‡ Anthroposofie ‡
Anhang Peter Morell
Nutrition:
Summary of Lectures:
WALA, an
organic/biodynamic pharmacy based in
"Dem Stoff sich verschreiben heißt Seelen zerreiben
Im Geiste sich finden heißt Menschen verbinden
Im Geist sich schauen heißt Welten erbauen." (R.S.)
R.S.: Rind und Löwe geformt durch Kräfte aus der Erde (Astral- = Seelenleib).
Vögel und Reptilien geformt durch Kräfte aus dem kosmischen Weltenraum (Äther- = Lebenskraftleib).
Anthroposophical
Medicine
The
philosophy of anthroposophy is a valuable tool when choosing an accurate
remedy. Plant, mineral or animal parts can be likened to human bodily systems
making it easier for the homoeopath
to see the
simillimum (Steiner, 1861 – 1925).
Anthroposophical
medicine is often classed among natural or other kinds of alternative medicine,
or it is equated with herbal medicine or homoeopathy. It is seen as an
extension of medical
practice on
the basis of the comprehensive view of the human being provided by spiritual
science. Rudolph Steiner (1861 – 1925) describes anthroposophy as seeking to
unite the spiritual
element in
the human being with the spiritual element in the universe (and therefore
nature). He states that all natural objects have a fundamental relationship to
the essential human being, and
every
aspect of the complex human organisation has its „counterpart‟ in nature (Steiner, 1861 - 1925).
Man has the whole of the natural world within him, and nature is an infinitely
differentiated human being (
According
to this spiritual science man has three members of his being: the nerve-sense
system, the metabolic-limb system, and the rhythmic system.
A
harmonious balance of these three systems keeps man in a general state of
health. The nerve-sense system has its origin in the head sending its processes
to the fingers and toes.
Within the
head is a cool and quiet environment, where thought and memory are possible.
The nerve-sense system receives and analyses information, and rest is essential
for this system to
function
optimally. This system is made up of nerve cells, which are cells that do not
have the capacity to regenerate themselves throughout life. Diseases that
affect the nerve-sense system are „cooling‟, catabolic, and hardening (
The
opposite pole is in the digestive area and is known as the metabolic-limb
system. This is an area much warmer than the head and an area of constant
activity (metabolism). The cells representing this system are constantly
undergoing death and regeneration, and in the lower region of this system man
reproduces his own kind (the genitals). These are unconscious processes.
Activity of this system is involved with conscious and unconscious movement of
the limbs, as well as metabolic processes. Diseases affecting the
metabolic-limb system are „hot‟,
for example
fever and inflammation.
These two
opposite poles are joined by the rhythmic system. Without the rhythmic system
the polar opposites would not maintain a harmonious balance. For example,
circulation relates to the metabolic-limb system, whilst breathing relates more
to the nerve-sense system, and a constant rhythm between the pulse and breath
is maintained by the rhythmic system. If either of the poles became too
dominant or too weak, the result would be illness (Steiner, 1905).
According
to Rudolph Steiner (1861 – 1925) and anthroposophical philosophy the three
„systems‟ of man can be likened to specific
areas of
the plant. The nerve-sense system (head) of man relates to the roots of the
plant, the metabolic-limb system of man is likened to the reproductive system
of the plant, and the rhythmic system is compared to the stem and leaves of the
plant. This relationship of human beings with plants can assist us in deciding
upon a cure when faced with certain ailments. For example remedies
prepared
from roots may have more of an effect on the nerve-sense system and the head,
whilst leaf remedies will affect the rhythmic system (middle region). Remedies
prepared from flowers
have the
greatest effect on the metabolic-limb system.
Due to the
fact that this remedy was prepared using only the leaves of the Peucedanum
galbanum plant (the plant part related to the rhythmic system), on completion of
the study the symptoms produced by the remedy were analysed in relation to the
rhythmic system of the human body. This comparison of plant part to human
bodily system helps to shed light on the use of the remedy in relation to the
doctrine of signatures.
Frei nach: Jesse A. Stoff, M.D.
Applying
the concepts of polarities to medicine dates back at least 5.000 yrs to the
Chinese and is reflected in their image of the T'ai-chi T'u (symbol of yin and
yang). They felt that the wholeness of Man was maintained in health by the
diametrically opposed and yet balanced forces of the Yin and Yang. Each of
these forces or processes may then be further divided and understood by the
intricate balance for the elements. Thus a paradigm of man could be constructed
wherein force is opposed by force, process by process. When all is in balance,
a state of health reigns.
In
antiquity Western physicians tacitly understood the delicate processes, and
their polarities, within the being of Man. Hippocrates and Galen taught these
concepts as basic tenets in the understanding of Man as is reflected in their
knowledge and discussions of the four humors.
Later, in
the Middle Ages, Culpepper and Paracelsus described in great detail the
overwhelming importance of this basic concept in the understanding of Man and
in the treatment of his ills. Paracelsus described a basic polarity of Sal
(salts) and Sulfur with a mediating-balancing effect by Mercury. Culpepper
detailed a broader perspective based upon the known planets and the signs of
the Zodiac, each representing a force which had a balancing counterpart.
R.S.
described different perspectives of the being of Man: a four-fold image, a
seven-fold picture, etc. Each of these insights is characterized by balanced
polarities and mirrors processes found elsewhere in nature. On a grander scale,
this insight creates a correspondence between Man and nature, spiritual and
physical worlds. These polarities exist not in the sense of an antithesis but
as parts of a whole.
Dr. R.
Steiner stated that man is a "seven-fold metal." With this insight he
related the different organ processes of man to the seven major celestial
bodies of our solar system and to the seven metals that reflect these
processes. One can go into great detail about these polarities, and certainly
Dr. Steiner does. For the purposes of this brief paper a mere sketch will serve
as an introduction to further the understanding and relationships of these
polarities and to shed some light upon the following articles.
There are
many references to be found in regard to the basic polarities of
Vier Wesensglieder:
Studying
the four-fold image of Man leads to a very basic and important foundation of
insight into the being of
* Der physische Leib gehorcht die Gesetzen der Physik und kann von der konventionellen Wissenschaft erforscht werden. (skleroseartig)
* Der ätherische Leib, der wie bei allen Lebewesen als ein über das Physische hinausgehendes Organisationsprinzip besonderen Gesetzmäßigkeiten folgt, die dem Lebendigen („Ätherischen“) eigen sind.
Die übersinnliche Erkenntnis
dieses Ätherischen wird „Imagination“ genannt. (geschwulstartig).
‡ Ether-types: Orig. labiates a powerful warmth-ether
effect.
Thlas. the chemical
ether.
Querc. the earth
aspect of the life-ether.
Mill. light-ether
The
stinging-nettle has all four ether-types united in it: the life-ether in the
lignifying quadrilateral stem, the chemical ether in the typical metabolic
processes in the leaf, the light-ether in the sharply-indented leaves, and the
warmth-ether (among others) in the exploding seed of the flowers. ‡
* Der astralische Leib, der nur bei empfindenden oder beseelten Organismen, also bei Tieren, nicht aber bei Pflanzen vorhanden ist. Die zugehörige Erkenntnisstufe heißt „Inspiration“. (entzündungsartig)
* Das Ich, die
geistige Individualität, die den Menschen über das Tierreich erhebt. Ein Ich
hat jeder Mensch, als solches erkannt wird es jedoch erst durch die höchste
Stufe der übersinnlichen Erkenntnis, der „Intuition“ (nicht zu verwechseln mit
der herkömmlichen Bedeutung dieses Wortes). (lähmungsbedingt)
Frei
nach: Wilhelm
Pelikan
The
processes of dying, of going to sleep, and of forgetting to perform an
"analysis of existence" on the different forms of being on earth,
demonstrating that there are different "members of being".
1. It is shown that the mineral has a physical
body.
2. The plant consists of a physical and an
etheric body (life-body).
3. The animal possesses a physical, etheric and
astral body (soul-body).
4. Man has a physical, etheric and astral body,
and beyond this is a spiritual world which may show itself to him when he
develops spiritual organs, just as the development of physical sense
organs allows him to take part in the physical
sensory world.
"To
find thyself in the infinite, thou must differentiate, and then combine“.
(Goethe,
Wolkengedicht)
Analysis
should be immediately followed by synthesis, otherwise one may well hold the
parts in one's hand, but the spiritual bond is lost. After all, mineral, plant,
animal (and man) are all in one common world, existing together and for each
other, intertwined and interwovenays. The purpose here is to show the healing
relations between plant and man, and therefore it is necessary to show up the
synthetic power, the archetypal unity, that which makes the kingdoms = Reich)
of nature into a whole, and archetypal entity from which the individual beings
in nature are derived as variations.
The key
must be found which opens up the mysteries of the archetypal relationship of
all kingdoms of nature.
This
archetypal being and archetypal motif of earthly existence is man himself. Just
a brief outline shall be given of how the spheres of being below man can be
seen as variations of the archetypal motif of his 4fold nature.
In the ego
(= Ich-Leib), man comprehends himself as a spiritual being. The ego is the
impulse center from which he can unfold free creativeness. With this, he can
develop spiritual powers of perception, to discover and know the spiritual not
only within himself, but also all around him. If a person directs the spiritual
senses he has developed at the animal, it becomes apparent to him that the
animal, too, is not without spirituality, without a form of ego. But this form
of ego is not given to the individual animal, but is part of a
"group-spirit", or "group-ego" belonging to all the animals
of a species. The group-ego remains in the spiritual realm. The group spirit of
animals does not go through life and death; the birth and death of the
individual animal therefore mean something quite different to it than all these
aspects of life mean to man. In the animal body, therefore, physical, etheric
and astral elements are present; but not the group-ego, for that remains in the
spiritual world.
For someone
able to perceive spiritual entities in the way just described, the plant, too,
has both soul and spirit (astral element and a form of ego). But it is even
less able than the animal to house these higher members of being in its body;
they remain worlds away from it, unborn, in the spiritual realm. But contacts
and impulses are constantly passing to and from between the physical-etheric
body of the plant and its astrality as well as the plant ego. It is impossible
to gain a fully comprehensive picture of the plant in its relations with the
4fold human being unless one takes into account the fact that the plant, too,
is a 4fold being. In this "relatedness to man" must be sought the
causes for the plant's actions on all 4 members of man's being.
The
mineral, too, has connection with etheric processes, astral actions, and a
spiritual element. But in the physical world we have only the physical body of
the mineral. The 3 higher members of its being remain, eternally unborn, worlds
away from it, in the spiritual realm. But in the 4fold nature of the mineral
lies also the reason why it has such manifold relations to the 4fold being of
man. Out of this, one can understand why it is possible to influence the total
constitution of man with mineral remedies, and not only its mineral aspects, or
those directly related to the mineral.
The
mineral, its body being dead physical substance, expresses its nature best in
the solid state. The crystalline form, definite and characteristic for every
type of mineral, can only exist in its richly structured form because of the
properties of the solid state. A change to the fluid or gaseous state will at
once cancel this form. The solid state alone makes it possible for the mineral
to have this form, fixed in 3 spatial dimensions, laid down once and for all.
The plant
needs a further state of being for its existence: the fluid. It has to embody
not only a physical, but also an etheric entity. Its forms do not arise from
the physical nature of the substances it consists of, but from the etheric
nature of the plant. Because of this, it does not express its being in
permanent form, but in a constant metamorphosis of form. This flowing change of
form with its laws of metamorphosis needs a state of being which is just as
ready to take up form as to give it up at once and without resistance, if the
life principle (the etheric body) should demand it. This requirement is met by
water, fluid water, the main component of the plant. Those parts of the plant
which are solid only serve to give contour to the liquid, to hold up the
formative flow for a time, to hold a shape for a short period, to emphasize it;
but the solid element in the plant does not produce any form of its own, it
merely becomes the vessel of the life-form and of the life-formative forces.
Where the plant grows too hard it has previously used a process of
devitalization, has withdrawn life and at the same time water from its bodily
substance, or brought them to a standstill ( for instance in the formation of
wood and bark, but also in the development of seeds. Man and animal also need
the fluid element, in so far as they, too, are living beings, in order to
develop the activity of the etheric bodies. The more alive, the more fluid; the
more dried out, solid, the more dead: this applies to all forms of life, in
plant, animal, or man. This "fluidity in all that lives" is, of course,
borne by the physical substance of living protein, but then this protein is a
colloid containing extremely large amounts of water. ??? wyw The plant is not
yet able to form its own air and warmth organisms. It is aired through and
warmed from its surroundings, with its breathing, its warmth determined and
regulated by an external, cosmic process.
The
gaseous, the airy element part of oneself = an inner breathing organization is
something that is only possible to the animal (fully so only to man). The
process has many aspects. The most important one is that together with the airy
element the soul-like, the astral body, enters into the body. This gives rise
to a world of internal organs, an organic cosmos, which from the inside takes
over actions which the external cosmos performs for the plant. Together with
the air, an external cosmos is incorporated and interiorized. With the
pneumatization of the body, right into its finest ramifications, pneuma, the
soul principle, enters into the bodies. Schöpfung wyw. The airy now enters into
the fluid, dissolving in it, combining with and separating from it; at the same
time, however, the actions of etheric and astral body combine and separate
rhythmically. Lower marine animals wyw with their dulled soul-life breathe the
air dissolved in water. Correspondingly the etheric then has greater influence
than the astral. Insects must send their body fluid outwards to meet the air;
here the astral is still to a high degree in contact with the outside world,
not yet "tied off' in the individual animal as much as it is in the higher
animals. Because of this, the insects are still living in a very close
relationship with the etherically determined plant world. The development of
true lung organs means an important step forward towards interiorization of the
soul.
In the
gaseous state of physical substance, the supersensible soul principle finds the
form and properties which enable it to enter the physical body. The gas has
given up any formative will of its own, it resists all limitation. The force of
earth gravity has been overcome in it, levity has replaced it. Infinitely open
to light, responding to every warmth impulse by expanding strongly, fully open
to cosmic impulses, and placed as an outer mantle (in the atmosphere) between
earthly and cosmic existence, the gaseous is a physical state to which the
physical side of earthly life adheres only in remnants, having been largely
overcome. Expansion and contraction, tension and relaxation, highs and lows,
storm and calm, wafting and slackening, extending and compression: these
express the nature of the airy element, but also of the soul. Only in the
breath of an ensouled creature does the being of air achieve full expression.
Its highest form and gestalt, the sound of speech, is air gestalt, but at the
same time the most perfect physical expression of the innermost soul. In the
air, speech may become expression of the universal word of creation, making
known that which has created the whole world.
Even more
impossible than having an air organization of its own is for the plant to gain
possession of the warmth element, as a warmth organization, an autonomous
warmth-being. The plant-being finds for itself this or that condition of warmth
and climatic zone, it exposes itself to stronger or weaker warmth-impulses. But
the center of the warmth-impulse always remains sun-like for the plant, worlds
away. The lower animals, too, right up to the mammals, are determined by
external conditions of warmth and bound to certain regions of the earth by
their nature, dependent on conditions arising from the relation of the earth to
the cosmos. Man alone rises completely above such conditions for warmth and
this enables him to live anywhere on earth, whatever the climatic conditions.
Man has gained ascendence over fire within himself; because of this, he is the
only being on earth who also rules fire externally. With the power of heat it
is possible to rule over every physical state of material substance, to form
and transform it at will. In conjunction with the element of warmth, the human
spirit, the ego, finds the possibility to live in a material body, rising above
the captivity and fetters of the forces and laws of the earthly world; for in
warmth lies the power to overcome them, rule and master them. In man, this
warmth is borne by the blood process. The polarity between blood pigment and
leaf pigment also indicates the opposite directions in which one must look for
human ego and plant spirituality, particularly also with regard to the centers
of their warmth-impulses. (The blood process holds within itself the blood
temperature of about 37 o C., or 98.6 o F., and holds on to it hard; the
process of assimilation in the green foliage of the plant has to rely on
external conditions of warmth, but again it is most intensive at an external
temperature of about 37 o C.) The highest form of warmth, however, is the
warmth of enthusiasm, and this can inflame the human will.
In
conclusion let us put once more in tabular form what has been said, however
briefly, about the 4 members of being of the 4 spheres of earthly existence,
and the states of being they use to embody themselves.
Physical
members of being, present in the sphere of the senses State of being Present
in the spiritual, supersensible sphere
Mineral Physical body Solid Etheric,
astral, form of ego
Plant Physical body, etheric body Solid,
fluid Astral element, form of
ego
Animal Physical body, etheric body, Solid, fluid Astral body Group-ego
??? airy
Man Physical body, etheric body, Solid,
fluid, Astral body, ego warmth-like airy,
The plant
has been represented from certain points of view as an in-between being between
the mineral kingdom below it, and the animal kingdom above it. This made the
root organization the member which grappled with the mineral, earthly sphere
and overcame it, and the flower organization on the other hand the member which
grappled with animal nature, and was clearly defined against it. Being chiefly
determined by etheric forces, the plant being stands between the dead mineral
kingdom governed by physical forces, and the ensouled animal kingdom which is
determined by astral forces.
However, if
one allows one's eye to wander over the whole abundance of living plant forms
one will find some very strange in-between and transitional forms where plant
life shows a tendency towards the mineral, taking up the earthy element more
strongly than usual; but also forms where the plant combines more of an animal
nature with its formative forces ( mineral-plant on the one hand, animal-plant
on the other.
Many of the
succulents (Cactaceae/Euphorbiaceae/Mesembryanthemum/Crassulae), which live on
particularly dead, mineral soil, have a form showing an almost crystalline
rigidity. The living, moving spiral progression of normal leaf formation has
here become a rigid rib-formation. Some of these plants even look like stones
wyw.
Another way
in which mineral laws reach across into the life processes of plants may be
seen in many salt plants, particularly those on the sea shore, such as
Salicornia, wyw Halopeplis, Salsola; here the shoots look like swollen stems of
blown-out roots growing above ground which have never developed leaves.
In all
these forms the life processes, and with them the fluid organization, have been
congested into highly vital, but little-formed and differentiated structures
which seem to want to swell into spherical shape; the flowering processes are
greatly delayed, forced back, even atrophied. The plant formation cannot
separate from the salt and root process, remains fixed to it. In the first
example it resembles the dead, solid, crystalline element, in the 2nd the dead,
fluid, drop-shaped element.
Another
instance of mineral, earthly laws entering into the plant element is the formation
of trees with the tendency to lignification. R.S.: a tree trunk may be regarded
as turned up earth.
The
tendencies to tree formation increase considerably towards the tropics.
The
physical aspect of every living being, is based on an etheric organism, a body
of formative forces, as every physical plant, so the whole earth is surrounded
by a huge sphere of formative forces. This enables the earth to be a place not
only of death, but also of life.
R.S.:
explored this world of formative forces. This world of formative forces makes
the earth a member of the cosmos as a whole, for the formative forces are
cosmic in nature. (Through the world of physical forces, every bit of earthly
substance is a part of the earth). We can only comprehend what goes on on earth
if we see it all as based on an infinitely varied interplay between physical,
earthly and etheric, cosmic forces.
The
tropics: Here the interaction between earthly and cosmic forces is particularly
close. In the tropics, the earthly element proliferates towards the cosmic; the
cosmic on the other hand is drawn down into the earthly, it is made earthly.
At the
poles: Here the earthly withdraws into itself; the cosmic is pure and strong in
its action, though not wanting very much to combine with the earthly. The
earthly is just like a mirror here, taking nothing in, throwing everything
back.
In the
temperate zones: Here a balance has been achieved between earthly and cosmic
laws.
It is
obvious therefore: with regard to its organization of formative forces the
whole earth is just as 3-fold in structure as the plant itself. And it is due
to this 3-foldness that the plants of the tropics, the polar regions and the
temperate zones differ so characteristically from each other. In the tropics,
the boundaries of earth and cosmos are dissolved into each other; the root
element proliferates upwards, giant trees develop, with wood hard as iron. The
earth does not stop with the soil, and its forces rise up into the air; roots
hang from branches; they find their element in that air, an indication that the
air there bears within it something that is "earthy". Many other
plants wind upwards like lianae. On the other hand, the cosmic sphere and the
flowering process connected with it penetrate deeply. Certain plants become
nothing but flowers, their other organs being atrophied, and have to grow as
parasites on other plants. In others the flowers break forth from the stem,
even from the root. Scent and color, otherwise properties of the flower, appear
in leaf, wood, bark. The colors of flowers become strident, the flower-forms
animal-like, the scents heavy and overpowering. The number of poisonous plants
increases greatly. (In the poisonous wyw plants cosmic, astral spheres of being
break overwhelmingly into the physic of the plant concerned, breaking through
the etheric forces). In the plants of the polar regions, on the other hand, the
root element is strongly bound to the rocky soil, the plant may be said to be
creeping back into the root, so that this is the largest organ of the plant.
Leaves tend to be tiny, but the flower-forms are pure and large, with
wonderfully clear and glowing colors. What in the temperate zones is a tree
becomes a shrub here, often just a tiny, creeping growth; for instance the
polar birch. But the aroma is incomparably strong and noble. (A similar
contrast like that between polar and equatorial regions exists between high
mountains and lowland country, and also between winter and summer). The
temperate zones again represent the balance; in them the pure plant element is
least distorted. In the cycle of the year, spring and autumn correspond to
them, and it is only in these regions that these two seasons develop fully.
The 4
natural kingdoms on earth represent 4 stages of being. According to anthroposophical
spiritual science these came into being through 4 acts of creation. 4 acts of
creating the world were necessary to obtain these 4 stages. The symphony of the
world's creation may be said to have 4 movements. It took its origin in the
decisions and creative powers of high spiritual beings. Every physical fact
that is finally open to perception is preceded by a purely spiritual cause.
R.S.: 4
stations of world creation represented as the creation of the Old Saturn, the
Old Sun, the Old Moon and the Earth. The first 3 are preliminary to the
creation of the Earth, and without them the Earth could not have evolved. As to
the creatures of these 4 stations of creation, a different natural being was
created on each:
The 1st
station the Old Saturn the human germ, but this only developed to the level of
mineral organization. The Old Saturn was a world of warmth.
The 2nd
station, the evolution of the Old Sun, which arose after the death of Old
Saturn as a new impact of creation from the spiritual world, raised the human
germ to the level of plant being; it now had not just a physis as on the Old
Saturn, but this physis was given an etheric body; the building material at its
disposal was a physical substance condensed into an airy, gaseous state, filled
with light processes.
As a 2nd
kingdom of nature, there existed on the Old Sun a "remnant" of
warmth-and-mineral being which had remained at the level of the Old Saturn.
The 3rd
station of creation, the Old Moon wyw world, raised the human creature to the level
of animal being. The creative sacrifice of high spiritual beings gave of their
own substance of being to provide man with a soul quality, the astral
principle. With this, the Moon substance condensed as far as the fluid state.
As "remnants" of the earlier creations 2 natural kingdoms below that
of man continued to exist, a plant one and a mineral one. Then came the
creation of the earth. By filling the human germ with spiritual substance from
the sphere of spiritual being itself, it raised it to a spiritual being able to
comprehend itself, a bearer of Ego. As remnants of the 3 preceding creations,
the 3 kingdoms of nature below man have remained. Man therefore is the
first-born of creation, its key-note (even though he is the last to make his
appearance). He never went through the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms
existing !!! today; these are only remnants which could not be transformed into
human beings, cast-offs, one might say on the road to human development.
For
continuing the studies that are the aim of this book it is necessary to study
the evolution of the Old Moon which immediately preceded the evolution of the
earth.
The Old
Moon had 3 natural kingdoms. From these arose the 4 natural kingdoms of the
earth. Those 3 natural kingdoms of the Old Moon world were of a peculiar
nature. They were not mineral, plant and animal in the present-day sense, but
in-between beings which were in-between the natural kingdoms of today. In them
rested the germs of development of the earth world lying ahead of them.
Otherwise they would not have been capable of true development. The highest
kingdom was that of an animal-man (beings higher than the animal of today, but
with no ego and therefore lower than man of today).
The 2nd
kingdom represented an in-between sphere between the plant and animal beings of
today. Here one must speak of animal-plants and plant-animals. The lowest
kingdom on the Old Moon was a mineral-plant or plant-mineral kingdom somewhere
between the plant and the mineral of today. There was no dead, solid, stony
mineral ground on the Old Moon.
"We
have to imagine the whole ground and body of the Moon consisting of this
plant-mineral substance, just as the earth today consists of rocks and stones,
arable ??? soil, etc. As here and there rocks protrude from the earth today, so
in the Lunar mass, harder portions also were embedded. These might be likened
to forms made of hard wood or horn. Moreover, as plants today spring from the
mineral soil, so was the ground of the Moon covered and also penetrated, by a
2nd kingdom, consisting of a kind of plant-animal. Their substance was softer
than the basic mass, and more mobile in itself“.
