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something unpleasant, as, for instance, with having lost some
money, an unpleasant association will result.
But we are speaking of objective art, of objective laws in
music or in painting.
The art we know is subjective, for without mathematical
knowledge there can be no objective art. Accidental results are
very rare.
Associations are a very powerful and important phenome-
non for us, but their significance is already forgotten. In an-
cient times people had special feast days. One day, for in-
stance, was dedicated to certain combinations of sound,
another to flowers, or colors, a third to taste, another to the
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weather, coldness and heat. Then the different sensations were
compared.
For example, supposing one day was the feast of sound. One
hour there would be one sound, another hour another sound.
During this time a special drink was handed around, or at
times a special "smoke." In a word, certain states and feelings
were evoked by chemical means with the help of external in-
fluences, in order to create certain associations for the future.
Later when similar external circumstances were repeated, they
evoked the same states.
There was even a special day for mice, snakes and animals
we are generally afraid of. People were given a special drink
and then made to handle such things as snakes in order to get
used to them. This produced such an impression that after-
wards a man was not afraid any more. Such customs existed a
long time ago in Persia and Armenia. In former times people
understood human psychology very well and were guided by
it. But the reasons were never explained to the masses; they
were given quite a different interpretation, from a different
angle. Only the priests knew the meaning of it all. These facts
refer to the pre-Christian times when people were ruled by
priest-kings.
Question: Do dances only serve to control the body or have
they also a mystical significance?
Answer: Dances are for the mind. They give nothing to the
soul the soul does not need anything. A dance has a certain
meaning; every movement has a certain content.
But the soul does not drink whiskey, it does not like it. It
likes another food which it receives independently of us.
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 29, 1924
Questions and answers on art, etc.
Question: Does the work of the Institute necessitate giving
up our own work for some years, or can it be carried on at the
same time?
Answer: Institute work is inner work; so far you only do
outer work, but this is quite different. For some it may be nec-
essary to stop outer work, for others not.
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Question: Is the aim to develop and reach a balance, so that
we may become stronger than the outside and develop into su-
perman?
Answer: Man must realize that he cannot do. All our activi-
ties are set in motion by external impetus; it is all mechanical.
You cannot do even if you wish to do.
Question: What place do art and creative work occupy in
your teaching?
Answer: Present-day art is not necessarily creative. But for
us art is not an aim but a means.
Ancient art has a certain inner content. In the past, art
served the same purpose as is served today by books the pur-
pose of preserving and transmitting certain knowledge. In an-
cient times they did not write books but expressed knowledge
in works of art. We shall find many ideas in the ancient art
which has reached us, if we know how to read it. Every art
was like that then, including music. And people of ancient
times looked on art in this way.
You saw our movements and dances. But all you saw was
the outer form beauty, technique. But I do not like the exter-
nal side you see. For me, art is a means for harmonious devel-
opment. In everything we do the underlying idea is to do
what cannot be done automatically and without thought.
Ordinary gymnastics and dances are mechanical. If our aim
is a harmonious development of man, then for us, dances and
movements are a means of combining the mind and the feeling
with movements of the body and manifesting them together.
In all things, we have the aim to develop something which
cannot be developed directly or mechanically which inter-
prets the whole man: mind, body and feeling.
The second purpose of dances is study. Certain movements
carry a proof in them, a definite knowledge, or religious and
philosophical ideas. In some of them one can even read a rec-
ipe for cooking some dish.
In many parts of the East the inner content of one or an-
other dance is now almost forgotten, yet people continue to
dance it simply from habit.
Thus movements have two aims: study and development.
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Question:
cance?
Does this mean that all Western art has no signifi-
Answer: I studied Western art after studying the ancient art
of the East. To tell you the truth, I found nothing in the West
to compare with Eastern art. Western art has much that is ex-
ternal, sometimes a great deal of philosophy; but Eastern art is
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