Anthroposophy combines clearly thought-through understanding with spiritual content which can be controversial. Though spiritually based, it is an approach that strongly emphasizes individual freedom.

History
In his early twenties, Steiner a German was asked to edit Goethe's complete scientific writings for a major publication thus leading to a strong influence of Goethe on his later philosophical conclusions. .
Steiner's personal development led him more and more into spiritual philosophical studies, which brought him in connection with the Theosophical Society, where he took over the German section.

Since 1907 a growing split developed between the group around Steiner, who was trying to develop a path that embraced Western civilizations such as Christianity and natural science, and the mainstream Theosophical Society, which was oriented toward an Eastern especially Indian way.

In 1912 the Anthroposophical Society was formed after Steiner left the Theosophical Society over differences with its leader, Annie Besant, over her trial to present to the world the child Jiddu Krishnamurti as Christ reincarnated. Steiner considered any equation between Krishnamurti and Christ to be nonsense as did Krishnamurti later himself.

By this time, Steiner had reached considerable stature as a spiritual teacher. He claimed to have direct experiences of the "Akasha Chronicle" a spiritual chronicle of the history and pre-history of the world encoded in the aether, and allegedly available to anyone, who takes the time to develop sufficient powers of spiritual vision. Sound spiritual vision could be developed according to Steiner by practicing rigorous forms of ethical and cognitive self-discipline, concentration and meditation.

New directions in drama, painting, sculpture, artistic movement and architecture all came together in the First Goetheanum, built 1913-1920. This was to quite some extend built by volunteers of the anthroposophical movement from many countries with much of the work accomplished during World War I. The international community of workers, artists and scientists that came together around the project in Switzerland existed in contrast to the war-torn European around

After World War I, the anthroposophical movement diverted in new directions. Projects such as schools, centers for the handicapped, organic farms and medical clinics were established, all inspired by anthroposophical research. Each of these used ideas radical at the time; many of these ideas such as organic agriculture are now appreciated as important directions for our society's future development

Steiner died 1925, but his work continued in all areas established during his lifetime as well as in many new projects established since. Seminars, artistic trainings, and institutions such as schools, banks, farms and clinics flourish throughout the world. All based on the idea that spiritual work can be systematically and methodically pursued in harmony with worldly endeavors

Anthroposophy

while appreciating all religious and cultural developments, it emphasizes Western rather than Hindu or Buddhist esoteric thought and perceives Christ and His mission on earth as having a particularly important place in human evolution.

Contrary to official churches Steiner emphasized, that the being that manifests in Christianity is the being that unifies all religions and that it is the central force in human evolution. But in contrast to the Gnostics who express similar ideas, he sees Christ's incarnation as a historical fact and a pivotal and unique point in human history

Anthroposophy encourages clear and free thought, and the development of human consciousness beyond the material senses. It also encourages the artistic expression of one's perceptions. For Steiner it as a path of knowledge leading the Spiritual in the human to the Spiritual in the universe.

For him man has inhabited earth since its creation, albeit in a spiritual form. This spiritual form then processed through many stages to reach its current form. These stages included emanation of lesser beings such as animals and plants. Thus every living thing has evolved from mankind in a spiritual sense.

The anthroposophistic way targets to become more conscious and deliberate about one's thoughts and deeds, but also to become more perceptive of and in tune with the spirit in and outside of oneself . One may reach higher levels of consciousness through meditation and observation. Steiner described and developed numerous exercises for the realization of these goals

Steiner's description of the human being as consisting of seven intimately connected parts (compare the seven chakras) starting on the material level and reaching up into the spiritual levels is similar to that found in Theosophy. Anthroposophists also hold a fourfold view, which Steiner expands on frequently and puts to practical uses in subjects. To this belong medicine and child education The fourfold view includes the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body and the ego or I.

The theoretical base for Anthroposophy is contained in “The Philosophy of Freedom”, as well as in his doctoral thesis “Truth and Science”. His writings anticipated 20th century continental philosophy's overcoming of Cartesian idealism and Kantian subjectivism..He also became one of the first European philosophers to overcome the subject-object split that Descartes, classical physics, and various complex historical forces had impressed upon Western thought for centuries

Reincarnation in Steiners view
Reincarnation plays an important role in the ideas of Anthroposophy, founded by Rudolf Steiner. Steiner described the human soul gaining new experiences in every epoch and in a variety of races or nations. The unique personality and abilities, but also weaknesses, that every human being is born with are not simply a reflection of the genetic heritage -- though Steiner described the incarnating soul as searching for and even preparing a familial lineage supportive of its future life -- these elements of our character are also formed by our past lives.
Anthroposophy describes the present as being formed by a tension between the past and the future. Both influence our present destiny; there are events that occur due to our past, but there are also events that occur to prepare us rightly for the future. Between these two, there is space for human free will; we create our destiny, not only live it out, just as we build a house in which we then choose to live.
Books by Steiner and others on the subject include Reincarnation and Karma,

Practical results of Anthroposophy
are important in manyfold areas. They include Architecture, Biodynamic agriculture, Holistic

East Troy Agricultural Center Stresses the Benefits of Organic

medicine, Waldorf Education, new developments in the Arts, Eurythmy, Centres for helping the mentally handicapped and Religion. Medical doctors in Anthroposophy movement use, amongst others, homeopathy as part of their medical practices.
In addition, Steiner gave lectures to physicians out of which grew a medical movement that now includes hundreds of European M.D.s as adherents, and has its own hospitals and medical universities

Social Goals of Anthroposophy
A phase of extraordinary activity came after World War I. when he became well known in Germany due to his involvement in social questions.

