When Healing Becomes Educating, Vol. 1 - Waldorf Research Institute

the day working consciousness. It is in these higher realms that the laws of
Nature reside.
The energy patterns that guide and form the physical manifestations of
the sense observable world have their source in these archetypal realms. A
scientist who is working to penetrate into the behavior of matter in various
conditions finds it a necessity to be able to penetrate with willed thought
into these archetypal realms.
An original scientific idea must go through a stern testing by the intellect,
which must form an onlooker consciousness which becomes disassociated
from the phenomenon and the Idea. The degree of detachment present in
the intellect is considered a fair measure of the objectivity of the researcher.
This in theory is the way in which most experiments are to be conducted.
In the human soul, however, there are a number of polar states. One pole,
according to Rudolf Steiner, is the pole of intention or will.
In the will pole can be placed other polar forces of sympathy and
antipathy. In scientific research objectivity is considered to be attained
when sympathy, or subjective identification with the phenomenon, is
held in abeyance. In the scientific onlooker consciousness the analytical
force of antipathy is considered to be the only viable tool in the pursuit
of objectivity. Subjectivity or sympathy is regarded in science as a kind of
tinkering and adjusting of the experimental data in order to better fit the
pre-formed conclusions of the researcher. Truly objective research moves
forward when the antipathy blooms into intellect. This allows the thinker
to reach the realm of the pure concept. The need for the soul to balance the
antipathy with sympathy is then experienced in the subsequent experiment,
the “doing” of the work. If the alchemy has been successful, then the work
rises to a higher stage wherein the soul power of transcendence begins to
form universal concepts that are provable through corroboration by other
researchers who can duplicate the experiment. This proving puts the results
into the thought realm in which the essences and primal laws that govern
earthly phenomena are revealed. Briefly put, this is the true striving of
scientific work. Having risen above simple likes and dislikes, the thinker
begins to see the world as it is, unencumbered by personal fantasies and
prejudice. Attainment of this level of cognition is known in anthroposophy
as Inspiration.
The seeds of this mode of cognition were developed by systematic
thinkers during the Vedic ages. Philosophies and epistemologies of diverse
sorts all take root in the sublime cognitive states of Inspiration. Today’s
scientific rigor and the accomplishments of analytical thought are a result
of thinkers reaching this inspired level of cognition.
104