Questions of Courage

Bergson, intrigued by the riddle in the differences between lived experience and abstract explanation, forged a remarkable path of insight and exploration through his life. This short video offers a short impression of the riddles that he treated like seeds, which he grew into unique vision of evolution and human freedom, and the origin of matter as creative life.   References: Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution. (North Chelmsford, MA: Courier Corporation) and An Introduction to Metaphysics. (Hackett Publishing).  Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV.  To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations. 

This video could be of interest for young people studying in the academy  who are considering exploring spiritual approaches to understanding and knowledge. Williams introduces a handful of scholars who have dedicated significant time to researching and publishing on Rudolf Steiner’s work and legacy, and why research in this area can take courage.    References: Christian Clement preface to: Rudolf Steiner, Band 13: Schriften über soziale Dreigliederung, frommann-holzboog verlag  Dan McKanan, Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism. (Oakland, CA: University of California Press).  Peter Staudenmaier, Between Occultism and Nazism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of  Race in the Fascist Era. (BRILL).  Helmut Zander, Anthroposophie in Deutschland: theosophische Weltanschauung und  gesellschaftliche Praxis 1884-1945. (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht)Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

I have read two longer book reviews in recent months, both in influential journals, of the growing consensus that human freedom is an illusion. The consequences elude me, and I turn to satire for relief. “Scientists around the world reach consensus that freedom is an illusion, they have now turned to the question of what the significance of this conclusion can be given they are unsure exactly what conditions have brought it about.” Thinking stalls and turns in on itself in free fall. I am trying to get a small piece of shell out of the egg white and each time I stab with my finger it is displaced. I am an artist that is drawing the world but when I try to draw myself, graphite becomes rubber and suddenly erases my presence. I am a latent view from nowhere. I live in an element that conducts world-consciousness and insulates self-knowledge, a substance that reveals a world to me while concealing myself. As far as I am concerned, celebrated conclusions of thought accentuate riddles they profess to solve. But of course, there is, after all, natural science and the expanded majesty of the universe. Satisfaction wells up as thought marries action in physics and rockets fire and fly. But after I have spent late nights staring at the bottom of the glass, taking my fill of a union of mind and matter, intoxicated with the necessary interdependence of the great material mathematical matrix, I am sick as the sun rises. Sunrise greets me with the penetrating question of why, while the how of a necessary and functional web of cause and effect entices me away from the headache and back to sleep. I am drawn to the hair of the dog that bit me as a remedy, as a morning headache following a night of drinking might be softened by a glass of beer. But fascination with mytho-mechanics is a puzzle to put together only so many times in the nerd - crazed vitalism of alienation before it whispers its secret: Silence. The world, my unproven gold standard of reality, won’t testify. I am the secret the world keeps to itself in speechlessness. I am the taboo of the universe. I thought I heard a poem in a rainstorm. A message of light flashed at me through leaves in the wind in September, but where I walk eyes turn away and voices fade. In these reveries a bustling crowd of life and meaning disperses, hushing into echoes and whispers with my approach. I go to work on the subtly ensouled scenes but sensation fades with my attention, as if my wandering thought is the expert anesthesiologist. I face the numb, unconscious world and feel I am practicing the wrong science, I want to administer not anesthetic but aesthetic attention. I do not belong to the world of things and I sense myself as infinite, me the great nothing of helpless life. I, the strange fruit of the world, a living symbol, an orphan birthed by a universe that seems to have passed away in hard labor. Can the child live? This child of the world, can it grow into its kin, the All? In the past the rivers spoke, as did the stars, and their words were a Theo-sophy or Gnosis. Wisdom was living spiritual revelation of community ritual and cosmos. From that old and wonderful, wise and atavistic puppet magic, all full of reverent acceptance of life before science, the disenchantment was born to children, all vulnerable, but most precious. How can this child grow save through loving the corpse, not simply its inert, mytho-mechanical form, but as a body that has not quite yet gone back to dirt, wherein the beautiful forms of a once living divine presence is still visible, if devoid of the living self? From what once moved with life may some form of Anthropo-sophy arise through love of this beautiful countenance? Then freedom may involve resurrecting the world through beautiful, heartfelt knowledge. It may involve a new, extra-mechano-morphic meaning, emerging in creative, thinking hearts.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

A Young Man encounters Vladimir Soloviev  This video tells the story of the effect Vladimir Soloviev’s work and poetry on a young man from the USA and reflects on the significance of meeting other nations and language groups through art, culture.  References  Vladimir Soloviev: Russian Mystic by Paul Marshall Allen The Meaning of Love by Vladimir Soloviev  The Justification of the Good by Vladimir Soloviev  The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

In this episode the upcoming 100 years Rudolf Steiner Conference at Harvard is discussed, the research of one of its main organizers, Dan McKanan, and its potential significance.  Webpage for conference: https://pes.hds.harvard.edu/steinerconference  References: Ed. Johannes Kronenberg and Lammerts van Bueren (2025) On the Earth We Want to Live. Springer Nature, forthcoming  Dan McKanan  (2017) Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism. (Berkeley, CA: Univ of California Press). Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations. 

