Steiner and the Nature of Atoms
A collection of quotes from https://anthroposophy.eu/The_nature_of_atoms

1904-GA011
.. the other kind of ether which brings the elementary chemical substances into being. This ether will be called the chemical ether.

1904-12-16-GA093
makes the link between the physical atom as frozen electricity, and electricity and human thought

1904-12-23-GA093
lecture called: The Atom as Coagulated Electricity

quote A

We are living now in the epoch of evolution that may be called the mineral epoch; and our task is to permeate this mineral world through and through with the spirit within us. Think of what this means. You are building a house. You fetch the stones from a quarry and hew them into the shapes required by the building, and so on.

What are you inculcating into this raw material obtained from the mineral kingdom?

You are inculcating human spirit into the raw material. If you construct a machine, you have laid the spirit that is part of you, into that machine; the actual machine does, of course, perish and become dust; not a trace of it will survive.

But what you have done, what you have achieved, passes into the very atoms and does not vanish without a trace. Every atom bears a trace of your spirit and will carry this trace with it. Whether an atom has at some time been in a machine, or has not been in a machine, is not a matter of indifference. The atom itself has undergone change as a result of having once been in a machine, and this change that you have wrought in the atom will never again be lost to it. Moreover, through your having changed the atom, through the fact that you have united the spirit in you with the mineral world, a permanent stamp has been made upon the general consciousness of mankind; just so much consciousness goes with you into the other world.

Occult science well knows in what way the human being can perform selfless actions and how greatly his consciousness will be enhanced by them.

Certain men, who have been deeply imbued with this knowledge, have been so selfless that they have taken steps to prevent even their names from going down to posterity! An example of this is the work entitled Theologica Deutsch. Nobody knows who wrote it. On the outside there are only the words: The man from Frankfurt. He, therefore, was one who took care that his very name should be unknown. He worked in such a way that he merely added something to the objective world without asking for honour or for the preservation of his name. And here let it be said that the Masters, as a rule, are not personages known in history; they sometimes are embodied in historical personalities — when it is necessary; but in a certain respect this is a sacrifice on their part. The level of their consciousness is incompatible with work for themselves, and preservation of a name does, after all, involve this. It is difficult thoroughly to understand this rule but it will now be clear to you why the aim of the Freemasons is to work in the world in such a way that their deeds are hidden in social organizations or charitable institutions. For selfless deeds are the real foundations of immortality. In the outer world we see the reflex of such deeds. They need not necessarily be of great account. If someone gives a coin to a poor man, this may be an unselfish deed; but only to the extent that it was absolutely selfless does it find its way to the sphere of immortality — and very few deeds are selfless to this degree. An act of charity may be extremely egoistical when, for instance, it gives rise to a comforting feeling. Charity very often springs from selfish motives. If a poor man living among us has no meat at Christmas and we feel bound to give him some in order that we may feel justified in eating our own Christmas dinner — that, after all, is egoism. In the Middle Ages it would have been impossible to say who had built many of the cathedrals or painted many of the pictures.

It is only in our epoch of civilisation that people have begun to attach such value to the human name; in earlier epochs, more spiritual than our own, the individual name was of less importance. Spirituality in those days was directed to reality; whereas our epoch adheres to the delusion of thinking that what is a mere concern of the moment should be preserved.

quote B

All progress is the result of involution and evolution. Involution is the in-taking, evolution the yield, the out-giving. All states and conditions of world-existence alternate between these two processes. When you see, hear, smell or taste, you breathe nature into yourselves. The act of sight does not pass away without leaving a trace behind. The eye itself perishes, the object seen — that too perishes; but what you have experienced in the act of sight, remains. It will not be difficult for you to realise that in certain epochs it is necessary to make such things understood.

We are going forward to an age when, as I indicated recently, men will understand what the atom is, in reality. It will be realised — by the public mind too — that the atom is nothing but coagulated electricity. The thought itself is composed of the same substance.

Before the end of the fifth cultural age, science will have reached the stage where Man will be able to penetrate into the atom itself. When the similarity of substance between the thought and the atom is once comprehended, the way to get hold of the forces contained in the atom will soon be discovered and then nothing will be inaccessible to certain methods of working.

A man standing here, let us say, will be able by pressing a button concealed in his pocket, to explode some object at a great distance — say in Hamburg! Just as by setting up a wave-movement here and causing it to take a particular form at some other place, wireless telegraphy is possible, so what I have just indicated will be within Man's power when the occult truth that thought and atom consist of the same substance is put into practical application.

1905-10-05-GA093
humanity transforms every atom on earth .. in the past, atoms became more and more solidified, now however they are becoming increasingly separated. Radioactivity did not exist in earlier times and could therefore not be discovered. It has only existed for a few thousand years, because now the atoms split up more and more.

1907-12-04-GA098
The first elementary kingdom gives minerals their form, their atomistic forces of attraction and repulsion come from the group-I's (see also L19 of GA094, 94-19)

1911-10-01-GA130
What we call chemical action, is projected into the physical world from the music of the spheres in the spirit world. In the combination of two substances according to their atomic weight, we have a reflection of two tones of the harmony of the spheres. The numerical ratios in chemistry express the numerical rations of the harmony of the spheres.

1913-03-28-GA145
Atoms are simply the forces of Ahriman.

1913-09-03-GA266
The whole of atomism has validity only on the physical plane, and to a limited extent in the elemental world, but none in the spiritual world.

1914-04-17-GA154
If materialistic views continue to persist for several generations more ... people will actually see little grey atoms vibrating as an atomic whirl, not because they exist, but because they will have trained themselves to see them. See also 1922-07-15-GA213

1915-10-16-GA254
The cause of atomism lies in the human nature: atomism is a projection into space of the process that the astral body is touching the nerve-ends, which does not come into consciousness.

1916-06-13-GA169
discusses atomism, the reductionism of the human mind

The world of atoms outside is nothing but a projection of the nervous system. We project ourselves into the world and thus think of it as consisting of atoms, and our nervous system as composed of many individual ganglion-globules. Science will always tend to atomism for it originates in nerve sustance. By contrast, mysticism, religion etc come forth from the blood and do not look for the divide but always for unity.

See also 1920-03-21-GA312 where the atomistic approach in anatomy is described in a scientific-historical context. This is also in 1920-03-02-GA321 where the Florence academy of 1657-1667 is described as the cradle of materialism and phenomena were divested of anything extraterrestrial but only look for explanation of physical phenomena in the things themselves (ai in the forms of atoms and molecules).

1920-03-13-GA073
The fact that allmost no element has an integer atomic weight points to the fact that the atomic weight oscillates or trembles around an average, and with it also the whole periodic system.

1920-03-26-GA312
important

Earthly mineral substances are not to be explained by means of atomic or molecular forces but by the effect of cosmic forces (metals by certain constellations of the planets).

1921-03-22-GA324

is on memory and imagination .. and how the tendency to explain phenomena using sense-perceptible auxiliary constructions such as atoms "destroys the imaginative capability"

1922-07-15-GA213
1922-12-25-GA326
compares Greek atomists such as Democritus and their view of atoms with that of the 19th century (also in GA018)

1922-12-27-GA326
On the necessity that a science of atomitisation, desintegration, reduction to microscopic parts, a science of the dead had to come about .. that now has to advance to the point where the spiritual in nature can be found again.

Also on the infertile quarrel on atomism in Die Drei.

1923-01-06-GA326
It matters little whether or not modern speaks of atoms or not, what matters is that when it does, it speaks of them, it regards them as velocity changes. That is what counts.

1923-01-28-GA220
.. we make the atoms, while we electrify them, the bearers of evil, not only the bearers of the dead. We make them the bearers of the dead, while we allow them to be atoms generally, and imagine matter atomistically.

1923-01-30-GA257
discusses a quarrel concerning atomism (are there atoms or not) settled in the magazine 'Die Drei'.

1923-08-31-GA227

People can be lead by ahrimanic beings out of nature into occult captivity if they form atomistic ideas on nature.

