consciouslifenews--2020-09-23--Rudolf Steiner: Dweller On The Threshold

The most enigmatic figure to emerge from the “ occult revival ” of the early twentieth century was also the most successful , the Austrian “ spiritual scientist ” Rudolf Steiner ( 1861-1925 ) .
Although many of his contemporaries were outwardly more eccentric – think of Madame Blavatsky , Gurdjieff , or Aleister Crowley – it ’ s precisely Steiner ’ s sobriety that is so striking , making him seem somewhat out of place in the often flamboyant world of the esoteric .
We generally associate ideas of the occult , higher consciousness , and spiritual worlds with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the trickster about them ; Blavatsky , Gurdjieff , and Crowley would certainly fall into this category .
Steiner was precisely the opposite .
Standing at the lectern with his pince-nez in hand , he projected an image of irreproachable rectitude .
Steiner was earnestness incarnate , his one gesture of bohemian extravagance the flowing bow ties he was fond of wearing , a remnant of his early student days .
Where Blavatsky , Gurdjieff , and Crowley each took pains to present a formidable self-image , there was something simple and peasant-like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was an encyclopedic erudition .
If we were to use an archetype to describe Steiner , it would have to be that of “ the Professor ” – or more precisely , “ the Doctor , ” as he was known by those around him .
Commenting on her magnum opus , , Madame Blavatsky once remarked that she “ wrote , wrote , wrote ” like the Wandering Jew “ walks , walks , walks.
” Steiner too wrote a great deal , but his main mode of disseminating his ideas was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1900 and 1925 , he lectured , lectured , lectured , delivering more than 6,000 talks across Europe .
In a dry and often pedantic style , Steiner informed his audience of the results of his spiritual research , his “ supersensible ” readings of the occult history of the world made available to him through what is called “ the Akashic Record.
” In matter-of-facts terms , he introduced them to his teaching , Anthroposophy , telling them along the way about ancient Atlantis , life after death , astral and etheric @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and much , much more .
Yet this humble , self-effacing character became one of the most influential , and simultaneously vilified , forces in the spiritual and cultural life of early twentieth-century Europe , and his ideas are still relevant today .
Steiner ’ s efforts to lead “ the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the Universe ” have produced remarkably concrete results .
Since his death , more than 1,000 schools around the world work with Steiner ’ s pedagogical principles , not to mention the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ developed by Steiner a century ago .
There are also the hundreds of “ bio-dynamic ” farms , employing Steiner ’ s agricultural insights , developed decades in advance of our interest in ecology and organic foods .
The practical application of Steiner ’ s ideas had also informed very successful avenues in holistic healing , the arts , architecture , economics , religion , and other areas .
Given these achievements in the “ real world , ” which certainly exceed those of other esoteric teachers , why isn ’ t Steiner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the average educated person to have some idea of who , say , Jung is , or Krishnamurti , or the Dalai Lama ; possibly even Blavatsky , Gurdjieff , or Crowley .
But Steiner ?
He remains something of a mystery , a name associated with a handful of different disciplines and endeavors , but not solidly linked to any one thing .
He remains , as one of his most eloquent apologists , the Inkling Owen Barfield , called him “ the best-kept secret of the twentieth century.
” It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ known .
Rudolf Steiner was born on 27 February 1861 , in the small rural town of Kraljevec in what was then Hungary but is today part of Croatia .
His father was a telegraph operator for the Southern Austrian Railway , and Steiner spent his first years amidst magnificent scenery : mountain ranges and green plains were his playgrounds .
Steiner felt that it was significant that he grew up in a part of Europe where East meets West , as it was also significant that childhood had an equal measure of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the time , both the railways and the telegraph were relatively new innovations .
In Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment ( 1905 ) , Steiner relates that a crucial experience on the path of higher consciousness is an encounter with the Guardian of the Threshold , a spiritual being embodying one ’ s unredeemed karma .
Well before his career as an esoteric teacher , Steiner was himself a dweller on several thresholds , having one foot in the mysteries of nature , the other in the methodology of science @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visionary and disciplined thinkers that gave Steiner ’ s later career its peculiar character .
When Steiner was eight , his father was transferred to Neudörfl , near the border with Lower Austria .
An argument with the local teacher-led his father to educate the boy himself and this meant that he spent a great deal of time on his own at the railway station where his father worked .
Young Steiner was deeply introverted ; as he admits in his ( 1925 ) , he had great difficulty relating to the outer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mind and was obsessed with many questions the adults he knew seemed unable to answer .
This subjectivity might have taken a morbid turn were it not for his discovery of mathematics .
When Steiner came upon a book of geometry , it was a revelation .
“ That one can work out forms which are seen purely inwardly , independent of the outer senses , gave me a feeling of deep contentment .
I found consolation for the loneliness caused by the many unanswered questions .
To be able to grasp something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I know that through geometry I first experienced happiness.
” 1 Steiner ’ s joy upon discovering geometry may strike us as odd , yet the experience was essential in getting him through an early crisis .
What impressed Steiner so greatly about geometry was that it seemed to offer proof that within the mind there existed a kind of “ soul space , ” an inner equivalent of the external space of the natural world .
The soul space was “ the setting for spiritual beings and events.
” Thoughts for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we form of things ” ; they were rather the “ revelations of a spiritual world seen on the stage of the soul.
” Geometry , Steiner believed , although produced by the human mind , had an objective reality independent of it , and for him , this meant that the soul space in which it was revealed was also real.2 Rather precocious stuff , perhaps , but Steiner ’ s early years included an event that made him question the outer world ’ s monopoly on reality .
One day at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paranormal experience , an early manifestation of his psychic abilities .
Sitting in the waiting room , he saw a strange woman enter ; although he didn ’ t know her , he felt she resembled other members of his family .
Standing in the middle of the room , the woman spoke to the boy .
“ Try to help me as much as you can – now as well as in later life , ” she said .
Then she walked into the stove and disappeared .
Steiner decided not to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would scold him for lying .
But he noticed that his father was sad , and he later discovered that a female relative who lived in the neighboring town had committed suicide at the same time that he had had his vision .
This early experience marks for Steiner the beginning of a life-long involvement with the dead .
Much of his later esoteric teaching involves accounts of the soul ’ s experiences in the afterlife and of the machinery of karma and reincarnation , the balancing of the spiritual books that cast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life in order to complete their tasks .
While other boys of his age were fantasizing about the Austrian equivalent of cowboys and Indians , Steiner was preoccupied with the reality of the spirit worlds and the soul ’ s encounter with the beings that inhabit them .
Later , as a young man , Steiner would on two occasions have unusual opportunities to verify some of his ideas about the meaning of death .
Twice he would come into intimate contact with families in which the father was a recluse who would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Yet on both occasions , although never actually meeting the man , Steiner formed a profound intuitive relation with the deceased , so deep and insightful in fact that he was asked by both families to give the funeral orations .
Later still , during his years as an esoteric teacher , Steiner informed his followers that one means of helping the dead in their spiritual journeys was to read to them from his writings .
When Steiner was eighteen , his father was transferred once again , this time to Inzersdorf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of being close to Vienna , and it was decided that Steiner would study at the Technical School there .
Although he had leanings toward literature and philosophy , he chose instead to work towards becoming a science teacher .
One day on the train to Vienna , he met a man who would have a profound influence on his life .
Felix Koguzki was a herb-gatherer who traveled to Vienna regularly to sell his wares .
It ’ s not known how they fell into conversation , but the teenaged Steiner soon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had strange experiences like his own , and deep , personal knowledge of the other worlds .
He was the first person with whom he could speak about his spiritual visions , and their talks boosted Steiner ’ s confidence ; more than likely , they also convinced him that he wasn ’ t crazy .
Around the same time , Steiner had an encounter with another individual whose name has not come down to us .
Steiner refers to him only as “ the Master.
” The French writer Edouard Schuré , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and later a friend and follower of Steiner , remarked that the Master was “ one of those potent personalities who are on Earth to fulfill a mission under the mask of some homely occupation.
” Steiner had by this time read widely in philosophy , specifically the German Idealists , and had worked his way through Hegel , Schelling , and several others , absorbing Kant ’ s during his history class , which bored him .
Steiner was obsessed , then and later , with refuting scientific materialism , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ philosophical studies .
Although he doesn ’ t mention this episode in his , in a lecture given in Berlin in 1913 , Steiner spoke of the experience .
Speaking in the third person , he told his audience : “ From that time onward a soul-life began to develop in the boy which made him entirely conscious of worlds from which not only external trees or mountain speak to the human soul , but also the Beings who live behind them… ” 3 What little we know of the Master is that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work of Johann Gottlieb Fichte , one of Kant ’ s most important followers , which helped Steiner in his quest .
Fichte ’ s work focused on the centrality of the human ego , the “ I , ” the locus of consciousness , and the self that scientific materialism argued was mere illusion .
Steiner ’ s spiritual experiences convinced him that this was palpably false and the “ I , ” rather than being an illusion , was a concrete , irreducible reality .
For the next twenty years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spiritual leader , his work would focus on developing a methodical epistemology proving this fact .
The single most important influence on his ideas , however , was the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe .
Goethe is best known for his drama ( 1808-1832 ) , which takes a cautionary tale about a pact with the Devil and transforms it into an archetype of Western consciousness .
Although he ’ s never enjoyed the same reputation among English speakers , Goethe is one of the Olympians of Western literature , sharing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Shakespeare ( Jung too thought Goethe a key figure , even to the extent of sometimes believing he was an illegitimate descendent of the great man . )
Often regarded as the last true Renaissance man , Goethe was not just a giant of literature but also a statesman , traveler , and most important for Steiner , a scientist , making important contributions to botany , anatomy , mineralogy , and optics .
Through his literature tutor Karl Schröer , who opened his mind to Goethe ’ s importance , Steiner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chance of a lifetime .
At twenty-two , he was head-hunted as the editor of Goethe ’ s scientific writings for a major edition of the polymath ’ s work .
For an unknown rural scholar to be offered such a position might seem unusual , but the general consensus on Goethe ’ s scientific musings at this point was that they were useless as science and dreary as literature ; in truth , no one else wanted the job of editing them .
Aside from his early success in proving that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ found in other mammals – Goethe was , in a different way , an evolutionist long before Darwin – most scientists found Goethe ’ s attempts to disprove Newton ’ s theory of color , or to demonstrate the existence of what he called the , the archetypal plant from which others emerged , muddleheaded if not insane .
Yet for Steiner , Goethe ’ s science was the prototype for what would become his own phenomenology of the spirit worlds .
Instead of the conventional scientist ’ s cold , dispassionate eye @ @ @ @ @ @ @ passive to his intrusions , Goethe called instead for “ objective imagination , ” active participation in the reality under scrutiny .
The subjectivity of the scientist – his state of consciousness – was vastly more important than the increasing hair-splitting exactitude provided by his instruments .
This “ objective imagination ” became for Steiner the basis for his own “ supersensible cognition.
” Steiner ’ s work on Goethe opened many doors .
One led to Weimar , Goethe ’ s city , where he was asked to work on the Goethe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Steiner found few congenial colleagues , the work had other compensations .
He was introduced to the city ’ s literary and cultural life and made many acquaintances .
One in particular led to a momentous meeting .
Elizabeth Forster Nietzsche , sister of the ill-fated philosopher , approached Steiner to work with her in establishing a Nietzsche Archive .
This led to Elizabeth introducing Steiner to her brother , who had been insane from syphilis for several years .
Elizabeth had taken to dressing the defenseless Friedrich in a toga and positioning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blank stare and unkempt appearance provided the impression of a great prophet .
Steiner , aware of Nietzsche ’ s madness , was nevertheless impressed – not with the figure before him , but with its spiritual aura .
He saw Nietzsche ’ s soul “ hovering over his head , infinitely beautiful in its spiritual sight… ” It was a soul that “ brought from former lives on Earth golden riches of great spirituality… ” 4 If mention of Nietzsche ’ s “ soul ” brimming with “ golden riches of great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the author of and that Steiner was as ignorant of Nietzsche ’ s philosophy as his sister Elizabeth notoriously was , they should have a look at Steiner ’ s book ( 1895 ) , a remarkable perceptive study which at times even reads like Nietzsche .
Throughout his career , Steiner had an uncanny knack for entering into and defending the ideas of thinkers with whom he had profound disagreements – like the staunch materialist Ernst Haeckel – a critical sympathy that often led to many misunderstandings .
When his work at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on an academic career ( Steiner had received his doctorate in philosophy during his stay and could easily have found a comfortable niche somewhere ) , he decided instead to move to Berlin , home of Germany ’ s nascent avant-garde .
He had by this time published what many believe to be his most important book , ( 1894 ) , an exhilarating , if often difficult work of epistemology which Steiner believed established beyond doubt the reality of the human “ I.
” Others , like the influential philosopher Eduard von @ @ @ @ @ @ @ popular The Philosophy of the Unconscious , were less convinced and suggested he had muddled the question .
Steiner , however , was undaunted and believed he had a mission to disseminate his ideas .
He also needed to find work .
Although his followers tend to see Steiner ’ s life as the undeviating unfolding of a pre-ordained destiny – and Steiner himself , we must admit , contributes to this belief – like the rest of us , he was looking for his place in the world and the means to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also filled – rightly so – with the conviction of his own genius .
The literary and cultural world of Berlin might offer opportunities not available elsewhere .
Steiner , however , made the thoroughly impractical decision of buying a moribund periodical , .
His previous brief catastrophic experience in Vienna as an editor of a political magazine seemingly forgotten , Steiner proceeded to run the already failing into the ground , alienating its readers with his persistent exhortations regarding the spiritual life .
In the age of Strindberg , Wilde , Ibsen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s idealism seemed a stale leftover from a forgotten time .
Yet , although he bemoaned the burden destiny had placed on him , Steiner seems to have enjoyed hobnobbing with bohemians : his acquaintances include poets , playwrights , novelists , and political activists .
In fact , his reputation among the caused academics to cancel their subscriptions , and Steiner earned the unique distinction of being the one esoteric teacher – as far as I know – to have a periodical banned in Czarist Russia because its editor was known @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also in Berlin that Steiner married his first wife , although one gets the impression that the relationship with Anna Eunicke was little more than platonic .
Anna had been Steiner ’ s landlady in Weimar , and when he moved to Berlin she followed him .
There he moved in with her again , and , almost as an afterthought , married her in 1899 in a civil ceremony .
( It was in the Eunicke household in Weimar that Steiner had had one of his experiences with the death of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particularly well-educated or cultured , was apparently very happy to have Herr Doctor Steiner under her roof ; Steiner , for his part , thus avoided the “ misery of living alone , ” as well as that of the cheap lodgings and bad food he had endured up till then .
Anna was ten years older than Rudolf , and their relationship raises the question of Steiner ’ s sexuality , of which there is no mention in the entire 406 pages of his .
I do have it on the authority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that the Doctor was indeed celibate .
But it was in Berlin that Steiner ’ s real career began .
For a time he seemed willing to speak to any group who would listen to him .
He lectured on history and other subjects at the Workingman ’ s College , surreptitiously slipping large doses of Idealism to budding Marxist materialists .
He also lectured to the Giordano Bruno Society and The Coming Day , a quasi-Nietzschean cultural group .
He managed , however , to alienate all of this ( as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soon left ) when he accepted a request to lecture to the Berlin Theosophical Society .
For years , Steiner had tried to express his insights into the spiritual worlds under the cover of philosopher .
Now , at the turn of the century and the age of forty , he decided to forgo the camouflage and speak directly about his experiences .
Steiner quickly rose to prominence among the Theosophists and was soon made head of the society ’ s branch .
One member of his audience was particularly struck .
Marie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s second wife in 1914 , was a Baltic Russian actress .
She asked if it weren ’ t time for a new spiritual movement to arise in Europe .
More to the point , didn ’ t Steiner think he should lead it ?
Steiner did , but he insisted that any such movement would be firmly based on Western esoteric sources .
Steiner had recently passed through a spiritual crisis which convinced him that the “ Christ event ” was the single most important incident in human history .
He had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or mystic Mahatmas .
He more or less adopted the cosmic evolutionary framework of Madame Blavatsky ’ s and informed it with large helpings of German Idealist philosophy and Christian mysticism , developing a peculiarly idiosyncratic neo-Rosicrucian system of esoteric thought , aided by his own readings of the Akashic Record .
In light of this , it ’ s difficult to ignore the occult historian James Webb ’ s remark that Steiner joined the Theosophical Society in order to take it over .
His relationship to the society was rocky , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ex-Fabian Annie Besant , came to rhetorical blows over C.W .
Leadbeater ’ s advocacy of the Indian boy Krishnamurti as the second coming of Christ .
Steiner was disgusted at the idea , and even more so at Leadbeater ’ s known paedophilic predilections .
He demanded Besant ’ s resignation ; she retaliated by excommunicating him .
Steiner left with much of his flock – by this time several thousand – and started his own group , the Anthroposophical Society .
As opposed to Theosophy , which spoke of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ concerned with the wisdom of the human being .
Practically the first thing Steiner did was to build a temple for his new movement .
The land was secured in Dornach , Switzerland , and during WWI Steiner gathered a community of followers from several different countries to construct the Goetheanum , a weirdly beautiful fusion of art nouveau and Expressionist architecture that Steiner himself designed .
His lecturing was curtailed by the fighting , but his greatest popularity came with the war ’ s end .
Steiner ’ s plan to reconstruct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some 80,000 copies in its first edition , and audiences for his public appearances were now in the thousands ; on one occasion the crowds outside a Berlin auditorium were so great they stopped traffic .
This period , however , also saw the start of the anti-Steiner campaign that would plague him henceforth .
Practically everybody hated him : Catholics , Protestants , Marxists , proto-Nazis , not to mention other esotericists .
There were at least two attempts on his life , and the number of occult attacks fomented by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ One clear victory from this time was the establishment of the first Steiner school in Stuttgart in 1919 .
Based on pedagogical principles developed over decades of tutoring – in Vienna he had cured a retarded hydrocephalic boy to the extent that child grew up to earn a medical degree – Steiner ’ s educational ideas earned him deserved renown and an international reputation among experts that continues today .
Steiner endured vilification in the press and disruption at his lectures with equanimity , but one victim of the attacks was , many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the ground on New Year ’ s Eve 1922 .
Arson by right-wing proto-Nazis is the common assumption , although an electrical fault remains a possibility .
In any case , a decade ’ s effort , not to mention an architectural wonder , was lost overnight : the building was made of the same wood like that used in making violins and burned fiercely .
Steiner took the tragedy as a sign that some changes in the society were necessary .
His original occult teachings , based on the idea of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to achieve “ supersensible thinking , ” were , he felt , obscured by the success of subsequent initiatives .
Steiner education , the Christian Community ( a religious group using Steiner ’ s ideas ) , the Threefold Movement for social change , eurythmy – a form of what he called “ visible speech ” – and newer developments like bio-dynamic farming and anthroposophical medicine were taking center stage .
Steiner had attracted many younger followers after the war , eager to rebuild society , and these clashed with his older , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Anthroposophical Society , whose numbers had swollen in the post-war years , threatened to undo much that had been achieved .
On the first anniversary of the Goetheanum ’ s destruction , Steiner announced plans for a second temple ; it stands today in Dornach , defiantly made of concrete .
He also told his followers that he was reconstructing the society as well .
Although he had not previously even been a member of the society , remaining only its spiritual guide and adviser , he now declared himself president of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , although most successful in Germany , today has branches around the world .
Steiner ’ s last years were spent in sowing as many seeds as possible for future work ; they were also darkened by his belief in a coming world conflagration , when the archangel Michael , overseer of the current stage of human consciousness , would face off against the power of Ahriman , a spiritual being who seeks to prevent humanity ’ s development .
Steiner spoke ominously of the incarnation of Ahriman , an Antichrist-like figure , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a catastrophic “ war of all against all.
” Steiner believed this unavoidable destiny would take some time to unfold – Ahriman is scheduled to arrive in the 3000s – yet many of his followers suspect that in recent years the process has been speeded up .
Steiner himself had grave doubts about the growing pace of technological development , warning his followers that materialist science gains its great power through unwittingly releasing Ahrimanic entities .
In his last communications , Steiner called on his followers to develop their consciousness in order to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that technology sank below it .
He also gave a series of lectures about karma and its work in human history .
Steiner died on 30 March 1925 .
He had been ill for at least a year with an undisclosed stomach ailment , although there is some speculation he had been poisoned .
He continued lecturing until it was physically impossible for him to do so , and his followers were astounded when , on the evening of his last scheduled lecture , they found a note saying that it had to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s health .
Nothing like this had ever happened before .
The Doctor , they believed , was invulnerable .
The exact nature of Steiner ’ s illness remains unknown , but it is clear that his inability to refuse help to those who came to him was a key factor .
Along with his public and private lectures , and his practical work as a teacher , architect , and agriculturalist , Steiner made himself available to any who needed his counsel .
For many years , he had practically no free @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hotel room saw a constant stream of visitors including , on one occasion , Franz Kafka .
Some asked about their astral bodies ; others their diet or their marriages ; Kafka asked about his writing .
Steiner advised them all , giving little bits of himself to thousands .
He was , as the Russian novelist Andrei Biely , a follower , once remarked , “ a giant of the power of kindness.
” 5 It ’ s not hard to see how such solicitude would eventually wear anyone down .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to give an exact assessment of a man whose work combines cogent criticisms of Kant with accounts of life in Atlantis .
But this “ mild , gentle , good , kindly man , ” whose achievement in “ humanitarian terms is remarkable and enduring , ” as the psychiatrist Anthony Storr wrote of Steiner in his study of gurus , , remains , for devotees and non-initiate alike , something of an enigma .
GARY LACHMAN is a former student of Gurdjieff ’ s Fourth Way , as well as a counterculture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first book , Turn Off Your Mind : The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius , a history of the 1960s occult counterculture .
During the 1980s , Lachman avidly studied philosophy , psychology , history , science , and esotericism .
His public figure rose in the late 1970s as he toured with pop-rock group Blondie .
In March 2006 , he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his outstanding work with Blondie .
Lachman became a full-time writer in 1996 when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ include A Dark Muse : A History of the Occult and A Secret History of Consciousness , In Search of P.D .
Ouspensky : The Genius in the Shadow of Gurdjieff ( Quest Books , 2004 ) , Politics and the Occult : The Left , the Right , and the Radically Unseen , Jung The Mystic : The Esoteric Dimensions of Carl Jung ’ s Life and Teachings and Madame Blavatsky : The Mother of Modern Spirituality .
3 .
Quoted in Colin Wilson , Rudolf Steiner : The Man and his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 38 If you appreciate this article , please consider a digital subscription to New Dawn .

By Gary Lachman | New Dawn | Waking Times
The most enigmatic figure to emerge from the “occult revival” of the early twentieth century was also the most successful, the Austrian “spiritual scientist” Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Although many of his contemporaries were outwardly more eccentric – think of Madame Blavatsky, Gurdjieff, or Aleister Crowley – it’s precisely Steiner’s sobriety that is so striking, making him seem somewhat out of place in the often flamboyant world of the esoteric.
We generally associate ideas of the occult, higher consciousness, and spiritual worlds with exotic, extraordinary characters with something of the trickster about them; Blavatsky, Gurdjieff, and Crowley would certainly fall into this category. Steiner was precisely the opposite. Standing at the lectern with his pince-nez in hand, he projected an image of irreproachable rectitude. Steiner was earnestness incarnate, his one gesture of bohemian extravagance the flowing bow ties he was fond of wearing, a remnant of his early student days. Where Blavatsky, Gurdjieff, and Crowley each took pains to present a formidable self-image, there was something simple and peasant-like about Steiner. Combined with this wholesomeness was an encyclopedic erudition. If we were to use an archetype to describe Steiner, it would have to be that of “the Professor” – or more precisely, “the Doctor,” as he was known by those around him. Commenting on her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, Madame Blavatsky once remarked that she “wrote, wrote, wrote” like the Wandering Jew “walks, walks, walks.” Steiner too wrote a great deal, but his main mode of disseminating his ideas was lecturing, and in the years between 1900 and 1925, he lectured, lectured, lectured, delivering more than 6,000 talks across Europe.
In a dry and often pedantic style, Steiner informed his audience of the results of his spiritual research, his “supersensible” readings of the occult history of the world made available to him through what is called “the Akashic Record.” In matter-of-facts terms, he introduced them to his teaching, Anthroposophy, telling them along the way about ancient Atlantis, life after death, astral and etheric bodies, the true meaning of Christianity, and much, much more. Yet this humble, self-effacing character became one of the most influential, and simultaneously vilified, forces in the spiritual and cultural life of early twentieth-century Europe, and his ideas are still relevant today.
Steiner’s efforts to lead “the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the Universe” have produced remarkably concrete results. Since his death, more than 1,000 schools around the world work with Steiner’s pedagogical principles, not to mention the many special-needs schools, working along lines developed by Steiner a century ago. There are also the hundreds of “bio-dynamic” farms, employing Steiner’s agricultural insights, developed decades in advance of our interest in ecology and organic foods. The practical application of Steiner’s ideas had also informed very successful avenues in holistic healing, the arts, architecture, economics, religion, and other areas.
Given these achievements in the “real world,” which certainly exceed those of other esoteric teachers, why isn’t Steiner better known? You would reasonably expect the average educated person to have some idea of who, say, Jung is, or Krishnamurti, or the Dalai Lama; possibly even Blavatsky, Gurdjieff, or Crowley. But Steiner? He remains something of a mystery, a name associated with a handful of different disciplines and endeavors, but not solidly linked to any one thing. He remains, as one of his most eloquent apologists, the Inkling Owen Barfield, called him “the best-kept secret of the twentieth century.” It’s certainly time that he was better known.
Rudolf Steiner was born on 27 February 1861, in the small rural town of Kraljevec in what was then Hungary but is today part of Croatia. His father was a telegraph operator for the Southern Austrian Railway, and Steiner spent his first years amidst magnificent scenery: mountain ranges and green plains were his playgrounds. Steiner felt that it was significant that he grew up in a part of Europe where East meets West, as it was also significant that childhood had an equal measure of natural beauty and modern technology – at the time, both the railways and the telegraph were relatively new innovations.
In Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment (1905), Steiner relates that a crucial experience on the path of higher consciousness is an encounter with the Guardian of the Threshold, a spiritual being embodying one’s unredeemed karma. Well before his career as an esoteric teacher, Steiner was himself a dweller on several thresholds, having one foot in the mysteries of nature, the other in the methodology of science. It was this combination of mystic visionary and disciplined thinkers that gave Steiner’s later career its peculiar character.
When Steiner was eight, his father was transferred to Neudörfl, near the border with Lower Austria. An argument with the local teacher-led his father to educate the boy himself and this meant that he spent a great deal of time on his own at the railway station where his father worked. Young Steiner was deeply introverted; as he admits in his Autobiography (1925), he had great difficulty relating to the outer world. He also had an inquisitive mind and was obsessed with many questions the adults he knew seemed unable to answer. This subjectivity might have taken a morbid turn were it not for his discovery of mathematics. When Steiner came upon a book of geometry, it was a revelation. “That one can work out forms which are seen purely inwardly, independent of the outer senses, gave me a feeling of deep contentment. I found consolation for the loneliness caused by the many unanswered questions. To be able to grasp something purely spiritual brought me inner joy. I know that through geometry I first experienced happiness.”1
Steiner’s joy upon discovering geometry may strike us as odd, yet the experience was essential in getting him through an early crisis. What impressed Steiner so greatly about geometry was that it seemed to offer proof that within the mind there existed a kind of “soul space,” an inner equivalent of the external space of the natural world. The soul space was “the setting for spiritual beings and events.” Thoughts for the young Steiner were not “mere pictures we form of things”; they were rather the “revelations of a spiritual world seen on the stage of the soul.” Geometry, Steiner believed, although produced by the human mind, had an objective reality independent of it, and for him, this meant that the soul space in which it was revealed was also real.2
Rather precocious stuff, perhaps, but Steiner’s early years included an event that made him question the outer world’s monopoly on reality.
A Paranormal Encounter
One day at the railway station, he had a paranormal experience, an early manifestation of his psychic abilities. Sitting in the waiting room, he saw a strange woman enter; although he didn’t know her, he felt she resembled other members of his family. Standing in the middle of the room, the woman spoke to the boy. “Try to help me as much as you can – now as well as in later life,” she said. Then she walked into the stove and disappeared. Steiner decided not to tell his parents, afraid that they would scold him for lying. But he noticed that his father was sad, and he later discovered that a female relative who lived in the neighboring town had committed suicide at the same time that he had had his vision.
This early experience marks for Steiner the beginning of a life-long involvement with the dead. Much of his later esoteric teaching involves accounts of the soul’s experiences in the afterlife and of the machinery of karma and reincarnation, the balancing of the spiritual books that cast the departed back into the stream of life in order to complete their tasks. While other boys of his age were fantasizing about the Austrian equivalent of cowboys and Indians, Steiner was preoccupied with the reality of the spirit worlds and the soul’s encounter with the beings that inhabit them.
Later, as a young man, Steiner would on two occasions have unusual opportunities to verify some of his ideas about the meaning of death. Twice he would come into intimate contact with families in which the father was a recluse who would die soon after Steiner made their acquaintance. Yet on both occasions, although never actually meeting the man, Steiner formed a profound intuitive relation with the deceased, so deep and insightful in fact that he was asked by both families to give the funeral orations. Later still, during his years as an esoteric teacher, Steiner informed his followers that one means of helping the dead in their spiritual journeys was to read to them from his writings.
When Steiner was eighteen, his father was transferred once again, this time to Inzersdorf. His new location had the advantage of being close to Vienna, and it was decided that Steiner would study at the Technical School there. Although he had leanings toward literature and philosophy, he chose instead to work towards becoming a science teacher.
One day on the train to Vienna, he met a man who would have a profound influence on his life. Felix Koguzki was a herb-gatherer who traveled to Vienna regularly to sell his wares. It’s not known how they fell into conversation, but the teenaged Steiner soon discovered that this simple, uneducated man had strange experiences like his own, and deep, personal knowledge of the other worlds. He was the first person with whom he could speak about his spiritual visions, and their talks boosted Steiner’s confidence; more than likely, they also convinced him that he wasn’t crazy.
Meeting a Master
