Science is unique in that it consists of an explosion of accumulated knowledge, built up over several centuries, with only secondary reliance on intuition. In contrast, in religion and esotericism the essential doctrines are fixed by the visions and opinions of a single founder, and commentaries thereon.
Theosophical and Anthroposophical ideas regarding the evolution of the Earth and the human entity are based on the teachings of only one or two individuals. These derive their authority either from an "ancient wisdom" (Blavatsky) or from occult perception or "clairvoyance" (Adyar Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Edgar Cayce).
Rudolph Steiner claimed to have clairvoyant or occult vision; to be able to actually directly per-ceive occult realities, spiritual beings, and even the Theosophists' cosmic memory principle, the Akashic Record (incidentally, contrary to popular belief, there is no reference to any "Akashic record" in any Indian philosophy or esoteric doctrine).
It was on the basis of reading this akashic record that Steiner developed his cosmology, theory of human evolution, Christology, etc. He claimed to be able to actually see back in time to these ancient events imprinted on the cosmic aether. Steiner himself always claimed that he was an em-piricist, that all these occult realities he described had been observed by him in a strictly objective manner, and that anyone who takes the time to develop their faculties of occult clairvoyance will be able to see exactly the same thing. This attitude is very materialistical, because the laws of the psychic universe or universes do not follow those of the physical. It reflects Steiner's desire for his system to have the status of an objectivist science (something it could never have, for it is not falsifiable and doesn’t deal wirth external physical objects). The Adyar Theosophist Leadbeater made similar claims, and the occult magickian Aleister Crowley. also had the attitude that magick was a form of objectivist (experimental) science. The psychologist Carl Jung also went to great pains to "prove" that his theory of the Unconscious was "scientific", which meant he compromised his discoveries and ended up with a pseudo-scientific theory of the "Collective Unconscious".
It is a simple fact that clairvoyance, visions, magick, etc., unlike the empirical methodology of science, are not something strictly objective and mechanical; it is unique to each individual, even if the psychic realities experienced may be similar. Esotericists and consciousness explorers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were unfornuately enamoured with scientific method; science was the new god that everyone had to accommodate to, because it was seen as the greatest truth. This attitude no longer holds today among esotericists, occultists, and pagans. There are unfortunately no modern-day genuises of the calibre of Blavatsky, Leadbeater, Steiner,
The weakness of the Theosophical-Anthroposophical position is that it assumes a per-fect and infallible clairvoyant capacity on the part of its founders. The existence of the various "Root-Races", spiritual hierarchies, and so on, are accepted like the dogma of any religion. This defeats the original purpose of Theosophy, which is for an ecclectarian and non-sectarian enquiry into esoteric knowledge.