This episode of Questions of Courage offers reflections on the contemporary Russian novelist and writer Victor Pelevin, and particularly the intersection in his work of aesthetics and Buddhist orientations of liberation.References: BOMB Magazine | Victor Pelevin. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2002/04/01/victor-pelevin/  Pelevin. Generation P ; Curtea Veche Publishing. -The Blue Lantern; Faber, 2001. -The Clay Machine-Gun; Faber & Faber, 1999.  Victor Pelevin: anatomist of the new Russia | Profiles | Jason Cowley | journalist, magazine editor & writer. https://www.jasoncowley.net/profiles/victor-pelevin   Solovyov, V. S. Lectures on Divine Humanity; Lindisfarne Press, 1995.   Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

In this episode the new Pegasus Project is introduced which involves the fabrication of a new generation of analogue projection instruments, the creation of an ensemble of light artists, the collaboration with an ensemble of singers and a tour of schools and youth groups. Reflecting on current screen culture and technology use among young people an unusual area of opportunity presents itself here, something highlighted by testimony from young people who have been involved in earlier iterations of the project. The project timeline and opportunities for collaboration and support are described as well.  References:  https://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/  Veit, W.; Stuten, J. Bewegte Bilder: der Zyklus “Metamorphosen der Furcht” von Jan Stuten: Entwurf zu einer neuen Licht-Spiel-Kunst nach einer Idee von Rudolf Steiner; Urachhaus, 1993.  Haidt, J. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness; Random House, 2024.  Mattis, O. Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900; [Published on the Occasion of the Exhibition “Visual Music”], Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, [23 June - 11. September 2005], the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Thames & Hudson, 2005. Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations. 

Nationalism is one of the most powerful aspects of political life, connected with the defining conflicts of today. This episode is dedicated to exploring the differences between nations and states, how they areconfused, and how they have come to be seen as intrinsically bound up together in recent centuries. While there is a largely unconscious conventional notion that nations should ideally have their own states, there is a way to look at things that reveals the opposite. It shows that the fusion of nations and states is not an ideal but a source of conflict and the degradation of national culture itself, and a central problem of political thoughts and life today. References:Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London - New York: Verso, 2006.Gottlieb, Gidon. Nation Against State: A New Approach to Ethnic Conflicts and the Decline of Sovereignty. Council on Foreign Relations, 1993.Jefferson, Thomas. Thomas Jefferson: Writings (LOA #17): Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters. Library of America, 1984.Steiner, Rudolf. Towards Social Renewal: Rethinking the Basis of Society. Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

This episode explores some of author Marilynne Robinson’s thoughts about the importance of seeing people as spiritual beings and how this relates to the history of civil and political rights in North America, and especially the USA. These thoughts are connected with current tensions within both US universities and society at large, and the role that artistic education plays in being able to experience a deeper, spiritual facet of human beings. References: Rachel Feintzeig, (2025) Opinion | Zombies Are Better Than the Alternative. The New York Times, 25 May. Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/opinion/last-of-us-finale.html, accessed 4 June 2025.Marilynne Robinson, (2010) Absence of Mind: Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self. (Yale University Press).Marilynne Robinson, (2019) Which Way to the City on a Hill? The New York Review of Books. Available at https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/07/18/which-way-city-hill/, accessed 4 June 2025.Rudolf Steiner(2006) Becoming the Archangel Michael’s Companions: Rudolf Steiner’s Challenge to the Younger Generation (CW 217). (SteinerBooks).Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

This episode explores challenging experiences that young people can have when they first enter college and university with enthusiasm for existential, heartfelt questions. It is not uncommon for young people to feel that the attitudes and methods they meet in the classroom and their professors cannot reach deep enough into the questions they are most passionate about and driven to explore. This can lead to disappointment and a temptation to turn away from their passions for knowledge, growth and understanding. There are, however, ideas, orientations and contemporary calls for expanding the understanding of science in ways that can accommodate the exploration of deeper questions and riddles that are not only intellectual but matters of the heart. Jeffrey Kripal’s suggestion that a new school of the “Superhumanities” is called for, as well as Hubert Dreyfuss and Charles Taylor’s ideas of Pluralist Robust Realism are introduced as examples.  References: Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Taylor (2015) Retrieving Realism. (Harvard University Press).William James (2008) Pluralistic Universe: Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the Present Situation in Philosophy. (Cambridge Scholars Publisher).Jeffrey Kripal (2022) The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities. (University of Chicago Press).Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations. 