Around the same time, Steiner had an encounter with another individual whose name has not come down to us. Steiner refers to him only as “the Master.” The French writer Edouard Schuré, author of the bestselling The Great Initiates (1889), and later a friend and follower of Steiner, remarked that the Master was “one of those potent personalities who are on Earth to fulfill a mission under the mask of some homely occupation.” Steiner had by this time read widely in philosophy, specifically the German Idealists, and had worked his way through Hegel, Schelling, and several others, absorbing Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason during his history class, which bored him. Steiner was obsessed, then and later, with refuting scientific materialism, and this became the impulse that drove his philosophical studies.
Although he doesn’t mention this episode in his Autobiography, in a lecture given in Berlin in 1913, Steiner spoke of the experience. Speaking in the third person, he told his audience: “From that time onward a soul-life began to develop in the boy which made him entirely conscious of worlds from which not only external trees or mountain speak to the human soul, but also the Beings who live behind them…”3
What little we know of the Master is that he pointed out some passages in the work of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, one of Kant’s most important followers, which helped Steiner in his quest. Fichte’s work focused on the centrality of the human ego, the “I,” the locus of consciousness, and the self that scientific materialism argued was mere illusion. Steiner’s spiritual experiences convinced him that this was palpably false and the “I,” rather than being an illusion, was a concrete, irreducible reality. For the next twenty years, until Steiner’s re-invention as a spiritual leader, his work would focus on developing a methodical epistemology proving this fact.
Introduction to Goethe
The single most important influence on his ideas, however, was the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe is best known for his drama Faust (1808-1832), which takes a cautionary tale about a pact with the Devil and transforms it into an archetype of Western consciousness. Although he’s never enjoyed the same reputation among English speakers, Goethe is one of the Olympians of Western literature, sharing the top shelf with Plato, Dante, and Shakespeare (Jung too thought Goethe a key figure, even to the extent of sometimes believing he was an illegitimate descendent of the great man.) Often regarded as the last true Renaissance man, Goethe was not just a giant of literature but also a statesman, traveler, and most important for Steiner, a scientist, making important contributions to botany, anatomy, mineralogy, and optics. Through his literature tutor Karl Schröer, who opened his mind to Goethe’s importance, Steiner was offered what must have seemed the chance of a lifetime. At twenty-two, he was head-hunted as the editor of Goethe’s scientific writings for a major edition of the polymath’s work.
For an unknown rural scholar to be offered such a position might seem unusual, but the general consensus on Goethe’s scientific musings at this point was that they were useless as science and dreary as literature; in truth, no one else wanted the job of editing them. Aside from his early success in proving that the human upper jaw contained the intermaxillary bone found in other mammals – Goethe was, in a different way, an evolutionist long before Darwin – most scientists found Goethe’s attempts to disprove Newton’s theory of color, or to demonstrate the existence of what he called the Urpflanze, the archetypal plant from which others emerged, muddleheaded if not insane.
Yet for Steiner, Goethe’s science was the prototype for what would become his own phenomenology of the spirit worlds. Instead of the conventional scientist’s cold, dispassionate eye regarding the world as mere matter, passive to his intrusions, Goethe called instead for “objective imagination,” active participation in the reality under scrutiny. The subjectivity of the scientist – his state of consciousness – was vastly more important than the increasing hair-splitting exactitude provided by his instruments. This “objective imagination” became for Steiner the basis for his own “supersensible cognition.”
Encountering Nietzsche
Steiner’s work on Goethe opened many doors. One led to Weimar, Goethe’s city, where he was asked to work on the Goethe Archive, another prestigious task. Although Steiner found few congenial colleagues, the work had other compensations. He was introduced to the city’s literary and cultural life and made many acquaintances. One in particular led to a momentous meeting. Elizabeth Forster Nietzsche, sister of the ill-fated philosopher, approached Steiner to work with her in establishing a Nietzsche Archive. This led to Elizabeth introducing Steiner to her brother, who had been insane from syphilis for several years. Elizabeth had taken to dressing the defenseless Friedrich in a toga and positioning him by the window, where his blank stare and unkempt appearance provided the impression of a great prophet. Steiner, aware of Nietzsche’s madness, was nevertheless impressed – not with the figure before him, but with its spiritual aura. He saw Nietzsche’s soul “hovering over his head, infinitely beautiful in its spiritual sight…” It was a soul that “brought from former lives on Earth golden riches of great spirituality…”4
If mention of Nietzsche’s “soul” brimming with “golden riches of great spirituality” suggests to readers familiar with the author of Beyond Good and Evil and The Antichrist that Steiner was as ignorant of Nietzsche’s philosophy as his sister Elizabeth notoriously was, they should have a look at Steiner’s book Friedrich Nietzsche: Fighter for Freedom (1895), a remarkable perceptive study which at times even reads like Nietzsche. Throughout his career, Steiner had an uncanny knack for entering into and defending the ideas of thinkers with whom he had profound disagreements – like the staunch materialist Ernst Haeckel – a critical sympathy that often led to many misunderstandings.
When his work at Weimar was ending, rather than embark on an academic career (Steiner had received his doctorate in philosophy during his stay and could easily have found a comfortable niche somewhere), he decided instead to move to Berlin, home of Germany’s nascent avant-garde. He had by this time published what many believe to be his most important book, The Philosophy of Freedom (1894), an exhilarating, if often difficult work of epistemology which Steiner believed established beyond doubt the reality of the human “I.” Others, like the influential philosopher Eduard von Hartmann, author of the once immensely popular The Philosophy of the Unconscious, were less convinced and suggested he had muddled the question. Steiner, however, was undaunted and believed he had a mission to disseminate his ideas. He also needed to find work. Although his followers tend to see Steiner’s life as the undeviating unfolding of a pre-ordained destiny – and Steiner himself, we must admit, contributes to this belief – like the rest of us, he was looking for his place in the world and the means to get on in it. He was also filled – rightly so – with the conviction of his own genius. The literary and cultural world of Berlin might offer opportunities not available elsewhere.
Steiner, however, made the thoroughly impractical decision of buying a moribund periodical, The Magazine for Literature. His previous brief catastrophic experience in Vienna as an editor of a political magazine seemingly forgotten, Steiner proceeded to run the already failing Magazine for Literature into the ground, alienating its readers with his persistent exhortations regarding the spiritual life. In the age of Strindberg, Wilde, Ibsen, Wedekind, and Shaw, Steiner’s idealism seemed a stale leftover from a forgotten time.
Yet, although he bemoaned the burden destiny had placed on him, Steiner seems to have enjoyed hobnobbing with bohemians: his acquaintances include poets, playwrights, novelists, and political activists. In fact, his reputation among the demi-monde caused academics to cancel their subscriptions, and Steiner earned the unique distinction of being the one esoteric teacher – as far as I know – to have a periodical banned in Czarist Russia because its editor was known to socialize with anarchists.
It was also in Berlin that Steiner married his first wife, although one gets the impression that the relationship with Anna Eunicke was little more than platonic. Anna had been Steiner’s landlady in Weimar, and when he moved to Berlin she followed him. There he moved in with her again, and, almost as an afterthought, married her in 1899 in a civil ceremony. (It was in the Eunicke household in Weimar that Steiner had had one of his experiences with the death of a reclusive father.) Anna, not particularly well-educated or cultured, was apparently very happy to have Herr Doctor Steiner under her roof; Steiner, for his part, thus avoided the “misery of living alone,” as well as that of the cheap lodgings and bad food he had endured up till then. Anna was ten years older than Rudolf, and their relationship raises the question of Steiner’s sexuality, of which there is no mention in the entire 406 pages of his Autobiography. I do have it on the authority of one Steiner scholar, Christopher Bamford, that the Doctor was indeed celibate.
Berlin & Theosophy
But it was in Berlin that Steiner’s real career began. For a time he seemed willing to speak to any group who would listen to him. He lectured on history and other subjects at the Workingman’s College, surreptitiously slipping large doses of Idealism to budding Marxist materialists. He also lectured to the Giordano Bruno Society and The Coming Day, a quasi-Nietzschean cultural group. He managed, however, to alienate all of this (as well as Anna Eunicke, whom he soon left) when he accepted a request to lecture to the Berlin Theosophical Society. For years, Steiner had tried to express his insights into the spiritual worlds under the cover of philosopher. Now, at the turn of the century and the age of forty, he decided to forgo the camouflage and speak directly about his experiences.
