What’s On

Talk with Jean Michel Florin

Venue:  Rudolf Steiner House, 35 Park Rd, London NW1 6XT  
Timings:  6pm wine/ nibbles and opportunity to explore special exhibition on biodynamic research
7pm – 8.30pm – Talk with Q&A
Cost – Donations
Booking – https://www.biodynamic.org.uk/event/jean-michel-florin-talk/
Alternatively you can book via  Email Office@biodynamic.org.uk  or by phone on  01453 759501
( office hours 9-1)

A special opportunity to hear Jean Michel Florin the  co-leader of the Section for Agriculture at the Goetheanum talk on how biodynamics can mitigate the multitude of issues facing our generation and humanity.  Not to be missed.

This event is being kindly sponsored by Rudolf Steiner House and Waltham Place for the BD100th Year.

All welcome

Lecture by Thomas Mayer­

We all live together with the deceased. The souls who are in spiritual regions support us from within with strength, love, trust and inspiration. The more we open ourselves to them and reciprocate their friendship, the better they can do this. Thomas Mayer has been in conscious contact with many deceased people for over 20 years and will talk about this in his lecture.

He will also describe how the normal after-death path leads to the next incarnation. Nowadays however, many souls can no longer find their way into the light, spiritual world, and end up in dead ends, in entangled unhealthy states. In their distress, they then occupy other people, siphon off energy, and cause spiritual, mental and physical difficulties and social strife. Thomas Mayer has been helping such deceased people to overcome their obstacles for many years and has observed that energy blockages in places and houses, or depression, panic, fears or deep grief in a possessed person, have been released as a result. Such connections have so far been underestimated in the public consciousness. Conversely, the incidence of mental illness is increasing rapidly. The good news is that we are not at the mercy of this. It is possible to help affected people and the deceased.

Thomas Mayer is a Meditation teacher, civil rights activist, and author of ‘Answering the Call of the Elementals’ published by Findhorn Press, ‘Overcoming Fear - Exercises for Spiritual Self-Defense’ and ‘Covid Vaccines from a Spiritual Perspective’.

https://www.anthroposophische-meditation.de/english

£15 cash on the door.

For further information please call Alex Wright on 01342 827967

Thomas will be leading a workshop on Anthroposophical Meditation, as well as outdoor exercises to contact elementals and exercises to connect to the deceased, at Emerson College from 7pm Friday 20th September to 12.30pm Sunday 22nd September.

Please see https://calendar.emerson.org.uk/events/anthroposophical-meditation-workshop/ for full details.

A conference organised by The Humanities and Social Sciences Sections of the School of Spiritual Science and the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain

The rapid global development of AI is inexorable, and offers infinite possibilities to enhance the quality and scope of our lives. There are no areas of our professional, financial, social, cultural, medical and personal experiences that are not amenable to the effects of this technology.

This challenges us to find ways of working creatively in what is also becoming an increasingly dehumanised culture, ever more disconnected from nature, and with virtual substitutes for true human encounter. 

We need to understand the significance of personal and sensitive data being undeletable, manipulable, and indiscriminately accessible, and of our being inextricably bound through mechanised connections and algorithms that serve commercial and questionable political interests.

To what extent is our evolution in our own hands? What inner practices can we adopt to hone the necessary discernment to engage healthily with the technology without becoming in thrall to it?  This technology cannot be avoided. Will the need to discern what opportunities these developments might have for humanity lead to positive engagement, as for example in a Manichean approach?

The aim of this conference is to explore and raise questions about these issues in the context of our conscious responsibility for our unfinished human evolution . 

Jeremy Naydler, Paul Levy, Edwin Hübner, and Malin Starrett will be the main contributors to this event.  Their professional, artistic, and life experiences will inform, inspire, and provoke discussion.  Each of their contributions  will be followed by time for discussion, which we see as an essential part of the conference.

