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Fiction
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Norse, Anthony P.
SOULS OF TERROR - A New Age Thriller [Paperback]
SOULS OF TERROR is a fast-paced, well-researched thriller with fascinating characters whose lives become strangely entwined as they unravel a frightening mystery. The surprising climax will leave you forever questioning the thin line between fact and fiction. In the beginning . . .
A brilliant university student is brutally killed in New York as a young boy from an Oregon private school is whisked off to Switzerland. What is the connection and why is it so important to millions of people? Chris Thompson is ridden with guilt while searching for his son. Is young Michael the key to a deeply spiritual and terrifying mission?
Michael's attractive aunt Kate has a penchant for profanity and martial arts . . . and carries a heavy secret from her past. Dr. Paul Sung is an atheist and authority on the history of the New Age movement. His unfulfilling life in academia is about to change. Detective Mark Julian needs to solve a string of gruesome New York murders, so why was he sent to Europe?
Karl Heisman and his Group of Forty-Eight are a covert sub-group of a spiritual movement known as Anthroposophy. Does their strange karma include links to Freemasonry and the dawning of a New Age? Are they racist terrorists or is there a method to their madness? And who was Rudolf Steiner?
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Coleman, Rebecca
The Kingdom of Childhood
The Kingdom of Childhood is the story of a boy and a woman: sixteen-year-old Zach Patterson, uprooted and struggling to reconcile his knowledge of his mother's extramarital affair, and Judy McFarland, a Waldorf kindergarten teacher watching her family unravel before her eyes. Thrown together to organize a fundraiser for their failing private school and bonded by loneliness, they begin an affair that at first thrills, then corrupts each of them. Judy sees in Zach the elements of a young man she loved as a child, but what Zach does not realize is that their relationship is—for Judy—only the latest in a lifetime of disturbing secrets.
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Critical Works
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Ahern, Geoffrey
Sun at Midnight: The Rudolf Steiner Movement and Gnosis in the West [Paperback]
A revised and updated edition of the book, first published in the Eighties, that still remains the main critical work written from outside the movement. This engaging introduction to Anthroposophy is written from the unique point of view of the English-speaking outside world. Employing Anthroposophical and external sources alike, Ahern offers an unbiased look into one of the world's most interesting mystical societies. Sun at Midnight guides the reader through Anthroposophy's beginnings as an offshoot of Theosophy, the life of its founder, Rudolph Steiner, and the movement's place in Western esoteric history while offering an accessible and incisive look into its deeper esoteric beliefs. Waldorf schools and bio-dynamics are woven together with the hardening of spirit into matter to create a fascinating image of Anthroposophy in all its facets.
"Ahern's book is a general overview of the Steiner movement. He examines Steiner's life, his cosmology and the influences that led to his supposedly Christian version of Gnosticism. Ahern also looks at Steiner spin-offs such as Biodynamic agriculture, Waldorf (Steiner) education, Camphill Homes and "Christian Community" churches, showing how they are all based on Steiner's beliefs." Creation Research Society Quarterly, Winter 2011
"Geoffrey Ahern's 'Sun at Midnight' is a balanced and professional look at Rudolf Steiner and his cult 'Anthroposophy.' Among the thousands of books about Waldorf education and Anthroposophy, this is one of a very few written with an objective viewpoint from outside of the cult...Laced within Ahern's comprehensive approach to this difficult subject are astute observations and wry comments such as 'Anthroposophical science is not about applying "Occam's razor"' in reference to Steiner's elaborate pseudoscience...Anyone considering enrolling their child ina Waldorf School would do well to read Ahern's book first, especially given the well-known lack of transparency of the Waldorf schools." Dan Dugan, Secretary of PLANS, Inc., September 2011
"Ahern's book is extremely informative - indeed, it is fascinating...SUN AT MIDNIGHT is inviting and accessible...nearly indispensable reading for anyone who wants a balanced, informative, and sensible...examination of Rudolf Steiner and his brainchildren." Roger Rawlings, http://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/sun-at-midnight
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Ulrich, Heiner
Rudolf Steiner
Heiner Ullrich, Rudolf Steiner (London: Continuum, 2008). Ullrich is a major figure in German educational studies and an expert on the history of pedagogical reform movements. He has published many works on Steiner, anthroposophy, and Waldorf schools, including some of the best critical studies of Waldorf pedagogy available. Most of his work is in German, but the 2008 book provides a good overview of his research, and it is mostly focused on Waldorf education. Though I have various disagreements with Ullrich's arguments, I recommend the book highly to everybody looking for perceptive scholarship on Waldorf schooling and anthroposophy. [-P.S.]
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Washington, Peter
Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits
Who Brought Spiritualism to America.
A good history of how Anthroposophy came to be. Blavatsky, Besant,
Krishnamurti, Steiner, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky; tales of all the
characters. Well-researched and fun to read. New York: Schocken Books,
1995.