Steiner quickly rose to prominence among the Theosophists and was soon made head of the society’s branch. One member of his audience was particularly struck. Marie von Sivers, who became Steiner’s second wife in 1914, was a Baltic Russian actress. She asked if it weren’t time for a new spiritual movement to arise in Europe. More to the point, didn’t Steiner think he should lead it? Steiner did, but he insisted that any such movement would be firmly based on Western esoteric sources. Steiner had recently passed through a spiritual crisis which convinced him that the “Christ event” was the single most important incident in human history. He had no time for “Eastern wisdom” or mystic Mahatmas. He more or less adopted the cosmic evolutionary framework of Madame Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine and informed it with large helpings of German Idealist philosophy and Christian mysticism, developing a peculiarly idiosyncratic neo-Rosicrucian system of esoteric thought, aided by his own readings of the Akashic Record. In light of this, it’s difficult to ignore the occult historian James Webb’s remark that Steiner joined the Theosophical Society in order to take it over.
His relationship to the society was rocky, and in 1913 he and its head, the ex-Fabian Annie Besant, came to rhetorical blows over C.W. Leadbeater’s advocacy of the Indian boy Krishnamurti as the second coming of Christ. Steiner was disgusted at the idea, and even more so at Leadbeater’s known paedophilic predilections. He demanded Besant’s resignation; she retaliated by excommunicating him. Steiner left with much of his flock – by this time several thousand – and started his own group, the Anthroposophical Society. As opposed to Theosophy, which spoke of the wisdom of the gods, anthroposophy was concerned with the wisdom of the human being.
Building a New Movement & the Goetheanum
Practically the first thing Steiner did was to build a temple for his new movement. The land was secured in Dornach, Switzerland, and during WWI Steiner gathered a community of followers from several different countries to construct the Goetheanum, a weirdly beautiful fusion of art nouveau and Expressionist architecture that Steiner himself designed. His lecturing was curtailed by the fighting, but his greatest popularity came with the war’s end. Steiner’s plan to reconstruct Europe, The Threefold Commonwealth (1922), sold some 80,000 copies in its first edition, and audiences for his public appearances were now in the thousands; on one occasion the crowds outside a Berlin auditorium were so great they stopped traffic.
This period, however, also saw the start of the anti-Steiner campaign that would plague him henceforth. Practically everybody hated him: Catholics, Protestants, Marxists, proto-Nazis, not to mention other esotericists. There were at least two attempts on his life, and the number of occult attacks fomented by the “black brotherhoods” is unknown. One clear victory from this time was the establishment of the first Steiner school in Stuttgart in 1919. Based on pedagogical principles developed over decades of tutoring – in Vienna he had cured a retarded hydrocephalic boy to the extent that child grew up to earn a medical degree – Steiner’s educational ideas earned him deserved renown and an international reputation among experts that continues today.
Steiner endured vilification in the press and disruption at his lectures with equanimity, but one victim of the attacks was, many believe, the Goetheanum, which burned to the ground on New Year’s Eve 1922. Arson by right-wing proto-Nazis is the common assumption, although an electrical fault remains a possibility. In any case, a decade’s effort, not to mention an architectural wonder, was lost overnight: the building was made of the same wood like that used in making violins and burned fiercely. Steiner took the tragedy as a sign that some changes in the society were necessary. His original occult teachings, based on the idea of an evolution of consciousness and the ability to achieve “supersensible thinking,” were, he felt, obscured by the success of subsequent initiatives.
Steiner education, the Christian Community (a religious group using Steiner’s ideas), the Threefold Movement for social change, eurythmy – a form of what he called “visible speech” – and newer developments like bio-dynamic farming and anthroposophical medicine were taking center stage. Steiner had attracted many younger followers after the war, eager to rebuild society, and these clashed with his older, more esoterically inclined devotees. Bickering within the Anthroposophical Society, whose numbers had swollen in the post-war years, threatened to undo much that had been achieved. On the first anniversary of the Goetheanum’s destruction, Steiner announced plans for a second temple; it stands today in Dornach, defiantly made of concrete. He also told his followers that he was reconstructing the society as well. Although he had not previously even been a member of the society, remaining only its spiritual guide and adviser, he now declared himself president of the newly formed General Anthroposophical Society which, although most successful in Germany, today has branches around the world.
Ahriman & Coming World Inferno
Steiner’s last years were spent in sowing as many seeds as possible for future work; they were also darkened by his belief in a coming world conflagration, when the archangel Michael, overseer of the current stage of human consciousness, would face off against the power of Ahriman, a spiritual being who seeks to prevent humanity’s development. Steiner spoke ominously of the incarnation of Ahriman, an Antichrist-like figure, whose display of miraculous powers would precede a catastrophic “war of all against all.” Steiner believed this unavoidable destiny would take some time to unfold – Ahriman is scheduled to arrive in the 3000s – yet many of his followers suspect that in recent years the process has been speeded up. Steiner himself had grave doubts about the growing pace of technological development, warning his followers that materialist science gains its great power through unwittingly releasing Ahrimanic entities. In his last communications, Steiner called on his followers to develop their consciousness in order to rise above nature to the same extent that technology sank below it. He also gave a series of lectures about karma and its work in human history.
Steiner died on 30 March 1925. He had been ill for at least a year with an undisclosed stomach ailment, although there is some speculation he had been poisoned. He continued lecturing until it was physically impossible for him to do so, and his followers were astounded when, on the evening of his last scheduled lecture, they found a note saying that it had to be canceled because of the Doctor’s health. Nothing like this had ever happened before. The Doctor, they believed, was invulnerable.
The exact nature of Steiner’s illness remains unknown, but it is clear that his inability to refuse help to those who came to him was a key factor. Along with his public and private lectures, and his practical work as a teacher, architect, and agriculturalist, Steiner made himself available to any who needed his counsel. For many years, he had practically no free time, and wherever he went his hotel room saw a constant stream of visitors including, on one occasion, Franz Kafka. Some asked about their astral bodies; others their diet or their marriages; Kafka asked about his writing. Steiner advised them all, giving little bits of himself to thousands. He was, as the Russian novelist Andrei Biely, a follower, once remarked, “a giant of the power of kindness.”5 It’s not hard to see how such solicitude would eventually wear anyone down.
In the end, it’s difficult to give an exact assessment of a man whose work combines cogent criticisms of Kant with accounts of life in Atlantis. But this “mild, gentle, good, kindly man,” whose achievement in “humanitarian terms is remarkable and enduring,” as the psychiatrist Anthony Storr wrote of Steiner in his study of gurus, Feet of Clay, remains, for devotees and non-initiate alike, something of an enigma.
About the Author
GARY LACHMAN is a former student of Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way, as well as a counterculture expert. In 2001 he published his first book, Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius, a history of the 1960s occult counterculture. During the 1980s, Lachman avidly studied philosophy, psychology, history, science, and esotericism. His public figure rose in the late 1970s as he toured with pop-rock group Blondie. In March 2006, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his outstanding work with Blondie. Lachman became a full-time writer in 1996 when he moved to London. His books include A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult and A Secret History of Consciousness, In Search of P.D. Ouspensky: The Genius in the Shadow of Gurdjieff (Quest Books, 2004), Politics and the Occult: The Left, the Right, and the Radically Unseen, Jung The Mystic: The Esoteric Dimensions of Carl Jung’s Life and Teachings and Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality.
FOOTNOTES
1. Rudolf Steiner, Autobiography, Rudolf Steiner Publications, 1977, 28
2. Ibid, 28-29.
3. Quoted in Colin Wilson, Rudolf Steiner: The Man and his Vision, Aquarian Press, 1985. 38
4. Steiner, Autobiography, 223
5. Andrei Biely, Reminiscences of Rudolf Steiner, Adonis Press, 1987, 8
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consciouslifenews--2020-09-23--Ancient Superfoods for Mind & Body with Danette May

