The Rudolf Steiner Archive

19. Characteristic Cases of Illness

[ 1 ] In this chapter we would like to describe a number of cases of illness from the practice of the Clinical Therapeutic Institute in Arlesheim. These will show how an attempt can be made to gain a thorough picture of the pathological condition with the aid of knowledge of the spiritual human being in such a way that the diagnosis directly teaches which remedy must be used. This is based on a view that sees the process of illness and the process of recovery as a single circular process. The disease begins with an irregularity in the composition of the human organism in relation to the parts described in this book. It has reached a certain point when the patient receives treatment. It is now necessary to ensure that all the processes that have taken place in the human organism since the onset of the disease are reversed, so that one finally arrives at the state of health in which the organism was before. Such a process, which runs back into itself, cannot be brought to completion without a loss of growth forces in the whole organism, which are equivalent to the forces which the human organism needs during childhood in order to increase its volume. The remedies must therefore be such that they not only reverse the disease process, but also support the vitality that is being reduced. Part of the latter effect will have to be left to the disease diet. As a rule, however, in more serious cases of illness the organism is not in tune to develop sufficient vitality in the processing of food. It will therefore be necessary to arrange the actual therapy in such a way that the organism finds its support in this respect. With the typical remedies that emanate from the clinical-therapeutic institutes, this arrangement has certainly been made. It is therefore only on closer inspection of a preparation that one will recognize why it contains certain constituents. In the course of the disease, not only the localized disease process but also the overall change in the organism must be taken into account and this must be included in the regressive process. How this is to be thought of in detail will be shown by certain cases which we shall now characterize. After describing them, we will continue with the general observations.

First Case

[ 2 ] We are dealing with a 26-year-old female patient. The whole person shows an extraordinarily unstable condition. The patient clearly shows that that part of her organism which we have called the astral body in our book is in a state of excessive activity. You can see that this astral body can only be inadequately controlled by the ego organization. If the patient starts to do some work, the astral body immediately becomes agitated. The ego organization tries to assert itself, but is continually repelled. This causes an increased temperature in such a case. The regulated digestive activity in man depends in the most eminent sense on the normal ego-organization. The impotence of this ego-organization is expressed in the patient in persistent constipation. A consequence of this disturbed digestive activity are the migraine-like conditions and the vomiting from which she suffers. During sleep it becomes apparent that the impotent ego organization causes inadequate organic activity from the bottom up and damages the exhalation. The consequence of this is an excessive accumulation of carbonic acid in the organism during sleep, which is manifested organically by palpitations on waking and psychologically by feelings of anxiety and crying out. The physical examination can reveal nothing other than a lack of the forces that bring about the regular connection between the astral body, etheric body and physical body. The excessive activity of the astral body causes too few forces to flow from it into the physical and etheric bodies. The latter therefore remain fragile in their development during the growth period. This was also shown during the examination by the fact that the patient had a delicate, weak body and complained of frequent back pain. The latter arise because the ego organization has to assert itself most strongly in the spinal cord activity. Patient also speaks of many dreams. This is a consequence of the fact that the astral body, when it is separated from the physical and etheric body during sleep, develops its own excessive activity. It must now be assumed that the ego-organization must be strengthened and the activity of the astral reduced. The first is achieved by choosing a remedy that is suitable for supporting the ego organization that is becoming weak in the digestive tract. One can recognize such a remedy in copper. If it is applied in the form of a copper ointment dressing, which is placed in the lumbar region, the copper has a strengthening effect on the heat development that is insufficiently emanating from the ego organization. You will notice this by the decrease in abnormal heart activity and the easing of anxiety. The excessive self-activity of the astral body can be combated by the smallest doses of lead, taken internally. Lead draws the astral body together and awakens the forces in it through which it connects more strongly with the physical body and the etheric body. (Lead poisoning consists of too strong a connection between the astral body and the etheric and physical bodies, so that the latter are subject to too strong a process of decomposition). The patient visibly recovered during this treatment. The unstable state gave way to a certain inner stability and security. Her state of mind changed from a torn one to an inwardly satisfied one. The symptoms of constipation and back pain disappeared, as did the migraine-like conditions and headaches. The patient's ability to work was restored.