80 years after his death there are numerous projects around the world, like innovative banks, companies, charitable institutions, and schools for developing new cooperative forms of business, whose working is influenced by Steiner’s social ideas. While especially in many countries of the developing world people have started to talk about and create Gramin Bikas Banks, The Rudolf Steiner Foundation, incorporated in 1984 created already 20 years ago this kind of institution which financed root entrepreneurs.

Steiner's Outlook on Social History

According to Steiner there are three main spheres of power comprising human society: the cultural, the economic and the political. While in early civilizations culture, state and economy were fused with the emergence of classical Greece and Rome, the three spheres began to become more autonomous. This autonomy increased over the centuries, and with the slow rise of egalitarianism and individualism, the failure adequately to separate economics, politics and culture was felt increasingly as a source of injustice. For him it is the separation of different functions instead of unity which leads to tensions and failures.

Connection between spiritual sphere and material world.
According to Steiner, a real spiritual world exists out of which the material one gradually condensed, and evolved. The spiritual world can be entered through direct experience, by persons practicing rigorous forms of ethical and cognitive self-discipline. Thus he developed and offered many exercises suited to strengthen such self-discipline.
Details about the spiritual world, he said, could on such a basis be discovered and reported, not infallibly, but with approximate accuracy. Steiner regarded his research reports as being important support for others trying to enter into spiritual experience. He suggested that a combination of spiritual exercises, control of thought, feelings and will combined with openness, tolerance and flexibility and familiarity with other spiritual researchers would best further an individual's spiritual development. He also stressed that any inner, spiritual practice should not interfere with one's responsibilities in outer life

Steiner often emphazised that any researcher, in any field, was able to make mistakes, and that both science and the world continued to evolve, making all results outdated after a certain time

One of the central exercises of anthroposophy is to focus on a given content for a given time, and then to consciously eliminate the content from one's consciousness, allowing the process of attention to continue. We can become aware, thereby, of the activity of attention itself. Behind the activity, Steiner suggested, would be found another level of spiritual reality, a form of superconscious spiritual awareness.
Steiner claims to offer a gradual experiential path from ordinary conceptual thinking into forms of thinking perceptive of living spiritual beings and mobile realities in the spiritual world, which is confirmed by some of his scholars.
According to his students is is difficult to get Steiner, in this sense, as reading for people today is rarely a process of reading each word and thus slowly developing the concept. If one succeeds in slowly co developing the concept one is no longer confined to observing things that already are, instead one begins to see realities emerging into being, and that means seeing to some extent into 'non-being', and discovering there more than nothingness but a hidden life of creative non-material beings and processes in a non-material world

Successes of Anthroposophy
Based on anthroposophical ideas nearly one thousand schools world-wide have been created, which are often called Waldorf or Steiner schooks. They have been supported by the United Nations and other organizations and receive full or partial governmental funding in most European nations.

The Waldorf charter schools tend toward the metaphysical in approach Anthroposophy

Usually supported by a vibrant parent community, they are one of the most visibly successful achievements of the anthroposophical movement. In addition, an increasing number of teachers are using 'Waldorf' principles in other schools often within the public schools themselves

Bio-dynamic agriculture began in the 1920s. Numerous bio-dynamic farms now exist in a number of countries. Steiner is one of the two great founders of the modern organic farming movement and much of the present-day organic movement can be traced back to people partially motivated by this impulse. Bio-dynamic agriculture emphasizes activating the life of the soil and creating each farm as a living organism that includes human beings, animals, plants and the soil

Early in the twentieth century, when proper care for the handicapped was often ignored anthro posophical homes and communities were created to give a worthy life-style to the needy. The first was the Sonnenhof in Switzerland, founded by Ita Wegman; slightly later, the Camphill movement was founded by Karl Konig in Scotland and there are now Camphill communities for both children and adults in many countries

In the arts, Steiner's new art of eurythmy gained early recognition when gaining a prize at a pre-World War II World Exposition in Paris. Eurythmy is a renewal of the spiritual foundations of dance, transforming speech and music into visible movement. There are now active stage groups and training centers in many countries

Painting and sculpture schools based on Steiner conceptions also exist..

There are also movements to renew speech and drama. They go back to the work of Marie Steiner von Sivers. Among the better known is an approach founded by Michael Chekhov, the son of the famous playwright

Bernard Lievegoed founded a new study of individual and institutional development; represented by the NPI Institute for Organisational Development in the Netherlands and sister organizations in many other countries. Clients of these insitutions range from multinationals to ordinary people trying to understand their own lives.
But its not only economics but also social oriented. One of the areas of application has been in transforming impoverished people's lives by bringing them to recognize their own biographical goals. Social work with prisoners shares these goals and has had the effect of bringing new purpose into many lives

Other fields of success include a renewal of medicine (eg cancer therapies based on mistletoe extracts developed by anthroposophical researchers and science emphasizing a phenomenological approach. Anthroposophical banks were among the first to emphasize socially-responsible and community-based banking

Critiques of Anthroposophy
Some critics maintain that some anthroposophists tend to elevate Steiner's personal opinions to the level of absolute truths. Supporters claim that if there is a degree of truth to this criticism, most of the blame belongs not to Steiner, but to a few of his students. They point out that Steiner frequently asked that everything he said be tested by sound reason, and not to be taken on faith or authority

Another discussion point comes from the question if it is possible for one's thinking to be both scientific and spiritually cognitive at once? Anthroposophy claims it is possible. Critics on the other hand assume that it is not. These critics consider spiritual experience to be "religious" rather than cognitive. But religion implies faith or revelation, which anthroposophy does not offer.

Some critics read any reticence of anthroposophists to write or speak about their spiritual experiences and ideas as an effort to "hide" a spiritual basis for their various public activities, such as Waldorf schools. But in 2005 the Federal Court of California found that there was not a single piece of court-admissible evidence that Anthroposophy was in any sense a religion