Once one
has come to accept the idea of this Old Moon world with its "in-between
beings", it is possible to understand how as relics of that ancient
evolution the natural kingdoms of the earth have within them the tendency to
develop in-between forms (as abnormalities?). As we are primarily concerned
with the plant kingdom, this may help us to gain a better understanding of the
half mineral, half plant phenomena in plant life, as well as those showing an
interplay between plant and animal. In marshy regions and swamps one will see
and comprehend forms reminiscent of the lowest kingdom on the Old Moon, their
consistency somewhere between solid and fluid: on those soils actual
animal-plants also tend to arise (carnivorous plants wyw ). The many different
parasitic and semi-parasitic wyw plants also bear reminiscence of the Old Moon
world. They are not able to grow on the earthy soil of today, but only on a
living or half-living basis. On the other hand these plants often tend to
animal-like processes, they hypertrophy in this direction, producing flower
forms resembling animal forms [Orchids/Bromeliaceae (Poales)/Rafflesiae arnoldii (Malphigiales)]. Another aspect which is
illuminated through this point of view are the numerous instances of symbiosis between animals and plants. Many
bonds still exist where once there was a complete life-unit. Plants today have
"their" animals, animals "their" plants; at one time they
were complete animal-plant beings.
Paul
Francis:
Ether: Emotions
(grief)/whole body/throat/thyroid/joints
Air: Anxious/thin/skin/nerves/kidneys/lungs/heart/tall/short/underweight/light
Fire: Anger/power/stomach/pancreas/gall
bladder/heart/athletic/average weight/compact/lean/well-toned
Water: Reproductive
organs (sexual issues)/breasts/lungs/kidneys/lymph
system/heart/addictions/round or fleshy
Earth: Athletic/fear/sirvival/intestines/adrenals/tall/short/solid/heavy
In Pflanzen, die wie das Schöllkraut fast schon immergrün sind, wirkt auch Sal, das Feste, was den Bezug zu chronischen Krankheiten herstellt. Immergrüne unterstehen ferner Saturn, dem Herrn über chronische Krankheiten (Altersleiden).
The
organism consisting of 3 basic activity centres or poles.
1. An active animal = `metabolic pole' (red/hot/active/incl. blood/circulation/muscles/all physical activity/?endoderm?), - Das Stoffwechsel-Gliedmaßensystem mit dem Zentrum im Bauchraum, der sich knöchern nicht abschließt, offener ist und den Gliedmaßen, die sich nach außen wenden.
2. An inactive `cephalic or plant pole' (brain, nervous system and skeleton/white and hard or immovable/?ectoderm"). - In das Sinnes-Nervensystem, mit Zentrum in der knochenumhüllte Schadelhöhle,
3. And the balancing, rhythmic centre (=
rhythmic body) comprises the organs of balance and homoeostasis (lungs, liver,
heart, kidneys, pancreas, endocrine organs/?mesoderm?). - Das Rhythmische
System mit seinem Zentrum im knöchern halboffenen Brustraum
Skeleton
(white/hard regarded as part of the mineral/structural element of the body).
`Bone versus sugar' (white sugar powering muscles and the metabolic processes
of the organism) analogous to the alchemical/paracelsian opposites of salt
(structural) and sulphur (metabolic) which broadly compare with the 2 poles of
the organism. P combines with fats to form phospholipids and with sugars to
form glycerophosphates. Both are found in the nervous system/plant roots/cell
membranes. Phosphates are also very important in the energy interactions of the
organism.
Pancreas/liver/kidneys
= organs of balance. Balancing chemicals/= organs of homeostasis/= organs of
chemical balance/feedback opposed to the organs of `physical balance' (hips and
shoulders/with physical symmetry/support/balance). Basic idea of balance and
symmetry runs throught them all/it is important to recognise this.
Interesting
to note the whiteness of the skeletal/nervous systems (white/cream/pale yellow
of bones/nerves and of milk/yogurt/cheeses point to limestone/chalk/Ca/P/the
white is pale/cold/hard/structural linked to minerals)/contrasting with the
redness and brownness of the metabolic organs. and the earth element (the
redness of blood and muscles points towards Fe/rust/soil/redness links with
action/motion/energy/muscle/metabolism and the fire element). Steiner contrasts
animal with plant and root with flowers.
The animal
pole seems to link to S/Fe as being dynamic/red/itchy/flushed [Carbo-v. all
oxides and carbonates = better placed perhaps with Steiner's `rhythmic centre'
(heart/lungs) along with many of the heart (and often syphilitic) remedies].
The animal
pole can be divided into 3 parts: placing S/Fe/Nitrates as leaders of separate
sub-groups. Remember most proteins contain S and are linked to skin/hair/nails
and composed of nitrates in amino acids.
The
cephalic pole (bones/brain/nerves). Points to Ka-/Na-salts/Phosphates (= Salze
und Esther von Ph-ac./Calc salts)/Hg (= mercury)/white, pale and cream-coloured
remedies, plants and illnesses (As/syphilis miasm in general).
This pole can be further split into a
Phos-Kali-Natrium section linked with nerves
Phos. sub-pole also relates to
energy, carbohydrates, glycerophosphates, ATP, the mitochondria and tissue
respiration activities primarily of the rhythmic centre.
Calc-Fluor
section linked with bone./other remedies are cognate (= verwandt) =
Graph./Sil./Calc-f./Calc-p./Calc-sil./other Silicates,
Both link to fats, phospholipids, vitamins A, D and E, etc.
There is a division
within the animal pole as apart from S/Fe, we also have
muscles/proteins/animals in general/nitrates.
Thus
decomposition/Chlorides/Kaliums/Natriums/Nitrates all seem to go together as a
sub-group.
In muscles
and blood, proteins link up with Fe in haemoglobin. Thinking of the blood as an
example of the animal pole it can be seperated it into
water/nitrates/proteins/Fe/S through the link with proteins.
It can be
seen how blood links both to the 'cephalic' pole through its burden of
dissolved minerals like Ca and P (= bones and nerves) and with the rhythmic
centre carrying O, Carb-diox and sugar.
Linked to blood is the lymphatic system, burdening
with fats and thus another link to P, nerves and the cephalic pole. Lymph would
be seen as a link between blood/metabolic pole and the animal pole, and thus
part of the rhythmic centre. P appears to behave like an electrical capacitor
(= Kondensator): capturing/storing/releasing energy in ATP and NADH and so
linked to messages/nerve impulses/the electric eel (= Electrophorus electricus/Pisces) photosynthesis/bioluminescence and other energy-transactions
within organisms.
Precisely
which element becomes incorporated into which organ/bodily structure? Who
decides this, the organ/the element/the vital force? The organ attracts the
element/this finds the organ.
They are
cognate (= verwandt). Thus the elements become concentrated in certain
structures/organs. Like I in thyroid gland, Sil. in hair and skin, P in bone
and nerves and Fe in blood.
It is
natural to assume a strong degree of correspondence between the organ and the element.
For example
Ca and bone/P and nerves, Sil in human hair and nails/in the hairs of plants/in hair-like
grasses and Horsetail (Equis)/sting of Urt-d and the finest and most delicately
beautiful structures - Diatoms (Kieselgur) and Desmids, the sculpted shells
of microscopic algae of great beauty and intricacy. Also the fine detail on the
shells of many microscopic molluscs interlacing and skeletons. Silica types
have the loveliest features and the most beautiful hair and skin. Even the
intricate sculpturing of pollen grains is probably due to Silicates. (Silicea: glass/porcelain glazes).
Look at the
fine and delicate branching `growths' that occur when crystals of chemicals
like copper sulphate are placed in the `chemical garden' of sodium silicate (=
waterglass). These branching structures slowly grow over a number of weeks.
Again, we see an expression of fineness and delicacy that is so typical of the Silica
drug picture. The growths and the slowness typical of Silica are also present.
Problems
relating to lungs and nerves seem to share Merc. (= Hg) and P. Merc. connected
homoeopathically with the nervous system and the Syphilis miasm, has many
associated remedies. Phos also relates as remedy to the lungs/the nerves both
in its provings and the chemistry of nerves and fats. Significantly for
Steiner, neither the nervous system nor the lungs contain a single muscle
fibre. Mercury as the ruler of Gemini also rules the lungs/hands/arms/chest
from an astrological viewpoint. That system seems fine up to a point. We can
add Tub./Bac.
In strictly
Steinerian terms, the Calc of molluscs is the calcium that has been absorbed,
processed, and metabolised `through' the tissues of a living organism and thus
we might believe it has been transformed somehow into a partially organic form
and thereby rendered more suitable as an agent of healing in medicine. Steiner
held the view that a mineral or element is subtly altered (`retuned') when it
passes through an organism/in different ways according to the particular
organism it passes through. He stated that it becomes stamped with a subtle
`fingerprint' of features that typify the organism concerned (vegetabilisierte
Metalle).
According
to this view, crab-/egg-/oystershell (even from the same beach) would differ
from each other and from chalk/limestone/calcite in spite of their chemical
similarity.
Steiner
“For
anything pathological in the head we must look for medicines a long way back in
the evolution of the natural world. Something which reminds us of earlier
natural processes (fungi).
Their
present-day imperfect configuration as plants is, as it were, recapitulating
past plant development. Or to the algae/lichens/roots of perfect plants (being
the part which remains from earliest times)”.
Elsewhere
he said that fungi relate closely to all problems that are like headaches.
“Fungi relate esp. to the soul quality of thinking a lot about things/living in
the psyche in such a way that one does not need much from the outside world but
pumps everything out of oneself -, one will then again find that this inner
quality, which essentially points to the fungi, relates very closely to all
problems that have headache character. This will guide us to relationships
between fungi and headachetype conditions”
Poisonous
fungi can make nerve tissue capable of regeneration.
Those with
warty caps (Agar) act more towards the periphery, and those
with smooth caps like Amanita phalloides (= Agaricus bulbosus) act more in the
direction of the inner parts of nerve tissue.
Fungi
develop where the cosmic astrality influencing earth’s forces does not exhaust
itself in developing the flowers of plants above ground level but penetrates
further, to just above soil level. Fungi then result. Development of the colour
red is a counter action to this excessive astralization. ‘Wherever reddening
occurs in a natural process, we have powerful action against astralization” of
damaged nerve tissue. Use by injection via the rhythmical organism (appropriate
for restoring harmony between astral body and ether body).
Agaricus muscarius cutis rubra w:
“Algae and fungi
are the plants which are wholly immersed in the interactions between air and
watery element. Peculiar these plants have a powerful affinity to the sulphur
which is today present everywhere in small amounts in the watery element and in
air. This means that these plants, if brought into the rhythmical organism, are
particularly suitable for restoring harmony between the astral body and the
ether body”
A
„relatively“ high potency (D 30) directs the action mainly to the neurosensory
system.
R.S.
There is a
more elusive (= schwer zu fassen) side to Phos: as an underworld illuminator
(Lucifer) associated with the supernatural/light/candles/glowing
phosphorescence/bioluminescence and with ATP in the mitochondria. This seems to link it
more with the silvery Moon goddess, or the Electrophorus electricus = Zitteraal/hat elektrische Stromstöße als Waffe .Pisces and membranes or fats to something Aquarian (electricity) or even to Leo
(light).
Active metabolic pole of the organism
represented by the planet Mars, the colour red, the muscles, the metal iron,
and a series of remedies (Urt/Ferr-met/Sulph/Psor). This centre is clearly
linked with muscles, blood, action, adrenalin, rapid movements, decisions, even
masculinity, etc.
Eisen: Zuordnung zu Mars und Tierkreiszeichen Widder und Skorpion.
Marsische Mensch ist muskulös, athletisch, cholerisch/geprägt von einem großen Freiheitsdrang, er jagt von einer Tat zur anderen, ist stolz, aggressiv und egoistisch.
Die Organzuordnung ist die Galle, die somatische Entsprechung ist die innere Atmung, Zellatmung und die Sprach-Stimmfunktion. Schilddrüse.
Die Marsjahre sind der Zeit von 28 - 35 Jahre.
Bei Krankheiten neigt der marsische Mensch zu aggressiven, überschießenden Reaktionen, Verletzungen,
Anämie, Kopfschmerz und Galleleiden.
Soluna 4 (bei fieberhaften Infekten/Infektanfälligkeit/-abwehr). Dienstag dem Mars zugeordnet.
Mars Pflanzen mit bitterem Geschmack und Wehrhaftigkeit,
Eisenverbundene Seelenanlage ist martialisches Denken und Rednergabe
Remedies
that might be useful for disease/we begin to see the usefulness of Steiner's
metaphysical approach. Various homoeopaths and metaphysicians (Paracelsus) from
the same angle.
The earth
itself might be metaphysically connected along bodily lines with rocks (white
chalk/limestone) suggesting the bones of the skeleton; soils (like
blood/muscles) often red and rust coloured suggesting flesh; grass and trees
like the hair or fur; atmosphere/rain/clouds akin to the respiratory system.
Continents would be like vast organs and the oceans like the blood and
lymphatic systems.
This scheme
can then be followed through in greater detail to give some ideas of likely
correspondences between remedies and illnesses/between earth parts and body
parts/between earth processes and disease processes.
As
medicinal agents: rocks and minerals in general suggest a relationship within
the body to all structural disorders (affecting the harder more mineralised
parts like bones/teeth/hair/nails).
By analogy
with the chemical composition of the main rock types, remedies here might fall
into silicious, aluminicious and calcareous categories: Alum. Calc. Sil.
Sulph./Lava/Cinnb.
are more volcanic.
Included here the harder and more mineralised parts of plants:
nuts/seeds/bark/roots. Remedies. Equis. Lyc. Kola. Sabad. Nux-v. Pyrus (contains
gritty particles like sand). Slippery parts of plants like the stems
Tarax./inner bark of Salix spp. other trees, suggest cartilage and jointed
plant stems. Many rushes, grasses and umbellifers suggest the joints of the skeleton.
Grasses and
soils might
be useful for hair and muscle problems. Plants with tough, fibrous or sinewy
roots Symph/Tarax/Rumx/Arn/Mand/Plant/Bry/Bel-p/Glyc/Rheum/Zing might
metaphysically suggest a therapeutic relationship with nerves, sinews, tendons
and ligaments.
Plants ó Ashes
(carbonates/oxides/kalium salts/phosphates/aluminium/Mg/Na) ó minerals. Ashes are largely alkaline (= sauer) and
generally highly soluble in water. Remedies:: Kaliums /Al/Na/Mg
salts/Phosphates/metal oxides. As shown in homoeopathic provings, these salts
have an affinity with nervous, skin and digestive systems of humans and with
conditions like MS/Alzheimer's/Schizophrenia etc.
Volcanic substances [Lava/Sulph./Merc./Pumice
(Alum-sil.)/Cinnb./Sulphides]/metals and some precious stones show affinity
with eruptive disorders of the skin: pimples/boils/acne etc and symptoms like
heat/redness/itching/foul smells, and with electricity and magnetism/nerve
impulse transmission/many subcellular metabolic reactions.
Carb-v.
shows similar affinities with the lungs, being a blending of the earth and air
elements and consisting of a lung-like spongey matrix. (Spong.).
Two other
important groups of remedies acids and metals, both widely used. The affinities
of each group can either be delineated from the provings and correspondence
with the metaphysical aspects of life worked out from that, or their likely
clinical affinities derived from their habit, properties and form. Some examples include:
Zn/Fe/Sn/Pb/Cu/Se/Pt/Au/Ag/Cd; Phos-ac./Nit-ac./Mur-ac./Sul-ac./Acet-ac.
As with
precious stones, the metals tend to be formed within the earth's crust under
intense heat and pressure, in areas of metamorphic activity involving
recrystallisation/restructuring, sublimation/concentration of otherwise thinly
dispersed elements. These processes might in themselves suggest analogous
processes in the body and in disease for which they may be useful, for example
small intestine/kidneys/bone marrow/liver/spleen all involve activities of this
type. Cancer/AIDS/Leukaemia/MS/degenerative conditions. This means organs
containing filtering, sieving and re-shaping processes and diseases of a
similar type.
Working
botanically, we might choose plants that grow predominantly in certain
habitats, in DRY areas
(Cacti/succulents/houseleeks/Sedum spp) or those that always live in
or near water
(Con./Scroph-n./Alnus/Salx./Imp-g.), mountains (Lyc./Sorbus/Arn.), volcanoes/hot springs (Sulph./Pumice =
Bimsstein/Hekla), growing near the sea (Sea Pink + Sea Lettuce = Algae/Fuc./Eryng.)
and such remedies deserve special mention because of the metaphysical
undertones suggested by these regions.
Information
from provings of the homooepatic type can be supplemented by meditating upon
the plant or mineral and its habitat, likes and dislikes, etc. This approach is
enriching and should not be dismissed out of hand as unclassical or
unhomoeopathic.
Doctrine of
signatures A similar metaphysical approach was certainly used in medieval
herbalism and called the doctrine of signatures. One might consider the shape,
form, habitat, textures, colour, taste, odour, chemical or medicinal properties
and combine them to form a metaphysical profile of a particular body-part, drug
or disease.
These metaphysical signatures are often
contradictory or contain divergent elements in the sense that the colour may
signify animal pole (red flowers/peppery taste) while the plant may exude a white
latex and grow near water (both lunar and digestive affinities). It would
therefore require considerable further contemplation of the plant in order to
decide its actual sphere of action. One affinity might take precedence over all
the others and decide the final medicinal properties. Alternatively,
approaching this phenomenologically, one can take the plant as a totality and
then search for diseases with a similar totality.
Thus the
doctrine of signatures is more subtle and complex than literal interpretations
suggests and requires much more detail and depth of contemplation of a plant,
drug, body-part or illness in order to penetrate into its full metaphysical
significance.
Steiner:
was interested in the Four Temperaments of Hippocrates/medieval medical theory.
He accepts the validity of the 4 Humours not literally as physical fact but on
a symbolic level, for elucidating affinities and personality types, and
further, for working out the symbolic nature and affinities of diseases and
drugs. In this sense he carries to its logical conclusion the founding work of
the Hippocratic writers, Paracelsus/Medieval Herbalists.
4-teilig:
he accepts the fourfold elements:
Earth (black bile/melancholic),
Water (phlegm/phlegmatic),
Fire (yellow bile/choleiric)
Air (blood/sanguine).
Überwiegt eines der Elemente im Menschen, so hat er ein Temperament entsprechend der Wesensart des jeweiligen Elements;
Sanguiniker Luft (Sanguis = Blut)
Melancholiker Erde (Melancholia = Schwarzgalligkeit).
Typischen Choleriker: Feuer (Chole = Galle)
ständig läuft eine Laus über die Leber. Gallsüchtig, mit Haaren auf den Zähnen, treibt unseren Patienten sein syphillinisches Temperament von einem Wutanfall zum nächsten. Es bedarf nur eines kleinen Tropfens, um seine Galle zum Überlaufen zu bringen. Nicht selten endet so ein Temperamentsausbruch in der Zerstörung, wenn nicht von sich selbst, dann von anderen; bestenfalls geht nur das Mobiliar zu Bruch.
Mit seinem unbeugsamen Herrscherwillen vernichtet er alle Widerstände. Seine Devise lautet: "Ich bin das Wort, die Macht und die Herrlichkeit".
Krankheiten des Cholerikers: rot, trocken sowie heiß und haben einen plötzlichen und dramatischen Verlauf (z.B. akute Krankheiten mit hohem Fieber).
Auch beeinflusst die Cholerik das Herz-Kreislauf-System negativ.
Wenn ihn nicht wegen seines Hypertonus ein Apoplexie plötzlich dahinrafft, dann vielleicht eine Gallenkolik mit einem akutem Bauch als Folgezustand, verursacht durch Gallensteine, im Volksmund auch "Ärgersteine" genannt, o. seine ausgesprochene Vorliebe für Wein, Weib und Gesang wird ihm zum Verhängnis.
Häufig klagt er über eine Versteifung im Schultergürtel und leidet unter Migräne r./Schwindel/Benommenheit.
Leber ist „Organ des Leidens“
Der Phlegmatiker Wasser (Phlegma = Dampf)
zeigt in allen Lebensfunktionen Trägheit und Langsamkeit. Sein psorisches Temperament neigt besonders zu Depressionen. Sein Leitsatz heißt "ich kann nicht, ich will nicht, lasst mir meine Ruhe". Ständige Sorgen, Erschöpfung und Lethargie/Willensschwäche und Ohnmacht gegenüber den Anforderungen des Lebens. Er neigt besonders zu Verdauungsschwäche sowie zu kalter und chronischer Symptomatik und zu ödematöser Schwellung. Ausgeprägt entwickelt sich in späteren Stadien aus der kalten und feuchten Natur des Phlegmatikers, die kalte und trockene Natur des Melancholikers. In diesem Zustand erhöht sich die Neigung zu chronischen Lungenerkrankungen wie Emphysem o. Bronchiektasie und es verstärkt sich die Ca-Latenz im Patienten.
Das Wechselspiel von Cholerik und Phlegma
Scheinbar bilden Cholerik und Phlegma/Melancholie unüberbrückbare Gegensätze.
Doch lässt sich immer wieder beobachten, wie der Phlegmatiker, nachdem man ihn lange genug gereizt hat, einen spontanen Gemütsausbruch hat; allerdings hat er vor den Folgen große Angst. Es entspricht nicht seiner Natur, sich Widerständen mit Gewalt zu nähern.
Auch den Choleriker prägt die Angst, allerdings ganz anders als den Phlegmatiker. Seine Angst gilt dem Zusammenbruch seiner Lebensenergie, die er im Kleinen immer wieder als plötzliche Erschöpfung und als spontanen Depressionsausbruch erlebt. In dieser erzwungenen Ruhe kann er aber nichts mit sich anfangen. Um diesem Zustand auszuweichen, greift er immer wieder zu Stimulantia, stürzt sich in Arbeit/sucht Ablenkungen/bis zur totalen Erschöpfung.
Drastisch formuliert, haben Phlegmatiker und Melancholiker Angst vor dem Leben, Choleriker dagegen Angst vor dem Tod.
Der Choleriker lebt deswegen ganz auf der Tagseite des Lebens. Sein Bestreben gilt der Durchsetzung seiner Ich-Vorstellungen. Dies erfordert einen Verbrauch seiner Lebensenergie, analog der abbauenden Funktion der Gallensäuren.
Der Phlegmatiker dagegen pflegt auf der Nachtseite des Lebens zu stehen. Er verzichtet zu Gunsten des bewahrenden Prinzips, analog der aufbauenden Stoffwechselfunktion der Leber, auf die Durchsetzung seiner Ich-Vorstellungen.
Diese Beziehung von Cholerik und Phlegma zur Tag und Nachtseite des Lebens spiegelt die Prometheussage wider.
Es zeigt sich also, dass es in der Therapie wichtig ist, den Choleriker auf sanfte Weise zu mehr Ruhe und Gelassenheit zu bewegen, dagegen beim Phlegmatiker/Melancholiker Aktivität und mehr "Biss" zu erzeugen.
From these
can be built up a towering and complex classification of
diseases/organs/remedies/planets/metals/zodiacal signs and qualities all in the
same fourfold system.
It would
serve no purpose to describe these in any detail here/many homoeopathic
remedies as well as Hahnemann's Miasm Theory can all be easily hung on the same
basic framework.
Classifications
based on threes and fives in the Druidic teachings; fives figure highly in
Chinese philosophy and Buddhism; classifications based upon seven and nine are
also common in Occultism.
There are 7
planets, 7 days of the week, 7 main metals, etc.
We can make
a number of criticisms about the metaphysical approach to illness (for
determining the medicinal properties of drugs). The system is good: it
generates a lot of information, but also is misleading/inaccurate/speculative.
One must be prepared to absorb a great deal of information and complex
classification systems, that can prove to be unwieldy and complex. Yet some are
happy with this approach and therefore it suits a certain temperament.
Its chief
drawback is that it can lead to confusion/errors. If a plant contains divergent
properties then the system is in difficulty. For example, a plant with mars-like properties
(thorns/prickles/peppery taste/red flowers) clearly suits the metabolic centre.
But if it also had lunar qualities (watery swollen tissues, silvery
leaves and always grew near water) then this might cause some confusion. What
medicinal properties could it reasonably be expected to contain?
Hahnemann: give it to healthy people
in a proving and then you will find out.
Steiner: scrutinise its qualities and ruminate
or resort to `higher faculties'. He might also say such a problem cannot arise,
because such plants don't exist because that's the way the world was formed!
While this approach is surprisingly successful and does yield some very
valuable information about drugs, it does not appear to be a universally
applicable or consistent method.
It might
result in the medicinal properties of some potent drug being entirely missed by
not being indicated from the appearance of the plant. Very similar looking or
closely related plant species may yield entirely divergent therapeutic
properties (Primula spp./Arn./Cham./Bel-p.). Steiner use different parts of the
same plant for totally different types of medical conditions. Example: use of
Beta foliae for metabolic disorders/Betula cortex for cephalic pole disorders.
This could be ridiculed by homoeopaths/pharmacologists. But, if it works, then
there is no problem.
So, the
main critique would show an apparently illogical/inconsistent/unreliable
method, though it certainly generates some very fascinating
ideas/remedies/therapeutic guidelines.