Currently in the USA there is a “revolution of common sense” underway under the banner of nationalism, competition for natural resources and economic growth without regard for ecological limitations. In the last two episodes Steiner’s notion of aesthetic culture, that embraces not only the arts and humanities but also natural science and economics, was presented as an alternate vision for a revolution of common sense. Some of the most positive developments of the last century, the emergence of the modern environmental movement and social-ecological finance and banking, have recently been shown to be connected with Steiner’s influence in these areas by Dan McKanan. This episode presents two examples of strategies, in modern political thought and philosophy, to navigate tensions between “anaesthetic” and technocratic tendencies in the natural sciences and economy on the one hand, and lived, human experience on the other. What comes to the fore is a gap, one that a true revolution of common sense might fill.  References: Glazebrook, Trish (2004) Global Technology and the Promise of Control, in David Tabachnick and Toivo Koivukoski (eds), Globalization, Technology, and Philosophy. (SUNY Press, Albany).Heidegger, Martin (1977) The Question Concerning Technology, and Other Essays. (New York: Harper Collins).McKanan, Dan (2017) Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism. (Berkeley, CA: Univ of California Press).Stallabrass, Julian (2020) Contemporary Art: a Very Short Introduction. (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

Building on the previous episode this session explores the connection between natural science, as intuitive, empirical understanding, and Steiner’s associative economics, particularly the idea of true price. The result is a picture of a revolution of common sense that counters nationalism, fosters sober judgement across from natural and social conditions of life and encourages global, voluntary cooperation in a fraternal spirit. It is a revolution of common sense in stark contrast with what is currently being championed under the same name. Steiner, Rudolf (2013) Rethinking Economics: Lectures and Seminars on World Economics. Vol. CW 340-41. (Great Barrington, MA: SteinerBooks). Steiner, Rudolf (2021) Die Philosophie der Freiheit: Grundzüge einer modernen Weltanschauung - Seelische Beobachtungsresultate nach naturwissenschaftlicher Methode. Vol. GA 4. (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag). McKanan, Dan (2017) Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism. (Berkeley, CA: Univ of California Press). Groh, Trauger, and Steven McFadden (1998) Farms of Tomorrow Revisited. (Kimberton, PA: SteinerBooks).Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations. 

Talk of a revolution of common sense in the USA and around the world is focused on nationalism, economic competition and development without regard of environmental and ecological considerations. This episode suggests the revolution offers a false promise even while the widespread appeal of the idea of a revolution of common sense is deeply justified. In this episode Goethe’s natural scientific method of intuitive understanding is presented as a discipline of common sense, or aesthetics, with reference to the role it played during the emergence of the modern environmental movement and green banks. A follow up episode indicates how this is connected with Rudolf Steiner’s associative economics, how Goethe’s primal phenomena is for theoretical philosophy what true price is for economic, practical philosophy.  References: Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1975) Goethes Naturwissenschaftliche Schriften Ed. Rudolf Steiner. Vol. I-V. (Dornach, Switzerland: Rudolf Steiner Verlag). Förster, Eckart (2017) Die 25 Jahre Der Philosophie. (Frankfurt, Germnay: Vittorio Klostermann GmbH). McKanan, Dan (2017) Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism. (Berkeley, CA: Univ of California Press). https://www.natureinstitute.org/ https://science.goetheanum.org/en/section/natural-science-sectionQuestions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

While the idea of multi-dimensional beings is discussed in the congress of the United States in open hearings, it can take courage to try to understand Ufology and experience. This session explores recent research, especially on UFO experiencers, by sociologist D.W. Pasulka, and Rudolf Steiner’s presentation of late Medieval consciousness in Leading Thoughts, situating them in a larger understanding of development and human evolution. References: Pasulka, D. W. (2019) American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology. (Oxford University Press).Pasulka, D. W. (2023) Encounters: Experiences with Nonhuman Intelligences. (St. Martin’s Publishing Group).Steiner, Rudolf (1998) Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts. (Rudolf Steiner Press).Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

Even though many people feel it is meaningful to speak of the light and colors when trying to express something deeper in human nature, in most places we are asking to be judged as superstitious or naïve if we insist on speaking about the spiritual aura. In many places it is perhaps most associated in some places with traveling carnival culture and the desire to be entertained. One might have one picture taken, with aura included, in the same booth where one can have a palm reading. When are these perceptions pathological and how can they be approached in a discerning way? References:Sebastian Barry (2017) Days Without End. (Penguin).Rudolf Steiner (2005) Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man. (Rudolf Steiner Press).Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

