> There is a book which is a collection of lectures on the topic
> of bees by the late 19th and early 20th century occult spiritualist
> philosopher, Rudolf Steiner.  The book is called "Bees"
> Lectures by Rudolf Steiner

> Rudolf Steiners prediction:
> "The honeybee  has been bred for profit to a point where it has become
> easy prey for viruses and parasitic mites that will destroy the species
> in approx eighty years..."

I have read this book.  It was given to me by a friend who found it
in a used bookstore, and (I guess) thought it was a "beekeeping book"
from the title alone.

I think I laughed the hardest when he started comparing quartz
crystals to side cross-sections of brood cells, implying that
bees were harnessing the "power of the crystal" rather than just
building an efficient and strong storage system using minimum
materials.  In fact, Steiner was one of the inspirations for this:

http://www.bee-quick.com/bee-quick/rpt2/

and specifically, this:

http://www.bee-quick.com/bee-quick/rpt2/badvibe.html

Mr. Steiner expresses a view of agriculture that simply cannot be
described using English.  The closest I can come is the German term
"schadenfreude" (a perverse enjoyment of the misfortunes of others).

I did not place this book on a shelf with beekeeping books.

I was torn between putting it with books on UFOs, ESP, astral
projection, mental telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, the
Loch Ness monster, spirit photography, and the theory of Atlantis,
or putting it near other whining diatribes by pseudo-intellectual
Luddites (the "Artificial Intelligentsia") about how man has forsaken
"nature" by daring to progress beyond some sort of agrarian fantasy
that never really existed.


                jim

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