Stages of consciousness

 

Vergleich: Siehe: Miasmen

 

Frei nach: Marshall McLuhan, professor of English Literature at the University of Toronto (21. Juli 1911 - † 31. Dezember 1980):

Language, Tools, Awareness and Psora (Rokoko?)

1e: the invention of language caused a complete shift. The same change allowed the physiological changes to the larynx and so complex speech + left the arms free to develop the use of tools. The extension of the hands through tools allowed a greater diversity of activity and made mankind more adaptable. However, it was the adoption of speech (Language) caused the most important changes

Writing, Travel, Empire and Sycosis (Barock?)

2nd: the invention of writing/invention of history followed, Speech and language freed man from the instant of time and place, and extended his awareness, but that awareness was still bounded to the experience of one person, and to some extent his or her direct contacts. Writing changes this and frees awareness from the experience of a single person.

Printing, Mechanization, Nationalism and Syphilis (Renaissance)

3rd: The disease syphilis in 1493. In less than 5 years the disease had spread virtually throughout Europe. It has been assumed that syphilis was brought from the Caribbean by members of Columbus’s crew, though there is mounting archaeological evidence that it was present in Europe long before then. However, it is indisputable that the supposed discovery that the world was a globe was an important part of a shift in mind set that shook western man during the second half of the 15th Century and the beginning of the 16th, and that the appearance of a new and terrible disease was part of that shift.

Radio, TV, Electronics, Globalization and AIDS

4th: Electronic Age is less clear cut than the foregoing. Telegraphy developed slowly through the first half of the 19th Century (established by 1850/radio transmission 1895/broadcasting after 1st World War/1st TV broadcast 1936 + widespread after Second World War. The invention of the transistor in 1948 + improvement in 1952 = probably the key inventions, as they allowed the development of computers and digital electronics.The defining moment of the shift in mind set that electronics McLuhan takes it to be the launch of Sputnik in 1957, which circumscribed our world and defined the stage on which life is enacted.

The Consequences of the Electronic Age = dissolution of Boundaries

The particular effect of man’s extension by electronics = extension of the nervous system of man, demolished the concept of distance in space/time. Electronic communication moves at the speed of light/= instantaneous. Sender + receiver + people + places in between become a single unified point in space/time. So the world becomes the Global Village. The scope of an individual’s interaction with others has moved from family/tribe + village/town/state/whole world.

Lack of boundaries resulted in local activities having global effects (ecology/environment). In the Industrial Age nature was acknowledged as an all powerful force. Nature viewed with an awe (Romantic Movement)/a malevolent force against which a continual, noble war must be waged (myth of the Pioneer Spirit). In the early 6ties this view was completely shattered by understanding of the effects of chemicals through the food chain.

Concept of time and place have little meaning for Electronic man Fixing of our position/place is vitally important to us when we use a mobile phone, as without it we do not have any bearing on where we are but seem just to be floating about in the ether. This lack of fixity is expressed in many other ways in a general feeling of being lost.

The first consequence of this is that we live only in the present, Past and future break away. The lack of boundaries also mean that every event (trivial) may influence every other one.

Specialization is the key to the industrial way of thinking. It appeared with the printing of the very first printed book which was produced on 6 different presses working simultaneously, each one manned by teams of specialists: typographers/typecutters/-setters/inkers/pressmen, etc. The book caused such an explosion of knowledge that it was no longer possible for one person to know everything. However, it was possible for a person to know everything about a particular subject.

The merging of cause and effect and the complexity of all systems that makes them inherently unpredictable mean rational, sequential thought is no longer capable of dealing with our world. Thought in the Electronic Age has to be very different from earlier ways of thinking if it is to be effective.

In the Tribal World thinking is historical. Knowing/understanding what has happened in history is being better prepared when it starts to repeat itself. (myths/legends).

In the Feudal World the possession of knowledge becomes the most effective way of understanding the world and dealing with it. This knowledge extends beyond personal experience but still lies within the compass of one person.

Each extension to man creates a new way of thinking/being permeating the whole of the relevant society, which in the case of the electronic extension is the entire world, and changes everything for ever. However, the new way includes within itself all the ways that preceded it.

When a culture is faced with change and is not yet adapted, a disease state is inevitable.

The true miasmatic diseases are a reaction to the situation that a person/a society finds itself in as a result of the transition from one state/way of thinking to another.

