Are There People Without a Self?

Are there people on earth today who do not have a self - a human ego or 'I'? The phenomenon of 'egolessness' - the absence of a human being's core - was discussed by the spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner in lectures and personal conversations. An egoless individual, he intimated, is an empty sheath through which other spiritual entities could operate. Erdmuth J. Grosse brings together many little-known quotations from Rudolf Steiner's spiritual research and supports them with a wealth of disquieting reports, testimonies and examples from literature and politics. He places these insights within the broader context of the riddle of the human self, throwing light on the spiritual development of the individual and humanity as a whole.

In this thought-provoking study, Grosse goes on to discuss the role of comets, the effects of cyanide on the human constitution - especially in the light of the Holocaust - and the hidden effects of ceremonial magic, occult lodges, cults and sects. In conclusion, he offers positive solutions to humanity's present predicament by describing the healing impulses of social threefolding, the invisible spiritual beings seeking to help humanity, the role of the gods, the Christ impulse and the true goals of human evolution.

About the Author

Erdmuth Johannes Grosse, son of Rudolf and Lucia Grosse, was born in Basel in 1928. He studied eurythmy and education at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. After working as a eurythmist for a number of years on the Goetheanum stage, he taught eurythmy in Waldorf schools in Germany and Denmark, and later worked as a class teacher and an upper school history, art history and eurythmy teacher in the Rudolf Steiner School in Basel.

He then studied industrial psychology at the Institute for Applied Psychology in Zurich, where he was later employed. He was involved in various training programmes for leaders in industry and commerce, as well as in state institutions. Grosse later worked as a freelance management consultant and a lecturer in anthroposophy in Switzerland, Germany and Denmark. He died in 2012.