Cacao Bliss founder Danette May shares her superfood secrets and ways of finding the energy and motivation to change your @ @ @ @ @ Danette is a celebrity fitness trainer , the founder of Mindful Health , LLC , @ @ @ @ @ You Healing Detox Program .
In today ’ s episode , she talks about how @ @ @ @ @ turned into her greatest gift .
As Danette learned about superfoods she found herself feeling @ @ @ @ @ her life .
Tags : `` featured , ancient superfoods , Danette May , Danette @ @ @ @ @ featured , healing superfoods , superfoods secrets

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consciouslifenews--2020-09-23--UFO Spotting Has Replaced Bird Watching as Pandemic Obsession

In the wake of the coronavirus , sports stadiums have fallen silent , shopping malls have been turned into ghost towns , and bars have emptied .
But the skies—depending who you ask—have gotten a lot busier .
Hannah Levine was outside with her dog around midnight in April when she saw a curious yellow light glide across the sky and vanish , one that didn ’ t resemble a plane .
Puzzled , she pulled up a night sky app on her phone to check whether it might be a satellite or the International Space Station , but nothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ‘ Oh my God , I saw a UFO , ’ ” says Ms. Levine , 26 , a nanny in the Detroit area .
“ I mean , it was definitely unidentified.
” With more people at home , this is shaping up to be a banner year for extraterrestrial encounters , according to data from the nonprofit National UFO Reporting Center , which reports sightings this year are up 51 % so far over the same period in 2019 .
Among 5,000 incidents recorded this year , 20 % occurred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nation ’ s lockdown .
At Peter Davenport ’ s home in Harrington , Wash. , the phone rings all day long , and into the night .
Mr. Davenport has served as the group ’ s director since 1994 , collecting firsthand accounts through his website and by phone , answering 25 to 50 calls a day .
The group is an independent , two-man shop that consists of Mr. Davenport and a webmaster , both volunteers , whose work is well known among the UFO-watching community .
“ It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Davenport , 72 , who turns off the phone ’ s ringer at night to try to get some sleep .
“ It ’ s literally taken over my life.
” Reports of aliens haunting the skies have waxed and waned over the years .
Interest in extraterrestrials boomed in the 1990s , fueled in part by pop-culture phenomena such as “ The X-Files ” and “ Men in Black.
” Talk of UFOs has gotten a boost in recent months , with the Navy releasing three archival videos of unidentified flying objects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ highlighted by podcaster Joe Rogan and the History Channel , which has devoted a new show to the subject .
Most Americans who witness something strange never report it , says Mr. Davenport , who cautions that most of the reports have another identifiable cause : a drone , for example , or a plane .
In particular , he says , the 2019 launch of the Starlink satellite constellation being built by SpaceX to provide internet access has meant many more false sightings .
“ One might think an increase would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vantage point , it ’ s just more work , ” says Mr. Davenport , who edits reports for grammar and clarity and sifts out obvious hoaxes before posting them online , adding that he implores people to use spell check when they write their accounts .
He is loath to speculate about the reasons why sightings have increased lately .
He says he glimpsed his first UFO at the age of six while riding in a car with his parents .
He served in the U.S. Army and helped found a biotech @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his current role , which occupies him full-time .
What we see in the skies tends to mirror reality on the ground , says Matthew Hayes , an instructor at Northern Lakes College in Alberta , Canada , who studies public fascination with UFOs .
He notes that interest in the phenomenon first arose during the Cold War , amid deep public anxieties about the world and its new destructive technologies .
“ In a time of crisis , we look elsewhere for salvation , even if it means looking to the stars @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poll by Ipsos , a research firm , found that 57 % of Americans think there is intelligent life on other planets , while 45 % believe UFOs exist and have visited Earth .
On a recent day on his porch in White Bluff , Tenn. , Hunter Clark , 32 , was surprised to see two swift-moving dots in the night sky that appeared consecutively , traced the same path , then vanished .
“ I ’ m a logical person , very matter-of-fact , ” says Mr. Clark , who lost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ But I ’ ve never seen an object disappear in a snap of a finger like that.
” He didn ’ t report what he saw to Mr. Davenport ’ s group but discussed it on social media .
Jeff Champagne , 40 , a consultant , says that while in the backyard with his wife in their suburb of San Antonio , the duo recently spotted a silvery , stationary object in the sky , too high up to be a drone .
A self-identified NASA geek who previously served in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is used to identifying satellites and the like , but this one left him baffled .
“ We ’ d be foolish to believe we ’ re the only existence out there , ” he says .
He typed up a description of the experience so he wouldn ’ t forget it .
Those intrigued by UFOs got a boost in August when the Pentagon announced a task force to study “ unidentified aerial phenomena , ” or UAPs , and detect any that could pose a national security threat .
The U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , including a study by the Air Force , Project Blue Book , that began in 1952 and ended in 1969 without finding evidence that UFOs sightings were in fact extraterrestrial vehicles .
Ravi Kopparapu , a NASA planetary scientist who recently penned an op-ed in Scientific American calling for more research into UFOs , says he and his co-author sat on the piece for a year and a half before publishing , fearful of its reception .
“ There ’ s a great taboo associated with UFOs , ” he says , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because it sounds more academic .

By Te-Ping Chen | MSN.com
In the wake of the coronavirus, sports stadiums have fallen silent, shopping malls have been turned into ghost towns, and bars have emptied. But the skies—depending who you ask—have gotten a lot busier.
Hannah Levine was outside with her dog around midnight in April when she saw a curious yellow light glide across the sky and vanish, one that didn’t resemble a plane. Puzzled, she pulled up a night sky app on her phone to check whether it might be a satellite or the International Space Station, but nothing came up.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I saw a UFO,’ ” says Ms. Levine, 26, a nanny in the Detroit area. “I mean, it was definitely unidentified.”
With more people at home, this is shaping up to be a banner year for extraterrestrial encounters, according to data from the nonprofit National UFO Reporting Center, which reports sightings this year are up 51% so far over the same period in 2019. Among 5,000 incidents recorded this year, 20% occurred in April at the height of the nation’s lockdown.
At Peter Davenport’s home in Harrington, Wash., the phone rings all day long, and into the night. Mr. Davenport has served as the group’s director since 1994, collecting firsthand accounts through his website and by phone, answering 25 to 50 calls a day. The group is an independent, two-man shop that consists of Mr. Davenport and a webmaster, both volunteers, whose work is well known among the UFO-watching community.
“It’s a herculean task,” says Mr. Davenport, 72, who turns off the phone’s ringer at night to try to get some sleep. “It’s literally taken over my life.”
Reports of aliens haunting the skies have waxed and waned over the years. Interest in extraterrestrials boomed in the 1990s, fueled in part by pop-culture phenomena such as “The X-Files” and “Men in Black.”
Talk of UFOs has gotten a boost in recent months, with the Navy releasing three archival videos of unidentified flying objects glimpsed by pilots and the topic getting highlighted by podcaster Joe Rogan and the History Channel, which has devoted a new show to the subject.
Most Americans who witness something strange never report it, says Mr. Davenport, who cautions that most of the reports have another identifiable cause: a drone, for example, or a plane. In particular, he says, the 2019 launch of the Starlink satellite constellation being built by SpaceX to provide internet access has meant many more false sightings.
“One might think an increase would be exciting to me, but from my vantage point, it’s just more work,” says Mr. Davenport, who edits reports for grammar and clarity and sifts out obvious hoaxes before posting them online, adding that he implores people to use spell check when they write their accounts.
He is loath to speculate about the reasons why sightings have increased lately. He says he glimpsed his first UFO at the age of six while riding in a car with his parents. He served in the U.S. Army and helped found a biotech firm in the 1980s before taking on his current role, which occupies him full-time.
What we see in the skies tends to mirror reality on the ground, says Matthew Hayes, an instructor at Northern Lakes College in Alberta, Canada, who studies public fascination with UFOs. He notes that interest in the phenomenon first arose during the Cold War, amid deep public anxieties about the world and its new destructive technologies.
“In a time of crisis, we look elsewhere for salvation, even if it means looking to the stars,” he says.
A January poll by Ipsos, a research firm, found that 57% of Americans think there is intelligent life on other planets, while 45% believe UFOs exist and have visited Earth.
On a recent day on his porch in White Bluff, Tenn., Hunter Clark, 32, was surprised to see two swift-moving dots in the night sky that appeared consecutively, traced the same path, then vanished. “I’m a logical person, very matter-of-fact,” says Mr. Clark, who lost his construction-industry job amid the pandemic. “But I’ve never seen an object disappear in a snap of a finger like that.”
He didn’t report what he saw to Mr. Davenport’s group but discussed it on social media.
Jeff Champagne, 40, a consultant, says that while in the backyard with his wife in their suburb of San Antonio, the duo recently spotted a silvery, stationary object in the sky, too high up to be a drone. A self-identified NASA geek who previously served in the Air Force, Mr. Champagne is used to identifying satellites and the like, but this one left him baffled.
“We’d be foolish to believe we’re the only existence out there,” he says. He typed up a description of the experience so he wouldn’t forget it.
Those intrigued by UFOs got a boost in August when the Pentagon announced a task force to study “unidentified aerial phenomena,” or UAPs, and detect any that could pose a national security threat. The U.S. government has previously looked into the topic, including a study by the Air Force, Project Blue Book, that began in 1952 and ended in 1969 without finding evidence that UFOs sightings were in fact extraterrestrial vehicles.
Ravi Kopparapu, a NASA planetary scientist who recently penned an op-ed in Scientific American calling for more research into UFOs, says he and his co-author sat on the piece for a year and a half before publishing, fearful of its reception. “There’s a great taboo associated with UFOs,” he says, adding that he prefers the term UAP because it sounds more academic.
Write to Te-Ping Chen at te-ping.chen@wsj.com


consciouslifenews--2020-09-23--Ann Arbor becomes latest city to decriminalize “magic” mushrooms and other natural psychedelics

