Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

the four main areas (the physical land, the bioregion, the cultural heritage,and human destiny) with the subheadings on a blackboard. Individualswould then volunteer to research an area of interest and then present it tothe full group for discussion. It is best to intensify the final sharing over afew successive days so that conversations can evolve and new ideas can beilluminated.Each presentation would have specific, overall qualities that couldbe drawn from it by the full group. (Do not look only at the obvious factsbut probe for a quality that rests behind the gossamer veil of reality!) Theintention is to paint a portrait of the physical, etheric, and astral bodies, andthe ego of the area. This exercise can offer a group a more objective view ofits situation, problems, and particular destiny.Endnotes1. The principle of threeness can be found throughout the human body:the human form is composed of a head, a torso, limbs; there are threetypes of teeth (molars, incisors, canines), three types of muscle (cardiac,striated, smooth), three types of bone (flat, long, curved), three partsof a long bone (ball, shank, hinge), three major parts of the brain (lefthemisphere, right hemisphere, corpus callosum), three vessels for blood(veins, arteries, capillaries), etc. See Rudolf Steiner’s Study of Man andOccult Physiology for more information.2. See Scientific American, “A Spinning Crystal Ball,” pp. 28–33, October,1996.3. See Rediscovering Geography: New Relevance for Science and Society.Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources, NationalAcademy Press, 1997. See also Juan Carlos Garavaglia. Human Beings andthe Environment in America: on Determinism and Possibilism. InternationalSocial Science Journal, November 1992.4. I am deliberately avoiding going into depth on the relationship of theAmerican Indian to the etheric geography of North America. They hada very different relationship than the settlers from Europe and Asia,and a separate consideration would be necessary to do justice to thisrelationship.5. See America BC. Barry Fell. Simon & Schuster, Pocket Books, 1989.49