1924-08-16-GA311
Atomism arose as a result of the tendency that arose at the end of the middle ages to build up a whole from single parts, instead of the opposite way

1 - Bubbles in the ether
1917-08-07-GA176
The courage shown today so admirable in regard to external issues must be extended to the inner life. In this respect modern man is far from courageous. He draws back from all aspects of spiritual reality with the consequence that so many human beings experience inner dissatisfaction and insecurity. Very much has to be done it is true, before distorted ideas give way to sound ones. Nowadays there is, for example, still a preoccupation with atomic theories, even though the earlier crude form has given way to ions and electrons.

The modern view is that everything consists of atoms. Many are of the opinion that everything can be traced back to minute atomic structures. Matter is thought to consist of the tiniest of particles; i.e., atoms. And many scientists, in fact most, endow matter with force so that the particles of matter are supposed to attract and repel one another. At this point investigations come to an end. The 19th Century will be seen as a significant period in mankind's evolution: the time when the universe was explained as a structure of matter and force, a view that has been given classical expression in innumerable works. This example shows the extent to which ideas must be readjusted before it is possible to evaluate what is needed now. Let us hold on to the fact that there are those whose speculations are mainly concerned with matter; they imagine that the world consists of atoms.

How does this view compare with what spiritual science has to say? Certainly natural physical phenomena do lead us back to atoms, but what are these atoms?

They reveal what they are at the moment the very first stage of spiritual perception has been attained. At the stage of imaginative perception atoms reveal what they truly are. I have spoken about this in various connections many years ago in public lectures. Those who speculate on matter come to the conclusion that space is empty and atoms whirl around in this empty space. Atoms are supposed to be the most solid entities in existence. That is simply not the case, the whole issue is based on illusion.

To imaginative cognition atoms are revealed as bubbles and the reality is where the empty space is supposed to be. Atoms are blown up bubbles. In other words, in contrast to what surrounds them they are nothing. You know that where bubbles are seen in soda-water there is no water. Atoms are bubbles in that sense; where they are the space is hollow, nothing is there. And yet it is possible to push against it; impact occurs precisely because, in pushing against hollowness, an effect is produced.

How can nothing produce an effect?

Take the case of the space, practically empty of air, within an air-pump; there you see how air streams into nothingness. A wrong interpretation might imagine the empty space in the bulb of the air pump as containing a substance that forced in the air. That is exactly the illusion prevailing in regard to the atom. The opposite is true: atoms are empty — yet again not empty. There is after all something within these bubbles. And what is it? This is also something about which have already spoken: what exists within the atom bubbles is ahrimanic substance. Ahriman is there. The whole system of atoms consists of ahrimanic substantiality. As you see this is a considerable metamorphosis of the ideas entertained by those who theorize about matter. Where in space they see something material we see the presence of Ahriman."

Continued quotes by Steiner on Atoms
https://anthroposophy.eu/The_nature_of_atoms

1905-10-05-GA093
humanity transforms every atom on earth .. in the past, atoms became more and more solidified, now however they are becoming increasingly separated. Radioactivity did not exist in earlier times and could therefore not be discovered. It has only existed for a few thousand years, because now the atoms split up more and more.

1907-12-04-GA098
The first elementary kingdom gives minerals their form, their atomistic forces of attraction and repulsion come from the group-I's (see also L19 of GA094, 94-19)

1911-10-01-GA130
What we call chemical action, is projected into the physical world from the music of the spheres in the spirit world. In the combination of two substances according to their atomic weight, we have a reflection of two tones of the harmony of the spheres. The numerical ratios in chemistry express the numerical rations of the harmony of the spheres.

1913-03-28-GA145
Atoms are simply the forces of Ahriman.

1913-09-03-GA266
The whole of atomism has validity only on the physical plane, and to a limited extent in the elemental world, but none in the spiritual world.