The Extensions of Man bring about the new state suddenly and completely, and this leaves no time for individuals or for the culture as a whole to adapt. The result is a false reaction of the immune system, a sudden and extreme disease that spreads suddenly/quickly. This was the pattern of syphilis in 1490/of AIDS in 1980’s. As society begins to adapt to the new state disease becomes less immediately threatening and adapts to a more chronic form.

Although epidemic diseases appear suddenly, disappear as quickly and would appear to be without meaning, this seems to be an anomaly and in theory these diseases should have meaning. 

The microcosm of an individual’s life reflects the pattern found in the macrocosm of society. The newborn baby is unaware, but soon learns speech and self awareness.

At this time he might be affected to signs of the Psoric skin diseases. As he grows into this state he faces the Hydrophobic Miasm illnesses, which are often called "the childhood diseases". As he goes to school and learns to write we expect to see the Sycotic affections: snotty nose, glue ear and warts. Tubercular asthma and lung trouble might follow. Although epidemic diseases appear suddenly, disappear as quickly and would appear to be without meaning, this seems to be an anomaly and in theory these diseases should have meaning.

The microcosm of an individual’s life reflects the pattern found in the macrocosm of society. The newborn baby is unaware, but soon learns speech and self awareness.

At this time he might be prey to the first signs of the Psoric skin diseases. As he grows into this state he faces the Hydrophobic Miasm illnesses, which are often called

"the childhood diseases". As he goes to school and learns to write we might expect to see the Sycotic affections: snotty nose, glue ear and warts. Tubercular asthma and lung trouble might follow.

Using Miasmatic Theory

There are a number of ways in which miasmatic theory can lead to a better understanding of symptoms, disease and remedies and so help us to make a better prescription.

When we look at an object it has many features and qualities. Shape and size and color are immediately obvious, but there are others such as texture, temperature, odor, etc

A disease picture or an individual symptom has a number of different qualities. What might be called the overall shape of a symptom, that which is repertorized, is fairly obvious. It certainly narrows the choice of remedies but, unless it is a very strong SRP (= strange/rare/peculiar symptom), it will still leave a large and diverse selection of suggested remedies.

The remedies of the AIDS Miasm should be used in the treatment of HIV. However, there are aspects of the disease that raise important questions about how HIV should be treated homoeopathically. The first of these revolves around the fact that the disease expresses itself not directly but through secondary, opportunistic infections. Many of these would not constitute a threat to the healthy individual, but for those who are HIV positive they are serious and can be life threatening. Often these infections must be addressed immediately because if they are not, there will be no patient to treat in any other way. The fact that HIV causes an infectious, epidemic disease  and should be treated accordingly, rather than an expression of a constitutional disorder.

Using AIDS Miasm Remedies with Diseases not related to HIV. The miasmatic conditions that affect us find personal or individual expression in diseases that reflect the nature of contemporary society. This happens in two ways. It can be the diseases themselves that are a general expression of the miasmatic stresses and concerns. These are the diseases that are particularly of our time: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Anorexia/Bulimia/Gulf War Syndrome/HIV/AIDS itself. It can be expressed in more common and general diseases, but in a particularly AIDS Miasm version of them. Thus something like depression is a common illness and it can be found in the pictures of virtually any chronic disease and so of any Miasm. However, there is a particular version of depression that centres around issues of isolation and vulnerability which is a part of the AIDS Miasm.

 

Jean Gebser: human consciousness is in transition, and that these transitions are "mutations" and not continuous. These jumps or transformations involve structural changes in both mind and body. There are a number of these levels:

   1. The archaic structure

   2. The magic structure

   3. The mythical structure   time is cyclical/rhythmic and space as enclosed

   4. The mental structure = rational structure = deficient form

                                               time is linear, directed or "progressive"/space becomes the box-like homogeneous space of geometry = a vacuum/extremes evidend in various "nothing but..." statements. Extreme materialism claims that "everything is nothing but matter = atoms". Philosophy, the love of wisdom, is replaced with instrumental reason, the ability "to make". Contemplation = looking inward is devalued in relation to what one "can do". "Wise men" fall out of favor and are replaced by the "man of action." Successes in technologically re-shaping matter offer solutions to some problems but also give rise to problems of their own making. Mechanized slaughter of two world wars and the new atomic weapons exemplified and symbolized the expression of the ontology of the rational/mental structure. Living becomes hard to bear in such a consciousness structure.