( TMU ) – The city of Ann Arbor , Michigan , has effectively decriminalized psilocybin or mushrooms along with other natural psychedelics in the latest sign that public opinion across the U.S. is continuing to turn against prohibitionist policies .
On Monday , the Ann Arbor City Council unanimously voted in favor of a resolution that would make it the city ’ s lowest-ranked law enforcement priority to investigate or arrest anyone planting , cultivating , purchasing , transporting , distributing , using , or possessing entheogenic plants or plant compounds .
The resolution applies to all psychedelics derived @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mushrooms , ayahuasca , ibogaine , mescaline , peyote , and other substances with hallucinogenic properties deemed illegal under state and federal law .
The council also requires the Washtenaw County Prosecutor ’ s Office to halt the prosecution of those involved in the use of entheogenic plants and plant compounds .
Ann Arbor now joins a growing list of cities including Denver , Colorado , and the California cities of Santa Cruz and Oakland that have decriminalized all entheogenic plants .
Other cities including Chicago and Austin are considering similar measures .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ use of psilocybin in therapeutic settings will also be voted on in the state of Oregon this November .
The move to de-prioritize law enforcement around psychedelics was spearheaded by the efforts of local grassroots advocacy group Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor or DNA2 .
At the beginning of the year , councilmembers were skeptical about any move to decriminalize psychedelics .
Since then , they ’ ve found themselves convinced by the evidence of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of psychedelics , including for mental health treatment and treating addiction , reports .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a $ 17 million psychedelic and consciousness research center by Johns Hopkins Medicine as proof of The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is currently conducting clinical trials to find out whether the drug is suitable as a prescription drug for the U.S. market .
Councilmember Jack Eaton described the council ’ s unanimous backing for the decriminalization resolution as carrying on the city ’ s legacy of backing the local decriminalization of m******** during the 1970s when the plant was still illegal under state and federal law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the commission of crimes or any significant violation of state or federal law , and any use of entheogenic substances that pose a threat to public health and safety could require intervention by law enforcement bodies .
In the resolution , entheogenic plants are defined as the full spectrum of plants and fungi that contain indole amines , tryptamines , and phenethylamines “ that can benefit psychological and physical wellness , support , and enhance religious and spiritual practices , and can reestablish human ’ s inalienable and direct relationship to nature.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ substances can be used to address substance abuse problems , addiction , recidivism , trauma , post-traumatic stress , depression , anxiety , grief , cluster headaches , and other debilitating conditions .
“ The use of entheogenic plants , which can catalyze profound experiences of personal and spiritual growth , has been shown by scientific and clinical studies and traditional practices to be beneficial to the health and well-being of individuals and communities in addressing these conditions , ” it states .
Psilocybin mushrooms are currently considered a Schedule 1 narcotic by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ psilocybin – the main chemical component of the mushrooms – was designated as a by the FDA in 2019 due to the positive results of psilocybin in treating depression , anxiety , addiction , and other mental health problems .
Studies have also shown how a microdose of psilocybin—far from the level needed for a full-blown trip—actually increases the creativity and empathy of participants .
Other researchers have also found that psilocybin has provided effective help to patients struggling to quit other addictive substances such as cigarettes .
The newfound recognition of psilocybin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ old stereotypes of psilocybin as some intoxicating and hallucination-inducing party drug that drives its users insane – a reputation that largely grew out of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s when they were widely known as “ or “ mushrooms .
The resolution further notes that entheogenic plants have been the basis of spiritual practices by human cultures for thousands of years , yet those who seek them for the sake of improving their health and wellbeing must risk arrest and prosecution to obtain them .
“ Decriminalization of naturally occurring medicines is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hayner said in a press release from DNA2 last week , reports .
“ We can no longer turn a blind eye towards the wisdom of indigenous peoples , and the bounty the earth provides .
I have been moved by the testimonies of those who have found profound relief from the use of entheogenic plants .
”

By Elias Marat | TheMindUnleashed.com
(TMU) – The city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has effectively decriminalized psilocybin or “magic” mushrooms along with other natural psychedelics in the latest sign that public opinion across the U.S. is continuing to turn against prohibitionist policies.
On Monday, the Ann Arbor City Council unanimously voted in favor of a resolution that would make it the city’s lowest-ranked law enforcement priority to investigate or arrest anyone planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, using, or possessing entheogenic plants or plant compounds.
The resolution applies to all psychedelics derived from plants and fungi, including psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, ibogaine, mescaline, peyote, and other substances with hallucinogenic properties deemed illegal under state and federal law.
The council also requires the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office to halt the prosecution of those involved in the use of entheogenic plants and plant compounds.
Ann Arbor now joins a growing list of cities including Denver, Colorado, and the California cities of Santa Cruz and Oakland that have decriminalized all entheogenic plants. Other cities including Chicago and Austin are considering similar measures. A ballot measure that would legalize the use of psilocybin in therapeutic settings will also be voted on in the state of Oregon this November.
The move to de-prioritize law enforcement around psychedelics was spearheaded by the efforts of local grassroots advocacy group Decriminalize Nature Ann Arbor or DNA2.
At the beginning of the year, councilmembers were skeptical about any move to decriminalize psychedelics. Since then, they’ve found themselves convinced by the evidence of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of psychedelics, including for mental health treatment and treating addiction, reports MLive.
Councilmember Zachary Ackerman cited the opening of a $17 million psychedelic and consciousness research center by Johns Hopkins Medicine as proof of “the tremendous potential of these future medicines.” The Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is currently conducting clinical trials to find out whether the drug is suitable as a prescription drug for the U.S. market.
Councilmember Jack Eaton described the council’s unanimous backing for the decriminalization resolution as carrying on the city’s legacy of backing the local decriminalization of m******** during the 1970s when the plant was still illegal under state and federal law.
The resolution doesn’t allow for the commission of crimes or any significant violation of state or federal law, and any use of entheogenic substances that pose a threat to public health and safety could require intervention by law enforcement bodies.
In the resolution, entheogenic plants are defined as the full spectrum of plants and fungi that contain indole amines, tryptamines, and phenethylamines “that can benefit psychological and physical wellness, support, and enhance religious and spiritual practices, and can reestablish human’s inalienable and direct relationship to nature.”
The resolution also states that psychedelic substances can be used to address substance abuse problems, addiction, recidivism, trauma, post-traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, grief, cluster headaches, and other debilitating conditions.
“The use of entheogenic plants, which can catalyze profound experiences of personal and spiritual growth, has been shown by scientific and clinical studies and traditional practices to be beneficial to the health and well-being of individuals and communities in addressing these conditions,” it states.
Psilocybin mushrooms are currently considered a Schedule 1 narcotic by the Drug Enforcement Agency.
However, psilocybin – the main chemical component of the mushrooms – was designated as a “breakthrough therapy” by the FDA in 2019 due to the positive results of psilocybin in treating depression, anxiety, addiction, and other mental health problems.
Studies have also shown how a microdose of psilocybin—far from the level needed for a full-blown trip—actually increases the creativity and empathy of participants.
Other researchers have also found that psilocybin has provided effective help to patients struggling to quit other addictive substances such as cigarettes.
The newfound recognition of psilocybin therapy as a valid treatment has eroded old stereotypes of psilocybin as some intoxicating and hallucination-inducing party drug that drives its users insane – a reputation that largely grew out of the hippie counterculture of the 1960s when they were widely known as “psychedelic” or “magic” mushrooms.
The resolution further notes that entheogenic plants have been the basis of spiritual practices by human cultures for thousands of years, yet those who seek them for the sake of improving their health and wellbeing must risk arrest and prosecution to obtain them.
“Decriminalization of naturally occurring medicines is necessary for progress,” councilmember Jeff Hayner said in a press release from DNA2 last week, reports Detroit Metro Times. “We can no longer turn a blind eye towards the wisdom of indigenous peoples, and the bounty the earth provides. I have been moved by the testimonies of those who have found profound relief from the use of entheogenic plants.”


consciouslifenews--2020-09-23--Morning Inspiration: Have The Energy To Succeed At Your Job (Motivational Video)

To be an entrepreneur you have to have an energy and have a drive and commitment for what you 're @ @ @ @ @ to follow through with your actions and do your utmost best .
“ You ca @ @ @ @ @ you 're trying to do a start-up company or I think anything in life .
@ @ @ @ @ if you 're going to be an entrepreneur , if you 're going to build @ @ @ @ @ you think is interesting.
” “ Get in there and do it and eventually you @ @ @ @ @ , putting yourself out there , if you have something to offer , someone 's @ @ @ @ @ some point.
” “ But you ca n't really do it with your eyes closed.
@ @ @ @ @ , featured , how to accomplish goals , how to have energy for success , @ @ @ @ @ , how to succeed at your goals , how to succeed in business

Source: Mulligan Brothers MOTIVATION
To be an entrepreneur you have to have an energy and have a drive and commitment for what you're doing. Have the wisdom to follow through with your actions and do your utmost best.
“You can't follow the fashion when you're trying to do a start-up company or I think anything in life. But you have to, if you're going to be an entrepreneur, if you're going to build a company, pick something you think is interesting.”
“Get in there and do it and eventually you getting in there and doing, putting yourself out there, if you have something to offer, someone's gonna see it at some point.”
“But you can't really do it with your eyes closed.”
Watch and be motivated today!!


