Q. Waldorf schools are famous for stressing imaginative thinking. Encouraging children to use their imaginations has to be good, doesn't it?

[SteinerBooks, 2009.]

According to Anthroposophical doctrine, "higher knowledge" is clairvoyance,

and imagination is the first stage of clairvoyance.

A. If we use the word "imagination" as most people understand it then, yes, imagination is a wonderful thing. But the underlying meaning of "imagination" is very different for Rudolf Steiner's followers. They think imagination, at its lowest level, is a type of thinking that may lead to clairvoyance; and they think imagination, at its highest level, is actually a type of realized clairvoyance. When Waldorf schools stress imagination, they are — to one degree or another — endorsing Rudolf Steiner's teachings about clairvoyance.

Many of Rudolf Steiner's doctrines are so strange as to almost stagger the mind. But Waldorf teachers generally believe Steiner, and if you are interested in Waldorf education, you should come to terms with Waldorf beliefs. You may doubt that Waldorf teachers really believe in clairvoyance, for instance. But they do. [See "Clairvoyance - Do Waldorf Teachers Try to Use It?"]

Here are three passages adapted from THE BRIEF WALDORF / STEINER ENCYCLOPEDIA:

imagination - According to Steiner, this is the first level of non-rational spiritual insight. In Waldorf education, imagination is a precursor to, or a proxy for, clairvoyance. In stressing imagination, Waldorf teachers may not — usually — think they are evoking clairvoyant powers in their students, but they typically believe they are leading the students in a direction that may end in the development of clairvoyance. The words "clairvoyance" and "imagination" are nearly interchangeable in Anthroposophical discourse. For instance: "Essentially, people today have no inkling of how people looked out into the universe in ancient times when human beings still possessed an instinctive clairvoyance ... If we want to be fully human, however, we must struggle to regain a view of the cosmos that moves toward Imagination again.” — Rudolf Steiner. Note how the words “clairvoyance” and “imagination” are essentially synonymous in such usage.

inspiration - According to Steiner, this is the second level of non-rational spiritual insight; a precursor or subcategory of clairvoyance. Anthroposophists believe that inspiration falls between imagination (the first level of non-rational spiritual insight) and intuition (the third level). The power of imagination, Anthroposophists believe, enables one to form true mental pictures containing, at least in incipient form, spiritual truth. Inspiration enables one to highlight and accentuate the spiritual content of such images, while stripping out irrelevant mundane elements. The development of clairvoyance is, according to Anthroposophical belief, basic to the process of occult initiation. The cultivation of Inspiration can be considered the second stage of occult initiation.

intuition - According to Steiner, this is the third level of non-rational spiritual insight, rising above imagination and inspiration. The faculty of imagination, Anthroposophists believe, enables one to form true mental pictures. Inspiration enables one to highlight and accentuate the spiritual content of such images. Intuition enables one to fully grasp spiritual content or meaning. In its ordinary form, Anthroposophists believe, intuition is a prompting of the heart or spirit containing deep, felt truth. In its heightened form, as sought by Anthroposophists, Intuition is the highest type of exact or reliable clairvoyance. The cultivation of Intuition can be considered the third stage of occult initiation. 

Waldorf teachers almost never explain these concepts to students or students' parents, and in stressing imagination they are, to some extent, encouraging the kind of imagination that most people find desirable. But they often also have these "deeper" meanings in mind.

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For more information, see

Spotlight on Anthroposophy

(search for "imagination")

The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia

(scroll down to "imagination")

Examining Anthroposophy and Steiner Education (EASE)

(see references to clairvoyance)