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The Anthroposophical Society was formed in 1912 after Steiner left the Theosophical Society Adyar over differences with its leader, Annie Besant. He was followed by a large number of members of the Theosophical Society's German Section, of which he had been president. Anthroposophy differs from Theosophy in its practical focus, emphasis on developing artistic impulses, theoretical base in Western Occultist (rather than Hindu and Buddhist) thought, and positive view of Christ, which however is still very different from the standard Christian view.

Steiner defined Anthroposophy as "a path of knowledge, to guide the Spiritual in the human being to the Spiritual in the universe." It advocates that people are not mere observers separated sharply from the outer world. According to Steiner, reality only arises at the juncture between the spiritual and the physical—i.e. "where concept and percept meet". This bears no small resemblance to René DescartesRene Descartes ( IPA: rne. dekt) ( March 31, 1596 February 11, 1650), also known as Cartesius worked as a philosopher and mathematician. While most notable for his groundbreaking work in philosophy, he has achieved wide fame as the inventor of the Cartesi's assertion that imaginationImagination is, in general, the power or process of producing mental images and ideas. The term is technically used in psychology for the process of reviving in the mind percepts of objects formerly given in sense perception. Since this use of the term co was what unified mind and body into a full being.

Both views share a focus on discipline: The anthroposophist's aim is to become "more human" by becoming more conscious and deliberate about one's thoughts and deeds. One may reach higher levels of consciousnessConsciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. In common parlance, consciousness denotes bein through meditationMeditation usually refers to a state of extreme relaxation and concentration, in which the body is generally at rest and the mind quieted of surface thoughts. Several major religions include ritual meditation; however, meditation itself need not be a reli, observationObservation basically means watching something and taking note of anything it does. For instance, you might observe a bird flying by watching it closely. The sciences of biology and astronomy have their historical basis in observations by amateurs. There and openness over a lifelong "quest". Steiner described and developed numerous exercises for the attainment of spiritual experience.

Anthroposophists view human beings as consisting of three intermingling members: the body, the soulThis page is about the core essence of a being. For the music genre, see soul music; for the chief city of South Korea see Seoul. The soul in several philosophical movements and many religious traditions, is the core essence of a being. In some traditions and the spirit. This view is thoroughly outlined in Steiner's books Theosophy, and An Outline of Occult Science. (Compare to Gnosticism, which has a somewhat similar three-fold view and which influenced this view within Theosophy. However, for Gnosticism, Christ is often primarily a mystical experience, whereas for Steiner the Incarnation was also a historical reality.) The Epistemic basis for Anthroposophy is contained in the seminal work, The Philosophy of Freedom, as well as in his doctoral thesis, Truth and Science. These and several other early books by Steiner anticipated 20th century continental philosophy's gradual overcoming of Cartesian idealism and of Kantian subjectivism. Like Edmund Husserl and Ortega y Gasset, Steiner was profoundly influenced by the works of Franz Brentano and had read Wilhelm Dilthey in depth. Through Steiner's early epistemological and philosophical works, he became one of the first European philosophers to overcome the subject-object split that Descartes, classical physics, and various complex historical forces had impressed upon the human mind for several centuries.

Members of the movement also sometimes practice homeopathy. In addition, Steiner gave several series of lectures to physicians, and out of this grew a medical movement that now includes hundreds of European M.D.s as adherents, and that has its own hospitals and medical universities.

Other practical results of Anthroposophy include work in: Architecture ( Goetheanum ), Bio-dynamic Farming, Childhood Education ( Waldorf Schools), Alternative Medicine (Weleda), Philosophy (The "Philosophy of Freedom"), Eurythmy ("movement as visible speech and visible song"), and centres for helping the mentally-challenged (Camphill Villages).

Anthroposophy is not uncontroversial, however. Critics have termed it a cult with similarities to New Age movements. If it is a cult, however, it is one that strongly emphasizes individual freedom. Still, some critics maintain that anthroposophists tend to elevate Steiner's personal opinions, many of which are at odds with views generally held in orthodox religions, current science and the humanities, to the level of absolute truths. If there is a degree of truth to this criticism, most of the blame arguably belongs not to Steiner, but to his students. Steiner frequently asked his students to test everything he said, and on many occasions even begged them not to take anything he said on faith or authority.

Another critique asserts that some anthroposophists seem to distance their public activities from the possible inference that Anthroposophy is based on occult religious elements, tending to present themselves to the public as a non-sectarian academic philosophy. A difficulty in evaluating this criticism is that it arguably contains hidden bias because it ignores or begs a question anthroposophy sought to raise and answer: Is it possible for one's thinking to be both scientific and spiritually cognitive at once? Anthroposophy claims that it is possible. The aforementioned criticism, on the other hand, assumes that it is not, and therefore finds a contradiction between a claim of non-sectarianism and a foundation in non-physical or spiritual experience. The critics consider spiritual experience to be "religious" rather than cognitive. Such critics then read any reticence on the part of anthroposophists about their spiritual experiences and ideas as an effort to "hide" a spiritual basis for their various public activities, such as Waldorf schools.