1914-04-17-GA154
If materialistic views continue to persist for several generations more ... people will actually see little grey atoms vibrating as an atomic whirl, not because they exist, but because they will have trained themselves to see them. See also 1922-07-15-GA213

1915-10-16-GA254
The cause of atomism lies in the human nature: atomism is a projection into space of the process that the astral body is touching the nerve-ends, which does not come into consciousness.

1916-06-13-GA169
discusses atomism, the reductionism of the human mind

The world of atoms outside is nothing but a projection of the nervous system. We project ourselves into the world and thus think of it as consisting of atoms, and our nervous system as composed of many individual ganglion-globules. Science will always tend to atomism for it originates in nerve sustance. By contrast, mysticism, religion etc come forth from the blood and do not look for the divide but always for unity.

See also 1920-03-21-GA312 where the atomistic approach in anatomy is described in a scientific-historical context. This is also in 1920-03-02-GA321 where the Florence academy of 1657-1667 is described as the cradle of materialism and phenomena were divested of anything extraterrestrial but only look for explanation of physical phenomena in the things themselves (ai in the forms of atoms and molecules).

1920-03-13-GA073
The fact that allmost no element has an integer atomic weight points to the fact that the atomic weight oscillates or trembles around an average, and with it also the whole periodic system.

1920-03-26-GA312
important

Earthly mineral substances are not to be explained by means of atomic or molecular forces but by the effect of cosmic forces (metals by certain constellations of the planets).

1921-03-22-GA324

is on memory and imagination .. and how the tendency to explain phenomena using sense-perceptible auxiliary constructions such as atoms "destroys the imaginative capability"

1922-07-15-GA213
1922-12-25-GA326
compares Greek atomists such as Democritus and their view of atoms with that of the 19th century (also in GA018)

1922-12-27-GA326
On the necessity that a science of atomitisation, desintegration, reduction to microscopic parts, a science of the dead had to come about .. that now has to advance to the point where the spiritual in nature can be found again.

Also on the infertile quarrel on atomism in Die Drei.

1923-01-06-GA326
It matters little whether or not modern speaks of atoms or not, what matters is that when it does, it speaks of them, it regards them as velocity changes. That is what counts.

1923-01-28-GA220
.. we make the atoms, while we electrify them, the bearers of evil, not only the bearers of the dead. We make them the bearers of the dead, while we allow them to be atoms generally, and imagine matter atomistically.

1923-01-30-GA257
discusses a quarrel concerning atomism (are there atoms or not) settled in the magazine 'Die Drei'.

1923-08-31-GA227

People can be lead by ahrimanic beings out of nature into occult captivity if they form atomistic ideas on nature.

1924-08-16-GA311
Atomism arose as a result of the tendency that arose at the end of the middle ages to build up a whole from single parts, instead of the opposite way

1 - Bubbles in the ether
1917-08-07-GA176
The courage shown today so admirable in regard to external issues must be extended to the inner life. In this respect modern man is far from courageous. He draws back from all aspects of spiritual reality with the consequence that so many human beings experience inner dissatisfaction and insecurity. Very much has to be done it is true, before distorted ideas give way to sound ones. Nowadays there is, for example, still a preoccupation with atomic theories, even though the earlier crude form has given way to ions and electrons.

The modern view is that everything consists of atoms. Many are of the opinion that everything can be traced back to minute atomic structures. Matter is thought to consist of the tiniest of particles; i.e., atoms. And many scientists, in fact most, endow matter with force so that the particles of matter are supposed to attract and repel one another. At this point investigations come to an end. The 19th Century will be seen as a significant period in mankind's evolution: the time when the universe was explained as a structure of matter and force, a view that has been given classical expression in innumerable works. This example shows the extent to which ideas must be readjusted before it is possible to evaluate what is needed now. Let us hold on to the fact that there are those whose speculations are mainly concerned with matter; they imagine that the world consists of atoms.

How does this view compare with what spiritual science has to say? Certainly natural physical phenomena do lead us back to atoms, but what are these atoms?

They reveal what they are at the moment the very first stage of spiritual perception has been attained. At the stage of imaginative perception atoms reveal what they truly are. I have spoken about this in various connections many years ago in public lectures. Those who speculate on matter come to the conclusion that space is empty and atoms whirl around in this empty space. Atoms are supposed to be the most solid entities in existence. That is simply not the case, the whole issue is based on illusion.