How can we contemplate history with an openness for its greater meaning? Many young people who are studying in the social sciences or anthropology may feel drawn to ask this question, but today, without a doubt, it takes courage to think about this. This segment focuses on the development of perspective painting during the European Renaissance, looking back toward eastern iconographic painting and looking forward to modern art with the question of what they could signify if we have openness to greater spiritual meanings in history.  References:Barfield, Owen (2013) The Camera and the Harp, in , The Rediscovery of Meaning: And Other Essays. (UK: Barfield Press).florensky, Pavel (1996) Iconostasis. (Crestwood NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press).Mulisch, Harry (1997) The Discovery of Heaven. (Penguin Publishing Group).Solovyov, Vladimir (1995) Lectures on Divine Humanity. (SteinerBooks).Steffen, Albert (1968) Geist-Erwachen im Farben-Erleben: Bertrachtungen, Skizzen, Erinnerungen. (Verlag für Schöne Wissenschaften).Steiner, Rudolf (2023) The Arts and Their Mission: (CW 276). (SteinerBooks).Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

People all around the world watched the inauguration in the USA, a country with so much wealth, influence and power, hoping to gain some understanding of what is happening. What is the deeper meaning of the “revolution of common sense” promised by the incoming administration? What does this turn of events express? How can they be understood and what do they demand of us? This episode explores dynamics from recent centuries to contribute to this need of orientation, and to suggest what a true revolution in common sense requires.  References: Phil Klay (2022) Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War. (Penguin Publishing Group).James W. Douglass. (2010) JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. (Simon and Schuster).William F. Pepper (2018) An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King. (Verso Books).Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy. The White House. Available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/declassification-of-records-concerning-the-assassinations-of-president-john-f-kennedy/,Charles Taylor (2004) Modern Social Imaginaries. (Duke University Press).Hilary Osborne (2018) What is Cambridge Analytica? The firm at the centre of Facebook’s data breach. The Guardian, 18 March. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/18/what-is-cambridge-analytica-firm-at-centre-of-facebook-data-breach.See Arthur Zajonc (1998) Goethe’s Way of Science: A Phenomenology of Natureand Ed. David  Seamon. (Albany, NY: SUNY Press).Dan McKanan (2017) Eco-Alchemy: Anthroposophy and the History and Future of Environmentalism. (Univ of California Press).In 2024 an event was hosted at the Goetheanum that focused on the global significance of these approaches to economics. https://www.worldgoetheanum.org/en/wgf-2024/wgf-2024-review. See also Otto Scharmer’s reflections here: https://www.kosmosjournal.org/kj_article/rethinking-economics/Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

At the Section’s international gathering of 2024 in the Netherlands one of the tasks that was explored was creating pictorial expressions of anthroposophy. Many of the basic works of anthroposophy, in the form of books and writing, were not written for young people. Over the years this task has been taken up by different individuals in different ways. An event in February at the Goetheanum is also a contribution to this project. It is called “A Quest for a Pictorial Understanding of Anthroposophy.” In this episode Nathaniel Williams shares a dream of freedom, a small expression from recent work. Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

What are the options today for students who are looking for centers of learning defined by an interest in the living spirit in the human being and the world? Not long ago they may have found themselves in the humanities departments around the world, but today they might be drawn to contemplative studies programs. This is connected with two trends in higher education that can be traced back to crisis years of the 1960s. One trend tries to understand knowledge ultimately in terms of power, the other aspires to develop it into love. The Goetheanum, an independent college for contemplative understanding and practice that was founded a century ago, appears as interwoven with deep questions of university students when seen in this light.  Mirabai Bush (2010) Contemplative Higher Education in Contemporary America. Available at https://mindfulcampus.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/mbush-contemplativehighereducation.pdf.Michel Foucault (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972-1977. (Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group).Mary Caroline Richards (1973) The Crossing Point: Selected Talks and Writings. (Wesleyan University Press).Rudolf Steiner (2013) Constitution of the School of Spiritual Science: An Introductory Guide. (Rudolf Steiner Press).Arthur Zajonc (2009) Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry: When Knowing Becomes Love. (Lindisfarne Books).Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

Saul Bellow and the Marginalization of the Spirit  The public image of Saul Bellow is a testimony of the tendency to marginalize spiritual orientations and ideas, and the courage it takes to engage with them. Bellow is one of the most influential and celebrated writers in the English language from the last century, winning national books awards, the Nobel prize and a Pulitzer. This episode explores the dynamics connected with the silence around his lifelong engagement with spiritual and esoteric thoughts and practices.   Saul Bellow (2010) Saul Bellow: Letters. (Penguin). Saul Bellow (2013) More Die of Heartbreak. (Penguin UK). Andreas Bracher, ed. (2021) Saul Bellow und die Anthroposophie. (Perseus-Verlag). Edward Mendelson (2011) The Obedient Bellow. The New York Review of Books.  Kai Sina (2023) Bellow und Goethe: Dass er das so ernst nimmt. FAZ.NET. Available at https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wissen/geist-soziales/bellow-und-goethe-dass-er-das-so-ernst-nimmt-18763527.html Rudolf Steiner (1987) Boundaries of Natural Science. With a preface by Saul Bellow. (SteinerBooks) Rudolf Steiner (2021) Art and Theory of Art. (SteinerBooks, Incorporated). Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