Die Entwicklung des Menschen und der Erde gemäß der Kosmologie der Rosenkreuzer und Steiners Anthroposofie
Ebenso wie jeder einzelne Mensch inkarniert sich auch die Erde, indem sie planetarische Wiedergeburten durchläuft in unvorstellbar langen Intervallen, die Milliarden von Jahren dauern. Die wichtigsten nach dem Saturn, der Sonne und dem Mond benannt hat die Erde in einer Zeit durchlaufen, als unser Planet und die genannten Himmelskörper noch nicht in der heutigen Form existiert haben.
Was diese Himmelskörper heute darstellen, sind getrennte, verfestigte Gebilde, die sich unter Einfluss der ansässigen geistigen Wesen von der Erde getrennt haben (früher waren sie jedoch eins mit der Erde). In der Saturn-Epoche hatte unser Planet lediglich eine thermische Qualität. In der Sonnen-Phase hat die Erde eine Art Luftkonsistenz angenommen und im Mond-Zeitalter kondensierten Teile davon in eine wässrig-gallertartige Form
4-Teilung: (4 Elemente: Feuer, Luft, Wasser und Erde gehen auch auf diese Entwicklung zurück). Die dichtesten Anteile wurden schließlich zur festen Materie, bis sich die Erde in die heutige Form entwickelt hat. (Lemuria/Atlantis, wo der physische Körper des Menschen noch nicht die heutige Form und Festigkeit hatte und der Mensch die Welt anders wahrgenommen hat, als nur über die physischen Sinne
wie heute). Der Untergang von Atlantis (die Sintflut) führte zur Auswanderung der überlebenden Atlanter und zur Verbreitung ihres Fortschrittes in andere Kontinente. Dies erklärt viele ähnliche Funde und Phänomene an verschiedenen Orten und die hohe spirituelle Entwicklungsstufe indianischer, asiatischer und ägyptischer Eingeweihter. Dies waren bereits Vorzeichen des gegenwärtigen, postatlantischen Zeitalters und der einzelnen kulturellen Epochen.
Zur Chronologisierung lässt sich z.B. die Anthroposophie von Steiner heranziehen:
1) die Urindische Kultur (ab 7227 v.Chr.),
2) die Urpersische Kultur (ab 5067 v.Chr.),
3) die Ägyptisch-Chaldäisch-Babylonische Kultur (ab 2907 v.Chr.),
4) die Griechisch-Lateinische Kultur (ab 747 v.Chr.)
5) die Germanisch-Angelsächsische Kultur (ab 1413 n.Chr. bis heute).
Danach werden im Abstand von jeweils 2160 Jahren (das platonische Jahr) die nächsten zwei Epochen folgen, bevor
sich die Entwicklung weiter fortsetzen wird: 6) die Slawische und 7) die Philadelphische Kulturepoche.
Die obige Darstellung beschreibt, wie unser Planet mit der Zeit eine "gröbere Dichte" angenommen hat.
Ähnlich entwickelte sich auch die Menschheit und der menschliche Körper (in Saturn-Epoche). Er hatte damals zuerst auch nur eine thermische Struktur und nahm im Laufe der nachfolgenden Sonnenund Mondphase stufenweise weitere Aspekte an, bis zur Entstehung des physischen Körpers in heutiger Form. Während dieser Phasen nahm der Mensch auch die weitere Körper an während der Sonnenzeit den ätherischen Körper während der Mondzeit den astralen Körper (nicht die heutige Form/sondern die jeweilige Vorform).
Erde Unvollkommen:
Jeder dieser Bestandteile war eine Gabe spiritueller Mächte, die für die Evolution der Menschheit jeweils ein Stück ihrer eigenen Substanz zur Verfügung gestellt haben.
Gleichzeitig entstanden auch Vorformen der Mineralien sowie die der Flora und Fauna.
Der physische Körper in Wechselbeziehung mit der Welt der Minerale,
Der ätherische Körper in Wechselbeziehung mit der Pflanzenwelt
Der astrale Körper in Wechselbeziehung mit dem Tierreich (Tieren haben einen ätherischen/astralen Körper/letzterer hat bei ihnen die führende Rolle und im Unterschied zum Menschen sind ihre seelisch-spirituellen Komponenten kollektiver Natur, d.h. sie haben kein autonomes Ich).
2-Teilung: In der Mondphase sind das männlichen und weiblichen Prinzips entwickelt (Mensch hatte bis dahin kein Geschlecht), konnten sich Menschen auf der Erde nunmehr eigenständig vermehren (= inkarnieren).
Der Sinn und die Hauptbedingung für die weitere Entwicklung des Menschen auf der Erde ist demnach die Liebe. Ihr Archetyp Jesus Christus musste sich deshalb auf der Erde inkarnieren, weil die Menschen in Zeiten des Materialismus nur so zum Glauben finden konnten. Ab dem Zeitpunkt (der Kreuzigung auf Golgota) verläuft die Entwicklung wieder rückwärts, allerdings auf einer höheren Ebene. Die jetzige Phase entspricht gewissermaßen der ägyptischen Epoche, jedoch ist spirituelles Wissen heutzutage öffentlich zugänglich. Und damit sich die Menschheit weiterentwickeln kann, muss sie trotz oder parallel zu ihrem technologischen Fortschritt eine höhere spirituelle Durchdringung erreichen.
3-Teilung: Die existentielle Grundlage des Menschen ist seine Dreiheit, die er schon auf dem alten Saturn gehabt hat Körper, Geist und Seele. Doch erst auf der heutigen Erde war seine Entwicklung so weit fortgeschritten, dass er ein Ich annehmen konnte. Dadurch wurde er zu einem autonomen Wesen und begann sich als Individuum zu entwickeln (bis dahin war seine geistig-seelische Struktur kollektiv, ähnlich wie bei den Tieren). Damit erhielt er auch seinen freien Willen, was auch die Möglichkeit von Irrtümern und das Phänomen der menschlichen Karma mit sich brachte. Während der ersten Inkarnationen auf der Erde hatte jeder Mensch bereits sein eigenes Ich, verhielt sich aber noch größtenteils wie ein Tier. Seine höheren Komponenten befanden sich allesamt auf einem niedrigen Niveau und der am meisten bestimmende Aspekt war der astrale Körper und die ihm innewohnenden Triebe und Leidenschaften. Der heutige Mensch steht also in erster Reihe vor der Aufgabe, seinen astralen Körper zu transformieren, später dann auch den ätherischen und den physischen Körper. Jeder sollte mit Hilfe seines Ichs daran arbeiten, seiner Emotionen, Triebe und Leidenschaften Herr zu werden und seine geistigen und spirituellen Anteile zu entwickeln, die ihrerseits auch jeweils in drei Aspekte unterteilt werden können. Der physische Körper ist zwar der unterste, aber auch der älteste und am meisten entwickelte Teil des menschlichen Wesens. Deshalb ist er im Allgemeinen bei allen Menschen gleich entwickelt, wohingegen es zwischen der jeweiligen geistigen und spirituellen Entwicklungsstufe große Unterschiede gibt.
Die Idee, dass Materie/Universum/Mensch eine spirituelle Grundlage haben, wird von vielen abgelehnt. Andere verbreiten wiederum die falsche Ansicht, dass der Körper und die Materie minderwertig sind und die Inkarnation auf der Erde letztendlich etwas Überflüssiges sei. Sie versuchen, die Menschheit vorzeitig zu spiritualisieren, entgegen der Tatsache, dass die Erde genau jener Ort ist, wo der Mensch seinen Gesamtfortschritt am besten vorantreiben kann. Die eben erwähnten Einstellungen bringen die Menschheit allerdings nicht weiter. Es werden noch viele Inkarnationen nötig sein, bis der Mensch soweit ist, dass er seinen physischen Körper ablegen kann und der ätherische Körper dadurch zu seinem gröbsten Bestandteil wird. Aber auch danach wird er noch sehr lange brauchen, bis er ans Ziel gelangt.....
Frei nach: Victor Bot
Ego Herz Feuer Cholerisch Ich-leib (Ego) funktioniert durch Wärme, denkt/reflektiert/selbstbewusst/individualisiert
Astralleib Niere Luft Sanguinisch Astralleib = Seeleleib = verbunden mit Luft/Gas/Tier/Bewegung. Träger der
Gefühle/Verlangen/Trieben/Instinkt/Empfindung/Leidenschaft
Ätherisch Leib Leber Wasser Phlegmatisch Ätherisch Leib = verbunden mit der Pflanze/Wasser/hat regenerative/formgebende Funktion (am
Stärkste im Schlafe)/Lebenskräfte innerlich schlummernd,
Physische Leib Lunge Erde Melancholisch Physische Leib = materielle Substanz/= sichtbare Körper/wird mit agiert.
Polarität/Gegensätze: Streben nach unten nach oben (vertikal) Astralleib + Ichleib. Vorstellungen/Planung/Ideen/Zuschauer/Antipathy/“kalte“ Nach innen/Aufnahme: Sinneseindrücke/Luft/Nahrung formgebend; Gefühle: Angst;
Krankheit: Zwangshandlungen/depressiv/Phobia/ängstlich/autistisch/Tumoren/Steinenförmung/Diabetes/Gout
und
seitwärts (horizontal) Physische Leib + etherisches Leib/Instinkt/Aktivität/Trieb/Beteiligte(r)/Sympathy/“Wärme“
Nach außen/Abgabe: Urin/Faeces/Bewegung
Gefühle: Wut/Krankheit: ADHD/hyperaktiv/manisch/Wahnen/Wut/destruktiv/Entzündungen/Fieber
Die beide polaritäten werden gemischt: z.B. der Atemrhythmus/Kauen im Oberpol/
z.B. die Gefühle werden ausgedrückt durch Glieder
Werden zusammen gehalten/koordiniert durch Rhythmische System
Dreifaltigkeit:
Denken:
Fühlen:
Wille:
sanguinisch: braucht Vielfalt um Interesse des Kindes zu befriedigen/diese Vielfalt muss abwechselnd sein/das Kind für sich gewinnen
choleirisch: braucht respekt vor natürlicher Authorität
melancholisch: Respekt vor Erfahrung der Erwachsenen
Phlegmatisch
1e Erdenzeitalter: Saturn Mit „Menschen“; Ohne Mineralien/Pflanzen/Tieren;
Wärme in abwechselnde/unterschiedliche Formen
1. Spiegelt Wesenheiten (u.a. Kyriotetes) und ihre Eigenschaften, hat keine eigene,
die sich selbst bewusst werden und dadurch entwickeln (ist „Urwille“ = Throne)
2. Archai = Urbeginne = Wesen, die wirken wie gegenwärtige menschliche Persönlichkeiten
physische Leib Vollkommen
Krankheit
3. Zwischen Saturn und Sonne entwickeln sich Sinnesorganen
Seraphim (= Geister der Liebe) können diese Sinnesorganen benutzen und Eindrücke an Feuergeister weitergeben ohne eigenes Nutzen
4. Söhne des Zwielichts o. des Lebens = Angeloi
Geschmack entwickelt sich
2e Erdenzeitalter: Sonne Feuergeister = Archangeloi = Erzengel bestehen mit Art Traumbewusstsein „Wie Menschen“, aber lebhafter
Gas
Lebens-/Bilder-/Ätherleib Weniger vollkommen
Stoffwechsel entwickelt sich verbunden mit Geister der Harmonien = Cherubim erzeugen
Bewusstsein 1. wie Traumbewusstsein des heutigen Menschen,
2. Schlafbewusstsein
3e Erdenzeitalter: Mond Wesenheiten: Excusiai = Gewalten
Unterteilung in Lebewesen ‡
Wasser = flüssig
Astralleib Wenig vollkommen
Träger von Begierden/Leidenschaft/Lust/Leid
4e Erdenzeitalter: Erde Mineralien Fest
Geistesmensch (= Atma Keim gestaltet in Saturnzeitalter/Buddhi = Lebensgeist gestaltet in Sonnezeitalter)
Erde Unvollkommen
Die anthroposophische Medizin gründet sich auf die “4 Wesensglieder”. Die können Sie zwar nicht sehen, aber erleben und spüren. Krankheiten werden diese Wesensglieder zugeordnet: skleroseartig, geschwulstartig, entzündungsartig und lähmungsbedingt.
Der “physische Leib” = sichtbare Körper/wird mit agiert.
Der “Ätherleib” Lebenskräfte innerlich schlummernd,
Der “Astralleib” Instinkt/Empfindung/Leidenschaft.
Das Zentrum der Persönlichkeit, das Bewusstsein, nennt Steiner “das Ich”.
Die Grundlage der anthroposophischen Behandlung sind homöopathische, potenzierte Einzelsubstanzen, pflanzliche, tierische o. eine Mischung aus verschiedenen Komponenten.
Metalle spielen bei diesem Naturheilverfahren eine große Rolle/gerne als vegetabilisierte Metalle eingesetzt (hergestellt: eine Pflanze wird 3 Jahre lang Rhythmus einem metallhaltigen Boden ausgesetzt, danach kompostiert, bis sie von dem Metall durchdrungen ist und zwecks Medikamentengewinnung geerntet wird. Jede Arzneisubstanz soll nun zu Ihren Wesensgliedern eine unterschiedliche Affinität haben. Zum Beispiel sollen sich pflanzliche Stoffe für Ihren astralen Bereich, tierische für Ihr ätherisches Wesen, Mineralien und Metalle für das “Ich” eignen.
Visc (= Mistel) = bekannteste Arzneipflanze der anthroposophischen Medizin/auch von andere Ärzten angewendet.
Wichtig bei Selbstbehandlung: keine problematischen Mittel wie Blei oder Quecksilber in Tiefenpotenzen verwenden!
Anarchismus und soziale Dreigliederung: Ein Vergleich von Sylvain Coiplet
Michail Bakunin (russischer Revolutionär und Anarchist/gilt als einer der einflussreichsten Denker der anarchistischen Bewegung/erster Organisator)
Steiner (österreichischer Esoteriker und Philosoph/Begründer der Anthroposophie)
Bakunin versus R.S.
Religion: Die Freiheit als Beweis oder als Tod Gottes?
Freiheit gibt es nicht ohne Materialismus. Dies ist die Überzeugung der meisten Anarchisten. Sie findet sich schon bei einem der ersten Anarchisten, Proudhon. In einer Kampfschrift gegen die Religion stellt er Luzifer als den Befreier der Menschheit dar. Er hat sie nämlich von Gott befreit. Dieser Gedanke findet sich bei Bakunin wieder, nur in einer noch radikaleren Form. Wer einen Gott über sich stellt, der verzichtet auf seine Freiheit.
Bakunin: Jehovah, von allen Göttern gewiss der eifersüchtigste/eitelste/roheste/ungerechteste/blutgierigste/despotischste/menschlicher Würde und Freiheit feindlichste, schuf Adam und Eva aus man weiß
nicht was für einer Laune heraus, ohne Zweifel, um seine Langeweile zu vertreiben, die bei seiner ewigen egoistischen Einsamkeit schrecklich sein muss, oder um sich neue Sklaven zu schaffen; dann stellte er ihnen edelmütig die ganze Erde mit allen ihren Früchten und Tieren zur Verfügung, wobei er diesem vollständigen Genuß nur eine einzige Grenze setzte. Er verbot ihnen ausdrücklich, die Frucht vom Baume der Erkenntnis zu essen. Er wollte also, dass der Mensch, allen Bewußtseins seiner selbst beraubt, ewig ein Tier bleibe, dem ewigen Gott, seinem Schöpfer und Herren, untertan. Aber da kam Satan, der ewige Rebell, der erste Freidenker und Weltenbefreier. Er bewirkt, dass der Mensch sich seiner tierischen Unwissenheit und Unterwürfigkeit schämt; er befreit ihn und drückt seiner Stirn das Siegel der Freiheit und Menschlichkeit auf, indem er ihn antreibt, ungehorsam zu sein und die Frucht vom Baume der Erkenntnis zu essen.
Diesem Gedanken widmet Bakunin eine zentrale Passage in dem Werk, von dem später ein Fragment den Titel Gott und der Staat bekommen hat. Dort greift er einen alten Witz von Voltaire auf, der heißt: Man müsste Gott erfinden, wenn es ihn nicht geben würde. Mit anderen Worten: Dass es Gott gibt, sind wir uns eigentlich nicht mehr ganz sicher, machen wir aber lieber so weiter, als ob es ihn geben würde. Bakunin zieht lieber den Umkehrschluss: Gott müsste man abschaffen, wenn es ihn geben würde. Er mag noch so liebevoll und freiheitlich sein, ein Gott bleibt trotzdem ein Herr.
Wenn Gott ist, so ist der Mensch unfrei, der Mensch kann und soll aber frei sein, also gibt es keinen Gott. Ich fordere jeden auf, diesem Kreis zu entgehen, und nun mag man wählen.
Hier zeigt sich wie der Materialismus die Menschheit zur Freiheit erzieht. Nur ist es bei Bakunin eher umgekehrt: Seine Freiheitsliebe hat ihn zum Materialisten gemacht. Seinen Glauben an Gott hätte er gern behalten, wenn er nicht dadurch in diesen Teufelskreis gekommen wäre.
Steiner: Hier zeigt sich auch, warum Mackay von Steiner nichts mehr hören will, als dieser zum Theosophen wird. Steiner wird damit nicht nur zum Spinner, sondern noch dazu gefährlich. Wer dem
Materialismus abschwört, der stellt zugleich die Freiheit in Frage. Bakunin und Mackay sind sich wenigstens in dieser Frage einig: Ohne Materialismus keine Freiheit.
Mackay: Ich glaubte nie an einen Gott da droben,
Den Lügner oder Toren nur uns geben.
Ich sterbe und ich wüsste nichts zu loben
Vielleicht nur Eins dass wir nur einmal leben!
Das Paradoxe dabei ist, dass das Gedicht, woraus ich diese Zeilen entnommen habe, von Steiner selbst zitiert wird und er dem sogar ausdrücklich zustimmt. Dann lässt sich schon besser nachvollziehen, wieso Mackay von der späteren Wandlung Steiners überrascht gewesen ist. Steiner selber kann man aber auch besser verstehen, wenn man sich den Kontext etwas näher anschaut. Steiner zitiert aus derselben Gedichtssammlung auch ein Jugendgedicht von Mackay, das noch stark religiös gefärbt ist. Diesem Gedicht stimmt er auch zu, mit der Begründung: Wer sich als Jugendlicher so stark hingeben konnte, der darf sich später auf sich selbst stellen. Er macht es nicht aus innerer Armut. Es geht also nicht nur darum, ob Religiosität oder nicht, sondern darum welche Religiosität. Und daher auch welcher Materialismus. Wenn zwei dasselbe sagen, ist es nicht dasselbe. Für Mackay ist dagegen bezeichnend, dass er diese Jugendgedichte aus den späteren Auflagen der Sammlung entfernt hat. Was Steiner zu diesen Gedichten zu sagen hatte, scheint ihm also nicht besonders eingeleuchtet zu haben.
Bakunin: Ähnliches ließe sich von Bakunin sagen, sobald man seine Jugendbriefe (Briefe an seine Schwester), heranzieht. Dort ist Gott noch allgegenwärtig. Seine engsten Freunde sind auch ziemlich verblüfft
gewesen, als er plötzlich zum Atheisten wurde. Mit einer solchen Bekehrung hatte keiner gerechnet, auch nicht diejenigen, welche selber Atheisten waren.
Steiner: Materialismus ist also nicht gleich Materialismus. Religiosität ist aber auch nicht gleich Religiosität. Hier liegt der Schlüssel zum Verständnis Steiners. Er beschreibt mit der größten
Selbstverständlichkeit die verschiedensten geistigen Wesenheiten. Sie werden so konkret, dass die Sammelbezeichnung Gott oder Teufel, demgegenüber abstrakt klingt. Aber gerade bei dieser Beschreibung wird deutlich, dass der Mensch den Materialismus brauchte, um zur Freiheit geboren zu werden. Der Materialismus ist für Gott das Mittel gewesen, sich zugunsten der menschlichen Freiheit zu entmachten. Einmal geboren kann aber diese Freiheit aus dem Materialismus herauswachsen. Steiner kritisiert nicht, dass es zum Materialismus gekommen ist, sondern dass es dabei bleibt. Es ist natürlich leichter frei zu sein, wenn man allein bleibt. Hat sich die Freiheit aber befestigt, dann kann sie es sich leisten, noch dazu religiös zu sein.
So gesehen ist Steiner nicht mehr ein Anarchist, der die Freiheit an Gott verraten hat, sondern ein Philosoph der Freiheit, der darüber enttäuscht worden ist, wie wenig die Anarchisten aus ihrer Freiheit gemacht haben.
Enttäusch wird man aber auch, wenn man lesen muss, wie Bakunin in einer Vortragsnachschrift von Steiner zitiert wird. Die oben erwähnte Formel sieht nämlich dort ganz anders aus:
Steiner: Wenn Gott ist, so ist der Mensch frei, der Mensch ist Sklave, also gibt es keinen Gott. Ich bin überzeugt, dass niemand aus diesem Kreise heraus kann, und jetzt lasst uns wählen.
Vorhin war der Mensch unfrei, wenn Gott ist, nun soll genau das Gegenteil der Fall sein: Wenn Gott ist, so ist der Mensch frei. Und die Verwirrung geht noch weiter.
Im Zitat von Bakunin sollte der Mensch frei sein, nun gilt stattdessen: Der Mensch ist aber unfrei. Das Einzige, was bei einer solchen Formel noch verwandt mit Bakunin bleibt, ist der Schluss, der daraus zu ziehen ist: Also bin ich Materialist.
Steiner: geht es hier allerdings nicht um diesen Schluss. Er geht vielmehr auf den Ausgangspunkt der Formel ein. Seine Kritik richtet sich an Bakunins Freiheitsauffassung. Bei Bakunin soll es immer heißen:
Der Mensch ist frei oder unfrei. Frei kann man aber nicht sein, sondern nur werden. Die Freiheit ist dem Menschen nicht gegeben, er muss sie sich selbst erringen. Mit meinen Worten: Steiner geht es um eine Freiheit, die alle Passivität überwunden hat, um eine aktive Freiheit. Für eine solche Auffassung gibt es in der Tat keinen Platz bei der Formel von Bakunin, wie sie von Steiner zitiert wird. Bei der Originalformel aber schon. Dort heißt es: Der Mensch kann und soll frei sein. Bei Bakunin gilt also auch, dass die Freiheit nicht gegeben ist, sondern errungen werden muss.
Bleibt man bei der Formel, die tatsächlich von Bakunin stammt, so stellt sich eine andere Frage. Dort geht es, wie bei der von Steiner zitierten Abwandlung, schon um ein entweder oder. Zwar nicht darum, ob Freiheit oder Unfreiheit, aber darum ob Freiheit oder Religion. Eigentlich wäre es für Steiner Grund genug, um die Formel von Bakunin abzulehnen, weil seine Freiheit und seine Religion sich, anders als die von Bakunin, nicht unbedingt ausschließen. Im Rückblick auf die Zeit seiner Zusammenarbeit mit Mackay spricht Steiner von einer Versuchung. Er sei nah daran gewesen, den Bereich der inneren Freiheit, wie er ihn in seiner Philosophie der Freiheit ausgearbeitet hatte, zu verlassen und diese innere Freiheit mit einer äußeren Freiheit zu vertauschen. Bei dieser Aussage habe ich mich zwischen zwei Interpretationen noch nicht entscheiden können. Sie lässt sich, ausgehend vom vorigen Kapitel, so interpretieren, dass die Philosophie der Freiheit die Betonung auf die Wirklichkeit der Freiheit, Mackay dagegen auf die Möglichkeit der Freiheit legt. Nimmt man dieses Kapitel über die Religion hinzu, dann fragt sich ob Steiner unter äußerer Freiheit nicht auch etwas anderes gemeint haben kann. Ist eine Freiheit, die unbedingt den Materialismus braucht, nicht auch eine äußere Freiheit? War es keine Versuchung wert, weiter über die geistige Welt zu schweigen, um mit den einzigen Freiheitsliebenden seiner Zeit weiter zusammenarbeiten zu können?
Steiner: Dies sind alles Überlegungen, die Steiner hätte anstellen können, wenn er nur Bakunin richtig zitiert hätte. Nun fragt sich, wie er dazu kommt, Bakunin falsch zu zitieren.
In seiner Bibliothek steht ein Exemplar von Bakunins Gott und der Staat aus den neunziger Jahren. Dort hätte er das richtige Zitat nachlesen können. Es lässt sich allerdings nicht nachweisen, sser aber das Buch nicht nur besessen, sondern auch gelesen hat. Gelesen hat er aber auf jeden Fall « Der Anmarsch des Pöbels » von Dmitri Mereschkowski, wie es sich aus dem Zusammenhang seines Vortrages vermuten lässt, und wie ein Blick in seine Bibliothek es bestätigt: das Buch enthält nämlich Kommentare aus seiner Hand. Gehofft habe ich natürlich, dass Mereschkowski es gewesen ist, der Bakunin falsch zitiert. Steiner hätte den Fehler nur übernommen. Ihm wäre nur vorzuwerfen, dass er das Zitat nicht nachgeprüft hat. Schon schlimm genug. Mereschkowski zitiert Bakunin aber fast richtig, nämlich wie folgt:
Gott ist, also ist der Mensch Sklave. Der Mensch ist frei, also gibt es keinen Gott. Ich bin überzeugt, dass niemand aus diesem Kreise herauskann, und nun lasset uns wählen.
Mereschkowski hat aus der aktiven Freiheit von Bakunin eine passive Freiheit gemacht. Der Mensch ist frei. Sonst ist aber bei seinem Zitat alles richtig. Gott führt hier wie beim Originalzitat von Bakunin zur
Sklaverei und nicht zur Freiheit. Liest man aber bei Mereschkowski weiter, so kommt heraus, dass er sich mit dieser Formel von Bakunin nicht zufrieden gibt. So wie Bakunin die Formel von Voltaire aufgegriffen und verwandelt hat, so greift Mereschkowski die Formel von Bakunin auf und formt sie zu einer eigenen Formel um. Diese Formel könnte ich jetzt zitieren. Dies brauche ich aber eigentlich nicht mehr, weil ich das schon gemacht habe. Die Formel von Mereschkowski ist dieselbe Formel, die Steiner oben dem Bakunin zugeschrieben hat!
Wenn Gott ist, so ist der Mensch frei, der Mensch ist Sklave, also gibt es keinen Gott. Ich bin überzeugt, dass niemand aus diesem Kreise heraus kann, und jetzt lasset uns wählen.
Gründe für diese Verwechslung lassen sich nur vermuten. Mereschkowski wird nicht müde zu betonen, wie Bakunin trotz seiner Ablehnung Gottes seine frühere religiöse Gesinnung behalten hat, nämlich seinen fanatischen Eifer. Er ist nur vom Orthodoxen zum Ketzer geworden. Er ist aber religiös geblieben. Bei Mereschkowski ist diese Aussage eher verdächtig, weil er als Christ überall Religiöses sehen will. Bezüglich Herzen, einem Freund von Bakunin, geht Mereschkowski noch weiter. Er unterstellt ihm, dass er zwar bewusst antireligiös gewesen ist, dass er aber unbewusst zu seiner eigenen Behauptung tendiert hat: Ohne Gott, gibt es keine Freiheit. Vielleicht hat Steiner diese Bemerkung nicht nur auf Herzen, sondern auch auf Bakunin bezogen. Das könnte ich gerade noch verstehen. Steiner macht aber an dieser Stelle überhaupt keinen Unterschied zwischen bewusst und unbewusst. Stimmt die Nachschrift, dann tendiere ich also zu einer anderen Interpretation: Steiner hat das Buch von Mereschkowski einfach nicht aufmerksam genug gelesen.
Zu diesem Schluss war ich gekommen, als ich von Karl-Martin Dietz auf eine weitere Stelle aufmerksam gemacht wurde, wo Steiner sich vier Jahre früher über Bakunin ausspricht. Dort geht es auch um Gott und die Freiheit. Der Unterschied ist nur, dass Steiner diesmal Bakunin fast richtig zitiert, nämlich so wie er von Mereschkowski zitiert wird.
Wenn Gott existiert, so ist der Mensch Sklave. Der Mensch ist frei, also gibt es keinen Gott.
Steiner interessiert hier auch nicht, ob Bakunins Freiheitsauffassung aktiv oder passiv ist, sondern nur der Kontrast zur Formel von Voltaire. Da dieses richtige Zitat früher entstanden ist als das falsche, so steht für mich fest, dass die Nachschrift mit dem falschen Zitat nicht stimmen kann. Wer von Steiner viel hält, mag dadurch erleichtert sein. Nicht Steiner sondern der Schreiber hat gepfuscht. Dies hat er aber so raffiniert gemacht, dass einem dabei jede Nachschrift verdächtig wird.
Es lohnt sich daher möglichst viele Stellen zu vergleichen, wo Steiner dasselbe Thema anschneidet. Dieser Vergleich ist nicht nur bei unseren beiden Stellen über Bakunin lehrreich. Er lässt sich auf all die Stellen ausweiten, bei denen es Steiner um passive und aktive Freiheit geht. Als typisches Beispiel für passive Freiheit bringt Steiner sonst nicht Bakunin, sondern immer wieder Wilson an. Und diesmal stimmt auch das Zitat:
« Was ist Freiheit? » sagt der andere. « Das Bild, das mir vorschwebt, ist eine große, mächtige Maschine. Setze ich die Teile so unbeholfen und ungeschickt zusammen, dass, wenn ein Teil sich bewegen will, er durch die anderen gehemmt wird, dann verbiegt sich die ganze Maschine und steht still. Die Freiheit der einzelnen Teile » wohlgemerkt: die Freiheit der Teile der Maschine! « würde in der besten Anpassung und Zusammensetzung aller bestehen. » Um die menschliche Freiheit zu charakterisieren, sagt er das alles! « Wenn der große Kolben einer Maschine vollkommen frei laufen soll, so muss man ihn den anderen Teilen der Maschine genau anpassen. Dann ist er frei ... » Um zu wissen, wie der Mensch frei wird, untersucht man also die Maschine! «... dann ist er frei, nicht weil man ihn isoliert und für sich allein, sondern weil man ihn sorgfältig und geschickt den übrigen Teilen des großen Gefüges eingefügt hat. Was ist Freiheit? Man sagt von einer Lokomotive, dass sie frei laufe. Was meint man damit? Man will sagen, die einzelnen Bestandteile seien so zusammengesetzt und ineinander gepasst, dass die Reibung auf ein Minimum beschränkt wird. Man sagt von einem Schiff, das leicht die Wellen durchschneidet: wie frei läuft es, und meint damit, dass es der Stärke des Windes vollkommen angepasst ist. Richte es gegen den Wind, und es wird halten und schwanken, alle Planken und der ganze Rumpf werden erzittern, und sofort ist es gefesselt. » jetzt zeigt er, dass das so geht bei der menschlichen Natur wie bei der Maschine, bei dem Dampfschiff und so weiter: « Es wird nur dann frei, wenn man es wieder abfallen lässt und die weise Anpassung an die Gewalten, denen es gehorchen muss, wieder hergestellt hat. »
Freiheit heißt also Anpassung. Da hat Steiner wirklich ein gutes Beispiel gefunden: Passiver geht nicht. Zugleich deutet er an, das Problem würde darin liegen, dass Wilson das Vorbild der menschlichen Freiheit bei der Maschine sucht. Dies ergänzt sich gut mit einer anderen Stelle, wo Steiner von Wilsons Freiheit sagt, sie sei keine Freiheit, weil Wilson den Menschen auf den Leib reduziere. Als weiteren Grund gibt er dort an, dass Wilson den Unterschied zwischen Tier und Mensch unterschätzt. Bei ihm soll es daher keine richtige Entwicklung geben.
Was dahinter steckt, ist wieder die Frage, wie weit sich der Darwinismus mit der Freiheit verträgt. Wie steht es um die menschliche Freiheit, wenn der Mensch nicht von Gott, sondern vom Affen abstammt? Diese Frage stellt sich nicht nur bei Wilson. Auch der späte Bakunin führt den Menschen gern auf das Tier zurück. Wer diese Frage beantworten will, muss aber zuerst klären, was alles unter einer richtigen Entwicklung verstanden werden kann.
Seit der Mitte des 19ten Jahrhunderts wird unter Entwicklung verstanden, dass vom Einfachsten zum Kompliziertesten aufgestiegen wird. Dies ist die allgemeingültige Entwicklungstheorie. Die Entwicklung hat nur eine Richtung. Sogar Kropotkin hält sich daran. Die Richtung, die er der Entwicklung unterstellt, ist zwar unüblich. Mit Darwin ist er sich aber trotzdem einig, dass der Mensch die Richtung der tierischen Entwicklung nur weiterführt. Richtungswechsel darf es in der Entwicklung nicht geben. Kropotkin lehnt deswegen Hegel als völlig unwissenschaftlich ab, weil dieser in jeder Entwicklung nach Richtungswechseln sucht. Die Entwicklung geht vom Positiven aus, schlägt dann ins Negative um, um in einem dritten Schritt zuletzt zu einer höheren Synthese zu kommen. Dies ist für Hegel eine richtige Entwicklung, eine dialektische Entwicklung.
Bakunin: später konnte er sich zwar für den Darwinismus begeistern. Sogar gegen eine Entwicklung vom Einfachsten zum Kompliziertesten hat er nichts einzuwenden. Auf die Idee, Hegel deswegen zu
verdammen, ist er aber nicht gekommen. Er baut vielmehr auf das weiter auf, was er selber aus Hegel gemacht hat. Als Junghegelianer hat er nämlich den Richtungswechsel bei der Entwicklung noch stärker betont als Hegel selbst. Ihn interessiert nur der Umschlag vom Positiven ins Negative.
Das Positive und das Negative folglich nicht gleichberechtigt, wie die Vermittelnden es denken; der Gegensatz ist kein Gleichgewicht, sondern ein Übergewicht des Negativen, welches der übergreifende Moment desselben ist; das Negative, als das bestimmende Leben des Positiven selbst, schließt in sich allein die Totalität des Gegensatzes ein und so ist es auch das absolut Berechtigte.
Die spätere Synthese, die von Hegel angestrebt wird, interessiert ihn überhaupt nicht. Dies drückt er in einer Formel aus, die ihn als Revolutionären berühmt gemacht hat: Die Lust der Zerstörung ist zugleich eine schöpferische Lust! Wer die alte Welt zerstört, schafft zugleich eine neue Welt. Und diese Art der Dialektik ist es, die Bakunin auf den Darwinismus überträgt.
Was bei Bakunin als « Synthese » aus Hegel und Darwin herauskommt ist ziemlich einzigartig. Der Mensch stammt also vom Tier ab, schlägt aber durch die Entwicklung ins genaue Gegenteil um. Er wird zum negativen Bild des Tieres, der Natur. Ist das Tier immer Sklave, so wird der Mensch frei. Der Materialismus führt eben immer zur Freiheit. Nur führt er bei Bakunin, anders als bei Wilson, zu einer aktiven Freiheit. Für weise Anpassung und Gehorsam hat Bakunin eben nichts übrig.
Alle Zweige moderner, gewissenhafter und ernster Wissenschaft wirken zusammen, diese große, diese grundlegende und entscheidende Wahrheit zu verkünden: Jawohl, die soziale Welt, die menschliche Welt im eigentlichen Sinne, die Menschheit mit einem Wort ist nichts anderes als die für uns und unseren Planeten wenigstens letzte und oberste Entwicklung, der höchste Ausdruck der Animalität. Da aber jede Entwicklung notwendig eine Verneinung einschließt, nämlich die Verneinung ihrer Grundlage oder ihres Ausgangspunktes, ist die Menschheit zugleich und vor allem die bewusste und fortschreitende Verneinung der tierischen Natur in den Menschen, und gerade diese ebenso vernünftige als natürliche Verneinung, die nur vernünftig ist, weil sie natürlich ist, geschichtlich und logisch wie die Entwicklungen und Produkte aller Naturgesetze, gerade diese Verneinung bildet und schafft das Ideal, die Welt der geistigen und moralischen Überzeugungen, die Ideen.
Ja unsere ersten Vorfahren, unsere Adams und Evas waren, wenn nicht Gorillas, doch sehr nahe Verwandte des Gorilla, omnivore, intelligente und wilde Tiere, die in unendlich höherem Grade als alle anderen Tierarten die zwei wertvollen Fähigkeiten besaßen: die Fähigkeit zu denken und die Fähigkeit, das Bedürfnis, sich zu empören.
Und wie steht es dann um die menschliche Freiheit, wenn man den Menschen nicht vom Affen abstammen lässt? Wer den Menschen von Gott abstammen lässt, schafft ihn auch nicht nach dem Bild Gottes, sondern nach dessen Gegenbild. Er macht aus ihm das Gegenteil von Gott. Gott ist absolut frei, der Mensch soll daher Sklave sein. Die Theologen und Idealisten sind deswegen alle Feinde der menschlichen Freiheit. Sie gehören zur alten positiven Welt und damit abgeschafft.
Bakunin: Überblick über die Zitate
1871 Wenn Gott ist, so ist der Mensch unfrei,
der Mensch kann und soll aber frei sein,
also gibt es keinen Gott.
Bakunin laut Mereschkowski
1907 Gott ist, also ist der Mensch Sklave.
Der Mensch ist frei, also gibt es keinen Gott.
Bakunin laut Steiner
1914 Wenn Gott existiert, so ist der Mensch Sklave.
Der Mensch ist frei, also gibt es keinen Gott.
Mereschkowski contra Bakunin
1907 Wenn Gott ist, so ist der Mensch frei,
der Mensch ist Sklave, also gibt es keinen Gott.
Bakunin laut Steiner
1919 Wenn Gott ist, so ist der Mensch frei,
der Mensch ist Sklave, also gibt es keinen Gott.
Steiner: viewed that a mineral/element is subtly altered (`retuned') when it passes through an organism/in different ways according to the particular organism it passes through/it becomes stamped with a subtle `fingerprint' of features that typify the organism concerned. Metalle spielen bei diesem Naturheilverfahren eine große Rolle/gerne als vegetabilisierte Metalle eingesetzt (hergestellt: eine Pflanze wird gedüngt mit metallhaltigen Boden, danach kompostiert, diesen Kompost wird gebraucht um nächste Generation Pflanzen zu düngen. Dies wird noch mal wiederholt bis sie von dem Metall durchdrungen ist und zwecks Medikamentengewinnung geerntet wird. Jede Arzneisubstanz soll nun zu Ihren Wesensgliedern eine unterschiedliche Affinität haben. Zum Beispiel sollen sich pflanzliche Stoffe für den astralen Bereich, Metalle für das “Ich” eignen.
Visc (= Mistel) = bekannteste Arzneipflanze der anthroposophischen Medizin/auch von andere Ärzten angewendet.
Wichtig bei Selbstbehandlung: keine problematischen Mittel wie Blei oder Quecksilber in Tiefenpotenzen verwenden!
Calc.
Viscum compounds
Hahnemann
changed substances by alchemic procedures:
Aur
Calcium aceticum solutum Hahnemanni
Caus.
Hep.
Mercurius solubilis Hahnemanni
Mycosis (Cand.)
Intestinal
mycosis given consideration in natural medicine, though it is not yet possible
to say if it is a primary or secondary disorder. There are indications that the
presence of Cand. in
intestinal flora may play a central role in atopic diseases:
psoriasis/seborrheic dermatitis.
Fungi show
tremendous variety in growth/characteristics. By nature they/the diseases
associated with them reside in a cool/humid environment. They cause retardation
in human metabolism (warmth organism). Exist where the human being is unable to
give his I-organization (= Ich-organisation)/his warmth and light organism
adequate structure in the lower human being.
Treatment:
should strengthen I-activity in the organism (intestines).
Different
approaches:
A number of
authors have referred to intestinal Candida mycosis as a distinct syndrome.
Range of symptoms: alternating diarrhea/flatus/lowered resistance to
infection/asthma/eczema/neurodermatitis/psychological symptoms such as lack of
drive/depression. Cand. Wyw said to be the main cause.
1. presence of Cand. in the intestines of
healthy subjects proves that Cand. is part of the physiologic intestinal flora.
2. consider the presence of Cand. in the
intestines to be a secondary phenomenon when the intestinal milieu is abnormal
(food intolerance).
3. intestinal candidiasis has a role in
neurodermatitis/urticaria.
4. pathological candidiasis only with a
confirmed physiologic correlate as.
5. The absence of confirmed infection
parameters does not permit the conclusion that Cand. in the intestinal flora is
of no significance. Low-grade infections may exist (intestinal mycosis) are
often symptomless. Some patients actually only realize that they had not been
well before once they have been treated. Some authors assume that the absence
of inflammatory changes is actually a characteristic of the syndrome. We thus
also have to ask how "healthy" individuals with Cand. in their flora
will feel in a few years' time.
6. intestinal fungi were much more uncommon
before antibiotics came in/primitive peoples/excess nutrition played a role
(infants given formulas instead of mother's milk). Cand. is not part of the
primary flora developing in the intestines of the newborn.
7. Cand. mycosis ist pathological believe there
is a connection with a underlying disorder of intestinal homeostasis. Only
yeasts and Bifidum bacteria remain when antibiotics reduce the normal bacterial
flora. Expansion of yeasts in the intestine may cause vitamins to be withdrawn.
No evidence has thus been brought that Cand. is physiologic in the intestine.
The
pathogenic Cand. factors causing infection are well known adherence,
development of mycelia which may be invasive, enzyme production. It is not
clear, however, when and why saprophytic growth becomes pathologic. The
secretory activity of immunoglobulin A, acting as a mediator between mucosal
cells and the inner intestine, is inhibited. It has now been shown that
Saccharomyces boulardii yeast can be taken up into the intestine like particles
derived from lifeless nature. The situation may be expected to be similar with
pathogenic yeasts. Authors agree that fungal infections indicate an area of
least resistance in the host. It is also known that small amounts of alcohols
are produced in cases of intestinal Cand. mycosis. Treatment of intestinal
Cand. reduces the blood alcohol levels, which are low in any case.
Investigation
of the intestinal microecology presents methodological problems in time
required (anaerobic organisms that make up the bigger part of the intestinal
flora). Positive tests for Cand. in serum, stools or biopsy material do not
correlate with identifiable pathologic conditions, makes evaluation difficult.
It is also difficult to establish in which part of the intestine the yeasts are
growing.
Not much is
known about possible symbiosis of yeasts and the human intestinal mucosa. More
data are available on therapeutic exhibition of Saccharomyces boulardii.
The effect
of yeasts on the mucosal surfaces of the intestine/of enzymes secreted into the
intestines is yet unknown.
Basically,
evidence of yeasts in the intestine or stools does not call for treatment
(child: this may be passing). Minor infections may quite often be followed by
short-term fungal growth in the intestine and this is spontaneously reversible.
With food allergies an elimination diet often reduces even massive yeast
levels.
In the view
of those who consider intestinal mycosis to be a definite syndrome, it involves
chronic changes that are difficult to diagnose. One gets varied pictures of
absent or mild symptoms and is not sure whether to treat them or not. Fungi
tend to be parasitic or saprophytic, their existence goes largely unnoticed.
Symptomatic bactera are the exception, lack of symptoms with intestinal mycosis
the rule.
Many people
say after successful treatment that they much better. Consider that fungi in
stool tests may give falsely negative results.
Unless we
have a concept of "health", with criteria for "well" or
"ill", we can only have opinions. The essential nature of the human
being has to be considered as a whole (incl. soul and spirit) to know if one is
dealing with states of health or illness.
Simonis has
giving a loving botanical description of the fungi as seen by a physician. He calls
them retarded life forms that still have an echo of the ancient Saturn period of human and earth evolution
and have been unable to relate to the more recent development of the Sun
period. In terms of earth evolution they may be considered to belong to the Moon period of earth evolution known as
Lemuria.
The
systematics of fungi cover many categories.
In medicine
are epidermophytes [Microsporum (= Ringworm)/Trichophyton (Ursache Hautkrankheit)]/molds
[Mucor (verminderte Leucozythenzahl)/Fusarium cephalospores
(Antibiotikum/allergen)/Aspergillus (Haut/Ohren/Nasennebenhöhlen/Lunge/Metastasen:
Herz/Niere/ZNS/in Heu/Kompost/“Fluch des Pharao“)/Pen/yeasts [Cand/Cryptococcus (= "Hidden Sphere")]/Saccharomyces (=
Zuckerhefen)/Trichosporum/Geotrichum (überal anwesend)/dimorph fungi
[Blastomyces (many symptoms)/Histoplasma (in faeces
birds/bats/Lungs)/Coccidioides (flu-like/lungs)/Sporothrix (soil/hay/sphagnum
moss/roses/enters through small abrasions in the skin/lungs/handling cats with
the disease)].
Steiner:
Forms living in the Moon region of the earth/originate in the element of warmth
(pollen), but then go into the sphere of decay (saprophytes). Their fruiting
bodies face the soil and not the light as in higher plants.
Steiner:
algae and fungi strongly absorb the astrality of an environment.
Fungi may
really be considered to be unicellular. They are without chlorophyll
and therefore have
to depend on nutrients in organic matter as a source of energy. They can live
under exclusion of light. May form networks called mycelia. Some produce hyphae
which then produce mushrooms (boletici/agarici). Spores shed in autumn, similar
to the pollen of flowering plants.
Fungal
spore allergy in autumn is the counter image in time of the seasonal pollen
allergy in spring/do not produce fruit in the proper sense/their fruiting
element are the asexual spores (Aspergillus).
Many fungi
produce surface pigments to face the light (Agar). Their actual growth sphere
is colorless, however. In this they differ fundamentally from many higher
plants (pigments in the root). Might say that fungi do the opposite of higher
plants when it comes to color. A rose producing red in its leaves seeks to fend
off astralization. In pigment-producing fungi, however, the color is part of
the astrality they seek to absorb (toadstools = mushrooms).
Steiner:
diphtheria is fungus-like and suggested treating it with Cinnb, saying that
this would tie up the astral body more closely with the ether body (Agar).
In many
respects fungi hold a half-way position in nature. Their skeletal matter is the
chitin of insects (not in yeasts). In their great variety, the alternation of
spore, resting stage and shoot form they are close to the algae. Steiner:
"and so everything that is fungal by nature has a close relationship with
the lower animal world, bacteria and similar creatures, particularly with
harmful parasites„.
Fungi may thus be said to be a kind of chameleon in lower nature, adapting to any
given situation.
Fungi grow
at widely differing temperatures. In the human body they thrive at 37° C (low
temperatures)/live in cool, dark space/in humid warmth. (Spores may be heat reSIStant/can
tolerate COLD temperatures) retaining their germinative power for a long time.
Fungi live
in a sphere of warmth and in an excess of organic matter. Harking back to
earlier stages of earth evolution they have a relationship to the ancient Nitrogen
and Cyanide atmosphere. They do not generate heat energy in their quite
considerable metabolic processes but consume it/will thus often maintain cold.
Fungi often produce gases/relate more to the watery and airy rather than the
heat element. This preference for the watery and airy elements may be the
reason why they preferably attack the lungs and intestines in human infections.
Bacterial
processes on the other hand tend to generate heat, as in the spontaneous
ignition in haystack/in compost stack.
Symbiotic
union of fungi and the roots of plants produce mycorrhiza, a borderline region
between organically structured plant matter and the completely lifeless mineral
soil. Such mediation between plant and soil prefigures life, providing excess N
is present.
Substances
produced in the mycorrhiza have a deadening effect on the surrounding area.
Substances from bacteria inhibit fungal growth and vice versa (griseofulvin
from penicillin). Modern antibiotics derived largely from fungi or originally
from their substances.
Fungi
produce toxins as characteristic of the whole group of fungi, and this no doubt
also includes Cand.
Bacteria
relate more to warmth, algae differ from fungi in that they show a definite
orientation towards light. With their chlorophyll they draw the light down into
the water, using it to produce matter in photosynthesis. Binding of iodine by
algae also relates to the light.
Fungi
prefer the lightless sphere of humus and the roots of higher plants and thrive
best under light exclusion. Occasionally they send the fruiting bodies we know
as mushrooms up into the air from the damp rotting soil. This would seem to be
to seek the air, however, rather than the light, so that their spores may
spread.
Fungi is a
plant in the plant world that consists entirely in a kind of head/do not
develop the leaf sphere which is essential in plant nature/they do not relate
to the rhythmic processes connected with leaf development. Instead they produce
a "flower" at ground level. Steiner:
their development is peculiarly astralized/this would explain why they
do not relate to the human intestinal system, which is based on plant leaf-type
principles, but may become pathogenic in it, similar to the lung.
Steiner:
also spoke of the soil itself being the basis for fungal life, with fungi not
rising above its sphere. It is different with trees. The powers of the earth
make them grow beyond the soil, taking them up into the light. Fungal
metabolism thus also relates little to light.
unlike that
of intestinal bacteria.
Putrefactive
bacteria convert matter into bound heat and light energy in their high-energy
metabolism/these processes integrate in the organism.
Parasitic
fungi: generally use only partial stages of metabolism, leaving the rest to
putrefaction. Their metabolism thus does not submit to the principles that
guide the human organism, which relates strongly to light.
Fungi play
an important role in dealing with dying matter in the soil. They show a
preference for residues from living organisms that contain nitrogen, and thus
facilitate nitrogen metabolism for plants/contribute much to carbon conversion
in the world.
Their
capacity for converting large amounts of substrate makes them an ideal means of
conducting metabolic processes in an industrial context. They also have the
advantage that they do not on the whole bring about complete lysis but perform
only part stages. Another important advantage is that they finally yield the
original substance again, either as a substrate or as a gas such as CO2.