Second Case

[ 3 ] 48-year-old male patient; was a strong child of mental efficiency. States that he was treated for nephritis for five months during the war and discharged cured. Married at 35, had five healthy children, a sixth died at birth. At the age of 33, depression, fatigue and apathy appear after mental overwork. This is accompanied by mental helplessness. The patient is faced with questions which show him the negative aspects of his profession - he is a teacher - but which he cannot counter with anything positive. - The state of illness shows an astral body that has too little affinity with the etheric and physical body and is immobile in itself. As a result, the physical and etheric bodies assert their own characteristics. The sensation of the etheric body not being properly connected to the astral body produces depression; not being properly connected to the physical body produces tiredness and apathy. The fact that the patient falls into spiritual helplessness stems from the fact that the astral body is powerless to use the physical and etheric bodies. In connection with all this, sleep is good because the astral body has little connection with the etheric and physical bodies. For the same reason, however, waking up is difficult. The astral body does not want to enter the physical body. Only when the physical and etheric bodies are tired in the evening does a normal connection with them occur. Therefore the patient only really wakes up in the evening. The whole condition indicates that the activity of the astral body should first be intensified. This is always achieved by giving arsenic internally in the form of natural water. After some time you will notice how the person concerned gains more control over his body. The connection between the astral body and the etheric body becomes stronger, depression, apathy and tiredness cease. The physical body, which has become sluggish in terms of mobility due to the prolonged lack of connection with the astral body, must now also be helped by a phosphorus cure in small doses. Phosphorus supports the ego organization so that it can overcome the resistance of the physical body. Rosemary baths will open up an outlet for the deposited metabolic products. Healing eurhythmics can restore the harmony of the individual limbs (nervous-sensory system, rhythmic system, motor and metabolic system) of the human organism, which has been disturbed by the inactivity of the astral body. If the patient is also given lilac tea, the sluggish metabolism, which has gradually returned to normal due to the inactivity of the astral body, is restored. We were able to observe a complete cure in this patient.

Third Case

[ 4 ] 31-year-old patient, artist, visited our clinic during a concert tour, is in a state of severe inflammatory dysfunction of the urinary organs; catarrhal symptoms, fever, overtired body, general weakness, inability to work.

[ 5 ] The medical history shows that the same condition has repeatedly been present in the patient. Examination of the patient's mental constitution reveals a hypersensitive, demoralized astral body. As a consequence of this, the physical and etheric body is easily susceptible to catarrhal and inflammatory conditions. Even as a child, the patient had a weak physical body that was not cared for by the astral body. Hence measles, scarlet fever, water pox, whooping cough, often angina; urethritis at the age of 14, which recurred at the age of 29 in combination with cystitis. At 18, pneumonia and pleurisy; at 29, pleurisy during a bout of influenza; at 30, sinusitis. There is a constant tendency to conjunctivitis of the eyes. During the patient's two-month stay in the clinic, the fever curve was initially up to 38.9, then went down to rise again on the 14th day; later became undulating between 37 and 36, sometimes rose above 37 and went down to 35. This fever curve is a clear picture of the changing moods in the ego organization. Such a curve arises when the effects of the semi-conscious contents of the ego organization are lived out in the warmth processes of the physical and etheric body without being reduced to a normal rhythm by the astral body. In this case, the overall capacity for action of the astral body is concentrated on the rhythmic system and lives itself out in it through the artistic talent. The other systems are neglected. An important consequence of this is severe tiredness and sleeplessness during the summer. In summer, the astral body is very busy with the outer world. Its inner capacity for action recedes. The forces of the physical and etheric body become predominant. In the general perception of life this appears as severe fatigue. The impaired ability of the astral body to act prevents it from separating from the physical body. Hence insomnia occurs. The inadequate separation of the astral body from the Ä physical body is expressed in exciting and unpleasant dreams, which result from the sensitivity of this body to the damage of the physical organism. It is characteristic that the dreams symbolize these damages to the physical body in the images of human mutilations. The frightening thing about them is their natural emotional emphasis. One consequence of the inadequate functioning of the astral body in the metabolic system is the tendency to constipation. Due to the independence of the etheric body, which is not sufficiently influenced by the astral body, the protein ingested with food cannot be completely transformed from vegetable and animal protein into human protein. Protein is therefore excreted in the urine, so that the protein reaction is positive. If the astral body functions inadequately, processes occur in the physical body that are foreign processes in the human organism. The result of such processes is the formation of pus. To a certain extent, this represents an extra-human process in the human being. Pure pus is therefore found in the urine sediment. This pus formation has a parallel process in the soul. The astral body processes the experiences of life just as little psychically as it does the substances physically. If extra-human substance formations are formed as pus, so too are psychic contents with an extra-human character as interest in abnormal life contexts, premonitions, signs, etc. - It was now a matter for us to have a balancing, purifying and strengthening effect on the astral body. Since the ego-organization is a very active one, its activity can be used to a certain extent as a carrier of the healing effect. The I-organization, which is attuned to the outside world, is best approached when one strives for effects directed from the outside inwards. This is achieved through poultices. We first put Melilotus in the poultice. This acts on the astral body in such a way that it is balanced in the distribution of its forces and the one-sided direction towards the rhythmic system is counteracted. Of course, the envelopes must not be placed on that part of the organism in which the rhythmic system is particularly concentrated. We placed them around the organs in which the metabolism and the motor system are concentrated. We avoided head wraps for the reason that the change of mood of the ego organization, which emanates from the head, had to paralyze the effect. It was therefore a question of promoting the astral body and the ego organization, which had to be brought together for the effect of Melilotus. We tried to achieve this with an oxalic acid supplement taken from burdock root. Oxalic acid acts in such a way that the activity of the ego organization is transformed into that of the astral body. To all this we gave internal remedies in very weak doses, which had the task of bringing the excretions into a regular integration with the astral body effects. We tried to normalize the secretions that are directed from the head organization with sulphuric acid potassium. We tried to influence those processes that depend on the metabolic system in the narrower sense with carbonic acid potassium. We regulated the urinary secretion with teucrium. We therefore gave a preparation consisting of equal parts of sulphuric acid potassium, carbonic acid potassium and Teucrium. The whole treatment had to take into account a very unstable balance of the physical, mental and spiritual organism as a whole. It was therefore necessary to ensure physical equilibrium through permanent bed rest and mental equilibrium through mental rest, which made the interaction of the various remedies possible in the first place. Movement and excitement make such a complicated healing process almost impossible. - At the end of the cure, the patient was physically strong and invigorated and mentally in good condition. It goes without saying that with such an unstable state of health, one or other disturbance can reoccur with any external attack. It is part of the overall healing process that such attacks are avoided in such a case.

Fourth Case

[ 6 ] A child who was brought to the clinic twice, first at the age of 4 and then at the age of 51/2. Also his mother and the mother's sister. The diagnosis led from the child's illness to that of both the mother and the sister. We were able to establish the following for the child: It is a twin child, born six weeks prematurely. The other child had died in the last embryonic stage. At six weeks, the child fell ill, cried a lot and was taken to hospital. There he was diagnosed with pylorospasm. The child was partly fed by a wet nurse and partly artificially. He was discharged from hospital at the age of eight months. Once at home, he had a seizure on the first day, which was repeated daily for the first two months. The child became stiff and rolled its eyes. The seizure was preceded by anxiety and crying. The child also squinted his right eye and had vomiting before the seizure. At the age of 21/2, another seizure occurred which lasted five hours. The child became stiff again and lay there as if dead. At the age of four, a seizure occurred that lasted 1/2 hour. This was the first time that we were informed that the child was accompanied by fever. After the convulsions, which occurred after being brought back from the hospital, the parents noticed a paralysis of the right arm and the right leg. At the age of 21/2, the child made his first attempt to walk, which was so unsuccessful that only the left leg was able to walk and the right was dragged behind. The right arm also remains without will. The same condition was still present when the child was brought to us. - It was a question of determining the state of the child's organizational limbs. This was attempted in a complex manner, independently of the symptoms. It turned out that there was a strong atrophy of the etheric body, which in certain parts only absorbed a very slight influence of the astral body. The region of the right half of the chest was as if paralyzed in the etheric body; on the other hand, something like a hypertrophy of the astral body appeared in the stomach region. Now it was a question of harmonizing the symptom complex with these findings. There is undoubtedly a strong utilization of the stomach by the astral body during digestion, but due to the paralysis of the etheric body this is blocked when passing from the intestines into the lymphatic vessels. As a result, the blood is undernourished. We must therefore take the nausea symptoms as particularly important symptoms. Cramps always occur when the etheric body becomes atrophic and the astral body acquires a direct influence on the physical body without the mediation of the etheric body. This was present in the child to the highest degree. When this state becomes permanent during the period of growth, as was the case here, those processes which make the motor system suitable for the normal reception of the will cease. This became apparent in the child when the right side was unusable. - We must now relate the condition of the child to that of the mother. She was 37 years old when she came to us. She claims to have been as tall as she is now at the age of 13. She had bad teeth at an early age, suffered from rheumatoid arthritis as a child and claims to have been rhachitic. Her menses came relatively early. The patient declares that she had a kidney disease at the age of 16 and also speaks of cramp-like conditions that she had. At the age of 25, constipation due to spasm of the sphincter ani, which had to be stretched. Also now has cramp during evacuation. The findings, established without drawing conclusions from the symptom complex in direct observation, are extraordinarily similar to those of the child. Only everything proves to be in a much milder form. It must be borne in mind that the etheric body of the human being undergoes its special development between the change of teeth and sexual maturity. This is expressed in the patient by the fact that the available forces of the etheric body, which are not very strong, only make growth possible up to sexual maturity. With this the special development of the astral body begins, which with its hypertrophy now overgrows the etheric body and intervenes too strongly in the physical organization. This becomes apparent in the stagnant growth at the age of 13. The patient is by no means dwarfish, but very tall, which is due to the fact that the growth forces of the etheric body, although small, were uninhibited by the astral body and caused a strong expansion of the volume of the physical body. These forces were not yet able to intervene regularly in the functions of the physical body. This became apparent in the occurrence of rheumatism of the joints and later in the convulsive states. Due to the weakness of the etheric body, the astral body has a particularly strong effect on the physical body. This effect is a degrading one. In the normal development of life it is balanced out by the constructive forces during sleep, when the astral body is separated from the physical and etheric body. If the etheric body is too weak, as in the case of our patient, there is an excess of degradation, which was shown in her case by the fact that her teeth required their first filling as early as the age of 12. If the etheric body is particularly stressed, as during pregnancy, the teeth always deteriorate. The weakness of the etheric body in relation to its connection with the astral body is particularly evident in the frequency of dreams and in the healthy sleep that is present in the patient, despite all irregularity. The weakness of the etheric body also shows itself in the fact that foreign processes not mastered by the etheric body take place in the physical body, which show themselves in the urine as protein, isolated hyaline cylinders and salts. -

The relationship between these disease processes and those of the mother's sister is remarkable. The findings with regard to the composition of the parts of the human being are almost completely the same. Weakly functioning etheric body, therefore predominance of the astral body. Only the astral body itself is weaker than in the sister. Therefore, just as in the latter, menses occur early, but instead of inflammation, only pain occurs, which is caused by irritation of the organs, e.g. the joints. The etheric body must be particularly active in the joints if vitality is to proceed normally. If the activity of the etheric body is weak, the activity of the physical body becomes predominant, which manifests itself in swellings and chronic arthritis. The weakness of the astral body, which has too little effect on the subjective sensations, is indicated by the preference for sweet foods, which increase the sensations of the astral body. If the weak astral body is also worn out by daily life, the pains become more significant if the weakness is maintained. Patient complains of increased pain in the evening. The connection between the illnesses of the three patients points in the ascendancy to the generation preceding the two sisters, especially to the grandmother of the child. The cause must be sought in her. The disturbed balance between the astral and etheric bodies in all three patients can only be due to a similar imbalance in the child's grandmother. This irregularity must be due to the inadequate development of the embryonic nutritional organs, especially the allantois, by the astral and etheric body of the grandmother. This deficient development of the allantois must be sought in all three patients. In our case it was first determined in a purely spiritual-scientific way. The physical allantois metamorphoses, passing over into the spiritual, in the efficiency of the powers of the astral body. A degenerated allantois produces a diminished efficiency of the astral body, which manifests itself particularly in all motor organs. All this is the case with the three patients. One can really recognize from the constitution of the astral body that of the allantois. You will see from this that our reference to the ascendancy does not come from a daring fantasy conclusion, but from a real spiritual-scientific observation.

[ 7 ] If this truth irritates you, we would like to tell you that our explanations are not the result of an impulse to paradox, but of a desire not to withhold this knowledge from anyone. The mystical concepts of heredity will always remain obscure if one shies away from recognizing the metamorphosis from the physical to the spiritual and vice versa in the succession of generations.

[ 8 ] Therapeutically, such an insight can only lead to a view of where to start the healing process. If one had not been referred to the hereditary in such a way, but had simply noticed the irregularity in the connection between the etheric body and the astral body, one would have applied remedies that act on these two parts of the human being. In our case, however, these would have remained ineffective because the damage, which runs through the genes, is too deep to be balanced in these parts of the human organization itself. In such a case one must work on the ego-organization and bring to bear in it everything that relates to the harmonization and strengthening of the etheric and astral body. This can be achieved by working on the ego-organization by means of intensified sensory stimuli (sensory stimuli act on the ego-organization). This was tried with the child in the following way: a bandage was applied to the right hand with a 5 percent pyrite ointment and at the same time the left half of the head was rubbed with emperor's sponge ointment. Pyrite, a compound of iron and sulphur, acts externally to stimulate the ego organization, to make the astral body more lively and to increase its affinity to the etheric body. The emperor's sponge substance with its special content of organized nitrogen acts in such a way that an effect emanates from the head which, through the ego organization, makes the etheric body more lively and increases its affinity to the astral body. The healing process was supported by healing eurhythmy, which brings the ego-organization as such into lively activity. In this way, what is applied externally is directed into the depths of the organization. The healing process initiated in this way was then reinforced by means that were intended to make the astral and etheric bodies particularly sensitive to the effect of the ego organization. Baths with a decoction of Solidago, back rubs with a decoction of Stellaria media and internally tea of willow bark (particularly effective on the receptivity of the astral body) and Stannum 0.001 (particularly receptive to the etheric body) were applied in rhythmic daily succession. We also gave poppy juice in a weak dosage to make the damaged self-organization recede in comparison to the healing effects.

[ 9 ] The last therapy was used more on the mother because, being one generation higher, the hereditary forces had less of an effect. The same applies to the mother's sister. - When the child was still in the clinic, we were able to observe that it was easier to control and that its mental state improved. It became more obedient, for example, and the movements that it otherwise made very clumsily were done more skillfully. Afterwards we were told by the aunt that a great change had taken place in the child. It has become calmer, the excess of involuntary movements has diminished; it has become so skillful that it can play alone; and mentally the former obstinacy has disappeared.