5. integral structure a new relationship to space and time

caused by despair as a lack of values or ethics. Gebser saw that it is the very consciousness structure itself which has played out to its inherent end. He saw that its metaphysical presumptions necessarily led to this ethical dead end. A "value-free" ontology like materialism leads of necessity to living "without value". Any attempt to remedy the situation by a return to "values" would ultimately fail. But it was through this very quagmire of "the decline of the West" that Gebser saw the emergence of a new structure of consciousness which he termed the integral.

Leads to transparency, points to how it is that the one is "given-through" and always "along-with" the other. For centuries, time was viewed as having distinct categories of past, present and future. These categories were said to be wholly distinct one from the other. Of course, this created all kinds of difficulties regarding how beings moved from one category to the other, from present to past, for example. What integral awareness notices is that though we may utilize categorical thinking for various purposes, we also have the realization that time is an indivisible whole. That various beings in the present are crystallized from the past, and which also extend into the future. In fact, without already having an integral awareness, one could have no notion of time as "past" or "present", etc. Without the awareness of the whole, one would be stuck in a kind of "not-knowing" of an always only "now" not connected to any sense of past or future. Even the mental awareness which divides this whole into distinct categories could not have become aware of those categories without an awareness which was already integral.

 

The question arises how far the changes in consciousness are brought about by changes in the nervous system itself. And how far the nervous symptoms such as spinal sensitivity are hysterical.

The brain and nervous system normally function in adult life in an subdued manner. The expression "to keep a cool head" is highly indicative. Bergson, at the beginning of this century, showed that our senses screen from us the multitudinous incoming impressions so that we become conscious only of a tiny selection, those needed for our action.

It would seem that the fungus represents the brain and nervous system at an earlier, more embryonic stage of development before it has been overwhelmed by the death or dying processes characteristic of the adult stages. Sense impressions in our drug picture are therefore described as more vivid, more full of life, beauty and springtime. When we look back even as far as the Greek civilization we are enchanted by the freshness of their thoughts which are still full of life and perception. They have not yet been killed off into the abstractions of modern thought life. So under the influence of Agar. the Lapps and Siberian Shamans find it easier to re-enter states of consciousness of a dreamlike clairvoyance. They become mediums for inspiriation by other influences. Wordworth's "Ode to Immortality" [Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood]

represents a similar idea in respect to childhood.

We may further question whether the movements of uncoordinated cha­racter also reflect in some degree the uncoordinated movements of the baby before it has learnt to still the unnecessary, useless movements and permit only the useful ones to occur.

 

Die Entwicklung des Menschen und der Erde gemäß der Kosmologie der Rosenkreuzer und Steiners Anthroposofie

Ebenso wie jeder einzelne Mensch inkarniert sich auch die Erde, indem sie planetarische Wiedergeburten durchläuft in unvorstellbar langen Intervallen, die Milliarden von Jahren dauern. Die wichtigsten nach dem Saturn, der Sonne und dem Mond benannt hat die Erde in einer Zeit durchlaufen, als unser Planet und die genannten Himmelskörper noch nicht in der heutigen Form existiert haben.

Was diese Himmelskörper heute darstellen, sind getrennte, verfestigte Gebilde, die sich  unter Einfluss der ansässigen geistigen Wesen von der Erde getrennt haben (früher waren sie jedoch eins mit der Erde). In der Saturn-Epoche hatte unser Planet lediglich eine thermische Qualität. In der Sonnen-Phase hat die Erde eine Art Luftkonsistenz angenommen und im Mond-Zeitalter kondensierten Teile davon in eine wässrig-gallertartige Form

4-Teilung: (4 Elemente: Feuer, Luft, Wasser und Erde gehen auch auf diese Entwicklung zurück). Die dichtesten Anteile wurden schließlich zur festen Materie, bis sich die Erde in die heutige Form entwickelt hat. (Lemuria/Atlantis, wo der physische Körper des Menschen noch nicht die heutige Form und Festigkeit hatte und der Mensch die Welt anders wahrgenommen hat, als nur über die physischen Sinne

wie heute). Der Untergang von Atlantis (die Sintflut) führte zur Auswanderung der überlebenden Atlanter und zur Verbreitung ihres Fortschrittes in andere Kontinente. Dies erklärt viele ähnliche Funde und Phänomene an verschiedenen Orten und die hohe spirituelle Entwicklungsstufe indianischer, asiatischer und ägyptischer Eingeweihter. Dies waren bereits Vorzeichen des gegenwärtigen, postatlantischen Zeitalters und der einzelnen kulturellen Epochen.