Bacterial
metabolism on the other hand not only converts matter to heat energy, as
mentioned above, but this energy is often converted to high energy matter and
stored in the bacterium. Fungi thus are selfless in their metabolism, releasing
the substance they have been processing. On the other hand they are also toxic,
releasing their metabolic products unprotected into the environment.
Steiner:
characterized their growth, with degradation/decomposition/excess of matter as
dying life. Compared to bacteria, fungi appear to take the degradation of
matter only to a certain level. Fermentation, a self-limiting process with a
relatively low energy yield, is a characteristic. They limit their activity in
the conversion of matter, letting others take the process to completion.
Plants: constructive metabolism takes care of
the soil
Intestinal bacteria: constructive metabolism
takes care of the human intestine
in either
case with the aid of light processes. It may be assumed that the attachment to dying
processes seen in fungi means that humans suffering from mycosis are confronted
with increased levels of toxic decomposition products/are colder/affected by
cold.
Fungi
prevent the complete digestion necessary for the human organism. Humans need to
convert all matter into a form that is their own. "Anything taken in from
outside must either merely be something that enables it to develop its own
activity; or it has to act in such a way in the body that the foreign activity
does not differ from one of the body's own inner activities once it has entered
into the body“. Fungi not only remain parasitic foreign bodies in man but also
provide their host with a parasitic metabolism, at least in the intestine.
It has long
been known that fungi grow more actively in sugar solutions. Vaginal mycosis
thus develops quite often during pregnancy with its tendency towards pre-diabetes. This still calls for more
large-scale studies. It seems that one-sided excess of matter with high-level
sugar consumption favors fungal growth.
Ways of
gaining insight into intestinal fungal growth in the light of the
anthroposophical view of man
Behavior of
I-organization and astral body
It is difficult to know if a fungus is
"just there" (commensal),
on the borderline to being pathogenic
("mutualist"),
takes away important nutrients
("parasite")
is pathogenic (producing toxins or by means of
invasive infection).
Steiner:
the basic process we find in humans with intestinal mycosis has to do with
conditions described under the heading of neurasthenia wyw. Pathological
processes may develop if the upper and lower activities in the human
organization are not sufficiently in accord with each other, with the upper not
intervening adequately in the lower, and head processes staying among
themselves. The digestion is weak as a result, unable to assimilate foreign
food matter adequately. The individual's attention is too much on the outside
world, allowing foreign processes to enter to excess and meeting this with an
excessive secondary reaction. These are seen with allergies.
Weakness of
definition may also be due to the opposite condition, is hypersensitivity in
hysteria. Metabolism makes itself independent, and wounds may be caused. An
example of the excessive metabolic activity described by Steiner would be Cand.
diaper rash of short duration when infants are teething.
Relationship
to allergy
Allergies
arise because foreign processes are not properly perceived. Food allergies
often in conjunction with intestinal mycosis. The intolerance often only shows
itself with a careful elimination and re-exposition diet. The human being is
not able to register the foreign nature of the food nor the foreign fungal
flora.
Cand.:
allergic to milk protein, hen's egg white, almond and soya tend to attract
Cand. rather than other yeasts. These are often people with an overweening
immoderate metabolism/more inclined towards hysterical disorders.
Aspergillus:
People in whose stools Aspergillus is been detected will often show a neurasthenic
component and have cereal grain allergies.
Fungal
infection might be seen as a sign that the I-organization is not intervening
adequately in the organism. Humans differ from animals in that foods must be
thoroughly killed off and then built up again in a completely individual way.
With both allergy and intestinal mycosis we may assume that the origin lies in
a neurasthenic constitution. Metabolic predominance and hysterical wounding are
then secondary phenomena. It seems likely that such foreign processes also
appear temporarily in the course of acute diseases that weaken the constitution
as a whole.
It is
possible that fungi with their foreign substance are in themselves an allergen.
It may also be possible that their presence "triggers" the actions of
other allergens. Patients with neurodermatitis do not always improve with diet
and constitutional treatment but only when their intestinal mycosis has been
dealt with.
Fungal
growth in the intestine has its own dynamics. The I or the I-organization cannot
integrate them into its own growth principles. The result is that an area in
the organism which is not under control, is occupied by other life forms with
foreign activity. In connection with the "bacillus theory", Steiner
repeatedly said that it was the soil which mattered and not the bacillus. Fungi
also work against the I-organization in another respect. They produce alcohols
from higher fatty acids. These not only cause destruction and toxic effects but
also make people sleepy, weakening the human Iorganization.
The
activities of the I depend on warmth and light. Abnormal fat absorption may
cause too much (pathological heat foci) or too little fat to enter the organism
(malnutrition). Thermography shows intestinal areas subject to mycotic changes
to be colder, possibly because the fungi act against the warmth organization.
This would be another possible explanation of their negative effect on immune
defenses.
Aspects
relating to the treatment of intestinal mycosis
The main
aim of treatment based on the anthroposophical view of the human being must be
to give the I or I-organization and the astral body better access to the lower
human being and intestine. Actual treatment of the mycosis is of secondary
importance. The suggestions made below can only be general. Treatment has to be
individualized.
Nutrition
Many
authors refer to the importance of the diet. The negative effect of refined
sugar is stressed by all. This is understandable, for the preparation of sugar
is one of the central functions of the I-organization. Taking too much refined
and processed sugar, one relieves the I-organization of its function and thus
weakens it.
A special
diet always addresses a person's will. Steiner thus also spoke of the
helpfulness of a diet chosen of one's own free will and of the way activity is
reduced by a diet taken in a purely passive way. Many of the diets suggested in
the lay press unfortunately ask people to follow the advice of others blindly.
It is difficult to see how a fungus can be "starved out". The opposite
view, that a low-sugar diet to "starve it out" would give the fungus
an extra appetite for the intestinal wall, is equally difficult to understand.
Many of the measures recommended in the literature weaken patients rather than
strengthening them. Special diets are always "asocial" and
egotistical by nature, as Steiner made very clear. They should therefore only
be of limited duration.
A sudden
change to a wholegrain diet which is difficult to digest may also prove
harmful. High proportions of roughage containing cellulose may induce
fermentation with negative consequences.
The foods
we eat relate to some degree to our organs. Foods that influence the liver
(artichoke and others) are recommended. A root diet with its mineral content
strengthens the astral head powers in the upper human being, with the result
that he no longer has to be active in metabolism. Lactic fermentation products
such as sauerkraut or yogurt strengthen the astral body.
Strengthening
the I-organization medically
Quartz or silica
remedies serve this purpose. Steiner: "silica is the external correlate,
outward directed activity for the I-organization"/"the physical basis
for the I-organization“. Cich. also comes under this heading, for instance as
Cichorium/ Pancreas comp. pilules (Wala).
Stibium (=
Antimon) supports delimiting processes in the intestine [allergy (Antimonite D
6 w/Kalium aceticum compositum dil. w or Plumbum D 1/Stannum D 14 trit. w] facilitates I-organization
intervention or its delimiting function. All mercury preparations help the
mercurial process in which the I-organization is active in the small intestine.
Respiratory function in the lower human being can be encouraged with an iron
silicate preparation [Nontronite D 12 trit. w].
Treatment with roots containing pigments or extracts of these would also go in
this direction carrot juice/beetroot/aloes.
Phosphorus
and sulfur based medicines to strengthen the lower abdomen
R.S.: The
relationship between phosphorous flowering processes and the lower abdominal organs
was shown. All medicines based on flowering plants have this effect, wormwood
for example, with the flowering green part of the plant used (Absinthium 1x
dil., Weleda). Treatment with Aloe (1x dil., Weleda), Resina Laricis 1x dil.
(Weleda), Propolis extract, evening primrose oil (Epogam(R), Gammocur or
similar), borage oil, garlic (Allium sativum 1x dil., w) or onion (Allium cepa D 1, w)
or Myrrhinil intest (Cham-ex florae/Betu/Myrrh). Fern and bracken spores, e.g.
in Digestodoron (Weleda) or Aquilinum comp. pilules (Wala), have the sulfurous
character of the spores as their active principle. R.S.: action as
strengthening the catabolic principles in the digestive tract.
The effect
pigments have on the astral body is also an important aspect of diet beetroot,
carrots, roots, leaf vegetables. The common aspect to this treatment is that
the powers of light are enhanced in the intestine.
Suggested
treatments for intestinal mycosis thus resemble those for warts or worms, the weakness of the astral body
towards external influences increased. (Thuj.).
The
phosphorus process exists also in the antimycotics used in conventional
medicine. These contain either pigments such as gentian violet with its surface
action, or they may be regarded as pigments, azoles, for instance
(micononazole/ketokonazole/fluconazole)/may be chemically converted to
pigments. Tonoftal is not a pigment but a high-energy substance. As their
action is purely physical, the effect often lasts only for as long as they are
given. Etheric activity has to take over. If this does not happen, or we do not
aim to make it happen with treatment, the danger of resistance developing is
great also with fungi, though this was not considered possible in the past.
Instead of giving chemical antimycotics one may also try relatively high
vitamin C doses, 1/2 tsp t.i.d., starting low and gradually going up to this.
Sanddorn (sea buckthorn) original or "low sugar" elixir (Weleda) have
a similar effect.
Sugars,
bitters, tannins
Roots with
their sugars, bitter principles and tannins directly stimulate I, astral body
and physical body activity. This strengthens the totality of the upper human
being's activity in the digestion. Instead of a pathological head-development
in the lower human beings, as in the case of malnutrition, one has penetration
of the digestive functions. [Gentiana lutea (Gentiana lutea Rh 5% dil., Weleda,
or Gentiana comp. pilules, Wala) or Geum urbanum Rh D3 dil. (Weleda)].
There is a
point in focusing on particular organs in treating different forms of
intestinal mycosis. In his experience, treatment with the emphasis on the liver
is effective with Cand. mycosis, giving Hepatodoron, Chelidonium, Taraxacum or
Cichorium, for example. Aspergillus mycosis appears to be more of a kidney
problem, and Carbo Betulae or Equisetum may be considered, possibly in form of
Equisetum cum sulfure tostum 6x trit. (Weleda).
Pancreatic
extracts or bitters to encourage secretion are also helpful, Pancreas 1x trit.
(Weleda), for instance. Cichorium/Pancreas comp. pilules (Wala) or Cichorium Rh
3x dil. (Weleda) may also be considered. Treatment with pancreatic enzymes may
sometimes serve the purpose, possibly in combination with bile acids, or also
gastric acid substitution.
Antagonism
between bacteria and fungi
Steiner:
antagonism between bacteria and fungi in 1924. A wide range of preparations is
now available that contain Bifidum bacteria, lactobacilli, Bacteroides or
Bacterium subtilis. Though widely used, data are not really adequate in this
field. Many preparations contain lactose or milk protein, which has to be taken
into account if there are allergies in this direction. Treatment has to be
long-term, which means it is more costly. If the choice of substitution is
right, the method does frequently prove effective.
Guided
symbiosis is said to influence immune functions. Again it has to be continued
for some time. One often starts with a preliminary phase using metabolic
products of E. coli (Pro Symbioflor, Colibiogen, Rephalysin, Hylak). The next
phase is with lactobacilli or coccal preparations (Symbioflor 1, Acidophilus,
Eugalan, Paidoflor) to stimulate the acid-producing flora.
Thirdly one
would try substitution with Coli bacteria to restore the milieu (Symbioflor
2/Mutaflor). Others recommend Coli substitution only, to match the development
of the first flora in the newbom. Some laboratories specialize in producing
individual symbiont preparations based on an analysis of the intestinal flora.
These methods, too can be effectiv.
Displacement
treatment using apathogenic yeasts
This has
been used in a particular section of natural medicine in recent times. The
yeast referred to as apathogenic which is generally used is Saccharomyces
boulardii (Lichee/Mangokern).
As fungi
are connected with the ancient Moon stage of earth evolution, man must let go
of that aspect and take his evolution forward. [Monilia albicans 30x pilules
(Staufen)/Albicansan 5x dil./Nigersan 5x dil. (Sanum Kehlbeck)].
Cand.
infections increase (immune deficits/in premature infants/epiglottitis). Fungi
are also getting resistant to antimycotics, probably by selection of resistant
strains after antimycotic treatment.
Mensch hat Süßem erobert in 3 Stufen
1. Honig aus Blumen = Sammeln (Sulfur),
2. Süßes aus Zuckerrohr (Stiel)/Pflanzensaft = Handwerk (Sukkanat/Jaggery) (Merkur),
3. Zucker aus Knollen/Stielen
(Zuckerrübe/Zuckerrrohr) = komplizierter Technik/Industrialisation (Sal)
Vergleich: Siehe: Theorien
Frei nach: Marga Hogenboom, M.D.
Anthroposophical
doctors are specially trained to work with the diagnosis of four-foldness:
physical body, ether body, astral body and ego. This article reflects my
struggle to understand the life processes better and to see how this knowledge
could be helpful when treating a child with special needs.
Rudolf
Steiner gave some indications about the life processes, but Dr. Konig took this
in relation to curative education. Dr. Lotte Sahlman also worked on the life
processes, and I quote from one of her lectures: "Man had a different
relationship to his environment on the Old Moon and, to a certain extent, in
Lemuria and Atlantis“.
Sensory
experience had the character of the present life processes, meaning that sense
impressions caused actual organic changes and aroused in early mankind greed or
disgust of a deep, instinctive nature. She describes how the second pre-earthly
deed of Christ, by which the Christ made it possible for human beings to speak,
changed the life processes, confining them to their organic task and thus
relieving the strong tendencies to egotism and greed which ruled developing
mankind. This event made it possible to transform the purely emotional outcries
and ejaculations into the beginnings of human speech.
In the
description of how the life processes were before they were confined to their
organic task we can recognize some of our children with special needs. For
example, we have children with no speech who are able to show only sympathy or
antipathy and are ruled by instinctive qualities.
The
development of a child reflects the development of mankind. As a baby, a child
goes through this phase again and is totally dependent for his well-being on
feeling warm, fed and secure. Every strong sense impression can disturb this
well-being.
The twelve
senses help us relate to the outside world. Within the boundary thus created,
our life processes weave unconsciously. The life processes reflect the
interplay between ether body and astral body.
On the Old
Moon our present sense organs were still organs of life; they worked as life
organs. We had 7 senses, not yet the senses of touch and life because we were
not a separate human being and had not acquired the sense of word, thought or
ego.
In the
diagram is shown how the senses relate to the life processes.
Sense of Ego
Sense of Thought
Sense of Word
Sense of Hearing breathing
Sense of Warmth warming
Sense of Sight nourishment
Sense of Taste secreting
Sense of Smell maintaining
Sense of Balance growing
Sense of Movement maturing
Sense of Life
Sense of Touch
What
happens to a person in whom the life processes become too conscious, in whom
the astral body works too consciously? If the astral body works too deeply in
the etheric, the life processes become over-ensouled.
In artistic
work, Steiner describes how a certain ensoulment of life processes takes place
and is healthy; when listening to music and seeing art this also happens. If
this ensoulment is too strong, there arises almost a "second" person
who "pseudo" thinks, "pseudo" feels and "pseudo"
wills.
Konig
points out that we can recognize this in many of our children with special
needs: "it" thinks in them. Steiner describes how a sort of thinking,
feeling and willing then appear within us, but these have a different quality,
a more life-filled quality; the thinking, feeling and willing have a more
dream-like quality not guided by the ego.
We can
again recognize many special needs children in this description: something
"wills" in them or "thinks" through them.
Here
follows a diagram with the life processes. It identifies the effect of each on
the healthy soul and points to the effect each produces if too overensouled.
Case study
Amanda is a
12-year old girl from a healthy family. There are 3 healthy, older siblings. Her
father is in the R.A.F., which involves frequent moves.
History:
Normal pregnancy; mother felt happy and well. A rapid, uneventful delivery. She
was a fit, happy baby, contented and slept well. She was breast-fed till 4
months. She sat at 8 months. She had baby babble, but this gradually dried up
at 9 months. She was diagnosed as being late in development at 9 months with
poor limb control and hearing problems. She went into hospital to have grommets
inserted at the age of 13 months, and her parents described how she changed
overnight.
From that
time, she became increasingly demanding, frustrated and overactive with a
disturbed sleep pattern. She became obsessed with doors being shut and flushing
toilets. She would mouth most objects. She had to be fed by mum.
It was
difficult to take care of her at home, and her mother became desperate. She was
admitted to the Camphill Schools at age 7½.
Amanda is a
tall, well-built girl. She is muscular, has dark hair, a pale face and often
has circles around her eyes. She has no eye contact (maybe sometimes at night)
and no speech. She will often make a low humming sound when well or can have
penetrating screams and howling when in distress. This has become less over the
years. She is always tense, making small movements non stop with her head and
upper body.
Since we
found that she is left handed, she has been able to feed herself. She can be
very fast and will grab any food that she sees and stuff it into her mouth
before one can prevent it, grabbing bowls, etc. from the table. If it is too
noisy, she can stop eating and need an especially quiet place for her meal.
She cannot
play; she just does some obsessional handling of blocks, etc. She is a good
walker, and this calms her down. She is not toilet trained and seems to resist
any attempt. Sleeping can be very difficult at home, and in the respite center
she hardly sleeps at all. With us, she sleeps well with a light restraint. She
can indulge in self-stimulation and throws herself on the bench or floor to do
so. Lately, she has been more settled, hardly screams and is becoming more
interested in her environment. She can even give her mother a spontaneous hug.
The other side is that she now finds it amusing to hit people and to play with
her saliva. She loves music and responds well to it.
Her life
processes
In order to
understand Amanda better, we tried to look at her life processes. We recognized
that her life processes are still not confined to their organic task but
determine her well-being and her relationship to the world.
Breathing:
Her breathing rhythm is not established; it is very dependent on her mood and
the environment. There is a lot of out-breathing with sudden in-breathing. She
can hold her breath. How does she breathe with her sense impressions? She
perceives everything around her without any filter and is overwhelmed by sense
impressions. Maybe this explains why she withdrew after the grommets were
inserted: the noise was too much for her. Her perceptions are too enlivened;
they don't give her security.
Warming:
She can be warm if properly dressed but easily loses her warmth. Her warming is
not independent from the outer world. With her inner warming, she should
transform her perceptions into concepts, but this is very difficult for her,
and she has a limited ability to form concepts although has some basic concepts
such as juice, bathroom, curtain.
Nourishing:
She is normally a keen eater except when in an oversensitive state. She seems
to be nourished by her environment if it is a healthy environment. She
transforms this process into a very basic memory which is place-orientated.
This is the first normal memory which develops.
It seems
that her first three life processes are so enlivened that she could not develop
her sense impressions, concepts and memory in a healthy way. Being helped to
develop an even rudimentary "pseudo" thinking through experiencing
art, she does feel better.
Secreting:
If we look at her secreting process, we see that she spits and dribbles; her
face is wet, and she is in nappies.
The
instinctive quality is a strong feature in her life. If the secreting process
flows out, then one experiences outer things as part of one's own body; this is
clearly a feature with her.
Maintaining:
On one hand, she has a tendency to become too hardened here, too muscular. She
is often tense, her arms flexed. This process of maintaining is also too much
enlivened and is visible in her compulsions and obsessions: she will grab food,
she wants everything to be the same.
Growing: Her
physical growth is normal. Her inner growth, her possibility to develop her own
identity is very limited and dependent on her surroundings. If the will
quality, which is connected with the astral body or desire is over-ensouled,
than destructive, negative tendencies can occur. This is visible if she is
upset; her screaming and behavior can destroy any positive atmosphere.
Reproducing:
She is not into puberty yet, but her ability to mature, to create her own life
and to be motivated is limited. This process can turn into self-destruction,
and in difficult times Amanda can start banging her head in despair and
screaming loudly.
Her four
lower life processes are not penetrated by her individuality. If we create
boundaries for her where her secreting, maintaining, growing and reproducing
can be contained, then she is able to relax and to shine. She can be a very
dignified, normal-looking, attractive young lady when her needs are met.
However, it is quite demanding to look after her non-stop.
Therapeutic
approach
How to
translate this into our therapeutic attitude? We will have to focus on giving
her the feeling of well-being through the harmonization of her life processes.
She is not ready to perceive the objective world through the senses. Every
sense impression directly affects her life processes, so she will stop eating
if there are too many sense impressions.
The life
processes tell something about the interplay between astral body and ether body.
Through the senses we relate with our ego to the physical world. With this
girl, whose ego is far away, it is clear that she does not relate to the world
in that sense.
To approach
this, we tried to harmonize her breathing by a rhythmical lifestyle. She
reacted very well to that. More specifically, we gave her color light therapy,
where the very gentle interplay of colors, with music played behind the child,
allows the astral body to relax; it works specifically on the light ether part
of the ether body and engages that. This allows the ether body not to be too
attached to the physical body so the astral body can connect more harmoniously
to the ether body. The direct observation is that her breathing comes to peace,
just a soft tooth grinding remains.
We work on
her warming by dressing her warmly, by surrounding her with impressions which
she can relate to. Oil baths with Melissa oil also helped her to warm herself.
We work on
the nourishing process by giving her healthy food, healthy sense impressions.
Again, color light therapy can be seen as a nourishing process, directly
related to the light ether.
The four
lower life processes secreting, maintaining, growing and reproducing were
addressed through artistic work, music therapy and especially live music. She
has been fortunate to have had musical co-workers around her who wrapped her in
music. Artistic work can be seen as the way to reach those over-ensouled,
lower-life processes. Amanda clearly responded to this.
The
anthroposophical medication she received was directed to help her ego to
incarnate. PlumbumAurum D15 at lunch and Argentum D6 in the evening in blocks
of 6 weeks. Other medication used during different times: Myrrh comp D20 to
address her individuality. Cuprum Aceticum D4:/Zincum Valerianicum D4 to help
her relax. Argentitt D6 to nourish the ether body. Ferri cinis per urticum D3
to address her obsessional nature. D30 in the morning,
It goes
without saying that the ongoing love and commitment of the coworkers are an
integral part of the treatment, but this alone is not sufficient as her mother
is a very warm, loving and committed person. It is gratifying to see her
awakening awareness and to see how she can slowly be more part of our earthly
life.
Ether-types:
warmth-ether effect: Orig.
chemical ether: Thlas.
earth aspect of ether: Querc.
light-ether: Mill.
Urt-d. has all 4 ether-types united in it:
the life-ether in the lignifying quadrilateral
stem,
the chemical ether in the typical metabolic
processes in the leaf,
the light-ether in the sharply-indented leaves,
the warmth-ether (among others) in the
exploding seed of the flowers.
Frei
nach: Kevin Maker
Represents
the work of generations. What becomes readily apparent on reading the book is
that the writer is a man whose whole life has been steeped in anthroposophical
thought, experience and influences. The very fabric of Steiner's vision, with
all of its eclectic wonder and complexity, has so woven itself into the pattern
of Husemann's writing that he and Steiner seem to speak as one voice. There are
times when it seems as if it is Steiner who is elucidating and the
multi-layered complexities which are being presented by Husemann. The book is
so rich in content and ambition that even the most seasoned anthroposophical
physician might have a hard time digesting its contents in one sitting.
Husemann
informs us in the preface that the cohesion of the book is derived from its
focus on three modeling exercises which Steiner gave to young doctors in order
to "train their understanding of the life processes on an Imaginative
level“.
This focus
is aimed at solving the following problem: if we cannot see the etheric body or
the astral body, how can we justify our practice of anthroposophical medicine
whose focus in on that which most of us are unable to perceive objectively?
Husemann's answer is to allow the subjective into the realm of science, and
this is justified by a philosophical perspective which places subject and
object equally within the phenomenology of thinking.
One gains
access to the astral, etheric and "I," in which one lives, through
the practice of art. Sculpture gives us access to the etheric, music to the
astral, and the "I" becomes accessible in language. By artistic
exercises and explorations, such as sculpting the organs in modeling exercises
according to Goethean archetypal forms, one can verify Steiner's perceptions of
the etheric, astral and "I" in the deeper states of one's own being.
It is the elaboration of these artistic exercises and explorations that makes
up the remainder of the book.
The high
quality of scholarship in the book is evidenced by extensive footnotes.
Husemann provides us with detailed information from the fields of physiology,
comparative anatomy, pathology, human anatomy and embryology, as well as many
elucidating examples from the realms of sculpture, music and poetry. This
erudition is comple- mented by Husemann's thorough familiarity with current
anthroposophical thought and with Steiner's writings in relation to the subjects
under discussion.
The book is
divided into four parts which build on each other and lead the reader from the
physical to the etheric and on to the astral and the "I," from
sculpture to music and on to eurythmy and language. Basic concepts are
presented in part one: a sculptural conception of organ formation is presented
in light of plant and animal forces; the sculptural exercise of limb formation
is presented and growth discussed in relation to musical laws. Part two pre-
sents the modeling exercise of inversion and explores its musical structure.
Parts one and two use sculptural exercises and the quality of the musical
interval to investigate vital organic processes externally in the limb and
internally in the organs. Part three investigates respiration and the mediation
between the external processes in the limbs and the internal organ processes.
Part four presents a discussion of eurythmy as musical structure and leads to a
concluding examination of language.
A
fascinating section in part two explores the significance of artistic exercises
in the cognition of Goethe and Haeckel. Using numerous quotes from Steiner,
Husemann shows how Haeckel used drawings similar to those in ancient Egyptian
mystery schools to arrive at the idea of the gastraea. For Steiner, the
gastraea represented the animal archetype counterpart to Goethe's plant
archetype; yet Haeckel, stuck in the materialism of his thinking, was unable to
recognize the archetypal significance of his own perceptions. Steiner places
Haeckel's work "in the epistemological context of Goethe's methodology“.
This discussion of Steiner's relationship to the work of Goethe and Haeckel
provides valuable insight into the development of anthroposophical thought.
American
osteopaths will find interest in Husemann's discussion of cerebrospinal fluid.
Anthroposophical osteopaths, who have been telling us that craniosacral
treatments draw them close to perceptions of the etheric, will find support in
Husemann's statement: "Every artistic, every thought experience arises
because respiration intercepts, in the cerebrospinal fluid, the motion of the
ethericbody“.
Comparative
anatomists will enjoy following Husemann's description of his father's research
in the development of the clavicle throughout the animal kingdom. The bone's
great variation of form as depicted as the large, elegant and bow-like
structure in the storm petrel contrasted with the tiny, square blocks that are
found in the mole.
The graphics
in the book are startlingly well chosen. The static Apollo of Tenea from the
archaic period of Greek sculpture is used to illustrate what happens musically
in the tonic prime feeling: "I rest my weight on my feet“. One sees how
the legs of the statue carry the weight of the body like pillars resting in
prime position. Then Husemann illustrates the musical movement from the prime
to the second feeling: "I carry the weight of my lower leg and foot“. He
uses Doryphoros by Polycletus from the Greek classical period as a sculptural
representative of the musical second. We see in this statue how it is imparted
with life and a fuller humanity as the free leg lifts and induces movement
throughout the whole body. The graphics serve to enhance our under- standing of
Husemann's discussion of music.
Husemann
realizes the difficulty of discussing certain musical concepts on the printed
page and urges the reader to listen to the pieces to which he refers:
Bruckner's Seventh Symphony; Mozart's Piano Sonata K.545; Chopin's Etude Op.
10, No. 12; a Hopi Indian lullaby and much more. What a wonder-inducing
approach to the study of medicine!
Husemann's
book makes a timely appearance in English translation. Harmony of the Human
Body deals directly with core issues of anthroposophical medical education at a
time when we are making the first gestures toward formalizing such education in
America. The Anthroposophical Medical Education Seminar, which took place in
November 1995 in California, included modeling exercises of human organs and
eurythmy exercises. The book is already exerting its influence.
Husemann
reminds us in his postscript that personal training in Anthroposophy should
lead to the practical implementation of Anthroposophy in the life of society.
Never has the need been greater to revitalize the spirit of medicine. The
pressures of managed care and algorithms of care strive to intrude in all our
practices. The large insurance companies and market forces, which have taken
over our profession, steadily attempt to reduce the prac- tice of medicine to
the bottom dollar desolation of a business. Husemann's book is a welcome aid to
all physicians who sense the wrongness of the present situation and seek to
awaken within themselves the spiritual forces which should guide our lives and
our profession.
‡ Folgendes hat anthroposofische Einschlüße ‡
Frei nach: James Dyson, M.D.
If we go back to the early 1920's when Steiner was beginning to develop
his medical work, medicine stood at a crossroads. A few years after Steiner
gave his medical lectures, insulin and vitamin B12 were discovered. Shortly
after that, in the early 1930's, the sulfonamides were developed; then followed
antibiotics during the Second World War, and in the 1950's there followed the
main impact of psychiatric medication, which has transformed the management of
a great deal of mental illness. I am referring particularly to the major
tranquilizers, the anticonvulsive drugs, the antidepressants, and so on. At the
time when Rudolf Steiner was speaking, manipulation of the bodily basis of much
that we would now call mental functioning had not even started, yet at that
time psychoanalysis had already made a beginning.
Freud's work was becoming established, and it wasn't long before the
work of Carl Jung came into the foreground. Steiner had major reservations
about psychoanalysis, but it is important for us to understand what these were
based on. He did not, for instance, deny the validity of the concept of the
unconscious. He stressed, however, that without an understanding of the
spiritual nature of the human being, including reincarnation and karma, and
without an understanding of how substances in the body really support the life
of soul, any attempt to penetrate into the sphere of the so-called "unconscious"
or "subconscious" would be fraught with misunderstanding. He stressed
that any attempt to penetrate this realm would involve an awareness of the
threshold between what belongs essentially to the soul-spiritual nature of the
human being as it has evolved over many incarnations and the everyday conscious
experience of the self. This corresponds to the threshold between the
point-centered consciousness of our earthly, waking ego and the peripheral
consciousness of our life of will. Although an awareness of the existence of an
"unconscious" had surfaced during the early part of this century, its
interpretation - without a basis in spiritual scientific training and
understanding - was, in Steiner's view, at best misleading and at worst dangerous.
He was particularly concerned with some of the more specifically sexual
interpretations which dominated Freudian methods at the beginning and which, in
his view, had already created many illusory interpretations.
Steiner gave a particular insight with respect to our understanding of
mental illness which redresses the one-sidedness of the psychoanalytical
approach. He emphasized that one must first understand the bodily basis of the
soul life before trying to interpret what comes to expression in the soul as
such. Alongside this statement he suggested that, with respect to the nature of
organic physical illness, one should search for its origin more in the realm of
the soul and spirit.
You can see how he was both anticipating and countering a trend that was
to increase in momentum during the following decades, a trend which to this day
dominates current thinking as strongly as ever. I am referring to the trend to
separate our understanding of the human being into a biochemical model on the
one hand and a psychotherapeutic, psychoanalytic model on the other - the
former without reference to the soul and spirit, the latter without reference
to the actual bodily basis of consciousness. It might seem that Steiner was
anticipating the biological basis of psychiatry in pointing to bodily
dysfunction as underlying much mental illness. He was speaking from a very
different perspective from that which has since evolved and given rise to the
current "psychopharmaca". He was challenging us to see physiological
processes and substance transformations within the body as the basis or
expression of the soul-spiritual element while at the same time seeing
soul-spiritual processes as being accompanied on some level by physiological
ones. I would say that the central challenge of the anthroposophical
contribution to psychiatry lies just in this: to bring together the realm of
creative spirit with an understanding substance and metabolism.
This is a challenge which has not yet fulfilled its potential although
very encouraging and exciting beginnings have certainly been made. Behind this,
there lies the deeper challenge of understanding the nature of matter or
substance in its soul-spiritual aspect. This is, of course, the challenge of
anthroposophical medicine. The part which belongs specifically to psychiatry is
to see how the substances and processes which these substances undergo in the
organs are connected to possible deviations or aberrations of consciousness,
which psychiatry describes and attempts to address.
Steiner describes two streams of time. The one which we are aware of in
our everyday consciousness goes from the present into the future. The other
stream works in the opposite direction and comes from the future into the
present. These two streams of time, the former connected more to the conscious
astral body, the latter more to the etheric, meet within the human being. They
meet in the realm of the ego, which is the only instrument of consciousness
that can really integrate past and future, thereby bringing the destiny that we
bring with us from former incarnations into the freedom- space from which new
impulses may be born.
Much mental and soul confusion arises in the encounter between these two
streams of time, even some forms of mental illness may arise from this. The substance-processes
taking place in our organs contain within them the seeds for our future
consciousness. If these seeds are released prematurely from their etheric basis
in the organic life and enter consciousness too soon, they will produce
delusion, deception, hallucination, fear, anxiety, mania. All possible forms of
soul aberrations may come about through the tendency for the etheric forces
within the organs to rush forward into the future too soon. On the other hand,
when the forces working from the past bind us too strongly to our organs, then
tendencies to hardening and sclerosis take hold of the body. We become locked
into our earthly personalities, and therein lies the basis for the more
characteristic physical illnesses. In the healthy human being, the latter
processes predominate in waking life and the former during sleep. During waking
life, the etheric up-building processes in our organs become subordinate to the
more conscious experiences of soul life and vice versa. The two streams of time
also oscillate between our waking experience and our sleeping, hence the
possibility for dreams with prophetic overtones.
Most of us know that Waldorf education emphasizes the fact that the
organic forces, which build the body during the first seven years and which
also belong more to the state of sleep, become released to some extent at the
age of seven. In fact, they only become released from the head and nerve- sense
organization, where they become available after this time for thinking and
memory. The etheric substance which has formed and shaped this part of our body
is the same substance through which, at a later stage of development, we are
able to think. We must imagine that this is only the first of many etheric
metamorphoses that may take place during the course of life. The etheric forces
that release themselves for thinking belong essentially to the instrument of
the brain. The brain is an organ whose development proceeds faster than any
other organ; by the time we are seven, it has reached a certain completion. We
call this stage neurological maturity which is witnessed, for example, in the
establishment of dominance and in nerve myalination in the central nervous
system through which the basic pathways of sensory integration are laid. We
also know that the actual nerve cells in the brain, from before the time we are
born, have been slowly dying and degenerating. In fact, degenerative processes
accompany our brain and nerve sense system during the course of our life. This
is the corollary of the fact that our brain and nerve- sense system form, for
the most part, the basis of waking day consciousness.
This "slow death" of the physical body in the brain is that
which allows the etheric forces, which formed and sculptured it and which
contributed to its organic development, to be used for conscious thinking
activity. With the other organs, however, this process does not take place to
the same extent. If we consider an organ which stands in a certain polarity to
the brain, namely the spleen, we find an organ which hardly appears to be a
physical organ at all. In contrast to the brain it lacks internal form and
structure. Also, unlike the brain, it is an organ which is continually
regenerating itself. If we consider the spleen, however, we have an organ which
carries within itself the basis not of our self-conscious image memory but of
our substance memory.
In the modern world, we call substance memory the science of immunology.
In recent years, the importance of our physiological uniqueness in the form of
our immunological memory has become almost general knowledge. Without it we are
unable to maintain our identity against the outside world. The spleen can be
removed without apparent detriment to health, although, in a child, its loss
leaves some degree of compromised immunity, depending amongst other things on
the age when this happens. It is an organ with a kind of peripheral sphere of
activity. I am referring to the millions of smaller lymph nodes throughout the
body which have a kind of satellite function in relation to the spleen itself,
but which can exist independently after the foundations of immunity have been
acquired.
We are dependent not only on our image memory for an earthly biography
but on our substance memory too, although it is not so immediately obvious why
this is the case. Animals, for example, do not have individually- based
immunological specificity. Immunological identity belongs more to the species.
Animals, however, do not have individual biographies. The animal's identity is
"species-based," not "specimen-based“. In recent years,
immunology has become threatened as never before. Indeed, it is no longer
something which can be taken for granted.
Without our brain, we would not know who we were when we woke up in the
morning; without this, earthly consciousness would be chaotic as, indeed, it
becomes in certain conditions of cerebral degeneration. If image memory is
connected with the brain and substance memory with the spleen and immune
system, must it not follow that our image memory is the basis of our waking-day
consciousness of self and our substance memory the basis of our sleeping or
unconscious self? This may be identified with our true individuality or
higher-self working and weaving between incarnations.
From this perspective, it is perhaps possible to make the connection
between individual human immunity and personal karma although I am aware that
this may appear as a big jump to make. Our normal habits of thought would lead
us to assume that metabolism proceeds in its own way and that we meet our karma
from a completely different realm in a somewhat metaphysical manner. I strongly
suspect, however, that this is another trick of dualistic thinking. We meet the
outside world in essentially three ways: through the portal of the senses, the
portal of the breath and the portal of metabolism. In all three, substance is
involved: in the metabolism, the connection is very obvious; in the breath, we
meet the substance of air; and through the senses, we meet light. Just as in
our metabolism we first have to break down and digest what we eat before it is
rebuilt, a similar process must also take place in our senses. Our entire
nerve-sense organization has the characteristic that it first has to hold back
sense impressions and digest them, as it were, before they can become
integrated and internalized in the life of soul. The processes of sensory
digestion and substance digestion are working together all the time,
continually playing into one another. It is quite clear that we meet our destiny
and karma from that which we encounter via our senses. What we have breathed in
and digested through our senses unites itself inwardly with that stream of
substance which has first been broken down in our digestive organs. In this
way, individual destiny becomes imprinted within the very substance of our
bodies. Can you sense how the normal boundaries of logic, which separate
substance from spirit, begin to disappear. The dualistic distinction between
these two realms is not quite so clear. Ahrimanic forces have taken hold of the
material realm, and are continually trying to widen the gap between their realm
and the realm of creative spiritual being. On the other hand, however, the
substances we eat have been created by photosynthesis from the light. The substances
of earth and light essentially belong together, although these two concepts
have become mutually estranged.
During the time of our embryonic development and, to a lesser extent,
throughout our childhood, the substance-building processes of our body are at
their most creative. The child's unconscious life of will is working with those
very etheric forces which will later develop into forces of consciousness. At
the beginning of life, these forces are involved in the forming of the sense
organs themselves, which become built and inter-connected like resonance
chambers, through which what is received from the outside world can take shape
within bodily substance. The etheric processes whereby this happens have been
called by Steiner the life processes. The eye, with a lens and so forth, is the
most obvious example of a sense organ. Mediated by the eye, an interaction
takes place between that which comes toward it from the outside world in the
form of outer light and that which we bring toward the perception from inner
experience.
In theory, we can imagine that we first experience the light as a pure
sense perception or percept. However, for a human being a pure percept can
scarcely exist. The moment the outer world impinges upon any sense organ, it is
taken up and "digested" by inner processes working on a more or less
unconscious level. Contrary to theories of ordinary sensory psychology, which
attribute everything of a cognitive nature to the nerves, these are connected
to processes in the blood which carries the element of will.
Through this digestion of the percept in its encounter with blood-
processes there arises an entire spectrum of possibilities of soul life.
Broadly speaking, the life element of the blood brings the instinct and drive
towards the percept, and between these two poles there arises everything
connected with concept, memory, feeling and judgment. The formation of a
concept in relation to a percept, already involves a degree of judgment.
Against this backdrop we can see that the seven life-processes actively
transform what, to begin with, came toward us as a purely outer phenomenon into
something internalized and incorporated into the sphere of soul and body. This
process which is most active in the developmental period of embryonic life and
childhood is, of course, liable to all manner of aberrations through, for
ecample, sensory deprivation or overstimulation. If a child meets inconsistent
behavior or even frank abuse, the judgment-forming processes of the soul will
be impaired. The earlier this takes place, the more deeply rooted will be the
aberrant forms and structural developments in the body arising from it.
The bodily basis for the future life of soul depends intimately on how
the life-processes interact with the sense organs, particularly during the
developmental stage. It is also through this process that the adult
relationship between the etheric and the astral bodies is slowly established in
the organs. In fact, the character of this relationship is distinct for each
organ - and organs are just as much sense organs as they are metabolic ones. In
this way the developmental basis is established for much that later on
expresses itself in the form of psychiatric illness.
I will have to assume for the moment that what Steiner has described
about the seven life processes is not entirely unfamiliar to you. They are
connected, of course, to the seven planets, which Steiner has also described as
having a connection to the seven main internal organs. During the course of
embryonic and child development, the astral forces, which belong to the
planetary realm, and the etheric forces work very closely together. Through the
particular affinity between the organ and the planet, a kind of resonance
chamber arises in the body for each of the seven planetary spheres which, when
taken together, comprise the entire astral body. The moon sphere, which is most
closely connected with the earth, forms the brain. The Saturn sphere, which is
the most removed from the earth, forms the spleen. The Jupiter sphere and the
Mars sphere work together in the formation of liver and gall bladder. Mercury
works into the lung and Venus into the kidney. The planetary forces working
within each organ help the etheric forces of the organ to remain held and
integrated in the body. They bring boundaries to bear on the otherwise
expansive tendencies of the etheric body. During the developmental period, the
relationship between the etheric body and the astral body is laid down in the
organs themselves. Astral forces have more of an affinity to connect with the
sense impressions from the outside world, in relation to which they then unfold
as faculties of soul. As I have said, each organ is in fact just as much a sense
organ as it is a metabolic organ. In the brain we see an organ whose substance
comes closest to death - thereby it is particularly suited to forming the basis
of waking consciousness. In the spleen we see the opposite processes at work.
Here the blood processes, which belong to the very depths of our unconscious
life of will, have taken hold of everything coming from the outside world and
metamorphosed it into bodily substance. In the brain, the forces of the outer
world, i.e., the sense impressions, become dominant and the astral body and the
etheric body both withdraw from the physical body after creating their most
complex imprint within it. This may be seen in the language of modern brain
physiology in terms of the complex network of nerve growth factors, which are
activated only to the extent that the child's life of will is aroused to a
creative relationship to sense perceptions. Perhaps we are seeing in these
processes what Steiner has described in referring to a co-operation between
blood and nerve processes. After the imprint has been created they become
emancipated from the body, thereby becoming free for the conscious life of
soul. In the brain the outer world is always in danger of conquering the inner
world; that is to say, through the brain we lose touch with our inner being.
In the spleen, however, we can say the opposite, namely that the inner
forces of self are continually triumphing over the forces of the outer world.
The astral and etheric bodies remain active metabolically in the blood pro-
cesses and the spleen therefore retains a strong connection to the unconscious
ego which remains active in the body directly rather than via the kind of
structural imprint which is to be found in the brain. We may therefore say that
the way the life processes take hold of these two organs expresses a polarity.
Between the spleen and the brain we find the inner organs of the liver
and the lung. In the lung we see an organ which is, in many ways, similar to
the brain. It has a very strong and hard endoskeleton in the form of its
bronchial tree, composed of cartilaginous rings. Steiner has characterized the
lung as having the closest relationship of all the organs to earthly thoughts -
that is to say, to the brain. Steiner connects the lung, for instance, to the
ability to memorize facts and figures, quantity rather than quality, for
example, telephone directory memories. He describes all our memories as being
imprinted into the etheric sheath or etheric surface of our organs - and the
actual etheric forces through which the lung has been formed have a particular
affinity to earthly thoughts, to everything that lends itself to being weighed,
measured and quantified. Steiner has called this aspect of our etheric body,
the life ether. These life ether forces which work on a bodily level in a kind
of additive way, as is expressed, for example, in the continuous growth pattern
of a fungus, these life ether forces in the lung become something like the
guardians of those sense perceptions which belong to the essentially earthly
element of cognition based on factual memory.
We are all very familiar with various clinical ways in which this comes
to expression. For the curative teacher, for example, the child will come to
mind who can sometimes quite literally remember every single detail of
everything that has happened, not only today and the day before, but perhaps
last week, last month, last year, or even ten years ago. Some children display
remark- able encyclopedic memories of this kind.
We see a similar phenomenon, albeit in a different form, in the adult
who displays obsessive tendencies or fixed ideas. In a fixed idea a spiritual
happening becomes de-contextualized - it is made into something of an isolated
entity. The way the ether body works in the lung is continually appealing to
this kind of isolating, fixating tendency. The forces of the outer world are
therefore not being so thoroughly internalized, digested and metamorphosed into
fantasy as they are in other organs, for instance, the liver. The outer world imposes
itself on the soul in too direct a form - hence we can say that in the lung, as
in the brain, the outer forces are, relatively speaking, conquering the inner
forces.
Just as the lung stands in an intimate relation to the brain and the
nerve- sense system, in so far as it isolates the individual elements from the
whole being, making a kind of self-contained entity from them, so the liver, in
contrast, is an organ which cooperates very closely with the spleen in the
whole system of metabolism. Just as the sense organs all converge on the brain,
where the sense impressions become metabolized within the life of soul, so does
the intestinal tract converge in the liver, through which substances from the
outside world begin to be elaborated into the unique substances of our own
bodies.
This substance-building activity of the liver, when imbued with the
impulses from the spleen, also forms the bodily basis of our will life, but it
exerts its influence a little closer to the level of the soul than does the spleen.
If the spleen is the guardian of our pre-earthly intentions, then the liver is
already attempting to bring these to manifestation here and now on this side of
the threshold. It is the organ which gives the bodily basis for the exercising
of initiative and motivation, it is the origin of our vitality and, to some
extent also, our enthusiasm. All these soul functions are intimately connected
with the way metabolic processes interface with what is taken in from our
senses. It is possible, indeed up to a point normal, for cognitive life, which
has developed itself on the basis of our sense perceptions, to follow a
different direction to the life of deeper motivation or intentionality. Without
the tension that arises between these two realms, both connected as they are to
our life of will, but in very different ways, we would not find the power to
pursue our earthly biography from a condition of inner freedom. However, it is
possible for the normal healthy tension that should exist between these two
realms to diverge to such a degree that the seeds are planted for a real split
between the cognitive world and the world of more unconscious will life. This
may manifest itself fairly quickly in some form of depression or inability to
put intention into deed, or be delayed by years, decades or even life-times!
Liver physiology is in turn connected with the biliary system. Secretory
processes of the liver are focused in the production of bile, which is stored
in the gall bladder before being ejected into the intestines. Here it
encounters substances from the outside world and contributes to their
breakdown. Biliary processes are even more strongly connected to the more
conscious pole of will than is the liver. The liver stands at a kind of mid
point between the biliary processes, through which our will encounters the
outside world, and the spleen, which is the guardian of the deeper nature of
the will. Any obstruction or congestion in the process of bile production or
excretion may have a laming effect on the conscious life of the will and this
may be often observed in medical and psychiatric practice if one is awake to
this possibility.
The liver is an organ with a strong kinship to the fluid realm. If the
substances of the outer world overwhelm the liver, then it becomes something
like a stagnant pool of water. Substances are taken in, but are not vitalized
and may sit there heavily, as it were undigested or impenetrated. When
substances are incompletely digested, allergies may arise. Classical allergies
are fairly easy to identify but nowadays one meets an increasing number of a
more insidious variety which may manifest only through more subtle symptoms
such as tiredness after eating, loss of vitality and so on. This tendency is
often exacerbated in a clinical depression, or in someone with chronic fatigue
syndrome, where a vicious circle of interactions is often seen.
You may remember the very famous example from Steiner's Curative
Education Course of the child who has difficulty with his will in actually
stepping into a tram. Sterner connects this description of a child who is, as
it were, paralyzed in his will, who is unable to release himself from the
conscious life of thought into the spontaneity of a deed, to a weakness in the
activity of the liver. He actually suggests that the disorder may have been
inherited. Whenever weakness of will manifests itself in the child or adult in
any form, we can ask ourselves if the liver - or for that matter the gall
bladder - is in need of support. This sometimes shows itself at times of
transition in life, for instance, in the menopause or following a pregnancy. At
both these transition-times a person is increasingly vulnerable to suffering
from depression. During the menopause, a further metamorphosis of organic
etheric forces into the conscious soul life is taking place - or at least the
potential is there for this to happen. Forces which have been active on a
bodily level in the glands until this time become available for new
soul-spiritual activity or development. If they are not appropriately taken up,
however, congestion of the liver and biliary system may ensue. Indeed, moderate
degrees of this are almost normal at such times, since processes of
metamorphosis are usually only gradually accomplished.
On a more day by day level, we also experience physiological transitions
at three o'clock in the morning and three o'clock in the afternoon. At three
o'clock in the afternoon, blood sugar levels are usually on the low side,
signifying that the substance building aspect of liver function is at its
weakest at this time. At three o'clock in the morning, however, bile production
is at its weakest point. Both these times of transition tend to be difficult
periods during the day or night for people struggling with depressive illnesses.
Waking at three o'clock in the morning with morbid thoughts - that is to say,
thoughts which it is not possible to properly digest and integrate into the
waking consciousness, are very familiar examples of this. In more severe forms
of manic depressive illness, tendencies of this kind can be much more dramatic.
Steiner has connected the liver with that part of the etheric body which
is called the chemical ether. This is also sometimes called the tone ether, the
number ether or the sound ether. Through this ether, physical growth is
inwardly organized according to the inner harmonies of number and measure,
which also become manifest in the inner harmonies of music. When this etheric
quality becomes prematurely released into the realm of soul, the stream of time
coming from the future to the present is likely to overwhelm the normal state
of waking consciousness. All manner of experiences can then arise to which the
soul feels connected but no longer in a free way. Such things as ideas of
reference, deja vu phenomena, and even deeper states of paranoia, may thereby
arise. The etheric forces which are particularly connected with the liver give
us the experience of becoming contextualized in our environment. When these
forces unfold their activity too strongly in consciousness, a disturbance in
our relationship to the surrounding environment may ensue. Paranoia is one of
the most frequent forms that such as disturbance takes. One feels threatened by
the environment, but in a very personalized way, almost as though the
substances of the outside world are working their own life out at our own
expense! Paranoia may, in turn, be a fairly transient phenomenon, with a more
neurotic character, or it may be major symptom of a severe psychotic
depression, or even a schizophrenic illness.
I mentioned a few moments ago that an astral quality from one or other
of the planetary spheres works together with the etheric body of a particular
organ, constraining these forces and guarding against their tendency to jump,
as it were, too quickly out of the body, too quickly into the future. Whenever
that planetary or astral activity within an organ becomes weakened - and
weaknesses may be inherent or acquired - the soul becomes vulnerable to
encountering forces from the etheric body which it should not meet until after
death or until one is suitably prepared for a conscious encounter with the
spiritual world. Any drug or poison will also to some degree deflect the
life-processes from their bodily manifestation, leading to the premature
release of etheric forces into the soul realm. This phenomenon forms the basis
for the anthroposophical understanding of certain aspects of drug abuse.
Different drugs may display certain organ affinities - for instance, the
qualitative effects of cocaine may be seen in terms of the lung, of LSD more in
terms of the kidney. What one is then meeting as a disturbance of the etheric
forces of the organs is also a disturbance on the life-processes of the organs.
It is a kind of foretaste of the experience that we meet after death, when we
see the panorama of the life that we have just lived. After death this
experience - known as the etheric tableau experience - normally only happens
when our entire ether body becomes freed from our physical body. At the time of
our death this experience is strongly held within the sphere of the Being of
Christ and the Spirit of the Guardian of the Threshold. If this happens
prematurely, albeit only in a modified form through a drug, the soul may
experience later difficulties or impediments in returning properly into the
body and this may also sow the seed for different forms of disorientation and
dislocation of the conscious life of will. I cannot expand in this talk on the
theme of drug abuse or addiction. I would, however, like to point to the close
connection that has often been noted between certain drug experiences and
certain spiritual experiences. This becomes much more readily comprehensible
when we are able to understand it in terms of the organs. The forces that are released
from the etheric activities of the organs, the forces more bound up with the
inner side of the life processes, are expressions of the living activity of
spiritual beings that are still active within the substance of our own body.
The threshold to the substance-building processes is indeed the same as the
threshold to the spiritual world altogether. We meet the spiritual world where
the substance-building processes of our bodily organs are taking place. But it
is quite a different thing to meet this through a process of inner training and
inner development, or to meet it after death when these forces have been
naturally released, so to speak, than it is to do so through substance abuse or
through weaknesses within the activity of the planetary sphere belonging to a
particular organ. For the anthroposophical doctor and psychiatrist, the field
of possible medicinal therapy opens up at this point through, for example, an
understanding of the connections between the different metals, the planets and
the organs. It is not possible to develop this further, however, at this point.
I hope that this broad overview serves to indicate how Anthroposophy
spans so many aspects of the realm of psychiatry, opening up new possibilities
of understanding, of diagnosis and also of therapy. I have also tried to point
out the extent to which the realm of psychiatry and the realm of inner
development or initiation are intimately connected. I have often had the
feeling that much that is met in the realm of psychiatry may be a kind of
result or expression of an uncompleted process of initiation in a former life.
I would certainly not suggest that this is so in every case, but an
insufficiently prepared initiation may be the result of an attempt to cross the
threshold into the spiritual world too soon. We see the same gesture becoming
manifest when our etheric body in the one or other of our organs wishes to
become released too quickly. Thoughts such as this are sometimes helpful in
those cases of mental illness in which it is not possible to discern their
origin in this life on earth, and with which a person may have to live for a
whole incarnation.
It is, however, often possible to understand a great deal of mental
illness or psychological disturbance in relation to childhood development.
Nowadays childhood development is under threat and it is very difficult for
most people to go through childhood in such a way that they achieve a healthy
soul-spiritual penetration of the body. Many things are responsible for this,
including poor nutrition, an education that has no respect for phases of bodily
development and which already draws organic processes too soon from the body
into the realm of soul; through a general deprivation of what Steiner has
called the bodily senses - that is to say, the senses of touch, life, movement
and balance. When the life processes withdraw from these senses too quickly,
the astral body is not able to create a sufficiently strong resonance chamber
or imprint for itself within the physical and etheric bodies. This may show
itself in later life in the form of soul insecurities, anxieties, hyperactivity
and so on. Childhood is also threatened through the general dissolution of
society. Conventional securities, accepted modes of behavior, and so on, are
rightly falling to one side, but all too often parents are not able to replace
them from their own individual resources. We continually find ourselves thrown
back upon ourselves, needing to rely on personal judgments too soon before the
organic basis of our body has been properly equipped to fulfill this task. This
crumbling of the social and moral fabric of society throws the developing child
all too easily into a state of turmoil. At an increasingly early age the
adolescent has often to encounter the sense of inner void, meaninglessness, the
realm of inner darkness. Existential questions to do with self-identity
confront the adolescent nowadays almost as a normal phenomenon, whereas even 30
years ago the securities that applied to generation after generation acted as a
form of protection against this.
When we really meet the existential question, "Who am I?", the
answer never can be found in the outside world which we meet via our senses. It
can only be found from that same eternal self which lives behind the threshold
of our physical organs. Between our conscious experience of self and our
eternal being, however, there lies that interface of soul which I mentioned a
few minutes ago - the realm in which there is an ongoing battle between our
conscious self and our eternal self. The bodily basis of our life often looks
for ease, comfort and security. Spiritual intentions on the other hand threaten
earthly securities, and deep-seated fears, doubts and so on may be evoked by
them in the soul. These forces belong to those instincts and, to some degree
necessary, egoistic drives which are implanted within our physical body and
which work into our earthly personality at a deeply unconscious level. These
forces are constantly enticing us to build our identity on the outside world -
on something upon which we can apparently rely and from which we can derive a
certain sense of security and predictability. Everything that derives from the
outside world and which we meet through our senses - particularly those aspects
to which the lung has an affinity, such as obsessions, fixed ideas and so on -
all these will tend to offer us apparent solutions in the face of the spiritual
challenge in meeting the inner void.
In so many of the psychiatric illnesses of adolescence, we see particularly
clearly how this phenomenon comes to expression prematurely. I refer, for
instance, to the phenomenon of anorexia, which has almost become a kind of
epidemic at the present time.
In more recent years psychiatry has developed a new interest in the personality,
particularly through the descriptions of so-called multiple personality
disorders - now referred to as dissociative identity disorders. In this type of
condition the tension between opposing elements is no longer held or integrated
within the framework of the single person, but different elements become seeds
around which apparently independent personalities develop. There is sometimes a
lack of continuity of ego consciousness and even memory between the one
personality and the other - a fragmentation has taken place. The more severe
forms of this disturbance are usually connected with sexual abuse during early
life. I am sure that through deepening our understanding of the co-operation of
the senses and life processes during the time of childhood development, our
insights into this type of disturbance would take on new dimensions. In fact, a
number of anthroposophical psychiatrists have already begun to do just this.
As many of us are aware, however, this phenomenon can lead to some of
the most frightening of phenomena which we as human beings may have to
encounter. When an ego fragmentation takes place, islands of our etheric and
astral bodies have become dislocated from the overall sphere of the ego
organization. It is here that the borderline between the realm of medicine and
psychiatry on the one hand and that of social and personal morality, becomes
almost indistinguishable. Those of you who are familiar with the works of Scott
Peck, particularly his book "People of the Lie", will be aware that
he addresses this problem. He challenges contemporary psychiatry to build a new
scientific understanding of the realm of evil, stressing how until the present
time this realm has been considered to fall outside the scope of science. This
book was not written with dissociative identity disorders particularly in mind,
but I am sure that there is a close connection between these phenomena and many
of his descriptions. He relates much of what he has to say to possession - a
concept which, until recently, was considered to be virtually medieval. I think
that this book by Scott Peck is a clear example of the condition that modern
psychiatry finds itself in, when it attempts to confront the spiritual nature
of the human being. I believe his book is courageous and, in many ways, quite
masterly. However, it struggles without having any way of connecting the realm
of substance with the realm of the spirit. And, as I began my talk by saying, I
think that it is just this potential that is unique to the anthroposophical
contribution to psychiatry. The original polarity between substance and
creative spirit arose during the time of the Fall on Old Lemuria. From this
time onwards the creative world of the spirit and the actual substantial
happenings in matter started to separate. We are now at the point in human
evolution when out of their own nature these two forces will continue to
diverge ever more and more strongly. Steiner forecast that by the end of the
century we would be blighted by epidemics of mental illness of one kind or
another - and I am sure that amongst other things anorexic disturbances and
dissociative disorders are among the examples that could be cited to bear out
his prediction. I believe that ultimately the task of mental illness is to
stimulate in us the call to inner development, to truly know ourselves. Whereas
up until the present time we had a certain license to decide not to follow this
path, it is nowadays almost imperative to do so if we are to confront and deal
with problems, if not exactly in epidemic, then certainly in escalating
proportions. Modes of being that were once regarded as extreme pathologies
become ever more and more common. Unless a sufficiently strong impulse is
ignited in humankind to hear this call, then this separation between substance
and spirit will continue. It will then become increasingly difficult for human
bodies to sustain a basis for integrated ego consciousness into the future.
They then become the basis for the activity of those evil beings - so called
"anti-spirits" of personality to which Steiner has given the name of
"Asuras“. The loss of immunological identity that we are also witnessing
at the present time is, I beheve, the mirror image of this. That is to say, it
is the polar expression of the same phenomenon. In the realm of psychiatry, the
possibility of the conscious ego to integrate itself with its own karma is
threatened, and at the level of immunology, the possibility for the unconscious
organization of the ego to penetrate physical substance is also threatened.
This theme is obviously one with which we could occupy ourselves not only in
coming days, but also in the coming decades and centuries. We live in a time
when developments are accelerating around us, but this was something that
Rudolf Steiner anticipated at the beginning of this century and which
Anthroposophy is intended to help us to master. We are, however, still only at
the beginning of doing just this - it lies in the hands of each of us to help
to realize this aim.
‡ Folgendes hat anthroposofische Einschlüße ‡
Frei nach: Fernanda Abrao, M.D.
Hypertension
According
to R.S.: "Hypertension is the result of astral hyperexcitability at the
level of the rhythmic system". In German, this pathology is called
hypertonie, that is, exacerbated or intensified tonus. We know cramping as a
constrictive action of the astral body on the muscles acting from outside as if
a hand were gripping them. To understand "hypertonus", imagine this
exacerbated astral tonus going deeper, as if it were generating exaggerated
tonus at the level of the rhythmic, or cardiovascular, system. Here we see that
this astral activity does not act from outside as it does in the case of a
cramp.
It is not
my intention to diminish the importance of the pathophysiology of hypertension.
The comparison with a cramp is used only to get us closer to the constrictive,
tension element of the astral process - something which is almost mechanical in
the case of a cramp.
We find the
causes of this astral tension of the rhythmic system in psychic disorders,
moral tremors which affect the human being as a creature of soul and spirit. A
simple and instructive example of the effects that a threat can cause to our
feeling life is fright. When someone is startled, a feeling of abandonment
arises, as if presence of mind abandons them. In other words, the activities of
the Ego and the astral body move out of harmonious relationship with the
physical-etheric body. These four bodies balance harmoniously in our rhythmic
system. The consciousness of our Ego dwells in our cardiovascular system. If
fright overcomes us, our capacity to react is impaired; the "shield"
of the Ego and the astral body does not fully protect us. As a result, fear can
invade us.
R.S. points
out the importance of disorders of the rhythmic system in human beings between
the 2nd and 3rd seven-year periods as a cause of hypertension. It is well known
that the 2nd seven-year period of life is the solar phase, which is essentially
a rhythmic one when the child suffers very little illness. In his book.
Children's Destinies, Dr. Holtzapfel explains this. The aesthetic and artistic
experience of the world and the experience of beauty have their roots in this
period. The child perceives everything around it through its most genuine
feeling; we can state unequivocally that this feeling is an organ through which
the child receives the world and through which he goes out to meet it. In this
way, traumas of the soul from different sources will disturb the
above-mentioned attitude of soul, and the soul will absorb these elements
during the process of structuring the personality.
What is it
that happens in this situation? It is as if the activities of the Ego and the
astral body are attempting to settle on the base of the physical-etheric body,
whose node of confluence is at the cardiovascular level, but does not succeed
in doing so properly. Traumas are like frights in installments which cause the
Ego and the astral body to hover, thus making it difficult for them to fit into
the lower bodies like a hand in a glove. The attempt to incarnate occurs more
from outside, irregularly, in the cardiovascular system, generating an
increased tonus, hypertonus, or hypertension.
In a talk
on the heart, R.S. states the following:
The human heart
is a center where the cosmic forces and karmic activation are interlaced. From
the age of seven up to the beginning of puberty/adolescence the individual
etheric heart is born, originating from the cosmic spheres of influence (fixed
stars, zodiac, planets). Together with this process there is a penetration of
the astral elements (which were formerly outside) into all the physical organs;
and it is as if the heart is the central point of this interiorization. These
astral elements consist of karmic elements developed during the prenatal life.
And it is in the heart that this clash between the cosmic-etheric forces and
the karmic-astral forces takes place. The ego joins this process in sympathy
from the astral body, inscribing in the astral body its aims and ideas based on
which man carries out his actions... Indeed, here there is complete union of
the karma with the laws of the cosmos... After death, the etheric body, upon
dissolving in the starry cosmos, hands over to the universe, as it were,
everything that was created by karma on earth.
This is an
incomplete account of the lecture designed to illustrate the importance of the
cardiovascular system in the deeper context of the existence of a human being.
Dr. Mees
also deals with the heart, asking us to consider the muscular continuity of the
heart-aorta-arteries (with the reservation that the first of these is a
syncytium, and the arteries smooth musculature). Since the heart is the stage
on which the "dramas of the soul" are enacted, it is possible for a
tensional process to materialize in the arterial system. He also reminds us
that it is not only the heart that beats but the entire arterial system.
In his
book, Der Leib als Instrument der Seek in Gesundheit und Krankheit Dr. Walther
Buehler describes the heart as the "perceptive" organ of the arterial
circulation; it is the latter which really beats, leading the heart to beat
with it.
Hypertension
and Sclerosis
In the
seventh clinical case of the Fundamentals of Therapy by R.S. and Ita Wegman, it
is stated that the excess astral activity not absorbed by the physical and
etheric bodies causes sclerosis. Later in the book, they state "...the
excess of activity of the astral body also increases the activity of the Ego,
which is manifested as a rise in blood pressure“. Indeed, the correlation
between sclerosis and hypertension is very common, especially when deposits are
observed on the walls of the arteries. An excess of activity of the soul/spirit
can be seen as the basic cause of sclerosis; but it is interesting to note that
the degenerative element can be attributed to the astral activity whereas the
Ego would be the harmonizing element of this process - if it were in control.
Here, however, the astral element causes degradation, irregularity, constriction
or hardening, which can lead to hypertension, to more obvious metabolic
disorders such as atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis, or to less obvious ones.
In the same
book, they refer to the medicine Scleron: "In sclerosis, the organization
of the Ego becomes very weak; it does not do enough breaking down. As a result,
the breaking down takes place only by means of the astral body.“.. From this we
see that both in sclerosis and in hypertension there is a predominance of the
irregular astral activity, poorly controlled by the healthy activity of the
Ego. The effect of Scleron is precisely to give priority to the activity of the
Ego over the astral body; it is to fortify and intensify the activity of the
Ego in the therapeutic sense, attempting to dissolve the hardening or
constrictive tendency of the astral body.
Kidney
Radiation
When the
activity of the kidneys and adrenal glands is increased, the resulting plethora
can, in turn, lead to cardiovascular disorders and sclerosis. The pyknic
constitution and the choleric temperament have this tendency.
People with
a weak kidney radiation tend to have low blood pressure and a melancholic
temperament of the longilineous type. I have seen several patients of this type
suffer a reversion to hypertension between the ages of about 35 to 42 after a
professional or marital crisis, bearing in mind significant aspects of their
case histories.
It is quite
common in anthroposophic medicine to come across the following definition of
R.S.: "The hypertensive patient is a hypotensive person up against life“.
I think that, especially in the above case, this definition is perfect if we
remember that this type of person generally has little vital energy, which
affects the will (in the case of low kidney radiation).
Recent
Research
Some very
interesting research was recently performed by means of a microneurogram in
which the stimuli of the sympathetic (peripheral) nervous system on the
arteries related to hypertension was observed. The initial conclusion was that
the hyperactivity of this system (due to stress, emotions, intellectual
activity, etc.) caused arterial constriction, even going so far as to constrict
minor blood vessels. It further concluded that in hypertensive patients the
number of nervous stimuli remained high, even in the absence of triggering
factors.
From this,
it is not difficult to understand the previously-mentioned aspects if we
consider the increased astral activity acting "from outside", causing
contraction in the arterial system through the channel with which it has most
affinity - that is to say, the nervous system.
I'd like to
end with the second half of R.S.'s mantram from the Course for Young Doctors
I will unite
The Knowledge of my soul
With Fire of the flower's fragrance;
I will bestir
The Life of my Soul
On the glistening drop of leafy morning;
I will make strong
The Being of my Soul
With the all hardening Salt
Whereby the Earth with loving care
Nurtures the root.
‡ Folgendes hat anthroposofische Einschlüße ‡
Frei nach: Armin Scheffler, Ph.D.
„Zum Verstaendnis der Morgen- und Abendprozesse und ihrer Anwendung in der Heilmittelherstellung“.
In a
lecture given on 25 November 1917,(1) R.S. spoke of the need to use morning and
evening processes in pharmaceutics in the near future.
Two other
processes in the cosmic order went against this. He called them the midday and
midnight processes and characterized them as follows: the midday processes were
mainly brought to bear from the Anglo-American sphere, the midnight processes
from an eastern direction. Morning and evening processes, which always could
work together, represented the Christian impulse. They were opposed with a kind
of Antichrist from the West, whereas the streams coming from the East would try
to prevent true perception of the Christ impulse. R.S. also related certain
cosmic activities, designated by signs of the zodiac, with the three kinds of
processes. Morning and evening processes were said to be due to the cosmic
activity of Fishes and Virgin; noon processes were in the cosmic direction of
the Twins; and midnight processes were forces coming from the Archer.
R.S.'s
actual words were:
For a
regular professor of biology it is of real importance today to have a
microscope with maximum possible magnification, the best possible laboratory
methods, and so on. In future, when science will have become spiritual, it will
be a question of whether certain processes are best done in the morning and
evening or at noon; if one lets the evening forces influence whatever has been
done in the morning or if one excludes, it paralyzes the cosmic influence from
morning to evening. Such processes will prove to be necessary in future, and
they will take place... People with knowledge of the cosmos will fight each
other, with some of them bringing morning and evening processes to bear in the
way I have indicated; in the West preferably the noon processes, eliminating
morning and evening processes, and in the East the midnight processes.
Substances will no longer be produced merely according to chemical attraction
and repulsion, and people will know that a different substance results if one
uses morning and evening, midday or midnight processes... Nothing can go wrong
if the power coming from the Fishes and those coming from theVirgin act
together... .
These words
may sound strange, but they have found application within the anthroposophic
movement. Anthroposophic medicines are produced by rhythmical methods based on
R.S.'s statements. Procedures such as gentle heating, exposure to light, or
setting the mixture in motion are applied to the plant preparations in the
mornings and evenings. If we ask ourselves if this is really in accord with
what R.S. indicated in the lecture on 25 November 1917, one objection arises
that can scarcely be invalidated: the fact that it is perfectly possible to
treat a plant preparation in the mornings only, for the method used does not
make it necessary to treat it also in the evening. R.S. made it clear, however,
that morning processes absolutely demand to be combined with evening processes
and that it is impossible to separate the two.
To get a
clearer picture, let us consider the context of the lecture. During World War
I, R.S. frequently drew attention to the fact that people live with the dead in
a very real way. Shortly after the passage quoted above, he said:
We can only
see them (things) as they are if we are able to apply the concepts and ideas of
our anthroposophically-oriented science of the spirit to the real world. The
dead will have a major role to play for the rest of the Earth's existence, and
it will be a question of how they do this. Above all, the big difference will
be that the attitude of people who are on Earth goes in a positive direction
and the dead can then be involved at a point where the impulse to act comes
from them, where it is taken from the world of the spirit which the dead
experience after death.
Speaking to
the dead
One way in
which R.S. showed the connection with the dead began with a reference to the
different levels of consciousness in our thinking, feeling and will activity:
waking, dreaming, sleeping. If we consider the two extremes of consciousness,
we are citizens of two worlds. In waking consciousness we live with the three
realms of nature and with the human beings who are born, in sleep consciousness
with the spirits of the hierarchies and with the dead. In a lecture given on 5
February 1918, he said:
Anyone who
gets to know the life which the human soul has between death and rebirth...
will see that in this world, in which we move in our sleep, we live together
with the so-called dead. The dead are always present. They are present in a
supersensible world, moving within it and relating to it. We are not separate
from them in terms of being real or not, we are separate from them only in our
state of consciousness. We are separated from them exactly the way we are
separated from the objects surrounding us when we are asleep: sleeping in a
room, we do not see the chairs and other objects that may be there, though they
are definitely there. In our so-called waking state we are asleep in our
feelings and will, right in the midst of the so-called dead - only we do not
refer to it as such - just as we do not perceive the physical objects that
surround us in our sleep.
He then
said with great emphasis: "This knowledge of being with the dead will be
one of the most important elements which the science of the spirit must implant
in general human culture for the future“.
Surely this
means that Anthroposophy has the task of making this knowledge part of general
education so that everyone will find it as natural as eating and drinking. The
question arises, however, as to how we can recognize the real connection with
our own dead. How does the nature of our experiences change when we move from
sensory awareness to awareness of the world of spirit, that is, on crossing the
threshold? R.S. described this with reference to human dialogue. In the world
of the senses, the situation is like this:
Let me be
specific. If you talk to someone else here in the world of the senses, you
talk, and the other replies. You know you produce words with the aid of your
organs of speech; the words come from your thoughts. You feel you are creating
the words you speak. You know you hear yourself speak, and when the other
person speaks you hear him, knowing that you are silent and hearing the other
person... Dialogue with the dead is experience in the opposite way: communion
with the disembodied souls is not like this. Strange as it may seem, communion
with disembodied souls is exactly the reverse. When you communicate your own
thoughts to the disembodied soul it is not you who speaks but he. It is exactly
as if you were talking to someone, and anything you wish to think and
communicate is said not by you but by the other person. And the replies given
by the so-called dead person do not come to you from outside but rise up inside
you; you experience them as your inner life. This is something one must first
get used to in clairvoyant consciousness.
We can get
an inkling of the different quality of dialogue if we pay real attention to the
other person. A situation may then arise where we forget ourselves and enter
wholly into the individual nature and thinking of that other person. This may
also happen with objects that are part of our professional life. Working with a
medicinal plant, for instance, we may become absorbed in careful observation of
phenomena and go to sleep with reference to ourselves, awaking in the object.
Noting
questions - evening processes
Processing
flowering male mistletoe plants harvested in Winter to make an aqueous
preparation, we always noted a sticky, resinous material adhering to the
surfaces of the tools used to mince the mistletoe material. It could only be
removed with benzene, which is a fat solvent. Production of this resinous
matter was all the greater the more froth developed on mincing the mistletoe.
However carefully we worked, it proved impossible to prevent this resinous
material separating out. A second, similar phenomenon was the following: when
the berries, which contain gum, had to be processed to make an aqueous
preparation, they took up plenty of water, but the gum did not completely
dissolve. This was seen on filtration: a jelly-like layer formed on the filter
which only let a few more drops pass, finally clogging the filter completely.
It is easy
to ignore this and carry on as before. Thus, one tolerates the separation of
the resinous substance and, in the other case, simply does not make a full
berry preparation. Yet if processing mistletoe to produce a medicine really
matters to us, the question arises: how can I prevent the loss of this resinous
material and what significance does the production of this material have in our
understanding of the mistletoe plant?
You become
aware that it is not you who asks the questions but that they arise when you
consider the phenomenon with wonder and awe. It is as if you see or hear the
question. It is important to take this as seriously as a question asked by a
revered friend. R.S. always spoke of these two stages on the schooling path:
noting the question and taking it seriously. He spoke of developing the inner
life by taking the path of reverence. Elsewhere, he referred to both steps. The
first step - here described as becoming aware of questions - was called wonder
and awe" and the second step reverence, which is taking the question
seriously. Reverence is followed by the feeling that a spiritual entity has
made itself known. On the schooling path, it is part of this stage to
distinguish the important from the unimportant.
