"Reading through this volume is to be taken on a journey. It is to walk with Robert Sardello on his journey as he pushes forward toward new realities. In a sense, each step is not so easy. The thinking often appears dense, the ideas often new and therefore disconcerting. But each individual piece, as the whole, is bathed in an aura--in a way, we may say it is bathed in soul; in love, in generosity, and friendship. Attending to these, we find the ideas and the new possibilities begin to make sense. We are moved to change our lives." -- Christopher Bamford (from his introduction) In these introductions, Robert Sardello introduces us to many people we may not otherwise have met and introduces us to many ways of being and thinking, which we didn't know before. The range of those we meet in these pages is staggering. At the same time, there is a sweet harmony and ever-unfolding deepening of a single theme. Miraculously, it pervades and shapes the entire sequence of those whom he presents, even though he often wrote in response to a request, and not initially on his own initiative. Robert writes of matters with which he has made a deep friendship, and out of that friendship he has received and participated in a communion of ideas. He is able to do this because he has entered the aspiration of those he is introducing at the deepest level, making their insights his own and deepening them in his own way. An introduction conveys a particular soul capacity. For Robert Sardello, "soul capacities" are of the essence of what he calls Spiritual Psychology. Together with the worlds and beings to which they correspond, it is such capacities that make us human and enable us to fulfill our human tasks. Reading these introductions is an astonishing experience. Within their short, individual compasses, they allow us to participate in Robert's own journey: to catch, as it were, the bird in flight and fly with it. That is, they map his journey--at least, that portion of it that began to unfold as his destiny began to crystallize. "Robert Sardello's insights navigate many hazardous abstractions, from the so-called New Age through the perennial philosophies. With Sophia as his muse, the 'current from the future' calls him, carrying its many imaginations as energy, the always-immediate now, and the truly new. Across these authors' writings, his visionary perspective deepens in dialogue with the different works as authored beings. For writings possess their own spirit, or how otherwise do they engender a unique spirit when reborn within our own imagination?" -- Scott R. Scribner (from his introduction)

Although this book was first published in 1919, it remains highly relevant to social problems encountered today. Uniquely, Steiner's social thinking is not based on intellectual theory, but on a profound perception of the archetypal spiritual nature of social life. As he suggests in this classic work, society has three distinct realms - the economic, the political (individual human rights), and the cultural (spiritual). While social life as a whole is a unity, the autonomy of these three sectors should be respected if our increasing social problems are to be resolved. Steiner relates the ideals of 'liberty, equality and fraternity' to modern society. Economics calls for fraternity (brotherhood), political rights require equality, while culture should be characterised by liberty (freedom). The slogans of the French Revolution, he suggests, can only become truly manifest if our social thinking is transformed to correspond to the spiritual reality.

Speaking just months after the end of the First World War, Rudolf Steiner urges his audience to awaken to the practical relevance of spiritual knowledge. Serious engagement with contemporary spiritual-scientific concepts can awaken healthy forces of the will, which in turn facilitate constructive action in the outer world. Conversely, ideas that are remnants of a previous age – echoed in empty phrases and dogmas – only hinder our ability to think with the consciousness demanded by the times, destroying the potential for true social initiative. The historical context of these lectures was indeed disastrous, with inflation, hunger, homelessness and political extremism all rife. But Steiner advises that social conditions will only get worse if people don’t engage with modern spiritual impulses. Thus – in contrast to the backward phenomenon of nationalism and the contemporary caricature of democracy – he introduces the future-oriented concept of social threefolding. He discusses manifold challenges, such as the decline of the West and the outmoded spiritual impulses of Jesuitism and Freemasonry – but also the positive path for an ascent of Western societies, genuine spiritual medicine, the true message of Easter, and the victory of the Archangel Michael. In several lectures, Rudolf Steiner speaks in some detail about the role and structure of the Catholic Church, the historical use of encyclicals and the doctrine of Papal Infallibility. The first full translation of this course features an introduction by Dorothy Hinkle-Uhlig, notes and an index. Seventeen lectures, Dornach, Mar.–Jul. 1920, GA 198

"A must-read for business leaders and anyone who wants to understand all the implications of a social world."---Bob Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company From tech visionaries Oliver Luckett and Michael J. Casey, a groundbreaking, must-read theory of social media--how it works, how it's changing human life, and how we can master it for good and for profit. In barely a decade, social media has positioned itself at the center of twenty-first century life. The combined power of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Vine have helped topple dictators and turned anonymous teenagers into celebrities overnight. In the social media age, ideas spread and morph through shared hashtags, photos, and videos, and the most compelling and emotive ones can transform public opinion in mere days and weeks, even attitudes and priorities that had persisted for decades. How did this happen? The scope and pace of these changes have left traditional businesses--and their old-guard marketing gatekeepers--bewildered. We simply do not comprehend social media's form, function, and possibilities. It's time we did. In The Social Organism, Luckett and Casey offer a revolutionary theory: social networks--to an astonishing degree--mimic the rules and functions of biological life. In sharing and replicating packets of information known as memes, the world's social media users are facilitating an evolutionary process just like the transfer of genetic information in living things. Memes are the basic building blocks of our culture, our social DNA. To master social media--and to make online content that impacts the world--you must start with the Social Organism. With the scope and ambition of The Second Machine Age and James Gleick's The Information, The Social Organism is an indispensable guide for business leaders, marketing professionals, and anyone serious about understanding our digital world--a guide not just to social media, but to human life today and where it is headed next.

'There will be a resurrection – a resurrection that should not be imagined politically... but it will be a resurrection. Goetheanism still rests in the grave as far as external culture is concerned. But Goetheanism must rise again.' In the first winter following the Great War, Rudolf Steiner appealed to the spirit of Central Europe – which he characterized as Goetheanism – that had been languishing for decades. Only such a spiritual force could provide answers to the pressing social, national and international questions of the time. A new constellation of polar, hostile opposition had emerged after the war, with the East and Bolshevism on one side, and the victorious West and Americanism on the other. In the middle, with no apparent role or hope for the future, was the defeated Central Europe. But this 'centre', beseeched Steiner, should not become a vacuum. Rather, it needs to discover its true, world-historical task.In this context, with deep seriousness and urgency, Rudolf Steiner speaks of the work of Goetheanism, which begins with understanding the threefold human being and leads to threefolding the social organism. Steiner goes on to describe the decisive role of the consciousness soul in the present epoch, and how Schiller's Aesthetic Letters and Goethe's Fairy Tale relate to contemporary challenges. He discusses a multitude of seemingly diverse but interrelated themes, such as the migration of peoples in the past and present, the thinking of John of the Cross, and the modern path of spirit cognition. The first English publication of these lectures features an introduction by Christian von Arnim, notes and an index. Twelve lectures, Dornach, Jan.–Feb. 1919, GA 188

In this concise series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner shows how the human senses reveal the mysterious world of the will, which is at once a spiritual and physical phenomenon. The senses act as a portal connecting our physical and etheric bodies with what Steiner refers to as worlds of "all-pervading will" and "all-pervading wisdom." He elaborates this theme, giving some unexpected and delightful insigts into the senses of hearing and sight, and in particular how we experience colour. Steiner suggests that divine spiritual beings had different intentions for the formation of physical human beings, but that adversary powers caused disruption, leading to a more materialized constitution. He describes disorders in the connections between the human physical, etheric, astral and ego bodies, and the ill effects of one aspect overpowering the others. He gives insight into human glandular secretions, and why we need to eat and digest--also connected to the intervention of adversary beings.