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Oberman, Ida
The Waldorf Movement in Education from European Cradle to American Crucible, 1919-2008 (Lewiston: Mellen, 2008)
The most valuable part of this book is oberman's study of the history of the Waldorf schools in Germany during the Nazi period. This hundred- page section comprises a quarter of the book. It's ironic that Douglas Sloane's foreword repeats some of the same myths that oberman refutes in the book itself. Her interviews with several eyewitnesses add previously unknown details. She acknowledges that the history published by the Waldorf movement is "hard to substantiate." The different ways several schools dealt with National Socialist pressure are detailed. Berlin and Hamburg-Altona closed rather than compromise. Stuttgart made every attempt to compromise. Dresden and Hanover embraced National Socialism. On the issue of whether Jewish teachers were fired or, as Waldorf spokesperson Detlef Hardorp argued on waldorf-critics in March, 2008, left voluntarily to save the schools, oberman says they were "dismissed." [-P.S.]
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Olav Hammer
Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age
This academic study examines the core issue of conflict between Steiner's Anthroposophy and the real world. Epistemology is the study of knowledge; how is reliable knowledge obtained? Hammer holds Anthroposophy's feet to the fire of modern philosophy.
"Since the central movement texts of anthroposophy are the writings of Rudolf Steiner, his views are authoritative. Nevertheless, both Steiner and his exegetes have emphasized that it is entirely feasible for others to reach the same results and verify his statements. ...anthroposophical literature presents detailed methods of obtaining the requisite spiritual experience. However, there are, in fact, two counteracting strategies at work. First, no follower of Steiner has ever been deemed by the various local anthroposophical societies to have attained the same mastery of the methods of spiritual exploration. Secondly, specific elements in the path towards a knowledge of the 'higher worlds' are expressly aimed at making experience conform to dogma" [p. 340]
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Henry, Mary E.
School Cultures: Universes of Meaning in Private Schools.
A Cultural Anthropology thesis comparing two schools, academic and
Waldorf. Good research, uninspired academic style. Skip chapter two, "A
Symbolist and Postmodern Theory of Culture."
"Just how well Waldorf students "do" in comparison with
other schools is unclear. Few statistics or even qualitative reports are
available, because the testing notion is antithetical to Waldorf ideals,
and research on Waldorf schools that is not merely promotional writing
is rare." (p. 80)
(A Washington State University thesis.) Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex
Publishing Corp. 1993.
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Hirsch, E.D., Jr.
The Schools We Need: Why We Don't Have Them
Hirsch supports his arguments with research results. At the end he has
a glossary that deconstructs all the popular buzzwords of education. The
buzzwords of Waldorf are found here. "Prospective teachers and members
of the general public are bemused, bullied, and sometimes infected by seductive
rhetorical flourishes like 'child-centered schooling' or bullying ones
like the dismissive words 'drill and kill.' These terms and phrases pretend
to more soundness, humaneness, substance, and scientific authority than
they in fact possess." New York: Doubleday, 1996.
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Imelman, J.D., and P.B.H. van Hoek
Hoe vrij is de Vrije School?: een analyse van de antroposofische pedagogiek.
Nijkerk, Netherlands: Uitgeverij Intro, 1983.
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Singer, Margaret Thaler
Cults in Our Midst
The country's leading authority on cults, Margaret Thaler Singer, calls
on her nearly fifty years of expertise to write the definitive book on
cults. Written with author and former cult member Janja Lalich, Singer's
first book is a shocking exposé that reveals what cults are and
how they work. Cults in Our Midst offers vital information on how to
help people escape cult entrapments and recover from the experience.
This compelling book debunks commonly held myths and answers perplexing
questions about cults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995.
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Storr, Anthony
Feet of Clay: Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus.
A psychological analysis of self-appointed seers, purely policitcal
megalomaniacs excluded. Analyzes Steiner and many others including Freud
and Jesus. Steiner gets high marks. New York: Free Press, 1997.
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Critical Works in German
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Guido und Michael Grandt
Waldorf Connection: Rudolf Steiner und die Anthroposophen
Written on the back cover:
Die Anthroposophie genießt weithin den Ruf, eine tolerante,
hochgeistige Weltanschauung zu sein; die Waldorfpädagogik wird von
vielen Eltern als Kreativität und Selbstwertgefühl
fördernde Alternative zum Unterricht in einer Regelshule
angesehen. Zu Unrecht meinen die Journalisten Guido und Michael
Grandt.
Die Autoren (deren Schwarzbuch Anthroposophie 1997 vom Markt geklagt
wurde) vergleichen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit der Waldorf Connection
anhand der Öffentlichkeitsarbeit der Anthroposophen, der Rezeption
der Lehren Rudolf Steiners und anhand von Theorie und Praxis der
Waldorfpädagogik. Sie dokumentieren die okkulten und
rassistischen Anteile an der Weltanschauung Steiners und gehen der Frage
nach, inwiefern diese noch heute in der Anthroposophie nachwirken.
Sie setzen sich ausführlich mit dem pädagogischen Konzept und
dem Unterricht der Waldorfshulen auseinander und erörtern den
Einfluß der Anschauungen des »Meisters".