Zur Chronologisierung lässt sich z.B. die Anthroposophie von Steiner heranziehen:

1) die Urindische Kultur (ab 7227 v.Chr.),

2) die Urpersische Kultur (ab 5067 v.Chr.),

3) die Ägyptisch-Chaldäisch-Babylonische Kultur (ab 2907 v.Chr.),

4) die Griechisch-Lateinische Kultur (ab 747 v.Chr.)

5) die Germanisch-Angelsächsische Kultur (ab 1413 n.Chr. bis heute).

Danach werden im Abstand von jeweils 2160 Jahren (das platonische Jahr) die nächsten zwei Epochen folgen, bevor

sich die Entwicklung weiter fortsetzen wird: 6) die Slawische und 7) die Philadelphische Kulturepoche.

Die obige Darstellung beschreibt, wie unser Planet mit der Zeit eine "gröbere Dichte" angenommen hat.

Ähnlich entwickelte sich auch die Menschheit und der menschliche Körper (in Saturn-Epoche). Er hatte damals zuerst auch nur eine thermische Struktur und nahm im Laufe der nachfolgenden Sonnenund Mondphase stufenweise weitere Aspekte an, bis zur Entstehung des physischen Körpers in heutiger Form. Während dieser Phasen nahm der Mensch auch die weitere Körper an während der Sonnenzeit den ätherischen Körper während der Mondzeit den astralen Körper (nicht die heutige Form/sondern die jeweilige Vorform).

 

Erde Unvollkommen:

Jeder dieser Bestandteile war eine Gabe spiritueller Mächte, die für die Evolution der Menschheit jeweils ein Stück ihrer eigenen Substanz zur Verfügung gestellt haben.

Gleichzeitig entstanden auch Vorformen der Mineralien sowie die der Flora und Fauna.

Der physische Körper in Wechselbeziehung mit der Welt der Minerale,

Der ätherische Körper in Wechselbeziehung mit der Pflanzenwelt

Der astrale Körper in Wechselbeziehung mit dem Tierreich (Tieren haben einen ätherischen/astralen Körper/letzterer hat bei ihnen die führende Rolle und im Unterschied zum Menschen sind ihre seelisch-spirituellen Komponenten kollektiver Natur, d.h. sie haben kein autonomes Ich).

2-Teilung: In der Mondphase sind das männlichen und weiblichen Prinzips entwickelt (Mensch hatte bis dahin kein Geschlecht), konnten sich Menschen auf der Erde nunmehr eigenständig vermehren (= inkarnieren).

Der Sinn und die Hauptbedingung für die weitere Entwicklung des Menschen auf der Erde ist demnach die Liebe. Ihr Archetyp Jesus Christus musste sich deshalb auf der Erde inkarnieren, weil die Menschen in Zeiten des Materialismus nur so zum Glauben finden konnten. Ab dem Zeitpunkt (der Kreuzigung auf Golgota) verläuft die Entwicklung wieder rückwärts, allerdings auf einer höheren Ebene. Die jetzige Phase entspricht gewissermaßen der ägyptischen Epoche, jedoch ist spirituelles Wissen heutzutage öffentlich zugänglich. Und damit sich die Menschheit weiterentwickeln kann, muss sie trotz oder parallel zu ihrem technologischen Fortschritt eine höhere spirituelle Durchdringung erreichen.