Really, what if we are all coming back? Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of color blindness, wrote an article where she muses on the possible reality of reincarnation and karma, and what implications this might have for social and political life. She shares how the questions arose organically for her when she was young, though she eventually dismissed them and embraced a study of politics, and the use of thought experiments of prenatal awareness in constitutional design as they are developed by John Rawls in his famous Theory of Justice. In this episode the challenges of seriously considering the possibility of reincarnation and karma are touched on as well as contemplative research approaches developed by Rudolf Steiner, indicating one possibility of serious exploration in this direction.   Alexander, Michelle. “Opinion | What If We’re All Coming Back?” The New York Times, October 29, 2018, sec. Opinion. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/29/opinion/climate-change-politics-john-rawls.htmlAlexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow. The New Press, 2012.Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Oxford University Press, 1999.Steiner, Rudolf. Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man. Anthroposophic Press, 1988.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations.

In this Episode conversations with Kelley Buhles are explored which focused on the social and economic dimensions of gift money. The idea of three distinct types of money is introduced, purchase money, loan money and gift money and the potential of gift money is explored. This episode shares from one of the conversations taking place as preparation for the upcoming event: “Working for Freedom and the Common Good”, September 19-21 at the Goetheanum, an intergenerational conversation about global economic cooperation and peace 100 years after the first “World Power Conference”. References: Kelley Buhles website: https://www.buhlesconsulting.com/ Rudolf Steiner. Rethinking Economics “Working for Freedom and the Common Good” website: https://www.worldgoetheanum.org/en/wgf-2024 Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

In this Episode conversations with Susan Witt and David Fix from the Schumacher Center for a new Economics are explored which focused on the social and economic dimensions of land ownership. The episode moves through a simple and elegant characterization of economics shared by Susan, how to understand what a commodity is and how treating land like a commodity unleashes anti-social dynamics in the economy and drives unjust inequality. This episode shares from one of the conversations taking place as preparation for the upcoming event: “Working for Freedom and the Common Good”,  September 19-21 at the Goetheanum, an intergenerational conversation about global economic cooperation and peace 100 years after the first “World Power Conference”.References:“Working for Freedom and the Common Good” website: https://www.worldgoetheanum.org/en/wg...Schumacher Center for a New Economics: https://centerforneweconomics.org/Rudolf Steiner. Rethinking EconomicsThomas Piketty. Capital in the Twenty-First CenturyQuestions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

This year, 100 years after the first “World Power Conference”, the World Goetheanum Association and the Youth Section of the Independent School for Spiritual Science are collaborating on a special event, an intergenerational conversation about global economic cooperation and peace. It is an event for everyone who is interested in working towards a vision of a global economy dedicated to cooperative, associative economics. In this episode Daniel Dunlop, the first World Power Conference of 1924, and the work of Walter Johannes Stein are introduced and how they relate to the upcoming event. References:“Working for Freedom and the Common Good” Website: https://www.worldgoetheanum.org/en/wg...T. H. Meyer. D.N. Dunlop, A Man of Our Time: A Biography. Temple Lodge Publishing, 2014.Rebecca Wright, Hiroki Shin, and Frank Trentmann. 2013. From World Power Conference to World Energy Council: 90 Years of Energy Cooperation, 1923-2013. London: World Energy Council. Basel, Perseus-Verlag. 2023. “W.J. Stein: The Earth as a Basis of World Economy.” Perseus Verlag. https://perseus.ch/archive/11950.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

This episode touches on the will, meditation, and the possibility of developing spiritually in a way that undermines our ability of love, responsibility and compassion in life. This is not only relevant for young people who are developing an inner practice, but also for countless others who are navigating existential inner difficulties for reasons related to experiences with psychoactive substances or even excessive media use or video gaming. These young people may feel that their difficulties are essentially spiritual challenges that beg a spiritual point of view and understanding. This episode focuses on the feeling of a need to develop a strengthened self, one of pure will, to counter challenging spiritual experiences, while overlooking the most important balancing power: love and fellowship, awareness of earthly needs of others a will for service. This leads to the picture that developing a strengthened self should always be complimented by cultivating the capacity of compassion and a clear intention of the heart, will and mind to be of service through our lives and work.References:Rudolf Steiner. A Way of Self-Knowledge: And the Threshold of the Spiritual World (CW 16–17). SteinerBooks, 1999Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

