There is much to be awake to at the August 2005 Conference in Ann Arbor!

The six keynote presentations — one Thursday evening, two each Friday and Saturday, and the final one Sunday morning — could each stand alone as the centerpiece of its own conference. Each of these six keynotes is shared by two distinguished representatives of Anthroposophy, one a member of the Vorstand, the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum, and the other a member or General Secretary from the United States or Canada.

Read on to get a sense of the depth and breadth of what is to come and to learn more about who will be speaking.

On Friday, with the theme of Wakefulness to Myself, two keynotes are offered — one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

In the morning, Sergei Prokofieff and Arthur Zajonc will each speak on the theme “The Soul-Awakening at the Threshold of the Spiritual World.”

Sergei Prokofieff will speak directly about the problem of the threshold as the central one to the conscious path of inner development. “One of the most important results of the spiritual investigations of Rudolf Steiner is the fact that the whole of mankind had unconsciously tresspassed the threshold to the spiritual world,” says Prokofieff.

Arthur Zajonc will speak of learning to love as central to the Anthroposophical path. He says, “Anthroposophical meditative schooling is a path of knowledge, but one that seeks to fulfill the mission of Earth evolution by combining knowing with true loving. In this sense we all are asked to learn to love, such that love itself becomes a new ‘force of knowing.’”

In the afternoon, Bodo von Plato and Joan Almon will speak on “Seeking Balance in Spiritual Development.” For “Being Awake” we need inner work, the two speakers have stated. “There are two different elements to realize regarding this inner work and development. Exercises allow the soul to get a form that enables it to focus on spiritual reality. In meditation, the encounter with the spiritual reality becomes an individual experience. While growing toward inner wakefulness, we also seek balance. Rudolf Stiener's statue of the Representative of the Human Spirit, the speakers say, can serve as an imagination for the dynamic balance needed when good seeks to transform evil, a process that often challenges our state of being.”

Sergei Prokofieff Click image for larger view.

Sergei Prokofieff was born in Moscow where he studied art and history of art. He met Anthroposophy in his youth and decided to dedicate his life to it. For many years he has been active as a lecturer and author. In 1990 he was a co-founder of the Anthroposophical Society in Russia. Easter 2001 he became a member of the Executive Council of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum. Sergei Prokofieff is the author of many books, including, but not limited to, these which have been translated into English and published by Temple Lodge Publishing, London: The Cycle of the Seasons and the Seven Liberal Arts, The Cycle of the Year and a Path of Initiation leading to an Experience of the Christ Being, The Encounter with Evil and Its Overcoming through Spiritual Science with Essays on the Foundation Stone, Eternal Individuality, Towards a Karmic Biography of Novalis, The Heavenly Sophia and the Being Anthroposophia, The Occult Significance of Forgiveness, and Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries.

Arthur Zajonc Click image for larger view.

Arthur Zajonc is Professor of Physics at Amherst College. He has been a visiting professor and researcher at the Ecole Normale Superiure, the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and other prestigious universities in the US and Europe. He has been a Fulbright professor to the University of Innsbruck where he studied the foundations of quantum physics. He was one of the founders of the Hartsbrook Waldorf School in Hadley, MA, and for eight years served as the General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America and as Chair of the Collegium of the School of Spiritual Science in North America. Arthur Zajonc has worked on several occasions with the Dalai Lama concerning the philosophical, ethical and spiritual implications of modern science. He is the author of Catching the Light: The Entwined History of Light and Mind, the co-author of The Quantum Challenge: Modern Research on the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics, co-editor of Goethe's Way of Science: A Phenomenology of Nature, and editor of The New Physics and Cosmology: Dialogues with the Dalai Lama. He is currently the Director of the Academic Program at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, which works nationally to promote the appropriate inclusion of meditation in higher education.

Bodo Von Plato Click image for larger view.

Bodo v. Plato, born in 1958 in Bad Bevensen, Northern Germany, worked with severely disabled adults, and studied history, philosophy and Waldorf education in Germany, Austria and France. He served as an upper school teacher at the Libre École Rudolf Steiner in Verrières le Buisson, close to Paris; co-initiated a socio-cultural project in Angers, West of France, and in 1989 developed and directed “Forschungsstelle Kulturimpuls” (Historical Research Department) at the Friedrich von Hardenberg Institute for Cultural Studies in Heidelberg. He has served as a member of the Council of the General Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum since 2001. He has published writings on history of development and anthroposophical subjects and is married with three children.

Joan Almon Click image for larger view.

Joan Almon lives in Maryland where she served as a Waldorf early childhood educator and consultant to Waldorf schools in North America and abroad. She currently coordinates the work of the Alliance for Childhood and serves as co-General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America.

• Thursday's topics and speakers
• Saturday's topics and speakers
• About the Eurythmy Tour performance