3-Teilung: Die existentielle Grundlage des Menschen ist seine Dreiheit, die er schon auf dem alten Saturn gehabt hat Körper, Geist und Seele. Doch erst auf der heutigen Erde war seine Entwicklung so weit fortgeschritten, dass er ein Ich annehmen konnte. Dadurch wurde er zu einem autonomen Wesen und begann sich als Individuum zu entwickeln (bis dahin war seine geistig-seelische Struktur kollektiv, ähnlich wie bei den Tieren). Damit erhielt er auch seinen freien Willen, was auch die Möglichkeit von Irrtümern und das Phänomen der menschlichen Karma mit sich brachte. Während der ersten Inkarnationen auf der Erde hatte jeder Mensch bereits sein eigenes Ich, verhielt sich aber noch größtenteils wie ein Tier. Seine höheren Komponenten befanden sich allesamt auf einem niedrigen Niveau und der am meisten bestimmende Aspekt war der astrale Körper und die ihm innewohnenden Triebe und Leidenschaften. Der heutige Mensch steht also in erster Reihe vor der Aufgabe, seinen astralen Körper zu transformieren, später dann auch den ätherischen und den physischen Körper. Jeder sollte mit Hilfe seines Ichs daran arbeiten, seiner Emotionen, Triebe und Leidenschaften Herr zu werden und seine geistigen und spirituellen Anteile zu entwickeln, die ihrerseits auch jeweils in drei Aspekte unterteilt werden können. Der physische Körper ist zwar der unterste, aber auch der älteste und am meisten entwickelte Teil des menschlichen Wesens. Deshalb ist er im Allgemeinen bei allen Menschen gleich entwickelt, wohingegen es zwischen der jeweiligen geistigen und spirituellen Entwicklungsstufe große Unterschiede gibt.

Die Idee, dass Materie/Universum/Mensch eine spirituelle Grundlage haben, wird von vielen abgelehnt. Andere verbreiten wiederum die falsche Ansicht, dass der Körper und die Materie minderwertig sind und die Inkarnation auf der Erde letztendlich etwas Überflüssiges sei. Sie versuchen, die Menschheit vorzeitig zu spiritualisieren, entgegen der Tatsache, dass die Erde genau jener Ort ist, wo der Mensch seinen Gesamtfortschritt am besten vorantreiben kann. Die eben erwähnten Einstellungen bringen die Menschheit allerdings nicht weiter. Es werden noch viele Inkarnationen nötig sein, bis der Mensch soweit ist, dass er seinen physischen Körper ablegen kann und der ätherische Körper dadurch zu seinem gröbsten Bestandteil wird. Aber auch danach wird er noch sehr lange brauchen, bis er ans Ziel gelangt.....

 

        1e Erdenzeitalter: Saturn         Mit „Menschen“; Ohne Mineralien/Pflanzen/Tieren;

Wärme in abwechselnde/unterschiedliche Formen

1. Spiegelt Wesenheiten (u.a. Kyriotetes) und ihre Eigenschaften, hat keine eigene, die sich selbst bewusst

     werden und  dadurch entwickeln (ist „Urwille“ = Throne)

2. Archai = Urbeginne = Wesen, die wirken wie gegenwärtige menschliche Persönlichkeiten

     physische Leib                     Vollkommen

                         Krankheit

3. Zwischen Saturn und Sonne entwickeln sich Sinnesorganen

                         Seraphim (= Geister der Liebe) können diese Sinnesorganen benutzen und Eindrücke an

                                                         Feuergeister weitergeben ohne eigenes Nutzen

4. Söhne des Zwielichts o. des Lebens = Angeloi

                         Geschmack entwickelt sich

 

2e Erdenzeitalter: Sonne          Feuergeister = Archangeloi = Erzengel bestehen mit Art Traumbewusstsein  

                                                                      „Wie Menschen“, aber lebhafter

Gas

Lebens-/Bilder-/Ätherleib               Weniger vollkommen

Stoffwechsel entwickelt sich verbunden mit Geister der Harmonien = Cherubim erzeugen

     Bewusstsein 1. wie Traumbewusstsein des heutigen Menschen,

  2. Schlafbewusstsein

 

3e Erdenzeitalter: Mond          Wesenheiten: Excusiai = Gewalten

                         Unterteilung in Lebewesen ‡

Wasser = flüssig

Astralleib                         Wenig vollkommen

                    Träger von Begierden/Leidenschaft/Lust/Leid

 

4e Erdenzeitalter: Erde               Mineralien Fest

Geistesmensch (= Atma Keim gestaltet in Saturnzeitalter/Buddhi = Lebensgeist gestaltet in Sonnezeitalter)

Erde                                    Unvollkommen

 

 

Vorwort/Suchen                                Zeichen/Abkürzungen                                 Impressum