Applied Biodynamics — Issue 045 (Summer 2004)

Applied Biodynamics Issue 045 is structurally anchored by a single extended lecture by Manfred Klett, delivered in 1994 at the 8th International English-Speaking Biodynamic Conference at Emerson College, England, and republished here to serve as core study material. The issue is intentionally monographic in emphasis, and therefore permits deeper vertical engagement with one primary text under the protocol.

Klett’s lecture approaches biodynamic preparations not as substances acting through linear cause-and-effect, but as “sense organs” that mediate between the human being, the earthly realm, and the spiritual world. He organizes his exposition around the three soul faculties—willing, feeling, and thinking—and situates preparation work primarily within the realm of will, arguing that it is one of the few remaining agricultural activities where human intention is not displaced by machinery.

Rather than offering application recipes or outcome claims, the lecture focuses on the inner discipline required of the practitioner. Klett contrasts “onlooker consciousness,” which seeks detached explanation, with participatory judgment developed through repeated, attentive work with preparations. Preparation making is described as an activity in which the human being becomes morally and perceptually responsible for what unfolds in nature, rather than merely executing technique.

Editorial notes explicitly frame the inclusion of this lecture as foundational study material for those preparing to attend the upcoming 2005 Biodynamic Preparation Makers Conference. The editor underscores the difficulty practitioners face when attempting to explain preparations as “forces,” and positions both Klett’s lecture and Hugh Courtney’s complementary article (“Preparations Not As Substance But As Forces”, referenced but not reprinted here) as pedagogical tools meant to clarify that distinction through lived understanding rather than abstraction.

Institutional material situates the issue within JPI’s ongoing mission. Board listings, mission statements, and subscription notices reinforce continuity of organizational stewardship, while the overall tone positions Issue 045 as formative rather than instructional, addressing the epistemological foundations of preparation work rather than its mechanics.

Articles

• The Biodynamic Preparations as Sense Organs (M. Klett)
• Preparations “Not as Substance but As Forces” (H. Courtney) 

Key Topics Covered

• The biodynamic preparations as “sense organs” rather than substances
• Willing, feeling, and thinking as operative faculties in preparation work
• Preparation making as conscious, non-mechanized human activity
• Critique of linear cause-and-effect “onlooker consciousness”
• Inner judgment and responsibility in agricultural practice
• Preparatory study for the 2005 Biodynamic Preparation Makers Conference
• Editorial positioning of force-based understanding of preparations

Citation

Source: Applied Biodynamics, Issue 045, Josephine Porter Institute, Summer 2004.