In this episode Nathaniel Williams turns toward Hari Kunzru’s novel Red Pill, published in 2020, as an image of what contemporary human experience. It depicts a journey of a writer who is driven to confront unsettling questions about life, the place of violence and human dignity while society around him is seething. To join with the world, we are given into the jaws of violence, even if it is simply with the decay of our body. To take the world into ourselves, into our consciousness, takes away its reality. Behold, the human being, and a description of contemporary experience. Such an image of the human being was characterized one hundred years ago this month in an introductory course on Anthroposophy given by Rudolf Steiner who suggests, “The human being stands … in double darkness, and the question arises: Where is the other world to which I belong?”.References from this episode:- Hari Kunzru. Red Pill. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2020.- Rudolf Steiner. Anthroposophy and the Inner Life: An Esoteric Introduction. Rudolf Steiner Press, 2015. (Formerly Published as Anthroposophy: an Introduction).Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

Thousands of satellites are being launched each year as part of efforts to build out the infrastructure for our digital technologies and networks. The night sky is now crisscrossed by traveling techno-stars visible to the naked eye. The celestial order of the constellations host more and more movement, and light pollution, which has led many astronomers around the world to protest. There is also an acceleration of dynamism in normal perception through our phones and computers, images change, come and go, as do messages and sounds, with tremendous speed. There is so much more to everything. As a part of this movement many experience a static void and a great paradox of our newest “communication technologies” that they easily isolate and separate. In inner work we see a countermovement, where we start with bringing our distracted thoughts to stillness and focus with our will, and then we find a plane of spiritual movement, of warmth and light, imbued with an ethical life. In this episode these two gestures of modernity form the backdrop for an exploration of artistic projects that are being prepared for the Youth Conference at the Goetheanum for February on Digital Technology and Spirituality.References:Kerry Brougher and Olivia Mattis. Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since1900. Thames & Hudson, 2005.Omer Eilam. “Music - On Earthly and Cosmic Music,” November 24, 2023.https://dasgoetheanum.com/en/on-earthly-and-cosmic-music/.Rudolf Steiner. Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts: Anthroposophy as a Path ofKnowledge - The Michael Mystery. Rudolf Steiner Press, 2013.Veit, Wolfgang, and Jan Stuten. Bewegte Bilder: der Zyklus “Metamorphosen der Furcht” von Jan Stuten : Entwurf zu einer neuen Licht-Spiel-Kunst nach einer Idee von Rudolf Steiner. Urachhaus, 1993.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

 Recently we have seen how much courage is required to advocate for peace, which is understood as a simple cessation of war and terror. Beyond this we are faced with the grand challenge of peace, of how to imagine a resilient peace, how to become articulate and effective peace workers. One area that people all over the world share as a possible field of collaboration, where we can all work for peace, is the global economy. This episode explores seven interconnected perspectives on the peace potential inherent in the global economy that grows out of an understanding of associative economics.References:“Chiemgauer Regiogeld,” December 5, 2023. https://www.chiemgauer.info/.“GLS Bank - sozial, ökologisch, nachhaltig.” Accessed December 6, 2023. https://www.gls.de/privatkunden/.Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner. These Are the Plunderers: How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America. Simon and Schuster, 2023.Purpose. “Purpose – We’re Rethinking Ownership to Transform the Economy.” Accessed December 6, 2023. https://purpose-economy.org/en/.Rudolf Steiner. Rethinking Economics: Lectures and Seminars on World Economics. SteinerBooks, 2013.Marina Warner. Review of No Freedom to Move, by James Crawford and Sally Hayden. The New York Review of Books, November 23, 2023. Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

Social thinking is not simply a nice way of looking at life, an optimistic or positive orientation. Characteristically it involves thinking in an inclusive way, somehow considering the varied interests of everyone in society. Many people cling to the stubborn ideas of naked capitalism, that self-interest leads to social wealth, even while we see that the idea is undermining everything that is valuable and worthwhile. Social thinking involves working with the reality of reciprocity and mutuality. Almost twenty years ago a group of high school students and their economics teacher launched a socially designed regional currency in Germany that has gained admirers around the world over the last two decades. It is a beautiful example of a social orientation to monetary design that stands in contrast to many conversations about crypto currency and tragic stories like the demise of FTX.References:Michael Ende. Momo. McSweeney’s McMullens, 2013.Bernard Lietaer and Jacqui Dunne. Rethinking Money: How New Currencies Turn Scarcity into Prosperity. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2013.Jon Palmer and Patrick Collinson. “Local Currencies the German Way: The Chiemgauer.” The Guardian, September 23, 2011, sec. Money. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/sep/23/local-currencies-german-chiemgauer.Rudolf Steiner. Economics: The World as One Economy. New Economy Publications, 1993.Chiemgauer - https://www.chiemgauer.info/Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