Everyone
may make many such observations in the course of a day, and they may show
themselves to be questions when we do our nightly review. As a rule, however,
we tend to go to sleep over them. In the lecture of 5 February 1918,6 R.S. said
that as we go to sleep we put hundreds of questions to the older people among
the dead with whom we have a connection. They have had a long life in the world
of the senses and now experience the soul aspect of its situations. This makes
them open to questions. R.S. put it like this:
The strange
thing is that the moment of going to sleep is particularly good for putting
questions to the dead, thai is, for hearing the question we put to the dead
person come from him... The older souls among the dead draw us more to
themselves, whereas the souls of those who died young tend to draw nearer to
us. Because of this we have much to say to the older souls, and we can create a
bond with the world of the spirit by addressing ourselves to the older souls
among the dead at the moment of going to sleep. Human beings can readily do
quite a bit in this direction.
Experiencing
answers - morning processes
It has
already been said in this quote that we receive the answers from different dead
persons, from younger ones, who give us impulses as we wake up. We tend not to
notice this very much for the life of the senses, which is then beginning,
tends to blot those answers out. Another reason why people do not find it easy
to enter into communion with the dead is that if we perceive the answers at
all, we take them to be something that comes from ourselves and not something
for which the dead have given the impulses. Again, let me quote R.S.:
When we
lose children, when young people leave this world, it is essentially true that
they do not really leave us but remain with us. This is apparent to clairvoyant
consciousness from the fact that the messages which come to us as we wake up
are very lively if the dead are children or young people who have died. A
connection exists between those who remain behind and the dead, and it would be
fair to say that a child or young person is not really lost to us; they
actually remain. They remain mainly because, after death, they have a lively
need to influence our waking up, sending messages as we are in the process. It
is truly strange, but it is true, that someone who has died young has an
extraordinarily great deal to do with everything connected with the waking up
process.
The
following example may be said to come close to those experiences. Working with
mistletoe (its morphology, biology and material qualities) and realizing that
the gums, being hydrophilic and dissolving easily in water, are the opposite of
the hydrophobic, water-repellent, resinous substances, which are more inclined
to relate to air, we decided temporarily to abandon our attempts to process
extracts of flowering and berry-bearing mistletoe separately and, instead,
process the two together. The experience (of deciding) had been as if someone
looking over one's shoulder were saying: "Simply try using the berries together
with the flowering mistletoe and its resinous material“. Everyday routine
would, however, prevail and the suggestion be forgotten. Yet when we noted
resinous matter separating out once again, the challenge came again: "Go
on, try; make the experiment.“.. Four months later, the experiment was made,
adding different proportions of berries to flowering male Winter mistletoe
material.
The 25%
addition gave the most convincing results. No resinous matter was deposited on
our tools as we minced the mistletoe and incorporated it in the aqueous
solution. To everyone's surprise, the extract was much easier to filter than
any we had worked with before. No fat layer remained on the filter, and the
filtered extract was a deep, dark green, indicating that a good proportion of
fatty types of substances had also been taken up into the aqueous solution.
Chlorophyll, the green leaf pigment, is fat soluble and embedded in fat-like
membranes. These now became part of the extract and could be seen as a fine,
milky clouding if a bright light shone on the extract from the side.
The outcome
of the experiment revealed the character, or idea, of mistletoe in a way that
moved us deeply. Years of intensive botanical work had shown one major
character trait of mistletoe to be that it always allows opposites to interact
to the effect of producing an embryonic, inhibited state. Here, we had the
gesture: the fat-soluble, resinous matter, wanting to escape from the water
into the air, combined with the heavy gum from the berries that would not
dissolve properly and a slightly cloudy, milky solution was obtained. We might
call it a resin/gum colloid (Greek colla = glue). It was as if mistletoe nature
itself had provided the answer.
R.S. spoke
of two more steps that follow wonder and reverence: feeling at one with the
laws of the world and devotion“. The first is necessary to prevent us from
acting on anything that comes into our heads, the second to enable us to work
selflessly for the object. Wonder and reverence are, thus, connected with putting
the question, being at one with cosmic laws; and devotion with receiving the
answer and acting on it.
What does
this have to do with morning and evening processes? Is it not a matter of
crossing the threshold in two ways, hearing the question as we go from the
world of the senses to that of the spirit and experiencing the answers as we
return from world of spirit to world of senses? Rhythmic alternation of the two
processes is a necessary consequence for we cannot go to sleep several times
without waking up in between, nor can we wake up several times without going to
sleep in between. Morning and evening processes, therefore, always go together.
Mercurial
processes mediate the polarity between light-related flowering impulses and
earth-related root powers.
Midnight
processes
The next
question is: are there corresponding midday and midnight processes? We find
these in the different attitudes the seeking human being has to the two worlds.
To seek, for instance, is to develop an interest in which the soul connects
with something outside it. In the world of the senses we have to give ourselves
completely to the object, leaving self aside as we direct our attention to it.
This ideal of genuine science may also be called selfless love, a love which
has its origin in the beloved nature of something that is utterly different.
Our seeking is, however, entirely different where the world of the spirit is
concerned; but this love for things of the spirit must be on our own
account. Our roots are in the world of the spirit. It behooves us to make
ourselves as perfect as possible. We must love the world of the spirit for
ourselves, bringing as many powers as we possibly can from that world into our
own essential being, m our love of the spirit this personal, individual element
- we might call it an element of egotistical love - is fully justified for it
tears us away from the world of the senses, taking us up into the world of the
spirit. It helps us to do what is necessary, which is to make ourselves more
and more perfect.
R.S. said
it was most important to master the process of moving to and fro between the
two worlds. The danger that the change does not take an orderly course may take
two forms. On one hand, the seeker may achieve transition to the world of the
spirit without first cleansing himself of affects and passions. Luciferic
spirits may, then, take hold of him causing his inner life of feeling to be
torn away from the world of the senses so that he develops his own illusory
world. Such people tend to have pet ideas and rapturous idealisms; they become
philosophizing eccentrics. Vanity, ambition and the desire for power are
particular qualities that tend to be overlooked when human beings should have
come to know themselves before crossing the threshold. A feeling may develop
that the state of soul they have known in the world of the spirit should
continue forever.
Another,
even greater danger is connected with this. The circumstances of life in our
time are such that they prevent knowledge of the higher world. If someone
nevertheless has desire for higher knowledge, then, according to R.S., the
following may happen:
If the
human being brings impulses into the world of the senses which, in the world of
the spirit, may take him to the most sublime experiences, they may have the
most abominable effect... the kind of love that is justifiable only in the
world of the spirit then enters into sensual drives, passions, desires, and so
on, making them perverse. The perversities of sensual drives, all the
abominable abnormalities of those drives, are the counter image of sublime
virtues that could be achieved in the world of the spirit if the powers, which
now pour into the physical work, were to be used in the world of the spirit.
The reason
for this human attitude is that validity is given only to an attitude that
belongs to the world of the spirit. This is the world of sleep, and processes
of this kind may, therefore, be said to be midnight processes.
Midday
processes
R.S.
described the second great danger in his lecture on 25 August 1913. The
attitude of mind which belongs to the world of the senses is also applied where
images from the world of the spirit are concerned. He referred to this as
"nibbling at goodies in the world of the spirit":
It is
possible, therefore, to nibble at goodies in the world of the spirit; it then
frequently happens that something experienced in that world is taken into the
world of the senses. There, however, it condenses and contracts. A clairvoyant
who, thus, does not follow the laws of the general order of the universe will
then return to the physical world of the senses with condensed images and
impressions of the higher worlds so that he is not merely seeing and thinking
things in the physical world but has the after effects of the other world
before him in images as he lives in his physical body. These are very similar
to the images perceived through the senses but do not relate to reality; they
are illusions, hallucinations and daydreams.
Later in
that same lecture he said:
Those nibbled
goodies from the world of the spirit are the special prey of Ahriman. Ordinary
human thoughts provide him only with airy shadows; but - to put it in ordinary
words - he gets rich, dense phantom shadows by squeezing, to the best of his
ability, from individual human bodies the false, illusory images that have
arisen through nibbling at the goodies of the other world. The result is that
the physical world is filled in an ahrimanic way with spiritual phantom shadows
that go disastrously against the general laws of the general order of the
universe.
Many of the
ideas people have today concerning electricity and magnetism and also
physiological processes are such phantom shadows. These enable people to
intervene in the physical world to a degree that has never before been
possible. The evil that goes against the order of the universe lies not in
knowing the world of matter but in such knowledge becoming tainted with
egotistical drives and desire for power.
The
tendency to make spiritual contents materialistic even applies to important
human ideals. Three such ideals have been ours for centuries. Goethe called
them "god, virtue and immortality“.1 If we are able to see and admire the
divine element in the whole of creation, we are, in the Goethean sense, monists.
In Christian terms, this is "God the Father“. The second ideal, that of
virtue, points to an attitude of lovingly encompassing anything "other“,
seeing the process of becoming in all that has come into existence. The third
ideal, that of immortality, means knowing of repeated lives on earth, knowing
that the spiritual core of the human being moves rhythmically to and fro
between the physical and the non-physical worlds.
Today,
those three ideals have become materialistic, which is only too evident if we
read the greetings sent to people on their birthdays. It is hoped they'll have
riches and prosperity, gold, in short, and also good health and a long life.
God thus becomes gold, virtue health, and immortality long life. Spiritual
contents have been made part of the world of the senses. The inner attitude is
particularly common in our western world, and we may equate it with the midday
processes.
Consequences
in pharmaceutical research
Our inner
attitudes are a major influence in the world for they change the realm of
matter. Environmental problems are one example, but the manufacture of
medicines is also affected. Above, an attempt was made to show, from the
example of mistletoe processing, that the application of morning and evening
processes influences even the way in which substances combine.
If
"midnight processes“ ideas, are used at fantasy level, correction is
missing that can be made if our observation and perception include wonder and
awe, that is, the experience of questions. Other qualities are abstracted. The
conviction that one is doing the best thing possible prevents objective
perception of the consequences of one's actions.
"Midday
processes“, on the other hand, will only allow materialistic ideals to have
validity. A typical example can be given from recent mistletoe research. The
isolation and description of mistletoe lectins, the most important group of
mistletoe poisons, has caused many scientists to believe the antitumor activity
of mistletoe to be due to those lectins. This does, of course, have an effect
on the manufacture of mistletoe preparations, and preparations of isolated
mistletoe lectins are now available and put to clinical use.
Ahriman is
the force who wants to tie human beings to the world of the senses and who
always speaks the truth but brings falsehood into the order of the universe by
presenting only part of the truth. It is only part of the truth to say that
lectins are important active principles. Mistletoe can only be a cancer
medicine if those lectins are combined with the other substances in a way that
is not possible for the plant itself but which is entirely in accord with its
general developmental gesture.
For this,
we must enter into "real dialogue" with the plant so that, as
pharmacists, we become mediators between the two worlds. Polar worlds come
alive in us in regular rhythm if we hear the older, dead souls communicate the
questions that have arisen in the course of the day as we go to sleep and
experience the answers as impulses to act coming from the younger dead on
waking in the morning. This may well be the way the morning and evening
processes of which we have spoken may be understood.
The inner
questions and answers may also be connected with astrological terms, as R.S.
did in his lecture on 25 November 1917. This would not be a matter of external,
physical influences from parts of the cosmos being brought to bear on the
pharmaceutical process without involvement of the human being. Quite the
contrary, it suggests that the activities of the cosmos must be looked for in
the spiritual and in the sensory experiences of the human beings who take an
active part in the process. This throws light on R.S.'s statement that physical
and chemical laws are mainly operative when substances are combined or
separated today. In future human activity will increasingly influence the way
in which substances are combined or separated.18 To emphasize the importance of
this human involvement, with all the need for constant practice and exercises,
we conclude with a warning R.S. gave in his lecture on 25 November 1917:
Today, no
more can be done than to talk of these things until people have sufficiently
understood, that is, people who are prepared to accept them in a selfless way.
Many think they can do this; but there are many factors in life today which
prevent it, factors that can only be properly overcome if, first of all, we
gain increasingly deeper understanding and actually refrain, at least for the
time being, from immediately applying these truths on a relatively large scale.
Frei nach: Lueder Jachens, M.D., Arno Triebkom, M.D.
R.S. spoke
of the differentiation of the general ether into warmth ether, light ether,
chemical ether and life ether. The human experience of seeing in the light is
the outstanding aspect of the light ether. However, both light and warmth
ethers not only act through external light and heat but, for instance, also
influence human beings through local climatic conditions throughout the year.
In the case of the chemical ether we realize that the ether forces are always
in polar opposition to the forces active in physical matter. Chemical analysis
thus leaves behind an ether body consisting of synthesized ether forces. The
life ether enlivens unenlivened matter.
In modern
science it is impossible to think of an action that does not have a physical
source. On the other hand, matter dissolves into energetic states if analysis
is taken far enough; here the general approach used today takes us to the
limits of knowledge. Ether activities come in centripetally from the periphery.
Matter forms at the center; its actions are centrifugal. Chemical ether
activity is revealed in the analytically-determined "bio-chemical
pathways". A law becomes apparent: highly complex physical processes are
based on simple spiritual forces; an uncomplicated physical body has a highly
differentiated spiritual creator. Elsewhere Rudolf Steiner considered the
question as to whether in spiritual terms chemical analysis relates to
homeopathic potentization at a spiritual level, with external separation into
parts resulting in a concentration of activity in the diluent.
R.S.: the
ether creates an image in the fluid, watery part of the human head, which makes
the head permeable to the ether. Thus the eye is a creation of the light ether
and permeable to it. The head is mainly permeable to the higher ethers which
ray in from all directions. From there, the light ether pours into the organism
and organizes the whole human being. Humans take in the lower ethers from the
earth sphere through metabolism and limbs. From there they ray upward in the
human being, towards the higher ethers. Both kinds of ether must be kept
distinct in an orderly way in all parts of the organism.
The skin as
an organ arises from the interaction of the two kinds of ethers. As a sense
organ the skin provides entry for warmth and light ethers coming from the
periphery; it is created and shaped by the digested higher ether, which has
passed through the organism, and built up by the lower ether streaming up from
below. Established is advanced age and life-long high-level exposure to UV
light as the major risk factors for basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma,
with sebum secretion and susceptibility to skin inflammation playing a
secondary role. Individuals with greasy skin and a history of acne were less
likely to develop these cancers. If the organism is able, therefore, to oppose
strong light with sufficient lower ether, the higher ethers are less likely to
erupt through the boundary, resulting in tumor development. A healthy skin can
be seen to be a well-balanced organ that will immediately signal predominance
of higher or lower ethers. Work done elsewhere has indicated that individuals
on a low-fat diet show a lower incidence of actinic keratosis. The fact that a
diet rich in animal proteins and fats encourages sclerosis also relates to
this. Nutrition provides an example of external activities (diet) taking effect
inside (intestine to liver to skin), sunlight an example of external activities
taking effect on the outside (skin).
Sunlight
activity differs in summer and winter. Summer sun provides us with both higher
ether and the lower ether of the earth's ether body which extends beyond the
earth's surface; neurodermatitis and psoriasis may heal. Winter sun brings the
higher ethers "naked" to the human periphery; this is apparent in
desiccated eczematous conditions. The effect of the light ether in sunlight can
be seen in the skins of country and seafaring people, which is dry and strongly
formed out. Polar activity is openly displayed: light ether expands to
infinity, physical skin principles contract. The different effects of alpine
and marine climates on humans can be understood if we consider the different
relationship between the ethers. The higher ethers dominate at higher
altitudes, producing a stimulating climate. By the sea, the lower ethers are
also powerful; a seaside climate is calming, making people tired and increasing
their appetite. The relationship of St John's wort to light is evident from its
medicinal actions: taken internally it helps with winter depressions (lack of
light in the soul sphere); used externally, with the oil applied to the
fontanel, it is helpful in treating rickets (lack of light in the physical
sphere).
Ether is
taken up into the human organism, the lower ethers mainly via foods and the
intestine, the higher ethers mainly through the senses. Both kinds must be
equally well digested and made our own. Thus external light must be transformed
into inner light which gives form and shape in the organic sphere and
"brightens" the soul sphere. At heart, people's hunger for light
today is doubtless a longing for the inner light of higher perception. Sunlight
tolerance changes depending on whether someone sleeps, stands, walks or actually
works in the sun. The more active the person, the less the harmful effect of
the sun; the action of the I within the organism is also different in each
given case.
R.S.:
disorganized actions of the ethers leading to the polar morbid tendencies of
malnutrition and softening of the brain. Excessive activity of the higher
ethers leads to poisoning and rigidity; excessive activity of the lower ethers
to softening, dissolution.
This
provides flexible concepts for the general morbid tendencies at the functional
level that underlie a specific dermatosis without actually determining it. The
tendency to malnutrition would thus be underlying neurodermatitis, the tendency
to softening of the brain, wet eczema, acne and psoriasis. Softening of the
brain is an image for pathological extension of digestive activity "in the
direction of the head". Here we think of all the dermatoses of people with
reduced digestive powers in whom digestion and elimination proceed via the
skin, in the wrong place. Accompanying phenomena such as migraine and
postmenopausal hormone substitution also come under this heading
("rejuvenation treatment"). In women the lower ethers are more
powerful, and they are more liable to develop urticaria, rosacea, sarcoidosis,
annular granuloma, lupus vulgaris and necrobiosis lipoidica than men are. The
higher ethers predominate in men who are more liable to develop Hodgkin's
disease of the skin, mycosis fungoides, hemochromatosis and peripheral
atherosclerotic disease. Faulty diet may have a negative effect on the relationship
between higher and lower ethers. Thus milk from farms with pastures that have
had an excess of nitrogenous fertilizer and dehorned cows may cause the
organism to be flooded with "lightless" protein in which lower ether
activities are dominant.
Bees are
particularly open to warmth and light; honey, therefore, provides excellent
support for the higher ethers, especially in older people.
R.S.:
differentiated, fluctuating interaction of the two types of ethers as occurring
in vortices. The human form arises from the vortical interaction of the
different ethers. Innumerable vortices are to be found in the human organism.
The hair lies in vortices in different skin areas. R.S. spoke of these vortices
as a center for lead-overcoming forces. Considering the relationship between
Saturn and the higher ethers, it is the lower ethers that create the vortices.
Atopic subjects often have a vortex on the forehead; on the other hand many
hyperkinetic children show numerous vortices in the hair on the head. Blood is
vorticed most strongly in the heart; the muscle fibers of the heart runs in
vortices.
After our
work on the lecture, a pediatrician spoke of her clinical experience with
anthroposophic medicines in India. Vitamin A deficiency causes children and adults
suffering from malnutrition to have friable, vulnerable skin. Walking barefoot
and poor hygiene promote infections (scabies, bacteria pyodermia, worms).
Premature aging is common, and digestive powers are reduced, as evident from
bloated bellies and colorless stools due to protein deficiency. On the other
hand the children show remarkable enthusiasm and cheerfulness when playing;
they show patience and endurance, waiting for long periods in a disciplined
way. Children and adults are free from any intellectual braininess. Clinically
the enormous rapidity of recovery was remarkable when anthroposophic medicines
were used. The question arose whether malnutrition creates good conditions for
the action of potentized medicines and phytotherapeutic agents. With reduced
food intake, nutrition via the senses, the influence of the higher ethers,
becomes more powerful. The wide-awake ability to perceive quickly indicates
good digestion of sensory perceptions. Fluid intake is generally very low in
India. Parallels to the Schroth cure used in Germany, with reduced food intake
and both non-drinking and drinking days, come to mind. One reason for the
observed signs may be that digestion ties up energies in the lower human being.
The aim of digestion must be to remove all foreign nature from the food and
overcome the lower ethers taken in with it. Fasting, on the other hand, opens
body and soul to the cosmos; the higher aspects of the human being will then
respond better to treatment and treatment is able to support physiologic
homeopathization in the digestion more effectively. According to a statement
Rudolf Steiner made to one of his pupils, the poor quality of present-day foods
actually impedes spiritual development.
Der Wärmeorganismus des Menschen (Warm und Kalt)
Welche Bedeutung hat die Wärme im menschlichen Leib? Eine Antwort findet sich, wenn wir den Menschen unter einem bestimmten Aspekt betrachten: dem der vier Elemente.
Der Flüssigkeitsorganismus
Der menschliche Organismus besteht nicht hauptsächlich aus festen Substanzen, sondern zum größten Teil aus Körperflüssigkeit. Je nach Alter und Geschlecht sind 50 % bis 75 % des Körpergewichts durch Wasser bedingt. Dieses findet sich in ständiger Zirkulation in den verschiedenen Geweben des Körpers. Neben dem festen, mineralischen Leib gibt es also einen Flüssigkeitsorganismus, der nach eigenen Gesetzen gebildet ist.
Der Luftorganismus
Auch die Luft ist nicht nach dem Zufallsprinzip im Körper verteilt. Sie ist in bestimmten Organen wie den Lungenbläschen lebensnotwendig, in anderen Regionen wie dem Rippfell-Spalt geradezu gefährlich. Die Luft innerhalb des menschlichen Körpers folgt in ihrer Dynamik bestimmten Gesetzmäßigkeiten und bildet somit einen – wenn auch sehr beweglichen – Luftorganismus.
Der Wärmeorganismus
Für die menschliche Wärmeorganisation gelten ebenfalls bestimmte Gesetze. Eine konstante Temperatur ist notwendig für einen gesunden Ablauf der Körperfunktionen. Gleichzeitig sind die Wärmezustände
in den Körperregionen sehr fein differenziert. Das zeigt sehr gut eine Thermografie (s. Abb.). Um die notwendige Körperwärme aufrecht zu erhalten, wird zunächst im physikalischen Sinn Energie umgesetzt, so in der Verbrennung der Nahrungsstoffe und der Stoffwechseltätigkeit der inneren Organe. Über die Haut reguliert der Wärmeorganismus seinen Zustand. Bei Überhitzung (körperliche Aktivität/Fieber), wird die Hautdurchblutung erhöht und damit vermehrt Wärme abgestrahlt.
Durch die Schweißbildung entsteht zusätzlich Verdunstungskälte. Auch das zentrale Nervensystem beteiligt sich an der Wärmeregulation. Der Hypothalamus nimmt Signale über die Wärmeverhältnisse der Organe wahr und verarbeitet sie weiter. Der Wärmeorganismus ist der flüchtigste und dynamischste unter den vier beschriebenen Organisationsebenen mineralischer Leib, Flüssigkeits-, Luft- und Wärmeorganismus. Er bildet gewissermaßen die Brücke zwischen dem Geistigen des Menschen und seinem physischen Leib. In den verschiedenen Wärmezuständen spiegelt sich der Einfluss des menschlichen Willens.
Pflege für den Wärmeorganismus
Die „Pflege“ des Wärmeorganismus ist für die Gesundheit von nicht zu unterschätzender Bedeutung. Eine „Erkältung“ ist eine Verletzung des Wärmeorganismus, ähnlich wie ein Schlag dies für den Knochen oder den Muskel ist. Stabil ist der Wärmeorganismus dann, wenn er äußere Veränderungen der Wärme von innen heraus ausgleichen kann. Dringt äußere Kälte zum Beispiel so tief in den Nasen-Rachen-Raum ein, dass sie den ärmeorganismus überwältigt und die innere Wärme nicht ausreicht, die Schleimhäute vor der Kälte zu schützen, können „pathogene Keime“ leicht auftreten. Ein Infekt der oberen Luftwege ist die Folge.
Die eingewanderten Bakterien sind also nicht Ursache, sondern Folge der Erkältung. Ein plötzlicher kalter o. intensiver Wind kann ebenso die innere Wärmebildung lokal überfordern und Ohrenschmerz o.
Nervenreizungen auslösen.
Blauer Eisenhut meistert Wind und Kälte
Einen Schutz gegen Kälte kann der Blaue Eisenhut (Acon.) bilden, der dank seiner Herkunft vom rauen Bergland und oft schneidend kalten Höhen die Auseinandersetzung mit plötzlicher Kälte und Wind vorlebt. Eisenhut ist als potenziertes Arzneimittel hilfreich bei plötzlich auftretenden Störungen des Wärmeorganismus, rasch steigendem Fieber, plötzlichen Ohren- oder Nervenschmerzen.
In der anthroposophischen Medizin haben äußere Anwendungen eine besondere Bedeutung. Neuralgie gefährdete Menschen können sich durch Einreiben mit WALA Aconit Schmerzöl* vor Wind und Wetter schützen. Rheumatische oder verspannungsbedingte Muskelschmerzen lindert Aconit Schmerzöl schnell. WALA Aconit Ohrentropfen* helfen – frühzeitig gegeben – zuverlässig bei Ohrenschmerzen.
Viele akute und chronische Erkrankungen können wir durch einen bewussten Umgang mit der eigenen Körperwärme verhindern. Eine chronische Nasennebenhöhlenentzündung wird bei ständig kalten Füßen nur schwer zu heilen sein. Unzureichende Bekleidung kann chronische Blasen- und Nierenbeschwerden geradezu „heranzüchten“.
Das bedeutet auch, dass man Fieber bereits im Kindesalter zulassen und den Sinn von fieberhaften Kinderkrankheiten respektieren sollte. Gerade weil der Wärmeorganismus auch der Träger des geistigen Menschen ist, sollte uns seine Pflege besonders am Herzen liegen.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum