Thursday, January 20, 2011

People Take This Seriously? Seriously?

If you've been reading this blog for any significant period of time, by now you probably know that I have a deep affection for completely absurd things.

I've heard of Edward Cayce, a self-proclaimed psychic who had all sorts of ideas about Atlantis, but I'd never heard of Rudolf Steiner, another individual with similar aspirations, until just the other day. I've heard theories of Atlantis that actually aren't completely daft, but Cayce's isn't one of them; Steiner's theories are, well, for lack of a better word they're dafter.

Now, I'm not saying that Rudolf Steiner never had a good idea in his life. Apparently, he pioneered the predecessor to today's organic farming, and some of his ideas were apparently pretty good. (Others were not.) Steiner's ideas on Atlantis and related material, though?

Do you ever wonder where some of the really crazy stuff linked to Atlantis (aliens, for instance) comes from? Aside from Erik von Daaniken, they probably drew at least a bit from Steiner. (And Steiner lived long enough ago that he might have slightly inspired von Daaniken.)

According to Steiner (based on briefly perusing this), there have been something like seven "races" of "Man," each with its own special characteristics; some of them lived on the Moon, some of them on Saturn, etc.

No, he really said this.

He probably believed the Hörbiger theory, too. (In all seriousness, he was a German who happened to be quite racist in the time period where the Nazis beginning to rise in power, though he apparently had no ties with them. And if you're wondering, he claimed that "savage tribes" were descended directly from a "race of man" that preceded the Atlanteans who had no capacity for memory or reasoning thought. Yeah...)

But anyway... There are websites devoted to this guy that take him very, very seriously. And as mentioned, they take really ridiculous things along the lines of astrology (but less believable) seriously.

I suppose that every crazy has their adherents...

-Signing off.

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