Trust in the Future: Facing Uncertain Times with Confidence

AN ONLINE PRESENTATION BY BASTIAAN BAAN

“Nothing is more unpredictable than the future of humanity and the earth on which we live. Although countless generations and cultures have tried to predict the near and distant future, we should accept the fact that usually these visions are either puzzling and hard to interpret or sometimes completely beside the truth. Every so often, our so-called experts make strong predictions about future developments, but past results are no guarantee of what the future will bring. Not only down-to-earth expertise, but also clairvoyance is not enough to predict the future, as long as it remains clouded by subjective wishes and emotions.

When Rudolf Steiner was once asked about predicting the future, he answered that it was possible but ‘the occultist refrains from doing so, because, almost always, it behooves only a high initiate to know the future. The initiate’s prevision does not determine what another person does; the latter will act in the future entirely out of his free will.’ In other words, even the few initiates who are able to perceive the future have to withhold their knowledge so that others will not be influenced by them.”

These words are taken from the Foreward of an upcoming book that Bastiaan has recently written on this topic that will soon be published by Floris Books. Ahead of the book’s release, he will share with us some of the initial insights into the current trends and developments that are leading us into the future as he attempts to interpret the imaginative language that may not always be easy to understand. And for those that want to then go deeper, his upcoming book will provide yet further insights into this very current topic we grapple with.

Bastiaan Baan was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands. After Waldorf School, he worked during his teacher training in a ghetto school for drop-out children in Los Angeles (“the roughest place of the world”). Following his studies, he taught at Gandhi schools in the slums of big cities in India, before he became a Waldorf teacher in Bergen, the Netherlands.

He later studied at the priest training of the Christian Community in Stuttgart, Germany, and was ordained as a priest in 1981. From 2012 until 2018, he worked as a director at the North American Seminary of the Christian Community in Spring Valley. Now back in the Netherlands, he continues to work as a priest, teaches at the priest training in Stuttgart, and gives lectures and conferences in several countries.

Bastiaan has also published a series of 11 books on spirituality and anthroposophy with six of them being translated into English. (A full list of Bastiaan’s books will be linked to his recording.) Bastiaan’s latest book in English, which he will discuss at our Cafe, will be available later this year from Floris Books and is entitled: Trust in the Future – Facing Uncertain Times with Confidence.

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Up-Coming Café Guests

Please watch for special Saturday Cafés as we periodically will hear from Café Guests outside of North America!

Friday, October 11, 2024: Kimberly Lewis

Friday, October 18, 2024: Donald Samson

Friday, October 25, 2024: Timothy Kennedy

*First Saturday, November 2, 2024: Astrid Schmitt-Stegman

Friday, November 8, 2024: Neil Reilly

Friday, November 15, 2024: Jean Yeager

Friday, November 22, 2024: Kim Marie

Friday, November 29, 2024: Christine Summerfield

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CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION!