Lecture IX
Dornach,
January 6, 1923
It is in
the nature of the case that the subject of a lecture course like this
one is inexhaustible. Matters could be elaborated and looked at more
thoroughly. But since, unfortunately, we must come to an end, we have
to be content with given guidelines and indication. Today, therefore,
I shall only supplement the scanty outlines and hints already
discussed to that in a certain sense the picture will be rounded
out.
Proceeding once again from the being of man as viewed by spiritual
science, we must say that we member man into physical body, etheric
or formative forces body, astral body (which essentially represents
the soul life) and ego. Let us be clear that properly speaking the
physical body resides only in the small part of the human
organization that we can describe as solid and sharply defined. On
the other hand, all that pertains to liquid or fluid forms is taken
hold of by the etheric body in such a way that it is in a constant
process of blending, separating, combining, and dissolving. It is in
perpetual flux. Then there are the gaseous, aeriform elements, such
as are active in oxygen and other gases. In these, the astral body is
at work. Finally, the ego organization is active in everything that
has to do with warmth.
What I have just outlined cannot, however, be reduced to a diagram.
We must clearly understand, for instance, that because the formative
forces body pulsates through all fluid and liquid elements of the
body, it also sweeps along the solid substances. Everything in the
human organization is in close interaction, in constant interplay. We
must always be aware of that. But now let us also remember that this
human organization has been experienced in different ways in the
course of evolution. This was one of the main themes of these
lectures.
What is described today as the subject matter of external physics or
mechanics, was originally attained through an inward experience of
the physical body. Our present-day physics contains statements that
originated because there once existed an internally experienced
physics of the physical body. As I have explained a number of times,
this inward physics was divorced from man and now continues to
function merely as a science that observes outer nature. During the
decline of the medieval alchemy the same thing happened with what
lives inwardly in man by virtue of the etheric body. The work of this
body in the fluids was once experienced, but now it is only dimly
perceptible in the fantastic, alchemistic formulas that we find in
ancient writings. Originally this was intelligent science, but
inwardly experienced within the etheric. In a way, this is still in
the process of being divorced from man, because as yet we really
do not have a fully developed chemistry. We have many chemical
processes in the world that we seek to understand, but only in a
physical and mechanical way.
In the beginning man experienced all this inwardly by means of his
organization, but in the course of time he cast it all out of
himself. In this process of casting out all our science developed,
from astronomy to the meager beginnings of modern chemistry. On the
other hand, thinking, feeling and willing, the subject matter of
abstract psychology (which today is no longer considered real) was in
former times actually not experienced inside man. Man felt himself at
one with the external world outside his own being, when he experienced
the soul life. Thus what was corporeal was once experienced inwardly,
whereas the soul element was experienced by leaving one's being
and communing with the outer world. Psychology was once the science
of that aspect of the world that affects man in such a way that he
appears to himself as a soul being. Physics and chemistry were cast
out of man, whereas psychology and pneumatology (which I shall
discuss directly) were stuffed into him and lost their reality. They
turned into subjective perceptions with which nothing could be
done.
What was experienced together with the cosmos through the astral body
(which leaves us in sleep) has become the subject of psychology. What
man experienced as spirit in union with the universe was
pneumatology. Today, as I have already pointed out, this has shrunk
down to the idea of the ego or to a mere feeling. Therefore we now
have as science of external nature what was once inner experience,
while our science of man's inner nature is what was once
external experience.
Now we must call to mind what is needed, on the one hand for physics
and chemistry, and on the other for psychology and pneumatology, in
order to develop them further in a conscious way, since man today
finds himself in the age of the development of the consciousness
soul. Take physics, for example, which in recent times has become
mostly abstract and mechanical. From all that I have said you will
have seen that the scientific age has increasingly felt impelled to
restrict itself to the externally observed mechanics of space. Long
ago, man accompanied motion by means of inward experience and judged
it according to what he felt within as movement. Observing a falling
stone, he experienced its inner impulse of movement in his own inner
human nature, in his physical body. This experience, after the great
casting out, led to the measuring of the rate of fall per second. In
our attitude toward nature, the idea prevails that what is observed
is what is real.
What can be observed in the outer world? It is motion, change of position.
[ 83 ]
As a rule, we let velocity vanish neatly in a differential
coefficient. But it is motion that we observe, and we express
velocity as movement per second, hence by means of space. This means,
however, that with our conscious experience, we are entirely outside
the object. We are not involved in it in any way when we merely watch
its motion, meaning its change of position in space. We can do that
only if we find ways and means to inwardly take hold of the spatial,
physical object by an extending of the same method with which we
separated from it in the first place. Instead of the mere movement,
the bare change of position, we have to view the velocity in the
objects as their characteristic element. Then we can know what a
particular object is like inwardly, because we find velocity also
within ourselves when we look back upon ourselves.
This is what is necessary. The trend of scientific development in
regard to the outer physical world must be extended in the direction
of proceeding from mere observation of motion to a feeling for the
velocity possessed by a given object. We must advance from motion to
velocity. That is how we enter into reality. Reality is not taken
hold of if all we see is that a body changes its position in space.
But if we know that the body possesses an inner velocity-impulse,
then we have something that lies in the nature of the body. We assert
nothing about a body if we merely indicate its change of position,
but we do state something about it when we say that it contains
within itself the impulse for its own velocity. This then is a
property of it, something that belongs to its nature. You can
understand this by a simple illustration. If you watch a moving
person, you know nothing about him. But if you know that he has a
strong urge to move quickly, you do know something about him.
Likewise, you know something about him, when you know that he has a
reason for moving slowly. We must be able to take hold of something
that has significance within a given body. It matters little
whether or not modern physics speaks, for example, of atoms; what
matters is that when it does speak of them it regards them as
velocity charges. That is what counts.
Now the question is: how do we arrive at such a perception? We can
discuss the best in the case of physics, since today's
chemistry has advanced too little. We have to become clear about what
we actually do when, in our thinking, we cast inwardly experienced
mechanics and physics into external space. That is what we are doing
when we say: The nature of what is out there in space is of no
concern to me; I observe only what can be measured and expressed in
mechanical formulas, and I leave aside everything that is not
mechanical. Where does this lead us? It leads us to the same process
in knowledge that a human being goes through when he dies. When he
dies, life goes out of him, the dead organism remains. When I begin
to think mechanistically, life goes out of my knowledge. I then have
a science of dead matter. We must be absolutely clear that we are
setting up a science of dead matter so long as the mechanical and
physical aspect is the sole object of our study of nature. You must
be aware that you are focusing on what is dead. You must be able to
say to yourself: The great thing about science is that it has
tacitly resolved that, unlike the ancient alchemists who still saw in
outer nature a remnant of life, it will observe what is dead I
minerals, plants, and animals. Science will study only what is dead
in them, because it utilizes only ideas and concepts suitable for
what is dead. Therefore, our physics is dead by its nature.
Science will stand on a solid basis only when it fully realizes that
its mode of thinking can take hold only of the dead. The same is true
of chemistry, but I cannot go into that today because of the lack of
time.
When we look only at motion and lose sight of velocity, we are
erecting a physics that is dead, the end-product of living things is
then our concern, and the end-product is death. Hence, when we look
at nature with the eyes of modern mechanics and physics, we must
realize that we are looking at a corpse.
Nature was not always like this. It was different at one time. If I
look at a corpse, it would be foolish to believe that it was always
in this condition. The fact that I realize that it is a corpse proves
to me that once it was a living organism. The moment you realize that
modern mechanics and physics lead you to view nature in this way, you
will see that nature is now a corpse so far as physics is concerned.
We are studying a corpse.
Can we attain to something living, or at least an approach to it? The
corpse is the final condition of something living. Where is the
beginning condition? Well, my dear friends, there is no way to
rediscover velocity by observing motion. You may stare at
differential coefficients as long as you will but you will not find
it. Instead, you must turn back to man. Whereas formerly he
experienced himself from within, you must now study him from without
through his physical organism, and you must understand that in man
—
and especially in his physical and etheric organizations — the
beginning of a living condition must be sought.
No satisfactory form of physics and chemistry will be attained save
through a genuine science of man. But I expressly call attention to
the fact that such a genuine anthropology will not be reached by
approaching man with the methods of present-day physics and
chemistry. That would only carry death back into man and make his
body (his lower organization) even more dead than before.
You must study what is living in man, and not revert to the method of
physics and chemistry. What is needed are the methods that can be
found through spiritual-scientific research. Briefly stated,
spiritual-scientific research will meet the historic requirements of
natural science.
This historic requirement can be put in the following words: Science
has reached the point of observing what is corpse-like in nature.
Anthroposophical spiritual science must discover in addition to this
the beginning of a living condition. This has been preserved in man.
In former periods of evolution it was also externally perceptible. At
one time, the processes of nature were totally different. Today, we
walk around on the corpses of what existed in the beginning. But in
the two lower bodies of man, the beginning condition has been
preserved. There we can discover all that once existed, right back
to the Saturn condition. An historical approach leads beyond the
present state of science. It is quite clear why this is so. We are in
the midst of a period of development. If, as is so frequently the
case, we consider today's manner of thinking to be the most
advanced and do not realize that the real course of events was very
different, then we are looking at history the wrong way. As an
example, a twenty-five year old person need not only be observed in
the light of the twenty-five years that he has been alive, —
one must also observe the element in him that makes it possible for
him to live on. That is one point.
Movement:
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Velocity:
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Dead Aspect (Final Condition of
Being)
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Phenomenon:
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Being:
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Semblance (Initial Condition of
Being)
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The other point is that our psychology has become very thin, while
pneumatology has nearly reached the vanishing point. Again, we must
know how far it has gone with these two sciences in the present age.
If one speaks today of blue or red, of C-sharp or G, or of qualities
of warmth, he will say that they are subjective sensations. That is
the popular attitude; But what is a mere subjective sensation? It is
a “phenomenon.” Just as we observe only motions in outer
nature, we study only the phenomenon in psychology and pneumatology.
And just as velocity is missing from motion in our external
observation, the essential thing — the living essence —
is missing from our observation of the inner soul life. Because we
only study phenomena and no longer experience the living essence, we
never get beyond mere semblance. The way thinking, feeling and
willing are experienced today, they are mere semblance. Modern
epistemologists have the man who wants to lift himself up by his own
pigtail, or like the man in a railroad car who pushes against the
wall without realizing that he cannot move the carriage in this way.
This is how modern epistemologists look. They talk and talk, but
there is no vitality in their talk because they are locked into the
mere semblance.
I have tried to put a certain end to this talk. The first time was in
my
Philosophy of Freedom,
[ 84 ]
where I demonstrated how this
semblance, inherent in pure thinking, becomes the impulse of freedom
when inwardly grasped by man in thinking. If something other than
semblance were contained in our subjective experience, we could never
be free. But if this semblance can be raised to pure thinking, one
can be free, because what is not real being cannot determine us,
whereas real being would do so. This was my first effort. My second
effort was at the Philosophical Congress in Bologna, when I analyzed
the matter psychologically. I attempted to show that our sensations
and thoughts are in fact outward experiences, rather than inward
ones, and that this insight can be attained by careful
observation.
These indications will have to be understood. Then, we shall realize
that we must rediscover being in semblance, just as we must
rediscover velocity in movement. Then, we will understand what this
inwardly experienced semblance really is. It will reveal itself as
the initial state of being. Man experiences this semblance;
experiences himself as semblance and as such lives his way into
semblance and thus transforms it into the seed of future worlds. I
have often pointed out that from our ethics, our morals, born of the
physical world of semblance, future physical worlds will arise, just
as from today's seed the plant will grow.
[ 85 ]
We are dealing with
the nascent state of being. In order to have a proper natural
science, we must realize that psychology and pneumatology must
understand what they observe as nascent states of being. Only then
will they throw light on those matters that natural science wants to
illuminate. But what is this “nascent” or “initial
state?”
Now this nascent state is in the outer world, not within. It is what
I see when I behold the green tapestry of plants, the world of colors
— red, green and blue — and the sounds that are out
there. What are these fleeting formations that modern-day physics,
physiology and psychology regard only as subjective? They are the
elements from which the worlds of the future create themselves. Red
is not engendered by matter in the eye or the brain, red is the
first, semblance-like, seed of future worlds.
If you know this, you will also want to know something about what
will correspond in these future worlds to the corpse-like element. It
will not be what we found earlier in our physics and chemistry, it
will be the corpse of the future. We shall recognize what will be the
corpse of the future, the future element of death, if we discover it
already today in the higher organization of man, where astral body
and ego are active. By experiencing the final condition there in
reference to the initial one, we at last gain a proper comprehension
of the nervous system and the brain insofar as they are dead, not
alive. In a certain sense, they can be more dead than a corpse,
inasmuch as they transcend the absolute point of death —
especially in the case of the nervous system — and become
“more
dead than dead.” But this very fact makes the nervous system
and the brain bearers of the so-called spiritual element —
because the dead element dwells in them, the final state not yet even
reached by outer nature — because they even surpass this final
state.
In order to find psychology and pneumatology in the outer world, we
shall have to discover how the inanimate, the dead, dwells in the
human organism; namely, in the head organization and in part of the
rhythmic organization, mainly that of breathing. We must look at our
head and say of it that it is constantly dying. If it were alive, the
growing, sprouting living matter could not think. But because it
gives up life and constantly dies, the soul-spiritual thoughts,
endowed with being, have the opportunity to spread out over what is
dead as new living, radiant semblance.
You see, here lie the great tasks that, by means of the historical
manner of observation result quite simply from natural science. If we
don't take hold of them, we move like ghosts through the
present development of science, and not with the consciousness that
an epoch that has begun must find a way to continue. You can imagine
that much of this is contained implicitly in what science has
discovered. Scientific literature offers such indications everywhere.
But people cannot yet distinguish clearly; they like what is chaotic.
They don't care clearly to contemplate physics and chemistry on
one hand, and psychology and pneumatology on the other, because then
they would have to consider seriously the inner and outer aspects.
They prefer to vacillate in the murky waters between physics and
chemistry. Due to this, a bastard science has arisen that has become
the darling of natural research and even philosophy; namely,
physiology. As soon as the real facts are discovered, physiology will
fall apart into psychology on the one hand — a psychology that
is also a perception of the world — and on the other, into
chemistry, meaning a chemistry that is also a knowledge of man.
When these two are attained, this in-between science, physiology,
will vanish. Because today you have a morass in which you can find
everything, and because by juggling a bit to the left or the right,
it is possible to find a bit of a soul or a corporeal element, people
do quite well. The physiology of today is what above all must
disappear as the last remnant of former conceptions that have become
muddled. The reason physiological concepts are so abstruse is that
they contain soul and corporeal elements that are no longer
distinguished, thus they can play around with words and even juggle
the facts. One who aims for clear insight must realize that
physiology amounts in the end to fibbing with words and facts.
Until we admit this, we can't take the history of natural
science seriously. Science does not proceed only from undetermined
past ages to our time, it continues on from the present. History can
only be understood, if one comprehends the further course of things,
not in a superstitious, prophetic sense but by beginning now to do
the right thing. And infinitely much needs to be set right,
particularly in the domain of science. Natural science has grown
tall; it is like a nice teenager, who at the moment is going through
his years of unpolished adolescence, and whose guidance must be
continued so that he will become mature. Science will mature, if
murky areas like physiology disappear, and physics and pneumatology
arise again in the way outlined above. They will come into being, if
the anthroposophical way of thinking is applied in earnest to
science. This will be the case, when people feel that they are
learning something, when somebody speaks to them of a real physics, a
real chemistry, a real psychology and pneumatology; when they no
longer have the urge to comprehend everything concerning the world
and the human being through bastardized chaotic sciences like
physiology. Then, the development of human knowledge will once again
stand on a sound basis.
Naturally, therapy is particularly affected and suffers under
present-day physiology. You can well imagine this, because it works
with all manner of things that elude one's grasp, when one
begins to think clearly.
We cannot confront the great challenges of our time with a few
anthroposophical catchwords and phrases. It also does not suffice to
dabble with physiology on the borderline between psychology and
chemistry. The only way to proceed is to apply the methods of
spiritual-scientific anthroposophy to physics and chemistry. If you
are lazy — forgive me for this harsh expression, I don't
mean it in such a radical sense in this case — you say: These
matters can only be correctly judged, if one is clairvoyant.
Therefore I will wait until I am clairvoyant. I won't venture
to criticize physics and chemistry or even physiology.
My dear friends, you need not have insights that surpass ordinary
perception in order to know that a corpse is dead and that it must
have originated in life. Neither do you need to be clairvoyant in
order to analyze properly the true facts of today's physics and
chemistry, and to refer them back to their underlying living element,
once your attention is directed to the fact that this living element
is to be found by studying the “lower man.” There you
will have the supplement you need for chemistry and physics. Make the
attempt, for once, really to study the mechanism of human movement.
[ 86 ]
Instead of constantly drawing axis of coordinates and putting the
movements into them apart from man; instead of multiplying
differential coefficients and integrals, make a serious attempt to
study the mechanics of movement in man. As they were once experienced
from within, so do you now study them from without. Then you will
have what you need, to add to your outer observation of nature, in
physics and chemistry.
In outer nature, those who proclaim atomism will always put you in
the wrong. They even work themselves up to the very spiritual
statement that when one speaks about matter in the sense of a modern
physicist, matter is no longer material. The physicists, themselves
are saying it;
[ 87 ]
our very opponents are saying it. In this case they
are right, and if we in our replies to them stop short at the
half-truths — that is to say, at the final conditions of being
— we shall never be equal to that which issues from them.
Here lie the tasks of the specialists, here lie the tasks of those
who have the requisite preliminary training, in one or another branch
of science.
Then we shall not establish a physicized or chemicized Anthroposophy,
but a true anthroposophical chemistry, anthroposophical physics. Then
we shall not establish a new medicine as a mere variation on the old,
but a true anthroposophical medicine.
The tasks are at hand. They are outlined in all directions. Just as
the simple heart can receive the observations that are scattered
everywhere in our lectures or lecture cycles, and that give spiritual
sustenance, so too the need is to take up on every hand the hints
that can lead us to the much-needed progress in the several domains
of science.
In the future, it will not suffice if man and nature do not again
become one. What physics and chemistry study in nature as the final
state of being, must be supplemented by the state of being in
“lower
man” belonging to the realm of physics and chemistry — in
man who is dependent on the physical and etheric bodies. It is
important that this be sought. It is not important to single out as
essential the valences of the structural formulas or the periodic law
in chemistry, because these are but schemata. While they are quite
useful as tools for counting and calculations, what matters is the
following realization. If the chemical processes are externally
observed, the chemical laws are not within them. They are contained
in the origin of chemical processes. Hence, they are found only, if,
with diligent effort, one tries to seek in the human being for the
processes that occur in his circulation, in the activity of his
fluids, through the actions of the etheric body. The explanation of
the chemical processes in nature lies in the processes of the etheric
body. These in turn are represented in the play of fluids in the
human organism and are accessible to precise study.
Anthroposophy poses a serious challenge in this direction. This is
why we have founded research institutes
[ 88 ]
in which serious, intensive
work must begin. Then the methods gained from anthroposophy can be
properly nurtured. This is also the main point of our medical
therapy; namely, that the old, confused physiology finally be
replaced with a real chemistry and psychology. Without this one can
never assert anything about the processes of illness and healing
in human nature, because every course of illness is simply an abnormal
psychological process, and each healing process is an abnormal chemical
process. Only to the extent that we know how to influence the chemical
process of healing
and how to grasp the psychological course of illness will we attain to
genuine pathology and therapy. This will emerge from the
anthroposophical manner of observation. If one does not want to
recognize this potential in anthroposophy, then one only wants
something a bit out of the ordinary and is unwilling to get to work
in earnest. Actually, everything that I have sketched here is only a
description of how the work should proceed, because a genuine
psychology and chemistry come into being through work. All the
prerequisites for this work already exist, because very man facts can
be found in scientific literature that researchers have accidentally
discovered but don't understand. Those of us who work in the
spirit of anthroposophy should take up these facts and contribute
something to their full comprehension. Take as an example what I
emphasized yesterday
[ 89 ]
in speaking to a smaller group of people. The
essential point about the spleen is that it is really an excretory
organ. The spleen itself is in turn an excretion of the functions in
the etheric body. Countless facts are available in medical literature
that need only be utilize — and that is the point: they should
be utilized — then the facts will be brought together
and what is needed will result.
A single person might accomplish this if a human life spanned six
hundred years. But by that time, other tasks would confront him and
his accomplishments would long since be outmoded. These things must be
attained through cooperation, through people working together. So
this is the second task — we must see to it that this becomes
possible. I believe that these tasks of the Anthroposophical Society
will emerge most clearly and urgently from a truly realistic study of
the history of natural science in recent times.
This history shows us at every turn that something great and
wonderful has arisen through modern science. In earlier times, the
truly inanimate dead aspects could never be discerned, hence, nothing
could be made of them. In those times inward semblance could never
really be observed; therefore, it couldn't be brought to life
by human effort, and hence, one couldn't arrive at freedom.
Today, we confront a grandiose world, which became possible only
because natural science studies the dead aspects. This is the world
of technology. Its special character can be discerned from the fact
that the word “technique” is taken from the Greek. There,
it still signifies “art,” implying that art reveals,
where technology still contains spirit. Today, technology only
utilizes spirit in the sense of the abstract, spirit-devoid thoughts.
Technology could be achieved only by attaining a proper knowledge of
what is dead. Once in the course of humanity's evolution it was
necessary to concentrate upon the dead; it thus entered into the
realm of technology. Today, man stands in the midst of this realm of
technology that surrounds him on all sides. He looks out on it and
realizes that here at last is a sphere in which there is no spirit in
the proper sense. In regard to the spiritual element, it is important
that in all areas of technology human beings experience this inner
feeling, almost akin to one of pain over the death of a person. If
feeling and sensation can be developed in knowledge, then such a
feeling will arise, somewhat like the sensation one experiences when
a person is dying and one sees the living organism turn into a
corpse. Alongside the abstract indifferent cold knowledge, such a
feeling will arise through the true realization that technology is
the processing of the inanimate, the dead. This feeling will become
the most powerful impetus to seek the spirit in new directions.
I could well imagine the following view of the future: Man looks out
over the chimneys, the factories, the telephones — everything
that technology has produced in wondrous ways in the most recent
times. He stands atop this purely mechanical world, the grave of all
things spiritual, and he calls out longingly into the universe —
and his yearning will be fulfilled. Just as the dead stone yields the
living fiery spark if handled correctly, so from our dead technology
will emerge the living spirit, if human beings have the right
feelings about what technology is.
On the other hand, one need only understand clearly what pure
thinking is; namely the semblance from which can be brought forth the
most powerful moral impulses — those individual moral impulses
that I have described in my
Philosophy of Freedom.
Then, in a new way, man will face the feeling that was once confronted by
Nicholas Cusanus and Meister Eckhart. They said: When I life myself beyond
everything that I am ordinarily accustomed to observe, I come to
“nothingness” with all that I have learned. But in this
“nothingness” there arises for me the “I.” If
man really penetrates to pure thinking, then he finds in it the
nothingness that turns into the I and from which emerges the whole
wealth of ethical actions, that will create new worlds. I can imagine
a person who first lets all knowledge of the preset, as inaugurated
by natural science, impress itself on him and then (centuries after
Meister Eckhart and Nicholas Cusanus) turns his gaze inward and with
today's mode of thinking arrives at the nothingness of his
inner life. In it, he discovers that the spirit really speaks to him.
I can imagine that these two images merge. On the one hand, man goes
to the place where barren technology has left the spirit behind.
There he calls out into cosmic expanses for the spirit. On the other
hand, he stops, thinks and looks within himself. And here, out of his
inner being, he receives the divine answer to the call he sent out
into the distances of the universe.
When we learn, through a new, anthroposophically imbued natural
science, to let the calls of infinite longing for the spirit, sent
out into the world, resound in our inner being, then this will be the
right starting point. Here, through an “anthroposophized”
inner perception, we will find the answer to the yearning call for
the spirit, desperately sounded out into the universe.
I did not want to describe the development of natural science in
recent times in a merely documentary fashion. Rather, I wanted to
show you the standpoint of a human being, who comprehends this
natural-scientific development and, in a difficult moment of
humanity's evolution, knows the right things to say to himself
in regard to the progress of mankind.
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