Altered States of Consciousness and Charismatic Authority

The Case of Judith von Halle

Authors

  • Olav Hammer University of Southern Denmark
  • Karen Swartz Åbo Akademi University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31265/aura.356

Keywords:

Judith von Halle, Charismatic Authority, Anthroposophy, Polemics, Religious Experience

Abstract

Charisma is an unstable basis upon which to build authority. Charismatic leaders need their followers to perceive them as being endowed with extraordinary, even supernatural, gifts. Detractors can in turn question whether the leader actually possesses these unique qualities. Using Judith von Halle and her conflicts with the Anthroposophical Society as a case study, we address the question of how charismatic authority can be constructed and deconstructed in polemical texts. At various points throughout her career, Von Halle has made extraordinary claims. She presents herself as being clairvoyant and as having received stigmata. Anthroposophists who believe these claims cite them as their reasons for regarding her doctrinal statements as being trustworthy. Skeptical Anthroposophists, on the other hand, question her experiences and motives. Using a theoretical framework inspired by Foucault and Bourdieu, we discuss how both camps discuss von Halle’s charismatic status in terms that are opaque to outsiders unfamiliar with Anthroposophical discourse.

Author Biographies

Olav Hammer, University of Southern Denmark

Professor, Study of Religions, University of Southern Denmark

Karen Swartz, Åbo Akademi University

Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology, Culture, History and Philosophy

References

Crowley, Aleister, The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography, London: J. Cape 1969.

Faivre, Antoine, “Valentin Tomberg,” in Wouter J. Hanegraaff et al. (eds.) Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, Leiden: Brill 2005, 1123-5. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1873-8338_dgwe_DGWE_363.

Fetterman, Loren, “Clairvoyance and Conceptualism: Rudolf Steiner's Higher Modes of Cognition as a Higher-Order Theory of Consciousness,” Journal for the Study of Religious Experience 4, 2018: 1, 41-63.

Fish, Stanley, Is There a Text in This Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. Press 1980.

Foucault, Michel, The Order of Things; An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, New York: Random House 1970. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315660301.

Gyr, Stefan, ”In Dornach ist der Teufel los” Spatz Zeitung, December 2012 issue, 8-11.

Hammer, Olav, “Mysticism and Esotericism as Contested Taxonomical Categories” Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis 29, 2020: 5-27. https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.85791.

Hanegraaff, Wouter J., “The Theosophical Imagination” Correspondences 5, 2017: 3-39.

Kröner, Erhard, Alexander von der Geest & Rahel Uhlenhoff. ”Offizieller Abschlußbericht der Urteils-Findungs-Kommission eingesetzt vom 21. Mai 2006 bis zum 10. Oktober 2008 durch die Mitgliederversammlung der Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft in Deutschland e.V.” 2008, Available online at https://www.tiny-mundo.de/static/pdf/abschlussbericht.pdf.

Lincoln, Bruce, Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11, Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2003. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226481944.001.0001.

Luhrmann, Tanya, Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard U. Press 1991.

Prokoffief, Sergei O., The Mystery of the Resurrection in the Light of Anthroposophy, Forest Row: Temple Lodge Press 2010.

Sharf, Robert, “Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience” Numen 42, 1995:3, 228-283. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568527952598549.

Sharf, Robert, “Experience” in Mark C. Taylor (ed.) Critical Terms in Religious Studies. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1998, 94–116. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226791739.001.0001

Smart, Ninian, The Religious Experience of Mankind, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1969.

Smart, Ninian, The World’s Religions, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1989.

Steiner, Rudolf, Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment, Transl. G. Metaxa. New York: Anthroposophic Press n.d.

Steiner, Rudolf, Mein Lebensgang, 1925. Rudolf Steiner Online Archive, http://anthroposophie.byu.edu

Steiner, Rudolf, Soul Exercises: Word and Symbol Meditations 1904 – 1924, Translated by Matthew Barton. Great Barrington: SteinerBooks Anthroposophic Press 2014.

Swartz, Karen, Organizational Storytelling in the Anthroposophical Society. Dissertation, Åbo Akademi University. Forthcoming.

Swartz, Karen & Olav Hammer, “The Show Must Go On: Corporate Narratives in the Anthroposophical Society” International Journal for the Study of New Religions. Forthcoming.

Tradowsky, Peter, The Stigmata: Destiny as a Question of Knowledge, Forest Row: Temple Lodge Press 2009.

Von Halle, Judith, Das Abendmahl: Vom vorchristlichen Kultus zur Transsubstantiation, Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum 2008.

Von Halle, Judith, Von den Gehemnissen des Kreuzweges und Gralsblutes, Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum 2008a.

Von Halle, Judith, Illness and Healing and the Mystery Language of the Gospels, Forest Row: Temple Lodge Press 2008b.

Von Halle, Judith, Rudolf Steiner. Meister der weissen Loge, Dornach: Verlag am Goetheanum 2011.

Von Halle, Judith, Schwanenflügel. Eine spirituelle Autobiographie. Kindheit und Jugend, Dornach: Morel 2016.

Zander, Helmut, Anthroposophie in Deutschland: Theosophische Weltanschauung und gesellschaftliche Praxis 1884-1945, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2007.

Zander, Helmut, Die Anthroposophie: Rudolf Steiners Ideen zwischen Esoterik, Weleda, Demeter und Waldorfpädagogik, Leiden: Ferdinand Schöningh 2019. https://doi.org/10.30965/9783657792252

Downloads

Published

2020-11-09

How to Cite

Hammer, O. . ., & Swartz, K. . (2020). Altered States of Consciousness and Charismatic Authority : The Case of Judith von Halle. AURA - Tidsskrift for Akademiske Studier Av nyreligiøsitet , 11(1), 4–22. https://doi.org/10.31265/aura.356

Issue

Section

Artikler