The Rudolf Steiner Archive

13. On the Nature of Illness and Healing

[ 1 ] Pain that occurs anywhere in the organism is an experience in the astral body and in the ego. Both the astral body and the ego are involved in the physical body and the etheric body in a corresponding way as long as the person is awake. When sleep sets in, the physical and etheric bodies alone carry out the organic activity. The astral body and the ego are separated from them.

[ 2 ] In sleep, the organism returns to the activities that lie at the starting point of its development, in the embryonic and first childhood period. In waking, those processes that lie at the end of this development, in ageing and death, predominate.

[ 3 ] In the beginning of human development, the activity of the etheric body predominates over that of the astral body; gradually the activity of the latter becomes more and more intense, while that of the etheric body recedes. In sleep the etheric body does not acquire the intensity it had at the beginning of life. It retains that which it has developed in relation to the astral body in the course of life.

[ 4 ] For each organ of the human body, at each age, a certain intensity of the etheric activity of the organ corresponds to that of the astral. That the right proportion is present depends on whether the astral body can intervene in the etheric body accordingly or not. If it is unable to do so because the etheric activity is down-tuned, pain arises; if the etheric body develops an activity that exceeds its normal level, the interpenetration of the astral and etheric activity becomes particularly intense. Pleasure and well-being arise. One only has to be aware that when pleasure grows beyond a certain level, it turns into pain and vice versa, pain turns into pleasure. If this is not taken into account, what has been said here could appear to contradict what was said earlier.

[ 5 ] An organ becomes diseased when the etheric activity that is due to it cannot unfold. Take, for example, the metabolic activity that continues from the digestive process into the whole organism. If the products of the metabolism are completely transferred everywhere into the activity and substance formation of the organism, this is a sign that the etheric body is working in a corresponding way. If, however, substances are deposited in the metabolic pathways which are not transferred into the activity of the organism, then the etheric body is down-tuned in its activity. Those physical processes which are otherwise stimulated by the astral body, but which only serve the organism in their own field, reach beyond their own field into that of etheric activity. In this way processes arise which owe their existence to the predominance of the astral body. These are processes that have their right place where the ageing, the decomposition of the organism occurs.

[ 6 ] It is now a matter of bringing about harmony between the etheric and the astral activity. The etheric body must be strengthened, the astral body weakened. This can be done by bringing the physical substances which the etheric body processes into a state in which they submit more easily to the activity than is the case in the diseased state. Likewise, the ego organization must be given strength, for the astral body, which is animalistically oriented in its activity, is more inhibited by the strengthening of the ego organization in the direction of the human organization than without it.

[ 7 ] The way to see through these things will be found by observing the effects that any substance has on the metabolic pathways. Take sulphur. It is contained in protein. It therefore underlies the whole process that takes place during the absorption of protein food. It passes from the foreign ethereal species through the state of the inorganic into the ethereal activity of the human organism. It is found in the fiber of the organs, in the brain, in nails and hair. It thus passes through the metabolic pathways to the periphery of the organism. It thus proves to be a substance that plays a role in the absorption of proteins into the area of the human etheric body.

[ 8 ] The question now arises as to whether sulphur also plays a role in the transition from the etheric to the astral realm and whether it has anything to do with the ego organization. It does not noticeably combine with the inorganic substances introduced into the organism to form acids and salts. Such a combination would be the basis for the absorption of the sulphur processes into the astral body and the ego organization. The sulphur therefore does not penetrate there. It unfolds its effectiveness in the realm of the physical and etheric body. This is also shown by the fact that increased sulphur intake in the organism causes feelings of dizziness and a dampening of consciousness. Sleep, i.e. the physical state in which the astral body and the ego organization - as spiritual entities - are not active, also becomes more intense through increased sulphur intake.

[ 9 ] It can be seen from this that sulphur administered as a remedy makes the physical activities of the organism more inclined to the intervention of the etheric ones than they are in the diseased state

[ 10 ] The situation is different with phosphorus, which is found in the human organism as phosphoric acid and phosphoric acid salts in proteins, fibers, the brain and bones. It pushes towards the inorganic substances that are important in the area of the ego organization. It stimulates the conscious activity of the human being. Thus it causes sleep in the opposite way to sulphur, namely after stimulating the conscious activity; sulphur, on the other hand, causes sleep by increasing the unconscious physical and etheric activity. The phosphorus is in the phosphoric acid lime of the bones, i.e. those organs that are subject to the ego organization when it makes use of external mechanics for body movement, not when it works from within, in growth, metabolic regulation, etc.

[ 11 ] Phosphorus will therefore act as a remedy when the pathological condition consists in the overgrowth of the astral region over the ego organization and the latter must be strengthened so that the astral is pushed back.

[ 12 ] Consider rhachitis. It was explained earlier how it is based on an overgrowth of the etheric-astral activity and how it leads to a deficient activity of the ego organization. If it is first treated with sulphur in the appropriate way, the etheric activity is strengthened in relation to the astral activity; if, after this has happened, a phosphorus treatment is allowed to take place, then what has been prepared in the etheric organization is transferred to that of the "I"; and rhachitis is approached from two sides. (We are aware that the phosphorus cure for rhachitis is doubted; however, the method described here has not been used in previous healing attempts.