In this episode excerpts from the Journey of the Peacemaker are described, a journey that led to the founding of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois, Confederacy. It is a story of how, within the time span of one life, one biography, a region of war, violence, evil and cannibalism became the first constitutional, and democratically oriented, confederacy of North America. Alongside influences from Europe, the Iroquois were a major influence on the emergence of the constitutional Republic of the USA. It is unique in that it is a constitutional order and culture that emerged out of a positive vision of peace and diplomacy.Cadwallader Colden. The History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada.References:Bruce Elliott Johansen. Forgotten Founders: Benjamin Franklin, the Iroquois, and the Rationale for the American Revolution. Gambit, 1982.Jacob Needleman. The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders. Penguin, 2003.Paul A. W. Wallace. White Roots of Peace: The Iroquois Book of Life. Clear Light Publishers, 1994.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

This episode explores current interest in spiritual dimensions in art, and how this appears on the backdrop of social/political critiques of modern art and economic opportunism. Through passages from Mary Caroline Richard’s Centering a spiritual significance is highlighted connected to the decline of conventional art and the challenge of developing an art with new, vital and immanent spiritual qualities.  References:David Edelstein. “A Rich Satire About Street Art, Or Is It A Hoax?” NPR, April 16, 2010, sec. Movies. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126037446.Mary Caroline Richards. Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person. Wesleyan University Press, 2012.Harriet Sherwood, Harriet Sherwood Arts, and culture correspondent. “Danish Artist Who Submitted Empty Frames as Artwork Told to Repay Funding.” The Guardian, September 18, 2023.Julian Stallabrass. Contemporary Art: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2020.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

In this episode, Nathaniel Williams shares from a recent forum that took place at the Goetheanum World Conference on Peacebuilding. Reflecting on forum presentations from Friedrich Glasl on the Logic of War and Logic of Peace and comments from forum members he asks: how can we understand the place of boycotts and non-violent action in a comprehensive imagination of peace? This was an issue that Martin Luther King jr addressed, pointing toward the necessity of a transformation of values for enduring peace. One window into these dimensions of peace work can be understood when one looks at the roles of music and imagination in the civil rights movement.  References:Friedrich Glasl. Selbsthilfe in Konflikten: Konzepte, Übungen, praktische Methoden.Verlag Freies Geistesleben, 2011.Martin Luther King. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches ofMartin Luther King, Jr. HarperCollins, 1990.William F. Pepper. An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King. Verso, 2003.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

There is a deep feeling among many young people that economics and financial institutions need to be aligned with human values, justice, and solidarity. Is this possible? In this episode Michael Sandel’s book What Money Can’t Buy sets the context for an exploration of associative economics, a perspective on economics first formulated by Rudolf Steiner a century ago.References:“B Lab Global Site.” Accessed August 25, 2023. https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us.“GLS Bank - sozial, ökologisch, nachhaltig.” https://www.gls.de/privatkunden/.Groh, Trauger, and Steven McFadden. Farms of Tomorrow Revisited. SteinerBooks, 1998.Sandel, Michael J. What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012.Steiner, Rudolf. Renewal of the Social Organism. SteinerBooks, 1985.———. Rethinking Economics: Lectures and Seminars on World Economics. SteinerBooks, 2013.Steuernagel, Armin. “Armin Steuernagel: Transforming Ownership to Create a Better Economy | Armin Steuernagel | TEDxZurich | TED Talk.”Stiglitz, Joseph. “There Is No Invisible Hand.” The Guardian, December 20, 2002, sec. Education.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

Exploring the intersection of consumerism and spirituality, Nathaniel characterizes the new and widespread orientation of encounter and how this orientation can lead to confusion and destruction when we don’t recognize where it is justified. This new sensitivity for the human being brings with it a destructive potential when comes to consumerism. He suggests by seeking self-expression through consumerism a misplaced spiritual orientation is at work, one connected with a wasteful economy, the lack of meaning and lack of connection with the natural world. At the same time through understanding the pictorial nature at work in this new culture we can develop a sensitivity for the inexhaustible dimension of culture, relationships and the spirit. References:Epp, Charles R. The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective. University of Chicago Press, 2020.McKibben, Bill. The Bill McKibben Reader: Pieces from an Active Life. St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2008.Schumacher, E. F. Small Is Beautiful: Economics as If People Mattered. HarperCollins, 2010.Steiner, Rudolf. The Life, Nature and Cultivation of Anthroposophy: Letters to the Members, Volume I, 1924. Anthroposophical Society of Great Britain, 1963.Taylor, Charles. Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Cambridge University Press, 1992.https://www.adbusters.org/Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