                                                   Fritz Wefelmeyer and Andrew Wolpert

Friday 11^th October

7:00 - 7:15  Welcome and Introduction

7:15 – 9.15

Introductory presentations by conference speakers

Jeremy Naydler, Paul Levy, Edwin Hübner, Malin Starrett

Followed by open space for questions for clarification and to prepare

the conference theme

 Saturday 12^th

10 – 11.30   From Machine Intelligence to the Intelligence of the Heart  

Jeremy Naydler

11:30 - 12.00  Coffee   

12.00 – 13.15 Staying Awake and Conscious in the Digital Realm  

Paul Levy

13.15 - 2.30  Lunch

2.30 - 4.00   Choice of artistic activities

4 - 4.30   Tea

4.30 - 6.00  Between Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Spaces: Human

Thinking and Perception   Edwin Hübner

Sunday 13^th

10 – 10.45   Machines with Memories   Malin Starrett

10:45 – 11.45

Workshops/group discussions

11:45 – 12.15   Coffee

12:15 – 13.15   Plenary discussion and closing contributions 

From Machine Intelligence to the Intelligence of the Heart
Machine intelligence is the product of the morally and emotionally disengaged “onlooker consciousness”, which was the driving force behind the Scientific Revolution. In the mirror of machine intelligence, the onlooker consciousness is presented with its own reflection. Both the human soul and nature call out for a counterbalancing consciousness that is morally awake and lovingly engaged with the natural world – an intelligence of the heart, through which a healthier relationship to machine intelligence can be forged. Jeremy Naydler philosopher, gardener, and author of several books including, In the Shadow of the Machine: The Prehistory of the Computer and the Evolution of Consciousness (Temple Lodge, 2018) and The Struggle for a Human Future: 5G, Augmented Reality and the Internet of Things (Temple Lodge, 2020).

Staying Awake and Conscious in the Digital Realm
The rise of digital technology is now touching all of our lives whether we want it to or not. How do we remain awake in the digital age and not fall into digital stupor and distraction? What opportunity does the rise of technology create for our own development and the development of humanity as a whole? This will be a practical conversation about how we meet the digital realm with alertness and humble mastery. It is all too easy to surrender whatever real freedom we have gained in our lives to the world of digital technology. How do we maintain an upright stance both physically and spiritually? Drawing on over 30 years of research Paul Levy will share practical examples, exercises and pathways to remaining alert in a digital age.

Paul Levy is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Brighton, an Associate at the University of Warwick, founder of the theatre magazine FringeReview, an author and facilitator. He is the author of several books including Digital Inferno, The Poetry of Change, and Technosophy.

Between Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Spaces: Human Thinking and Perception

Thinking and perceiving are the two basic pillars of human cognition. Artificial intelligence threatens our ability to think for ourselves; virtual worlds tempt us to lose the real world. This threatens the very foundations of humanity. On the other hand, artificial intelligence and virtual spaces offer new possibilities for freedom and communication. However, this presupposes acquiring new skills allowing us to meet - and not just give into - the demands of high-performance technologies. Rudolf Steiner’s work offers precious inspiration for this.

Edwin E. F. Hübner is Professor at the Freie Hochschule Stuttgart - Seminar for Waldorf Pedagogy. He studied Mathematics and Physics and taught at the Waldorf School in Frankfurt. Academic research in the area of media pedagogy. Publications include ChatGPT Symptom of a technological future: The Tasks of Education in the Age of the Mechanisation of the Spirit (2023), Human Spirit and Artificial Intelligence (2020) and Imaginations in Virtual Space: Technology and Spirituality (2008).

Machines with Memories
We now live in a world where nearly all knowledge expressible in words, where nearly all physical images and recorded sounds can be accessed at the touch of a button. In utilising the internet to communicate and to store personal thoughts, images and audio, many people are outsourcing their inner lives to partly exist in data centres. Such storing and processing of personal data may affect human beings while incarnated and also after death. This presentation will trace some relevant aspects of the history of machines with memories, leading to the situation today.

Malin Starrett trained in Anthroposophical approaches to science and technology through the Anthro-Tech Association, while also carrying out natural scientific doctoral studies in Ulster University (2001). Since then, he has continued studies and experimental researches in areas relating to science and technology, also writing and teaching on these themes.

Book a place: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/rudolf-steiner-house/t-eamqmoa

We can accommodate 50 participants. 

Full price £150 , Concessions £95

For further concessions, please apply directly to The Office at Rudolf Steiner House: ilona.pimbert.rsh@anth.org.uk

Tea and coffee will be provided. There are many opportunities for lunch in the area.

This conference is organised by the Humanities and Social Sciences Sections of the School of Spiritual Science and the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain