Stages of Higher Knowledge: The Authorized New Translation from the Original German Formerly Translated by the Title 'Gates of Knowledge'

by Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (1861 – 1925) was an Austrian social reformer, philosopher, economist, architect, esotericist, and economist. He rose to celebrity during the latter part of the twentieth century as a literary critic and author of philosophical works, later founding a spiritual movement called “anthroposophy” which was heavily influenced by German theosophy and idealist philosophy. Originally published in 1930, this volume explains how different stages of material cognition and higher states of knowledge can be achieved through meditation, concentration exercises, and a connection to the spirit world. This fascinating book will appeal to those with an interest in spiritualism, and it is not to be missed by collectors of vintage spiritualist literature. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

73 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Author also wrote under the name Rudolph Steiner.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...


Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a literary critic and published works including The Philosophy of Freedom. At the beginning of the twentieth century he founded an esoteric spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. His teachings are influenced by Christian Gnosticism or neognosticism. Many of his ideas are pseudoscientific. He was also prone to pseudohistory.
In the first, more philosophically oriented phase of this movement, Steiner attempted to find a synthesis between science and spirituality. His philosophical work of these years, which he termed "spiritual science", sought to apply what he saw as the clarity of thinking characteristic of Western philosophy to spiritual questions,  differentiating this approach from what he considered to be vaguer approaches to mysticism. In a second phase, beginning around 1907, he began working collaboratively in a variety of artistic media, including drama, dance and architecture, culminating in the building of the Goetheanum, a cultural centre to house all the arts. In the third phase of his work, beginning after World War I, Steiner worked on various ostensibly applied projects, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, and anthroposophical medicine.
Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual approach. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's world view in which "thinking…is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas." A consistent thread that runs through his work is the goal of demonstrating that there are no limits to human knowledge.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Free Audio book on YouTube.

[Achille · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un testo che con inquietudine rende l'uomo capace di fondarsi un sistema di conoscenza libero da ogni indeterminismo di sorte che invece augura ad ognuno di noi di liberarsi dalle catene della conoscenza stretta invece della libertà data dalla fantasia e dell'ispirazione natura dell'essere conoscente.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book explains how one can perceive the world through the eye of meditation. Very interesting only because it reinforces the things I have been talking about for most of my life.

[Patty Wahlquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

cool.