In this episode a challenge is introduced concerning the intersection of spirituality and psychedelics, namely integrating experiences that emerge while under the influence of psychedelic substances into normal consciousness and understanding. By comparing a gradual and incremental approach to the spirit with an immediate encounter facilitated through psychedelics some basic contours of the challenge of integration come to light. References:Michael Pollan. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches UsQuestions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

In this episode two powerful gestures are explored in their connection to spiritual development. The first gesture is present in the urgency and pressure that we feel in connection to everything having to do with our shared lives on the earth; the ecological crisis, economic and social challenges and climate change. The other gesture moves in the opposite direction, into expansion, dispersal and a certain kind of liberation; the digital revolution and physically induced expansion of consciousness. The rising generation finds itself placed into this dramatic moment and the question that it poses: How can one develop spiritually in a way that does not weaken one’s connection to collective life and the earth, and can such a path reveal spiritual life in the greater world? References:Sherry Turkle. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each OtherMichael Pollan. How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and TranscendenceErnest Cline. Ready Player One; Random House Publishing Group, 2011.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

This episode explores crucial questions that emerge when we think of meditation as a knowledge practice. How is it different from understanding meditation simply from a psychological perspective? What happens when we take a spiritual worldview and contemplative practices such as we find in Buddhism out of context, and interpret them within the Western paradigm of science and faith, without taking the research claims seriously? What is required to consider meditation as a research practice that could lead to results which could expand normal scientific understanding? How is imaginative contemplative practice, a method in the School for Spiritual Science, understood in this context? These are some of the questions that are taken up with reference to Evan Thompson, B. Alan Wallace and Arthur Zajonc.References:Rudolf Steiner. A Way of Self-KnowledgeEvan Thompson. Why I Am Not a BuddhistB. Alan Wallace. Choosing Reality: A Buddhist View of Physics and the MindArthur Zajonc. Meditation as Contemplative Inquiry: When Knowing Becomes Love.———. The New Physics and Cosmology: Dialogues with the Dalai Lama.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

In this episode of Questions of Courage, Nathaniel discusses the effects of digital technology on young people today, and particularly how the youth's experience contrasts and compares with generations of the recent past. This discussion touches on digital avatars, behavioral psychology, and a picture-based consciousness that began in the 1960’s, which has become prevalent and foundational to our experience of the world today.References:Matt Richtel series on adolescent mental health in the New York Times on Sherry Turkle - “Alone Together”Patricia Lockwood - “No One Is Talking About This”Tristan HarrisShoshana Zuboff,  “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism”Jane GoodallQuestions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

In this episode Nathaniel discusses anthropological efforts of the 1960’s and 1970’s often were reductivist and condescending towards the groups of people who were being described. Through the context of Marshall Sahlins’ book “The New Science of the Enchanted Universe,” Nathaniel points us towards the spiritual experiences of the world that non-European cultures had, which were being spoken of in a Eurocentric way that diminished their power. We begin to see the ways that what was coming to awareness in the 50’s-70’s was not accepted as legitimate, and how this legacy of “colonization of what can be spoken of as legitimate” remains embedded in our culture even today.Questions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Action Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations. References: Jacob Needleman - “The New Religions”Citizens UnitedBlack Panther: Wakanda ForeverMarshall Sahlins - “The New Science of the Enchanted Universe: An anthropology of most of humanity”Owen Barfield - Saving the Appearances, The Harp and the Camera, The Coming Trauma of MaterialismCS Lewis, The Chronicles of NarniaInklingsWilliam Stafford - A Ritual to Read to One AnotherWeniger anzeigenQuestions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations

In this first Episode of Questions of Courage Nathaniel Williams maps the historical path of youth movements and revolutionary moments from the 1950’s to today, with a particular awareness to the quality of spiritual seeking that has underscored this series of events in both Europe and The United States. He lays out the intention behind Questions of Courage, this new Podcast and video project, which is a collaboration between the Youth Section of the School for Spiritual Science and the Wochenschrift and Goetheanum TV. Welcome!References:David Copperfield by Charles DickensBob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni MitchellHelen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Emily MaysonMary Oliver, Wendell BerryResources around the 1870’s Reconstruction Period in the US:The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and Its Youthful Opposition - By Theodore RoszakThe Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective - By Charles Epp“The Harp and the Camera the harp” in The Rediscovery of Meaning - By Owen BarfieldBecoming the Archangel Michael's Companions - By Rudolf SteinerAfter Heaven: Spirituality in America Since the 1950s - By Robert WuthnowQuestions of Courage is a project of the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, in collaboration with Goetheanum TV. To support the Youth Section Global Access Fund, please visit: https://www.goetheanum.org/en/youth-donations