Mindwoven Reality

Happy Monistic Idealist New Year!

The Dove No 9 Group IX by Hilma af Klint (1915)

I have been absorbing your comments and criticisms around the idea of “monistic idealism.” I acknowledge the term is a bit abstract and hard to grasp. Here are a few alternatives that may make the idea more approachable. Please let me know which you prefer in the comments — or propose something else:

Unified Consciousness Theory

Mind-First View

Reality as Thought

Mindwoven Reality

As we enter the new Gregorian year, I thought I would dive into Rudolf Steiner’s The Philosophy of Freedom (1893; also published as Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path). His first book, published as his doctorate thesis when he was 33, provides the basis for his philosophical system: It is the foundation underlying the incredibly elaborate and fantastically baroque esoteric cosmology he defined later, in many lectures and books. In this work, Steiner offers a rigorous philosophical argument for what he calls “monistic idealism.”

Steiner proposes that reality is, fundamentally, a unity. In his philosophy, thinking is not merely a passive reflection or internal representation of an external world but a creative force that actively participates in the shaping of reality. Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom and subsequent works articulate a worldview where human cognition is deeply interwoven into the fabric of existence. Through a form of thinking he calls “intuitive thinking,” individuals can engage with and even transform the spiritual as well as the material dimensions of the world.

We can see, today, how the modern vision of human consciousness as an accidental byproduct of physical evolution in a universe without meaning or purpose is having profoundly transformative effects, reshaping the Earth as a whole on a purely material level. For instance, alienated human thought brings about the exploitation of natural systems and the conversion of nature into data centers for AI. A new revelation of human consciousness defining a different relationship to the nature of reality itself would lead to different outcomes.

Steiner deftly refutes Kantian dualism by rejecting the notion that the world as it appears to us (phenomena) is fundamentally separate from the world as it is in itself (noumena). Kant posited that human cognition is constrained by the limits of sensory perception and the categories of understanding, making the “thing-in-itself" (noumena) ultimately unknowable. Steiner, by contrast, argues that human thinking itself is the key to transcending this divide. After all, the very idea of such a Kantian divide is, itself, only a product of human thought. It is not something we can know as true.

It is precisely through an evolved understanding of thinking that we transcend this separation. Kant's division of noumena and phenomena conceals a paradox or schism: the claim that the noumenal realm is unknowable presupposes some kind of knowledge about its existence, for which there is no basis in reality. Steiner notes that this distinction is not some absolute feature of reality but arises from a misconception of the role of human cognition.

For Steiner, the act of thinking bridges this supposed divide because thinking itself is not constrained by the dichotomy between subject and object. Thinking, for Steiner, is a universal activity that unites the thinker with the essence of what is thought. Instead of understanding our consciousness as accidental or contingent, we can understand our thinking as an integral aspect of the world — as much a part of the world as crystals, plants, or any other natural force.

Thinking is both the process and the content through which we access the nature of the world. Steiner describes thinking as a unifying principle: “In thinking, we experience a reality that is not bounded by subjectivity or objectivity.” Thinking offers a bridge “to the essence of things.” Thinking is not separate from the world: It is an intrinsic expression of it.

While our feelings are personal and subjective, our thinking is universal and objective. Steiner wrote: "When I observe how a feeling arises in me, how it is interwoven with my mental pictures, I observe something that applies only to my own person, that does not concern the world outside me. The matter is different when I consider the content of my thinking. The content of my thinking is not something that belongs only to me; it is a content that is the same for all human beings.” Through thinking, individuals can transcend their personal subjectivity and engage with a shared reality. Our feelings separate us, but our thinking unites us.

How did Steiner understand the notion of an “objective” or “absolute” reality? Steiner would say there is an objective and absolute reality, but it is not something static or external that can be determined or fixed once and for all. What we encounter is a living, dynamic reality that is continuously revealed and co-created through human cognition and engagement. Steiner’s approach meshes with Rupert Sheldrake’s ideas around “morphic resonance.” In Patterns of the Past, Sheldrake theorizes that even the “laws” of nature are not fixed and immutable: They are patterns or principles that become more coherent over time. Centuries ago, we made the mistake of borrowing the concept of “laws” from our human conception of courts and justice — seeing God as a kind of Supreme Judge — and applying it to natural phenomena.

Steiner’s view rejects both relativism and rigid objectivism: He defines a middle way where reality is absolute in its essence but accessible only through our evolving, participatory engagement with it. This accords beautifully with recent discoveries, from quantum physics, including the proof the universe is “not locally real” but, in some sense, only comes into manifestation when a conscious subject makes an observation of it. This meshes with the Buddha’s dictum: “As perceived, so appears.”

Steiner did not see reality as a closed, mechanical system waiting to be decoded by the intellect. Instead, reality is an ever-evolving process, inherently dynamic and in flux. While there is an underlying unity to existence—a spiritual essence or unified field that Steiner identifies with the logos or universal consciousness—our access to it is mediated by the unfolding of our own consciousness and cognitive abilities, which, also, impacts and influences what we can explore and interpret.