Ernst Lehrs, the Einstein of astral-etheric forces
Short version: A Waldorf high school science teacher by profession, Lehrs basically re-writes the entire history of science using Goethe's philosophy.
The result? Sure enough, there is a place for etheric formative forces in natural science; ether is not just metaphysical abstractions and unreliable clairvoyance.
A second result: much of what is called ?physics? today is shown to be Naïve physics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Na%C3%AFve_physics ; for example, ?The Sun makes me hot;? and, ?The diameter of this small ball of copper expands when heat is applied because the atoms are agitated and moving further apart.?
Lehrs makes his famous case how the view a one-eyed, color blind Island Man, has of Nature, is no longer timely, is in fact destructive, blocking the Intuition, Inspiration and Imagination of more recent generations.
Man or Matter is a door into a growing healthy identification with truly human values as part of Nature, matter and ?forces,? a light-filled, humanistic stance.
More review below, after edition notes.
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Edition notes for Man or Matter ~
German title is ?Man and Matter.? Could the confusing ?Man OR Matter? be a simple mis-translation?
This reviews the first edition only. The first edition is widely available for free or paid download online. The first edition is the one most readers have encountered. Due to the absence of any copyright on the first edition, it is part of the public domain. Free online at Gutenberg Project and Books.Google with illustrations here:
http://books.google.com/books/about/Man_or_Matter.html?id=33zS4gsDopEC
The 1957 edition revised by Lehrs is of unknown additional value. Please comment below if you own a copy.
The 1985 edition revised and expanded by two other authors is of unknown additional value to this author. Please comment below if you own a copy. I have ordered this.
Editions with other years are ?fictitious,? mere reprints of the original free 1951 edition. Don't pay more than $8.00 for a paper version of the first edition.
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Longer version of review of first edition ~
A famous read, a famously difficult read, an even more difficult book to review.
Lehrs shows how soul awareness was always part of Nature. He likens awareness in nature to salt dissolved into water. If over time the salt content increases, eventually, it crystalizes out into separate crystals. This he likens to the isolated observer-self of Cartesian-Newtonian ?hard? science.
Our challenge now is re-imagining how the isolated salt can again unite with the whole ocean of Nature while retaining its self-awareness, experimental methods and humanistic values. Goethe is the key.
Without astonishing generosity of spirit, without sarcasm or anger, Lehrs reveals how Cartesian-Newtonian science inescapably led to the illusions imprisoning us today in the post 2012 world.
Lehrs makes his famous case how the view a one-eyed, color blind Island Man, has of Nature, is no longer timely, is in fact destructive, blocking the Intuition, Inspiration and Imagination of more recent generations.
Goethe offers an exit door from the science of Island Man based exclusively on kinematics, based on only pointer readings registering external movement.
Goethe wants each and every experiment to be two-fold, uncovering new facts about Nature; as well, uncovering and exercising new capacities of insight in the experimenter.
Lehrs rectifies Goethe's two-fold approach to experiments of all kinds, what we used to call ?experimental science.?
Goethean color studies ~ By far the best presentation I have ever seen of many of Goethe's color studies and how to grasp their significance. Lehrs was a Waldorf high school science teacher.
From recent thinking not from Lehrs: Goethe was arguably the first holistic thinker. Steiner was the arguably the second, both of them throw-forwards to the holism of the 1970s.
From the model of ?Three sciences for three selves,? not from Lehrs: second-order Cartesian-Newtonian science was indeed progressive in the 1700s-1800s. Now it is first-order and third-order science which are progressive for the task above. Goethean Science is first-order science.
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?The handbook to the Borderlands of Science? a fundamental text for science in harmony with nature? ~ Borderland Science Research
Other books like Man or Matter ~
Etheric Formative Forces, Gunther Wachsmuth, German: 1923, English: 1932
The Evolution of Matter, Gustave Le Bon (1909)
All three of these books are still read and highly regarded by fringe science enthusiasts of every stripe.
Reviewer Bruce Dickson runs HealingToolbox.org and writes the Best Practices in Energy Medicine Series. He is readying a manuscript on Holistic Psychology for early 2015.
