I am associate professor of philosophy and aesthetics at the Rudolf Steiner University College, Oslo, as well as a musician, trained in classical and contemporary piano.
My work is situated at the intersection of meditation, research and art. I have a strong interest in the epistemological foundations and practical operations of developing higher states of consciousness, as well as how esoteric practices can be made into a socially creative process (social sculpture/Reversed Cultus). The role and nature of education/Bildung is also a deep interest that has developed over the years, especially since I became a father myself. Many of my publications explore the works of Rudolf Steiner and Yeshayahu Ben-Aharon in light of the above interests. Since 2025 I serve as Program director for the M.Ed. in research on Waldorf education at the RSUC. I also work as organist/pianist at the church at Nesodden, a peninsula outside Oslo.
I have studied ‘spiritual science’ with Ben-Aharon for many years, since 2010 also as part of the Global Event College. The collaboration with Ben-Aharon resulted in the Art&Event festival which I co-founded with him and organized as part of GEC between 2011 and 2016.
My PhD A Differential Play of Forces from the Norwegian Academy of Music under the guidance of Éric Alliez (University of Paris 8) and Erling E. Guldbrandsen (University of Oslo) explored how music can be understood as a way to actualize Gilles Deleuze’s ‘transcendental empiricism’. I also have a master degree in philosophy from Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy. Together with colleagues from the GEC I am co-running the independent printing press Dynamis.
As a pianist, I have given concerts in Scandinavia, Great Britain and Germany as soloist, chamber-musician and accompanist, performing amongst others at Borealis festival, Spor festival, New Music’s Oslo Chamber-music festival and Weimar Neue Musikfesttage. My repertoar includes contemporary and classical music as well as some of my own material as part of the duo Kōan with Juhani Silvola. I have played with several ensembles (Chamber-chameleons, asamisimasa, NeoN) and performed regularly with Silvia Moi. I studied piano with prof. Jiri Hlinka (BA) and prof. Håvard Gimse in Oslo, and prof. Heide Görtz in Berlin (MA).
You can reach me at torbjorn.eftestol @ gmail.com
The wondrous music of becoming 