consciouslifenews--2020-09-23--Tips For Moving Your Business Online

Tips For Moving Your Business Online

Moving online is something that many businesses are doing right now .
Technology is at the forefront of the human race and is driving us towards a quality of life that is only going to get more advanced because of it .
Technology seeps into all aspects of society and in all industries , so why wouldn ’ t you want to move your business online .
Here are some helpful tips that you might find useful to make it possible .
Find The Right Service For Database Migration Database migration is important when you ’ re moving most of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ platform .
You might , for the most part , have everything saved to your servers , which is useful .
However , there comes the point where your servers can only hold so much data .
With a cloud-based platform , you have the opportunity to store as much as you want , as well as it being more secure .
With that being said , though , when you do migrate your data to another place from where it is now , it has to be done properly .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ everything needs to be done properly and by the book .
You might be handling confidential data of your client ’ s or customer ’ s , and so it ’ s essential that it ’ s all compliant .
Using a might be useful to hire outside of the business .
You also want to make sure that you have everyone in your organization who is helping to migrate data is doing the right thing .
Following the same processes as everyone else is important , but you ’ d be surprised @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrong if there are too many cooks to spoil the broth .
Have just the one manager or IT support team working on the migration so that everyone is on the same page .
It avoids mistakes from happening and data being lost or compromised in some way .
If you haven ’ t already , your business could probably benefit from .
A website is the online face of your business and is likely going to be seen by people across the world .
It ’ s pretty incredible that you could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , even if your business isn ’ t intended to service outside of your local area .
It gives the potential for those businesses that do have aspirations to go nationally or internationally .
For building a website , you ’ ll need a domain address , and then you ’ ll also want to get a web designed , either paying for a template or getting one custom-designed .
It ’ s always a good idea to pay a web designer to make a design from scratch because you then have something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to only you .
This can be great when you ’ re trying to stand out from the crowd .
Think about your audience too , and how they ’ d like to use the website in terms of functionality and visual aids .
Set Up A Shop If Necessary For some businesses , you might have products that you ’ d typically sell in a store .
However , you can now set up a shop on your website or through an eCommerce platform to sell your products .
It can be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be limited to space to sell products on a shop floor and instead can take advantage of the unlimited amount that can be sold online .
Be sure to make every product as appealing as possible , making sure to take professional shots that are related to how the products can be used .
You also want to add the right sales-type language that ’ s going to entice your customers to put the products in their basket and check out .
It might be worth outsourcing this if you ’ re not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ copywrite .
Social media is a great way of selling yourself as a business , and as part of getting online , is something you want to do .
Social media platforms can vary in their nature and so you want to explore what ones are out there and which ones are best for your business .
Some are going to work for you , whilst others might be wasting your time .
Look at setting up social media platforms if you haven ’ t already and using these platforms to sell your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , once you get to 10,000 followers , you get the swipe up option that can take the user to anywhere you want them to go .
You can also have a shop mode on your Instagram too in order to sell products quickly with just a few clicks .
Social media is also something that is constantly changing and advancing , so it ’ s important to try and stay with the trends and to adapt where you can .
Outsourcing is a key benefit in business because there are many things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the company thrive .
Outsourcing IT support can be great to do , and so if you ’ re able to , it ’ s worth looking at companies out there that can help .
It can be useful in having 24/7 support when you ’ re running an online business , and to help you in times where you need it .
It ’ s good to have an in-house IT team , too , but if you ’ re a small business or simply operate on your own , then you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hire additional staff .
Outsourcing IT is a typical element of the business to outsource anyway , and it can be helpful to have .
They can out in a technology plan to help get the most out of your online platforms and to protect your data too from cyber attacks and hackers .
Getting yourself online as a business can be very beneficial , so make sure to use these tips to your advantage .
Work on getting your social media and website up and running , then focus on migrating any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to help you out when it ’ s needed .

Moving your business online is something that many businesses are doing right now. Technology is at the forefront of the human race and is driving us towards a quality of life that is only going to get more advanced because of it. Technology seeps into all aspects of society and in all industries, so why wouldn’t you want to move your business online. Here are some helpful tips that you might find useful to make it possible.
Image Source
Find The Right Service For Database Migration
Database migration is important when you’re moving most of your files and data to a cloud-based platform. You might, for the most part, have everything saved to your servers, which is useful. However, there comes the point where your servers can only hold so much data. With a cloud-based platform, you have the opportunity to store as much as you want, as well as it being more secure. With that being said, though, when you do migrate your data to another place from where it is now, it has to be done properly. It’s a security risk, and so everything needs to be done properly and by the book. You might be handling confidential data of your client’s or customer’s, and so it’s essential that it’s all compliant. Using a database migration service might be useful to hire outside of the business.
You also want to make sure that you have everyone in your organization who is helping to migrate data is doing the right thing. Following the same processes as everyone else is important, but you’d be surprised at how many people can get it wrong if there are too many cooks to spoil the broth. Have just the one manager or IT support team working on the migration so that everyone is on the same page. It avoids mistakes from happening and data being lost or compromised in some way.
Build A Website
If you haven’t already, your business could probably benefit from having a website . A website is the online face of your business and is likely going to be seen by people across the world. It’s pretty incredible that you could potentially reach new audiences across the globe, even if your business isn’t intended to service outside of your local area. It gives the potential for those businesses that do have aspirations to go nationally or internationally. For building a website, you’ll need a domain address, and then you’ll also want to get a web designed, either paying for a template or getting one custom-designed.
It’s always a good idea to pay a web designer to make a design from scratch because you then have something that is unique, and that belongs to only you. This can be great when you’re trying to stand out from the crowd. Think about your audience too, and how they’d like to use the website in terms of functionality and visual aids.
Set Up A Shop If Necessary
For some businesses, you might have products that you’d typically sell in a store. However, you can now set up a shop on your website or through an eCommerce platform to sell your products. It can be a great opportunity for those who might be limited to space to sell products on a shop floor and instead can take advantage of the unlimited amount that can be sold online. Be sure to make every product as appealing as possible, making sure to take professional shots that are related to how the products can be used. You also want to add the right sales-type language that’s going to entice your customers to put the products in their basket and check out. It might be worth outsourcing this if you’re not someone who has a natural ability to copywrite.
Utilize Social Media
Social media is a great way of selling yourself as a business, and as part of getting online, utilizing social media is something you want to do. Social media platforms can vary in their nature and so you want to explore what ones are out there and which ones are best for your business. Some are going to work for you, whilst others might be wasting your time. Look at setting up social media platforms if you haven’t already and using these platforms to sell your products. For example, with Instagram, once you get to 10,000 followers, you get the swipe up option that can take the user to anywhere you want them to go. You can also have a shop mode on your Instagram too in order to sell products quickly with just a few clicks.
Image Source
Social media is also something that is constantly changing and advancing, so it’s important to try and stay with the trends and to adapt where you can.
Outsource IT Support
Outsourcing is a key benefit in business because there are many things that can be worth outsourcing to help the company thrive. Outsourcing IT support can be great to do, and so if you’re able to, it’s worth looking at companies out there that can help. It can be useful in having 24/7 support when you’re running an online business, and to help you in times where you need it. It’s good to have an in-house IT team, too, but if you’re a small business or simply operate on your own, then you might not have the available funds to hire additional staff. Outsourcing IT is a typical element of the business to outsource anyway, and it can be helpful to have. They can out in a technology plan to help get the most out of your online platforms and to protect your data too from cyber attacks and hackers.
Getting yourself online as a business can be very beneficial, so make sure to use these tips to your advantage. Work on getting your social media and website up and running, then focus on migrating any data and having plenty of IT support to help you out when it’s needed.


consciouslifenews--2020-09-23--How to Invest in Cryptocurrency

How to Invest in Cryptocurrency

If you are interested in generally , then you will no doubt have looked into the world of cryptocurrency at some point or another .
There are many kinds of cryptocurrency out there , but they all have one thing in common : they can be invested in , in such a way that they become very lucrative indeed .
But you have to know what you are doing , and that means that you are going to have to learn how to invest in cryptocurrency first of all .
In this article , we are going to take a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so that you can get clued up on this once and for all .
One of the best ways to make money out of cryptocurrency is to ‘ mine ’ the coin yourself .
What does this mean ?
Well , the way that cryptos like Bitcoin work is that people set their computers to mine the coin in the first place , which then gets added to the blockchain ledger .
The way that this happens is that the computers work out a pre-set mathematical formula , which takes a certain amount @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to gain the coin .
Most home computers can not manage this , so if you want to mine bitcoin by providing you with bitcoin miner hosting .
That is one of the surest and most effective ways of making money from Bitcoin .
One of the enjoyable and lucrative means by which people make money investing in cryptocurrency is by exchanging one currency for another .
There are many thousands of these coins out there at the moment , and more are being created all the time .
Using exchanges a little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ traditional forex training , you can trade cryptos against each other , and in the process hopefully make a lot of money .
Bear in mind that there is no sure thing here , but if you play your cards right you could end up with a lot of money at the end of it .
One other way that you can invest in crypto is by buying a particular amount of any coin and simply letting it sit there .
This has the advantage of being very easy indeed to carry out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other methods and won ’ t always be as lucrative .
It is also never a sure thing .
However , if you have patience and you are happy to gamble a little money – never more than what you can afford to lose – you might find that you get lucky , and that you can make a lot of money this way .
The main thing here of course is knowing when to cut your losses , which is something that many people do struggle with .
But get that right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ great profits .
Any of these are going to be good methods , so pick one and try it out for yourself .

If you are interested in financial investments generally, then you will no doubt have looked into the world of cryptocurrency at some point or another. There are many kinds of cryptocurrency out there, but they all have one thing in common: they can be invested in, in such a way that they become very lucrative indeed. But you have to know what you are doing, and that means that you are going to have to learn how to invest in cryptocurrency first of all. In this article, we are going to take a look at this in some detail, so that you can get clued up on this once and for all.
Image Credit – CCO Licence
Mining
One of the best ways to make money out of cryptocurrency is to ‘mine’ the coin yourself. What does this mean? Well, the way that cryptos like Bitcoin work is that people set their computers to mine the coin in the first place, which then gets added to the blockchain ledger. The way that this happens is that the computers work out a pre-set mathematical formula, which takes a certain amount of time to complete, in order to gain the coin. Most home computers cannot manage this, so if you want to mine bitcoin QuoteColo can help by providing you with bitcoin miner hosting. That is one of the surest and most effective ways of making money from Bitcoin.
Exchanges
One of the enjoyable and lucrative means by which people make money investing in cryptocurrency is by exchanging one currency for another . There are many thousands of these coins out there at the moment, and more are being created all the time. Using exchanges a little like those you would have used for traditional forex training, you can trade cryptos against each other, and in the process hopefully make a lot of money. Bear in mind that there is no sure thing here, but if you play your cards right you could end up with a lot of money at the end of it. Trading cryptocurrency should be done on safe platforms like Bitlevex.
Image Credit – CCO Licence
Buy & Wait
One other way that you can invest in crypto is by buying a particular amount of any coin and simply letting it sit there. This has the advantage of being very easy indeed to carry out, although it takes longer than the other methods and won’t always be as lucrative. It is also never a sure thing. However, if you have patience and you are happy to gamble a little money – never more than what you can afford to lose – you might find that you get lucky, and that you can make a lot of money this way. The main thing here of course is knowing when to cut your losses, which is something that many people do struggle with. But get that right, and you are looking at some great profits.
Any of these are going to be good methods, so pick one and try it out for yourself.