Our thanks to "L", who tipped us off to a bizarre farming practice known as biodynamics - a concept invented by the famous occultist, Rudolf Steiner.

In a nutshell, biodynamic farmers believe they can fertilize soil by preparing special concoctions containing herbs such as chamomile, dandelion, yarrow, and oak bark which are stuffed into animal parts such as intestines and stomach linings and then buried in the earth. Mind you, it's not to allow these ingredients to break down and integrate into the soil - it's to "absorb specific cosmic energies."

In this paper by Linda Chalker-Scott, Ph.D. of  Washington State University she describes some of these concoctions:

"Briefly, two of the compounds are prepared by packing cow manure (preparation 500) or silica (preparation 501) into cow horns, then buried for a number of months before the contents are swirled in warm water and then applied to the field. Cow horns are utilized as antennae for receiving and focusing cosmic forces, which are transferred to the materials inside. The other six compounds (preparations 502-507) are extracts of various plants either packed into the skulls or organs of animals (i.e. deer bladders, cow peritonea and intestines) or into peat or manure, where they are aged before being diluted and applied to compost. The chemical elements contained in these preparations were said to be carriers of “terrestrial and cosmic forces” and would impart these forces to crops and thus to the humans that consume them."

In other words, these potions weren't developed through scientific methodology, but through Steiner's practice of meditation and clairvoyance.

For those who are not familiar with him, Steiner was an Austrian mystagogue who died in 1925. A self-proclaimed clairvoyant and occult “scientist”, he founded a schismatic branch of Theosophy (an occult-based mysticism that has been condemned by the Church) known as Anthroposophy. Calling it a “spiritual science,” Steiner defined Anthroposophy as “a path of knowledge leading the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe.”

Steiner believed people could be trained to allow their higher spiritual self to overcome the material world and come into direct contact with “higher spiritual truths” (the occult). He also believed in reincarnation, karma, gnomes, and a host of other esoteric philosophies.

Not surprisingly, his bizarre farming methods include other non-scientific practices. "These include the use of cosmic rhythms to schedule various farm activities and nutritional quality 'visualization'," Dr. Chalker-Scott writes. "This latter practice uses legitimate chemical analyses such as chromatography as ways to study the 'etheric' life forces in plants through 'sensitive crystallization' and 'capillary dynamolysis' – techniques that are again not scientifically testable."

Believe it or not, this bizarre concept is catching on with some of the world's most renowned wineries now farming biodynamically!

How can this be?

Chalker-Scott posits that the incorporation of legitimate organic practices into Steiner's original ideas has given many the false impression that biodynamics works.

"Many of these [organic farming] practices – no-till soil preparation, use of compost, polyculture – are effective alternative methods of agriculture," she writes. "These practices often have demonstrated positive effects . . . . Combining beneficial organic practices with the mysticism of biodynamics lends the latter a patina of scientific credibility that is not deserved."

And because many of the research articles that compare biodynamic with conventional agriculture fail to separate the biodynamic preparations from the organic practices – positive results are had and everyone thinks biodynamics works.

The result? Occult-based farming is spreading. According to Demeter International, a global biodynamic association, there are approximately 4,200 producers across 45 countries who adhere to their standards of biodynamic farming.

And many of these members do nothing to hide their affiliation with Steiner. For example, as the Biodynamic Association website explains, "Biodynamics is rooted in the work of philosopher and scientist Dr. Rudolf Steiner, whose 1924 lectures to farmers opened a new way to integrate scientific understanding with a recognition of spirit in nature."

Biodynamic farming is a troubling development on the international stage and further evidence that we are continuing to drift backward into the paganism that once dominated an unenlightened world.

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