Fifth Case

[ 10 ] A 26-year-old female patient came to our clinic with the severe consequences of influenza, which had been contracted in 1918 in conjunction with pulmonary catarrh, and which had followed a pleurisy that had expired in 1917. The patient had not been able to recover since the flu. In 1920 she was very emaciated, weak and had a slight fever and night sweats. Soon after the flu, back pain set in, which continued to increase until late 1920; and then a curvature of the back appeared with severe pain. There was also swelling of the right index finger. A recumbent treatment supposedly improved the back pain. - When the patient came to us, she had a prolapsed abscess on the right thigh, a distended abdomen with some ascites and catarrhal noises above the lung tips, both on the right and left. Digestion and appetite are good. Urine is concentrated, shows traces of protein. The spiritual-scientific examination revealed: hypersensitivity of the astral body and the ego organization; such an abnormality is first expressed in the etheric body by the fact that it does not develop the actual etheric functions, but an etheric imprint of the astral functions. The astral functions are destructive. The vitality and the normal process in the physical organs must therefore be atrophied. This is always connected with certain extra-human processes that take place in the human organism. The prolapse abscess, the back pain, the bloatedness of the body, the catarrhal phenomena of the lungs and also the inadequate protein processing all stem from this. The aim of the therapy is to reduce the sensitivity of the astral body and the ego organization. This is achieved by administering silicic acid, which always strengthens the intrinsic power against the sensitivity. In this case we did it by putting powdered silicic acid in the food and giving it as a clyster. We also reduced the sensitivity by placing mustard plasters on the lower back. Its effect is based on the fact that it causes sensitivity of its own accord and thus removes it from the astral body and the ego organization. Through a process that dampens the hypersensitivity of the astral body in the digestive tract, we were able to divert this astral activity to the etheric body, where it should normally be. We achieved this with small doses of copper and Garbo animalis. We countered the possibility of the etheric body withdrawing from its unaccustomed normal digestive activity by giving pancreatic juice.

[ 11 ] The prolapsed abscess was punctured several times. Large amounts of pus were discharged by aspiration. The abscess receded and the abdominal swelling decreased as the pus formation steadily decreased and finally disappeared. While the pus was still flowing, we were surprised one day by a renewed rise in fever. This did not seem inexplicable to us, since with the constitution of the astral body described above, slight psychic excitement can cause such a fever. However, a distinction must be made between the explainability of the fever in such cases and its strongly damaging effect. For under the conditions indicated, such fever is virtually the mediator for a profound intervention of the degradation processes in the organism. And one must immediately ensure that the etheric body is strengthened so that this paralyzes the damaging effect of the astral body. We applied high-potency silver injections and achieved a reduction in fever. - The patient left the clinic with a weight gain of 20 pounds and in a stronger condition. We are under no illusion that in this case a further course of treatment is required to consolidate the cure.

Interim Remark

[ 12 ] Through the cases treated so far, we wanted to characterize the principles according to which we seek the remedies from the diagnosis. To make the matter clearer, we took cases in which a very individual approach had to be taken. However, we have also produced typical remedies that can be used for typical diseases. We will now discuss some cases in which we used such typical remedies.

Sixth case. Treatment of hay fever.

[ 13 ] We had a patient with severe symptoms of hay fever. He had been suffering from it since childhood. He came to our treatment at the age of 40. We have our "Gencydo" preparation for this condition. It was used on the patient at the time when the disease was most severe - it was in May. We treated the patient with injections and locally by brushing the "Gencydo" liquid into his nose. After a marked improvement had occurred at a time when the patient had been severely plagued by hay fever symptoms in previous years, he went on a trip and was able to report that he was incomparably better than in previous years. The next year he was again on a journey from America to Europe at hay fever time and only had a much lighter attack than before. The repetition of the treatment resulted in a quite tolerable condition for this year. In order to achieve a thorough cure, the treatment was continued the following year, even though there was no actual attack. For another year, the patient described his condition verbatim as follows: "In the spring of 1923, I started the treatment again because I was expecting new attacks. I found that my nasal mucous membrane was far less sensitive than before. I had to stay at work in the midst of grass flowers and pollen-producing trees. I also rode over hot and dusty roads all summer. But with the exception of a single day, there were no symptoms of hay fever all summer; indeed, I have every reason to believe that the single day brought me only a cold and not an attack of hay fever. This has been the first year in 35 years that I have been able to stay and work unhindered in an environment where I experienced a real hell in previous years."

Seventh Case. Sclerosis Treatment

[ 14 ] A 61-year-old female patient presents to our clinic with sclerosis and albuminuria. The current condition is caused by influenza with mild fever and gastrointestinal disturbances. Since the influenza attack, the patient no longer feels well. - She complains of heavy breathing on waking, dizzy spells, a feeling of palpitations in her head, ears and hands, which is particularly annoying on waking, but also occurs when walking and climbing. Sleep is good. There is a tendency to constipation. Protein in the urine. Blood pressure 185 mm mercury. We started with sclerosis, which is noticeable in the overactivity of the astral body. The physical body and the etheric body are not able to absorb the full activity of the astral body. In such a case there remains a hyperactivity of the astral body which is not absorbed by the physical and etheric bodies. A normal, stable position of the human organization is only possible if this absorption is complete. Otherwise the unabsorbed part, as is the case here, asserts itself through dizziness and especially through subjective sensory illusions, such as palpitations, etc. This unabsorbed part also takes hold of the body. This unabsorbed part also takes hold of the ingested substances and imposes processes on them before they have entered the normal metabolism. This can be seen in the tendency to constipation and in the loss of protein, as well as in stomach and intestinal disorders. The blood pressure is increased in such a case because the overactivity of the astral body also increases the ego activity and this manifests itself in the increased blood pressure. We treated the case mainly with our "Scleron"; we only added Belladonna in very small doses for support, in order to counteract the dizzy spells immediately. We used elderberry tea to aid digestion, regulated the stool with clysters and laxative tea and prescribed a salt-free diet, because salts help sclerosis. We achieved a relatively rapid improvement. The dizzy spells decreased, as did the palpitations. The blood pressure dropped to 112. The subjective condition improved noticeably. The sclerosis made no progress in the following year. After one year, the patient returned with a lesser degree of symptoms. A similar treatment brought about a further improvement; and it is clearly noticeable in the patient, after a longer period of time has elapsed since the treatment, that the sclerosis does not cause any further degeneration of the organism. The external symptoms characteristic of sclerosis are in remission and the rapid ageing which previously affected the patient is no longer present.

Eighth Case. A Goiter Treatment

[ 15 ] The patient came to us at the age of 34. She represents the type of person whose overall mental state is strongly influenced by a certain heaviness and inner fragility of the physical body. It seems that every word she speaks costs an effort. The concavity of the overall shape of the face is extremely characteristic; the root of the nose is like something that is held back in the organism. The patient states that she has been delicate and sickly since her school days. Of actual diseases she has had only slight measles. She always looked pale, was very tired and had a poor appetite. She was sent from doctor to doctor, and the following diagnoses were made one after the other: Lung tip catarrh, stomach catarrh, anemia. In her own consciousness the patient had. In her own consciousness, the patient thought that she was less physically ill, but more mentally ill. After this part of the anamnesis, we will now cite the spiritual-scientific findings in order to examine everything else afterwards.

[ 16 ] The patient shows a high degree of atony of the astral body. As a result, the ego organization is backed up from the physical and etheric body. The whole life of consciousness is pervaded by a quiet, dull sleepiness. The physical body is exposed to the processes caused by the substances introduced. These substances are thus transformed into parts of the human organization. The coherent vitality of the etheric body is too strongly dampened by the ego and the astral body, as a result of which the inner sensations, namely the general feeling of life and the feeling of the body's statics, become far too vivid and the activity of the outer senses far too dull. All bodily functions must therefore take a path whereby they are in disharmony with each other. It is not otherwise possible than that the patient has the feeling that she cannot hold the functions of her body together from the ego. This seems to her like a mental impotence. She therefore says that she is more mentally than physically ill. If the impotence of the ego and astral body increases, illnesses must occur in the various parts of the body, which is also indicated by the various diagnoses. The impotence of the ego is expressed in irregularities of such glands as the thyroid gland, adrenal glands; furthermore in irregularities of the stomach and intestinal system. All this is to be expected in the patient and can actually be observed. Her goitre and the condition of the gastrointestinal system correspond entirely to the spiritual scientific findings. The following is very characteristic. Due to the impotence of the ego and the astral body, part of the need for sleep is already fulfilled during wakefulness and sleep is therefore much less deep than in normal people. This appears to the patient as persistent insomnia. It is related to this that she has the feeling that she falls asleep easily and wakes up easily. It is also connected with the fact that she thinks she has many dreams, but they are not actual dreams, but mixtures of dreams and waking impressions. They therefore do not remain in the memory and are not strongly arousing because the intensity of the stimulus is down-tuned. The impotence of the ego manifests itself in the internal organs, first in the lungs. Catarrhs at the top of the lungs are actually always the expression of the weak ego organization. The metabolism not carried out by the ego manifests itself in rheumatism. Subjectively, the whole is expressed in the general tiredness. The menses began at the age of 14; the weak ego-organization does not provide sufficient development of strength to reverse the menstrual process that has begun to flow. The work of the ego during this reduction comes to consciousness as a sensation through those nerves that lead into the spinal cord in the sacral region. Nerves through which the currents of the ego organization and the astral body do not pass sufficiently hurt. Patient complains of low back pain during her period. All this leads to therapy in the following way. We have found that Goichicum autumnale exerts a strong stimulus on the astral body, namely on that part which corresponds to the cervical and cephalic organization. Golchicum autumnale is therefore given by us for all those diseases which have their most important symptom in the goitre. We therefore gave the patient 5 drops of our Colchicum preparation three times a day, as a result of which the goitre receded and the patient felt relieved. Once the astral body has been strengthened in this way, it also improves the functioning of the ego-organism, whereby the remedies that can act on the digestive and reproductive organs receive their strength in the organism. We have used wormwood clysters as such a remedy, to which we have added oil, because oil has an excitatory effect in the digestive tract. We have achieved a significant improvement with this remedy. We believe that this therapy can develop its particularly beneficial effects around the age of 35, because at this time the ego organization has a strong affinity to the rest of the organism and can be easily stimulated even when it is weak. The patient was 34 years old when she came to us.

