to get everybody in there and get everybody's input it ends up being a dog and pony show unfortunately because Everybody wants to six year accreditation Because why would you want to do that work more often?

but What it means is you don't look at yourself. Honestly, you look at Setting the bar as low as you can and then doing a somersault over it. Yeah, but But everything that I just said Sounds really good except for that one little part one little part about spiritual evolution. I'm going to take issue with that. I don't know what your you know, you may or may not. I don't know if you have a growth mindset when it comes to that or if there's like this is how we do it. Well, all right to to

segue for a moment into into theology. Sure. The idea within Catholicism, as I understand it, as an adult convert is that we work as parents and as individuals. So like, like it's partly your job as a parent and it's it's partly your job just as an individual to do this when you're old enough to be doing it on your own, to develop and maintain a fully formed conscience. Okay. That in terms of spiritual evolution, in terms of spiritual evolution, what we want to achieve is a fully developed and informed sense of moral right and wrong. That we want to be able to look at a situation and make a decision based on interrogating our fully formed conscience and using our conscience and what we know from scripture and tradition in order to make a decision about what the right course of action is in a situation. us. Okay. Okay. And your spirit

doesn't doesn't evolve. There isn't some developed like Catholicism doesn't teach that you can learn to read minds or evolve into some higher form. Okay. No, no, no, we are we are born human. We have a soul and there is backing and forthing amongst Catholics. I mean, the catechism is pretty clear on it, but there's backing forthing amongst Catholics about whether your dog or your cat has a soul and part of that has to do with who's going to be there in the afterlife. And so there's backing and forthing on that. But we have souls, we have free will, and we have fully formed consciences. And those are the defining traits that make our souls what they are in Catholic theology. And your soul doesn't grow, your soul doesn't become enhanced in any way. The idea is just to make sure that you aren't weighed down with sin, which is acts that are in violation of your fully formed conscience and that are in violent that separate you from God

And and that's that's essentially how that works It sounds like if I may for a second. Yeah, that to me sounds like There is no growth merely a getting closer to the ideal. Yes Okay, that's that's a good. That's a good way of explaining it. I would say that that is a static philosophy and would be completely in odds with this philosophy of evolution. Oh yeah. If Steiner had tried to put this forward in the 1100s, he'd have been hunted down by a crusade. Like, no, no, you're a fucking heretic. Right. No. You.

Um, like, it sounds like the Gnostics on some level. He does. Um, he did. And and and Gnosticism has a has a place within the Christian canon within and within tradition and has an influence on some thinking. But like the extent to which Steiner takes this, you know, the idea that, well, you know, you can you can put yourself in touch with, you know, like to early Christians, the idea of a national soul, right. Right there. You've been kicked out. Like, don't ever come back for communion. Fuck off. Like, no, that's not how this works. You know, no, we each have our soul. We are each responsible for our souls. And this is guest alt shit? No, that doesn't fly. No. And the idea that there are spirits within the world would have gotten him in trouble with church authorities because the only spirits that you might run into outside of human souls are potentially ghosts, although

Catholic theology doesn't really talk about those. Or they are angels or angels who have moved downward. And so, like, sorry, no, as an ordinary mortal, you don't want to be trying to have truck with those because that's dangerous. And by the way, don't ever come back for communion again. And any of these spiritual practices or spiritual outlooks that talk about the extinction of the ego and the Godhead within the individual would be, if they aren't outright heretical, like to the medieval church, they would be skirting really close. Sure. So, yeah, his ideas about what he's talking about about spiritual growth is very, very different from, let's say, a mainline high church, whether you're Catholic or high Lutheran or Anglican outlook on things.

OK, so so as far as schooling, though, goes, yeah, like, you know, like everything, everything I've said minus that that one part that spawned a liturgy. Yeah, sorry. OK. How often do I go off on how for wrestling and K-fabe are true? Whatever the fuck. So apart from that one part, it all sounds pretty good. We want critical thinking. Yes, so did Steiner. He said that people needed to be true to a decision once they made it,

even in the face of daunting adversity. This is shit that we would both want to teach our children. We want that for students, right? Make a plan, follow it through, finish the goddamn work, unless you realize that your choice was made an error, at which point, be big enough to admit that you fucked up and find something different or ask for help. Those are things we want our students to have. Those are things we want our children to have. Yes. Those are the things that Steiner's advocating for at

a time where the model was industrial. The model was we're building workers. Well, yeah, we're building workers because we have this whizbang new economic model that is, as far as anybody is concerned, it's going to be what's going to make us all rich. And it is the wave of the future and we all need to get on board with it. It is the wave of the future and we all need to get on board with it. And, you know, or, you know, I speak of it as the Protestant work ethic because it's the most cliche, but everybody had that same fucking work ethic at that time of your hard work on this plane is is going to be your salvation in the next on some level, like it will be an indicator of your goodness.

You you are not challenging the order because you're going to get better rewards. And remember, he's Austrian. So the odds of him being Protestant are much lower than or the odds of him touching on Protestantism are much lower than the odds of him touching on Catholicism and Judaism. Yes. So yes. As his most direct influences, I would be remiss if I did not first mention that Hitler specifically hated Steiner's thinking. He really. Yes. He called Steiner a tool of the Jews.

And in turn, Steiner could not stand the Nazis. He actually gave up his revenue, residence in Berlin upon hearing about the Beer Hall pooched in Munich. This wrinkle is wild as fuck because so many Nazis actually dug his occultism and his approach to anthroposophy, and they incorporated it into how they Nazi'd. And at the same time, members of the White Rose society also dug the shit out of Anthroposophy Which which tells me there's enough there That for most folks of different ilk to find the good stuff within it

And to find transformational stuff within it that really helped them in some way At the end of the day the world is not neat and tidy like you you you yeah You want to keep Waldorf schools the hell away from your child and yet I mentioned all kinds of things that you're like Oh, that's that's great. Yeah. Oh, yeah And that's the thing I'm the one the one Thank you tiny thing. I'm gonna push back on that is when we talk about the white rose society digging lots of stuff within anthroposophy or apostrophe. And we talk about Nazis digging stuff within anthroposophy.

Part of that is that they're digging different shit. Yeah. You know, and big. shit. Yeah. It's a pretty big thing. Yeah. Because there's plenty there that I think you and I would both agree is pro-social. Yes. And there's also plenty there that we would look at and go, oh my god, there is so much potential for that to become fucking monstrous. Yes. And and and that's the stuff that people draw on to totalitarianism and yeah, or if not, monstroses, you know, yeah, if not monstrous, I'd be like, oh, come on. It will. Yeah. Fucking kidding me. Like that. Most of what I've found in in anthroposophy has been like, Oh, for fuck's sake, seriously. Like it's been that

it's not been like, oh my God, you like. And at the same time, though, I can draw the links and be like, oh, bad people are going to take this and run. Yes. Yes. That's that's kind of what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. Oh, yeah. In 1919, Steiner wrote the forward in a book and financed its publication called. Oh boy. The intent of my rowery and their wealth creek.

OK, your great free, my rary, my rary, myvel Creek. Free Malrari, Malrari, Welt Creek. In short, it made an argument that he endorsed the Great War. It made the argument that he endorsed, and that was this, the Great War was instigated by a collusion between Freemasons and Jews specifically to destroy Germany. OK, so. Oh, very Henry Ford of him. And yet the Nazi prince press went all in on attacking him at the end of his life in 1925. So OK, even though and I think it's because

just because you're an anti-Semite doesn't make you our anti-Semite Yeah, I think there's something because like The mentality of like well fuck everybody knew that the Freemasons and the Jews caused the war to destroy Germany That's not me. That doesn't get him any points with us. Like, I think it's along those lines. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Now. The Nazi party goes crazy attacking him in 25, right? Rudolph Hess sponsored Waldorf schools.

It's just like. Yeah, it's so weird. He's a huge boot. Rudolph Hess was a big booster of anthroposophy. The SS's intelligence arm was super against it. And Rudolph Hess was like funding Waldorf's course. It's just like We So so the SS was was essentially hunting down to suppress and and and throw pacifists Yeah

Okay, or or at least spoke very poorly of it and okay keep our eyes on those people Okay, yeah, huh? right and Again, root off Hess was like yeah, huh? Right and again Rudolph Hess was like, yeah, this is this is what we're looking for man Like you know my god, yeah, okay, I want these schools He's the deputy fear Yeah, yeah, like

Yeah, it's it's a Dick Cheney to to, you know, Adolf Hitler's Donald Rumsfeld. Yeah, you know what? Uh, what? What I take away from that is the extent to which Nazism was just a dog's breakfast intellectually. You think like just I mean, well, I mean, obviously it's garbage. Like, I mean, it's it's deeply flawed. But beyond that, I mean, just that it was that it was.

It's got something for everyone. It was word salad. Yeah, like it wasn't. There was no there was no consistent through line other than, well, you know, all of those guys fuck those guys. Right. But even even fuck those guys is because they're at once super weak and we should kill them off and we should get. Yes. And they are incredibly strong and a threat to us. Yeah. At once.

Like it requires so much, not even mental gymnastics. You literally have to just you your brain has to be putting because it has to fit in two containers of different sizes and shapes in different spaces. Yeah. It's wild that they didn't like Cubism as art because you kind of have to contort your brain into the shapes of Picasso painted. Well, but you know, but but Cubism forced forced you to be conscious of concepts like perspective and time and time and and you know, you know, it was an exercise in confronting the viewer with aspects of reality and what we know over the long term with sadly longitudinal studies of fascism. And fascists is that, you know, they really don't want you to make them think. True. So like, there you go. That's that's the that's the explanation there. Yeah. So I'm actually thinking that this might be even though I don't want to break it off

here. It actually might be a good break off point because I promised schools and I want to get to schools, but really to discuss the school system is going to take the better part of an hour. So I'll just give you this little preview. So, so a friend of the show, Dr. Gabriel Cruz will be very happy with how short these episodes have been Steiner wanted to create a school system that was holistic and incorporated the precepts of anthroposophy into its basic purpose Yeah, and again if you if you are sold on the idea of cognitive imagination of inspiration, and of the third eye, which I always forget what it is, then inspiration. No, no, that's no, inspiration. Okay. Yeah. But if you are a believer in those things, yeah, oh, intuition. That's what it is. Intuition, right.

You know, if you're a believer in those things, you're going to want to spread them big time. And the school is the way to do that. And so he wants to do that and the focus on creativity and imagination that you see in his school system and on artistic expression that you see in his school system and on artistic expression that you see in his school system, those are all really kid positive things. And frankly, post World War I, good things to focus on because you can work out traumas that way. You can disarm the mind on some levels

from the nationalism that had driven us to death. You could do it with the generation that is orphaned by that same fucking war. Yeah. And if you look back at his meditative goals of again cognitive imagination, inspiration and intuition, this makes a lot of sense. And I think I will stop there because he's going to make a school as kind of the pilot program for a cigarette company. What? Yeah, it oh

Yeah, and eventually we're gonna get deterrents. Yeah, eventually early 20th century occultism, you just are such a such a source of wonder. It's colliding with late gilded age capitalism. Okay, yeah. Industrializing. Yeah, all right. Yeah, so. Oh my God. All right.

Anyway, any takeaways? Um, just that The worst people will always find some way to fuck up a good thing You know Cuz yeah, we we can we can listen to what to what Steiner had to say about you know philosophy and and and you know spiritual growth and and you know all of and, and, and, you know, spiritual growth and, and, you know, all of these things to the transformative, the transformative aspect of occult practice, like could be a tool for, for great, you know, pro-social positive development. But, but there's always going to be some asshole who's going to shit in

the pool. Yeah. And so of course, fascists look at this, looked at this and went, oh, oh, yeah, there's some good shit here. Yeah, the soul, the spirit here, the spirit of the people like God damn it. right? It's like no you don't get to have that you know Away yeah, but but but we hadn't had Nazis yet So nobody had figured out about the the paradox of tolerance Yeah, it's not a problem at all ever no no, we know now that like we have to have limits on tolerance. Yeah So yeah, that's that's pretty much yeah fair is fair. That's kind of my take there any any

Media that you want to turn us on to well, you know the the discussion of Anthropocopy Reminded me very strongly of a fantasy series that I started a number of years ago. The first novel of it is entitled The Darkness That Comes Before. darkness that comes before. The author's name is R. Scott Baker. And the main character of the series is a monk who is part of a monastic tradition that has essentially gone through, he starts the book having gone through a process very similar to what Steiner was talking about. And the author describes what the meditative practices are that led to him achieving this level of enlightenment where he's able to perceive illusions and

See things that all of the other characters aren't able to and this makes him a perfected man And so I very highly recommend that series Our Scott Baker the darkness that comes before is the first novel So how about you? What do you got? I'm actually going to recommend the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's it's what's it called? It's I think it's volume two of the the the original series.

And it's essentially read the read the issue where they go to Casey Jones's grandmother's farmhouse You see it actually kind of be a major part of the original live-action movie But the issue wherein it's largely April writing in her diary and she starts to write about each turtle And we start to see What I'm getting at Through that series So I would say it's it's in volume two if I recall correctly and it's the one where they go to the farmhouse The other thing I would recommend actually is called the last Ronin.

I think I've recommended it or but it is excellent. It is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the last Ronin and it's heart breaking. But it's really, really good. So yeah, can you can you be found? I can be found. I can be found at EH Blalock on Blue Sky. And for now, that's the only place you're gonna find me. And yeah, if you want to point anything out, like if I got anything wrong in my explanation of

Catholic doctrine earlier, you can find me there to yell at me, call me a heretic, whatever you like. So that's where I can be found. And Damian, you? Yeah, you could find me on Thread at Duh Harmony. You could also find me on March 1 and or April 5 at the comedy spots slinging puns with capital punishment. We are back, baby. So check us out there. Yeah, that's where you can find us. Where can you find the podcast? The podcast, of course, can be located on our website at wubba wubba wubba dot geekhistorytime.com or on the Apple podcast app or on Spotify and wherever it is that you have found us, please take the time to hit the subscribe button if you haven't done

it already. And please give us the five star review that you know we deserve. Cool. Well, for a geek history of time, I'm Damian Harmony and I'm Ed Blaylock. And until serve.