Taschenbuch - 365 Seiten - 2., korr. Aufl. (1999) Alibri, Aschaffenburg
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Anthroposophical Works
Exemplary publications from the hundreds available from the cult of Rudolf Steiner
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Querido, René
The Esoteric Background of Waldorf Education: The Cosmic Christ Impulse
This book is based on the spiritual understanding of the cosmic Christ
impulse and its relevance to our time. The author provides us with
practical suggestions for the inner life of the teacher as well as
insights into the structure of the curriculum. He addresses the
questions of one's relationship to the cosmic Christ, how to relate to
our colleagues, and what the consequences are of these relationships for
the students in our care. The author also invites the reader to a
practice of the Foundation Stone Meditation.
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Blunt, Richard
Waldorf Education: Theory and Practice
This master's thesis is dry and academic, but it gives the most
comprehensive survey of Waldorf pedagogy available. The Anthroposophical
doctrine behind almost every aspect of the system is given in detail. A
must for serious scholars.
"[S]ince his death his thought has become isolated, and
little mention is made of him outside publications by his followers. The
fact that this is the first formal and comprehensive analysis of his
educational thought reveals the neglect that has been shown towards him,
despite the world-wide expansion of the Waldorf Schools Movement...The
main reason for the isolation of Steiner's thought appears to be its
complex and unorthodox foundations, which this analysis has attempted to
organise and clarify..."
Cape Town, South Africa: Novalis Press.
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Childs, Gilbert
Steiner Education: in theory and practice.
A straightforward description of the system with thorough explanations
of the Anthroposophical roots of Waldorf practices. Edinburgh: Floris
Books, 1991
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Cusick, Lois
Waldorf Parenting Handbook: Useful Information on Child
Development and Education from Anthroposophical Sources.
"There are four temperaments because, physically, the human body is made up of four forms of matter, and each begets its own soul-mood, or temperament. ... Life is a force not visible unless one has acquired clairvoyance by spiritual training, in which case it
can be seen as the aura." (pp. 18-19)
Waldorf-trained teachers actually handed this book out to charter school parents in Nevada City, CA. Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College/St.
George Publications.
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Dumke, Klaus
AIDS the deadly seed: An anthropological and epidemiological
investigtion of a modern epidemic and its significance.
"[T]he world of the micro-organisms can be seen as a
-counter world- to the formed world of the [four] realms of nature. The
external, formless forces in which the micro-organisms are embedded have
a dissolving effect on the mineral world (protozoa), a liberating effect
on the large quantity of compounds fixed by the plant world (bacteria),
and a toxic effect on the inner world of animals and human beings
(viruses). This shows unicellular organisms, bacteria and viruses to be
the invisible, material agents of supersensory effects whose origin
requires investigation by the science of the spirit." (p.
120)
This little book gives a comprehensive introduction to Anthroposophical
"Goethean Science," from flawed epistemology through biological
pseudoscience, and all the way down to the cosmic missions of the Jews
and the Germans! Rudolf Steiner Press.
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McDermott, Robert A., Editor
The Essential Steiner: Basic Writings of Rudolf Steiner.
A good way to get a quick survey of Steiner's work, with helpful
peripherals including a chronology and extensive recommended reading
lists but no index. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1984.
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Schwartz, Eugene.
The Waldorf Teacher's Survival Guide.
"In the modern path of self-development that Steiner traces,
there are three stages of "knowing." The first is Imagination, wherein
we perceive a world of pictures that are lawful and meaningful. The
second stage is Inspiration, in which we perceive the forces that lie
behind the pictures, and that went into their creation. The third stage
is Intuition. In this stage we encounter the beings who wielded the
forces which created the pictures." (p. 28)
Thanks to the increasing acceptance of Anthroposophy, this formerly
private-circulation booklet is now available to the public. Schwartz
tells how to stage-manage parent evenings to get parents to act like
children, and how Waldorf teachers work under the guardianship of
Lucifer. Fair Oaks, CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1992.
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Steiner, Rudolf
First Scientific Lecture-Course (Light -Course): Ten Lectures
given at Stuttgart 23rd December 1919 to 3rd January 1920.
"Yet as the faculty to apprehend the spiritual aspect of the
World first had to be rekindled and awakened in our time -- a slow and
gradual process -- it must have signified a very great sacrifice and a
severe hindrance for this universal spirit to bring the spiritual truths
from infinite horizons into the narrower range of outlook of his
contemporaries. This sacrifice he did not shun. Even into the anxiously
constraining walls of earth 20th-century scientific thinking he brought
the light of spiritual knowledge, and we who have received this cannot
find adequate words in which to thank him." (from the
foreword)
This booklet will dispel any notion that Steiner was either a scientist
or a good teacher. Trans. George Adams. Forest Row, East Sussex, U.K.:
Steiner Schools Fellowship Publications, 1987.
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Wilkinson, Roy
The Interpretation of Fairy Tales.
"However, higher powers are at hand. The huntsman is there
as the wise power of destiny. The scissors are signs of his awakened
consciousness.
"Red Riding Hood is saved. So is her grandmother
who is refreshed by the bread and wine. It is an act of Holy Communion."
(p. 19)
Wilkinson can be counted on to demonstrate how narrow the
Steiner-dominated mind can be. A teacher training handbook. Fair Oaks,
CA: Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1993.
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