Fourth Case. Migraine-like Conditions in Menopause

[ 18 ] The patient came to us at the age of 55. She claims to have been a frail and weak child; to have had measles, scarlet fever, chickenpox, whooping cough and mumps in childhood. The menses occurred at the age of 14-15. The bleeding was very heavy and painful from the beginning. At the age of 40, a total extirpation was performed because of a tumor in the lower abdomen. The patient further states that she has had a three-day migraine-like headache every three to four weeks since the age of 35, which intensified in the 46th year to a three-day headache associated with unconsciousness. - The present spiritual-scientific findings are: general weakness of the ego-organization, which manifests itself in the fact that the activity of the etheric body is not sufficiently paralysed by the ego-organization. This results in a spread of vegetative organic activity via the head and nervous-sensory system, which is not present to such an extent in a normal ego organization. Certain symptoms coincide with this finding. The first is a frequent urge to urinate. This is due to the fact that the normally developed astral body, which regulates the kidney secretion, is not confronted with a sufficiently strong ego organization that normally restrains it. A second symptom is falling asleep late and waking up tired. The astral body has difficulty leaving the physical and etheric body because the ego does not pull it out strongly enough. Once awakening has taken place, the vital activity that continues from sleep is felt as fatigue because of the weak ego. A third symptom is the few dreams. The ego organization imprints only weak images on the astral body, which cannot express themselves in vivid dreams.

[ 19 ] These findings lead us to the following therapy: we had to pave the way for the ego organization to the physical and etheric body. We did this by applying 2% clover salt compresses to the forehead in the evening and compresses with 7% Urtica dioica solution to the abdomen in the morning and 20% lime blossom solution to the feet at midday. This is to ensure that the vital activity is weakened during the night; the clover oil, which performs the function of suppressing excessive vital activity in the organism, has this effect. In the morning we had to ensure that the ego organization found its way into the physical body. This is done by stimulating the blood circulation. The iron effect of the stinging effect was used for this purpose. It therefore remained to promote the penetration of the physical body with the ego organization during the course of the day. This was achieved by the draining effect of the lime blossom at midday. Now the headaches described above occurred in the patient with their increase at the age of 46. We had to relate these headaches to the period lost due to the extirpation and the increase in unconsciousness to a compensatory symptom of the climacteric. We first tried to achieve improvement with antimony. The same should have produced the improvement if the general metabolism under the regulation of the ego-organization had come into consideration. The improvement was not achieved. This was proof that the relatively independent part of the ego-organization, which primarily regulates the reproductive organs, comes into consideration. We see a specific for this in the root of Potentilla-Tormentilla in very strong dilution, and indeed, this worked.