The age of disembodiment.

The 'I': balancing experiencing and the thought world

Immersive technologies, constant outward stimulation, and, for some, even the active choice to live in an alternative world where life has become another segment in a virtual reality simulation, have presented young people in particular with an extreme and difficult set of problems that no other generation in history has had to address. 

From uploading your consciousness to the cloud to rewiring the brain with computer chips, the world of dis-embodiment is taking off at lightning speed, leaving objectors scattered and without an effective means to counter such an assault. Without a blueprint, without a sure step-by-step process to extricate themselves from this web of delusion that encourages and even demands life be lived less and less as a thinking individual and more and more as part of a disembodied collective, many fight a seemingly hopeless battle in an attempt to reembody themselves, to find again the real world and a way to live in it. 

Does a blueprint exist for surviving as a real human being in the midst of the technological, trans-humanist push to overtake and assimilate human beings into fully disembodied science projects for the elite rulers of the world? Spiritual and religious dissenters are frequently turning to alternatives such as grounding and other forms of embodiment. We’re calming the nervous system with food and vitamins, light therapies, and meditation– redirecting the mind back into the body as a way to cope with the anxiety, depression, and pain experienced as technologies become more invasive. But this approach often leaves out an essential element called in Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy, the ‘I’. 

The I-organization is the active spiritual principle that unifies and governs the other members of the human being. Without the I as the center of moral development, we can come under the control of the body alone, which hands us another set of problems altogether. It is not enough to escape control by technology; we must activate our own inner self, our own “I” to establish a sense of well-being that balances both the need to be active in the world and the necessity of finding a place of refuge from technological overload. 

Anthroposophy understands the human being as a fourfold organism:

physical body

• etheric body (life and formative forces)
• astral body (soul, movement, imagery)
• the I (ego-organization)

The body is not a container for the self. It is a field of ongoing formation. True embodiment begins only when the I actively forms what is around it. We are not dependent on the drives of the body, nor are we dependent on forces outside of ourselves, such as screens and programs, in order to form ourselves. We can consciously and deliberately ground ourselves in a true formation as an inward resolve. The I as understood in anthroposophy cannot be manipulated or destroyed by the needs of the body or the endless march of technological power outside of it.