To imaginative cognition atoms are revealed as bubbles and the reality is where the empty space is supposed to be. Atoms are blown up bubbles. In other words, in contrast to what surrounds them they are nothing. You know that where bubbles are seen in soda-water there is no water. Atoms are bubbles in that sense; where they are the space is hollow, nothing is there. And yet it is possible to push against it; impact occurs precisely because, in pushing against hollowness, an effect is produced.

How can nothing produce an effect?

Take the case of the space, practically empty of air, within an air-pump; there you see how air streams into nothingness. A wrong interpretation might imagine the empty space in the bulb of the air pump as containing a substance that forced in the air. That is exactly the illusion prevailing in regard to the atom. The opposite is true: atoms are empty — yet again not empty. There is after all something within these bubbles. And what is it? This is also something about which have already spoken: what exists within the atom bubbles is ahrimanic substance. Ahriman is there. The whole system of atoms consists of ahrimanic substantiality. As you see this is a considerable metamorphosis of the ideas entertained by those who theorize about matter. Where in space they see something material we see the presence of Ahriman.

Maximilian Rebholz - The nature of matter
writes in his essay 'The nature of matter' (translated from unpublished typoscript, ca 1948)

version a

In the cycle The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in the Kingdoms of Nature (GA136), it is shown how a material planet actually arises. From the sun, which in reality emanates space by transferring the cosmic forces from the non-spatial into the etheric spatial, the Spirits of Form work in such a way that each one forms his ether sphere, and these all have their common center in the sun. These ether spheres are in reality the planets of our solar system. But now Ahrimanic Spirits of Form from the cosmos throw themselves against the activity of the normal Spirits of Form that emanates from the sun, and at the periphery of the ether sphere, they produce an invagination, which appears to us as the physical planet. Where we see this planet, there is actually a hole in the ether sphere of the normal Spirits of Form that is filled with Ahrimanic forces.

What is true of the physical planet as a “hole in the ether” on a large scale is equally true of every atom of matter on a small scale. The atoms also appear as “holes in the ether” to the imaginative vision that perceives the ether.

...

version b

In the cycle The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in the Kingdoms of Nature (GA136), it is shown how a material planet actually arises. The cosmos of the normal Spirits of Form would consist only of variously extended etheric spheres, all centered in the sun. These etheric spheres are really the “planets” of our solar system. But now Ahrimanic Spirits of Form throw themselves against these from outside and cause invaginations on the periphery of the etheric spheres, which appear to us as the physical planets. Where we see these, there are in truth holes in the etheric spheres of the normal Spirits of Form that are filled with Ahrimanic forces.

This description in GA136 is also important because it shows us on a large scale what has to be thought of an “atom” on a small scale.

Dr. Steiner also called atoms “holes in the ether.”

1917-08-07-GA176

How does this view compare with what spiritual science has to say? Certainly natural physical phenomena do lead us back to atoms, but what are these atoms? […]

To imaginative cognition atoms are revealed as bubbles and the reality is where the empty space is supposed to be. Atoms are blown up bubbles […], in contrast to what surrounds them they are nothing. You know that where bubbles are seen in soda-water there is no water. Atoms are bubbles in that sense; where they are the space is hollow, nothing is there. And yet it is possible to push against it; impact occurs precisely because, in pushing against hollowness, an effect is produced.

[… A]toms are empty — yet again not empty. [… W]hat exists within the atom bubbles is ahrimanic substance. Ahriman is there. The whole system of atoms consists of ahrimanic substantiality.

Imaginative clairvoyance first perceives only the supersensible, etheric-astral realm but not yet the subsensible, which, as all matter, is perceived by imaginative clairvoyance as a hollow space in the ether. The comparison with water bubbles is quite valid: for in these, too, is air, which is only not seen.

Rupert Sheldrake on the Influence of A. N. Whitehead
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok7n4baI6KA

CliffNotes2Plato interview biologist and psychical researcher Rupert Sheldrake about the influence of Alfred North Whitehead on his ideas and worldview.

"Whitehead's Philosophy of Organism: Turning Idealism Inside Out" - FootNotes2Plato
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8pUjNZ5ubY

A presentation summarizing the paper linked below at the 13th International Whitehead Conference hosted by the Munich School of Philosophy. Introduced by Godehard Brüntrup.

Link to paper: https://footnotes2plato.com/2023/06/21/whiteheads-philosophy-of-organism-turning-idealism-inside-out-draft-article/

Alfred North Whitehead: His Life and Work - FootNotes2Plato
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDrlzo9_3c8

Thinking with Machines - FootNotes2Plato
A brief discourse on how humanity must rethink its relationship with technology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozz2wvy-GWQ

Goethe’s Polemics against Newton: A Morphological Approach to History of Science
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgFf9PcIKfw

"Newton’s and Goethe’s approach to colours are usually presented as diametrically opposed. Heisenberg, for example, contended that Newton and Goethe investigated separate domains, namely physical and psychological colours respectively. Wittgenstein is more extreme when he claims that “phenomenological analysis (as e.g. Goethe would have it) is analysis of concepts and can neither agree with or contradict physics”. The problem with such an interpretation, however, is that it renders Goethe’s polemics against Newton misguided and mistaken.

The paradox is that the more we make Goethe’s approach differ from Newton’s, the less effective and more mistaken his critique of Newton becomes. It seems we can’t have both. Yet if we take a morphological approach and place Newton in a sequence between Descartes and Goethe, we can indeed give an account that allows Goethe’s approach to radically differ from Newton’s whilst also preserving his critique. In this talk I will present such an account and therewith an example of what could be called a morphological approach to history of science.

This talk is part of our exciting series of free monthly talks on the subject of Holistic Science, organised by Schumacher College in collaboration with the Field Centre. You can view the full series, including recordings of previous talks, here: www.dartington.org/holisticsciencetalks "

Michelson Morley Experiment : A Shocking Revelation - FractalWoman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VNkLk_vZ8k

"In this video, I attempt to explain to you a shocking revelation I had last night after watching some videos on the Michelson-Morley experiment. Turns out, the assumptions made about the Ether Wind are both logically and physically incorrect. At least, that is how it seems to me. Please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested."

Link to video: Special Relativity 1: Michelson-Morley

Link to paper : Acoustic Michelson-Morley Experiment with an Ultrasonic Range Finder
https://journalofscience.org/index.php/GJSFR/article/view/2522

Michelson Morley Experiment : Can there still be an Ether? - FractalWoman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHrZ30z6p1E

"In this video, I attempt to further explain what I was saying in my previous video regarding the Ether wind and the Michelson-Morley experiment by using retroductive reasoning to rule out different scenarios. This is the pre-relativity thought experiments so I am not yet incorporating relativity into the thought experiments. I am merely trying to see if there is anything we missed regarding the existence of the Ether."

George Adams Kauffman - Space and Light of Creation - p.11

“To speak in the Goethean spirit, the purpose of scientific thinking is not to spin out complicated theoretic systems farther and farther removed from experience reality, but to fertilise within the human soul - out of those spiritual sources which are accessible to thought - what the soul has experienced by contact with the world of Nature. The human soul evolves in this process - grows to a higher level - and as it does so the circle of direct experience increases. The sphere of knowledge grows inasmuch as the shackles of imperfection and the veils of blindness fall from the soul. The soul experiences increasingly and yet more tenderly and richly by contact with the world of Nature. Nature including, we need scarcely add, that which we ourselves bring forth in her by experiment and ordered observation. …. Steiner shewed by his whole life’s work that the same method can also be pursued in harmony with subsequent developments of Science. Nay more, he shewed how as we do so Science will grow into a conscious experience of the spiritual source and origin of things , - no shadowy or abstract ‘spiritual source’ remotely apprehended by philosophic speculation, but alive and present, and filled with abundant content.”